#watching someone edit a document in Teams

[lightningboltreader]

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[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

pez dispenser debris for the fic ask thing? 👀

As much as this is my “kill no darlings you will get EVERY flashback” fic, there’s overarching sociopolitical backstory explaining why Izuku and the rest of class 3A exploded in the public eye that I don’t think I’ll ever fully fit in.

It’s a combination of it being more of a meta analysis than anything and also requiring information from a perspective that I know will never appear in the fic. Like, the fic still gets the different moments that make up this analysis, but there’s no explicit connecting thread to show how they all locked together to create this sort of global cult following of class 3-A. I almost put in a little fake news article opinion piece that was meant to sort of walk the reader through why society is Like This, but I decided it was too heavy handed and deleted it.

Everything that I’m going to reference has already appeared in pez dispenser debris to some degree, and none of it will ever actually materially impact the plot. They may receive a little more detail down the line if they’re mentioned in passing in the fic, so out of an abundance of caution, I’ll stick it below the cut so people can avoid this, but I don’t personally consider any of this spoilers.

Izuku and the rest of the class are famous in pez dispenser debris in a way that’s pretty much unprecedented for students. Canonically, not even all might had a name for himself until after his graduation. Pretty much everyone from class 3A are public figures, with Izuku specifically being considered a major global figure.

In my mind, there was this perfect storm right during their second year that catapulted them into fame. The class personally has varying levels of awareness of why they got so popular, but there was this perfect cross winds of societal unrest and fear that made them household names.

There was an approximately one month span in their second year where they were just hit one after another with a major firestorms of events: The UA Sports Festival, the Sidekick Strike, and the Tartarus Prison Break/Desertion of Yokohama.

The UA Sports Festival is the one that the kids attribute this most to, because so many of the news articles that followed referenced their performance in it. But it probably gave them less mileage than what the other two events did.

What the UA Sports Festival did was showcase their skills to the world in a venue designed to show them off. The public was already on edge. All Might had retired, crime rates kept going up, and people were rapidly losing confidence in existing heroes. Class 2A made such an insane showing of skill in the second Sports Festival that it made the public rave about them for weeks after. It was extremely reassuring to Japan that they had such powerful heroes in the barrel and would soon be on the streets. But that attention probably would have died down had it not been for the Sidekick Strike and Yokohama.

The Sidekick Strike actually had nothing to do with them. But it undermined the public’s faith in heroes at just the right time.

The Sidekick Strike is just one of those things that I have no POV that would even tangentially be involved in it so we’ll get a few passing references in media clips and it’ll never be discussed in depth. Which is a shame because it’s such an interesting conflict to me.

The Sidekick Strike was heavily inspired by the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Effectively, it was the height of the labor rights movement, and police officers got together and went on strike to get the police union recognized. They had tried to negotiate and negotiations failed, and so they all walked off the job. The city descended into lawlessness, the national guard was deployed, it was a whole thing. Famously, Calvin Coolidge fired the entire police force over it on the grounds that there was no striking from public safety.

I thought it would be really interesting if there was something similar that happened with the sidekicks. The thing is that the heroics structure as it stands really incentivizes abuse towards sidekicks. We have a society where there’s a decent amount of heroes who are only in it for the fame. A not insignificant amount of money must come from marketing deals. And it’s a ranked system, so they’re all in competition with each other.

Heroes wouldn’t be incentivized to showcase their sidekicks—they’d be incentivized to take advantage of them and take credit for their work.

Like, think about the work-study experiences. Momo didn’t even officially work for the hero she studied with. She wasn’t getting paid. An adult woman used her for a shampoo ad. Who wants to bet whether Momo saw a dime from it? It’s probably very predatory because the nature of the system incentivizes predation.

I thought the underlying legal issues would be interesting and complex. Who owns a sidekick’s image—the agency or the individual? Who gets the proceeds of their brand deals? This all would be governed by their employment contracts, and sidekicks just starting out have very little leverage compared to big name heroes. And those heroes would want to keep their sidekicks names small and theirs big. The rankings are competitive, after all.

It’s a situation where I do think that like. The sidekicks would have a point in unionizing. The use of their image, appropriate compensation, and proper credit for their busts would all be like, very legitimate concerns in a normal employment context.

I see agencies like Idaten settling immediately with the union and having their sidekicks back on the street before the day is out. In my mind, idaten is considered the gold standard for sidekick jobs already, and their employees mostly did it out of solidarity with the people they worked alongside of. Like, Idaten was already doing most of the union’s demands and signed off very quickly on the remaining ones. If it was just about the Idaten sidekicks, none of them would have gone on strike, but they had a lot of colleagues who they depended on in the field who were in terrible situations. What were they gonna say, sorry, sucks to be you, I got a great gig though so condolences? These were the people keeping them alive. They went on strike because they knew Idaten would publicly settle before the day was out and set an example for the rest of the agencies. Hopefully it would help other agencies follow their lead.

But that didn’t happen. Some agencies, like Endeavor’s, fired everyone immediately. And I think a lot of agencies spent a long time picking over every line item in prolonged negotiations. It dragged out.

And that went over fucking terribly.

All Might just retired. Crime is up. And their sworn defenders are bickering over who gets what cut of the action figure line. Like I think the public would have fucking hated this in a post-All Might world. It would have seemed like the only real hero just medically and irreversibly retired and the rest of them are squabbling about whose turn it is in the spotlight.

I also think that the villains would have taken advantage of it.

The Tartarus Prison Break in pez isn’t the one that happened in canon. Here, the League of Villains attacked Tartarus and set everyone loose. In the process, they made a very clear stance: they are going to leave with All for One, and they are not going to attack any civilians. They won’t fight at all unless attacked first.

All of the horrible and sadistic villains they just let go have not made the same promise.

They chose to do this now because of the Sidekick Strike. All their heroes don’t give a fuck about protecting them, so they’re strapped for staffing. So they’re taking back their leader and going back to ground, and the heroes are free to immediately go after and contain all those bad bad villains who just escaped. And those guys are headed to the heavily populated mainland, so better be quick.

The whole world knew that was their explicit reasoning and promise. Because Himiko fucking lived tweeted the escape.

The Sidekick Strike took the hit for a lot of the blame, but I do see all the sidekicks breaking strike lines to go respond to the crisis. But response times were severely handicapped by the fact that most if not all of them were cut off from their agencies. It was just a complete systemic breakdown.

And then there became the question of what crisis do you respond to: All for One’s escape, or everyone else’s?

I mentioned in one of the little fake tumblr posts that the Tartarus Prison Break was seen as Endeavor’s greatest failure. And part of that is because he chose to sacrifice the nearby area, Yokohama, to contain All for One.

I am one of the biggest haters of Endeavor’s later arc, specifically because it required going back on the nature of the abuse he had subjected his family to that was already established in canon, but that’s a different rant. This is not canon endeavor. I hate what they did with canon endeavor.

That being said, I do think that the self doubt weighed on him once he became number one. And this was the moment of his career where it really crushed him.

All for One had escaped. So had every other villain from Tartarus. He should go after the most immediate threats. He knew this. It was basic triage.

But they would never have a better chance to stop All for One.

Prisoners in Tartarus aren’t exactly hitting all their macros and micros or training daily. They are not adherents to the Bakugou Katsuki Fitness Lifestyle. All for One was coming off spending the last few months drugged up to his eyeballs and strapped to a chair in a straitjacket with at least fifty guns pointed at him at all times. The man has not scratched his own nose in weeks. He’s weaker now than he’ll ever be again.

It was their best chance.

If he escaped, and he went back to ground, he’d have the time and space to get as strong as he wanted, and then he’d come back for real. And he’d be coming back for everything.

Stopping him the first time had cost them All Might.

And Endeavor simply was not All Might. And he still wouldn’t be All Might when the next fight came.

It really was the hardest decision of Endeavor’s life. He had to admit to himself that his own inadequacy was going to cost them countless lives. But he thought it was a hard decision he had to make. He was losing the battle for the barest chance at winning the war.

So he made the call that all heroes were to respond to All for One. They had to hit the league of villains now with their full force if they were to stand a chance. They could not afford to divide their already sparse forces. They’d respond to Yokohama when AfO was contained.

He was also the one who made the call to broadcast the warning message that we hear in the Twitter post. He thought it would give civilians their best chance. He didn’t want them to act with the expectation of the heroes being en route.

Of course, that meant that the entire city got fucking sirens going off and a message telling them that the heroes were not going to save them. Which, as you can expect, did not do a lot for public morale.

In my head, Tartarus is like, the equivalent to Gotham’s Arkham. It’s borderline an institute for the criminally insane. You don’t end up there unless you did something super fucked, are super dangerous, and have extreme violent tendencies. It’s exclusively for the most dangerous and indiscriminately violent criminals in the country.

The entire world was watching in real time while the tragedy unfolded. A lot of people were livestreaming after the emergency broadcast dropped, because they didn’t want the government to be able to handwave away how terrible their death was, or because they didn’t know what else to do, or because they just didn’t want to be alone. The full expectation was that it’d be a massacre.

But it wasn’t. Because Class 2-A responded instead.

The Class 2-A defensive efforts were discussed in one of the silly little fake tumblr posts and in the fake twitter post. In those, we find out that 1) Class 2-A, along with Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire responded to the scene; 2) the entire class rolled out of Mirio’s fucking mom van and tamaki and nejire’s cars like they were fucking clown cars; 3) the HPSC claimed it was a legitimate operation blessed and coordinated by them; and 4) a lot of people think this was a lie, in part because videos leaked of Aizawa bitching them all out in the street afterwards. We also see Izuku’s green lightning at the end of the twitter video, showing him responding to the scene just as the first villains hit the mainland.

This fight has a lot of names in the backstory that lives in my head. It’s called the Tartarus Prison Break for obvious reasons. It’s also been called in some circles the Desertion of Yokohama, because of the call Endeavor made.

But it’s also called the Battle of Yokohoma. And it’s ranked alongside the Battle of Kamino as one of the finest acts of modern day heroics. And that’s because of Class 2-A. If it hadn’t been for them showing up, it would have gone down in history as the Massacre of Yokohama.

Like. It kills me that I can’t include the full details of what happened, but there’s just too much to make in a flashback. It’s a fic in and of itself. But it really was the fight that made Class 2-A.

It was the first fight where they were really the only heroes that could be counted on. Granted, they’d had to fight for their lives alone, but this wasn’t just their lives. These were thousands of terrified civilians who all thought they were going to die.

It was the first true test of them as heroes in the world. And they actually rose to the occasion. They didn’t just fight the villains—they realized that they needed to get emergency services working throughout the city if everyone was going to make it. Momo and Tsuyu conducted a mildly hostile take over of the emergency call center so they could coordinate relief. They had fucking Tokoyami and Dark Shadow single-handedly holding the line on the hospital while Kaminari, Shoji, Jiro, and Sato all learned to drive for the Very First Time while commandeering the city’s fucking ambulances. They were fighting and containing villains, performing emergency aid, putting out literal fires, everything. It was the hardest fight of their lives.

