#social media has been very exhausting recently

[spiderispunk]

The thing that annoys me about this safety pin/blue bracelet movement is that it’s the same performative activism that happened in 2020. The mentality that lead to posting a black square and quite literally nothing else. I check a box and say “I’m not racist. I voted for Kamala.” When in actuality it does little to nothing to dismantle white supremacy, the very thing that got us here in the first place.

Why do you as a white woman feel the need to signal to strangers in public that you’re not like them? Shouldn’t that be apparent from the way you walk and talk? If you’re active in your community and in those spaces where oppression looms the most then people will know you’re “safe.” I promise no minority gives a shit who you voted for when they’re in public. Why not instead do the work of calling out white supremacy when you see it? Having those difficult conversations with your family members and friends. Calling shit out when you hear it and see it around. “I tried! It’s falling on deaf ears. It’s exhausting.” Imagine having that same conversation over and over and over again for centuries. What would the world be like if activists stopped having conversations because people wouldn’t listen? If it were easy everyone would do it. Stand up. Use your voice and get active in your community. Examine yourself, your bias, your privilege and begin the hard work of actually dismantling white supremacist ideology in your brain and community. And do it again. And again. And again.

[lilacstro]

pac: what big thing is coming next for you and when

on the suggestions of @darkbragance I would be making this post.

choose from 2 piles, idk why 2 and not 3 but yeah, choose as you like :)

paid readings open !

pile1 pile2

support me on ko-fi :)

⭐decks used: spirit speaks tarot, poesis oracle and vessel oracle for energy check

Pile 1

Energy check:

Did some of you travel to your childhood home or thought about it recently? Seems so. Some of you have been working on finding balance and structure in life I feel. Some of you could be overwhelmed with how tiring your life is, especially at home I feel. Maybe there is a responsibility on you all to always serve and be ready to give, to manage problems and give people structure either at your home or maybe even at your workplace. Some of you could also be tired of being stuck at home, finding work-life balance or wanting to travel somewhere that is not happening. Some of you could also be travelling back in time, thinking about the past a lot, especially childhood nostalgia. Did some of you like collecting stones or crystals as a child? Color green is coming through, an emerald crystal. There seems to be the thought of wanting to go back because the situation currently feels painful. There is a desire to go back in time, to travel somewhere mentally and physically and get out of this exhausting cycle. There is desire to escape and avoid pain. Some of you could be dreaming about your childhood home, children or even past memories, liking very old, as if digging the grave. There is a feeling of loneliness. Good luck babe is constantly playing in my head, maybe it is relevant to someone here? Special focus on "You'd have to stop the world just to stop the feeling" and this is what I have been feeling in this group. Someone here is distracted and definitely needs a wakeup call.

If this sounds like you, this is your pile<3

Main messages:

Someone here is definitely feeling isolated, or they have distanced themselves from other people, but they will find meaning in isolation. Someone here could be feeling frustrated, lashing out on small things. Ok so instead of writing a paragraph I would list out all the things I see happening! You may see what resonates with your situation :)

If you were willing to start a project or taking some kind of brave action (even if it is just a simple confession of love for example, or maybe going back to school because too much time has passed etc.) but was afraid of starting for whatever reason, you would get strength to start and take action!

if someone was wanting to travel somewhere, move somewhere, study abroad, travel abroad and if money became a problem, or maybe your father or some authority figure, say visa services became problem, you would be fine and would be able to travel regardless

If someone has been working hard to get some award, achievement or rank, especially globally, it could be happening!

If someone was willing to work with people all over the world, especially in regards to money, maybe working on a worldwide freelancing site or maybe even social media to get foreign customers to get money, that could also be happening :)

If someone felt hopeless about a situation, especially regarding finances, maybe lost money even for some of you, you guys would be able to recover the money and get the money arranged. Someone could be offering you money I feel :)

If someone was wishing to get stability especially in regards to their home and family, or maybe seek approval of a father or authority figure in family for something, they could be getting approval for what they've been wanting.

There is a happy ending to all the situations above :)

Expected Timeline:

This is happening very very soon, you could also be receiving some kind of communication too, especially. If we talk about particular date, we have November 23 - December 2 or 8 weeks of a time.

I hope it resonated, take care xoxo

Pile 2

Energy check:

This feels like a rather hopeful, accepting energy, both in a happy and a sad way, as if you are hopeful but at the same time you have accepted the current circumstances. There is not a turbulence like pile 1. I am hearing "its just the way life goes, I push my luck it shows" from Gracie Abram's song I love you, I'm sorry. There is a fresh energy here, a very good chance to grow and evolve, you are growing and changing and I may rather say, blooming. Someone here may like spring or sitting in the sun in winters, it may feel healing. You guys have absolutely not given up, there is a silent rebel kind of energy, you know it is not over and that you will rise back up again, but for now you are not mad and turbulent about it, but rather calm and peaceful and accepting, as if, "what worse can even happen, its fine" There is a lot of wisdom you are gaining currently that would helping you for the fresh start of your journey you would be preparing. I am seeing you would be ready to take a leap and go seek what it is that you want. But for now, it is important to let your emotions out and grieve, even if it means that you will lose your composure. I am constantly seeing the message that says "it gets better". If you were wanting something to happen, know you'd have many choices, either it can be done some other way you do not know yet, or maybe people would help you or you find better things, so many that you can literally choose from them. Keep your heads up:) it would be fine I promise :) Seeking out support with people you love is a good idea for now, and if you are alone, I would suggest joining support groups or maybe creating an account that just follows motivational, uplifting content, but you need to open yourself, there is a possibility to find help between people. If this sounds like you, congrats this is your pile :) Keep your heads up princess by Anson Seabra is playing in my head especially the line,

"Yeah, keep your head up princess, it's a long road And the path leads right to where they won't go I know it hurts right now but you don't got far to go So keep your head up Yeah, keep your head up"

Main messages:

I feel some of you could be grieving a loss of something falling down, and maybe you just let it fall altogether before picking it back up once again. Maybe you held onto something that you are letting go, releasing for now.

If any of you were stuck onto something in life, especially mentally, you would be able to find your answers, find balance and finally move ahead in life

There is a mental clarity that may come on why did something not work out for you. Someone may also get clearer decision making skills on their current choices, and may also find contentment in their current choices and how to find a way to move on with current options

Some of you could be calming down the chaos by finally being able to get control and authority, either it may be mental conflict or conflict with someone else, especially people who you may work with is one thing I see

If someone was trying to manifest a love offer, to find a new romantic partner that seems to be happening !

if someone was looking to start a new creative project, a passion project that they wanted to start for a long time, that seems to be happening too!

Some of you could be breaking out of cycles of substance abuse or maybe something toxic in your life, breaking free from falling back into some kind of addiction, breaking free from spiraling and that can be any sabotaging habit

One intuitive message I am getting is the ground is fertile, whatever you sow, you would equally gain back, what I mean is whatever is it you are wanting to do right now, putting your efforts into, your fruits and flowers would blossom. It would reap you rewards, whatever it is that you are working for, a relationship, healing, money etc.

Some of you could also be getting out of depression or a depressed mental state after a long time, spring after the winter is what I am hearing

you could also be getting clarity or news about someone or something that troubled you in the past, some truth about why did it not work out

many options would be available to something that stressed you out mentally, a job, college, relationship, you name it, you would be able to chose rather being stuck with a single option. Wait, I think I did something in the energy check as well, interesting!

someone could also be getting into their dream school or travel somewhere for education is one other thing I see.

Expected Timeline:

As long as you are taking fearless action is one thing I see. Apart from that Fixed sign season (Leo, Aquarius, Scorpio, Taurus), Sagittarius Season/Capricorn Season, November, 1 month from now, 11 weeks from now or quite unexpectedly are the messages that I see, There is definitely an element of divine timing here, and your actions and both of them seem to influence each other. Damn that is a lot of timings.

thank you for reading, have a good day :)

[cheriladycl01]

Request

Max Verstappen x American Fem Red Bull Driver

Max is in love with her and wants a chance to make her happy, but she can't forget her ex-boyfriend, with whom she has an on-and-off relationship. Her ex-boyfriend is not a total stranger. Joe Burrow, one of the main players of the current generation of American football, in which he plays as quarterback for the Cincinatti Bengals, has known Y/N since childhood, as they are both from the state of Ohio, he is also very passionate about her and tries to make the relationship continue at a distance, as she lives in Monaco. Y/N needs to make a decision about who will occupy the space in her heart. P.S: I don't know anything about American football, but one day a Joe Burrow edit appeared on TikTok and I fell in love with it. This is not to mention anything related to American football, just to mention that Burrow also wants to fight Max for her heart.

Take my heart and do as you want - Max Verstappen x RedBullDriver! Reader x Joe Burrow

Plot: You are a RedBull driver with one of the most notable relationships on the grid due to it's on and off nature. After a really rocky patch, they are currently broken up and she starts to see her team-mate in a different light.

You'd had the best season of your life after being promoted to RedBull. But that came with it being an insanely busy season, more exhausting and more duties to attend to. When you were in the beta RB team it hadn't really mattered as you weren't as admired as a driver on the grid but now being in a top performing team there was definitely more media attention on you.

This really affected your relationship with your now ex-boyfriend Joe Burrow, you'd dated him when you were both in high school and continued that relationship on into your adult lives.

At first when you didn't have the money to move out of state because all your money, and all your parents money went on racing, which wasn't as cheap or easy a career path as it was for Joe getting into Football and being given scholarships for college.

You had to work tooth and nail for your place in the sport. But you and Joe recently had been struggling with, well just being together in general. You'd made the decision to move to Monaco it made sense as a lot of your colleagues and friends resided there and now that you were earning more from being in Red Bull, it meant that you benefited from the tax regime there.

But that move put a massive strain on your relationship with Joe, you'd know each other for years and were childhood sweethearts, so of course you tried long distance.

It was hard because it wasn't just long distance, you both had such busy schedules that finding just time to call each other was unlikely.

Eventually Joe called it quits over the phone, the very next day you crashed out when Charles Leclerc's brakes disconnected and he cut you off going into a turn.

Joe had text you straight away that he was flying out to come and see you and make sure you were okay.

Thus was the start of the post-relationship era into the weird era where nobody not even yourselves knew if you were together or not. You loved each other so much, you were each others first in everything and this is the man you thought you'd end up marrying one day.

To the media, you were in this weird on and off relationship. When your schedules linked up, you were seen together for days on end be that in a random country where you race was, a football stadium in America where you were cheering him on, or in your new home of Monaco. But when you weren't together or close to having to separate you'd be seen arguing and fighting. You'd once even gone as far as to an-add each other on socials when a video came out of Joe in a club where he looked pretty close and cosy with a girl.

You obviously knew you couldn't stop him from seeing other people, that would be insane but you would have liked confirmation that you guys were seeing other people. As that would have been your final straw to cut emotional tie's with Joe.

Joe was special to you, and you thought he always would be. There was part of you that would always love him, and there was part of him that would always love you. But it was hard to ever let go of that which is where this vicious back and forth cycle came from.

However, the most recent time you'd been in one of your off periods your team-mate Max who you'd known also from childhood, not as early on as Joe but from about age 13 when you were doing Karting had started acting differently towards you.

"Hey Y/N, I saw these and remembered you like them" he said on the first occasion handing you a box of chocolates that you only really would treat yourself to around Christmas.

"Hey Y/N, I brought you this last weekend because you won!" he exclaimed handing you a little Monaco flag on a keychain because you won your race there.

"Hey Y/N! Marko said you needed a drink, so i brought you that Gauva juice your trainer makes for you" he smiled handing you the glass while you were sat in the Red Bull hospitality watching your on board from FP1.

And it continued, random little acts and gifts. Max had always been rather affectionate to you even before you were team-mates, sending you small compliments and making extra efforts when he pulled your name out for secret Santa.

You also started to notice his sourness whenever Joe was around particularly when you guys were racing on home turf where all of your friends came from.

"Joe baby, can you grab my helmet for me?" you asked him politely as you struggled getting all your wispy bits of hair tucked fully into your balaclava. However, he was scrolling on his phone, not listening to the request at hand.

"Here you go, at least I listen... unlike some of us" Max frowned looking directly at Joe to see even if that would get a reaction form him, which it did.

"Oh I'm sorry love. It's so loud in these garages! Here let me put it on for you. You know I like doing that!" he smiles at you placing his phone in his pocket and looking towards you.

"Thank you for grabbing it Max!" you smile at your team-mate before handing it to Joe. He makes sure your braid is in the best position before slipping it onto your head and kissing the top of you helmet. He kept looking over at Max the whole time.

He'd always been a little suspicious of Max's intentions towards his girlfriend, even before the move to become his team-mate and now that they shared a garage it was ten times worse.

