#train only had like 20 minutes delay

[phin-tastic]

writing gay porn in my notebook while the man who sits next to me on the train writes a love letter to his girlfriend.

united by the urge to create.

[benevolentslut]

this is why i've left a Long window for me to get there early

[krmy2386]

Eau de Parfume

Bob Floyd x Reader

PLEASE DON’T STEAL!!!

Be kind❤️

WARNINGS: Mentions of deployment (I know nothing about actually military so this may be wrong.). Accusations of cheating. Fluffy ending🥰

Word Count: 1976

A/N: I know I promised this a while ago and I am SO sorry for the delay. Basically my home life has been VERY stressful and I’m going through it😅.

Y/N was devastated.

He was cheating on her. Bob of all people!

How could he? How could sweet, adorable and loving Bob do this?!

Granted Y/N had no solid proof, but she had her suspicions for a few weeks now.

He had been very distant recently. Whenever Y/N would ask him, ‘How was your day?’ over dinner he would no longer go into heavy detail about who was where, what was said, sometimes even mentioning the temperature of whatever room he was in. But now he would only give one word responses and leave as soon as dinner was over. It had been weeks since he spent tonight at her apartment.

Y/N’s second clue, was that the Dagger squad was acting weird as well. When the group went out recently the entire team all basically ignored her. No harmless flirting from Hangman. Or gossip with Fanboy and Payback. Even Rooster couldn’t bring himself to look at her, and Y/N considered herself to be closest to him out of all of them. ‘They must all know,’ she thought to herself. ‘They must all know but are too scared or too loyal to Bob to say anything.

The third, and most damning, piece of evidence was a bottle of perfume she found on Bob’s bathroom sink.

It wasn’t hers.

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bob thought he was going to combust everyday since Cyclone broke the news. They were being deployed.

It would be six months, at least, and basically no communication.

This wouldn’t be Bob’s first time being shipped out to the middle of the ocean. But it would be Y/N’s first time having to send him off. That thought was what was driving Bob insane.

He didn’t know how to tell Y/N. He didn’t know how she would react.

Would she leave him? Would she wait for him? He knew she loved him but it was a big ask of someone. To basically put their life on hold for you.

Bob already knew he would be in trouble for waiting until the last minute to tell her. They left in three days. Bob had known for three weeks and instead of preparing the love of his life for the hardest test of their relationship, he hid it from her.

‘Oh God!’ He thought, ‘She should leave me just for being so stupid!’

Everyday he thought about telling her. He would sit down with the rest of the Dagger team, all of whom had told their loved ones already, and they would attempt to coach him on what to say.

Phoenix suggested that he should simply sit Y/N down and tell her like an adult. Bob felt like the metaphorical ship had already sailed on that one.

Hangman suggested he tell her during sex. Bob had to admit this was a tempting suggestion. The only problem was he could barely look Y/N in the eye these past few days, let alone make a move.

Poor Rooster just begged Bob to tell her. Blurt it out if he had to, but put Bradley out of his misery. He was a horrible secret keeper and it was killing him knowing something so important and not being able to tell Y/N.

Finally, Maverick told Bob that if he didn’t tell Y/N himself then he would take matters into his own hands. Bob knew Maverick was serious. That man feared nothing, not even the wrath of Bob’s girlfriend.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Y/N sat on the couch holding the bottle. She had been intensely staring at it for 20 minutes. She was meant to be cooking dinner.

Despite being ignored by the entire team, it was Maverick who finally called her that afternoon. He said he couldn’t go into detail but the team was undergoing some intense training. He said he was calling all of the members' partners and family to let them know that the team was under a lot of stress.

Hearing this made Y/N feel relieved, maybe that was the cause of all of this. She decided to surprise Bob by cooking his favorite dinner and maybe they could simply talk out whatever was going on. At least that was the plan until Y/N went to wash up before cooking.

She went into the bathroom and saw the bottle sitting on the sink. It was very obviously not her perfume. The perfume she wore was an, admittedly cheap, light and sweet fragrance that came in a simple yellow bottle. This new bottle was black with pink accents and even looked expensive. Y/N wasn’t a huge fan of most perfumes. She actually didn’t care that much for hers. Ironically she only wore it because she thought Bob liked it on her.

The final nail in Y/N’s coffin was when she sprayed it. Curiosity got the best of her. What does this person smell like? Is it similar to mine? Completely different? She needed to know.

Much to her dismay, she liked it. She really liked it.

‘Damnit!’ She mentally screamed. She was praying the pretty and luxurious bottle would be just a fluke. That she would hate it and it would give her some kind of relief. Instead she just cried.

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Bob was terrified. As soon as Maverick told him that he reached out to Y/N, he knew that he could no longer wait. He could no longer procrastinate or plot a way out of it. He had to do it now.

When Bob pulled up at home he saw Y/N’s car, he actually wasn’t surprised. She was a loving and generous person. He knew she would be there to try to comfort him from Maverick’s ‘secret stressful training’. That thought made what he had to do so much worse.

Bob walked up to his front door. He paused, took a deep breath and said to himself, ‘Now or never Floyd. Just try not to break her heart.’

But when he opened the door he was met with his worst nightmare.

Y/N was sitting on his couch crying. Out of instinct he immediately ran over to her.

“Y/N! Baby! What’s wrong?” He tried to confront her best he could.

Y/N pushed him away, “What’s wrong? WHAT’S WRONG?! You lied to me!”

Bob sighed in defeat. He had been caught.

“I’m so sorry! I never meant for you to find out this way!” He tried to reason.

Y/N couldn’t help but roll her eyes at that.

Bob knelt in front of where she was sitting on the couch, “I’ve been trying to figure out how to tell you. I just couldn’t bring myself to hurt you.”

“How the hell would this not hurt me, Bobby?!” Y/N yelled, “There is absolutely no way that I could come out of this not hurt!

Bob felt the tears starting to well up. It was over. He screwed it all up. All he could do was apologize.

“I am so sorry Y/N! I truly never meant to hurt you.: Bob felt himself start to ramble, “I just couldn’t think of the right time and the team kept pushing me. Hell, Hangman even suggested I blurt it out during sex and I know that sounds ridiculous but I am beginning to think that would’ve been a better option then you finding out from Maverick!”

Y/N looked at Bob like he had grown a second head.

“What? Hangman suggested that you tell me you’re cheating on me during sex?!” Y/n was incredibly confused, “What the hell is wrong with you two?!”

Now it was Bob’s turn to be confused, “Cheating on you?! You think I’ve been cheating on you!’

“Haven’t you?” Y/N said accusingly, “You never talk to me anymore, you rush off as soon as you can, the entire team has been avoiding me like the plague, and this was in your bathroom!” Y/N felt the tears coming again as she held up the bottle.

Bob let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He didn’t think anything would be worse than Y/N’s reaction to him leaving. But this was so much worse.

Bob gently grabbed her hands.

“Baby, I would never cheat on you. I’m lucky I got you! Do you really think I would be stupid enough to throw away the best thing that ever happened to me?!”

Y/N looked into his high puppy-dog eyes and almost melted. Almost.

“Then what the hell is going on Bobby?’ She asked desperately.

Bob took her hands and kissed them before speaking, “I’m being deployed.”

Those three words made Y/N’s eyes go wide for a moment. Then she practically leaped on Bob in a huge hug that nearly knocked him over.

Bob was once again, very confused.

“Wait, you’re not mad?” He asked.

Y/N chuckled, “Give me a few minutes to be relieved I was wrong. Then the madness will probably set in”

Bob felt himself melt into the hug. There was hope. Hope that she would actually stay.

“Baby,” Bob began slowly pulling back from her, “The reason I’ve been distant is because I was scared to tell you. I didn’t know how you would react. Same with the team. Poor Bradley has been on edge for weeks because he was afraid he would let it slip.”

“Weeks?” Y/N asked, sounding hurt, “You’ve known for weeks?”