There was a hot second where Class 2-A was The Moment. Like. The entire world was watching them during this fight, and they had no fucking idea until it was over. People lost their minds when the first footage made it out of Yokohama of a bunch of teenagers showing up and immediately throwing hands with S-Class villains.

It was global news. Think of the kind of media attention that was received by the search for the Titan, the Tham Luang Cave Rescue, the Suez Canal getting blocked by the Ever Given (rip queen you will always be famous to me), that kind of thing. Class 2-A was fighting for their fucking lives and then found out three days later while they were all still in the hospital that there was a prayer vigil going on in Portugal for them during the battle and CNN had 24 hours live coverage of the fight that had so many viewers it outnumbered the population of Finland. Like what do you even do with that information.

The world expected a massacre. They didn’t expect a bunch of footage of high schoolers kicking the shit out of superpowered murders and personally ferrying the injured to the hospitals they were also defending.

The other part about this fight that really made them permanently part of the public consciousness is that it was not lost on everyone that every single person who responded to that fight did so at the risk of their license.

All of them had provisional licenses, save Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire, all of whom went AWOL from the explicit directives ordering them to respond to the fight against All for One. The operation could not have been less authorized. They had to steal their gear and jimmy the UA fence to even get out. The explicit plan was to steal one of the UA buses and have Bakugou fucking drive them to the fight (he also did not know how to drive but he seemed the most likely of them to break literally every single motor vehicle code to get them there but still be naturally talented at it enough to not kill them) but Izuku told Mirio what bullshit they were up to and Mirio, who was with Tamaki and Nejire when the news broke, immediately decided he would be on that bullshit too and pulled up in his mom van.

In my mind, there were strict rules around provisional licenses and how they could be used, and they broke pretty much all of them to respond to Yokohama. It would have been grounds to revoke their provisionals and permanently bar them from heroics. Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire could have all lost their licenses for helping them and for going AWOL.

The HPSC fucking fell over themselves to legitimatize the entire operation. They knew they were utterly fucked if they didn’t. These kids already had murals being painted of their faces in other fucking countries. There was a little old lady in Kyoto livestreaming herself working overtime to embroider Iida’s face onto a cushion because that lovely young man saved her darling granddaughter from *checks notes* horrible and painful death directly caused by the failings of the current HPSC administration. There were multiple trending posts online agreeing to fucking riot if those kids got in trouble for this.

Every single actual hero in the immediate vicinity of this disaster had responded to fight a villain who wasn’t actually attacking anyone. And then they fucking lost. They publicly broadcast a message saying Good Luck Champs Because We’re Not Going To Save You. It was an actual PR nightmare that they had a bare chance of salvaging if they just latched onto these kids like an aggressive parasite and that is exactly what they did.

They totally knew. Actually, it was a joint operation coordinated by and between UA and and the HPSC. Why would the kids be in trouble?? They had responded because the HPSC told them to.

UA gave it a week of dead silence and then issued a short statement praising the bravery of their students in a recent HPSC approved mission, and then they never said another word about it. They didn’t have any choice but to go along with the HPSC’s story. If they contradicted them, all of class 2-a would find their licenses pulled by the end of the day, and lord knows they wouldn’t wait for the court of public opinion to work its magic and would just all go out and become fucking vigilantes, because why not. Aizawa has aged 100 years since he got this class. Every single day he thinks of how it was a 50/50 shot between him and Vlad.

No one in the class is fully aware of just how famous they were in the immediate aftermath, because the school bent over backwards to try and shield them from it as much as possible. Like, they have an idea, but none of them saw the full explosion firsthand because of just how hard the school worked to keep it from them. Aizawa confiscated the internet router and told them it was punishment for whatever the fuck they did to the buses (thank god Mirio was just as crazy as them because they were NOT GOOD at hotwiring cars) but really it was to try and insulate them from it a little bit. Like. Japan’s Imperial Family wanted to do an official visit. The White House offered to host them. They received interview requests from every major talk show on the planet. Buzzfeed wanted to do a puppy interview with them.

Right now, Aizawa’s terrified for Midoriya’s graduation, but in the aftermath of that, he was breathing into a paper bag about all of them. Society had sort of latched onto them like they were the last life raft on the titanic. All for One was back, and All Might wasn’t, and the heroes had publicly broadcast a message saying they were useless, but don’t fucking worry, fifteen year old Iida Tenya is on the case. Society will be upheld by Kaminari Denki, currently viral for driving a real life city ambulance one hundred miles per hour down the street while screaming “WEE WOO BITCH.” And don’t forget the pillar that will be Mina Ashido, who rushed over to him earlier that day to show him her extra sparkly pink nails. And if you have a major fight that needs to be won? Don’t fucking worry, just send out bone-breaking boy wonder Midoriya Izuku and his equally reckless brother Toogata Mirio, because their dumbasses managed to take down an S-Class villain team that only All Might could defeat the first time around. Don’t worry about the multi week hospitalization they needed after, because that’s an acceptable burden to put on children.

When Aizawa started this job, he promised himself he would never send a student out to die. Some of them would die. But it would be tragedy, not damnation. He’d have given them their best chance. Part of the reason why he made that promise was because he sort of felt like his teacher sent him out set up to die, and it’s only luck that he made it through his first couple of years.

He has gone to the funeral of every single student he has ever had who did not make it. He goes back to their graves every year.

He was fucking petrified after Yokohama that society would push these kids too far too soon. Every single one of his classes before them had gotten the benefit of being practically unknown their first few years. They didn’t have the world talking about them like they were already the top heroes. He was terrified they wouldn’t have the space to learn and grow when they started.

A lot of teachers would have tried to mine the notoriety of Yokohama to hard launch their students’ careers. Aizawa told Nedzu point blank that he would quit tomorrow if he did not help him quash this thing as much as possible, and nedzu agreed.

This world killed its real heroes. It sucked them dry and left them like All Might, and he just needed fucking time. He needed fucking time to let them be kids and maybe they’d survive.

Izuku ended up being the one who escaped the aftermath of everything the least. His Quirk was too much like All Might’s for the world to let go of him easily.

And then Stain got fucking dogpiled by idaten in the aftermath of the Tartarus prison break and implied he considered Izuku the only true hero in the absence of all might and everyone started asking super inconvenient questions like “how does stain even know you exist” and “no really he called you by your actual legal name how does he even know that” and it just. It didn’t help things. Izuku’s suffering.

So yeah. There was just this absolute collision of a total lack of faith in current heroes combined with a huge swell of public trust in class 2-a that led us to being in the landscape we are now. All of the currently licensed heroes said that they wouldn’t be there to save the public, and then Class 2-A immediately hit back that they would be there. Actually, they’ll risk everything to be there. They’ll die to protect the public and they’ll risk the entire future they had been trying to build and they will fucking be there to save them.

There’s a lot of people that never forgave the heroes for deserting Yokohama. And there’s even more people who have absolute faith in Izuku and his classmates because they didn’t. That’s why the world is watching them so aggressively. These kids are the most trusted heroes in Japan right now.

I wish I could fit in more about what happened, because I love this backstory so much, but 1) some of it absolutely requires POVs like Endeavors, which we won’t get in pez dispenser debris, 2) there’s no one POV that could tell the full story via flashback and 3) it’d just be too long of a divergence. Like. It really is a whole fic of its own. I’d love to write it one day but I probably won’t have the time

[hurtblossom]

Lover ln4

Pairing : Lando Norris x Female!Reader

Summary : In the middle of heartbreak and unspoken feelings, (Y/N) finds her place both behind the camera and in Lando Norris’s life, as they cautiously build a connection worth risking everything for.

Warning : Nothing, just fluff

Part 2 to this

The weeks after Lando’s confession felt surreal. (Y/N) wasn’t sure what to expect after their conversation at the café. It wasn’t as though everything could change overnight—she was still cautious, her heart too bruised to let down all its defenses. But Lando seemed to understand that. He didn’t push. Instead, he found little ways to show her he meant what he’d said.

One evening, as she sat editing footage from their latest shoot, her phone buzzed with a notification. It was Lando.

Lando: What’s the best pizza topping combo? Lando: Asking for a very important debate.

She smiled, shaking her head.

(Y/N): Margarita. Classic and unbeatable. (Y/N): Why?

His response came almost instantly.

Lando: Wrong answer. Lando: Pineapple is the GOAT. Lando: Max agrees. Lando: Ria thinks we’re all insane. Lando: Also, I just wanted to check in. Lando: How’s your night?

Her smile faltered for a moment, her chest tightening at the unexpected warmth in his words. He didn’t have to do this—reach out to her, make her feel seen. But he did.

(Y/N): Busy, but good. Thanks for asking. You?

Lando: Better now that I know you’re not buried in stress. Lando: Don’t stay up too late, yeah?

It was a small exchange, but it left her heart lighter. She didn’t want to admit it, but maybe, just maybe, Lando was trying to prove he cared in ways she hadn’t dared to hope for.

~~~

The next Quadrant shoot was a return to the ridiculous antics the team was known for—a blindfolded cooking challenge. (Y/N) arrived early, as usual, setting up her cameras and prepping the equipment. She was adjusting the lighting when Lando walked in, his hair slightly messy, a lazy grin on his face.

“Morning, chef,” he teased, stopping beside her. “Ready to document the greatest culinary disaster of our time?”

She laughed, rolling her eyes. “If by ‘greatest’ you mean ‘most unappetizing,’ then absolutely.”

His grin widened, and he leaned closer, lowering his voice. “You know, I’m pretty sure I can bribe you for some favorable edits. Just say the word.”

“Bribe me with what? Pineapple pizza?” she shot back, raising an eyebrow.

He clutched his chest dramatically. “You wound me. But yes, pineapple pizza. It’s the ultimate peace offering.”

Their playful banter caught the attention of the others, who immediately started teasing.

“Oi, Lando, stop flirting and get over here!” Max called out, earning a round of laughter from the crew.

(Y/N) felt her cheeks warm, but Lando seemed unfazed, flashing her a quick wink before heading to join the chaos. She watched him go, her heart fluttering despite her best efforts to stay grounded.

Quiet Moments

The shoot was a success—messy, chaotic, and hilarious, as always. But it was the quiet moments afterward that lingered in her mind.

While the rest of the team celebrated their “culinary masterpieces” in the lounge, (Y/N) stayed behind in the studio, packing up her gear. She was stacking tripods when Lando walked in, a takeaway box in hand.

“Figured you’d still be here,” he said, holding out the box. “Saved you some food. Don’t worry, no pineapple.”

She blinked, surprised. “You didn’t have to do that.”

He shrugged, his expression casual but his tone warm. “I wanted to. You always take care of us, so… someone’s gotta look out for you too.”

Her chest tightened, and she accepted the box with a soft “thank you.” They sat together on the edge of the stage, the studio quiet around them.

“You’ve been quieter lately,” he said after a moment, glancing at her. “Not just today—since you came back. Is it… because of me?”

She hesitated, fiddling with the corner of the box. “It’s not you, Lando. Not exactly. I just… I’m still figuring out where I fit in all this.”

“You fit,” he said firmly, his gaze steady. “More than you know.”

The sincerity in his voice made her throat tighten. She wanted to believe him, but the lingering insecurities were hard to shake. Still, his words stayed with her long after they left the studio that night.

