#my ability to accumulate Stuff needs to be studied

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

"how's the packing going"

and i still have a ways to go 😭

[fanficsandcodposts]

König X Reader (F) ~Nerdy Little Maus~ When the reader successfully gets into a Dark Web Forum and makes a name for herself, how unfortunate for her she's a little to trusting with her client. How fortunate for the client, König, though that she falls right into his trap for him to take his nerdy little maus, all for himself. (Daddy Issues, Sugar Daddy, Kidnapping, Corruption Kink, Size Kink, Female Reader) Ao3 Link No TW - Part 1

Life had not been kind to you when you were young. Your mother passed away tragically, leaving you to be cared for by your father, who took the bottle to cope with her death. You tried desperately to gain his favor by excelling in your studies, but sadly, his drinks kept all his attention.

You were taking a computer science class in high school and excelling at learning code. The teacher, Mr. Johnson, was impressed at your ability to pick up the new information so quickly. Mr. Johnson pulled you aside one day and handed you a flyer for an ethical hacking competition; he truly believed you had what it took to win. For a few weeks straight, you stayed after school studying with a small group of other students, learning everything Mr. Johnson knew to teach. On the Saturday of the competition, your father begrudgingly permitted you to go with Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Johnson, and a few other classmates as a group.

You won the competition that day and were awarded a $10,000 scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The joy you felt as you stood on stage accepting your scholarship brought tears of happiness to your eyes. It was a shame your father was too busy-(drunk) to see how you glowed with pride at the most significant achievement of your life thus far.

Now, you sat in a dingy studio apartment. Staring at your Dell laptop at overdue bill emails. Student loans, rent, and credit card payments all accumulated with no significant income to pay them. You graduated from MIT but at the cost of over $80,000 in student loans. You couldn't find a job in the computer science field; the only work you landed was as a bartender at the bar down the street from your place. At least you were good at making drinks; tips kept the lights on, but you were sure you'd never make it out of the financial ruin you sadly got yourself into.

Whenever the manager encountered computer issues, you were always the first one he'd call. One day, while on the clock, you sat in his office, updating his pc to Windows 10. He watched as you had no issues clicking here and there; it was almost infuriating because, to him, what you did so effortlessly would have taken him hours to achieve just step one.

"You know, sweetheart, you need to get out of here and get a job in the computer field." Mike, the manager, said gruffly as he leaned arms crossed on his office door frame.

"Would if I could, Mike. I've all about givin' up on that dream." You replied, still staring at the blue computer screen.

"Don't cut yourself short. You are young, beautiful, and way smarter than any of the other idiots I have working here. Bring in the most money, too. I would miss that, though, if ya leave."

You let out a half-hearted chuckle. "Yeah, well, I use my pretty privilege more than my fucking MIT degree. But it helped me pull a $100 tip last week from the bachelor party, though. So don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, Mike."

Mike stands quietly and clears his throat, waiting a brief moment before he speaks again.

"Don't tell anyone I told ya, alright? But my buddy David knows a kinda underground Dark Web group that is always looking for someone like you. You know, that knows how to do computer stuff." He talked as he gestured vaguely with his hands.

You turn your head to Mike with a curious, almost dumbfounded look. "I don't know, Mike. The Dark Web is a pretty scary place I've heard. But they have open computer science jobs?"

"Yeah, from what I could understand, it's like a job forum, I guess. They have special passwords and whatever, but if you get in, they post jobs for people to take up and work."

You couldn't help but chuckle at Mike, but you appreciated his thoughtfulness in thinking of you, so you decided to take the bait.

"Sure, you give me the info, and I'll look into it, boss man."

A few days later, you received an email from someone you guessed was Mike's buddy, David, on your day off and clicked the link that opened a new web browser to a black screen. You fiddled with the settings on your old Dell laptop while sitting cross-legged on your thrifted couch when you increased the brightness to see a small set of instructions.

"I'll be dammed." You spoke quietly as you began your journey to unlock the puzzles hidden in the code.

It took five hours to finally get to the last section that unlocked access to the Dark Web forum. Sure enough, there were jobs from all around the world posted. As quickly as your excitement grew, worry flooded over you. These were not regular hacking jobs. Some were as simple as finding passwords to ex-lovers' accounts, but others were looking for classified government data locked away behind high-security firewalls. The thought of possible jail time or worse was frightening, so you shut your laptop and went to shower before bed. That night, you couldn't sleep, primarily due to the fear of the unknown but also because some of the jobs posted had the amount of money they were offering when completed. The memory of a 10,000 dollar payout for a hacking job bounced around your mind, toying with you. It danced along in bitter-sweet harmony with the memory of the 10k scholarship you won so many years ago.

On your next day off, you entered the forum again. It was too hard to resist the temptation of a simple job paying your rent for the month. So you avoided the big, scary ones and stuck to hacking into wealthy civilian accounts. You created an online persona account that allows the clients to send money and messages as needed. You called yourself "Cookie," a play on Cookie pop-ups for advertisers to gather your online information. Soon, you grew a small following and became recognized for your impressive hacking abilities and Trojan Virus creations. You told yourself repeatedly you were only ruining wealthy people's lives. What is a million dollars stolen from a billionaire anyway? It only took eight months to pay back almost all your debts. You've paid your rent up, no more credit card bills, and you've paid $5,000 into your student loan debts. You felt on top of the world and proud of your mischievous achievements.

It had been a long shift at the bar, and you entered your tiny apartment completely exhausted. You reheated some leftovers and took your regular seat on the couch. You open your laptop to see a new message on your Dark Web account.

"Hallo, Cookie. I am very impressed by your work. Care to look at a job I think you would be perfect for?"

You stared at the message as your curiosity peaked. You click on the stranger's profile to learn more about the mysterious sender. There is no profile picture, but in a small bio, the sender had "Austria" with a cute little red and white flag. They identified themselves as male, and his username was "TheKingCol."

That's interesting, you thought. You haven't worked with many international clients thus far. Your eyes began to cross as exhaustion set in deep in your bones. So, you decided to pick back up with the stranger tomorrow after sending him a message.

"Thank you for your message; yes, I would like to speak further with you. Let's chat more tomorrow."

You woke up later than usual with the sun high in the sky, peeking through your closed curtains. You stretched your body, and after a trip to the bathroom, you returned to your laptop. A new message was waiting for you, and you clicked it open to read. It was a Word Document link with what the client needed. He needed a Trojan Virus, and it had to be discreet so that the victim downloading it wouldn't know it was a fake link.

"That's not too bad." You thought to yourself.

You had created multiple Trojans up to this point, but it helps tremendously if you know what would make the victim unsuspecting to download the disguised Trojan.

"Hello again. I received your instructions, but I would like to discuss more details needed to create the perfect Trojan you are looking for, if possible."

You sent the message and waited a few minutes before your stomach began to growl. You stood up and began to rummage through your fridge for anything you could make to resemble breakfast and settled on making two fried eggs and a buttered piece of toast.

Once you ate your food, you returned to your seat to see another message had come through.

"Ja, may I call you to discuss details?"

You stared at the email, re-reading it. You quickly googled what language is spoken in Austria, and it said that mainly German is spoken. "He must not be a native English speaker," you thought, but that shouldn't be a problem. You, however, only knew English and maybe one or two words in Spanish.

"I'm sorry, I do not make phone calls or talk to clients outside the forum." You sent the message back and waited while you took sips of coffee from your favorite mug.

"Ah, but can't you make an exception for me? I understand your concern, little maus. I see you are a woman, no? Your father taught you well not to trust strangers on the internet."

You scoffed out loud at his message, placed your mug on the coffee table in front of you, and typed him back before thinking.

"Let's be clear that my Father has never done shit for me, first of all." You instantly regretted the message sent, normally you would write messages but always caught them before you tapped the enter button. There is no way to unsend a message like on Facebook. Airing out such dirty laundry to a client was entirely uncalled for and absolutely embarrassing.

"I'm sorry, that was very unprofessional of me. Please ignore that comment." You sent another message as quickly as you could type it. A few agonizing minutes later, you received a response.

"Is that so? A woman needs a supportive father to look after her, you know. No need to apologize Liebling. Here is my phone number; please call me if you decide to proceed. I will not discuss any more details by message."

That was the last message he sent before his profile was marked as "offline."

A day later, you paced around your living room. You held your phone tightly in your right hand. There was something about what he said that stuck with you long after you read it. Why on earth did you let your daddy's issues slip through to a prospective client? Embarrassment washed over you all over again, and soon enough, the anxiety of calling a client outside the forum was an afterthought. Before you knew it, you had typed in the number and hit the green call button.

The phone connected, but on the other side of the receiver was quiet.

"Hello?" You called out. "It's um, Cookie, from the forum." A second passed before you heard a voice from the other end.

"Ah, my little maus, so happy you've finally called."

[merkerlerspeaks]

This past long while it's been hard for me to determine what is "This upsets you because it's an upsetting truth" and "This upsets you because it is wrong and unbiblical" and only in regards to the things my brother & sister in law say. I used to be much more confident in my being able to say what was right and wrong, biblical and unbiblical. But at some point I started questioning myself. Questioning my ability to interpret things correctly. And I could feel confident about it in my head but the moment I go to talk about it, even things I am sure I know the accuracy of, I falter. I pause. I wonder 'is this actually right?' even if it's something I have directly read from the Bible multiple times.

Throughout my life with everything I have just always had a general knowledge of stuff I accumulate over time without actually having knowledge on directly how to source the things I know. So I can know if something is Biblical or not and have zero idea where to cite it in scripture.

And the thing is that reading the Bible never makes me angry. There are things I question the how's and whys on. Why was it made this way? Why does it work this way? Why would an Almighty All-powerful God design something Like This? Why is this specifically what Is Good? A variety of things like that, but it is almost never out of anger. It's out of curiosity. There are things that I misinterpret and have to read a few times to comprehend and understand. But it never makes me angry.

Hearing the Gospel has never in my life made me angry. It's never confused me to the point I'd doubt God overall. So why does it specifically when Im hearing things from them that is, supposedly, Biblical?

I've done a lot of growing over the years, some beliefs have changed, and I am open to being wrong because I am a human being and sometimes we do and say things that are just incorrect. But I have to wonder what would be going wrong with the message and delivery of something truly Gospel, when I have never reacted to the Gospel in anger before? I've been exposed too it my entire life.

My overall conclusion is that I need to delve back into reading my Bible more again, because I have always thrived on independent study (no this is not me rejecting fellowship), need to rebuild my confidence in Gospel knowledge, and determine if I am just being a Big Baby not Hearing What I Want To Hear or if what I have been hearing lately is legitimately WRONG (I suspect it is and if it isn't then the delivery from the messengers could use a lot of work)

[thequietmanno1]

TheLreads, Vigilantes ch 120, Replies Part 1

1) “What was that? Was that… the bell? Nope, it wasn’t. The fight has not ended yet, and I’m ready to take all the punches coming my way. Especially after the force ghosts showing up, I’ve improved my defenses, I’m ready. So, get ready for Chapter 120: Rootin'for ya!”-  I’m also not gonna throw in the towel until this series is finished, procrastination or not!

2) “Koichi has evolved from a simple cockroach to a flying cockroach, the most terrifying of them all

I’ve just realized how many bug comparisons there is in this series. Cockroaches, bees, mantis, grasshoppers…”-And yet the all-important spider is still copyrighted. Marvel Lawyers don’t mess around. 3) “Now, are you really sure about your no-killing rule Koichi? Are you really sure about it?”- Can’t kill what was already dead by this point. 4) “I think you’re exaggerating a bit there. I wouldn’t call it “passionate” per see, mostly because we’re too far deep into bullshit territory to even use the power of heart.”- Frankly though? Quirks do have an element of emotional charge to them, becoming stronger and more varied the more motivated and driven the host’s willpower is, shaping their unique powers more to suit their desires. It’s a gradual thing in other people, who have to spend lifetimes worth of effort slowly moulding their bodies to handle the changes the Quirks go through, but with AFO and the Nomus, we see that process happen quicker.

It’s why the High-Ends are more dangerous than the lower-ranked ones- not only are they smarter, they can bring their emotions to bare in fighting the heroes. Hell, this “emotional” power-up is exactly what we’ve seen in action with the Leage’s various power-ups against the MLA, when logically they shouldn’t have been able to pull those power-ups off after months of non-stop fighting against machia.

5) “Wow AfO, it’s almost like you shouldn’t have given him the only copy of Overclock, right? You could’ve studied it more in depth, knowing about all this untapped potential.”- AFO doesn’t just mean Overclock, he means every Quirk. BothKoichi and Nomura’s Quirks are going beyond their supposed limitations and evolving to become basically entirely new powers based on some fundamental aspect of a Quirk’s very makeup, how it interacts with the personality hosting the power. If AFO could tap into that, with all the Quirks he’d stockpiled, he’d be unstoppable beyond even OFA’s ability to grow and adapt beyond its original existence as a mere stockpiling power – in fact, OFA can evolve because it can do what he and his power alone cannot, assimilate with other powers to become a greater whole, whereas AFO merely as a disjointed set of accumulated powers that need specific control to work in devastating tandem 6) “Going Plus ultra of course. Why people don’t use Plus ultra anymore? I miss people saying plus ultra.”- Of course, the issue is, AFO fundamentally can’t go Plus Ultra- he just doesn’t get that stuff at all, how the emotional support of the masses can buoy up somebody’s spirits to keep going beyond what their body can handle against helpless odds, the very thing that undid him in his second fight with All Might. However, if he has a protégée who does have the capacity to emotionally power himself beyond his limitations, who can enhance his core power with raw emotional strength, then all he’s got to do is figure out a means of stealing that capacity for himself…. 7) “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW

ARE YOU TAKING THE PISS”- At this point, I’m assuming that Knuckles developed the Quirk of “narrative convenience” enabling him to do whatever action is achievable as befits the author’s intentions, no matter the internal logic of the story. He wants to go beyond being a ghost to the boy he’s got a close emotional connection to and haunt the guy he’s got nothing but hate for? Sure, why not, anything’s possible. (Vigilantes ch 71) 8) “AND NOT ONLY THAT, HE`S PLAYING FOR BOTH SIDES, NOW HE`S THE IMAGINARY GHOST OF KNUCKLEDUSTER, HAUNTING THE MEMORIES OF POP WHILE SHE COOKS”- And now his actual ghost is haunting Koichi’s current mind, along with AFO’s, somehow. (Vigilantes ch 71) 9) “FUCK`S SAKE, NOW HE REALLY IS PLAYING FOR BOTH SIDES, HELPING BOTH McBEE AND POP IN THEIR MINDS. GODDAMMIT KNUCKLE CAN YOU JUST GO BACK TO  THE STORE SINCE YOU REFUSE TO BE A PRESENT CHARACTER IN THE CURRENT DAY?”- Whilst AFO was haunting No:6’s under the disguise of O’clock, now the original deal is also haunting his pupil’s consciousness, providing him advice and self-support to draw greater power out of him at a time of crisis, to bring forth Koichi’s full potential when he needs it most. Knuckleduster might not fight AFO directly in any way during this series, but in a sense, this final battle between Koichi and 6 is also a duel between him and AFO by proxy, two mentors acting through their pupils, but with different results and ambitions in mind. (vigilantes ch 112) 10) “But I doubt that. Like Furuhashi would kill his golden child.”- Let’s file this under “mostly dead”, which is as close as Furuhashi will allow Knuckles to get to shuffling off the mortal coil. 11) “Damn Koichi. Shame you aren’t totally invulnerable to damage, all this plasma would hurt you if that wasn’t the case innit”- Koichi at this point is a short-range ballistic missile, capable of projecting himself with immense force in any direction and furthermore adding additional force outwards with every punch he throws.

12) “ALSO DID KNUCKLES GHOST JUST SHOWED UP TO SHIT TALK AFO?!????”- When you’re so hated even the dead won’t rest in their graves until they’re satisfied you’ve been told how badly you suck…. 13) “are you even surprised that he pulled some bullshit?

also, what the fuck was that scene with AfO?!????

“- That scene was some bullshit pretty much the same as these new powers Nomura’s pulling off. 14) “gonna slap you like a fly. unfortunately he forgot you’re actually a cockroach”- Tough exoskeleton, difficult to truly crush. 15) “Oh looking good for someone who was just crushed between two walls of plasma. You know how hot plasma can get?”- His full-body shield (that I assume he has on right now to increase his durability and ability to move at all after these bone-breaking injuries) is putting in work. @thelreads

[cyoc49]

Model Student

The clock was at 9:55 as I walked into my World History lecture. There were several students around me who had arrived early and were already set up. I made my way to one of the seats, got my stuff out, and at 10 AM sharp Prof. Elwyn began to lecture. I’ll admit, for a gen ed history professor, he had made these first few weeks of class pretty enjoyable. He was the type of guy who knew a lot of stuff about the history of the world, and was eager to share his accumulated knowledge with us. The type of professor who almost seemed on another level with his smarts. At the very least, he made taking history as a college junior bearable.

“Today, class, we’ll be talking about the earliest days of civilization,” he began, “the time known as ‘Before the Current Era’. What’s interesting about this period is that due to the relative lack of artefacts and documents, historians have to be creative in how they construct understandings of what the people of these times were like. This is why studying history is so important: those who truly understand history can control the narrative of how humans lived. It’s almost as if-”

Prof. Elwyn’s lecture was then interrupted, as it had been the last few weeks, as Manny strolled in ten minutes late and dropped into the back of the classroom, playing music on his phone and slurping on the end of a Big Gulp soda.

