#weekend wrap up

[beatheprincess]

Had a great weekend n spent time w mom :D stupid plant pricked me tho but I survived !! Also donated clothes n gonna do some more tomorrow ^.^ out w the old and in w the new my step dad said lmao ☆♡☆♡☆ and lowkey standing up for myself instead of holding it in and acting like it doesnt bother me , speaking out is always a great thing n I'm glad I do cus I start to see changes and protecting my own peace!! Hope yall doin well ♡♡

[invincible-selfxmade-punk]

I am back home in my own bed after a whirlwind weekend.

Each time I visit my father's family I am so apprehensive to go but it always ends up turning out wonderfully. However I did have to sit through hours of them talking about all the different prestigious universities they said their kids to when I had to pay my own way through college and worked three jobs to do so.

All of their kids have gotten doctorates in medicine or advanced languages or engineering. They clearly looked down on my life of retail management but once I became a teacher it didn't lend me some legitimacy.

I also had to sit through listening to my sister and her husband talk about how they just bought their daughter a house.

To be fair her daughter just finished her doctorate but again why she could not buy her own house is beyond me.

Their daughter, my niece, has worked her entire life, and worked her ass off to become a vet doctor who specializes in primates. So I take nothing away from her. I like her a lot even though we don't exactly know each other. We were simply raised completely different but yet she still had the same hard work ethic. Everything was not handed to her and yet in a way it was because her entire education was paid for and she got to vacation all over the world.

I fight against being bitter because my life was so hard Scrabble and even though I am very proud to be where I am I still can't help but Wonder well how I would have turned out if I had had a family supporting my every whim and showering with me with money to develop whatever interest I had.

It is always bittersweet because my aunt and uncle are so old and I can't help but what each time I see them if it's going to be the last. At 94 my uncle still works out everyday and still drives himself around.

My aunt who defines the word matriarch is contending with old age for the first time as she is suffered a fall and broken her arm, spraining the other wrist were now she cannot for perform any of the matriarchal duties such as cleaning and cooking and maintaining her house and driving yourself around. Right now she can barely feed herself and she is utterly livid. She is so angry and so bitter that there has come a time that her faculties are failing her and it is very sad to see.

It is an ice cold dose of reality that shows you what your future is going to hold if you are lucky enough to keep living.

[wejustvibing]

and that's your monaco gp '24 podium

[m3rricat]

Headcanon that spawn Astarion eventually becomes a writer. I know this goes against his one "well I don't care much for literature" quip, but like, I can see why in the midst of those 200 years he wouldn't care for it. He's not someone who tries to escape his existence through fantasy. He's too pragmatic for that. So stories would seem trite to him.

I imagine it doesn't start with books-- it starts with a scathing letter to the editor of the Baldur's Mouth he writes on impulse when he happens to glance at some ridiculous article proposing, idk, a monument to Gortash or something else that catches his ire. Of course, it's a sensation at first because he's one of the great heroes of the Netherbrain battle, but also… he's hilarious. Elegantly savage. Astarion loves words, ok. Random poetical shit just comes out of his mouth. He loves to play with phrasing, double entendres, all that. And before he knows it, he's being offered a weekly column in the Mouth on whatever catches his fancy. Sometimes it's goings-on in the city. Sometimes it's a cheeky advice piece based on a letter sent to him by a reader. Everyone is begging for a tell-all of the heroes' adventures, of course, but he politely declines.

And then when he and Tav are traveling, looking for a way for him to walk in the sun, he starts, essentially, travel-writing. Starts to stretch his prose, his descriptions of the fantastical places they find. And the book that comes out of that is what establishes him as a capital-A Author. After 200 years of being told to shut up, of no one wanting to hear it, he is getting praised for his words, and JUST his words. It would be a revelation to him, being seen as worthy like that.