~~~

Weeks passed, and (Y/N) began to notice subtle changes in their dynamic. Lando seemed to go out of his way to include her, whether it was during shoots or group outings. He started inviting her to lunch with the team, pulling her into conversations, even teasing her on camera—moments that often left her flustered but secretly thrilled.

One afternoon, during a rare day off, he texted her out of the blue.

Lando: Fancy a karting rematch? Lando: I promise not to go easy on you this time.

The memory of their last impromptu race—a chaotic, laughter-filled mess where she’d somehow beaten him—brought a smile to her face.

(Y/N): Rematch? (Y/N): You’re just mad you lost to me.

Lando: Exactly. Lando: My pride is on the line. Lando: Meet me at 3?

She hesitated for a moment before typing her reply.

(Y/N): You’re on.

When she arrived at the track, he was already there, leaning casually against a kart. He greeted her with a grin, his competitive energy infectious.

The race was as ridiculous as she’d expected, filled with trash talk, near collisions, and plenty of laughter. When she crossed the finish line—barely ahead of him—she threw her arms up in victory.

“Two for two,” she teased, removing her helmet. “You’re losing your touch, Norris.”

He laughed, pulling off his own helmet. “You’ve got a lucky streak, that’s all. Next time, it’s over for you.”

But as they stood there, still catching their breath, his expression softened. “Thanks for coming out today. I needed this.”

Her heart skipped a beat at his words, the vulnerability in his tone catching her off guard. “Me too,” she admitted quietly.

A Confession Revisited

The real turning point came one evening after a late shoot. The team had gone out to celebrate, but (Y/N) stayed behind, finishing up some last-minute edits. She was so focused on her laptop that she didn’t notice Lando until he spoke.

“You’re always working,” he said, his voice warm.

She looked up, startled to see him standing in the doorway. “I could say the same about you.”

He grinned but didn’t respond, stepping closer until he was standing beside her. For a moment, neither of them spoke, the silence filled with unspoken tension.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” he began, his tone careful. “About why you left.”

Her stomach twisted, but she forced herself to meet his gaze. “Lando, you don’t have to—”

“I do,” he interrupted gently. “Because I hate that I made you feel like you didn’t matter. You do, (Y/N). You always have.”

Her breath caught, and she looked away, her heart pounding.

“I know I was blind before,” he continued, his voice soft but insistent. “But I see you now. And if you’re willing to give me a chance, I’d like to prove it.”

She stared at him, her emotions a whirlwind of hope and fear. “Lando… what if this doesn’t work? What if it changes everything?”

“Then we’ll figure it out,” he said simply, his gaze steady. “But I think it’s worth the risk. Don’t you?”

For a long moment, she said nothing, the weight of his words settling over her. But then, slowly, she nodded, a tentative smile breaking through her uncertainty.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I think it is.”

The smile that spread across his face was brighter than she’d ever seen, and for the first time, (Y/N) felt like she wasn’t just behind the lens anymore. She was finally part of the story.

In the weeks that followed, their relationship grew slowly but surely, filled with small, meaningful moments—quiet conversations, shared laughter, and the steady reassurance that they were building something real. And though (Y/N) still carried traces of her old insecurities, Lando’s unwavering support made her believe that maybe, just maybe, she’d found her place—not just in the team, but in his heart.

taglist : @landossainz , @carloswife , @scopeiguess , @stylesmoonlight12 , @raynetargaryan2 , @rawr-123s-stuff , @myescapefromthislife , @nxk1309 , @bbg-blue-lock , @spooky-librarian-ghost , @lisa24x

[lucy-literates]

Than you for the one with Roscoe, he is so cute :)

I thought of one with the whole grid, where Lewis and the reader are best friends, but the whole grid notices how they look at eachother and at a party Lewis gets jealous and they finally realize it :)

Sorry, that is a long ask 🫣

Greetings :)

A/N: This is not long at all sweetheart, I love it!! I hope you enjoy it! My inbox is open, and so is my tag list 🫶🏻

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-BLpv0xQYd1bTlaP7l1gAg8AgCyLE_yvrtljpCzlJhY/edit?usp=drivesdk

Everyone Sees It

It starts small.

Just a few glances. A slightly too-long hug. The way you and Lewis always seem to drift back to each other, even in a room full of chaos and champagne.

Carlos notices it first. He catches Lewis looking at you during media day — you're laughing at something Lando said, completely unaware. Lewis is supposed to be on his phone, but instead he’s just… watching you, like you hung the moon.

“Interesting,” Carlos mutters.

“What?” Charles asks, leaning over.

“Lewis. He’s got it bad.”

Charles raises an eyebrow, follows his gaze, then smirks. “Definitely.”

They don’t say anything. Not yet.

Over the next few weeks, it spreads like wildfire through the paddock.

George walks into the motorhome kitchen one morning and finds Lewis making two cups of tea. “For Y/N?” he asks casually.

Lewis shrugs, trying to look nonchalant. “She mentioned a sore throat yesterday.”

George just smiles and steals one of the mugs. “You’re whipped.”

“I am not.”

“You are, bro. It’s cute. Keep it up.”

At the next race, Max catches Lewis absentmindedly fixing a twisted strap on your overalls. You thank him with a soft smile and a gentle hand on his arm.

Max just shakes his head. “You two gonna kiss or what?”

You both sputter in unison. “What?!”

“Nothing,” he says, walking off with the smug satisfaction of a man who knows he’s right.

But it all comes to a head at a team party.

The season’s in full swing, the drinks are flowing, and someone’s put together a makeshift DJ setup. You’re dressed in a black satin dress that fits like it was made for you, laughing with your head thrown back as Pierre twirls you around the dance floor. He’s playfully dramatic, bowing like he’s in a ballroom, and you’re giggling too hard to breathe.

Lewis watches from across the room, jaw tight.

Lando nudges him. “You alright?”

“Fine.”

“Mate, you’ve crushed that bottle cap five times now.”

Lewis looks down at his hand. Sure enough, the beer cap is flattened beyond recognition. His fingers are clenched white.

He knows it’s harmless — Pierre’s just being his usual flirtatious self — but it doesn’t stop the burning in his chest. You look good, and you’re laughing with someone else, and he knows he’s just your best friend but suddenly that title feels like a prison.

He sees Pierre whisper something in your ear and that’s it.

Lewis pushes away from the bar and walks straight toward you.

You turn at the last second, breathless from dancing, cheeks flushed. “Hey! Where’d you go—”

“I need to talk to you.”

You blink. “What’s wrong?”

“Outside. Please.”

He doesn’t wait for a response, just heads for the balcony, and you follow him, confused.

The night air is cooler out there, the music muffled behind glass. Lewis runs a hand down his face, then turns to you with a tight jaw and wide, vulnerable eyes.

“I can’t keep doing this.”

Your heart skips. “Doing what?”

He laughs once, bitter and soft. “Watching you look like that with someone else. Pretending I’m okay just being your friend. Everyone keeps saying it and I’ve been ignoring it but I can’t anymore.”

You step closer, pulse pounding. “What’s everyone saying?”

“That I’m in love with you.”

You freeze.

He exhales sharply. “And they’re right. God, they’re so right. I see you and I—” He shakes his head. “I don’t just want to be your best friend anymore.”

For a second, you just stare at him.

Then: “You idiot.”

He blinks. “What?”

“You could’ve had me ages ago.”

Your hands grab the front of his shirt and pull him in, crashing your lips against his.

And just like that, everything shifts.

The world goes quiet. The tension that’s been building for months melts into your skin as he kisses you back like he’s finally breathing again.

Inside, Lando spots the kiss through the glass.

He fist-pumps so hard he spills his drink.

“TOLD YOU!” he shouts.

The entire grid cheers like someone just won the championship.

Tag List:

@alexxavicry

[solar-verse]

Masterlist

15: chapter fourteen

Idoljk x oc

It was a busy day at the design department where Rian had been assigned. And surprisingly, it wasn't because of the new collection they were working on, no, not at all. The real reason for the chaos was the anticipated arrival of a celebrity for a potential collaboration. Rian had heard bits and pieces about it over the past few weeks, but it seemed that today was the day the meeting was finally happening.

The workspace was buzzing, people were moving in and out, papers were scattered across tables, phones were constantly ringing as everyone ensured everything was in order. Rian was doing her best to keep up and help wherever she could. She had discarded her blazer long ago, her sleeves rolled up to her elbows, and her hair hastily pinned into a messy bun with a pencil. Her hands were full, carrying everything that might be needed for the meeting, printed documents detailing the collaboration, blank sheets for brainstorming, and a few iPads.

"Rian, the black folder please !" Hyunwoo called out as he rushed past her on his phone.

"On it!" She balanced three iPads against her hip while gathering the presentation materials. The click of her heels echoed as she hurried toward the conference room, praying she wouldn't trip and send everything flying.

Thankfully, she made it in one piece.

With the help of a fellow designer, Rian quickly organized the table, arranging everything neatly before brushing the imaginary sweat off her forehead.

“Okay, is everything ready and in order, guys?” Hwan asked as he walked into the room, his eyes scanning for anything out of place, while he rubbed his hands together.

“Yeah, everything’s ready,” Rian replied, trying to sound calm.

“Good,” he nodded, then exited the room.

Rian couldn’t help but envy how calm and relaxed everyone else seemed. Working with celebrities appeared to be just another part of the job for them. She knew they’d collaborated with A-list stars and even royalty before. And from what she’d observed, it was the celebrities who felt honored to wear jewelry from this prestigious brand, not the other way around. But for Rian, this was her first experience, and despite her best efforts, nerves were getting the better of her.

“They’re here,” Himari said, looking down at her phone. “Rian, get that pencil out of your hair!”

Rian immediately pulled the pencil out and gave her hair a quick shake to loosen it. She watched as the rest of the design team began filing into the meeting room, and she quickly moved to stand beside her designated spot, straightening her posture and putting on a polite, composed smile.

She saw multiple people entering the room, chatting among themselves, slowly forming a semi-circle around a man. He had to be the celebrity. From where she stood, she could only glimpse the top of his dark hair and the edge of his denim jacket. Then, as if someone had heard her silent plea, the crowd parted, allowing him to walk through.

The moment she saw Jungkook, Rian felt the universe playing a cruel joke on her once again. Every time she told herself it would be the last time she saw him, life seemed determined to prove her wrong.

He entered the conference room with a small, polite smile, greeting everyone as he shook Hwan’s hand. Hwan led him to his seat, where four people from Jungkook’s team followed and sat beside him. As Jungkook settled in, his gaze casually swept around the room, until it landed on her.

He did a double take.

First, surprise flickered across his face, then a subtle, knowing smile formed at the corner of his lips. Amusement replaced surprise when Rian, without missing a beat pretended not to notice him. She kept her eyes on the papers in front of her, rearranging them as if they were the most fascinating things in the world. She only lifted her head briefly when he turned to say something, likely to his manager beside him.

Apparently, for the special edition release of his upcoming Golden album, due in November next year, he planned to have a special edition album where twenty lucky fans would have unique jewelry pieces. This meeting was to brainstorm what those pieces would be.