He was constantly worried he was loosing you and the more you focused on your sport the more you would be prey to Max's advances and he'd win you over which Joe didn't want at all.

Joe loved you and he always would which is what hurt so much about the distance created between you two.

"Good luck in the race baby. i love you so much and your gonna do great!" he smiles down at you.

You give him a hug before running off to the garage where they would roll your car out onto track ahead of the formation lap.

You won that race, you and Max had a tense race constantly taking over one another while defending together from Lando who was in P3 until the last two laps where you got the upper hand and pushed in front despite being on the older tires.

Come the next race weekend you and Joe had probably had one of your most spiteful arguments to date.

"No, because why is it always me making the travel?" he had asked you.

"Because you play in just America baby. I drive round the world and it fucks me up with all the time difference changes espeically if I'm doing the Middle East back to you or Australia back to you" you try to explain but you could tell he was getting more frustrated with everything yoy said.

"Look, I love you, and you know I do. But right now I feel like I'm the only one making the effort!" he sighs rubbing his head.

"How can you say that?" you gasped in horror thinking of all the things you had sacrificed to try and make this work.

"It's always me coming to see you, you're never home anymore. I see your parents more than you do. All our friends miss you but your out here playing happy driver?" he chides throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"You know The States haven't been my home in a while Joe. How dare you fucking say this when you're the one who gave up on us first! I fought for us but YOU said you couldn't do this distance. Then when it got to much you came crawling back begging for my forgiveness..." you said raising your voice.

"It's just not fair when I'm making all these sacrifices for you and I see nothing in return!" he exclaims looking at you as you stood up to go get a glass of water.

"How is it just you making sacrifices! I declined my first shot in a RedBull seat for you and they gave it to Checo! I'm lucky they asked me a second time to replace him! Not many other people would have had that offer. I send you money to help pay for the house because I chose to move out! I've left the race track without doing media duties so i can catch a 15 hour direct flight just to come see you, yet I don't do enough?" you yell at him.

"Y/N please let's not argue. You know I love you and I'd do anything for you, for us please!" he cries looking at you his eyes a little glassy from the argument.

"No! I've been so stressed these path months and you keep telling me, it's fine, its going to be fine, we're going to be fine, this bad patch will pass soon, when all i wanted was you to comfort me and hug me and tell me it's okay to feel that way not try and dismiss my feelings!" you scream at him and he looks at you in shock.

After that it was like something possessed both of you to say what you both hated about the other which when you looked at it after they were actually all the things you loved about him because they were what made him, well him the man you fell in love with.

However, it was such a bad breakup that Joe was once again spotted in a night club. He'd text you the next morning apologizing saying he didn't mean any of it and it was just all a really big mistake.

You'd spent the day crying in your drivers room before the start of FP1. You felt so alone and like you couldn't talk to anyone.

"Y/N?" you heard the soft Dutch accent ask from the other side of the door. You held your sobs in and waited until it sounded like Max had left before you let a jagged breath out.

"Y/N, let me come in" you hear Max as making you get up and unlock the little bolt on the door.

"Are you-" he asks before he can fully look at you. You go back to the sofa and curl up into the ball you were in before he got there.

"Oh Schat, come here" he says as he takes a seat next to you with his arms open.

"I don't know what to do!" you cried into him while he played with your hair and rubbed your back comfortingly.

"Why do you keep doing this to yourself" he sighs pulling your chin up and looking you in the eyes.

"What do you mean?" you ask cocking your head to the side.

"This on and off toxic, viscous circle with Joe. It's not healthy and you only ever make yourself upset" he sighs, pulling some hair behind your ear.

"I don't know..." you sigh, thinking about all of it.

"Maybe I can help" he smiles. In Max's mind this may be the only chance he gets to admit his feeling for you, to you. And he wasn't going to waste that opportunity no matter the potential out come.

He leaned in and pulled you in for a kiss, you kissed back shocked what was going on. And eventually molded into it until a voice in the back of you head reminded you of how much you loved Joe even if you were broken up.

"Max no s-stop!" you mumble as you push him back and when you look over your team-mate he looks heartbroken.

You sit there for a second, kissing Max was so different to kissing Joe. Kissing Joe was familiar and comforting and full of love and the kindness that was Joe Burrow. But kissing Max was passionate, impulsive and a different kind of affection. Something new. And you couldn't put your finger on why Max made you feel like that from something as simple as a kiss.

You wanted to try it again.

So you leaned in, pulling his jaw closer to you until your lips met and the kiss was aggressive and both of you were fighting for more power. Just like you did on track.

But again, you pulled away a little voice at the back of your mind telling you this isn't something you should be pursuing as Joe will come back and apologize for the argument. Just like he always did.

"I-I'm confused ..." you say tears welling in your eyes. As you look over at Max.

"You need to leave!" you say immediately pushing him out the room and locking the door.

You stood there, not knowing what you were feeling or what to even think.

The only thing on your mind is that you were hopelessly stuck in between two boys and your stuck feeling for one of them, whilst growing feeling for the other.

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc @mirrorball-6 @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @the-fem1n1ne-urge @21stcenturytaegi @dark-night-sky-99 @spideybv28 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle @kapsylia @laneyspaulding19 @lazybot @malynn @cassielikereading @viennakarma @teamnovalak @landosgirlxoxo @marie0v @jlb20416 @yourbane @teamnovalak @nikfigueiredo @fionaschicken @0picels0 @seomako @urdad-hot @formula1mount @tinydeskwriter @butterfly-lover @ironmaiden1313

[venture4treasure]

"Happy Birthday, Venture"

Words: 657

Premise: Venture’s birthday unfortunately overlapped an important Overwatch mission, but you do your best to make the best of it for them. 

Warnings: None

Three hours into a flight back to Gibraltar, and most of the agents have been lulled to sleep by the exhaustion of the mission aided by the gentle rumble of the plane engine. 

You slip into the empty seat besides Venture, they’re staring absent-mindedly out the window, head resting against their hand propped up on the tray table. They don’t make any acknowledgement of your presence. 

“Sloan,” you ask, your hand ghosting over their shoulder – unsure of if touch would startle them. 

They snap towards your voice, blinking a couple times to ground themselves before breathing out an exasperated groan. 

“Sorry, sorry,” they say, waving their hands for emphasis, “didn’t mean to ignore you, love”. 

“It’s fine,” you smile, reaching for a towel to wipe at some of the dirt on their face, “you didn’t wash up earlier?” 

“I was tired and thought I’d knock out instantly,” Venture leans back into their seat, “instead I’ve been thinking, getting into my own head about things”.

“Penny for your thoughts?” You hum. 

“It’s my birthday, I almost forgot with how busy everything has been,” Venture explains, “guess this whole ‘saving the world’ thing doesn’t come with vacation days”. 

“It’s also my first birthday away from family,” Venture adds, quieter, “like it was going to happen one day, but I really wish I were home with mi abuelita and not on this mission”.

Venture pauses, reflecting on what they’ve said. They make a face, sticking their tongue out as if spitting out something gross. 

“What am I saying,” they whine, “of course I want to protect the people and artifacts of Dorado, but…” 

You reach your arm across Venture’s neck, pulling them in for a hug. 

“No, I get it. We’re all so tired with everything recently,” you lean back, tracing their eye bags with your thumb – you can’t imagine how exhausted they are between Overwatch and the Wayfinders Society, it’s bad enough just trying to keep up with Overwatch alone these days. 

“Anyways,” you chirp, rummaging through your bag to take out a tupperware container. 

“Cupcakes,” you cheerily announce, “I wouldn’t forget your birthday”. 

Venture stares at you, at a loss for words. 

“How did you get them aboard?” 

“Who’s checking,” you ask back. Ana does, your mind helpfully supplies. But she all but encouraged you when you bashfully explained why, so that doesn’t count. 

Venture makes a noise, surrendering to your point. They pick up a cupcake, taking a bite.

“It’s good,” they lick their lips, “better than the rations on the plane for sure”. 

You agree, digging through your stuff again for a plastic bag that you haphazardly drop besides the cupcakes. 

“Rocks?” Venture asks, amused. 

You pick out one of the ‘rocks’ from the bag, breaking it in half to show them.

“Cake balls” you correct, popping the dessert in your mouth, “they’re really good, I got the recipe from Lena”.

“Lena cooks?” Venture raises a brow in disbelief, picking a cake ball for themselves. 

“No,” you laugh, “Emily does though, she's fantastic”.

The two or you eat in silence for some time, breaking the peace to show each other social media posts on your phones. 

“Oh,” you pull out a yellow slip of paper from your pocket, “I got this for you too”.

Venture takes the note, unfolding it to read its content. 

“A paid leave of absence…” Venture reads to themself, “from the Wayfinders Society and Overwatch?” 

“This isn’t real”. 

“It very much is,” you huff, “took forever to find who manages this kinda stuff for the Wayfinders, but Winston was happy to give you your well-deserved break”. 

Venture lets out a choked noise, catching you in a tight hug, shoving their face against your neck. You can feel them silently tear up. You hold them closer, running your hand comfortingly across their back. 

“Go enjoy a break with your abuelita,” you say.

“I will,” they assure, still clutching onto you.

“Happy birthday, Sloan”.  

Author’s Note: One (now a couple, oops) day late because I forgot until I saw a tweet about it.

[drdemonprince]

It wasn't the main topic of your most recent post on substack, so I'm sending this here. In passing you talk about left-leaning neurodivergent people on social media, and the guilt and fatigue that comes from the constant avalanche of causes and events being shared.

One thing that stands out to me is how much of what I see is people borrowing grief from the future. This is probably partially due to people wanting to show that they care about it. However I feel it's more than that, because underneath that there's something else. It feels very similar to the catastrophizing autistic people in particular can be prone to. You know, where you get so lost obsessing over a hypothetical possible outcome that you complete lose sight of all the things that have to happen for it to come to pass. Things that are often unlikely to begin with on their own, but combined even more so. And then this gets shared and fractally further catastrophized upon. All pulling grief from the future for things that may not even happen.

Seeing all that is so exhausting, as there's often little to no distinction between what's actually urgent in the here and now, and what's an emotional resonance cascade about what *might* happen (and any actual information to be able to judge it has been lost due to the game of Internet telephone, or was never there (ie. a twitter screengrab.) Sometimes disentangling that mess is possible, but it takes a lot of stress and energy, on top of the stress and energy seeing people upset about it in the first place.

My question is two-fold:

How do you (gently) tell people that what they're doing is counterproductive when just sharing anything without checking whether it's actually urgent, not misleading, not just spreading panic and needlessly borrowing grief from the future? Because with the exception of people you know *well* and even then, that feels like a fool's errand, even if you can avoid the toxic positivity vibes that people might get from you if you try.

Decide if social media is at all worth it. I personally don't follow "big" accounts, but even outside that it's all just so... the enjoyable and interesting parts where people talk about their stuff or share what they do or made feel like they're being snowed over by all the rest. I could quit it all, but that doesn't feel right. It's a tricky question because I feel the specter of the toxic positivity crowd sweeping anything difficult under the rug or disengaging to ~protect their mental~ looming over me. (Not to mention that all the IRL social events around me go through a dizzying array of social media sites, so complete disengagement isn't possible anyway.)

(Yes, I appreciate the irony of asking this on social media.) I'd appreciate any thoughts you might have on this.

Thanks for this all-too-relatable question, Anon! My thoughts:

How do you (gently) tell people that what they're doing is counterproductive when just sharing anything without checking whether it's actually urgent, not misleading, not just spreading panic and needlessly borrowing grief from the future? Because with the exception of people you know *well* and even then, that feels like a fool's errand, even if you can avoid the toxic positivity vibes that people might get from you if you try.

My answer is that you really don't. You can't convince someone to see the world your way or alter their behavior with your words. What you can do is take care of yourself and set an example with your behavior. By spending less time online digesting this bullshit, not involving yourself in petty,dissolve-on-your-tongue internet fights, not reacting when people send some dumb fuckshit to you, and surrounding yourself with more enriching sources of information and ways to connect, other people's online bullshit will bother you less, you'll see it less, and by virtue of contributing to it all less, you may slowly serve as a model for others who are looking to detach from it, too.

You can tell your close friends that you are spending less time online and trying to avoid alarmist bullshit, but not much good usually comes from engaging about it with anyone else. In fact, even posting a bad infographic in order to argue with it/disprove it only gives it more exposure, and some research on attitude change and persuasion finds that setting out to disprove a myth only leads to more people believing in it anyway. I did some laboratory studies on that back in the day. So I'd say it's usually better to just ignore/block/not read the BS.

