#Like. How am I supposed to handle 10+ kids for 5 hours and then do it again for another 5 hours for the next shift

[bugboysgf]

Hate + Love

Chapter 2

series masterlist

Previous chapter

Summary: There is a thin line between love and hate but what if it's way thinner than you thought?

“Hi, im suppose to be tutoring somebody.” you told the lady at the front desk. The last 2 weeks had been stressful but out of extreme luck you managed to get all A’s but that also meant you had to tutor the people that were not doing so well in school.

“Oh yes, you must be Y/n.”

“I am.” you confirmed.

“Min Ho.” The lady calls his name and he jumps out of his seat.

“You gotta be kidding me.” you look at Min ho and he seems just as surprised as you are. “There has to be some sort of mistake, I can't tutor him.” the lady looks at her computer for a second and looks back at you.

“Sorry but there is a specific note from the teacher saying you can't switch.”

“What? Who wrote that.” you asked.

“It was your math teacher. Take a seat and get started.”

“I can't believe this.” you said sitting down.

“Do you think I want to do this? I have no choice.” Min ho rolled his eyes.

“Whatever can we just get started.”

After two hours tutoring you were done but to you i feel like 5 hours because every 10 minutes you and Min ho were arguing about something different.

“Thank you.” Min Ho says. You look at him in shock, you were never expecting those words to come out of his mouth.

“You have manners, I see. Can I get an apology too?” you asked hopefully.

“It happened almost 3 weeks ago, get over it.”

“God you're such a bitch.”

“Takes one to know one.”

—-

“We have Alex next.” Kitty said. “Oh my god we still have to walk up the stairs.” you said, you were tired already and it was only your 2 period.

“Do you want to go to a ramen place after the 5th period?” Kitty asked.

“Im Pretty sure I don't have to tutor today, so yes.”

“How is it? By the way, you are still not getting along.”

“Nope now i have to sit with him in alex class, because he wont let me change seats.” you rolled your eyes.

“Dude you have 4 months left until winter break, at least try to stop hating each other.”

“He's the problem, not me, he won't apologize. He said thank you yesterday when i tutored him but that's it.” you explained to Kitty. You honestly don't think that you and Minho would get along every chance he gets to make fun of you. He's gonna take it and you're tired of it.

“The problem is that you are both stubborn.” Kitty grabs the handle of the door and lets you into the class, she gives you a ‘be nice look’ and takes a seat.

You walked over to your seat and to your surprise Min Ho was already sitting down, he was always late. You take a seat and don't say a word to him.

“No greeting?” he asked

“What do you want?” you say in a cold tone.

“Woah, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.” he smirks.

“I just don't have time for your bullshit today.”

Lucky Alex didn't have you guys do anything with your partner work today you didnt think you could handle it anyways.

You grabbed your things and stuffed them into your backpack.

“y/n?” you stopped in your tracks and looked at the guy that called your name. Minho also stopped and looks at him.

“Yes?” you look at him confused. You've never seen this guy in your life and you had no idea why he was talking to you.

“I'm Derek, I was just trying to see if i can get your number.” you look around to see if anybody was watching and behind him were his friends waiting to see your next move. You didn't want to seem stuck up or anything, so you just smiled and typed your number into his phone.

“Great, I'll text you.”

“Cool” you watch him walk away and turn to Min ho. “And why did you stay?”

“What does he want with you?” “What do you mean?”you asked, confused.

“His dad is literally a millionaire.”

“I honestly dont give two fuck about that.” you said.

“It had to be a dare.” Min ho shook his head.

“Oh really? Just because an attractive guy asked for my number that means it has to be a dare?” you said offended. Min ho knew he messed up, he always jokes around but he knew that what he said really affected you.

“That's not-”

“Save it.” you walked away.

—

For the next few weeks you continue talking to Derek, you thought he would be a jerk but turns out he wasn't. He was really nice and listened.

“Where are you going?” Min ho asked Q. “Oh the nature club is having a hike today.” Q said, putting on his shoes.

“Great i'll come” Min ho got up from the couch. “You can't.” Q said.

“Why?” “Club members only.” “Dude i went last time.” Q stayed silent and didn't say anything. “Unless you don't want me to go for some reason?” “It's not that I don't want you to go, it's just that y/n and Derek are going to be there and I don't want you messing it up for her. She told me what you said when he asked for her number.” Q confessed.

“That's not what I meant, I tried to tell her that.”

“You should have said it in the first place, are you jealous or something?” Q asked.

“What no… no”

“Yup that sounds so convincing.”

“I don't like her, I hate her.”

“You know, you can hate and love somebody at the same time.” Q said shutting the door.

Min ho stood there thinking there's no way that he loves y/n? He hates her too much.

[kernyen-xo]

Here we go. It’s a long one.

My aunt is dying. Any day now, her son told the family. So, everyone flocked to see her, including mom, which entailed a 17-hour train ride from San Diego to Sacramento. My brother and I usually meet up in Bakersfield to deliver the momster because she refuses to fly and now refuses to take the train. Of course, doing the Bakersfield thing is a pain, especially if you’re not a morning person because I have to leave by 4:30 am to make sure I’m in Bakersfield by 10. Now, really, I’m glad for it in the end because I’m back home by 2:30-3p.

This time around, mom had to take the train because she was afraid her sister would die before she got to see her. So, mom was insistent she had to leave asap, which meant no Bakersfield trip since my brother and I had to work.

Easy-peasy.

That is, except this last weekend. Mom arrived Friday night near midnight (17-hour train ride, remember?). The next day we see Auntie Sally. That night, I go to the birthday celebration for me, the kid, and grandkid. Mom didn’t want to go.

Anyway.

I assumed my brother and I would meet up in Bakersfield the following weekend, which is a-ok. I have plenty of time to rest and mentally rev myself for the trip, which is something I need to do. Otherwise, without this precious time, I don’t handle it well.

Guess what? Mom wants to leave the next day. I’m like, wait, what? But, I just say ok and quietly freak out inside. This really changes everything. I tell my granddaughter, who is staying the weekend with me to shower at night, that all she has to do is roll out of bed the next am and get in the car where she can sleep.

Easy-peasy, right?

Except, when we arrive in Bakersfield, my brother is not at our meeting place. He’s always there first - always. The guy is an extreme morning person, up every day by 4am. In fact, I thought it was weird that he didn’t call once asking me for an update of my progress.

Long story short. I know, too late.

He thought the mom delivery wasn’t taking place until the following weekend. I was thinking, ok, we’ll head back home and try this again next weekend. But mom? No way. She refuses to go and suggests I leave her there to wait for my brother. Really? Like, I’d do that, and she knows I’d never do that.

So, after drinking a lot of beverages, shopping at WalMart and Nordstrom’s Rack, my brother arrives. He must have booked it because what’s usually almost a 5-6 hour drive, he made it in 3.

