#then we had a team meeting in which our boss’s boss was supposed to come talk to us about some shit and we waited for her for half an hour

[leadmeastraylittlefairy]

april 😵‍💫

[thebeast-dennis-etcetera]

Tipsy and Turned On

Gibbs X Reader One-Shot

Prompt: You attend an NCIS Ceremony and get a little too tipsy around your boss.

Part 2

Mentions: Drinking

>>>>

You smoothed your tight dress over for the hundredth time in the last 20 minutes as Bishop ran around the little hotel room you two shared, looking for her earrings.

“They were literally on the sink just a second ago,” she cried out, exasperated. You looked at your watch, noting that you only had about 40 minutes before the ceremony started.

“Check by the mini fridge. Maybe you set them down them when you stuffed your face with the bag of peanut m+m’s.”

You checked your makeup in the bathroom mirror and put a thin coat of lipstick on before you heard Bishop’s triumphant squawk.

“Got em!”

Walking out, you saw her putting the earrings in while munching on something which you assumed was the m+m’s she was finishing. A loud obnoxious knock sounded at the door before it opened a second afterwards and Tony walked in.

“What the hell DiNozzo? You don’t just walk into our room like that. We could’ve been naked!”

“Darn, should have knocked 30 minutes ago,” he teased, making you roll your eyes.

“Are you guys ready? The ceremony starts in like a half an hour,” you heard McGee’s voice announce from the hallway. At least he had the decency to stay outside.

“Oh relax McFidget. It’s literally 3 floors beneath us. We’ve got plenty of time to grab a drink and meet some newly promoted probies.”

You spritzed a little perfume, grabbed your clutch, and walked out of the room, making sure to smack Tony on the way out. Abby and Palmer were already down in the lobby when you guys stepped off the elevator.

“Oh my gosh, your dresses are so beautiful!” she gushed while running over in her Doc Martens.

You returned Abby’s excited hug and smiled anxiously, which she caught onto.

“Nervous?”

“Yeah. The entirety of NCIS is here. Including SecNav.”

“Well let’s get you a drink then. Soften those nerves.”

The boys went to find your assigned table while you Abby and Bishop went over to the bar, each ordering a cocktail. After a couple long sips, you took a breath and tried relaxing. Crowds were never a problem for you as long as they didn’t include a bunch of higher ranking officials and their bosses walking around. You scanned the massive dining hall and spotted Vance conversing with some other man in a suit you assumed was important but wasn’t expecting to see the third individual in the conversation as well.

“Since when did Gibbs come to NCIS ceremonies?” you asked, as Abby and Bishop turned to look.

“Oh, I heard Vance is forcing him to be here since we’re suppose to be receiving an award,” Bishop explained.

So that’s why he looking exceptionally handsome in his full black and navy suit. He even wore a tie. The man definitely cleaned up well and you actually had a hard time taking your eyes off of him.

Ever since you started working with the team, you had been…intrigued by Gibbs but it never got past the point of checking him out a few times or shooting some harmless cheesy flirts that everyone would just roll their eyes at. He never gave any indication of being intrigued as well, let alone attracted to you in the time that you’ve known him.

“Alright. One shot and let’s go join the others,” you heard Abby say.

You turned to her and saw her sliding over two shot glasses for you and Bishop. Now that Bishop just told you that you were going to have to get up on stage, you needed a shot more than ever.

“Abby, you’re a mind reader.”

She just winked and clinked your glass before throwing the shot back. You and Bishop followed suit, both grimacing from the liquid flames pouring down your throats and followed her towards your reserved table.

“Looks like you 3 found the bar just fine,” Tony pointed out as you took a seat.

“Don’t you have some naive agent to be bugging?” you retorted. He smiled and gave a nod to some young woman across the way, proving your point.

“Actually, she’s a file clerk and I’ll be right back.”

He left the table in the direction of the blonde haired woman as you all shook our heads and laughed. A few minutes later you saw Gibbs walk over.

“Didn’t think you were coming Gibbs. You don’t usually like these types of events,” McGee pointed out as he took Tony’s spot beside you. Instinctively, you took a long sip of your drink.

“Vance wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

As if on cue, the lights dimmed and the SecNav walked onto the little stage area holding a microphone.

“Thank you all for attending our little get together. We have a few announcements and presentations so let’s get started. Firstly, let’s honor those that we’ve lost in our battle for justice. Agent Simmons….

We all listened quietly, occasionally nodding or clapping for different reasons but the thought of having to get up on stage soon was driving you crazy. You hadn’t even known your leg was shaking under the table until I you felt a warm hand still your movements. Looking over, Gibbs gave you a small reassuring nod calming and exciting you at the same time.

His hand had left but the warmth was still there, leaving your skin with goosebumps.

“So these awards go to Special Agent Gibbs and his dedicated team, if they could make their way over,” Vance’s voice spoke too quickly. Part of you just moved in autopilot, getting up and following behind Gibbs with the rest of the team following behind in a line. You could feel everyone’s eyes on you, judging you.

Luckily, the little bit of alcohol you had was kicking in, dulling the sense of anxiety but you knew you looked at your hands, they’d be shaking.

On stage, Vance adorned your necks with medals and shook everyone’s hands before dismissing you. It was simple and quick and you would’ve ran off the stage at top speed had you remembered how to act at such formal events.

>>>>

The hardest part was over and now was time to relax, as you sat on the floor of your hotel room, doing your 3rd shot with Bishop and Abby.

McGee had left early with Delilah and who knows what pants DiNozzo got himself in but you, Abby and Bishop were having the time of your lives.

“You should try it, you never know, you might enjoy it,” Abby suggested from the couch.

“I’m not sleeping in a coffin Abbs! I’m already claustrophobic!”

“You know what you should do. Pretend to get lost in the hotel and end up at Gibbs’s door.”

Both Abby’s and my mouth dropped open at Bishop’s comment and she laughed. She was the only one I told about my slight attraction to our boss and now Abby knew too.

“Bishop, I can’t believe you said that! I thought we had a secret together!”

“Oh don’t worry Y/N. I knew something was going with you and Gibbs wayy before Bishop told me anything.”

“What?! There’s nothing going on! And Bishop shouldn’t have said shit.”

They both laughed at the horror in your face and you prepared yourself another shot.

“You should do it though. I overheard heard him talking with Ducky about you. He didn’t say it exactly but he thinks you’re interesting. And for Gibbs to say that, that isn’t normal.”

“But I don’t even know what room is his.”

“202. Right down the hall,” Abby stated, already ready for your excuse.

“No one is saying go in there and force him to have sex with you. Just go and see what he does. If he escorts you back to your room, maybe he’s not interested. But if he invites you in..”

“What about Rule 13?”

“You know how many times we’ve broken that rule? It’s almost funny that we still have it. Come on, hurry before your buzz goes away and you chicken out.”

The both of them practically pulled you up and dragged you over to the door.

“Here are your shoes,” Bishop said, putting my heels in my hand and pushing me out.

“Wait, you guys can’t just kick me out of my own hotel room-

Your statement was cut short as they shut the door in your face, both could be heard giggling on the other side. Looking down at the heels in your hand, you decided against putting them on for fear you would faceplant if you tried walking in them and slowly made your way down the hall.

198, 200, 201..

You stood in front of 202, seriously wondering why you befriended those two. Well, it was now or never you thought as you knocked softly 3 times. A few seconds went by, you swaying slightly as the tequila did its job before the door opened up.

You were genuinely surprised at seeing Gibbs answer the door in nothing but a white tee and boxer briefs, you almost forgot the line you had planned.

“Oh. Is this not my room? I could’ve swore it was..” you probably slurred at him.

“Do you normally knock on your own door Agent L/N?”

Shit. He knew. Maybe. Maybe not.

“Do you know what time it is Y/N?”

You made a move as if to look at your watch, which you didn’t have and heard him sigh.

“It’s 2 in the morning. Have you been at the bar all night?”

Holy shit, it was that late? You were for sure going to have the worst headache the next morning.

“Yes.” Your answer was short, but your tone was almost a question. You don’t know what you were saying anymore, you honestly forgot what he asked you.

“Can I come in?” You blurted, hoping he wouldn’t turn you down. He rubbed his face in exasperation and opened the door wider for you to step in. Holy shit. Holy shit. You did not think you were gonna get this far.

You stepped into his room, noticing that all of his lights were still on and the tv played softly.

“Have you been up all this time too?” you asked, setting your heels down on the little loveseat.

“Just going over the case.” He closed the door and walked over into the bathroom. You looked around, seeing the case file spread across the little desk and the queen bed beside that looked untouched.

You weren’t sure what to do now. You do know that this tight dress you’ve been wearing for hours was starting to become very uncomfortable and this plan was looking dumber and dumber by the second.

Gibbs came back out of the bathroom and grabbed a water from the mini fridge before offering it to you along with some pills you assumed were aspirin. “Drink.”

You listened obediently and gave the bottle back to him, the both of you staring into each others the entire time. Then for whatever reason, you walked over to his bed and plopped down on it, practically moaning at how nice it was.

You almost fell asleep right then and there but then felt something drop onto you. Opening your eyes and looking down, you saw a pair of sweats and a faded USMC shirt lying on the bed.

“You’re not gonna escort me back to my room?” you asked him curiously.

“Do you remember your room number?”

You thought about it before answering honestly.

“No.”

“Then I can’t escort you back to your room. Go change.”

Whether it was the liquor that made you do it or just something deep down inside that gave you the courage, you got up from the bed and pulled your dress zipper down your back, pulling your arms out of the sleeves and letting the dress fall to the floor.

Turning around, you brought your eyes to meet his and watched his icy blue ones stare right back. “What are you doing Agent L/N?”

“I don’t know.”

You took a couple steps closer to him, the cool air making you shiver slightly and just stood there. He didn’t move an inch but you watched him slowly look over you, his mouth moving to slowly lick his lips, sparking something in you.

Taking a chance, you put your arms around his neck and brought your body close to his, noticing how his hands immediately found your hips and his head dipped to meet yours in a deep kiss.

It was better than you ever imagined and between his mouth moving against yours, his hands gripping your skin tighter and the way he pulled you in closer was giving you enough endorphins to pass out.

When you both pulled away for a breath, you smiled. “I’ve wanted to do that for a while.”

“Oh really?” His voice was husky and lower than usual, making you close your eyes.

He nuzzled your neck and wrapped his arms around your torso but made no attempt to bring you to bed.

“As much as I’d like to continue this further, I want it to be on a different occasion,” he spoke in your ear, kissing just below and releasing his grip on you.

Bringing your arms back down, you looked away and stepped back. He was quick to pull your chin back up to look at him.

“What about dinner at my place tomorrow?”

You just nodded and he gave a small smile, leaning down to kiss you again, making your head spin.

“You change. I’m going to take a shower,” he said, pulling back and heading into the bathroom.

You took a huge breath, letting out all the tension and multitude of emotions. You changed into the clothes and just sat on the edge of bed, absent mindedly watching whatever movie was playing.

A few minutes went by and you felt your eyes getting heavy, the alcohol and everything that happened in the day suddenly making you very tired. Knowing you weren’t going anywhere, you crawled across the bed and slipped under the covers.

“Y/N. Wake up.”

You opened your eyes to see Gibbs sitting on the bed beside you, now dressed in sweats and the same t-shirt but his hair was wet from the shower so you couldn’t have been asleep for longer than 20 minutes.

“Chug this, then you can go to sleep,” he said, handing you a small bottle of water. You smiled at his kindness and sat up. As you drank, he turned all the lights off, only the tv illuminating the room and joined you under the covers. You placed the now empty bottle on the bedside and scooted a little closer to his warm body. You weren’t sure how much intimacy to give but you were perfectly content when he moved his arm so that it rested under your head and pulled you closer.

You thought about how the nights progression went on and decided you’d actually have to thank Bishop and Abby.

[specialagentlokitty]

Hotch x reader - soulmates

Hi, Soulmate AU anon again. I was wondering if you could do the AU I mentioned with Hotch x FBI!Reader. Maybe she's been working with the FBI for a long time, but they haven't been able to talk until she has to join his team for a case. It's up to you 😊 - Anon💜

Soulmate AU: the first words your soulmate says are tattooed somewhere on your skin

You looked at the ink on your shoulder in the mirror with a small frown on your face.

‘We don’t need anymore help.’

What’s what it said, and you wondered what kind of person your soulmate was.

You always wondered that, were they rude? Nasty? Maybe they just didn’t like new people?

You had no idea, but so far you had never been able to find them, you knew the rules. It wouldn’t put names on your skin, or anything that could help you find our soulmate, it would add the next sentence that wasn’t a name or location.

It was strange, but everyone was used to it.

Even you, and thankfully yours was easily hidden by the fabric of your shirt, so no one aside from you and your parents knew what yours said.

You always made up some lie, because you didn’t want to admit that your soulmate seemed rude and horrible.

But you couldn’t think about that now, you had to rush to work because you were being placed with a new team since they needed a new agents for their team, and you were the most qualified.

You followed yours boss into the meeting, and you looked around, standing there with your arms crossed as you looked around, and you felt an intense gaze on you so you look at him.

You’d heard of him of course.

Agent Aaron Hotchner.

Everyone had heard of him and his team.

Most people would be overjoyed to be working with them, but for you it was just another team who needed your help for a while.

While your boss spoke with his, you walked over to him and stood in front of him.

“We don’t need anymore help.” He said.

You hummed a little, flicking your eyes from his to the two people behind him talking away then back to him.

“We don’t get much choice in this Hotchner, so we either work together or we don’t, I don’t care.”

His eyes widened a little and you cracked a small smirk, leaning against the table.