2. (How do you) Decide if social media is at all worth it. I personally don't follow "big" accounts, but even outside that it's all just so… the enjoyable and interesting parts where people talk about their stuff or share what they do or made feel like they're being snowed over by all the rest. I could quit it all, but that doesn't feel right. It's a tricky question because I feel the specter of the toxic positivity crowd sweeping anything difficult under the rug or disengaging to ~protect their mental~ looming over me. (Not to mention that all the IRL social events around me go through a dizzying array of social media sites, so complete disengagement isn't possible anyway.)

I think my previous answer kind of alludes to the answer to this one. I find that I use social media less and less these days, because it does not help me professionally, socially, or emotionally very much at all. On the professional level, more social media usage does not translate to more readers or more interesting creative/collaborative opportunities. What does seem to pay off is speaking from true sincerity and passion, however often I am so moved, and then not engaging with bullshit in the aftermath of sharing it. So I post and ghost whenever I feel that I have something to say, never checking notifications/reactions/comments/etc for the most part.

Socially, social media use lately has been dismal for me. Seeing everyone's hot takes, bids for attention, trauma spirals, and petty fights makes me actively like humanity far less. And that's something I have already struggled with generally. I do not need to absorb every random person I've ever met's every random fleeting thought. It makes me socially anxious, far too worried about how people perceive me, and viciously judgement and hopeless myself. What social media IS useful for, socially, is finding events, as you've alluded to. So I do hop onto Instagram to check out my favorite party organizers, drag performers, mutual aid groups, trans beach day organizers, bars, etc to see what is going on. I don't do much beyond that these days.

Emotionally/psychologically, social media is stressful, alarmist, distracting, and occasionally informative and fun for me. Again your mileage may vary. My way of coping right now is to spend as little time on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook etc as possible, because very little of intellectual consequence happens there, and to selectively visit the specific tumblrs who put out posts that I like. I don't even scroll the feed. I have also replaced scrolling social media with reading Substacks and Medium articles and that has helped me a TON. I still get exposure to a wide array of humanity, including a lot of takes that I disagree with or find silly, but everything's a bit more measured and intentional and there's less fighting.

I do not know what will work for you, Anon, and I think for many of us this is an ongoing negotiation between competing needs. I consider saying fuck it and deleting everything pretty often. well, everything other than tumblr. I'm here to stay.

[trappedinafantasy37]

There is a trend that I've noticed amongst fandom spaces around games, and it isn't a trend that is unique to Baldur's Gate. I have seen it happen in my other fandom spaces like Fallout, Cyberpunk, Dragon Age, etc. But people have a habit of having very strong opinions about companions/characters that they do not know.

It is comical to watch the abject lies people create about companions and use them as justification to dislike said companion because they know they don't have a valid reason to do so. This isn't unique to Minthara, this happens to ALL companions (ironically, the funniest and most egregious lies I've ever heard actually aren't even about Minthara). It's just glaringly obvious when it comes to Minthara as she is the least recruited and most killed companion in the game and is thus the least known. So the lies and mischaracterizations pop up more often, and there is an abundance of them. And it gets exhausting having to constantly fight these lies all the time. Especially when so few people actually know her and thus there are few who are able to defend her.

I remember there was a poll a few months ago that overwhelming voted Minthara as the least loyal and most likely companion to cheat on you. To me, that just screams that the people who voted for her in that poll have never had a conversation with her outside the goblin camp. Minthara is the most loyal companion. That is not an opinion of mine. That is a fact. That is canon to the game. She is canonically your most loyal companion. And it's not that she's the least likely to cheat. She never will. Again, not an opinion. That is canon to the game. But this is information people don't know, because they've never spent a single moment getting to know her. This is a lie being spread about her that will be used as justification to dislike her and to justify not recruiting her or justify killing her.

I have also seen people admit that their opinions about her is formed solely on social media posts from YouTube, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, or Tumblr because they just can't stomach having her in their party. As ironic as this is going to sound, but your opinion about a character should never be based on social media alone. The people who do this are missing out on the context of that post and often fail to use it in comparison with the rest of the character (especially since there is a high risk of a social media post containing misinformation or just straight up lies). People will take this one snippet of a character, and use it as if that it is all that character is. Posts on social media, including mine, are meant to be supplementary to your experience of a companion, not the sole foundation.

When it comes to these social media posts, no two people are going to have the exact same interpretation, which may cause confusion for an outsider looking in. Even amongst us Minthara enjoyers, we do not always agree, and that is to be expected. We are all different people who have lived different lives and thus have different experiences informing our interpretations. Even amongst my mutuals we do not always agree, and that's normal. But at least we have taken the time to get to know her and come to our own conclusions and can understand how someone else came to a different one. My posts, or anyone else's, should not be your sole source of information about Minthara or any other characters. You still do need to form your own opinion and that can only be done by actually spending the time to get to know them.

Recently, one of my old posts in which I talked about the relationship with Minthara and Karlach has exploded again. And I see the tags that people are attaching to it. The game has been out for 10 months now. And it makes me sad that people still have the wrong opinion about Minthara. It makes me sad just how little people actually know about her. It makes me sad that people are only now going to go recruit her for the first time, even though the knock out exploit has been here for months. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that my post has changed the way people see Minthara and encouraged them to want to get to know her. But it breaks my heart that I have to use another companion to convince people to get to know Minthara, because to them, Minthara alone just isn't good enough. They have already made up their mind about her, even though they don't even know her.

People are allowed to have whatever opinions that they want. But don't get online and share those opinions about a character you don't even know to people who do. It's like highschool level petty nonsense where people would rather believe and spread rumors about a person, rather than getting to know the person themselves and forming their own opinion. And, no, I don't care if your opinion is a positive one because even positive opinions can be inaccurate and wrong if you don't know the character. Again, this isn't just about Minthara but all characters and companions. And I'm only scratching at the surface level here. This essay would be significantly longer if I actually took the time to talk about how implicit bias, racism, homophobia, and sexism have all had a negative impact on fandom perception of Minthara and the other companions.

I will never tell anyone to do anything with their game they don't want to do, I will only encourage people to try new things. If you truly do not want to recruit Minthara or interact with her, that's fine. It's your game, your world, your rules, your vision.

But, I will say this. If the only conversation that you have ever had with Minthara is the one in the goblin camp, shut the fuck up about her. This cruel, heartless, evil person that floats around is a twisted version of Minthara that only exists on social media and was created by people who do not know her. This bastardized version is nothing like the version that actually exists in the game. And you would know that if you ever spent a single second of your time getting to know her.

[justenjoythegossip]

THE ONE WHERE SHE SOLD THE SAME NARRATIVE AS HER KINDA HUSBAND…

Recap of recent events: Abba Batista went to the Tribeca Film Festival in Lisbon this past weekend, where she also participated in a podcast set up by her soulmate Justin to talk about her miserable 2023, her need to be forgotten and the toxicity of social media among other topics…

Many mods have been focusing on the outrageousness and hypocrisy of her claims, seemingly missing the main point of what she said. Although, I strongly suspect that some and more precisely Team blogs have done so purposefully for misdirection. Clearly she did what she was supposed to do well enough. Let’s take a look at what objectives this podcast served. 

ATTENTION

The main reason she went to this festival and did that podcast is for attention and clout. Despite the grotesque claim she wants to be forgotten, she went to a Festival where she had no movie to promote and did a podcast her soulmate arranged himself. 

Sidenote: whether CAA had a hand in her being there or not is beside the point because clearly they could have shut it down if they had chosen to.

ENGAGMENT

What she said seems to have angered quite a few people. I won’t go into details as many mods have already discussed it profusely. But I will say it was likely the whole point because enraging and riling people up was meant to make them more involved and create more engagement for them. And clearly, her latest contribution seems to have awoken a decimated and exhausted fandom after having been the victim of manipulation, trolling, gaslighting and demonizing. 

SEEDS FOR A BUA

Not coincidentally, she painted a picture very similar to what Chris did back in July when he gave all those interviews for the dog food brand.

Remember when he implied she was depressed and Dodger had to comfort her. She basically sold the same narrative, minus the dog and planting the seeds for their separation. I am not saying a break up announcement is imminent by the way. Who knows when it will come but the seeds are there, aren’t they? Her being lonely and miserable away from her home country! Her being a victim of fan toxicity! I have written a post about how fans will likely take the blame for the separation as well. Unfortunately the toxic fan narrative has been pushed by Chris, his family, his team and even by… Nicole Yvette Brown.   

[co-sharkie]

Revenge is Sweet

(POLY) Grayson Waller x F! Wrestler! Reader x Austin Theory

Summary: Candice LeRae attacked you backstage and your boys help you take revenge.

Warnings: mentions of insecurities

Words: 1490

Disclaimer: Raw brand wrestlers are on Smackdown for story purposes.

Requested 💙

Candice LeRae has always been your rival. You weren't even sure when it started. It could have began when you were picked for the NXT Women's championship over her. She would continuously try to sabotage your matches and insult you online. It was endless and you were getting tired of it.

Just like you, your boyfriends were also exhausted with her. They would have to constantly stop her from interfering with your matches, which resulted in DIY getting involved. Your boys have always been stuck to you like glue, even before they knew of your rivalry with Candice. They were always with you backstage and accompanying you to your matches.

Tonight was no different. They were scheduled for a title defense match against New Catch Republic. They practically begged you to stand ringside for them, but you had to refuse. You had a meeting to Nick Aldis at the same time as their match. You promised to watch them on a screen backstage when you finished. They begrudgingly went out without you.

--

You finished your meeting with Nick and were headed back to your locker room. You didn't make it very far before you felt steel collide with your back. You dropped to your knees but another crash against your spine had you falling face first onto the floor. "You think you deserve a title shot?" It was a familiar voice that screamed behind you.

Candice pulled your head up. Her eyes spoke volumes more than her words ever could. She must have overheard your meeting with Nick and decided to take it out on you. "I've worked so hard and get nothing!" Your face planted on the ground again when she dropped your head from her hands.

She delivered a kick to your side that had you rolling over onto your back. Candice had you thrown into almost every object backstage—tables, crates, walls, and doors. You reeled in pain after each impact but she never let you rest. The entire time she screamed at you, taking out what seemed like years of frustration.

When she finally decided to catch her breath, you took the opportunity to try rolling away from her. You tried getting onto your feet and in the process you noticed the team of DIY clearing off a table that had a ton of signed merchandise. You were unsure of when they had joined in. Candice pulled you to your feet but your knees gave out and you fell to the ground.

Holding your head in pain, Candice continued to yell but the sound of her voice was quickly drowned out by the ringing in your ears. You didn't feel her hit you again, but instead you felt familiar strong arms curl under your legs and back. Your eyes peeled open slowly and saw the face of your boyfriend, Austin. "What the hell happened?" He asked you with a soft but stern voice.

Grayson was next to you within seconds. His hands cupped your face as he inspected you. His expression quickly fell to one of anger. "I'm going to talk to Nick." He stepped over the debris of tables and torn up merchandise. "If they want to touch our girl, they get to answer to us in the ring."

Austin just sighed. Your head rest on his shoulder while he carried you through the halls of backstage and to medical. You almost fell asleep in his arms. Medical checked your body for anything that could be broken or sprained. They cleaned up the cut you didn't know you had above your eye and sent you on your way.

--

The boys had taken you back to the hotel room you shared with them. Austin helped clean up the cut you had on your forehead and replaced the bandage. You laid in the middle of one of the hotel room beds, blankets covered you and phone in hand. You scrolled through your social media while your boys were getting ready for bed. A recent post came across your page, and it was from Candice. "I think we might need a new contender for the championship. (Y/N) might be broken... oops!" You read off her post aloud. It was quickly accumulating likes.

"Ha! She wishes she was strong enough to break you." Grayson laughed as he crawled into bed next to you. He cuddled up to your side and planted a kiss on your cheek.

Austin snorted and grabbed your phone to put it on the nightstand. He got under the blankets on the other side of you. "She won't be saying anything when DIY ends up on the bench after next week." Grayson had updated you two on the way to the hotel about his talk with Nick. Your boys were to face DIY next Friday. In a street fight.

--

Some of the bruises stayed longer than others. There were a few that were still a deep purple. They were a constant reminder of your one-sided feud with Candice. You tried all you could to ignore it, but they continued to plague your mind and were a sore to your eyes. The cut on your face had began closing up enough that there was no need for bandages, but it was again a reminder of when you weren't able to fight back.

While the bruises may have made you feel weak, your boys lifted your spirits. Whenever Austin caught you staring at yourself for too long in the mirror, he'd pull you away and take you to do something else. Grayson would often kiss your bruises to make you feel better and remind you that they were temporary. Despite them comforting you, they both dealt with the internal turmoil of leaving you alone, which resulted in you getting hurt.

--

Friday couldn't have come faster. Grayson and Austin were both beyond prepared for their fight, which was declared the main event of the night. They made their entrance to the ring second and parted the ropes for you. As soon as the bell rang, all hell broke loose. There were no rules in a street fight and they planned to take full advantage of it.