The grandkid and me were home by 6:30. I apologized to her for how the day went. She said, what a day! I agreed. We really didn’t get to spend quality time together. I was supposed to take her home that night, but I was so exhausted that I asked if the kid could take her instead, which she did.

The last-minute trip was hard on me. I remember the days when I could drive in a pinch no problem! Those days are gone. I missed work on Monday to recuperate. Ya, this old gal ain’t what she used to be.

And now, I need to get ready for work.

Thx for reading.

Have a good day :)

Toods!

[safetyobstacles]

starting o segredo na floresta now, im either gonna finish this in a week or its gonna take months good luck me

update - i love joui

joui, its a little cloudy out, roll for sanity. joe, you stubbed your toe, roll sanity. joui did you just frown???????? roll a sanity test with disadvantage. that was cool joui, you gain 1 sanity. just kidding somewhere in the netherlands a child tripped and scraped their knee, you lose 10 sanity.

i think im going to put my updates under the cut instead of spamming posts B) beware of spoil

UPDATE

if cellbit takes liz or thiago from me ill never forgive him

this bar has to be its own paranormal entity, thiago would have died if the gun had a bullet in it and cristopher nearly got knifed to death in their first fight loll

EP 2

npc thiago about to be the most useless mf ever i swear if he dies to a stray ant or something ill cry just put him in a box for safe keeping

what would i do without the mental image of joui dropkicking every monster he sees

liz why are you finger painting with the ooze monsters remains and why did it give you 1 hp ?????? NEVERMIND

EP 3

RACCOON bro has 8 health but he sure is happy

faz um teste de sanidade

when i said thiago was gonna die to an ant i didnt actually mean kill him with giant spiders

cristopher no please dont climb a tree these are spiders they can climb nah bro cristopher is dead af im gonna miss him. bro cellbit just kill him already bros dead 2 hp

damn

ep 4

at this rate luba doesnt even need to roll sanity we all know hes gonna fail anyways joui's having the worst two days of his life

jesus christ i just woke up i cant handle this shit cesar's punching a hole in my itty bitty heart bones

please stop talking about leticio's cacetinho

EP 5 how long is too long for a tumblr post btw

the starting soon screen replaced cris with arthur notlikethis

cellbit is far too happy about them going to this house i hate it i hate it

i would like for them to leave a casa now :))) they got gregório time to go :) DAMN JOUI JUST GOT STEAMROLLED BY THAT ZOMBIE ROLLED A 99 VS CELLS 1 jesus christ thiago LOL NO WAY GREGÓRIO IS DEAD AF bro was just taking a nap in the car and this is what he gets

that was horribly stressful its 3 am how am i supposed to sleep after that

to be fair, if i was rodolfo and liz didnt use the tazer, i would have just dragged gregório in front of arthur and killed him in right in front of his face soo...

ROLLED 100 LOOOOOOOOOOOOL a caverna

COOL GUY ALERT HOPE HE DOESNT KILL BRULIO HAHAhahaaa

EP 6 I HAVE GREAT ANXIETY THIS MESTRE GUY IS ABOUT TO KILL HALF THE SQUAD

luba i know youve been rolling absolute dog shit the last 5 episodes but this one really counts buddy brulio :(

most stressful hour of youtube ive ever sat through i cant believe they all lived

A PORTA FORTE

EP 7 im so glad they're going back to the house im so happy ive never wanted anything else this is great nothing could go wrong in this house nothing

7 episodes in and ive just now realised that he keeps talking about circles and spirals and those have significance with a certain element and now i want them to leave carpazinha go back home forget this ever happened

undressing with the homies in the haunted basement next to a dead old man

not thiago canonically talking to a bookshelf after complaining about joui's whispering to his shotgun

THIS GRAVE IS SO COMPLICATEDDDD I BET ITS FUCKING EMPTY THEYRE ARGUING ABOUT HOW TO "knock out" AN OLD LADY AND ITS PROBABLY JUST WORMS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GRAVEEE

this whole graveyard scene has me in tears thiago staring at nothing while they try to get him to unmute, old guy on the phone, joui picking up the old lady i just laughed so hard i feel ill

the one time joui doesnt fail a roll he loses 6 SANITY?? 8 SANITY?????????????? SENHORA VOCE TA BEM????? YOU JUST CHOKED HER OUT JOUI WAIT SHES GONNA DIE??????????? SHES GOING TO DIE???????????? THE GASOLINE IN THE MOUTH??

grounded from the shotgun for 1 week

EP 8

Thiago's pants are still fucked up from last episode btw

about to have a tpk over alchohol poisoning

if cesar survives this campaign hes gonna put as many points possible into forgery

a caverna im goign fuckign crazy the god of tdeath pr spomething is in this cave theyre gonna walk inside trip on a pebble and get eaten by hundreds of tiny cave beetles

Victor is absolutely about to get his face eated by a spider and/or be swallowed by the cave

ok but santo berço looks kinda cool like i would live there

EP 9 he just (re?)released osnf merch but i refuse to be spoiled by absolutely anything ive done so well i will not be tainted by cesar's really cool green on black long sleeve

wait i love the gatekeeper its a shame this town is probably a hallucination and theyre all actually slowly dying in the middle of the forest GIANT COWS I LOVE THE GIANT COWS WITH REGULAR SIZED HEADS

????????????????????????????????FELPS??????????????????????

buttery butter

thiago this is why you should have quit smoking

?????FELPS?????????

EP 10 so if thiago hadnt used the lighter would felps still be alive, probably just would have died later B)

bro joui has got to buy new dice this is crazy

this is gonna be the average 2 star motel experience BRO JUST DABBED ON CESAR liz is about to get bodied by the hallway ghosts this is just like a regular motel HUH UHHHHHHH

no joui kill the hotel guy joui kill the hotel guy joui kill the hotel guy joui kill the hotel guy joui kill the hotel guy joui kill the hotel guy

mom i want to go home i dont want to stay in santo berço anymore jesus christ

EP 11 how am i supposed to just start the next episode after that i think the mental image of brulio beating arthurs skull in is burned into my brain space

sandwich sandwich

i love the giant cows so much i want one GIANT CHICKEN LAY GIANT EGG I LOVE THE GIANT CHICKEN intimidating the human sized pig

EP 12 still thinking about how cellbit thought new zealand was so close to europe, he was so sure of it that he was making me unsure of where i knew new zealand was

both times thiago was played by cellbit some horrific shit happened so with arthur being an npc this episode im prepared for the worst also this starting soon screen is fucking wicked

are you telling me joui's max sanity is now 12 bros been losing it for so long hes stuck like this joui is the "damn, you live like this?" meme

CELLBO ROLEPLAYED TOO HARD HIS HEADSET JOINED AS AN ENEMY AND BEAT HIS SETUP

"that sounds like a book title" bro let the intrusive thought win

baby nidere

no way the cow has been suffering this whole time ill cry

theyre about to rp their way into an angry medieval mob when they get found with the body of the dead gatekeeper B) does santo berço have dungeons, bc if they do thats where theyll be sleeping tonight nvm the gatekeeper has demons inside him sorry joui HUh no way they killed the gatekeeper dude wtf

EP 13 chat's a bit excited to go in the cave guys if anyone reads this what am i supposed to do once i finish this season. what do you mean i just have to go onto desconjuração. what do you mean i have to leave this story behind. please let me keep all the characters in this one.

