#shift+tab+comma

[friendlycursedspaceotter]

Question for Dracblr: did Quincey Morris have any surviving relatives?

Because I think it would just be HILARIOUS for one of his descendants to start a vampire hunting group moonlighting as a rock band (in college/university) and one of the group thinks "they can't regenerate if they've been blown to pieces" and is just killing vampires with fireworks from roadside stores.

This offends all the traditionalist vampire research/hunting groups. They're also offended by the fact one band member repels vampires via a figurine of Hatsune Miku in reference to the "I have the power of God and anime on my side" vine. Why Miku? They're a band. One of them probably is an atheist who believes in the power of music.

My other headcanon is that it's the belief behind the symbol that repels the vampires (yes, I'm stealing from Curse of Fenric here) so that would make a lot more options. Give me other cultures' and religions' practices for repelling vampires. Give me another communist. Give me someone whose only weapon is a baseball bat engraved with their family and friends and things that give them joy because they believe in the goodness of humanity and also the need to smash stuff to bits. And, like, other forms of silver jewelry. I want to see a scene kid wearing kandi with silver pony beads and little charms woven into it. Someone who has different anti-vampire charms built into their mobility aid. Heck, as long as you follow all the pre-established rules, the sky is the limit. You don't have to be limited to the canon aesthetic.

What I'm trying to say is that vampire stories and Dracula sequels/spinoffs can have really cool aesthetics you would never, ever expect. You just need to be the one who writes them.

[te-pu-si-ti]

Punchdrunk as hypertext

I am in the greenhouse room, and I clutch at my heart. What I see before me is a person in black latex receiving a drug on their tongue like holy communion. There are only two characters in the room: Kampe, and their dealer. But what I experience is much greater, because I can hear the music echoing: the music signalling that on the other side of the city, a city has fallen and a princess is dead, hanging up above, bare-chested and bloodied for all to see.

I remember her. It was her birthday, we danced with her, she stumbled into the arms of her lover.

I know this from an hour ago, before time reset.

I am in the flower shop, and I gasp. A tango is playing through the tinny speaker of the radio. The shopkeeper picks up a bouquet - her bouquet - and he twirls around, holding it in his arms, dancing a tango with a prop that is the start of Persephone's story, to the music that is the near-climax of her story.

I know this from months before, because I have been here before but it was different. It's different every time. There's so much to take in, and I have to choose who I see and what I focus on, and the context I bring with me is constantly developing.

That's a familiar criticism. Too many choices, no coherent story.

But Pope (2009) isn't a criticism of a Punchdrunk masked show - it's a criticism of a HTML novella, These Waves of Girls, hypertext, a story that you wade into by clicking through links. A story that leads you down many different paths, depending on how you choose to follow them.

Don't worry if you get lost - you're already lost. Embrace your curiosity. Turn your fear into desire. Fortune favours the bold.

The link is the most important new form of punctuation since the comma... Links make manifest the way texts relate to other texts, the way they structure themselves, and the way they restructure our thinking.

A reference to another scene, a repeated movement hearkens back to something you witnessed minutes ago, hours ago, weeks ago. A prop moves across buildings, touched by many hands along the way. Characters intersect, and you take a different path, thrown into another story before you reunite for a finale.

You ever gone down a Wikipedia rabbit hole? Clicking link after link, opening up a dozen new tabs, somehow finding your way from Scooby-Doo to Leukemia to learning the Yupik word for bread?

Her Story is an FMV video game where you uncover the story by searching a database of video clips for keywords. As you search for clues, things that don't make sense stick in your mind, because they might be important later. A new piece of information can cast something you've already seen in a completely new light.

You can stay with one thread, or you can let your curiosity guide you, bouncing around from one storyline to the next. It might not make sense at first, seeing everything out of order - but then as you make sense of it, you will form those connections, perhaps even more strongly than you would have done if you had watched a linear story that you didn't have to work for.

...the spaces of reading and writing shift in a hypertextual environment and the reader is required to adopt a mode of engagement in terms of an unstable textual terrain, which involves them in productive and creative processes as well as receptive ones...

"Because everything is constructed, everything becomes significant, in the artistic context everything ordinary becomes extraordinary." - Sam Booth

Uncle Buddy's Phantom Funhouse is a collection of digital and physical ephemera - notes, photos, lyrics, scribbles, all telling the story of this man you knew as Uncle Buddy, who has now died. You leaf through them, choosing what to pay attention to, taking away what you deem significant, building an image based on what he left behind.

 It does have an option to spell out the answer to the riddle if you want to skip that, but the significance might be lost in the process. ...

Description of Tamara, an example of theatre dubbed 'hyperdrama', theatrical hypertext.

"Punchdrunk's Sleep No More is an astonishing production that does nearly everything I had imagined hyperdrama could achieve, and much that I had assumed it could not." ... "The experience works here, but it is going to be different for everyone. How many people get to see Mrs. DeWinter’s scene? Of those, how many are in the bar when the band strikes up Paper Moon ? How many get the Woyzeck allusion the next day, or ever? This is the nature of the medium."

Seriously, read this article by Mark Bernstein.

 It’s not a game. Nothing you (or they) can do can prevent the fall of Troy or its terrible aftermath. Yet your choices (and chance) matter, and your reading of Those Trojan Girls is likely to differ from any other reading.

(hypertext is also, sadly, ephemeral, linked to its time and place. The above linked work is less than a decade old but I doubt I'd find what I need to read it, the right software and the right hardware of the right version with all the right features. Digital rot everywhere. Who has a floppy drive anymore? Who has Flash anymore? Just like nobody will experience The Burnt City anymore. Just like, soon, nobody will experience the McKittrick Hotel anymore.)

My first show: I see a man swinging upside down, hanging from the ceiling. The image haunts me. I do not know him, nor do I know the two onlookers. But it stays with me.

Many months later, I see him again, and he is an old friend - his name is Laocoön, a seer, and he is burdened with a prophecy from Apollo. Cassandra looks on, distraught, while the vengeful god puppets him. He is showing her the fate of her sister.

I remember her. It was her birthday. We danced with her. I watched her die, over and over and over. I remember every moment, every branching path, every intersection, and she isn't here, but she's all around us.

"There is no longer one author but two, as reader joins the author in the making of the text" - Jay David Bolter, "Literature in the Electronic Writing Space" "Go back into the light. Remember what you've seen... We love you so deeply. It's nothing without you." - Lily Jo Ockwell as Persephone, September 24, 2023

Lily photo by @rhianbwatts

[pancakeke]

I wrote a bunch of paragraphs about nothing in particular again so here it is under a readmore so it doesn't take up space.

like 8 years ago when people used tumblr more via desktop browser than its app, I put a 3rd party metric tracker in my desktop theme that logged how people were referred to my blog. it also captured what pages of my blog people viewed.

at one point during this time I reblogged a piece of pixel art from a japanese artist. they came to my blog through their activity page, and then searched my blog in a couple different ways for the terms "ドット" and "ドット絵" ("dot" and "dot art", as in pixel art). I checked those search urls myself to see if they found anything but there were no results because I never used those terms or specifically tagged pixel art in any other way.

ever since then I've made an effort to tag all pixel art I reblog with the term "pixel art". that artist was probably hoping to find more art to check out and it bums me out that my tagging system wasn't thorough enough to help.

this is why I have my current specific tag system lol. it keeps evolving but having the ability to find stuff you're into without jumping through hoops is really handy. (the site-wide post and tag searches return sooo much bullshit. it's a slog sifting through thr noise whenever I use those to fill my queue due to the sheer amount of manga caps, polls, liveblogs, personal posts, and fics posted without readmores...)

if only the way to view all tags you've ever used still worked. I think it caps at 500 or 1000 now and is also chronological so the first 500 or whatever tags you ever used show up in the list. then there's a hard stop and it does not update as you delete posts or use that mass tag editor to remove certain tags for your blog entirely.

I went through my used tag list earlier this year to unify certain tags and remove tags that I stopped using in favor for other ones, but I only got like 400 tagged terms down the list. maybe downloading my blog data would show more. the trick I mentioned uses your desktop blog's archive page. the tags are in its code so you can use "inspect element" to view it. I remember scrolling a lot to load a bunch of posts on the page but cant remember if this was required or I just did it to see if I could access more tags.

it's formatted all fucked and hard to manage but you can copy and paste the long chunk of tags into one cell of a spreadsheet and then use Data options to split them into columns by commas (or whatever punctuation separates them, I forget). a wide list is a huge pain to view so from there you can click on a cell containing data, click ctrl+a to highlight all data in thr row, copy, then paste special as "transposed" to turn the copied row 90° so it pastes as a column. the spreadsheet will wide as fuck from the hundreds of columns so honestly its easier to paste the transposed data into a new tab and delete the original vs clicking in the column to the left of your transposed data and then pressing ctrl+ shift+right arrow to select all rows to the right, then deleting the extra rows.

if you're in Excel you may have to use the "delete rows" option from the "home" tab and then save the sheet using "file > save" (do NOT save via the save button on the upper left corner or ctrl+s). this returns the sheet to a manageable size for scrolling (plus reduces its file size). this piece of shit software usually retains the sheet width/length even after you delete hundreds of columns/rows unless you use this trick of deleting specifically via home tab + saving specifically through the save menu.

I got a round number of tags when I did this which makes me think there's a cutoff.

[rohitcomputertechno]

How to create drop down list in excel with multiple selections:

Unlocking Excel's Potential: Creating Multi-Selection Drop-Down Lists 

When it comes to harnessing the full potential of Microsoft Excel, one often overlooked gem is the ability to create drop-down lists that allow multiple selections. This feature adds a layer of sophistication to your spreadsheets, and today, we're going to dive deep into the complex world of multi-selection drop-down lists.

The Foundations of Data Control

Before we embark on our journey into the intricate art of multi-selection, let's revisit the fundamentals. In Excel, a drop-down list is a powerful tool that lets you limit the data entered into a cell by providing predefined choices. But what if a single choice isn't enough? What if your data requires the flexibility of multiple selections? That's where things get truly intriguing.

The Complexity of Data Validation 

To venture into this realm of complexity, we start with the Data Validation feature. It's a cornerstone of Excel wizardry, and it's here where we lay the foundation for our multi-selection drop-down list.

• Select Your Data: Begin by selecting the cell where you want the multi-selection drop-down list to reside. Navigate to the "Data" tab, a hub of Excel's mystique, and locate the "Data Validation" option.

• Data Validation Dialog Box: Clicking on "Data Validation" unleashes a world of possibilities. In the "Settings" tab, under the "Allow" dropdown, choose "List." This is where we diverge from simplicity into the realm of the perplexing.

• Multi-Select Delight: In the "Source" field, the true magic unfolds. Enter your list items, but here's the twist - use commas and hyphens to separate the options. This subtle shift takes your drop-down list from mundane to mind-bending.