Bob nodded his head in shame, “We found out about three weeks ago. I thought maybe if I put it off it would go away or by some miracle I wouldn’t have to go. But I guess this is it. I leave in three days.”

Y/N was in shock. She finally understood. Believe it or not she even understood why he hid it. He wasn’t afraid to tell her he was leaving. He was afraid to ask her to stay.

She looked at him and gently put her hand on his cheek, “It’ll be okay Bobby.

Those four words pulled him out of his own head and straight back into reality.

“Really?!” He asked, trying not to get too excited, “It’s six months. Little to no communication and I did solidly prove today that I am an idiot. No one would blame you if you jumped ship.”

Y/N giggled at the pun before holding his face in her hands and looking straight into his eyes, “I’m not going anywhere Bobby.”

Bob couldn’t contain himself. He pulled her in for a kiss and hugged her so tight he lifted her off the couch and spun her around. He felt like he was flying.

“Wait!” Y/N said and Bob felt his blood run cold.

He slowly set her down and looked in her eyes, “What?”

Y/N went back to the couch and grabbed the bottle that now had no explanation.

“What is this for then?” She asked, no longer accusing, but genuinely very curious.

“That? It ah- well I wanted to-“ Bob rubbed the back of his neck and blushed, “It was to take with me. To remind me of you. I know it's not the exact one you wear but when I went to buy that one I smelt this one and-” Bob shrugged, struggling to find the right words, “It just smelt like what it feels like to be with you.”

Now it was Y/N’s turn to feel ecstatic. She looked at the bottle then sprayed some on her forearm and inhaled the scent for the second time. He was right. It smelled comforting. She pulled him in for another kiss and let the scent waft around them like a cocoon. And Y/N made a mental note to pick up a bottle of that perfume to keep with her too.

TAG LIST- Thank you for the encouragement❤️

@luckyladycreator2

@b-bradshaw

@t-rexs

@rosiahills22

@vienna1644

@timbradfordsboot

@blue-aconite

@barbiegirlbaby

@ahopelessromanticwritersworld

@wanniiieeee

@insomniac23

@xinsonyax

@goawayi-mreading

@daughterofthereaper02

@a-reader-and-a-writer

[fiber-optic-alligator]

(Not a request dw) (I definitely borrowed a little from what you wrote and slashed through earlier)

Knock Out brainrot time. >:3c

Just thinking of him occasionally taking his human Back to the train tracks where he caught them the first time to torment them further. Especially about how they failed to escape him the first time. Not that they Actually Had a Chance, but he's an arrogant asshole so he's gonna act like they did. And that they failed to utilize it correctly.

Maybe he pretends to give them another chance to properly flee, with the same rules/time limit as last time? 20 minutes, but after 5 he's going to begin his search for them. But this time? The human has something of a plan, even if it'll only delay the inevitable. They use the fog cover to sneakily dash about, and cover things in heir scent. They're trying to fool his nose so he has to try harder to find them in the fog.

Five minutes pass of him tracking their progress, and he begins to move. Taunting them about their plan to con a Con, and how it won't work. Of course he knew what they were doing, and it's a decent plan outside of the fact that he can See them trying to put it into action. But, oh well, better luck next time, morsel.

At the ten minute mark, however, he loses sight of them. And with minimal sign of them beyond the smell of terror they leave behind, he begins to grow a little antsy. Not worried, no, he's going to catch them, and It Will Be Easy. They just... hadn't been much of a challenge before. This is certainly proving to be an interesting round of Hide and Shriek.

It's a little past the fifteen minute mark that he catches a definitive trace of them. "Ah, There they are." He laughs lowly, and stomps closer to the boxcar they'd stashed themselves away in. Now that he's locked onto where they've hidden, he decides to walk a little further away from them. To make them think he's still oblivious to their hiding spot. A minute passes. Two, three. Little footsteps pad through the door to the next boxcar.

At nineteen minutes, Knock Out decides to stop playing with his food. He saunters over to their new hiding spot, and tears the door open. Leaning the whole boxcar at an angle with a servo, so His human is forced to skid over to the far side and look up at him. "You know, this game of Cyber cat and Glitch mouse was certainly thrilling, but all good things must come to an end eventually. Now, sit still for me won't you? We have things to do once we get back to the Nemesis."

He reaches in with his right servo to daintily pluck them from their rusty tomb, but stops short when something blunt smashes into one of his digits. He pulls his claws away from them to survey the damage, and notices rusty little scratches in one of them. He growls in displeasure before lunging to harshly pin His Plaything's arm to the wall, and wrenching away the offending weapon. An old crowbar sits pinched between two of his talons before he snaps it in two, and throws it away like a used tooth pick.

He regards his captive with a snarl, hating the effect their resistance has on him. The fact that they have the Audacity to attack him is in itself is infuriating, and he loathes losing his cool. Especially in regards to a fleshbag he's been ever So lenient with. He'll make them buff out the scratch later, but for now... "As much as I can respect your meager survival tactics, don't you think it's a little late to be trying this hard to escape?" He tries to maintain his self-assured tone to scare the human into thinking that their efforts to piss him off were Entirely in vain. But even they can detect the wrath bleeding into his tone like a drop of ink in water.

Knock Out lunges to pin his prize to the far wall with a servo again, making sure that the sharp ends of his claws graze their flesh lightly. "Has it Not sunken in yet human? You. Can't. Escape. From. Me. You only get as far as you do during our little games, because I let you. You didn't stand a chance In The Pits of escaping the second I laid my optics on you the first time, and you certainly don't have a shot now." He lifts them out of the boxcar, and drops it back onto the tracks, a crumpled heap of scrap metal. He ceases to keep his contempt for their petulance out of his voice now that he's got a proper grip on them.

"In case you haven't noticed, human? I am Faster than you. I am Stronger than you. And no matter how Far you run, I will Always find you. Remember that the next time you forget your place in this little arrangement of ours. Though, in case you Do need a reminder after all that?

You. Are. Mine.

His grip tightens while he speaks, and only loosens his grip again once he can he feel them gasp for air. He sighs, satisfied that he'd gotten his point across, and brings his little Snack down from optic level. "Once we get back to the Nemesis, you're getting a bath. And then, you're due for a night long tour of my tank. That's a fitting punishment for a squirmy little fleshy like you, I think. Oh, and you Will be buffing this scratch out of my hand, by the by. Don't think your panicked flailing fit with a piece of scrap metal slipped my mind, dear. I won't be as gentle with you the next time you lash out like that."

Anon. Holy shit. I literally have no words. This is absolutely incredible. I have nothing to add to this because it’s so damn GOOD!!! I don’t even have to write a part 2 anymore because this is that AMAZING!!!! God I am going to be rereading this at least twice a week SHAUZISKDJFNFJJFAAAAAAUGH!!!!!

I can only imagine afterwords when this is all over and you are within his tank. You have never seen Knockout that angry before. Though he makes an effort to intimidate you and show how terrifying he can be, he’s always been relatively gentle with you. Now, though? The memory of being slammed against the boxcar, how his claws grazed your skin, his snarls, the way he nearly squeezed the life out of you. And his words…

“You. Are. Mine.”

You curl up tighter and bury your head into your knees, shaking. You begin to quietly weep.

Meanwhile, Knockout is tinkering away with some stuff when he hears your soft sobs rising up from his middle. Pausing his activities and looking down, he listens to you cry and feels you tremble. A part of him feels smugly satisfied that you know your place now…but there’s another part of him that feels strangely…guilty. Your a small, fragile little thing. He could have seriously hurt you.

Heaving a low sigh, he clenches his tank muscles to squeeze you gently. “Settle down, little thing,” he murmurs. “I was harsh with you, I’ll admit. But you must understand that at moments, harshness is necessary. You need to know your place. You need to know you are mine.”

You don’t respond. He doesn’t expect you to. His comfort is not exactly the most comforting. He’s silent. He doesn’t feel as triumphant as he did earlier.

Even Decepticons can feel remorse sometimes.

