#why can't poll last for three days.

[of-crowns-and-echoes]

Very Important Question!

I've managed to salvage a somewhat old draft of chapter 2! It does not have all of the content, or even the most recent version of the initial bits of the chapters, but I've been editing and reworking it, and I think I can finish at least this part by this weekend.

With that in mind, would you rather have the chapter updated in two parts according to the content I have written and the content I haven't, or split according to where I think the content has a reasonable break, or not split at all? The first two options mean a smaller update sometime this week, the latter means a larger update next month.

[totalswag]

pairs love - DREW STARKEY

authors not since drew is in pairs at the fashion shows i thought why not write something cute and adorable. like can we talk about how freaking good he looked walking around ugh. the poll is officially over and the rafe series won! ima start working on the master list and have it up.

summary you come out to visit your boyfriend in pairs during fashion week.

warnings kissing in front of the Eiffel Tower

Drew was invited to two fashion shows in Paris: menswear for Prada and Loewe menswear. He left three days ago, while you stayed at home to put the finishing touches on your flower garden.

You couldn't be more proud of your boyfriend with all the success he's gained over the past couple years. He truly deserves this. Getting the recognition he deserves.

Last night, you landed in Pairs, drained from hours on the plane and eager to shower and sleep on a bed. It felt good seeing Drew and being in his arms. Although it was three days without each other, you always miss his presence.

Drew had the day off, so he planned to take you out to dinner, walk around, shopping, and visit the Eiffel Tower. He advised you to get enough rest early so you have enough rest to explore the Pairs at night.

During dinner, Drew spoke about what the shows were like and meeting celebs he's seen in movies or other people for the first time. It was really cool hearing what he had to say.

You were quite excited to visit the Eiffel Tower. You've always wanted to see it in person someday. Your inner child was jumping up and down inside.

"That restaurant was so delicious; I can see why you enjoy it so much," you tell Drew, tucking your hands into your coat to keep them warm from the cold.

"I'm glad to hear that you liked it baby," He smiles, tilts his head to the side, and blushes.

You chuckle as you playfully nudge his arm. He pretends to fall on his side, with a dramatic expression on his face.

"You are such a dork," you laugh.

"Your favorite dork, dork," he responds in a playful tone, wrapping his arm around your shoulder as you continue walking down the sidewalk.

Drew and you went inside a few stores that caught your eye; you might've bought a few things. Drew watched you in awe as you showed him different clothing throughout the store.

"What do you think about this one?" You inquired Drew, holding two clothes that piqued your interest.

Drew hurriedly glances aside from the apparel rack he was browsing. His brows furrow as he casts a stern stare with his pointer finger on his chin.

"I think both will look great on you, but I'd go with this one because it draws your eyes out," he says casually, sweeping his arm toward the shirt you first showed him.

"You are too sweet, you know that" you reply as you turn around, putting back the other clothing item.

He loves seeing you happy. He knew how much you've always wanted to visit Pairs and thought this was the best time to go.

"Thank you for the stuff, baby," you grin, gripping his hand and lifting the bag with your other hand.

When you went out of the last store, you heard people heading in your direction, fans. They walked forward with grins on their faces, carrying items for him to sign and their phones for photos.

When one fan spotted you were with him, she screamed your name out in delight, and the rest followed after. You put your free hand over your heart with a pout before beaming at the little fans.

We love you Drew

This is the best day of my life

I can't believe he's in front of me

He's so beautiful in person

Drew started taking pictures with the fans; giving them hugs, making videos for fans that couldn't make it, signed a few things, and had conversations.

Fans also came up to as well. They were all so sweet and caring. One fan came up to you with tears forming in her eyes, you opened your arms to welcome her.

You are so sweet, Y/N

You are so gorgeous

Can't believe you are here too

I love your relationship with Drew

When word spread that Drew was in a relationship, all of the fans went crazy, searching for who this mystery girl was. You were apprehensive about how the fans might react.

You eventually posted a TikTok video with your best friend, Madelyn Cline, and Drew happened to be in the background; people then connected the dots. In the end, they loved and admired you.

Being in a relationship with someone in the public spotlight offers advantages and disadvantages, but you wouldn't alter it for anything, especially if you love them.

"Don't cry now love," you tell her softly, "what's your name?" She tells you her name and goes on to explain how much she loves you and your content you post.

"That's so sweet of you, thank you."

You spent ten minutes with the girls until it was ready to go look at the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower was everything you've dreamed of. Seeing it in person was one of the best feelings in the world. So many emotions were going through your body.

You got out your phone to capture some photos and videos to share later tomorrow. Drew snapped a photo of you with his digital camera, capturing the tower, and he couldn't help but smile.

He carefully put his arms around your waist, drawing you into his front, chin on top of your head, rocking you side to side slowly and silently while savoring the moment.

"This has been one of the greatest days of my entire life. Being here with you in your arms in Pairs. I just want to say thank your for bringing me out here and experiencing this."

You feel your body relax in his touch, allowing a sigh to escape your lips, your head to strike his chest, and giving him the opportunity to kiss you.

You two don't give a damn whether anyone witnesses you kissing at this point. Right now, just the two of you matter because you are in love. And you are in Pairs.

"I had to bring you out here with me, of course, sweetheart. You keep me warm, too, and I love holding you in my arms. However, when you consider it, this is our first trip to Europe as a couple” he says.

You move your body around so that your chests are against one another. In return, you up on your small toes and wrap your arms around his neck, kissing him all over his face.

I love you.

I love you more.

my taglist!

✰ if you would like to be added to my taglist and be notified whenever i post please let me know in the comments or in my ask box. if there's a line over your name that means i couldn't find your account.

@runningfrom2am @winterrrnight @chenslucy @brooklynscherry-z @johannelis2302nely @rosezza @kaydr3venge

[11cupids-tarot11]

A Letter From Your Future Spouse

➽───────────────❥

1 -> 4

Cupid's Services Cupid's Master List Socials

Tips appreciated!

C@sh app and P@ypal only!

$minnieplant3

@janellec03

LOVE U

- Cupid 𖥔 ࣪ ᥫ᭡ꗃ⋆࣪.

︻デ═一 ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

Pile 1- Four of Wands, The Fool, Page of Swords, Nine of Cups, Page of Wands, The Wheel of Fortune.

"Hi you! I've been sleeping a lot, can't seem to do anything else lately because of how tired I've been. Finally. I can sleep as much as I want to now because of a situation that just so happened to end recently. Death.

What now? See, I've been wondering the same thing. But let's not even worry about it, let's just sleep as much as we want to because we finally can, even if it's only a little nap time out of your day do it because I gotta see you one last time later, I've got a message for you in your dreams. Spirit will tell you, don't worry about missing it or when <3

Resting so much so when I do have to work, you know, find that balance again between work and fun, I can focus on what's so important to me a lot better, I mean really give it my all... You know? Lol

Sorry, I dream a lot, you might notice my head is always in the clouds. I have very air energy like a Gemini.

Things are finally clearing up for me! I feel at peace, maybe we mirror each other and things are also getting better for you too? You have to let me know, okay? I feel like I can finally breathe again, be optimistic without being scared the rug is going to get snatched from underneath.

I've been working so so hard on my craft, putting in so much love and effort into my work and I feel really hopeful that all of my productivity will pay off soon, consistency is key, right?

I really like the color yellow, 😄 talk again soon!"

Hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to do the poll below 👇🏾 ✨

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

Pile 2- Knight of Wands, I forgot to write down the rest of the cards I'm so sorry 😞

"I have no problem with putting in hard work for anything I want, even you, you know? If you don't want me the moment we catch eyes I'll make you ;)

The moment I catch you I'm going to make sure I never stop loving you, I'll make sure every day is beautiful, even on our bad days we'll kiss each other good night before bed still. I love you!

Why do you keep worrying yourself? All of that doubt in that pretty little head of yours isn't good, you should lay it all to rest before you make yourself sick baby. Sleep more, practice some self care before you run yourself crazy, okay?

I'm so proud of you, you know, for whatever amazing things you've accomplished lately. I believe in you, I'll always be your #1 cheerleader!

You should go out and celebrate! Enjoy the sun, you deserve it my angel! Promise me you won't let this go by like it's just not that big and you'll go out and do something? Pinky promise?

Stay focused! You're on the right path, you're doing amazing! I promise you, all of this will be worth it, it's worth our future 💓 keep going, I know you can do it! 🎉"

Hope you enjoy!!☺️ Don't forget to do the poll below!!

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

Pile 3- Queen of Cups, Justice, Four of Cups, The Moon, Three of Swords, The Star.

" Hi my love, you know I don't talk a lot haha, so I'll make this quick as usual and get out of your hair so you can go on.

I just want to remind you, you're my queen, my favorite, my whole world ❤️ I think red looks really pretty on you btw but anyway, I love and miss you like crazy at times like these.

I am going through something right now, a legal situation, a situation I wish would come to an end right now because it's so heavy on me, it's hurting me but I know at the same time it's happening to me because it's part of my karma, something that's forcing me to look so closely at myself, at every shadow because I think it leads me to you. My everything. We're going to get married, I'm so sure of it.

I'm keeping hope alive, I'm hanging on to every thread of it I've got. I'm working on everything right now, I'll catch up with you soon sweetheart 💋 I'm going to kiss you when I do, you won't be able to get rid of me. ;) "

Hope you enjoy! Don't forget to do the poll below!!

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

Pile 4- Ace of Cups, The Hanged Man, King of Wands, Nine of Cups, Knight of Cups, Nine of Wands.

"I want to come to you with amazing news but I can't, I'm sorry to say, I've taken a turn for the worst right now. Don't worry, it's temporary.

I am slowly building myself back up, that's what I'm doing right now if you're wondering what I've been doing all this time. I'm healing day by day and I hope you are too sweetheart. I might be a bit stuck and tangled up right now, but I'm clearing through it!

I'm the kind of guy who will pursue you with nothing but kindness until I make you fall for me with your charm, I'm cute, I know I am, you'll love me, I have curly light hair, and a really cute smile. You'll think I'm so adorable.

I want to offer my heart to you, fully, 100%. You have me, all of me as long as you give me you in return, I hope you do, I can't be without you once I know you.

Take care my love ❤️."

Hope you enjoyed ❤️ Don't forget to do the poll below!!

[acid-ixx]

HUH!?!? another poll in just a day? hell yeah, but this one is all based off of this post (planned fanfics/one-shots), so please do take a read with the link above. i removed the hanahaki one since it's already in my previous one. the last two choices i added are ones i added on my planned drafts before so do read the summary below for the last two.

and if anyone is wondering "why are you so confident that you're actually gonna post about these?", it's because christmas break is coming soon and i'll actually have time to write something solid other than just ideas. so yeah! go batshit crazy i guess.

Love at First Fuck (Romantic Bruce Wayne, Platonic Batfam): Being a journalist has its perks and downfalls. Personally, you like to ignore the public criticism against you because it is your passion, first and foremost. And the good outweighs the bad, anyways! Like, one, you get to voice your opinions. Two, you'd have an insider view about certain situations as long as you have the legal pass to. And finally, three, you get to have a chance of hooking up with the well-known billionaire Bruce Wayne after meeting him during a gala. Sleeping with him after your first date was spectacular in your eyes, and it was enough to rid of the stress of your workload always piling up. Yet as you try to leave the manor with nothing but your crumpled clothes and messy hair, you start to notice the strange ways his children treat you and how they were too eager to keep you in their home; convinced you'd be quitting your job to live as Bruce's new spouse... Wait, since when did you have a ring on your finger?!