• Handling the Overflow: To accommodate the burstiness of your data, you must tackle the issue of overflow. If your list items stretch beyond the visible boundaries of your spreadsheet, Excel provides a scrollbar within the cell, adding an extra layer of complexity.

Read full details click here 👇

https://rohitcomputertechno.blogspot.com/2023/10/How-to-create-drop-down-list-in-excel-with-multiple-selections.html?m=1

[dinsan-blog]

How to Enable Side Tabs (Vertical Tabs) on Edge

Microsoft Edge lets you place your browser tabs on the left side of the window. Edge calls them ‘Vertical Tabs’. Here is how to enable or disable them. Enabling Side Tabs on Edge Let me give you the quickest way to enable side tabs on Edge. Use the following keyboard shortcut: CTRL + SHIFT + , (comma). Alternatively, you can right-click any open tab and choose Turn on vertical tabs. Tab…

[a-typewritten-blog]

Finished product:

Came together really nicely! Took me an hour to get the labels on the keys then the keys put STRAIGHT on the keyboard. I'm happy with this product! But of course, I have a list of goofy points...

If this is a manual typewriter with a return lever on the left side of the carriage... what does that big red button do?

The keyboard is shown in all the illustrations is laid out as English QWERTY but the keys provided (namely the Ö and Ü, but not Ä) is from the German QWERTZ layout. Thus my trying to follow that layout from a photo from the web, but compromising by putting the minus / equals key and the half key where they would be on an American keyboard rather than using the umlauted letters there as they would be on a German keyboard. And on that note...

In what universe do you find comma sharing question mark or period sharing half? Must be the same universe where plus shares a key with an umlauted letter rather than some non-letter and the keyboard randomly contains a section sign §.

Beside the big red Return key, another inexplicable item is the handle sticking out of the left side in back. What's it do?

Upper left corner of the keyboard are two large round things on angled connectors. Again I am not sure what's up since Tab and Shift Lock don't look like that IRL but let's just go with it.

And then there's the design choice of putting the left side of the paper bail on the carriage yet the right side of the paper bail on the back of the machine. As in, the bail bar is diagonal by nearly a centimeter! Why wasn't the right bracket on the carriage also?

Nevermind the obvious that the bail is thereby behind the roller instead forward of center to do its job of holding the paper in place as the hammers strike it, but at least the result is the bail holds the writing sample in place against the back of the carriage.

I'll tell you how this turns out. It's surprisingly petite!

[dannyboyzone]

Writing rules 101 by Kin

Intro;

Everybody has their own writing style, and you absolutely don't have to listen to me. This is only posted for two reasons, one being that I might not have the mental strenght to post request for 2 or 3 days due to personal reasons, the other one being hey, someone might find this useful.

It's not to nag though, it's more for fun and I am open to respectful critism.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

1.

The first one that's the most important one is - In my eyes at least - that you should absolutely never write the character doing absolutely nothing.

Start out sentences with someone being in the middle of something, either something big or something small.

Example;

Not that good; Daniel woke up to the sound at his alarm, at 7:30 am and went to brush his teeth.

Alright!; Daniel shifted his gaze from the window back inside his kitchen. It was raining today, he couldn't help but wonder if it was a bad omen, or if his mind is simply trying to mess with him.

He opened the door to reveal his kitchen shelves, putting away the mug he had gotten from Gun that morning.

ex end.

Not only will it give more depth and possibilities for your story, but it will also keep the reader more entertained and in picture with what's happening.

Also, you are less likely to get a writers block.

2.

Please, if possible, do not write in a big text block.

By that, I mean not possible break in between lines at all.

Please try to make a format you are possible with, of what your gut feeling says feels right.

Example;

You could write like this.

I do not follow a possible format, but in my opinion the best format is one or two sentences starters. The next graph being three to five sentences.

It will not only make you more able to focus, and know where you left off but it is also helpful for the readers.

You can, of course add big paragraphs - if they are called that - but! People with certain disabilities, especially reading ones, will be able to pay attention more and not get overwhelmed if you follow the process of 'small text, big text, small text' or one similar to that made by your own. Also, were you aware that people who don't have English as their first language will be able to follow through more like that?!

Well, now you are!

ex end.

3.

" It is not necessary for you to always add who is talking while two people are having a conversation. " said Mira,

" That's right, but that rule only applies if it's obvious who is talking! " Zoe added to the conversation, with a cheerful smile.

Zack leaned back in his chair, holding a hand in front of his mouth as he yawned,

" If you are going to tell them the obvious anyway, just tell them that a sentence which is followed up by a quote should never have a dot but rather a comma. "

" Zack, don't be silly! Everyone knows that! "

" Actually... Some people might not! Let's not be judgemental everyone. " said the brown haired one.

" Pft, that's for beginners tho! "

" Hey!!! Let's also tell them that they can use differences between the people talking instead of their name too! " said his desk mate, as he looked up from the notes on their desk.

Zack leaned his head on Daniel's shoulder, closing his eyes as he made himself comfortable for a nap,

" Yup, especially if there is a pronoun difference. "

Mira turned to Y/n, holding their shoulder,

" Don't feel stressed please! It's alright to make mistakes, and writing is pretty hard anyway! Just follow your own pace! "

4.

Do not add anything that doesn't have a meaning.

Even if it's taking a sip of drink, it should have a meaning.

It's poisoned, dirty, the first step for someone to be healthy, the first drink someone has for survival, holds a significant meaning or It's to provoke someone.

It doesn't matter, as long as it adds something to the story.

If you do not make everything have a meaning that adds depth to the story or the personality of a character you are wasting the time of your reader and could possibly give them false hope.

Though, you don't immediately have to add the meaning of if in the same scene or even same chapter.

5.

Some sentences have multiple meanings depending on which word is pressed down.

Take an example, the sentence

" I never said she stole my money "

has 7 different meanings depending on the word you press down. Just try it out.

So if you might write a sentence with multiple meanings please write the pressed down word in italics.

If you want to say the person didn't steal the money, but someone else did, you would have to write,

" I never said she stole my money "

I hope it's clear with only one example!

6.

Your work is bad because you have read it at least a thousand times, but the people you will publish it to will read it for the first time and you will always have to remember that.

If you want to improve it though, write down everything in your notes, then fully delete it.

You can then open your post tab on your publishing site - like tumblr or something - and start rewriting it.

You will definitely only remember what's necessary in addition to your story.

I personally don't do this, but a lot of people might find it important.

7.

Always do research please, even if things won't always be accurate.

If you do research, less people will be annoyed by the inaccuracy and you will be able to add a lot of things that you couldn't have without them.

Also, you can avoid appropriating cultures and offending different kind of communities that way.

Along side that, please always state if your work will out of character or inaccurate on purpose.

Plus! Checking your spelling errors with a trusted app of yours will never hurt anybody! ♡

8.

If you have a writers block, please either

1. Change the weather; Opens up different kind of possibilities due to clothing, back ground, objects, air and reactions it brings out of others.

2. Add something dramatic; Only do this if it's absolutely necessary, because it could ruin your work. If everything goes right, add something that goes wrong and vice versa. This is only if you want to add angst in your fluff or wise versa.

3. Change the environments and/or the positions the characters are in; It gives a better perspective of the mood and general idea of the topic on hand that you are writing about.

4. Move on to the next scene; You can either leave the scene at that, or write the scene after that which can give you ideas for the one previous to that.

5. Make sure to clean the room you are in; Distractions and environment factors can change the way you feel about writing. Especially if not everything is clean, even if you don't like the mess. Also, drink water.

9.

Never add the end being a dream in longer works.

I don't mean the middle, a twist or a necessity. I mean the absolute end.

It just disappoints people and wastes their time.

10.

If you are writing anything other than romance such as action, horror, thriller ect I would like to say that, romance is not a necessity.

I beg of you, please don't add it if your main focus isn't romance.

Sure, people can have relationships but unnecessary romance rather drives people away than bring in more readers.

If your main focus is romance, please don't immediately make the people fall for each other.

It doesn't necessary have to be enemies or something you don't enjoy, but please remember that no one loves at first sight, and even people with a lot of chemistry can be shy!

Even if you love someone the first day you meet them due to something, it will definitely take a few hours and naivety.

So unless the main point is love at first sight, it's better to build up a relationship bit by bit.

11.

Be diverse with tension levels in scenes!

If a whole work is simply tense, or simply has a normal tone that can be either overwhelming or underwhelming.

For example, if your work is shorter, you can add a tiny moment where someone pouts yet gets cheered up with kisses a bit after.

If it's longer, you can add for example a race scene, which after ending is followed up with a group of friends smiling and having fun at a dinner table. If would not only give more depth to your story, but it could make viewers think and make their own headcanons of your story.

So, in short, please balance your story out. Readers have an easier time to finish a work that's balanced in the course of the same day over works that are over or underwhelming! ♡

12.

Every writer has a word that they might repeat too often. Mine are pronouns, but for others it might be fangs, headband, no, lenght or even cat.

Please try to recognise yours!

If you feel like you are repeating your key word more often than 3 times please rewrite your sentence(s) in a way it's more pleasant.

You will have an easier time writing and your reader won't feel like you are repeating yourself.

Also, you can improve your speech pattern that way. ♡

°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°

Outro;

Whew, that was a lot. Kinda gave me a headache.

Please remember that these are tips and not to put anyone down. I would have just liked to help and make up for the lack of post. - Ouch, parrot much. - I enjoyed writing these, but if anyone got offended I apologise. Hopefully, this won't get ignored since I put a lot of effort in it. 🥲

Thank you for your time! <3

[maximit3]

Mine

Pairing: Shouta Aizawa x Reader Word Count: 3K Warnings: (18+) PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE UNDER 18, Bondage, Daddy kink, Some sexual tension but its okay I promise

a/n: Alright so like first off yall can thank @mindninjax jax�� for calling me tame causing me to write smut. Petty is the best motivation thank you Soulmate. Second off thank you @veryrealunicorn nicorn​ for being my beta and my comma fairy. The world would be a darker place without you, and this would be a less grammatically correct fic!  Song playing in the club:  Mine by Slayyter

Have fun under the cut!

“You're not going out dressed like that.” Aizawa’s voice was dark and dripping with malice. 

Any other day, it might have sent goosebumps and shivers running across your whole body. You would have thrown yourself at him, let him do whatever he wanted. You paused in the middle of doing your eyeliner and stared at his reflection in the mirror.

“I am,” you said matter of factly. “Do you have a problem with that?”

You watched him grit his teeth, his frown deepening, before finishing your makeup. Grabbing the choker from the counter, you wrapped it tightly around your neck and did a last-once over in the mirror. Perfect.

Turning with a little flip of your hair, you started to make your way out of the bathroom but Aizawa blocked your path, his arm stretched across the door frame.

“You cannot be serious,” he growled, looking you up head to toe, and you noticed with a smirk that they lingered.

