#so much extra work and money and for what

[ms-demeanor]

Kids, we know how interest works, right? A while back I made a post about how credit card interest can screw you, but we know how interest can be good for you too, right?

I suspect we don't know about this because on one of the posts I made about it someone said something about how it is evil that money can make money, but you know that's not just for the ultrawealthy, right? That is legitimately something that you can and should take advantage of in some kind of retirement/savings/investment account.

Let us say that you are twenty years old, have no money to put into a savings account, but have a job that pays you well enough that you've got twenty dollars to spare from each paycheck.

Let us say that you put that into a normal savings account; normal savings accounts have an average interest rate of .56 APY. Let us say you are going to be working until you are sixty, and that you will add forty dollars to that account every month (twenty bucks from each paycheck) for a total of $480 per year.

At the end of 40 years you would have about $21.5k.

That's a pretty good chunk of change! twenty thousand dollars is a lifechanging amount of money. But look at the total interest. In forty years you would have accrued only $2300 in interest.

Now, instead, let us imagine that you are a member of a credit union that offers you a free, high-yield savings account with a decent APY. Everything else being the same, but putting that money in an account with a 4% return does this:

Your total contributions that you put in stay the same, but the amount of money you have at the end of forty years more than doubles.

Let's say you have a thousand dollars to put in the account at the beginning and run it again.

Low interest account: you add $1000 at the start and have an extra $1200 at the end.

High interest account: you add $1000 at the start and have an extra $4000 at the end.

There are many, many very stable opportunities for savings that will grow your money. Fifty thousand dollars isn't a retirement plan, but it's a hell of a lot better than what you would have if you just stuck cash in a savings account or if you didn't save any money at all.

I know how hard it can be to save. I know it feels impossible to put money aside, but even if you start with no money and can tuck away five dollars a week you can get a LOT out of that five dollars a week.

This certainly isn't "you can't buy a house because you get coffee at the cafe," but it something that can HELP.

Now, let's suppose you're not twenty. Let's suppose you're in my boat, and you're (almost) forty and you're going to be saving for twenty years. You still don't have a lot of cash, but you know it has less time to grow interest, so you double your contribution and you put in forty dollars for each paycheck for a total of $960 a year.

That is extremely very much not the same thing as putting in forty bucks a month for twenty years. Instead of your interest being nearly one and a half times the amount of your contributions, it is around half.

If you are a young person (honestly even if you are not a young person) and it is in any way possible for you to start putting money into any kind of an investment account, you should do so as soon as humanly possible. The earlier you do it, the more interest you will have and the more money you will end up with when you are nearing retirement age.

This is how individual retirement plans work. This is what a 401K does, but sometimes it does that with matching contributions from your employer (so your employer matches whatever you put into the account up to a certain percentage of your pay). 401K accounts also often have higher APYs than high yield savings accounts, though they have more limitations on how and when the money can be pulled out.

If you are broke as fuck and never learned anything about investing or interest from your family because your family was broke as fuck too, now is the time to learn. r/PersonalFinance is a reasonable resource (and if you ever happen to have a windfall that's the first place I would point you for figuring out how to make the most of it) for learning about this stuff.

Thinking about money sucks! Being afraid you'll never be able to retire sucks! Having to figure out how to save sucks! But there are tools out there that even very fucking broke people can use to make that suck less.

[glitterdustcyclops]

i was watching a youtube video pointing out that several of the current influencers making it big in tradwifery are former only fans models, and she was saying how weird that was

but to me it makes perfect sense. why wouldn't someone who is an expert (and absolutely no shade to the concept of sex work here) at playing into a paying customer's fantasies to make their coin look at The Current State of Things and see a niche what needs filling (lol) and decide to set up shop?

it's so much easier (relatively) making tradwife grift content for a target audience of horny conservative men with a chip on their shoulder about the things that have been taken from them than it is playing demonetization roulette with predatory platforms that take ever increasing fees. and you've got the extra allure of "i was a bad girl but now i'm Reformed for you daddy." easy money right?

it's so clearly fetish content, and tbh i would have at least a little bit more respect for that if we could be honest about it, but no

Kinda gotta admire the tiktok instagram cottagecore tradwife hoes a little bit.

Like. THEY know that the perfect pretty obedient natural-makeup gently-coiffed rural June Cleaver, barefoot-and-pregnant in a sweet little peasant dress, baking fresh bread24-7 housewife doesn't exist.

They KNOW she doesn't exist. They know she CAN'T exist- that nobody can maintain that façade without burning out eventually-

but they also know that the political divide between men and women is deeper than ever in North America, that men as a demographic are getting increasingly angry and conservative and lonely (fuck off terfs and radfems i can sense your bioessentialism coming), and that women aren't legally beholden to them anymore.

This is one of the first generations in North America where women aren't entirely reliant on finding a husband and keeping him happy to survive, to hold a bank account or live apart from their parents, and so what men are dealing with is several hundred years of being told that REAL men have hot fuckable agreeable wives and...a present reality where nobody is lining up to apply for that position.

So what these shills have done- and they ARE shills- is that they've seen that divide, that niche that isn't being filled, that role that's so unpleasant but so desired- and they've constructed a caricature for profit.

Women aren't naturally more gentle, or parental, or submissive. Women aren't naturally, effortlessly smooth and soft and hairless and desiring of simple tasks to fill their time and a big, strong provider to protect them.

But generations of marketing and media have told us it's POSSIBLE, if not for those pesky man-hating feminist libs and their oversensitive woke culture lashing out at Normal Folks for no good reason.

Like- they're selling themselves, the characters they're playing, as an IMAGE, as a FANTASY, and they rely on people BELIEVING in that fantasy to keep the money rolling in.

The people who buy into it sincerely, the women who give up their degrees and careers and financial freedom for this "simple, peaceful life" we ALL desire in some form, away from stress and technology and horrible things on the news... only to get trapped with six children and a partner with all the power who could up and strand them at any moment... they're just collateral.