“I always wondered what my soulmate was like. I suppose you aren’t so bad at least you’re not a criminal.”

“How do you know we’re soulmates? You don’t know what mine says.”

You laughed a little, giving a small shrug.

“Maybe not, but the face you stared at me in shock for a split second kind of gives that away.”

You tugged your shirt to the side, pulling it down your shoulder to show him the words before you billed it back up.

He did the same, showing you his collarbone which held your exact words.

“So what does this mean exactly?” He asked.

You shrugged a little.

“No idea, I guess we can either choose to act on it, choose not to, whatever really. Right now though, you have a missing agent, and I’m the one who’s going to find her.”

“How long?”

You looked at your watch.

“A few hours of you give me access to everything I need.”

He nodded and held out his hand.

“Aaron Hotchner.”

You shook his hand.

“(Y/N) (L/N).”

And you worked quickly, it didn’t take long to find his agent safe and sound, and now all you had to do was find their unsub which was harder.

With Garica and you, it took another two days to find them, the small group of unsubs working together, and they were quickly brought down.

And now you were standing over them as they did paperwork.

“Will you be working with us on more cases?” Reid asked you.

You shrugged a little.

“Not my place to say.”

“Yes, she will. For now.”

You titled your head back to look at Hotch and he gestured for you to come up so you did.

“Ooo someone’s in trouble already.” Derek smirked.

You rolled your eyes and tossed your pen at him before you made your way up, following Hotch into his office.

He closed the door and looked at you.

“So, we’re going to be working together for a while, so… what do you want to do?”

You sighed a little, shrugging.

“I don’t know, I mean I’ve dated people and all yeah sure, but this whole soulmate thing? Everyone has one perfect match seems a bit far fetched.”

“You don’t believe in soulmates?”

You shook your head.

“No I do, obviously. But I’m saying I don’t believe that your soulmate is your supposed perfect match. I’ve seen unsubs who’s victims were their soulmates, victims who’s abusers where their soulmates, tell me how that’s a perfect match.”

He sighed.

“I suppose it isn’t. So I assume you don’t want to do this whole soulmate thing?”

“You do?”

“Well, I have a son, and I was married and we weren’t soulmates. But soulmates don’t have to be lovers do they?”

“What’re you saying?”

Hotch smiled a little and held his hand out to you.

“How about friends? Then we just see what happens?”

You smiled, clasping your hand around his.

“Friends. Then we just go with the flow really.”

He nodded his head in agreement.

Neither of you knew what was in store, but at least as friends you could decided if it’s what you wanted and not jump into anything like everyone else does

[sparky-is-spiders]

Jonelias Week Day 1 (Which is definitely today I swear), for the prompt "No Powers AU"

This one... maybe got away from me. This is actually only the first half of what I've written so far, and probably the first third overall! I do plan to post this to Ao3 at some point (although I suspect I'll need to do a lengthy round of editing first lmao). It's some very self-indulgent nonsense, which is a lot of what I write, but now it's getting put in the main tags of a ship during said ship's event week. So. It may also be a little bit "aromantic dude tries to figure out what having a crush is supposed to be like." Also a lot of "dude who took Principals of Accounting once pretending it knows what office work is like." Anyway, quick warning before we begin, and the rest will be under the read-more:

Stalking (played for laughs) for most of the fic.

Just. A weird amount of obsession.

Ok that should be it I think. Fic under the cut.

Jon's new boss was, quite possibly, the most boring man in the world. He wore the same outfit every day (pale dress shirt with dark unpatterned tie and gray slacks and matching suit jacket). The only personal effect in his entire office was a potted plant on the windowsill (some sort of succulent, and definitely fake). He always arrived to work exactly half an hour early and left exactly half an hour late. The only hobby he appeared to show any interest in was scheduling, which he seemed to find both deeply engaging and remarkably irritating. In fact, he was apparently so opposed to the idea of mixing his work with his personal life that he might as well not have existed beyond the walls of their office. Jon had never been more fascinated by anyone else in his entire life.

It stared with the transfer to the accounting department. Elias had met with him personally to get him acclimated to his new role. He had been blandly polite, and blandly handsome, and Jon had stopped listening to him about five minutes into their conversation. It was probably bad form, really. The software Elias was droning on and on about sounded like it was about to become a central feature of his days. He really should've been paying attention to it. Instead, he pretended to make eye contact while zeroing in on the top of Bouchard's forehead (a very useful trick, really) and became inordinately focused on the small lock of hair that had fallen across it. It was terribly distracting, and Jon had wondered how he hadn't noticed it. And then he wondered how it had come to be there. And then he had built up an entire story involving a murder, an illicit affair with the assistant director of marketing, and the potted succulent. And then he had noticed Bouchard eying him with what could've been suspicion or amusement or irritation or nothing whatsoever, and had been forced to rapidly pretend to care about their company's bad debt expense policy. Bouchard had indulged him, and had spoken with the calm authority of someone who knew what they were talking about, and had even managed to avoid being overtly condescending (a feat forever out of Jon's reach). At the end he had shaken Jon's hand (with a nice, firm grip), and had told him "I'm looking forward to working with you, I'm sure you'll make a wonderful member of our team." Jon had left that meeting with a mind shrouded in a fog of boredom and a faint sensation of warmth which he decided was best attributed to curiosity and left otherwise unexamined. Over the next few weeks, Jon had tried to subtly inquire into Bouchard's life. At the time, he had been naively under the impression that surely he must have let slip something about his life; some odd quirk or funny story or harmless bit of information which could justify Jon's blooming curiosity. Unfortunately; "He lives in Chelsea, I'm pretty sure?" (Sasha) "He's currently in a meeting. Honestly Jon, you'll be better off just sending an email. Now can I please get back to work?" (Rosie, probably lying about the meeting) "He actually lives here in the office. Set up a cozy little home away from home in one of the storage closets and sneaks out at night to raid the canteen. And he's having an affair with the assistant director of marketing." (Tim, definitely lying (but maybe a mind reader? Also, full of brilliant ideas for places Jon could maybe set up a cot whenever he needs to stay overnight)) Clearly, Jon would have to take matters into his own hands if he wanted answers. That was fine. It could be his own private little research project.

Jon liked to think that the entire thing had actually been quite reasonable, and that he had acted within the bounds of their pre-established relationship as employee and supervisor. Surely any rational person had to realize that nobody could possibly be that uninteresting. Anyone would be curious as to what dark secrets Bouchard his behind his well-tailored suits and polite, professional demeanor. … perhaps most rational persons would not meticulously record the movements, behavior, and daily appearance of their colleague in a discreet notebook (with annotations, color-coding, and graphs where appropriate), but Jon had always prided himself on his dedication to research and understanding. So far Jon had collected frustratingly little data. If Bouchard was hiding anything, it wasn't apparent from his schedule (see pages 8-13, figure 2.b), his eating habits (see page 22), or his lone plant (see page five, figure 1.c). His breaks did seem specially timed to avoid other people (and he appeared not to engage in many social behaviors generally), but he never acted irritated or otherwise unhappy to encounter one of his subordinates, so Jon wasn't entirely sure if it was deliberate avoidance or simple coincidence. Really, the only truly odd thing about him was his inexplicable interest in Jon. That very morning, for example, Bouchard had stopped by his cubicle for a fifteen minute discussion on the upcoming Annual Team Luncheon, an event Jon had never attended before (due to an annual migraine which coincidentally always happened to occur on the exact date of the luncheon), which Jon did not plan to attend, and which honestly sounded like some sort of violation of the Geneva Convention. The topic itself was not especially odd (small talk was an archaic tradition which had stubbornly clung on in every workplace Jon had ever set foot in), but Bouchard's low propensity for inter-office socialization combined with the fact that he had both chosen Jon specifically as his conversational partner was… highly suspicious. Most people who encountered Jon inevitably concluded that he was more effort than he was worth (an attitude Jon mostly appreciated).

And of course, there had also been their interaction two days ago, when Elias had paused briefly to inquire as to whether Jon would be staying late, and what he was working on, and if he might perhaps consider heading home soon because there was only so much overtime they could pay him. Or on Friday, when he had managed to hold two separate conversations with Jon where very little was said. Honestly, Jon somewhat suspected that Elias had spoken to him more in the past few weeks than he had spoken to any of their colleagues for the entire time Jon had been there to observe him. Most of Jon's notes were now dedicated to their interactions. From his cot in the unused storage room (which was indeed a good place to stay overnight, thank you Tim), he could jot down everything he recalled about their interaction; it had begun at 8:32 and had concluded at 8:47; the weather was warm and slightly humid, although the office interior remained at a comfortable 21 °C. Bouchard's shirt had been a nice, cool gray, which complemented the silver of his eyes. Jon (who had been busy digging for his favorite pen (the ink was a lovely deep green color, and it was usually kept on the left side of the top desk drawer, and Jon had no idea where else it could have possibly gone)) had settled on "irritation" as his tone, which Bouchard either had not noticed or had not cared enough to acknowledge. He had easily dominated the conversation, and Jon could admit in the sanctity of his research journal that his voice had been soothing enough to cool away some of Jon's annoyance. He wrote his conclusion: Subject behaved near-identically in tone, posture, body language, and apparent mood as he has in all previous communications. Subject displayed no strong thoughts or opinions on subject of discussion nor conversational partner. Interaction was pleasant but slightly dull, no new information discovered. It was almost exactly the same as every previous conclusion. Jon had to admit, so many months with so little progress was… discouraging. He shifted on the narrow mattress and winced when his movements aggravated his backache (which was surely unrelated to his frequent occupancy of the cot). It was becoming more and more apparent that the only possible solution was to do some actual, direct investigation. His first idea (break into Bouchard's office) seemed a tad far (also, he didn't know how to pick locks). His second idea (follow him home) seemed a stretch further than the previous one, and was perhaps best saved as a last resort. His third idea (something something computers? (perhaps "idea" was a bit generous)) would almost certainly require Sasha, who would have questions Jon couldn't answer. He flipped idly through his notes, half-skimming, half-thinking. It was only when his gaze landed on figure 2.b, Weekly Schedule of E. Bouchard, that he actually came up with something reasonable. Something actionable.

[elisysd]

17. I was tame, I was gentle til the circus life made me mean

Masterlist - Previously - Next

Chapter soundtrack: Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? - Taylor Swift

It hadn’t been easy to contact Jean without you knowing, but he had managed. That’s the reason why he was sitting at the terrace of a parisian cafe, waiting for your colleague and mentor to appear. It didn’t take long before the man with glasses that he had seen countless of times before, finally showed up in front of him. 

“I can’t say I’m surprised to hear from you,” Jean said, taking place in front of him while a waiter appeared to take his order. 

“So I suppose you know why I asked if we could meet.”

“It’s about Y/N, right?”

“She doesn’t admit it but she misses working with you.”

“And she is missed by the whole team. She was doing an amazing job but it’s not that easy, believe me. We tried to talk to our boss, we tried to contact the trade union to see if there was something we could do, we negotiated… but it is out of our hands. From what I gathered, the sport service would be ready to have her back and pushed in that direction but it is the higher ups who don’t want to hear anything. They are scared for the reputation of the channel,” Jean explained as Charles huffed. 

“Bullshit. Complete bullshit. So they have no intention to give her job back despite what they told her?” Jean’s face dropped down and Charles instantly knew there was something that he wasn’t saying. “What?” he asked. 

“I know they sent an official contract termination letter to her. She is going to receive it anytime.”

“She moved out, she lives at my place now.”

“Yeah, she communicated the address change. Congratulations, by the way. Treat her well, she needs you. Now more than ever,” Jean sadly smiled, patting Charles’ back as he got up and prepared himself to leave. Charles just nodded, unsure of what to add. The only thing he knew was that you would be devastated once you would get the letter. 

He arrived in a silenced apartment, curtains closed and without any sound that could lead him to you. He checked his phone twice, in case he had missed a text from you, but nothing. He called your name but only silence answered him. He tried to call your phone and finally heard a distant buzzing coming from his office and a voice, your voice, swearing, followed by muffled sounds. His feet carried him to the door where he attempted to open it, without any success. You had barricaded yourself inside, which worried him. 

“Y/N… baby, open please, I know you’re in here.”

It took him a few minutes to convince you to unlock the office but when he saw your glossy eyes, he knew. And the letter lying on the floor only confirmed his instincts. 

“They… they fi… fired… me,” you stuttered in disbelief.

“Come here,” Charles opened his arms wide, letting you fall into them as he pulled you strongly against his chest. “I’m here. I’m right there.”

Your sobs broke his heart as you broke down and soaked his shirt. 

“So, this is all over, then? With a letter? Something so… informal. I mean, I don’t know what I was expecting. It’s just… I don’t know.”

“You’re in shock.”

“All my blood, sweat and literal tears went into this job. For Luc, my grandpa…me. And for what? Look where I end up. With nothing besides broken dreams and shattered hopes,” you nervously laughed and Charles fidgeted. He was scared to ask but he had to.

“Does.. it change anything… for us?”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen, I want you happy, I want you thriving and if I’m holding you back… no matter how much I love you, I don’t want to stand between your dreams and yourself.”

You stared at him and sighed. 

“You’re the only constant in my life, right now. The only light in my life. If you leave me…  I don’t know what I will do. I love you. You’re my happiness,” you reassured him, putting a hand on his cheek, forcing him to look at you. He nodded, shyly.

“Maybe… I could offer you something. I need someone who knows the media inside out to help me build my brand. And listen to me fully before you turn it down. You could work from home, you wouldn’t have to follow me everywhere. You could have your own office. And Lorenzo is working with me on this and he, we, could use your input. You would be a great asset.”