You cocked a hip and ran your finger through your hair. “I am absolutely serious, now move. I have places to be, Shouta.” 

With a shove, you knocked his hand out the way and made your way to the living room looking through your stack of shoes to find the perfect set. Behind you, you could hear Shouta shift to lean against the wall by the front door.

“Y/N, Why are you doing this?” he asked, sounding exhausted.

You made a triumphant noise as you found the shoes you were looking for and sat on the couch to slide them on, making sure Shouta’s eyes were on you. 

“I’m going to go out and find someone who’s going to appreciate me. Maybe they’ll take me on dates, maybe they’ll have dinner with me, or maybe…” You trailed off as you stood up from the couch, your heels giving you a commanding height.

You walked towards the front door, grabbing your keys and purse and stopping in front of Shouta.

“Maybe I’ll get someone to fuck me senseless tonight.” There was little space between the two of you now, and you could feel his heartbeat racing. His eyes shifted down to your lips and you grinned, leaning just a little closer, your breasts pushing against him. Then the door was open and you were gone, leaving Shouta holding back a wave of anger.

It wasn’t until you were in the Uber that was waiting outside that you let yourself breathe. The anxiety that filled you was so great that you worried it would overwhelm you. Still, this was something you had to do. You loved Shouta, there wasn’t any doubt in your mind about that, but you deserved to feel loved to and appreciated. If this is what it took to get Shouta to get his head in the game, then you would push through the night.

~

The club was already in full swing by the time you arrived, the thrall of people all gearing to get inside. You second guessed yourself for a moment, maybe you should have called Zashi, but you shook your head. The moment passed, and you stepped out of the car letting your eyes drift to the bouncer who stood at the entrance. You straightened your back and flipped your hair, putting on your most dazzling smile, pushing your boobs out just a bit.

The bouncer caught your eye and you saw them widen as you approached him, your eyes holding a flirtatious twinkle in them. For such a big intimidating guy, he sure melted like putty when you started talking.

“Is there a line?” you asked sweetly, your eyes focused only on him, oblivious to the rest of the world.

He blinked slowly and looked from you to the line and then back to you, a smile still plastered on your face.

“Uh,” his eyes glazed over as you leaned forward anticipating his answer, and it helped that your cleavage was more visible, “Nah sweetheart, You go right on in.” He gave a small smile.

You giggled putting your hand on his shoulder as you walked past him into the club, “Thanks big guy.” And if you let your hand slide off smoothly down his arm, what of it?

The second you stepped inside, the music blared and your eyes immediately began to adjust to the strobing neon lights and darkness. You made your way over to the bar, not oblivious to the men and women giving you double takes and once overs. You felt your whole body tingle from the attention, and the adrenaline rush was almost as good as a strong shot.

Almost.

The bartender was a petite girl with blue hair who looked like a fairy as she darted back and forth between customers. You held out your card so that when she passed she stopped to grab your order and open a tab.

“What’ll it be?” she asked smiling, though you could see that she was a little out of breath.

“A shot of tequila and a rum and coke,” you spouted off.

The shot went down strong, burning the back of your throat, but instantly you could feel your mind haze and your anxiety vanish. From your spot at the bar, you watched the dance floor as the mass of people swayed to the loud bass of the club remix that was playing. 

The energy was intoxicating, and you couldn't help but feel drawn to it. You downed your coke in a gulp and made your way to the floor. The temperature change and the touch of others against you enhanced your buzz and you lost yourself in the music. Soon you were engulfed, and the crowd became faceless as you danced, your eyes closed. 

There was a hand on your hip suddenly, and you found yourself grinding against someone behind you. Then a woman was there in front of you, her hands draped around your neck, and you blinked as she leaned in close to you, her breasts pushing against yours.

“You're kinda cute,” she whispered, and you shivered as her breath raced over your ear goosebumps rising all over your body. The figure with the hand on your hip pulled you against them and you felt hot searing pleasure rush through you.

The woman kissed your neck, and you groaned as the hand on your hip dipped between the two of you and suddenly there was pressure against your folds. For a moment, all you could feel was the hand between you and the girl, the lights of the club hypnotizing as you leaned your head back against the figure behind you. 

This is what you deserved, this is how you should feel all the time. Attention was the drug you craved and you were high on the feeling and in danger of overdosing. But, you would never get this from Shouta.

That thought sobered you instantly, and suddenly everything was too much. The hand rubbing against you that had made you wet with desire and the girl who left marks on your neck, it was too much. Too much heat, too much guilt, too many feelings, and not enough.

You tried to pull away but the girl pushed closer to you and the figure behind you tightened their grip, and suddenly there was panic. Your eyes roamed for anyone to see, but everyone was in the throes of their own euphoria and no one noticed. 

“Please,” you begged, trying to move again.

“Hmm, love it when they beg,” the figure, a man by the sound of his voice, hummed.

Suddenly there was movement to your left, and you felt the presence behind you disappear suddenly and a loud “What the fuck, dude?” followed. You felt like you could breathe again, and noticed the girl who had been so willing to take advantage of you had backed up as well.

You turned to see who had been your savior and was met with a manic-looking Shouta, his eyes aglow with desire. He grabbed you around the waist and kissed you roughly, and the familiar smell of him, the familiar presence of Shouta, brought you back.

“Home,” he growled, his hand grasping your ass, “Now.”

You nodded, and soon with Shouta’s hand on your back leading you out of the club you were in an uber and on your way home. The whole ride was quiet and tense on the way back as neither of you said a word. There was a gleam in Shouta’s eyes that you hadn’t seen before and couldn’t place. 

Shouta opened your door and walked behind you as you made your way up the stairs into your apartment. Still no words were spoken, and you tried to think of anything that could break the tension. Finally the door was closed, and you turned, your mouth open with some thanks on your lips, or maybe even an apology.

Shouta’s voice rang out dark and low, “Take off your clothes, go to the bedroom, and wait for me.”

You shivered, an unexpected wave of pleasure coursing through. You nodded numbly as Shouta watched you strip, his eyes growing hungrier and hungrier as you revealed more skin. He hummed appreciatively and looked you over, lingering awhile on your breasts which were perked from the cold air. He jerked his head toward the bedroom and your heart skipped a beat as you obliged, going to lay on the bed.

Shouta didn’t follow you immediately, and for a moment you wondered if he would leave you there, wanting and naked. The tone he had used on you at the club, and then again when you had come home, was like nothing you ever heard. You wanted to hear that voice again, low and wanting and filled with passion, and you rubbed your thighs together thinking about it. 

“Tsk tsk.” Shouta’s voice drifted in the darkness and you were startled out of your thoughts, “Still not listening to me, I see.” He walked into the room and you noticed he had stripped himself of clothes as well, everything except his capture scarf.

You whined at seeing his erect cock, flesh against his stomach the tip dripping with precum. He walked forward to the end of the bed and stood there watching you for a moment. His eyes felt like fire burning over you and the sensation was almost as intoxicating as the club had been.

“Hands above your head, kitten,” he ordered, and you did as you were told. In a flash, Shouta extended his scarf and had your hands tied together against the headboard. He smiled at your shocked look, vicious and wanting.

He leaned one knee onto the bed and then another, now straddling your legs and his hands found their way to your thighs. You groaned at the contact, warmth spreading to your clit and need spreading to your head.

“Is this what you wanted?” Shouta asked, moving his hand slowly up, making you buck your hips a little.

The hand was gone instantly, and you nearly cried out from the loss of contact.

“Don’t do that again, or I’ll leave you here tied up til you learn how to be a good, kitten,” he purred and waited for you to respond in understanding.

You nodded, his commanding voice making you wet and the tension in your stomach grow. He smiled, and his hands were back on your thighs and moving up. It took all your willpower to keep still.

“You let someone else put their hands on you tonight,” he growled, his fingers now massaging your folds. You moaned at the pressure, closing your eyes and drifting into the feeling, trying not to move but needing more. His thumb began to massage your clit and white sparked at the edges of your vision. 

“Look at you, coming undone so quickly,” he murmured. “Do you think anyone else could do this to you?” he questioned. 

You didn’t answer.

Shouta tsked disapprovingly, and you felt a pinch suddenly on your nipple sending a jolt through your body. You gasped and tugged your hands trying to release yourself, but the bindings held.

“Answer me, Y/N,” he commanded.

“No,” you whimpered.

“No, what kitten?” he asked, giving your nipple another pinch.

“Ah, no daddy,” you cried, arching into his hand.

Shouta hummed approvingly and brought his fingers up to your mouth, “Suck.” 

You let his fingers invade your mouth and sucked them lewdly. It didn't escape your notice the slight moan Shouta let loose as you did so.

With his newly lubricated fingers, he traced a circle around your hole, making you pull harder and whine louder. 

“You wanted attention, right? That's why you left tonight?” he prodded, letting just the tip of his finger inside you. Again you were too overwhelmed to answer, and again Shouta punished you by removing his finger, the absence unbearable.

“Answer me.”

“Yes, I wanted attention.” God you were pathetic, but he never treated you like this. Sex had never been this...exciting. You were excited by how he took control of you, and how little control you had. 

“Good girl.” Then he thrust a finger inside you, pressing against your already wet walls.

“Oh kitten, you’re dripping for me already,” he smiled mischievously and leaned down to kiss the top of your stomach.

“Shouta, please,” you begged, thrusting into his finger. 

“So greedy,” he muttered, and thrust another finger into you.

He repositioned himself, and now his body loomed over you and his mouth left trails of kisses wherever he went. His mouth teased around your nipples, making you squirm as the two fingers inside you pumped and stretched you. 

“Daddy,” you whimpered, and felt Shouta moan against you, the hum sending pleasure through your body. 

In response, he moved his mouth over your nipple and began sucking. The sensation was maddening. You could feel the heat pooling in your stomach, and you feel how slick you were getting from all the attention. 

“Shouta, please. I-” you whimpered, feeling close to your orgasm, but then everything stopped.

Shouta’s mouth was gone, as were his fingers, which he had removed so suddenly it has caused you to buck against him. No amount of squirming seemed to faze him as he watched you plead for him.

“Y/N, you come when I say you come,” he growled, shifting your legs so he was in between them. Shouta’s eyes were bright red now and full of lust, he palmed himself and you licked your lips in anticipation.

But there was hesitation there, you saw it flash in his eyes for just a second, and you strained to look at him.

“Shouta?” your voice was still full of want, but it was tinted with worry.

He frowned. “Is this what you want?” he asked quietly.

Then it hit you - he was worried that he was hurting you. Neither of you had ever experimented in the bedroom, and throughout your relationship it had become routine. In fact, everything about your relationship had become routine, and you had wanted more. That's why you left tonight, to get more. More attention, more affection, more excitement. 

How foolish you were.

Shouta was all you needed and all you ever wanted, and seeing the hesitation on his face proved to you that he truly loved you. Still, you had never felt more stimulated, more enticed, or wetter in your entire life. 