Not for Love, But for Safety (Loving Family, Unpalatable Desire): Attempting to divorce Bruce Wayne whilst your blooming feelings for Clark Kent was both a challenge and a stepping stone for someone like you. You were taught submissiveness, and for your entire life; to desire your endgame being a house spouse for a rich man who could provide. When Bruce agreed to marry you, it was only diligence to his promise of keeping you, an unwilling victim to your family's drug cartel reputation, safe and sound. That was the reason why your argument began to ensue, when your soon to be ex-husband admitted that he only married you so you'd be protected. But you do not want protection, or safety— what you want is love; a state of being Bruce couldn't provide you, a desirable feeling your new partner offers you.

[misfitgirlwrites]

Alastor Having A Crush On You/How Would He React?

Since the choice of writing all three won my poll, I'll start with this one because it was in second place! Next is Lucifer!

Here is my first contribution to the Hazbin Hotel fanfic dump, please call me MG, and may we all enjoy our obsession together 🕺🏽

CW: none!

You could know of Alastor before the appearance of Hazbin Hotel or you could be hearing of him for the first time when you decide to walk through those hotel doors.

He wouldn't pay you any mind at first, just like any other sinner residing in the hotel. After a while though you'd pique his interest a bit. It could be something you said that he overheard, or something you do that he just so happened to catch that day.

It would make him pay more attention to you, but you wouldn't notice right away. It'd always be convenient situations; everyone being in the same room and he decides to stay longer than usual. Joining conversations with you and Charlie would have when talking about the hotel.

You always had unique ideas to try and get the hotel traction, and they amused him.

After a while, he would start talking to you on his own.

This would confuse you at first, since you two haven't really had any real conversation outside of anything hotel-related. It seemed Alastor decided he wanted a bit more than that.

You certainly didn't mind it once you could tell he was genuine with this interest. It started from small conversations as you passed each other to nightly talks at the bar that would last for hours.

Alastor would grow to really enjoy the routine of seeing you everyday. Soon, you wouldn't be seen without him close behind.

He would let you accompany him when he would usually spend the time alone from everyone else.

The first time you initiate physical touch would be when he starts to focus on his feelings for you. One day, you'd ask to hug him, and he'd agree much too quickly for his own liking.

After he hugs you once, please expect more of them. In private, he would 100% just cuddle you close to him but will deny it if you bring it up.

Alastor knows he has some sort of feelings for you but will refuse to acknowledge it for a while.

Because let's be for real? This guy? Having a crush on someone? With Vox attempting (and probably succeeding?) to watch him 25/8? Simple math states that's called a weakness.

Alastor wouldn't have many choices. He could cut interaction altogether, but that certainly wouldn't benefit him that much. He wouldn't have any worries, sure, but he'd miss you, and he knows that.

And he's never denied himself anything before if he wanted something so why start now because of potential bumps in the road? Especially bumps he was sure that he was more than capable of handling.

Alastor still wouldn't openly express any romantic feelings right away but his time spent with you becomes a regular occurrence.

He would so go to Rosie and talk to her about you (they're besties, don't you love it?)

She'd most likely be the one to call him out on his crush and push him to actually do something about it.

THAT is when he'd actually "fuck it" and decide he does in fact want you :)

It wouldn't be anything grand, but the bastard has such a way with words, so it's certainly romantic.

A tad bit possessive but 🤸🏽‍♂️

He simply can't help himself when it comes to you~

Requests are open! If you'd like to be tagged in future Alastor or Hazbin Hotel content, please let me know! My asks and DMs are open to all! 💚

[suzukiblu]

Parasite WIP is so good and I desperately want more of it! I voted for it in the poll and I’m so sad it didn’t win

Friend, I appreciate you asking after it because it really is one of my fucked-up faves that I really need to work on more, so uh . . . have all 4500 words of the prose so far all together, hahaha. Yes, yes I DID reformat this whole thing into Tumblr-friendliness all for you. THAT IS HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE YOUR APPRECIATION, FRIEND. ( so definitely we are gonna need that read-more down there, lol. )

Clark wakes up. 

Clark didn't even know he wasn't awake. 

"Superman," Bruce says with absolute neutrality. He's wearing the cowl. Standing in rubble. Clark is . . . not standing in rubble. 

Laying in rubble. That's what Clark is doing. 

Bruce is looking down at him very, very carefully, and seems . . . reserved. 

Reserved for Bruce, even. 

"What happened?" Clark asks, trying not to concentrate on the little seed of dread that the sight of that reservation invokes in him. He can hear the heartbeats of other League members, here and there in the wreckage of the street around them. Hear civilians and city noise. Hear Lois and Jon, distantly, and Ma and Pa, even more distant. And . . . Kara–both of her–and . . . 

"We'll go with 'electrocution', but I think we can safely say just about anyone else would've been virtually incinerated," Bruce informs him, distracting Clark from his mental rundown of people he's currently worried about. "Or just exploded."

"Ah," Clark says with a grimace. Well, that explains why his head hurts so damn bad, he guesses.

At least it was him, then, and not any "anyone else"s. 

He pushes himself up. Looks around. He . . . isn't sure where they are, exactly, except that it's probably somewhere on Earth and within the continental United States, judging by the architecture and signs he's seeing and the accents and languages he's hearing. 

He has absolutely no idea how they got here, though. The last thing he remembers is . . . 

. . . he's not actually sure what the last thing he remembers is. 

Not a great sign, that.  

Bruce is watching him. Like he's . . . expecting something, almost. Clark would ask, but there's an odd feeling distracting him. Something's . . . off, somehow. 

Missing. 

Bruce's utility belt is a new design, he notes absently. J'onn is down the street a bit and his costume looks a little different too. And Diana . . . 

Diana is over across the way, and her hair is a couple inches longer than he remembers it being. 

Clark would assume he was mistaken, except for the eidetic memory and all. 

"Hm," Clark says. 

"Hm?" Bruce says. He still sounds faultlessly neutral. 

"Trying to figure out if I'm in the right reality. Things look a little off," Clark replies, tilting his head and narrowing his eyes in concentration. No unexpected sounds or scents. No particular feeling of disorientation that can't be accounted for by being apparently electrocuted. No additional pains past the dull pressure in his head or any immediately obvious peculiarities beyond the minor little scattered differences here and there in his teammates. 

But something is–

"I can't hear Kon," Clark realizes abruptly. He doesn't usually especially keep an ear out for the kid, at least not deliberately, but . . . 

Bruce . . . pauses. 

"You can't," he says, very carefully. It doesn't sound like a question. 

It sounds like something, though. 

"I can't," Clark confirms anyway, glancing around again. He still doesn't know where this is. "Where are we, exactly?" 

"What's the date, Kal?" Bruce asks, and Clark's heart sinks. 

He answers the question. 

Bruce's mouth thins. 

Hell, Clark thinks. 

"We're currently in Keystone City," Bruce says, very carefully expressionless. "We've been here for three days. The date you just provided me was a full fourteen months ago. And Kon-El has been MIA for roughly thirteen and a half of those months." 

Hell, Clark thinks, and doesn't let himself process anything past that. 

"We need to get a scan of your brain," Bruce says. "For starters." 

"For starters," Clark agrees tightly. 

Bruce tells Diana they're leaving, then abandons the rubble and takes Clark up to the Watchtower. Clark goes. He doesn't ask what electrocuted him or who's died in the past fourteen months or if there's anything immediately urgent that he should know. Bruce would've already told him, if there was. 

And he thinks he'd choke on the question if he tried, anyway. 

They go to the med bay. There's a total stranger standing in it who smiles at them when they step through the door. 

"Haven't seen you in here in quite a while, Superman," the stranger observes in amusement, tapping a pen against the clipboard in their hands. "You still haven't been in for that checkup I owe you, you know." 

"He doesn't know you," Bruce informs them evenly. The stranger blinks. 

"Sorry?" they say. 

"He was electrocuted," Bruce says. "Now he thinks it's fourteen months ago. We need a brain scan. Immediately." 

"Hell," the stranger says, their eyes widening in alarm. 

Clark gets the brain scan. 

He and Bruce wait in a convenient exam room for the results, which seem to be taking a while. Bruce seems a bit more guarded than usual, which means Clark is standing next to goddamn Fort Knox right now. He sighs to himself. 

"Suppose at this rate I should call and tell Lois and Jon I'll be late for dinner," he jokes wryly as he folds his arms, no real humor in the comment, and Bruce goes very, very still beside him. 

. . . hell. 

They're not dead. He knows they're not dead, he heard their heartbeats before they left for the watchtower, Bruce would've already told him if either of them were–

"They aren't expecting you," Bruce says with absolutely no intonation whatsoever in his voice. "You moved out eight months ago. The divorce is already finalized." 

"Ah," Clark says, very slowly. He doesn't let himself process, again. Not–just, not yet. "What happened?" 

"You left them," Bruce says, and Clark . . . blinks. 

"I left them?!" he demands incredulously. Leaving Lois is one thing, horrible and impossible a thought as it is, but– "Not just–I left them both?!"

"As you explained it to me, you were no longer interested in maintaining the . . . 'persona' of Clark Kent," Bruce replies carefully, looking just past him. "You said you couldn't stand the screaming anymore. That you appreciated us . . . humoring you for so long, but you couldn't just keep walking around making excuses and lying to everyone while people were suffering and dying just because you had to pretend to be human for a while. So yes. You left them. Haven't visited since Lois finally signed the divorce papers. Haven't spoken to your parents either. You've been . . . erratic. Since Kon-El's disappearance. When we couldn't find him . . . when we couldn't even find out what happened to him . . ." 

"Oh," Clark says, and his heart sinks again. 

He doesn't understand, though. Kon is–he cares about the kid, obviously. Cares very deeply about him. He's pretty sure he even loves him, at this point. But he's not . . . 

It feels terrible to think it, but Clark doesn't understand why Kon disappearing like that would affect him enough to stop being Clark. It's awful, and he still hasn't let himself actually think about it happening at all because he really can't process it right now, but that awful? Really? Awful enough to abandon being any semblance of a normal person? Abandon Lois and his parents entirely? 

Abandon Jon entirely? 

Apparently, yes. 

"Technically you're on unpaid sabbatical from the Planet," Bruce tells him. "We thought you might . . . reconsider, once you'd grieved properly, so Lois pulled some strings with Perry White. He thinks you're having an early mid-life crisis and your co-workers think you're off finding yourself in South America with a bad cell phone plan." 

"I guess I don't believe in satellite phones?" Clark says, trying for wry again. It doesn't work, but he tries all the same. 

"This is unfair of me, but I'm going to take advantage of your current mental state," Bruce says. He's looking at the wall, though there's nothing there to actually be looking at. Not even anything on the other side, at least not according to X-ray vision. "Try to remember how you feel right now, when your memories of the past year return. Try to remember who you are right now, when those memories return."