“I’m not sure mixing business with pleasure is a good idea.”

“Think it through before giving me an answer, alright?”

“Would you hate me if I wasn’t following you for the next races? I need to sort everything out. And I need to think it through.”

After Monza, Singapore came rather quickly and Charles would never admit it out loud, but he hated the distance between you. At least physical because if the timezone and his schedule would allow it, he was finding himself chatting and texting on the phone with you. It had earned him a few jokes here and there from his team and from Pierre, but he had just shrugged them off. You seemed to be fine which, instead of reassuring him, was worrying him. He started to know you well by now and he knew you were one to keep everything for yourself because that’s how you had always moved through your life. You weren’t used to having someone to rely on and it would keep on taking a little more time for you to finally understand that it was okay to lean on him when times were rough. But you would get there, Charles was sure of it. 

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, in Monaco, you hadn’t taken a day off despite being currently unemployed. You had wrapped up any loose ends you still had in Paris and made sure your whole life had been transferred to Monaco. Sure, it seemed precocious to take such a big step in your very new relationship with the Ferrari driver but it felt right. And you always trusted your gut feeling. If it seemed right, then it was right. As for your work situation, it was a simple conversation with your best friend that had struck a new frightening but oh so exciting idea. 

“And what are you going to do, now? You’ve never been one to stay on the sideline,” she had asked you. 

“I don’t know… to be honest, I’m lost at the moment. My whole life is in shambles and just the idea of trying to think of the next step is giving me anxiety attacks.”

“So… that means no more motorsport action for you, then? As a media person, I mean.”

“I don’t want to give up on that but I don’t know how to go back to it,” you had admitted.

“Freelance journalist? I know it doesn’t pay much but at least you could choose for whom you would work…”

You had stayed silent, completely frozen for what seemed to be minutes for your best friend, as the wheels started to turn in your mind and a newly found excitement made its way in the pit of your stomach.

“You’re a genius, you know that?” you had smirked. 

“That’s what people usually say of me. But seriously, what are you thinking of?”

“Something big.”

Following the conversation you had worked on your plan, on your own, without talking about it to anyone. You wanted it to be bulletproof before starting any conversations. So you had kept it to yourself until it was finally ready to be talked about. You knew Singapore was a busy weekend for everyone and it would have been the GP you had been the most excited about to cover. But you weren’t there and you had to deal with it. Charles had a lot of work and your exchanges were fewer and fewer, both of you being busy. So the only person you contacted ahead of the weekend to have an opinion on your project was Jean. 

“Y/N… what a surprise. How are you holding up?” he asked.

“Good. Better than I imagined I would be. I’m not calling for chit-chatting.”

“I thought so. What do you need?” you could hear the smile in his voice.

“I have an idea, a project. But I don’t know where to begin to make it happen. I thought you could help me.”

“I have a few minutes to spare. Lance Stroll canceled our interview last minute.”

“It’s always fun,” you sarcastically commented. “I wanna launch an independent media. More like, I want to interview people from behind the scene in motorsport. I was thinking of people like Hannah Schmitz or Susie Wolff. Not drivers. People that make the sport. I was thinking of a podcast. Something independent. Something that is me. I know that I could sell the idea to some media and maybe some of them would be willing to pay me for broadcasting it but I don’t want to work under someone anymore. If working alongside people like you and Marion, if dating Charles taught me something, it’s that I’m more than just capable of doing my job. I’m good at what I do, I have ideas,  have experience, I have passion. I’m just not sure where to begin,” you explained in one breath until the line was silent, making you wonder if Jean was still here. 

“Where do I sign up for this?” Jean finally said. 

You smiled. It was all you needed to confirm that you were on the right path. 

If all seemed to go well for you, it wasn’t the case for Charles. Singapore had been a mess. He was happy for Ferrari but it was a bittersweet feeling. He had tremendously helped Carlos to win and if he wasn’t expecting from his teammate a profusion of gratitude, he was still expecting at least a word from him. Instead, he had been thrown to the wolves as soon as the race had ended and the comments about him being a washed up driver hurt. Especially when his teammate wasn’t saying anything to try to appease the situation. 

The only thing that made him feel slightly better was hearing your voice, filled with anger, when he came back to his room, completely exhausted. 

“If he won it’s because you decided to sacrifice your race! You made the call! Ferrari’s strategists weren’t smart enough to think about it! And you only missed the podium because they fucked up your pitstop! Again. If they hadn’t, it would have been a 1-2 for Ferrari. And the fact that Carlos prefers to praise Lando… it pisses me off! Lando isn’t his teammate. He should go back to McLaren if he prefers to work with him, then. Seriously. You don’t know how much self-control it takes me to not hop on the platforms and tell people who insult you to go fuck themselves. I’m proud of you, for what it is worth. And I love you. And I miss you.”

“You know it is sexy when you defend me like that.”

You laughed. 

“You’re delirious.”

“Maybe a little. I’m exhausted and hot. But I do know that I have a sexy and brave and smart girlfriend. I'm very serious and clear-minded when it comes to this topic. Enough about me, I want to forget this race. How have you been?  We haven't talked much lately.”

“Well… I’ve been busy.”

“Busy with?”

“Creating my own media.” you stated, proud of yourself. 

“Oh… wow… well. You haven’t told me, I didn’t know that was something you had in mind.”

“ I wanted to plan everything first and go through the administrative documentation. What do you think?”

“I think that I support you at one hundred percent. If you need anything, just tell me.”

“Thanks Charles. You know, it’s you who gives me the strength to achieve that. If I hadn’t met you, I don’t think I would have ever been brave enough to try something like that.”

“You would have been. You don’t give yourself enough credit. You’re amazing and I don’t think there is anything you can’t do.”

“There is one thing I can’t do and that I need you for.” you chuckled, always feeling a little awkward when he was putting you on a pedestal you didn’t think you were deserving. 

“Ask away.”

“Do you think I could come with you for the Austin GP and stay until the end of the season?”

Author's note: I wish I could have managed to release this chapter sooner but I went to see The Eras Tour in Wembley (and it was amazing omg take me back) and then spent some time with my boyfriend so I yeah, writing has not really been possible and I'm so sorry. Bu the good thing is, I have so many ideas for this story and I'm very excited to write and share them. So it means that updates should be more frequent now!!!

Don't hesitate to leave a comment or an ask, as well as reblogging and leaving a like. Besides the fact that I absolutely love to read you, it helps a lot for the story to find its audience. I also have a taglist for this story, so if you want to be added so you never miss a chapter, let me know.

If you wanna be part of the taglist, let me know.

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[rageprufrock]

Hi Pru, this is a career question... I am in my mid-twenties, female, not quite the most junior employee at my organization but treated often as one. The workplace is highly male-dominated, competitive, the older supervisors sometimes hilariously old-boys'-club, and the younger men (my age) mean well (feminist, etc.) but have their own territories to defend. For complicated reasons I cannot leave. I knew some of this coming in but am ashamed to say that

You’ll love this: my response is so late because I too girlbossed too close to the sun and have accidentally reached mid-senior leadership status at my organization and the past month has been the most hilarious cluster of fucks. Insert clown emoji herey.

ANYWAY.

I have a few thoughts on this one, and hopefully one, or some, of these are helpful as you're navigating your early career.

To address your most immediate question: is it meant to be this hard? I think "is it meant" or "is it always" are two different questions, and each with branching answers completely dependent on your field and profession. Some are notorious for early career hazing--banking, medicine, etc--and then the answers are that the suffering is a feature, not a bug, for these industries (this can be debated ad nauseum but you know what I mean), and then for many, many other professions, the answer is that while it's not meant to be this difficult, it still is, and that it's all we can do to survive it.

But setting aside the macro issues, of whether the role itself is objectively hard or if the environment you're in is objectively sub-optimal, the more nebulous and inescapable thing is that each one of us, individually, in our early career are undergoing one of many puberties and all its attendant implied indignities. I find it weird that culturally we don't talk about this much--at least not in Western or the Eastern cultures with which I'm most conversational--but think about it: in the first five to ten years of your working life, you're often simultaneously navigating a staggering number of life-changing systemic shifts that have a tectonic impact on your lived experience. I

For a lot of us, beginning your life as a working adult means you're likely moving out of your parents' home, which adds a huge amount to your mental load and financial burden.

For a lot of us, these early professional jobs are also the first time we're operating in a performance-reward system for which there is no clear rubric or understandable progression monitoring--there aren't any grades, and I can't tell you the number of people who I've spoken to in my career who have been shocked when they're told they're being put on performance improvement plans even though they thought they were doing fine.

It's like being sent to college with no class list, textbooks hidden in eight different departments run by varyingly helpful people, while trapped in an inescapable group project run by someone who seems just as frazzled as you are, and told "okay well you should need to bring me your completed degree by EOD Thursday." This doesn't even take into account your genetic assignment to play this entire game on hard mode by failing to be a cisgendered man in the dominant cultural demographic.

People who've had multiple jobs and career changes can attest, every new job, no matter how seasoned you are, is fucking exhausting. It's almost a joke among my friends at this point how often I change jobs, and every single time I do, there's at least a six month run where at the end of every day, I'm fucking spent. I couldn't calculate 1+3 if my life depended on it, because I've spent my working day so furiously trying to read the professional tea leaves and figuring out what the actual fuck I'm supposed to be doing--which, funnily enough, is never as clear as you would think! Even if you are at increasingly senior levels of responsibility! It's really fun and good! Your boss's boss's leadership team meetings? Surprisingly similar to when I used go get coffee during my break working at an ice cream shop to complain about our customers and equipment and boss! It's amazing how no matter how much changes, everything stays the same!

So I think in the end, my answer to your question is this:

Is it meant to be this hard? Depending on what you do, maybe.

But should it be this hard? Of course not. Life is short and lush and wonderful, but already so filled with challenges, and it's a shame that being rooted in capitalism, we're all forced to participate in a system that's so unbending and unforgiving.

But does that mean it's going to be forever? Or that you can't survive and thrive and have fun in the process? Absolutely not.

However awful you feel, however bad the job is, it doesn't have to be forever. This role you're in now may be just what you need to find your next, better, better paid opportunity. And maybe that one won't be the ideal for more than a year, maybe two, but that's why you keep an eye out and a keen focus on what you want, and what's most important, and like a shark, you continue to move and grow as you get clearer on where you want to move and how you want to grow. The person I was at 24 could not have imagined the person I am at 38, and I'm guessing that the woman I am today can't fathom who I'll be in another 10 years. Whoever she is, I hope she's still choosing to do hard things and--to the very best of her ability--having a good time in the process.

It's okay to cry about work. It's okay to cry at work, even though I strongly recommend that you do this huddled in a restroom in privacy because otherwise it gets messy--fairly or otherwise. It's okay and normal to do these things. It's okay and normal to feel like a fucking disaster, to feel--or to in actuality!--be categorically failing. It is okay and normal to hate and love your job, and to love money and hate the work. There is no right way to do this, and the only wrong way is to give up on yourself, or to create a situation where you cannot have the freedom of your choices or your future.

It's also going to get easier with time. Even if you don't feel it, every day you're getting more experienced, more confident, more discerning. Those microscopic, atomic changes in you accrue, and I'm sure if you're honest with yourself you can already identify how even today, you are a stronger, more capable person in your professional context than you may have been just a year or two ago. Even if you don't mean to do it, just the experience, the bruises, the callouses from throwing yourself at the brick wall over time will rewrite the person you are--if you do this with your eyes open and intentionally, all the better.

Five years from now, ten years from now, you might still find yourself crying about work. But hopefully you'll share the good fortune I have been privileged enough to have, and find yourself the type of good friends who say, "don't care during work hours, it's beneath you to give them the satisfaction--cry later," and actually have the wherewithal to follow that extremely correct guidance.

So anyway, it shouldn't be this hard, but it is. The good thing is, you're better and stronger than it is, and you can look forward to the day you get to look over the shoulder at all the worlds you've conquered as you get ready to do it all over again.

💖

[dr-futbol-blog]

Home, Pt. 1

Home (S01E09) gives us insight into the characters by delving into their subconscious. The misty alien entity enters the minds of the characters and constructs illusions from their thoughts. The illusions lack a sophisticated understanding of our world. Unlike the others, Sheppard is noted to be capable of manipulating his fabricated reality, which also gives us another level of insight into him while at the same time allowing him to hide parts of himself from both the audience and the other characters.

It has been suggested that Sheppard was able to do this because he lacked any real ties to earth and had no desire to return there, unlike the others. In Letters from Pegasus (S01E16) he claims not to have family back on earth, which we later learn is not exactly true, and in this episode he notes that he had spent 11 months in Antarctica prior to their departure. But -- and I'll return to this topic in the future -- his strong ATA gene also seems to make him mentally different in various ways. For one, he is able to sense or get a feel of the ancients just by being near them. But I also think that it was not just window-dressing that there was an active stargate in his subconscious mind in Doppelganger (S04E04). He is wired differently.

The episode starts in the real world, on the planet of the mist.

The team is really starting to gel together, all of them getting to become familiar with each other. While we meet them in medias res, again we get an indication of Sheppard and McKay spending time together apart from the others (and more than we see on screen) in his line "You talked me into coming here because you thought those energy readings indicated the presence of a civilization." This is the first, but it will not be the last time that Sheppard agrees to go on a mission and to drag out said mission way beyond its expiration date just to please Rodney.

Again, they walk hella close even though this time they're not even alone together:

On the planet, we see John check out hot and sweaty McKay.

Where in the previous episode Underground (S01E08) he was quite unabashed about his gazing at the other man, we also saw a change in him toward the end of the episode. His interest had suddenly become more serious. You can see it here.