You nodded with a smile a twinkle of mischief in your eyes, “Absolutely.”

There was no more hesitation after that, permission had been given and Shouta would take full advantage of it. You could feel the head of his cock teasing you and groaned, wanting more contact. With a grunt, he sheathed himself inside you completely and for a second as you flexed around his cock, he stilled.

Then he moved, long strokes, almost pulling himself entirely out of you then slamming back in over and over.  You pulled at the cloth around your hands, tongue hanging out as you were fucked out of your mind. 

“Next time you want attention, kitten,” he growled slamming back into you, “you remember how good my cock feels right now.”

You nodded, whimpering as he slowed, “Yes Shouta, god, no one else but you.”

He grunted in affirmation and then pulled out. “No!” you shrieked.

“Calm down, little kitten,” he murmured, positioning himself over you and beginning to untie your hands.

He pulled you into a sitting position, biting and licking your neck and your breasts as he pulled you into his lap.

You gasp as his teeth raked over your puckered nipple. “Want you in me, daddy,” you moaned and he chuckled.

“Then ride me, my greedy kitty cat,” he growled in your ear.

In an instant, he had lifted your hips and repositioned his dick under you and let you drop. It was a delicious feeling, being on top, and you didn’t want to move because it felt so fucking good. How could have searched anywhere else for this when Shouta was here, when his perfect cock was willing to be inside you.

A slap to your ass brought you back, and you started to bounce on Shouta’s dick. With his hands guiding you up and down, you let yourself rock just a little, trying to find the perfect angle. One sharp smack against your ass again and a shift of your hips, you had found it. 

“Shouta, that's it,” you cried, speeding up, hitting your g-spot over and over.

“I got you kitten, let me fill you.” His hands moved to your back, pulling you closer and together the two of you rode out your orgasms.

Shouta’s head collapsed against your chest and both of you were panting wildly. After a moment, you felt him shift out of you and groaned at how you ached. You had never felt so spent before, so completely used in such a way, it was delicious.

“Y/N, are you okay?” Shouta murmured against you, his hands rubbing circles into your back.

You nodded against him. “I love you, Shouta,” you said breathlessly.

He lifted his head so that he could look you in the eyes, “I love you more than you will ever know, Y/N. Never forget that.” And he kissed your forehead before laying you down.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you guys so much I hope you enjoyed it! maybe I’ll venture out and write more smut in the future ;)

Tag list: @vic-toryoftheaces, @bullrunpicnicker, @dokidokibunni

[joomtechsolutions]

10 tech tricks you'll use again and again

Everyone enjoys a good prank. There's nearly always some shortcut we've never learned, no matter how well we know an app or program. The same is true with hardware: we may use gadgets on a daily basis without realizing their useful features.

Zoom is an excellent example, which millions of Americans have only just found. Tap or click here for 11 Zoom tips you'll wish you'd known sooner.

You may spend a lot of time in quarantine using the technology you already own, especially if you work from home. You may be doing things “the hard way” when you could be saving money by cutting corners.

Speaking of free, touch or click here for 15 free tech upgrades, including free products like Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office.

Here are a few of my favorite popular tech tips, tricks, and shortcuts for various apps and tools:

1. Insert your USB drive correctly the first time.

It feels like a no-brainer to connect a USB cord correctly. So, why do we frequently do things wrong on the first try?

Here's the deal: Take any USB cable you have lying around the home. Notice the emblem on one side? It is more than just branding or adornment. If you plug in horizontally, the USB symbol will face you; if you plug in vertically, the USB symbol will face you. You are now aware.

While you're organizing your tech life, tap or click here for seven tips on how to save money on your internet service.

2. Reopen a previously closed browser tab

It occurs on a regular basis. You have a dozen tabs open in your browser and unintentionally close one of them. You could either access your browser's history and reopen the tab from there, or you could accomplish it with a few keystrokes.

To reopen the tab you just closed, press Ctrl+Shift+T on a PC or Command+Shift+T on a Mac.

3. At a specific point, share a YouTube video.

If you see anything in a YouTube video that you want to share at a specific point, you can obtain a link that brings people directly to that spot. Click the Share icon to the right of the video. Look for a checkbox to the right of the link. It will automatically indicate the time at which the video is currently paused.

You have the option of continuing at this time or changing it. Copy the link and share it on your chosen social media platform or send it to a friend through email. When someone clicks on the link, the YouTube video will immediately go to the point you specified.

4. Use "Site:" to find content like a ninja.

Millions of results can be returned by a Google search. Reduce that greatly by using Google's Site: option to search only one site. Open Google in your browser and type "site:" followed by the website you want to search for. Just like this: “site:joomtechsolutions.com,” but without quotation marks.

A tip on a tip: Instead of going to Google, insert “site:joomtechsolutions.com search term” in your browser's URL bar. Again, no quotation marks are required.

5. Report junk texts and stick them to the scammers

Junk SMS messages are vexing, to say the least. You can block them, but taking action also feels fantastic.

With just a few clicks, you can report SMS to the GSMA's Reporting Service. Send the message to 7726 (can you guess what that means?) Alternatively, in your messaging app, simply select "Report Junk."

6. In Google Docs, you can use your voice.

I'm sure you already use your phone's speech-to-text feature to dictate texts or emails, but did you know you can do the same in Google Docs? It's free and surprisingly effective.

Open a new Google Docs document and select Voice Typing from the Tools menu. Then you can begin dictating. Voice Typing also understands commands like "comma," "period," and "new paragraph."

7. Use Disney Plus to download movies

Downloading video content and watching it offline is handled differently by each streaming service. Until 2016, Netflix was a huge holdout. However, Disney Plus immediately allowed this choice. At the bottom of the menu, there is a download icon. You can also download as many titles as your hard disc can store with the Disney Plus app.

8. Take a screenshot and crop it.

Screenshots are ubiquitous, but you frequently capture more than you require. Exposing too much of your screen in a single image can put your security at risk. Instead, snap a screenshot with exact cropping to ensure that only what you want is included.

Press Command + Shift + 5 on a Mac to bring up a rectangle that you can alter as much as you want.

On Windows 10, go to Start, type Snipping Tool into the Search Bar, then press Enter. This will give you a comparable box that you may move around your screen in any shape you choose.

9. Look through WhatsApp chats.

Messages accrue over time, regardless of platform. We're looking for that one funny quotation or a crucial street address, but it's buried in a jumbled sea. Although WhatsApp is the most downloaded software of the decade, many users are unaware that you can search your messages in the same way that you can with Google.

There is a search bar in iOS versions and a search icon in Android versions. In any case, seek for words that are distinctive to a particular conversation to help you identify the exact message you're looking for.

10. Cancel an email

Did you just send an email to everyone that was intended for only one person? Gmail, on the other hand, allows you to unsend an email by modifying one setting before to writing your email.

This message recall also allows you to change spelling mistakes, erroneous recipients, the subject line, and even append missed attachments.

Bonus Tip: How to Sign a PDF Electronically

In many offices across the country, PDFs are already replacing printed papers. They are more adaptable, portable, and convenient to use – but not everyone is aware that you can sign a PDF document in the same way you would a real one.

Almost every PDF-reading application includes a capability for electronically signing papers and forms. To learn how to do it, tap or click here.

The Kim Komando Show, the nation's largest weekend radio discussion show, will keep you up to date on all the latest technologies. Kim answers phones and gives guidance on today's digital lifestyle, from smartphones and tablets to online privacy and data hacking.

[bakugouscentedcaramel]

Ah yes, the time has come.

It's time to get your pen and paper because class is in session!

There's plenty of things I could talk about and I pretty much covered the basics down below, but I'm more than willing to help y'all out with anything specific!

I have to preface that I'm not an English major by any means nor do I have any experience writing professionally, the things listed below are purely based on my opinions and submissions I have received.

Writing is forever a learning process, there really isn't a right way of writing but there are definitely some things that will hinder your readers. Here is a list that I compiled both with my own experiences as well as some user submitted issues when it comes to reading works:

•Big blocks of text

° Typos/wrong word usage

•Using the same words

°Too spaced out/not indented where needed

• Dialogue runs into normal sentences

° Speakers/POVs change without notice

• Inconsistencies, either in general or story inconsistencies

°Lack of description/Too much description

• Bland/Artificial actions/dialogue

° Misuse of punctuation/lack thereof

• Capitalization errors

° Long winded sentences

• Using italics for actions

° Confusing formating

• Changing in Tenses

° Using wrong tags/falsely advertising (ex. Reader x Blank should have Y/N, not an OC/Authors name)

• Author notes/comics/pictures in middle of fic

° "~This is a transition~"

• Forcing a character to be OOC for sake of story

° Filler characters

• Not sticking to a specific genre/jumpy moods

Now don't be intimidated by this list! Some of these are pretty self explanatory so I won't go into a few of them. There are plenty of ways to avoid these and in some cases it is perfectly fine to use any of the above. 

Let's start off with the basics!

Sentence structure is the backbone of writing, but it's a very flexible rule. Obviously you have your subject, verb, object and whatnot, but the true art lies in word choice and length.

When it comes to sentences, size does matter. If your sentences are too short they will seem choppy and unfinished, whereas if they are long they will seem winded and unnatural. The biggest tool you can use to find out if a sentence is too short/long is by reading it aloud! If you run out of breath it's too long but if you finish abruptly it's too short.

Word choice is my favorite weapon to work with, I could describe a blue jay as a normal bird or as a mythical animal just by picking the right words!

"The blue jay flew across the field while it sang it's melody."

Or

"A creature with wings made of clouds swooped across the field whilst roaring out a devilish tune."

Word choice can easily convey tone/feeling so it's definitely an important element to writing! If you ever have trouble finding that perfect word try googling for synonyms! Also this website might help you find that one word that you just can't think of!

Grammar is also a very important part of writing. Using the right words and punctuation can be difficult sometimes but there are some easy fixes!

Spelling is an easy fix, if you forgot/don't know how to spell a word consulting a dictionary or Google is a surefire way of solving your problem. You can even find synonyms if you feel like you've used a word too much. 

Punctuation on the other can be a big more difficult, however. 

Here's a couple of sentences that helped me learn basic punctuation:

A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink then leaves. Commas are a means of sewing two sentences together to form a compound sentence. These are mainly used to list out things and to add fluidity to your works so they don't sound as choppy.

A question mark walks into a bar? Question marks are pretty self explanatory. They either raise a question or form uncertainty.

Two quotation marks "walk" into a bar. Quotations are used for both dialogue and metaphors. I personally love using them for sarcasm!

A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink. This one is a tougher one that I personally never learned from any of my classes. A gerund is basically a word that can act as a verb or a noun which would be "drinking". An infinitive is the base of a verb, in this case it's "drink".