THE CAVE MAP IS COOOOOOL THE LIGHT MOVES WITH THE MINER everyone struggling to flip their characters 5 mins into the cave made me laugh so hard i had to pause to breathe

I LOVE MOLES DUDE THEYRE SO COOL ok but i dont love this many moles BRO I LOVE MOTHS TOO THIS IS AWESOME wait no i hate bats THIS MOTH IS SUFFERINGGGGG

THE SUCC hes about to kill them all with the Succ out of spite thiago never mock one of cellbit's monsters again ARTHUR ZIUM

door door door door door door door door door door the gatekeeper is alive???

ih arthur nah dude let go of cesar :(((((((((((( gotta hand it to arthur hes survived two of these situations now get it, hand it to him, CAUSE HE LOST HIS FUCKING ARM WTF HIS ARM DETATCH LIKE A LEGO sorry i vote we still kill the gatekeeper just in case just to be safe

EP 14 did cellbit have a past traumatic experience with a vacuum is that why he created the Succ

agatha?????? bro agatha's life sucked big pp

every time cellbit says hes excited for something i grow more afraid

if they kill and eat the gatekeeper would he also taste delicious just wondering

i think i might know the reason why 12 sanity joui has a funky grey form but 55 sanity thiago doesnt, but maybe im crazy nevermind thiago had the funky grey within him this whole time wait does that mean hes gonna die if santo berço dies DAMN

joui just really wants to see thiago naked also hes just blatantly stealing arthur's knife he really is losing all his sanity that was possibly the most unconvincing "nada" ive ever heard

EP 15 before i start a new episode i always go to the vod on twitch and watch the memes first so i can go "hehe" for five minutes, and then go "oh no" for the next 4 hours

hypothetically, if joui managed to get the symbol on him before anyone noticed would he have just lost all 12 of his sanity and gone mad cuz that would have been crazy :,)

this is it cellbit is finally going to kill npc thiago joui is so very happy about his shotgun i thought maybe he was getting better but hes whispering to it again

alright whats up with cellbit and the outwards opening doors because i swear i have never seen a door that opens out instead of in, are all the doors like that in his home these doors are made to have creatures attack from inside ih i just checked like 3 times to make sure i was on the right episode lmaoooo

"pobre martha" DAAAAAAMN MARIANA ICE COLD

one buff woman vs all 3 equipe kelvin who will win (1 woman) crazy that equipe kelvin managed to accomplish what took our group 9 episodes to get to lool they even got the leticio cacetinho dlc, but they did skip the spider boss fight and the entire house level

THE BLACKSMITH IS MIGUEL AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

EP 16 the joui, liz, and arthur cosplay look like theyre going to a nice dinner meanwhile thiago, kenan, and cesar just look homeless

idk if thiago's making it out of this one :,) maybe we just take thiago's weapons its not like he can do much to help anyways kenan wants to skin him listen brother i dont think thats gonna work im at the 52 min mark and cellbit is acting sus af the blacksmith is about to appear and stomp them all or something

joui would roll a 99 and nearly knife cesar and liz is trying so hard not to metagame her way to the explosive backpack loving how trigger happy joui is right now go on guys give him more explosives what the worst that could happen

is kenan also a wellspring do they have to kill him cuz thats gonna be kind of awkward and on that note since thiago has the symbol on him does that make him a wellspring too ill cry i will cry

NOT JOUI APOLOGIZING FOR LYING ABOUT HIS SAMURAI ANCESTRY

damn that scene between joui, liz, and thiago was the best in the entire season

i would like to take this moment before they all get swallowed alive by some horrible sludge tentacle monster to proclaim my absolute hatred of Santo Berço. I know i said at the end of episode 8 that i thought it looked cool but im over it ive moved past that point in my life i hate Santo Berço

BIG GOOEY MEATBALL

"the people are happy here!" says the blacksmith as he currently has 5 people forcefully locked up for decades that have gone mad with probably no way of ever regaining their sanity i just realised miguel and the old blacksmith fucked and had a kid

final boss aboutta come crawling out of the meatball please stop trying to skin thiago the symbol isnt gonna come off

THAT WAS SICK AF THEYRE ALL DEAD AS HELL

???????????????????? "kenan you have one last sane move before i take your character and throw him off a cliff"

:(

post i made after i finished osnf (made like 3 days later because i was so so so so so so so so so so sad)

https://www.tumblr.com/safetyobstacles/739056899257942016/i-finished-osnf-after-almost-2-months-and-you-know?source=share

[koraesrambles]

GREAT READING ADVENTURE PART 1 (CW: pictures from the Sandman comics may be disturbing to some)

I started with the Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. A legend in comic spheres, and one that I'd been wanting to read for a while.

I found 10 volumes at my local library and have made my way through two of them so far. First off, as a horror book DAMN. DAAAAAAAAAAAAMN these books do not pull punches. They come at you like a gut punch and just keep going. I like to describe myself as someone who enjoys "horror lite" I love monsters, I love angst and crazy situations and some messed up stuff, but I'm kind of a baby about it. Things like Supernatural, Gravity Falls (It's kid friendly, but there's blood!), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, that's my jam (wow, that list makes me feel about 5 years old, but whatever! I like what I like!). The Sandman Is Not That.

The Writing

Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful in every way, but it's also a lot for a wussy like myself. I'm enthralled, captivated, unable to look away, but there have been multiple times where I've needed to close my eyes for a second and remind myself that this is a comic book, and the world isn't necessarily this dark all the time. I'm pretty triggered by children in danger/getting hurt/dying and these books don't shy away from that. But they're also just . . . so beautiful.

The writing is annoyingly amazing. I expected nothing less, it is Neil Gaiman, but sometimes as a writer you look at other people's writing and just sit back in awe. I wish I could write something like this. Or, if not exactly like this, something as beautiful and poignant as this. The story flows so beautifully. Every scene perfectly blending in with the next. Every word feels like it has a point, which makes you want to pay attention to everything to make sure you're not missing anything.