Amid the discussion, without meaning to, Rian found herself studying him again.

Seeing Jungkook now felt like facing a stranger, a stark contrast to the man she had those two times. It's true that they didn't talk much,but the best words to describe him were intense, yet distant. There was something about him she couldn’t quite explain, something in his gaze that made people question their beliefs, their truths. It pulled you in and pushed you away at the same time. It made you want to keep your distance, but also get closer, even if it meant getting burned.

There had always been a coldness to him, a quiet warning that he wasn't letting anyone fully in.

But now... now he wore a mask.

A carefully constructed, familiar expression, polished and warm. The kind forged over years of idol life. The smile of someone who knew exactly how to charm a room. And yet, that mask couldn’t dull his natural intensity. He took in every word, every movement, with a focused alertness that made it clear he missed nothing.

And Rian couldn’t decide which was more intimidating, this version of him, with his practiced charm, or the raw, unfiltered one she had glimpsed before.

As if he could hear her thoughts, Jungkook suddenly looked directly at her.

And just like that, Rian was trapped again, caught in the depth of his dark eyes, and all over again she found herself back to her ten years old self.

Rian's pulse stuttered. No. Absolutely not. That traitorous flutter in her chest meant nothing, certainly not that he still held any power over her after all these years.

"What are you doing?" Iseul's voice cut in sharply from beside her.

Right. She couldn't forget about her. Iseul was still salty about what had happened the last time, and ever since, it was like proving herself better than Rian had become her full-time mission. She always had Rian in her peripheral vision, just waiting.

"Nothing," Rian whispered back.

"Don’t think I didn’t see you ogling him. I don’t think I have to remind you, but please, keep it professional."

"Don’t worry about it. I can be professional just fine."

Rian didn’t deny it. She knew if she tried to, Iseul would only be more convinced that there was something going on. That’s how her mind worked. Rian wasn’t going to waste her energy.

But maybe that was exactly why she spoke up. Maybe it was petty, maybe it was pride. but something about that smug, holier-than-thou look on Iseul’s face pushed her over the edge.

And before she could stop herself, she heard her own voice say.

"I have an idea."

All heads in the room turned toward her.

Too late to regret it now.

The room fell silent. Every head turned, including his. Jungkook's lips quirked as he was trying and failing to hide a grin behind his hand as he rubbed his chin,reclined in his chair, the very picture of lazy amusement.He was fully looking at her now, and not even pretending otherwise.

"If I may," she began, forcing her voice steady, "rather than creating separate pieces, what if the fan editions are replicas of what Jungkook-ssi will actually wear during his Golden promotions? The emotional value would be exponential if fans could own the same jewelry seen in music videos or performances."

A beat of silence. Then—

"You're suggesting I wear these designs first?" Jungkook leaned forward, elbows resting on the conference table. The movement caused his jean jacket to gape, revealing a sliver of collarbone above his black shirt.

Iseul cut in with a tinkling laugh. "Jungkook-ssi, please understand our junior designer is still—"

"I like it," Jungkook cut her off smoothly, his eyes still locked on Rian, not even glancing in Iseul’s direction.

"What?" Iseul’s voice dropped the sweetness in a flash, now flat and deadpan.

Rian was still staring at Jungkook, seemingly unable to escape his dark, unreadable gaze.

"I said I like it," he repeated, slowly, deliberately. "And I’d like to see what you would design."

She blinked.

Wait—design?

"Sir, this was just an idea. I’m sure there are already a lot of great designs prepared—"

"No. I like your idea. And since it’s yours, I want to see your designs. Is that a problem for you?"

He was challenging her now, eyes glinting.

"No, sir. No problem. Actually, I would be delighted."

She forced a smile, even as her jaw tensed. Grinding her teeth internally.

"Good. I look forward to seeing them. What’s your name?"

This bastard.

"Rian. Han Rian."

She kept the smile on her face, plastic and tight.

The way his eyes darkened told her he recognized the venom beneath her politeness. As his team filed out, Jungkook lingered just long enough to murmur, "Can't wait, han rian" before disappearing through the frosted glass doors.

Rian sat in her chair, fuming, staring daggers into his back as he walked out.

As she went back to her table to gather her things and head home, she found Iseul standing there, practically fuming, sparks of fire metaphorically shooting from her ears. But Rian ignored her, calmly packing her stuff into her bag.

"I don't know what you're trying to do," Iseul snapped, "but whatever it is, it needs to stop."

Rian didn't bother looking up as she buttoned her blazer. "Still not following."

"Oh, so we’re playing dumb now. Fine." Iseul stepped closer, her voice dropping to a warning tone. "What I’m saying is stay in your lane, okay? You’re going to be here for less than a year. So don’t show off needlessly. Just do what you're meant to do stay in your place and listen."

"Why would I do that? I didn’t do anything wrong," Rian replied, now facing her fully. "They asked for ideas, and I gave one. It’s not like I committed a crime."

"You’re really good at playing the innocent, harmless student, the one everyone eats out of her hand. But I know people like you. You don’t fool me."

"Is there a problem?" Hwan's voice cut through the tension as he approached, his glasses sliding down his nose.

"Nothing at all," Iseul chirped, her smile reappearing like a flipped switch. "Just reminding Rian about the cuff design deadline.

"Rian?" Hwan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, she did," Rian said coolly, eyes locked on Iseul.

"Great. Well, I’ve got to go, I’m late for my date," Iseul said with a forced smile before turning on her heel and walking away.

Rian watched her leave, jaw tight.

"Don’t mind Iseul," Hwan said gently. "She’s…competitive, to put it simply."

"Yeah. Don’t worry about it," Rian muttered.

"Speaking of the cuff," Hwan added, "did you actually finish the design?"

Rian winced slightly. "Not yet. I’m sorry. But it’ll be done and on your desk next week, I promise."

"Alright then. Just make sure you follow through, okay?" Hwan smiled encouragingly. "You’ve got great ideas, Rian. But remember, your ideas have to be backed by your work. You earned your spot here through your designs, and I want to see more of them."

"Okay," Rian nodded. "I promise, I’ll work harder."

"Good," Hwan said with a pat on her shoulder before walking away.

As the long-haired brunette stepped out of the elevator, she was busy texting Jia. Since Jia and her department were at a gallery presenting their project, they wouldn’t be going home together that day. So, they were catching up over text.

Jia: "You're so lucky! I'm stuck here working on virtual jewelry for some video, and you're out there meeting celebrities."

Rian: "Didn't you say there was some cute guy working at the gallery?"

Jia: "Yeah, but then he hit me with: ‘Are you open-minded?’"

Rian: "Yuck."

Jia: "Yep. So who was the celebrity?"

No. No way. She stared at the message, then

Rian: "You won't believe it... Jungkook."

Jia: "The Jungkook?"

Rian: "Mhm."

Just as she was replying, another message popped up, this time from an unknown number. Rian's brows furrowed.

Rian: "Jia, I’ll talk to you later."

Jia: "Okay, but you have to tell me everything!"

When she looked at the message, it read

"Get in the black car in front of you."

Her heart skipped a beat. Looking up, she spotted a sleek black car with tinted windows parked a few feet away. She couldn't see the driver. A chill ran down her spine, and the tiny hairs on her arms stood up. Her eyes darted around the parking lot as she tried to figure out who could’ve sent the message.

Her phone buzzed again.

"Come on, little demon. Are you going to make me wait all day?"

Her blood ran cold.

No. No way. She stared at the message, then slowly turned her gaze back to the car. It can’t be him.

How did he even get her number?

With hesitant steps and every nerve in her body screaming danger, she walked to the passenger side, Wrenching the door open, she was met with the scent of leather and sandalwood and Jungkook lounging in the driver's seat, one arm draped over the steering wheel. He'd swapped his jean jacket for a fitted black sweater, a baseball cap pulled low over his eyes. The glow from his phone highlighted the sharp angle of his jaw as he typed with his free hand.

"There you are," he said without looking up. "Took you long enough."

Rian blinked. “You? What are you still doing here?”

Finally, he turned, those familiar dark eyes glinting with amusement. "Waiting to take you to dinner. Obviously."

“Why would I even go to dinner with you?” she snapped.

“I don’t know... maybe because we’ve got a lot to talk about. Some catching up to do.”

“Look, I really don’t have anything to say to you.”

"Oh?" He pocketed his phone with deliberate slowness. "Then why haven't you been back to the dance studio? Afraid of running into me again?"

She scoffed. “Why would I be scared to bump into you?”

“You tell me. And now, refusing dinner? You're only proving my point.” He leaned closer, lowering his voice. "Also, you might want to hurry, that couple over there has been staring for a while. Wouldn't want tomorrow's headlines to read 'BTS's Jungkook Spotted with Mysterious Woman,' would we?"

Rian followed his subtle nod to where two girls were indeed whispering behind their phones. She cursed under her breath, Her brain was screaming no, but her common sense reminded her that a public scandal definitely wasn’t on her to-do list, especially not one involving Jungkook and his literal army of fans who’d eat her alive.

Just get this over with, Rian.

Clearly knowing he’d won, Jungkook didn’t bother to hide his smug grin. His eyes sparkled with satisfaction as she climbed in and slammed the door shut, yanking the seatbelt on with more force than necessary.

“I know a great barbecue place,” he said, casually pulling the car into gear. “You won’t regret it.”

"I won't enjoy this," she interrupted, crossing her arms.

His chuckle as he pulled into traffic was infuriating. "We'll see about that."

As they reached their destination, Rian looked out the window to see a small restaurant tucked away in a quiet alley. The place had a cozy, warm glow from within, a stark contrast to the night’s chill.

The moment they stepped inside, the scent of grilled meat and spices hit her senses, making her stomach growl. An elderly woman, warm and sprightly, walked up to them immediately.

“Jungkook, you’re back again!” she greeted with a wide smile.

“Yes, Grandma. You know I can’t stay away from your food,” he replied, taking off his hat. The gesture revealed not just his face but a relaxed, softer version of himself that Rian hadn’t seen before.

The woman turned to Rian, her eyes kind. “And you brought a friend too. Hello, dear, look at you, how pretty you are!” she said, gently taking Rian’s hands.

“Thank you. I can’t wait to eat what you’ve made,” Rian smiled, a little shyly.

“Go sit over there. Everything will be ready in a few minutes.”

They moved to a small corner table and took their seats. The place was quiet, intimate, with handwritten menus on chalkboards and the faint sound of a Korean ballad playing in the background.

Jungkook studied her as she looked around the restaurant. She might think he didn’t know her anymore, but he could still spot the parts of her that hadn't changed. Like the way she examined the space with quiet curiosity, her eyes flicking from one corner to another as she absentmindedly sipped her water. That part of her, the quietly observant side was the same.

“I found this place when I was still a trainee,” he said, placing some meat on the grill. “I actually got lost and wandered in here by accident. I’ve been coming back ever since.”

“I didn’t ask,” Rian replied, coolly.

Jungkook chuckled. She was acting indifferent, but he knew better. She wanted to know. She just didn’t want to admit it.

“So,” she said between bites, her expression softening as she chewed, “how did you even get my number?”