[lynzishell]

They are everything to me

[blindmagdalena]

Homelander & Yulia "Empress" Bellam. art for my planned homelander x oc fic, The Hand You Wanna Hold is a Weapon. 🖤 ( art by Toyryla )

[toxooz]

Patiently* waiting for a blackcell König skin 🤔

*: frothing at mouth, chattering teeth, biting civilians

[ohnoitsmysideblog]

small unimportant scenes i wish i could’ve watched in breaking bad:

walt telling pete and badger about his plan to scare some rich nerds with laser pointers (i love any and all pete and badger scenes)

the car ride to the makeshift hospital after mike got shot during the mexico trip

the whole week of mike’s recovery

gus getting groceries for his date with walter (if he even goes himself, just the process of him deciding what meal to make and setting it all up)

pete during that window of recovery when the rehab meetings were working for him (i really like pete)

the car ride with jesse hank and gomez to meet walt in the desert

any mike and jesse scene once they were in a groove with the pick ups (like did they find a radio station they agreed on? did they ever stop for coffee or lunch?)

when the vacuum guy realizes walter left the cabin (he must’ve had to go back to at least clean up right?)

any of skyler/marie/hank/walt jr/or jesse’s birthdays during the run of the show like holy fuck why’s it always this old man?

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

One of Us is Guilty; Epilogue (Part 1)

Cater is missing and Vil, Azul, Silver & Jade are now remaining. Will they find Cater? Will they catch Rook? Will they survive the night?

Characters; Vil Schoenheit, Azul Ashengrotto, Silver, Jade

Content; Murder mystery, revealing some clues

Content Warnings; Dead bodies, kidnapping (dead dove content)

Word Count; 1.2 K

Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Epilogue (Part 1) | Epilogue (Final)

Do not put my work into AI If you enjoy my writing, check out my masterlist

Rook was gone, and so was Cater. They should have felt relieved that the killer had been found, but now, he was missing, and he had taken Cater with him.

Vil clenched his jaw, and his nails were digging so hard into his skin that he nearly drew blood, nearly. Even though he can be strange, Rook wouldn’t do something like this… it’s against his own code; he would own up to it, not hide it. “Is everyone okay?” Obviously not, but still, checking in can help.

Out of everyone, Jade looked the least panicked, but Vil could read him well enough to know that this situation disturbed him greatly. Silver was shaking a bit, not from anger, but rather, grief. And then there was Azul, who was pacing and muttering to himself; of how this could happen, to possible motives. And Vil? He was hurt — not physically, but emotionally — since he knew Rook the most, but knew that whatever was happening, was not the real Rook.

“No,” Silver spoke up, eyes meeting Vil’s. “But there isn’t time to waste, for all we know, Cater cou- is still alive. And we shouldn’t waste time, the sooner we find him, the better the outcome is.”

Vil nodded, “I agree, and I want you all to stay behind me.” Just in case. But he didn’t say that. Vil was the eldest of their remaining group, and he saw it as his duty to protect his juniors… even against his own friend and vice-house warden.

Jade looked at Vil, and could tell that the Pomefiore house warden was willing to protect them. “And what about your safety?”

“… I trust that you all know offensive and defensive magic enough to where you won’t hit me by accident,” was his answer. Vil knew the risk, but the more that he ruminated on all that had happened tonight, the more he was sure about what they were going to do. “We’re going to the teacher’s lounge.”

Azul stopped pacing, turning his eyes to Vil, trying to get a read on him. “Is that really the best idea,” he questioned. “The last time we moved rooms–”

“I know what happened!” Vil hissed, before taking a breath and calming himself down. “My apologies,” he sighed, “but we can either try and solve this and try to get Cater back or we can stay here like sitting ducks. And trust me; Rook is quite the marksman.”

Azul backed down, “Sorry.” But he still felt uneasy, as if there were eyes watching him still, even though the guilty party was now known. “May I ask why the teacher’s lounge though?”

Vil opened the door out to the hall, “Even if Rook isn’t there, and it isn’t the room where the original murder took place, there could still be clues about why this whole ordeal happened, and how.”

Silver stood beside Vil, and matched his stride; if Vil was willing to risk his own safety to keep them safe, he was going to make sure to guard him, to put his training to use. He may not have a sword, but if it came to it, Silver would not hesitate to use his magic, or his body, to protect the others, even if he had to use said magic against a fellow classmate. 

Jade brought up the rear since he trusted his own keen senses and his magical capabilities; the ocean made him acutely aware of his surroundings after all, and he wouldn’t have made it this far without them. “The professors do sometimes make notes about student behaviour, so that could bring up some new information,” he hummed.

“Professor Trein would probably keep the best notes,” Silver offered quietly. “So… should we just read them without his permission?”