Austin and Grayson quickly took control of the match. You found it suspicious that Candice did not come out with DIY. You scanned the crowd but didn't see her anywhere. The entire match you were on your toes, ready this time for any attack she may bring.

DIY had taken the upperhand in the midst of the match. Tables were broken, chairs bent under the impact of hitting a body, and kendo sticks were snapped. You kept your eyes wandering on your surrounding while cheering for your boyfriends and helping to hype up the crowd.

They had finally regained control. Grayson was outside the ring with Johnny Gargano as they exchanged hits with a kendo stick. Austin was in the ring with Tommaso Ciampa. Austin lifted Tommaso onto his shoulder and executed his finisher. Just before he could start the pin, the referee was distracted by someone hopping on the apron and yelling.

Candice had finally made her appearance. She stood on the apron, leaning over the ropes, yelling nonsense at the referee to keep Tommaso getting pinned. You decided it was the perfect time to take your revenge.

You ran over to the side of the ring Candice was perched on and swept her legs out from under her. She dropped to the floor and knocked her chin on the arpon. She writhed in pain on the ground. You heard the referee hit the mat three times and a bell rang. Austin's music played throughout the arena.

You pulled Candice up by her hair and ran her into the ring post, knocking the last set of stairs over in the process. Austin's music stopped almost as quickly as it started when officials realized the main event wasn't over yet.

With Candice on the ground, you saw Grayson dragging Johnny over to you by the hair. As if Austin knew what you two were planning, he slid out of the ring and cleared off the announcers table.

Wade Barrett and Michael Cole jumped out of their seats and backed up. Even through the roaring crowd, you could hear them begging you guys not to break the table. You pulled Candice up to her feet and dragged her over to the table. Grayson pulled a dazed Johnny up next to her. In sync, you both threw their arms over your shoulders and slammed them backwards onto the table together. The announcers table broke under the weight of their bodies.

The referee ran over, checking the pulses on the duo. You walked over to the time keeps and grabbed the tag team titles. You handed them both to Austin and Grayson. While your rivalry may now never end with Candice, at least you have your boys to back you up no matter what.

[loptrcoptr]

It’s come to my attention that a lot of people in the BES fandom are new to fandom-culture in general (or lack there of; we denizens of tumblr are residents of a cesspool) and don’t know a lot of general old school online manners, laid down in Days of Yore by earlier generations. So let me bring up a crucial one that is generally being ignored on tumblr in the BES-sphere: ship tagging!

I am not doing this to condescend, I genuinely want to be helpful and to help us all enjoy our enclosure and our enrichment in said enclosure together. I think a lot of grief going around the blue eye samurai world on social media could be solved if everyone remembered one good old cardinal rule of fandom bullshit:

you do not put ship wank in a ship’s general tag.

let me say that one more time in different terms:

If you want to rant about how much you hate a ship, general practice has always been, on tumblr anyway, not to do so in the safe space created for said ship.

once again, lemme be very clear; I don’t give one rat’s ass or 800 collective asses of rats what you ship, why you ship it, whether you ship anything at all, why you hate x y z, etc. That’s great, that’s what fandom is for! Enjoy yourself! The issue is that there’s all this infighting fuckery going on that is exhausting to even watch from the sidelines, and I think there’s a lot of confusion as to why anyone is fighting over any of this shit at all as it is 2024 and ship wars are 2011 superwholock garbage that we all collectively agreed to jettison into space by 2015, ya feel me?

(and if you like to start shit and throw hands then obv this post isn’t for you as you know what you’re doing, this is for the folks who don’t know and are confused as to why they can’t rant without blowback)

So if you’ve gotten on tumblr recently and noticed your anti-ship post blowing up for some reason or other and asked yourself “Jesus why are these assholes from that ship always coming for me?? They’re such dicks!!” ask yourself:

did I tag them in my post?

Because when you tag a ship in a post about how much you hate it, it’s not a beacon that says “Hear Ye Hear Ye, Interacteth Not Ye Fuckos From Ship I Hate, This Is About How Much I Hate Your Ship”. For that to be the case, you would need old-school anti-ship tag nomenclature, like this: #anti-[shipname] or #[shipname] wank. Those tags would communicate your intent to rant, which is your sacred fandom right to enjoy doing! It is not, however, your sacred fandom right to enjoy doing it in the wrong space, that’s what’s happening here. A post that tags a ship with its normal tag, but whose content is anti/wank content about said ship, sends the signal: “ayyooo, who would like to debate this with me?”

So, does all that make sense? If you tag your post analyzing all the reasons why you think a ship sucks with #ship, you are encouraging everyone who ships that ship to interact with your post. It’s like rocking up to somebody’s house, ringing the doorbell, and saying “I hate your fugly ass piece of shit house, asshole” and then getting irritated when the homeowner responds with “who the fuck are you, get off my lawn?!”

#anti-[shipname], #[shipname] hate (forgot about that one, also useful), and #[shipname] wank do two very useful things:

1) They let other people who want to gleefully rant with you know that you’re on the level and they give like minded individuals a chance to follow those tags so you can have more rant sessions together, and

2) they minimize likelihood of involvement by the shippers you’re ranting about, who can block the tag, while keeping the ship’s normal tag open for the people who enjoy it

tldr; *swordfather voice* it would be bitchin if people could stop bitchin in the wrong places so that we can all coexist like adults here, touch some grass, and chill. Tag ship hate #anti-[shipname], #[shipname] wank, or #[shipname]-hate and keep it out of the general pro-ship tags :)

if your response to this is “don’t tell me what to do, cuntwaffle” or “I have an unhealthy relationship with the idea of shipping and think no one should have a safe environment to enjoy media except me and people I agree with so I will continue to poison the waters” then ok, cool beans, keep on chooglin’; but know that everytime you walk into a tea party you weren’t invited to and yell I HATE YOUR FUCKING TEA YOUR TEA SUCKS ASS blowback is a bit inevitable

[imitationgame77]

ART and Human Adolescents

~ Reason Why ART Befriended Murderbot in AC ~

A sort of theory...

In Network Effect, Murderbot notes several times that ART likes adolescent humans. For instance,

I'd noted that ART's tone when it spoke to Amena was completely different than it was to the other humans. [...] Whatever else ART was, the classroom space and bunk-rooms said it was actually, on a regular basis, a teaching vessel. And before this when I was stupid and we were still friends it had talked about human adolescents in an indulgent way.

[Network Effect, Chapter 9]

Murderbot uses ART's soft spot for adolescents to its advantage!

And then, a couple of chapters later,

Amena still had questions. "Then why did you do it? You didn't - you don't care about me. You didn't really even know me then."

Why does ART like adolescent humans? This was exhausting.

[...]

ART must be recovering because it had to butt in with, Tell her you care about her. Use those words, don't tell her you'll eviscerate anything that tries to hurt her.

[Network Effect, Chapter 10]

ART does show protectiveness towards Amena's feelings, and urges MB to do the same.

ART also shows indulgence towards young people, who probably have left adolescent recently. In Artificial Condition, Murderbot's young client Tapan gets herself into a dangerous situation (again), then in a relatively safe environment of a hotel accommodation, inadvertently upsets MB with personal questions. ART helps MB calm down by playing its comfort media's soundtrack, then

In my feed, ART turned down the soundtrack to say, Young humans can be impulsive. The trick is keeping them around long enough to become old humans. This is what my crew tells me and my own observations seem to confirm it.

[Artificial Condition, Chapter 7]

An American psychoanalyst Erik Erikson has developed a theory of personality development which consists of 8 stages from infancy to old age. Each stage has a central theme with basic conflict. Successful resolution of conflicts at each stage results in development of healthy personality and acquisition of virtues.

Adolescence (12-18 years) is defined by its conflict of Identity vs. Role Confusion. Adolescents search for a sense of self and personal identity, through exploring values, goals, interests, and so on. If they are not given enough support and/or restricted in their exploration, they are left with role confusion - struggle to identify their purpose in life, not knowing who they are and what they want. Social relationships are also important in finding their roles in society. Successful resolution of this stage will lead to the virtue of fidelity that involves being able to commit one's self to others on the basis of accepting others even with differences.

The next stage is Early Adulthood (19-29 years), whose basic conflict is Intimacy vs. Isolation. This is when people learn to establish intimacy and relationships with others. If an individual can successfully form intimate, reciprocal relationships with others, love is the virtue to be gained. But, unsuccessful resolution in earlier stages can cause failure in this stage, resulting in isolation. Isolation can be the result of unresolved identity crises, fear of rejection, etc.

This stage thoery was developed in the 1950s. Since then, societies have changed somewhat and many young people can afford to be in "not a child, but not quite grown-up yet" stage for longer.

Presumably, machine intelligences, however sophisticated like ART, do not need to be influenced by physiological changes associated with hormones. Humans are largely influenced by nature part of nature/nurture, but for AIs, nurture (experience) is a lot more significant in forming their personalities. Having been "brought up" in loving human family environment with Iris as its "sibling", ART has developed very good understandings of human development as well as enormous tolerance. Having been interacting with many, many university students (presumably still 18-22 ish), it knows how important adolescent is to their later development in their characters.

One of the fundamental reasons why ART immediately took to Murderbot, in my view, is that it recognised adolescence in it. Whatever its human-equivalent chronological age was when they met, MB had only been governor-module-free for 4 years or so, and its experience of interacting with real people autonomously was very limited. MB was smart and competent in its functions, but also extremely vulnerable and awkward. It fits the definition of adolescence of not knowing its new role (not an appliance anymore)in the world.

So, ART's initial interaction with MB and protectiveness it exhibited were largely because ART was basically kind to vulnerable young people and MB was one. (Their 'relationship' evolves rapidly, but it is getting too long, so I stop. For now.)

----

Addendum

ART was not exactly gentle to Three which had had less-than-1-cycle of experience at being autonomous. It was more like a colt than a human adolescent. Must have been stress and anxiety talking.

Does an advanced AI have an equivalent of adolescence?? (probably mild, being hormone-free)

[mechaknight-98]

Gathering CEDH Edition: Mana Confluence

Author's note: insert funny self-deprecating joke here to appeal to the audience

"Hey, Um Hiro can I ask your advice on something," Connor asked me stuttering.

"You're asking your youngest friend for advice. Well, then you must be desperate. I am not judging let's see how I can hopefully help," I respond.

"Well it's about Yunjin..." Connor begins

"Oh yeah that reminds me, did you get my photocards signed," I asked hopeful.

"Yeah," Connor said as he handed me the cards signed by Le Sserafim's ridiculously popular it girl Chaewon.

"Oh sick you used the metallic Sharpies and everything," I smiled

"Yeah, she loved that they were Pokemon cards too," Connor replied.

I smiled but quickly remembered why he approached me.

"While I'd love to marvel at these. I do believe you had a question friend," I reply.

"Oh yeah, it's about Yunjin...I think I have a crush on her," Connor replies and my eyes go wide.

After Connor's fated Gathering with Giselle of Aespa or as she liked to be called by him Aeri. their relationship blossomed significantly. Both Professionally and Personally, which is why Connor found himself sitting with her in the general room of SM Entertainment. They had recruited Connor to do some filming with them after a very strong recommendation from Karina. Which is why Connor is in South Korea instead of New York right now. Connor was discussing various scenes for an upcoming music video for the group with the leader who had taken an interest in Connor. While Connor sits with Karina discussing various aspects of filming she breaks the flow of conversation to take a detour into something more personal.

“Okay Infinite sounds good, but I have something to ask,” Karina says to Connor, when she uses Connor's discord tag Connor knew it was serious/ or personal.

“ Karina we have been through this you can call me Connor in real life, but yeah what’s up?” Connor says and asks in return.

“It’s about Giselle. She has been in distress recently due to some comments on social media.” Connor scratched his head. Mean comments were par the course for any person in the public eye. Seeing his skepticism, and with Karina being the great leader she handed him a phone with some of the comments. he read them and watched in terror as they went from a little nippy to downright vile. he winced

“See. Someone who isn’t a part of this or her leader needs to talk to her. Maybe a close friend” Karina suggested confidently

he sighs, “I am not good at these types of things. I am much better suited to hyping her up.” is his follow-up. Karina holds firm

“Sorry, but you are the oldest you have to take responsibility. Also hyping her up is probably what she needs right now.” Karina says with a sly smile. So he sucks it up.

Later in the day after completing his shoot for Le Sserafim, he heads back to the SM building. On his way out of Yunjin, the Le Sserafim vocalist approaches him. Her bright hair billowing as she saunters over, “Hey Jen. Connor says to her.”

