#pairing: china/russia

[smuttyandabsurd]

Of Incense and Chrysanthemums (Russia x China)

Fandom: Axis Powers Hetalia Pairing: China/Russia Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1,458 Additional Tags: Fluff, Smut

Summary: Sometimes this light touching and kissing was enough to while away the night. Sometimes it led to more, and it would only take an invitation from any one of them.

Yao liked to look at Ivan's hands. When they are together, content to lie in comfortable silence, he would take one of Ivan's large hands in both of his and examine it, the calluses on his palm, the neatly clipped fingernails.

Ivan liked to play with Yao's hair. With Yao tracing little circles on one of his hands, he would pull loose the hair tie with the other and comb the dark tresses with his fingers, smoothing back the inky silk. When it pleased him to do so, he would hold Yao's hair to one side and kiss the back of his neck.

Sometimes this light touching and kissing was enough to while away the night. Sometimes it led to more, and it would only take an invitation from any one of them. This time it was Ivan who took the initiative, sliding his hands over Yao's slender shoulders as his kisses grew in hunger.

"Mm, wait," Yao hummed. He reached to undo the buttons of his shirt, but Ivan was quicker and easily popped them loose, and soon Yao was shedding the article, revealing pale golden skin, a canvas for Ivan's wandering lips.

He came upon the scar on Yao's back, an angry blemish on otherwise flawless skin. He traced it now with a finger, following the diagonal slash where once a sword cut into his Yao and marked him.

"It will heal aru," Yao said softly, meaning to reassure if the sight of it angered Ivan.

Ivan embraced him suddenly and buried his face into the crook of his neck. "I'm sorry," he said thickly, his voice muffled. He was not the one who scarred him, but Yao understood.

Without a word, Yao twisted around and kissed Ivan fully on the lips. Lightly at first, then with growing intimacy, and Ivan returned it with a ferocity that made Yao gasp. He caught Yao's wrists and tilted his head to deepen the kiss, and Yao opened his mouth to accept his dominance, moaning quietly, allowing to be pulled bodily so he straddled Ivan's lap.

"Oh!" he cried suddenly, breaking away. Heat rose to his cheeks; he could feel Ivan's arousal. But embarrassment gave way to timid pleasure as Ivan rubbed against him, coaxing from kiss-swollen lips sighs of wanton abandon.

"Yao..." Ivan murmured lovingly, eyes closed as he breathed in the scent of incense and chrysanthemum clinging to Yao's skin. He smiled at Yao and innocently asked, "May I make love to you?"

Yao could feel himself blushing again. "O-Of course, I mean, y-yes aru." Ivan gave a little giggle and Yao scowled. "Don't laugh aru!" he scolded even as he grew redder. Ivan rested his head on Yao's shoulder.

"I love you, Yao, I've missed you," he whispered, kissing the side of Yao's neck. Yao swallowed the knot in his throat.

"I know," he whispered back.

The bed creaked as Ivan shifted his weight, lowering Yao into the mattress and kissing every inch of skin his feeling lips came to find. Yao closed his eyes and gave in to the tingling pleasure, humming as Ivan kissed lower, past his collar bone to his milk-smooth chest, as he unbuttoned and shrugged off his own shirt. He paused to give Yao's dusky nipple a small lick, exciting a little whimpering groan, and clamped his mouth over it, padding the area with his tongue as he tweaked and pinched the other nipple, twisting and rolling it with his forefinger and thumb, and suckling and teething the one in his mouth until Yao cried out.

"Enough!" he panted breathlessly, hissing as Ivan licked it over before continuing his relentless quest downwards. Lower and lower he went, peeling the shirt from his back as he scattered light, lingering kisses over Yao's abdomen, but he did not slow until he reached Yao's cotton trouser.

Ivan could tell that Yao was hard. Anxiously he removed the last of Yao's clothing, baring his erection He looked at it for a moment, then his eyes roved over the whole of Yao's nakedness, enchantingly erotic in his willow-like grace and half-lidded charcoal eyes, his succulent lips parted and inviting.

"Yao..." he breathed, parting Yao's legs and kissing his inner thigh. He exhaled hot, moist breath that caressed over-sensitised flesh, the cloying sensation causing Yao to shiver.

"I-Ivan..." Yao mewled, pleading for more.

"Cry for me, Yao, I love to hear your voice," Ivan said dreamily. Yao felt the corners of his lips turning in a smile.

"Make me," he whispered seductively. Ivan seemed to light up at the challenge.

To Yao's surprise, instead of being subjected to more teasing as he had learned to expect, Ivan sat up and unbuckled his belt, eager to free his own erection. Yao stared blankly, watching Ivan massage his impressive length already dark and engorged with arousal, and hardly dared to breathe when Ivan loomed over him, propping himself up by an arm planted beside Yao on the pillow.

"Do you remember the first time we coupled?" he murmured in a husky tone. At the last word, Yao let out a startled gasp, having felt Ivan's tip press against his entrance.

"Y-Yes!" he hissed. He was not likely to forget.

Slowly Ivan began to ease himself into Yao, pressing against puckered resistance and hearing Yao's restrained whimpers. That gave way to a low cry as Ivan pushed in and, with a quiet grunt, buried himself fully into Yao.

"Unh... ahh... Ivan!" Yao cried his name dutifully, trembling violently. He felt his lips captured in a sloppy kiss, to distract him from the pain as Ivan snapped his hips forward, driving deeper into Yao who screamed into the kiss, the sound muffled, swallowed.

Yao couldn't tell how long the kiss lasted, but it lasted until he was comforted and could turn away with a hesitant nod. Ivan kissed the side of his mouth in lingering reassurance before thrusting in again, emitting a low groan from the feel of Yao tightening then releasing, adjusting to the intrusion.

"Mm... Ivan..." Yao moaned the name a mantra of his desires. "Aaah... Ivan... Ivan..."

"Yes, call for me," Ivan whispered, setting a rhythmic pace to his thrusts, and Yao obliged, calling his name, little moans and sighs tumbling, cascading from his lips.

Ivan pressed deep with each thrust, searching for the little spot that made Yao rise and cry even more beautifully, and he knew he found it when Yao clutched suddenly at his arms and dug in his fingernails.