[giggly-squiggily]

An Attack In The Night (Blue Lock)

Hi hello yes HI! :D This is the unplanned but then planned and now after months long delay sequel to "Lessons In English" I had an urge to make Lee!Rin and here we are :D I hope y'all like it!

CW: Swearing

Summary: Rin doesn't take Isagi's threat seriously and lives to regret it.

Cloud 9 (Taglist Peeps):

@myreygn @cupcake-spice13 @chibisstuff @imjusthere07 @riisada

“If you dare choose to tickle me today, I shall find you in your bed at the wee hours of the night and tickle you until you’re pleading for the Soccer gods to strike you where you stand.”

Rin- looking back at this situation, probably should have taken that threat more seriously.

After the whole English lesson fiasco, the day went on normally. Aryu rambled on about glam, Tokimitsu spent a solid ten minutes debating whether or not he was going into the workout room, Bachira and Isagi were glued to the hip, and Rin just kinda wandered about with his daily regime. At one point they were sat down for more English tutoring, but this time a woman was on the screen guiding them through the worksheets. Anri, was it? Rin couldn’t remember her name but he was grateful nonetheless.

The week went on without incident, and yet Isagi’s little remark hung in the back of his head. Surely he wasn’t planning on actually going through with that? It’s childish and stupid- not to mention it’d wake up the rest of the room.

Bachira he could see going through with it, sure- but Isagi?

No. No way.  He probably just wanted to live his little anime protagonist moment. Rin shook his head around his miso soup, annoyed with how much thought he was giving such a dumb bluff. He wasn’t going to do anything.

Isagi caught his eye from a table down, squished amongst his former teammates and Bachira. He smiled, a small polite gesture he was sure.

I shall find you

Rin ruffled, nearly choking on his soup. Aryu looked up from his rice, hand ready to assist. “Don’t die- that won’t be glam.”

“Shut up.” Rin grumbled, standing up and disposing of his tray. At Isagi’s table, Bachira was trying to feed the fast redhead across the table, laughing at his scrunched face of disgust. The lazy guy was half asleep on his phone, mumbling about glazed chicken.

And Isagi- he was still watching him with that same little smile.

So normal and cheery he presented, just happy to see his teammate.