He looks, and then forces himself to avert his eyes. He looks deflated, almost sad here. And he very much keeps not looking at McKay after this which is even more noticeable on this planet that has nothing on it to look at. He literally forces himself to look at nothing to keep from looking at McKay (and we are emphasized this not-looking by how both the DHD and Ford are placed between them).

The context here is that Sheppard is having to be the boss of him, the leader. The way he very softly says "Alright, then let's call it a mission" shows that he's not entirely comfortable with it, he's not quite sure how he's supposed to be navigating the situation. Like it's a suggestion, not a command. He also starts explaining himself to McKay, giving him reasons why they really should be getting back.

So, Sheppard attempts to keep a distance. But he can't manage it. After they dial the gate and McKay suddenly gets excited about the energy readings, Sheppard not only approaches him when he could well have made his inquiries from where he was standing by the gate, he walks right up to McKay, right up in his face. This was 100% unnecessary. For some reason, he just wanted to get close to the man. He's not even trying to look at McKay's device or using any other pretense for why he approached. He also utterly forgets his earlier apprehension and is suddenly real animated.

My guy.

This is also the first time of something that we see a lot in the first season but not so much later: Sheppard short-circuiting McKay's brain by saying something unexpected. The dialogue isn't usually correctly rendered in transcripts:

Sheppard: How much is a lot? McKay: What, in terms of joules or ergs? Sheppard: In terms of... lots. McKay: Well, lots and lots. What the-- Enough to open a wormhole back to earth!

They omit the middle part that expresses his utter bewilderment. This is a theme that repeats. Sheppard is forcing McKay to think of things he had never thought of in a way he had never thought of them which is definitely one of the reasons he comes to like the Major so much. McKay is so smart that he is rarely challenged, and Sheppard does it so effortlessly, in effect hacking his brain.

Also, they sure do be looking each other in the eye for a long time here.

Again, upon returning to Atlantis and in a meeting with Elizabeth, when Sheppard quips "You said it wasn't fog" his tone of voice is not in the least argumentative but is actually pretty flirty, like catching McKay contradicting himself is the most adorable thing he's ever witnessed. Accompanied by this, what can only be described as a seductive look.

Sheppard also only really relaxes, leaning back in his chair, once he learns that McKay doesn't actually want to leave Pegasus unless he knew that he could come back. So satisfied, he's suddenly fully on board with Rodney's plan. See his subtle look at Rodney as he leans back, smooth operator that he is.

A bit later we learn that he also does not want to go to Earth. In fact, he pretty much refuses. He can't even meet Weir's eyes when she mentions "home," it seems very much like he no longer considers Earth home.

Also, uh.

Was it absolutely necessary for you to be sitting next to the DHD with McKay grunting and breathing heavily under the table while he was removing the crystal, Major? Good god, the parted lips, the shifting in the chair, catching his breath before he can start talking, putting both of his hands quickly on the table and then deciding he doesn't actually know what to do with his hands right then, interlacing his fingers and pulling them back on his lap. Or... over his lap. As it were.

Please give me an innocent explanation for all of this because I just. Can't. There's even innuendo in dialogue with plugging things into empty slots with McKay making eye contact with Sheppard when he says this like we needed contextual help with eroticizing this scene.

After this, Sheppard actually zones out for a bit. Like he's in a completely different world while the others are having what is a pretty important conversation around him. Military leader in charge of the security of the mission. Where are you?

Not looking at McKay, that's for certain. Not looking at anything at all. But oh, his mind's eye is clearly seeing something, this is made clear with the raise of the eyebrow. Also, we know that he's thinking about McKay here because this is supposed to be when he's doing mental math to calculate how long it would take for them to come get McKay by jumper.

Also important: Sheppard is not the only one with flirty rejoinders and sultry looks here.

Like what is this if it isn't flirting? What?

And then there's the disappointed look on McKay's face when he ever so subtly implies that he might require some assistance on the planet and Sheppard swiftly pawns the task off to Ford. Where he is sitting right now, Sheppard does not think he should be alone with McKay on the dark, hot, sweaty, foggy planet. Like, he's not getting up from that chair for a while if you know what I mean.

But on more serious note, the episode actually comes a full circle and returns to this topic toward the end:

Sheppard makes the calculation because he actually has no intention of leaving Rodney stranded on an alien planet. He would have gone to get him even if it had taken 800 years.

Continued in Pt. 2

[anonnluvver]

brett with a very shy reader ? most x readers have a too bold personality for me to relate too lol, gender is unimportant and just headcannons pleaseee :) ty

HIII OMG YALL REQUESTED A WHOOOLLE LOT AND IM SO SORRY IVE TOOK SO LONG TO GET TO THEM BUT I PROMISE I WILL! I’ve just been so busy lately but I’ve finally got some free time on my hands so be ready for looots of posts. ANYWAYS let’s get to it, thanks so much for requesting! (Btw this one is a long one…and cheesy)

Brett x shy reader fluff(gender neutral)

“Deep breathes, okay. You can do this.” You quietly whisper to yourself, nervously fiddling with the seams of your shirt. It’s the first day of your new job in the shadow government at Cognito inc. taking one last deep breath and push the doors open walking up to the front desk. “Hi, im Y/n. Im new here and someone named Reagan said to ask you for instructions.” The secretary just looks you up in down with the blankest expression you’ve ever seen and simply said “go to the 2nd floor, conference room.” You awkwardly look away and thank the lady. Geez so much for good first impressions. Following the mean ladys instructions you stand right in front of the conference doors and give it a quick knock. “Come in!” You hear a women shout. Opening the doors you see who you assume is your boss, Regan. “Hi, I’m Regan your boss . Since of now you are part of the task force.” That was super brief, you thought. You’re a little shocked at how quickly you had been assigned to a job. “Oh um okay, well when do I get to meet this team of mine?” You question her a little scared to meet the rest of your co-workers. “Ah sorry I called you in a bit earlier than everyone else just so you could adjust to your office a bit. I’ll show you the way there then you’ll come back here when your done settling down to meet everyone else.” Regan walks you out to your office and leaves soon after. Your body slumps and your bag falls onto your desk as you sit down. “Well this hasnt been too bad. Regan doesn’t talk too much, which is kind of awkward but I mean so am I.” You talk to yourself in your small office hearing your voice echo a little on the walls from the emptiness in the room. Well I guess I should start heading back I’ve been here a while, sighing you stand up and hesitantly go to the conference room once more. You open the doors to find more people sitting down at the large table in the conference room, all suddenly turning their heads to look at you. In embarrassment your face flushes a little and you look at the floor awkwardly. “Oh, sorry everyone um hi I’m Y/n.” You quietly introduce yourself. “Oh my gosh!” *SQUEEL* “You must be our new co worker!” *gasp* You sharply gasp, surprised by being pulled into a tight hug and squeezed up into the air. Your face grows even hotter and flustered not knowing who is touching you or what to do. You look down to see the person hugging you so tightly and see a tall and really attractive guy. And suddenly your even more flustered if that’s possible. “Brett how many times do we have to tell you, you don’t hug people who don’t know you.” Reagan sighs tiredly, clearly this isn’t the first time he’s done this. “Oh! Right sorry… I’m just so excited to have a new addition to our gang!” He quickly puts you done and apologizes. “Y/n you can come sit down with us now, everyone just introduce yourselves normally please.” Wow, Regan already seems done and the day just started. “Oh okay.” Shit, well where am I supposed to sit? You look to the right and see that weird guy who hugged you patting the seat next to him. You just quickly look away and sit next to Regan on the opposite side from him. You don’t mean to be harsh but you’re just nervous to be close to him. And strange enough he looks sad you didn’t sit next to him. “Alright well I’m Andre Lee, the tasks force one and only biochemist. I also got the good stuff-if you know what I mean wink wink.” He elbows your side while dramatically winking. “You are such a weirdo Andre.” The next girl rolls her eyes at Andre “whatever, I’m Gigi Thompson, best looking one here and PR of the media manipulation department. I’m sure you’ve seen my work because I am everywhere.” She laughs at her own flattery. “And I’m Glen Dolphman, Cognito Inc’s supersoilder and responsible for managing the company’s arsenal.” He says while firmly saluting to the American flag. “Oh and I’m Brett Hand! And uh I guess I just work here.” He laughs awkwardly at the last part as it seems he doesn’t even know why he’s here. “Okay now that everyone has introduced themselves let’s get to business.”

Regans voice just fades out slowly from your head as your distracted by a certain someone. You just stare at him in confusion and curiosity, Brett seems like such a strange yet normal guy. Though as your staring at him you can say he is really cute. Lost in your thoughts you don’t even notice when Brett catches you staring at him at first. He smiles at you and you quickly look away in embarrassment.

Eventually the hours pass you by and your first day on the job was over. You’re glad it was nothing crazy but planning things and paperwork. Reagan promised you’d be safely at the office, just for your first few days. You collect your things from your office and head to your car in the parking lot. Content enough with your first day you decide to get a quick pick me up at Starbucks. You sit at a table by yourself waiting for your vanilla with extra sweet cream foam cold brew, your regular. “Oh hey Y/n, it’s me Brett!” You look at up from your phone in surprise. Brett stood smiling right in front of you. Immediately filled with awkward nervousness you look away from him and down the the table. “Um hi…” you quietly respond to him, clearly not matching his energy. Brett immediately frowns with sadness. “Hey, I’m sorry that I hugged you without your permission. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I was just so excited to meet you! From now on I promise I’ll always ask before touching you.” Surprised at his apology you look up to see him smiling sweetly at you. You feel your cheeks warm up and little and you start to smile just a little. “Thanks, I really appreciate it Brett.” You finally spoke to him while making eye contact! Brett’s eyes light up with happiness, just glad you accepted his apology. Before either of you could say anything else the employee called out your order. “Oh that’s me, sorry Brett I have to go now but um it was really nice to see you.” You grab your bag and coffee and wave goodbye to Brett. Finally at home lying in your bed trying to sleep, you find yourself staring at the ceiling unable to stop thinking about something. Or more like someone. You couldn’t get Brett Hand out of your head and it was unbearable. What was so intriguing about him to you? I mean surely you cant like him you just met. I’m sure it’s just cause your excited about having a new friend. Yes of course, that’s the answer. All these thoughts rush through your head for the next few hours of you sleepless night.

You wave lazily at the front desk lady on your way into the office this morning, tired from you lack of sleep from last night. You drop a few things off at the office and report to the conference room shortly after as Reagan directed. You walk in and it’s just Reagan, seems like your a bit early. “G’mornin.” You mumble and take a sit next to her slumping tiredly in the chair. “Woah you look just like me, what’s wrong?” Reagan questions your tired face knowing it a little too well. You slowly lift your head off the table to look at her with half closed eyes. “Hm? Oh sorry, im just really tired. I couldnt sleep last night and I forgot to get coffee this morning too.” You slur and mumble all your words but it’s clear enough for Reagan to understand what your saying. “Ah I get that but my question is, why were you having trouble sleeping?” And before you could fumble over your words trying to make an excuse the answer bursts right through the doors. “Hey guys! How’s it going?” Brett’s energy is way too much for you this morning so you just put your head back down and doze off as Regan and Brett talk for a bit. Yet before you can fall asleep Brett calls out your name. “Y/n, look up.” “Hm?” You hum and left your head of the table once more to look up at whatever Brett wanted. He was holding out a coffee to you. You wake up a little from the shock and slowly sit up straight. “Is this for me?” You look at him confused. “Yes of course, I swinged by this morning to get you it. it’s a vanilla cold brew with extra sweet cream foam!” He gleefully beams at you. “But that’s what I always get?” You look at him stumped “how do you know my order?” Still confused you question Brett. “Oh well I I remember what order the employee called out yesterday when I saw you.” He smiles once more and you gently reach out your hands to grab the cup. And suddenly your sense of touch heightens when your fingers brush softly against Brett’s as you grab the cold cup. You share one last look with Brett before he quickly jolts up. “Oh! I just remembered I should go find the others. I know they’re here probably just running late.” He smiles and heads off to find the rest of your co workers. You just sit there starring off into space from where Brett last stood. “Hey Y/n” “hello?” “Y/N!” Regan yells at you to wake up from your day dream. “Oh regan, sorry I spaced out.” “Yea I could tell. Now let’s get ready for another stressful meeting.” You fully turn your attention to helping Regan prepare for the day.

Once again the work day is over and it’s time to leave as your walking out to the doors of your office you’re stopped by a certain someone. “Hey Y/n! Great work today.” It’s Brett. “Oh, thanks Brett…” fuck you’re internally screaming. Why does this guy make you so nervous? Hiding your face from Brett inevitable feeling the heat flush to your cheeks once more. “Um by the way, thanks for the coffee. It was really cool of you.” Cool? Gosh I sound like a dork. You internally beat your self up for your stupid choice of words. “No problem! Anything for a pal.” He giggles a little from his own statement and winks at you playfully. “Okay we’ll see you tomorrow Y/n!” And with that you both exchanges waves and goodbyes. Once finally out of eyesight you mentally face palm and groan into your hands. Gosh. That was embarrassing “Honey, I just saw that whole thing and whooh that was awkward.” You quickly turn around to see who saw your embarrassing display with Brett and it was Gigi. “Ugh I know but I just can’t figure out why I’m so awkward around him.” You cringe at just remembering your interaction. And yet you find yourself weirdly comfortable talking to Gigi. “Mmhm I think I know exactly why.” She just gives you an all knowing look up and down. “Really? Please tell me why.” You plead do her to enough you so you can just solve the issue already. “It’s because you like him.” “WHAT?” You accidentally yell out in shock covering your mouth quickly. “I mean, why do you say so?” This time whispering so no one near could hear. “Honey it’s written all over that little face of yours.” You groan loudly at her claim. Could that really be the reason your social skills suck more then usual when talking to Brett? “But I just met him, how could I already like him?” You ask Gigi since she seems to be much more knowledgeable in this aspect. “Well I couldn’t tell you. After all how am I supposed to know why YOU like him? All I know is lover boy seems to be developing a few feelings of his own.” And with that mind breaking statement she leaves you alone with just you and your thoughts. Brett like me?? No way. Not in a million years. These words echoing through your head the whole way home. Throwing yourself over your bed with exhaustion more over your conflicting emotions rather than your heavy work load and eventually passing out.