Like, "Shame it didn't work out for you, have you tried losing weight and trying harder? Maybe some extra Adult Time? He wouldn't have to chase someone younger and prettier if you'd just take care of yourself and put out more."

I on't hate this faux-humble faux-simple wannabe-amish bullshit just because I grew up rural and know it's fucking stupid, hard work and blood and shit and cow piss and placement in the rain kinda crap.

I ALSO hate it because these women are straight-up class traitors, selling off not just their own image as people, but everyone else's, just to make some paper on a grift.

You know Marie Antoinette used to wear sweet little milkmaid-style dresses and play with lambs in the field, just like the poors?

Never mind that she OWNED the land, and the field, and the people, the cute little frocks, and didn't help the sheep birth, or bury the dead premies, or slaughter for meat, or fight off wolves and dogs, ferrets and foxes and rats with a stick in the winter.

It was just fashionable to pretend.

Sweet and coquettish and Quaint.

THAT is why I hate that shit, and THAT is why I give a fuck.

[mawlbone]

FINDERS KEEPERS - NIKTO

SNIPPET: You know what everyone says about stranger danger but you didn’t had really had the heart to leave someone, even if they looked like they can easily kill you on the bathroom floor alone, drunk, and heated.

[CW: gn reader, alpha reader, civilian reader, disabled noseblind reader, depressed reader, omega nikto, whiny nikto, dubcon (kinda, it’s the worst meet-cute in history), stalking, kidnapping, and no penetrative sex, dry humping, and messy licking and kissing]

[COMMENT: Ramble style fic. Spawned out between me and oomf’s thoughts when chewing on the man so have Nikto who is desperate for comfort.]

Going to the bar alone after work for your birthday wasn’t really the most idealistic of plans that you had set out for yourself as a kid. Well, no one really but getting drunk before your day-off seemed like the only way you can enjoy such an occasion with the bit of extra cash in your pocket.

But it’s that’s just fun money, not change-your-life-around money. You never have enough to escape the “bad part of town” as the locals called it. Between getting kicked out from the house at eighteen and paying off the never-ending piles of bills at your door — you never really had the opportunity or time to go further your education. It doesn’t help that you can’t even pick up social cues anymore after a bad fall robbed your ability to smell pheromones causing you to fired from your previous jobs because you couldn’t keep or understand a client’s temperate as they filed a complaint towards you. You learned to stock up on scent patches.

Sure, working at the local corner store now had given you enough money to pay for your crummy apartment — if you skip a night or two of dinner which you don’t mind necessarily. It’s not your neighbor’s fault that your savings kept depleting because the shitty landlord keeps raising the rent knowing her residents consists a single mother with kids, disabled elders, and some recovering addicts trying to get their life back together. All whom are too all working within a tight budget to survive. You avoid their guilty gazes every month when you give them an extra twenty or so to make their ends meets so they don’t get kicked out. They’re decent folks, really. People like them don’t deserve to be on the streets.

So here you are, nursing a cheap beer in your hand watching the people among the chaos of the room. The air is hot and dry with the crowd of bodies stuffed into the building amongst the low lights of the room as they mingled on the dance floor.

From your stool, you can truly take in the tackiness as the disco balls swing around flashing everyone in high saturation as the music vibrates your eardrums with enough bass to rattle your brains out. You think you are starting to regret coming in the first place as nurse a cheap beer in your hand. Like really, what bright idea did you had earlier thinking you can enjoy a night out in the club knowing you’re broke, lonely and exhausted from moving boxes. You tilted your head staring down waiting and wishing to go home already But it’s your birthday so you should be up past midnight trying to party with everyone else like all the normal people do during such an occasion.

It’s strange of how much you are coming to hate being in this room right now.

Despite all the liveliness sweaty bodies rubbing against you, the smell of strong liquor burns your nose and the sounds of glass clinking around — your headache continues to grows worse…

Maybe that was the signal for you to realize how fucking pathetic you are standing here like a dunce waiting for something fortune to happen to you. Perhaps you really should had stayed at home instead and avoid all these stuffiness inside your chest but something had piqued your ear from among the noise, something about some bastard in heat passed out in the bathroom.

Poor guy…

You didn’t know exactly compelled you to go find him. Perhaps it was part pity and part curiosity that got you wandering past the sea of people to go look for him, you’re not sure…

Whatever it was, alas for this terrible birthday you can finally escape the crowd.

—

Nikto can only lay in disbelief as another person toe by his body, unfazed as another person simply toe by him, but he can only let out another sad whimper as another cramp twist his guts out.

Laying on the sticky tiles of the bar’s bathroom for hours on end isn’t exactly the most ideal way to entice someone to fuck him but he’s desperate — and everything hurts. So he can only squirm around as another spurt of slick dribble down his thigh annoying everyone at the stench. However, no passerby dare complain seeing the amount of muscles on the man as they tip toe around his body ignoring the small sob escaping from the man’s lips as they fling themselves back into the party.

Months prior before all of this, he had an appointment with his doctor who forbade him from taking anymore suppressants pills saying any more will damage his body something to which he had scoffed at. What more damage can one do to him at this point? His body is marred with scars and he has a file as thick as a dictionary, but all of that never stopped him from fulfilling his duties as a living weapon.

So why is it is that’s he’s here in a drunken stupor with enough liquor in his system to kill a man waiting — hoping for some stranger to take advantage of him.

He didn’t meant to get so wasted, just enough where he’ll forget about being pumped and dumped to ease this pain temporarily. But here? Only the hell of hot alcohol and a shitty cycle is here to torment him.

Fuck! Is he really that ugly that no one would even try to touch him? Do they too see him beyond repair? He already knows nothing about him screams dainty and cute so why does he even try at this point?