"T-There!" he groaned, his supple legs wrapping around Ivan to cling better to him. "Yes... there... unh... Ivan, don't stop!"

He hid his face then, embarrassed, burying into Ivan's shoulder and trembling all over. Smiling, thrusting into that same spot, Ivan kissed the side of his temple and smoothed over his ebony hair, smelling the lingering scent of incense and chrysanthemums.

"P-Please!" Yao begged suddenly in a high-pitched whimper. Ivan could tell that he was close, painfully close.

Carefully, gently, he peeled Yao from him as one would a cat, settling him back in the mattress and lifting his legs so that it slung over his broad shoulders. Yao's gaze clouded over, his quavering lips pursed, locking the treacherous whine in his throat. Silently he pleaded again, his lust-filled eyes glinting with moisture.

Ivan wrapped his fingers around Yao's length and started pumping, gazing hazily at Yao whose back curved in a graceful arch, a hoarse cry tearing from his throat. He was a quivering bow, taut with heightened pleasure, slowly, slowly mounting to fulfil his need, and he was letting out the most beautiful voice, crying in passion, "Love!"

White ropey semen spurted and spilled over Ivan's slippery hand, like melted wax clinging to cream-coloured skin, as sticky as honey. Yao sank back, satiated, spent, but Ivan continued pumping him, all the while never breaking his new punishing pace as he neared his own climax.

Stilling, with a quiet groan, he came into Yao who moaned in soft pleasure, feeling the heat bathe and pool in his belly. Their lips met, drawn together without rhyme or reason, but melded in need, in burning, all-consuming hunger.

"Love..." Yao sighed as they parted, his tongue running over Ivan's cheek, at his own cum that clung there. Ivan nuzzled into the crook of Yao's neck, kissing softly at the tender flesh then nipping the skin, marking him, claiming him.

"Yao, I love you," he whispered passionately, holding tight to Yao, and breathed in the scent of incense and chrysanthemums, now mingling with the scent of their lovemaking.

"Yes," Yao said gently. "Yes, I know aru."

I love you too, Ivan, was what he wanted to say, but the words faltered and was left unsaid, his courage failed.

[broomcolate]

so far I only have enough energy and time for sketches... I drew my hetalia OTPs as characters from the cartoon "Flushed Away" :D

[apas-95]

Did you know that NASA engineers considered the failure rate of some critical shuttle parts to be about 1 in 100 (significantly greater than what NASA upper-management considered the failure rate to be, and what was considered at all acceptable by the certification process)?

Do you know that NASA engineers currently have no idea how many rocket launches the next mission in the Artemis program (in 2 years!) is meant to involve, because the mission plan relies on SpaceX being contracted to deliver a supply of cryogenic fuel to the crewed Orion (™ Lockheed-Martin) capsule in orbit - a procedure that 1: has never been attempted before on any spacecraft, let alone the Orion™ capsule, not even in uncrewed technology demonstration flights; and 2: would require an as-of-yet unknown number of SpaceX 'Starship' launches, because said vehicle does not actually exist at time of writing?

Did you know they're planning on using this 'starship' as the crewed lander? A design for a lunar ascent vehicle, that is, that does not use hypergolic fuel, that relies on a swing-out crane as the only entry and egress point? During the original moon landings, the LEM had so many redundant methods to make sure it got astronauts off the surface of the moon, that in the most absurd, extreme case, where every single mechanism fails, there's a procedure trained into the astronauts to climb around the outside of the capsule, take a pair of bolt-cutters from the equipment box, physically cut the couplings holding the capsule to the lander stage, and take off to get home. Artemis' proposed lander, on the other hand, is planned to be a vehicle whose design didn't even include heatshields until it was realised it would obviously need heatshields, which are ceramic tiles bolted after-the-fact directly through the steel hull, because SpaceX had decided to mass-produce the original-design hull sections all at once for all the 'starships' first, before doing any integrated testing.

We're seeing the exact attitude that led to the shuttle disasters not being prevented now expressing itself in (and even through) the Artemis program, a project pushed harder and faster through the gates than it should be, by a government (and NASA administration thereby) desperate to advance the eponymous Artemis Accords (that goes unsigned by China, Russia, and much of the world) and reneg on all previous space charters that onsidered ownership, commercial exploitation, and military usage of space forbidden. Something bad is going to happen, and it's going to happen for the sake of SpaceX and the military-industrial complex at large.

[sleepingdeath-light]

cuddling hcs ; allied forces

requested by ; nobody / self indulgent

fandom(s) ; hetalia

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; america / alfred f. jones, canada / matthew williams, china / yào wáng, england / arthur kirkland, france / francis bonnefoy, russia / ivan braginsky

outline ; “cuddling hcs for the allies”

note ; writing this may or may not have sent me hurtling straight back into a hetalia phase… maybe

warning(s) ; none, just fluff!

america / alfred f. jones

alfred is, to put it plainly, something of a cuddle bug and will take any and every opportunity he can find to wrap you up in his arms and hug you until one of you is dragged away to do something much more boring and much less cozy — like this man could spend an entire day cuddled up with you and he’d still start pouting and complaining when you get up to do something else

he’s by no means picky about what position you’re cuddling in, like at all, but there is something about being the big spoon that makes his heart feel particularly full (he likes feeling like he’s protecting you)

cuddling with alfred can happen at any time in any place — in your shared bed first thing in the morning, in the meeting room literally seconds before his allies are due to come in, out in public when he just tackles you from behind and pulls you into a hug, etc., etc. — but he always manages to make it worth your while

this all works out brilliantly during the colder months since alfred is pretty much a living furnace, but during summer it’s an absolute nightmare so you’ll either have to forgo cuddling for a while, or put on a strong fan and pray