Writing is my main background, but comic writing is so different from prose. This is what I struggled with the most while drafting up OUTCAST ODYSSEY, how do I get everything across that I need to when I can't just write it all out? How do I pace it when telling a story with pictures vs words feels so different? But Neil does this so well. It felt lyrical, and I could see his influence on every single page. The art was done by someone else, but the ideas, the imagry, the way the story flows from one idea to the next, is all a result of absolutely phenomenal writing.

It reminded me to trust readers to read between the lines. It's difficult to find the line between "subtlty" and "confusing" and I am often guilty of feeling like I need to spell things out to my readers so that they won't miss anything, but more often then not that just slows down the plot and makes the whole experience clunky. You don't want to go too far in the other direction either, but Neil knew who his audience was and trusted them to at least give things a second glance. I was worried at the beginning that I'd be too dumb to figure out what he was hinting at, but he was able to patiently feed me the information without me getting frustrated or lost.

It's a skill that comes with experience and practice, but I feel like this story really really shines at it. I found myself studying the way he handled exposition and wanting to emulate it in my own work.

The Art

The art is also stunning. It's not "cute" art. It's not something that I would want to hang up in my house or look at for hours. It's amazing from a skill standpoint (which is easy for me to tell just due to my own extremely obvious shortcomings) but it's not concerned with everyone looking like hollywood movie stars.

Which . . . I mean, that's definitely a feature, not a bug. This story is not supposed to be cute, and a cutsy art style would absolutely ruin the atmosphere. It is rough and full of sharp points. it doesn't shy away from nudity or gore. The characters are not attractive, these are not anime stars, but they are compelling, and distinct enough that I was able to easily tell who everyone is, which is more often then not extremely difficult for me (i think I may be a bit face-blind).

The art adds to the horror of everything. Even when things are supposed to be calm, or sexy, or whatever, there's an edge of panic and unease to it. Part of that is the reader knowing that there's more going on behind the scenes then the character knows, but it's also the style. The heavy black shadows, the hard lines, the emphasis on some details while the obscuring of others, it all combines to perfectly compliment the writing. It's not a pleasure to look at, but that's absolutely the point. It's also extremely difficult to look away FROM. How can something simultaneously look jarring, eerie, and unpolished, while also whispering "Yes. This is beautiful art. Look at it. Bask in it."?

I'm a newbie artist. It's way beyond my skillset to even begin to figure out how they were able to accomplish this. But someday I hope I figure out the secret.

The art perfectly compliments the writing, and the two work together to tell the story. I remember feeling a little annoyed on the artists' behalf that the Sandman is always known as "Neil Gaiman's" when the art side of comics is so incredibly important. The art sets the tone and compliments the words. It helps with reading between the lines and helping us know how seriously we should be taking the words.

Characters

All of the characters are great! Except the ones I already knew. I'm not saying they were bad, just bland compared to everyone else. Constantine, the Justice League, every cameo that came up and I was excited for felt . . . not quite out of place, but not quite seamless either. I was most excited for Constantine, and he was fine, but I probably have enjoyed him more in every other comic I've ever seen him in. I know they were all included just to try and sell the first few issues of a new story, and I respect that (the amount of comics that I've read just because my favorite character showed up for a few panels is . . *cough* embarrassing), but I was kind of bummed by how little conflict they added to the story.

Constantine immediately agrees to help Morpheus (which, okay, he can see how powerful Morpheus is and doesn't want to get on his bad side, totally in character. But I like Constantine best when he's being a bit of a dickhead), when I was really expecting a bit of tension or at least antagonism between them. We briefly see Etrigan but he is so quickly outshined by Lucifer that I nearly forgot about him, Scarecrow shows up but I didn't really feel like he added much besides a familiar face, we see Scott Free (who I know very little about) and J'onn (whose reaction to Dream was probably the most interesting) but all they do is immediately tell Morpheus where he needs to go. Why were they so quick to be okay with this obviously terrifying powerful force just grabbing stuff? I guess I understand why J'onn was okay with it, since he knew who Morpheus was, but it still felt weird that there wasn't even a single moment of hesitation or resistance. They basically served as a plot GPS.

Again, there's nothing wrong with any of them, they just didn't feel as vibrant as all of the other characters we were introduced to. Even the woman who gave Dr. Destiny/Dr Dee a ride was more vivid and felt more real and purposeful than the cameos did. At least to me.

The original characters (or at least everyone I didn't recognize. Was Dr. Dee a Gaiman original or had he shown up previously? Cuz he was very much A tier villain for me,) were all amazing and vivid and lively. I cared about them way faster than I normally do, especially at the very beginning of a story. The cameos felt exactly like what they were: Cameos to sell the book.

Final Thoughts

This book is, objectively, better than anything I will ever create. And that's not even a diss on myself, it's just objective fact on the quality of this piece. I learned a lot looking through it, trying to figure out what Gaiman did that worked vs didn't. The lyricism vs crassness of the writing, the way the art complimented the dialogue, how the panels flowed and where it was easy for me to follow vs where I got a little confused. It's a beautiful book and I can absolutely see why it's a graphic novel must read. I'm planning on reading the rest of the series, but I can only read one volume a day, because the horror of it all absolutely follows me after I close the last page.

[societyeconpoli]

What About the Children? Daycare

The way a society treats its children says so much about the priorities of that society. I am a daycare worker in a part of town where working folk live. Let me describe, to the best of my ability, a day in the life of a daycare teacher. I have been an unqualified lead teacher for 10 months in a room of one-year-olds. The state I live in allows 8 children for every one teacher, with a maximum of 16 one-year olds in a group or classroom. The place I work at is for-profit, meaning that the owner is in business to make as much money for themselves as cheaply as possible, so they buy my labor cheaply, my co-workers labor cheaply, supplies bought are the minimum required. And there are as few adults employed and, in the building, on the clock as possible by minimum standards.

A typical day begins with the teacher coming into a class of about 3 one-year olds and kids of other ages who are taken to their classrooms as their teachers come in for the day. This leaves the one-year-old teacher with the 3 or so kids who have arrived. The teacher is supposed to wash their hands and help them sit down for breakfast. The state says to keep children seated while they are eating. This is not such a difficult task with so few children, but it still takes focus and dedication. After breakfast, the teacher is expected to help or encourage each child as they clear their dishes from the table.

Teachers are expected to know at every moment how many children are in their charge. If someone randomly asks you, “how many” you are expected to know without having to stop and count. By 10 a.m., all 8 children will have arrived. These children are at varying ages from 12 to 24 months. Some have diagnosed developmental difficulties, like autism, which adds an extra workload to the teacher because they have to do things to compensate for the child’s inabilities to do what the other children in the class are capable of. Children with autism can have more difficulties than usual with sitting still. Some cannot handle the amount of noise that 8 to 16 children of this age make. And some have to be almost held down and patted vigorously on the back to feel safe and contained enough to sleep.