"Why?" Clark asks, watching him carefully as he does. The corners of Bruce's mouth tighten. Just barely, but undeniably. 

"You've been . . . gone, Clark," Bruce says slowly. "You won't even answer to 'Clark' anymore. You aren't the same man that I . . . that we all . . ." 

The stranger comes back before Bruce has to admit to too many personal feelings or Clark can figure out what to say to any of that, which might be a mercy but might also be–

The stranger looks . . . strange, Clark notices. Nauseated, almost. And definitely distressed. 

"I haven't done brain scans on Superman before," they say, their grip on their clipboard concerningly close to white-knuckled. "And my predecessor apparently hadn't done any in a while either. Last ones in the system are over two years old." 

"What's wrong?" Bruce says, narrowing his eyes. Honestly at this point Clark figures a kryptonite brain tumor would really just be the icing on the cake, and frankly would probably explain some of his apparent behavioral changes and current memory loss. That genuinely makes more sense than anything else, really, even with grief and guilt to contend with.

More sense than abandoning his own damn kid does, at least. 

Although a tumor's the worst-case scenario, obviously. And it can't be any worse than that, really, or any worse than anything he's apparently done to his family this past year, so at least he's braced for–

"There's an . . . organism," the stranger says, swallowing uncomfortably. "In your brain." 

"What?" Clark says. 

"A dead organism, now," the stranger clarifies. "But it looks like it's been there for a while. There are . . . roots. And . . . lesions, too." 

"An organism," Bruce repeats very, very slowly. "In Superman's brain." 

"Yes," the stranger says. 

"I don't . . ." Clark trails off. 

"We need more scans," Bruce says. 

"I ran it four times on two different machines," the stranger says. "It's organic. It's not giving off any recognizable life signs. It seems like it might've been . . . you mentioned electrocution, before?" 

"You think the electricity killed it," Bruce realizes. "And then Superman forgot fourteen months?" 

"I'm not sure Superman ever experienced those fourteen months to begin with," the stranger says tightly, gripping their clipboard even harder. 

Clark was in no way whatsoever braced for this. 

"Fuck," Bruce says. 

More scans happen after all. A lot more scans, a lot of specialists, and a lot of arguing. Everything's a bit of a blur, in a sense. Clark absorbs very little of it, and mostly leaves things to Bruce unless he's asked a direct question about his medical history. His judgment might be compromised right now, after all, whether the . . . organism is dead or not. 

The emergency OR gets prepped. The red sun lamps get set up inside it. 

"Should we contact Lois?" Bruce asks as Clark's shrugging into an ill-fitting hospital gown and preparing himself to possibly die in pursuit of getting a dead who-knows-what out of his brain before it can start to rot there and potentially kill him that way. "Or your parents?" 

"No," Clark says. "Just get this damn thing out of my head." 

If he doesn't survive the removal process . . . 

They don't know what's been going on. What he let happen to himself, somehow.

He isn't going to tell them he's back just to immediately take himself away again. 

He records something for Jon, just in case. It's not enough, but it's–something, he tells himself. It's something. 

It's all he can bring himself to do. 

He leaves the disk with the recording on it with Bruce and asks him to have Dick deliver it, if it's necessary. 

Things proceed from there, and Clark wakes up again a week later in a private room in the med bay, connected to half a dozen machines and needles and tubes and directly facing the sun. Diana is dozing in the chair next to his bed. Bruce is pacing at the foot of it. They're both in costume. Clark feels weak and groggy, but he can hear half a dozen other heartbeats lingering in the hall, so presumably they were expecting him to wake up around now. 

"Mm," he says. Diana snaps awake. Bruce stops mid-step. 

They both look at him. 

"The operation was a success," Bruce informs him. "Textbook. Or as textbook as removing a mind-controlling parasite of unknown origins from a Kryptonian brain can get for mostly-human surgeons, anyway." 

"Do you need anything?" Diana asks. "Would you like us to call your family yet?" 

Clark shakes his head, then closes his eyes and sleeps for another week. 

"Sleep", he supposes, counts as something that he needs right now. 

The next time he wakes up, he's alone in his room and disconnected from the machines and just feels . . . normal, really. Like nothing was ever wrong at all and he didn't just have major surgery that was, essentially, the equivalent of multiple traumatic brain injuries. His hair is already starting to grow back from where it was buzzed down for the surgery, and there's not even any bandages on his head. 

There's no noticeable scarring, Clark observes when he makes it to the little ensuite bathroom to take a look in the mirror. The surgeons told him there probably wouldn't be, given both the methods they'd been intending to use and the nature of his own physiology, but seeing the total lack of proof of what happened to him is just . . . strange, somehow. 

It feels almost like a cheat. Like it should be obvious, in some way. 

There was a parasite in his head. Something controlling him. Pretending to be him. Passing for him. It could've done anything it wanted. 

It did do things that Clark still has no idea about. 

So many things. 

He couldn't even fight it. Wasn't conscious or aware enough to, or just not strong enough to, or just . . . 

He couldn't even fight it. 

And he doesn't know what it did. 

The door opens. Diana walks in. 

"Would you like us to call your family now?" she asks. 

"Yes," Clark says roughly, curling his fingers around the sides of the sink in front of him. "Please." 

"Of course," Diana says with a terrible and merciless gentleness. 

Clark sits down on the lid of the toilet and just . . . cries. Just for a minute. 

Or twenty. 

Diana kneels in front of him and holds his hands in her own. 

Fourteen months, Clark thinks, all twisted up with grief and pain and so, so much regret. He missed so much. He wasn't there for Jon or Lois or his parents. He wasn't there for Bruce or Diana or the League, for either of Kara, for . . . 

For Kon. He wasn't there for Kon. 

Wasn't there for Kon when the kid needed him. 

Kon completely vanished, and who knows if the damn parasite even pretended to help look for him? If it did anything at all for him? Who knows if Clark could've found him, could've saved him, if he'd still been himself at the time? 

. . . who knows if the parasite isn't what made Kon disappear to begin with? 

It took fourteen months of Clark's life, and Kon . . . Kon disappeared two weeks into those fourteen months. 

If nothing else, the timing is a screaming red flag. 

Clark abandoned his son and might've murdered a kid who only ever looked up to him, a kid who he was never really able to fully understand but literally named, and he can't do anything to bring Kon back or to make up for the year that he wasn't there for the rest of his family. 

Their family. 

God, what has he done? What has Clark done, and did Kon die feeling afraid or shocked or terrified? Did he die feeling betrayed? Did he think it was Clark doing it, however it happened? 

Did he die thinking Clark wanted him to die? 

Clark doesn't even know what happened to his body. 

There won't be another resurrection.  

Clark chokes. Diana squeezes his hands. He grips hers like a lifeline and shudders through it. The grief is a terrible, ugly thing. It's one of the worst things Clark's ever felt. 

The guilt is worse. 

"Lois," he murmurs finally, feeling like the weakest man alive. "Could you call . . . Lois, please, and just . . . ask if she'll come. I'll explain it all to her, just–could you call her, please." 

"Yes," Diana says, squeezing his hands again. "Of course." 

"Thank you," Clark says. 

He pulls himself together, more or less, and Diana goes to make the call. She comes back a few minutes later and tells him Lois agreed, but needs to find a babysitter first. Clark in no way blames her for not bringing Jon along and frankly is surprised she's willing to come at all. 

He's not sure what he could even say to Jon right now. 

What can he? 

Diana makes sure he eats something, then leaves for monitor duty. Clark tries not to overthink things. Tries not to think too much at all. 

He spent fourteen months not thinking at all, though, all of it lost in one oblivious blink, so that doesn't work out all that well for him. 

An hour later, he hears the Zeta platform activate on the opposite side of the base, and hears Lois's heartbeat appear inside the watchtower. 

Clark exhales, very slowly. 

He waits. 

Lois comes to the med bay. She doesn't stop to talk to anyone on the way. Doesn't talk to anyone except that stranger Clark still doesn't actually know the name of, who tells her where to find him. 

And then a minute or a millennium later she's standing in the open doorway of his room, and Clark is looking at her. Her expression is neutral, and her hair is shorter than it was the last time he remembers seeing her–the last time he was the one actually seeing her. An inverse bob, not shoulder-length anymore. He recognizes the blazer and heels that she's wearing, but not the blouse or the pants. Not the earrings or the necklace, either. 

And there's no wedding ring to recognize either way. 

Clark wonders what happened to his. 

God, but she's still the most amazing woman he's ever seen, and he's still never once deserved a single part of her. Not even a fraction of a part. 

Especially not now. 

"Kal," she greets, tone just as neutral as her expression, and Clark aches. 

"Clark," he says, just a little too abrupt, and Lois–pauses. 

"Clark," she amends casually as she tucks her hands into the pockets of her blazer, and if he didn't know her quite so well he wouldn't have even heard the crack in her voice around his name, super-hearing or not. "Never seen your hair this short. I kinda miss the curl, not gonna lie. It has charm, you know? Very boy scout next door." 

"I had emergency brain surgery," Clark says. Lois pauses again. Tilts her head. He keeps talking. "Two weeks ago, now. Just woke up again fully today." 

"What?" she says, just staring at him. "You–what happened?" 

"It's . . . unclear, still," Clark replies slowly. "But as far as we can tell, roughly fourteen months back an unidentified alien parasite moved into my brain and . . . took me over, essentially. I don't actually–I don't remember any of that time. At all. Then two weeks ago I got electrocuted in Keystone and the parasite died. The surgery was to remove its body so my brain could heal from the damage it did without it rotting in there." 

Lois keeps staring at him. 

"Fourteen months," she echoes very, very carefully. 

"I'm so sorry," Clark says tightly. "Bruce told me I left you. Left you and Jon. That I stopped being . . . myself. I can't imagine how difficult that was, or how it must've felt." 

"I can't imagine how waking up and hearing that none of us even noticed you were gone felt," Lois says. 

"You never do pull a punch, do you," Clark says with a weak attempt at a smile. 

"I'm sorry," Lois says evenly. "I should've known." 

"No one did," Clark says, then . . . hesitates. "Or . . . we think no one did." 

"You think that's what happened to Kon," Lois says, because of course she's already done the math, and of course she's already had the thought herself. Obviously she would've. 

"The timing is . . . likely, at least," Clark says. "And really, if anyone was going to see my face and notice that a different person was wearing it . . ."

"You have a point," Lois murmurs. She steps into the room. Clark wants to hold her. He also wants to bury himself in the coldest, darkest place that he can find and never, ever let himself see the sun again. 

He doesn't deserve it anymore. 

"I'm so angry that I want to cry," Lois says, her voice very distant and her eyes locked on his. Clark can see her hands fisting in her pockets. "I'm so . . . god. I should've known. You never would've left Jon. Not like that." 

"Bruce made it sound like the parasite was . . . very convincing," Clark says. It convinced Bruce, who may just be the most paranoid mind on the planet, so . . .

"It was," Lois agrees, still without taking her eyes off his. "But I still should've known." 

Clark blinks a little too quickly. Lois tightens her jaw. Takes her hands out of her pockets and leaves them at her sides instead. Clark never thought he'd see them without her wedding ring again. 