(and lord help you if you’re claustrophobic because al is extremely strong and once he’s latched onto you he is not letting go anytime soon)

canada / matthew williams

as your relationship with matthew progresses and his confidence with initiating and accepting physical affection grows, you’ll come to find that he’s actually quite the cuddle bug — especially if those cuddles also include you kissing all over his face and playing with his hair (though he’d never dream of asking for that out loud)

he’s not especially fussy about what position you’re in as long as you’re both holding each other, but when he’s in certain moods he does have positions he tends to gravitate towards — e.g. when he’s had a rough day he prefers to be little spoon, when he’s all love sick and wants to fall asleep he prefers to cuddle you in a position where he can see your face, and when you’re watching something together he’s rather have you perched on his lap or cuddled up into his side

generally speaking he prefers to cuddle in bed or on the couch, but if you want to cuddle out in public then he’s not going to turn you down (even if pda can sometimes make him a bit flustered) since it’s not like anyone really acknowledges his existence long enough to give you both grief over it

as long as he’s not in the middle of something super important (or watching the hockey because he gets way too passionate for his own good sometimes), matthew is pretty much always down to cuddle with you — it’s nice having someone he cares about acknowledge his existence and crave his company, so more often than not he’ll open his arms and invite you to make yourself comfortable whenever you ask

matthew loves the sound of your voice, so when you’re cuddling with him he’ll often just encourage you to talk while he listens intently and absentmindedly plays with the hem of your shirt

china / yào wáng

yào isn’t really a big cuddler in his own right, but will happily snuggle up with you after an especially long day of meetings and trying to be the best elder brother figure he can be — which usually means that cuddling with him will be paired with a very melancholic ranting session until he’s gotten it all out of his system and the two of you can either cuddle in comfortable silence or talk about something else entirely

what position the two of you end up in is pretty much entirely down to you — whether you decide to cuddle him from behind when he’s sat at his desk working on something, or to snuggle up against his chest when you’re laying in bed, or to make yourself comfortable on his lap when you’re sat around relaxing at home, or whatever else — but he will very politely ask you to readjust or let go if he needs to get up and leave for whatever reason, or if he’s just starting to get uncomfortable and needs to move around a bit

another one that prefers to keep all cuddling related activities confined to your shared home — he’s just not someone who sees much point in pda or involving anyone else in your relationship, is all… but anywhere in the house itself is fair game as long as you catch him at the right time

he’s much more likely to initiate a cuddle session if you’re wearing or doing something cute, but usually they’re quite brief and consist of the two of you hugging while standing up while he showers you in compliments for a bit

yào has gotten pretty good at moving around when you’re cuddling him, meaning that he’s able to do other things like draw or read or cook or eat when you’re hanging off of him like an adorable humanoid koala — and if you happen to catch him when he’s cooking and in a good mood then you’ll get to be his taste tester while he walks you through each step of the recipe he’s following and carefully manoeuvres the two of you around his kitchen

england / arthur kirkland

arthur is, generally speaking, not the cuddling type — he’s not opposed to it and will cuddle with you if that’s what you want, it’s just not something he’s as naturally inclined to do as someone like alfred or frances

ever the traditional gentleman, he leans towards positions that involve him holding you rather than the other way around (unless he’s like super emotional and needs some comfort for whatever reason) — e.g being the big spoon, laying with your face buried in his chest, etc.

not even remotely a fan of pda outside of handholding and chaste pecks on the cheek, so naturally cuddling is kept to the inside of your shared home — specifically either on your bed or on the settee where he can sit up and enjoy a cup of tea and a good book while indulging in the comforting smell of your shampoo and the feeling of your body against his

cuddling with arthur is usually relegated to the evenings after he’s finished with his duties for the day, either when he’s having the last cup of tea for the day or when the two of you are trying to get to sleep — though on rare occasions he has been up for cuddling during the day, usually when one of you really needs some reassurance

doesn’t always realise when he’s doing it, but when you’ve been cuddling for a long enough time he’ll start periodically kissing the top of your head and brushing a hand gently along the back of your head and your neck — it’s slow and comforting and, honestly, enough to send you straight to sleep if you’re not actively trying to stay awake

france / francis bonnefoy

frances is a very physically affectionate person and cuddling is just one of the many many ways he goes about showing his love for you

tends to gravitate towards positions that allow him to kiss you easily — e.g. face-to-face in bed, you perching on his lap, you laying on top of him, etc. — but he’ll also settle for being the big spoon because he likes being able to play with your hair and kiss the nape of your neck (and being able to whisper things that leave you speechless, but he’ll do that whether or not you’re cuddling at the time)

prefers to cuddle you at home for the most part since it allows the two of you to get more comfortable, but he’s not opposed to a bit of pda here or there — especially if it allows him to annoy arthur with how sickeningly sweet and touchy the two of you are

when it comes to timings, he’s not fussy and will cuddle you whenever you want him to (unless he’s actually very busy at the time), whether that means first thing in the morning, after a meal, before he goes to work, when he comes home from work, when you’re cooking together, when you’re running errands, or right before the two of you go to bed, he loves it all the same

as mentioned above, while you’re cuddling he loves to try and make you flustered however he can, but depending on the time of day he’s also been known to read to you, drink wine, and talk to you about his day while you’re wrapped up and cozy in his arms

(and, as an aside, no matter how you go to sleep you will always wake up to him cuddling up to you the next morning if you shared a bed — cute!)

russia / ivan braginsky

between his large size, his extreme strength, and the fact that he’s a walking radiator, ivan braginsky is probably one of the best cuddling partners you could possibly ask for — up until the point where you want to get up and do something else, because once you’re in his arms he is not letting go until he absolutely has to

prefers positions that involve you being on top of him in some way so there’s less risk of him crushing or otherwise hurting you — so you straddling his waist, laying on his chest, or standing while cuddling are all things that he tends to default to when you’re together

(will also gladly share his coat with you so the two of you can cuddle standing up outside)

not really bothered about the where or when as long as he gets to pull you in his arms and bury his face in your neck or hair — and it’s not like anyone’s going to stop him since what he’s doing is harmless and not all that distracting so… yeah… hope you’re not opposed to pda

if he needs to move somewhere else while cuddling you, he’ll just pick you up and carry you with him to wherever he needs to go without a moment’s hesitation

[fox-thursday]

Infographic I made awhile back.

ID start 3 images of a light grey/tan fox in different poses line the top, it is a Corsac fox. Text at top says "Vulpes corsac Aka Coraac fox, Corsac".