Manny and I were in the same grade, and throughout my time here he had always been a pretty bad student. He was always late to class (on those days when he attended), and I don’t think I had ever seen him do homework. He preferred to hang out with his group of friends, usually going out to the bar rather than doing any kind of studying.

He didn’t bother me too much (it wasn’t my tuition he was wasting, after all), but when he got in the way of professors doing their job like today, it was hard to ignore how much of a jackass he was.

Prof. Elwyn sighed as Manny came in, and simply stared at him while he caused this scene. After a few moments, Prof. Elwyn calmly but firmly asked “Manny, please turn off that music.” Manny obliged, but took his sweet time to hit pause.

Prof. Elwyn continued “This is the third time this week you’ve arrived late and caused a scene. You’re interfering with your fellow students’ ability to learn, and that’s not fair to them. If you’re going to remain in this class, I’m going to need to see improvement in your behavior.”

Manny scoffed, putting his feet up on the desk. “Dude, you really think this class is important enough for you to be demanding shit from me? This is a fucking gen ed, nobody wants to be here. Let me sit back, get my C, and go on with my day.”

One of the students closer to the front spoke up “He’s always been like this, Professor, I’m sorry.”

“Hey, shut up!” Manny angrily retorted.

Prof. Elywn let out another sigh at Manny’s reaction “I really do see the makings of a great student in you, if you actually tried. If only your history had been different.”

And without saying another word, Prof Elwyn raised his right hand and snapped.

�� The clock was at 9:55 as I walked into my World History lecture. There were several students around me who had arrived early and were already set up. One of them, currently at the front of the class turning in his homework, was Manuel. As I settled into my seat, I noticed he seemed to be having a good-natured conversation with the professor about something relating to Ancient Egypt. That didn’t surprise me; Manuel and I had been going to school together for 3 years, and he had to be one of the smartest and hardest working guys on campus. You pretty much had to in order to be an International Business and Finance double major like he was. It was clear he took college a lot more seriously than half the people here. To be fair, you could probably guess that just by looking at him: he dressed nicely for class every single day. I don’t think I had ever seen him without a collared shirt and dress pants. His hair was always combed nicely and he almost always had a textbook or two in hand.

We weren’t close friends, but we were friendly. He was nice to pretty much everyone, always willing to share answers and help people learn the material. He did seem like he had a bit of a stick up his ass sometimes, but that was just to do with how seriously he took school. Every time we were paired up for a group project, I knew we would get an A. That was reason enough to like him.

“I finished that book you recommended about the pharaohs of the Fourth Dynasty. I had never learned about Menkaure like that before!” I heard Manuel say to Prof. Elwyn.

“Well I’m glad you enjoyed it! If you’re interested in the rest of the series, stop by my office. I have a few of the books and you’re more than welcome to borrow them.” Prof. Elwyn responded.

“Will do!” Manuel beamed. He noticed the clock had hit 10:00, and he returned to his seat in the front row with his notebook set up, including no fewer than five different colored highlighters.

“Today, class,  we’ll be talking about the earliest days of civilization,” Prof. Elwyn began his lecture, “the time known as ‘Before the Current Era’. And studying this period is one of my favorite things to do, because historians use such creative methods to tell the story ancient civilizations. Those who truly understand history can control the narrative of how these people lived.”

He gave us all a knowing smile “And believe me, that’s quite the power to have.”

He opened a PowerPoint and continued on with the lecture. I intermittently took notes, trying to keep up as best I could. If nothing else, I knew I could ask Manuel for his notes after class. I had seen that guy’s notebook before, and Jesus. It could probably qualify as an encyclopedia. It was nice having at least one good student in the classroom.

[azurelyy]

Shikamaru is expecting to teach a remedial Ninjutsu class, but shows up only to find Ino waiting for him in the front benches... it seems like she actually *wants* to improve her Ninjutsu, but what else could be going on?

Hello, Nonnie! This was so fun to write - thank you very much for the request. I included the stuff from our PMs - I really hope you enjoy~!

This turned more into a one-shot, lol, so my bad. As always, I apologize for the length.

Title: Classroom Connection 🍋

Pairing: ShikaIno (Mentions: Sai, Temari, & Kakashi).

Warnings: NSFW, rimming, face sitting, 'daddy' kink, minor heartache, smoking (nicotine), loss of control, cookie monster!shikamaru, oral (m!receiving/f!receiving)

Word Count: 7k

pic credit.

This day was turning out to be such a drag. Shikamaru sprinted through the rain, avoiding the various puddles that had accumulated on the cobblestone pathways, as he made his way towards the classroom. Days like today really made him regret telling Kakashi to sign him up as the teacher for the summer jutsu lessons. He wasn’t even a good teacher. Shikamaru had always been the type of person who learned by doing. It made him feel like an asshole, but the truth was, he didn’t have to work hard at things in order to pick them up. He needed only to practice something once and he immediately found his own rhythm, quickly grasping the concept and moving onto the next. People chalked his lack of training up to laziness, and it was much too troublesome for him to explain to them that he didn’t need to practice or study, that he could just simply… do it. 

People like Ino and Choji weren’t so lucky. Shikamaru never tried to make them feel bad about this - he knew his situation was quite unique, and he wasn’t the type to mock others just because they weren’t as quick to learn a new skill as he was - often, he was the one who would actually help them study their abilities, allowing them to use him as a guinea pig. He remembered the extreme nausea that he felt the first time Ino nailed her Mind Transfer Jutsu; remembered how it felt like he had just been shot point-blank in the chest as his mind went black and he awoke in Ino’s soft embrace, her crystal clear bell voice screaming profanities and exclamations of joy as he was jostled awake and immediately writhed out of her grasp to hurl all over the ground next to her.

That was the same day he had suggested she might consider training to be a med-nin, because afterwards, she felt so bad that she doted on him insufferably. He had never told her, but he often thought back to the way her slender fingers felt as they caressed his hair out of his face, the way her floral perfume sent his mind into a spiral of daisies and lust, how her voice lulled him into a comforting trance despite him puking his guts out. He could tell by the way her small hand rubbed circles across his shoulder blades that she was a natural caregiver.

“Thanks, Ino,” he husked as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, twisting his neck to look at her. “You’re really good at this stuff, and your chakra control is excellent. Maybe I’m dealing with a future med-nin here.” He smiled at her as she looked down at him, her blue eyes shining like brilliant diamonds.

Her cheeks tinted pink as she pulled away from him and twisted the end of her platinum-blonde ponytail between her fingers. “What? Me? No way!” She scoffed. “I could never do that! I only helped you because I felt bad - I mean, I was the reason for it, after all. But don’t expect me to do it again!” 

Shikamaru smiled at the memory as he pulled the entrance door open and was greeted by the warm interior of the school. He shook his head lightly, raindrops spraying around, as he wiped his feet on the entryway mat. He set his backpack down on a bench and took out the paper that had his assignment for the day written onto it: Classroom 2 - Chakra Control. He folded the paper back up and slipped his bag back on as he swiftly walked through the hallowed halls, reflecting back on his time at the Academy. 

He hoped the next generation wouldn’t have to endure the suffering he and his fellow comrades had. This world deserved some peace, but it was still important for the students to become great ninja - hopefully, they would never have to use their skills for war, but then again, he had never expected too, either. Maybe teaching wasn’t the worst idea. He did always love being there to witness the moment a new jutsu clicked in someone’s head; when their eyes lit up and their mouth formed into a giant grin as they hooped and hollered about their success. There were worse ways he could spend his day.

He opened the classroom door and was greeted with… no one? He looked around, confused, as he walked over behind the desk and put his backpack down on the chair. Do I have the wrong classroom? He thought, walking back to the door to check the number etched to the side of the wall: Classroom 2. Weird.

He sighed and leaned against the blackboard, placing his hands in his pockets. He was about three minutes early, so maybe this was a small class and the rain slowed them down. Shikamaru decided that waiting until ten past would be the decent thing to do and moved over to sit on the desk nonchalantly. He hated making people feel bad, and since the weather was shitty today, he was going to cut the kids some slack. The last thing he wanted was to have someone like Naruto who played pranks on him constantly, so the more relaxed he could appear to the students, the better. 

At :02, the door at the far back of the classroom opened and Shikamaru pretended to be writing something down as the student took a seat. Just one so far. This is kind of awkward. Shikamaru didn’t like groups, but in a classroom setting, 1:1’s were always challenging for him. He felt like he had to be really engaging and it sort of tolled on his mental wellbeing. At least in groups, kids could bounce ideas off each other. This kid only had him - at least, for now. 

He felt awkward not addressing them but moved to write Chakra Control on the blackboard in hopes that more students would arrive and his heart would stop pounding in his chest, but a painfully slow ‘l’ later, and his time was up. He turned around and cleared his throat as his eyes connected onto a very familiar blonde ponytail.

“Ino?” He asked dumbly. 

She was scribbling something into her notebook, the sound of her name made her shoulder tense slightly as her ice blue eyes found him. “Hey, Shika!” She chirped. “It… might just be me. Sorry.”

Shikamaru threw her a small grin and shook his head. “That’s alright, but…” Would asking ‘why’ be considered rude? Ino was a great med-nin. She had some of the best chakra control out of anyone he knew, being a Yamanaka, so why this class?

As always, Ino was quick-witted and responded to his unspoken question. Her ability to predict his thoughts was sort of uncanny. “I like to take a chakra control course annually, for two reasons: 1. I like seeing the new kids and predicting who I think would make good apprentices, and 2. I learn something new from every teacher. It’s really fascinating, you know? Everyone’s chakra control technique is different, and-” 

Shikamaru watched her eyes light up with excitement and her body language shift from being downturned to sitting fully upright, her arms flailing around wildly as she explained herself to him. He gave her a half smirk as he placed one foot onto the wall, leaning his back against the chalkboard and placing his hands into his front pockets lazily. 

Ino had always talked a lot. Shikamaru didn’t really mind, since he never really had much to say, and he eventually even enjoyed listening to her. Of course, he would never tell her that for fear of boosting her already overflowing ego, but it was the truth. He actually had always liked listening to her talk, even way back when they were kids. 

He feigned disengagement or contemptment, but one time, when they had first been assigned on Team Ten together, Ino had been rattling on about how excited she was that she was paired with him. Shikamaru, because he was a total idiot when it came to socializing - and women, in fact, he was still an idiot when it came to those two things - had decided to yawn and tell her that she talked too much. Not only did this result in him getting smacked upside the head and berated into oblivion, but Ino stopped talking as much around him for a long time, and he actually felt… empty.

“Hey,” he had uncannily approached her after a rather rigorous training exercise one fall evening and he could tell she was taken aback by the way her eyes widened and she teetered away from him.

She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder, the tip of it swinging against his forearm and tickling him. “What?” She huffed, annoyed.

“Well-” Shikamaru clasped his hands behind his head. “I wanted to… say sorry. I was sort of a jerk back when we were first assigned together. I’m excited to be on your team too. No hard feelings?”

Ino gaped at him, her jaw hung slightly ajar, as she fiddled with her ponytail awkwardly. A cute quirk of hers that made Shikamaru’s heart flutter every time she did it. “Is that so?” She grinned, her pearl white teeth sparkling in the fading sunlight. “How are you gonna make it up to me?”

Shikamaru sighed and turned his nose upwards, facing away from her. “We can hang out around here together… if you want. I know a nice spot to watch the sunset at this hour, it’s not too far…” he peeked over at her through the corner of his eye and saw her beaming grin grow even wider.

“I guess I could spare some time for you,” she casually clasped her hands together and stretched her arms above her head. “Since you practically begged me, and all!”

“SHIKAMARU!” Ino’s voice cut through his memory like a knife, slicing it in two. Shikamaru blinked rapidly and glanced over at her, her arms now crossed over her chest. She had moved down to the floor and was now standing just a few feet away, fuming. 

“Shit, sorry,” he said. “I spaced out.”

“Like I said,'' Ino turned and started walking back up the stairs. “I can just leave. I don’t want to waste your time. I’ll get another class when there’s more students.”

“No!” He was surprised by the harshness of his tone as Ino twisted around, her pupils dilated. “I mean, it’s okay. I planned to be here for the day anyway.”

Her eyes softened and Shikamaru felt his stomach flip upside down as she shrugged at him, her head lightly tipping to the side. She shook her head as light blonde strands of hair swayed around her face. 

“No, Shika… I don’t think it’s a good idea.” Her voice was soft as velvet. She smiled at him - the same sad smile she had been giving him ever since their mutual breakup a few years ago - and his heart broke in two all over again. Shikamaru missed Ino’s typical smile, the one that sent his heart into overdrive and turned his brain into goo. He missed holding her hand. He missed the smell of her perfume lingering on his clothes after he spent the day with her. He missed waking up next to her, seeing how the morning sun highlighted her hair in golden hues and hugged her pale body as she sprawled out across the bed, leaving him with no space of his own.

“Why not?” He took a step closer to her as she mirrored one back, clasping her hands behind her back as she clenched her lower lip between her teeth. 

“Because-” she turned away and stormed up the stairs. “Shika, you know why.” 

Because I’m an asshole, he thought. Because I couldn’t open myself up to you after Asuma died. Because my father’s death pulled me apart and I didn’t want you to sew me together, so I pushed you away. Because when you tried to help, I told you to leave me alone. Because when you told me you loved me and I was hurting you, I told you that I was sorry, but that love wasn’t something I was looking for.

“I heard about you and Sai,” Shikamaru winced as soon as the words toppled out. He saw her shoulder slump as Ino stood in front of the back exit, her hand hesitating above the doorknob. “I’m sorry.”

Ino’s mind raced into a million different directions. Sai crying into her shoulder, begging forgiveness. Her trembling hands as she tried to comfort him, her stomach twisting into an untangleable knot at his confession. It wasn’t his fault, she had thought. How was he to know? She carried a heavy weight in her heart for months afterwards, telling herself that she was to blame. She practically groveled at his feet after her break-up with Shikamaru, forcing his hand and telling him all the steps to take. 

Sai was an experiment, a puppet used for other people’s personal gains. She never expected to be one of those people - someone who used him - but she had been. She had told him what to say. She told him what to think. She told him how dates were supposed to work. 

“This,” Ino had said, grabbing his hands and placing them onto her hips, “Is when you tell me I’m pretty and then kiss me.”

So, really, when he confessed to her, she had no one to blame but her own, selfish self. It still hurt. It still broke her. But she accepted it. How could she not, when he had finally found himself? 

“I still love you,” he admitted, finally pulling away to face her. “But I just… I prefer men. I always have. It’s not fair to you for me to… stay.”

“It’s alright, Sai.” Ino smiled at him when she realized it was true - that it was, really, alright. “Just make sure to invite me to the wedding. I know you’ll have a good one.”

Shikamaru walked up behind her, the air around her shifting as the warmth of his body radiated over her like a comforting blanket that she wanted to pull herself into. She missed him. She hated herself for it, but she always had missed him. Even when she was with Sai, she missed him. At least she knew why now, and that knowledge made her feel a bit better about keeping her feelings from Sai, but she still hated herself for it. Shikamaru was someone who she had loved her whole life, who she had grown to love and respect more than words could explain, and he never felt the same. 

“Don’t,” she replied coolly. “I don’t want to hear it from you.”

“Hear what?” Shikamaru reached for her against his better judgment, his body moving on instinct against his mind. “I really am sorry. When I heard about it, I wanted to talk to you, but...”

“He was always controlled by others - his whole life,” Ino’s hand fell to her side as she clenched it. Her voice quivered. “And so, when he finally could think freely… He-” she hiccuped and crossed her arms over her chest as her shoulders started to shake. Shikamaru stood behind her, wanting to hold her but fully aware that Ino would likely punch him in the face if he tried, so he instead grazed his hand over her shoulder, gentle as a lamb, waiting for her reaction. 

Ino tensed up at first, her body going fully rigid, before she eased into his touch and swirled around, clenched palms resting on his chest as her head fell onto them and she cried. Shikamaru, caught off guard, left his hands at his side while Ino wept. 

“He didn’t know,” she sobbed. “It’s not his fault! Society is so fucked up. I’m happy for him - I am. I’m glad he trusted me enough to tell me.” 

Shikamaru’s brain sent warning signals down his spine as he wrapped his arms around Ino and embraced her, his hand rubbing her beautiful hair as the other rested onto the small of her back. She moved her fists and let her head fall fully into his chest as she gripped onto his upper back and pulled him closer into her, hot tears seeping into the front of his shirt. 

“Ino-”

“Why am I so unlovable?” The words barely registered in Shikamaru’s mind, her voice trembling and small. He felt like he had just been punched in the gut as he felt tears well in his eyes and he tightened his grip around her.

“You’re not unlovable, don’t be an idiot.” He kissed the top of her head and heard her small giggle through the weeping. It was a strangled sound devoid of any humor, but it was sweet to his ears. He hadn’t heard her laugh at anything he had said in so long; she hadn’t allowed herself to show him any vulnerability for years, and yet here she was, crying into him and opening up about her ex. He wanted to bottle this moment up and keep it forever.