The bar was walked into by a passive voice. A passive voice is when you emphasize the action and object of a sentence rather than the subject. You can find that a passive voice tends to use past tense where as an active voice uses present/future tense.

Three intransitives walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave. An intransitive verb is an action verb, expressing a doable activity like arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, die, etc.

Some other things that I commonly see are the wrong usages of words. For example:

They: a group of individuals/pronoun "Yeah, they said he'd be here thirty minutes ago."

Their: a possessive pronoun "Leave their stuff alone!'

There: location "What's that over there?"

Then: event/action "Val went to the mall then skittered to the park."

Your: possessive "Your self esteem is lower than the Mariana's Trench!"

You're: a conjunctive "you are"

Affect: caused by actions "The fallen french fry really affected Val's mood."

Effect: caused by events "Climate change has a negative effect on my Cheerios."

Peaked: a summit "Val has peaked at 10:19pm"

Piqued: stimulate interest/curiosity "You have piqued Val's interest by mentioning food."

Do time: "Val is fixin' to do time if she keeps slacking."

Due time: "Val will come with hydration in due time."

Per say: not a thing

Per se: by/in itself "She didn't write this late at night, per se…"

There are different tools you can use to spice up your writings, from metaphors to innuendos, all the way to zeugmas! Let's go over the basic definitions of these bad boys.

Metaphor: a figure of speech that is not literally applicable. "The darkness surrounded us like a shroud." Obviously the darkness can't physically shroud anyone.

Innuendo: a sentence with a hidden meaning "Is that a gator in your pants or are you just happy to see me~" 

Zeugma: a sentence containing words that can be used literally and figuratively, like a love child of the two above. "Val and her coupon expired last week." This implies that not only did my Colgate coupon expire, but I died as well.

Paragraphs are a necessity when it comes to writing. Big blocks of text are an eyestrain to readers and it's easy to lose your place, even if it's only 150 words. It's always best to use Tab or at least 5 spaces when indenting. A paragraph should only be 5-7 sentences long, this is so it's not just multiple blocks of text

When to add a new paragraph:

° A new person comes in

• New idea/context

° Setting changes

• New person is speaking

° Time changes

• The "camera" moves

° Tone shifts

• 5-7 sentences has been reached

Paragraphs help you organize your work in a way and they make it easier for your readers' eyes!

POVs are also very important. First person and third person are by far the most common ones so I'll only touch on these two. It's very important to write a story in one strict POV as to not confuse the readers. You can however jump perspectives like Heroes of Olmpyus by Rick Rodian, as long as the ready can easily tell who is telling the story.

First person is a story that is told from first-hand experience. It's the same as if I told y'all the story on how I almost chopped off my thumb in woodshop class back in middle school. First person tends to use a lot of I's and my's

Third person is a story that is told from a narrators' point of view. Such as "Once upon a time" type of stories. I's and my's should only be used in dialogue

Dialogue is probably one of the most important features of any fic/story. Dialogue can push plots forward as well as add life to a character. Here's a simple exchanged:

"Hiya 'Splodey," Val chirped.

Katuski smirked, "M'dumbass."

Dialogue should always come with a pair of quotation marks. Commas and periods generally go inside the quotation marks whereas dashes, colons, and semicolons almost always go outside the quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation marks however can go either inside or outside, it goes by a case by case basis. Always indent whenever a different speaker is talking, running quotes into each other is a no-go because it causes confusion and eyestrain.

You have to be wary of using simple dialogue exchanges though, if they seem off try saying them out loud! Dialogue is one of my favorite things to write because you can weave personality into them, not to mention you can always hear people talking to get a better idea on how to write dialogue.

For example, I have a southern dialect, meaning I sound different than someone from the north! I use words like "y'all", "fixin'", "finna", "ain't" and have a different vocabulary than that of my northern friends. This means that the characters you're portraying should have their own way of speaking! This will not only add flavor to your dialogue but it also adds to their personalities/backgrounds.

Describing things can be just as valuable as dialogue, but it is a bit more complex. Sure we've all heard of the "show, don't tell" rule. Which is a good rule to follow, however too much showing is just as bad as telling. Again, reading out your work is a great way to tell if you're focusing too much on one thing. Another thing to keep in mind is importance, such as do we really need to know that the grass outside was bluegrass? Which in certain situations it would be! For example:

The grass around the disheveled house was brown and straw-like, with the exception of a ring of grass. Bluegrass. Which wasn't even native to this location.

This paints a pretty good spooky picture in the readers' mind and even adds the element suspense by the implied uncertainty.

I've only covered a small portion of writing so if y'all have any questions or need any help feel free to slide into my DMs or send in an ask! I love getting questions about writing and I'm always willing to help a fellow writer!

[gll-chui]

☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲

★彡( 𝙻𝚘𝚐𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙾𝚗 )彡★

It was incredibly late in the evening, far too late for it to even be considered overtime. 

Most of the soldiers on the higher officer floor had gone home for the day, and one had turned the lights off before realizing that, yes, someone else was still there. Of course the soldier stammered with apologies even after Lieutenant Garuru accepted the first few apologies and informed him that it was just a simple mistake. It wasn’t on any sane person’s mind to stay at the military base far after the roll call for the last shift was made, star soldier or not. 

He also quite liked the darkness too despite knowing that working in the dark threatened to affect his eyesight, the Lieutenant gave a flippant wave of his hand to adjust the lights so that they were dimmed as opposed to be completely off and then grabbed the freshly made cup of coffee that was sitting on his desk face. Garuru tilted his head curiously at the work that he’s put into the webpage and then shook his head slowly with a soft chuckle, a blog page, to think that he’d be inspired to make one of these after coming across Keroro’s. Still, it looked like the Sergeant was having fun interacting with friends from different universes and timelines (timelines!? What a world they live in…), he decided then and there that he wanted in on some of the action too. What kind of people lived out there? What kind of military personnel or warriors will he come across? What kind of competition even? 

He had been hopping on and off from the blog and his paperwork during his slow days when he would just be given desk work, just so that he could perfect every little detail on his ‘profile’. Was it extensive? Possibly. 

With a sigh Garuru leans back in his chair and raises the cup of scalding liquid to his lips to take a cautious sip, the fingers on his opposite hand tapping rhythmically to the music he put on his profile. It was hard to pick just three songs out of the massive playlist that was on his communicator but these songs will do for now. Just like the colors and the layout he’s chosen, that’s what made it all so fun: he could completely customize all of this to his liking, a creative freedom of sorts. 

A clear and sudden ring came from one of the other monitors on his desk, a message from his dispatcher wondering what the hell was he doing still logged in on the military’s computer at this hour. Without missing a beat he waved his hand over the keyboard, leaning back just a little more to hold the hot mug in both hands, perfectly content when a little microphone bubble popped up on the dash. 

“Nothing really. Comma. I’m just making the final adjustments on this blog thing I was telling you about earlier. Period.” he pauses to take another sip from his coffee, humming the bitter liquid down. “I will be leaving my inbox open. Comma. Just in case someone wants to send me a message or ask me some questions. Period. New Line. I will be getting off soon. Comma. Sorry for keeping you up later than usual. Period. Period. Period. Again. Period. L-O-L emoji. Send text.” 

He’s not an avid user when it comes to emojis but here he’ll make an exception since he’s not technically working, again, it was far passed overtime hours and everyone was out of the higher officer floor anyways. Garuru is in the middle of taking another sip from his coffee when yet another notification appears on his desktop, thankfully his dispatcher is not scolding him, actually, they seemed excited about his blog getting finalized and offered to relay any and all other questions and messages that might be directed to him. Oh, that’s a good idea actually. 

“Reply to sender.” Garuru states, bringing up a new message window, a finger running along the rim of the mug as he contemplates his response in a quick second. “That’s a good idea. Period. But for now. Comma. I think I’ll just start--quotation mark--liking--end quotation--and reblogging some posts in the meantime. Period. Send text.” With that message sent, the Lieutenant sits himself up a little straighter to run his fingertips on the small square that was at the base of his keyboard so he can jump to the tab that had tumblr still open. That was a good idea, just find some aesthetic looking pictures to reblog and ‘prompts’ to like for later maybe, just until he’s finished this cup of coffee and heads home. 

They had an app for this website too don’t they? Maybe he should get that on his communicator too…

★彡( 𝙸𝚗𝚋𝚘𝚡 𝙾𝚙𝚎𝚗! )彡★

☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲☲

((Hey y’all, I have no idea what I’m doing but to show that I’m alive I think I’ll just scroll around and like and reblog some stuff to fluff up Garuru’s blog some more. I’ll be writing some stuff too, ‘cause why not?🤷‍♂️ Just some exploring Garuru’s life, or his work or something. But for now, the inbox is open!✨ Can’t wait to chat with y’all!!💜))

[nerdyblizzardsoul]

Uno Reverse Card With Hearts

ASCII control characters non printable :

This is how you break UNO. Hey, I've recently started to upload again. Check out my channel and give this video a watch! Emoji Meaning The joker in a deck of cards, usually appearing like a court jester. Emoji Meaning A heart symbol emoji, which is used in card games for the hearts suit. Generally shown in red, despite the name. Not to be ️ Envelope. Emoji Meaning The back of an envelope, as used to send a letter or card.

ASCII code 00 = NULL ( Null character ) ASCII code 01 = SOH ( Start of Header ) ASCII code 02 = STX ( Start of Text ) ASCII code 03 = ETX ( End of Text, hearts card suit ) ( HTML entity = ♥ )ASCII code 04 = EOT ( End of Transmission, diamonds card suit ) ASCII code 05 = ENQ ( Enquiry, clubs card suit ) ASCII code 06 = ACK ( Acknowledgement, spade card suit ) ASCII code 07 = BEL ( Bell ) ASCII code 08 = BS ( Backspace ) ASCII code 09 = HT ( Horizontal Tab ) ASCII code 10 = LF ( Line feed ) ASCII code 11 = VT ( Vertical Tab, male symbol, symbol for Mars ) ASCII code 12 = FF ( Form feed, female symbol, symbol for Venus ) ASCII code 13 = CR ( Carriage return ) ASCII code 14 = SO ( Shift Out ) ASCII code 15 = SI ( Shift In ) ASCII code 16 = DLE ( Data link escape ) ASCII code 17 = DC1 ( Device control 1 ) ASCII code 18 = DC2 ( Device control 2 ) ASCII code 19 = DC3 ( Device control 3 ) ASCII code 20 = DC4 ( Device control 4 ) ASCII code 21 = NAK ( NAK Negative-acknowledge ) ASCII code 22 = SYN ( Synchronous idle ) ASCII code 23 = ETB ( End of trans. block ) ASCII code 24 = CAN ( Cancel ) ASCII code 25 = EM ( End of medium ) ASCII code 26 = SUB ( Substitute ) ASCII code 27 = ESC ( Escape ) ASCII code 28 = FS ( File separator ) ASCII code 29 = GS ( Group separator ) ASCII code 30 = RS ( Record separator ) ASCII code 31 = US ( Unit separator ) ASCII code 127 = DEL ( Delete )

