#that said the number should still be higher but this is just presidents who have gotten caught

[chongoblog]

“average u.s president is indicted for 2 felonies" factoid actualy just statistical error. average president indicted for 0 felonies. Crimes Donal, who consistently and obviously breaks the law and has been indicted for 91 felonies, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

A recent study (sorry, some stuff I can only find in Hebrew, this is one of those articles) shows 83% of Israeli kids are experiencing psychological distress since Oct 7. Among the kids of the south, (the area which was hit the worst, and where even communities that were not massacred by Hamas, were evacuated following this massive invasion), the percentage is even higher, 93%. An important note is that the study sampled both Jewish and Arab kids based on the size of these populations (Arabs make up 21% of Israeli citizens).

The IDF published aerial footage of Hamas stealing humanitarian aid from regular Gazans, and beating them up. If there's a blog that claims to be sharing pro-Palestinian info, but doesn't share this kind of news, they're not really pro-Palestinian, they're just exploiting Palestinians as an excuse to be anti-Israel.

The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, is believed to have escaped from the northern Gaza City to the south, to Khan Younis, in a medical convoy. Just take in the cynical use of medical and humanitarian protections, to do anything which would prolong the fighting, no matter how many Palestinian lives it would cost. I'm trying hard to remember any other (real) liberation movement that was directly responsible for the deaths of so many of the people it seeked to liberate...

Five Israeli soldiers were pronounced dead yesterday, four were killed in Gaza, while one was badly wounded on Oct 7, and after over two months in hospital, passed away. The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza so far is 97. Up until number, the bloodiest battle Israel has had to wage in Gaza since withdrawing from it, was operation Protective Edge in 2014, with 70 Israeli soldiers killed.

The Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister said, when discussing plans for Gaza after the end of the war, that Hamas is an integral part of the Palestinian mosaic, and that dismantling Hamas is unacceptable to the Palestinian Authority.

Yesterday, an American base in Iraq was attacked by Hezbollah forces. You absolutely should ask yourself why the terrorist organization calling itself the "defender of Lebanon" has units in Iraq, and how is attacking American forces there helping Lebanon. Just a side note, Iran funds Hezbollah.

Also yesterday, the Yemenite terrorist group known as the Houthis announced that instead of going after Israeli ships only, they will target any ship that is headed for Israel through one of the most important naval routes in the world, and which is Israel's only connection to the far east. Essentially, it means they're placing Israel under a naval blockade. I'm looking forward to people condemning Yemen for occupying Israel. Just a side note, Iran funds the Houthis.

Today, it was published that in Cyprus, two Iranian political refugees, who entered the country with a fake passport, were arrested for collecting intel to carry out a terrorist attack against Israelis there. Just a side note, these refugees were in touch with Iran's political militarized force, IRGC. Stop me when you notice a theme here...

On the first even of Hanukkah, 138 hanukkiot were lit at the Kotel (the Western wall), one for each hostage. Since then, two of the hostages have been confirmed as murdered.

Following the Congress hearing where three presidents of prestigious universities couldn't explicitly say that a call for the genocide of the Jewish people constitutes bullying and harassment, UPenn's president resigned. That's good, but I wanna point out that, as their answers were obviously coordinated, down to repeating the exact same terms, there is no difference between UPenn's president and the ones of Harvard and MIT. They all need to go home. And the universities still have the burden of proof that this will be more than a cosmetic change in leadership.

I watched a TV interview with two married Israeli Harvard professors, who recounted how they went out and celebrated when Claudine Gay was elected as their university's president, and now they've chosen to leave Harvard and the US, to return to Israel, because the campus has become an environment that's just too toxic. I think if the amount of Jews who are moving to Israel, while the country is in a state of war, isn't a wake up call for the west, then nothing will be.

On the left is 25 years old Gal Eizenkott, the son of Israel's former Chief of Staff, and current minister, who is a part of the war cabinet, Gadi Eizenkott. I wrote about Gal in previous daily updates. Something I can add is that his father happened to be in an IDF command center, when they got the news of the incident in which Gal was killed. It took several minutes for the info to arrive at the command center, that one of those soldiers injured mortally was Gadi's son.

On the right is 19 years old Maor Cohen Eizenkott. Maor is Gal's cousin, and was a soccer player. He was killed a day after Gal, when an explosive device planted in a Gaza mosque blew up. Maor was buried today. May his memory be a blessing.

This is 53 years old Eitan Levi.

He was a taxi driver, who on Oct 7 took a lady to one of the kibbutzim on the border of Gaza. On his way back, he called his sister, telling her about the rocket barrages into Israel, and that he was scared. She stayed with him on the line as he was driving back from the south of Israel, but then he was stopped, his sister heard Arabic, shouts of "Allahu Akbar" and shots. Later, his phone was detected in Gaza, and he was considered kidnapped. Then Hamas released a video of its terrorists abusing a body. It was beyond recognition, but based on some accessories, the army finally determined it was Eitan, that he had been murdered on Oct 7, and it was his body that was kidnapped to Gaza. His sister watched the vid, but as the body is unrecognizable, she said in an interview, "He's the only family I have in this world. We don't even have a body to sit Shiva for. Until such time, I'm going to keep hoping he's alive, kidnapped and just injured."

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #185

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction - practically first drafts - posted daily (haven't missed one yet!) and sometimes written with the express intention of being terrible… but, you know, in an endearing way. Please like and reblog if you enjoy - the notes keep me going!

He's gonna be Frank with you. Read the rest of The Frank Program here on Tumblr!

“Ladies and gentlemen…” Frank took a puff from his cigarette and exhaled. “This is The Frank Program. Today we have some returning faces - will you two please introduce yourselves?”

“I’m Chuck Tangent. Billionaire, genius, CEO of four or five companies… I’m sure you’ve all heard of me.”

“I’m Big Mike from Morning Thunder, or, uh, well I used to be. On that note, uh…” Mike rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d like to apologize for my behavior last time I was on this program. It was inappropriate of me to drink and hit on the female guest. I’m very sorry for my actions - sorry to Ms. Pope, sorry to the listeners, and most importantly, sorry to my wife. Babe, I still think we can make this work. Please don’t give up on me.”

There was an awkward silence. Frank cleared his throat. “Uh huh. Well, anyway, Chuck, how is your presidential campaign coming along?”

“Hm?”

“You’re running for President, last we chatted.”

Tangent leaned back in his chair. “Oh, yes, of course. I got bored of that.”

“Bored?”

“It no longer interested me. But I’ve found someone even better to take my place.”

“Who’s that?”

“The child I never had, Frank: Hailey Two-Point-Oh.”

Mike sobbed quietly. “We never got to have any children…”

Chuck ignored him. “Hailey is not only taking my place in the presidential race, but as CEO of one of my companies - Arx Industries - as well as its flagship product.”

“So you’re sellin’ your daughter, Chuck? I’m not positive that’s legal.”

“She’s an artificial intelligence, Frank. Hailey runs on cloud servers in a data farm somewhere. But don’t let the name fool you - she’s not technically a girl, just a collection of ones and zeroes. Much smarter than any of my real kids, of course.”

“Well’n, how’s that going for you?” Frank took a swig from his flask and another drag from his cigarette.

“It’s going great. In fact, Arx Industries stock has never been higher.” He held up his phone. “I’m tracking it real-time as we speak.”

“Is that, uh…” Frank waved his hand at the camera set up in the corner of the room. “Is that why you’ve got a live broadcast going here?”

“Yes, I have this interview streaming to my social media platform. That way, I can gauge the market’s reaction to my announcements.”

Mike really looked like shit. “Mr. Tangent, sir, do you think my wife might have already seen my apology?”

Chuck leaned over. “Yes,” he said, with a wink.

“What does that wink mean…?”

He whispered. “Most of my eight billion followers are bots. Don’t tell anyone. Shh.”

Mike laid his head back on the table and covered it with his hands.

“Anyway, Frank, it’s time to find out what Hailey’s policy positions will be. Hailey?”

“Yes, Daddy,” replied an uncomfortably sultry voice.

“What is your position on abortion?”

“All women should be forcibly sterilized so that no abortions can ever happen again! Tee-hee!”

“Hm.” Chuck rubbed his chin. “Not what I would have said, but I respect it.”

Frank shrugged. “It’s out of the box, for sure.”

“Let’s see what our stock is looking like… and it’s down twelve points. Frank, can you pull up our polling numbers?”

“Lemme see here…” Frank fiddled with his phone. “What in the blazes…”

“How does it look?”

“Is that even possible?”

“Good?”

“Y’all are pollin’ negative numbers, Chuck. A negative number a’ people said they’re voting for Hailey Tangent. I don’t even know what that means.”

“It’s broken…” Mike wept. “It’s all broken…”

“Mikey…” Frank rubbed his forehead. “Just because I’m lettin’ ya sleep here doesn’t mean you need to be in every episode - unless ya either got somethin’ to say or you can work the computer for me.”

Big Mike crawled under the desk and curled up into a ball.

“Thanks, bud.”

“Sorry, Frank, I really should be going.” Chuck checked his watch. “I have a board meeting in half an hour and I really must work on Hailey’s debate skills before tonight. It was great talking to you.”

“Oh, uh, no problem, Chuck.” He reached out to shake his hand.

Chuck tapped on his smart watch a few times and evaporated into plasma, scorching the seat he was in.

“I hope he’s alright… anyway, this has been The Frank Program.” Frank downed the last of his flask. “Thank you - yes, you! For letting me be Frank with you. I love all of you. Goodnight. Or good morning, or whatever.”

[mariacallous]

The United States is still pushing to seize outright all the frozen Russian Central Bank assets it can to help fund Ukraine, even as broader Ukraine funding remains blocked by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives. But it is becoming clearer that in Europe, the only politically realistic approach to using Russian money to fund Ukraine is by tapping a much smaller windfall that amounts to about 1 percent of Moscow’s frozen funds.

The big question is whether that relatively small amount can be squeezed even harder to provide a more substantial and ongoing funding stream for Ukraine, which is now worried less about postwar reconstruction than the grim situation of its ammo-starved army on the battlefield.

“There is a massive financing crisis. Europe and the West are not really addressing it,” said Timothy Ash, a sovereign strategist at RBC Bluebay Asset Management and a fellow at Chatham House, a U.K. think tank. He figures Ukraine needs about 100 billion euros a year to fight off the Russian invasion, and another 50 billion euros a year for reconstruction.

On paper, a big chunk of that money is theoretically available. There don’t appear to be any insurmountable legal obstacles to seizing the entirety of the roughly $300 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets held by Europe, the United States, and a handful of other countries since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor two years ago. What’s lacking is political will. Legislation to authorize such a seizure has yet to pass the full U.S. Congress (though a version may get wrapped into the latest congressional effort to fund Ukraine), and Europe, fearing Russian retaliation, has balked at that more aggressive step.

What is gaining momentum in Brussels, however, is a less controversial option that would take the approximately $3 billion a year that accrues from frozen Russian assets and use that money for Ukraine. It’s a fraction of the more ambitious proposals, and faces many of the same legal questions, but seems to have more political backing from key countries such as Belgium (custodian of the lion’s share of frozen Russian assets).

Last month, the European Union formally ordered the accumulating profits from Russian assets to be hived off and kept separate from the underlying balance, with a view to supporting Ukraine at a later date. Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen went further, arguing that the windfall proceeds could be used not just to pay for Ukraine’s eventual reconstruction but also for its present-day arms requirements. On Monday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Belgium is ready to allocate some of the proceeds (held largely in Belgium’s Euroclear financial clearinghouse) to fund Ukraine’s defense needs.

“All the signals suggest the Europeans are prepared to make use of the Euroclear windfall,” said Brad Setser, an expert on capital flows and sovereign debt at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The only questions are how assets outside Euroclear are handled, and whether they are willing to get creative to maximize the income stream.”

Setser, like many other economists, advocates a more aggressive approach to managing the captive Russian Central Bank assets—the 3 billion euros or so a year that accrue currently are a floor, not a ceiling, he said.

“The 3 billion [euros] is the lowest possible number that you can imagine. It should be much bigger,” said Setser, who is also a former U.S. Treasury official. Given that the frozen Russian assets are likely to remain that way for some time, he argued for a more proactive approach—for instance, by investing the proceeds that are piling up in Europe in higher-yielding U.S. dollar deposits or in even higher-yielding sovereign debt from different countries.

It’s a view that is gaining adherents among finance professionals, who make both an economic and a moral case for a more aggressive use of Russian assets. Ash suggested investing those Russian proceeds in emerging market bonds that could fetch returns of up to 10 percent a year; another, more audacious idea is to use the money to purchase Ukrainian government bonds directly, thus using Russia’s frozen treasure to underwrite Ukraine’s survival. Still other suggestions include using the trickle of annual proceeds to service debt on future joint EU bond issues that could be used to finance Ukraine in one big lump sum.

For Ash, finding a way to make better use of the frozen Russian funds is a political imperative; European taxpayers have so far supported Ukraine to the tune of tens of billions of euros, while Russians have not, partly out of lingering concerns about violating the sanctity of the Russian state’s alleged property rights.

“Our taxpayer dollars are subordinate to the Russian taxpayers,” he said. “We are willing to pick up the check for Russia’s aggression, but not prepared to charge Russia for it?”

Since momentum began building last year for the seizure of Russia’s frozen assets, the situation has changed in two related ways.

First, as von der Leyen made clear last week, those funds aren’t just thought of as a down payment on Ukraine’s estimated $400 billion to $500 billion reconstruction tab. The lack of artillery shells, advanced jets, and long-range fire handicapped Ukraine’s long-planned offensive last year and enabled Russian forces to shrug off staggering losses and regain the battlefield initiative earlier this year.

“It seems a little early to be talking about full reconstruction,” Setser said. “Ukraine’s in a fight for survival.” He said that one advantage highlighted by von der Leyen’s proposal would be to provide a recurring, predictable stream of funding for Ukrainian armaments purchases, which could help kick-start so far laggard European production of much-needed munitions.

“What I think is clever about von der Leyen’s proposal is that, if you take my view and invest it in 10-year securities, this is actually a stable future income stream for Ukraine and Ukrainian weapons purchases,” he said. “So you could use it to buy arms this year, and next year, and thereby incentivize increased [arms] production.”

More broadly, Europe’s (and the United States’) struggle to outsource the fight in Ukraine at relatively small levels of expenditure means that, if Russia prevails over Ukraine, other European countries would feel threatened—with a much bigger bill to pay in the future than a few score billion euros of Russia’s money today. European countries have increased their defense spending to record levels but are still largely short of the informal threshold of 2 percent of GDP required of NATO members. If Ukraine loses, Ash suggested, Europe would have to ramp up to closer to 3 percent on defense spending—about 400 billion euros a year, every year.

“Is Ukraine’s security a national security priority? I would say absolutely it is. Then how are we going to fund it?” Ash asked. “In the end, you do whatever you have to do to do that, and the only credible source of funding for Ukraine is from Russian assets.”

[mightyflamethrower]

A poll was released Sunday taken by the New York Times and Siena College. The poll is a disaster for Joe Biden’s re-election hopes. In five out of six of the most important battleground states, Donald Trump is ahead of Biden.

To say that a panic has set in among Democrats is an understatement. David Axelrod, the Democratic strategist credited with Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, suggests that Biden drop out. Axelrod pointed to the NYT/Siena College poll for justification of his opinion. The poll shows that Trump leads Biden in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania. Biden won all of those states when he ran against Trump in 2020.

Axelrod posted his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) and acknowledged it would be difficult to “change horses” now. Only Biden can make the decision, he notes, and Biden’s staff say Biden is determined to run.

Age is a big factor in the discontent with Biden. That is something Biden can’t change.

I think it is interesting that Axelrod asks the question of whether it is in his (Biden’s) best interest to run or in the best interest of the country. A majority of Americans do not want another Biden-Trump race in 2024. Joe Biden is not popular, in fact he has historically low polling numbers across the board. We are one year out from the election tomorrow. According to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll, three-quarters of Americans (76%) believe the country is headed in the wrong direction. That is a devastating number for a president up for re-election. Republicans are most negative about the direction of the country, with 95% saying so. 76% of independents and 54% of Democrats think the same.

It’s interesting that Axelrod said that Biden wants to run on his successes. What would those be? Democrats are proud of ramming through the Green New Deal 2.0 with the misleading titled bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. They point to infrastructure bills and the reduction of insulin costs for seniors, but there really is no real record of success for Joe Biden. That is shown in the unhappiness of Americans with his presidency.