Rin didn’t trust it for a moment.

~~~

Another week went by. As of  now- Rin forgot about the whole thing, his thoughts solely focused on the intensive training Ego set for them. The U-20 match was approaching, as was the fateful match with Sae. This was his opportunity to crush him and finally- finally move on. He didn’t have time for any distractions.

….Okay, maybe he had time to occasionally chat with Hiori. The cyan haired man just happened to be there when he was stretching, it didn’t mean anything-

“Die, comrade.” Isagi’s voice was in his ear, sending shivers racing up his spine. Before he could react, he was shoved into his bed, Isagi sitting on him with glittering eyes. “Told you I’d find you, Rin.”

“What?” His head was still dazed from earlier thoughts- body fatigued from both the day’s conditioning and the hot bath he had after. “Huh, what are you-”

It only took fingers pressing into his sides for the threat to resurface.

“I shall find you in the wee hours of the night and tickle you until you’re pleading for the soccer gods to strike you where you stand.”

Well shit.

“Come on now, what’s wrong?” Isagi teased, drilling his fingers into Rin’s ribs as the taller boy pressed his mouth shut, fighting down the laughs. “Too ticklish here?” He moved his hands upward, drawing small circles against his ribs and further breaking his defenses. “Or maybe you’re ticklish…here?”

A prod to his highest rib made Rin spasm, but his lip stayed sealed. Painfully so- he pressed his face into the pillow as he pressed his arms tightly into his sides, shaking his head.

“Wow, you’re stubborn.” Isagi huffed with a laugh, switching to gentle scratching, earning a muffled “ffffffmph!” “I like my rivals to be stubborn, it makes it that much more satisfying to break them down.”

Oh if he lived through this, Rin was gonna suffocate him in his sleep! The bastard looked so smug too- practically drenched in confidence! As if he knew all the answers and was just waiting for Rin to catch up. “A-Ass!” He grunted, the only word he could get out before choking on a laugh, barely keeping it in.

“It’s not healthy to keep it in, Rin. Let it out, laugh for me.” Isagi paused, both for anticipation and because he was genuinely starting to get worried. The green haired teen gasped for air, lungs crying. “Dude, breathe.”

“S-screw…you…” Rin huffed, feeling like he ran a mile. He could get through this- he was used to the feeling now. In a fit of rare boldness, he raised his chin. “Do your worst- you won’t break me.”

Isagi raised an eyebrow. Then he smiled- a dangerous one Rin saw on the field so many times. It was the smile he wore when he smelled a goal, the rush of the game and the plan set in motion.

Oh god…he was so screwed.

“I won’t, huh?” He dropped his hands, resting them on the hem of Rin’s sweatpants. Then, without breaking eye contact, he slowly slid them up and under his sweatshirt, trailing his nails gently along the bare skin. Rin involuntarily twitched- a full body one he couldn’t hide. “We’ll see about that.”

Rin glared, fighting down the blush creeping up his collar. He wouldn’t break- he wouldn’t-

“Gah! Shhhiiihihiihihihit!” Those dastardly hands found his ribs again. Without a layer of cotton to protect him, he was as good as dead. “Iihihiihiisagi, stahahhahhap!”

“Aww, what happened? What happened to not breaking, Mr. Cool Guy?” Isagi teased in a baby voice, kneading and pinching the warm skin in a way he knew would drive Rin mad. “Listen to you laughing so much! Aren’t you a cutie! Yes you are, yes you are!”

“Dohohohohon’t fuhuhuuhuhucking tahahhalk to me lihihihike thahahaht! I’m not a dahahahhamn dohohohohohohog!” Rin argued through his mirth, trying in vain to shove Isagi’s hands out. Every press into his ribcage felt like another cell in his muscles dying- sapping away his strength. “Gehehehhet the heheheheell awhhahahy from thehehehehre!”

“Oh? You want me to change spots? Why didn’t you say so!” Isagi winked. Then he shot his hands up to his armpits.

“GAH!” Rin squawked, nearly punching Isagi with how hard his body flailed. It wasn’t even his worst spot and he found himself laughing hysterically. Damn body sensitivity! “FUHHUCK GEHEHEHHET OUUHUHHUHUHUT!”

“Such a potty mouth! Do I have to get the soap?” Isagi laughed, proud at how flushed and giggly Rin looked. Should he? No, he shouldn’t.

“THAHAKE YOUR SOOHOHOAP AND STIHIHIHICK IT UUHUHUHP YOUR AHAHHAHAHASS!”

Oh yes. Yes he should.

“Tch. You know- back in Team Z- we had a guy who was just. Like. You.” He jabbed at his upper ribs with each word. “He’d tell us the same thing when we tickled him- you know how we handled his ass?” Isagi’s eyes twinkled as he removed his hands, shoving up the hem of Rin’s sweatshirt as he leaned down.

Oh, the look of utter panic on his face! It was so deliciously satisfying. “Oohoho no! No way- get your face away from there! Don’t you do it, don’t-” Rin tried to shove him, but it was too late.

“PFFFFFT!”

“GAH!” It was the only sound Rin could make before his laugh went silent, Isagi’s thumbs pressing into his hips as he blew another loud raspberry against his skin. He slapped at Isagi’s back rapidly- hoping the other would get the message.

Isagi sat up, giggling as he pulled Rin’s shirt back down. “Had enough?”

In response, Rin flipped him off. Isagi pinched his hips. “GAH! Fine fine, you win, now stop!” He cringed as he said it- not used to giving in. Isagi whooped before falling sideways into the bed beside him. “I hate you.”

“I love you too, Rin~” Isagi sang, laughing harder when Rin nearly shoved him off the bed. “Haha, that was nothing! You love me here- I can feel it.”

Rin was about to help Isagi feel something else when a Bachira shaped body crashed into them, earning a chorus of yelps and groans. “I found you! Here you two are, cuddling without me?”

“We’re not- Bob cut!” Rin grumbled as Bachira got comfortable, squishing them all into one clump of bodies. Isagi only shrugged, eyes suggesting he might as well get used to it.

“I hate both of you.” Rin gave up, earning a puff of giggles from the pair.

Okay- maybe he didn’t actually hate them.

Thanks for reading!

[octuscle]

I need to take a work trip to Germany, Leipzig to be precise. Should be a nice change from my NYC life.

I guess, your suitcase won't make it to Frankfurt... Then I guess I have to organize a replacement. Damn Airlines!

The only thing I can offer you so spontaneously is an old army backpack from GDR stocks, covered with graffiti tags, stickers and patches. Pretty heavy... And maybe not necessarily suitable for your classic suit… So, take your rucksckand head to the airport train station. Your train to Leipzig will depart in 20 minutes.

Shit, Frankfurt airport is bigger then expected. When you arrive, you thaught, that you missed your train. But luckily, the train is delayed by 15 minutes. Enough time, to relaxe. And for a smoke. You search the side pockets of the backpack. No cigarettes. But tobacco, cigarette paper. And weed. Shit, that could have ended badly at customs...

Ahh, smoking this feels great. I really needed to decompress a bit after this whole travel shitshow. Don't take offense, but a middelaged man in a conservative suit and a classic haircut smoking weed with an army backpack on the platform of the airport station looks a bit special... You have to admit that, too, when you see your reflection in the window panes of the high-speed train rushing in.

No one had told you that you had better have made a seat reservation. The train is packed. Getting a seat is out of the question. With a little luck, you will still get a seat in the dining car. You order a beer (what else in Germany) and check the contents of your backpack. On top of it lies a hat. It looks funny, you put it on. Otherwise, the backpack is not necessarily neatly packed. Everything is stuffed in more like this. There's a MacBook... You open it. And of course you know the password. Feels perfectly normal to open it. As normal as your pierced earlobes feel.

It is a low-coding platform open to any Big Data AI application. You scroll through the application. Sure, the prototype of an app for digitizing queues in doctors' offices. You open the library of useer stories and start developing the app further. A few hours ago, you had no idea about software development.

It's 9:00 p.m. when you look out the window. Gotha train station. Wherever that may be. You are looking at your reflection. Let's see what the others think of the fact that you have let the beard grow out...

The train is half empty by now. You have not even noticed how it has emptied. It's still a good hour to Leipzig. You close the computer. That's it for today. You order another beer and the vegan curry. Actually, you're also in desperate need of a joint. But of course you can't smoke anywhere on this train.

But you take tobacco, weed, cigarette paper and your cigarette case, which you inherited from your grandfather. And while you're waiting for the food, you roll a few joints on reserve. It will be after 11:00 p.m. by the time you arrive at your shared apartment. But you assume that you will sit together until 01:00 or 02:00. Your roommates are all rather night owls....

You don't notice that you're wearing high-laced DocMarten's boots instead of welted penny loafers as you step off the train. You also don't notice that your hair has grown considerably longer and falls tousled under your hat into your forehead... You pause for a moment as you see the tattoos on the back of your hand as you light up a joint to tide you over until the bus leaves. And after asking the bus driver for a ticket to Connewitz, you wonder if you actually just spoke German with quite an American accent.

The elevator in your house is of course defective again. Old building from 1873, last renovated in 1980 or so. That was long before the fall of the Wall in the GDR. But the rent is cheap. And the atmosphere is energetic and creative. When you met Kevin, Lukas and Emma at university five years ago, you were immediately on the same wavelength. Even though you didn't speak a word of German back then. You would never have thought that a semester as an exchange student would turn into a lasting collaboration. The fact that you found an apartment together where you could work on your startup at the same time was a real stroke of luck.

Upstairs in the apartment, Kevin already opens the door for you. As if he had been waiting for you.

„Sieht heute gut aus”, you say with your strange American accent.

Kevin hugs you and answers „Dude, it's good to have you back! We have missed you! Tell me, do you have new tattoos? Looks hot! And did you bring weed from Amsterdam? Our dealer is on vacation... Shitty situation!“