“Says the guy who couldn’t love me,” she grumbled, picking herself up. Shit, here it comes. She pulled back and stared up at him, her mascara streaming down her face and raccooning her eyes. “Don’t blame you, when I look like this.” 

She chuckled, a sad sound that made her feel pathetic and small. Shikamaru examined her like a newly discovered fossil, his eyebrows knit together tightly and his mouth formed into a thin line. His grip was so tight around her she felt like he might suffocate her.

“Ow, Shika,” she tried to pull away but he didn’t let go, only loosened his grip.

“Sorry,” he murmured, inching his face closer to her. She could smell the smoke on his breath, feel the warmth tickling her nose as she tilted her head to the side and leaned forward. Don’t do it, Yamanaka. She thought. Don’t let him do this to you again. 

Ino licked her glossy lips and trembled in his arms as she leaned forward, her pretty fingernails lightly sinking into the fabric at the back of his shirt and causing goosebumps to form under their touch. Ino had always held Shikamaru’s heart hostage. She was a force of nature, pulling him in like a riptide. No matter how hard he tried to avoid it, how desperately he tried to claw his way out from her hold over him, she always overpowered him. 

It didn’t take long for them to get together after Asuma’s death. It was a moment of vulnerability for both of them, but Shikamaru had later learned the extent of her feelings, and that is what had scared him away. He couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that someone so perfect, someone so full of beauty and power, could love him. He convinced himself that she deserved better, despite her protests. She had insisted that she’d loved him since childhood, that she knew there was no one else for her. 

“Ino, we’re young,” he had said. “You’ve gotta explore your options.”

“I don’t want that!” she screamed, her hair pulled into a messy bun on top of her head, her body wrapped in his shirt as she pulled on her lace underwear. “But maybe you do. I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

“Who?” He asked, honestly not knowing who she meant. His whole life, he only had eyes for Ino. He would never tell her that, of course - much to his detriment, he later learned. He really needed to work on being honest.

“Temari,” she spat, throwing his shirt off and pulling on her tank top. “If you want to sample other women, then by all means, be my guest. I don’t think this has been working out anyway.”

Shikamaru’s heart pounded in his chest, his hands shaking slightly as he reached for his lighter and flicked it open. “W-What are you saying?” He tried to sound nonchalant as he continued fiddling with the lighter; a nervous habit. 

“You said it yourself.” She shoved her skirt on and grabbed her purse. “You aren’t looking for love, right? Well I am. And I found it. But it’s obvious you haven’t.”

Everything in his body was telling him to scream I love you to her. To pull her into his arms and hold onto her until their bodies melted together. His hands were shaking as he fumbled a cigarette out of the pouch, placing it between his lips as he lit it. “I guess you’re right,” he lied. “I just… can’t, right now.” 

Without another word, she left his bedroom, slamming the door behind her. Luckily for him, she did eventually talk to him again - their bond was too strong for either of them to sever it completely - but it was different. She was closed off. She talked less. It hurt him in a way nothing else ever had - more than the death of his Sensei and father, more than any battle wound - pain coursed through his veins and into his soul. Every day he woke up was a nightmare, the routine mindless and boring, relief only coming with sleep. His life was sucked away into a blackhole where no light and no joy could find him. He was blank; he was nothing. 

“You’re beautiful, Ino,” he finally said, his nose brushing against hers. “You know you are.” 

They each took in a shaky breath as their lips ghosted over each other. Ino spoke softly. “We can’t do this.”

“Can’t?” Shikamaru questioned, their mouths practically pushing against each other now. “Or don’t?” He smirked as he pulled away from her, just barely, and she followed after him like a shadow. 

“I-” she gulped down her anxiety. “I want this.” Her nails dug deeper into his shirt and she stared into his dark eyes, a mixture of curiosity and anguish lingering in her gaze. “But we shouldn’t-”

“Ino,” Shikamaru whispered, pressing his lips onto hers. The kiss was chaste and light, granting Ino enough room to pull away if she wanted. She didn’t. Shikamaru pulled away, his mouth phantoming over hers. “You talk too much.” 

Ino pushed her lips onto his, licking his bottom lip as she moaned gently. He twisted his fingers into her soft hair as electricity sparked up his spine and his pulse raced madly. Her lips were soft and warm, greeting him kindly like an old friend, as he explored her mouth, swirling his tongue around hers. He moved his hand down the small of her back as she hooked her leg around his waist and he gripped underneath her thigh, hoisting her up.

Shallow breathing and banging hearts echoed throughout the large, empty classroom as they poured their emotions into each other. The room felt as though it was spinning around them as Shikamaru tugged Ino’s hair tie out, her long hair embracing her body, her cherry shampoo carrying him to a field filled with blooming sakura blossom trees. Somehow, he had picked her up and pinned her against the wall, both her legs wrapped around his middle as she clawed at his back and he licked the shell of her ear. 

Shikamaru utilized his shadow possession jutsu to lock both doors as he continued ravishing Ino’s neck with his mouth, heat rushing where he branded her. She released his hair from its ponytail, allowing it to tickle her shoulders, as she gripped tightly into his dark locks and whispered profanities into the air. She felt hands move their way up under her shirt and she gasped when she realized they were his shadows. They had a distinct humanlike quality to them as they fondled her chest over her bra, drawing out groans of pleasure. 

“The desk,” she managed to huff. “Put me on the desk.” 

“No,” Shikamaru growled, sliding her down with him to the floor. He tore off her indigo tank top as she lifted his shirt, both pieces of clothes tossed to the wayside as Shikamaru slid his finger underneath the waist of her skirt and panties. He slowly pulled both pieces of clothing down her thighs as her legs stretched out flat to the floor, shadow hands unclasped her bra as it toppled down her front, his hot mouth trailing across her chest until he had to fully pull back to toss the pieces of clothing somewhere in the room. Ino gulped as he looked at her with a glossy gaze, his lips puffy and red. He winked as he laid onto his back and Ino felt herself shift as she crawled over him, realization hitting her like a truck. Shadow possession. 

“S-Shika,” she began, but her vocal chords closed abruptly as a firm grip tightened over her throat. She tried to glance down but her body was completely being controlled by the lazy man beneath her as she mounted her dripping cunt over his face. Her knees sat on either side of his head, the cool tile of the classroom floor stinging her as shivers ran up her spine.

“Sorry,” he whispered, his warm breath tickling her slit. “But you really do talk too much. Can’t have someone hear you while I eat out your cute pussy.” 

Two slender fingers slid between her drenched lips, parting her sex slowly, pushing into her walls, curling upwards and stroking her depths. Ino’s entire body shivered as her thighs clenched around his face, pursing his lips gently. He felt her body’s vibrations rumble throughout him as he teased her, allowing his thumb to ghost over her throbbing clit as he blew onto it, cool air like a summertime breeze sweeping over her hot nub and tingling her to the bone.

Her throat loosened, ever so gently, allowing Ino to choke his name out shakily, her nightingale voice cracking like the richest soil of the Earth. Shikamaru breathed in the smell of pure sex, lusty and humid as evening summer air, as he flicked the tip of his tongue over her clit. Ino grunted as he removed his fingers, gripping onto her ass and sucking her clit into his mouth as she melted above him, her juices leaking onto his tongue as he fucked her with his mouth.

Shadow hands kneaded at her breasts and pinched her hard nipples as Ino shattered, scorching fire burning her stomach as her mind screamed at her hands to grab his hair, for her voice to break out of its cage and course through the silent air of the classroom; but instead, as Shikamaru continued lapping her up and his shadows grip held firm, she could only pant and bite her lip aggressively, her eyes remaining clenched shut with thunder in her heart. 

Shikamaru felt her thick thighs trembling around his face as his tongue swirled over her clit, each trickle of juice a delicacy he had abstained from for far too long. He was not going to let a single drop go to waste. In the past, he would pull away; would make her plead and bargain with him like an auctioneer until tears welled in her eyes and her body was nothing more than putty in his palms. He loved inching her to the edge of the cliff before saving her; over and over he would torment her, enjoying the way a woman so typically in control over her body and soul would bend over backwards for such a slothful man to demolish her piece by pretty piece. 

However, this was not like before. This was real. This was something he needed just as much as she did, if not more than she did. How long had he waited to touch her again; how long had he waited to taste her again? Too long, he concluded. For that reason, just this once, he would be a merciful lover. He released her from his shadow possession jutsu and she screamed out curses as her fragile fingers gripped into his hair. 

Ino pushed her hips forward, trailing his tongue down the length of her cunt. He nosed at her rock hard nub as she bit her lip, blood rushing to her face and heat rising through her body. Her hands tugged his hair harshly as her breathing became ragged and sinful, her entire body rippling above him. Shikamaru hummed against her as his tongue coyly slid between her ass cheeks. He dug his hands into the plush skin of her thighs, angling her hips upwards to grant him access to lick her rim teasingly. Ino chanted curses as his shadow finger nimbly circled across her clit, snapping her. She sang her soliloquy to him as she teetered over the cliffside: I’m coming-coming-coming-coming.

He drank her sacred liquid as he moved his mouth back up her slit, her scent overwhelming him, sweet and sweaty, as he licked within her walls.  She purred, grinding her face onto him as a small spray of liquid splashed into his mouth. Shikamaru smiled against her, providing a final kiss as he helped roll her over, climbing over her chest and planting his mouth onto her collarbone. Her breathing was rapid and shallow. He felt her hand graze his forearm lightly as she tried to hold him, her brain fully disintegrated from her climax. 

He smirked against her skin, grazing his teeth up her neck and kissing at her jaw. “Good girl,” he grunted. “You want me to fuck you?”

He felt her nod beneath his mouth. So adorable, he thought. But he wasn’t ready to be done yet. He plunged his tongue between her parted lips, swirling her arousal all throughout her mouth, allowing her to drink in what he had done to her. She felt his erection poking into her thigh as she slid her hand across his long length, tasting his delicious groan of approval on the tip of her tongue. Her hands trembled as they unzipped his pants, the jingling sweet like chimes, as she maneuvered her hand into his boxers and released his cock. 

She gripped his waist between her thighs and rolled him onto his back as she took the lead, gripping him into her soft hand and gently stroking his length, sticky arousal coating her hand fully as she worked her way over him. Shikamaru bit her bottom lip as he gripped onto her wrist and increased her pace, a desperate plea for her to stop teasing him. She trailed her hot mouth along his jaw and down his neck, licking her way across his hairy chest and lean stomach, before hovering over his cock hungrily. 

“Dammit, Ino,” he breathed, pumping her hand harder. “Just do it.” 

She hummed, taking in the sight of his pink tip, his dick thick in her hand. She circled her thumb around the curve of his tip as he gritted his teeth, utilizing her other hand to pin his wrist behind his back. She blew onto his girth gently, melting his brain, before she wrapped her mouth just around the tip, licking into the slit naughtily. Shikamaru clenched his fist beneath his back as he moved his free hand to Ino’s soft hair and gripped onto the top of her head, pushing her down. Her vibrato rumbled throughout his body as she languidly sucked his cock, her cheeks hallowed as her ice blue eyes watched him, choking on him lightly.

She freed his wrist as she gripped onto his balls, intense pressure bubbling within his stomach as he watched her reddened lips engulf him fully, her tongue ever so lightly feathering the curves of his cock, her little hand working down the part of him she couldn’t fit into her throat. He was losing it, tightly shutting his eyes in an attempt to distract himself from the whirlwind of ecstasy, before she pulled off him with a pop and the world tilted around him.

“Fuck,” Shikamaru moaned, leaning up and gripping her cheeks with his thumb and forefinger. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

Ino’s pursed, pink lips were sticky with him as she stared at him, her gaze glassy. He felt his heart pang in his chest as he pressed his mouth to hers, licking her clean. He missed the taste of them mixed together; it was warm and sweet and unique. Ino adjusted herself to be sitting on her knees between his legs as she snaked her arms around his neck, her movements heavy from her burning desire of wanting his cock rammed inside her. 

Shikamaru hoisted her body into his arms bridal style, standing up as he carried her down the steps to the desk, placing her gently on the edge, her back arching against the curve of the wood. He slid his pants down his legs and lined himself up, holding onto the edge of the desk with his free hand. Her cheeks were bright red, sweat beading down her lovely neck and circling over her protruding collarbones. Her eyes were sparkling with pure ethereal delight as she licked her lips and tugged at the tips of his hair.

“F-Fuck,” Ino begged. She looked into his oak eyes, his pupils primal and eager. His mouth was glistening with her arousal and his lips were puffy, red as brick. She gave him a mischievous grin and reached for his necklace to pull him down, their mouths inches apart. “Fuck me, Daddy.”

Shikamaru grit his teeth at the nickname. Daddy. His body fully took control over his consciousness as he pumped his throbbing cock inside of her velvet walls, slick juice welcoming him in with minimal effort as she spread herself for him. His face fell into the crook of her neck as he grabbed onto her shoulders; her ankles twisted and locked themselves over the back of his thighs, sinking him deeper inside her. Ino gripped onto her round tits, each thrust bouncing them around wildly, as she fingered her taut nipples and moaned his name towards the sun. 

His dick filled her up, covering each inch of her cunt. He grunted out profanities through gasps of her name as he sloppily nibbled her neck, his knuckles white as snow while gripping onto her slender shoulders. Ino pushed her head back against the mahogany, wanting to sink herself into it, to allow their bodies to bend deeper together. She wrapped her hands around his neck and dug her nails into his skull as she thrust her hips upwards, their rhythms melding together as their bodies merged into one.

A burst of energy swirled throughout her body as she felt the Earth stop spinning around her, her body spasming beneath him, her legs wrapping around his waist. He watched her mouth hang ajar as she choked out breathless air and scratched her nails down his back, burning into his skin. Her pussy clenched around him as he felt himself fall with her, thrusting deep inside her slick walls as his tip twitched and he mixed himself with her arousal, white noise screeching around the room. 

Time slowed to a standstill as Shikamaru took in several ragged breaths, his hot breath tickling her ear, his chest weighed down, ringing in his ears. Ino’s nails released their pressure on his back as she ran her fingers up across his shoulder blades and rested them in his hair. He could hear her lovely heartbeat as they slowly came down from Saturn, the room eventually coming back into view from their whited out vision. 

Shikamaru placed a final open-mouthed kiss to her neck and pulled out, nosing his head down to rest between her breasts as she held him. She chucked, her body moving rhythmically beneath him. He glanced up at her through his black hair to see her staring straight at the ceiling, her hair curtaining over her face, her mouth turned upwards in a satisfied smile.

“Something funny?” he questioned teasingly.

“I can’t believe that just happened.” She laughed briskly, resting her arm over her forehead. Shikamaru hummed and pulled himself off her, wobbling slightly. “Ino, I-”

She held a finger to her mouth and reached her hand out. He helped her up, her blue eyes sparkling up at him like a spring sky. “I know, Shika.” She stood onto her tiptoes and pecked him on the cheek, warmth creeping its way up his neck. 

“I wanted to-” A loud banging on the door cut him off as Ino ran up the stairs towards their clothes, frantically gripping at the fabric, her hands too shaky, making it hard for her to grasp onto anything. 

Shikamaru’s heart skipped several beats before he called out. “J-Just a second, please.” 

“Why is the door locked?” Kakashi’s voice was quiet, catching halfway into the thickness of the walls and granting Shikamaru’s heart some relief as he hastily pulled up his pants, zipping them up. Ino threw his shirt down to him and he tugged it on, peeking at Ino to see her tying her hair back up into a sloppy ponytail as he opened the door. 

Kakashi’s face was totally unreadable as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his mask making it hard for Shikamaru to decipher any distinguishing features that would indicate if the Copy Cat Ninja had heard any part of their lewd secret. His eyebrows knit together gently, only for a brief moment, as Kakashi peered into the room and locked onto Ino. She was twiddling with her shirt, tucking the fabric down as she smiled at the men and waved casually.

“H-Hi,” Ino said shakily. “Rough session. He’s a tough trainer, that’s for sure.”

Kakashi glanced between the pair, the silence so loud that Shikamaru’s head started pounding. “Is he?” he asked, his voice soft and low. “I wouldn’t have guessed.” 

Shikamaru gulped as Kakashi continued. “Anyway, class has been over for thirty minutes and I am in need of your assistance.” Kakashi looked at Shikamaru and he could feel his cheeks burning up. He scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he shuffled his feet.

“Wow, yeah,” Shikamaru said, glancing at the clock. “I guess we ran over time. Sorry about that.” 

Kakashi clicked his tongue and turned away, giving a small wave. “I’ll see you at the office.” Shikamaru closed the door as the air chilled around him. He heard Ino shift uncomfortably as she started walking down the stairs, her light footsteps echoing around the room.

“Heh,” Shikamaru turned to face her, his hands trembling as he placed them into his front pockets. “Ino, I-”

She shook her head as she stood before him, gripping onto his hips and pulling him closer to her. “Are you busy tonight?”

“No,” he whispered, grazing his finger along her cheek. “I want to see you again. I want to… hang out again, if you want to.”

Ino beamed up at him. It was the smile he had grown used to over the years; the smile she hadn’t shared with him since their breakup, the one that kept him up into the early hours of the morning as he reflected on what an idiot he was for allowing her to slip through his fingers. His heart bled for her as she pressed a light kiss to the tip of his nose.