The southern border is open, inflation is high, cost of living expenses are up, mortgage rates are high, rent is up, gas prices are still higher than they were during the Trump years, and Biden drained the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for a momentary reduction in gas prices with little success. Biden’s parade of horribles goes on and on. On top of poor results, Biden looks and sounds feeble and just too old. He is about to turn 81-years-old. He should be permanently at his beach house enjoying time with the grandkids, not trying to run the United States.

That brings us to another thorny aspect of the Biden administration. Barack Obama is running the White House. It is his third term. This is how it was always meant to be. It was reported last week that Obama has been advising the Biden White House on AI for months. Obama has made himself more available to the press lately by releasing his thoughts about the Israel-Hamas war, as wrong-headed as his thoughts are. Obama can’t give up control, as we all knew would happen. Who would think that Biden is calling the shots in the White House? He’s dazed and confused just entering or exiting a room. I think it is Obama and Jill Biden running the place.

The NYT/Siena College poll found that Trump is preferred over Biden on the issues of immigration, national security and on the current war in Israel. Those issues are on everyone’s minds since October 7. Biden is already going wobbly on full-throated support for Israel because he is losing support of Arab and Muslim voters in states like Michigan. He now calls for a “pause” which is a ceasefire. It’s unacceptable.

Biden is losing support of young voters, black voters, and Hispanic voters. Those are all the groups of voters who brought him to victory in 2020.

Less than half of Black people (49%) and Hispanic people (33%) have a favorable impression of Biden. Both of these groups voted overwhelmingly for him in the 2020 presidential election. According to ABC News’ 2020 exit poll, 87% of Black voters supported Biden in 2020 as did 65% of Hispanic voters. If someone other than Trump or Biden is the nominee of their respective party, about three in 10 Americans say they would be more likely to vote for the candidate of that party, but many more say that it would not make a difference in their vote. By a 23-point margin (31% to 8%), Americans would be more likely to vote for the Republican candidate if someone other than Trump is the party’s nominee. That margin is slightly higher among Republicans (37% to 9%) and independents (38% to 9%). Just under half (48%) say someone other than Trump being on the ballot would make no difference in their vote. Similarly, by a 25-point margin (29% to 4%), Americans would be more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate if someone other than Biden is the party’s nominee — with 55% saying it would make no difference. The margin is somewhat higher, 35 points, among both Democrats and independents.

Inflation and the economy are still the most important issues for voters. Voters vote with their pocketbooks and a majority do not feel better off today than they were four years ago. That is to Trump’s advantage. Voters think back to his term in office and how good the economy was and how most aspects of life were better for Americans. Biden, on the other hand, has brought nothing but pain to families as they try to manage their budgets and keep the bills paid. More than 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.

Axelrod is right to point out it would be difficult to change candidates at this point. However, what is the point of bringing it up if he doesn’t want to encourage the party to get someone waiting in the wings – like Gavin Newsom? Newsom is chomping at the bit to parachute in and run. If David Axelrod is publicly pushing the panic button, it means that privately Democrats have their hair on fire. You hate to see it happen. Just kidding. Democrats asked for it.

[lethalbutterfly]

Several months before the election, my boss, a Trump supporter, was saying something about how the 2020 election was rigged, Trump only lost because "they" (presumably just a general sense of conspiratorial authoritarian democrats in government?) gave all the mail-in ballots to Biden.

And my response to this was something along the lines of "Even if that were true, what do you propose we do about it? I hate to say it, but if you can't trust the process by which votes are counted, then you don't actually believe in democracy. There's no place to go from there other than having you personally count the votes yourself, or to just not have elections altogether."

My position on this is that the make-or-break issue for me this election was weather or not Democracy should exist. There were plenty of other reasons why I voted for Kamala, but that one was the most important. Trump said during a rally he would "fix it so you don't have to vote anymore" he said during the debate that he still does not accept the results of the previous election. There was one party actively advertising themselves as disestablishing the checks and balances of our government as they have been done 2016, and going on to promise rigged elections, and they've laid plenty of groundwork for it:

Gerrymandering favors the republican party in most places. Statistically, the higher the voter turnout, the greater the margin democrats win by. In the entire >300 year history of our government, there have been only 3 times that the electoral vote has disagreed with the popular vote- ALL THREE times in favor of the republican party (granted their platform was drastically different back in 1876 when it benefited Hayes, they weren't the insane racist maniacs they are today, the fact that the other 2/3rds of this deeply anomalous occurrence happened within the most recent 25 years of our country's existence is another anomaly in and of itself). And last but not least, the same sentiment echoed by my boss in the wake of the 2020 election, the conspiracy that the votes themselves simply cannot be trusted, which is difficult to argue and disprove without intimate specialized knowledge of how votes are counted, and which makes it very easy for someone who lost the vote to forcibly claim the presidency, if there's widespread sentiment that he didn't REALLY lose despite what the numbers say.

What I'm trying to build up to here is that, since I positioned free elections as my #1 issue for this election, I cannot very well go around and claim that the election is wrong, can I? I wish it were a mistake. The world would be better off if it were a mistake, but there's no evidence for that, and trying to delegitimize the election is the strategy used by those who don't want there to be elections at all. Or at least don't want elections to be heeded. Was the election fair? No. There was voter suppression and disenfranchisement just like there always is, but it was out in the open, just like it always is, not in privately stuffed ballots or secretly hacked machines. We can fight against the unfairness of the election by trying to reduce or eliminate gerrymandering and the electoral college in favor of a popular vote, and by supporting ranked choice voting, but fighting for those goals is going to be extremely difficult when the presidency (and the Supreme Court for that matter) is held by the party whose power is cemented by those things.

Maybe it won't be for everyone, but it has been a small solace to me that this is the will of the American people, and not a miscarriage of justice carried out by a fully rigged system. It was not the decision of oligarchs that there should not be a democracy, but democratically elected that there should not be a democracy (ironic).

And before anyone reading this gives into Despair at the way I'm phrasing this, I would like to add something else:

I have several friends who are both more politically minded and just generally more intelligent than I, and they belive that, in spite of Trump's campaign promises to the contrary, there WILL still be an election in 2028. He will, most likely, not be able to get so far as fully abolishing elections in a single term. It will be an election less fair than what we just went through, more people are going to be disenfranchised depending on how much of Project2025/Agenda47 gets passed. And I know that the mere existence of voting in 4 years being considered a victory is setting the bar so low it's a tripping hazard in hell. But it is not unrecoverable. In 2020, we turned Georgia and Nevada blue. Trump voters are going to feel betrayed when their grocery prices are driven further up by deregulation and inflation. This election teaches us that regardless of who is really responsible for the hardships of Americans, most voters will simply blame whatever party is in charge at the time.

It's going to take a lot more work, but it's possible.

(I myself regret not doing more to send out calls and texts for the campaign, speak up against misinformation, and just monetarily donate tbh. I intend to do these things when 2028 rolls around, as well as look for other opportunities along the way.)

If your democrat friends start muttering about stolen election conspiracy theories, the time to have a sit down with them and express your concerns is NOW, while you still have a chance to reach them, not 6 months from now when they're fully conspiracy-pilled.

Here's some of the talking points and why they're bullshit:

'10 million votes don't just disappear!' -> Joe Biden's 81 million votes were a statistical outlier, sparked by the recent experience of the Trump presidency. The democrats failed to maintain that sense of urgency, but Harris still got more votes than Hillary Clinton, more than Obama and more than any previous democratic candidate. These numbers are not weird at all.

'The Republicans tried to infiltrate election- and vote counting organizations!' -> yeah, they did, and yet hundreds of independent legal observers didn't see anything go wrong enough to raise any alarms. Independent exit polls are also very consistently similar to the counted votes. Tons of international organizations specialized in this stuff observed the election and didn't see a reason to raise the alarm.

'But I know a dozen democrats whose mail-in votes were not counted!' -> In any election a certain number of votes are registered as invalid because something was wrong with the ballot. In a country the size of the US, that translates to many thousands of votes. The internet allows these people to find each other, creating the false impression that a suspiciously large group of voted was not valid.

'Musk used Star Link to mess with electronic voting!' -> Electronic voting machines are not connected to the internet and dozens of independent media have already debunked this myth. It is absolutely impossible to use Star Link to fake election results.

'There is voter disenfranchisement!' -> This is true. This has always been true, for every election. It's an issue worth talking about but it's not a special secret conspiracy that's unique to this election.

But just as importantly as the facts: sit down with your friend and talk about the anxiety that's behind their conspiracy leanings. Acknowledge their pain and fear. Help them find ways to feel less powerless and regain their sense of agency. Take them to a mutual aid event, involve them in a fundraising event for a marginalized group, invite them to a local community effort. If they spend more time feeling connection and empowerment and less time doom scrolling online, they're far more likely to stay in reality.

[mswayambhu-blog]

Memoirs of COP29: Baku

It has been an event of sorts, for some it was a beacon of hope, while for some it was an utter failure. While people and representatives are free to make their own opinion, but every coin has two sides. In Jain philosophy there’s a concept of “Syatwad” that advocates that there could be seven different perspectives of looking at anything in this world and all of them could be correct simultaneously. Thus, everyone can have their opinion and in spite of they being ironical or event appearing to be opposite, they all can be correct and we should have the courage to accept and appreciate other’s opinions as well. We also had mixed experience during the event, but compared to COP28: Dubai, this was relatively a low-key affair. Smaller venue, lesser crowd, higher security, high restrictions, much more compact and lesser participation. But we ended up achieving much more. Starting from media interview to presentation in both the zones (Blue & Green), Exploring the third zone (innovation zone), participating in side events, interaction with academia, and corporates as well as country representatives from across the globe.

Day-1

The US elections were on top of the mind for the opening speech, with Trump’s “drill baby drill” phrase being used to create ripples in the Climate Action fraternity.

But, frankly speaking, that’s just politics. The most consistent feature of the president-elect is his unpredictability. If he realises that he’s going wrong, he doesn’t mind taking a U-turn.

Moreover, promising money to COP, and funding two conflicts to create war, is anyways no better for the environment anyways.

So, the hope is still on, rest all is speculation. As we said earlier, COP needs a “path & pace correction”, moving from “emission focus” to “sequestration focus”!

The sooner they realize it, the better it is for the world.

Day -2

I understand that the post is delayed. I’m literally posting on end of Day 3, but as the engagement grows, it’ll be tough to post on the same day. It’s a happening event, the visitors get divided into Blue Zone, Green Zone and side events.

The security arrangements are much tougher than COP28, even for the Green Zone, which is usually open to all public. In Dubai, even with out an invite, you could get the pass right at the gate of Green Zone, but it isn’t the same at Baku. Even if you have the invite and a confirmation number, you can’t enter the green zone, till your passport details are not shared with the registration desk.

So, what happens to those who are unable to join in? The side events come to rescue their travel. On 12th November, 2024, we’ve had the following side events –

Achieving transformative climate action through gender responsive, rights-based economic approaches

Transition Away from Fossil Fuels: Technology & Market - Based instruments for Net-Zero Actions

Innovations to maximize tropical forests’ contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation

What can Migrants and Displaced Persons bring to the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage?

Decarbonization beyond the value chain: navigating between carbon credits and climate contributions

Climate Science: key take aways in 2024

A message from the Frozen World – the Global Impact of a Changing Cryosphere

Carbon Dioxide Removal: Considerations for Responsible Deployment on Land and Ocean

Towards real, people-led, gender just solutions

Raising the ambition of urban climate action through multilevel governance

Designing for Quality and Equity in Clean Cooking Carbon Projects

Sovereign Wealth Impact: Powering Finance for the SDGs

New Horizons in Methane-Emissions Abatement

Fostering Climate Adaptation and Resilience in Small Island States and Beyond

New Forest Economies: Subnational Government Strategies, REDD+, & Local Engagement

Leveraging blended finance: catalyzing sustainable investments for global impact

Making Climate Finance Work for Climate Action in Agriculture and Food Security

Now tell me, with so many events happenings, you meet hundreds of people, who are all sustainability professionals belonging to the same tribe. So, would you call it day utilized or wasted? So, the bottom line is, when you go with positive bent of mind, you can actually take advantage of the hurdles as well and make it and asset for yourself. That’s a learning from Day-2 of Baku.

Day -3 Very exciting day today, full of meetings, symposiums and focused discussions.

Key reports of the Standing Committee on Finance for COP29

Driving Gender-just Energy Transition through Financing and Capacity Building in the Global South

Trade and investment policies to advance climate ambition and sustainable development

Scaling up Nature Finance and Enterprise in the Amazon Basin and Beyond

Artificial Intelligence solutions to enable rapid scale up of Renewable Energy

Transformational Adaptation

Supporting Indigenous-Peoples led solutions to climate change and loss and damage

Ensuring Integrity in the Voluntary Carbon Market

Open access activity data and digital tools to help countries and other stakeholders meet their ETF

Unlocking the potential for financing methane mitigation from solid waste for the NDCs and beyond

Innovation Ecosystems for Climate Action: Digital Technologies, Industrial Solutions, and Governance

Scaling up climate action in fragile states: what are the hurdles and how to overcome them?

Innovative Pathways for Emission Reduction: Perspectives from NGOs, Government and Private Sector

Tackling Corruption: A Missing Piece in the Climate Finance Agenda

Fully funded, fair, fast, and feminist phase-out of fossil fuels in the United States

Recognizing Net Zero Ambition and Accelerating Progress

The teething troubles have been sorted out. Met some wonderful people doing great work in the environment sector from carbon capture to waste management to governance to finance. This is a platform to showcase the good work, unfortunately all people working on ground are not able to afford taking a stall here, because they’re working for saving the planet, and not making money.

Government and intergovernmental discussions happen in the Blue Zone, at least these people working on ground should get a place in the Green Zone. Or maybe create a White Zone from COP30, so that these wonderful works could be showcased and replicated across the globe. We’ve maximized the foot prints of pollution, now is the time to globalize the footprints of restoration too.

Met some good corporates from Azerbaijan, Saudi ad UAE, all keen to diversify towards NbS, which was a good surprise. In fact, even an industrial training institute was affirmative to add a course on NbS to their curriculum, which was quite unexpected. Met a few Environment Ministers from African Union too, who were keen on restoration of natural resources.

Day -4 A very happening day, full of professional, emotional, physical and mental roller-coaster rides.

The day started with a wonderful session on “Cooling the heat: Enhancing Energy Efficiency of Refrigeration and Cooling Sector”, followed by another session on “Drive climate ambition and finance”, then came a session on "Climate Finance for Fast Action", then came " Climate Technologies: Impact Stories", another on "Invest in Soil Health". Some sessions were happening parallelly too, fortunately we had a team of three. Side-by-side were also reaching out to MoEFCC to help us get through the Blue Zone badge for our session with Towards Healthy, Inclusive and Sustainable Food Systems: Agroecology, Soil Health, and Healthy Diets, organized by Coalition of Action 4 Soil Health (CA4SH), CIFOR-ICRAF, Agroecology Coalition, Youth in Agroecology and Restoration Network (YARN), The Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty (TIP).

Also met a power company from Romania and explained our perspective of green energy, and how to make large scale solar plants and age-old hydro-power dam reservoirs more sustainable. After which we had to rush to Climate Action Innovation Hub for specialized events focused upon —Sustainable Innovation Forum 2024, Hydrogen Transition Summit and Agri-Food Systems Summit at Baku Mariott Boulevard.

The next hop was COP29 Flagship Friday Evening Event - Climate Finance & Innovation: Adaptation & Resilience, held at Ganjlik Plaza, 95 Ataturk Avenue, Baku, which was yet another experience. Wonderful people, great deliberations, interesting discussions and serious business propositions. It was organized by AIM (not Atal Innovation Mission) but Azerbaijan Innovation Markaz, something like Startup India, back home.

Finally, the business day was over after this. Had dinner at Nizami street and concluded the day.

Day -5

The day started with Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) hosted event, the second Edition of CEEW Leaders’ Dialogue, on the sidelines of COP29, held at Hyatt Regency, Baku.