Below that is an image depicting the rage of the Corsac fox. Beside it to the left text reads "Corsac foxes live in the central and northeast

Asia. They are found throughout Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and throughout Mongolia, except the northernmost regions. In the south, their range extends into the more northern parts of Iran, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, and China, and they can also be found in neighboring regions of Russia." Underneath the text is another image of a small rodent, it is brown/tan and stands on it's thin hind legs with short front arms. Text beside that reads "Corsac foxes are omnivorous, out mostly with carnivorous tendencies. Their diet is mainly of insects and small rodents, such as voles, gerbils, jerboas, hamsters, and ground squirrels. Sometimes they may also occasionally eat larger prey, including hares and pikas, and will scavenge for carrion and human refuse.

On occasion they eat fruit and other vegetation, mainly when prey is hard to come by. As an adaption to their environment, Corsacs need little water to survive, gaining most of the water needed from the food they eat." Underneath the text is another image of a Corsac fox in it's summer coat, it is a darker grey. Text beside that reads "Corsac foxes mating behaviour is monogamous, they form pair bonds. Before they bond though, males will initially fight for access to females. Their mating season is from January to March. Females create birthing dens and will occasionally share it with others pregnant females with their gestation period at 52-60 days. The maximum litter recorded is 11 kits, they weigh about 60 g (2.1 oz) when born and have fluffy, light brown fur that turns yellowish as they get older. They are blind until about 2 weeks of age. Both the female and the male of the pair assist in raising the kits. The young begin to eat at about 4 weeks and emerge from the den shortly after. They reach reproductive maturity at about 9

to 10 months, but don't reproduce until the second year of life. Their main threat is humans, however they are Least

Concern with population." ID end

[aphnichepairweek]

🩷💛 Rules & Prompts 💛🩵

🩷 For this year's APHNichePairWeek, the banned ships will be any that has more than a thousand fics on AO3. The off-limits ships are currently as follows:

America/Canada

America/England

America/Russia

Austria/Hungary

Austria/Prussia

Canada/Prussia

China/Russia

Denmark/Norway

England/France

Finland/Sweden

Germany/Italy

Romano/Spain

This list is subject to change up to one month before the event will start, which would be May 15.

💛 Discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated. That means no hating on ships, headcanons, tropes, or aus. We’re here because we all remember the halcyon days of fandom and still hold love for our old otps, so we should keep that in mind when interacting with each other and our works

🩵 Any type of creation is accepted, be it fanfic, fanart, podfic, playlists, etc. If posting to AO3, please add it to the collection under APHNichePairWeek2025 ! If there’s any troubles with posting, contact the mods!

🩷 All dead dove content must be appropriately tagged – some people want to see it, some would prefer to not see it

💛 The prompts are as following:

Storms | Earth

Harvest | Family

Oceans | Birds

Islands | Magic

Animals | Weather

Space | Minerals

History | Fame

You can mix and match, you can write one, you can write both! Whatever you do, just make sure it's a niche pair!

[shini--chan]

That may be a bit general question but which Hetalia duos do you think could actually share a darling?

In total, it is a bit of a tricky question, mainly because a handful of the Yandere Hetalia characters, at least how I portray them, would see you as a possession that they would want to have all to themselves. Others would want to bask in your attention and be the sole focus of it, while others would be inclined to see a good portion of their peers as threats to you. This is excluding that they don’t want to spend more time than needed with their enemies, or involve you in the tangle of geopolitics. That being said, there are a few nations that are close enough to each other, or are so uninvolved with one another on country matters that sharing could work. 

Russia & Belarus is one such pairing that could work. There isn’t really any bad blood between the two of them, or hefty emotional baggage that they would have to sift through in order to work together. Both of them trust one another, know the others blindspots and strengths and likes. As such, they could compliment each other well, easing shared suspicions and talking about how to handle you. Due to having a partner that could cover for them while they are out and about, both of them would become less erratic. On the flip side, you would be used as a buffer between the two of them, so that they can shield themselves a bit more from the other’s … negative tendencies and proclivities. 

Another that could work, although it would be very tricky, would be China & Rome. Two empires on opposite sides of the world, and thus with no inclination to wage war against each other. But exactly that distance would also make matters difficult, since neither would tolerate being separated from you all that well. However, a comprime could be reached and both would feel more at ease knowing you would be in the good hands of one of them while the other is off on a military campaign or something of the sort. That being said, differences in morals and the desire to micromanage the other when it comes to you could make things go sour.  

Surprising as it is, Finland & Hungary would make for a good duo. They are related, in a way, and share many of the same problems. Even though they have differing histories, and at times wildly differing personalities, they would manage to form their co-operation on the basis of being outsiders in Europe, based on language, customs and the such not really belonging to the European family. They can trust one another, and compensate for the other's failings. With their differing personalities, they can provide variety for you. With their shared traits, they can find common ground. 

Another surprising combo would be Switzerland & Japan and here the distance would be one of those things that could make matters tricky. Most of the time, it would feel like you're being passed around by a couple in the middle of a divorce. Neither of them would really like the arrangement, but it would be the most convenient and the other can always be trusted to be honest and forthright. Also, no fights or shows of affection would occur in front of "the child", i.e you, so that you don't have anything to use against them.

Of course there are more duos that could work, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. 

[birdstudies]

February 18, 2024 - Rufous-backed Bunting or Jankowski's Bunting (Emberiza jankowskii) These buntings are found in grassy steppes and low hills of northeastern China and may be extinct in their former range in parts of China, North Korea, and southeastern Russia. Foraging mainly on the ground, they feed on fallen grain, seeds, and grasshoppers and other invertebrates. Breeding in scattered colonies, pairs build nests on the ground from dry grasses and horsehair. Females incubate clutches of four to seven eggs alone, but both parents feed the chicks. They are classified as endangered by the IUCN due to rapid population declines probably caused by habitat loss from farming, ranching, and forestry.

[rjzimmerman]

120 Miles of Russian Forest Couldn’t Keep These Two Tigers Apart. (New York Times)

Amur tigers Boris and Svetlaya, observed by a trail camera in 2018.Credit...ANO WCS

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

When Russian scientists released a pair of orphaned Amur tiger cubs into the wild in a remote corner of Russia’s far east in 2014, they were trying to save a species. While the tigers, sometimes called Siberian tigers and the world’s largest big cat, remain endangered, the scientists created something else: an unlikely love story.