"It's been–months, I know," he says, hating himself for thinking he even deserves to say this. "For you. But I still . . ." 

"I love you," Lois says. "Come home." 

There is no possible world in which he could tell her "no". 

Med bay makes him wait for another two hours of observation and runs some scans, but then they let him go. Lois waits with him the whole time. She doesn't call anyone or send any texts. Doesn't leave the room. Barely says a word. Hardly even takes her eyes off him, like she thinks if she blinks he's going to disappear. 

Clark can hardly keep her heartbeat out of his ears, so he doesn't blame her. 

He doesn't blame her at all. 

They go to Smallville. Bruce had said he'd send Dick to pick up Jon from the babysitter's and get him to the farm, and as much as Clark had wanted to go straight to him himself . . . 

Ma and Pa first, he reminds himself. This is going to be upsetting for Jon–most likely traumatic, once it all sinks in. And definitely disorienting. It'll be best if as many of the adults in his life as possible know what's going on in advance, so he can go to whoever he needs to go to; get whatever comfort they can prepare themselves to offer. 

Clark doesn't know how to do this. 

He doesn't . . . 

They don't take two steps onto the farm before a familiar blur is crashing into him head-on. 

"Oh," Clark manages, and Krypto barks excitedly and flies up to lick his face, tail wagging wildly as he jumps all over him. Like he's missed him. Like he's been waiting for him. 

Clark nearly cries again.

"Good boy, Krypto," he tells him, quiet and rough. "I missed you too, boy." 

He scratches Krypto's ears. Strokes his back. Krypto nearly bowls him over in delight. 

Clark buries his face in his neck and cries a bit after all. 

Lois watches. 

Waits. 

Clark spends . . . maybe a little bit too long crying on his dog, and then they all head up to the house. Ma and Pa are both standing on the porch; presumably they heard Krypto barking. They both look a little bit startled and a little bit confused and a lot more pained at the sight of him, and Clark swallows painfully and stops just before the porch steps. 

He looks at them, and he loves them so desperately. Everything they ever did for him, and everything they've ever been to him, and . . . 

"I'm sorry," he says. "I just . . . there was . . ."

God, the way this hurts. 

"It was mind control," he says. "The past fourteen months or so. I was . . . I wasn't. Wasn't here. Or . . . anywhere." 

"Oh," Ma says, and her eyes are instantly wet with tears. Pa blinks very quickly, his hand curling against the porch railing. 

"I'm so, so sorry," Clark repeats tightly, his own hands in useless fists. "But I'm–back now. I'm home." 

"Oh, Clark," Ma chokes, and then they both throw themselves at him. Clark's been hugged by people with strength far past superhuman, but it's never felt . . . 

No. It's never once felt the same way as when his parents do it. 

They cling to him. He clings back. Krypto barks again and swoops around the knot of them, wagging his tail hard enough to nearly knock Lois over with the force of wind it stirs up. Definitely some of the porch furniture gets displaced. 

Clark feels so much. 

They sit together on the porch, Krypto sprawled contentedly across Clark's lap and Lois on the steps beside him. Clark gives Ma and Pa what explanation he can–tells them everything he knows about Keystone and the electrocution and the watchtower and the surgery and waking up. They watch him just as intently as Lois does the entire time. 

He doesn't . . . he doesn't mention his suspicions about what might've happened to Kon. Not . . . not yet. 

He doesn't know how to. Not to Ma and Pa. Not after he brought the kid here and left him on their doorstep with no real direction and . . . 

Just–he'll tell them. He'll tell them soon. 

Just . . . not yet. 

It's not a very long talk, in the end. Ma and Pa take in everything he says and just take it all in stride, just like they always have. Baby in a spaceship? Kid with superpowers? Son who thinks he can save the whole damn world? 

Of course they take it in stride. 

Clark loves them too much to even define. Too much to even wrap his own head around. They're the best people he knows. The best people he's ever known. 

They don't even think there's anything for him to be sorry for. 

It's . . . painful, a little, when Clark realizes that. 

Or a lot. 

So, so damn painful. 

Clark hears the definitely-not-a-Batmobile coming, far down the road. Three heartbeats inside it. Dick, Damian, and . . . 

Jon. 

Obviously. 

Clark strokes Krypto's ears one last time, then gets up. No one asks him why, but he supposes the look on his face must be answer enough right now. 

He steps off the porch and goes to wait by the driveway. 

It's not that long a wait, but it feels like the better part of eternity.

[darkphoenix07]

Hi love if requests are still opened may I have an established relationship hongjoong oneshot where reader isolates herself frequently because of mental health and spends a lot of unwanted time in bed because she can’t muster up the courage to get up where hj helps her start her day and stuff?

Hongjong helps you as you isolate yourself often

Masterlist

Series Poll

Mental Health Request

Paring : Hongjong x Reader

Genre : Comfort, Fluff, Romance, Dance

Song 🎶: Everything I wanted by Billie Eilish and Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift

7.00 a.m.

You hear Hongjong entering the house as he parks his car in the garage. You want to get up, run towards him and hug him. You want to break in his arms feeling free as tears leave your eyes. You wish you could get up but it's too hard.

You have been lying on the bed for the whole day like a corpse. He called you a million times for having breakfast but you said you weren't hungry. He left kissing you goodbye, saying he loves you. But you didn't even say love you back. You laid there not moving a single muscle, not taking shower or having food.

Right now you can't feel your body. You don't feel like you are in this universe anymore. The pain, the anxiety, the panic attack have taken over your body suppressing everything.

"Baby, are you home?" His sweet voice echoes in the living room.

You haven't touched him for how long you don't remember. You don't know when was the last time, you kissed him, hugged him properly. Sex is far.

"Baby!" The way he calls you baby. It should pick your body up. You feel guilty for being such a prick. But you can't help. You imagine how he will leave you alone, you'll be able to lay here for the rest of your life until you actually become a corpse.

There looking for you, he enters in your room. Seeing the darkness of your room, the curtains all down, your blanket covering half of your body and you same gaze at the ceiling, he understands you haven't moved from the bed.

"Hey, are you feeling alright?" He asks entering as he touches you forehead.

"Hm," you mumble not wanting to get attacked with more questions.

But he notices how messed up your hair is though you aren't warm or cold. You are still wearing the dress from three days ago which means you haven't showered for three days.

You think of the consequences that will occur if he switches on the lights, pulls the blanket off you and starts screaming at you. What will you do?

You wait for it but the lights aren't being turned on, no screaming is around you like it used to happen in your household. Its more quite than usual that you can hear his heartbeat beside yours.

"Can I get inside?"

You would have said no. You would have pushed him away. But the way he asked you, the way he plead like he is asking foe forgiveness that you had to move slightly making space for him.

He gets inside the blanket though you know you stick as bad as a garbage can. He pulls you on his hand, "I want to have dinner outside with you or we can have a terrible cheat day. Only street foods and chocolate or ice cream. What do you say?"

You don't answer him so he looks at you with all of the love he has for you, "Or we can stay here in the bed while I sing for you. Then we can take a shower together while dancing and order dinner. I can make you some too but I am not as good as Wooyoung when it comes to cooking."

You look at him with sleepy eyes. His touch makes you realize how long you haven't slept. Maybe three days or more. It happened without any reason. You don't know why you are feeling like this life doesn't matter or why you don't want to move. You feel heartbroken, guilty for not having a single reason to tell him why you are feeling this much heavy.

"Baby. You'll become sick. I would let you stay here but you look so pale. I am worried," he says pulling you close to his chest, "You know how much I love you, right?"

You wanted to walk up a while ago. But it was just night. The ending of another day you could have spent productively that you wasted. You feel so disgusted by your own self but the man in front of you gazing at you like you are some diamond.

"I don't know what to do," that's when you speak up because you don't want to disappoint him. He has so much patience and hope for you. You understand now that if you speak up maybe he will understand but it's just too hard.

"Will you let me do something for you?" He asks kissing your forehead gently.

You don't say anything as a positive answer and he gets up, "Stay in your little paradise for some moment. I am coming back."

He says and rushes outside. After some while, you hear his car's sound. You don't understand and you forget that you should care after sometimes. You curl around hugging your blanket drowning in your dark side again.

You don't know how long it passes away before Hongjong comes, "I am going to pick you up. Okay?"

He warns you so you can say no if you want to. But you don't say anything or do anything as he cradles you up in his arms and walks outside the room. You notice the lights are all off, there is just the chandelier lighting in the living room.

As he enters in the bathroom of the room you two share, you see there are scented candles on the sink area. He doesn't stop here, he places you inside the tub filled with purple flower petals, you don't understand what flower are these. But the sudden warm water washes thrill over your whole body. You start feeling a little better from the warm water.

He helps you take off the clothes and runs outside again. You start hearing him playing Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift in the background before he enters in the bathroom again with a fruit salad bowl.

He sits outside the tub feeding you the salad, "I thought you may faint so I had to give you some food and suger."

You smile as you keep having the fruits one by one. Some little effort is all you wanted to give to feel better again but it was too hard.

"Join me," you tell him making his eyes go big.

He places the bowl on the sink and makes you stand up, "I have a better idea," and pushes the shower button. Cold water starts washing over both of you and you start giggling seeing him shiver.

It's so adorable yet fascinating how he is looking and acting right now. He holds your one hand and wraps your waist with another, "Let's dance in the rain."

"It's literally summer," you tell him as he spins you while the water of the tub splashes around dripping on the floor.

"Who cares?" He says pulling you towards him and again moving you with him. The dance, the movements, they are so messy yet perfect for your body to feel alive. It's like every cell of your body is waking up one by one.

"Kiss me," he says cupping your face in his hands and your lips find his in no time.

You wish you would have talked about your feelings to him earlier, you wish you wouldn't waste your time, you wish you would kiss him back and say love you back. But it's alright, you tell yourself. It's alright because I can do it now.

"Hongjong," you say as you wrap yourself in the towel and he looks at you.

"I love you," you tell him and his smile gets bigger than ever.

"I love you," he says and pecks you on the lips.

No, you haven't stopped feeling the heaviness yet but you have stopped blaming yourself making it look like a crime for feeling depressed without any reason. Every feeling is precious after all.

For the people who thinks your feelings aren't valid. They are.

[mikerickson]

I worked as a poll worker for the first time yesterday

After the primaries in the summer, our County recognized that they had a poll worker shortage leading into the election this year and started putting out advertisements to bring new people in. I realized that I didn't know literally a single person in my life that had been a poll worker before and that it was something I had always taken for granted. With this looming shortage however, I decided to step up and do my civic duty because why not? After a three hour in-person training session and a two hour online training session, I was ready to go.

More under the cut because honestly some of these interactions with voters are kinda depressing:

I had only signed up to do a half-day shift from 5:15 AM to 1:00 PM because I figured I'd be wiped out and exhausted if I did a whole day. Well turns out that my replacement who was supposed to take up the evening shift never showed up, so I ended up staying. I got to the polling location (a local high school) at 5:00 AM and left at 9:30 PM, effectively working a 16.5 hour day with only a 1 hour lunch break. I'll get a $300 check in two weeks, which, hey, beats jury duty!