“Of course, i’d never leave you without”, I say, opening up the cigarette case and offering you one of the hand-rolled contents.

Kevin grins. „What do you say we smoke the first one not at the kitchen table but on your bed? I missed you, stud!“

“I’m so tired after this trip, so the bed sounds just right.”

There is nothing left of your suit right now. Yes, you are still from NYC. But you weren't a lawyer then. You studied computer science. And that was a long time ago. Now you are a Leipziger by heart

You both lie on the bed. You take a deep drag. And blow the smoke into Kevin’s mouth with a deep French kiss. The bulge in your skinny jeans looks painful. “Oh man, Kevin, I need some relief!” you growl.

It doesn't take long and we both have the tank tops off. You discover Kevins new nipple piercings. And can't stop playing with them. And Kevins bulge starts to hurt too.

“Man, let me provide some relief”, he says. And open your jeans. Your boner jumps out of your boxers like a jack-in-the-box.

Those new piercings… You just can’t help yourself… You’ve gotta feel them in my mouth! “Are they sensitive? Does it still hurt?” Kevin starts breathing more heavily. “What are you waiting for you prude Yank! They've been waiting for you for two weeks now!” You take a deep drag and blow the smoke over Kevins chest, which you caress with your tongue. Kevin moans “Fuck! You're doing so well! Sure it hurts. It's supposed to. You make me so fucking horny with your tongue! I love your tunnels on the earlobes!. I can not stop playing with them with my tongue.”

Dude, your dick is producing precum like a broken faucet. Kevin starts to massage it into your dick! You take one last drag from the joint, push the butt into the ashtray and blow the smoke over Kevins boner.

While Kevin rubs your hard dick, You begin licking his uncut cock. Damn man, these uncut European cocks will never not surprise you! Oh man, you love how it feels on your tongue.

Kevin doesn't stop breathing heavily, but still has to grin. “Fuck, admit it, you certainly didn't just talk about user interfaces with Milan and Sem in Amsterdam. You did practice your tongue game. Fuck, you know how to bring someone to ecstasy with the tip of your tongue!”

Oh man, Kevins precum just takes so good. You can’t get enough of it. Kevin reads your thoughts. “I want to lick your precum too. Let's make a 69! I need to suck your powerful circumcised cock.”

Yes, please!, you think in ecstasy. You just love how his balls feel in my mouth. And Kevin has fun to. You must have been sweating like a dog on the trip. Your balls are salty, your cock is deliciously cheesy. “Fuck, I can not tell you how I missed you.” Kevin moans.

He always feels so good, just keep going please, you think. His cock is so hard. His precum is spectacular. It’s like you’re in sync — in and out, in and out, in and out. “Fuck, your balls are so huge”, Kevin grunts. “I didn't jerk off all the time you ve been away. My balls are bursting”.

You both are perfectly synchron. Like one organism. “Please cum at the exact moment that I also cum. I want to make this old house shake.”, you think.You can’t wait to make you explode. Kevins moans “I can't take it much longer. Fuck, you are a master with your tongue. Fuck... Oh yeah... Yes! Fuuuuuuuck!”

Oh god! That was heavy. You both really try. But that was too much. Boy, what a load you both shot! Kevins cum is so thick! So potent! You ’ve got my whole mouth full, not able to swallow everything at once. You both exchange a deep French kiss. The cum runs from the corners of your mouths down our cheeks and necks. Kevin licks the cum traces from your skin. And you his. One last kiss, you pull up our pants again. And go to the kitchen with a joint. Lukas and Emma grin. The whole house could listen to you having sex.

“Incredible, as always, Kevin” You tell him, as you pass him the joint. And as if nothing had happened, you ask Emma if she has any new user stories for your app.

[life-winners-liveblog]

YEP.

This absolute toaster iron had ended up drinking somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 packets in about five minutes. I sat there and kinda just watched for a few seconds, honestly; like how you can't look away from a train wreck? Yeah, that was me, only nobody else knew what was going to happen. Anyway, about 10-15 minutes later, we hear the call. Dinner is over, time to get back to work, run the show again, etc. The director calls places; and nobody knows where the soy guy is. They can't find him. They're like, "where is he??" I raise my hand a little and I go, "he's in the bathroom. he'll be there for a while." And the rest of the kids are like what? what do you mean?

And that's how we got delayed by about half an hour as the teachers had to make sure the dude wasn't actually injured from his- well, soy sauce escapade; and how I had to explain to basically the entire rest of the cast that since soy sauce contains lots of sodium, aka salt, chugging it is going to cause mass amounts of digestive upheaval.

Ah, high school. The theatre kids are chugging soy, the band kids are doing ritual sacrifices, and somebody's lit a fire in the bathroom trashcan again. (That last one is also a true story, there were scorch marks on the wall for weeks after.)

-Bel (Bad Tumblr. Stop it. Let the nice Author see my asks.)

....

Ritual

Sacrifices

?

[funkygaypeopleinmyphone]

Nothing gets me into a fiery rage more than thinking about 343 has handled the Halo series after Bungie left it off on such a high note. 1, 2 and 3 were good, ODST and Reach were godlike, and they expanded on the universe quite a few times with books and comics and all that. And then 343 came in and just completely gumbled most of it up. CEA was cool, but basically just kitbashed Reach and upscaled Halo 3 assets together and lost some of the original touch the game had back in 2001.

Halo 4 was, ok? The best part was Cortana's story, going into more depth about rampancy and how it affects AI, especially one that we've known and loved for over a decade at that point. The Forerunners were fucking stupid personally, it's hinted to and LITERALLY SAID IN HALO 3, that humans are forerunners, just after the shitshow that was all the rings firing off. 343 Guilty Spark literally says that Chief is a forerunner, and then they just whipped it around and said "well actually he's a reclaimer because blablabla" ok whatever, they do flesh it out more in expanded works and explain it in Halo 4 so atleast theres that. Del Rio is an asshole to the savior of humanity for no reason. The sudden art style change that makes no sense is stupid, like you could've delayed the change until the Infinity rolled around. The Diadact is just space voldemort turning humanity into NFTs after being on r/nofap for 100,000 years, who then dies pretty unceremoniously to a shit ass grenade in a quick time event.

Halo 5 is.... fucking just Halo 5. The Cortaba story is so bad, why did you bring her back as an antagonist? Why didn't you stick to the marketing that was actually a really cool idea about Chief going rogue and hunting the truth. Where are the Marines? Why do I have to fight the Warden Eternal like 20 times? Better balancing than 4 i guess, but god the plot is just all over the place. And that fight scene with Chief, Chief was abducted as a child and forced into the spartan program and trained to be a cold brutal killer of the UNSC's foes. Without Mjolnir armor he straight up merked 2 ODSTs in hand-to-hand combat. This 7-foot-augmented-out-the-ass man had an equal match in a mass produced Spartan 4? Sure Locke is ONI so he's got some spice to him and he's still a Spartan wearing similar armor to Chief, but come on, you can't tell me a guy who saves humanity for breakfast is on a similar level to Halo Nightfall guy.

Infinite is strange. They basically drop Halo 5's characters for the most part, give Chief new (remastered Mk.6) armor, bring back older models of guns and stuff with a new coat of paint (Reach AR, Battle Rifle, now the DMR) and blow up Cortana and the Infinity within the first like, 30 minutes of the game. Ooooo the Banished except wait after Atriox's not-death they're pretty incompetent and are gettinf roflstomped by Chief and are really only good at killing UNSC off screen. The open world shit was ok, but for Halo i dont think its entirely the best idea to go for whatever Far Cry ass shit they pulled. Bringing back the old designs was really cool and much better than the sterile, clean, sharp edges of 4 and 5. Their armor and weapons looked like brand new toys while Infinite's look more realistic and have a bit more wear and tear to em. But its also missing a ton and just kind of ends off on a weird half note for the story. Like where are they gonna go with this? Idk, its just weird.

343, make more stories without Chief. I know Chief is the figurehead of the franchise, but for god's sake please please please make side stories in the universe. I want to see how humanity recovered after the war, how the different species in the Covenant took the end of the war. Exploring Forerunner sites? Side stories in the human-covenant war with ODSTs and Marines! You could totally make the Harvest campaign into a game! Give us the origin story for Sgt Johnson and how he and others did during the opening months of the conflict! Give us more on the Insurrection! You've done it before, Halo Forward Unto Dawn was actually a really cool movie, why don't you do some more stuff like that??

Idk, I love Halo but 343 gotta step their game up

[petit-papillion]

FP1: Carlos drove despite a fever and "suffering from the consequences of a bout of food poisoning" (according to Ferrari). Charles vacuumed up some plastic bags and commented it was like Mario Kart out there. Charles ended up in P5, Carlos P6, with VER, ALO and PER as the top 3.

FP2: The wind died down somewhat for the evening practice. The session had a delayed start due to.. surprise, securing loose drain covers. Charles finished P4, Carlos P7. Top 3: ALO, RUS, VER.

FP3: Overnight Carlos was diagnosed with appendicitis. He underwent surgery, which thankfully went well. Speedy recovery, Carlos! Ollie Bearman will replace Carlos for the rest of the weekend. After getting pole in F2 yesterday, today, he made his debut in an F1 car as the youngest driver ever for Ferari. Zhou crashed with about 20 minutes left, causing a red flag. Ollie finished P10, Charles P2 in between the Red Bulls.

Petit's Race Notes:

Carlos showed up in the paddock, walking very gingerly, allegedly against doctor's orders, to support Charles and Ollie.

Pierre reported mechanical issues on the formation lap and Alpine retired the car almost immediately after the race start