Printable ASCII characters : ( alphanumeric, symbols and signs )

How To Play Uno Hearts

ASCII code 32 = space ( Space ) ASCII code 33 = ! ( Exclamation mark ) ASCII code 34 = ' ( Double quotes ; Quotation mark ; speech marks ) ASCII code 35 = # ( Number sign ) ASCII code 36 = $ ( Dollar sign ) ASCII code 37 = % ( Percent sign ) ASCII code 38 = & ( Ampersand ) ASCII code 39 = ' ( Single quote or Apostrophe ) ASCII code 40 = ( ( round brackets or parentheses, opening round bracket ) ASCII code 41 = ) ( parentheses or round brackets, closing parentheses ) ASCII code 42 = * ( Asterisk ) ASCII code 43 = + ( Plus sign ) ASCII code 44 = , ( Comma ) ASCII code 45 = - ( Hyphen , minus sign ) ASCII code 46 = . ( Dot, full stop ) ASCII code 47 = / ( Slash , forward slash , fraction bar , division slash ) ASCII code 48 = 0 ( number zero ) ASCII code 49 = 1 ( number one ) ASCII code 50 = 2 ( number two ) ASCII code 51 = 3 ( number three ) ASCII code 52 = 4 ( number four ) ASCII code 53 = 5 ( number five ) ASCII code 54 = 6 ( number six ) ASCII code 55 = 7 ( number seven ) ASCII code 56 = 8 ( number eight ) ASCII code 57 = 9 ( number nine ) ASCII code 58 = : ( Colon ) ASCII code 59 = ; ( Semicolon ) ASCII code 60 = < ( Less-than sign ) ASCII code 61 = = ( Equals sign ) ASCII code 62 = > ( Greater-than sign ; Inequality ) ASCII code 63 = ? ( Question mark ) ASCII code 64 = @ ( At sign ) ASCII code 65 = A ( Capital letter A ) ASCII code 66 = B ( Capital letter B ) ASCII code 67 = C ( Capital letter C ) ASCII code 68 = D ( Capital letter D ) ASCII code 69 = E ( Capital letter E ) ASCII code 70 = F ( Capital letter F ) ASCII code 71 = G ( Capital letter G ) ASCII code 72 = H ( Capital letter H ) ASCII code 73 = I ( Capital letter I ) ASCII code 74 = J ( Capital letter J ) ASCII code 75 = K ( Capital letter K ) ASCII code 76 = L ( Capital letter L ) ASCII code 77 = M ( Capital letter M ) ASCII code 78 = N ( Capital letter N ) ASCII code 79 = O ( Capital letter O ) ASCII code 80 = P ( Capital letter P ) ASCII code 81 = Q ( Capital letter Q ) ASCII code 82 = R ( Capital letter R ) ASCII code 83 = S ( Capital letter S ) ASCII code 84 = T ( Capital letter T ) ASCII code 85 = U ( Capital letter U ) ASCII code 86 = V ( Capital letter V ) ASCII code 87 = W ( Capital letter W ) ASCII code 88 = X ( Capital letter X ) ASCII code 89 = Y ( Capital letter Y ) ASCII code 90 = Z ( Capital letter Z ) ASCII code 91 = [ ( square brackets or box brackets, opening bracket ) ASCII code 92 = ( Backslash , reverse slash ) ASCII code 93 = ] ( box brackets or square brackets, closing bracket ) ASCII code 94 = ^ ( Circumflex accent or Caret ) ASCII code 95 = _ ( underscore , understrike , underbar or low line ) ASCII code 96 = ` ( Grave accent ) ASCII code 97 = a ( Lowercase letter a , minuscule a ) ASCII code 98 = b ( Lowercase letter b , minuscule b ) ASCII code 99 = c ( Lowercase letter c , minuscule c ) ASCII code 100 = d ( Lowercase letter d , minuscule d ) ASCII code 101 = e ( Lowercase letter e , minuscule e ) ASCII code 102 = f ( Lowercase letter f , minuscule f ) ASCII code 103 = g ( Lowercase letter g , minuscule g ) ASCII code 104 = h ( Lowercase letter h , minuscule h ) ASCII code 105 = i ( Lowercase letter i , minuscule i ) ASCII code 106 = j ( Lowercase letter j , minuscule j ) ASCII code 107 = k ( Lowercase letter k , minuscule k ) ASCII code 108 = l ( Lowercase letter l , minuscule l ) ASCII code 109 = m ( Lowercase letter m , minuscule m ) ASCII code 110 = n ( Lowercase letter n , minuscule n ) ASCII code 111 = o ( Lowercase letter o , minuscule o ) ASCII code 112 = p ( Lowercase letter p , minuscule p ) ASCII code 113 = q ( Lowercase letter q , minuscule q ) ASCII code 114 = r ( Lowercase letter r , minuscule r ) ASCII code 115 = s ( Lowercase letter s , minuscule s ) ASCII code 116 = t ( Lowercase letter t , minuscule t ) ASCII code 117 = u ( Lowercase letter u , minuscule u ) ASCII code 118 = v ( Lowercase letter v , minuscule v ) ASCII code 119 = w ( Lowercase letter w , minuscule w ) ASCII code 120 = x ( Lowercase letter x , minuscule x ) ASCII code 121 = y ( Lowercase letter y , minuscule y ) ASCII code 122 = z ( Lowercase letter z , minuscule z ) ASCII code 123 = { ( braces or curly brackets, opening braces ) ASCII code 124 = | ( vertical-bar, vbar, vertical line or vertical slash ) ASCII code 125 = } ( curly brackets or braces, closing curly brackets ) ASCII code 126 = ~ ( Tilde ; swung dash )

[pictureamoebae]

Hey! I don't know if this is a common problem, but I cannot open reshade, it installs just fine, and I have tried different versions. The thing is that on my new computer the home button is also the one that moves the camera left, and f2 lowers the volume, and because of this Reshade doesn't open, do you have any idea what I could do to fix this? (Don't feel pressured to answer, hope you have a good day! :) )

Hi there!

Do you have an fn key on your keyboard? Sometimes the F keys are shared with other things like volume and brightness, but can still be accessed by using the fn key. So for F2 you’d press fn + F2. It might be the same for the Home key (I have to press fn to access the scroll lock key, which is also the pause key on my keyboard).

If that doesn’t work, you can manually edit the key binds.

In your Bin folder (I’m guessing you’re playing TS4 – if it’s another game, then in whichever folder ReShade is installed) find the ReShade.ini file and open it in a text editor.

Look for the section that begins with [Input], and find the line that says KeyMenu followed by 4 numbers separated by commas.

This is where you can edit the menu key.

Shift + F2, which is the default for 3.x versions of ReShade, will be written as 113,0,1,0 (113 is F2, and 1 in the 3rd position means shift is used as a modifier).

Use this website to find the javascript key code of the key you want to use instead. For instance, if you want to use period the code would be 190 (in the 1st position) and 0 in all the other positions.

If you’re unsure of what the exact combination of codes would be for your preferred key bind (if you wanted to use a different modifier like ctrl or alt for example), set it to something very simple in the first instance, just so you can open the menu, and then once it’s open in-game you can go into the settings tab and set it to whatever you want by pressing that combination of keys and ReShade will edit that file for you with the correct codes.

[gavanu]

Tumblr shortcuts

J : Next Post

K: Previous Post

. : To the top

N : View Post

Enter : Visit Blog

Option+Tab : Switch between blogs

L : Insta-Like

Alt + R : Insta-Reblog

Alt + E : Insta-Queue

Z+C : Command

Cmd+Shift+Hyphen : Smaller Text

Cmd+Shift+2 : Subheading

Cmd+K : Add Link

Cmd+Shift+6 : Strikethrough

Cmd+Shift+7 : Order List

Cmd+Shift+9 : Block Quote

Cmd+Shift+0 : Remove formatting

Cmd+Shift+X : Pre-formatted text

Cmd+Period (Mac) to do a superscript or Cmd+Comma (Mac) to do a subscript.

Cmd+Shift+G : Add gif or pic

Cmd+Shift+V : Add video

Cmd+Shift+L  : Add Line

Cmd+Shift+K : Add read more

[vernonfielding]

Life Writes Its Own Stories

Chapter 8! (And on AO3, of course.)

I came back from my trip a day early, so here we go again. I should be back to posting a chapter every other day from now to the end.

Amy woke to a face full of sunshine.

She squinted her eyes closed and groaned, burying her face in her pillow. Several thoughts came to her, one right after another: Her pillow smelled weird, her pillow felt weird, and she had not once in the three years she’d lived in her apartment woken up with the sun in her face. Amy blinked her eyes open and rolled onto her back, and the night washed over her again, every lovely bit of it. She smiled up at the ceiling over Jake’s bed and then turned and smiled at the man himself.

He was asleep, curled up on his side facing her. His hair was a fluffy mess. One hand was tucked under his pillow, the other folded into a loose fist. Amy remembered falling asleep with his arm around her waist, holding her to him, but they must have separated in the night and now she was happy to indulge in watching over him.

She’d noticed from the moment they met that he was attractive, but over all of their shared meals and late-night outings, she’d never really taken stock of him: his full lips, his sharply defined cheekbones that were so often disguised by a smile or laugh, the dimple in his chin and the single, perfect curl that dipped over his forehead. His face, normally so expressive, was smooth in sleep and she thought about tracing the line of his brow, the ridge of his nose, the curve of his jaw. She thought about kissing his eyelids and waking him up.

When Jake had kissed her that first time a few days ago, she’d been momentarily overpowered by a physical attraction to him – and that was all she had thought it was, a gut-deep desire for a man who was undeniably hot. So she’d pushed him away, because kissing (that would likely to lead to much more than kissing) was absolutely not okay between reporters and their sources. Intimacy of any sort led to bias and poor decision making; it turned journalism into a trade industry.

Amy’s guilt and shame had been so profound that night that she swore she’d been marked in some way, as though even strangers would see her failure written on her face. It occurred to her that they had practically been dating for weeks -- that even before he kissed her, before she kissed him back, she had crossed a line. She felt awful for herself, for having betrayed her own moral code, and she felt awful for Jake, whom she had obviously misled.

So it was a gift that the next several days flew by in a crush of anxiety and exhilaration as she finally put her article to bed. She had no time to dwell on her personal mistakes when she was arguing over headlines with Terry and Charles and writing and rewriting every photo caption and fact-checking every detail, from the numbers in her bar charts to the hyperlinks and hashtags they would use on social media. On Saturday she convinced Charles to print out page proofs so she could do one last edit of the printed version of her story, and she suggested word choice and grammar revisions until finally, when they were on the verge of what was sure to be an embarrassing slap-fight over an Oxford comma, Charles shoved her out the front doors and told her she needed to relax and let someone wash her hair.