By law our polling center was supposed to open to the public at 6:00 AM sharp, but we were scrambling and not ready yet when the vote-before-work crowd started banging on the door. Very stressful start to the morning and we immediately had a big line that didn't dwindle down until about 7:30 AM. I unironically wish I had gotten there even earlier.

Our polling location had four districts, and each district had four workers (two to man the check-in table, one to operate the voting booths and ballot scanners, and one to float/rotate out every so often). I was paired with a man and a woman both in their seventies and a woman maybe in her mid forties, but they were all clearly uncomfortable with technology. Two of the other districts were also staffed by old people who just gave up at the first sign of a problem with a touch screen or a printer jam. I'm talking just a complete lack of problem-solving capabilities. I ended up running triple duty checking people in, making sure voters were set up in their booths properly, and doing on-the-fly tech support and troubleshooting. It felt rewarding multitasking and hearing, "get Mike over here, he'll fix it" over and over, but I kinda wish I didn't have to?

We only had two voters make a scene over the course of the entire day. During the morning rush right after opening a woman raised her voice asking why there was a line and stressing out that she had to leave to go to work soon (she stuck it out in line and then bolted out of there). Later around lunch time a guy at one of the other districts' tables shouted something like, "oh, so my dad can vote here but I can't?" He stormed out in a pissy mood shortly after, but I never got the full story of what was going on there.

I had one man who had recently moved and hadn't updated his registration with the board of elections, so his address didn't match what was on file. I explained that he could still vote if he did a provisional ballot, which is basically like a mail-in ballot that you put in a special envelope and leave at the polling station instead of taking it to a drop-off box. Apparently that was a step too far and he just said, "forget it..." and left. Seemed odd to me that he 1) physically drove to a voting location to vote and 2) waited in line to sign in, but that filling out a single sheet of paper was no longer worth it.

Once we were fully set up and getting into the flow of things most of the delays and reasons for lines were the voters taking too long inside the booths. It was basically a giant touchscreen monitor to select your choices, then you review everything one last time before printing a physical ballot. I had multiple people enter the booth and then wait about five minutes before calling for help saying they didn't know what to do. Also the second page/backside of the ballot was for the local Board of Education candidates, and this was really tripping up a lot of people. Also a staggering amount of people just did not see the giant "NEXT" arrow at the bottom right hand side of the screen. Poll workers are not allowed to enter the booth with them, so I had to do a lot of blind troubleshooting from the other side of the curtain.

Lots of men coming in with their wives and girlfriends and just waiting by the wall while the women voted but they didn't.

There was a smattering of young people, but not many. I did have to turn one girl away who recently turned 18 because New Jersey is not a same-day voter registration state. She was visibly bummed out and I felt bad about that.

Our oldest voter of the day was this ancient Polish woman who didn't speak a lick of English. Her daughter, who must've been in her eighties herself, had to sign a special permission slip to enter the booth with her mother to help. They were in there for a good 15 minutes, but luckily this was during a calm period of the day.

In terms of voter attire, we only had two Harris shirts and one Harris/Walz hat we had to ask people to cover up because that's not allowed within 100 feet of the polling station. Lots of Puerto Rico flags, and one guy had this obnoxious shirt of a coquí painted like the flag that I loved. Also had one man come in wearing a very sharp suit with the loudest red tie I've ever seen in my life who proudly shouted, "Let's make voting great again!" as he left after he finished.

One older Hispanic lady (I think she was Puerto Rican) had very broken English and had to do a provisional ballot for some reason. She was so worried she was going to do it wrong, but I walked her through it with my very broken Spanish and after about 20 minutes she was good to go. She was extremely thankful and gave me a hug.

I had one woman, maybe in her mid-forties, call me over to help when she was inside the booth. She asked, "why are there so many names?" I asked what she meant, and she started listing the down-ballot candidates in the other rows below President and Vice President. She said, "what is 'Senate'? What does that mean?" I explained to her that there were other contests to vote for, and after a telling pause she responded, "...okay..." Not entirely sure I got through to her.

One woman took her very young daughter into the booth with her and a few minutes later called me over. Her screen displayed a "USB device disconnected" error. I looked down and saw that the printer had been turned off. I asked how that happened and the little girl started laughing. Her mother was mortified, but I got them sorted out.

We had one teenager who we had to help insert her ballot into the scanner because her hands were shaking so violently. It was her first time voting and she was extremely nervous. I hope she's doing okay today.

Towards the end of the night this contractor with filthy hands comes in and he's clearly exhausted but wanted to vote anyway. We were shooting the breeze while he signed his voting authority and I said, "I bet I got you beat though, I woke up at 4:30 this morning." He looks up at me and deadpans, "I've been up since 3:30." I yielded and he laughed with me.

Our second-to-last voter of the day was some early-twenties guy who moseyed on in at 7:55 PM (polls legally close at 8:00 PM sharp) and said, "I heard this was going on today." Somehow he was registered and was able to get in and out in no time, but that was just such a casual remark to make that it floored me.

Our absolute last voter of the day was a woman who was on her cellphone the entire time trying to coax her husband - who was in his own car about two blocks away from the sounds of it - to hurry on over before we closed. I could hear him hemming and hawing over it, making some excuse. He didn't make it.

Closing the polls was equally as confusing and stressful as opening them was because there are a lot of very detailed ballot reports to print and specific zip ties with specific barcodes and serial numbers to close up the machines. We were missing a certain lock for the ballot bag that we was preventing all sixteen of us from leaving (no one can leave until all districts at the polling location are ready). Eventually I (because of course it was me) found it in a trash can; someone had thrown it out for some reason but no one owned up to doing it.

As we were leaving and all saying goodbye, some of the other poll workers joked, "see you guys in four years!" I pointed out that there are elections every year, and that in fact New Jersey has a gubernatorial election next year, and some of them basically said, "I didn't know that."

Overall a stressful but memorable day. Today I was talking to some co-workers that voted at different locations within my County (so using the same equipment I was trained on), and they were telling me stories of waiting between 45 minutes to two and a half hours at most. My location never got a line that bad, which maybe had to do with the location I got assigned, but it's also just as possible that me and one other guy around my age (shout out to Giovanni working District 27!) held our shit down and prevented that from happening.

It was a very long day that wiped me out. In a vacuum I don't know that I would want to do it again, but after seeing the incompetence of the standard ilk of poll workers and learning what was happening at other locations, I really feel like I need to. I'd rather these things be run by people like me than not.

[ginevrapng]

𝐖𝐄'𝐑𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆!

(𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐓𝐖𝐎)

pairing: george weasley x reader, ron weasley x reader

word count: 4.0k words

content warnings: swearing, british idioms and phrases and slang words, chubby coded! reader, reader not specified what house they were in but at one point they had came into the gryffindor common room(not under normal circumstances like to hangout or sleep), no use of y/n but george sometimes calls the reader shortcake (explained in the last part), mentions of violence after a canon quidditch match,

a/n: this chapter has a lot of talking about the past as i wanted to dig deeper into george and the reader's relationship so far, the next chapter will be completely in current time. this chapter still has ron content (i can't get enough of how i've written ron's dynamic with the reader)

summary: you're an honorary member of the weasley family and have been for years, you're one of ron's best friends and are very close. everyone thinks and teases you both that you're dating or have feelings for each other. this muddles up things as george feels guilty about his own feelings.

<< part three | part one >> | masterlist (check out my poll for this chapter)

the next morning, when you wake up, you see ginny next to you, still asleep, you assume hermione is already up and about. luckily you only drank water near the end of the night so you only ended up tipsy, unlikely you're not a teenager anymore so you still had a small hangover. you miss the days of hogwarts parties when you can drink as much as you want and wake up fine and be able to go to class with no issue. tiptoeing around ginny, trying not to wake her up, you remember what happened at the end of the night and groan, hoping it won't be too awkward today with george.

you successfully leave the room without waking ginny up and decide to see if ron is up or not, doubtful that he is. creeping along to ron's room you step over all the places that creak in the house and softly knock on the door. after no answer you open it a crack to see ron still in bed alone in the room. the logical thing to do would be to let him sleep in, after all he did look after you last night, but it's ron so the only option you deem worthy is to throw yourself over him in bed, knowing your tispy self insisted on cuddles last night.

you mischievously grin and close the door behind you before jumping onto the bed with him and waking him up. ron pulls up his covers in shock making you laugh uncontrollably, "ron you're acting like you're a naked women. is there something you want to tell me?"

he tries to push you off the bed and fails miserably, just causing you to laugh more. he grabs hold of your soft frame and pulls you down to him, making you laugh even louder. "why are you waking me up so bloody early? what did i ever do to you?" he grumbles.

your laughter quiets down as you lay together. "i believe you promised me cuddles ronald."

he holds onto your plush waist tighter, maybe this is ron's punishment towards you, to hold you so tight you break something or just pop. "alright, but shut up. i'm going back to sleep." you're about to argue that it's already late and people are downstairs but harry bursts through the door.

"what's this about then?" harry questions you both.

ron chucks a pillow at him, "shove off, harry." you giggle and move under the covers to get comfier in bed, knowing that ron's going to keep you there for awhile.

"i'll see you two lovebirds later." before ron can tell him to piss off again he slams the door shut, definitely drawing attention.

ron readjusts in bed with you still in his arms. "he's bloody annoying." ron mumbles before he closes his eyes again, resting his head against yours, making you feel safe in his arms with your head on his pillows that smell like him. you weren't initially tired when you came into bed with ron, you just wanted to mess with him but now your eyelids are becoming heavy as you drift off to sleep.

hermione can be absolutely terrifying at times as you're rudely awaken when hermione storms into the room, looking annoyed at you both. however ron seems unbothered by the fact, still sleeping, that is until hermione hovers over the bed and shouts at you both. "get up! both of you! i don't want to believe what harry said he walked in on, if he's telling the truth that's entirely inappropriate but you both look awfully cosy together! everyone is downstairs and has already eaten breakfast." after she see's that you've both waken up she leaves. you dread to think what harry's told everyone but at this point you're use to it. you feel better after your nap, you've found out before that you sleep better with ron next to you and you're no longer hungover either.

reluctantly you head downstairs, much preferring to spend the day in bed. the shouts and laughter that fill the living room fade when everyone see's you both and the onslaught of teasing happens. the comments include fred interrogating you about your, in his words, 'precarious position' due to the fact that anyone could have walked in. harry's saying he regrets walking in, and adding that you looked rather comfortable with all your limbs wrapped around each other.

"how do you even sleep next to him? he snores so loud." harry looked at you quizzically, genuinely confused.

you simply reply, "tune him out."

"oi! you snore louder than me."

"lies," you throw your hands at him in mock offence.

"ron's right shortcake." george tells you from the sofa after staying silent for most of the previous teasing.

"how 'd you know?" slightly worried that you snore so loud everyone knows and will make fun of you for it forever.

george grins at you, you've fallen right into his trap. "i can hear you through the walls."

with an amused smile you make your way over to where he's sitting and flick him on the forehead. "hush you." george's heart skips a beat when he sees the smile you direct at him. as you sit down next to george his cheeks warm up and he tries to hide his smile that appeared on his face because you sat next to him, out of everyone you choose him.

george looks over to ron to see his reaction, half of him wanting to make sure ron's okay with the fact you're sitting next to him but the other half, the half that he's more ashamed of, wants to see if ron's noticed, almost as if he wants to see that ron's bothered by it, to rub it in is face and make him jealous. to show him that you've chosen to sit next to him instead of ron or any of the others. so when he does look over at ron and see's him stealing food from the remains of hermione's breakfast, not even glancing at them, he felt a little conflicted.