“I don’t see any other option. It’s better to ask for forgiveness in this situation rather than each of us…” end up dead “find ourselves in a difficult situation,” Vil answered, finding himself in front of the door all too soon.

Azul, despite being in the centre of everyone, still felt uneasy. Still felt eyes watching him. “Difficult how? Dead? Perhaps tortured? Made to watch as the rest of us are picked off like bait fish to a shark’s kill–” He stopped himself, forcing himself to take in a deep breath. Have I been holding my breath? “… do you think we’ll find anything of use?”

Vil opened the door, “I guess we’ll find out eventually.”

Silver, Azul, and Jade followed after him.

…

…

“I find that Mr. Hunt has been acting lacklustre in class. He told me that everything was fine, but after talking to Divus, it has come to my attention that Mr. Hunt could have been in contact with an expired potion,” Vil read Trein’s notes. “Other than this though, he seems to be doing well… but he is far too good at masking his true emotions, so I can’t help but worry.”

“Did Professor Trein mention what the potion is,” Azul spoke up. If anyone could figure out the side effects of an expired potion, it would be Azul and Vil.

Vil looked over the note, “No…” But his eyes widened as he got an idea. As much as he hated it, it could be their only lead. “But someone does. Come with me.”

He marched back down the hall, Silver on his right, with Azul and Jade keeping up behind him. They were going back to the main hall, where all three of the bodies were.

“You must be joking,” Jade huffed, looking at Vil, avoiding looking at the bodies of Headmage Crowley, the Ramshackle Prefect, and Professor Crewel. “You know reanimation–”

“It isn’t reanimation magic, I would never dream of doing something so… dark.” Vil brought out his pen, and he walked over to Divus’ body, kneeling down beside him. “Bring memories back,” he whispered, staring into the glassy, dead, eyes of Professor Crewel.

The others shuffled as the memories of the past week started to play out around them; from the professor having his morning coffee, to him sighing over papers. 

“Show us Rook,” Vil demanded. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to keep this up. Even though this wasn’t as taboo as reanimation, looking into the memories of the deceased was still considered a violation… but they had very few choices, so in comparison to what else had occurred that night, this transgression was far less important in the grand scheme of things.

The memories flashed until they showed Rook in class, three days ago. He was talking animatedly to his alchemy partner as he reached for an ingredient, but his hand bumped into a glass vial, making it crash onto the ground, covering him in the contents.

Vil paused the memory and examined the vial. “Azul,” he called, beckoning him forward. He gave him a look, and Azul looked at the vial. Vil wanted to make sure that he was actually seeing this. That he wasn’t wrong.

“A love potion? An expired love potion?” Azul huffed, wracking his brain for the side effects. “Lacklustre behaviour… obsession…” He muttered to himself. 

Vil stopped the spell, knowing that if he lingered, it could risk blot accumulating. “It makes sense… the hunter of love,” he sighed, pinching his nose. “But this, this is…”

“AZUL!” Silver shouted.

Vil turned around, but he was too late.

Azul was gone, and his glasses were broken on the ground, the glass shattered. He didn’t even have the chance to make a sound.

“You chose the wrong room!~” Rook’s voice hummed merrily on the PA system.

SUSPECTS:

- Silver; the kindhearted knight with a mysterious past, is it just for show?  (Plum) - Vil Schoenheit; the actor who is always pigeonholed into the role of a villain (Scarlet) - Divus Crewel; the alchemy teacher with a penchant for fashion, Crowley’s co-worker (Peacock) DECEASED - Rook Hunt; the enigmatic hunter who always has a hunch of what’s happening (Mustard) MURDERER - Azul Ashengrotto; the owner of The Mostro Lounge, a businessman with dubious morals (Green) MISSING - Reader; the ‘house-keeper’, a role that was imposed on them by the late Headmage (White) DECEASED - Jade Leech; a student enamored by fungi and seems to have a foreboding presence about him (Orchid) - Cater Diamond; the preppy beau of Heartslabyul, but his smile seems forced (Peach) MISSING

ROOMS:

- Main hall (eliminated in Chapter 2) - Teachers’ lounge (eliminated in Epilogue (Part 1)) - Cafeteria - Kitchens - Lecture theatre - Botanical garden - Alchemy lab (eliminated in Chapter 3) - Library - Crowley’s office (eliminated in Chapter 1)

WEAPON: MAGIC (found in Chapter 2)

TO BE CONTINUED!