“Hey, Connor! how’s my fellow American?” Yunjin aka Jenifer asked

“Oh, you know getting busy living before I get busy dying,” Connor responds

“Good, good. Oh by the way we should like hang out. You seem cool enough and I need someone who isn’t a part of all this (She gestures around herself.).Plus I don’t often get the chance to interact with Americans out here so it’s great to see more.” Jen says. Connor laughs

“Jennifer, I am Korean as well … you remember that right? Also, are you asking me out? Because it sounds like it.” Connor teases while raising an eyebrow.

Jen laughs and says, “Yeah I know Who knows maybe.” He responds in kind and goes on his way. He arrives in time just before Aespa leaves for the end of the day. The girls look exhausted, especially Giselle who looks miserable. When Giselle sees Connor her eyes brighten.

“Friday Night Magic?” Giselle asks hopeful

Connor nods and Winter sighs relieved. “Ugh, you have no idea how annoying she’s been about it. Please take her. Maybe beat her again.” laughs ring out from all present.

“I don’t know she’s gotten a lot better.” Connor quips

“Only because you throw the most insane things at me,” Giselle said.

“You’re lucky you’re playing against me and not my friend Dexter.” Connor chides. Aeri looks at Connor with surprise.

“Oh and what does he play, and why haven’t I?” Aeri inquired

“Some evil and powerful stuff( Mostly in Temur Connor doesn't mention this but I am because it will be relevant later). Also to answer your second question…he doesn’t like coming out of his zone, but we may be able to coax him out later as he also likes K-pop as well.” Connor explains and replies.

Connor laughs as the duo gets into his car. He is careful to appear extra staff like today because one of the comments read “Who is that Dumb looking redhead? Is that her boyfriend.” (Connor has vibrant red hair…again will be relevant later). When they get into the car Connor is silent for a moment as the comments he saw earlier rush through his head along with Karina’s charge to him. He could see Giselle fidgeting with various parts of her bag while she got in.

“Yo Aeri. Are you okay? I saw some comments the other day that were less than on your recent comeback and wanted to check in to make sure you are doing alright.” Connor asks casually

Giselle sighed. “Can we not talk about it?” She asked. Connor nods. he knows from experience that this can’t end well but he lets it go for the time being. He wanted Aeri to be comfortable. He knows what it was like to have a well-meaning friend pry into your life. He sends a reassuring smile at Aeri and drives to the shop.

When They arrive Aeri smiles weakly, the Talk about her, Her weight her personality finally cracks her and she breaks. before entering Aeri looks at Connor with a serious face. “I can’t do this Connor. Can we do something else tonight?” He nods giving a thumbs up to his friend. She smiles sincerely this time. He takes her to a K-BBQ place that He wants to try. She is elated (I get it food is the easiest way to ease the soul.) to get into said Korean BBQ place. Surprise, surprise guess who’s waiting there is Jen and her unnie Sakura. Sakura is the first to notice Connor. Her eyes are always scanning and when she sees him, she squints, and then her eyes go wide and she smiles. “Oh Oppa come on over,” Sakura says giddily. Connor smiles and walks over with Aeri. Sakura shakes Yunjin who still hasn’t noticed Connor yet Letting her know their table is ready.

“Hey, Jen. Hey Kkura.” Connor says pleasantly. Jen turns around and her eyes go wide

“Ah, what?” she yells excitedly. Connor waves and Aeri smiles.

“Ah, you just couldn’t stay away from me.” Jen teases. Connor goes to introduce Aeri but Jen says “Dude we already know Aeri.” he nods and sits with them.

“you guys came just in time. It was originally supposed to be all five of us but Eunchae, Kazuha, and Chaewon unnie bailed on us.” Jen said as Aeri and Connor nodded and sat with them. Jen looked at Connor with just the happiest smile and brightest eyes, she turned to Aeri and said to her, “Hey Giselle Unnie. You look great today, but if I remember correctly I thought you were supposed to be hanging out with Connor tonight..alone.” Connor notices that Jen is not giving him his proper honorific which is weird since she is doing it for everyone else. he wonders if that’s personal like he has done something to upset her.

“Oh well it’s just a lot going on you know?” before Aeri could continue the waitress came to the table with menus. While Aeri and Jen talk Connor chats to Sakura and informs her of what’s going on discretely.

She looks at him and then Aeri with wide eyes full of concern. After he finishes she says to him, “Oh don’t worry about it I’ll talk to her.

Connor nods his head and says “Now don’t mention anything directly just try to make her feel comfortable.” Sakura puts her index finger to his lips.

“Allow me to work my magic,” Sakura says politely. Connor shrugs.

“Ah, what are you two whispering about?” Jen says suspicious of the two.

“Oh, Oppa and I were just discussing how amazing Giselle’s performances have been. She has been improving so much.” he nods excitedly eager to get the heat off himself. Both Aeri and Jen look at Connor confused. When the waitress rearrives at the table they order. Connor orders with Jen and Aeri with Sakura. He moves after ordering in his seat as he sits across from Sakura who looks around his neck area. “Hey oppa what’s that.” he noticed she was pointing toward his Gingaman tattoo on the right side of his collar that was slightly sticking out. he moves your shirt collar to show Sakura. Sakura looks at it for a moment… Aeri begins to chuckle.

“is that the starbeast sword?” she says between chuckles. Connor nods, and her chuckles grow to full laughs

“I knew I recognized it,” Sakura says with a smile. The two Japanese ladies begin to converse in the original tongue while Connor and Jen look at each other. they both roll their eyes when they hear the word American come from the two of them. Connor turns to Jen but she is watching the two girls talk with interest. so He sat “alone”, waiting for the opportunity to speak again. After about ten minutes of order, Aeri speaks to you, “Hey Connor why didn’t you make a Korvold paper deck?”

Connor looks at Aeri confused and answers, “I do have a paper Rocco Caberetti Caterer CEDH deck.”

Now Aeri looked confused asking, “Then how come I have never seen you play it?”

he claps your hands together, and responds “Well It has a lot more bite than Narset Enlightened Exile.” Aeri looks at him confused still.

“What do you mean by more bite?” She asked. This makes Connor realize even for all of her excellent English skills some things don’t translate. Connor tried to figure out how to translate until Jen came to your rescue.

“He means it’s stronger than his other one (she turns to Connor) that is right?” she answers and asks.

Connor’s reply is a simple nod. “in this context I mean it’s less fun to play against, and more geared towards stronger player’s play.” He fully clarifies. Everyone nods to his point, except Sakura who looks at Connor with interest.

Sakura turns to Aeri and asks“ Rocco that name sounds familiar. What’s that from?” Aeri explains to her how they both play Magic The Gathering, and as soon as she says Magic her eyes go wide, and she turns to him. “Oh, Oh, I play that… I played (Sakura snaps her fingers twice for recollection)…

“Arena?” Connor Suggests. Sakura nods

On the phone… yeah I taught Yujin, Yena, and Hyewon. Yujin is good and still plays. She would always complain about someone playing against Rocco. I stopped playing because they kept updating the game too fast but I guess she never did.” You look at Sakura confused, and point to Yunjin (Jen) who also looks at her confused.

“OH YUJin-ah, not YUNjin-ah.” Sakura clarifies and this brings alacrity to everyone present except Connor who forgot about Izone for a moment.

“Wait how do you know Yujin,” Connor asks Everyone looks at him for a moment. It still doesn’t click. A few minutes pass and then he remembers. “Oh right, you used to be in a group together. I completely forgot. Hmm, that’s weird considering how much my roommate loves Izone. He is the one who got me into Magic the Gathering. I got him into K-pop.” Connor says. Everyone present begins to laugh.

Sakura looks at Connor intrigued, “Oh what’s your roommate’s name?”

“Oh Dexter but I call him Dex for short. We also have this crazy guy who's like our little brother named...” Connor answers.

"Hiro is the name you were about to say right," Sakura asks. Connor nods

"Yeah, Chaewon mentioned him and how she signed some K-pop cards for you that were Pokemon cards," Sakura explained. Yunjin's eyes went wide

"Oh so that's who got the Chaewon cards," She replied. Sakura nodded

Aeri snaps her fingers in recognition of the names. After that the food arrives and The group eats and converses about various boring topics I won’t go through the tedium of repeating here. (I am trying to keep this somewhat engaging after all). Afterwards, they finish up Connor pays for the meal. (Like a boss)

“Thanks, Oppa,” Sakura says to Connor and he gives her a thumbs up as he leaves with Aeri.

When they arrive at Aespa’s dorm she smiles and says, “Thank you, Connor. I appreciate it.”

He says “No worries“ as he's going to leave before though can Aeri grabs him.

“Hey Oppa what do you do when you think you’re not good enough?” Aeri asks Connor pleading.

Connor considers her words, he doesn’t often falter for confidence (Like the previously mentioned boss he is). So he has to think for a moment and then respond. “As much as I want to say just be yourself I can’t bring myself to. It boils down to not listening to critiques that aren't genuine. For example, Hiro is always critiquing my work, but it comes not from a place of tearing others down but to refine them. Those I listen to. I don't listen to insincere critiques like "Why did you use that actress she's a fat pig. Those are insults and we don't listen to them. Eventually, you'll get better. besides didn't you have the least amount of training of your group? I wouldn't worry about the criticisms too much,” Aeri looks at Him and smiles.

“Okay, I will keep that in mind.” She says as she smiles and leaves. He drives his little blue rental back to his hotel to get ready to fly back home.

Two weeks later Connor’s back to work filming with Le Sserafim for promotions in the States. The staff and the girls for the most part are kind and gentle people. Connor enjoys working with them. As he is finishing up for day 1 Jen corners him along with Sakura. “Hey, you’re pretty good at Magic right?” Jen asks. Connor nods. “Good then can you teach us? Giselle has been trying to get us to learn because she wants people she can play with besides Yujin, and Sakura doesn’t remember how to play.” Connor strokes his chin.

“That’s a lot of work. Like a lot of work.” He explains.

The girls smile at him and Jen says, “Well then it’s good we are going to be together for a few weeks.” Connor sighs.

“Okay then, but if we do this… we are doing it my way. Do you understand?” Connor asserts.

Both Kkura and Jen nod.

“Okay well then first things first set aside 250$ each. I want you both to be able to build both fun and functional decks so I need you to do that. I also want you both, if you haven’t already download mtg Arena and just play with what they give you. This will be the easiest way to teach the basics and give you both a net of general play styles you enjoy. Please for the love of God Almighty do not spend any money on the app. You are both too inexperienced to know what’s worth purchasing and will not have fun in the long haul. please don’t be like me. Dexter tried to warn me but I didn’t listen. Also, I feel like I should mention this check out Dice Try’s YouTube channel and watch the videos on shards and wedges it will give you all a very clear view of what each one is about, and potentially what you align with,” Connor says before both nodded and leave for the day. After that Connor finished packing up all of his cameras, and other film gear and went home.

When he got home he got a discord call from Scorpion-love-00. “Hey Connor I need your help. We need a third for our commander game.” Connor (who hates 3-player games) sighs and responds

“Skippy you know how I feel about three-player games.”

Scorpion responds, “I know but we just need a third to change up gameplay, at least for tonight.” this turns out to be untrue as for the next two weeks you are playing arch-enemy against Scorpion and her new friend Ujinnie… Sometimes there’s a random 4th that joins. Who’s good but also kind of non-verbal (It’s me…I am that person, but I haven’t officially met Aeri, or Yujin yet, but spoilers it’s me… the narrator. Or it's another character you will meet later who plays Esper shenanigans) Connor tries not to be annoyed as his off time is becoming dominated by mtg. Eventually, he ropes his roommate; Dexter, who was a magic savant in his eyes.

this makes the experience more fun for everyone involved. Your friend hit it off with Giselle, and Ujinnie when she can play as well. Which was funny because were at each other’s throats at first. This would lead to one of the later “game nights” when Connor invites Dex, and me to Help with filming. Which brings us back to the present.

"So you like Yunjin...what about Aeri," I ask inquisitively

"Aeri and I get along great but it feels like she's my sister at times," Connor replies. I nod

"Well my take is that you figure out your feelings first, but I am also aware that honestly, you may just be in love with Yunjin," I reply. Connor nods and then says, Also thank you for helping me film fearless Kura when the girls come out here," Connor said. I looked at him blinked thrice and replied

"What do you mean help?"

"You are going to help with deck building and filming of course," Connor replied. I blinked again trying to process the insane information being thrown my way. I a rando would be helping Megastar Sakura Miyawaki film Magic the gathering content.

"Um Okay sure," I reply as I give Connor a thumbs up

A few days later we all arrived at the film location. As we set up with their decks the Fimmies + Giselle approached us surprised. “Oh, Connor Oppa who is this?” Sakura asked as she approached.

“Oh, this is Dexter. My friend who is a director and also a camera guy. He is good at mtg, and the other is Hiro...We don't know his real name just his social media handle. He is also really good at MTG super versatile as a player as well. We were playing together against Aeri and this girl named Ujinnie Yesterday and it was late so I figured they could help me today.” Connor clarified

Dexter and I looked up when we heard our names called before quickly going back to work.