Jungkook couldn’t help but smile at the small, pleased hum she let out after tasting the meat. It was subtle, but he caught it and found it strangely adorable.

“Simple,” he replied, flipping a piece of meat. “I DMed you on Instagram. You didn’t reply, so I asked Rowoon. Told him you left something behind the last time we met.”

Rian’s eyes widened slightly. “Wait… that was you? The weird account with the strange username?” She pointed a chopstick at him accusingly.

“Weird?” he blinked. “My username’s not weird.”

“So you weren’t just a creep, you’re a stalker too,” she said, shaking her head dramatically.

That pushed it.

Okay, maybe from her perspective, it did sound a bit stalker-ish. But in his defense, the second time he saw her wasn’t planned.

He had just finished at the gym in the same building when he heard music coming from the dance studio. Curiosity led him there, and to his surprise, it was Rian. Dancing.

And not just dancing. She moved like the music lived in her bones. The way her hips swayed, the way her body flowed with the rhythm, it mesmerized him.

He’d watched, unable to look away, until she slipped and fell. That’s when the spell broke.

This truth sat heavy on his tongue, he watched her dance through the studio window like a man possessed. How her Instagram had become his late-night scroll for weeks.

He couldn't say that to her and he still couldn't admit it to himself even when he Dmed her or when he asked Rowoon for her number. He told himself it was just to “clear the air.” But deep down, he knew the reason was something else, something deeper, that Jungkook couldn't quiet put his finger on it.

Then, by sheer coincidence, she turned out to be in the same team working on his project.

And not just that, she was the one who pitched the idea he liked most.

Did he tease her in front of the other designers? Absolutely.

Did he care that she clearly hated it? Not at all.

In fact, he liked it. He liked the way she got riled up. It was better than the cold, distant version she tried to put in front of him.

And he couldn't tell her that.

Instead, he smirked. "You're avoiding the real question."

"Which is?"

"Why you're still mad about something that happened when you were a kid." The grill smoke curled between them like a challenge.

Rian's chopsticks froze mid-air. The restaurant's chatter, the sizzle of meat, the Grandma's off-key humming, it all faded to white noise as their eyes locked.

Then the kitchen door banged open. "Who's ready for my famous kimchi pancakes?" The Grandma announced, blissfully unaware of the grenade she'd just interrupted.

She thanked the grandma warmly. Quietly, she picked at the pancake with her chopsticks, tearing it apart absentmindedly. Her mind clearly wasn’t in the food.

Jungkook noticed, then gently reached over with his own chopsticks. Without saying a word, he tore off a piece of the pancake and placed it in her bowl. She stared at it, unmoving.

Then, softly, almost like a sigh, she spoke.

"I know you would’ve never accepted my feelings back then. I was just a kid... but I was helplessly full of hope."

She chuckled lightly, though it didn’t reach her eyes.

"Even if I knew deep down you didn’t feel the same... I still hoped. And now, I’m actually thankful you didn’t. At least I know you don’t date minors."

Another quiet laugh escaped her lips.

"But I always thought... even if you didn’t like me, you’d protect me. Or maybe I just used that as an excuse, to believe you cared about me, even just a little. Even just like a little sister."

She finally lifted her head and met his eyes, and he found himself unable to look away. Her light brown eyes, framed by long lashes, glistening under the restaurant's warm lighting. "That night proved even that was too much to ask."

"Do you really think that low of me?" he asked quietly.

"What? I don’t understand," she replied, confused.

"Do you really think I did nothing?" His voice was still calm, but there was an edge to it now. "I may have been young too, and honestly, I panicked. I was looking for ways to make you stop that crush, and the opportunity came I never meant to hurt you like. But I did. I said nothing that night. When I saw you."

Rian looked at him, brows slightly furrowed.

"Through the mirror," he clarified. "When you came out of the bathroom. I saw the look on your face. I should’ve shut them up. I should’ve stepped in. But for a second... I didn’t. It felt like the perfect excuse to push you away. And yeah, that makes me an asshole. I know. But don’t ever think I just stood there and did nothing."

A long pause filled the space between them.

"What did you do?" she asked eventually, voice smaller now.

"Let’s just say... if they ever see you again, they’ll be crossing the street the other way," he said darkly. He gave her a moment to absorb that before continuing.

"I know an apology won’t fix it. But I swear to you, it was never my intention to truly hurt you. I thought you’d be upset for a day, maybe two, and then move on. I was wrong. And I hate that it made you go away."

Her voice was quieter now. "What hurt the most... was when you belittled my dream."

He closed his eyes briefly.

"I regret that more than anything. I was young too... and stupid. I know the meaning of having a dream, so I should’ve understood. But I didn’t. And I’m sorry."

He leaned back in his chair, giving her space. "You don’t have to forgive me. You don’t even have to believe me. But I wanted to clear the air. And if you're open to it... I’d like to get to know you again. Like you said, you’ve changed. And maybe, so have I."

He fell silent, watching her process everything.

After a moment, she picked up the piece of pancake he had placed in her bowl earlier. She took a bite, chewing slowly. Then, finally, she spoke.

"This doesn’t mean I forgive you. But... it’s exhausting carrying something that happened so long ago."

"I know." He said still looking at her.

And for a second, just a flicker, he caught a ghost of a smile playing on her lips too.

[athene-owl]

Dream Video Bullshit

I decided against my better judgement to watch Dream's latest video. Here are the main things I wanted to say - if I don't mention something it's probably because I actually agree with what Dream said or don't know/care. A lot of this is rambling and venting because I'm annoyed and refuse to give him/his fans anymore of my energy or time to polish up this post.

1:16 - Dream says his accusers will make it harder for 'real victims in the future' to be believed and I just need to say that this felt like a really brash and entitled thing to start the video up with. Now you wanna care about victims Dream? After what happened last year? We'll get to that.

3:40 - This is a very small thing but Dream says here that in one video while he was playing Minecraft muted, he was being 'interviewed' by a SWAT Team member next to him in the room and I just can't help but question the validity of this because how did this happen? You were swatted and had someone in the room with you asking questions and you divided your attention between that and still playing Minecraft? You didn't just stop playing to focus on the SWAT Team? This barely matters but it fascinates me.

5:09 - Dream really goes out of his way here to point out that his speedrun cheating was discovered by a cheater and plays a clip showing how illegitimate this guy's speedruns were. This absolutely feels like him shifting blame and trying to paint this rando as a bad person to somehow excuse his own cheating which he says was unintentional. At 5:30 he says him and a developer had ruled out him using a mod - how did they determine this when he WAS proven to have used a mod and insisted he didn't realize? He doesn't elaborate.

6:30 - Here Dream acknowledges his behavior towards the speedrunning mods was bad and takes responsibility for it which is good but does not erase all the drama and bullshit he caused. When that whole thing went down, his stans passionately took his side but now that he's admitted to acting wrong they are fawning over his maturity - you guys sure didn't have a problem with it back then. At 6:40 he makes the point that the speedrun was 3 years ago and a lot has changed and I just don't see that change when he's still causing dumbass drama every week. Good on him for taking his videos down and apologizing to the mods but, again, his stans were all enthusiastically on his side then so I don't want to hear them now praising him for doing the right thing when clearly his behavior wasn't enough to turn them away from him 3 years ago. This is a trend with Dream's stans.

10:02 - Here Dream admits he was wrong to immediately and publicly disregard the info dug up about his domestic abuser friend which OK, good to admit, but 2 things - 1. Why, only a year ago, were you so quick and eager to disregard reports of abuse and 2. How did the fandom react to this. Again, if people took his side and disbelieved the victim, they can't now be so proud of him for admitting he was wrong. This does NOT instill confidence in me that him and his community would take later allegations against Dream seriously. Hot take, but I really think his initial response was despicable, irresponsible and I just feel sorry for the guy's victim in all of this. At 11:48 he pats himself on the back for how he handled the situation (besides initially brushing off the evidence) and ends with "I made it clear I didn't support domestic violence even at the detriment of one of my oldest friendships" and I'm sorry but given how Dream conducts himself, that feels like a manipulative little ploy to look good and garner pity for doing the bare minimum. Again, how many of his stans leapt at the chance to brush aside abuse reports and documented evidence and what did he do?

EDIT: Previously I thought the info on the friend was revealed by the victim herself speaking up but I was corrected on this and now know it was the friend's info being leaked and people snooping. Check my reblog for more info.

15:00 - He defends his Snapchat use with the fact that he promotes content on there but the photos consist of him doing random shit in his day-to-day life so I fail to see how that promotes his content rather than feeding his fans' parasocial relationship with him lol. At 15:20 he admits he isn't the one liking weird fanart on his account and 1. He's just admit he's been lying about running his own account for years and 2. Did he ever speak against the weird sexualisation in his community? Why did he allow his friend to keep liking weird shit, only messaging her to unlike it after the fact rather than laying the rules out? Idk this is just weird man. At 15:23 he shows a tweet by a defender of his stating that clearly he runs his account because if he had someone else running it, there would be a disclaimer. His fans gave him the benefit of the doubt and chastised others for not doing the same only to be proven wrong themselves lmao

17:08 - Dream claims he 'doesn't take himself too seriously' and I do not fucking believe that. This man has the ego of a planet and is lashing out at others every fucking week over it. Be fucking for real.

20:10 - Here Dream admits that him calling his fanbase 'kittens' was weird and he regrets it but also insists the whole 'Discord kitten' meme wasn't big back then and, this is purely anecdotal, but I absolutely think it was. Anyway, again, I wonder how many of his fans defended this back in the day and how many of those same people will now agree with Dream it was embarrassing and weird solely because HE now says it is and not because they can critically look at his behavior themselves. I'm skeptical of him insisting it wasn't meant in a weird way and he randomly chose the term 'kitten' because everyone back then instantly connected it to the Discord kitten thing but ok.

21:29 - Dream discusses the whole 'selling baby photos of himself' thing which I had never heard about before and am a bit gagged by. Anyway, here he specifically points out that celebrities have sold their baby photos before as if that helps his case at all, he explains the hard drive wristband thing was the product BUT it is still insanely weird and egotistical to me to include baby photos on that drive. He compares this to a biography but, again, this does not help the parasocial allegations because what the fuck has he done in his life to warrant a biography and what sort of audience needs this? I know this might be sacrilege to say but uhh this was objectively weird of him to do and he cannot sway my mind on that. Also for someone who doesn't take himself seriously, he sure was happy to quote himself on the hard drive???

36:09 - Finally into the more serious shit. Here, Dream points out the fact that Amanda was defending him when the whole face reveal happened 10 days before her allegations came out + liking his tweets 2 days before the allegations. I just wanna say this really means little, victims can be in denial or have complicated feelings. Also, at 36:18 he then says that she made her accusations because of the hate train following the face reveal and she wanted to get in on it even though he just said she was supportive of him and defending him? He's spinning this both ways - saying she was supportive to discredit her claim and then saying she suddenly hated him to also discredit her claim.

38:05 - He gets his mum involved to prove a point and I cannot emphasize enough how meaningless this is, even if its the truth you expect me to think your mother is unbiased and wouldn't lie to cover your ass?