The cubs, Boris and Svetlaya, had been rescued from the wild as unrelated 3- to 5-month-old cubs in the Sikhote-Alin mountains, the animal’s main stronghold. They grew up in captivity and were released at 18 months old. The cats were separated by more than 100 miles with the goal of expanding the distribution of released tigers as much as possible in the Pri-Amur region along Russia’s border with China.

The scientists tracked the cubs until, more than a year after their release, something strange happened: Boris walked over 120 miles, almost in a straight line, to where Svetlaya had made a home.

Six months later, Svetlaya gave birth to a litter of cubs.

While the strategy of releasing rescued cats raised in captivity to restore populations in the wild had proved successful with the Iberian lynx in Spain, it had never been tried with big cats.

[theskatingarchive]

Skating Archive Masterpost

(teams with links to individual skaters and season tags under the cut)

New to Figure Skating? start here:

20 Must Watch Programs

20 Must Watch Programs from the Milano Cortina Quad (a look at the current field)

Greatest Of All Time (one tag to combine the GOATs of each discipline: Yuna Kim, Yuzuru Hanyu, Virtue/Moir & Sui/Han)

The Disciplines:

Women

Men

Ice Dance

Pairs

Looking for programs set to specific music? check Warhorses

Feeling nostalgic for classic skating? try 6.0 era

Not interested in competitive skating? try Gala Programs

Teams

Team Australia

Team Belgium

Team Canada

Team Czechia

Team China

Team Chinese Taipei

Team Estonia

Team Finland

Team France

Team Germany

Team Georgia

Team Great Britain

Team Hungary

Team Italy

Team Japan

Team Kazakhstan

Team Korea (DPRK)

Team Korea (ROK)

Team Mexico

Team Latvia

Team Poland

Team Romania

Team Russia

Team Slovakia

Team Spain

Team Sweden

Team Switzerland

Team Ukraine

Team USA

Team Uzbekistan

Season Tags

1997/1998 (Olympics)

1999/2000

2005/2006 (Olympics)

2006/2007

2007/2008

2008/2009

2009/2010 (Olympics)

2010/2011

2011/2012

2012/2013

2013/2014 (Olympics)

2014/2015

2015/2016

2016/2017

2017/2018 (Olympics)

2018/2019

2019/2020

2020/2021

2021/2022 (Olympics)

2022/2023

2023/2024

2024/2025

General Archive Tag

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Internet Is Forever: Part Two

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~1.9k

Summary: A man is going around killing women in their homes and filming it for all to see. It's heartbreaking to watch but you're determined to catch him before he can hurt anyone else.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

Penelope logs out of video chat to continue doing her work. You have the video now so you go over it with a fine tooth comb. The unsub walks up the stairs and briefly looks into the camera. Only his eyes are shown.

"Look at that. He's acknowledging the camera. He knows his audience is watching. We know the MO, so the question is how. What kind of job gives him access to the victims' houses?"

"It has to be a network job like an IT guy. You know, someone to hook up your internet. It gets them inside their house and into their computers."

"I went through all the women's internet service providers with a fine-tooth comb. They all used different companies and had no overlap with sales reps," Detective Fordham says.

"What about the onsite tech support?"

"Clean as a whistle. They all had alibis with no criminal records."

"What I don't understand is why he takes the bodies with him after they're dead. It'd be one thing if he took them while they were still alive, but he's accomplished his task. He murders them and he completes the performance. Why risk carrying a corpse to his car?"

"There must be some postmortem behavior or signature or something we're not seeing."

"Let's think about that for a second. He's sharing this murder with a crowd of onlookers. What could he be doing to these bodies just for himself?"

"Hey, guy." Derek walks into the room while on the phone. "Garcia's got something for us." He puts her on speakerphone. "Go ahead, baby girl."

"I have some good news. First, here is the thing that sucks. I located the network the unsub is using in Boise, and it is the victims' own wireless network."

"Does he hack in before he starts the murder?"

"I don't think so. Hacking is obscenely time-consuming. I just make it look easy because I'm a genius, and he's not me. My guess is that he's got to lurk around their network for at least a couple of days to a week before he kills them."

"That's brilliant on his part," John says.

"Yeah, he knows when we follow his online paper trail. It'll lead us right back to the murder site."

"What's the good news?" you ask.

"Hackers are very loyal to their spoofing techniques, and if they think no one's watching, they'll use the same roads over and over. If he goes through Russia, China, and North Korea again, I will catch him so fast he won't know what hit him.

"That's only going to help us if he commits another murder."

"Yes, that's also true."

"Garcia, if he does stream this again, how much time will you need to find the network?"

"I'm just guessing here but seven minutes?"

"That's not fast enough. He's in and out of the house in five."

"Shoot. I'm going to have to trim my time down, then."

"Garcia, get it done. JJ, we need to call a press conference. Now that we know how he's killing these women, we need to get it out there," Hotch says.

"Okay," she nods.

Spencer walks into the conference room with the picture of Dorris he took from the fridge.

"I know what connects the victims. I was staring at pictures of the victims and I knew there was a pattern connecting them, but I couldn't tell what it was until I broke it down mathematically. Why are we so drawn to celebrity faces? Because there's a symmetry to their beauty--the eyes, the ears, and the ratio of the forehead to the chin. The more balanced they are, the more appealing they are to our eyes."

"These women aren't celebrities," John says.

"No, but there are similarities between them, and it wasn't until I scanned their pictures and got it to the guys at Quantico that I had a full breakdown." He pulls up a picture of all three female victims. "Strip away eye color, hair color, and skin tone." He does so and reveals their geometric faces. "What are we left with geometrically?"

"They're all slightly dystopic. The left eye is slightly lower than the right eye on all the victims. All the noses are narrow. The forehead has the same ridge."

"He might not even be aware that he sees it in them. There have been studies that suggest that we pick our spouses subconsciously based on facial symmetry that we recognize. Consciously or unconsciously, when he recognizes it, he has to destroy it which means he only has interest in the bodies as they relate back to him."