Lando had a jump start, it seemed, but because no transponder was triggered, he didn't get a penalty

Early in the race, Lance clipped the wall, broke his suspension and slammed into the wall. Thankfully he was okay - the car not so much.

Everyone, except a handful of drivers, pitted under the safety car, leading to a very busy pitlane, and some penalties for impeding for Checo and Yuki.

Oscar (who had pitted for hards) got stuck behind Lewis (on mediums, not pitted) for 28 laps, even passing him twice but having to give back the position. He only got rid of him when HAM pitted at last.

Kevin Magnussen earned himself 20 seconds in penalties (causing a collision, gaining a position off-track) and decided to hold up the DRS train to allow Hulk enough time to pit and not lose his P10 position. Nice team work there, K-Mag.

Ollie Bearman did a phenomenal job. After starting P11, he was stuck behind a slow Haas for a while, but eventually finished P7 on his F1 debut. 👏👏👏

Max, whose only challenge was passing Lando early on, and then lapping backmarkers, tried to get the fastest at the end of the race, but was beaten by Charles who cleverly used DRS.

Fastest lap: Charles Leclerc

Driver of the Day: Oliver Bearman

Fastest pit stop: 2.44 by Red Bull/Max Verstappen

[dracolunae]

Summary of today:

Got on a train, had a little delay followed by 1:40 hours of layover. Next train to Paris comes in 20 minutes late. I get on, I have to squeeze through several compartments full of people on an overbooked as hell train. I find my seat, 2 other people are sitting there. I do not get my window seat but I do get the seat next to it so whatever. We go for maybe an hour and then we stop. We were not supposed to stop. We are not at a station. Train attendants rush past to the front of the train. Intercom comes on “we had an accident involving a person so we will be stopped for an indeterminate amount of time”. This is most likely code for “someone jumped onto the tracks in front of the train and committed suicide.” We stay stopped. The hours tick by. We’re past the time we were supposed to arrive in Paris. We stopped only a short bit after entering France. Estimated delay: 120 minutes. 2 hours. It’s past midnight now. The intercom comes on again. “We are cancelling our stop in Paris. We are going to Metz instead. We will tell you more later.” We don’t move for another 30+ minutes. My mum gets me a hotel room in Metz. Finally: movement. Another hour of train ride to Metz. The intercom crackles back to life: “There will be a train for you to sleep in. I do not know when or where it will arrive.” We arrive at the station “We still don’t know when or where the train will be. Please exit this train.” I go “fuck this shit I’m not sleeping in that train, I’m going to the hotel”. I get my hotel room, it’s so nice to not be stuck on that fucking train anymore. All the early morning trains are unavailable. The only trains from here to Paris are TGVs. Very expensive. I read up on compensation for delays and cancellations. I buy a TGV ticket for 9 am because that’s the earliest one possible. I can’t claim comp yet because I have not yet arrived in Paris. Almost cried from frustration several times. Fuck the Deutsche Bahn.

[bakerstmel]

Fall Favorite Fic Festival, Entry 5

Remember, winter doesn't officially begin until December 21, she said pedantically.

I've delayed writing this entry because I was trying to define the reason (or reasons) why I love this fic so damn much. I read this fic at least twice a year, usually sometime in February and then again in the fall. It's a sports fic, and while I am not in general a sports person, I do love me some baseball. But the sport isn't the reason I love this fic, and I think I may have figured it out. Stick with me.

I started the link at Chapter 2, because Chapter 1 is a guide to baseball for the uninitiated. Some of it is out of date now, because MLB in its STUPIDITY has messed around with the rules this year because GOD FORBID people have to wait longer than a minute for anything to fucking happen on a sports field, and of course only HITS matter, but it is still fun to read. You don't need it to appreciate the fic, though.

Whilst I was processing this fic, I spent some time thinking about sports fics in general, and that led me to reread a couple of other favorites. One was A Study in Winning, by Jupiter_Ash. I really like that fic as well, even though I know next to nothing about tennis. I like the drama of the story, I like Sherlock faking his nationality just because, and I enjoy John being a petty little bitch to Moriarty there at the end. I feel like there for a while everyone had read or was reading that fic. Another one I went back to was Of Ice and Men, by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John, which is an OT3 set during the Winter Olympics. That one has John in the Paralympics, which gives the relationships an entirely new dimension. There are other good sports fics - throw your favorite in the comments, if you like. I'm mostly limiting my scope in these musings to Sherlock, as I've said before, but I'll read anything if it's good. Links to these two fics are below.

One of the ways in which sports fics have an advantage is that they have a built in structure. There's a match, or a tournament, or a season, and the relationship drama plays out against that backdrop. Writing classes always talk about the "ticking clock" approach to narrative tension, and almost every sport has some type of literal ticking clock. The Bang and the Clatter plays out over a full baseball season, including Spring Training and the postseason. That's basically a year minus the main American holidays, and EarlGreyTea does a really good job of letting the story play out at an appropriate pace. That's very impressive considering that she was posting this as a WIP over the course of an actual season.

(I need to take a minute to talk about my issues with EGT, and by "issues" I mean "soul churning jealousy." EGT is ridiculously prolific. If you go back into the fandom annals and look at the timing of some of her biggest fics, she was posting what became major reference points for the fandom in tandem, writing multiple fics at the same damn time, while, you know, teaching law or moving cross country. She is the best example I know of the importance of writing regularly. Of course, she's incredibly gifted, highly skilled at plotting, characterization, pacing, and just words. She has a fabulous imagination. Her dialogue rings true, and it's fun. But she can turn really good stuff out relatively quickly because she's limber AF. She writes. Anyone who comes to Word Sprints on Sundays or just hangs with me writing knows I'm not fast. I'm lucky to break 100 words in 15 minutes. Part of that is that I edit as I go, but it's also that I don't write as often as I would like to, so it takes me some time to warm up. I would like to be more like EGT, which probably sounds kind of creepy. I hope she doesn't see this. Anyway, she's written many of my top 20, and she actually finishes her stuff. So, yeah. Issues.)

So here is where I ended up: this is a good AU that takes advantage of the time crunch of the sport in which it is set, but that is not why I read it 2+ times per year. I read it because this is one of my favorite John and Sherlock relationships ever. It feels so in character for the way we see them in the show (at least through S2; this was written in 2013). We see them meet, we feel their attraction, we feel Sherlock's very authentic confusion. We feel their fear at being caught out, at first by each other and then by the world. They earn their angst. The way to my heart is good characterization, and this has that. Alongside the battery, the OCs (especially Sherlock and John's families) are complex and have issues of their own. Moriarty doesn't show up until the All Star Workout, which is halfway through the season for those of you who don't know, but it works because by that point, John and Sherlock have things to lose. Lestrade is the best effing choice for a beleaguered, exasperated baseball manager there ever was. Mycroft saves the day AND fucks it up, which I wish we'd seen more of in those days.

Also, John and Sherlock never get too far away from each other, and when they're separated, it's usually for narrative reasons. I like that in a fic, I've come to realize. I like to watch the characters' interplay. It's hard for Sherlock to keep secrets from John when they work together, commute together, and live together, and John is no fool. Their office isn't 221b Baker Street, it's a stadium in Austin, TX, where shit plays out in front of 30k people. John loves baseball. Sherlock loves John. They fight, they fall in love, they eat Chinese food, and they play baseball. And best of all, they are themselves together.

If you read the parts that EGT wrote after the big story, there's a mention of Sherlock pulling together a pick up game in London made of American ex-pats for John's sake, and I'll tell you what. That really pulls this fic together for me. This Sherlock would do that for this John, and we end up a little on the outside looking in, and it's just charming as fuck.

In conclusion, read this even if you don't know baseball, if you want great characterization, a chance to be reminded of how beautiful John and Sherlock were together back in the golden age. Pay attention to the ticking clocks in your favorite fics; intentional or not, there's almost always some time pressure ginning up the conflict. If you're a writer, the best way to get better is to write more. Feels like bullshit, but it's true. And finally, fuck MLB forever for going the completely wrong way on the DH. Pitchers in both leagues should have to/get to hit, and more to the point, DHs should have to fucking do something when their teams are out in the field. I will die on this mound.

(Also, if I'm being honest, Bull Durham is probably my favorite movie, so maybe I'm more of a baseball fan than I'm letting on. I do generally love baseball in popular media. But I still think it's the characterization.)

[ranveer--singh]

The nights are tasteless without you ~ Ari Levinson Fic

A/N - This is my first proper multiple chapter story which came to me while watching a Bollywood movie. It is set in Mumbai India where Ari is a professor at a university meets a person of colour - Marathi girl at the train station. There will be other Chris Evans characters as professors and Henry Cavill characters as professors

Warning: Please read this before reading the story. 18+, smut, sex… etc

I want to thank the amazing @madbaddic7ed2pointoh​ for encouraging me to write this fic, helping me with few plot lines and making it progress. So far I have written 14 parts and see where the story takes me. Hope you all enjoy this, make sure to like, comment and reblog.