Back to the routine. Children of this age are supposed to have 1 hour of freeplay in the mornings and afternoons, and 1 hour of outside time in the mornings and afternoons, weather permitting. So, while the teacher is supposed to be supervising 3 to 5 kids, she cleans up after breakfast. Cleaning up consists of cleaning the children, cleaning the table and sweeping the floor. Meanwhile, 2 one-year-olds have begun fighting over a toy, and the teacher has to decide whether to stop the fight or leave food on the floor for a child to pick up and eat. If the teacher stops the fight, and does not know who had the toy first, they cannot solve it justly. If the teacher does not stop the fight, the children learn that the biggest and toughest get to do whatever they want to anyone smaller and weaker than them. All the while, children are playing, and perhaps the teacher chooses to play some children-friendly music. After the teacher cleans up, the children must be diapered. The children have to be diapered every 2 hours. The teacher is expected to diaper each child, engage positively with each child while diapering, and supervise the room all at the same time. The teacher is expected to wash each child’s hands with soap and running water for at least 30 seconds immediately after diapering. The teacher is expected to sanitize the changing table between each child’s diapering procedure, with a solution of bleach or an equivalent and water. The solution has to sit on the surface for at least 60 seconds before being wiped off, to properly sanitize it. So, diapering, if done correctly, can take half an hour, every 2 hours.

During all that I’ve written of the day so far, more children are being dropped off by parents. The teacher often has to stop what they are doing to greet parents and have important conversations. After diapering and freeplay, the teacher is expected to direct the children to clean up the toys. The teacher should have played with the children at some point during the play hour, beside diapering and breaking up fights over toys. Some children do not cooperate in the cleaning up process, instead, dumping out bins of toys that have been picked up. The teacher has to stop them from doing that, and with the stress they have been under so far, yelling is the best way to do it. In all the chaos of the class and the teacher being so busy, most of the attention children get from the teacher is negative. Children naturally seek attention and approval from their trusted adults, and a teacher becomes that when they spend 6-12 hours a day, 5 days a week with a child. And if that child only gets attention from the teacher when they behave badly, they are more likely to behave badly. Some children don’t want to be yelled at, so they don’t behave badly, sorta just going into their shell and doing their own little thing while keeping on guard for children who might come snatch the toys they are working with.

Many children take off their shoes while inside the building. The teacher is expected to promptly put them back on. But, if they haven’t, they must do so before going outside. The daycare I work at has a couple of halls that the children have to navigate through before getting to the door that leads outside. Then, they have to cross the play area made for the preschoolers to get to their playground. In the past this has been quite a chore, but the current teacher has found a good solution, yelling at them the entire walk, saying, “march, march, march, march…”

Once outside and on the playground, in summer the teacher sprays each child with mosquito repellant. On the playground, the teacher is expected to engage positively with the children while staying near playground equipment in case of a child falling. But teachers usually find a comfy spot to sit and children are allowed to explore the fenced playground as they will. Sometimes they do unacceptable behavior for which the teacher yells across the playground at them, to stop.

This is a one-year-olds class, and according to some good sources on Google, and the hands-on experience I have, one-year-olds less than about 16-18 months old need 2 naps a day. This class had no way for me to provide that, even with 2 teachers in the class, because of other factors. So, I had to listen to the tired cries of one year old children, knowing what they needed, and I could do nothing about it. With this continued, day after day being ignored when stating their needs, imagine what the children are learning about their needs, and how much their needs do and don’t matter, and imagine how they must feel about their needs being ignored by the teacher. And the knowledge I had of the problem and the solutions while being unable to fulfill them made me feel inadequate. Ignorance truly is bliss. Don’t stay ignorant for the bliss, though.

The teacher is expected to wipe noses that are nearly constantly running all year round because when several children are put in a room together for hours on end day after day, no matter how clean one keeps the environment, they will breathe on each other, spreading germs to their young and delicate immune systems. Children dislike their noses getting wiped so much, so once again, they are getting negative interaction from the teacher.

After the hour of outside play, children come in and the teacher is expected to help each child wash their hands, while simultaneously supervising the class. Overtired children are diapered and sat at the table to eat their meals. The meals prepared leave little to be desired. Sure, some of the food is highly processed, but that is how most American children eat because it is what is available. The balance of meals offered, by law, is good. Many children are too tired by this time to do more than drink their milk.

After lunch the children are put to nap on rather hard cots, with sheets and the blanket their parent brought from home. Sometimes children don’t have blankets, which is not good, because the building is cooled significantly at naptime, so the children will sleep better. Usually, the teacher does not wash food from children’s hands and faces because it is just too much work when they’re so tired and the teacher is anticipating an hour break for lunch, at least, I didn’t.

During the 2.5 hours that is naptime, children are expected to lay on their cots before going to sleep and after waking, until the teacher turns off the sleep time noise, which is often rain with music, depending on the classroom. The teacher is relived from duty by another teacher for an hour during nap, to have a break and lunch. During naptime is supposed to be teacher work time. Preparing lesson plans, cleaning the room and the toys, restocking diapers in individual bins. But because some children sometimes have difficulty going to sleep and staying asleep for more than an hour and cannot stay on their cots without direct and continual assistance, teachers don’t get all this work done, and it is performed when children are awake, leaving them as good as unsupervised, and giving the teacher little time for positive interaction. The amount of cleaning and organizing and breaking up fights over toys that I did while working in that class of one-year-olds made sure that I had maybe 15 minutes to interact with the children positively during playtime. And the amount of tired I was from working 10-hour days, five days a week to earn enough to make a living on 12.50 an hour had me unmotivated to try much.

After nap, it is much of the same, only the teacher is now watching the clock, hoping the time will fly and they can go home and sleep.

In teacher’s meetings, for training by experts, and meetings by the owner of the business, we have been encouraged to engage with parents, engage with children positively, monitor children’s learning progress, communicate positively to parents about it, and encourage parents to engage with their child at home about what the children have been learning at daycare. But, in all the meetings, never have they acknowledged the intense work pressure the teachers are already under. Never have they asked if the teachers could afford adequate housing and groceries. Never have they made sure that the teachers can take care of themselves. I remember being told that we must take care of ourselves to adequately take care of the children. In that meeting, at the end of a workday, most teachers were glassy eyed and stiff with impatience to go home.

Also, we have been strongly encouraged to use positive reinforcement on the children. Which means that we notice and praise positive behaviors from them. As teachers without credentials, and with the workload I have and will present, I ask you. Does it sound reasonable to expect this from us? Does it sound doable? In my experience working and seeing other teachers, I would answer “no!!!”