The dialogue hosted thought-provoking conversations with domain experts including Dr Arunabha Ghosh, Founder-CEO, CEEW, who deliberated on Accelerating the low-carbon drive of Bharat towards Viksit Bharat, followed by an elaborate panel discussion on Trillions for billions: Setting financing for development back on track. The second panel discussed upon the subject of “One size does not fit all: Crafting bespoke national energy transition plans”. Later we had deliberation on Water matters: Valuing sustainable and resilient water infrastructure, moderate by Nitin Bassi, Senior Programme Lead – Sustainable Water, CEEW, after which we had to rush back to green zone for a presentation.

At the green zone, we had an opportunity to interact with the teams of “Viveka Company Creation Program”, “Innovation and Digital Development Agency” of Azerbaijan (an initiative of Azerbaijan Innovation Center or the Azerbaijan Innovation Markazi, inaugurated on 2nd October, 2024 to boost up the startup ecosystem in the country) and a lot of sustainability startups being nurtured by Viveka, because “Viveka Company Creation Program” is a unique program for startups that want to advance from the early stage to the MVP, i.e. the minimum viable product stage. These startups were primarily from Azerbaijan, Turkey and Kazakhstan.

The startups included precision agriculture domain to Water treatment, oil sludge treatment, irrigation with AI integration and many other sustainability domain technologies.

[the-firebird69]

We have some people here who have some grudges against her son Dan is one of them and he made the problem himself and do it I was wondering around with a big ax to grind and people can see him and they say don't beat you up and he went close anyways and he's going to end up getting arrested again and worse coming up soon and then he'll be out and we really need it he's a huge huge pain there's a couple other people like him as we mentioned and they are idiots and we'll take actions as appropriate that we post an update so he can run around and lose more of a stuff

-right now in Charlotte county they are laying off the final 1000 workers for the county and it is quite a few people now it's 1,000 people and the city of punta Gorda is laying off 300 more workers out of the remaining 500 city of Port Charlotte is laying off a thousand workers out of the remaining 2000 workers the higher ups in Charlotte county and numbered 3500 last week they're down to 2800 they're going to fire 800 today and they have started on all these. The sheriff was at 350 for a couple weeks if I had 50 this morning. A lot of people it's easier for them to cut loose people.

-as a result of this morning's firings there are 300,000 at the interim and about 2 trillion at the outer ring and it's a very big number and the rest of Florida they are assembling to try and get here to threaten leaders and they're doing it shortly it is a very big crowd of people and the max reminder to take them out as we speak

-and some difficulty this morning and he called to apologize and said he has a brain abnormality and we suggested you repair it but he doesn't feel like he can and we have understanding but we still need us and to have things and others so we're going to start taking over companies. Many of them we've been trying to acquire and stated we were going to and it is still in negotiations we do have controlling share and are making massive changes within those companies regardless of what other chair people want or state and they are no longer president or CEO or chairman of the board and even some of their chairs are not there anymore because they just sit there and say no that's not good and they don't want anything to happen and we can't deal with it anymore they're part retarded people because of the surgeries

-you have several million people in Port Charlotte and punta Gorda who are unruly and call themselves adversaries of just about everybody Dave is one Trump and they're wanted men they're violating the conditions of the indictment and they're wanted for other crimes and it will be arrested today and held and if released they will work on why and it's not going thing it happens every day and they are asking for it as those two are and we'll be severely chastised for

-there's a huge number of people who are asking for it already they're simpletons they need to be stopped and we're sending more in more shortly

Thor Freya

Did you feel for him it is a disgusting atmosphere it's taking them a year and a half to do a simple renovation of a retail store and even my husband will get them done in 4 weeks or less and he's always burdened with tons of stupid things and as it goes it's a very simple renovation now they're going to be pleased with it except for these snowy floor smelly not snowy speaking of which high noon is coming up high tide after noon the tide will be falling around 1:00 p.m. or so give or take half an hour there will be effort coming out of the rivers on the southern Florida peninsula and specifically the Peace River is going to blast out we expect 4 ft of the mark and the harbor 4 ft as well and the canal should pump out 6 in to a foot and some cases it'll be completely clear it is a big occasion

Hera

It's an event but it could become a disaster and we have to monitor it. Repercussions from Tommy F losing a mild by appearance but he is mobilizing below and we have to infiltrate and it is a difficult task we're calling on all of ours to sign on and everyone to go to active duty and if you're an active duty and you're stressed and overworked you need to get your people to sign on

Olympus

[doberbutts]

It's always sat oddly with me whenever I see (frequently fellow POC) making this point of "oh well OUR death counts are higher and no one cares" because. Yes, sometimes our death counts ARE higher- the first one that jumped to mind watching this is the Native American population that even by extremely generous estimations is less than 1/5 of what it was pre-Columbus, though as the guy in the video points out we're talking centuries of extermination efforts and not less than half a decade with a higher population count to begin with so of course the numbers look way different.

HOWEVER I think also his point that he brings up that this is usually the problem with teaching history as a series of dates, names, and numbers instead of teaching the building blocks that got us to this point are a SIGNIFICANT factor in people both A: not giving nearly enough of a shit about literally any of these genocidal tragedies and B: not understanding the severity or how we got there.

And it does suck. It sucks that the genocide of this country's Native populations continues to be swept under the rug and totally erased by the colonizing society that's still to this day doing its damnedest to kill them. It sucks that we can't get our own politicians to actually discuss the ramifications of transatlantic slavery and Jim Crow on our black populations. It's awful that a precedent started multiple presidents ago of tossing Latinos in cages and mass deporting anyone with too-Spanish of a last name regardless of if they're citizens or not is still occurring today. It's terrible that we encouraged Asian immigrants to come to this country to work for us and then spat on them and tossed them south and into our slums or into camps when the work was finished. It's horrifying that a single act of war that the leader of our country knew about and let happen because it gave him his excuse also made it into hunting season for this country's Arab and Muslim population.

It SHOULD be talked about more. More people SHOULD care.

But saying "well at least they care about the holocaust"? That ain't it. Because usually those people who don't give a shit about any of that last paragraph also DON'T care about the holocaust, not really. If they even think it happened, it's usually the barest amount of lip service "oh yes that was bad I guess" and that's it.

We SHOULD care about the Holocaust. We should care that Hitler effectively built a Jew killing Machine and started feeding said Jew Killing Machine any Jews he could find and catch. If nothing else, to prevent it from happening again. To Jews. To anyone.

But I'm also not sold on the logic of the people like the person he stitched, that we should care less about one tragedy because other tragedies that are "worse" exist. Even if that was the case, I think when we get into the "whose genocide is worse" bickering, everyone has lost. None of these should have happened in the first place. People should know about and care about all of them. Caring about the Holocaust doesn't stop me from caring about black people.

I had a history teacher back in high school that changed the way I thought about history forever. Instead of the usual names and dates, which I can never remember and so have had horrendous grades in history growing up, he taught it like it was a story. From pre-historical Europe all the way to the 9/11 attack, we learned how each of these events stacked on top of each other and how each influenced the next. To this day it's the only A in history I've ever had, because for once I could finally understand how everything hooked together and what was going on. My next and final year of history was with a different teacher who just gave names and dates. My history grade went back to a C.

And I think, if that was my experience, and the experience of the thousands of kids who moved through that school system with me... how many of them didn't get that one history teacher who taught them in a way easier to comprehend? How many barely floated through history with a just-barely "adequate" understanding, and didn't actually absorb any of the information outside of the bare minimum required to pass? How many of them are walking around as adults? How many are teaching the next generation on that incredibly shakey ground? How many are out there directly contributing to this problem?

And how many others went through similar at other schools?

(X)

i’m going to let this video speak for itself. bc i don’t even know what to say anymore. i don’t know how we come back from this level of radicalization among young people to the point where holocaust denial has become the norm.

[coldprimavera]

Thread by @wwxwashere on Twitter

⚠️ WHAT IS HAPPENING IN BRAZIL: a thread ⚠️

am i going insane or more of the world should care about a country generating covid variants that could spread internationally? right

spoiler alert: covid is killing us. badly. no, it's not this bad everywhere. yes, you should care.

our government is DELIBERATELY and CLEARLY trying to kill us, not only not doing anything but actually trying to stop any help from getting here, with censorship to go with it.

PLEASE, READ RHIS THREAD

it's NOT this bad everywhere:

"No other nation that experienced such a major outbreak is still grappling with record-setting death tolls and a health care system on the brink of collapse."

yes, you SHOULD care:

"Preliminary studies suggest that the variant that swept through the city of Manaus is not only more contagious, but it also appears able to infect some people who have already recovered from other versions of the virus."

you REALLY should care:

"And the variant has slipped Brazil’s borders, showing up in two dozen other countries and in small numbers in the United States."

1 in every 4 covid deaths WORLDWIDE is happening in brazil, INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ISN'T TALKING ABOUT THIS ENOUGH.

our president?

- calling it "a little flu"

- literally making trying to legally stop states from lockdown

- blocked any attempts to get vaccines here for months

- recommended meds with no scientific proof which caused SEVERAL other deaths for overuse of improper meds

he refuses to wear a mask in public but it's not just the things he isn't doing, it's the deliberate steps he takes to make sure ANYONE who tries to do ANYTHING to help (even the US!!!!!!!! OFFERING US VACCINES FOR MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!) is shut down.

we have no oxygen. no ICU beds. no proper masks. basic food is so expensive here the country is falling back to hunger, so whoever is not dying from covid is dying out of starvation or due to the complete and utter collapse of our healthcare system.

if you read the articles i post here you will know brazil has a RECORD of being GREAT in this type of scenario & getting vaccines to everyone fast as fuck.

this is a DELIBERATE ATTEMPT TO KILL US, i couldn't possibly stress that enough.

who is it killing? take a guess.

"The study also found that Black Brazilians were likelier to lose their jobs or face pay cuts than white people during the pandemic. The death rate in poorer cities has been substantially higher than in rich ones."

BY JANUARY OF THIS YEAR the ny times was reporting "The country has not yet approved any of the vaccines on the market."

NOT EVEN APPROVED. ANY. OF THE VACCINES.

this isn't a tragedy, this is our government's plan.

again, why are people not helping? i have no clue.

"On Friday, officials at the World Health Organization called the surge of cases in Brazil deeply troubling and warned that it could wreak havoc well beyond the country’s borders."

censorship? oh yeah, the president's son is trying to silence a guy who made a TWEET calling the president out. & that was only news not a shady unexplainable death bc the guy is famous and rich in the first place.

this is not the only threat he has made, btw. during his CAMPAIGN he said he'd kill people who opposed his government. that is how low we are.

10,3MI brazilians might starve to death and things are only getting worse:

have i proven my point? cuz honestly there is no lack of evidence, but i can go graphic if you need to hear what happens when a patient needs oxygen or an ambulance and our hospitals can't provide it.

no? yeah. better not.

"ok but what can we do"

TALK. ABOUT. THIS.

WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS.

WHY IS THIS NOT EVERYWHERE.

WHY IS NOBODY HELPING.

i literally feel crazy, as if this is only happening in my head. every brazilian i know is desperate and nobody cares.

"ok but what else"

we need donations, badly. money for food, masks, literally all supplies. if you are a single person guess what THERE ARE NO ORGANISED WAY TO HELP YET you literally need to find a brazilian or learn portuguese to be able to get to local donations centres.

have i mentioned nobody cares? how is a country going through this massive of a crisis with a government trying to kill and silence us yet there people barely heard about this???? given IT IS CREATING DEADLY VARIANTS THAT ARE SPREADING BEYOND BORDERS

oh my god i feel insane

special call-out for portugal & also the US for fucking us up historically

https://t.co/JQ9LBkfSIV

per request i will make an english speaking video about brazil's covid situation to be posted @ youtube.com/c/AndressaBuss later this week

🌟DONATIONS LINKS🌟

update: if you want to place a donation to @CUFA_Brasil or @maesdafavela i will offer free portuguese-english translations to help with the process.

email me @ thatkindofblue@gmail.com (i can't keep up with DMs here)

You can also try to finda artists or writers or professionals in brazil and hire them! or tip them a kofi! Or simply search for "brazil" in the search and help out by sending one dollar or two in kofi or gofundmes that will also help brazilians staying safe

i will keep linking more as i find it. donation centre to get basic food to people who need it: https://t.co/gFZdskBE6G

Update: finally managed to get an extensive list of options for donations after over 24hrs trying, from jun last year so some campaigns have ended but there's still plenty to choose from

(again: im available for free translations & help in your donation process if you need it)

just assisted in a R$740 donation process to the above donation centre & i am working on putting together a list of various options for donations as well as brazilian artists who are making emergency commissions :)

im mostly trying to assist people place the donations themselves & when i have to place the donation i offer vast proof (of whatever kind you need) of each transaction

im not a random account with no face behind it, im a broke history teacher who has covid, im trying to help

Thread by @wwxwashere on Twitter

And before i forget:

BOLSONARO GENOCIDA!

[fatehbaz]

At least 216 wolves were killed in less than 60 hours, exceeding the state quota of 119 and prompting Wisconsin to end what was meant to be a one-week hunt four days early, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. [...] Environmentalists, who fought unsuccessfully in state court to stop the hunt, said the killings had occurred during breeding season, when gray wolves are especially vulnerable. [...] “These animals were killed using packs of dogs, snares and leg-hold traps,” Kitty Block, chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said Tuesday [2 March 2021].

The hunt, reported by The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, follows the gray wolf’s January [2021] removal from the Endangered Species Act. In October [2020], the Tr*mp administration announced that the species, which had been all but exterminated in the lower 48 states by the mid-20th century, had rebounded enough that it no longer needed federal shielding. [...]

-------

Wisconsin is the only U.S. state that requires a yearly wolf-hunting season if the animal is not protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to Nicholas Arrivo, a lawyer for the Humane Society. The [...] decision meant the state would have to hold one hunting season a year, which under Wisconsin law starts in early November and ends Feb. 28.

Wisconsin wildlife officials had scheduled the start of the hunting season for this November, citing the need for time to develop a “science-based” harvest quota and work closely with the public and Native American tribes to create a plan. But Hunter Nation, a hunters group led by [LH] of Wisconsin, accused state officials of “intentionally delaying the wolf harvest to [...] block the delisting and stop a hunt altogether.” The group filed a lawsuit Feb. 2 in which it argued that under state law, the hunt should be scheduled immediately since the wolf was taken off the list Jan. 4.

-------

On Feb. 12, a Jefferson County circuit court judge ruled in favor of the hunters, ordering the state to start the season that month.

Before the hunt, state officials estimated there were about 1,200 gray wolves in the state. [...] Arrivo said it was possible that many of the wolves killed last week were pregnant or might have been mothers with new pups that were still dependent on them and might now die of starvation. “I think the actual death toll is considerably higher because of the rippling effects through the wolf family structure,” Arrivo said. [...]

-------

The last time wolves were hunted in Wisconsin was 2014, after President B*rack Ob*ma said the wolf could be removed from federal protection. A federal judge later rejected the Ob*ma administration’s efforts to keep the wolf off the list. [...]

Hunter Nation [...] said that in 2014, it took two months for hunters to kill about 100 wolves. “This season it took just three days!” the organization said in a statement, describing the hunt as a success. [...]

-------

The state had set a quota of 200 wolves, with 119 for hunters who applied for permits with the department and 81 set aside to the Ojibwe Tribes under their treaty rights. [...]

But the tribes consider wolves to be sacred and made a deliberate decision not to hunt them, said Dylan Jennings, a spokesman for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, which represents the tribes.

The tribes saw their allocation as a way to conserve a large number of the wolves — not to give hunters more animals to kill, he said.

The losses are “appalling,” Jennings said. “There are a lot of people upset about it.”

-------

Headline and text published by: Maria Cramer. “Wisconsin hunters kill over 200 wolves in less than 3 days after removal from Endangered Species Act.” The New York Times, as reprinted in Chicago Tribune. 3 March 2021.

[duskthevampqueen]

Blooming High

Hello Hello! I present to you, a Blooming Panic fanfic. Honestly, I only got this idea from the discord server and its army of AU providers. So in thanks, I am posting the first part of it! I gotta feed them a little bit after they spilled all their AUs like that. I like to think about it as a... introduction to how the server members would fit into one high school together. Not all the characters have gotten their moment yet, but all the LIs(and onion, you onion simps) have their introductions in here!

Without further ado! Welcome to Blooming High

The student body council couldn’t exactly figure out how they got into this current situation, but they certainly were having a fun time watching the argument going on between their president and vice president.

“What? How on god’s green earth do you think the art club needs more funding than the robotics club?” The president’s tone was curt, sharp, glaring at the shorter boy. Said shorter man knew the president as Onion over his real name, especially when his attitude started to stink like one.