“Wait is he the one who goes by Stealth Dragon Daihouzan?” Aeri asked pointing at Dexter

Connor shakes his head. I raise my hand, "No that's me," I reply to them. Connor looks at me surprised

"why didn't you say anything," Connor asked.

"I didn't think anything of it. I just play the game, and you guys were almost always online when I wanted to play," I replied shocked I was playing with my friend and two K-pop stars.

“Oh Yunjin ah ask him your question," Sakura replies Connor feels a pang of Jealousy as he watches Jen smile as she goes up to me. while Dexter and I on the other hand are focused on setting up the set.

“Oh, so your Daihouzan... Can I call you something shorter," Jen asks. I nod and reply "Hiro" Jen smiles at this point I notice Connor's sour look (His poker face was good I just knew how to read him specifically) I have heard a lot about you.”Jen exclaims

I nod and respond skeptically, “That's potentially worrying, but ah what the heck, how can I help you?”

“So I love typal decks and Aeri says you’re scary good at building them”

I cringe as Dexter looks at Yunjin hesitantly (we both dislike the term typal for various reasons), and then we look at Connor for guidance. Connor gives the thumbs up, and I respond, “What creature typer were you thinking and how do you want to play it?”

“I want an aggressive angel deck in white red black,” Yunjin responds. I sigh exasperatedly and die a little on the inside before he responds. Connor knew what I was about to recommend and he knew how much I hated to do so.

“Then you’re probably going to want to run Kaalia of the Vast,” I say dejectedly. Connor knows that was hard for him because I hated Kaalia so to see him suggest that for Jen made Connor laugh uncontrollably Envy fading into the back of his mind.

Jen was confused “What’s wrong with Kaalia?” She asked noticing the shift in atmosphere between her friend and his buddies.

“Nothing I just have a personal vendetta since my friend whom, I first played a lot against played her a lot, and well I was not a fan. She is wildly powerful but also super obnoxious,” I responded

Aeri's eyes narrowed at me looked at me and replied “You have a weird idea of obnoxious. I complained so much about your Omnath locus of creation deck,( Aeri doesn’t explain this but for those who are curious it’s The 4 color nonblack one, and one of my signature decks)” Connor watches as Dexter laughs, as he finishes setting up to face Kkura.

“Well to be fair I also did beat up on her because she was playing Yuriko, but the reason she is probably more upset is that she may be an enfranchised player, but she isn't entrenched,” Dexter responds. Connor looks at Dexter disappointed knowing the ensuing conversation that would follow.

“Listen just because you run free mana spells, lotuses, and og duals does not make you a better player,” Connor says to Dexter

“No, what makes me a better player is that I no-life this game. Same with Hiro,” Dexter responded which caused a laugh from all present Except Jen. Jen looked at him with surprise.

“No-life the game?” she said with her near trademarked confused face.

“Oh, Yunjin-ah he just means that mtg is the only game he plays,” Sakura responded

“That and Hunt Showdown.” Dexter clarifies. He lifts his sleeve to show his tattoo from the mentioned game.

"I play Warframe, and Monster Hunter," I interject

“Oh, that’s cool. so the two of you must be good,” Jen responds.

Dexter and I laugh knowing being "really good" is relative

Connor smiles as he looks at his friends getting along so well together. after finishing up chatting with the Fimmies Connor, Dexter, and I went to finish getting ready for the shoot. the shoot proceeds smoothly, and after the shoot; Connor, Dexter, Jen, Aeri, Kkura, and I go to hang out.

“So we saved our 250$ Connor,” Jen says to Connor after the shoot. Dexter and I begin to laugh in his seat while Connor is driving. He sighs knowing the two of them are going to have to help them learn the game in earnest.

“Hey before you do this. have you two thought of turning this in content? like YouTube videos. I know Sakura has her YouTube channel and this could be a funny episode.” Dexter suggested absent-minded Sakura looked at the Native Alaskan/Russian and her eyes widened.

Two weeks days later Jen, Aeri, Connor, Dexter, Sakura, and I were all on the set of Sakura’s YouTube (Fearless Kkura, which will become the interchangeable name for her now) channel which today happened to be a Studio that Dexter and Connor found. Dexter is acting as an assistant director for the episode, but also helping Kkura learn her deck. We all had input in construction. I was in charge of making playable mana bases because I never falter in those. Kkura is a bit distracted looking at Dexter’s shirt. It was Godzilla Vs. Great Ape Vegeta. “Okay so after you get a good mill chain going you’re going to want to start reanimating your big threats,” he said with a relaxed smile. Connor knows that Dexter loves Le Sserafim Sakura was his bias (Mine as you probably assumed is Chaewon) so he is trying his best here to not fanboy. Despite his worries, Connor sees he’s doing well. He’s relaxed. Jen and Aeri sneak up behind him.

“They have really good chemistry, Just like us,” Aeri says. Connor turns around surprised to see his two friends leaning against each other as they watch Dexter and Sakura discuss plans.

“Yeah, Kkura unnie likes his vibe,” Jen said with a bit of a laugh.

“Yeah, Dexter is a good guy,” Connor says.

“Oh, that reminds me. How’d you meet him Oppa?” Aeri asks. Connor notices Jen’s confused look at Aeri as she walks back to the table. Again he wonders if you did something to annoy Jen causing her issue with the honorifics.

“Oh that’s easy we are roommates in college and now kinda permanently. He also helped me get through some really bad times by being like an older brother to me,” he responded

“Oh, how old is he?” Aeri asks.

“he’s Eunbi's age,” Connor replied

“Oh wow, I guess he is an Oppa too. It’s so weird he and Kkura unnie feel younger.” Giselle states

"Wait how old is Hiro then," Yunjin asks. I happened to be walking by doing set up and casually said

"I am a month and 13 days older than Kkura," as I spoke I moved other cameras to where they needed to go. Yunjin smiled

"Thanks, oppa," Yunjin said. I gave her a thumbs-up as I continued on my way

“Well I don’t know Kkura that well but I do know Dexter, and that stems from his immense sincerity. Out of all of the players I know who play MTG, I have only seen two that embody a wedge and he is one of them. He plays a lot of simic x color decks but he is Naya boy through and through in terms of mentality and temperament.” Connor explains

Aeri laughs, “You know I see that. He is so focused and meticulous but also extremely kind-hearted and empathetic.”

“Also and you didn’t hear this from me, his best deck is not Maelstrom Wanderer but his Zaccama deck that's the real killer. That deck is nasty to play against.” Connor adds

“Oh really that’s surprising I would have figured it would have been Maelstrom based on Yujin’s complaints.” Aeri jokes

"Nope! Gishath has all of his crazy cards," I said as I walked past again

"Like what," Aeri asked

"Og duals, fast mana, and free spells," Connor explained

As I walked by again Yunjin grabbed me. "Stand still, will ya," she teased

"What's up," I asked

"No we just want you here as you're our friend too now," Aeri replied. My eyes went wide and my throat became dry.

"So you play green black blue right?" Aeri asked and I nod

"You helped with Kkura's deck right," Yunjin asked I nodded again

"What would be your pointers for helping us against Kkura's Kess dissident Mage deck," they both asked. I shrugged and replied.

"Most of your all's decks are commander-centric. so consistently removing said commander is going to be your best bet." the girls nodded and then turned to Connor

"So what about you guys' decks since you guys haven't shown us what y'all are playing," Yunjin said

"Wait we are playing? I thought the decks we built were just meant to be alternates," Connor and I asked

Aeri looked at Yunjin who just realized she spoiled the surprise.

"Yeah you guys are playing this episode," Aeri explained annoyed, "It was supposed to be a surprise but I guess the cat is out of the bag now," I nodded and took a step back then at Connor. a billion thoughts raced through my head but instead of worrying about them I just locked in on work. Yunjin dragged me off to have me help her get microphoned and Giselle dragged Connor with her

Connor and Giselle watch Dexter, Sakura, Yunjin and I all interact. "Crazy group we have," she said. Connor nods

"Yeah crazy to think it's been almost two months since we became friends," Connor states

"Yeah you're the older brother I always wanted," Aeri says. Connor winces a little before saying,

"Thanks" Connor replies

"Wait did I say something wrong," Giselle asked

"No I just didn't know what we were and this I guess is confirmation," Connor replies taking a page out of my book and scratching his head.

"Dude...Yunjin has your heart. I see the way you look at her. You should go for her. She is so smitten with you and would love it," Aeri says.

A huge wave of relief washes over Connor as he looks at Yunjin who is currently teasing me over the signed Chaewon card on my phone case

"Wait Hiro do you have a crush on Chaewon unnie," Yunjin says teasingly

I scowl at her and consider my response carefully, " I think all of you are super talented and I love all of Le Sserafim equally besides Eunchae, and that's only because I feel weird saying I love a minor," Yunjin laughs

"You're so silly. You and Chaewon will hit it off so well," Yunjin says

"Wait really," I say excited my mask slipping.

"So you do like her," Yunjin said victoriously. I sighed and nodded.

"No worries. I think she'll like you too. Now where did you get this card of Chaewon, and do they make one for all of us," Yunjin asked me. I nodded and replied

"Yeah there's this guy on Instagram who makes the cards, They're super cool. I can get one for all of you guys," I reply

"Oh that would be so cool," Yunjin says as we finish getting microphoned. Giselle and Connor laugh as they watch my stumbling and go over to a similar scene playing between Sakura and Dexter.

“So I hear you are a Wizone. Who was your bias?” Kkura asked Dexter intently

“Eunbi-noona I love her personality,” Dexter says flatly trying again not to Fanboy too hard

Sakura groans, “Really? Ugh”

“Wait wait wait. Aren’t you going to ask my Le Sserafim Bias?” Dexter responded realizing he made a mistake.

“Oh let me guess Chaewon?” Kura asks dejected

“While I do think she is cute, nope. It’s Sakura Miyawaki. Maybe you’ve heard of her.” Dexter said teasingly. Sakura began to blush and then lightly hit Dexter’s shoulder.

“We’ll talk after filming,” she said with a glare.

Before the episode started Dexter gave everyone super nice alter/proxies made by the online artist “Atomic Ashes”, but it was then revealed that we would also be in the episode him and he froze. he quickly recovered and got set up next to Kkura.

The Episode starts as we are rushed off the screen.

"Welcome to Fearless Kkura, and today I have some new faces," Sakura says in perfect Korean (I am told it's perfect by Connor who comments on how good it is.)

as Kkura mentions the new faces we are ushered back on screen, along with Yunjin and Aeri

"For those who don't know you all introduce yourself and what we are doing today," Sakura says. Dexter and Connor freeze I don't

"Hi, my name is Hiro these are my partners Dexter and Connor and together we are the Collective called DECOHI Productions. we make short films and other small productions, but I forget what brings us here today maybe Connor can help us out,"

Connor has now thawed and steps up, "Yeah We are here to help Sakura, Giselle, and Yunjin learn Commander, a subsection of Magic The Gathering,"

Dexter now finally calmed builds off of Connor, "Yeah we all helped them build decks and choose their commanders but before that, we have to teach them the basics, and maybe a few tips and tricks so stay tuned," he replies. We step back to the applause of Jen, Kkura, and Aeri.

"Wow great intro," Sakura said "Now let's get into it," she added. The cameras stopped as we moved to another set where there were seats and the other producers and directors asked us to sit.

The cameras start rolling and I lock in again.

"So what are the basics of Magic The Gathering Dexter," Sakura asks

"Well, Kkura the first thing you need to know is that Magic is a game of resources. everything is scare and limited,"

"Until it's infinite," I interject cooly,

"Huh," Yunjin asked confused

"Long story we'll get to that later, Now Connor please tell the lovely ladies about the game basics...Lands that is," I say

Connor and Dexter instantly know what I am doing and start riffing off of me from then on, "Well Magic has 8 card Types as of right now; Battle, Lands, Enchantments, artifacts, Soceries, instants, creatures, and planeswalkers. For commander, you may only have one of each card with a few exceptions. Basic Lands being the first. I think Hiro is best suited to explain the exceptions as he plays to many of the exceptions of MTG," Connor said

I looked at Connor surprised, "What's that supposed to mean," I say

Connor smiles trying to rile me up as he says, "It means you're a cheater,"

"But it's in the rules," I reply

Dexter smugly adds, "Doesn't make it fair,"

"Fair is relative, but I digress. In magic, there is a resource called mana. The easiest way to get it is to play cards like basic lands which tap for one mana usually. These can be played once a turn and tap for one of the 5 colors of Magic," I answer

"Oh this game has colors what are they," Aeri asks

"Oh green white blue black red," I reply, "Each color focuses on something different, and can be attributed to a virtue or vice,"

"Well now you gotta explain which is which," Yunjin said

"Green is Growth and Gluttony. White is Order or Inflexibility. Blue is change/Condescension. Black is Sacrifice or Pride. Red is passion and wrath. These colors can be combined with others to further their in-game strengths or shore up their weakness. the most common for commanders being two or three-color. Connor, Dexter, and I prefer three colors as they are the most consistent and most well-rounded the game has to offer."