“I’ll see you tonight, then.” She said, stroking a stray strand of hair out of his face. “Also, you forgot this.” She placed his hair tie into his hand and closed his fingers around it gently, a cunning smile crossing over her lips as dread crept into his soul.

“He is never gonna let me live this down,” Shikamaru moaned as he tied his hair back up, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. Ino giggled as she stood back, hands on her hips, her head tilted to the side. He smiled at her and pulled on his backpack, brushing his shoulder against hers as he walked to the door. 

“You know,” he drew out the last syllable playfully as he pulled open the door and gestured to go ahead, placing his hand on the small of her back as he followed her. “I have to admit, I am really glad Sai is gay.”

Ino laughed heartily as they trudged down the hall together. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she confessed, peeking over at him from the corner of her eye, her lips twitching upwards. “But so am I.” 

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[hqshine]

Hey! It’s me again, I hope you’re well! May I request Kenma, Tsukki and Sakusa w/ a s/o who scratches their hand when anxious or having a panic attack. Sometimes when they scratch too hard it starts to bleed. I’m kinda self projecting- but let’s ignore that. 😅 I love you, please stay safe. And if this request stresses you out too much, please don’t do it. Your mental health is what’s important! 😚

— anxious s/o going through a panic attack —

characters: Kenma, Tsukishima, Atsumu

genre: comfort

type: headcanon

warnings: mentions of anxiety and stress, slight self-harming

note: hi guys, i’m back with this fic after about 130 days lmao. i’ve been going through tons and tons of stress and work because of national exams and i came back to this request and i really wanted to write it for the sake of you guys and myself. @haik-hero hi sweetie, thanks for requesting and waiting! i go through similar things so you’re not alone 🤎 there are more requests in my inbox but i won’t be able to complete most of them, i’m deeply sorry for disappointing you guys and especially to the people who requested. Please stay safe everyone ^^

_______________________________________________

this was bad

you could feel how hard your hands were shaking, hear the sounds of your erratic beating and the horrible ache in your chest

stop stop stop stop

you chanted in your mind, desperately seeking some type of method to make it all go away

it was the piles of stress that you accumulated over the past few months, non-stop bickering with your family members, after school activities, homework, friends

you just wanted to stop, go away and never come back

You rubbed your arms up and down, unconsciously using your nails to scratch yourself

the pain, it was nothing but enjoyable

something that would temporarily distract you from all the negative clouds forming in your mind

You hid, curled into a small ball in the corner of your room, eyes filled with tears and hands covering your mouth as you hid your sobs

You were wearing Kenma’s hoodie, his scent enveloping you, giving you a slight sense of comfort and warmth

but it still felt so cold, so lonely, and everything seemed to stand against you

you were scared, afraid, heart filled with panic and you couldn’t see anything else

With blurry vision, you glanced down at the red marks beginning to form on your arm

someone please just—

Warm arms brought you out of your daze

breathing in the familiar scent of him, immediately helped to calm you down

You were too embarrassed to face him, weak you would describe yourself to be

you hid in his chest, letting the tears out as he rubs his hands soothingly up and down your back

“shhh..i’m here, don’t worry, i got you just let it out” kenma mumbled into your hair as he holds you

You must have forgotten the wii date that kenma had scheduled with you

seeing as you didn’t open up the door for kenma when he knocked several times, kenma immediately felt that something was amiss

realising the front door was unlocked, he slipped through, excusing himself while calling out for you

when he found you, curled into a ball, hiding as of you wanted the ground to just swallow you whole, his heart broke

and he immediately felt the urge to wrap his arms around you and protect you from whatever that was causing you to feel anxious

after an hour passed by, you sniffled, lifting your face from his warm chest and gently rubbed your eyes with your arm

you felt the sting as tears came into contact with your scratched up skin

Kenma placed a hand on your cheek, the other intertwining your hand with his

you nuzzled into his warmth, finally looking up at his eyes

you were nervous, he probably thinks you’re a burden now doesn’t he?

but as you stared into his eyes, eyes filled with worry, concern and love. You melt right into them

it brought more tears to your eyes and he gently pushed your face into the crook of his neck while you sat on his lap

“you’re not alone y/n, i’m here” he whispers, kissing the side of your face

he notices the scratches on your arm, but he doesn’t murmur a word, instead he brings your arm to his lips and softly kiss the red marks

when it starts to bleed, he’ll take care of it to the best of his abilities

just tries his hardest to take care of you

“i love you” it comes out sincerely, and he hugs you and eventually brings you to the bed to cuddle for the rest of the day

leaving his game console forgotten on the floor

you didn’t realise your shaky fingers were already pressing the numbers that you knew all too well

and you didn’t really know what to say when he picked up, voice deep and raspy like he had just woken up. Which was probably true. “babe? hello?”

well you expected it given that the time was two in the morning

you didn’t know how it escalated

you were surrounded with piles of homework, projects, essays

it was suffocating and too much

just too much

the stress was eating you alive and you couldn’t even hear yourself think

your breathing became more erratic as you struggled to catch your breath

it frustrated you even more when you couldn’t just couldn’t get a breath of air

your whole body was trembling, and you didn’t know what to do

on instinct, you found yourself dialing the person you had closest to your heart

“t-tsumu? i’m s-so sorry—i just..i d-don’t what to do—please” you managed to choke out as more tears welled up in your eyes

your heart was racing painfully and you could only listen to atsumu as he rushes for his hoodie and shoes, “y/n sweetheart, don’t worry, i’m coming, i won’t hang up and i’ll be there in five okay?” he rushes out

the only response you could give him was the sounds of strangled cries

you stay on call, listening to his pants and curses, his voice giving you some sort of comfort

you waited outside, squatting down on the pavement and looking out for your boyfriend

your nails start to scratch your arms nervously and you focus on the stinging feeling of pain

“y/n” atsumu rushes to you, his phone slipping out of his grip as he wraps his arms around you

the way you looked so scared and vulnerable, eyes red from crying and chest heaving up and down with abnormal speed made his heart twinge with sadness

he wanted to make it all go away, wanted to see your beautiful smile

he wraps his arms around your waist, gently rocking you from side to side as he listen to you cry

when your breathing still hasn’t recovered properly, he takes both of your hands

“baby, i need you to breathe with me okay?”

you nodded shakily and follow his breathing, taking deep and slow breaths, eventually calming down

atsumu presses his lips to the crown of your forehead, just rocking you till you eventually stopped crying

you raise your head to look up at him, his eyes were filled with worry and adoration

atsumu kisses your forehead, nose, cheeks, eyelids and eventually your lips making you smile

“my favourite thing in this damn world” he mumbles smiling with you

he then bends down and grab your thighs, carrying you like a child as you hid in the crook of his neck

“time to get my baby some sleep, if you wanna talk about it, we’ll do it tomorrow” he says bringing you to your room

when he notices your red marks, he’ll tsk lightly at you but clean you up and then press more kisses to your arm

“Y/n i want you to follow my breathing okay? we can do it” tsukishima says in a surprisingly affectionate tone

your eyes were clouded with tears and your hands were nervously scratching your arms when tsukishima found you in your room

the two of you were supposed to study together but with all the stress from upcoming examinations, you felt yourself spiral into a world of nervousness and anxiety

your hands were shaking but tsukishima knew what to do, as he takes both hands into his and focus on you stabilising your breathing

when he notices that your breathing is now back to normal but your hands were still shaking, he gently slides you into his lap, cuddling you like a baby

“y/n? could you do me a favour and name me some things or colours you see in the room?” he says as he wraps his arms around you

this was how he eventually got you to calm down from all the negative feelings you were facing

you eyes were growing more heavy as you felt a wave of tiredness overtake you

hours spent on studying instead of getting a good night’s rest eventually caught up to you as you felt yourself dozing off in tsukishima’s arms

he shakes his head, “silly girl, don’t make me worry so much” he whispers, pressing a kiss to the side of your head

he lets you rest in his lap, as he gets his stuff out form his back and begin to revise with you in his arms

when you awoke, you’d realise he had left some study notes for you

[hieromonkcharbel]

“One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated”. “Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed.” “To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life.”

St. Thomas More (Feast June 22)

I was struck by these thoughts of Thomas More on the meaning and nature of education. What he says is perhaps even more true in our day: that we have fundamentally lost our understanding of education. The word is a compound of "e", which means "away from" or "out," and duc(ere) or "draw out" (as in aquaduct or viaduct). So to educate someone is not to put "things" into the student, but to "draw out" from the student their own ability to think critically . This is crucial to our understanding and explains why students often learn so little and are not impressed with the process of our typical education system.

As I look back at my own years in school, my best teachers were those who understood this concept and were able to pull out from me, creatively, with patience, and caring guidance, my own inner ability to formulate an opinion on something or to reach a conclusion based on a series of accumulated "facts." They did not (the best ones, anyway) assume that "things" were the substance of education, but that the person was, and developing a full person is the real purpose of education.

One contemporary author puts it this way: "At school, students cram for an exam. "Cram" means to fill up or stuff. Well, if you're stuffing yourself for an exam, you must be filling yourself with things. That's how we imagine education: filling our minds with stuff.

The Greeks of old had a different idea that they called paideia. This was education conceived as creating a cultured person who would be a mature citizen and leader. Imagine if our focus in education was on the person rather than the things studied. We'd be concerned that a student grow up and learn how to deal with life and help others deal with it as well.

In a thing-centered culture, we believe that our job is to teach the young what they need to have a job and support themselves. Students are left on their own for learning how to cope with life's existential challenges, how to relate well to others, how to lead maturely in business and government, how to raise children and how to be married. How to develop taste and values and come to grips with human mortality and make a contribution to world culture--these are largely left alone by educators with the hope, apparently, that people will find their way unconsciously."

[officialinuyasha]

InuYasha Wide Edition #2 Translation - Kagome Higurashi

Original Japanese Scans Provided by Me

Spanish Scans Provided by muffin_0626

Translated by @marusamaa-tradus​

Proofread and localized by me

Rules: No screenshots or using my photographs, copy/paste, not using without permission, reblogs/linking only

WIDEBAN EXTRAS VOLUME 2 - KAGOME HIGURASHI 

An ordinary high school student that grew up in the modern era

She’s an ordinary girl that currently studies in high school. Her grades aren’t bad and it is said that she’s never been out of the top 30 of the best students of the school. However, she’s not good at Math and English. Now that she’s in 3rd grade, she’s worried about the preparations for the admission exam. Her family owns a Shinto temple with a 500 years old sacred tree. Additionally, there’s a hokora (Shinto shrine) with an old well inside the land of the house. As the shrine heir, she grew up breathing pure air since she was born. However she’s no special, but a normal girl. She’s a bit tired of her grandfather, who loves to talk about all the ancient utensils they inherited, and sometimes she feeds her cat with strange stuff from her grandfather. In school she lives a normal life and talks about love with her friends. However, it is said that she’s the reincarnation of Kikyou, the great miko/priestess from the Sengoku era. 

Body without special qualities 

Despite being the reincarnation of a great priestess, her body is that of a normal high school girl. In daily life in the Sengoku era, where she looks for the fragments of the jewel, she’s always getting scratches. Sometimes, during the battles against demons, she’s their target. Kagome’s body, which according to Inuyasha has a very fragile skin, can easily get hurt. Besides, she has the strength of a normal human being.  

Sense of sight: Hers allow her to recognize the presence of fragments of the jewel

She inherited Kikyou’s, so she can detect fragments of the Shikon Jewel. She can guess where a demon is keeping a fragment and can also track the enemy that is carrying one. 

(page 2)

Ability 1: Pure power that wipes out evilness

If a human or even a demon comes into contact with evilness, their body and mind may suffer damage. That’s why a normal human can’t even get close. However, Kagome is able to touch it and, furthermore, she’s able to purify it and her great spiritual power is able to weaken it. Also, this ability can be manifested even through objects without needing to touch it. For example, she’s able to transfer her spiritual power to an arrowhead to wipe out evils such as miasma. The pure energy within Kagome’s body increases when she uses the Sacred Arrow. 

Ability 2: Hama spiritual energy that drives demons away 

Kagome didn’t have training as a miko/priestess, however, she’s able to drive demons away with her great spiritual energy. The first time she fought a demon, without thinking, she accumulated her spiritual power in her hand and broke the body of her enemy. In addition, when she uses her bow and arrows, which was an ability inherited from Kikyou, her power increases. She still doesn’t hit targets correctly, but when she manages to do it, the effect is immense. 

Her strength depends on her movements. For example, when her anger is at the highest point, the Hama arrow can even break through a wall. This strength can’t be compared to that of any demon. 

Her knowledge from the modern era may be helpful 

The knowledge and items that Kagome carries from the modern era are helpful in the Sengoku era. The bicycle is useful to move around and the first-aid kit may heal her companions. Sometimes, some of these items are useful when fighting. On one occasion he set an enemy on fire using a spray. 

(Page 3) 

A great soul called Kagome - The soul from a great miko that was reincarnated.

Kagome Higurashi as a normal third grade high school student of the modern era. She was worried about exams, enjoying the talks with her friends, with her loving family waiting for her at home. She was an ordinary 15 years old girl that didn’t stand out. However, one day she arrived in the Sengoku era and she was told she was the reincarnation of a great miko that had died 50 years back. The reason was her great resemblance with her. Moreover, the conclusive point was that she was carrying the Shikon Jewel, which the miko had when she was cremated, inside her body. Her ordinary life completely changed and the villagers started to venerate/worship her. 

Moreover, she notices she has a strange power. She can fight specimens that come from the well and know where the Shikon Jewel is. Maybe she already had both of these powers in the past, but she didn’t manifest them until she traveled to the Sengoku. Not even herself knew of these powers. Since she arrived in this era, she got involved in very different situations compared to those of her previous life, and she felt she was a special person for the first time. However, she keeps her feet on the ground. Even if she’s praised as the reincarnation of Kikyou by the people around her, Kagome remains the same person as always. In some way/in a sense, the strength she possesses is the demonstration of the fact that she inherited the soul of the great miko. Her soul couldn’t be sucked by the demon that sucks souls because it’s bigger than usual. 

The heart that shows affection and anger in a frank manner 

Kagome’s heart is gentle and sincere. She can’t neglect those who need help or are hurt. No matter if it’s a demon or a human, she treats everyone the same. Her kindness heals Inuyasha’s heart, who lived all alone for many years, and helps his soul grow. Besides, as they’re attracted to her kindness, she’s getting more comrades. 

On the other hand, she doesn’t hold back when it comes to showing her anger at someone else’s bad intentions. Her annoyance reaches the highest level when she deals with demons who set traps for her in a cruel way. She doesn’t hide nor exaggerates her kindness and her annoyance. Little by little, this soul is growing into one with great strength. 

(Page 4)

The feelings she becomes aware of 

Every time she gets close to Inuyasha, she becomes aware of an emotion that she has never felt before. Her heart is attracted to him more and more. At the same time, she feels confused by the feeling that Inuyasha still has for Kikyou. Kagome inherited Kikyou’s soul, but she’s not her and feels hurt every time he defends her. When she notices that she feels Kikyou is an inconvenience for her, she feels very bad. 

Kagome’s gentle soul had never loved nor hated anyone in particular until this moment; it was calm. However, after bonding with Inuyasha, she feels emotions that are completely new to her. 

A honest feeling 

Kagome feels jealous for the first time. She can’t hide her confusion about emotions she is feeling for the first time. She tries hard to think about it in a pure, honest way: about her and Inuyasha, about Kikyou and Inuyasha. She can’t be Kikyo and she’s different from her. Besides, she can’t surpass her because she died for Inuyasha. However, she notices the reason why Kikyou came back to this world and stayed, as well as the reason why she wants to be with him. In both cases it’s because of the love they feel for him. Kagome realizes this and finally makes out: “I want to be with Inuyasha”. This is not because Kikyo’s soul lives within her, but because of Kagome’s wish. The feelings inside Inuyasha towards Kikyou can’t be erased and her feelings for him can’t be ignored either.  Therefore, Kagome only tries to show her emotions in a pure way. 

Kagome’s big soul tries to accept Inuyasha and his feelings for Kikyou, and therefore that’s an honest feeling/sentiment. 

(Page 5 - interview) 

Kagome’s worldview = the reader’s worldview 

Kagome is definitely a normal girl. Since Inuyasha is a character who is not a human, another character who would see him from another perspective was necessary. That’s why I needed to create a female character from the modern era -though with special powers- who could observe him. If Kagome was a person from the Sengoku era, the reader wouldn’t be able to become emotionally involved. I want the readers to go to the Sengoku with Kagome. I want them to experience observing Inuyasha and the demons through her. That’s why I think she’s a guide character. She’s there to evaluate the shock that readers could feel when seeing something in the Sengoku era. If this character was a girl from that era, the story would be different. Readers would have to understand the character first. I thought that would be a burden for them. I think it’s easier if the story moves forward with a character from our era that knows the same things as the readers and shares their way of understanding the world.  

Kagome’s school uniform is her “uniform”

Kagome almost always wears her school uniform; it’s something that identifies her, especially when she’s in the Sengoku era. I thought she would use it because that would make her recognizable. Sometimes she was wearing her clothes but I didn’t make her wear a kimono, which is what’s in line with the era. At the end she started wearing miko clothes, but that was at the end of the series. Normally they couldn’t change clothes when they were traveling, so she was always wearing the uniform. 