“I have just the person in mind,” he called after her, as Amy stomped down the block.

She’d slept fitfully that night, waking up just about every hour to check her phone. At daybreak, a post from the Bulletin Twitter account went out. Her favorite brother sent her a congratulatory email that Amy read over a breakfast of plain toast because she couldn’t stomach anything else. By noon, the story was viral (at least locally – it was never going to make The Daily Show, Amy kept reminding herself).

When the mayor announced on Twitter that he was personally looking into the jail situation and linked to Amy’s story, she was stunned and elated. And she was blindsided by a wave of sadness: She missed Jake.

She missed his smile and the way his eyes went soft when she was talking about something personal. She missed the way he tugged at his hair when he was looking over the documents she’d asked him to read for her. She missed his forearms when he rolled up his sleeves and the way his one eyebrow quirked when he laughed.

She even missed the gummy worms he consumed by the handful when they were meeting at a bar and he got snacky while translating penal codes, and she missed the ketchup and orange soda stains on her documents, and she missed having to rearrange all of her papers when she got home because he never paid attention to her tabs.

She just missed him. And she missed sharing this success with him.

Later in the day, when Gina had texted that the newsroom was getting drinks and it was definitely not because of her story but because they were all bored, Amy had been sitting at her laptop with a dozen tabs open on her browser for essays on journalism ethics and dating sources. She’d joined them for drinks because it seemed pathetic not to, and she’d been honestly touched by their support. But she’d also been miserable, because all she could think was that she’d messed up everything. Her life was amazing, and she’d screwed it all up.

Then Jake had texted. Just seeing his dumb code name appear on her screen had made her heart leap into her throat, and she’d known then that she couldn’t let him go. She had to at least see him, and try.

Now, she really did have it all. And lying in his bed, with the sun in her face and the smell of him in her (his) pillow, she felt content to just be. So she stared at him for a while, until the sun had shifted enough that it was blocked by the partly drawn curtains, and it dawned on her – so to speak – that she couldn’t remember if she’d set her alarm and she had no idea what time it was. She panicked for just a moment and quickly rolled over, hand slapping on the bedside table for her phone. She squinted at it – her contact lenses felt glued to her eyeballs – and sighed when she saw that she was only five minutes past her alarm.

Of course, she was going to need to go home and shower before going into work, and she’d wanted to go in early so she could check in with Terry and Holt before heading to Manhattan for the NPR interview, and she obviously hadn’t laid out her clothes the night before or set the timer on her coffeemaker.

Amy glanced at her phone again and did some quick math and decided that if she skipped coffee and didn’t wash her hair – it was just radio, it wasn’t like she had to look great – and planned her outfit on the way to her apartment then she could save six minutes, which still wasn’t ideal but she could make it work.

But then she glanced back at Jake, and the sudden pulse of affection for him pushed everything else aside. She could be a little late. She kissed his forehead, just beneath the curl, and each of his eyelids, and she covered his hand with her own as he blinked his eyes open and smiled back at her.

+++

Amy ended up texting Terry to tell him she was going straight into the city for her interview and he said that was fine. She didn’t get into the newsroom until noon, and by then she was famished and caffeine-deprived and still practically vibrating with joy. Her story had been a huge success and she had kissed the man she really, really liked and she’d had sex – three times! – the night before. The fact that they hadn’t fallen asleep until nearly 3 a.m. – because: three times – wasn’t a problem. Amy felt like she might never need to sleep again.

She spent the day working on a follow-up story around the mayor’s plan to investigate the jail recordings. She also fielded several unpleasant phone calls from the head of the corrections department and his deputies, until one of them demanded a full retraction and she finally had to pass them on to Terry and Holt to deal with, which was fine by her. They both had her back, and she’d never doubted they would, but it was still nice to be supported. So nice, actually, that by the end of the day, as Terry was editing her story, she started feeling guilty again.

“I have to tell you something,” Amy said, or rather blurted, when Terry had finished editing. It was 6 p.m. and it had been a pretty slow day so the newsroom was mostly cleared out; only Hitchcock was left, and he had his head pillowed on his arms at his desk and was snoring.

“Terry doesn’t love the sound of that,” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. “Oh man, are you quitting? You’re going to the Times already? I thought we’d get at least another year out of you.”

“No!” Amy said, then, “Wait, what? You think I’ll be at the Times in a year?”

“Uh-”

“Wow.” Amy tried to think of a more appropriate response. “That’s- wow.”

She sort of spaced out for a moment, until Terry cleared his throat and said, “You had something to tell me?”

“Oh, right. I did.” Amy shook herself out of her Times fantasy and reminded herself of the task at hand. Immediately, nerves made her stomach flutter and her palms sweat.

She’d considered waiting a while to tell her bosses about Jake, just long enough for them to actually start dating and see where things were headed. But that was her fear speaking, and she knew she had to do what was right. She swallowed hard, working up the courage to tell Terry. She really liked her job, and she was pretty sure they weren’t going to fire her but they were almost definitely going to make her change beats, which was going to be disappointing. But she had to be up front with them.

“Santiago-”

“I’m boinking my source!”

It came out as a sort of squeak-yell and Amy was glad no one else was around to hear her.

“Um, I mean, I’m dating him. Well, I guess not technically dating yet, but sleeping with him. You know, like-” She mashed her hands together in a movement that definitely didn’t connote sex, unless it was really bad sex.

“Yeah, I think I’ve got it,” Terry said, sounding both perplexed and slightly amused. “Well, this is...something that we need to talk to Holt about.”

Terry stood up and peered around her at Holt’s office.

“Now?” Amy felt suddenly like she might faint.

“It’s as good a time as any,” Terry said. He gently took Amy’s elbow and steered her across the newsroom. “He’s thrilled with your article and the response it’s gotten.”

“He is?” Amy said, pride pushing aside her nerves for a moment. “I mean, I knew he was pleased, but thrilled? Did he say that? Or are you just inferring? Because if he said that-”

“I can just tell,” Terry said. He paused outside Holt’s open office door. “Just be honest with him. And don’t say ‘boinking.’”

“Roger that.”

Terry tapped on the door before leading Amy inside. He asked if Holt was busy, and Holt said, “I’m always busy,” but he put down his pencil and invited them to sit.

Somehow, Amy pulled herself together. She explained, calmly, that she had developed feelings for someone who used to be a source, and that they had decided to start dating. She said that she had already informed him that she would no longer be able to use him as a source, and that if he told her anything newsworthy she would pass it on to one of her colleagues. She expressed that she wanted to keep covering the police beat, but she would understand if they didn’t trust her in that position anymore, and she would happily accept any new assignment they offered. When she was done, she folded her hands in her lap and squared her shoulders and forced herself not to think about what would happen if they fired her.

“I see,” Holt said, with no inflection that Amy could discern. “Well, it would seem as though you’ve taken the necessary precautions and insulated yourself from potential bias as well as possible. I see no reason you cannot remain on the police beat, for now. But note, I will be paying close attention, as will Terry, and if one of us believes you are compromised we will take action.”

Amy blinked, stunned that she was going to be allowed to keep covering cops. She smiled and nodded sharply, then stood up and stuck out her hand. Holt looked at her outstretched hand for a moment and then smiled a little and shook it. His grip was firm, and so was hers.

“I promise I won’t let you down, sir,” Amy said.

She turned and strode out of his office. She was just outside the door when she heard Holt say, “She knows she doesn’t have to call me ‘sir,’ right?”

“I don’t think so,” said Terry.

+++

Jake was pleased for Amy that her conversation about dating a cop had gone over so well with her bosses. It clearly helped ease her mind to have their blessing – or at least their not-firing – and that was great, he wanted her to be as relaxed and stress-free and not-guilty as possible when it came to being with him.

But there was no universe in which he was planning to similarly come out to the Vulture, or just about anyone else in the NYPD. He’d probably tell Rosa at some point – maybe, eventually; most likely after she figured it out on her own and forced it out of him – and it wasn’t like he expected to sneak around with Amy for the foreseeable future. He just would rather keep it between them (and Amy’s bosses) for the moment.

He was still in awe that there even was a them.

Jake knew he didn’t have much of a tolerance for wide-swinging emotions. In fact, his grasp on his own emotional health was at times staggeringly bad. He did a decent job keeping his feelings under control day to day – denial and compartmentalization were his go-to coping mechanisms and he excelled at both (thanks, Roger Peralta) – but when strong emotions hit, they hit hard.

Once, during a department-mandated therapy session after a lengthy undercover stint, a counselor had told Jake that he’d benefit from developing a toolbox of decompressing strategies for when things got rough. For some reason Jake had found the suggestion hilarious, imagining a literal toolbox filled with hammers and wrenches and pliers. When he’d mentioned it to Rosa, she’d said that bashing things with tools was exactly what she did when she was angry – that or glass-blowing – and Jake had actually bought a toolbox online that day. It was currently collecting dust in the back of his sneaker closet.

So yeah, he wasn’t great with emotions. And the past few days had involved a dizzying array of them. After the depressing lows that had followed their first kiss, the pure elation of their second kiss had been almost overwhelming. Jake had felt lighter and happier the next day than he could ever remember. He’d also felt exhausted, though it was a satisfied, dreamy, peaceful kind of fatigue.

They’d seen each other again that night, and every night after for the rest of the week, and though they’d had sex they hadn’t actually slept together again. They’d ordered takeout and turned on a movie and basically made out (and more) on his or her sofa until one of them yawned and they agreed it was late and they both had to get up early. It was kind of perfect.

Amy was kind of perfect.

But by Friday Jake had decided they needed a proper date, and so he chose a restaurant and made a reservation and texted Amy that he’d pick her up at 7. Then he and Rosa got called to a dead body, and a suspect in an unrelated robbery case they’d been working for two weeks had literally tripped over their crime scene, and by 6 Jake was covered in blood and subway muck and still had a report to finish. He texted Amy to tell her he’d meet her at the restaurant.

Which was how he arrived at their first official date almost half an hour late, hair still damp from the shower, fumbling the knot of his necktie as he pushed through the crowded foyer to the host station.

“What happened to your face?” Amy said, when he got to her side.

“What?”

Amy brushed her fingers over her own cheek and Jake did the same, wincing when he touched the small cut. “Oh, that.”

The host came then and glared a lot, but he took them to a table despite Jake’s tardiness. It was an intimate restaurant, quiet and dark with small tables clustered close together. The host handed them menus with a sneer that Jake had to believe was not in the employee handbook.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jake said, once they were seated.

Amy smiled back at him and shrugged. “I get the feeling it’s something I’m going to get used to.”

“You look nice,” he said. “I like the dress.”

“It’s not a dress, it’s a skirt and blouse,” Amy said, and then grimaced. “But, thank you. You look nice too. I’ve never seen you in a tie before.”