A few weeks pass and your now comfortable in your new work environment, strange but now familiar. Yet one thing has not changed, the awkwardness you feel when around Brett. And yes those feelings Gigi talked about have not left one bit, in fact you’d say they’ve grown over time. Brett’s nice gestures always make your stomach flutter with butterflies and your heart face like some 3rd grade crush. “Y/nnnn, Come on! He clearly likes you, why not just make a damn move already. Everyone in the office practically knows already! It’s so obvious.” Gigi shouts at you while your just trying to enjoy your sandwich. You asked to have lunch together not a therapy session… “Gigi shhh! Don’t say that so loud!” You sigh and put your sandwich down “look, I like him sure but we don’t know for sure if he does and-“ “OH PLEASE!” Gigi cuts you off abruptly shouting and throwing her arms in the air. “He’s always extra nice to you and trust me Brett’s already way too nice. Plus he’s always bring you little gifts all the time.” She huffs and rolls her eyes at you. “Whatever Gigi, I’m not making any moves so sorry to dissatisfy your office romance fantasies.” You roll you eyes back at her and clean up since your lunch break is over leaving back to your office and go finish up some paperwork for Reagan. “Oh I will get my office romance wether you want it or not.” Gigi talks to herself planning a ‘special’ surprise for you.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* you sigh getting up from your chair to open the door to your office. “Oh hi Gigi, Reagan, What do you need?” You see the two girls standing in front of your door. “Hey Y/n we were hoping you could help us find something in the chemical closet.” Gigi asks in a weirdly high pitch voice. “Sure,what is it?” You ask wondering what it was they couldn’t find. “Oh follow us then we’ll tell you”. So you follow Reagan and Gigi to the chemical closet and go inside. “It’s called fizzyflupflurp acid.” You can hear one of them trying to hold in a laugh behind you “Really? That sounds kind of stupid.” But before you can say anymore they quickly leave in a rush saying to just call them when you find it since they’re so “busy”. Huh, weird. But I mean this whole place is weird. You just think to yourself as you look through the various viles for ‘fizzyflupflurp’ acid. Suddenly you hear lots of giggling behind you and hear Brett stumble into the closet falling right on to you. He lets out a grunt from the impact of you two colliding and before either of you can get a word out you hear the lock click and Gigi and Reagan giggles burst out into laughter. You push brett aside and rush to the door trying to open the door but it’s locked, pounding your fist on the door in frustration when it doesn’t open. “Let us out!” You yell at the other two behind the door. “Yeah, What are we locked in here for?” Brett chimes in. “Oh I think you know why you’re in there. And we’re not letting you out till one of you spits it out.” You can just hear the smirk on Gigi’s face. You freeze in fear and feel your face turn completely hot and red. “Gosh no.” You breathlessly whisper to yourself not wanting to turn around and face Brett. “AH OKAY I ADMIT IT,” Brett suddenly yells out “I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE STALKED YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TO LEARN YOUR FAVORITE THINGS.” Brett winces as if you might yell at him for what he’s done. “Brett what? No, this isn’t what this is about. And that’s not a horrible thing Brett im not mad at you for it but it is kinda weird…” you sigh preparing yourself to ruin your small friendship with Brett and make it awkward for the rest of your career. “Then what is it about?” Brett asks confused to what other secret needed sharing. “Well it’s… it’s- gosh um” SPIT IT OUT ALREADY internally yelling at yourself to get it over with. “I like you.” You say extremely quite almost enough for Brett to not hear. “Oh well I like you too Y/n! You’re a great friend, that’s no secret.” He laughs at you for your ‘silly’ secret that he just doesn’t seem to understand. “No, Brett. I like like you. As in romantically.” You muster out clarifying things for Brett. It’s silent. Way too silent that you look up to see his expression and he looks so, shocked? Panicked you start apologizing “look Brett I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable I jus-“. Oof is the noise you let out from being knocked back into the closet door. “Brett?” “I’m sorry, I know I said I’d ask next time before hugging you but I just really needed to this time.” He whispers softly and your heart just melts. You hug him back tighter than ever happy he isn’t upset. “I like like you too Y/n” he quietly says nuzzling into your neck and gently squeezes you reassuringly.

I AM SO SORRY I TOTALLY READ THIS REQUEST WRONG I DONT KNOW HOW 😭. well regardless I hope some of you like it but I am truly sorry anonymous hope you can forgive me🙏.

[alexiavettel]

chapter one

“The world was whole then, the sun and moon together as one”

pairing: charles leclerc x fem¡stroll!reader

word count: 2k+

warnings: asshole!charles, asshole!reader, some business stuff, shitty father, mentions of Jules (this one actually trigger me) eventual smut, use of Y/N and will be a miniserie

summary: Your father, Lawrence Stroll, and basically your boss have a good opportunity of linking Aston Martin with Ferrari’s stocks. But for that Binotto demanded that you, first driver of your dad’s formula one team, with your impeccable reputation start a fake relationship with the Ferrari’s golden boy Charles Leclerc. Which happens to have a not so good popularity, publicly cheating on with his ex girlfriend plenty of times and being a complete asshole with his ex teammate, Sebastian Vettel, who now is your teammate.

disclaimer: any photo used is not supposed to represent the reader, are all Pinterest pics that matches the context

(Y/n) Stroll POV:

No. I’m definitely not doing this.

“Dad no. I would rather die than pretending to be in love with that bastard!” I said after waiting for dad to finish telling me the worst thing I ever heard come out of his mouth.

“Sweetie I know it’s a shitty thing to ask for, but I need your help okay? You want to keep your seat in formula 1, don’t you kitten?”

“Yeah, of course I do!”

“You’re such a great driver and we worked really hard on your reputation, to keep it untouchable. I helped you a lot through your career and I hope you can help me now. Use your brain, sweetheart… Would be good for our business, our team, your career, everything!” Lawrence leans forward and put an arm around my shoulders, speaking in low volume.

“Can I just have a moment to at least think about it?” I shrugged finding a way out of his arm.

“Sure, just think wisely…” he reassured and leave me alone on his meeting room.

This isn’t the first time something like this happens, my father ALWAYS use his power over me. How he can easily take my seat away from me, take me out of the team and make my career a little bit harder than already is.

I’m not dumb, I know I deserve my seat. Obviously, I got into f1 rather faster than the others, because Stroll’s influence (and money) but I do deserve my seat. Ever since I got into the championships (F3, F2 and F1) I got the spotlight right in my face being the only woman on the grid only because “my daddy’s money”. But when I, as a rookie in Renault, got my first points only in the third race weekend getting a P8 everyone was looking at me a little bit different.

I had secretly received two emails showing interest on me: one from Mercedes to assume their second drivers seat in 2024 after Lewis supposed retirement and one from McLaren for 2023 after Daniel Ricciardo showing an interest to leave the constructor.

So yes, I do have a plan B. But I still need a seat to end this season. The best would be wait till the end of this year, and see what to do next. And what is dating the worst person that I ever met compared to the dream I have since I was 5.

The hate for Charles is old. More specifically since 2017 when we were teammates for prema for the Formula 2 championship. We didn’t like each other, almost everybody knew it because he made it very clear in all his interviews.

“(Y/n)! It’s lovely to see you again, congrats for the amazing win today! Even with today’s win Leclerc still a few points ahead of you in the championship, what you have to say about it?”

“Hm, thank you. Was it really an amazing race today, feeling good to have the opportunity to show myself a bit more this weekend. But yeah, I believe he’s these points ahead because Markelov crashed into me in Hungary and I lost engine last race”.

“But you both leading the championship it’s not good for prema?” The woman asked me while turning her head a little confused.

“Oh it is, but I would like to win the championship as much as Leclerc. It’s only a friendly competition between us” I just said smiling even tho my throat burned to say those words.

Charles Leclerc POV:

“Hi Charles awesome race, you did an amazing job today! But (Y/n) managed to overtake you in the very first laps, how do you fell about it?” Really? I haven’t noticed before…

“Well she’s a good driver but to be honest my car wasn’t feeling really great today so that’s probably one of the reasons she overtook me so easily” That’s true? No. Do I care? Also no.

“Okay, hm you surely want to win the championship but how you plan to do so with your teammate, and probably friend, chasing you only some points behind?”

“We are just teammates, okay? Not friends or anything. And I’m planning to give all of me in the next races and fight very bravery for the championship, no matter what is in the way” Or no matter who is in the way…

(Y/n) Stroll POV:

Was always like that… Me holding back my words and Leclerc almost writing in his forehead with a neon marker his hate towards me.

We grew up very far from each other, well until my dear dad decided to move to UK and we started karting together throughout Europe.

“But (Y/n) that was just a rivalry, don’t be dramatic” I heard that too many times. It’s not “just a rivalry” when your rival pushes you off the track making you brake some bones, or when he invents lies to your father yell at you in front of everyone before a tournament or worst when he treats your teammate like shit and still thinking that he is a god!

He is so damn stubborn and egocentric, he thinks he’s the best in everything. Paddle? Swimming? Skiing? Learning languages? (okay in this case he will never beat me and he knows it) Singing? Dancing? He thinks he nails it, even if he looks like a lizard doing everything.

But at driving… he always knew that I was at his level maybe even a little bit better than him. A competition to him, someone who didn’t get immediately on their knees in his first appearance, who his older brother always liked and especially someone who never cheer him up every time he wins.

But well it’s for my seat anyways so I texted my dad that I was up for it on my way home. If we really are going to do this it’s gotta be only after tomorrow, I’m really tired and with all this bullshit I’m even more.

•

“WITH HER?” I heard in the exact moment I walked into the conference room.

“Charles… It’s the deal. You alright signed” Lorenzo, his dear brother and manager, said to him. “I told you to read it before tho”

“Well I trust my team so I didn’t think they would do such a shitty thing like this”

“Shut up Leclerc you think I’m happy about it?” I said while going to a hug with Lorenzo “How you still have patience after all this time Lo?”

“Too many years, hun”

“Kitten, Binotto is already on his way. Why don’t you have a sit?” my father said and Charles held his laugh at the nickname so I discretely fixed my hair with my middle finger.

“Good morning guys, pleasure to see you all here today” the old man’s voice with a thick italian accent which could be recognised everywhere in the paddock entered the room.

“Binotto what the actual-“

“Sir can you please explain to Charles why this deal was created” Lorenzo interrupted his brother almost immediately.

“Exactly because of that… Your brother is a amazing driver but too hot headed, don’t know when to say the things, when to lie and etc. But with (Y/n) it’s different since everybody loves her, the media specifically which is the most important…”

“So it would be good to the both sides if you guys faked a relationship! Our companies somehow together, and your reputation so much better!” dad completed for the Ferrari’s team principal.

Watching Leclerc slowly and visibly dying inside can enter the list of favorite moments right now.

“Can we speak about it alone?” Charles said after almost a entire minute in silence.

“A-Ah sure” this caught everyone surprised.

“If you’re okay with that (Y/n)…” Lorenzo said getting up.

“Sure…” you will not surprise me Leclerc, I know you very well. He probably just gonna try to persuade me to forget about this as his last hope.

“Why’d you accept it?” was the first thing he said after everybody left.

“It’s good for the company” keep it short (Y/n).

“How your old man convinced you?”

“Doesn’t matter, but you know what does? We already accept and signed it and you are not going to change my mind”

“You must be really desperate to date me then huh?”

“You must be really desperate to save your shitty reputation to sign a contract without reading at least two lines of it”

“You don’t know shit about it!” Okay, there it is…

Stage one of mad Leclerc: starting to get pissed off.

“Ow don’t I? Your team accepted the very first offer they received to try to get your reputation better, even if that meant a partnership with a smaller company and basically selling you! Just because you can’t keep your shits down and keep losing sponsors” I am fucking good about getting him mad.

“You might be right about it but you accepting it just can mean one thing: you’re obsessed with me and this is the only chance you have to get at least a little closer to me or your family company it’s broking”

Stage two: teasing Leclerc (my least favourite).

“You have such a big head and still with a small brain! Maybe have crossed your mind that these are neither of my reasons?”

“So why you don’t tell me? It’s not like you having to choose this deal is my fault”

Stage three: trying to gaslighting.

“It’s not your fucking business”

“Always so foul-mouthed for what? For keeping everything that happens inside of yourself to anyone have any possibility of truly liking you?”

Stage four: pretend to be my therapist but just insults me.

“Have you ever stopped to think that maybe I just don’t like you and want you the farthest way possible of me? So that’s might be the reason I don’t tell you anything?”

“Oh shut up you’re just so stubborn and a fumier and a folle and stupide you think you’re the best even if you’re just an afraid little girl” if I didn’t know him for such a long time I wouldn’t understand what he is talking about because of the strong accent.

Stage five: multiple languages, strong accent and pouting like a kid.

“You’re over?” God he makes me sick… “Guys you can come in” I open the door and say a little louder so they can hear from the waiting room.

“So the deal still up?” My dad asked a little taken back.

“Sure” we said in unison.