"What if they are a reflection of him?" you ask. "Remember what he did at the end of the video with Dorris? He wiped a tear away. It's another act of compassion he's not capable of. His narcissism prevents him from that. In the Greek myth, Narcissus was so self-absorbed that he fell in love with his own reflection in the water."

"Exactly," Spencer backs you up. "He finds women with the same face, he strangles them, and then stares at them after they've died. Whose image does he really see? His own."

You now have a profile to give to the Boise police department. John gathers his men and women to hear what your team has to say.

"Most of us take the internet for granted. We forget about texts that we share or updates we put on social networks, but the internet never forgets. Once it's out there, it's out there forever. We all know about the horrific deaths that get shown on the web--the murder of a journalist or the stoning of an Iranian dissident. Those murders are immortal. This unsub craves that same immortality."

"He recognizes his face in theirs, and he kills them as a way of saying, 'This is what I look like.' We think this also informs his compulsion to take the bodies with him. He takes them to a secondary location where we believe he preserves them so that every time he looks at them, he sees his own ego reflected," Spencer explains.

"Fortunately for us, this means we have a good idea of what he looks like. Based on the shape of the victims' faces, we have a rough composite sketch." JJ passes the sketch around. "This unsub is an expert with computers and home networks. Look into criminal records of men with extensive computer training."

"We know you've already looked into the victims' computer IT settings, so we'd like to expand the search. Look into electronic stores, computer distributors, and IT departments where the women worked," Spencer says.

"We overuse the term narcissistic in our culture, but we're going back to the psychological definition," you say. "Every aspect of this man's life has been constructed around an inflated sense of self. Unsubs like this are particularly vulnerable to what's called narcissistic injury. If his self-worth is attacked or damaged, he will lash out."

"If you find this unsub, do not challenge him publicly. Say you just want to talk to him to see if he knows anything about the brilliant mastermind who's stalking these women. Under no circumstances should you denigrate him. As difficult as it is, we need to talk up his exploits as if we respect him," Hotch says, concluding the profile briefing.

JJ is able to get a last-minute press conference with the local press. She shows a picture of the sketch she passed around. He's a white male, roughly five-foot-ten, and highly skilled with computers and networks. She encourages everyone to monitor the information people post about themselves on social media. When she opened up for questions, she didn't realize the backlash she might get.

"How did the FBI generate this sketch if there were no eyewitnesses?"

"Can you comment on the rumor he has some sort of facial symmetry with his victims? Does he look like them?"

"Why would he target women who look like him?"

"What should people do to protect themselves? Change their face?"

Who the hell told them about the profile before the FBI was ready to release it? JJ handled it like a pro but she waltzed back into the station with a look of annoyance and frustration.

"Hotch. Somebody leaked our profile. The press started asking questions about facial symmetry."

"It must have been one of your officers," Hotch says to John.

"Look, my guys were checking their cell phones but that's just habit now."

"I talked to the press independently, and I can get this off the 10:00 PM news but this went out live."

"What are the chances he didn't see it?"

"Not good," Hotch sighs. He takes out his phone and dials Penelope. "How are you doing with pinning down the network?"

"I was just about to call you. Remember how I said he was spoofing his signal off different servers? Well, it turns out some of those are a decoy meant to waste my time."

"Does that mean you can find him faster?"

"Yes. I can write a program that filters out the decoy--" Alarms start ringing on her computer. "Oh crap."

"Is that him?"

"Yeah, okay, I'm going to have to filter this one on the fly."

"Can you send us the feed?"

"Yes. I think I can intercept it in Ukraine."

Hotch pulls the phone away from his ear and looks at everyone.

"He's going live."

Penelope sends the live feed through and you take a seat because you know you're going to be overwhelmed. The video starts and the unsub is practically running toward a house.

"Look at the way he's moving. He's not slow and deliberate. This guy's pissed."

"He saw the press conference," you sigh.

"Alright, what do we see? Any determining markers?"

"It's a one-story cottage."

"It could be anywhere."

"Is there a number on the house?"

"No, he's already at the door."

"Garcia?" Hotch asks and places her on speakerphone.

"He's using twice as many proxy servers."

There is a small white box behind the live footage of words coming through like a comment section on a Youtube video.

"This window here on the bottom, is that the chat room?" Emily asks.

The video switches to a camera inside the house, inside the kitchen. You're so anxious that you're bouncing your leg rapidly to try and give you something else to focus on. A woman is by her fridge looking in while the unsub enters her back door.

"There she is."

"He's in the house, guys."

"He's completely changed his MO. It is way too early. There's too much light. What happened?" Derek asks.

"Someone asked the wrong question at the press conference," JJ answers.

"Turn around," you whimper. "Please just turn around."

The man gets closer to her. The camera keeps switching angles from inside the kitchen, inside the dining room looking into the kitchen, and the POV camera on him.

"Maybe she can fend him off."

"She has new kitchen appliances. Can we track them through work orders?" Spencer asks.

"He'll be gone by then."

"Garcia, give us something," Hotch urges.

"I'm stateside now. I'm almost to Idaho. I just need more time."

"You're not gonna have it."

"Yes, I will. I will," Pen panics.

The unsub reaches the woman and begins strangling her on live video. You put your thumbnail in your mouth and begin biting it while still bouncing your leg. You can't seem to look away.

"Forget the unsub. Can you run a trace on everybody in the chat room?" Hotch asks.

"I can't do both, sir. Let me do this."

"Garcia, tag the viewers. That's an order."

It's too late. She's already dying. Tears are rolling down your cheeks but you don't make a sound. She gasps for breath but stops fighting him off. She's losing. She's dying... She's dead. Penelope quietly gasps and you wipe your tears.

"Penelope, don't do that to yourself. I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault."

She appreciates your comfort but she doesn't believe you.

x

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary​​​​​​ where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

[stillnaomi]

A Democratic Korean factory worker sews a pair of trousers at a joint DPRK-Chinese factory in the Rason Special Economic Zone bordering China and Russia in the far northeast of the country

[kitaychan]

Nerium Oleander

Chapter 22: Wergild

Rating: E

Warnings: Blood, Violence, smut, it's a Hannibal AU so yeah cannibalism.