The amount of negative and fear based interaction that these children have with their primary caregivers, aka these teachers and their overworked parents, mingled with the facts that many of their parents must work 10 hour days just to make a living, thus leaving them in daycare for 11 to 12 hours a day, has left many of these children with complex trauma that, and with the state of the school system they will be entering, and the working conditions of their parents, this will leave most of them behind in the current economic and social systems. Most of these children are not white, they are the races who have been systemically disadvantaged in the United States of America. This disadvantage comes in the form of poverty. Their parents’ monetary and time poverty, leading to the children having love, care and discipline through kindness poverty. Which will produce adults who are only disciplined through outside, fear-based sources, instead of through their brain developing in the way it should, to use the brain chemicals necessary for self-discipline, as full-grown adults are supposed to be able to do. This is a part of complex trauma. I have been informed about it through listening to a trauma and addiction councilor on YouTube named Tim Fletcher. He has studied the works of doctors and has direct hands-on experience with adults who have suffered this trauma. Most people have complex trauma, it is on a spectrum of mild to severe. The conditions I’ve seen in this daycare, paired with the understanding of how to raise a healthy child to adulthood that I have learned from Tim Fletcher, and the way these children are developing or not, leaves me with the conclusion that this daycare, at least, is one in which several factors are present that may lead to more sever forms of complex trauma. Also, I have learned from an anthropologist on YouTube called Helen Fisher that there are four main chemicals in the brain that dictate thinking patterns and personality in humans. It seems to me that these children are not raised through consistent love and kindness in a way that allows all their brain chemicals to learn to be used properly. It is a disorganized mess in there, it is for me, because of the lack of a balanced lifestyle that would produce this balanced use as balanced adults. This is a crude understanding that I have, it needs more thought and refinement, but this writing is part of that process.

Some of the children have rotting teeth, others have shoes that are falling apart. I have seen children in too small clothing, and children who jump at every unique noise. One child in my class was visibly fearful when I sang a song showing different types of emotions and we got to the angry face emotion. After some dealings with his mom, it became clear that maybe she wasn’t the most even tempered of people. Both of her children were behind where they should be, developmentally. One was diagnosed with autism. This has led me to wonder if some autism cases are simply a very severe complex trauma. Indeed, I have seen children developing somewhat normally in daycare, maybe, then one day, they start to lag behind where they should be. Perhaps their needs were ignored one too many times, so that part of their brain just broke and quit developing. This is all speculation, so don’t come for me. But the number of these children that I have seen like this is alarming. Perhaps there are other contributing factors like substance use during pregnancy or chemicals in foods, but I would argue that this may be the biggest of all, if it has merit based on scientific evidence.

I mentioned above, children with rotting teeth. One such child and his sister attend this daycare; they are in the 3-5 age range. Their mother drives an Amazon delivery van. She comes in with completely disheveled hair, glassy eyed, seemingly barely able to stand. Once she said offhandedly that her daughter needed to hurry and put her shoes on because they were going to have to sit in the back of her delivery van. I do not know if they were going to remain there while she finished her work route, or if she could drop them off to someone at home while she finished her work. The reason for this arrangement and the haste was that the daycare was closing in a minute, and the daycare’s owner charges parents $5 per minute that their kids are there past closing time. These two children are behind their other behind peers in various ways.  

Another type of child I mentioned above has shoes that are coming apart. This boy is ten years old. From what I have seen, his dad thinks he’s not worth much, lecturing him whenever possible. His mom is confusing in her requests to daycare staff. He, the child, was held back a grade, apparently. All this is a result, I think, of generational trauma. The dad has his own difficulties, the mom has her own difficulties, the children are in school and for-profit daycare and afterschool programs all day, so they don’t feel cared about. It’s a whole painful mess to witness.

Above, I mentioned complex trauma. I have seen near emotionless children, at two and a half or nearly three years old, who can barely say a few intelligible words. It recently occurred to me, though I may be wrong, that speaking is an emotional endeavor, it is an expressive endeavor, and if a child is traumatized out of their emotions and ability to be expressive, they will probably have delayed or difficult speech. To add a bit of self-centered analysis, I was traumatized out of my expressiveness as a small child. I remember being a very quiet child, people called me shy, I had a weak voice and only spoke when I found it very necessary, through my childhood, up to about 16 years old. Because of the lack of practice, I still have difficulty expressing myself, as you can probably tell through this piece and the somewhat incoherent writing style I exhibit, I think.

Why is this toxic environment allowed? Simple, every aspect of our lives is run on money, everything is for money, everything is by money, and everything is of money. There is almost no care for people. We have allowed these numbers to control us, and strip us of our ability to love each other, truly. We can feel feelings of love, but we simply do not have the human capacity to work as we do, worry for our very lives as we do, and be able to do loving consistent actions toward each other and our children. The things I have heard teachers say about these children and the things I have said to children in my fatigue, frustration and annoyance with them and the toxic environment I know how to fix but just can’t, are atrocious. We who have direct influence in the most formative years of the lives of the next generation are too overworked, too stressed and too underpaid to give a fuck, beyond what we must to remain employed.

Why have I seen a mother of a three- and four-year-old put her children in her Amazon van? The answer is simple. We are an over-worked and underpaid society. We have a society that runs on money.  We have let people with more of it than they could use in a hundred lifetimes of peak human consumption dictate how much time we will spend with each other and with our kids. People who are so wealthy, that they do not comprehend the reality of working a how-ever many hours shift delivering goods in a van. I have never worked such a shift, but I have worked 8 hour shifts in warehouses, so can, at least, comprehend the continual go and on-your-feetness (new word lol) of such work. I wonder how much of the stuff that Amazon driver mom is delivering will end up in the trash in a week? We over produce stuff, and we over consume stuff and some of us are overworked producing the stuff for the over consumers that will end up, very soon, in the trash. It’s a worthless bunch of crap we are forced to produce and consume because of the messed-up way we let these havers of numbers aka, people with money, dictate to us. There are a few relevant terms which I will introduce here, but will have to explore in another essay, probably the one about the fact that we have all become whores.

Over-production, over-consumption, bullshit jobs, planned obsolescence, exploitation.

[chaoticharlotte]

Day 3: "bite down on this"

Read it on AO3!

@febuwhump

WAS THAT THE BITE OF '87? (this is not how you're supposed to do this prompt)

Whump Rating: 5/5

==================November 13, 1987==================

Sammy relaxed the moment he heard the jingle of the restaraunt opening. He had heard Withered Foxy rushing the office before the jingle went off. Unfortunately, Steve (he was pretty sure that was Phone Guy’s name; or was it Scott?) had said that he was going to be handling today’s day shift as well, so he was going to be up for over 24 hours. He prepped himself for a long day working security under the pseudonym Jeremy Fitzgerald.

At least he got $20.10 out of his overtime.

==============10:00 AM, Freddy’s Fun Land==============

Sammy groaned as he visited the Prize Corner to talk with Charlie. Only a few people knew the Puppet was possessed; himself, Henry, and another random security guard he couldn’t remember the name of. The two of them had made an agreement that he’d use the music box to indicate he was okay, and if it wound down completely she could come find and help him. He began to regret that system on Night 3, as he couldn’t see the cameras well enough to wind the box with the mask on, but oh well.