Author's Note; The last vote ended in a tie which included the correct room where the murder took place, so Chapter 5 will be a continuation of this. It just felt natural to end it here for this chapter to build suspense!

So congrats!!! Just need to sit for a bit and decide how to wrap things up! And since you guys did technically get the room, there won't be a poll this time; just putting the next part in a new chapter.

[benevolenterrancy]

if you're not reading the last book of SVSSS right now do you mind me asking what you are reading? I'm just curious!

Definitely! (though I warn you, I'm fundamentally incapable of reading only one thing at a time)

For physical books, I'm currently reading The Warden by Daniel M. Ford, the novelization of My Neighbour Totoro, and trying to keep up on Dracula Daily (i am failing this)

For audiobooks, I've been relistening to The Series of Unfortunate Events (because I never actually read them all when they were originally coming out) and I juuust finished This Census-Taker by China Miéville and Ogres by Adrian Tchaikovsky this weekend. I'm about to start A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.

[wutheringmights]

not to be crazy but what if i updated ctb this upcoming weekend? ignore the raging fire burning behind me. i can make the update happen

[bookworm-2692]

Life Tracker updated for Episode 7! This one is much quicker than Episode 6 on account of not being on holiday at the time, even though there were two thirds more deaths this time. Previous posts: Session 6, Session 5, Session 4. Also Session 8 (finale) post!

As usual, close ups and commentary below the cut. I’ve also added another graph for the average time of each team, which will also be below the cut.

There was so much carnage! 45 whole deaths in a single session! Not all deaths were awarded time during the session, but Scott’s video advised that it would be added by next session, so I have taken the liberty to add all the time as I see fit, hence why Scott is back to 7.5 hours. I haven’t seen every episode yet (in fact, other than Scott, I’ve only seen those that have perma-died), so I’m not sure if anyone else’s time is a mismatch, but if so I’m happy to explain where I’m getting my time additions and subtractions from!

Now for some close ups.

First, there was enough chaos that I decided to take a close up of Session 6 and 7 together so we can properly appreciate it:

And a close up of Session 7 by itself:

So many people lost major time, so it’s interesting to see Scott’s uptick of time at the end - he ended on only 30 minutes less than he would have been if he hadn’t died at all this session. Pearl didn’t die at all, and got the kill credit for Martyn blowing himself up in a trap, so she actually ended the session 30 minutes better than she started it. Grian also did very well for himself - he killed and died so many times, but somehow ended on the exact time he would have been on if he had experienced a peaceful deathless session.

BigB, Cleo, and Martyn all ended the session 1 hour poorer than they started, and Bdubs and Scar ended 1.5 hours below where they would have been. Nosy Neighbours are thus doing super well, with Mean Gills and Clockers not too far behind, in terms of maintaining position from the start of the session.

TIES had an awful time this session, with Impulse and Tango both losing a net 2 hours, and Etho and Skizz losing a net 2.5 hours - and obviously Skizz entirely died.

Joel possibly had the worst time, losing a net 3.5 hours this session - though it didn’t help that 5 of his 7 deaths were all caused by the one person. Technically Jimmy didn’t do too badly, given he only lost a net 1.5 hours... but given that he was out of the series only an hour into the session, and also the first out entirely... it really didn’t go well for him either

I also find it interesting the sheer number of vertical lines this graph, the ones representing a death immediately followed by a kill or vice versa. I would love to figure out a way to show only one line at a time on the graph, so we can more easily see someone’s journey, but I haven’t had time to look into it yet.

Now onto the graph of the average times per team.

This one is super interesting to me, especially TIES’s line - they had the lowest average life right from the start, but somehow by Session 4, through Session 5, and for most of Session 6, they were the team with the highest average time, and then it quite literally went downhill from there. The only thing saving them from being last now is the fact that the Bad Boys are down to only a single living player, and even then Grian is doing far better than most of TIES.

It’s also interesting to me how Mean Gills had a significant time uptick at the end of both Session 6 and Session 7 (the first due to Martyn and the second due to Scott). Scott’s time was so high that it kept Mean Gills’ average time as yellow for all of Session 6 despite Martyn being red for most of it... and Martyn then got enough kills to keep it there. Mean Gills is also the only team in the entire graph to anywhere gain such consistent significant time.