Ari rushed onto the platform, pushing the strap of his dark brown satchel back onto his shoulder. He found it hard to sleep last night; with all the traveling, checking his bags in, and trying to find his apartment, he only managed to get 4 hours of sleep. Ari cursed under his breath, seeing the time on his apple watch, and knew he would be late for his first day as Professor teaching Hebrew at the International University in Mumbai.

He squeezed his eyes shut, cursing once again as he heard the announcer say the train was delayed by 25 minutes. Ari wished he had gone with the first option of renting a car so he would get around Mumbai quickly. Now he had time to kill; he saw a bench near him and sat down, opening his satchel to grab his flask of coffee and notebook to read his notes for the day.

Ari took a few gulps of the hot coffee, looking at the university map, hoping not to get lost on his first day. It was such a large university, like in the Bollywood movie Mohabbatein he watched with his Indian friend back in Israel. After familiarising himself with the map, he folded it back into his notebook and went over his notes for the day. Ari had only four classes today, and each class had 15/20 students, which wasn't as daunting as he thought.

The silence got disturbed by a lady wearing a small jhanjhar on her feet which chimed while she walked. She looked confused, expecting the train to arrive. Ari just watched; a small smile appeared on his lips, looking at her outfit. She was wearing black trousers, a mock neck keyhole green blouse, and of course, green and white vans as she was a physiotherapist who was on the way to meet a few patients. Her hair was long and braided with a few flowers in between the braids; she had a black backpack on her shoulder with her water bottle sticking out.

The lady looked around, trying to find someone to ask about the train; most were watching videos on their phone or scrolling through social media. She looked across from her, Ari sitting on the bench reading his book. She walked over to him, clearing her throat to see him look up from his book and give her a big smile. Her body tingled, and she moved slightly away from him; the aftershave he was wearing lingered over her making her swallow hard.

“Sorry to disturb you while you're reading. I wanted to know if the train has left already,” she asked, biting her lip and looking at Ari with long brown hair. The look he spotted was dark brown linen trousers, a blue mustard short-sleeved checked shirt, and white Adidas original trainers.

“That’s ok, ma'am, I arrived at the platform 10 minutes ago, and the announcer said the train is delayed by 25 minutes,” he said, making her moan and curse in Marathi, having to grab her phone and text her patient that she will be late. Ari could see she was stressed, so he grabbed his flask of coffee and poured some in the lid, and handed it to her. “Drink this; it will keep you warm as you wait for the train,” he said, giving her the cup.

“No, no, it’s ok. I'll get one from the vendor outside,” she said, looking at Ari stretching his hand out, the vein popping on his arm as he offered the coffee cup.

“Please, I insist. It is a little chilly here; why don’t you sit next to me,” Ari says, moving his back to the other side of the bench. She takes the coffee cup and has a few sips, feeling the hot liquid go down her body.

She sat down on the space on the bench and looked at him with a smile, “Thank you for this; I was in such a rush and didn’t have time to make coffee or eat,” she said, looking at him grab his bag and rummage through it and gets out nutrition bar and hands it over to her to eat.

“We can’t have a pretty girl like yourself not to eat or have coffee in the morning,” Ari says, concerned; she frowns at him, looking very suspicious. Never has she had a man offer her food and drink and not want anything else?

“I’m fine,” she said, handing him the coffee cup and standing up, and grabbing her phone and headphones to play some music. Ari was bewildered; what just happened? All he was doing was helping her out in the most innocent way. He was about to walk over to her when the train had just arrived, and Ari saw her step into the fourth carriage from him and sit down.

He shook his head, not wanting to think about it right now as he had to meet the headmaster of the university. She was sitting on the seat, listening to music, when a Bollywood song - Muskurane, played, and she sighed, seeing Ari’s head pop in her mind, the wind blowing his hair. She was feeling guilty; it wasn’t intentional to give him the cold shoulder.

[kingsansa]

a sneak peek of deathless/flightless pls?

—preview of deathless, the mobster fic rewrite that was promised

Here, before happily ever after:

“Hello.”

Sansa looked up from her lap, pushing back the brim of her hat.

A man stood in front of her—near her. Just on the other side of her empty, circular table; littered with purses and hats. She recognized him vaguely. He was the only person there wearing a military uniform.

“Hello,” She sniffled before answering. She self consciously wiped at her cheeks.

He slipped a hand into his breast pocket, withdrawing a handkerchief. He handed it to her.

Embarrassed, she took it, “Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything to that.

Sansa wiped underneath her eyes carefully, then her nose with the other side of the handkerchief so that she didn’t get mascara everywhere.

“It’s a beautiful wedding,” She gets out.

It was. The cake had seven tiers, and there were doves, and Dany’s train was so long that it nearly took up the whole aisle. The only complaint she truly had was how obnoxious and itchy the bridesmaid dresses were, but even they weren’t so bad, because they made Dany happy.

Sansa wished she could just be happy for her.

Instead, she was thinking about her own wedding someday, and how no matter how perfect she worked to make it, it would still be missing her father.

“It is,” The man agreed.

She didn’t remember seeing him at the church, so she had no idea if he was only saying so for the sake of courtesy. He arrived 20 minutes into the reception, much to Dany’s delight. She leapt up from her matrimonial table and ran, heels and all, to throw her arms around him. There were many that approached him to do the same. Anyone else, she would have chewed out for being late.

Not, according to the nameplate over his right breast, Captain J. Snow.

“How do you know the bride?” She asked.

“Nephew,” He replied. “You?”

Suddenly, she felt sheepish as she answered, “Sorority sister.”

She suspected she was the one person involved in the wedding who wasn’t actually related to the bride or the groom.

The captain nodded at that.

“You have a beautiful voice,”  he told her after a beat.

Color rose to her cheeks, “Thank you.”

Dany asked her to sing for the first dance, so she did. It was one of the few songs performed that was in English. Even so, when she got offstage, she received many compliments. Many men asked her to dance. 

It wasn’t long before they realized she wasn’t that interesting after all. Just a sad girl in a puffy pink dress. They left her alone after that. 

Her eyes stung again, and she dabbed underneath her water line. 

“Have I offended you?”

His voice was soft, and he was suddenly close, but not invasively so. His hand was on the corner of her chair, hovering at her back. 

“No,” Sansa choked out, waving him off, “I’m sorry. I’m not very much fun right now.”

She hugged her arms around herself, turning away.

The captain's hand dropped from her chair.

“Make it up to me, then,” He said, “Dance with me.”

Numb with delayed surprise, She pushed her hat back a little further so that she could meet his eyes.

They were gentle, kind eyes. 

It was so directly contradictory to the rest of him. I’m his uniform, with his ribbons on his left breast, he looked like a force. She had a feeling that wasn’t intentional. His shoulders were squared, but more out of habit than pride. The hand that was not extended toward her was tucked into his pocket. Like if he could make himself smaller, he would. 

Yet the people around them watched him as if he was larger than life.

 “You don’t have to,” She whispered, aware of their stares. Aware of his pity.

His hand did not drop back to his side.

“Neither do you.” He told her.

A moment passed, then another. Then another.

Sansa folded up the handkerchief carefully and gave it to him before she rose, hand slipping into his.

[momo-de-avis]

Absolutely lost it today at the office. A new booking came through in the morning. A couple booked through the hotel and were to pay me directly. Fine. Tour starts. They’re not there. Ok. Call the office to let them know, and they begin efforts to contact them. As I start introducing the tour, I am not focused on my phone, and as I start walking, I picked up my phone and realise the office called me back. There’s 3 messages there but instead of reading, I call them directly and tell them I didn’t see the couple and am now in Stop 1. They ask me if I can just go ahead over to that hotel (which is next door to Stop 2) and grab them.

I completely lost it. I told her, you don’t expect me to dump 11 people and tell them I’m just going to go right over there to grab two people? Her excuse? “They’re old and don’t know how to use technology”. And this was in response to me suggesting “tell them to literally walk 10m and meet me at Rossio Train stration” which literally happens often.

I don’t know what happened in this girl’s head. But she refused. She was adament she was NOT going to tell this couple to literally move from the front door of the hotel to the 10m it took them to meet me. Her excuse was simply that these were old people and they didn’t know how to use technology, which is bullshit because not only did the lady film THE ENTIRE TOUR she went on google maps several times searching for places I talked about. So for some reason, this girl insisted the clients were fucking stupid and needed to be spoonfed information (which they were not) and absolutely refused to try and get them to move to Stop 2.

Inevitably, I had to apologise to 11 people and ask them to wait and delay the tour for 20 fucking minutes because as you would expect, the clients could not be found anywhere and the office even asked me to “go around” and then spoke to me like I was throwing a tantrum as I explained that I am not going to leave 11 people stranded and waiting while I “go around” looking for someone.