“So you’re going to be up ‘til at least 6:00, and you woke up at noon yesterday?”

“Yep. Really wish I’d paid attention to whether I actually needed to come in last night, but oh well. I’d’ve had to deal with the Nightmares last night if I’d stayed home, so it’s not like I could get any sleep anyway.”

“That sucks. Shit, someones coming. Talk to you later!”

Sammy sighed, before continuing on to Kid’s Cove to watch Mangle. He was fairly certain that every animatronic here was possessed at this point, but Mangle had been especially aggressive. Perhaps multiple souls? All of whom hated him? It seemed unlikely, though if he got mistaken for his father...

He was snapped out of his train of thought by Mangle turning on as Kid’s Cove activated. Kids would be coming in soon, so he should leave. Normally he liked kids, but he was normally well rested after sleeping from 6 to noon. Maybe I should switch my schedule to sleeping at noon, so I’m wide awake at night. 

As the kids rushed in to the area, one of them pointed behind him and said “Look mommy, it moves fast!” Sammy whirled around quickly.

Not quickly enough. His dodge backwards as Mangle tried to crush his skull with her mouth got Sammy far enough out of the way to avoid the top of his head being completely removed, but Mangle succeeded in slamming his jaws onto the upper front part of his skull. Suddenly, Sammy was unable to see, and his ears began ringing much harder. No, wait, that wasn’t ringing, that was screaming children. His hand felt a little wet.

==================11:00 AM, Hospital==================

He shouldn’t have left Sammy unsupervised. Now he was in emergency surgery getting his skull stitched back together. The brain damage was irreversible, and Sammy would probably have a completely different personality coming out of surgery. Maybe the anger issues would come back, maybe he would be a completely different person. He’d paid for the surgery of course; he’d have done so even if it was some other employee he had no relation to.

He saw a purple car pull up, and Michael and Charlie got out of it. Well, I guess Michael knows about Charlie now. Charlie rushed into the hospital, Michael following behind at a slower pace because of the light; Nightmare Foxy was able to handle it better than the rest by design, but he still dislike direct sunlight.

“How is he?” Charlie asked.

“The doctors say he’ll likely have a permanent personality change. His frontal lobe was completely destroyed, they say it’s a miracle he stayed conscious with how much blood loss he had.”

“I’m... less certain about the personality change. I’m fairly certain the only thing they use their brain for at this point is automated functions like breathing, they handle their personality with their SOUL at this point to my knowledge.”

A doctor appeared. “We managed a fast stitch of his skull, though we’re not sure how well that will hold. A good chunk of his bone became powder. I hope you’re prepared for lawsuits from many families, Mr. Emily.”

“I expect lawsuits. I don’t know why that malfunction occurred, but it was my responsibility to keep it from harming anybody. I’ll be closing this location. Maybe I’ll reuse the originals in some capacity.”

Michael chose this moment to interrupt. “Would metal guarantee the skull holds? Because I have an old metal bear mask; if you could replace the top part of the skull with the upper half, it is designed to come apart.”

“That would work for reinforcement, but I’d advise speaking to the patient yourself about that idea once he wakes up.”

“Alright, I will.”

About two months later, Sammy was cleared to leave. He would have to enchant the mask to give him eyes, which would be interesting with it riveted to his skull and while he was blind, but he’d enchanted things in worse conditions. This would be comparatively easy.

[amespointer]

A Clock App Halloween

by Ames Pointer

“Are you really gonna stay home and sit on your phone all night instead of coming with us for Halloween?”

I didn’t look up from my phone.

“Yes,” I mutter, swiping past a cat video I've already seen.

“What are you even watching?” Otto perches on the arm of the recliner I’m sitting on and peers into my screen. I yank it to my chest to hide the screen, even though there's nothing scandalous to keep from him. “You better not be stalking him, Della. He’s garbage. Let him go.”

Otto is such a good big brother. But Jasper was MY garbage. I still can’t believe he broke up with me this morning. By text. Just: “It’s over.” And then an awkward day at school, where he avoided me at every turn.

“I don’t get it,” I sigh, looking up at Otto. “I just don’t get it.”

He shrugs. It’s not a big deal to Otto, it seems. Just a first boyfriend and now we will move on to the next, is what he said at dinner.

“You should come with us to Nans. You can hand out candy if you don’t want to walk with Aunt Sally and the kids.”

I shake my head no. I’m set in my decision. I’m staying home, alone.

Mom comes sweeping into the room. She’s dressed in a black leotard, with scarves tied to a belt that sits around her waist, each one a different color, flowing behind her.

Otto and I look at each other, both perplexed.

“What are you supposed to be?” Otto asks before I can form a full thought. Mom looks stupefied, as if it’s obvious.

“Well, what else would I be?” she asks, spinning, like she’d answered the question, but we still don’t understand, so her shoulders slump and she says: “a witch. Duh.”

Otto groans and rolls off the arm of the chair dramatically, yanking on Mom's scarves as he passes her.

“Mom, this could be better. Seems a little low effort. You don't even have a hat.”

She is perplexed.

“How is this low effort?”

“It's just scarves,” Otto explains, walking back towards me from the kitchen carrying a large bowl of candy. He pushes it towards me, waiting for me to take it.

“What’s this?” I ask, annoyed but taking a Reese cup.

“In case we get any trick or treaters,” he says sweetly. I laugh.

“We have never gotten a trick or treater out here,” I say, looking out the window that’s behind me at the empty corn fields that surround our us, and at the dead-end road that stops in front of our house. We live fifteen minutes from town, and ten from the next nearest human. If we don’t know them, they ain’t coming. And the kids we do know are all going to meet at Nans because she lives in the city.

“I still can’t believe you’re staying out here alone on Halloween,” Mom tisks as she puts giant hoops in her ears.

“Dad will be home shortly,” I shrug.

“Dads working a double,” Mom corrects. “He won’t be home till 4:30 in the morning. But we will be back by, what? 10:30 for sure.”

I look at the clock. It’s 5:30.

“You’ll be fine,” she waves her hand at me. Otto looks distressed. He is the worrier of the family.

“I think you should come with us.”

“It’s fine, Otto, I'm fifteen years old, I can handle a night alone.”

He sighs. We take in moms’ full outfit now, unimpressed.

Otto grabs her shoulders, guides her towards the front door, and snatches a Snickers on the way out.

“Behave,” he says, pointing a finger at me, like I’m going to do anything more than look at my phone.

“I will,” I assure him.

It's an hour and a half later, and I've watched almost an entire comedy show on the clock app along with some funny animal videos, but I'm still in a terrible mood, and I’d had zero trick or treaters. As expected.