Another set of chills cuts through his thoughts before he can continue as he hisses at the pain racking through his head just barely hearing another round of footsteps come close to the bathroom before his vision fades into black.

God, a kiss sounds so good right now.

—

You didn’t know exactly what type of person you were expecting when you step inside the dimly lit bathroom — but seeing a giant of a man wasn’t definitely one of them that everyone failed to mention while you were snooping around. Yeah… Definitely ex-military or something with those scars and face mask as you leaned down to observe the corpse — for a lack of a better word. Stone still and dripping with sweat, he definitely look like he seen better days if anything as you turned him over, grimacing slightly at how sweaty he had become based from the dampness of his jacket against your hand. Whatever, at least he’s breathing much to your relief not knowing what to do with a dead body. With your luck nowadays, hell, maybe even charged with murder.

But here you are now, your interest sated for the night but still left feeling unfulfilled as you poke the muscular form.

Even with your condition, you’re not that dumb to not notice the stranger is in heat. What terrible timing, you think as you looked at him almost like a feral creature if anything with how red his face is as he pants away. Why hasn’t no one picked him up yet? Did he came alone? You can only wonder as you moved closer, frowning slightly at the stench of alcohol on his breath. Against the sickly pale yellow lights, he kinda reminded you of those helpless little strays that wander about your apartment funny enough, you don’t know why but maybe it’s the situation that’s making you feel a bit nostalgic today at the pitifulness of it all.

Musing, you considered with yourself… You don’t exactly have plans tomorrow and you can use up your paid leave if worst comes to worst.

You held in that small note of sadness inside your heart when no one tried to stop you as you lugged the man through the crowd and out the bar. Really, no one should be out like this, no matter who you are even if you’re freakishly tall and scary looking. Still, couldn’t anyone had the decency to sit him up against a wall or something so he’s doesn’t chock on his vomit or settle him down one of the bar’s couches? If you get killed later for inviting some weirdo into your home — well at least you don’t have to worry about going back to work again as you sigh, solemnly making a very slow walk back home down the cold streets.

Why does he have to be so heavy…

—

You didn’t had the nicest things to go comfort an omega during a heat but you piled whatever you had onto the living room floor and dragged him there, still knocked out thankfully enough as you went around fluffing and softening your hard floor with your blankets and pillows.

He’s actually quite adorable for the most part if anything, kinda like a sad dog if anything. As soon as you rolled him into the thing, immediately he was all smiles and purrs as you moved him around trying to clean away the sweat and dried slick all over his body with a spare towel as you removed his dirtied clothes. If anything, he was too complacent letting you move him around like a rag doll in the nest without any sort of struggle, though his kisses are a bit distracting if you can even call them that.

All teeth and spit, you can barely comprehend what he was doing with all the alcohol and heat stirring up his mind as you constantly push his head away so you can continue cleaning him up. But he’s lovely despite all the scars, if anything it’s a bit charming. But maybe that’s just the pathetic part of your brain talking wishing for someone to love you this easily as he curls his body around you for warmth.

Sometimes you’ll wake up to him crying in a fit at you, just nipping at your ears annoyingly all because you had to crawl away for a few moments and give him some painkillers for his aches and feeding him with whatever left you had in your fridge so he don’t starve. Thank goodness to whoever made for takeout a thing. Some words you can make out from his sobs is how they constantly want you to touch them, small demands of them wanting your body touching them in any sort of way so they know you won’t leave them whenever you’re held in the nest with him.

You don’t mind, if anything you enjoy being relied on as he chirps whenever you kiss down his scarred body absolutely soaking in all the attention because no, you’re not going to fuck the guy while he’s drunk and in heat but this is the only way to settle him down enough to stop asking you due to his delirium and drink some water. The last thing you want is him passing out because you were neglectful in your care. Though him ripping off your scent patches with your teeth was enough to stun you long enough to where he basically crushed you underneath his weight just nuzzling away at your nape and huffing at it like an addict. Why? Because he got fussy every time you said “no” to claiming him every hour or so while baring his neck. Can’t you see how sweetly he’s presenting for you? How good of an omega he will be for you?

It had been a week since he had stayed in your apartment, and for today you have to deal with him whining at you to do it anything only to be constantly denied. It quite easy to ignore his requests with your problems since you don’t really get ruts anymore because of your problem which he doesn’t seem to understand every time you try to tell him as he paws at your waistband grumbling seeing how soft you still are. He’ll even be a brat and start grinding onto the various blankets or against your leg trying to tempt you into fucking him as he presents himself letting the slick dribble down his legs only for you to go start cleaning him up again.

Fortunately for Nikto, you had caused an accident by holding his nape a little too firmly one day in order to calm him down so he can eat but maybe nails was a bit similar to teeth with nails as before you know it, he released a puddle onto your freshly laced towels and promptly passed out with nothing more than a squeeze. You felt guilty about it but the man can only hum happily just enjoying the rush of excitement jittering though his nerves as he trembles enjoying the break from the pain racking through his muscles as he cries at you to call his name and praise him as if he was yours.

Yeah, you are definitely in it for the long run as you rub your hand over his choppy hair, simply too amused at this too big silly omega trying to squeeze onto your lap for more cuddles during aftercare saying something about how they demand you to squeeze him hard against your chest.

Your heart did broke however when you woke up to him missing without any trace of a note left anywhere for you to read. But is it still strange how you don’t seem bothered by this new presence following you home every night and walking home knowing your apartment had been broken into with your clothes and blankets disappearing every so often only to be returned back with a demand for you to wear them again something you had laughed at. Maybe because you know it’s him at the end of the day being a brat.

Hell, you even splurged a bit on ingredients to cook for the man as everytime you leave a plate at your table, you’ll eventually find it empty with a small note full of his little comments and critique on some scraped pieces of paper.

What a weirdo. A lovable weirdo at that.