“Robotics always gets funding for their parts and competitions, but art has barely gotten anything in quite a while. Our fundraiser should go to them instead.” Onion rolled his eyes, his more STEM-loving side showing.

“Is your lack of sleep at night starting to affect your thinking skills? The whole point of the fundraiser is so then robotics can go to a new competition this year. We don't get to decide that the fundraiser for them suddenly needs to go to another club.”

Nightowl always disliked the way Onion would hold that over his head, as if being the thing of his username was to be looked down upon. Plenty of highschoolers were night owls, he could list a dozen of people who hadn't slept more than 2 hours the night before off the top of his head.

“Why do they even need to go to a new competition? And they get plenty of funding, shouldn’t that money cover it already?” Nightowl glanced at the treasurer, expecting back up on that front, but his nose scrunched up at seeing no backup given as the treasurer slowly slinked behind the secretary to avoid getting involved.

“Why not just make a second fundraiser for the art club?” Both the president and the vice whip their heads around at the sound of a familiar voice, to be met with their more sensible friend.

Quest seemed to have this knack of finding the arguing duo mid-argument every time, or at least, that's what the duo thought it was. In reality, it was that everyone in the student council had his number for this exact reason: to break up fights. Most of the time it was fights like these, arguments that clearly had two passionate sides with no intention of ending. Everyone hated when they would have to get him to break up a physical one, after what happened a couple years ago.

“Big Q!” Nightowl immediately jumped at the chance to get out of this argument, deciding to leave it be for when he could actually get a look at the fundings the robotics would need vs the art club. “I thought you were helping out the librarians with filing and organizing?”

“I still am, actually. I have a big stack of papers and old files for you guys.” Quest couldn’t help a wince as the entire council became a chorus of groans. He disappeared into the hall for a moment only to come in with a rusting cart full of paper and binders, and Onion was surprised none of them heard him coming with how squeaky it was. “Just some of this is yours, don’t worry. The library filing room can’t hold these anymore so I was tasked with giving them to the proper clubs.”

He crouched down low beside the cart, having to adjust his glasses as he looked over the stacks before pulling a higher pile off the cart, setting it on a nearby desk. The secretary, a shorter girl who adored her job, for once looked a little nervous about files when seeing the pile was taller than her on the desk. The other council members immediately started volunteering to help her out, much to Quest’s relief. He would be scolding them if they didn’t.

Once making sure his friends were actually helping her, he tried to as quietly as possible pull the cart out of the council room, headed back down the hall. He had to think for a moment on what would be the closest club that had files to be delivered. If he was remembering correctly, it would be the debate club.

As Quest approached the debate club classroom, he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at there being a crowd surrounding it, enraptured by whatever was going on inside. When he made his way closer, he sighed at realizing he recognized the cocky voice that made the crowd snicker. Sure enough, he was right when he saw Xyx leaned on one of the debate club’s podiums, a Cheshire grin wide on his face.

“It’s not like I’m wrong, teach. Isn’t that the point of debate club? That there’s no wrong side until there's a winner?” Xyx tilted his head in curiosity to how the teacher would answer, before looking to his opponent with side eyes, his cheshire grinning to a smug smirk. “Although, I gotta say, you’re not exactly the most attractive side of this debate. Both in words and physical appearance.”

Quest didn’t see the opponent for a moment before leaning further in, only to feel a bit of satisfaction to see it was who the four of them eventually found out Societyboy was. He definitely couldn’t blame his friend for jumping back into the club he left just to get a shot at messing with the asshole more, although he still knew it wasn’t the best idea.

Just as Societybastard was about to open his big mouth, Quest forced his squeaky cart through the crowd, a big smile on his face as he entered the clubroom. “Sorry to interrupt,” He wasn’t sorry, “but I have some files for this club. It's mainly transcripts from winning debates.”

The teacher seemed to be surprised at seeing his entrance, but immediately got up with a seemingly relieved expression. He could only imagine how long this ‘debate’ would go on before she would be forced to separate them or kick one of them out for the day. Quest went through the same process as before, looking for the proper stack, pulling up one that was much smaller than the council’s, but included a couple VHS tapes.

Xyx took the chance to stop talking to Societybozo as he straightened and came up beside his friend, shoving his hands into the pockets of his uniform’s pants. “How old are these things? Lookin’ like they came outta the stone age with those tapes.”

“Ha, Mr. Salo said that he recorded them. Apparently it was the first and last time he was the one assigned to record the debates, five years ago. You know how he is with technology.” Quest explained, getting a snort from the other. “He says that he couldn’t figure out the camera the photography club gave him, so just used his old one instead.”

“Of course the old man would do that. I bet he was smiling while telling the story, yeah?” Quest nodded to the question as he started pushing the cart out the door, now followed by his smartass friend, despite the protests of Societybrat behind them. “One of these days, you really should distract him by teaching him something modern. Anything, really, it would get you outta library chores.”

“I like the library tasks, X.” Blue eyes gave him a look, only to be given a shrug in return. “It was much better than detention, and now I like being a part of the library team. A much better team.”

Xyx couldn’t argue with that, tilting his head to and fro as he hummed, thinking. “That is true…” His grin returned suddenly. “I always took ya as a nerd, Quest. Rugby was too rough for your sappy, poetry-loving heart.”

“While there is nothing to be ashamed of about loving poetry, I don’t want to hear a word from the guy who’s been sneaking cat food in his school bag to feed the stray in the courtyard. Just take it home already man, it's clearly bonded to you now. Haven’t you already name–”

Xyx harshly shushed him, pressing a finger to his friend’s lips to shut him up from speaking more. “Hey, didn’t I say to never mention it ever again, man? Especially at such a loud volume, jeez! Ruin a guy’s reputation while ya at it, why dontcha?”

Quest gave him a glare before smacking his hand away, sighing. “Fine. But next time I see you feeding it, I'm going to force you to take it home, whether you like it or not. So do it already.” He raised an eyebrow after a moment of realization. “Now that I think about it, aren’t you supposed to be helping in the theater production? Why were you in debate?”

“Oh, look at the time, looks like I need to go check on Toast’s practice, bye Quest!” Before he could let the other man get any more word in, Xyx headed jogging down the hall, hoping the metal cart would stop the other from following. He was right, it did, letting him easily slip down into a separate hallway.

Xyx kept his semi-quick pace as he headed down the stairs, it being regular practice for him to skip as many steps as possible, or jump the staircase completely. He decided not to jump down it today, as he knew Toast would notice the post-adrenaline small tremble he got in his hands.

Soon, he arrived at the music part of the school, slowing to a smooth walk as he made a beeline for the practice room his nerdy friend seemed to always be in after school. He didn’t bother to knock at this point, opening the practice room’s door immediately, earning the sound of a cut-off note and a scalding look.

“Must you interrupt my practice just as I get the hang of a particularly hard measure?” Toast was still posed to play the next note on their cello, bow just barely not touching the strings, their hand at the top not relaxing one bit. It was clear they wanted to be left alone, but Xyx paid no mind as he stepped inside, closed the door behind him, and plopped down backwards in a seat across from them.

“Hm, I don’t remember your voice being this deep yesterday, Toast mboy. What’s up with that, huh?” Toast went stiff at the question, silent for a moment before starting to play again, causing a knowing grin from Mr. Observant. “Ya gettin’ voice cracks again, aren't you?”

The cello stopped for a moment before a sigh came from its owner. “I’d rather not be ridiculed for both my voice and my height, X.” There it was, a voice crack in the word ridiculed, proving that Mr. Observant always quickly turns into Mr. Know-It-all. “I already get all eyes on me whenever I go through the halls, it’d be shit for it to be the same for when I speak in class. I can’t believe it, a senior and still getting voice cracks.”

Green eyes watched him closely, not being the best at comfort, and sure not wanting to crack a joke that Toast very much feared. “Hmmm… well, hey. At least you don’t have to worry about either while you're playing. Sat and lips sealed.”

The dyed-blonde rolled his eyes, setting his bow down and relaxing his cello into him. “Yeah, sure, but how am I supposed to talk to anyone? I’m not exactly the most… outgoing of people, but I’d still be able to talk without my voice sounding like a squeaky toy.”

“I'm sure Owl and Q won't mind. Onion might give ya a hard time, but just remind him how he ran into a wall after losing his glasses and he’ll shut right up.” When he didn’t get an answer, the brunette straightened, starting to realize something when seeing their ears start to turn red and their eyes glance away. “Oh, ho ho! I know that look from anywhere, you didn’t mean just anyone! Who has caught the interest of my nerdy little friend?”

Toast’s face turned more red, flinching slightly at him realizing so soon, hands flying up to try and wave it away. “N-no one! Why in all hell would you th-think that?!” They did wonder the second one, but more in how the hell did he figure it out so quickly. Were they that obvious?

“Oh, c’mon, you’re as obvious and red as a stop sign! Tell me tell me tell me!” That's a yes to that question. After going back and forth on it for a few minutes, Toast finally caved, feeling a headache coming on just from how insistent – and annoying – he could be. “Soooooo, who is it?”

“Well…”

[uboat53]

You know, with the results still being counted it's impossible to know for sure who will control the House or the Senate in two months, but one thing we do know for sure is that they will not feature the large Republican majorities that had been predicted before the election and I think that that should be credited in large part to President Biden, though not for the reasons that he would probably like. You see, it's because he's thoroughly uninspiring.

What do I mean by that? Look, I'm old enough to have voted in every Presidential election since 2004 and to remember elections all the way back to 1996 and one thing that has been fairly consistent in all of them is that the core supporters of the President have been genuinely inspired by them. I don't mean that in the sense of "yeah, he's a cool guy", I mean that in the sense of "I trust this person and think that they're going to make the world better". This was true of Trump, Obama, Bush Jr., and Clinton.

But it's not true of Biden. His core supporters, women, minorities, and young people, don't idolize him. In fact, to some degree they don't even fully trust him. To a much larger degree than any other President in my lifetime, Biden's core supporters do not believe that he alone will fix their problems.

And I remember this problem! I was one of those young people who powered Obama's win in 2008. My friends were enamored with him; several who hadn't really had any interest in voting deliberately got involved in 2008 just to vote for him. But in 2010, when he wasn't on the ballot, they didn't show up. The same thing happened more or less in 2014, to Trump in 2018, to Bush in 2006, and to Clinton in 1994 (1998 and 2002 were weird years with some unusual events going on).

Gen-Z and younger Millennials (those aged 18-29) just did what my generation did not and I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Biden doesn't inspire the same kind of adulation and even hero-worship that previous Presidents have. Young people may be among his core supporters but they don't trust that he and he alone will solve all of their problems, especially not after the Dobbs ruling and his inability to stop so many states from instituting harsh abortion bans. And, because Biden didn't or couldn't inspire them to trust that he would do everything for them, they turned out to vote because they felt that they had to do it themselves.

I think it's also important to recognize how rare this kind of youth engagement is. Going back in the data to the early 1970s when 18-20 year olds were first allowed to vote, 2022 has the second highest youth participation rate for a midterm election, second only to 2018. That said, the key battleground states saw even higher youth participation, on par with 2018. In other words, the young people are turning out to vote in even greater numbers when it matters most.

Personally, I think it's great. As an elder/geriatric Millennial, I remember how quickly Obama was kneecapped in his first term because those who had voted for him didn't keep turning out when it was needed. Seeing the younger generation overcome that today is fantastic and I hope it leads to a civically involved generation that keeps this kind of engagement up for their whole lives. Honestly the largest problem with American democracy these days is the amount of people who are unengaged and if a new generation can breathe new life into it I'll celebrate that!

So congratulations to Gen-Z and the younger Millennials for avoiding the trap that my generation fell into. May you continue to choose competent but uninspiring leaders in the future and keep for yourselves the task of preserving democracy.

[beardedmrbean]

EL PASO, Texas Oct 6 (Reuters) - The Democrat-led border city of El Paso, Texas, has sent more migrants on buses to New York City and Chicago than a campaign by Texas' Republican governor, a twist in an ongoing partisan battle over U.S. border security.

El Paso, which sits across the border from Juarez, Mexico, has bused roughly 7,000 migrants to New York City since late August and sent more than 1,800 to Chicago, a city-run effort that far exceeds the more ad-hoc transportation of the past.

The city's busing effort has received less attention than a separate statewide campaign by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is seeking a third term in Nov. 8 midterm elections. Abbott has bused more than 3,000 migrants to New York City and more than 900 to Chicago as part of a high profile campaign to put a spotlight on the record crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Texas and Arizona combined have also bused over 10,000 migrants to Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis recently flew a group of about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, but those who boarded the planes have said they were misled.

The Republican initiatives to move migrants, including those seeking asylum, away from the border have called attention to the issue with the election just weeks away. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed U.S. voters prefer them over Democrats for addressing immigration issues. read more

The Democratic administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Democratic mayors receiving the migrants have criticized the Republican governors for creating confusion with surprise drop-offs and say the busing campaign strains resources.

But El Paso's Democratic leaders say they are coordinating with receiving cities and that migrants take their chartered buses voluntarily. City officials say their buses were needed because up to 2,000 migrants were arriving daily, including impoverished Venezuelans without family in the United States to pay for onward travel.

Coordination between sending and receiving cities is crucial, according to Theresa Cardinal Brown, a managing director with the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank.

"If there's not coordination," she said, "you're basically dropping penniless people who don't speak the language in an unknown city and saying, 'Fend for yourself.'"

Still, El Paso's coordination could be better, said New York City mayoral spokesperson Kate Smart. El Paso informs New York when a bus is traveling to the city, but, she adds, officials from both states should discuss beforehand whether the bus actually needs to go New York and how many migrants are onboard.

Many of those sent to New York are Venezuelans, who have been arrested at the border in higher numbers than ever before. The United States cannot expel them to Mexico under a pandemic-era order as it can other migrants.

El Paso's program is not new: last year, the city hired a handful charter buses to transport migrants to nearby cities, a city official said.

But when overwhelmed U.S. border authorities began releasing hundreds of migrants at a time in El Paso in August and September, the city started busing to New York and Chicago.

'COMPLETELY DIFFERENT'

The buses now depart from a converted warehouse in northeast El Paso that serves as a migrant processing center. On Monday, several hundred migrants waited for buses to New York City and Chicago, among them Frederick Pinango, 28, and his wife and 3-year-old daughter.

The Venezuelan family trekked through the Darien Gap, an often dangerous passage through a jungle separating Colombia and Panama. They worked their way through Central America and Mexico by cleaning bathrooms, emptying trash and begging, according to Pinango.

They took a bus to New York because they had no contacts in the United States and it was free.

"I have faith that they will help us with some shelter, so I can start to work," he said.

Edwin Rico, a 28-year-old Venezuelan who boarded a bus to Chicago on Monday, said the food that El Paso officials provided for the trip was not enough, but he rationed it.

"I don’t have money, so I’m grateful for the help," he said.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, said the city's program is "completely different" than the other busing efforts and that they seek to "treat people with respect."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, also a Democrat, has slammed Abbott, the Republican governor, for his refusal to share information about bus arrivals. Adams said in a mid-September press conference that Leeser, unlike Abbott, was willing to meet and "figure out a humane way to coordinate."

New York City officials traveled to El Paso last month to watch the process firsthand. During the visit, they discussed adding drop-off points in cities on the way to New York, Leeser said.

El Paso keeps in contact with the Biden administration and is seeking federal reimbursement for busing costs, Leeser said, and a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed the coordination.

"This is a federal issue," Leeser said. "They’re not coming to El Paso, they’re coming to the United States."

[sundayswiththeilluminati]

The unplanned fourth part to my apparently-a-series on Essek Thelyss in the context of real-world espionage (parts 1, 2, and 3), today we look at an aspect of his story that doesn’t always apply in a D&D world: how do you prosecute espionage? 

Psych! That’s not the real question. The real question is: do you prosecute espionage? The answer is a) not as obvious as it might seem; and b) going to differ between D&D and the real world, because D&D governments are storytelling tools and IRL governments are...not.

The benefits of prosecuting espionage are obvious: the interests of justice are served, the person responsible can be punished appropriately and in accordance with the law, the full extent of their crimes are revealed (including potentially exonerating other suspects), counterintelligence gets to chalk up a win, and other people thinking about committing espionage themselves are hopefully discouraged. But there are a surprising number of arguments in the “against” column.