“Nice! Since you both already signed the contract your respective pr managers already know about it. Now you guys just have be civil, determine rules between you two but remember: you NEED to look like a real couple and keep this deal down, the least amount of people knowing the better”

Welcome to hell.

•

“CAN YOU BELIEVE IT DEREK?” I screamed at my pt while running on the treadmill.

“Okay, so your dad got mad with you because you let Leclerc scream at you? How does that make sense?”

“It doesn’t! That’s the whole point! I’m so tired of his shit…”

“Take it easy it just needs to last to the end of this year, you can do it!”

“The season didn’t even started yet! Basically one year of this bullshit”

“Well, at least you got summer break…”

“I might have a break from my dad but not Leclerc. Or do you thing girlfriend and boyfriend, ew, spend their summers away from each other!”

“Yeah, you’re fucked” he tried to smile sympathetically.

“God I wish someday I’ll be just like you mate, married to an incredibly hot woman and got a cute little son running around and working for a amazing person”

“You were being too cute to be true… How do you manage to pass through a door with that big ego my girl? Don’t know how I still work for you”

“I pay well plus you love me” I said smiling after drinking water.

“Yeah you’re right-“

“WAIT YOU FINALLY SAID ‘I LOVE YOU’”

“No I didn’t-“

“In a weird way but you did, admit it!”

•

“We need to set some rules if we are actually doing this shit” I said seating before Charles disgusting Leclerc.

“You are calling our relationship ’shit’? This is it! I wanna break up”

“Stop being dramatic” this was actually funny what the hell?

“Just joking sweetheart”

“First we need to know what to call each other. I hate princess and kitty”

“Ew why would someone call their girl kitty? That’s not a weird name for pussy?”

“That’s one of the reasons I hate it”

“Unlike some people I love to be called by prince or king” he said moving back an imaginary long hair.

“I’m definitely not doing this” I might actually throw up. “Just say what you hate and I’ll try to avoid”

“Nothing particular maybe just mon loup. It makes me feel like I’m Toto Wolff”

“Okay the backstory Lorenzo and Liv (my pr manager) already created-“

“Wait they did?” He interrupted me.

“Yeah it’s basically our normal story, how we met and our ‘little fights’ all the same shit. The only thing it changed is that we fell in love with each other during the winter break”

“So it’s kind true isn’t it? You fell in love with me during the winter break but that was in 2016”

“Can you just shut down your ego for two seconds, please? We both know that would never happen”

“Yeah sure keep lying to yourself babe”

“Second rule: nothing of unnecessary PDA. Third: don’t get our careers involved”

“It’s exactly because of our careers we are in this situation-”

“I mean whatever comes out of this deal should not affect our careers.

Forth: don’t get yourself in trouble! We receive a lot of shitty questions and your dumb brain answers all of them the way the media want to just ruin you. You’re not doing this, not when we are ‘dating’, you heard me?”

“So what? Are you going to control me?”

“I intend to. We gonna do a plenty of press together so I will interrupt you every time I think it’s necessary”

“Fifth: not seeing other people while we are doing this…” okay that caught me off guard.

“Well you are the not so loyal one-“

“I didn’t cheated!”

“Ow so half the globe is blind and dumb?”

“WE WEREN’T DATING! When the photos came out we already had broken up for about 3 months”

“Yeah sure I don’t want to know the details of your love life. I just don’t wanna look like a dumb trophy girlfriend of a cheater. Sixth: you are not speaking shit to or about my teammate and my friends, my family is allowed but that just work for my father”

“You say like your dear teammate doesn’t know why we discussed so much… But okay. So that’s it? Can I go now?”

“Sure you can but don’t forget we have a ‘date’ tomorrow night” god that sounds so wrong and so gross at the same time.

⇨⇨⇨ next part

[millerflintstone]

One year ago today I put in my notice at the last corporate job I held, which was a large auto manufacturing company. It was a mess. I got hired in as a support database developer working on special projects and then on my 78th day they had a reorganization that changed my job function.

I specifically asked in my interview if there were other database developers because I didn't want to be the only one (yes) and if I would have to be on call for anything (no). That changed. I went from having 2 other people to help to no one. I hadn't even been there a full 3 months. Barely knew the code base and was expected to be able to solve any database related code issues for 3 separate internal web applications related to dealers that were a big deal. My boss asked another department if they could loan out their database developer as needed since he "had to work of three database developers and just one database developer". That manager said sure, but he owed her an ice cream sundae.

I was so fucking disgusted, among other things.

While the pay was nice, it wasn't 3 database developers worth of pay. Not even on a low end of 75K per developer, and it wasn't like they were going to revise my pay. I was also expected to be in charge of a whole nother application and be on call for it / be the Subject Matter Expert and I was also supposed to train the junior JAVA developers on how to be database developers to "help me out"

In my last one on one with my boss, I mentioned that this was no longer the job I interviewed for and he kind of laughed and said, "Yeah". I had also mentioned that I had some type of work PTSD from my past job and at first that also struck him as funny but he regrouped and attempted to be empathetic. This sounds like he was malicious but he seemed more completely clueless and awkward. Though I did get the sense that he was passive aggressive and held grudges based on some other things I observed. It was not good.

So, after talking with Unfriendly about it and our finances, I quit. Whatever fucked up cost cutting that was going to get higher ups a nice bonus surely did not affect me in the slightest. It went from being a nice place to land and get my bearings after healthcare health plan hell to just more shit.

I was disappointed because the gal who referred me really loved working there. She had wanted me to work there but at the time, their only office was in the heart of Atlanta. Later on that changed and she had gotten promoted to management herself. She was either too blind / part of the problem or she knew the shit show that was coming. We weren't close or anything. Just LinkedIn friends at that point, though we had bonded over the crap job we worked at together my first year in GA.

Today I learned that my supervisor on the team I was supporting in AZ got affected as part of layoffs that affected everyone who worked in that location. She was really nice and I could tell from her facial expressions in meetings that she was not on board with how their reorg negatively affected me. She and her team were really gracious about me leaving and they all gave me compliments and online rewards which I cashed out when I left. I hope she finds something that doesn't stress her out like this company did.

I re-read the day to day journal that's in my drafts that started the day I decided I was going to quit through my last day and I do not regret my decision at all.

[parislovesf1]

Personal photographer | LS

Social media AU | Lance Stroll X photographer!reader

Warnings: unedited & kinda rushed, cringe?,

Part 1/?

yourusername posted a photo!

Liked by astonmartinf1, formula1 and 36,079 others

yourusername Monaco, you were a dream!! still can’t believe I have the privilege to combine both my love for travelling & motorsport while getting the chance to working for @astonmartinf1 💚✨

@astonmartinf1 started following you

@formula1 started following you

Comments

@yourbff you have no idea how proud of you I am🥹

@username omg mother is finally working her dream job!!

@username my prediction is that y/n becomes a wag within the next year or two🔮🧘🏻‍♀️

@username our hard working mother is where she belongs in the world, humanity can finally heal✨

@astonmartinf1 happy to have you part of the team💚

@Astonmmartinf1 just posted a photo!

Liked by lancestroll, fernandoalo_oficial and 638,907 others.

@AstonMartinf1 bit of an appreciation post for the teams golden boy, we’re all so proud of you for managing to score your 3rd podium so far this season while still recovering! @Lancestroll 💚

Comments

@LanceStroll 💚

@username proud of you Lance!

@yourusername a future wdc in the making I reckon 🫶🏻.

*Liked by @lancestroll

@username idk what’s more impressive; Lance casually beating out the other top teams 3 whole races in a row, while still recovering from his wrist injuries or his cars pace with its new upgrades !

*Liked by @astonmartinf1 & @yourusername.

@yourusername posted a story!

Viewed by @astonmartinf1, @yourbff & @lancestroll & 107,942 others

@astonmartinf1 mentioned you in a story.

Viewed by @lancestroll, @yourusername & 472,905 others.

First person POV.

“holy shit” I breathed. The offical Aston Martin formula 1 account had just reposted your story for their employee appreciation post of the week. I’d barely been working 6 months full time for them in their media and administration departments.

They had already shown me so much love since I began my journey and I just new this was exactly where I wanted to be. I set my phone down as i lay on the plush hotel room bed, hair up in a towel & back to the headboard. Lost in my thoughts, head swirling with gratitude for the life I was now living.

A loud ding from my phone which has been sitting on my lap brought me out of my daydreaming daze, my eyes lightly scanning across the screen to the new notifications.

I could not believe my eyes, he had to be kidding right?

There was no way he decided to do this on his own accord me, I mean we had talked once or twice during media duties or in passing at the motor home. Small exchanges of polite smiles and quiet hellos before morning meetings or in the cafeteria on lunch breaks but I would’ve never bet my bottom dollar on something like this happening.

@Lancestroll liked your photo.

@Lancestroll started following you.

I screamed, giggled and kicked my feet at the thought of having one of my literal biggest F1 crushes follow me on Instagram.

What was I too do now? act like nothing happened?

Am I supposed to act like I didn’t just turn into a giant giggling mess because my boss followed me back?

Requests are now open in my DMs if you want one, sorry for being inactive. I’ve got a lot of projects coming soon, they’re just all in my drafts. I also habe not figured out how to organise my works on here in making a master list etc or how to layout some of these ngl lol.

[dangerously-human]

I spent a huge chunk of this week on tasks that are supposed to be above my pay grade, and that's... a little frustrating. Especially to then hear feedback like "your team is working on too many admin and infrastructure things that aren't grant-funded," when that's what I spent my time doing because those same people raising that concern won't hire a replacement for our former manager. And I'm being asked to take on even more work that sounds distinctly supervisory in nature, project planning and accountability across the team - and while I appreciate that the intent is to have me meet with one of the directors to do this, so he will weigh in and actually handle any managerial follow-up or feedback, I'm not sure that my bosses appreciate that I wasn't doing this when we had a manager, and just because they aren't asking me to do everything that she did doesn't mean that what they are asking of me is really appropriate for someone who isn't getting compensated for this in any way. And the explanation given to me for why this work has fallen to me is that I've been here the longest. True, but only by six months or so. It seems to me that it's coming because I demonstrate responsibility and initiative, and frankly because I'm responsive. It's not that I'm unwilling to do this, honestly, and I've said that. But I'm not super happy that I'm getting handed responsibility I didn't ask for - specifically the opposite, actually - and haven't yet been offered anything in return. Especially when the reasoning given for why I couldn't start on the research role shift now was that things are still too up in the air since my manager left and they need me to do these things instead. That's - like, you hear how that sounds, right? That's the worst of both worlds. Which is the exact phrase my supervising director used in our meeting this week when we talked about this, albeit in the context of doing his best, based on my hesitant feedback, to not make it feel that way. I'm trying to keep an open mind, I really am - and maybe we will actually be able to have a good conversation about this after I've started doing the more official version of it that they're asking for in the new fiscal year, and/or in my upcoming annual review - but right now, I'm feeling very frustrated and a little taken advantage of, and that's an icky feeling.

[ziteyra]

A good soldier

Chapter 2

Chapter 1 and Chapter 3

🐟 Synopsis: You get to meet some other members of Team Phoenix in person but the tension between you and Quaritch still doesn't seem to be gone.

🐟 characters: Quaritch Recom, Walker Recom, Waynfleet and Zdinarsk Recom (🥳)

🐟themes: same as the last chapter. A bit of cursing, roughing around but nothing serious.

🐠Note: heyyyy. Thanks for all the likes in the last chapter ! Didn't expect that (⁠｡⁠･⁠ω⁠･⁠｡⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠♡ so I just followed the formula of the first one and wrote all fo this in the middle of two night. Ahahah hope you like it. Feel free to suggest any more themes or ideas ! Love y'all 💙

Sorry that's it's so short btw

Enjoy this awesome edit I found on insta which motivated me to continue 😁

Tagging: @babyduk213 💙

"This is Lyle Wainfleet, my second in command. "

You nodd in the general direction of the multiple blue recom soldiers that entered the room after Quaritch. Of course you had read their files and overseen their medical transitions, but seeing them in action and so alive was something quite different.

After the tall and smiling Navi Soldier squeezed through the small door frame, two barely clothed female ones follow him on foot.

"And these two beauties are Walker and Zdinarsk. One lethal with a grenade launcher and the other just with her mouth." Quaritch grinned as he introduces the last two and closed the door behind them. "They'll be holding my hand, while you, little scientist do your beloved tests. If it doesn't bother you of course. "

"Glad to finally meet you" you note "but I believed we would be doing the tests alone. It's quite fragile equipment I've got here anyway."

"And we too have quite fragile equipment" Lyle laughed out loud, "no need to worry about us little one, we just need to give the boss a few quick updates on the Sully situation."

" Still y/n for you Waynfleet. I suppose if you keep this quick we can arrange something." you say judgingly looking up and down the two woman. They both make themselves quite comfortable around Quaritch, nagging him with their tails and playfully hissing.

It was definitely no sting of jealousy you were feeling, that would be embarrassing just after a few days of knowing him. But at last he was one of your textbook idols, come to life again. Not yet as impressive as you made him out to be but still quite fascinating. And at last, your hero.

"Now you got my poor little scientist all railed up Lyle. She's on our side don't forget that, even if you have a hard time remembering sides." Quaritch quickly shifted his attention towards his team and let you start your testing.

While they were talking about ground locations and basic intel you took various samples of both his blood and hair.

While he didn't seem bothered by the tests at all you could see his tail twitching every time you got closer to him. His eyes were pinned onto Waynfleet while he was talking but just out of the corner of your eye you could see his cat like ears turning your direction wherever you went. Almost lost in the mesmerising patterns on his body only a slap on the head brought you back to reality.