I kid you not, I arrived home and started looking up jobs. I am seriously contemplating emailing our supervisor about this because this is insane. The dudes at the office are generally cool, but this one person is absolutely unbearable. Refuses to admit to a mistake and keeps doing shit like this.

[suomeen]

Chapter 3: The Longest Journey

We departed on December 20. Took the bus at 2 pm and went through 3 of Ukraine’s major cities to pick up other passengers and head for Poland. The trip started out well but soon things began to go south. The bus itself was alright. However, the site boasted outlets for your devices and free wi-fi. Which is true technically. Except the outlets were the type basically nobody uses in Europe and the wi-fi… there was a whole of 250 MB, all for the taking for your 16-hour ride. The seats were fine but the human body is not really made to sit in one place for so long. My knees were soon hurting and I barely had any sleep.

The trip itself was a bit of a mess too. Flixbus clearly doesn’t want to pay for extra buses for emergency situations so when another one of their buses broke, our driver had to pick up its passengers. Then another company’s bus broke and we took some of its passengers too. Sitting in a bus for hours is bad enough, but at least we weren’t the ones standing in the aisle, wet from the rain. We felt sorry for those people but it was very frustrating for everyone. This incident set us back a few hours. Then there was the border crossing.

Poland was startlingly unwelcoming. I didn’t expect much. I knew we were way past the “Poland is our best buddy” early war honeymoon illusions but this encounter still took me by surprise. We arrived at about 5 am but had to wait for a few hours in a line of other buses before finally proceeding to the border control. At first, they had the few men on the bus go there, making sure they had the right to leave the country. Then it was the rest of us. There were about 5 Poles at the checkpoint and they were not happy to see us. I honestly don’t know what our people did in these 2 years that they hated us so much. First a blond middle-aged woman came up to the bus and began to shout at us in Polish to get out in groups. I understood most of it, but I shouldn’t be expected to. Then we went to show our documents to a few dudes in booths who asked us where we were going and why. After that, a tall handsome young man began to rummage in some people’s bags. He took his time dismantling one woman’s bag, which mostly contained children’s clothes. Her little son, about 3, wanted to help and I don’t like children much, but he was adorable and made all of us passengers smile. Not the Poles though, they didn’t budge. None of them spoke Ukrainian or Russian, or maybe didn’t want to. I wonder who pissed them off so much. We were tired and stressed out as it was and this felt like we were some sort of criminals, not women and children fleeing from a war.

I managed to book a trip directly to the Warsaw airport so, despite the delay, we still had 2 hours to get on the plane. I was just glad we took a plane because 16 hours on a bus wrecked me and I can’t imagine 40, which is what most other people had to endure. We got the world’s most expensive coffees and muffins and took off. The flight was delayed but only by about 10 minutes so it was fine. The Finair plane was kinda small but the flight was very smooth. The weather was rainy but up there, above the clouds, the sun shone brightly and I felt my heart healed a little.

Finland greeted us with blinding whiteness and I felt a strange comfort when we finally arrived. But there was still a good chunk of road ahead.

Normally, most people in our situation would just go to Helsinki and apply for asylum at the closest police department. But this way you get assigned to any place in the country they see fit. Our plan was different. Since we had a friend there and we wanted to be close to her, we were to go to the large city nearest to her and apply there. She even asked at the reception centre and was told they would be expecting us and we would probably get an apartment that was prepared for moving in.

So first, we had to take a city train to get to Tikkurila. Then we had to take the intercity train to a city where we would later be living. But instead of going there, we were to stay at our friend’s so we then had to take another train that got us closer to her where she could pick us up.

I had no internet connection of my own and got to rely on whatever hubs were available. There were none at the station and I was getting a bit panicky that I would miss the train. I had to bother a few Finns for directions, the first of many. They were very friendly and tried to help the best they could. As I got into the train, I had trouble opening my ticket on the ancient tablet I had but the conductor was nice and patient with me and let me take my time as he went on to check the tickets of other passengers.

The intercity train was great. Fast and smooth, it was the best part of the trip. The cars were clean and comfortable. Everything was designed to make the trip enjoyable for everyone. The Finns looked relaxed and many took off their shoes for the ride and stretched their legs languishly.

We also found ourselves in the children car. The idea of such a car would probably sound a little annoying to me, but I was happy to be there. There were many parents with small children and a part of the space was free of seats with some stuff for them to play in. Small kids were running around back and forth in the aisle. Some fell a few times but nobody seemed to worry, kids or parents. They just got up and continued on their way. I sat next to a Finnish mother with a tiny baby. I don’t care about babies that much but I couldn’t stop looking at her. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so gentle and tender and loving as she was with her child. The whole car had such a soothing atmosphere of peace and joy. It later turned out that we took the wrong car and when the rightful owners of these seats came, we had to move to another. But I’m glad we made that mistake so I could experience this.

This train was also slightly late. Not by much, but enough that we were risking to miss the transfer. I’m glad I decided to seek help from the lovely young woman staff, so we just barely made it to our final train, which was a small local train, far less glamorous. After bothering some more Finns, we finally got help from a nice older man and made sure we were going the right way. After another 40 minutes, we finally stepped off the train and into the dark, immediately greeted by our friend and her husband.

It wasn’t the longest trip of my life but it sure felt like it and was certainly the most intense and nerve-wrecking. Honestly, I don’t even know how I survived the journey, let alone got it all right, though a lot of it was thanks to the lovely Finnish people.

We did not immediately go to their place. First, we went to the nearby building to have our photos taken for the police. Your document photos never look good but having them taken after a 28-hour journey makes them extra ugly. Though I suppose fitting for a refugee application. Finally, after a short drive, we arrived at the house we would spend the next week at.

[padded-daydreams]

Hihi, I've been wanting to try nappies for a long time and I have a question if you're comfortable, of course no pressure to answer! I mostly want nappies for overnight wear, cuz I have trouble going to the bathroom at night, but people say using nappies while laying down if difficult. I don't understand what that means, do they leak? Sorry if you're not the right person to ask, thank you either way!

No problems, thank you for asking.

When people say that it is "difficult to use laying down" it is not literal. Whether the diaper is going to leak has more to do with how absorbent it is vs the position you are in.

The idea of it being more difficult in certain positions is that for a lot of adults, the mind has been trained to hold it in instinctively. It can feel embarrassing or difficult to let yourself do. After years of not wearing diapers, it can be a bit of a mental challenge to allow yourself to use a diaper. It can take some time to use one comfortably, but this will vary from person to person.

If you are able to pee standing up (or do it in the shower) sometimes that is a more comfortable position to get used to using a diaper. Will vary from person to person.

Personally, I did have some trouble at first with using diapers again. As someone with DID who age regresses to try and make the present more comfortable, sometimes being in a younger mental state is less comforting and more terrifying because remembering childhood is rarely a good thing. Sometimes wearing a diaper can be a (PTSD) trigger. Even the small things, like knowing that using the diaper makes everyone mad at you. Or just that you know at a time where you were wearing that thing you were not safe at all and had no power over anything.

I've always had an issue with having a bladder that is way too small and it is a daily constant anxiety keeping track of when I have to go use the toilet or not. It is hard to tell when I even have to go and when I do there is an instinct to hold it in constantly, and being able to relax is difficult because of how ingrained "hold it in and wait" is in my brain. Using diapers helps though. Now I can play video games without getting up like every 20 minutes. Until I run out of diapers and remember I don't have money for more.

Idk how relevant this is, but I am autistic. I was not diagnosed until later in life (though apparently it was generally assumed I was since I was able to interact with others but no one ever made accommodations for that in favor of abuse) but that doesn't mean it didn't heavily affect me. A lot of neurotypicals only care about the part of autism that affects regulation of emotions because that is what is most inconvenient to other people to deal with. However, autism affects the ability to regulate most functions, including but not limited to body temperature and when you have to use the toilet (can vary from person to person). My point is that the time I was in diapers originally ended before I was actually potty trained and I just tried to hide that to avoid being yelled at and punished. Whenever I couldn't hide it, I was yelled at anyway because I kept ruining clothes or ruining the bed or whatever. My point is that there can be a lot of internalized shame around the issue that can be hard to unlearn. Things would probably be better if people didn't like punishing developmental delays than helping them but nothing I can do about that.

My point is that trauma affects things and I have the term "training potty" filtered because it's too triggering to even think about that.