—

There’s not many things that surprise Nikto at this age but waking up in someone’s home was the last thing he could had expected from his stunt at the bar as the last lingers of heat faded away, he never knew it was possible to stuff this many pillows and blankets in a nest but hadn’t complained as he shifted his body around absolutely purring away at the smell of an alpha surrounding him just doing big stretches around the mountains of comforts and too rubbed his scent all over the softness around him.

Forgive him, he was a bit stupid from heat so it took him an embarrassing amount of time before he realized he can feel the cushion against his cheek. Like a bullet, quickly he run his hand over his face only to realize the lack of weight over it as he groaned into the fuzzy blanket.

Okay… so this person already saw his face and didn’t him out, he figured.

He ignored the slight flutter in his chest as he rubbed at his cheeks unable to take in the shame of this situation as he tried to recollect his memories lost within the heights of his hear. Distantly he can remember waking in and out of conscious to the sensations of someone feeding him, wiping his sweat away, and tucking and cuddling him as he whines at them to come fuck him only to be hushed at much to his frustrations at you.

You must like him enough to do all of this for, right? Even letting him continuously come into your life knowing he’s there and feeding and supplying him with your clothes. That’s courtship, no?

So who’s to say you should be surprised when you found yourself gagged and tied up in his basement cuddled in his nest after coming home late one day bruised from being mugged late because he got tired of you overworking yourself for your neighbors and being endangered.

You may had been the one to find him but he’s keeping you all to himself.

[lilacxquartz]

Those Late Summer Nights | Chapter 22

satoru gojo x f!reader x suguru geto

summary: suguru takes matters into his own hands with getting you back, while shoko means to deceive him. in the meanwhile, you struggle to get through another day.

masterlist • ao3 • chapter directory • < previous chapter • next chapter >

22. Sweet Lies

In the meanwhile, somewhere far, far away from your cold and barren prison—Suguru Geto had since then settled off into something different, something new—but ultimately something that he had believed in.

It wasn’t his first choice to start up what was effectively a cult, but it got the job done in accomplishing what he wanted to achieve; to further his own ends no matter what it took, no matter who it hurt. In the end, it was all about keeping his found family safe, which meant he made an extra effort to look out for his girls and you… wherever it was that you were.

Everything that had left up to this point in time had been the answer all along, it just took a while to get there, that was all. To have given up everything else behind in favour of fixing the world of its flaws—to right the corruption of its wrongs—to better shape the world into his vision, rather than to remain living in one that didn’t understand him.

Nor you.

Speaking of. Your disappearance bothered him greatly, ever since you just straight up left without a single hint of a warning, leaving him to backlash some choice words onto you, shifting the blame incorrectly on you when it wasn’t your fault from the start. Maybe he shouldn’t have been that way when you left. You were so… broken after that time. Of course you had an influence in leaving. Had Shoko nor Utahime plotted to interfere, then all would have still been fine.

Otherwise, he had been quick to bury himself in his work, feeding pretty little lies to the non-sorcerers he had cultivated under the misleading promise of exorcising the sources of all their troubles. A simple job, really. Those non-sorcerers had no idea what it meant otherwise to see beyond their own basic perception, unintentionally blind to the harsh reality that inhabited their very core. Suguru collected and harvested and digested all of those things; robbing just the regular sort of people of their money, their dignity, their… worth, all the while they worshipped him as something close to a false god—something that he strangely detested—loathed, even.

Maybe it would have been better if you were there because out of all of the people he had ever met in his life, there wasn’t anyone both quite as calming or infuriating at the same time as you. Indeed, you left behind a hunger of sorts, like a deep yearning that gnawed away at the back of his mind. Something empty, like a persistent ache that wouldn’t leave him the hell alone. That was how he felt both with your company and without it, at least, leading him to believe that you must have been some sort of curse in your own right.

(Because why else was he so obsessed with you, otherwise, when nobody else, not even his two best friends could get below his skin quite like you could? Surely it wasn’t just passing limerence, especially since he couldn’t get you out of his head, no matter how much he tried.)

Suguru knew also, that from the moment that you had disappeared, that it was an inside job. He knew it from the context clues scattered around the vicinity, from the way that Shoko skittishly plotted right before him and how Utahime helped cover up, that the two must have been against him for a while. He planned to get you back of course, but then there was a shift in the air. Like an instinct. A bad feeling—a sixth sense beyond his control. You weren’t just hidden anymore, he felt it that night as clearly as he could feel his own heartbeat, that something awful had happened instead.

He called Shoko that week, after avoiding doing so for a good, long while. He wasn’t sure what he was even hoping to get out of it and was in fact certain that she would hang up on him from the moment she heard his voice, but she didn’t. Perhaps the stagnant silence that fell upon the very few words exchanged should have been the first warning. From the moment he asked those few little words, “are you ready to explain?”, with a shuddering breath that was sharply uttered, but nothing else beyond that point.

To have called the feeling dread would have been an understatement.

Suguru remembered it clearly; the conversation refusing to leave his mind. How Shoko couldn’t give him a clear answer, at least not anymore. All she did manage to give, however, was a hastily thought out, vague excuse about how you needed to go even further away for a while, the excuse switching between many jittering ums and ahs, with repeated hushing whispers in the background of the call, likely panicking in addition to Utahime.

Such an explanation of course made absolutely zero sense to him, at least knowing you. The hesitation in her voice gave her away immediately and just the way she seemed hell-bent on dancing around the full truth had given it all away before he had made the conscious point to internally accuse her. The truth was being covered up, but it was very unlikely that even she knew, where exactly it was that you were from the moment he called.

Suguru could always tell when something was up, after all. He was perceptive, much more so than he allowed others to understand, and kept very vague tabs on everything else, it was especially suspicious to him when Shoko left for Kyoto to pursue something with Utahime instead. He caught some sort of wind about a falling out between her and Satoru, so if he had to guess it, she had the very same sort of suspicion as he did—but zero evidence.