40:06 - Bold of Dream to criticize Amanda for not treating the situation seriously when Dream stans are running around calling this shit a 'drontroversy'. At 44:20 he even says this isn't online drama. He also uses the image below as proof of her wanting him or whatever which 1. Doesn't matter when discussing underage exploitation because her behavior would never warrant her being taken advantage of and 2. Also shows him making weird sexual comments which he vehemently denied doing earlier.

42:12 - Dream asks how, if Amanda is dishonest about some things, how can anything she says be trusted? Why can't that same logic be applied to Dream for things he has no actual evidence for? He makes this argument again at 43:20 - if she's lying about the photo, how do you know she's not lying about everything else? Not a great argument from Dream of all people.

44:00 - AGAIN this man relies on victim-blaming rhetoric to make his point - "Go to the police. Or sue me. The standard of proof for you suing me is only proving that it's more likely than not that you're telling the truth. 51%. Come take my money." The insinuation that it's easy or simple for women to take men to court and sue them for sexual crimes is laughable and shows a real arrogance and ignorance to Dream. Again, regardless of how true the allegations were, women have gone to court with every type of evidence under the sun and still got nothing so what makes Dream assume this is an easy process? Do victims need to sue their abusers to be telling the truth? With all of his money and privilege, would Dream not be at a huge advantage in court? Weak argument that really feels disrespectful. At 44:15 he makes a little remark about how in court, her 'weird comments' and 'character' would have to be questioned and answered for. Despite the fact that any comments she made as a minor would be irrelevant in this case, despite the fact that someone's 'character' doesn't automatically determine whether they're a victim or not, this is also a funny comment because he's right - yeah, in court the female accuser would be picked apart and judged for shit that doesn't matter. Good thinking there Dream, really making your case!

44:25 - Here he gives a little lecture to Amanda about her hurting 'real victims' and again, as a reminder, this man publicly disregarded those concerned about intricate reports of abuse, has watched as his fans doxed and abused countless people and yet positions himself as an authority on deciding who is a real victims and who isn't. What also makes shit hard for victims is highly popular men like him convincing people to instantly disbelieve women, send them endless hate and make ignorant comments about how victims act. I don't want to hear any moral lecturing from Dream of all people about others 'hurting real victims'. Argue with the wall.

He then has a whole section on Nick Cantu and let me make this clear - Nick being a violent asshole has nothing to do with Dream's behavior or the allegations so I don't care and I do in fact think he focused on it to make himself look better.

57:50 - Dream wants to talk about the dangers of swatting and doxxing. You know, his own stans have doxxed people and once endangered a black person by sending police to their house for a welfare check in an area where welfare checks had resulted in black people being murdered by cops. He says that he always condemned this behavior but shows no proof of this. What actions did he directly take to discourage and stop this and help the people his own supporters had hurt? If anyone has receipts on anything he's done to help, feel free to show me because he provides no evidence of doing anything and I am really not amused by him skirting around his own community's doxxing of people.

1:00:20 - So here he plays the infamous moaning video in it's entirety but has it muted? I get it's gross but when the audio is the whole point, it seems so useless to play it muted. Just a weird choice but it is easy to find elsewhere.

1:09:28 - Makes another statement here that if something is disproven in court then that means it didn't happen which is blatantly untrue, esp when we're talking about sexual crimes. Very ignorant thing to say and really annoys me with how much he's positioning himself as a champion for victims.

After this Dream does a lot more talking about how people treat victims and it's mostly good stuff but AGAIN this is coming from the guy whose fans have doxxed countless people and who instantly mocked people for caring about serious abuse reports. He never makes this parallel, he never points out that he has undoubtedly done more harm to victims with his bullshit, he just puts himself on a moral high ground and its really obnoxious. I cannot emphasize enough how fucking annoying and self congratulatory this man is holy fuck.

EDIT: Initially I had a point here about how little Dream went into the 24 page document released compiling evidence against him, but I was informed this came out right before the video's release, a day before or on the same day it appears. I thought incorrectly it had come out earlier, I will say I still believe he needs to address this in the future, check my reblog for more details.

1:17:00 - This is a doozy and will be my closing point. Dream spends a bit talking about 'false allegations' and calls it a popular trend, happening to hundreds of online creators. IRL, false allegations for rape are severely exaggerated and, if anything, rape is horribly under reported. Women are significantly more likely to be raped then men are to be 'falsely accused' and, when you factor in how horrible the justice system is towards victims, rape culture, how difficult it can be to prove something like rape and how low the rates of successful convictions are, the truth is that a lot of 'disproven' cases are true and were just brushed aside. Furthermore, all crimes have 'false allegations' yet the only one to ever be discussed is rape because it's an easy out. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that rape has comparatively low rates of 'false allegations' compared to other crimes but idk. I know the internet is different, I know people make up lies all the time but I am NOT fucking keen on how much Dream emphasizes false allegations as a common thing when IRL they are not. I am NOT looking forward to every content creator from now on claiming its just 'false accusations' and people falling for it because their favourite Minecraft YouTube insisted it was an epidemic. I am NOT keen for discussions of victims and rape culture to be dominated by this shit and for victims to continue to be silenced and disbelieved. I think you have to be very, very fucking careful when talking about 'false allegations' and I do not think Dream of all people is remotely capable of giving this the nuance it needs. This is gonna be so fucking unbearable in the future to deal with and every single fandom will latch onto this to brush off potential red flags, I guarantee.

[screentones-webcomicresources]

do you have any advice for aspiring author-artists who already work full time (40 hrs per week) day jobs?

i straight up don’t have time for anything outside of work, taking care of my pets, general housekeeping, feeding myself, and sleep. i’d have to sacrifice time for one of those categories to do anything outside of them. and i frequently do sacrifice that time. usually sleep and housekeeping.

(i am looking for part-time work that would let me bring in the same amount of income per month, but i would have to sacrifice my current health care while im in the middle of trying to address my own medical needs)

Our work-life balance episode has some good thoughts we definitely recommend you check out, because we struggle with this too! It can be tough depending on your energy levels, and sometimes the answer really is to wait for a season of your life where things are less busy before you jump into a large comic project.

But it's still possible to make progress at your own pace. Here are some things that help us:

Keep something you can draw or take notes with on you when you have a bit of downtime in your day. You can use a notes app on your phone to document an idea or edit an outline when you have something come to you, or keep a sketchbook at your desk depending on your set up. Depending on your transit options, sometimes you can also draw on a bus or train.

Team up! If you have art friends in your neighborhood, consider starting or joining a club or meet up to draw after work (this also has the much-needed benefit of social time). You may also be able to hire art assistants to help with flatting or another part of your page-making process.

Reclaim some of your time if you can. Get someone else who wants to watch the animals once a month and go on a weekend art retreat to focus (large or just hanging out in a library or someplace where you can concentrate - going to be different for different people). You may find some other ways to simplify your daily routines or multitask to get some time back in your day for comic-making.

Set realistic expectations and don’t compare your results with someone who works on a comic full time. This may mean scaling back the scope of your story, simplifying the art style, or working at a slower schedule. However you make your comic, it still matters, and it should be an activity that brings you joy, not stress!

We wish you the best of luck!

[keysandmirrors]

Intro to what I dub my “Spider-team DR”. This DR is one I actually had a dream about instead of consciously making the decision to script about it so uhh that’s fun. Because of that though it doesn’t really exist in any sort of canon cause I don’t watch a lot of Marvel stuff. I made a little moodboard for it and I’ll explain the aspects of it below the cut 👍

• So starting off with my parents! Wade Wilson aka Deadpool is my father and Death (or Lady Death if you wanna get fancy with it) is my mother!! 💞 I was conceived ✨magically✨ and this makes me an interesting person for reasons I will get to later. My mom really wanted a child and so did my dad but he was kinda more anxious about if he could be a good father cause I mean… I love the guy but look at him 💀

• When I was first “born” my mama named me Wraith and I lived in the Realm of Death with her for the first few years of my life. She knew though that as someone who was technically alive that I should be raised up on Earth with other living people so she sent me to go move in with Deadpool :D

• Unfortunately the nature of his work and his existing insecurities made him think the best thing for me was to be put into foster care. It might be obvious though that as someone not born on Earth that would be a difficult legal process 💀 so my dad faked all my documents and stuff and a little funny thing I added was that while writing my name he saw an advertisement for a traveling circus and got distracted and accidentally, LEGALLY named me “Circus Wilson”. (Ik this is I choice I made so I’m happy with the name but I wanna make fun of him sometimes and I thought this was funny)

• So blah blah blah I grow up and at like 10-ish years old my mutant genes activate and I get picked up by the x-men. Ngl my powers are pretty generic, I just have like better senses, super strength, higher stamina, that kind of stuff. But it’s still useful so I get trained at Xavier’s School and I grow up there for a while as a trainee x-man. EDIT: After playing the Deadpool game again I’ve decided I can teleport cause I really wanna teleport oops 🫢 It’s limited the way it is in the game but still, very fun

• Now when I’m like 18 or so I’m gonna start college in ✨New York City✨ (this is where the Spider-team stuff comes in *wink wink*). I get an apartment with three people who quickly become my best friends. In order of the bottom row of pictures meant to depict us all we have, Bayani Parker, Vivica Stacy, Wylyn Hardy, and me :D Circus Wilson. You might be able to guess who becomes who in terms of alter-egos but I’ll expand more on it anyway lol (just keep in mind this is mostly info I could infer from my dream so if it doesn’t all make sense I’m sorry 🙏)

• Bayani Parker! Perhaps my bestest of all the friends her parents moved their family to New York from the Philippines when Bayani was a child so she really helps me around cause I am not built for the city 😭 she’s so smart too and her and Vivica and Wylyn are all going to college for engineering which is crazy to me cause they’re all really cool and smart. While at college though you may guess Bayani gets bit by a radioactive spider! It gives her super powers similar to a spider and now she’s New York’s one and only Spider-silk! (Her suit is purple and orange and I love it) She originally hides her identity from us all but I mean we live together she can’t keep that up forever and eventually we all figure it out one by one. But now we can help her! We cover for her a lot 💀

• Vivica Stacy next! Gosh I love her so much cause first impressions she seems like a rich, entitled, brat but she’s so much more than that. She’s so amazingly kind but also very confident so she won’t let anybody push around her or her friends. Now you may be thinking she becomes a ghost spider or something but no no no. While she’s working in her field she accidentally runs into the Venom symbiote and, as I’m sure you can guess, becomes Venom. So now we have a Spider-silk and a Venom to our roster of a mini-superhero team!

• Wylyn Hardy! I’m sure you can guess that he becomes the Black Cat but there’s a little twist to him. He has more of a Batman backstory in the simplest terms. Like he thought his family were a bunch of really upstanding people but they were involved in some shady stuff so now he becomes the Black Cat as a way to “steal from the rich and give to the needy” like Robin Hood lol. The Black Cat moniker was something he actually stole from his family as they used it for bad stuff and he went and just took it lol. He’s a very cool guy, very emotionally intelligent and really like the most level-headed of us all 💞

• And finally there’s me. Now I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be a Wraith variant or a Deadpool variant so I’m both at different times lol 🤷. Now I told you the way I was born would be important later and this is when it gets important. My whole life I’ve technically been “half dead” and just haven’t known it. There’s always been a part of me that’s connected to Death both as a concept and as a mother so unfortunately for Spider-silk I gotta become a canon event 😬 yeah pretty much at some point while fighting a villain I’m gonna die and return to the Realm of Death and reunite with my mom and learn all about my life and who/what I am.