" And why the hell should we trust her boss. She's like that Valentine woman back from base. We shouldn't be talking about our intel right in front of her anyway." scoffed the women named Walker while inspecting you from head to toe and showing her exceptionally long teeth.

"She ain't got no other choice Walker. And y/n knows that I'll be her worst nightmare if any of this information leaves our little group, isn't that right." Quaritch menacingly answered as he waved Walker away with his hands and pulling you even closer to him. "Do you understand?"

With a loud metal clunk your tablet fell to the ground while Quaritch face was only a few millimeters away from yours. Again you thought, but this time you weren't planning on being humiliated in front of his other teammates. At last you were supposed to be part of the team. As you knew their body and anatomy, probably better then they did themselves, you just needed one good pull to gain your freedom again.

"Damn that little scientist has claws." laughed the last woman Zdinarsk who up until now, hadn't really spoken at all.

"Lt. Quaritch, Sir , we are all members of this operation here and you shouldn't be questioning any of our loyaltys under any circumstances." you say while picking up your tablet hoping to regain at least a bit of dignity.

You quickly brush past him, as we was still frozen in his place holding his Braid with both of his hands.

"It was a pleasure working with you soldiers but I really must be going now."

[silver-rings-and-rabbits]

I've just finished chapter 9 of Open Heart Second Year and wanted to share my thoughts at the halfway point (ch 10-11 are another world entirely). It's a long post and probably repeats all the arguments that have been made since the original release...but I'm gonna post anyway.

When Second Year started, I couldn't decide which romance route to take. I genuinely restarted the first chapter several times, but EVENTUALLY I settled on Ethan. And...I got bored. He was there all the time and I just didn't feel anything like I did in book 1 (the opera scene had me in a chokehold for a while). Meanwhile, Raf had apparently broken up with MC and had a new partner which was leaving me intrigued on how it would go (sweet naivety before I saw the ch 10 draft). So during the first hiatus, between ch 8-9, I replayed the whole lot for Rafael.

The difference is stark. For two people who aren't allowed to be together, MC and Ethan sure ended up spending a lot of time alone together. They sure held hands a lot. MC sure had a lot of extra flirty dialogue. Yet Rafael appears briefly every couple of chapters to talk about how he would risk his life for another (I should have seen the signs sooner) then disappears back to his new partner that we still know nothing about. Most of the pining for Rafael was in my imagination and personal interpretation of the scenes.

Players were willing to justify this with 'Ethan is our boss' and 'we work on the same team so obviously they will spend time together'. Bryce and Jackie are our best friends or partners, Jackie is our freaking ROOMMATE and we don't see them at all?

Furthermore, we have two brand new characters in June and Baz and barely spent any time with them because Ethan had to be front and centre. I would have happily spent diamonds to get to know either of them one-on-one. But no...

An idea: instead of Ethan having a professional diamond scene every chapter (patient's house visit, visiting the art gallery, making a pictagram account), this is where June or Baz come in. Especially if Ethan also had a personal diamond scene in the chapter. Open Heart was popular because of its diverse cast after all (including Ethan, yes, but there was someone for everyone in book 1).

FURTHER furthermore, one of the 'plots' of this book was MC teaching their own intern, Esme Ortega. And we had a diamond scene to take her with us on Diagnostic work, a diamond scene to mentor her around six chapters later, and...a few quick scenes of MC giving her some work to do. That's it. Because even though being a mentor is part of MCs job, it's not nearly as important as Ethan's screen time.

I've played all four romance routes, and obviously Ethan's had the most content (his romance route v platonic route is night and day!!). Raf's route was completely empty to the point where it made sense to me that MC was in the hospital with Ethan all the time because they didn't want to spend their free time sitting at home nursing a broken heart. But Bryce and Jackie's routes had no reason for that. There's almost no reason to play the chapters without them and it's no surprise their fans started dropping away. All the signs pointed to one LI being killed off, but the other two didn't have anything to hope for either so why stick around?

Chapter 8 is the baseball game and we get to spend time with Bryce and Keiki, AND practice baseball with some friends. Probably the most friend group content we saw since the chapter 5 music festival. I enjoyed being rude to Landry (again, my MC is too stressed and upset at this point to spend energy being nice to him) but I didn't like how my response to him determined how the two sides interacted. Just because I'm rude to Landry doesn't mean I don't want to meet Sienna's med school friends at Kenmore. We then get to go back with Ethan for dinner or go home alone. I don't suppose it would have killed PB to put some kind of friend group scene in as an alternative? They did in book 1...

Chapter 9 is where the emotions really pick up as we have Kyra's cancer getting worse. Man, I love well-written angst. When MC is overwhelmed and has to calm down in a supply closet they are discovered by...June. Who at this point is becoming the villain (despite the fact this plot line would have only made sense if you were romancing 1/4 LIs).

Another idea: we get to choose which LI discovers us, just like in book 1! We could have a rare moment of softness with Jackie because it kills her that she can't help the situation. It could have been the catalyst for Bryce to look into radical gore-tex surgeries as a last resort. Or we could have had a painful heart-to-heart with Rafael, maybe MC being standoffish because he's their ex or open and desperately wishing Raf could comfort them as before. The possibilities are endless, but we can't waste time (or money) on those guys.

Speaking of Rafael, this is the infamous chapter ending:

Like a punch in the heart. But possibly what hurt more was the fact that chapter 10 opened with - of all things - a time jump to a few days later with the Senator coming to Edenbrook!! Because that's the Diagnostic team which is the only thing that matters! In fact, Rafael isn't mentioned until around two thirds of the way through when the narration - of all things - casually mentions that he is in fact moving to BRAZIL. More fool me, I thought he was just moving to another state, but no. Another freaking country. There is no way that would have been an easy conversation, especially on his romance route, but it's yet another conversation that happens OFF-SCREEN for the reader to be hastily informed later.

Book 2 began with a recap that omitted Rafael completely, despite the fact his superhero complex was going to be 'plot point' of book 2. Luckily he does appear in the next recap but this scene has been retconned with him saying 'I'm moving to Brazil' (if I remember to get a screenshot of that later, I'll post it).

PB tried to justify all this with 'Open Heart is a mature story...exploring themes of heartbreak and loss' (and some players will still believe that), but it never was. If it was, we would have seen the break-up between MC and Rafael, we would have been able to talk with Raf about his suspension in detail and how it was affecting him, and we would have SEEN THIS VERY CONVERSATION. But all the resources went into Ethan and his parents, Ethan and his morals, Ethan cooking a chicken.

I get it, he was a big moneymaker. I myself contributed once upon a time. But that doesn't justify throwing out the rest of your characters. (My school sold out my year group to get some money, and in doing so lost all credibility with a generation of girls). Like I said before, Open Heart was good because of ALL it's characters that we had grown to love and PB now wanted to chuck those out. Unless a LI had absolutely 0% interest, you write for them or you don't put them in the story (and we all know where that leads us: single LI books). Why alienate Bryce, Raf and Jackie romancers when, for all you know, they might be Sam Dalton's biggest fans? (The biggest book I can think of that was releasing at the same time as Open Heart). This whole thing was a stupid, stupid decision by PB and it has nothing to do with Rafael.

I hope there were people on the OH team who knew this was a bad idea from the start. I hope the higher-ups started sweating at the reactions to Sora and the ending to chapter 9, and I hope the smart ones on the team felt unbelievably smug about being right.

[the-red-mafia]

The Invention

In a lab, an unknown doctor builds a new creation that is set to change the world. Also available on Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/TheRedMafia Next Update: [Updated] Word Count: 2901

???

The doctor stared intently at the table, their hands carefully connecting the final wires of their project with tweezers. Their shoulder-length blue hair was tied back in a ponytail, as per the lab safety protocol. Clear safety glasses sat above their real ones, which occasionally slid down their nose as they worked. The fake fluorescent lights blazed down from the ceiling. The doctor’s eyes had been hurting for the past few hours, but they were too deep to stop now. When the last wire was connected, the doctor smiled. After closing the hatch on the back of the head, they took a step back and slid the safety glasses to the top of their head. Their creation sat on the work table in front of them: a purple-colored automaton with an old-timey T.V. connected as a monitor of sorts. 

Today is the day, they thought, taking off the thick, heavy apron they had put on, Today is the day you finally work. They threw the apron toward their desk chair across the lab. Instead of landing nicely on top, the apron hit the arm of the chair. It fell to the ground with a thump, followed by a loud thump from the chair flying into the nearby wall. The doctor didn’t even flinch. Suddenly, the lab door behind them opened with a loud creak. 

“Hello? Who’s-” A voice said, pausing for a moment before sighing, “Valentine, what are you doing here?” The doctor turned around to look at the door. Standing in the doorway was their boss, Dr. Zoya Lester. Lester was a shorter woman, about 160 centimeters in height. Her dark black hair was tied back in a tight bun and her lab coat looked like it had been ironed recently. 

“Oh, hello Dr. Lester,” the doctor stumbled out, “Is it time for you to be here already?” Zoya stared at them for a moment before sighing again and walking toward them. 

“Elanor, you said you would go home last night.”

“Come on, Zoya, I’m so close-”

“You said that last night,” she stated, stopping next to her, “And the night before that. And the night before that.” 

“But I’m sure-” 

“How long has it been since you slept?” Elanor squinted their eyes. 

“Um- Since Monday?” 

“Elanor!” 

“I’m sure I’ve got it this time! I have today off anyway, so as soon as I get it I’ll go home and sleep.” Zoya blinked a few times at them before putting her head in her hands. 

“I knew letting biology test their new caffeine meds on you was going to end poorly.” Elanor snickered a little. 

“Well, we know they work damn well now.” Dr. Lester laughed and set her shoulder bag on the floor next to the lab table. 

“Yes, I suppose we do. That is a plus to you absolutely throwing away all regard for your health.” 

“Hey, it was for science.” 

“You are insufferable sometimes, have I told you that?” 

“I believe you screamed it at me after our team meeting last week.” 

“Ah, sorry about that.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Zoya looked at the table in front of them, narrowing her eyes at the robot. 

“So what did you change?” Elanor fixed their glasses before speaking.

“Mainly programming changes. I think the problem was that the coding wasn’t clear enough on how to run the active standby protocol.”

“Didn’t Urla warn you about that?” Elanor scoffed. 

“Please, I don’t trust anything Urla says without scientific backing.”

“I think his backing is that he’s a doctor.”

“Doctor smoctor. I figured it out in the end.”

“Of course, of course. Shall we turn it on, then?” Elanor smiled and looked back at their boss before turning back to the robot. 

“GS-001,” they said loudly, “Power on.” The two doctors watched the robot intently as the T.V. slowly lit up. A loading circle appeared on the dark screen.

“Did you really program in a spinning wheel of death?”

“Yes, now shush.” A few moments of anxious silence passed until the wheel disappeared. On the screen appeared a neutral emoticon. The robot slowly sat up and swung its legs so they were hanging over the table edge. The doctors took a step back as the robot looked between them. 

“Hello,” the robot’s speakers emitted. Elanor’s face had a huge smile on their face as they rubbed their hands together. 

“Good morning, GS-001,” they said, “Could you please stand?” It obliged, towering over the two doctors.

“Jeez Valentine, why’d you make it so tall?” Lester mumbled, looking up at the screen. 

“It’s only 173 centimeters.”

“...I’m American, Valentine.” Elanor turned around and rolled their eyes at her. 

“You’d think, as a doctor, you would learn how to use the metric system.”

“I did!” Zoya exclaimed, “Just…in 7th grade.” 

“It’s not really that complicated.”

“Maybe for you.” 

“Yeah, ‘cause I didn’t grow up in America,” Elanor shot back. 

“For your clarification, ma’am,” The robotic voice of GS-001 chimed in from behind them, “173 centimeters is about 5 feet 8 inches in the imperial system.” Elanor and Zoya turned back to it, Elanor’s smile returning. 

“Thank you, GS-001,” they said.

“You gave it access to the internet?” Zoya whispered. 

“No ma’am, I have software on my internal hard drive that is equipped with basic universal information.” 

“Including imperial to metric conversions?” she asked, looking at Elanor. 

“Yes ma’am.” Elanor put a hand on Zoya's shoulder. 

“GS-001, this is Dr. Zoya Lester. She’s my supervisor.” Zoya let out a small, strained chuckle.

“It feels weird to be introduced to an A.I..”

“How else is it supposed to learn, Lester?” 

“Good morning, Dr. Lester,” GS-001 replied, bringing its arm up to wave at her. However, its hand didn’t move. The robot looked down at its hand for a few seconds. 

“Dr. Valentine, it appears my left hand is not functioning accordingly.” Elanor frowned and took a step forward. 

“Hand it to me, please.” GS-001 held its arm out to Dr. Valentine, who held the hand up to their face. They let out a laugh and put the hand down.

“I didn’t tighten the bolt all the way down,” they said, stepping back, “Here, let me grab a wrench.” Zoya facepalmed as Elanor walked to their desk. 

“How did you forget to tighten down the bolts?” she teased, crossing her arms. Elanor shifted some papers on their desk. 

“I’m a bit scatterbrained right now if you couldn’t tell.”

“Didn’t you build the body a month ago?” Elanor turned around and stuck their tongue out at her. 

“Real mature, Elanor.”

“Maybe I am a bit scatterbrained all the time,” they muttered, turning back to the desk, “Where did I put that wrench?” 

“Make sure you check your drawers. That’s where your calculator was last time.” Elanor groaned. 

“Don’t remind me of the calculator incident.” 

“I will forever remind you of the calculator incident.” 