The trio as a result, was in complete and utter shambles and perhaps wrongfully, a part of him blamed you for that—maybe even, for all of it—because before you, the three were an impenetrable force.

From the very second that you arrived, however, it all began to fall apart.

Satoru for one, became much more reckless, adopting a possessive streak that not even Suguru himself knew was possible within him while Shoko, on the other hand, grew more distant. He wasn’t entirely sure why she became so obsessed in her own right, quite literally tearing herself apart in an attempt to ‘save’ you while also keeping herself afloat. Everything got damaged as a result and Suguru couldn’t help but feel that you were at the very least, partially responsible.

You had to have been.

Then again, maybe it was always meant to be this way, whether you came along or not. Perhaps all of this—everything that had happened so far—was proof that their so-called sacred bond was flawed right from the very beginning, because, if a single person, if you, could come between them all with such catastrophic consequences… then maybe it was all fragile from the start.

Still, of course, the thought of you being potentially tucked away somewhere with Satoru stirred away at something unsavoury, leaving him feeling continuously restless and erratic, barely holding onto the idea that the one good part of his life was just gone in a flash. After all that time spent with you throughout the summer, he firmly believed that you were properly his—and that also, he didn’t share—not even with his friend. The fact alone that Satoru was in fact, very likely, to be the one responsible for your true disappearance had filled him with a constant, simmering rage that threatened to boil over time and time again.

However, Suguru did suppose that now that he was in a better place—for the most part, anyway—that he could at least think clearer. The crushing weight of having to pretend to care about the ordinary people of the world was a responsibility long gone and he strove to commit himself to the long-term ideals of the cause instead, even if he did plan on doing so with you at his side, even if it did feel wrong without you there with him.

It was infuriating in a sense because he promised you that he would both protect you and take care of you. That was his vow to you when things still made a sliver of sense. When the times were just… simpler, and now that he had his own little world under his control, the past still managed to eat away at him, leaving him wondering what could have been.

Fucking Satoru. You’d be safer with him, not with the six-eyes user, who he was certain was on every type of hit list, considering just how many enemies were within jujutsu society. Satoru very likely didn’t treat you right either and he was certain that you were surely miserable wherever it was that he was keeping you, quite possibly keeping you locked up like a restless bird fluttering around in a gilded cage. Had you been with him, however, then things would have been different, he was sure of it. He wouldn’t have kept you restrained in the shadows and he certainly wouldn’t feed you with the mere scraps of life. You would have been the part of something bigger than the both of you, but something ultimately real. He would have taken care of you in the ways that he could—that he owed to you—he could guide you and maybe even own you (in all of the ways that mattered anyway).

(Completely oblivious to the idea that you perhaps wouldn’t have wanted that at all.)

Oh, no, no.

This couldn’t go on. At least not for very long, because once again, you were his and his alone, not Satoru’s and certainly not anyone else’s.

It wasn’t just about reuniting the lost pieces of your life either, but rather fixing what had been broken in between all of them. Circling back to his point from before, he supposed that while you didn’t destroy the trio directly, you must have done something in between the seams, threading it apart until it couldn’t be held together anymore. You were like the catalyst—the unseen reason as to why it all fell apart—but if he had you right now and here with him, then he could begin to mend that fracture and reshape things to how they were supposed to be.

Suguru fixed himself a smile, although it harboured zero warmth. It was sharp, cutting through all sense of reason, lacing a little bit of manic hunger within it. He would come for you, rescue you, and then reclaim you.

This time, however, Satoru would be wise not to stand in his way. As for Shoko… she will have a chance to redeem herself and hopefully make the right choice.

The two of them and you would understand given enough time, at least when the storm had passed, because if he could bring you back, to where you were supposed to be, then everything would make sense again in the world.

After all, he promised to take care of you forever, right?

He had to stay true to that much, at least.