Some agencies that identify enemy assets want to leave them in place for their own purposes. For about 20 years during the Cold War CIA reserved the right to just plain not tell the Department of Justice if they had proof someone was engaged in espionage because they wanted the opportunity to turn them as double agents, feed them misinformation, etc. rather than outing and punishing them (President Gerald Ford ended this arrangement by executive order in 1976). This isn’t necessarily a good idea IRL, but it forms the bread and butter of RPG espionage storylines and is definitely something to think about in a D&D context.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after a trial, and an agency often finds itself with sufficient evidence to doubt a person’s trustworthiness but not enough hard proof to take to court. In those cases agencies may decide to leave that person in place but cut off their access to classified info. Ironically, sometimes this means promoting them - moving the person into a higher-ranking job in a different area that just so happens not to deal in secrets. Sometimes the asset realizes they’re close to being rumbled and goes along with the effort, maybe taking retirement early or changing jobs before they can be pushed, and the whole matter will quietly lapse without anything so formal as a trial. Sometimes someone makes a mistake and sidelines a loyal, competent employee. That’s a judgement call.

In the real world, ideally someone can only be found guilty of a crime and punished accordingly after an open trial. Given how severe the punishments are for espionage, civilized countries do try to stick to that even though holding such a trial carries risks. Providing proof that someone stole secrets generally requires talking about said secrets, which means revealing classified info in court, which may negate trying to keep the information secret in the first place. They may also not want to reveal in court how they figured out that person was a spy, especially if it was a double agent or cryptographic source that fingered them. In D&D-land where monarchs are common and still wield judicial power, fantasy rulers may hand down whatever punishment they please based on whatever evidence they (or the DM) will accept, so this isn’t as much of a concern.

Even a D&D monarchy that doesn’t have to worry about revealing secrets in court might think twice before publicly punishing a high-ranking spy, though, because the only thing more embarrassing than failing to convict a major spy is succeeding. A government having to admit that its people were compromised, especially high-ranking people, is a body-blow to its standing both at home and abroad. It damages trust in the government, makes the public feel unsafe, and makes allies hesitant to share information lest their secrets be leaked as well. Lower-ranking government employees may think, “My boss is selling secrets, why not me too?” or “Why bother to follow security protocol when some mole will give it all away?” Every decision and contribution made by the asset becomes retroactively suspect, even those that had nothing to do with whatever secrets they leaked. The foreign nation to whom they passed information inevitably gets drawn in as well, negatively affecting those relations. And of course everyone involved looks very, very bad.

All of which leads me to say I think there’s a chance - maybe not a good chance, but a chance - that Essek could privately confess the affair to the Bright Queen without major public repercussions. Leylas Kryn could simply declare him a traitor and order his public execution without justifying herself, but it would raise a lot of questions and none of the answers would help her or the ruling dens; Den Thelyss allowing Den Kryn to unilaterally execute a high-profile member - a child of the umavi - without explanation would stoke ferocious rumors about what Essek might have done and cast a major shadow over the entire den. But publicly declaring what Essek had done also doesn’t do the Dynasty any favors. It makes everyone involved look very bad - how could they miss a spy at the highest level? so close to the Bright Queen herself?? who can be trusted??? - especially Den Thelyss, which might lose its place among the ruling three as a result. Publicly outing such a high-ranking Kryn official as compromised might set off the Dynasty equivalent of a Red Scare, too, since the Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount mentions the constant and well-justified Dynasty fear of agents sent by Lolth to destabilize the Kryn out of sheer spite that they got away from her.

By the time Campaign 2 ended the latest clash between Empire and Dynasty had been settled and neither side seemed to want to stir it up again right away. The fact that both stolen beacons have been returned also bolsters the case for letting the matter lie. A confession from Essek clears up remaining doubt on the Bright Queen’s end - while he doesn’t know every Empire agent in the Dynasty, he can tell her exactly how the beacons were stolen and who else was involved, probably clearing the names of many currently under suspicion. Essek would have to resign as Shadowhand, of course, and leave the Dynasty (at least for a couple centuries), but he never seemed interested in being Shadowhand and he wants to go exploring anyway. Den Thelyss definitely wants the whole affair swept under the rug and would go along with whatever story made that happen. Other than Verin I don’t get the impression many people would miss Essek except as a lost opportunity. I hope they’d give him long enough before leaving Rosohna to pack up his cool leyline-weathervane though. He could totally mount that on Yussa’s tower. Or Allura’s!

And that concludes this particular train of thought re: Essek Thelyss in the context of IRL spies and espionage. Again, all of this is only as relevant to the campaign as the players decide it is, so don’t go giving people crap for being “unrealistic” about their versions of how the beacon trade went down. Frankly the last thing you should want here is realism, because “realistic” espionage is a callous world of deception, manipulation, and general human pettiness with no sense of narrative flow.

None of what I’ve talked about is an excuse for Essek’s actions. But it is a reason. It’s why and how a person entrusted with precious national assets could get into a headspace where it seems reasonable, even necessary, to trade them away to foreign enemies. It’s how a person of otherwise decent character & beliefs can end up committing terrible crimes. It’s why that person might sincerely regret what they’ve done, and not just because they fear punishment. The Warmind Rasputin paraphrases Octavia E. Butler saying, “Misdirected by accident or intent, intelligence can foster its own ecstasies of growth and decay.” In other words: sometimes you get too far into your own head. Without an anchor to reality, without perspective, your own mind gets twisted up. Sometimes you just need a friend (or seven) to grab your arm and say, “Breathe.”

(This accidentally turned into a series on Essek & IRL espionage: Parts 1, 2, 3, 4)

[luffles424]

Tips & Teases

☼ Pairing: Seokjin x reader

☼ Genre: fluff, smut, pwp (with some plot), skating carhop!reader, diner cook!Seokjin, coworkers 2 lovers

☼ Count: 13.1K

☼ Warnings: 18+, teasing, dom!Seokjin, brat!reader, some possessiveness, big dick!Seokjin, manhandling, mirror sex (sort of, it’s actually a window, but it’s still a reflection), semi public sex, clothed sex, dirty talk, degradation (lots of use of the word slut), spanking, spitting, assplay, pussy spanking, fingering, multiple orgasms, overstimulation, hair pulling, ass worship, ass eating, orgasm denial, oral (f receiving), squirting, choking, unprotected, creampie, aftercare

☼ Summary: Jimin’s annual Halloween costume party presents you the perfect excuse to tease Seokjin, using the party as an excuse to wear flirty costumes to work to try to provoke a response in the man. Are you really prepared for what happens when he snaps?

☼ a/n: This one got a little bit away from me lmao But I hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think! My ask box is always open ~ 💙💙💙💙

☼ Written for @btsholidaybingo​​​​ to fill the square costume party

“What the fuck are you wearing?”

You glance up at the exclamation, seeing Seokjin leaning against the counter in the pass through, brows furrowed as he takes in your seated form. You hide your smirk by ducking your head to finish tying your skates. It’s not fully the reaction you were hoping for but you’re hoping that’ll change once you stand up and he sees it fully. You thought long and hard on what you were going to wear. You have backups, but you decided to start easy on him. But you were fully prepared to escalate. 

Skates tied, you push yourself up and give a little spin to fully show off your outfit. And to maybe let the already fairly short skirt flair and rise a little higher as you move. You come to a stop facing Seokjin once more, innocent smile tugging your lips as your toe stop presses into the ground to keep you in place. You smooth down the skirt, though the layers of tulle keep it from laying completely flat.  

Seokjin’s eyes drag over your form and you wait with baited breath for his reaction. This was all part of your plan to tease and fluster him. “Again, what the fuck are you wearing?”

You pout. That’s still not what you were expecting, though you think you can just make out the tips of his ears turning red. You put a hand on your hip. “It’s October.”

His head tilts. “Yeah and Halloween isn’t for another two weeks. It doesn’t explain this getup.”

You scoff. “Halloween is all month, first of all. And Jimin’s costume party is coming up and I couldn’t decide on what to wear so I decided to try them out at work first.” You bat your lashes at him, forcing down a smirk. “Does that mean you don’t like it?”

His mouth opens then snaps closed as his cheeks dusted with pink. “There’s no way that Namjoon approved that,” he deflects. Interesting.

You look down at the costume. It’s a fairly generic ‘sexy’ waitress costume. Red with yellow stripes that matches the overall aesthetic of your little drive in diner. The skirt hits above midthigh, puffed out by tulle, so the skirt bounces a little more with each movement along with a small ruffled apron with a pocket that isn’t actually usable. The buttons stop at the right point to give a more than ample display of cleavage. And you’ve paired the whole thing with a set of thigh high socks, leaving only a tantalizing glimpse of your thighs on display. 

You look back up and quirk an eyebrow, smirking. “Joonie was with me when I bought it.”

A ding sounds and you both turn to look at the wall where the board for the all parking spots sits, a light glowing beside the number 12. You swipe one of the order pads and a pen from the counter and move to the door to outside. You give him a wink before nudging the door open with your hip and skating out to the waiting car. 

Seokjin scowls after you and then pulls out his phone, dialing Namjoon’s number. 

Namjoon picks up after a few rings. “Is someone dying or is the building on fire?”

Seokjin frowns, watching as he watches you laugh as you speak with the people in the car. “What?”

“Is someone dying or is the building on fire?”

“I… well no-”

“Then why are you calling me? Jin, it’s my only day off and I know you’re at Omelas right now, so this is clearly a work related call.” Namjoon sighs. He sounds a little tired and Seokjin suddenly worries that he woke him up even though it’s 4 in the afternoon. The manager works far too much for his own good.

“Did you really tell Y/n she could wear a waitress costume to work?”

There’s a pause and then Namjoon chuckles. “Wow she really wore it? Man, her tips are going to be great today.”

Seokjin’s about to respond when he catches sight of you leaning over to speak to another car, back facing him, and the action causes your skirt to rise further up your thighs. He swallows and jerks his gaze away, glaring at the grill and cursing that it’s slow and he has nothing to keep him busy right now. He needs a distraction to keep from just watching you longer. 

Namjoon continues when Seokjin remains silent. “Yes, I said she could wear it. It’s the season and I’m sure it’ll appeal to customers to see them skating in costume and it’ll boost business. Hm, I should probably make up some rules cause I worry what Jimin will wear,” he finishes, seeming to be speaking more to himself. 

“I think it’s dumb.” Seokjin mutters petulantly. Dumb is definitely not how he’d truly describe it. It’s more frustrating, maddening, distracting. He doesn’t know how he’s supposed to focus on work when you’re flitting around looking like that. Maybe he can switch future shifts so he doesn’t have to work the same time as you. 

Namjoon snorts. “Noted. Is that all?”

Seokjin mutters a yes and Namjoon hangs up with a warning to call again only if there’s an emergency. His hand drops back to his side in defeat. Namjoon was the only one who could save him and he apparently is more worried about Jimin’s costume than yours. He stares at the grill, he had really hoped that Namjoon would back him up. He’s not ready for this shift. Maybe he can call Taehyung or Yoongi to come cover and he can fake being sick or something.

The door opens and he looks up, deflating slightly when he sees that it’s just Jungkook, who immediately flashes him a sheepish smile.

“You’re late,” he snaps. He knows he’s not really mad at Jungkook. They’re all guilty of being a little late, but he has nowhere else to channel the feelings simmering just under his skin.

Jungkook grins and tosses his bag into the cubby behind the counter along with his boots before moving back around to sit to put his skates on. “I’m not that late. Besides,” he glances out the glass front doors to where a group of guys have sat at one of the picnic tables under the awning. You stand with a hip cocked, giggling at something one of them has said. “Seems like Y/n’s got everything handled right now.”

“Just get to work before I tell Namjoon you were late again.”

Jungkook stands, shit-eating grin firmly in place as he glances out the window pointedly. “Pretty sure you wouldn’t do that.” And before Seokjin can respond, he skates out the door to see who you want him to take.

Seokjin doesn’t know how he’s going to survive this shift. 

The next time that Seokjin works a shift with you, he encounters Jimin first. A very shirtless Jimin who’s back is to him when he enters the building. 

“Jimin, what the fuck?”

Jimin turns and grins, quickly moving around the counter so Seokjin can see the full extent of his costume. Or more accurately, his lack of clothing. Because the only thing on Jimin right now that counts as clothing is the tight pair of black shorts that barely even really cover his thick thighs. The only other things on him are a pair of suspenders, a green tie, and two black x’s that cover his nipples. 

Seokjin blinks. “What the fuck are you even supposed to be?”

Jimin adjusts the thick black glasses on his face with a grin. “Class president,” he states proudly. 

Seokjin scoffs. “What fucking class president looks like that?”

Jimin pouts. “Well I was class president. So me.”

Seokjin shakes his head. “Does Namjoon know you’re wearing this? There’s no way he allowed this.”

 “We compromised.”

Seokjin lifts a brow, looking over Jimin’s “costume” once more. “Where’s the compromise?”

He points proudly to the pasties. “These are. And I have a jacket for when the sun goes down and it gets colder.” He turns and grabs the two drinks he had been working on and moves towards the door. “Isn’t Y/n’s costume idea great?” he adds before exiting the building. He also very much does not like your costume idea. He can already feel his sanity fraying with just the thought of working another shift with you in that little waitress getup. 

“That’s… not a compromise.” Seokjin says weakly as he turns to put his bag away, knowing that even if Jimin did hear it, he wasn’t going to respond. 

However you happen to enter and catch what he said and you giggle. “You don’t want to know about the rest of the compromise, Jinnie.”

He’s about to respond; say that he can certainly imagine what the compromise was because Jimin has never been shy about telling everyone how he managed to talk Namjoon into very not Namjoon situations. His words die in his throat though when he catches sight of you as you begin to get some drinks. Nothing about last time prepared him for this. Because you’re not wearing the waitress costume tonight. Oh no, apparently that would have been too simple. You have a different costume on. 

You have thigh high socks on, though these are thicker than the other ones you had worn. There’s a lot more thigh on display as well thanks to the short, white athletic shorts you’re wearing, paired with a cropped white jersey emblazoned with ‘Tune Squad.’ And finishing off the look is a pair of tan and white bunny ears perched on your head and what he discovers when you turn to grab something and much to his horror, is the matching fluffy tail settled right on top of the swell of your ass. 

When you turn back, he has to quickly jerk his gaze away from staring at your ass longer. There’s a knowing smirk when his eyes finally meet yours, like you knew what putting the tail on would do.

Seokjin clears his throat. “And what are you supposed to be?”

You gasp in mock horror, hands coming up to rest over your heart like he’s physically hurt you. “You can’t be serious!” When he doesn’t say anything else, you shake your head in disappointment. “Space Jam is a classic and you’re a heathen for not recognizing Lola Bunny. Shame on you,” you tut. You gather your drinks on a tray and move towards the door, pausing as your back presses against the glass to cast Seokjin an appraising look. “Suppose I’ll have to look for a Bugs Bunny then, hm?” 

And with a wink, you’re nudging the door open and skating out to a table full of guys and Seokjin bristles at the way some of them blatantly stare at your ass. His mind belatedly catches on your parting words and he wonders what you meant. Was it directed at him? Did you want him to be your Bugs? He doubts that, he can’t recall a moment of you ever expressing interest in him as anything more than a friend. Maybe you were making a joke about how you needed someone else to help your costume be more recognizable. Though Seokjin knew what your costume was when he saw it. He just didn’t know what else to say without saying something incriminating.

A snicker has his head whipping around to see Taehyung standing over the grill, eyes trained on the food in front of him.

“And what do you find so funny?” Seokjin asks, tugging his apron off the hook on the wall to put on. 

“You,” he answers simply, flipping one of the burgers in front of him.

Seokjin makes a face. “I don’t recall making a joke.”

Taehyung looks up at him with a boxy grin. “Oh, no. Your jokes aren’t funny. But the way her ass made you so stupid that you forgot a movie is hilarious. I know for a fact that you’ve seen it at least once because we’ve watched it together.”

Seokjin feels his cheeks heat. Taehyung’s not wrong. He probably would’ve recognized the costume as Lola a lot faster if he hadn’t been almost immediately faced with your ass stretching the fabric and the way the cottontail perched just above it in a way that could only draw you to stare. He scowls, he can’t let Taehyung know he’s right. They all tease him enough as is, this would just be one more thing to add to the pile. He moves over to the younger man and tugs the spatula from his hand.

“Aren’t you supposed to be off work now? Go enjoy your freedom.”