The heroin with the biggest heart of all my works

Speaking of Kagome’s personality, since Inuyasha’s nature isn’t relaxed at all, by contrast, she has a big heart. I tried not to make them fight so much. When something happens, in decisive matters, it’s Kagome who overlooks things most of the time. If Kagome were like Lum (1), they wouldn’t be a good couple. Yes, it would be impossible. I thought that Kagome meddling with Inuyasha’s weak temper wouldn’t be good. I was careful when I had to deal with this. I also tried to not make her complain too much. That’s how I defined her. As a result, Kagome is the heroine with the biggest heart in the history of my works. 

NOTES:

1 -  Female character from “Urusei Yatsura”, by the same author.

Spanish Transcript

WIDEBAN 2 : KAGOME HIGURASHI

Una alumna de secundaria común y corriente que creció en la actualidadEs una muchacha común y corriente que actualmente estudia la secundaria. Sus calificaciones no son malas y se dice que nunca ha salido del top 30 (de los mejores alumnos) de todo el colegio. Sin embargo, no es buena para matemáticas e inglés. Ahora que cursa el tercer nivel de secundaria, está preocupada por los preparativos para el examen de admisión a la preparatoria. Su familia tiene un templo sintoísta antiguo con un árbol sagrado de 500 años. Además, dentro del terreno de su casa tiene un hokora (1) con un viejo pozo. Como hija de un templo, Kagome creció inmersa en aire puro desde que nació. Sin embargo, no es una muchacha especial, sino bastante normal. Está un poco cansada de su abuelo, a quien le gusta hablar sobre los utensilios antiguos que le heredaron, y a veces incluso le da de comer a su gato algunas cosas extrañas que saca su abuelo. En la escuela tiene una vida normal en donde platica sobre el amor con sus compañeras de grupo. Sin embargo, dicen que es la reencarnación de Kikyo, la gran miko (2) del periodo Sengoku. Cuerpo sin cualidades especiales A pesar de ser la reencarnación de una gran miko, su cuerpo es el de una muchacha de secundaria. En la vida del periodo Sengoku, en donde busca los pedazos de la Shikon no Tama (3), siempre tiene raspaduras. A veces, durante las batallas contra los youkai, ella es el blanco de los ataques. El cuerpo de Kagome que, según Inuyasha, tiene la “piel muy delicada”,  se puede lastimar fácilmente. Además, su fuerza física es la de un ser humano normal. Tiene una visión especial que puede reconocer los pedazos de la Shikon no TamaSu visión heredó el gran poder de Kikyo, por ello puede detectar los pedazos de la Shikon no Tama. Puede saber el lugar en donde un youkai tiene un pedazo de la Shikon no Tama y también puede buscar al enemigo que se esconde con este pedazo. (pág 2)Poder puro que borra el mal Si un humano o incluso un youkai tiene contacto con el mal, puede sufrir daños en su cuerpo y mente. Por ello, un ser humano normal no puede ni acercársele. Sin embargo, Kagome lo puede tocar y, además, puede purificar el mal. El gran poder espiritual de su cuerpo es capaz de debilitar el mal. Además, esta habilidad puede manifestarse incluso a través de las cosas, sin necesidad de tocarlas. Por ejemplo, logra traspasar su poder espiritual a la punta de su flecha y quitar los malos como el miasma. La energía pura que se encuentra en el cuerpo de Kagome aumenta cuando utiliza la flecha de Hama (4). Energía espiritual de Hama que ahuyenta a los youkaiKagome no ha tenido un entrenamiento como miko, sin embargo, puede ahuyentar a los youkai con su gran energía espiritual. La primera vez que peleó contra un youkai, sin pensarlo juntó su poder espiritual en la mano y quebró el cuerpo del enemigo. Además, cuando emplea el arco y flecha, lo cual era la habilidad de Kikyo, su poder aumenta. Aún no le atina bien al blanco, pero cuando lo logra su efecto es inmenso.  Su fuerza depende de sus sentimientos, por ejemplo, cuando su enojo llega al máximo, la Flecha de Hama de Kagome puede derrumbar la pared de un edificio y destruir el mal. Esta fuerza no puede compararse con la de ningún youkai. El conocimiento actual que puede ser eficaz Los conocimientos y artículos que Kagome lleva desde la actualidad son útiles en el periodo Sengoku. La bicicleta es útil para trasladarse, y el botiquín de emergencias puede curar a sus compañeros. A veces, algunas son útiles para el combate. En una ocasión prendió fuego utilizando un spray. (pág 3) El alma que reencarnó de una gran miko Kagome Higurashi vivía como una alumna normal de tercero de secundaria de la actualidad. Preocupada por sus exámenes, disfrutando de las pláticas con sus amigas, con su amorosa familia esperándola en casa. En el presente era una muchacha común y corriente de quince años y no tenía nada en especial. Sin embargo, un día llegó al periodo Sengoku. Ahí le comentaron que era la reencarnación de una gran miko que había fallecido 50 años atrás. La razón era su parecido físico. Además, lo decisivo fue que llevaba dentro de su cuerpo la Shikon no Tama que tenía la miko en el momento de su incineración. La vida común y corriente de Kagome cambió por completo y los pueblerinos comenzaron a venerarla. Además, se da cuenta de que tiene un poder especial. Puede combatir contra los especímenes que aparecen en el pozo y saber dónde está la Shikon no Tama. Ambos podrían ser poderes que poseía desde antes, pero no aparecieron sino hasta que viajó al periodo Sengoku. Ni siquiera la propia Kagome conocía sus poderes. Desde que llegó a esa época, se involucró en situaciones muy distintas a las de la vida que llevaba antes, y por primera vez se dio cuenta de que era una persona especial. Sin embargo, nunca se desubica. Aun siendo alabada por las personas de su alrededor como la reencarnación de la gran miko Kikyo, Kagome no deja de ser la misma de siempre. En cierta forma, la fuerza que posee es la demostración de que heredó el alma de la gran miko. Su alma no pudo ser succionada por el youkai que absorbe almas porque es más grande de lo normal. El corazón que demuestra de manera franca el cariño y el enojo El corazón de Kagome es gentil y sincero. No puede dejar pasar a las personas que necesitan ayuda o a quienes están heridos. Aun siendo un youkai o un han’you, ella los trata por igual. Su gentileza sana el corazón de Inuyasha, quien vivió en soledad por varios años como han’you y ayuda a su alma a crecer. Además, atraídos por esa gentileza, Kagome tiene cada vez más compañeros. Por otro lado, la joven no se mide cuando demuestra su enojo por las malas intenciones. Su disgusto llega al máximo al tratar con los youkai que le tienden trampas de una manera vil. Ella no esconde ni adorna la gentileza ni la irritación. Esta alma poco a poco se va convirtiendo en una gran fuerza.(pág 4) Los sentimientos de los que se percataCada vez que se acerca a Inuyasha, se percata de una emoción que no había experimentado antes. Su corazón es atraído por Inuyasha más y más. Al mismo tiempo, se siente confundida por el sentimiento que Inuyasha sigue teniendo hacia Kikyo. Kagome heredó el alma de Kikyo, pero no es ella, y se siente herida cada vez que Inuyasha trata de defender a la reencarnación de la miko. Al darse cuenta de que piensa que Kikyo es un estorbo para ella, se siente muy mal. El alma gentil de Kagome no había amado ni odiado a nadie en particular hasta ese momento, y estaba en calma. Sin embargo, al relacionarse con Inuyasha, experimenta sentimientos que no había conocido hasta entonces. Un sentimiento franco Kagome experimenta el amor y los celos por primera vez. No puede ocultar su confusión ante emociones que nunca antes había sentido. Se esfuerza en pensarlo de una forma pura y sincera: sobre ella misma e Inuyasha, sobre Kikyo e Inuyasha. No puede ser Kikyo y es diferente a ella. Además, no puede superarla, pues murió por Inuyasha. Sin embargo, se da cuenta de la razón por la que Kikyo volvió a este mundo y se quedara, así como la razón por la que ella desea estar al lado de Inuyasha. En ambos casos es por el amor que le tienen. Kagome se percata de esto y finalmente concluye: “quiero estar con Inuyasha”. Esto no se debe a que el alma de Kikyo viva dentro de ella, sino que es el deseo de Kagome. Los sentimientos hacia Kikyo en el interior de Inuyasha no se podrán borrar; los sentimientos de Kikyo hacia Inuyasha tampoco pueden ser ignorados. Por ello, Kagome sólo intenta demostrar de una manera pura sus propias emociones. La gran alma de Kagome trata de aceptar a Inuyasha con todo y sus sentimientos hacia Kikyo. Y, por lo tanto, ahí solo existe un sentimiento franco. (pág 5 - entrevista) La visión de Kagome = la visión de los lectoresKagome es definitivamente una chica normal. Ya que Inuyasha es un personaje no humano, era necesario un personaje que lo pudiera ver desde otra perspectiva. Por ello precisaba crear un personaje femenino del presente, aunque con algunos poderes especiales, que pudiera observarlo. Si Kagome fuera una persona del periodo Sengoku, el lector no tendría manera de involucrarse emocionalmente. Deseo que los lectores vayan con Kagome a esa época. Quiero que vivan la experiencia de observar a Inuyasha y a los youkai a través de ella. Por eso creo que es un personaje guía. Está para medir el sobresalto que los lectores podrían experimentar al ver algo en el periodo Sengoku. Si el personaje fuera una muchacha de esa época, la historia sería diferente. Los lectores tendrían que comenzar comprendiendo a ese personaje. Pensé que eso sería algo pesado para ellos. Creo que es más sencillo que la historia avance con un personaje de la actualidad que conoce lo mismo que los lectores y comparte su forma de entender el mundo. El uniforme escolar de Kagome es su “uniforme” Kagome casi siempre viste su uniforme escolar; es algo que la identifica. Y más cuando está en el periodo Sengoku. Pensé que debía usarlo porque eso la identificaría. A veces lucía su ropa, pero no le puse kimono, que sería la vestimenta acorde al periodo Sengoku. Al final se puso ropa de miko. Pero bueno, eso fue al final de la serie. Normalmente mientras viajaban no podían cambiarse de ropa, por ello siempre tenía puesto el uniforme. La heroína con el corazón más grande de la historia Hablando de la personalidad de Kagome, debido a que Inuyasha tiene un carácter nada relajado, ella, en contraste, tiene un gran corazón. Intenté que no pelearan tanto. Cuando sucede algo, en los asuntos decisivos, casi siempre es Kagome quien deja pasar las cosas. Si fuera la combinación de alguien con el carácter de Lum (5) e Inuyasha, no serían una buena pareja. Sí. Definitivamente sería imposible. Pensé que si Kagome se entrometía demasiado en la debilidad de carácter de Inuyasha, no sería bueno. Tuve cuidado al tratar esto. También quería que no se quejara demasiado. Así la caractericé. Gracias a esto, Kagome es la heroína con el corazón más grande dentro de la historia de mis obras.

Notas: 1- Pequeño templo sintoísta.

2- Sirvientes en los templos sintoístas que desempeñaban diversas funciones, desde la limpieza del lugar hasta asistir a los sacerdotes en los rituales, pasando por la venta de amuletos como las tablillas de la suerte.

3- Esfera de los cuatro espíritus.

4- Literalmente, flecha que destruye el mal.

5- Protagonista femenina del manga Urusei Yatsura, también conocido en algunos países como Lum/Lamu, creado también por Rumiko Takahashi. 

[chemicalpink]

JK's Birth time analysis

First and foremost, I’m just doing this to occupy my mind in something else while I go through some stuff, I will continue to use the general consensus of the community for my astrology readings, I’m just doing this for fun, remember that we as fans are in no way entitled to know JK’s exact birth time, these are just fun educated guesses on some alternative that has arisen.

Now, I must say, when I first started the astro part of my bts blog I immediately thought 1 pm for JK’s birth time, I don’t have any factual backup on this one, I’ve talked about it before, I am kind of a human tarot deck lmao things sometimes just come to me. So I started roaming around and I found that JK’s libra rising made sense to me, and it was a general consensus for his readings so I said sure let's go. You know that I endorse and adore having conversations with you guys, my craft isn’t perfect and no one else's is so it is great to hear every opinion to forge our own judgement. I do only present to you information that I can back up, which is why as much as I’d love to I won’t be taking into consideration my own personal hunch on the info I’m about to present you, although you can read it as subtext when it is in italics like this hello this is an inner thought of marinette’s.

SO the big deal: Is JK a libra rising or is JK a sagittarius rising? General consensus says 8:04 am as speculated time of birth, some others say 1-2 pm.

Either way, JK’s sect remains nocturnal so there’s not much to go from there.

When it comes to appearances, I’ll update what I said before.

Libra rising appearance:

Very youthful look that it seems like you don’t even age

Gentle smile

Charming demeanour that makes people obsessed with you

Very symmetrical features

Fit body

Contagious smile

Put together look/ clean look

Dimples

Dark hair and dark eyes

Tall

Oval/Round face

Think Harry Styles, Beyoncé, Niall, Britney Spears

Sagittarius rising appearance:

Bulky thighs

Horse like face

Big forehead

Incredibly tall or more than average tall

Gain weight easily

Not really athletic

Pretty full lips

Think Kim Kardashian, Elvis, Jennifer Lawrence, Paris Hilton

Evidently, other aspects in astrology and genetics can alter these, but it is mostly true.

Now, I am not that well versed in vedic astrology since I stopped studying it due to lack of time BUT the infamous thread that looks into the possibility of JK being a sag rising is pretty elaborate, although it does run more on intuitive processes and symbolism, which are of course, valid, and it really is up to both the analyst and the ones reading the analysis to determine the weight of it. My craft is more oriented towards intersectionality so I don’t like to go by what we are able to see about him as an axis, more like confirmation about it. Idk if it makes sense. I just don't trust seemingly scripted content that much to run my analysis based on it. Everything mentioned about JK Jyestha makes sense when looking at the content presented, and it will make even more sense once we take a look at some other non western astrology systems. Again, I am not well versed in vedic astrology so right off the bat I would fight the conversion system rather than the information presented.

Regarding that thread, some of the keywords used to conclude JK’s Jyestha are as follows:

King, Winning, Ambitious, Passionate, Skillful, Eldest, 1st, Seniority, Expertise, Sensory indulgence, Celebration, Bravery, Heroic, Dragon Slayer, Warrior, Rain, Thunder, Umbrella, Protector, Provider, Scandalous, Impulsive, Bunny, Deer, Earring, Eye.

In western astrology, a general comparison on placements would look something like this.

Sun in 8° 33' Virgo

Moon in 27° 20' Leo

Mercury in 7° 49' Virgo (r)

Venus in 16° 58' Libra

Mars in 11° 7' Scorpio

Jupiter in 14° 15' Aquarius (r)

Saturn in 19° 35' Aries (r)

Uranus in 5° 28' Aquarius (r)

Neptune in 27° 33' Capricorn (r)

Pluto in 2° 55' Sagittarius

North Node in 20° 11' Virgo (r)

Chiron in 29° 45' Libra

Ascendant in 4° 20' Libra

MC in 4° 46' Cancer

1st House starts at 4° Libra

2nd House starts at 1° Scorpio

3rd House starts at 2° Sagittarius

4th House starts at 4° Capricorn

5th House starts at 7° Aquarius

6th House starts at 7° Pisces

7th House starts at 4° Aries

8th House starts at 1° Taurus

9th House starts at 2° Gemini

10th House starts at 4° Cancer

11th House starts at 7° Leo

12th House starts at 7° Virgo

In here, the main aspect I can relate JK to is Cancer MC, MC represents your public self, as well as the success level you might experience. Cancer MC is all about taking care of others, yet it can also point towards a career in arts, especifically singing and writing, it also indicates a strong possibility of psychic abilities which have been widely discussed in JK with his readings and such all while having the main troubles of being an impatient person and sometimes getting self conscious which we have heard him say before when he refers to himself knowing how to do stuff yet he doesn’t think he’s good at any of them, or his letters to himself about having to love himself more.

Another pretty JK thing I’ve noticed is his Virgo Stellium in the 12th House, which shows struggles with identity JK has, once again, being vocal about him growing up within BTS and how that has shaped him and how he has constantly been looking for himself. They often absorb the struggles of people around them. Does anyone else remember him saying he’s okay as long as his hyungs are okay? Also, singing and dancing are very powerful manifestation tools for these people huh maybe that’s why he writes and sings love songs. This aspect also indicates him having the potential to amass a large amount of wealth, some astrologers think about this stellium as an extremely karmic one, which can be translated into the whole JK’s soulmate narrative.

When it comes to his 5th house, it indicates him being a hell of a creative person, especially in a somewhat rebellious sense which I interpret as him getting a sleeve tattoo It also talks about not being traditional in relationships which I believe has come out a few times in his tarot readings.