(Even if it meant having to hurt you in the process first.)

~~~

You laid with Satoru on the sofa throughout the better course of the night as he slept on and off, as he ran his hands up and down your body, focusing on the feel of you right in his arms, where he so longingly kept you, so perfectly imprisoned.

You laid still albeit tensely so as his large hand smoothed over your hair and down your shoulder to the very far end of your wrist, each stroke feeling like a subtle jab of mockery—as if he did so not to comfort you—but to taunt you instead. His touch, while it radiated heat, left no traces of the warmth you otherwise craved.

“You’re so good for me, you know that, right?” Satoru spoke up, his words falling onto your ears like molten honey, dripping, oozing hot and almost scalding. You hated it when he was being condescending to you, but it never stopped him. “You’ve done so well for me, not a single outburst during our time together… I’m actually, kind of… I want to say, proud of you?”

Proud? Proud? The word alone almost felt empty, especially when he knew fully well that you weren’t reacting so much because you were feeling extra broken at that time. You could hear it in his ever-frustrated tone of voice when he begged for you to moan against him while he pounded into you, letting nothing slip except for pained whines and breathless cries—yet never once betraying any sort of pleasure derived from his touch. You kept up with him for one reason and one reason alone—for survival—never once did you give in to him for any semblance of approval, but you couldn’t tell him that. You didn’t want to find out what would happen if you let him know too much about how you really feel. You wanted to live, after all. Not that you feared that he would do such a terrible thing, but… you thought you knew him just a season ago, and now look at where you were.

“I don’t know why you sometimes make it so hard on yourself sometimes, though,” Satoru continued, pulling you up to lay closer against him, draping his arm around your waist, “I told you from the start, right? If you just… cooperate, then this doesn’t have to be so difficult. I want this to be good for you, alright? I want to help you… what do you call it…? Reintegrate back into a normal life?”

To that, you couldn’t help but react. “Normal? What could you possibly mean?”

His breath was warm against your ear, his voice sounding ripe with something akin to a deceptive promise, sly, almost plotting, “Yeah, normal,” he whispered out in a murmur before returning to his regular tone, “but only as mine, though, that’s the ‘kicker’, I guess,” he revealed, wrapping his arm around you just a little tighter as if to emphasise on that point.

“Ah,” you sighed, “this again…”

“Is it that bad to hear me out for once?” Satoru whined almost, his voice adopting a sulky edge. “It wouldn’t be so bad, you know. At most, you’d have to study all about my family lineage, since that’s the only thing that my family really cares about if you’re not from a major clan yourself.”

“Wow,” you sarcastically replied, biting back wherever you could, so as long as you were certain that it would mean no consequence, “how noble of you for wanting me as your commoner lover.”

His voice dipped slightly lower, sounding both possessive almost, but also insulted, “Hey, it’s not like they expect that much from me. They already know that I’m insufferable. They would probably consider it a miracle that I found a sorcerer who has a half-decent technique to begin with,” he explained, his hold on you tightening some more, “but that’s just because what love is like for people in that sort of life—a duty at most,” he then half laughed, half scoffed at the thought, “but you? You would be the exception. My exception.”

His words left you feeling a little uncomfortable with how described it and the tone that he used, hinting at a potentially dangerous devotion that led him to be with you in this way in the first place. He tilted your chin back, forcing you to look up at his icy blue eyes, staring down at you with an intense glare. “I think that sounds ‘romantic’ enough, don’t you?”

“If it was actually mutual, then sure…” you dared reply.

“It’ll be mutual with time,” he sighed instead, letting go of you for a brief moment before reeling you back in, as if regretting taking his hands off of you, even for a moment. “You’ll be my kind of… trophy wife, the one that everyone envies, but not just because you’re a pretty face, but because you would have broken into the corrupt system.”

“You’re starting to sound like someone we both know,” you replied, finding that all this talk about sticking it to the man, the corrupt system in place, even if it was just petty family politics, to be oddly similar to Suguru, who led you down an equally dark road.

Satoru’s intense expression warped into a slight frown, both understanding exactly who you were talking about and not being happy about it in the slightest. “Don’t. Don’t talk about him. Not here.”

You felt your stomach churn, feeling the weight of his threat as something potentially dangerous strained to break free. You knew better than to push him further than you realistically should, fearing the consequences of your rebellious mind, knowing that technically, you should be giving in and trying to get out through that route, but it was just humiliating. You would rather retain your dignity which was why you were still trapped in this hellscape and not smiling, looking all dolled up by his side on the surface.

The thought made you sick if you were honest. That wasn’t who you were. You wanted to above all, still remain true to yourself.

So instead, you forced a nod out, the motion was almost mechanical, but it got the point across. “I won’t do that again,” you confirmed in a blank murmur, surrendering to his demand—backing down before his insecurities had a chance to fester and boil and spill where they shouldn’t. You only ever brought up Suguru when Satoru was being too much of a handful, but you were doing it too much lately. You wanted to hurt him for stealing you away, so that’s why. Perhaps you should stop for both of your sakes though, because just a couple of hours ago, you were almost starting to believe that you missed him.

“Good girl,” he sighed as he at last relaxed once more, pressing a soft kiss against your forehead. Satoru did so as a hopeful soothing gesture, but it once again only served to echo his imprisonment. It was silent in the real world, but your ears hallucinated the sound of shackles tightening against your wrists. His love was a curse—confining—suffocating. “Keep this up and maybe one day, we’ll be doing all sorts of lovey-dovey things. Imagine it. Local walks around all sorts of pretty places as I treat you to the best sweets that the country has to offer.”

You didn’t reply, instead letting the silence grow heavier between you both, until finally, he dropped his promising smile and let out an almost, lonely, dejected sigh. Satoru brought up his wrist to glance at the time before shuffling away from you, leaving you still lying down on the sofa once more. “I’ve gotta go, I guess. Duty calls. They always need me,” he tried to boast, flaunting his importance, “but I’ll be back like always,” he promised, “and again, please, move around a bit, even slightly. I can’t have you growing ill down here, wasting away into nothingness.”

He then stood up, draping a blanket over your unmoving form and tucking your head underneath a pillow, trying to not let your broken self bother him too much, mentally trying to convince himself that this was all part of the process and that soon, you’d give in and see this all in a different light.

“You’ll stay good for me, right?” he called out as the stairs lowered down.

You, however, did not reply.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he murmured as he walked up and just like that, he was gone. The only way out to the surface sealed up once again, leaving you alone in the sleek modern cell he tried so desperately to call your new home. The emptiness he left behind was somehow just as suffocating as his presence—a faint reminder that you could never truly be comfortable ever again.

Not if you remained here, that was.

You curled yourself up into a ball, pushing your knees up to your chest and squeezing them tight as if trying to will yourself to disappear. You hated him and the taunting promise of his words that he dangled in front of you, knowing fully well what his interpretation of freedom had truly meant.

All you could do was lay there, to go against his words and to hopefully… waste away, waiting for the promise of tomorrow to come as if something would be different that time, for a life that wasn’t even your own anymore.

~~~

Giving into a curiosity that weighed heavily on his mind, Suguru sighed as he brought up Shoko’s number from yet another new phone, beginning to feel like he was some sort of stalker or clingy ex. Which he was, he supposed, but not for her. He gripped the phone tight, muttering curses to himself the longer that she didn’t pick it up, knowing fully well that she always had that thing on her.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, however, she at last picked up. “Hello…?”

“It’s me,” Suguru replied right away, stopping her before she had the chance to even hang up, “keep the call running, don’t shut me out.”

Shoko wearily sighed, as if exhausted by these exchanges by now, “As I keep telling you, I have no idea where she is.”

“Yeah, how about then if I do?” he quipped back, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor as he spoke, letting his tongue sit in between his teeth while letting the implication hang in the air.