Pairing: America/Russia/China

Summary: Alfred is the new investigator in the small town of Adelfa, his days will turn into a spiral of sleepless nights and bloody murder scenes as he has to look for a serial killer whose work exceeds the years of training he's had.

Chapter Preview:

The cold wind was getting harsher, rustling the tree's leaves as it passed. the red lights blinked, turning green as the cars started their run again. Yao frowned, not very keen on walking around with his colleagues, he resorted to pettily slowing down his steps beside them, either to show a slight discomfort or to cause it himself. Unluckily for him, Mathew was attentive enough to slow down his pace as well.

“The quarry stopped working, who knows for how long,” A cigarrete’s butt lit bright red as Carlos mused, running a hand through his hair. "I think that's rather troubling,"

“Perhaps it is for the better, with that place closed the mayor can focus on solving other kinds of problems here,” Matthew said, taking off his glasses. "These last few days the rain has been merciless and I'm just so tired of the traffic jam by the highway, the trees’ branches by the roadside keep falling over and blocking it, every single day. That is something the mayor should be more aware of, having to drive on those side paths to get home so late is beginning to take a toll on my poor car but guess which road is well pavemented and has no blockades? The one to the quarry."

[mariacallous]

The young developers are having the time of their lives. They pop open bottles of sparkling wine, eat steak dinners, play soccer together, and lounge around in a luxurious private swimming pool, all of their activity captured in photos that were later exposed online. In one picture, a man poses in front of a life-size Minions cardboard cutout. But despite their exuberance, these are not successful Silicon Valley entrepreneurs; they’re IT workers from the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea, who infiltrate Western companies and send their wages back home.

Two members of a cluster of North Korean developers, who allegedly operated out of Southeast Asian country Laos before being relocated to Russia by the beginning of 2024, are today being identified by researchers at cybersecurity company DTEX. The men, who DTEX believes have used the personas “Naoki Murano” and “Jenson Collins,” are alleged to have been involved in raising money for the brutal North Korean regime as part of the widespread IT worker epidemic, with Murano alleged to have previously been linked to a $6 million heist at crypto firm DeltaPrime last year.

For years, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea has posed one of the most sophisticated and dangerous cyber threats to Western countries and businesses, with its hackers stealing the intellectual property needed to develop its own technology, plus looting billions in crypto to evade sanctions and create nuclear weapons. In February, the FBI announced that North Korea had pulled off the biggest ever crypto heist, stealing $1.5 billion from crypto exchange Bybit. Alongside its skilled hackers, Pyongyang’s IT workers, who often are based in China or Russia, trick companies into employing them as remote workers and have become an increasing menace.

“What we’re doing isn’t working, and if it is working, it’s not working fast enough,” says Michael “Barni” Barnhart, a leading North Korean cyber researcher and principal investigator at DTEX. As well as identifying Murano and Collins, DTEX, in a detailed report about North Korean cyber activity, is also publishing more than 1,000 email addresses that it alleges to have been identified as linked to North Korean IT worker activity. The move is one of the largest disclosures of North Korean IT worker activity to date.

North Korea’s broad cyber operations can’t be compared with those of other hostile nations, such as Russia and China, Barnhart explains in the DTEX report, as Pyongyang operates like a “state-sanctioned crime syndicate” rather than more traditional military or intelligence operations. Everything is driven by funding the regime, developing weaponry, and gathering information, Barnhart says. “Everything is tied together in some way, shape, or form.”

The Misfits Move In

Around 2022 and 2023, DTEX claims both Naoki Murano and Jenson Collins—their real names are not known—were based in Laos and also travelled between Vladivostok, in Russia. The pair appeared among a wider group of possible North Koreans in Laos, and a cache of their photos were first exposed in an open Dropbox folder. The photos were discovered by a collective of North Korean researchers who often collaborate with Barnhart and call themselves a “Misfit” alliance. In recent weeks, they’ve posted numerous images of purported North Korean IT workers online.

North Korea’s IT workers are prolific in their activities, often trying to infiltrate multiple companies simultaneously by using stolen identities or creating false personas to try to appear legitimate. Some use freelance platforms; others try to recruit international facilitators to run laptop farms. While their online personas may be fake, the country—where millions do not have basic human rights or access to the internet—steers talented children into its education pipeline where they can become skilled developers and hackers. That means many of the IT workers and hackers are likely to know each other, potentially since they were children. Despite being technically adept, they often leave a trail of digital breadcrumbs in their wake.

Murano was first linked to North Korean operations publicly by cryptocurrency investigator ZachXBT, who published the names, cryptocurrency wallet details, and email addresses of more than 20 North Korean IT workers last year. Murano was then linked to the DeltaPrime heist in reporting by Coinbase in October. Members of the Misfits collective have shared photos of Murano looking pleased with himself while eating steak and a picture of an alleged Japanese passport.

Meanwhile, Collins, who DTEX included in its report and who was featured in swimming pool photos included in the Dropbox folder, was most commonly involved in IT work that generated revenue for Pyongyang, says narcass3, a member of the Misfits who asked to be identified by their online handle. “He seems to have mainly just worked on crypto/blockchain projects, including one which seems to be completely DPRK-backed or primarily made up of IT workers,” narcass3 says.

Evan Gordenker, a consulting senior manager at the Unit 42 threat intelligence team of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks, says he is familiar with the two personas identified by DTEX and other outlets and the cluster of North Korean workers that were based in Laos. The group were putting out a lot of job applications, creating fake personas, and searching for potential accomplices, the researcher says. “It seemed to me like they also enjoyed a level of autonomy that I don't think you tend to see for some of the [IT worker] groups,” Gordenker says. “I don't know if that’s because they generated more money and earned more privileges or just because they happened to have a group lead that operated in that way.”