With Sag rising, his chart would look something like this:

Sun in 8° 45' Virgo

Moon in 29° 46' Leo

Mercury in 7° 37' Virgo (r)

Venus in 17° 12' Libra

Mars in 11° 15' Scorpio

Jupiter in 14° 13' Aquarius (r)

Saturn in 19° 35' Aries (r)

Uranus in 5° 27' Aquarius (r)

Neptune in 27° 33' Capricorn (r)

Pluto in 2° 55' Sagittarius

North Node in 20° 10' Virgo (r)

Chiron in 29° 46' Libra

Ascendant in 5° 28' Sagittarius

MC in 18° 28' Virgo

1st House starts at 5° Sagittarius

2nd House starts at 7° Capricorn

3rd House starts at 12° Aquarius

4th House starts at 18° Pisces

5th House starts at 19° Aries

6th House starts at 14° Taurus

7th House starts at 5° Gemini

8th House starts at 7° Cancer

9th House starts at 12° Leo

10th House starts at 18° Virgo

11th House starts at 19° Libra

12th House starts at 14° Scorpio

In this case, his MC is in Virgo, it mainly indicates a tactful and slow success in someone’s career, these MC Virgo people are often regarded as overly responsible and as people that like to get recognised as people to whom nothing is hard enough for them to call it quits. While they openly seek perfection which ofc JK has always talked about improving himself they often love to do the stuff that others despise to do like countinc, calculating and organising.

Evidently there's no 12th House stellium, he would have a 9th House Leo stellium, which is most of the times noticeable at first glance, the moment these people open their mouths, everything is just extraordinaire, there’s a longing to be loved and to be admired in this aspect. They’re inspirational people to be around which JK is, if I remember the members saying that they get inspired when watching him make efforts. They’re also overly curious about stuff around them big doe eyes anyone?

In this case he would have a 5th House aries, meaning that there’s a need to be physically active and being creative on top of that which I mean does check out. They do tend to be openly superficial people and big-headed when they are in a successful position tho.

So okay, let’s talk native astrology, JK’s Tzolkin is Tz’i-Oc, noted by their need of freedom and less traditional relationships, they work tirelessly and have an innate ability to be successful and accumulate a lot of wealth once again, JK’s position in BTS shows up HE’s in a basic need of having a strong foundation, which he will not like to lead but more take the role of a caregiver that can easily turn into the one receiving care. Here’s the thing, there are a lot of Libra themes in his Day Sign and his Trecana Sign, both of them talking about justice, fairness, helpfulness, as well as him being a nomad which I interpret as having a libra/virgo mix that is really hard to miss Now, this is where it gets funny, His galactic tone is 4, which while it talks about balance and calmness and tranquility libra like it also is represented by a warrior, which is part of the twitter thread as one of the symbolisms to think about sag rising

Last but not least, JK’s bazi, since his contextual situation is leaning more towards it. I did a comparion and it caught my eye the next part:

One of the widely talked about symbols in the sag rising thread is the element of water being consistent with JK, and in his bazi, ¾ Na Yin, the element of water came out, however, they came out when his birth time is 08:04 am.

In his 08:04 bazi, some keywords are:

virtue

star

travel

In his 13:00 bazi, some keywords are:

monetary loss

star of arts

heavenly doctor

So really it all boils down to: we do readings for fun, craft is personal and completely valid in any form as long as we aren’t hurting anyone. We do not know his actual birth time and we actually might never know it, each astrologer is free to work with the birth time they consider the best fitting unless a specific time is given. I myself, see a libra rising fitting, perhaps if we were to trial and error it, some other might come out but honestly, these readings are a hobby and while I dedicate myself to my craft, I certainly don’t have the time that it would require to analyze each placement so I can see for myself which I find the best fitting out of 12 signs. But hey, this was a fun educational opportunity to dive into other practices.

[uwumessenger]

random headcanons i have for each om! character teehee

hi it's been a while since ive posted some hcs bc uni has been kicking my a$$! luckily i only have a few papers to tidy up and im done. here r some hcs for each obey me character that ive accumulated over the past few months wink wonk

most are random but some constants you'll find are what i think they smell like, languages they can speak (other than their native (demon/angel) and eng/jp), and music tastes !

lucifer

i have a strong feeling that he showers twice a day: in the morning after waking up and at night before going to bed

his cologne is probably the type that will last in an elevator for like a week after he uses it once. i dont think this mf ever smells like anything other than his cologne

has a secret folder on his phone of semi-nudes and other scandalous pics from when he felt sexy at the time omg

aside from demon language/eng/jp he can speak french and knows latin

listens to classical stuff yea but he also listens to diavolos mixtapes (re: diavolo's section)

not a fan of sweets but will eat sweet things when craving

really bland sense of humor...borderline cringey 😭✋🏻

mammon

has gone to google images and searched for "inspirational quotes tumblr" "gold aesthetic tumblr" & "relatable crush post tumblr" then reposts it onto his socials or just taps thru them and giggles bc he relates

his cologne doesnt last as long as lucifers and probably smells common. he has to reapply a lot but it's a people pleasing smell. it's cheaper hence the constant reapplying

he probably does have an expensive bottle but is the type to totally overspray...eek

he is canonically a car guy 🥲 and probably tells the one in his room good morning & good night + kisses the hood every once in a while. has tons of car magazines

he doesnt really speak other languages but has attempted to learn spanish before

listens to whatever is on the radio. doesnt rly stan anyone but he eventually will listen to mc's playlist and mc's playlist ONLY

levi

lurks on mc's socials ALL THE TIMEEEE like he will rewatch ur stories and scroll thru ur feed and overanalyze ur tweets/rts or blog posts. if ur mc isnt the type to use sns much he still googles ur name all the damn time just to find any sites u might be on fjdjdjdjskks

probably streams on whatever youtube or twitch devildom site equivalent there is, but only has like 40 or so followers. which he is okay with!

until he sees someone else who gets more attention than him. then the envy starts kicking in bad. especially if they suck 🧍🏻‍♀️

classic gamer boy smell. you know, sweat, tears, must, and (sometimes) axe deodorant. lucifer has to do a scent check before he goes out to any event & lets him use his cologne. how sweet!

kpop stan!! more girl groups than anything and his ults are probably GIRLS GENERATION, wonder girls, twice, loona, & red velvet

cried when ioi disbanded and refused to leave his room. the only thing u could hear was downpour on loop at full blast

can also speak korean & communicate in echolocation like dolphins 😏

satan

listens to country music you cant change my mind

smells like whatever environment he is in. he doesnt really have a designated smell just throws some deodorant on and goes about his day.

he's sooooo bad at driving...gets road rage way too often so his license has been REVOKED

but hes totally a backseat driver. needs to be sedated on long trips

do not let him watch finding nemo when luke asks to watch it. it's not worth it. he will cause mass destruction.

if he was a human or lived long term in the human world he totally has the ability to be a doctor

is studying as many languages as possible, but he mostly knows latin & french & german etc etc. wants to learn all the dead languages out of curiousity

asmo

dont think this mf has ever held down a relationship. ever

he doesnt compromise much & is not willing to change his lifestyle to fit an s/o into it. you keep up with how he lives or it just isnt meant to be (but dont worry! he'll eventually learn...maybe,,,,)

has the hardest time out of everyone when it comes to breaking bad habits

his smell varies bc he uses a variety of perfumes (whatever is the most popular at the time) but he probably sticks to floral and fresh scents. he never uses generic people pleaser scents like mammon

listens to electropop, mainstream pop, & some alternative rock

as for languages he too knows french, spanish, italian, etc. in general, if it's a romance language he knows it!

opposite of lucifer in the sense where he loves sweets and will refrain from eating too many bitter things

i think we all know that asmo is the biggest rockstar of the group! he's probably been in a boy band at least once, but now he makes his own music

has tried to teach mammon how to sing once. ended up in a broken piano and bleeding ears...

beel

i feel like he is SO SHY

like unless ur close to him he will not start conversations or anything

i think he listens to r&b a lot ! and jazz 😎 maybe rock as well

smells like ur typical athlete with undertones of wet wipes. he carries them around bc he likes to clean his hands before he eats & is prepared for when theres no sink nearby

he can drive and he drives really well. no rough turns, parallel parks perfectly, and never has problems with merging

driving with beel is probably really soothing. left hand is steering the other is gripping ur thigh 😫

dont think hes really fluent in any other language but hes probably semi fluent in korean because levi wanted beel to help him out

definitely know how to order food in practically every language tho HAHAHA

belphie

he reminds me of randall from monsters inc

smells kinda musty IM SORRY but not the way levi does hes more like the kind of musty u feel or smell when it's a shitty morning

but that's only because hes so lazy, when he cleans up hes like satan

has definitely murdered multiple people before. mc is not the first 😐✋🏻

with that being said belphie has been put into prison at least twice when visiting the human world, the mf had such a strong hatred for humans theres no way he never got into trouble before

lucifer probably broke him out and they used the pen thingies from men in black to erase everyones memory of that 🙄

dont think he listens to anything other than music that'll put him to sleep. really likes lazy song by bruno mars but thinks that bruno mars put too much effort into the song. should have been one acapella verse and then finish

similar to beel hes only semi fluent in one language, probably french bc of lucifer. doesnt remember much but knows a couple of lullabies and bedtime stories

the sandman used to be his bff until they drifted. they do, however, like and comment on each other's sns posts.

diavolo

once he found out who nicki minaj was he became her #1 stan

def an ariana grande stan too 😌

choreographs dances when hes stressed...idk just seems like a diavolo thing to do

also makes rly bad soundcloud rap music sometimes. turns to poetry when hes feeling emo but only lucifer knows this. barbatos is suspicious of him but doesnt have enough evidence to confirm.

his dad is like hudson abadeer from adventure time aka marceline's dad? something must have influenced him to want to unite the 3 realms + he would need the approval to do so, so his dad must be more chill than all the others before him 🧍🏻‍♀️ IDK ok anyway

currently going through his hamilton phase bc of mc. whether mc's intent was to get him hooked onto it or just to explain it bc of something he saw online, he tells everyone that he found out abt it bc of mc!

this man cannot drive his skills are only second to jumin han

not too fond of many languages but knows the widely spoken ones like spanish, mandarin, etc. if it's taught in high school he knows it

smells like a las vegas casino. not sure why but i feel like he does. but there's also an interesting & nice smell to him if he embraces you. it's a smell you cant quite identify. but it smells nostalgic, it's mysterious, and it's tempting.

barbatos

very calm demeanor but underneath hes WILD hes probably done everything at least once oof

he just has a lot of control and stability over himself (must be nice!)

on a more angsty note i feel like he might have had his heartbroken sO BAD IDK he is hurting and maybe that's why hes so willing to obey diavolo and not abuse his time lord power thingies bc he learned his lesson the hard way

mans is so smart he knows every language you could switch languages mid conversation with him and he wouldnt be thrown off. he'd probably start speaking it too.

BUT HE SPEAKS VIET P E R F E C T L Y

listens to the same stuff as lucifer but also likes eminem. likes the movie 8 mile but criticized it heavily

have you ever been to a chinese herb shop? naturally, he smells like that. his room probably smells like it too. he doesnt really have a significant smell like some of the others

when he bakes he smells like whatever hes baking tho

one of the few out of everyone listed to have been able to travel to literally everywhere

solomon

was probably on kitchen nightmares once, but only to get feedback from chef gordon ramsay. then he used his magic to prevent the episode from airing...

was in an orchestra, one of the best times of his life. played the violin. asmo watched him in the audience once, but didnt approach him until well after that performance.

he CANNOT sing. he can, however, rap.

doesnt listen to music. he listens to podcasts! but every now and then he turns on background music, but prefers it to be instrumental stuff

never wears sunglasses. also does not have a driver's license. cannot drive a regular car. could maybe fly an airplane.

due to his immortality he has learned almost every language to exist, but finds himself speaking mandarin the most. knows most dialects too

similar smell to barbatos but u can also smell some sunscreen on him too. like, generic beach day suncreen

he has a lot of pact marks, so he once had the idea to match foundation to his skin. it took him two weeks but he eventually perfected a combination. yes he will help u find ur perfect shade if u ask him to

simeon

another country music man. has also made a tiktok or two to that one song that goes "he cant even bait a hook." they are private tho

angel country music exists and simeon invented it

if he visits the human world and wears more causal clothing he probably tucks his shirt into his pants

wears a speedo at the beach i tell u, speedo at the beach

he can speak german...i can feel it

uses his pointer finger to type and holds the phone like 2 inches away from his face so sometimes his nose will push a key hence all his typos

has no signature smell. he simply smells like your favorite scent all the time. if multiple people are around him at once, everyone smells a different smell. it's pretty rad

"what does he smell like to himself?" u may be asking. hmm...a church? 💀

luke

his first pet was a goldfish and a few months before the exchange program happened, he was given a koi pond!

secretly likes hanging out with levi sometimes just to play with henry. makes him miss his pet fish back home

so his favorite movie is probably finding nemo and he threw a fit when nemo touched the butt

luke is probably learning german bc of simeon, though he'd like to learn more of the dead languages just for fun

i dont think he listens to music often or has any preferences, he just listens to whatever is playing on the radio

but he finds himself listening to the music mc listens to

smells like freshly baked goods all the time. or fresh laundry. but like, not combined. just depends on the day

[haloshornsinkstains]

Kinktober? (Semi)Public Sex [Kuroo]

Not sure I ever posted this here, sorry if I did. Brain mush right now. But I am trying to continue with the Kinktober stuff as and when I can, and hopefully I’ll get around to writing some headcanons and fun seasonal stuff soon too. Suggestions are always welcome. :)

CW: Female Reader, semi-public sex, some terrible chemistry puns, alcohol

“What is that cat doing?” Suga glanced up from his drink, following Daichi’s glare across the bar. Where you’d been dancing on your own earlier, the former Nekoma Captain was now pressed against your back, smirking. He turned back to Daichi and sighed. “I thought Kenma was supposed to be watching him!” Daichi growled. “I think Kenma is a bit busy right now.” Suga gestured to a far booth and familiar head of orange hair huddled against the gamer. “You worry too much Daichi, she can handle herself.” Daichi frowned and shook his head. “I’m not-” “I’ve been out drinking with her before, believe me, she can. If she didn’t want Kuroo there he wouldn’t be, and… I know you might disagree but he’s a decent guy really.” He leant his head against the others shoulder. “There’s always someone there to help her if she needs it. Half the guys in this room act like her older brothers, she’ll be fine . Now, as sexy as the protective big brother thing is, stop moping and enjoy your night off with me.” “I can’t believe you took her out drinking.” “She’s 23. Now shut up and kiss me you idiot.”

Across the bar, blissfully unaware of the conversation happening about you, you found yourself grinding back into a solid body. Glancing over your shoulder you raised a questioning eyebrow at the man, he merely smirked in response though he did step away a little until you grinned at him. “Aw c’mon, I haven’t even tried to scare you off yet.” You laughed. The man smiled and moved closer again, large hands coming to rest on your hips. “You’re planning to scare me off?” You shrugged. “Not yet, we’ll see.” “Can I at least get a name before you chase me away?” His deep voice was right in your ear and something about it sent a shiver up your spine, you ground your ass back against him in retaliation. You were going to tell him, really you were, but a guy sidled up to the pair of you and eyed the man you were dancing with. “Hey baby, I can show you a much better time than this-” You felt the man behind you tense, ready to interject, but you shook your head giving the stranger a smile that terrifyingly reminded Kuroo of Suga in full mom-mode back in the day. The stranger actually flinched. “I’m having a good time here thanks.” And how one person could sound so sweet and so terrifying at the same time Kuroo would never know, but the guy was gone and honestly he was beyond impressed. “That was… something.” He practically purred into your ear. You shrugged. “I had a good teacher. And I really am having a good time.” “Oho?” “Mhm. Haven’t even tried to scare you off with a terrible chat up line yet.” He chuckled behind you, “they can’t be that bad.” The song changed and you used it as an excuse to turn to face him, your arms resting around his neck as you studied his face properly. He really was handsome, the kind of good looking that even made his bedhead hairstyle look sexy. You could only blame the alcohol and his good looks for muddling your brain and making the next words to come out of your mouth seem like a great idea. “Are you Francium? Because you’re really attractive.” Ooops. Well, it was nice while it lasted. Kuroo blinked a few times, before his face split into a wide grin and a terrible hyena laugh burst from his lips. Once the laughing had subsided, and you were so thankful for the coloured lights hiding your blushing face, you realised he was still holding you. And still smiling. “That was amazing.” He chuckled. “Know any more?” Fuck. He was hot and liked awful science puns? Well that decided it. You grabbed his hand, tugging him away from the dancefloor and towards the back of the club.