"what's up george?" you follow his gaze to where ron is, "is he stealing your food again?"

george smirks at you and ruffles your hair, shaking his head. "nope, just seeing what ronniekins' doing." pouting, you tell him to stop messing up your hair while he chuckles and joins the conversation harry and ginny were having. you deflate as you watch him turn his attention onto someone else so flippantly.

the conversation they're having is supposed to be interesting but it's not to you, no matter how hard you try to get into quidditch you just can't. you're not as bad as hermione is with flying and would love the idea of riding on any magical creatures like dragons or hippogriffs but you worry that a broom will break.

george has reassured you plenty of times that there's no way it'll break but at the end of the day it's a stick and sticks break. you love watching them play, even if you worry that they'll get hurt, and you know the basic rules about the game but conversations about quidditch that don't include your friends you tune out. you'd be listening earnestly to the conversation if it was something about harry or ginny but them talking about the chudley cannons doesn't interest you much.

when ron made the team in your fifth year you were ecstatic, more excited than he was. you knew how badly he wanted to be on the team and you were thrilled, yet you always reminded him to be careful before games and even when training, you wouldn't be surprised if he found your nagging highly annoying.

you'll be able to focus on quidditch conversations if they speak with a lot of passion but right now they're not, you've just woken up and it sounds dull. maybe the conversation will change soon, or maybe molly will come in and interrupt, saving you from listening, and tell everyone they have a job to do or how she's going into town and she's going to ask if anyone wants to come, or maybe ron will start arguing with everyone about how great the chudley cannons are. when your friends passionately talk about something you listen but it's a boring monotonous conversation currently. you love hearing your friends talk passionately about their lives and their interests it's how you're so good at giving everyone presents.

like when harry animatedly told you all about his first christmas at hogwarts, about how he received the invisibility cloak and all the contents in his wizarding cracker. one of those things including a wizard's chess set that was later unfortunately broken and couldn't, at the time, be repaired. so that christmas you brought him a wizard's chess set of his own as he had been using ron's up until that point.

for hermione's birthday one year you gave her a first edition copy of hogwarts: a history. it's always been her favourite book since the first year of hogwarts and she often rereads it. throughout your school years together she retold information to you even when it had very little relevance. you knew how much she loved that book and had been trying to find someone with a signed copy that will sell it to you. after bathilda bagshot died you looked everywhere trying to find any signed copy. you were tempted at the time to ask someone else to sign it, someone that she looks up to like mcgonagall but that was a fleeting thought as you didn't think that idea made much sense. so your plan was to keep on the look out for any copies.

you stumbled on something better one day though while browsing an old bookshop in knockturn alley. you occasionally go there for things you need and you dread to think what would happen if ron found out, even worse molly, they'd insist it's too dangerous and never let you go again, especially on your own.

when flourish and blott's don't have the book you need you know where to go, even if sometimes you have to grab your wand a little tighter to feel safe or that if anyone saw you there they'd be asking serious questions and questioning you on dark magic. however, it's a good thing you do visit having found the first edition copy you had gifted her. you would've haggled the price down a bit after knowing the shopkeeper for so long but the situation was too good even if it was pricey, it's not everyday you come across a first edition copy of such a well known book.

you were probably most proud of the gift you got for george one year. when the whole situation of malfoy insulting the twins cleansweep brooms escalated to insulting the whole weasley family and harry's parents came to a head it wrecked everyone involved (excluding malfoy). the twins and harry had their brooms confiscated due to the fight between them and malfoy.

what made him even more mad was the fact that you were there to witness it happen. george thought maybe it would've been better if you were there to hear exactly what malfoy said but all you saw from the crowd was george and harry punching malfoy repeatedly.

he didn't want to scare you and maybe if you heard what came out of malfoy's mouth you'd think what george did was valid. that's what he had thought until you came barging into the gryffindor common room unannounced, looking absolutely furious screaming about what a fucking arse malfoy is. "do you even know what he said?" angelina asked at the time, knowing that word got around of the fight but not knowing if people knew exactly what happened.

"no but i know it was bloody well something to make everybody that angry!" george couldn't help but smile at that, he'd been so tense and frustrated since it's happened but then you come in and make it all better, getting angry on everyone's behalf and you don't even know what happened. that was when george fell more in love with you then he already was and he didn't think that was possible.

the twins later took their brooms back. they were known for breaking into offices, they should've been kept somewhere more secure if they knew anything about the twins reputation. they took back their brooms and left the school in classic weasley twin style. despite getting their brooms back the incident took a hit on george's confidence. malfoy insulted his entire family and he was so enraged about it.

after the twins left the school year early it was incredibly quiet without them but in the summer it was hectic with them causing even more trouble than normal. one of the hotter days you and george spent the day together inside. everyone was outside playing quidditch but george wanted to stay with you, he told you that he was too tired to play but really he just used that as an excuse to be with you. arthur was at work and molly was in the kitchen, hermione was even outside reading near everyone but you and george stayed in and talked all day. he told you everything about the fight with malfoy, he tried to make jokes and make it seem like not a big deal but you could tell otherwise. even though he was grinning the smile didn't reach his eyes, even though he was making jokes they had a hint of insecurity behind them.

you didn't mention it, you didn't want him to feel put on the spot, but you rested your hand on his arm in comfort and sat closer to him. yes it was incredibly hot at the time but neither of you wanted to move away. he spoke about his broom and about how he won the match even with his broom, behind his words you can tell he held some kind of resentment. he's an excellent beater, better than fred and he should be proud to have won that game, malfoy's ruined it by the aftermath and it's tarnished by all the hateful words malfoy said.

the week after you had brought him a broom. afterwards when you left dervish and banges you realised that you only brought one for george and not for fred and started panicking because there was no holiday coming up, you just wanted to give him a new broom, hoping he would like it but then you didn't get one for fred. your feelings for george at that moment overshadowed any logical part of your brain that told you that you should probably think this through and rethink your purchase instead getting two cheaper ones.

after calming down you had a whole speech prepared in your mind to fred about how sorry you were for not getting him one. making excuses like how fred didn't actually punch malfoy, only harry and george did and harry doesn't need a new broom. other excuses you threw out the window thinking they sounded too harsh, george is a better player then you so he needs a better broom or george is more likely to keep playing now after you've left hogwarts then you will because he's better. after those failed excuses in your head you had scolded yourself on the obvious unintentional favouritism, definitely giving yourself away every time you mention how much better george is. you love fred, you do, but george is george.

coming back to the burrow was somewhat of a spectacle, having to deal with both the twins. fred was the first person you saw and the confusion on his face was evident when he saw you holding a broom, something that you'd never do as he knows you don't trust them. he raised his brow in confusion.

"before you start it's not for you freddie. it's for george." there's a pause as you try to sort out your thoughts and fred smirks. "after what happened with malfoy i thought he could use a new broom. i mean- i mean he was the one who got physical with him and i know harry did too but his broom is already new and i can't afford to get him an even more expensive one."

"woah that's quite the excuse." he joked while smirking.

you cross your arms over your chest, "it's not an excuse, it's just the truth."

"yeah, yeah." he spoke, dismissively. "just know i'm never letting this go."

you rolled your eyes as the hairs on your arm stood up, you had a feeling he was telling the truth. "where's george?" having hoped to run away from the conversation as quick as you can so that fred didn't figure out your romantic sentiment towards george.

he directed you upstairs to their room with a shit-eating grin on his face. you had vowed to blow fred away with an amazing present for christmas but after that interaction you had you were thinking otherwise. (in the end you still did get him a very thought out gift that he thoroughly liked.)

you had knocked on the door, waiting patiently for an answer. george tells you to come in, and his eyes widen in surprise momentarily before he quickly schools his expression because this is the first time you've ever entered his room and you just remembered the same thing as you get distracted about why you're here and instead start taking in the room.

glancing around the room you could see boxes everywhere. cardbox boxes that were taped up with the edges bent and marginally destroyed. fred and george were storing so many products it's a surprise they even had room for their beds. there was a smell that lingered in the air, like gunpowder and cosmetic sprays to try and cover up the scent. you were unfazed by the scene, you would have been more in shock if you walked in and it was a 'normal' room. the smell in the air was making you woozy and flushed as you discovered this is why george almost always smells faintly of gunpowder and you started to find it hard to concentrate being so close to it.

"this is a surprise shortcake, what are you doing in my humble abode?" he inquired, in the process snapping you out of your thoughts. he didn't want you to judge him for what his room looked like, he knew you never would though.

"you know humble abode normally refers to a house?"

"deflecting the question." he sits down on the bed.

having hid the broom behind your back since you knocked, "i brought you something." you tried to answer and sound confident but you know that your voice trembled, you're nervous and you're suddenly liking the floor more than making eye contact with george.

"oh really?" he grinned but his stomach was going crazy and flipping about while his heart bursts out of his chest. you got him something, you, for him. his palms were sweaty and he tried to subtly rub his hands against his trousers.

"i know how shit you've been feeling about malfoy so i-" you found it hard to speak, worried about george's reaction. going closer to the bed you struggled to find the words but reach behind yourself and gave him the broom.

"shortcake, i'm... i- is this a broom?" he knew the response.

you bashfully nodded your head, losing the ability to talk with a dry throat and gently sat on the bed with george but put some distance between the two of you.

you start rambling, "it's um, a- a comet 290. i don't know a lot about quidditch, which you know, but this one looked fancy and it was one of the newer ones that i could afford. i probably should of asked someone's opinion before buying but i hope this one is okay."

"i love it," george whispers, you had never heard him speak so softly to you. sometimes he'll talk gently to you but never like this, never sounding so genuine.

george is so hopelessly and helplessly in love and he was holding on to a very thin thread trying to control himself to stay away from you because all he wanted to do is press his lips against yours, kissing you until you're both gasping for air. your lips always look so soft, he wondered what they'd feel like against his. he wanted to beg you to give him a chance, he'll make you feel beautiful, that you'd be perfect together. the comet 290 is the best gift anyone had ever given him and he's treasured it for years.

currently after that terribly long conversation about quidditch you wish someone could save you from, you decide to save yourself and go find molly. george noticed you leave but assumed you'd be back. you find her in the scullery, washing clothes.

"is there any jobs you need me to do molly?"

"no dear, you sit down and relax."

you're so close to begging and telling her that you just want to get out of listening about quidditch.

"i'll do anything molly. please let me, i woke up so late this morning and couldn't help you tidy up."

she stays silent for a second and then turns to you, "the garden does need de-gnoming at some point."

"yes!" you respond more enthusiastic then considered appropriate before correcting yourself, "yes, molly. i'll get right on it."

"get help from some of the others dear, i don't want you doing it on your own."

[evaskjew]

I'm trying something for fandom artists/writers

Well, as I don't have anyone to tag (I'm really the least sociable person in the world and I'm too scared to talk to people in the fandom 😂), it's up to those who see this post to participate or not (if it turns out that it's not going to take at all, but never mind!)