Taehyung only takes a few steps away, perching on the stool they keep behind the counter with a smug look. 

Seokjin sighs. “What?”

He gestures to the food before Seokjin. “That’s my food.”

Seokjin blinks for a moment before groaning. He really played himself here. Now he has no choice but to finish Taehyung’s food.

Seokjin’s positive that he’s prepared for the next time he sees you. He knows to expect something different. And honestly, nothing could be worse than those shorts. Jungkook is there first and Seokjin groans when he sees him. 

“She got to you too?” He whines, looking over the younger man. 

At least his shorts are a more acceptable length than Jimin’s were. And he’s wearing an actual shirt. Really the only thing that signifies that he’s wearing a costume is the pair of bunny ears on his head. Actually, Seokjin’s positive that they’re the ones you were wearing for your Lola Bunny costume. Which confirms that you’re going to be wearing something else. But it’s fine. Seokjin can handle it. 

Jungkook grins and glances out to where a table full of giggling girls sits. “I mean, she had a pretty good idea. The tips have been really good lately.”

“Don’t listen to his grumpy ass, Kookie. You make an adorable bun.” You grin, walking through the door. Seokjin’s eyes trail over your frame immediately, greedy to see what you’re wearing, but all you’ve got on is a thigh length trench coat. “He’s just jealous that no one gets to see his costume.”

Jungkook chuckles as he leaves and it takes Seokjin a moment to realize that he should respond. He frowns. “I’m not wearing a costume.”

Your mouth forms an ‘oh’ of exaggerated surprise, hand coming up to your chest. “You’re not?” 

Your gaze slowly drags over his form and Seokjin suddenly feels a little self conscious that he’s just in sweats and a white shirt. It’s not much, but no one really sees him in here so he just went for comfort today. The way your eyes linger where his apron is tied, accentuating his tiny waist before trailing up to where his biceps stretch his sleeves has the tips of his ears coloring red quickly. He wishes he had longer hair so that you couldn’t see them right now. Then your lips quirk up into a teasing grin.

“Could’ve fooled me. You’ve got the perfect Bob Belcher look going on here, Jinnie.”

Seokjin’s face twists. Bob Belcher? Seriously? That’s how you see him. He scowls, looking over your outfit. “And just what are you supposed to be? A flasher?”

You giggle at his statement, pulling something golden from your bag. A moment later, you’re placing it on your head and he realizes that it’s a short, 4 pointed, gold crown with 4 alternating blue and red gems that sits on a headband so that it stays in place. It looks so familiar but he can’t place why. 

You give him a wry smile. “No, of course not. I had to run to the store so I threw a coat on.”

He rolls his eyes. “Is your costume that-”

He cuts himself off as you slowly slip your jacket off, head tilted as you watch him closely. Now he realizes why the crown looked familiar. Because it’s Princess Peach’s crown. Because apparently you’ve decided to dress like every fantasy he had when he was young once he discovered the Mario games. 

The dress is much shorter than Peach’s is, your’s sits high on your thighs and dips low to show a generous amount of cleavage. You have thigh high white tights one that only accentuate the sliver of thigh that you have on display much the same way your waitress costume did. But this is somehow worse and Seokjin suddenly very much regrets wearing sweatpants today of all days. At least he’s got the apron on.

He turns back to the grill, but the image of you dressed like that will be burned into his brain forever. He might actually die. 

You giggle and he hears the sound of your skates as you move towards the door. “Just have to find a Mario. We’d be so cute together.” And with that you skate out.

Seokjin’s thrilled that it’s finally the day of the party and that it’s finally Halloween. It means he won’t have to deal with you in your costumes anymore. He honestly doesn’t think he can handle anything else after the Peach costume. Or even seeing the Peach costume again. He has no idea what you’ll be wearing tonight and he is torn on which he wants you to wear. 

Yoongi is manning the grill when Seokjin gets there because it’s a Friday so their shifts overlap for the dinner rush before Seokjin will close down for the night. And he saw Hoseok out taking care of a few customers, but he’s unsure if Hoseok was working the earlier shift or if he took Jimin’s shift so the younger man could set up for the party. He hopes it’s the latter, he worries who would come to replace him if he worked the earlier shift. 

He gives him a nod of acknowledgement before focusing again on the grill as Seokjin gets ready for his shift. He had seriously considered skipping the party later since he’s closing and it means he’d get there late. But it’s Jimin’s party and not only would the younger harass him until he came, he also knows it’ll go late into the evening and so his closing shift won’t affect anything. But the late time does mean that he decided to wear his costume to work, well one of them. He has a second one in his car, a stupid idea just in case you happened to wear Peach again. He knows it’s fairly unlikely, but he supposes that the Mario costume sitting on the car seat is at least a little comforting. Maybe an easy way for him to possibly ask you out. Or just embarrass himself. At least it’ll be at a party and he can drink himself silly when he gets rejected. 

But for now, he’s content with his costume. It at least won’t get a snarky comment from you comparing him to Bob Belcher. Because he actually put a little thought into this costume and he’s pretty proud that he managed to pull together such a good Geralt costume. His hair currently being bleach blond also helped give him the idea. The wig for proper accuracy and sword are in his car, they seemed a little impractical to work in, but the rest of the costume was pretty comfortable. The higher waisted pants are different but he thinks they’re pretty flattering and form fitting and the shirt is just billowy enough to give the illusion that he’s a little buffer than he really is. 

The most telling part of the costume is the wolf head medallion hung around his neck. Which he hopes people recognize for what it is and don’t just think he’s wearing some fancy, period style clothes. Plus wearing it now meant that he didn’t have to change either at work while trying to close or show up to the party and change there. And he’s incredibly thankful that Jungkook, nerd that he is, not only had a sword for him to borrow, but actually had a replica specifically of Geralt’s sword. 

Seokjin tugs his apron from the rack, back to the door when he hears it open. He hears Yoongi let out a low whistle. 

“I don’t know who’s attention you’re trying to catch, but consider it caught.” 

Seokjin turns, curious as to who and what Yoongi is talking about and he feels his breath catch in his throat. Because apparently fate is cruel and has decided that you of course would pick up Jimin’s shift and would be the one who closes with him. He licks his lips as his gaze slowly trails over you. 

He doesn’t even know what to take in first. Your black dress is low cut and short, your legs covered in lacy floral tights. But the most distracting part is the glittering body cage that sits over your dress. It cages your breasts in and accentuates them even more than the dress, extended up your chest to form a collar around your throat. Thinner strips cover your shoulders and upper arms, forming a parody of sleeves. The strands curve around your hips, the ends coming together to form a point that just touches the hem of the dress. 

A medallion hangs at your throat, the circular bronze marked with a starburst. You grin at Yoongi as you slip a lace mask on that sits delicately over your eyes. He realizes that you’re dressed as Yennifer. God and not just any outfit, a much skimpier version of the outfit from the orgy scene of all scenes. How is he supposed to survive this shift now?

There’s no way that you knew what he was wearing. This just has to be all a weird coincidence. A very very weird coincidence that has rendered him completely speechless. You glance at him with the ghost of a smile on your lips as you take a seat to swap your ankle boots out for your skates. He gets another brief glance before you’re skating out to join Hoseok outside.

“You’ve got it bad, dude.”

Seokjin jerks at the words, tearing his gaze from your ass to glare at Yoongi. “What are you talking about?”

Yoongi gives him a flat look. “Come on, everyone can see your massive crush on her.” Seokjin shoots a worried glance to where you stand talking to a car and Yoongi gives a chuckle and shake of his head. “Okay, maybe everyone but her. But dude, come on. How long are you going to pine for? Just go for it already.”

“But-”

“There is no but here dude. It wouldn’t make work awkward and it’s very clearly not one-sided. Just ask her.” 

Seokjin huffs. He wants to believe Yoongi, he really does. But he worries that you only flirt with him to see his ears turn red and to tease him. You flirt with the others too and it’s hard to tell if you are just flirty in a friendly way or if you truly want more. And he’d hate to make you uncomfortable at work by making a move on you. He turns and chooses instead to ignore Yoongi for the remainder of their shared shift. It’ll get busy anyway so it’s not like he’ll have to try too hard to avoid any further conversation on the topic of you. Something Seokjin would very much like to keep out of his mind given if he thinks about you for too long, it’s going to go straight to your outfit and he doesn’t really need to pop another boner at work while trying to cook. 

Seokjin gets through almost his entire shift with his sanity intact. There’s 30 minutes until close and there’s only one table here. They seem interested in only getting some drinks, so Seokjin takes the opportunity to slip his apron off and begins cleaning up and getting some of the closing duties out of the way so that he can get out of here sooner and go get very drunk at Jimin’s party and try to pretend that he didn’t nearly see your ass tonight when you bent over in front of him earlier. There was a flash of skin from beneath your skirt and Seokjin had to go spend a few minutes in the freezer. When he came out you looked far too amused.

Seokjin glances out the window, realizing that you haven’t been back inside for a little while and worrying that maybe something happened. But all he sees is you chatting with a table of guys. He’s about to get back to cleaning when one of the guys reaches out to run his fingers down your arm. There’s a coy smile on your face and Seokjin clenches his jaw. He glances at the clock. 5 minutes. 

He debates just kicking them out now. It’s not like Namjoon would fire him for it. He doubts they would even bother complaining beyond making a fuss before they leave. But then your hand comes up to touch his shoulder, just for a moment, and Seokjin’s resolve snaps. He snatches their receipt from the counter where you left it and stalks out of the building. 

You glance up at the sound of the door, smiling a little when you see Seokjin exiting. You and the group of guys startle slightly when he slams his hand onto the table, revealing the bill when he pulls away. 

“We’re closed,” he snarls, grabbing you and directing you back inside. 

You stumble slightly, skates leaving you slightly off balance for the sudden movement but you manage to steady yourself by grabbing Seokjin’s bicep with your free hand and allow him to pull you along inside. He leaves you at the counter as he stomps to the back, muttering something under his breath. You look back outside, seeing the guys exchanging confused looks but they place some money on the table and shuffle off, likely not wanting to see what else Seokjin does when he gets angry. 

You squirm slightly, you’ve never seen him so angry, it’s incredibly hot. Especially with him dressed as Geralt tonight. You wait patiently, watching as the outside lights are shut off and then most of the inside ones as well, casting the kitchen in a faint blue glow from the auxiliary lights that remain on no matter what. 

A moment later Seokjin returns, face set in a harsh look of displeasure. You fight down a grin at pushing him far enough to finally get a reaction. He pauses in front of you, glancing behind you briefly, likely to check that the men have actually left. There’s a soft hum from him that makes your lips twitch up in a small smile and when he catches sight of it, his eyes darken. 

“Something amusing to you, sweetheart?” His cold tone sends a shiver down your spine. 

You blink up at him with faux innocence. “Nothing at all, Jinnie.”

His gaze trails slowly over your face and then he’s reaching and removing the delicate lace mask from your face and tossing it to the counter behind you. 

“I don’t think you’re being honest with me,” he murmurs. He leans forward and your breath catches in your throat, thinking he’s going to kiss you, but he bypasses your mouth, lips brushing your ear as he continues to speak. “I think you did this on purpose and you find it very amusing.”

Your body tingles at his tone, at the way he laces a threat into the seemingly innocuous words. He leans back and you only get a second to admire his smirk before he’s spinning you around and pushing your upper half down against the counter. It takes you a second to get your feet under you with the skates hindering you slightly, but you manage to get yourself stabilized and balanced on your toe stops. 

You plant your hands on the counter to keep stable and glance over your shoulder, only to have your face roughly turned forward once more towards the window. It’s dark out and you know it would be hard to see into the dim windows from the street, but if anyone happens to walk closer, they’d be able to see everything. The thought sends a thrill through you. A hand lands on your ass, cushioned by your dress, but the sudden impact still draws a gasp from your lips. 

“I think,” Jin pauses, fingers trailing lightly across the curve of your ass, “that you have planned all of this with just me in mind, hm?” You don’t know whether he actually wants you to respond or not, but he continues before you can voice anything. “I think someone has been a very bad girl,” the hand on your ass stops and his fingers dig into the flesh harshly. “And that someone needs to be punished,” he finishes with a hiss. 

His hand lands another smack on your ass, a little harder this time, and you feel the slight sting heat your skin. You feel your panties dampen and you squirm as well as you can given the way you have to hold your feet still lest you slip. His hands grope at your cheeks before they slide down enough for him to hook his thumbs under the fabric and he tugs the hem of your dress up and over your ass. 

The hands pause then tighten around the fabric of your dress and you hear him swear under his breath at the sight of your ass clad in black lacy panties, ones that closely resemble your mask, and framed by the lace garter straps of your tights. 

“Fuck… You really did plan this all out…” His hand leaves you again before coming down with a resounding smack, no longer padded by your dress and your thin panties do little to cushion the blow. A moan slips from your lips and Seokjin lets out a dark chuckle. “Oh, are you enjoying your punishment? Well, we’ll just have to fix that, hm?”

He spanks you again, harder this time and you whimper. He hums in approval, hand smoothing over the smarting skin for a moment before he spanks the other cheek just as hard. Your toes curl in your skates at the pleasure-pain that shoots through you. 

Seokjin tsks. “Hm, this just won’t do.” He mutters, seemingly more to himself because you have no idea what he could be thinking until his hand grabs the back of your panties, gathering a fistful of the fabric. It elastic pulls tight across your hips, digging into the skin to the point of discomfort. You whine, trying to push your hips up to relieve the sting but Seokjin just moves with, keeping his grip tight. Then he’s pulling harder, the elastic digging painfully into your skin followed by the sound of seams ripping. A final tug and the fabric tears completely, leaving your ass and pussy bear to Seokjin’s gaze. 

A shudder ripples through you at the display. You can’t believe he just ripped your panties off. You can’t believe how much the action turns you on too. 

A pleased noise rumbles in his chest as the scrap of lace is slipped into his pocket. “That’s much better.”

His hands are back on your ass, no barrier to keep you from feeling the warmth from his palms and the slightly roughened fingertips as they skim across your skin. You push into the touch, greedy for more of the soothing strokes. He chuckles, fingers slipping beneath the garter straps. He tugs them away from your skin before releasing them to let them snap against your skin. 

“Seokjin-” you start, only to be quickly cut off by a sharp smack. 

“Bad girls don’t get to speak unless spoken too, slut.”

You swallow, pussy clenching at his tone. Of all the things you imagined, you never quite imagined something like this. His hand smooths across your skin for a moment before delivering another spank. 

“How many more do you think you deserve, slut?” he muses, hand remaining where it landed with his last smack. 

“I-”

Another smack. “That was rhetorical. I don’t actually take the opinions of sluts.” His hand rubs at your warmed skin for a moment in thought. “I think 20 sounds fair. For all your little stunts with those costumes. For flirting with other guys where I can see. For teasing.” He pauses for a moment and when he speaks again, the harsh edge is gone. “Green means continue, yellow for slow down, and red I stop. Okay?”

It takes you a second to realize what he’s said and then you’re quickly nodding, excitement mounting at what could possibly be to come.

“I need words, princess,” he murmurs, voice softer than it has been since he brought you inside and it makes you melt a little. 

“Yes, I understand.”

“That’s the first time you’ve been good all night, sweetheart.” You can hear the smirk in his voice and it makes you clench at the mean implications that come with such a simple statement. “But now let’s see if you can keep your good girl streak going while you get punished.” Both hands leave you and you want to turn around and look at him, see what he’s doing, but you feel it will only prompt further punishment. “I want you to count. And if you miss one, then we start all over again, got it?”

You’re nodding before he even finishes speaking, trying your best to keep from squirming. “Yes, sir.”

He chuckles. “Such a good girl now,” he coos.

And then his hand is coming down on your ass, softer than his previous smacks and the gentleness makes you gasp. He pauses and waits and you belatedly let a 'one' slip from your lips. He hums in approval and delivers a smack to the other cheek, still just as soft and you murmur a quiet 'two.'

You squirm. You'd expected more harsh hits and the contrast has you aching for him to go a little rougher with you. He smacks again and again. Every slap of his palm against you only adds to the growing pleasurable sting that radiates across the whole surface of your ass.

He stops when he gets to ten, hands rubbing over the warm flesh. "Color?"

"Green, so green," you whine, pushing your ass back into his hands.

He chuckles. "You're so eager for your punishment that I'm starting to think that it might not be a very good punishment." His hand comes down, much harder than any previous spank and you cry out. "Ah, there we go."