There was a pause and then a deep exhale, although it felt shallow—the faint hiss of smoke escaping her lips, hinting that she must have been smoking. “Let me guess, you think she’s at Sat—” she cut herself off, feeling disgusted almost from having his name in her mouth, “Gojo’s?”

“So you do have an idea, huh?” Suguru teased, trying to go back to something that felt casual with his old good friend, yet failing to do so just yet. She felt cold somehow, even if she was just a voice in the palm of his hand.

“I just don’t want any part of it,” she admitted in a low murmur, “you’ve both caused so much fucking trouble.”

Suguru considered his next words carefully, trying to get her to take on the burden of the blame. He wouldn’t be wrong in doing so, considering your initial disappearance was her own doing. “You’re already part of this, Sho. You can’t deny that you’re involved, at least indirectly. We all are.”

“Alright, let’s say I am,” she entertained, sounding bitter, “how do you propose that we even begin to un-fuck the situation we’ve all created?”

“Because he’s only the strongest, he’s good at most things, but even he’s capable of breaking just like everyone else is… given enough pressure, that is,” Suguru hinted.

Shoko paused again, considering his words for a moment. It all hurt. So much. “Alright, but… why should I even help you? After what you’ve done.”

Suguru sighed, not bothering to hide his frustration from her on the phone. “Think of it not as doing something for me, but rather helping the friend you could still have.”

“Yeah? And then what?” she scoffed back, sharpening her voice, not quite believing him just yet. “You drag her back into your life and create a whole new mess? Do you really think that she wants to be with you, after everything you’ve put her through?”

His grip on the phone tightened as Shoko continued to insult him but he kept his voice controlled as he tried to respond, “Look, I don’t… expect you to understand, I just… want to know if you want to help me get our friend back or not.”

Shoko dragged at her cigarette and sighed over the speaker—he could almost picture her leaning back at whatever wall she was lined up against—that tired, heavy look on her face. “Let’s say that I do help you,” she said carefully after some time, “what’s your plan?”

“I just need you to get some information for me, like a confirmation that he actually does have her,” Suguru replied, realising that his plan was perhaps a bit loosely built without any form of stability, “I’ll handle the rest.”

“Yeah? Of course, you will,” she sarcastically shot back, “you’re just blindly assuming that he’s even keeping somewhere even remotely accessible. What if we go through the effort of finding all that out, only to be met with a dead end?”

“Then I’ll find a way,” he snapped back, his voice echoing a chilling certainty before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down, “but, I need you to make the first move. I need you to talk to him. He won’t talk to me, but he still might with you,” he urged, hoping that the fall out he heard of before wasn’t related, that she was still on relatively okay terms, at least.

“Right,” she deadpanned, “you think he won’t see through me right away?” she almost mocked him, adopting a cheery, uncharacteristically cheerful voice as she put on a show, “oh, hello, Satoru, my good friend! I’ve missed you so much, long time–no see! So, have you heard any news about that girl we got to know over the summer?”

“Shoko,” Suguru whined, his voice softening to an almost pleading tone, “I wouldn’t ask something so ridiculous if I had a better plan.”

She sighed heavily again, almost feeling breathless from the amount of times she had to do so during this whole call. “No, Suguru, I’m not doing that, but… there might be someone who can help us both out.”

“You’re kidding?” he asked before pausing for a moment, trying to desperately think. “...Who? Surely not Kento, he might find him to be an annoyance, but I think he’s a bit too… you know? Passive?”

“I didn’t say Kento, now did I?” she dismissed his idea. “God, let me talk for one second. I’m talking about Yuki. It seems honestly so crazy now that I’m thinking it out loud, but… let’s get some things clear here. She’s an oddball, meaning she does things unconventionally to begin with. Sa—Gojo, would not expect her because of her suspicious ways in and out of the country to avoid being detected by jujutsu society to begin with, and third, she’s perhaps not as powerful as him, but she’s still pretty fucking strong.”

“And she’ll what, break her out?” Suguru almost scoffed.

“Maybe?” Shoko shrugged. “She’s got her own set of morals, so she wouldn’t even care if it’s something to do with fucking over the guy–hell, she’d probably even do it just to mess with him. Either way, if your goal is to throw him off, then you’re going to need the most outside, yet somehow inside influence you can get and that’s someone we all know.”

“You… might be right,” Suguru reconsidered, settling on the idea more and more—it sure beat his shoddy concept of a plan. “Let’s just… focus on getting her out for now, the rest can come later.”

“Right,” Shoko scoffed, hanging up on him before she revealed something that she intended to fully keep secret. Yuki would be informed of the plan, that much was for certain, but if she did get you out, then she was sending you right back with Yuki—out of Japan—out of both of their reach—and hopefully, by some miracle, she could even land them both behind bars.

Her friends be damned, they chose their paths and now, to make things right, she would work with Suguru as a temporary sort of truce, and finally make things right.

Not for her sake, but for yours, because after everything, she owed you that much.

[palaceofpassion]

Any fun developments in householdarc au?

What do other teams think of them having a caretaker? What do they think of Jaune?

Has Jaune made any friends at Beacon?

"So." Weiss pointed at the screen in front of her, "I was doing research on the schools forums. And apparently there was a topic about our caretaker." She muttered, being ever the nosy one, always looking to make new contacts, and more connections, she had gone out of her way to advertise assistances she could provided... only to find out, that apparently Jaune was the talk of the town, or well school.

"Really? That's... odd, why would they talk about Jaune?" Pyrrha, wasn't exactly interested in technology, beyond what it could do for her huntress career at least... so she wasn't exactly an expert when it came to finding information on the schools website.

"Well, apparently, its more of a rant thread? Or a discussion on why we even have someone assisting us, when others don't." Weiss couldn't exactly put it into words, "It started as that, anyways... but then it just came down to their opinions of him, and some of them are a little... very grotesque."

She pulled away from the screen, as two pairs of green eyes, and two pairs, including her own, of blue eyes scanned the computer.