"Oh really," Kkura asks, and the three of us nod.

"Well what have you built for us and what are your color combinations," Kkura asks.

"Well, I am blue red White, or nicknamed Jeskai. Jeskai is cunning and calculating but also warm and kind. except on the battlefield so enjoy it now friends because when we enter the field of battle I will crush all my enemies." Connor monologued

Dexter waved humbly and replied, " Red Green white is my combo. it's known for a lot of creature-based value. I like creatures so the combo works for me."

"Oh wow of course you two leave me with the hard job...(I turn to the camera.) Red players" I scoff which gets a laugh out of Kura and Aeri.

"For Sakura, we built a recursion-heavy Kess dissident mage deck that uses the colors Blue, Black Red, and hopes to utilize its graveyard as a second hand to push to an insurmountable advantage. This color combo is commonly known as Grixis. Next, we have Giselle on a White black Green (Abzan) Anafenza of the foremost deck. its goal is to keep the other players honest by limiting the amount of crazy shenanigans they can do. Lastly, we have hot girl Jen with an absolutely hot deck of Dragons and Angels helmed by Kaalia of the vast, red white black deck that seeks to cheat big beefy creatures into play to beat her opponents into submission." I relayed before taking a breath.

Eventually, Sakura asked the Magic words, "What are you playing Hiro?"

"Oh just the best color Combination," I reply.

[diadoescomics]

Hello I just wanted to stop by and say thank you to everyone here. The lovely comments people have left on my most recent comic have filled my heart.

With the current state of social media/ online spaces making comics has become more and more mentally taxing, they take a long time to make and I am one person so posting them and seeing very little attention is very disheartening. You might have also noticed that I've not made any in A While before this, because in addition to creative exhaustion I've also been dealing with some difficult health issues lately. All that to say I've been in a low point creatively for a while now.

That being said, logging on here and seeing people leave little messages to something I've worked hard on really REALLY does wonders. So thank you so much tumblr community for always being the place I can count on to keysmash and affectionately swear at me when I post comics.

Truly thank you so so much.

[alcoholfreenayeon]

Sundays with Twice

Ask: Sundays with Twice

Nayeon

For Nayeon, sundays are all about spending quality time with you.

She will be up early and will wake you up as well so that the two of you spend as much time together as possible

But you manage to convince her that instead of getting out of bed, it’s better to cuddle for some time which she reluctantly agrees to.

Breakfast is something simple and then the two of you head outside to a park. Walks in the park are nonnegotiable and it’s inevitable that the two of you do it whenever you meet up. Sometimes she wants to play badminton and you both play a few rounds.

After spending a few hours at the parks, you both eat lunch out, it could be something like a McDonald’s or someplace really fancy. You both switch it up. Of course the next stop is for desert.

After desert, you both return home and it’s time to binge watch some show. Cuddles and spooning is obviously included.

Time flies by incredibly fast and now it’s time for dinner. Sometimes Nayeon recommends new places to order from, other times the two of you try and cook.

After dinner, it’s time to watch a romcom or a sitcom. You are in charge of which one to choose. At this point Nayeon starts to feel tired and also annoyed at the thought of having to go to work the next day and clings on to you for rest of the night, falling asleep holding on to you.

Momo

For Momo, Sundays are all about catching up.

She will wake up only when you force her and even then she’ll feel sleepy so you’ll have to drag her out of bed.

However once Momo is up, she is ready for anything. She’ll make you a delicious breakfast and will talk about how her week has been.

She’ll then proceed to show you all the things she recently bought and will always have a present to give to you.

In the afternoon the two of you will go out for shopping but you both don’t necessarily buy a lot. Quite frequently it’s just the two of you buying small things for each other. Then you both have lunch at a fast food place.

You both are back home by evening and then Momo insists on teaching you the latest twice dance even though you aren’t the best dancer. With her expert guidance however you always manage to make it look acceptable.

For dinner, you insist on making something for her but you accidentally end up burning up the food. She teases you endlessly for it. You both then go to a convenience store and buy snacks.

Of course neither one of you goes to sleep early, you both go your socials and share various memes, challenges and other media with each other, eventually falling asleep on the sofa.

Jeongyeon

For Jeongyeon Sundays are all about bonding.

Your day starts with Jeongyeon already having prepared breakfast for you.

Sometimes she takes you to her family, sometimes you take her to yours and spend a few hours there. Her sister likes to tease you both as a very lovey-dovey couple.

After visiting either family, she takes to you dog and cat cafes often since you both love animals.

Dinner alternates weekly between Korean food and Italian from your favorite restaurants.

Sometimes you both play some video games but she somehow always manages to beat you.

She asks for your opinions on the songs she writes. Somehow it ends up going from you giving your serious opinions to teasing her to both of you just dancing and singing your favorite song wildly until the two of you feel exhausted and fall to the bed, spooning and giggling.

Sana

For Sana, Sundays are all about closeness.

You always wake up to see Sana cuddling you. She’s really happy to be able to express her love and does it through hugs and kisses.

Breakfast is always done late because she doesn’t let you get up insisting on “few” more minutes of cuddling.

After a slow start to the day, it’s time to pick up the pace because Sana always has plans for you both. It ranges from going to amusement parks, movies and meeting with friends.

Sana’s seemingly never ending social battery never stops amazing you especially when yours runs out much quicker.

By the time you both return, it’s almost always quite late so dinner is always ordered.

The rest of the time, she just wants to express how happy she is with you and just starts to peck you randomly.

The only way you discovered to calm her down is to tire her out which isn’t easy but you somehow manage.

Jihyo

For Jihyo, Sundays are all about having fun.

The day starts with her waking you up. Jihyo never lets you sleep in for too long. Breakfast is made by the both of you together and is quite heavy.

Afterwards , you really just want to jump back in bed and sometimes you are able to but other times Jihyo chides in and reminds you that you have to take her out.

First destination is to the spa followed by a extensive shopping spree.

Sometimes you both go to play tennis. Jihyo is surprisingly good at it but occasionally you manage to beat her and make sure she doesn’t forget about it.

You have taken making dinner as your responsibility and always make a good meal for her for which she always wholeheartedly thanks you.

Webtoons are her favorite and you both watch ones that have gotten adapted into shows before sleeping.

Mina

For Mina, Sundays are all about recharging with you.

She generally wakes up before you but stays in bed and on her phone. Every now and then she looks at you sleeping and smiles lovingly, stroking your hair.

When you eventually wake up, she’s really happy to greet you and urges you to get ready soon because she wants breakfast.

After breakfast the two of you just sit and talk, sometimes they get really deep and intense. Other times it’s all sorts of topics that happened during the week.

After a light lunch, you both start playing video games together. The games can vary from first person shooters to something more light hearted like Minecraft.

By the time you both notice the time, it’s already way past dinner time so you both order something.

While waiting for the food to arrive, Mina looks for movies you both can watch while eating. You were surprised to find out she prefers action movies romantic ones but you didn’t mind.

After finishing dinner and the movies, you both head straight to bed. However while you lay to go to sleep, Mina stays awake for some more time scrolling through her phone. When she thinks you are asleep she kisses your cheek and whispers about how happy she is to have you.

Dahyun

For Dahyun, Sundays are all about making memories.

She’ll make sure you are up EARLY, she has the whole day planned with activities for both of you to do and there was no way any of them were going to be missed.

Of course the sun wasn’t even up yet. But that was the point she would insist, she wanted to watch the sunrise with you. After looking at the sunrise, it was time to head to a restaurant that served with breakfast.

After breakfast, it was time to go for a nice long walk where the two of you would be chatting away looking like any other couple.

After the walk, it was time to go an amusement park where the two of you would spend the next few hours and have lunch there as well.

In the the evening, it was time to head to a nice fancy restaurant where you both would have a nice romantic dinner.

After dinner, you both come back home and go to bed early after a long and tiring day.

Chaeyoung

For Chaeyoung, Sundays are all about new experiences.

You wake up before Chaeyoung and prepare a big breakfast with lots of varieties from eggs and toast to waffles.

There is no fixed plan for the day so you both look up places to visit.

Of course visits to art galleries, museums and historical spots are a must. However sometimes you both just visit popular spots.

Trying new delicacies and dishes is almost a must for Chaeyoung for lunch. You aren’t that keen but occasionally do try new food as well.

After lunch, you both go somewhere where you both can learn something new. It could go anything like pottery classes or sewing classes etc.

You both return home by nightfall and order a few dishes and make a few at home for dinner.

After dinner Chaeyoung puts on the latest movie or tv show that’s trending which you both watch til you both fall asleep.

Tzuyu

For Tzuyu, Sundays are all about getting closer

The days starts with Tzuyu waking you up saying it’s breakfast time. You help her with it and you both have a hearty meal.

After breakfast, it’s time to head to her parents place since Tzuyu misses them often. You often get nervous since you know her parents value manners a lot and your generally causal approach wouldn’t do.

You were surprised to find out that Tzuyu’s family describe her as the mischievous one while she strongly denies them saying her siblings only say that to tease her.

By late afternoon you both leave her parents house and go to a mall where it’s a typical date. You both shop, having some ice cream and if time permits even go to the cinema.

After that you both return home and start preparing for dinner. Even though neither of you are particularly good at cooking, together you both can whip up some good meals.

After finishing dinner, you show Tzuyu the last show you were watching. She generally prefers to watch something slow paced and romantic.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell to whether Tzuyu is still watching or not since she sleeps with her eyes open.

[cowgurrrl]

Okay this is very random but I recently discovered a song called “Dangerous Hands” by Austin Giorgio and for some reason I imagine rockstar!Joel having actress!reader be featured in the song and the music video like soon after they get back together and the music video is like the big announcement that they’re back together and idk I just love that so much! If you enjoy the song I think that would be a super fun story, can’t wait for the proposal/wedding content for OFTM though!!

Sorry this took literally so long but the wedding content for OFTM is coming soon!! I’m writing it now but I hope you enjoy how this came out 🥸

Thank God I Found You

Pairing: rockstar!joel miller x actress!reader

Summary: this ask

Warnings: none! Just fluff :-)

"Do you know how many other actresses there are in Los Angeles?" You ask, and Joel groans from his place on the couch. Daisy runs toward him, thinking he's in trouble, and you laugh when she lands on his chest. 

"But why would I hire someone else when I could hire you?" He asks, his voice a little strained with the forty-pound pitbull on his chest, as you perch on the back of the couch to look down at him. 

"Because nobody except for our families knows we're back together." You say, petting Daisy. She leans into your hand and slumps against the cushion with an overdramatic harumph, making both of you laugh. 

It's been almost six months since you and Joel got back together, and somehow, nobody knows. You've managed to keep it under wraps with strategic NDAs, at-home date nights, and keeping each other off social media. It's been peaceful getting to reconnect without public eyes on you, and you want to keep it that way for as long as possible. However, it's been getting harder and harder to keep it a secret. It's exhausting always waiting for someone to talk to a news outlet or for one of you to slip up on social media or in an interview.

Joel planning a music video for "The Yellow Subway" has brought all those feelings to the forefront. He wants you to star in it, playing yourself, considering how the entire album is about you. He's even talked about paying you, ensuring it's union work, basically giving you any and every incentive possible to get you to do this. Still, you're hesitant. Ever since your last Shakespeare in the Park in New York, you've vowed never to work with another partner again. It's been seven years, and you know Joel would never do anything close to what your last boyfriend did, but there's still that fear.

"This could be how we tell everyone," he suggests. "Could be kinda cool." You take a deep breath and slide your hand from under Daisy's head to play with Joel's hair. He puts a hand on your hip, and his thumb kneads circles into the muscle. 

"I read the script." You admit quietly, and he raises his eyebrows.

"You did?" He asks, and you nod. "What'd ya think?"

"I thought it was familiar," you say, and he laughs. It's true. It's basically a visual retelling of your time in New York, and it wouldn't be hard to trace the timeline, lyrics, and story to you. The song is also named after the yellow Q Train you took from Hell's Kitchen back to the Upper East Side. "But I also thought it was really, really beautiful." 

"Yeah?" 

"Yeah." 

"So, what can I do to get you to do this?" He asks softly, adding a little more pressure to your hip, and you sigh. "A million dollars? A trip to Bora Bora? Sex every day for a year?" He lists, making you laugh. You occupy your mind by tucking a curl behind his ear and focusing on his touch.