• After dying and spending time with my mama I discover “new” powers (I’ve always had them they just had to be unlocked by me dying teehee). The main ones being I can’t die and I now regenerate like my father. It’s not really healing so much as it is my body reverts back to the moment before I died so that’s fun. Also she gifts me some sick chains that are used to chain souls down so that’s fun, they’re kind of psychic in visuals like I can make them float and stuff and sort of swing around with them the way Spider-silk does with her webs. Anyways after a few months with mom she tells me I should head back :( except now I can pretty much freely come and go like how Deadpool sees Death when he dies so it’s not so bad.

• Once I’m back up on Earth and in NYC I decide to stay hidden and start using my intended name of Wraith. I become like a vigilante in the public eye but in reality I’m just out collecting souls for my mom cause sometimes there are issues and they don’t go where they should, they latch onto people, people cheat death, etc etc. I don’t just mindlessly kill people basically dw guys. I do stop crimes that I come across cause why wouldn’t I? So when Spider-silk gets wind of me they’re kinda like on the fence about whether I’m actually a villain or not.

• This in between of Wraith and Deadpool (which I’m gonna refer to myself as Grimpool to distinguish between me and my dad) is the part where I’m the most fuzzy about details cause this whole “story” is taking place over multiple years this isn’t like month by month.

• But blah blah blah my identity is discovered, I reconcile with my friends, I legally become an actual human again with the help of the x-men cause ffs if I’m going to college I want my degree man I worked hard >:(. So now at this point in my life I think it’s time… to reunite with my father. Dun DUN DUNNN! I’m being dramatic but yeesh we do have some tense moments cause he’s like crazy and also a mercenary and he named me Circus who names their child Circus smh (*wink wink*). This feels like the time to mention Wade Wilson in my DR is based more on the video game Deadpool and not comic or movie Deadpool. So I’m sure you understand my apprehension getting to know him but he is an interesting person and I wanna bond over our shared immortality. So we meet and he really wants me to join the “family business” but I’m like “mm no thanks I’m literally a criminal psychologist why would I become a mercenary” but he says if I’m gonna continue hanging around superheroes and vigilantes then I should at least know how to fight, which, fair point. So he teaches me pretty much all he knows about fighting and now I’m a certified badass 😎 he also starts dubbing me Grimpool and sometimes we do go on missions together and I get my own suit so that’s fun.

~~~

There’s more details to this DR but nothing major so I don’t really feel the need to make this post longer lol. I hope you enjoyed this intro if you read this far and even if you didn’t thank you for reading this far 😭🙏

I also use this DR as kind of a “base” for other DRs such as The Boys and Gotham (the show, not just the city). So those might be more posts I make in the future. If you have any questions about this DR or the others feel free to hop in my inbox or ask in the comments or whatever 💞 I’m really excited to live this life so I’d love to talk about it. Oh I also might make a post just talking about what exactly my dream was like if anyone is interested, it was really lucid and I know some people in the shifting community are also interested in lucid dreaming so idk 🤷

[tedwardremus]

I have looots of fic ideas but i never wrote them 😭 english is not my main language so everytime i start to write something it doesnt even reach two paragraphs :/ i was going to ask for your advice since i really love your writing skill, it is just like how i write them in my mind

Thank you!!

I totally get how frustrating it can be to have so many fic ideas but struggle to get them on the page. Having ideas is already a huge step, though!

I'm not sure if I have good advice but here I go:

Start small and start messy – Don’t pressure yourself to write full, polished paragraphs right away. Try jotting down scenes, bits of dialogue, or even bullet points about what you want to happen. Writing anything, even if it’s incomplete or rough, is still progress! My first drafts really aren't much more detailed than my outlines.

Sometimes my drafts really are "Lily walks into Hogwarts Kitchens. James is there washing dishes with House Elves. Lily asks James what he is doing." I just try to get down on the document what happens in the story. And each pass through the document, I expand and add more detail and dialogue. Be messy for several drafts and then clean it up later. No one will know how messy it is!

Write like no one is watching – If worrying about grammar or perfection stops you from writing, remind yourself that fics don’t have to be perfect to be enjoyable. You can always edit later, and honestly, even native English speakers have messy first drafts! And messy final drafts! You are not a professional writer with a team of editors.

No one should ever expect your fic to be perfect. Who cares if you mix up your there/their/they're, or your/you're or if you don't understand how to use semicolons. I barely understand these things!

Use tools (but not ChatCPT!) – If certain words or sentences feel awkward, you can use translation tools, Grammarly, or even read books to see how others phrase things. But don’t stress too much! Your story and emotions matter more than perfect grammar!

Also, find a friend to be a cheer reader or beta reader! They can be the most helpful tool you have. People love editing fics, and you aren't being a bother by asking for help. You can learn a lot through a beta reader and sharing works in progress and having someone cheer you on is wonderful motivation.

Try writing in your native language first – If English feels like a barrier, start in your own language and then translate later (or even leave it in your language—there are readers who are looking for non-English fics!).

Remember that every writer started somewhere – No one is a great writer in the beginning. It takes practice. It takes time. It is a lot of draft and editing work. It is talking to other writers and being a part of a community. It is reading lots of different kinds of books to see how stories can be told.

Just go for it, take it one sentence at a time! Have fun!!

[because-she-goes]

cinnamon

warnings: bit of matty headrot, some enemies to lovers, old lady thinking they’re a couple trope, swearing, some pretentious music references. Enjoy!

With a click and a woosh, the document Rooney has spent the past month or so working on was sent to the editing team. For the past month, Rooney has spent every day thinking and writing solely about Matty. Glad to finally have every last one of her thoughts about him out of her brain and sent off for someone else to deal with, she decided to take Arlo for a walk before heading home to Bowness-On-Windemere. where she would begin the planning stages on her next piece for NME.

Grabbing her keys and Arlo’s leash and giving it a jangle, she awaits the puppy to come bounding to her. From the door, she sees her adorable companion come around the corner, and near her. Panting, barking, blissfully unaware of how Rooney has barely slept and is in desperate need for some fresh air and a fridge restock as she’s been living off of microwavable instant ramen the past week.

Clasping the leash on Arlo’s collar and stepping out into the world, she locks her door behind her and starts walking around Notting Hill. Passing the famous bookstore with teenage girls excitedly waiting to get inside the rather underwhelming building - she was once one of those girls. She too once thought it would be a wonderfully curated shop like in the movie only to find out that it truly only sold bestsellers and what she had seen on the glossy pages of magazines where publishers pay the company for the advertisement. Dreams of her local bookstore back home came to mind, bookshelves filled with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and Louisa May Alcott - real literature she thinks, the type that got her to want to be a writer in the first place. She soon became overwhelmed with how much she loved her life now and how amazed she was by it. If young Rooney could see herself now and how different her life was…

Smack, splat. Onto the ass of her jeans she falls - Arlo’s leash coming out of her manicured hand. Arlo jumps onto her hind legs and as luck would have it, a mop of curls come into her periphery. For fucks sake. He sticks a hand out to help her and she bats it away.

“Yikes, clover! Geez it’s just me, no need to get your panties in a bunch.”

“I’m fine and for the record, my panties are none of your business Healy.”

“We’ll see about that…anyways, who is this adorable creature?” Matty bends down to grab the leash and pat Arlo’s side softly.

“Arlo… after Guthrie.” That just about knocks Matty on his ass, who else would know about american folk singers - let alone enough and have enough passion about them to name their fucking dog after them. Matty’s own dog comes to mind and he really named Allen after the american poet Ginsberg. They were too alike, he thinks. He silently melts as he watches her fumble to her feet and bends to dust off her jeans, her crimson hair blowing in the London breeze. He looks away quickly when he spots a series of delicate ink lines dancing and swirling down her spine. It is like he is reading her teenage diary, something sacred and deeply personal, like another aspect of her life has been revealed to him. If only he could see the whole piece of artwork. if only he could see it fully, if only he could know Rooney fully. Truly know her, not just as a work acquaintance or friend. Matty immediately wants to know what side of the bed she sleeps on, what music she listens to while cooking, if she prefers scented or unscented laundry detergent. In an instant, he is even more enthralled by her. It is in that moment, while he takes her in and pets her dog that Matty Healy knows he is well and truly enraptured. He comes out of his spell when he feels Arlo brush against his knees a bit.

“May I join you and Arlo on your walk?” She looks into his eyes finally, they’re ocean deep and for the first time she feels like she can see Matthew. Not Matty Healy, the frontman or the guy trying to impress her in an interview, Matthew. The guy stood in front of her, petting her dog in his blue nike hoodie, sweatpants and sneakers. He looks like himself, not someone he is trying to be. She realizes she loves that about him. How comfortable he is in himself, how he can jus5 be Matty. She could only hope to have that level of confidence someday.

The rest of the walk is sublime, a picturesque day in her area of London. An ideal fall day, bright and sunny with still a nip in the air. They make their way to the Notting Hill Market. Matty still holding Arlo’s leash while Rooney scrolls on her phone to find some good walking music he may like. It is about a 15 minute journey to the market from where the two collided. Her iPhone begins to play No Matter What by Badfinger, one of her personal favorite bits of 70s music she would play while cooking. The harmonies, guitar riffs and percussion fill the air between them - Matty quietly whistling along to the tune. He always loved Badfinger and his dad would play it in their family car growing up - the fond memory of childhood planting a grin across his cheeks. Rooney continued selecting the music for their walk, not bothering with small talk since the two felt so comfortable in their quiet enjoyment of the afternoon together. Badfinger which turned into David Bowie then the Sex Pistols and The Clash finally finishing their walk with Supertramp.

Rooney made a note to herself to see if Matty liked her beloved Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Before she could ask, he had pulled her and Arlo towards a stall in the corner of the market.

“Hummingbird Bakery? I haven’t ever heard of this place, is it any good?” She quickly, albeit a bit nervously asks her companion.

“Best on Portabello Road, Sugar. Trust me.” He adds with a wink

“I never said I didnt, did I?” She adds with a smirk.

“Good. Hi Darling, A slice of the Halloween Batty Orange Chocolate Cheesecake and a pack of the assorted vegan cupcakes. Thank You!” Matty orders with a smile to the older woman working the stall.

“Here you go, dear and something for the adorable little munchkin down there. It’ll be 15 pounds.” The sweet woman informs, handing Rooney their treats as well as a pup cup for Arlo. Matty hands her some money and they thank her.

“Have a lovely rest of your outing , you two love birds!” She adds as they walk away.

“Oh we- we aren’t…. we’re not…” The pair stumble over each other frantically trying to correct her as Arlo eyed the pup cup ravenously hungry.

“Cute. Don’t worry, you’ll both realize it soon.” The woman winks and the two decide to just leave her be and enjoy the pastries at a bench nearby.

Matty takes a bite of the cheesecake and lets out what can only be described as a pornographic moan. He points at it, mouth full of sugar and hands it to Rooney. She mimics the action exaggeratedly throwing her head back.