Well, as my thing is drawing, I'll go with that (but you can adapt it to writing for those who write, or anything else for that matter!)

Last drawing:

Favourite drawing:

Well, I'm cheating, I'm putting two in because I can't choose 😖 On the one hand it's my best pastel drawing (to say it's also my second realistic portrait in colour) and on the other the painting I did with my grandmother and it's also the first time I've done anything other than a portrait in realistic drawing with a background and so on.

Hated drawing:

Right, then. Here again it's hard to put just one. I'm VERY hard on myself and I hate almost all my drawings 🥲 But really, if I have to choose, there are three that I really can't see any more because I find them so horrible.

Future project(s):

Following the poll, I'm going to start working on a new portrait of Garreth.

Next up, why not draw Ominis again (I've taken several in-game screenshots of him that I'd like to do to work on the backgrounds) and I'd also like to draw characters I haven't drawn yet, like Natsai or Amit.

And maybe one day, when I'm bored because I can't find any more images to use as models, I might draw some MCs from in-game screenshots.

And apart from drawing, I'd like to finish writing my OS by the end of the year 😂

Favourite artist:

There are far too many talented people in fandom ❤️

But without hesitation I'd say @tamayula-hl! Long before I dared to post my drawings online, I admired her work so much and even today I jump on every notification as soon as she posts! I know I'll never reach her level but her work is a source of inspiration and motivation (even more so now that I've switched to watercolour and I'm still trying to figure out how to work with colours, the way she works with colour is so incredible 🥰)

And I can't thank her enough for her post showing all the possible angles for Ominis' and Sebastian's hairs, it was so helpful 🙏🏻

And I admire @choccy-milky too! These are the two fandom artists I've been following since I started on Tumblr a little over a year ago 😄

One or few points on which I would like to improve:

First of all, I've managed to stop transferring the outlines of my drawings. Yes, it's a bit cheating to transfer, I know. But if I don't do it, the proportions are going to be catastrophic and that's going to piss me off (long live my perfectionism) and I'm going to stop and stubborn as I am coupled with my lack of self-confidence, I'm never going to want to draw again. So for the time being, we're going to keep tracing 😅 We'll see what happens in time.

But most of all, I'd like to stop depending on images I find on Pinterest or Tumblr and just reproduce them as drawings. I'm incapable of doing anything other than faithfully reproducing an image 😢 It annoys me, because I'd also like to post lots of drawings of my MC Evangeline interacting with other characters 😞 And the worst thing is the difference in my drawing level when I do something that doesn't depend on a reference image! (the proof: my drawings of Evangeline and this drawing of Ominis)

I took it upon myself while writing this post and forced myself to do a drawing of Evangeline in 20 minutes without a model (I just traced a neutral pose from a drawing dummy to have my base and improvised from my watercolour of Evangeline for her outfit).

You be the judge:

The end of her leg and her shoe is a disaster 😭

Well, that's that. I don't know how it's going to turn out and whether any artists/writers are going to take part, but it was a fun post to make!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Mark Sumner at Daily Kos:

Congressional Republicans, always eager to show that they put pleasing Donald Trump far ahead of doing anything productive for their constituents, are calling for an investigation into the debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Trump lost that debate badly. That loss is reflected in post-debate polls where Harris has seen a boost from a performance in which she was reassuringly calm while baiting Trump into dozens of unforced errors—including his baseless claims about immigrants eating pets. But Republicans are now claiming that ABC News, which hosted the debate, provided Harris with questions in advance and promised to fact-check Trump while leaving Harris unhindered. They’re also claiming that there is a “whistleblower” willing to detail how ABC helped Harris—though they can’t seem to decide if that whistleblower is dead or alive.

Trump’s real problem is that he’s a loser who never wants to admit he lost. That was true in 2020, and it’s still true today. To cover up his losing, Trump employs a three-part plan: insist in advance that his opponents will cheat, claim to have won no matter how badly he lost, and then spread conspiracy theories about why he lost. That certainly fits the pattern for the debate. Days before Harris and Trump met, Trump was already pushing his claim that ABC was going to provide Harris with the questions in advance. When Trump was shellacked on stage, he came down to the spin room to toss out a series of numbers that seemed made-up, claiming that polls showed he had won. “It was the best debate, personally, that I have ever had,” Trump said. “Polls are indicating that we got 90 percent, 60 percent, 72 percent, 71 percent and 89 percent.” He didn’t answer a reporter’s questions about where he got those numbers—though a review of his social media suggest he got them from some bogus right-wing “polls.” 

[...] There appears to be absolutely no evidence for this claim, or for the existence of this whistleblower, outside of some posts on Twitter. The claims originated from a Twitter account of an acknowledged MAGA supporter who wrote "I will be releasing an affidavit from an ABC whistleblower regarding the debate. I have just signed a non-disclosure agreement with the attorney of the whistleblower.” This claim was picked up and repeated by accounts with over 1 million followers.

On Friday, Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall called for a congressional investigation and said he would demand “all correspondence, records, and potential coordination” between ABC and Harris ahead of the debate. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, always near the bleeding edge of any conspiracy theory, was quick to pile on in a series of tweets culminating with a Sunday claim that this unknown whistleblower had died in a mysterious accident.

Greene then had to walk back her claim after it became clear that the story she had cited came from a fake news site filled with stories written using AI—a site that also attempted to spread a virus to anyone who followed the link. But even if the whistleblower isn’t dead, there’s apparently no evidence that they have anything to do with ABC or any knowledge about the debate, or exist. ABC has denied the veracity of the right-wing claims. The same account that said it was in touch with the whistleblower released a portion of the claimed affidavit on Sunday. The affidavit includes claims that Harris was unfairly provided with a podium “significantly smaller than that used by Donald Trump” to make her look better and that there was an agreement to not ask her about “her brother-in-law, Tony West, who faces allegations of embezzling billions.”

House Republicans are calling for a partisan Keystone Kops investigation into ABC News over its handling of last Tuesday’s debate, a debate that Donald Trump lost handily to Kamala Harris fair and square.

[morganwrites12672]

Rafe Cameron x Reader

Summary: Rafe realizes he needs to get clean. You help him start the journey.

Warnings: Drug Abuse Mentions, Withdrawal, cursing, etc, if any of this triggers you please do not read it.

A/N: This is what won my recent poll, so enjoy! Also, please reblog or leave a comment, this fic was not easy to write and took a lot of time.

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Rafe woke up not knowing where he was. He opened his eyes to a light grey wall facing him. He winces as he feels the pounding headache from last night's festivities. The last thing he remembered was doing a line of coke with Topper.

He soon sees a familiar hoodie draped on the back of a chair and realizes he's in your bed. You weren't at the party so he can't figure out why the hell he would be in your room.

He gets out of bed and walks toward the door before opening it and walking out into the hallway. He hears noises in the living room and walks in there to find you, pacing on the phone.

You look at him and speak into the phone, "Oh, he just woke up I'll text you later." Before setting down the phone and crossing your arms.

You were not happy to say the least. But you couldn't be mad at Rafe. It wasn't his fault. You were mad at the world.

"I, what happened?" Rafe stumbles over his words. He clasps his hands together to prevent you from notving.how badly they were shaking. His heart was beating out of chest over worrying about how he found you.

"I got called to the party by a very coked out Topper to take you home. Rafe, we need to talk about this," you say and Rafe knows exactly what you mean.

He sits on the couch and you take a seat a few inches away from him. You reach out to take his hand and he gladly grasps yours.

"I need to quit, I cant. I can't get through the withdrawl," he says while looking at the floor. You nod before speaking.

"You're going to kill yourself if you don't stop. And I won't stay around while you do it. But if you want to get clean, if you really do, I will help you every step of the way," you say as tears threaten to spill down your cheeks.

"I don't want you to have to do-" you cut him off.

"Rafe, I love you and I will help you get through it," you state and he nods as a tear slips down his face.

"You know how bad it's going to be?" He asks before looking you in the eye for the first time that day.

"We can handle it," you promise and he nods.

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It has been three days since Rafe had began getting clean. The worst day so far. But it wouldn't be the worst day to come.

Rafe had barely left the bed at all. He couldn't stay awake and he was barely eating. He felt like shit all day but you stayed by his side.

But today was when the anger set in. You both knew it would happen. Rafe had a little bit of a temper and the withdrawal would definitely bring it you.

"God Y/N, why do you care so fucking much?" He screams at you. The only thought going through his head was how he was going to get more coke. He needed the relief.

"Rafe, I'm not going to fight with you. This is the withdrawal, not you." You state and manage to keep from bursting into tears.

"You don't care about me, you just care about feeling good about yourself!" He yells, "You just want to fix me! Well guess what you bitch? I don't need to be fucking saved!" He screamed before running off to your guest room and slamming the door.

You let out a shaky breath as a tear slips down your face. Seeing Rafe like this hurt so much. Your heart was being ripped to shreds from the inside out from seeing him like this.

But it would all be worth it. Rage would get clean and he would go back to the man you fell in love with. You had spent hours on Google and from what you learned the worst of the withdrawal would be over soon.

After an hour, Rafe begins to calm down. He realizes how fucked up the things he yelled at you were. The immense out of guilt in his stomach made him want to throw up.

He ran to the bathroom as the overwhelming wave of nausea over took him. After finishing vomiting and cleaning off his face (and quickly brushing his teeth), he needed to find you.

He left your guest room and went straight to your room. He knocked before opening the door to see you.

He shut the door behind him before crawling into bed with you. You wrap your arms around him as he cries.

"I'm the one who should be hugging you, I-I said all of those. Those horrible things about you," he cries into your shoulder.

You snake your hand under his shirt to run soothing circles on his back, "Rafe, it's okay." A few silent tears slip down your cheek as you soothe your lover.

"It's going to be okay Rafe," you say in an almost whisper.

He feels his eyes get heavy as his breathing slows before he falls asleep on your chest. You look down at his peaceful figure and smile. He would have a little peace for now.

He was getting paler and you could already tell he was losing weight. His eyes stayed droopy and unfocused, he never stopped fidgeting. It pained you to see him have to suffer like this.

But you would help him get through it.

[odder-oddish]

This isn't a political blog, but today it needs to be.

It feels wrong to say nothing, and while my thoughts about yesterday are scrambled from a night of anxieties and bad sleep, something is better than nothing.

Trump is bad. Like, worse than other republicans. He's got no clue how to run the country and is throwing shit against the wall to see what sticks. He tried to buy Greenland! He says what his supporters want to hear no matter how terrible it is, and his policies are based on hate, not on what is right. We know this. So why did we lose?

Nonvoters decide it every year. As of the time of writing, with about 87% of the vote counted, Trump has about 71 million. Harris 66 million. In 2020, Trump lost with 74 million and Biden won with 81 million. And I know votes are still being counted, but you see the difference here? The number of Trump votes hasn't changed much. But the votes going democrat sure have. So for the love of everything. Americans, ask your friends, family members, community members, whether or not they're voting. Help them find their polling place and register. Offer a ride if you can, look after their kids for an hour if you can. It's the same story every year, but this election compared to last just how bad it is. Nonvoters decide the election. It's as simple as that.