Seokjin sounds so indifferent when he speaks, like he's not even bothered by your bare ass and the noises that slip from you with every connection. You wish you could see his face, see if there is any reaction he has. You want to see the indifference as he’s faced with your bare, dripping pussy and spank warmed ass. The next four spanks are just as harsh and tears gather, threatening to fall. It's so pleasurably painful that you can feel yourself dripping down your thighs. He gives you another small reprieve, hands ghosting along your smarting skin as you pant against the counter.

"Hm, there we go, that’s much better. Color?"

You squeeze your eyes closed, taking a moment to try to gather your foggy thoughts. You feel a few tears drip down your cheeks. "G-green."

His fingers dig into your ass then and you whine as you try to squirm away from the sudden flare of pain. Seokjin just chuckles again and digs his fingers in more. He pulls your cheeks apart and you gasp at being suddenly far more exposed. You clench at the burst of cool air across your asshole and pussy, and Seokjin just holds you like that for a long taunting moment. And then he surprises you further by spitting, the glob of spit hitting just above your asshole and beginning to slide down your crack.

You shudder, a moan slipping from your lips as Seokjin halts the spit from sliding too far by pressing his thumb to your hole. You feel yourself go boneless at the pressure. He hums in delight at the way you relax at only a little prodding.

"Oh? Do you like something in your ass too? My, what a naughty girl," he teases, mocking edge making you whine and press further against his thumb.

His thumb circles, pressing lightly against the tight ring of muscle, slowly spreading his saliva around. He plays with your hole, massaging it for a few moments before he's pulling away. He spanks you again and you tense up at the sudden flip from soft rubbing back to the harsh slaps.

"Didn't think I forgot about the rest of your punishment, did you?"

You quickly shake your head. You actually had forgotten that he said twenty and that you still have five left. But you can't let him know how distracted you had been by him playing with your ass. That you forgot you were being punished. That didn’t seem like it would go over well with him. Tears gather in your eyes as his hand lands again, breath punched from you as the pain builds with each swat of his hand.

Your throat feels rough when you finally croak out, 'twenty.'

His hands completely leave you and you tremble against the counter, struggling to keep yourself upright with your legs nearly boneless. You feel warm and floaty all over. 

"Fuck, you look so good like that." You preen at the praise but he’s quick to laugh. And the mocking, mean edge of it has you whining. "You're absolutely dripping. Did you even learn anything from your punishment? Or did you just enjoy it?"

You jolt when his fingers brush against your tender ass before they trail down to your pussy, running the length of your slit and gathering some of your wetness on his fingertips. His fingers leave you once more and a second later you hear him suck his fingers clean.

He groans. "Fuck, I wasn't planning on doing this as part of your punishment but you taste far too good to not give myself a little treat. It is Halloween after all." You can hear the growing smirk when he continues. "Oh, I have a much better idea now anyway."

His fingers trace your pussy lips and you shift, mindlessly trying to get them where you want them. They pull away and Seokjin delivers a quick smack to your pussy, jolting your body at the sudden burst of pain across your sensitive cunt and forcing a surprised yelp from your lips.

"Behave."

You pout, though you assume he can't see it. That is until you glance up at the storefront and see your reflections in the window and the predatory way that Seokjin stares at you. His grin is feral when you make eye contact, like he's been waiting for you to finally look up and realize that he can see your face as well. He keeps staring at you as his fingers slip through your folds again before he lets one slide inside you.

You moan at the intrusion, but it's not enough. You want more already, body warmed from the teasing and spanking already. He’s barely touched your pussy and you’re already so desperate for him. You clench around his finger, hips pushing back to try to get him deeper. He removes his hand again to land another smack to your pussy, dangerously close to your clit. You moan.

"Fuck, you're so dirty. You like getting your slutty pussy spanked just as much as your little ass?"

You nod, desperate to get more of something, anything he's willing to give you. Simply hoping that by agreeing will get you something. Seokjin spanks your pussy again, this time directly over your clit and you cry out, legs nearly giving out beneath you as the pleasure-pain sensation alights your nerves. His finger circles your entrance slowly before slipping inside once again.

"Seokjin please..."

He drags his finger out slowly before thrusting it back in just as slowly, letting you feel every inch of the digit. "What is it? Please what? If you're going to beg, you're going to beg like a proper slut and use. Your. Words." He punctuates the last three words a harsh thrust of his finger after each one, leaving it buried once he's done speaking.

"Please... Wan-" Your voice breaks as his finger presses searchingly against your walls, finding your g-spot quickly and rubbing against the bundle. The action robs you of all thought, losing track of what you had been saying.

"Yes?" He questions mockingly, like he's not distracting you and making it hard for you to form a coherent thought. "Please what?"

You groan, head dropping forward to press your forehead against the cool countertop. The slight chill that seeps through your sweaty skin grounds you a bit. Enough to string together some words. "Want... Wanna cum, please let me cum..."

Seokjin presses more firmly against your spot and your whole body trembles at the wave of pleasure that washes through you, pushing you closer to orgasm.

"Oh? Do you think you deserve that?"

You nod quickly, squeaking when Seokjin removes his finger to slap your pussy again, the only reminder you get to speak. "Yes, yes... Was good and counted the whole time."

He hums thoughtfully. "I suppose you did. So you want to cum, slut?"

You squirm as his fingers tease alone your folds. It’s maddeningly light, nowhere near enough to push you over the edge. "Yes, please, wanna cum, Seokjin..."

His answering hum should send up red flags but he slips two fingers into your pussy, rubbing immediately across your g-spot with each thrust of his hand and you sink immediately into the pleasure it sends through you. You writhe and his free hand comes up to press against your back, pinning you more securely to the counter. It just makes you writhe more, push the boundaries and feel him press you just a little harder into the unmoving counter. 

His thumbs slips forward on the next thrust to brush against your clit. Your belly tightens with every thrust and stroke of his fingers, orgasm rapidly approaching.

“You’re tightening around me so much. Is my little slut close?”

Your nod jerkily, hips twitching as you rock against his fingers. “S-so close…”

Seokjin stops with one last harsh thrust, switching instead to rubbing incessantly at your g-spot while his thumb circles your clit. “Then be a good fucking slut and cum,” he growls. 

He grabs your hair, tugging your head up so that you're forced to stare at his reflection once more. The look on his face makes you shudder and your pussy clenches around his fingers. Your mouth drops open at the feral look in his eyes and the way he seems wholly consumed by watching your every twitch and reaction. One more twist of his fingers has you crying out his name, toes curling in your skates as he pushes you over the edge. His hand releases your hair, a look of warning keeps you from letting your head drop, and his hand comes down in another spank against your ass and you jolt at the added sensation as your orgasm floods your body.

His fingers work you through your orgasm, slowing only marginally as you shake beneath him. You whine when overstimulation starts to take over but you make no moves to stop his movements. The extra sensitivity only adds to the pleasure that still licks away at your veins.

"Wow, too much and you're not even gonna stop me? Fuck, you really are a dirty, needy little slut."

You whine again, pushing your hips back onto his fingers, drawing an amused huff from him. He thumbs your clit roughly, causing your knees to nearly give out, before he's removing his fingers entirely and you pout at the sudden empty feeling you're left with. His hand slips back into your hair, tightening and pulling your head further back so your chest lifts slightly from the counter and you gasp as your attention is pulled back to his reflection. He smirks at you for a moment and then he's releasing you once more. You collapse against the counter, struggling slightly to keep your footing. 

You're suddenly very much regretting the fact that you have to wear skates at work because it's proving to be very dangerous. You wish you could stop and take them off, but you’re certain that Seokjin wants them on for the fact that it keeps you nearly immboile against the counter. You can’t deny that for the struggle to remain upright aside, being forced to stay like this because of your footwear is just another layer to the arousal that has yet to leave you. 

Seokjin's body blankets your's for a moment as he leans over to press a kiss to your shoulder. "Don't worry. I'll give you exactly what you need."

You have no time to question him because he's straightening once more and then his reflection disappears entirely as he drops to his knees behind you. Your throat feels dry as you wait for him to touch you again but the seconds stretch and he does nothing. You squirm, imagining what he must be seeing from his new position behind you, your pussy spread and dripping, hole twitching with the last vestiges of your orgasm. The way your thighs quiver as you force yourself to remain upright.

Embarrassment heats you at being stared at but the moment your legs start to close to attempt to hide yourself, Seokjin's hands grip your thighs, keeping you spread for his gaze to consume. He hums in appreciation, thumbs brushing your folds as he pulls your lips apart to get a better look at your dripping cunt. His breath ghosts across the sodden skin and you think that he's going to finally put his mouth on you but he surprises you when he lips brush gently against your ass.

"S-seokjin?"

He ignores you, peppering kisses across both cheeks, tongue slipping out occasionally to lave across areas made more sensitive by his spanking. He releases your pussy, hands sliding further up to cup your ass, massaging the flesh while his lips move across. It's nothing short of worship and you find yourself quickly getting lost in the attention.

By all means, it shouldn't be as hot as it is. He's barely even doing anything. Just kneading the flesh softly as his lips and tongue ghost across your skin. But every touch sends a spark of electricity up your spine. You wish you could see him, how he must look on his knees, the look on his face. Whether his brow is pinched in concentration like it does when he’s working or if it's relaxed as he takes his time with you.

The first pass of his lips over your asshole draws a soft sigh from you and you can feel the smile that tugs at his lips with his next kiss to your cheeks. He takes his time, only putting the lightest of touches to your hole as he showers attention across your ass. Your mind feels foggy, equal parts on edge for his next move and lulled into complacency by his gentle movements. You trust him to give you what you need, even if you don’t know what it is yet. 

His tongue darts out, circling the tightened ring of muscle with more pressure than he's used before and it causes your entire body to shake. He drifts away again and a whimper slips from your lips at the loss. He moves back to your hole quicker this time, each pass and circle of his tongue coming closer together as he goes.

His fingers dig into your ass, drawing a hiss from you at the flare of pain, and he pulls your cheeks apart. He stops there for a moment and you feel your hole clench at the focused attention.

Seokjin chuckles. "Needy little slut," he coos and then he spits directly onto your hole again.

You moan, feeling as it slowly slides down your ass until it meets your pussy and gets lost in the mess of your slick. He blows cool air where he spat and goosebumps break out across your skin. He blows again and then his mouth is closing over your hole, the sudden warmth has you crying out. Seokjin just hums, tongue tracing your hole.

You shift and Seokjin tightens his grip on your ass, keeping you still and you clench at the casual display of power. He keeps the pressure of his tongue light, enough for you to feel it but keeping you aching for more. And god do you ache for more, his teasing keeps the fire in your belly at just a simmer and you want to be consumed. Your previous orgasm is proving to be nowhere near enough as your clit throbs with need. Seokjin continues his slow pace despite your weak attempts to get him to do something.

He pulls away slightly, breath ghosting over you as he speaks. "If you need something slut, you know how to ask."

And then he dives back in, tongue continuing it's tortuously slow path around your hole. You open your mouth to speak, but Seokjin's tongue dips just inside your hole and you groan at the sudden change. He alternates between slow sweeps of his tongue around your rim and wiggling his tongue just a little deeper into you. The stretch isn't enough to hurt, not with how relaxed his previous attention has left you, and you find yourself wishing that there was just the slightest bit more stretch.

Seokjin's words come back to you and you swallow as you try to articulate your needs to him. "S-seokjin... Need more, please..."

He hums but makes no move to do anything about your whining. He's methodical and it's almost worse than the spanking in how torturous it is.

"Please... Fuck, Seokjin, please, please, please..."

Your begging seems to be what he was waiting for because one of his hands slides from your ass to trace along your slit. You moan at the contact, not expecting him to go for your pussy but you let out a happy noise as a pleasurable shiver runs through you. His fingers find your clit and he runs his fingers around it for a brief second before he’s pinching the sensitive bud. 

You cry out, thighs trying to close instinctively, but Seokjin’s body prevents you from moving them closer than an inch. You feel his smirk against your ass as he pinches again. You whimper, the pain sending sparks of pleasure through your body. He switches to circling your clit, soothing the painful throb he created and it lulls you into a false sense of security for when he thrusts his tongue as deep as he can into your ass. 

You choke on a moan as he thrusts his tongue in again, pairing it with another, slightly more gentle, pinch to your clit. You press your face to the counter, struggling to catch your breath amongst the assault of sensations that Seokjin lavishes upon you. But your attempts are nearly useless as he constantly changes what he’s doing, giving you no time to get used to anything and managing to surprise you with every single twist of his fingers and every thrust and curl of his tongue. 

While you struggle to keep yourself upright, you can feel your orgasm steadily building from the constant attention of his mouth and the abuse to your clit. It’s only a matter of time before you cum again. But you know you can’t, not without his okay, although the thoughts that flit through your mind of possible punishments for cumming without permission are incredibly enticing. That can wait for another day. 

“G-gonna… Gonna cum, can I cum? Please, Seokjin… p-please let me cum…” you babble, feeling that knot inside you continuing to tighten and you can only try to stop it for so long. 

He pulls away, teeth nipping at the underside of your ass while his fingers continue to play with your clit. His mouth drifts a little lower and his teeth dig into the meat of your thigh. 

“Please!” you shudder, the added pain pushing you much faster towards your end.

His tongue traces soothingly over where he just bit, but he remains maddeningly silent. You blink away tears, though you’re not sure if they’re from the pain, frustration, or pleasure. 

“Please…” you whimper. 

He shifts to the other cheek, biting down again and you’re so close to cumming now. His tongue soothes the spot once more and you feel your body tensing with the first inklings of orgasm.  

But just as you reach the edge, nearly toppling over into the pleasure, Seokjin is pulling his hands and mouth away from your body, stopping your orgasm in its tracks. 

You let out a sob, a pitiful, whiny ‘no’ slipping from your lips as a few tears slide down your cheeks as your orgasm slowly slips through your fingers. 

“I don’t recall saying you could cum.” His hand comes down on your ass, right on top of where he bit. 

“I a-asked… Please, I was good.”

“You asked, but I didn’t say yes, slut.” His hand swats at your pussy next and you nearly cum from the action with how on edge you are. 

Seokjin seems to notice if his dark snicker is anything to go by. “Oh? You liked that? Seems you liked it a lot, you made such a mess of my fingers.” He slaps your pussy again and it jolts you closer to orgasm again. “Think you could cum just from me spanking your slutty little pussy? Fuck, I want to try. Do you want that, dirty girl?”

You nod without thinking. You’d do just about anything if it means you get to cum. And the sting only makes the pleasure feel all the better. “Please…”

You hear him shuffle for a moment, the sound of fabric rustling, before he’s nipping at your ass again, leaving teasing stings until his tongue can swirl around your asshole once more. His hand slaps your pussy the same time that his tongue slips back into your tight hole. You gasp and he starts alternating thrusts of his tongue with smacks to your clit.

Your body feels wound tight, every sensation that Seokjin showers on you sending you so much closer to the edge. It feels like you and Seokjin have been doing this for years with how well he seems to be able to read your body. You cry out as Seokjin pinches your clit once more, thighs quivering with the effort it takes to keep you standing.

Seokjin's tongue slips from your hole, but he remains close, lips brushing the sensitive furl as he speaks. "Come on, slut. We both know you can cum from this. Be good and let go for me."

His tongue circles your hole slowly and then it's slipping back in and he picks up a fast pace of fucking you with his tongue, interspersed with slaps and pinches to your clit, seemingly using no method and keeping you on your toes in guessing what will come next. Your high crests from the mixture of pleasure and pain and you cum with a sob, pussy clenching around nothing. Seokjin's fingers press to your clit as the first ripples of your orgasm rush through you and he skillfully draws your orgasm out for as long as possible. Your body feels electrified, pushed into overstimulation but your breath has been completely robbed from you with how good everything feels too, at the way Seokjin so easily manipulates your body to his every whim.

Slowly, he pulls his mouth and fingers from you, sitting back on his heels. You pant against the counter, hot air blowing back into your sweaty face but you're too exhausted to care. You kind of just want to slide off the counter and lay down on the floor, even though it's the kitchen floor and is probably gross. Seokjin pats your ass and it somehow feels condescending and you feel your pussy give a weak twitch.

"Enjoying yourself, slut?" All you can muster is a pitiful whine, which draws a snicker from him. "I certainly hope you are, because we're far from over."