“Fuckin hell, Healy! Who knew you had such good taste in sweets… and how did you know I loved chocolate oranges?” The redhead asks him once she’s passed the cheesecake slice back over and eaten her bite.

“You think my taste in sweets is good, you should see my dinner spots.”

“Not happening! Totally unprofessional, please I can’t be going on a date with the fuckin guy I’m writing an article about… are you mad?”

“Oh c’mon go on one date with me, Atkinson. I promise no funny business.” Matty says a silent prayer, he doesn’t miss the twinkle in her eyes when he says Atkinson. He takes another bite of the cake, humming in delight. He knows he is gonna win this. He passes her the pasty.

“Will it get you to leave me alone?” Please say no, please for the love of god let him say no. God, a date with him would rot her brain for good. God, why does this cheesecake have to be so good. She passes it back to him after her bite.

“Never. I'm addicted, sugar.” Another fucking wink, bite and pass. Jesus christ.

“Fine, Healy. Pick me up at 8pm, heres my London address.” She finishes the cheesecake, scrawls her address onto the wraper of the pastry and shoves it in his coat pocket roughly.

“Perfect. I’ll be counting the minutes.” He sings as she takes Arlo’s leash, her cupcakes and walks off. Fuckin hell, what has she gotten herself into.

[myca-nisms]

WEEK 1 - First steps toward something greater. (June 18–20, 2025)

June 18, 2025 – Our First Step Today marked the beginning of our internship journey and honestly, I was a mix of nervous and excited. I traveled with Levi and LJ from home to Balay Ilonggo, our dorm at UPV. We left super early, expecting traffic, and after about an hour and a half, we finally arrived at the DILG Regional Office. Of course, we had to snap a quick photo outside the building, it felt like a milestone moment. Stepping inside, I was genuinely happy and excited to finally see the people behind the agency I’ve heard so much about. We spent the whole day in the conference room, waiting to be grouped for the KM Serye and Action Paper. Around 2 p.m., Sir LeeAn gave us a short tour of the building, which made everything feel more real and welcoming. Seeing the actual workspaces and getting familiar with the offices helped me visualize where I’ll be contributing. Later in the day, I was officially assigned to Local Government Monitoring and Evaluation Division (LGMED) which made me even more excited, knowing I’ll be part of a team that supports and evaluates LGUs. Even though it was mostly an orientation day, I already felt a strong sense of purpose. I’m truly grateful to be here.

June 19, 2025 – Starting to Settle In Second day in, and I was already starting to feel more at home. We began with the nationwide earthquake drill, it wasn’t just routine; it reminded me how much importance public offices place on safety and preparedness. One of the most memorable parts of the day was sitting in on a meeting with the LGMED team. Watching them in action gave me a deeper appreciation of how things work behind the scenes, and I felt genuinely grateful to be placed in such an inspiring and fast-paced environment. Later that day, we finally met our mentor, Sir Tonton. He was warm and welcoming, and it felt reassuring to know we had someone to guide us. That’s also when Andy and I got the news, we were officially assigned to the ELGU team: Excellence in Local Governance Upheld. Hearing that made everything feel more real. I remember looking at Andy, and we both smiled, we knew we were in for something meaningful. Everyone we’ve encountered so far has been kind and approachable, which made adjusting so much easier. By the time we logged out through biometrics, I wasn’t just adjusting anymore, I was already looking forward to what’s next.

June 20, 2025 – Feeling Involved and Engaged Our third day was the busiest so far but in the best way. Andy and I were tasked to edit and print some documents, and even though the tasks were simple, it felt great to finally be involved in actual outputs. What made the day even more meaningful was our participation in the PRE-EODB Audit Orientation. Together with LGCDD interns Borgy, Jaztine, and Jace, we joined the session and learned about the processes involved in evaluating the ease of doing business in LGUs. It was an eye-opening experience that gave me a broader view of how different divisions work together for good governance. My groupmates in KM Serye also had the chance to consult our proposed topic for the KM Serye with our mentor, and the feedback we received helped us realign our ideas moving forward. At the end of the day, I felt a growing sense of belonging. We logged out through biometrics like usual but going home was a highlight in itself. On the bus ride back, I had so much fun laughing and chatting with my classmates. It felt refreshing to just unwind and bond with them after a productive day. I got to know them better, and it reminded me how valuable shared experiences like this are not just professionally, but personally too. I ended the day feeling fulfilled, grateful, and even more excited for what’s to come.

[inchidentally]

Just saw the video you posted of Lando praising Oscar after de race, thank you for you service 🫶 I haven't seen that anywhere. Just dropping by to say how interesting it is how Lando kinda loses his train of thought after saying "he's done a good job". He's thinking about Oscar to some degree, I bet, would sell my soul to know what it is specifically.

Ps: just let me vent here. I'm getting real mad at Mclaren, they have a driver pairing that can give them a huge engagement on socials, probably the only ones that can rival Carlos and Charles, and they're not taking advantage of that. The amount of Landoscar content we could get if they done their jobs right.... I can't 😔

babe.

dude.

I'm going to whine about this.

I am trying so hard not to kick my feet and be a total b-i-c-t-h about McLaren deciding that their best seasons for literal years are the ones where they're gonna flake out completely on social media. like yea they've hired someone who makes snappy IG edits and graphics. nice. I watch it once and that's it. I will say that the amount the rest of the team is featured is very cool.

but Unboxed ??? all the footage we've literally seen them taking from Japan onward and nothing ?? it's all just sat on a hard drive doing fuck all ?? not worth documenting the massive shift in the team's and drivers' performance ?? Bahrain 2024 was the best start in years and nada ??

and thank lord they still do the post races but please just pick a decently lit spot in the motor home or by the pit wall to do them. or you know what would be better? Lando and Oscar don't do well together when being told to dance for the camera so just give them a phone stand and let them film it on their own!

and like, seasons that were objectively shit have all this beautifully lit well-edited content like does McLaren only want to promote when they're terrible orrrr

[pawfuu]

I'm so tired of this not being talked about, like what this person doing is okay. There's so much shit and it just constantly gets swept under the rug

To start of, he is 20 years old, 21 this month if i remember correctly. He owns a server which allows minors and adults in the same space, this wouldn't be that big of a deal since that's most discord servers until you include the fact that he constantly makes incredibly weird nsfw and drug jokes around these minors. When pointed out, he acts like the victim (I saw this happen in the staff chat of this server ^-^) saying things that makes it look like he's the one experiencing something bad. Not to mention, he loves to say he stalks minor casually ^—^. He honestly has cultivated spaces with people he knows that feels like it involves grooming, but no one is ready for that conversation especially not Carver himself or his friends.

He also likes to make it a point that he's friends with anti good faith people while being pro himself. If you look at this as someone who's pro or anti, its weird.

He also claims to be multiple races and ethnicities, while I believe someone can be mixed with multiple, something about him throws me off.

He treats them like a joke, like he's not serious about them. He doesn't attempt to reconnect with any of "his cultures", he doesn't even try to learn the language of any of the cultures he says he's from. He uses Japanese, Sanskrit, Cree and Mongolian names and multiple of these names are wrong. They're not words or names, they often are a mix of dialects and scripts.

I watched a member of the server confront him about a name that wasn't a name, educating him. He said he doesn't use the languages rules and as a part, didn't know why. I can only assume it's because he as a whole, doesn't know the language at all.

Oh, and himself and his staff also allows someone who's over 20 to have full melt downs over being educated, specifically about the Palestinian genocide, with no consequences. Multiple times.

There's also been documents made about him and his response that was trying to disprove it was just an apology, not even a good one.

Document one

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1GIel3I6zBoiTRmI9M9N7W9W5gDEUauZG6SDEOAr4PXk/mobilebasic#heading=h.qo7jvrlqiqq3

Response to document one

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1pTGlZCoMpoEqV01na4lwo8PbQME_RY7vVqHtpPc0Yps/mobilebasic

Document two

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1UVUVrTrPNXsoOEIbxLFIdOE0D3oEmOF4/edit?filetype=msword

So many people in his server defend his gross behavior, jokes, &c. I'm tired of being someone he considers close, I'm only on the staff team of this shitty ass server to watch this stuff 🙏

Soldat, Carver, user penaltyshot on discord, wtv the fuck. I am tired of you and I am actively waiting for you to make a bigger mistake, a mistake that people will consider something "worth" hating you

— ⚓️

.

[blackbird-brewster]

What you said about harassment is so true. I’m not in the CM fandom but I see it with my own fandom. The cast (mostly women) can tweet something innocuous about their dinner or their pet and people will be in their comments being really nasty and sexual. I get that there’s a certain level of invasion that comes with being a celeb especially an actor, because some people blur the lines between person and character but it’s a lot. Social media lets people be wild in ways they’d never be irl too. And for CM specifically watching the the whole JJ plot I felt like the writers were almost calling out fans but I didn’t really know the fandom dynamics so I thought I was reaching and maybe they were trying to make a roundabout statement on fan art/fanfic. Now though, maybe I think it’s more than that and about certain creeps idk. Whatever it is weirdos like that deserve to be called out it’s sickening and creepy!

[Replying to this post]

And for CM specifically watching the the whole JJ plot I felt like the writers were almost calling out fans but I didn’t really know the fandom dynamics so I thought I was reaching and maybe they were trying to make a roundabout statement on fan art/fanfic.

AHHHHHHHHHH!!! I am SO glad someone else felt this way, Anon. Because that's exactly how I took that storyline too. I talked about it a bit [here] when the BAU-gate episode (17x03) first aired.

Now, IF it had just been the JJ plot alone, I would have been like 'Okay, this is a heavy-handed bit of meta to pointing out fans online behaviours irl.'

But two days before 17x03 aired, the CM official IG account posted this meme:

Notice how they have put FANART on here. The implication is that fanart, fan cams, edits, and fan commentary are ALL the same. The other implication here is the team looking at these things as evidence while building a profile on an unsub.

To me, this implies the CM showrunners (or at least the social media team) consider all fanworks and commentary to be vile (in the same way the evidence on the table is documenting vile murders and such)

When this was posted, I felt like it was a threat. It was saying 'Hey fans, we not onlu see all your fanworks, but we're seeking them out now, and we think they're inappropriate.' Which, tbrh, didn't surprise me. CM/CBS has had a LONG history of pulling fanmade merch designs off sites like Cafe Press and Redbubble, because they protect their IP so much.

THEN, 17x03 aired. So the BAU-gate plot in context of the above post a couple of days prior made it IMPOSSIBLE for me to not interpret BAU-gate as being CM's way of simultaneously shaming fans who are sexually awful to the actors online AND any fans that make explicit fanworks for this show.

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER!!!!! I feel like the show runners do not see the line between IRL fan behaviour, and fans drawing the characters fucking -- yanno? Which is just another drop in the bucket of the current uptick of purity culture nonsense.

[digitalmarketingagencysandie]

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[mountainhimachal]

Wedding videographer near me | Designinfo Photography

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