"You really don't think going public will change anything between us?" You ask, and he sits up, agitating Daisy enough to make her get up and walk over to her bed. 

"Do you think it'll change anythin'?" 

"I don't know. We were public before, but that was different. It wasn't on our terms. We were literally forced to be seen out together," you shrug. "And I kinda like our little bubble. It's quiet. It's just for us. We've never had that before." You say, and he nods. You swing your legs over the edge of the couch and slide into his lap, your mind still whirring with thoughts as you straddle him. It's not that you don't want to share your love with the world. It's that the world got pieces of you before he did, and vice versa. But you also don't want to always be looking over your shoulder for sneaky paparazzi and nosy fans. If you're going to go public, you want it to be on your terms. 

"If you don't wanna do this, you don't have to. We can… keep our bubble for a little bit longer." Joel says as he kisses your cheek.

"But then you won't have an actor for your video."

"A little birdie told me there are a lot of actresses in Los Angeles lookin' for work," he teases. "I want you to feel safe and comfortable for as long as possible. If that means keepin' things quiet for a little while longer, that's fine. I just care about makin' sure you're happy." 

"How are you so perfect?" You ask, and he laughs.

"Could ask you the same thing," he deflects, locking his arms around your waist and pulling you to his chest. Daisy snores lightly from the corner of the room, but other than that, the only thing you can hear is his breathing and the ticking of his watch. Everything you see, feel, and smell is Joel. "I love you." He whispers.

"I love you, too." You whisper back as you push his too-long curls out of his face. Then, like time slowed down just for you, Joel brushes his lips against yours and kisses you. You think this is your favorite way to kiss him. So much of your early relationship was about how fast you could get through dates and obligations, and everything went by so quickly that you barely had a chance to catch your breath. Since you've been back, everything's been intentional and slow, like if things pick up too fast, too soon, this will disappear. Slow kisses, movie nights with the girls, pool days with Daisy, holding each other just because you can— all gone in the blink of an eye. You wish you could freeze those moments and replay them forever so you never forget what they looked and felt like. 

"Wait," you say, suddenly pulling away from Joel's lips. He furrows his eyebrows and pouts but doesn't say anything, so your thought doesn't run away. "I have an idea."

For the next three months, you and Joel spend time capturing those quiet, intentional moments of intimacy. He gets clips of you and the girls dancing in the kitchen to an ABBA song while cookies bake in the oven. You get clips of him strumming guitar by the fire pit in his backyard with your legs laid across his lap. At one point, Ellie even picked up the camera and got clips of you two working together to set up your Christmas tree, playing with Daisy in the backyard, and even watching the New Year's Eve fireworks from the balcony. It's a messy, complex, blurry snapshot of your lives, and it's perfect. 

A year to the day since you and Joel got back together, the music video for "The Yellow Subway" premieres as an anniversary present. It opens with Sarah's beautiful cursive handwriting announcing, "A year in the making." Then, as pieces of your shared life play, Joel sings the song he wrote when he thought he would never see you again, let alone get to hold you the way he does in many of the clips. You each post it to your Instagram with pride and only a little bit of (healthy) fear. You caption yours, "To the love of my life, thank you for being patient with me. I will always get coffee with you." Joel captions his, "You're my favorite secret. I love you, pretty girl."

Your posts blow up with comments, reposts, and likes, and the music video surpasses one million views overnight. Neither of you really cares about that. The only thing you care about is the fact that the entire world knows you're back together, and nothing has changed. You still fall asleep in his arms that night and make breakfast together in the morning. 

You're unsure what the next year of your lives will look like, but if it's anything close to you sliding Joel a cup of coffee while he cooks eggs for you and the girls, you think that's pretty damn good.

[yesterdayiwrote]

Ok I don’t really have a lot of proof to back any of this up but I feel like there’s something going on with George behind the scenes ? He doesn’t seem as active on social media lately , and when he is it’s always just about work , and again I don’t really known why but I get this feeling like whenever I see him in interviews during the race weekends he seems very PR than normal as if he’s got a wall up ? He just doesn’t seem as relaxed and happy as normal to me . Maybe I’m just imagining it but I don’t know if the Mercedes pressure behind the scenes is getting to him or if there’s something else ..

Hmmm, honestly, I don't know and George especially is one of the more private drivers about what's going on in his life so its even harder to judge.

I would say the social media thing has been the case for a while now, and if you see tye shit the poor guy gets everytime he posts anything, I don't think it's hard to see why he might be pulling back from using it even more, even via a social media manager because its not nice for anyone to have to trawl through the stuff that gets put in his comments without a second thought.

I also think people have this weird misconception that just because a driver isn't active online like you or I, that they don't know what's getting said about them, when in reality they have people whose entire job it is to tell them what kind of impression they're making online and what people's perceptions of them are. I'm sure hearing all the unhinged bullshit that people keep creating about him is taking its toll on the poor guy. I might be biased because I'm a fan, but the amount of unwarranted negative crap that's posted online about this guy recently is genuinely unhealthy and it's at a sustained level.

If he's deemed to have caused a crash, he's harassed, if he's deemed to have been the wronged party in a crash, he's harassed. If he beats his teammate, he gets abuse, if he gets beaten by his teammate, he gets abuse. Good race, he's lucky, bad race, he's washed. If he keeps it bottled up, he's he's PR robot, if he shows his human side, he's overreacting and too emotional... and that's before you factor in the people who genuinely believe he's sleeping with his boss, the people who think he for some reason singlehandedly engineered Mercedes bad run of cars, and the people who think he has some unspecified vendetta against the guy he can't speak highly enough of at any given opportunity. Oh and the people who think it's okay to film him taking a piss and post it online to joke about. It must be genuinely exhausting to be George right now, especially as a guy who's been quite honest about the fact that he tries really hard to not upset people or cause offence. Even breathing seems to set people off these days.

Then there's the fact that the car sucks yet again. People seem to think this only bothers one driver, but I'm sure George is equally as pissed that he waited so long, put his trust and patience with Merc and this is how they've repaid him. He's barely had a chance to win six races with them, let alone six WDC.

His teammate has decided to leave and somehow in the crossfire, he's looking like he could end up losing his own seat in the mess to replace him for no valid reason whatsoever. I'm sure he's absolutely livid, as any driver would be.

He looks completely jet lagged, because he's been flying back between races which doesn't help. It also looks like he flew into Japan quite late which really wouldn't have helped matters either. He's burning the candle at both ends, under immense stress and pressure... honestly, he probably isn't very relaxed and happy right now.

I hope he starts to have some good fortune soon. I really feel for the guy, and the fact a bunch of armchair critics seem to have decided that he somehow deserves all this, for committing the cardinal sin of believing in himself, makes it even harder to really wrap your head around. As I said the other day, he's inexplicably become the bête noire du jour in online spaces, and I'm sure that feels like utter shit when it's not really identifiably clear what you've done to trigger it?

[lara4eclipze]

“Better than me?”

sypnosis; "she was cute you know?" Megan chimes , "oh so she's better than me?" the older replied snarkly

cw; smut , mean Dom Sophia, sub Megan , fuckbuddies , sorta toxic , recent fics flopping 😔... , might be my last smut for this month cuz I'm planning out a smau....(still not sure tho) , short maybe less than 1k words!

being in a girl group was fun and enjoyable I mean you get to meet thousands of people who love and support you , the downside was freedom

ever since becoming a part of katseye every single member had been personally talked to about the rules and what the contract inscript

no dating , no posts on social media without managers looking thru them , no wearing clothes that were not yet approved by management and the list goes on

it was hard — they were teenagers and obviously they also had feelings , yet to protect their image they had to not date publicly..

—★

resulting in members being in relationships with each other it started with lara and manon — at first it was them being close to each other , suggestive jokes until they got caught kissing each other whilst in manon's room

but megan didn't want a relationship, it was exhausting , combat that with training and constant changes of schedule it wasn't gonna work

but when times like this was happening she couldn't help it , imagine seeing your members be touchy and feeling up to each other— especially sophia god damn that woman

she always held megan close the way her hands wrapped around the younger's waist has her subconsciously pressing her thighs together — the way her fingers trace Megan's tummy and her plump lips that was like a forbidden fruit

—★

"I dunno maybe you should ask her" dani responds to the ginger

"but I don't think she'll approve of that!—i mean how am I gonna ask that?" megan says her voice was like a scream

"you never know.." dani says standing up form the beanbag on the floor to walk out the room

now left with her thoughts and prayers megan decided it's now or never

—★

knocking on the leaders door megan enters greeted by sophia organizing her stickers

"hey" she softly greeted

"hi baby what do you need?" the older replied

fuck,her hands got sweaty , her heartbeat going so fast it probably will explode — calm down you want her to know this right?

"so you know uh- lara and uhm manon right?" Megan stammered

"what about them?" sophia replied her eyebrows raising out of pure concern

"and you know they kinda started as fuck... buddies?— well I was wondering if we can uhm"

"oh you want that with me?"

"yes..?" megan closes her eyes only to feel Sophias hands on her jaw

"okay—if that's what you really want" sophia nods at her kissing her cheeks

—★

and thats how it started — as ashamed megan felt for even asking that or thinking about it she's happy that she tried

yet something will always go wrong , sophia was very possessive over megan , ever since the agreement, she would practically pry off Megan off any other member when they were being clingy or even just talking

—★

NYC was a big city , with loads of interesting places to go to , so the girls decided to go out and have fun

I mean they did have a comeback soon so they atleast had to rest and have fun before that

spotting an ice cream shop yoonchae excitedly told the rest of the girls whom all agreed on having ice cream

"I want choco chip!" yoonchae exclaims

"we'll have a rocky road" manon says signaling to her and lara

"I would like strawberry please" dani grins

"and you megan?" sophia asks as she listed down all the orders in her notes app

"do they have caramel?" megan asks , as she looks at the leader

"yeah , okay sit down I'll order" sophia says to which the girls follow sitting down on the corner booth if the store

"would that be all?" the cashier asks

"yes! and maybe extra tissues aswell" the leader nods and smiles

—★

as their order number got called megan volunteered to get the ice cream, she earned nods from the members

"thank you so much" megan smiles her dimples showing

the cashier was smooth with it she didn't even know how it happened but now she was giving her number to her

"you're really pretty!—maybe we can talk more I guess you have to go right?" the cashier says

"oh definitely!—heres my number" megan says blushing, she shows her phone

as she walk back to the table she couldn't even pretend not to notice sophia staring at her , her brows furrowed

"ooh what was that Megan" daniela teases

"I dunno — she just asked for my number" megan shrugs , as the other members continue teasing her

"and you gave your number to her?" the leader cuts

"yeah?—i mean she's cute" megan says , skeptical about the leaders reaction

—★

as the girls wind down in the dorms megan had this nagging feeling of something will go wrong—sophia has been off ever since the ice cream shop

was it because of the cashier?—or maybe she's too naive how deep sophia's possessiveness goes for her

deciding to know megan knocks on the leaders door , only for the door to open right away with sophia pulling her in

—★

"what was that about" sophia starts her voice was authoritative , stern and not anything like normal

"what was what?" megan replies confused

"oh you know damn well—why would you give your number to her?" sophia snaps

"shes cute you know?" megan replies, she wanted a reaction out of the older — and she was gonna get it

"oh so she's better than me?" the older replied snarkly

the olders eyes blazed , megan gulps — barely processing it sophia already had her pinned against the wall roughly making out with her

the older bit megan's lips for access, which she granted after whimpering

"you're mine fuckin remember that" she spits out as her hands tighten around megan's neck causing the younger to see stars

she continues her rough handling and removes megan's clothes pinching the younger breasts , she does the same to herself shedding off her clothing and leading them to bed

sophia grabs a scarf and ties it around megan's hands keeping her immobile

"so pretty for me" sophia says her long nails trailing around the youngers stomach down to her thighs

she stands up and walks to her closet pulling out her strap

oh fuck

sophia straps it in , seeing how megan dripped onto the bed, clenching on air as she waits for what's next

sophia walks back kissing down the youngers face , her fingers on megan's clit stimulating her before pushing in the whole length of the strap in megan

"fuck!" megan whines her legs wrapping around sophia urging the older to go faster and she did pounding into Megan like her life depended on it

"you like that whore?" sophia says in between her gasps and groans

"mhm-ye-yes!" megan replies as tears fell onto her cheeks due to pleasure

"your cunt so fucking desperate huh?" sophia says , as she felt megan tighten around her

megan didn't know and didn't care either way she felt so good

"close!" megan screams , as her orgasm crashes on her , her legs getting weak and her heartbeat going slower

afterwards sophia pulls out with a wet sound , her hands untying megan's

"I love you" sophia whispers as megan's eyes fluttered close

"I love you too" megan mumurs