“Of course.” Elanor picked up their laptop, which sat closed on the desk, and shifted some of the papers underneath it. 

“So is GS-001 the full name?” Dr. Lester asked, leaving the robot standing by the table and joining Elanor at their desk. Dr. Valentine shook their head, placing the laptop back on the desk. 

“No, it’s just the serial number. The full name is Magnetosphere Mishap Assistance Droid GS-001, M.M.A.D. or Mad for short. I haven’t programmed it to answer to that yet, though.”

“That’s right, you’re planning on taking it with you for your space explorations with Jeff.” Elanor nodded, standing up and frowning at the desk. 

“I can’t find that damn wrench,” they said, turning around, “GS-001, I’ll have to fix it after a few- where did it go?” Zoya turned around, but GS-001 had disappeared from in front of the table. The two doctors looked at each other before looking towards the door, which was still wide open from when Zoya walked in. 

“Shit-” Elanor muttered, running to the door. They looked up and down the hallway but saw no sign of the droid. Zoya quickly threw open her bag and pulled out a walkie-talkie. 

“Security office, come in,” she said, “This is Dr. Zoya Lester from the Experimental Rescue Design department.”

“Read you, Dr. Lester,” a young voice said through the device, “How can I help you this fine morning?” Zoya laughed slightly. 

“Wish it was a fine morning. We’ve got a rogue A.I. droid who’s escaped Dr. Valentine’s lab. Can you initiate a silent lockdown, please?” 

“Right-o, Lester,” the person said, the sounds of keyboard typing coming through, “Alright, activated. Do you need retrieval assistance?” Zoya looked over at Elanor, who had popped back into the room. The other doctor was nodding profusely. 

“Uh- Yes, yes we do.” 

“Gotcha, what protocol?” Dr. Lester looked at the walkie-talking before searching for Elanor again. Unfortunately, her coworker had gone back into the hallway. 

“Ummm, forgive me but I don’t remember the protocol names.” The person laughed. 

“You’re fine, Dr. Lester. It’s 5am and most people don’t remember them, ever. Just describe what you need?” 

“Right- we don’t want to destroy it, just retrieve it and return it back to Dr. Valentine’s lab. As little damage as possible.” 

“Gotcha gotcha, so a Bubbles Protocol?” Zoya gave the walkie-talkie a confused look. 

“Is that really what that’s called?”

“Yes ma’am.” She let out a groan.

“Then yes, we need a Bubbles Retrieval Protocol.” 

“Alright, what’s the rogue’s description?” Zoya walked to the door, looking out into the hallway. Elanor had begun walking to the left, calling out for GS-001. 

“It’s a purple, human-shaped robot. It has a T.V. where a human head would be sitting and answers to ‘GS-001’.” The person typed a bit more and a whoosh sound came through the device. 

“I just sent a brief to our security officers on site. There’s not many of them, but hopefully, they’ll be able to help in some way.” 

“Hopefully,” Dr. Lester mumbled, “Thank you, sir.” 

“No problem, Dr. Lester. Just let us know when we’re clear to lift the lockdown. It is almost the start of the workday, you know.” 

“That’s why I’m here-” she said under her breath, “Right, of course. Good day.” 

“Good day, Dr. Lester.”

Dr. Valentine threw open the cafeteria doors, peeking their head through. The room was empty, aside from the two lines of metal picnic tables that went down the area. They sighed and shut the doors again. 

“Where could it have gone?” they muttered, continuing to walk down the hall, “It’s been 10 minutes, they could be anywhere in the whole facility by now!” Elanor let out a few curses as they walked. Suddenly, a loud crashing noise echoed through the area, causing them to stop dead in their tracks. They remained quiet for a few seconds before another crash occurred. They turned around and ran down the hall once again. 

That sounded like it came from the engineering lab, they thought as they ran, Who else would be here at this hour? The doctor stopped in front of the lab’s double doors, catching their breath before throwing them open. The room inside was best described as absolute chaos. Papers and ripped notebooks were scattered across the tiled floor and the tables. Tools were scattered haphazardly around the laboratory, turning the floor into a dangerous maze of saws and screwdrivers. On the left side of the room, the two large storage cupboards had fallen to the ground. Their contents piled at their bases, resulting in mountains of scissors, wires, and other equipment. The bulletin board had been knocked off the wall as well, no doubt from the falling cupboards. And there, sitting in between the two piles of supplies, stood a certain rogue A.I.

“GS-001!” Elanor shouted, carefully stepping into the room, “There you are!” The robot turned around, the same neutral emoticon on its face. 

“Oh, hello Dr. Valentine.” 

“Why did you run off?” they demanded, looking around, “What did you do?” GS-001 raised its right hand, which now held a shiny silver wrench in between its fingers. 

“I was looking for a wrench that was the proper size to tighten the bolt, which I did,” the droid handed the wrench to its creator before continuing, “I also attempted to tighten it myself, but I faced some…technical difficulties.” It gestured around the room. 

“I see…” Dr. Valentine mumbled, looking at the wrench in their hand before looking up at the robot, “What I want to know is how you managed to knock over the cupboards.” GS-001 looked towards the fallen storage and the piles. 

“That is a part of the technical difficulties.” Elanor laughed. 

“Right, how silly of me.”

“Indeed.” 

“Well, it seems there are a lot of physical quirks that need to be fixed,” they said, sliding the wrench into one of their lab coat pockets, “But I’m more focused on programming right now. Come on, GS-001, let’s go back to my lab to finish the tests.” 

“Of course, Dr. Valentine.”

“And don’t go running off again! We don’t need to worry poor security a second time.” 

By the time Dr. Lester had returned to Dr. Valentine’s lab, they had almost completed all the tests. 

“There you are, GS-001,” the doctor exclaimed when she walked in, “Where on Earth did you find it?” 

“The big engineering lab by the lunch room,” Elanor replied, not turning around, “Don’t forget to shut the door this time.” Zoya let out a strained laugh as she latched the door behind her. 

“Why did it run off?”

“It went to go find me a wrench,” Elanor explained as Zoya moved to stand next to them, “And made a hell of a mess while it was at it.” 

“I apologize for the inconvenience, Dr. Valentine,” GS-001 said from its seat on the metal table, “And I apologize to you as well, Dr. Lester.” Zoya looked at it before crossing her arms and sighing again. 

“I’m just glad you didn’t break something too important, GS-001.” 

“Same here,” Elanor said, stepping away from the automaton, “Imagine if it had gotten into the biology lab.” Zoya shivered. 

“That would’ve been a disaster.” 

“Except I wouldn’t have been harmed at all, Dr. Lester. I am not human; genetic manipulation weapons being developed by the AET’s Human Biological Defense and Offense division would not have affected me.” Zoya stared at the robot. 

“Elanor, how does it know about that?” Elanor frowned. 

“Not sure. GS-001, where did you get that information?” 

“The AET Confidential Database.” 

“What?” Zoya exclaimed, “Valentine, why did you-” 

“I didn’t,” Elanor mumbled, “GS-001, how did you get into that database? I don’t even have access to it.” 

“I simply latched onto the database computer in the engineering lab and used it as an entry point into the files.” The two doctors stared blankly at the robot for several moments. 

“...Was I not supposed to do that, Dr. Valentine?” Elanor put their head in their hands and sighed. 

“Not necessarily. Lester, will you report this incident to database management?” 

“I believe I’m required to, actually.” 

“Perfect,” Elanor said, looking up at GS-001 again, “There’s a lot of problems, to be expected with an initial model.”

“But you did it,” Zoya interjected, “Dr. Valentine, you managed to make one of the first learning A.I.-powered automatons in history.” They smiled softly, turning to look at their boss. 

“You’re right, Zoya. I’ve done something amazing.” She laughed and put a hand on Elanor’s shoulder. 

“You truly have, Elanor. Now, it's time for you to go home and go to bed.” Dr. Valentine groaned. 

“Come onnnnnnn.”

“You promised.” 

“But I don’t wannaaaaaaaaa-” 

“You are acting like a child, Dr. Valentine.” 

“I don’t careeeeeeeeeeee, I don’t wanna sleepppppppp.” 

“Dr. Lester is correct, Dr. Valentine,” GS-001 interrupted, gaining the two’s attention once more, “You are exhibiting symptoms of extreme sleep deprivation. Soon, it will begin to affect your processing abilities and leave you incapacitated at work until you finally fall asleep. It is best for you to return home and continue work another day.” Elanor chuckled, shaking their head at their creation. 

“Oh no, another person nagging at me to take care of myself,” they joked, “Fine fine, you two win. I’ll head home. GS-001, power off.” The robot’s screen went black as it slowly laid back down on the lab table. The two doctors watched it for several seconds after it powered off. 

“Welp, I guess it’s time for me to dip,” Elanor said, walking to their desk. The doctor grabbed a black backpack that had been thrown under the desk at the beginning of the week. They shoved their laptop and a few other papers from their desk into it as Dr. Lester watched. 

“It’s ironic, you know,” Zoya began, placing her walkie-talkie back in her bag. 

“What’s ironic?” Elanor asked. 

“This. You finally succeeded in getting GS-001 functional, today of all days.” Elanor gave her a confused look.

“What’s so special about today?” Zoya laughed and slung her bag on her shoulder once more.

“It’s Valentine’s day, Elanor.” Their eyes went wide, causing their boss to laugh again. 

“It is?” 

“Yes, Valentine. I hope you didn’t have plans.” Elanor laughed and threw their backpack on their shoulder. 

“Me? Have Valentine’s Day plans? Have you gone mad, Lester?” 

“No, but your robot has.” 

“Har har, very funny. I’ll see you on Monday?”

“See you Monday, Elanor.”

[kiefbowl]

boring work rant under the cut

okay so the guy who hired me is the Managing Director of our MSP Operations, aka he is overseeing our NOC business - the HD, NOC, Cloud Ops, InfoSec...etc. (as opposed to sales, procurement, and projects which are their own department). He is new to the company in that he joined as a consulted ~18 months ago to help integrate a new acquired client with some of the business in some way I don't understand blah blah blah, and he basically went to the CEO and said "you've given me an impossible job bc you've hired me to be in front of the firing line when the problems are from within...you have bad customer experience" and that was about 6 months ago so they said okay you're hired, you're going to do it you're going to fix it. So he's important, he's high up. He's not c-suite, but he's like just below.

One of his visions (of meny) was hiring me. I'm supposed to be building their internal training infrastructure of which they had none. They brought me on at the same time they hired 6 new HD engineers, which they brought on because they were onboarding two new clients, so they also brought on a new Client Onboarding Manager - a position they didn't have bc it was split between like 3 people. Basically, they're running this place like a start up and too many people are wearing too many hats, and business is being fire hosed into this company. We have grown 30% every year for 3 years and that's what the CEO wants to "maintain" (that's insane - it will plateau eventually). But also, with all this incoming business, and all these changes (of which there are even more I haven't described), it's just too much at once and the person who is being de-prioritized is me. This totally makes sense: I've been hired for a project that is inherently long-term, collaborative, and is not immediately needed. But I'm bored, I'm so so so fucking bored.

Okay so anyway two weeks ago, the guy who hired me (I'll call him my boss but he is weirdly opposed to acting like I "have a boss" - I'm not supposed to "answer to anyone" - fucking kill me), made some big changes that I believe I help influence for just our HD. We're moving our HD manager (who is flailing) into a more specialized client focused role, and we've promoted a few engineers to be Team Leads, and we've finalized a two tier system for the engineers. Wasn't my exact vision, but it's fine. He pulls these guys into a meeting that I say "hello I'm coming with?" bc it's insane to not be invited, and these guys are like fresh faced twenty somethings just beginning their careers, they've just started working in the past few years, and my boss tells them he wants to help them succeed, he wants to hear their ideas, I'm there to support them, blah blah blah. He then says he wants [NAME REDACTED] to be fired. This is a much older engineer who used to be a tech specialist who was working on projects as a contractor for our project team pre covid, and is now working at HD (very fucking unusual). Boss tells me all the time it was a demotion, and [NAME REDACTED] tells me it's something he asked for for job security during the pandemic. Yikesaronni, I just always try to change the fucking subject. But then he drops it on these 20 somethings getting their first big promotion of their lives who will not having hiring or firing responsibilities that my boss thinks [NAME REDACTED] should be let go because he's too expensive and is a huge disappointment (specs on that were not readily available). They of course all agree when he says he can get two new engineers hired for the price of one [NAME REDACTED]'s salary. Fine, whatever.

He asks them to get a game plan about a time table that would work for them, and they come back with: first week of november, since they're planning two more months, to fully roll off the current schedule, on the condition these two new guys are hired and start before the Firing. I'm all in agreement, plus this gives me something to FUCKING DO. Yes, hire some people and I can create an orientation and onboarding plan, please!!!!

My boss impresses on them that he's game, and he wants to send them offer letters that week as he already has two candidates in mind (which of course means he was already interviewing people.....kay), and he wants to move fast on this and he already has the approval he needs to move forward. That was two weeks ago. I have heard nothing about these new guys. So I send him a little ping, and he tells me he's waiting for approval from the Operations/NOC Service Delivery Director, a guy who works under him, to "confim making offers" HELLO????? and this is how the convo went:

WTF are you talking about???? Are you in charge or not!! are we getting these people or not!!! are we firing [NAME REDACTED] in two weeks or not???????? YOU'RE in waiting mode? I thought this was in the bag? and what's with the sass like I'm checking in on you? I've been given no indication when, what, how these new hires arrived when the last I heard they were coming was from YOU it was YOUR idea. Why would I have any idea to go ask the other guy? Like wtffffff is happening at this place.

Truly maddening, I'm about to Q-U-I-T. Give me something to fucking do