Nebraska went purple. My state, Nebraska, is one of two that splits it's district votes. 2 votes go to the winner of the state popular vote, but each of the three districts gets it's own vote. District 2 went red in 2016, blue in 2020, and stayed blue last night. So don't forget that even in the midwest, the "red sea" as I've called it before, we're still fighting. And Nebraskans are hurting right now. Protections for abortion lost. The independent Senator candidate lost to the long-term Republican. But district two went blue for president. And even in the other districts which haven't gone democrat in decades, my democratic friends still voted. Legalized medical marijuana and required businesses to offer paid sick leave, even when they knew their district would go red as always. So here's the deal, if we can still go out and vote in a deep red state, where the outcome has been all but certain since the start of the campaign, then there is no excuse for anyone not to vote.

It isn't over. It can't be. It's not enough to wait until 2028, or the 2026 midterms. Protest. Sign petitions. Stay involved. Call you senators, your governors, you state and local politicians. With Republicans in control of the Senate and potentially the House, things are going to get worse for so many of us. I know. But if we lose a fight, we try again. And again, and again, as long as it takes to make things right. This is a painful blow to all of us who value justice, freedom, safety. But don't let this be the one that knocks you down and keeps you there. Take a few days, take care of yourself, let yourself feel sad. But come back stronger. Fight like our lives depend on it.

Because they do

And please, remember to breathe. To sleep. To get outside and watch the sunrise. Don't lose yourself in this, you are not alone.

[thatsmutaccount]

FLUFFY/SMUTTY AGE DIFFERENCE ONE SHOT POLL!!!

Hey guys, what's up?

Apparently I can't stay away too much from writing and I really need to distract myself from all the things that are happening in my life right now, so... poll time!

In case you missed it on the last day of December I talked a bit about some ideas I had for a future One Shot, one that would be more on the fluffy side and that would not have any kind of follow up, but would stay as a single story only. It would still have at least one - maybe more - smut scene in it, but it would mainly focus on the main couple in it, how they come together and all that sappy stuff. Another important thing to point out is that the couple in question would have a bit of an age difference. Both off age - of course -, the younger one would be around 25 years old and the older one in his mid 40s,so more or less a 20 years difference.

Why? Idk, I just want an age difference ship, that's all.

I have three ideas for this fluffy story and I really need you guys help to decide which one would be the best to write about. Things like the age and the sexual position would be decided in a second poll after this one.

As a reminder the ideas are:

Superhero x Supervillain : no mindbreak, rape or other stuff like that, just an enemies to lover stuff;

King x Knight: set in a sort of fantasy AU - because I don't want to deal with making this historically accurate in any way - it's sorta a bodyguard to friends to lovers dynamic;

High School Teacher x Former Student: student who crushed hard on his teacher meets him after finishing college and the two fall in love with each other, no underage stuff or things like that, everything is between adults.

So, which one of this ideas do you like more? Again who is the older one and who is top/bottom would be decided with another poll after this one.

Let me know what you think and some feedbacks, until then have a nice weekend, see ya! ^.^

[reshiram]

You mentioned that Seofon means a lot to you and I just felt the need to say that, yeah, same

I used to be a pretty casual Granblue player who was mostly around for Belial and about a year ago I developed a strange fascination with Seofon, to a point that I got a bunch of my friends into him as well (including Shades, it's my fault). I was apprehensive about recruiting an Eternal, so I got Seofon from the freebie I got after Seeds of Redemption in early February

...I then recruited the other nine Eternals over the course of the next seven months

Just yesterday I transcended Seofon for the third time

Which meant clawing my way to victory against Ewiyar in a grueling solo battle, but I pushed through. For. For him

I used to be so casual and I've been getting nonstop Platinum every month since March. I've gotten so much stronger, especially in Wind. Can you guess why? It's all his fault

First perpetuity ring and everything

I used the free revans weapon we got from the anni event to get a Sette di Spade because I can't do revans raids yet and I've been using it ever since too -

He just gives me a lot of feelings

The friend group keeps making jokes that ever since he noticed my interest, we've been getting a lot of content for him as well, Heart of the Sun and Last Sumo Warrior and Relink and the Grandcypher Kitchen and his art for the orchestra concert and who knows what else

I also had to grind like crazy in Relink to unlock him immediately when I hadn't unlocked Proud quests yet so I spent hours farming Ahrimans, so I'm used to suffering for him at least

I just wanted to get that off my chest as I am the resident Most Normal Seofon Anon

Anyway, he's pretty great I guess (understatement of the century)

OH. YOU... So you're finally in my inbox hmm?~ heheh... yes i have seen you around, what a lovely pleasure it is to answer an ask from the fabled Most Normal Seofon Anon...

anyway... this is a beautiful story. like actually... seofon really is contagious 97% of the time... i really understand where you're coming from, because most of my seofon insanity is posted on Other Sites and such, which means Tumblr is Spared from half the things i say... but it made me... really happy? to see that people found out who seofon is because of me on those sites! like i ran a poll on twitter and a huge chunk of people said they found out about him because of me... so you anon, are my kindred, truly. i get you. you get me. 🌟

like people even call me an authority on him and send me posts with him and it makes me go Woah. I've had an impact on the people. they see this freak and think of me... let's spread the illness together...

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME, LET ME JUST. SAY. GOOD JOB WITH ALL OF THAT!!!!! CONGRATS ON STAGE 3 TRANSCENDENCE!!! YAY!!!!!! 💓 let's work on stages 4 + 5 together... ^__^ i'll think of you from now on when i work on 5*'ing the other eternals~

i get going crazy over him and doing crazy grinds over him. i actually logged my progress on his first stage last year, where you can see i went pretty insane in a short period of time. 😳 unfortunately due to my health i have this tendency of going Wild for a bit and then taking breaks. but hey. if it works...? (do not get me started on the evoker grind pre-rank 200. i fought 1300 six dragon raids in three days to get 3 sands... >_< but that's offtopic so---)

i'm over rank 200, so i get to visit seofon whenever i want (i also have my siero academy permanently stuck on the v2 battle with seofon)

BUT YEAAAAAAH THANKS FOR DROPPING BY SEOFON ANON!!!!! feel free to keep me updated on how you're doing~ maybe to inspire you i'll drop a silly picture of my seofon mochi kororin in a Situation next time you're in my inbox. for now i'll leave you with this video. which i think will really resonate with you.

lore about this video is that i just got out of the ER and just felt the need to make it. the hospital drugs told me to.

[dinogoofy]

This is my 2023 MK Halloween masterlist! All current prompts will be listed, including ones that haven't been polled yet! Two more prompts will eventually be added. (I just got to figure them out first!)

---

Gargoyle - Syzoth

There's a friendly Gargoyle on top of your apartment building. He's pretty handsome for a statue, and you've taken a liking to him. You sit against him sometimes while reading or doing some work. You're enjoying the ambiance of the rooftop during the full-moon in October, and lean over and kiss him on the shoulder. It's silly, you know, but you wanted to thank him for being such a good friend. All of a sudden, he starts to move. You're completely embarrassed, but he thinks it's funny. Turns out, he thinks you're pretty cute too!

----

Zombie - Havik

It's the zombie apocalypse, and you've spent months hiding in your college town. You've gotten very good at running from both people and zombies. The virus was strange, and developed in two strains. One was rumored to leave your mind intact, but increase your bloodlust and the need to feed on raw meat. The other would take everything. It would ravage your mind and cause you to become a mindless soldier, hellbent on spreading the virus.

One day, you run into a man in a black hospital mask. He's gruff, and unfriendly, but you can't just stand by and let him wander alone. There's safety in numbers after all. Eventually, you find out why he was run off from his previous group, why he goes out at night when he thinks you are asleep, and what lies underneath his mask.

----

You moved into an old house last year, and strange things have been happening every time you bring a new date home. Doors opening, dishes rattling. Thing is- they only seem to happen around your dates. After the last guy breaks three of his fingers due to a cabinet slamming shut in him, you contact a friend that sends over her cooky spiritual aunt. She does some weird shit with some animal bones, and your house gets struck by lightning. Somehow, this must have charged the energies in the house, because now you can actually see the poltergeist. Turns out, he's in love with you, and has been jealous of all the living men who You've brought home.

Haunted House - Bi-han

----

Scarecrow - Reiko

You're visiting your aunts farm to help out with the busy fall season. You're closing up the farm stand at the pumpkin patch when her farm dog runs off. You follow after her and into the corn maze. It's dark by the time you find her, attached to the leg of a moving scarecrow with a really bad attitude.

----

Black cat - Johnny Cage

There's been a stray black cat roaming around your neighborhood, and with October quickly approaching, you decide it's no longer safe to just let him roam. After coaxing it inside your home, you start to take care of the little guy. It's been about a month, and this cat has stuck to you like glue. He's loving and sweet and sleeps next to your head at night, and you really do plan on keeping him forever. After quite a few disastrous dates, you wander into ye ol' witch's shop desperate for advice. When you come home, there's a man in your house. Turns out, he's your cat. This man was cursed after flirting around with the wrong witches, and you somehow set him free.

----

Magic - Rain

Some asshole got a little too drunk at the Halloween celebration at the bar and decided to start "shipping" random folks. Problem is, they were casting legit spells. Some were love spells, others were lust spells, and you were one unlucky bitch. There's this one dick that hangs around your friend group, and you absolutely hate him, so of course you ended up magically cuffed to him by the wrist. It's a forced proximity spell, and there's only two ways to break it. To open your hearts to one another, or… to sleep with eachother.

----

Clown - Kung Lao

You're one of the costume and set designers for the local haunt, but unfortunately for you, it's themed after the movie "killer clowns from outer space" this year. You hate clowns, but you adore set design. The set and costumes turn out a little too good, and you accidentally end up punching a scare actor when he comes to ask you a question. You basically almost break his nose, and getting blood out of those masks is such a pain! You frantically tug it off of him, only to find out that he's unfortunately really attractive. Theres no way you have a shot with him now! Damn those masks!

----

Vampire- Kenshi

You're having fun with some friends at a halloween party in the woods, but you can only deal with so much madness before you need a break. You walk off to a quiet part of the woods to take a breather, and find out You're not the only one. You meet a really nice vampire, who happens to be really attractive. The two of you have a pleasant conversation about the party before deciding to walk back together. 

Unfortunately for the two of you, there's a big ass hole in the ground that neither of you can see in the dark. Well, that you couldn't see. He would have seen it if he wasn't looking at you the entire time.

The music is too loud for anyone to hear you, and your phones have no signal down there. How the hell are you going to get out?

----

Demon - Tomas Vrbada

You really want to go all out while decorating the house for Halloween this year, but you just moved into this town, and don't really know anyone who could help you out. So obviously, your first choice of action is to summon a Demon to help you out. Turns out, he's actually really nice. The two of you strike a bargain that he would help you decorate, and you would repay him with an action of equal weight. 

Well, he took a liking to you, and had been popping into your house every once in a while with more and more decorations so that he has an excuse to hang out with you. The week before Halloween, he asks you if his part of the bargain would simply include an invitation to your Halloween party with some plus ones included for his friends.