You pushed him inside the bathroom stall, locking the door behind you and turning to him. “A bar toilet, really?" You shrugged. “There’s the grimy alley if you prefer? Or you can leave I guess, but well…” You gestured vaguely towards the obvious bulge in his jeans. “I got the feeling you might-” He was kissing you before you finished, strong hands lifting you almost effortlessly up onto the sink so he was pressed between your legs. “Fuck you’re hot.” You smiled. “I think that’s my line.” His lips were back on yours in an instant, one hand tangled in your hair while the other pushed your skirt up around your hips. You moaned into his mouth as his thumb rubbed across your underwear, pressing into the dampness that had already accumulated there. “Ah, fuck, we don’t have-” He groaned in response, pushing your underwear aside and pressing two fingers into your wet heat with ease. That pulled a low moan from his throat, as you gasped and bucked your hips against his hand. From the other side of the door you could hear the voices of the other people in the bar, friends and former teammates easy to pick out over the low hum of noise. You whine, fisting your hands in the front of his shirt. “You don’t have time to tease me. Please, I want you.” He huffs, but any real irritation is clouded by lust as he fishes a condom out of his pocket (you would question it, because really what? But you’re far too focused on releasing him from his jeans). You bite your lip hard to hold back the moan when you finally release his cock, long and thick and curved so perfectly you think you lose the ability to think straight just looking at it. You can practically feel his smirk, and glance up to see him biting back some sort of sarcastic remark. Just to spite him you snatch the condom wrapper from his hands, rolling it onto him yourself and slowly sliding your hand along his now covered erection. The groan that leaves him is pure sin and you can’t help but wrap your legs around his hips, urging him closer. He complies, eyes squeezed shut as he slides into you. You understand the feeling completely, biting down hard on your lip to stop you crying out from just how perfect he feels inside you, the slight burn of the stretch only adding to the sensation. “Move. God, please move.” You urge, rocking your hips against him. Move he does, your head thudding back against the mirror as he starts to thrust, breathing ragged already. He leans forward, bracing himself against the wall with his arms caging you in as he sets a punishing pace, his lips finding yours in an attempt to stifle his moans. “You feel so fucking perfect.” You whine at the praise, arching into him already embarrassingly close, but he doesn’t stop the words tumbling from his mouth. “I wish we had more time, I want to feel you come on my tongue. Want to treat you right. Fuck you feel so good.” It’s so perfect and so intense and you’re so close already. It feels like he is too, the way his body is trembling around you, brow furrowed and bottom lip caught between his teeth. Somewhere on the other side of the door you can hear someone hammering and shouting at you to hurry up and get out of there, if you weren’t so close to finishing you’d probably want to punch them. But Kuroo shifts slightly, thumb swiping over your clit in small circles and that is more than distracting enough, even as his movements become jerky and then still. He keeps going until you follow him into your own orgasm, his lips swallowing the loud moan that bubbles up in your throat.  You stay like that for a few moments, lips moving against each other as you both come down from your respective highs. It’s over too soon, him pulling out of you, disposing of the used condom and gingerly tucking himself back into his pants. You sigh, leaning forwards and swiping his phone to enter your number. “In case you want to do that again as much as I do Kuroo-san.” You grin, hopping down from the sink on wobbly legs and returning to the party.

Kuroo sighs, pocketing the phone again and making his way back over to his former teammates. Yaku narrows his eyes when he approached, frowning. “Kuroo. Please tell me you didn’t have sex with Sawamura-san’s little sister.” Kuroo blinks, suddenly realising you seemed to know his name when he never gave it out, that would also explain the glare he felt burning into his back while he was dancing with you. After a few seconds he grins, glancing over to see you whirling a drunk Nishinoya around the dance floor. “That sounds like my cue to leave.”

[from: Unknown Number] Are you a carbon isotope? Because I want to date you.

[from: you] Kuroo? Marry me.

[from: Unknown Number] The one and only. I think your brother would kill me. Rude not letting me know, fyi.

[from: you] Sorry! I was trying to not scare you away. Coffee tomorrow?

[from: Kuroo] It’s a date.

[lunarr-rrose]

Alternative Investment Vehicles

https://u109893.h.reiblackbook.com/generic11/the-storage-stud/alternative-investment-vehicles/

What are some alternative investment vehicles that someone can participate in?

Most people have been trained to get a job, put money into a retirement account, invest in stocks and bonds. Some reasons for this strategy are, it helps drive the economy and the other reason is that the custodians of these retirement accounts get payment when you purchase stocks and bonds.

Somehow when you invest in real estate, usually, these custodians do not get charge fees. This is also the reason why many people when they go to their fidelity account they are not allowed to invest in self-storage.

What you need to do is set up a self-directed retirement account (self-directed IRA/401K). This will allow you to invest in anything you want. Of course, there are certain parameters but for the most part, you are allowed to invest.

Fernando likes real estate because it’s a physical asset. For him, it’s a hedge against inflation. As the dollar continues to drop in values, at the same time the value of the real estate will also increase to keep up with the inflation.

According to him, he also likes real estate because it produces passive income. It allows you to lower your tax bracket.

One more reason for Fernando liking the real estate business, the self-storage specifically over stocks and bonds besides being a tangible asset is that he has more control over the outcomes.

His advice for those who do not have the time to buy real estate or self-storage is to participate in syndication. Meaning you can become an owner or silent partner of one of these real estate investments and get all the benefits of this business without having to do the work.

Fernando O. Angelucci is Founder and President of Titan Wealth Group. He also leads the firm’s finance and acquisitions departments. Fernando Angelucci and Steven Wear founded Titan Wealth Group in 2015, and under his leadership, the firm’s revenue has grown over 100% year over year. Today,

Find out more at

https://www.TheStorageStud.com

https://titanwealthgroup.com/

Listen to our Podcast:

https://thestoragestud.podbean.com/e/alternative-investment-vehicles/

-------------------------------------------------

So, I've been asked in the past, you know, what are some alternative investment vehicles that someone can participate in? You know, I'm very partial to self storage for a multitude of reasons. And we'll get into that here, but you know, that most people have been trained to, you know, get a job, put money into our retirement account and have that retirement account invest in stocks and bonds. It's basically yet, there's been a few reasons for that. Number one, it helps drive, you know, the economy. Number two, the people that usually, are usually the custodians of these retirement accounts. They get fees for you purchasing stocks and bond. With real estate, on the other hand, usually these custodians do not get to charge fees if you were to invest in these, you know, physical assets or real estate.

And that's the reason why many people, when they go to their fidelity account or their Schwab account, they're actually not allowed to invest in self storage. And that's just because they, that, the custodian won't be able to make any money off of that. So, what you usually have to do is set up a self-directed retirement account of some kind, so self-directed IRA or self-directed 401k. And, that will allow you to invest in anything you want within certain rules. There are certain parameters, but for the most part, real estate counts, the reason I like real estate is because it's a physical asset and it's a hedge against inflation. So, as the dollar continues to drop in value, because of that, the value of your real estate will also increase to keep up with inflation. And that's all that's, you know, that appreciation is just built in that's in addition to say, forced depreciation by renovating or rehabbing the property, or found appreciation by buying the asset below, you know, what its market value is.

And that's because real estate is a, you know, it's a non-perfect investment vehicle unlike stocks and bonds where there's always buyers and sellers on both sides. The, you know, it's very difficult to get a deal on stocks because there's always buyers and sellers. It's a nearly perfect investment vehicle, as far as where the value being based off of, you know, who's willing to buy and who's willing to sell. I also like real estate because it produces passive income. So, it allows you to lower your tax bracket, kind of shifting things away from the capital gains side of the world. Another reason I like real estate or self-storage specifically over stocks and bonds is yes, it's physical. I can touch it. I can go see it. I know it's there, but I also have a better grasp and more control over the outcomes. You know, when you invest in a Fortune 50 company.

There's very little, you can do it as an individual investor to sway that company into acting in a certain way, unless, you know, you're like Warren Buffet or somebody that can come in and buy a huge chunk of the available stocks to have voting rights that actually make a difference in that company. So, we've seen it time and time and time again, where companies will make terrible long-term decisions because they're driven by short term returns. You know, the problem with stocks is that they run on a quarterly basis every quarter, they need to show profit and they, many times do that at the detriment of long-term growth. And that's, you know, when it comes to becoming wealthy, the delayed gratification is a very important thing. The other thing I like about self storage is, if you're able to get into a deal, you can start using that for multiple tax advantage strategy.

So depreciation is a huge thing, where you can reduce your taxable income. Some of the issues that my investors have, is not that they don't make enough money is that they make too much money on paper, which puts them into the highest tax bracket. And they want ways to drop that down. So, investing in real estate is an easy way to drop your income fund. By applying that depreciation, there's also some called cost segregation. It's a cost that usually, it allows you to accelerate the depreciation schedule. So say, you know, a property has a usable life or a useful life of 29 years or 27 years. You, what you can do is you can take the value of that property divided by that useful life. And that's how much you can write off on your taxes and I'm generalizing here. But for the most part, that's how much you can write off on the depreciation schedule.

What cost segregation does is it says, well, you know, an engineer will come through, we'll look at everything in the building and say, well, these doors aren't going to last 29 years. These doors are going to last seven years. And you know, this flooring is only gonna last five years. And you know, these lights are only gonna last X amount of years. And what it does is then it contracts the depreciation schedule allowing you to take much more depreciation upfront. So for example, I bought an $800,000 self storage facility in Illinois. We paid $6,000 to have a cost segregation study done. And in the first year, we were able to write off $184,000 in depreciation because of that cost segregation study. So, these are things that you can't do with stocks and bonds. Again, the passive income is huge for us.

We, think that the easiest way to become wealthy is by having multiple streams of income and multiple streams of income that come in when you're basically sleeping. So, passive income. Now say you're, you know, you're an executive, or you're a busy professional, and you don't have the time to buy real estate or buy self storage. An option that is available to you is to participate in syndications. So, you can become an owner or a silent partner of one of these real estate investments and get all of the benefits of that real estate investment without having to do any of the work. So, you get passed through depreciation, you get passed through passive income, whatever your goals are, that's what you should look for in that syndication. I prefer syndications over the stock market. Usually the returns are much better, than what you'd find the stock market, even though right now, the stock market's doing really well.

I don't think that will last very long. So typically, you know, let's say, someone in the stock market is receiving about 8% average. I think that's a pretty solid number, on these syndications I've seen, because not only do I run syndications, but I also look at investing in other syndications to diversify my own personal portfolio. You know, I'm seeing stuff out there anywhere in the 12 all the way up to the 20% range, as far as returns, on some of this indications available. And that's, you know, that's really great, you know, I had at a 12% return, you're doubling your money, every seven years, which is pretty, you know, that's pretty fast accumulation of wealth. So, those are some options that are available to you. If you want to get involved in self storage, you know, you can either go out and buy your own and, you know, learn trial by fire.

And I really recommend everybody do that. But I understand some people it's just not for them or they just are too busy. They don't want to deal with it. Then they have the ability to invest in someone else's syndication when it comes to that, you got to be very careful about not only due diligence, the deal itself, but then also the due diligence on the spectator response because without them, the deal wouldn't happen. So, number one, you gotta make sure that they're being incentivized to complete a deal, especially if it's a longer term deal in the five to 10 year range, you got to make sure that they have the experience and you know, that the proper team around them to execute on their business plans. So, those are things that I really recommend to those that are seeking alternative investment vehicles.

You know, number one, if it's through an retirement accounts, set up a self-directed, if it's just your, let's say investment money, that's not in a retirement account, and then you don't need to do that. And then, go out there and start finding reputable sponsors with, you know, with good track records. They know what they're doing and know their asset class really well. So, let me know if you have any questions, feel free to put comments below if you have additional topics you'd like us to cover, you can drop those in there as well, and then feel free to reach out to us on our website or various social media platforms there. So again, this is a Storage Stud and see you guys next time.

[chiaki-translation]

Spring Troupe 7th Play: Magician’s Pure Love Translation Ch1-2

What am I doing to myself? Out of a very weird reason I started translating this story. I will try my best to post translation everyday (at least 2 chapters a day) so I would be able to post everything before the actual event ends. I hope there’s someone else out there who actually want to read the whole story so here it is, the first part of the translation under the cut. Enjoy~ Some extra things I’m tempted to say. I really want to scout for Magician Chikage, but I’m saving so hard for Glitter Kazu and I shall not be tempted. I also won’t have a lot of screenshots for this series because I’m quite lazy since each chapter is quite long...

Ch1-2 / / Ch3-4 / / Ch5-6 / / Ch7-8 / / Ch9-10 / / Epilogue

Disclaimer:

A3! is owned by Liber Entertainment

Translator’s Note:

I actually haven’t read Act 3, so I’m not that familiar with Madoka and the 1st generations. If there’s anything wrong from this translation, please feel free to tell me so I can correct it for others. Thank you~

Magician’s Pure Love (Chapter 1-2)

 Masumi:

So look over here, and… there it disappears.

Chikage:

Right, you’re good.

As expected, you really have a dexterous hand.

Masumi:

Everyone can do this much.

Chikage:

If you tell that to Chigasaki, he’ll get angry at you.

But you have quite a repertoire of magic tricks now, don’t you think it’s time to try putting on a formal show?

Masumi:

I’ll only put on a show for Director…

Chikage:

If it’s for that purpose, then you might need to polish the magic tricks even further…

Misdirection technique might be effective, it’s a necessary trick to get Director-san to enjoy it.

Masumi:

…

Chikage:

Memo?

You wrote on that memo sometimes, what have you actually been writing?

Masumi:

It’s a note on how to grab hold of Director’s love.

Chikage:

Vol.26 huh…

Masumi:

It’s the 26th one.

Chikage:

As usual, your dedication towards Director-san is amazing…

Masumi:

I’ll do anything to be able to become her ideal man.

Chikage:

Anything, huh… to have such a passionate love for something, I wonder what kind of feeling it would be.

Masumi:

You want to know?

Chikage:

I’ll refrain if we’re talking about love stories.

Masumi:

You won’t understand anyway, so I won’t start.

Chikage:

Haha. Even Masumi, are you going to treat me like a man with no romance?

Director:

Ah, the two of you, can I have a bit of your time?

Masumi:

--

Chikage:

Right when we’re talking about it, right.

Masumi:

What happened?

Director:

There’s something I need to talk to you about.

<Shifts to Living Room>

Tsuzuru:

What are we talking about?

Director:

I just had a talk with Sakyo-san and the manager…

There are a lot of attention on the troupe now because of GODza’s and 1st generation’s act-off, as well as the all-out performance on “Spotlight”.

Citron:

Oh, it’s crawling through the tension!

Masumi:

Boiling.

Itaru:

There’re really a lot of God-za’s fans and the 1st generation fans when you pay a closer attention.

Sakuya:

Even for “Spotlight” as the special feature, I was so nervous at first but I’m glad that it seemed popular out there!

Chikage:

It’s all thanks to Kasumi-san’s editing skill.

Director:

From then, I have received a lot of inquiries regarding our local performances… Then from this, I thought we should go for an attack instead.

In order to realize the value of Mankai entrusted by the 1st generation, we should aim to level up and improve the popularity of the theatre company while improving the performance level of each individual.

Tsuzuru-kun will also take steps to further improve on his ability to write for our performances…

Tsuzuru:

Yeah. In order to be able to match the stories that Hakkaku-san made, as expected I still need a lot more experience.

Director:

That’s why, while still working on our local performances, I would like to plan for new performances that would highlight the strength of each troupe.

It’s exactly because we received a lot of attention now, shouldn’t we use this chance to redefine the strength of each group?

Sakuya:

I want to do it!!

Citron:

I’m pretty sure there’re a lot of fans out there who’re still waiting for us!

Masumi:

I think it’s a good idea.

Itaru:

Why not?

It might be a good change to all the Mixed Plays we’ve been doing as well.

Chikage:

I agree as well.

We’ve only done one lap of ‘lead’  for Spring Troupe performances after all.

Tsuzuru:

You’re right.

Director:

Is there anyone here interested to take the ‘lead’ role this time?

Masumi:

I want to do it.

Director:

That’s fast.

Masumi:

I’ll do anything to rekindle your love.

Tsuzuru:

There’s nothing to rekindle over there.

Itaru:

So there’s a motive for some returns.

Chikage:

Your character’s too consistent.

Masumi:

Not only the Spring Troupe performances, I have taken many roles even in Mixed Play and act-off. The me right now would be able to shine brighter as a ‘lead’ compared to my time during Alice.

As the chairman, I think I would be able to put on a much better performance than that time, and I want to show it to you.

Director:

I see…

(Alice was only our second performance for the Spring Troupe and everyone had very little experience back then. Since then, everyone has accumulated a lot of experience.

The bond among the members has also deepened, we might be able to make a performance that portrays Masumi-kun much better now.)

Chikage:

I see.

Itaru:

As the chairman, huh.

Sakuya:

I think the Masumi-kun right now will be able to do it!

I’ll also support you!

Citron:

I also a breeze!

Tsuzuru:

Agree you mean.

Well, I think it’s good for Masumi to be the ‘lead’.

Director:

Alright, then, it’s decided that Masumi-kun will be the lead!

Masumi:

I’ll do my best.

<End of Chapter 1>

Masumi:

…

(There’s no vacant seat around…)

Madoka:

--

You can sit over here.

Masumi:

… thank you.

You’re writing GODza’s script?

Madoka:

Yeah. Recently I’ve been visiting GODza’s training hall, I need to keep studying theatre after all.

Masumi:

Hee…

Madoka:

After our loss in the act off, GODza’s seats has been more motivated, of course Haruto-san and Shifuto included.

Everyone’s practicing with all they have.

Kamikizaka-san also changed towards a good direction.

How’s your side doing?

Masumi:

We decided that I’ll be the ‘lead’ for the upcoming Spring Troupe performance.

Madoka:

Really. Congrats.

Masumi:

I’m going to do my best for her sake.

Madoka:

Her?

Masumi:

It’s the director.

Madoka:

You’re going to do your best for the director’s sake?

Masumi:

I started acting for her sake.

All the good performances I’ve done so far was to kindle our love.

Madoka:

Ki, kindle your love…?

Fukunaga:

That’s wonderful!

So your passionate fire of love has polished your performances until now!

Madoka:

!?

Fukunaga:

You should promptly get that Director-san to come to this year’s school festival’s performance!