You whine again. You honestly don't know if you could take more. Your body has never been so worked over without actually being fucked too. You don't even know what else he could do short of fucking you finally. Which had been the goal of this whole game to begin with, but he's far surpassed your expectations. Maybe you should push his buttons more often if it results in being so utterly ruined. You definitely know that no one else will ever be able to make you feel as good as he has. Seokjin's hands rub soothingly at your thighs and the action is so grounding that you feel a little dizzy.

"Color, sweetheart?" His voice is soft and gentle, so different from the mean tone that's been coloring it until now.

It takes you a moment to be able to speak, but you manage to get out a raspy 'green.'

"Need any water or a break?"

You think about it for a moment. You could take a break. Maybe take your skates off. But you really don't want to either. There's something about not being able to move that makes it even better, makes you feel powerless even though Seokjin has plainly handed you all the power here. You just want more. 

You shake your head. "I'm good."

His hands massage at your thighs for a few more moments before his fingers dig harshly into the newly relaxed muscle. You gasp and he gives a chuckle. "What a good little slut you're being now."

"Yes... 'm good."

Seokjin chuckles darkly. "That remains to be seen. You haven't even gotten my cock yet and you can barely even speak properly anymore. Not so cocky now, huh?"

He gives your ass a quick swat, it's far more teasing than meant to cause you any pain. His hands slide up your thighs until they just meet your ass and then his thumbs are pulling your soaking folds apart with a groan. Mirroring his earlier actions, he blows cool air across your pussy and you shudder at the way it feels against your heated cunt. His tongue lightly traces your folds and he lets out a contented noise like he’s tasting the most exquisite dish he’s ever eaten. 

Then he’s licking a wide stripe up your slit and you cry out, pussy so sensitive after two orgasms already. Seokjin eats you out like a starving man, tongue working over every inch of your pussy, mapping every spot that makes you twitch and moan. You writhe, or at least you try your best with Seokjin’s hands holding your ass and keeping your lower half mostly immobile. 

Seokjin pulls back with a smack of his lips. “For such a little devil, you certainly taste like heaven.” He snickers before diving back in. 

His plump lips wrap around your clit, tongue flicking lightly at the nub before he sucks. Fire simmers in your veins and you’re surprised at how quickly your orgasm builds again when he’s barely done anything just yet. He suckles lightly, pleasure surging through you. Releasing your clit with a pop, his tongue drags agonizingly slowly up to circle your entrance. He’s methodical, tracing around your hole with just the right amount of pressure before dipping back down to mouth at your clit and then back again. 

You feel yourself dripping, Seokjin noisily lapping up all that you have to give him. Seokjin’s fingers massage up to your ass, digging in and sending a spark of pleasure through you from the sting his grip brings. A hand abandons your ass, finger joining his mouth on your cunt. They work in tandem, fingers toying with your clit while he licks into your pussy. Then they switch, two fingers slipping deep inside you as his lips wrap around you clit once more. 

Time slips away from you, your mind hazy and body on edge as Seokjin plays with your pussy to his heart’s content. His tongue presses at your hole with a little more force and then his teeth graze the sensitive skin and you moan. You feel his smile when he presses his lips against you next and then his tongue is sliding into you. You moan as his fingers pinch at your clit at the same time. 

Heat pools in your belly as he starts fucking his tongue into you and you babble as you feel your orgasm rising as his fingers circle your clit, begging to cum again. He gives you a gentle pat on the ass with his free hand which you assume is meant to be his form of permission since he seems to not want to remove his mouth from your cunt. His fingers move faster and you teeter on the edge. You’re so close. So close that it’s driving you delirious with pleasure. But you just can’t quite get there, missing something that you can’t even fathom let alone ask for. 

Seokjin, ever perspective, seems to know exactly what you need as he slips a finger in with his tongue, pressing down on your g-spot and making you cry out. The insistent pressure combined with the fingers on your clit and tongue still thrusting into sends you over the edge. Bliss floods your body and you feel yourself gush around Seokjin’s tongue and fingers. He drinks up what he can before he’s pulling his mouth away with a curse. 

“Fuck, what a messy fucking slut. You made such a mess squirting, you little whore. I just cleaned these floors. I should make you lick them clean.” You clench around his fingers at his words and he lets out a dark chuckle. “Fuck you like that? Of course you would, you wouldn’t be my dirty little slut otherwise.”

His fingers continue their ministrations and you whine that it’s too much. Seokjin pays you no mind, slipping another finger into you. 

“Come on, slut. I know you can cum again.”

You shake your head. “C-can’t… not… No more…” You squirm, trying your best to get away from the relentless pressure against your clit and g-spot. 

His fingers slow for a moment. “Color?”

You swallow. It hurts, but not necessarily in a bad way. It doesn’t feel like it’d be too much to go on. You’ve never been pushed so far and there’s a thrill that runs through you when you think about discovering what exactly your body can take, even more excited that Seokjin is the one to test the bounds and that he makes sure to check in, to remind you that the safe words are there if it’s too much. You trust him to listen if you need to slow down. But you don’t want to, not right now.

You can feel your wetness literally dripping down your thighs and seeping into your tights makes you feel warm all over, overcome with a need to see how soaked they could get. “G-green, please…”

Seokjin hums, fingers picking their pace back up. “There’s my good little slut. Come on, cum for me like a good little whore.”

His mouth latches onto you again and you shudder, body still worked up from your squirting orgasm that it takes so little effort for Seokjin to push you over the edge again. Your mouth drops open on a soundless scream, pussy convulsing as you gush around his fingers, wetness dripping down his hand and to the floor. You whimper and Seokjin carefully slips his fingers from you. He laps gently at your folds, just enough to send tingles of pleasure up your spin.

He pulls away with a groan. “I could eat you out all night.”

You’re torn between imagining the idea and fearing for your poor pussy if he were to actually do that. He stands and you lift your head enough to look at his reflection when it comes back into view. Your breath catches in your throat when your gaze is met with his bare chest. You have no idea when he had stripped his shirt off and you mourn the fact that you didn’t get to see and appreciate the sight more. He shifts slightly and his chin and chest glistens and you feel your body heat with embarrassment when you realize that you were the cause of that. He meets your gaze and winks.

“Think you’re ready for my cock, slut?”

You whine. You honestly don’t know how much more you can handle, but at the same time, you absolutely have to have him inside you. “Please, Seokjin, please… want it.”

His hands give your ass a quick squeeze before they’re leaving you and you can see him focusing on his pants. You curse your current position and the fact that it keeps you from being able to see his cock in all its glory. You know it’s got to be beautiful. It’d be criminal if it wasn’t. 

He smacks your ass with his cock, leaving a smear of precum across the skin. God, how long has he been hard for? How did he hold out for this long? You squirm and he chuckles. 

“Beg a little more, slut.”

You wiggle your ass, pouting. “Please, Seokjinnie… Please, I want it. Want your cock, wanted it for so long… Please I-”

Seokjin cuts your begging off as he roughly thrusts into you. You cry out, hands scrambling for purchase against the counter as his cock stretches you out all at once. He’s huge, so much bigger than you ever dared imagine. Long and girthy and so perfect to fill every inch of your pussy. You’re honestly not sure how he fits, you feel full to bursting with him buried to the hilt in your cunt. You wished you’d gotten to take your time with it, had him stuff it down your throat. The thought makes saliva pool in your mouth. You’re definitely going to repay the favor and worship his cock when you get the chance.

He swears. “Fuck… your cunt…”

His fingers dig into your hips as he holds himself still for a moment. Then he’s pulling out until just the tip remains before slamming back it, jolting you forward against the counter. Seokjin starts a fast pace, immediately overwhelming you and giving you almost no time to adjust to him. 

His grip tightens on your hips, enough to feel like it’ll be a bruise by morning. “Think you can cum again for me, slut? Cum on my cock for me, baby?”

You whine and shake your head. “N-no… please, can’t…”

Seokjin slams into you, draping himself over you and letting a hand snake around your throat. He waits, giving you a chance to say no to this and when he receives no denial, he squeezes lightly. You gasp and he squeezes a little tighter. You feel lightheaded and if it wasn’t for Seokjin’s body pinning you to the counter, you’d probably slide to the floor. Keeping his grip on your throat, he grinds into you, savoring the way your pussy clenches around him.

He loosens his hold slightly and meets your gaze in the window. “You’re going to cum for me again. And your pretty little cunt is gonna milk every drop of cum I have to give you. How does that sound, baby? Want me to fill your slutty little cunt up?”

As much as you don’t want to, you honestly have no idea if your body is even capable of having another orgasm, you want to find out. And the thought of Seokjin fucking you full on top of it has you nodding to his words almost instantly. “Yes, please… Seokjin, please, fill me up…”

His hand tightens again and he gives you a pleased smirk. “You’re so well behaved now. Hard to believe how much of a naughty little brat you’ve been lately.” 

He switches from grinding to thrusting again, though his position over you means that his thrusts are shorter but no less rough. His other hand slides around to your front, fingers brushing your clit. You clench around him and receive a low moan from him as his grip on your throat loosens again. His fingers circle your clit and you can feel your orgasm quickly creeping up on you. You briefly wonder if it’s possible to die from too many orgasms. But then Seokjin nips at your neck, drawing your focus back to the way his cock drags along your walls and the filth he’s murmuring into your skin as his fingers work faster. 

It washes over you and you cum with a cry of his name, pussy convulsing around his cock. You feel his breath puff against your skin as his forehead presses to your shoulder. His hand falls away from your clit, planting itself once more on your hip as his thrusts pick up speed now that he’s chasing his own end. 

Seokjin’s hips stutter to a stop as he cums with a groan pressed to your skin. His cock twitches inside you as he empties himself in your pussy, filling you up. You sink against the counter, praactically purring in contentment at the flood of warmth that he releases within you. He pants against your skin for a long moment and you let your exhaustion slowly wash over you. You’d give anything for a bed right now and to never have to move again. 

Seokjin pushes himself up and then slowly slips out of you. You whine at the loss and you get a soft chuckle. His hands rub soothingly at your back before they come to rest on your waist. He gives you a squeeze.

“I’m gonna help you stand and get you sitting on the counter, okay?”

You groan. “Don’t wanna…”

Seokjin huffs a soft laugh. “I don’t care. I need to make sure you’re okay and we need to get your skates off.”

He starts moving you, though you know you aren’t much help with how jelly-like your limbs feel. He finally gets you seated on the counter and it takes all your remaining strength to stay sitting upright. You blink hazy eyes at Seokjin; he’s tucked himself back into his pants but they still remain undone, giving you the faintest glimpse of his cock. You pout, you’d wanted to see it. 

His hands cup your cheeks, directing your gaze to his eyes and you blink slowly at him. He gives you a soft smile. “There you are.” His thumbs stroke gently across your cheeks, wiping away the last bits of your tears. “Can you stay sitting up for me? I’m going to get you some water, okay?”

You nod, frowning when his hands leave your face. You want him to keep touching. He turns, grabbing a cup and quickly filling it with water. He hands it to you, helping you when it almost slips through your lax grip. He makes you drink half before he lets you set the cup down. He leans down and makes quick work of your skates, tugging them from your feet. You sigh in relief, feet flexing at finally being free from their confinements and a surprised noise leaves your lips when you feel his thumbs dig into the soles of your feet. He rubs each foot and you nearly fall asleep from the relaxation that slowly spreads through your system.  

Seokjin stands, his hands coming back up to cup your face. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay,” you croak out, lips pursing at how wrecked your voice comes out.

You can see Seokjin fight down a prideful grin as his thumbs stroke your cheeks. It’s silent for a few moments before he’s gasping and you give him a questioning look. He tuts, though you don’t know if it’s directed at you or himself.

“All that and I haven’t even kissed you yet.”

You giggle, he does all that and is worried about the fact that he didn’t kiss you at all. He tilts your head up, soft smile pulling at the corner of his lips. You blink at him for a moment, not expecting him to follow through with fixing that. But when he leans in, you let your eyes slip shut. The kiss is sweet and chaste, the complete opposite of everything that just happened. It lasts for just a moment and you ache to have more of the feel of his plush lips pressed against yours. 

He grins as he pulls away and then busies himself with finding your shoes and your bag, helping you into them. He presses a kiss to your forehead and presses the water back into your grip with the instruction to finish it. He slips his shirt back on, tucking it back into his pants and then he’s darting out the door. Which confuses and alarms you for a split second before you realize that he’s grabbing that money that then men had left on the table. 

He’s quick to cash the ticket out, slipping the hefty tip they left you into your purse before taking the drawer back to the office. He’s gone for a few minutes and you sip slowly at the water while you wait. Now that you’re alone, you wonder what all of that meant. If it was just a culmination of sexual tension and frustration or if there was something more there. Hoseok and Jimin have regularly pushed you to tell Seokjin how you feel. But you’ve always kept that hidden, not wanting to make work suddenly weird when this job and your coworkers are the best you’ve ever had.

And the costumes hadn’t gotten Seokjin to ask you out or offer to be the other half of the pair costumes despite the hints you tried dropping. Maybe he just wasn’t interested in that and just wanted a quick fuck. But some of his actions disprove that. Maybe he was just as nervous as you to ask. 

He reappears, pressing another kiss to your forehead as he takes the empty glass from you and sets it aside. 

“Think you can stand now?”

You shake your legs out experimentally. You certainly seem to have a little more control over them. “I can try.”

That draws an amused snort from him and he helps you down from the counter, hands not leaving you until he’s sure that you’re safe to stand on your own. You adjust your dress, pulling it back down and wincing slightly as the slightly rough material drags over your ass. Your bare ass. You glance around the floor. 

“Hey, where are my underwear?”

Seokjin’s back is to you as he wipes down the part of the counter you were just sitting on. “Oh, they’re completely ruined.” He glances at you over his shoulder with a smirk. “And mine now.”

You squirm, feeling some of his cum drip from your abused cunt. Well at least you’re just going home. You can make it that far. Not that they would’ve been much use to you ripped anyway. Maybe you should make him buy you a new pair. That request might come after the feelings talk though. 

Once he’s done, he wraps an arm around you, pulling you into his chest and pressing a kiss to your hair. “Ready to go?”

You hum and nod. You are seriously ready to sleep for a day. You’re glad that you don’t work tomorrow. You don’t think Seokjin does either. Maybe you can entice him to stay the night and you could cook him breakfast before the two of you talk. 

Seokjin leads you out of the building, locking the door as you go, and guides you towards his car. Your’s is at home, though you’re not sure if Seokjin already knew that or is just directing you towards his car because he doesn’t trust you to drive right now. To be fair, you don’t think you could actually drive if you had to. You’re glad that you’d been planning to drink at the party and so you were just going to either catch a ride, stay at Jimin’s, or get an Uber so that your car isn’t left in the lot overnight. 

Once settled, he starts the car and pulls out of the lot. You frown watching him turn. 

“Seokjin, I live the other way.”

“I know.”

“And you live the other way.”

He smirks. “I know.”

You swallow. “Where are we going?”

“Well, it’s a shame for you to get all dressed up for a party and to not even go to show it off.”

“I can’t go to a party like this!” You only briefly caught sight of your full reflection but you know how fucked out you look. He can’t seriously be taking you to the party right now. 

Seokjin’s hand lands on your thigh. “You had no problem going to work like that.”

You whine and squirm, immediately squeezing your legs together when you feel another dribble of cum slip from you. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”

Seokjin just hums, driving the rest of the short distance to Jimin’s house in silence. You try your best to fix yourself up in the mirror so you don’t look completely ruined. It’s only slightly effective. You wish you had Yennifer’s powers, then you could just magic your way home. Would serve Seokjin right. 

He parks and helps you out of the car before reaching into the back for a wig and a sword. He adjusts both items and you look him over appraisingly. 

“At least you’ve got Geralt’s brutish personality down.” You tease. 

Seokjin takes your hand and presses a kiss to it before using it to lead you to the house. “I’d like to think I’m far more charming than him.”

You giggle. “That remains to be seen.”

The party is in full swing when you enter and it takes the both of you a few moments to find your friends. When you do, they all are quick to take in your appearance and the way Seokjin’s hand is wrapped around yours. Jimin crows victoriously, slapping Taehyung on the back.

“I told you! You owe me!”

You bury your face in Seokjin’s shoulder to hide your embarrassment. You just wanted to go home and cuddle. Seokjin’s lips brush your ear.

“If you promise to stay a while, we can get revenge on him and go fuck in his bed.”