These averages also coincide with the comments I made above about the time offset difference for each player from the start to end of the session. Mean Gills are doing well, but they’ve been doing well for so long that I’m sure most players are aware that they need to be a target. Nosy Neighbours are also doing well but I feel like they’ve flown under the radar, and are not a significant target right now.

Here is a close up of this graph with Sessions 1-4:

And the close up for Session 5-7:

And the Session 7 only close up:

I kept the dead players in the teams’ averages, since I think it is a better reflection of the teams’ strength as a whole, but I also created a version that excluded dead players. In those screenshots you can really see Bad Boys’ and TIES’ time jumping up at a death, instead of falling as it did here.

Here are the alternate averages graph:

And close ups:

This makes Bad Boys look a lot better, because Grian does have a lot of time... but he is also alone. And there is definitely strength in numbers. Two players at an hour and a half each can fend off an attacker more easily than a single player at three hours can... unless nerves and panic get to them, as we definitely saw this session.

Wow and I almost forgot to include the raw data for this session!

The first hour of the session:

The second hour of the session:

There is just so much death! Look at all the box outlines!! I could barely fit this data on two screens on the zoom I was on, and I did not want to zoom out further.

I also obviously have data for the averages, but it was too far away from the column with the times on it that I wasn’t sure if it would still be useful on its own? Let me know if you want to see it!

This has once again been fascinating to see, and I cannot wait to see how Session 8 will go. Will it be the last session? Will they go until everyone is dead? Will they somehow have enough people with enough time to get to Session 9? Will Mean Gills be the final two and get to play fun relaxing games like Scott was suggesting? 

Only time will tell.

[sluttery-withoutshame]

So I guess this is Gene’s birthday cake?

I feel like someone gifted him Eric for his birthday and wrapped him up in a pretty pink parcel.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: June Wrap-Up.

Okay, y'all have Convinced Me--I'm going to start doing little wrap up posts! Behold: a shelf of what I read in June (not pictured: the bookmark at page 466 of ORDINARY MONSTERS, because despite having read two (2) books worth of book so far, I'm still not quite done with that one).

June was kind of a slow reading month for me (I did a LOT of writing, looking back--nice). I wanted to take OTHER TERRORS and THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE a bite at a time so the horrors and figures of rhetoric (respectively) didn't all run together. Both of those, much like A SHINING, turned out to be pleasantly leisurely wanders, whereas MONSTERS is kind of a plod.

I already did bigger write-ups for TERRORS and SHINING, linked in the bullets below.

OTHER TERRORS - ★★★★ Great bite-sized horror anthology with a really inclusive mix, as promised! I enjoyed most of these (always nice in an anthology!)

A SHINING - ★★★★ Weird fucked up heavy little book in translation, lit-fic flavored, but very approachable, I thought. Tiny enough to swallow in a sitting, but also kind of exhausting to do it that way? I'll definitely reread this one in the future.

THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE - ★★★ Fun romp through rhetoric! The examples were fun, and I appreciated the humor, but I also find myself still uncertain what a bunch of the figures actually ARE, definitions-wise, despite having read a book full of so many of them (I did just buy his recommended A HANDLIST OF RHETORICAL TERMS to help with that, at least, which is. almost entirely. definitions by volume). Neat thing to have on my references shelf, but it wasn't as excellent as I was hoping it'd be.

ORDINARY MONSTERS - 466/658 pages read; will report back later (but it's not looking good, folks).

[queenofbaws]

six sentence weekend...wrap-up??? for 2024, anyway ;P

hey friendos <3 as much as the inexorable march of time terrifies me, it is with a heavy heart i point out..............we're in the last leg of the year, and man. there are. some holidays a'comin. because of that (and a few other winterly obligations), i'm anticipating i probably won't be around much on the weekends for a hot minute 🥺

BUT!!! since i really, really love getting to do little drabbly request stuff during my downtime, i thought i might close out 2024 and start 2025 like this: opening my inbox, letting you guys throw some requests at me, and i'll just. do 'em when i do 'em. post a couple on the weekends here and there until i'm done.

if you're interested, i'm throwing a couple extra deets (and some potential prompt lists, oooooh) below the readmore!!! either way, as always, hope you're doing well out there <333

OTHER DETAILS, YOU SAY???