Masumi:

I told you she won’t come.

Fukunaga:

Ikaruga-kun! For his sake and for his director’s sake, let’s write a good script!

Madoka:

I haven’t started writing anything.

Fukunaga:

Not yet!

Masumi:

Ha…

Fukunaga:

You started acting for that person, and now you’re aiming higher to become a better actor for her, such a melodramatic scenario!

Madoka:

Then, what if, you never met with Director-san, Masumi would you be doing acting at all.

Masumi:

There’s no such thing as a world where me and Director won’t meet, our meeting was fate after all.

When I manage to become her ideal actor, we would finally be connected as one…

Fukunaga:

Fyuuu.

Madoka:

You’re really a passionate one…

Fukunaga:

For you to be so head over heels over her, this director-san would be a very attractive person, isn’t it.

Masumi:

Of course. She loves curry, always working hard, pretty nice, likes curry, loves theatre, loves curry.

Madoka:

So she likes curry that much…

Fukunaga:

But for such a nice person, I would be worried if I was her boyfriend~

Masumi:

…We’re not going out yet.

Fukunaga:

Eh!?

Usui-kun that doesn’t sound like you, don’t say that she already has a boyfriend?

Masumi:

… Don’t have.

Fukunaga:

But, if you approach me so passionately, even I would relent sooner or later.

Masumi:

I don’t want to approach you.

Fukunaga:

It’s just an if!

That’s why I was thinking there might be someone else on her mind.

Masumi:

(Director has another guy on her mind…?)

--

(It can’t be… It’s impossible.)

<Shifts to Dorm’s Living Room>

Itaru:

Since Masumi-kun is the lead, I have an idea for a sequel.

We can make Alice in Wonderland II.

Sakuya:

We’ve never done a sequel before, so it sounds like a refreshing new idea!

Tsuzuru:

But the rabbit ears…

Citron:

Then how about puppy ears?

Summer Troupe already used cat ears, so we should try something different.

Itaru:

Is this a new animal series or something…

Tsuzuru:

I’m not going to make such series!?

Chikage:

Masumi’s good at sword fighting, why not we try a performance that can make use of his skill?

Director:

Spring Troupe doesn’t really have a performance with battles and stuffs, maybe we can make it work!

Masumi:

…

Tsuzuru:

Masumi? Something bothering you?

Masumi:

It’s nothing…

Director:

?

Itaru:

If you want to make use of something Masumi’s good at, the other choice would be…

Sakuya:

Ah! What about story about magicians!?

He learns a lot of magic tricks from Chikage-san after all.

Chikage:

I see.

We can showcase the result of your training.

Tsuzuru:

It sounds like it’s going to be a good theme, sounds like it can highlight the brightness of Spring Troupe too.

Citron:

We played some live performance during the Quartet performance, maybe we can do the same with magic this time.

Director:

Sounds fun, I’m looking forward to it!

Itaru:

If it’s magic, then the co-lead would be senpai?

Sakuya:

It’s the master-pupil combination!

Tsuzuru:

Sounds great, why not.

Citron:

I approve!

Chikage:

I don’t mind.

Masumi:

…

Director:

Masumi-kun will you be alright with this arrangement?

Masumi:

… Yeah.

Director:

(His answer’s a bit vague, I wonder if this is going to be alright…)

Tsuzuru:

Then I’ll start thinking of a plot.

Director:

Yeah, I’ll leave it to you.

<Shifts to Corridor>

Masumi:

…

Chikage:

Masumi, is this alright?

Masumi:

?

Chikage:

You were practicing to hold a magic show for Director-san, weren’t you.

If we’re doing it on the stage, your performance will not be exclusive to Director-san anymore.

Masumi:

Ah… It’s alright.

Even if other people see it, I would still be able to convey my desire to show it to Director, it’s no problem at all.

Chikage:

You’re so consistent.

Masumi:

Just consistent?

Chikage:

Ah… Well, if you’re satisfied then it’s fine.

Masumi:

…

Chikage:

(Since earlier, I’ve been feeling something weird…

Well, it’s Masumi after all, most probably it’s something about Director-san

Such a pure love is not my specialty…)

… the upcoming performance, I’m looking forward to work with you.

Masumi:

Yeah.

<Shifts to Itaru/Chikage’s Room>

Itaru:

Woah, the rug’s expensive.

Chikage:

…

Itaru:

Ah, how’s Masumi?

Chikage:

Masumi?

Itaru:

I thought you went to talk to him?

Chikage:

So you saw.

Itaru:

I’m his dad after all.

Chikage:

And I’m the grandfather huh.

But he seemed to be fine for now, how to say…

Is it alright for me to give my grandson some pocket money.

Itaru:

I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work on that one grandson.

Maybe a bromide of Director-san will work instead.

Chikage:

You’re right. Well, since I’ll be co-starring, I shall communicate with him carefully.

Itaru:

Please do so.

Chikage:

By the way, how was he during the Alice performance?

You’re the co-lead right.

Itaru:

Ah…

We understood that we cannot understand each other.

Chikage:

What’s that.

But, I think I will be the same.

Itaru:

Nah, senpai’s pretty unexpected, I think you might actually understand each other normally.

I don’t have any basis for saying that, but if you find nothing in common with him, you won’t even teach him magic.

That dry part was somehow similar as well.

Chikage:

Starting from the basic.

Our age difference were quite big… how about that.

Above everything else, it doesn’t help that Masumi’s most prominent feature, being his passionate love, it’s not similar to me at all.

Itaru:

Well, around the time when Spring Troupe was formed, there was a time when Masumi lost his passion in love. That’s when everyone started sharing love stories to him.

Chikage:

Love stories… huh.

Itaru:

Why not senpai go ahead and present one to him as well.

Chikage:

Are you serious?

Itaru:

Well, I don’t expect any interesting story to come out from you though.

Chikage:

I don’t want to hear that from you.

Well, I was told straight to  the face that he doesn’t want to share love stories with me.

Itaru:

Haha. So Masumi understands well.

<End of Chapter 2>f

[torispn15]

Warning long post ahead:

I have heard a lot from the news and from articles today. It can drive you crazy. So, I´m channeling my energy into explaining a couple of things about our (the US) political and economic system. It´s not perfect, as I put more emotion into this post than just straight logic. I have taken a politics 101 course and did a lot of studying and I am using basic common sense and empathy. At first I am talking about the Capitol incident and then it expands into more detail. If you don´t want to read, that´s cool. (I am not really gonna branch out into other countries on this topic. The main focus is the US) Anyways, here it is:

"A political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. Anarchism calls for the abolition of the state, which it holds to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful."

Does this sound like the behavior of the people that stormed the Capitol? No. It sounds like the opposite of what they want. I´ve seen a lot of news networks such as NBC, call the fascists, anarchists. That, above, is the description of anarchism.

Anarchists reject any hierarchy. They, the fascists, want government and they want Trump. So, calling them anarchists is very very not accurate.

"A form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy. They believe that liberal democracy is obsolete and regard the complete mobilization of society under a totalitarian one-party state as necessary to prepare a nation for armed conflict and to respond effectively to economic difficulties."

Does this sound more like the behavior of the people that stormed the Capitol? Yes. It does. That is the description of fascism.

"A fascist state is led by a strong leader such as a dictator and a martial law government composed of the members of the governing fascist party to forge national unity and maintain a stable and orderly society."

Remind you of anything??

Now, read this:

"Advocates the abolition of the state, capitalism, wage labour, social hierarchies and private property (while retaining respect for personal property, along with collectively-owned items, goods and services) in favor of common ownership of the means of production and direct democracy as well as a horizontal network of workers' councils with production and consumption based on the guiding principle "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"."

This sounds way better than the first two, right? This is the description of anarcho-communism. Which is what I, personally, align with most.

What about this:

"An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics include capital accumulation, competitive markets, a price system, private property and the recognition of property rights, voluntary exchange and wage labor. In this market economy, decision-making and investments are determined by every owner of wealth, property or production ability in capital and financial markets whereas prices and the distribution of goods and services are mainly determined by competition in goods and services markets."

This is the description of capitalism, which is what we have now. But, what you have to understand is that capitalism usually leads to fascism. Late-stage capitalism is fascism. One core idea of fascism is capitalism. Which is one of many reasons why it´s terrible. Also, you live here. You know how bad capitalism is. It´s why you can´t afford to buy medicine or go to the doctors. It´s why people die of starvation. It´s not because people don´t work hard enough. There are people who work three jobs who are still low-income individuals and families. It´s because of capitalism. It doesn´t give you any freedom. It is the opposite of freedom. In the "land of the free" we have a political and economic system that enslaves us. Think about that. Think about how much freedom you actually have.

When all of this is put into frame, what are your thoughts? What sounds like a place you want to live in?

The way we are now, the reason why most of the garbage in this country happens, you can connect that to capitalism. You can trace what happened at the Capitol today to fascism and capitalism (Which are basically the same thing).

A lot of Americans work minimum wage jobs. Minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, on average in the US. Assuming you work 40 hours a week, that equals 2,080 hours in a year. Your hourly wage of 7 dollars would end up being about $14,560 per year in salary. Even if you got $15 an hour, working 37.5 hours a week, you would still only make $29,250 a year. $15 an hour isn't enough to secure affordable housing in most US states. Nationally, someone would need to make $17.90 an hour to rent a one-bedroom apartment or $22.10 an hour to cover a two-bedroom home. In order to live comfortably, you´d have to get extra hours or a better job. Extra hours, is just slaving more of your life away to the point where it won´t matter how much money you earn. And it is very hard to get a job. Even if you go to college, you aren´t owed or guaranteed a job. You slave you life away. And none of this takes into consideration family members. None of this takes into consideration any children or people living in the household. You have to struggle all the time under capitalism.

You are in the top 1.8% of americans if you make more than 400k a year. So, no, not everyone or anyone can be rich or live nicely here. America loves to brand itself as a free country and the land of opportunity but, it has shown that is anything but. 30 million people in America, do not have health insurance. Do you know how much medical care costs without insurance? No one should struggle for basic medical care. Every human being deserves the basic necessities to stay alive. Every single one of us shouldn´t have to pay for food or water. We shouldn´t struggle to afford putting food on the table working two jobs while the millionaires and billionaires who sit on a yacht all day, who don´t earn a single cent, never have to worry about that. You wanna know how they make that money, you wanna know who gives them that money? You do. Your hard work and nights away from your family, earns them that money. That is your money. The system is set up for people like that to succeed and keep succeeding. The rich keep getting richer while you stay the same or even lose money. Does that sound fair or just to you? Life isn´t fair, no, but this isn´t life. This is a man-made system that we can fix. We built this and we can tear it down.

So stop being a bootlicker and sucking off capitalism just because there´s a small chance that, maybe, you will get rich. If you´re black in America, you have a 15.1% lower chance of becoming a millionaire than a white person in America. If you are white or asian with a college education, you have around a 20% chance of being a millionaire. But, if you can´t afford college, and you only have a high school diploma, your chances drop to a 2% chance. And most people who are rich in this country didn´t start out with a start-up company and worked hard. No. No. The majority of millionaires and billionaires did either one of these things or all of them:

⬤ Got lucky. By means of gambling, lottery, ⋆cough⋆ making a sex tape and it getting traction ⋆cough⋆...... things like that.

⬤ Scamming someone. By means of ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme, advance-fee scam, credit fraud, identity theft... things of that nature.

⬤ Other illegal shit. By means of embezzlement, hacking, robbing, selling counterfit goods (which can also fall into the scamming someone section), etc... you get the point.

And that doesn´t include being born into money and not paying any taxes as well. It usually doesn´t have shit to do with working hard. If working hard made you a millionaire, a hell of a lot more people would be rich af.

There´s also a lot more factors and circumstances to take into account. Even if I had time to explain, I probably couldn´t because, well, frankly, it´s impossible to go into every factor or circumstance especially since, I couldn´t possibly know every single one. This is a very basic and general post and I tried my best to explain some stuff. (some of the figures and percentages might be off by a percent ot two but, that´s easily searchable)

I do encourage researching, actual research. Because I, nor, anyone on this app are the authority for any topic. Never take anyone´s word for anything, especially not on this app of of all places. Please study and research. When you research, it is very important to check out the websites and sources for too much bias and make sure to fact check, such as comparing it to other websites and sources. Or maybe you could read different books about economics or politics and things of that nature. But, even for books, always fact check and check for too much bias. You can easily fall into traps if you don´t. I just started listening to an audio book titled: Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman. I am trying to learn more about anarchism and other political philosophies as well. I am most certaintly not a "political person" but, I do love to learn and I do love human beings and believe that human beings deserve basic rights which makes me interested in learning about different ways to improve our way of life.

So... that´s it.... I hope y´all have a goodnight/evening/morning! 💛

[citadelspires]

A Marcanne thing I threw together to feed the people who aren’t here for Ducktales and to prove to myself that I am indeed, a multifaceted individual. 

The concept here is that Anne and Sasha never ran into Marcy and became friends with her. In this version Anne naturally comes across the box on her own and thinks it looks cool (I know she had that thing about frogs so she probably wouldn’t but this is an au anyway and plot needs to happen so lets just go with it). Marcy had also been interested in that box, but didn’t have the money for it or the bravery and/or skills to steal it. She’s walking up to the thrift store when she sees Anne walking away with it, and she’s decidedly antisocial and nervous about talking to other people but her desire to learn more about the box wins out over her inability to talk to people. She rushes over to Anne and explains that she’s curious about the box and wonders if Anne will let her stay and see her open it. Anne is a little weirded out by this girl coming out of nowhere but also we’ve seen she’s absolutely down to just get into some shenanigans with just about anybody so she goes with it.

The opening of the box takes place in the same way it does in canon, with the exception of Sasha isn’t there this time (I swear I actually really like Sasha but Marcanne is my bread and butter and also the amount of writing and skill it takes to write Sasha’s relationship with either of the other two is just, way beyond the level I’m willing to put in so I just put her in the timeout corner I’m sorry, honestly I think the box probably only works with three people anyway but this is a self indulgent ship concept soooooo. anyway) the other notable difference being that Marcy and Anne show up outside Wartwood together.

At first Anne thinks Marcy did something and is really mad at her for getting them trapped in another world and Marcy is not really great at explaining herself or really focusing on what Anne is saying or doing at all cause she’s too busy being fascinated by the new world and creatures around her so Anne does all this angry jumping to conclusion and makes accusations and Marcy just kinda... doesn’t bother to refute or acknowledge any of them. But eventually they get it figured out and they both end up moving into the Plantar’s basement.

Anne naturally gets closer to the family than Marcy does. She still hangs out with Sprig and Polly to a similar level to what she does in the show. Marcy, on the other hand, spends a lot of time off on her own doing research and that kind of stuff. She doesn’t have a job or position to really use it for in this au like she does in canon but she does it for herself anyway. It comes in useful when Anne and co get in over their heads. And though she isn’t as overwhelmingly present with the family as Anne is she’s just as much a part of it. She has her own unique relationship with all the Plantars and they consider her part of the family just as much as Anne, it just looks different. She does; however, get less respect overall from the townspeople than Anne accumulates. With the exception of Wally, who actually really vibes with her solo-questing-for-learnings-sake thing. The rest of the town though just sees her as a less present more secrety version of Anne, particularly taking a dislike to her whole studious thing because that just is the general vibe I get from wartwood. They’re more about the old ways and classic farming type stuff than going out and learning new things.

And of course, when you’re in another world with only one other person in existence you naturally want to spend at least some time around that person. Their first real interaction as friends is when Anne feels bad for the whole “accusing you of trapping us in another world” thing and wants to make it up to her. The two find they really don’t have that much in common but they enjoy themselves a lot regardless. They talk about home lives and earth and everything they left behind, at least at first. Eventually they start talking about earth less and less and the things happening in their new lives more and more. Though during the earth talks Anne finds out that Marcy had actually gone to the same school as her, just had been one of those people who didnt’ really stand out or do anything worth noticing. Except when she ended up clumsily making some big accident again but everyone got used to even that eventually. What Anne does learn though is that Marcy had seen Sasha around and she kind of gets to hear what someone who only ever saw Sasha as “that popular kid at the top of the social ladder” thinks of her. That’s probably a small point of contention between them at some point where Marcy just has this preconceived notion of Sasha (that isn’t really the full picture) and Anne has her own ideas about Sasha that are tinted by growing up with her and having her as the prime example of friendship her whole life, and Marcy is just kind of, not socially aware enough to know she probably shouldn’t say non-positive things about Anne’s best friend. (once again I promise I do actually genuinely enjoy and care about Sasha despite what this looks like).

So basically the two of them are figuring out this new world while also figuring out new things about themselves. And that whole time they get closer and closer until that reaches its natural conclusion with them getting together.

Also it’s worth noting that Marcy is just. Absolutely Covered in little scars and bandaids cause she never got better at being less clumsy on her own and she didn’t have Anne or Sasha to help her out. But now she does have Anne, who starts helping her out more frantically and fawning over her when she does inevitably get injured on her solo quests the more her bond with Marcy grows. Eventually she starts restricting Marcy’s solo adventure time and makes her wait for Anne or just do her studying within eyesight of whatever she’s doing with Sprig.

I probably don’t have the skill or the ability to make myself sit down and write something this long but I genuinely do love the idea so maybe I’ll do something with it.