Jake ducked his head and ran a hand self-consciously over the wrinkled necktie. He’d only had time for about a two-minute shower at the precinct before coming straight to the restaurant. He was just lucky he always kept a spare tie and a semi-clean shirt shoved in the back of his desk for emergency court dates.

“So what happened today?” Amy gestured again to his face.

“It’s actually an insane story.”

“Wait!” Amy said, holding up a hand. “Like, the kind of insane I’d want to write an article about? Or insane like, your job is disgusting and/or hilarious but not fit for print?”

“Definitely the latter,” Jake said.

“Go on, then.” Amy leaned toward him, resting her chin in her hand.

“So Rosa and I got called to a dead body on the subway tracks near Bergen. But when we get there, the dead body’s actually a dog, and it’s been turned inside-out. Like, nose to tail. And the smell-”

Jake paused because Amy was shooting him a wide-eyed warning glare and darting her eyes back and forth. He looked to either side and saw that their dining neighbors were staring at him with looks of utter horror. The woman to his left set her utensils on the table and shoved her plate away.

“Uh, I’ll tell you the rest later,” Jake said.

“I think that would be best.”

They exchanged embarrassed smiles, and Jake said, “Well, what about you? How was your day?”

“Pretty good, actually,” Amy said. “It’s nice being back on the regular police beat after all that time on the jail story. Like today, I got to do this story on a severed head-”

“Oh! The one they found in the fish tank?”

“Yes!” Amy said. “You know about that case? It’s so crazy.”

“So crazy!” Jake said. “You should see the photos.”

Jake was reaching for his cell phone in his jacket pocket when he spotted the same lady on his left staring at him with murder in her eyes. He glanced back at Amy, who was getting the same death glare from a different diner.

“Maybe later,” Amy said weakly.

They turned to their menus then, each fairly mortified. After they’d ordered, Jake grasped for a more appropriate topic, and finally asked Amy to tell him more about some of her coworkers.

“I’m always going on about the Vulture,” he said. “What’s your boss like?”

“Oh god, nothing like Pembroke,” Amy said. “Terry, he’s my regular editor, he’s really gentle and supportive but he knows how to get the best out of you. And Holt is incredible. He’s so smart and ethical and detail-oriented, and he has impeccable news judgment. He’s the most impressive man I’ve ever met.”

“So, what you’re saying is I should be jealous of your editor.” Jake smirked at her.

Amy turned red and said, “No! He’s great but he’s not- I mean, I love Holt, but I’m not in love with him.”

Jake fully laughed, and it occurred to him that his maybe-girlfriend was not exactly suave and that he maybe found that adorable.

Amy waited out his laughter with only a mild look of annoyance, then asked Jake to tell her more about Rosa. “Police partnerships must be so intense. I bet you know everything about each other.”

“I know her first and last name and that she lives somewhere in Brooklyn,” Jake said. He hesitated and thought that over. “Probably.”

“Oh,” Amy said, face falling. The waiter arrived then with their dinner salads, and Amy leaned toward him and said, in a low voice, “Jake, are we bad at this?”

He didn’t respond right away. Things were undeniably weird. And he supposed some of that was to be expected, given that they’d always had a kind of invisible barrier between them when they’d met in public – a professional line they couldn’t cross. He snapped his fingers then, startling Amy into dropping her fork.

“I’ve got it,” he said. “I think things were easy before because we were always surrounded by all your notes and binders, and they were like, I don’t know, a fortress keeping out the weird.”

“Okay,” Amy said, slowly. “So you need me to bring binders next time? Because I can do that.”

“No,” Jake said, shaking his head. “Not binders – liquor.”

“What?”

“Conversation grease,” he said, lifting a hand to get their waiter’s attention. “Four shots of-” He glanced at Amy, who shrugged. “Your medium-est shelf whiskey.”

+++

They stumbled back to Amy’s place from the restaurant, both of them a pleasant sort of tipsy that was warm and giggly and affectionate, Jake’s arm slung around Amy’s shoulders, her fingers tucked into the back of his belt. When she let them inside, Jake backed her into the wall beside her front door and kissed her, clumsy and teasing. She fisted his tie in one hand to pull him closer and felt him smile against her lips.

“You,” she said, tipping her head back to speak, “are an amazing detective.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. “I know,” he said, “but maybe be more specific?”

“The way you figured out why things were weird and then fixed it,” Amy said, and she cupped a hand over the back of his neck and pulled him toward her again, lips brushing against his. “That was brilliant.”

“Dear lord, you are good at this,” Jake said.

Then they stopped talking for a while. Jake took her hand and led them back to her bedroom, where he gently pushed her onto the bed and sprawled out beside her, and they undressed each other slowly and had sex on top of the bedspread, their bodies illuminated by the light coming from the hallway and the streetlamps outside her windows. After, Jake pulled the quilt she kept folded at the end of the bed up over them, and they laid facing each other, arms tucked under their heads.

“You never told me where you got this,” Amy said, brushing her fingertips against the shallow cut on his cheek.

He wrapped his hand around hers and kissed her fingers, one at a time, before answering.

“This robbery suspect Rosa and I had been looking for, he showed up at the dog-body crime scene, like out of nowhere. I think he was just going to get the train. He freaked out when he saw us and took off down the subway tracks, we pursued, and when I took him down we sort of scuffled and I guess he got in a hit or two.” Jake shrugged. “I didn’t even know he’d hit me until we got back on the platform and Rosa said something. I was way more focused on the fact that I was covered in subway slime.”

Amy shuddered at the thought. “I hope you’re up to date on your vaccines. I bet you can get diseases you’ve never even heard of from subway slime.”

“Or, if you want to look on the bright side, maybe I could become a slime monster. Oh! Like the Swamp Thing, only the Subway Thing.” Jake paused, a faraway look in his eyes. “That’d be so dope.”

“Didn’t you ever think it was lame that the Swamp Thing was just a ‘thing,’” Amy said. “Like, they couldn’t come up with a better description?”

“I had never thought that before, but I love the way your mind works,” Jake said. Amy smiled, and he smiled back and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

They grew quiet, and Jake traced patterns across her shoulder and down her arm with his fingers, whorls and lines that made her shiver. Amy studied his face and marveled at the closeness they seemed to have developed, despite knowing not a lot about one another.

Amy had been in relationships, two or three serious ones, but they’d always just fizzled out, whatever small spark that got them started snuffed at the smallest huff of irritation. What Amy felt for Jake, after only knowing him for a few weeks, already seemed more vibrant, more durable.

“Did I ever tell you my dad was a cop?” Amy said, soft in the darkness.

Jake’s fingers paused on her skin, and he laid his palm flat on her shoulder instead. “No, you’ve never mentioned him.”

“He retired a few years ago. Victor Santiago.”

Jake’s eyes went wide, and his hand squeezed around her bicep. “Captain Victor Santiago? He’s your dad?”

Amy beamed and nodded. “You know him?”

“I know of him. He’s a legend, Amy,” Jake said. “Oh wait, wow, so Manny and Jesus are your brothers?”

“They’re cops too, yes,” Amy said. “And Tony.”

“Yeah, Tony. He’s kind of a dick.” Jake grimaced. “Sorry.”

“No, don’t be. He is a dick.”

Jake chuckled, and shook his head slowly. “Wow, I can’t believe you’re one of those Santiagos. It never even occurred to me.”

“I guess there’s a lot we don’t know about each other,” Amy said.

Jake caught her eye, and he moved his hand to the back of her head and pulled her toward him, his mouth close enough that she could feel his warm breath on her lips.

“Tell me everything,” he said.

Amy kissed him, hard enough to leave him breathless. “Later,” she said, and rolled on top of him.

CHAPTER 9

[dreamingwaves]

Runaway AU stuff

So first off, a few quick points:

Mari is being tracked down by her Father. The man is basically keeping tabs on her via the Dreamworld, Mari knows this and tries her best to sleep as little as possible. If she does absolutely need to rest, she’ll try to make it a quick rest and not long enough to shift into Dreaming.

Mari noticed that not a lot of people will stop and ask if she’s lost or alone if she just stays close enough to an adult. This works better with couples and those who share the same features(Brown hair, brown eyes, ext) as her. She’s learned not to stay too close to them, however. Just close enough so other’s won’t bother her. 

Mari’s main mission/goal is to find and regroup with Lac. Mari knows better than to try and leave a trail for Lac to follow, so instead Lac will create a ‘Guiding Star’ for Mari to follow. 

If Lac is no longer within the current World/Verse, the star will fade along with him. Mari will then be forced to try and find the star again by ‘traveling’ to another Verse/World until she finds them again using her powers. 

Mari’s Father isn’t the only one she has to look out for. They hide in plain sight, but it’s little things that stand out that helps her to tell them apart from others. Their limbs are too long, their smiles have too many teeth, their shadows take a split second too long to follow. There’s plenty of different ways, but all go unnoticed to an uncaring eye. Not hers though, neither Lac’s.

Mari’s powers works differently in the Waking World. She has to take precaution, or else she’ll endanger more than just her or Lac’s lives. Depending on the stress/anxiety of her situation, she could lull someone into a comma without even linking to their Dreams. 

In the Waking world, Mari can have Nightmares come to life, lay others into an unbreakable Dream, rearrange memories, even take them! She doesn’t want to do any of this, of course she doesn’t. But being thrown into a chaotic and unpredictable situation has put nothing but stress on herself and her powers. She wasn’t even aware of half the things she’s experiencing. She used to believe her powers were kind and gentle, but now... what have they done to her? Or, was she always like this? To be able to do these... things?

Her Dreaming abilities will always tire her out more if used in the Waking world. I mean, it is called Dreaming. Out of all of them, World hunting/phasing takes the most out of her.

Every now and then, Mari will find others who are kindhearted, others who truly wish to protect her, to care for her. But she knows better than to stay in one spot too long. They’ll find her and if Their words won’t work on them, They’ll hurt and hunt them too. 

For every person Mari has left behind, she compels herself to take their memories of her as well. For the ones she knows will search high and low for her, who’ll ask every and anyone if they’d seen her. She doesn’t want a repeat of her first few mistakes. It’s something small... something that wouldn’t impact their lives. They wouldn’t miss her, they wouldn’t be hurt. It’s for the best. 

Lac is different, and will refuse help from any adult. He’ll, begrudgingly, tag along if he sees he has no choice but will be gone by the time morning comes. He always tries to be as far away from others as possible.

Mari doesn’t believe all adults are as bad as Lac now believes but, she understands it’s for what’s best. It’s harder to tell, harder to see. Liars and Cruel beings everywhere, no matter the World they always remain. It’s best to be hidden. 

She is still with them. She’s fading, but She love Her shining Flower too much. Lost in body, here in spirit. She’s worried, even in this stat. She wants to help, She will help. Her Brave Flower,Her Bright Star. Please, let Herself be strong enough!