An email address in Murano’s name bounced back when contacted by WIRED. Meanwhile an email address in Collins’ name did not respond to a request for comment.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Pyongyang’s IT workers have been operating for the best part of a decade, but attention on their activities has intensified in the past 12 months as Fortune 500 companies realized they have inadvertently hired North Koreans. Teams of hackers and IT workers are set “earnings quotas” by Kim Jong Un’s regime, Barnhart says, with IT workers operating from multiple North Korean military and intelligence organizations. One IT worker that made $5,000 per month could keep $200 of it, the investigator says.

Malicious IT workers, who may be likely to steal as well as earning money, are a part of the country’s recently revealed AI organization called 227 Research Center, which is part of the the primary intelligence agency the Reconnaissance General Bureau, while others are part of teams at the Ministry of National Defense, according to a cyber organization chart published by Barnhart in the DTEX report. IT workers that solely try to generate revenue from their jobs may be part of the Munitions Industry Department, the research says.

The relatively recent uptick in scrutiny around IT workers has come amid a growing US government crackdown: In May 2023 it sanctioned North Korean company Chinyong Information Technology Cooperation Company for employing IT workers in Laos and Russia, while at the start of this year two North Korean front companies and their China- and Laos-based bosses were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department. The Treasury said IT worker groups earn “hundreds of millions of dollars” for the regime, and thousands of IT workers are dispatched around the world.

“IT workers play the numbers game and are applying for remote roles in volume,” says Rafe Pilling, director of threat intelligence, at Sophos’ Counter Threat Unit. That means they often make errors. “They seem to operate at such a pace that they can make mistakes like leaving Github repositories of CVs and tools publicly accessible, leaving comments in code and scripts, making mistakes across CV’s that make them easier to spot as fakes, and slip-ups on camera during interviews that can reveal subterfuge.”

Alongside identifying Murano and Collins, DTEX also published more than 1,000 email addresses allegedly linked to North Korean IT worker operations that have been gathered through investigations and collaboration with researchers. Each email address has been provided by multiple sources, Barnhart says. A WIRED analysis of almost two dozen of the emails, using open-source intelligence tools and a database of material leaked online, shows few of them appear to have any signs of authentic online behavior; some email addresses are linked to online developer tools or freelancing websites, with others having very little online presence.

“There’s quite a bit of reuse of personas and some of them last years and years,” Unit 42’s Gordenker says. Others might be used just once, Gordenker says, but the scammers can quickly create new personas if needed. “You’ll see a persona that works, for instance, can sometimes have four or five, six different jobs across the lifespan.”

As more IT workers are identified, they are increasingly adopting their tactics to try to make themselves harder to spot. Multiple cybersecurity researchers have found North Koreans using face-changing software during video interviews or using AI assistants to help answer questions in real-time.

Changing Faces

The IT worker stands in the middle of the cramped room and poses for his photo. A clock on the wall reads 11:30. In the background, three other men wearing military uniforms hunch over computers. A rack of laundry appears at the back of the room in the photo, which was first published by DTEX. “There’s a lot to unpack in that one image,” Barnhart says.

Barnhart explains that while much is unknown about the photo, it reveals some details about how the group of IT workers operate. One of the men, in the far right corner of the photograph, appears to have WhatsApp messages open on his computer screen, with multiple chats ongoing. Attached to the wall above him is a surveillance camera.

“The MSS watches them so they don’t become defectors,” Barnhart says, referring to North Korea’s counterintelligence agency and secret police, the Ministry of State Security. As the men are based out of a small work space, they are likely to be lower down the pecking order of IT workers and will, like their compatriots, also face digital surveillance when they use their computers, he says. Barnhart says software he has seen monitors what the IT workers type and send on their devices. “They hate it,” he says. “It sends flags out to external servers whenever sexual imagery or sexual content is talked about or if Kim Jong Un [is mentioned].” Other researchers have spotted suspected IT workers ending job interviews when asked a variation on the question: “How fat is Kim Jong Un?”

While it’s unclear where the men in the room may be physically located, there are signs that the portrait photograph of the central subject has been used to create a false persona. Subsequent images obtained by Barnhart show the man edited into different clothes and turned into a cartoon-style illustration of his face.

“It shows him messing with the hairline. It shows him altering features, it shows him basically getting his profiles ready,” Barnhart says. One of these photos—of him edited into a leather jacket—appears on the website of “Benjamin Martin,” a self-styled web3 and full-stack developer.

Aside from appearing to be the North Korean from the IT worker photo, two of the companies listed on Martin’s online CV tell WIRED they have not heard of the persona, let alone employed him. One of the firms said it was not fully incorporated during most of the time the Martin persona listed he was working there. Martin did not respond to messages sent to the email listed on the developer webpage, while a Telegram account linked to a phone number on Martin’s website responded “yes” in a limited Chinese-language exchange when asked if they were a North Korean IT worker.

Ultimately, Barnhart says, people need to understand how North Korean hackers and IT workers are operating, with fluidity between groups and approaches, before significant disruption of their efforts can take place. “We need to refocus, we need to reshape,” Barnhart says. “North Korea has already moved on to their next point and now they're subcontracting and creating another layer of obfuscation there, too.”

[femtocloaca]

the first "yaoi pairing" i ever "got into" and the first time i was like this yaoi shit can be pretty sick tbh... was russia x china hetalia and i think this is really funny now

[thomasthetankieengine]

Hey I’ll be honest, I found this blog through the reaction to your drinking game post and am curious what you do believe, ideologically. If you’ve got the time. You’ve been portrayed as both an anarchist and a right winger by some other blogs but it’s certainly more nuanced than that.

I dislike capitalism, theocracy, fascism, nationalism, monarchism, political repression, xenophobia, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-pornography legislation, capital punishment, eugenics, drug prohibition, nativism, right libertarianism, the neo-reactionary movement, and MRAs. 

And I support egalitarianism, environmentalism, feminism, and LGBTQ rights and consider myself sympathetic to socialism. 

So, I wouldn't call myself right wing. But your mileage may vary. 

And if you want me to be even more frank, if I lived in Russia or China at the time of both civil wars, I have no problem saying that I would have supported the Reds in both cases. That, though, is simply because their primary enemies (the Russian Whites and Chinese nationalists) were far worse, often pairing cruelty and repression with corruption and gross incompetence. It's not surprising that the peasantry of Russia and China found little to like about the Whites or Nationalists.