"What... that's..." May was baffled, her one good eye blinking as she stared at a couple of lines that caught her attention.

CardnRIz: Bet he sniffs their clothing, probably a HUGE pervert.

BerretQNE: Projecting much? He's alright, though those kids are lucky, wish I had someone to do all my chores for me, must be nice.

Bunny4U: Coco... you don't do any of the chores as it is... he's alright, I think? Has anyone actually seen him much around campus?

PinknSweet: OH OH I have! Rennie and I were in the cafeteria for third lunch, and he was there taking notes from the cafe ladies and checking ingredients! Rennie does that ALL The time! So they started doing it together.

Yangnbang: Think he's shagging any of em? Wonder if the Ice Queen's putting out~ Though, considering how tiny their group is, he probably prefers the big and tall type. Both have loosened up lately, so maybe they're getting some dick.

cookieLuvaer: EEWW Yang! That's disgusting! And I dunno. Seems kind of weird to have someone always working for you.

BacknBlack: Hmm... a love triangle... no no! A love pentagon, all from different social backgrounds... I can see it. Perhaps there is plenty of sneaking behind the others back in this case.

BerretQNE: My money's on one of the silent short stacks. Bet they get extra freaky-

"Okay, I think that's enough Weiss!" Jessica quickly used her semblance to press the power button- "Hey!"- It was clear to Jess, that things were getting out of hand, "That was... all very vulgar. And wrong."

She shuffled around nervously, while May said nothing, her cheeks simply flushed red. Her eye darting back and forth in a spout of confusion and embarrassment.

"Right... so, I think the problem is, that he doesn't talk to anyone... we have to get him to make friends. Or these rumors are going to keep getting worse."

Pyrrha nodded, yes... friends. That was something she needed to do as well, but she supposed Weiss was right. "But he doesn't... really go out much, does he? I think he's friends with Ren from RRBY... But that's it."

Weiss chewed upon her bottom lip, unsure of even that. Not like she'd know how to make friends...

Actually, all four of them were bad at it, now that they thought about it.

[hellinhawkins]

need to know if we’re all in agreement that it’s mike because I’m seeing doubt posts

[skunkes]

I'm curious, why not get a job to move out? Ik most jobs sound miserable but there are some out there that don't need experience and can be tolerable, especially part time

I saw this ask before I fell asleep and was thinking of a response so hard that I dreamed about job hunting LOL

Anyway, that's kinda happening rn! Im working on resume and my friend who lives in my target city (being near her wld help both of us out a lot) is helping me look for listings... it's just the same little issues so far while we look though of course, which is either "manageable, or even Dream office job with very low pay" or "kinda higher Okay Pay job, but id have to be in charge of an entire country and work 16 hour days including weekends (10 yrs of experience + Master's required)."

[rebouks]

Courtney discussed quitting her job with Oscar since he clearly can't handle everything at home by himself and get his work done at the same time. He wasn't sure it was the greatest idea right now but she's convinced it's for the best and impulsively called her boss whilst making dinner. It's fiiiine, she'll be able to keep on top of the kids and the house, which leaves him to focus on getting better and eventually making some money again...

Oscar: I just don't th-... Courtney: Shut up and eat my shitty spaget-.. and you better get used to it too. Oscar: Okay...

[loving-jack-kelly]

it is Extremely funny that the whole watcher thing just ended after one weekend of people being like hey this was poorly thought out and a terrible idea. lmao. cringe fail financial decision.

[cuntwrap--supreme]

Dog has a swollen lymph node. Just one for now. Which means her cancer is getting worse already. The longer this goes on, the more detached I feel from reality.

[icewindandboringhorror]

Recent ones of these even though they all look the same lol.. forcing myself to document progress..

[swag-system]

THEYRE SENDING MY ASS TO THE GAS STATION TO DO CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!!!! GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!! HELP!!!!!!!!

[deoidesign]

hi, I remembered about the ask about the vampire abilities (time travel, walking in the sun, compulsion) and I need to ask, what are the werewolf abilities?

and Steve own abilities since he can become a giant werebat and being the most convincing conman

Hi there!

So, werewolves can shapeshift into canines of course. But they also heal faster than humans, are stronger than humans, and they have a generally better sense of smell and hearing!

I also like to think they can see in the dark pretty well, too.

Steve specifically has... Well, his stuff is kind of messy. Werewolves and their relation to the moon and its cycle combined with vampires relationship to time led him to being unable to control his time travel, and instead it's forced around the cycle of the moon. This sort of goes with everything. He doesn't need blood to do things, but the werebat is insatiably hungry. It's extremely powerful, but uncontrollable. He doesn't need permission to enter a residence, but he also is incapable of compelling people.

The sort of thematic representation of this is all about his general place in the story as someone who has absolutely no choice, and that frustration of your agency being taken from you.

Him being a 'convincing conman' is a survival tactic, to be honest. It can make the difference between eating and not. With his only real benefit from all this supernatural upheaval being heightened senses, he's just become really observational and is able to read a room and adapt to it immediately. It's about the only thing that's kept him alive, besides the werebat... so really, it's the only thing that's kept the werebat out.

Some of this is admittedly getting into spoiler territory, though, but I do intend to canonize some things! I'm happy to delve more into the specifics once it's happened :)

[guinevereslancelot]

i bought an oven yesterday 😐

[bi-buck-coded]

Having a second job is nice, having extra income and a job where i get to actually socialize with my coworkers is nice. Until i have to go in with a migraine and be a Customer Service Girlie for 4.5 hours. And this is after completing 8 hours of my primary job where i had to stare at screens all day with said migraine. Like i dont regret having a second job, i just wish they gave me more hours on the regular bc right now if i call out sick i only get 10 hours this week which is barely anything

[the-casbah-way]

can they please just give me testosterone why do i have to wait ages and get blood tests and pay literally the entirety of my life savings and then some please just give me the juice please i’m going to off myself