1. since i'm really going to be focusing most of my energy in the coming weeks on, like, surviving family thanksgiving. and other. horrifying. things. *widens eyes in usamerican politics* i'm probably not going to stick to SIX sentences specifically for these prompts, so i cannot and will not promise every fill will be, y'know. of equal length lmao maybe it'll be 6 sentences! maybe it'll be 7! maybe it'll be a page, i truly cannot say. PLEASE don't expect a fully fleshed out oneshot, however, these will still be on the shorter side!!!!!!!!!!!!!! reader beware, you're in for...an...unfair...number of...words.

oh god the seasonal madness is already taking hold.

2. if you'd like to read something i've posted here as part of these fills to ao3, feel free to let me know!!! i'm always happy to put stuff up there, i just typically use ao3 for longer things and tumblr for shorter ones, but i'm always, always, ALWAYS happy to oblige :)c and if you throw your ao3 username at me, i'm ALSO happy to gift you any work you've prompted yourself! <3

3. as always, i'd appreciate not getting requests for cl*mb*ng class or anything shippy involving travis h*ckett, jason k*lchek or gr*nthem du'm*t - anything NON-shippy is SO fine, totally a-okay, don't sweat that :P

4. truly cannot stress how slow i will likely be at these. i could very well still be filling stuff in, like, march, so know in advance i appreciate your patience hehe

5. stuff absolutely does NOT need to be holiday themed, please don't feel like you have to do that just because we're nearing the holiday season! if you ARE looking for inspo, tho, i've found a few prompt lists that look fun... ;)c just please be sure to include the entire prompt in your ask if you decide to pull from these lists - if you just say, like, "#14 for so-and-so" i won't know which list you're talking about 😔

LATE NIGHT DIALOGUE PROMPT LIST

THREE WORDS PROMPT LIST

DRUNKEN LOVE CONFESSIONS PROMPT LIST

aaaaaaaaand i think that's about it? uh, stay safe and have fun??? hehehe seriously tho, i hope these next few months treat us all kindly, and that we have some fun along the way <3

[lookforanewangle]

wip wednesday - post eddie begins

finally dipping my toe into the 911 fandom! this one is actually almost done, so hopefully I can post in the next week or so 👀

“You care for him.” “Of course I do,” Buck says, gaze back on Eddie against his will. He squeezes Eddie’s hand again. “He’s my best friend.” “That’s not what I meant.” Bobby’s eyes are crinkled at the edges, a knowing look on his face when Buck looks at him this time, frozen. He blanches, heart stuttering in sudden panic. “I—I don’t—Bobby, it-it’s not like that—” “Woah, hey, it’s okay. Whether it is or isn’t like that, I’m glad you have each other,” he says. Buck blinks hard against the sudden sting in his eyes, takes a breath. “You had been pretty down since Abby. But since you and Eddie started hanging out, you seem…happier.” “Yeah, I…I guess I am,” Buck says, slow. And he has been, it’s undeniable. He’s always looking forward to time spent with Eddie, both at work and outside of it, and with both Eddie and Christopher. It’s easy with them, easier than anything else in the world. And…and it’s not that Buck hasn’t thought about Eddie in…less than platonic ways. Buck’s thought maybe a bit too much about the slant of Eddie’s eyebrows, the curve of his jaw, his fingers, the way his smile brightens Buck’s day each and every time he grins. And now he’s thought about losing him, and just what that would do to him. How it would be a wrecking ball straight through Buck’s life. Buck doesn’t know how he would even begin to pick up those pieces. Maybe…maybe it is a little like that. He’s at a loss for words, kneading Eddie’s palm between his fingers, thoughts churning in his skull. Bobby squeezes his shoulder, brings him back to the present. “You know I’ll have your back,” Bobby says softly, “whether you just stay friends, or decide on something more, I’ll support you both.” “I don’t think that’s in the cards,” Buck says. “With Shannon…it’s still too soon, but even then, I…I don’t know. I didn’t really consider it as an option. It might not be.” “Maybe not,” Bobby agrees, squeezing once more before pulling away. “But don’t count it out just yet.”