I’m getting a little bored. I shift in my seat because my hips are starting to hurt, and my legs are growing numb. I look up from my phone long enough to check the time and just as my finger grazes over the search bar to plug in Jaspers name, I see a 'People You May Know' box pop up that has no profile picture, but the name catches my attention, cause it’s mine. Or, at least it’s close to mine.

DELLASaw, and I’m Della Sawyer.

That’s weird.

I click it. Surely someone didn’t make a burner account with my name to bully me. I keep to myself and there’s not a single person I can think of who would do that to me.

There aren’t any videos. No followers. No following. No likes.

It has to be a coincidence, maybe because of the similar name to me, that’s why it popped up. I shrug it off and go look at Jaspers page.

He’s LIVE. If I click it, he will know I'm looking. That would come across as pathetic, spending my Halloween stalking an ex-boyfriend, even though that's exactly what I'm doing.

If I ignore it, it’ll eat me alive wondering what he’s doing that is so important he’d be LIVE. I’m truly torn on what to do and I decide to let it go.

I’m getting hungry so I go to the kitchen. I decide on pizza rolls. I throw them in the oven while it preheats and stand and look out over the corn fields into the night. It would be beautiful if it wasn’t so creepy. Just empty fields of churned up dirt with tiny, mutilated stalks rising from the mounds of earth like they are reaching for the moon to save them. Corn Zombies, wanting to rise from their graves.

The moon isn’t helping. She’s big and bloated and barely keeping herself afloat in the sky by the looks of it. I should write a poem about this. I can channel my upset over Jasper into words, that could be a good outlet.

The doorbell rings. I jump out of my skin, as they say. In the immediate aftermath of being spooked, I forget it’s Halloween. It snaps into my head, and I run for the candy bowl, but as I’m opening the door, it dawns on me that I had been looking out over the only way into our driveway, and being the last house on the road, the (trick or) treater would have had to have driven up that way while I was lost in thought.

Only, I didn’t see anyone.

And I don’t see anyone when I open the door. I look through the glass outside, not unlocking the storm door. There’s no one to be seen.

That’s enough for me to shut the big door and lock it, and as I turn to go get my phone and to call mom, I hear the sliding glass door that leads into the kitchen from the back yard slide open.

I freeze.

Wtf.

Omg.

I’m standing by the front door, frozen, holding the candy bowl. I’m about to get murdered. I’m all fright, no flight, no fight.

What the heck do I do?

Panicking, I snatch my phone off the chair and run back into my bedroom, holding the candy bowl the entire time. I fling it onto the bed with my phone.

I grab my door, lock it, snatch my desk chair, roll it in front of it to block it, but I'm an idiot, because it's on wheels and isn't going to be very effective. I roll it to the other side of the room, reach over, and with strength powered by fear, drag my desk across the floor and place it in front of the entrance.

I spin, grab the curtains, yank them shut, reach through, check that the window is locked. I jump onto the bed, grab my phone, roll off the other side, and go into my closet.

Like a child playing a game of hide and seek, I wiggle into a corner, pulling my old toy bin in front of myself, yanking down clothes to cover me.

I'm in a sweating, heaving pile underneath it all, trying to control my breath so that I won't be so easily found. I hold my phone up, arrange things so I can see the screen and as I swipe it open to call my mom, or 911, or, I don't know WHAT TO DO, there's a notification.

I've been tagged in a video.

By DELLASaw.

Wtf?

With a shaking hand, I open it.

In bold print, it's a black screen with the words: "Della Saw What?"

The video cuts. It's my living room. It's me. I'm in the chair. I'm watching my phone, scrolling, oblivious to the fact that I'm being videotaped through the window over the sink.

The window I was just looking through.

WTF?

My phone dings. I yank down the button on the side to silence it. It's another tag. I click it.

It's me. Looking out through the window. Someone's under the window, filming up at me. I can see straight up my nostrils.

Omg.

Another ding. Another tag.

I'm looking out the front door, holding the candy bucket while being filmed from the side. They were RIGHT THERE when I looked out, filming me.

Ding!

I'm with Otto. He's sitting on the chair. They're filming from the window on the other side of the living room, just before Mom and Otto leave.

How many people are doing this?

I ignore another ding, and I try to call mom.

No answer.

Ding.

I pull up Otto, call him. Voicemail.

It's them, it has to be them, messing with me, but Otto calls right back.

"Della, what's up?" he says, and I hear a commotion in the background, the kids trick or treating.

"Otto," I whisper, I'm sobbing, snot running down my face.

"Della?"

"Otto, there's someone in the house."

"Wait, what? Della, are you messing with me?"

"No, Otto, is Mom with you? Maybe she's pranking me." I'm crying like a little kid.

"Mom!" Otto shouts on his end of the phone. "Mom! Someone's in the house!"

I hear Mom over the line.

"In the what?" Mom sounds intoxicated.

"In the house! We gotta go!"

Otto is panicking, and Mom thinks he's messing with her.

BANG-BANG-BANG

It's the bedroom door.

BANG-BANG-BANG

It's the bedroom window.

OMG

I scream and cry into the phone.

"Della, I'm calling 911!"

Otto hangs up on me.

I'm shaking and alone on my closet floor, apparently more than one person trying to beat their way into my bedroom.

Ding.

I look down at the phone.

I click the tagged video.

Someone is slowly walking through our house, filming as they go, running the very sharp edge of a knife along all the surfaces on their journey from the kitchen to my door. The video stops with a gloved hand jiggling my doorknob.

Another video, filming my bedroom through my window as I yank on the curtains.

I notice there's another tag on this one. They tagged more than one person. It's Jasper. I go to his page. He's still LIVE. I click on it, but it's just darkness. No sound.

Is this him? Is he screwing with me?

I type into the live chat: "Are you doing this to me?"

Nothing.

Ding.

A video, dark like Jaspers LIVE, only it begins to illuminate, and I see what looks to be fingers start to appear. Dark fingers, bloody fingers. Fingers that look funny. As the camera pulls back, I see its Jasper. He's slumped over his steering wheel, not moving. He's been in an accident, I think, or someone has hurt him. Lights, blinking.

I scream again, I'm sure he's dead.

This can't be happening.

The banging stops. I sit still, holding my breath so as not to make a single sound, but I feel like I'm suffocating and instead my breath gets louder and louder.

I wait. I try to adjust, because my neck is hurting and my arm is tingling like it's falling asleep. Where is Otto? Why hasn't he called me back?

Ding.

I click on the video.

I see my ceiling, unmistakable. The dark blue and gold galaxy poster that hangs over my bed stares at me through my phone, the light flickering on my screen as the fan runs full speed, just as I had left it, and then, the camera focuses on the closet before cutting off.

I can't breathe. My arm is throbbing, my fingers can barely move. My chest feels heavy, I squirm. There's something wrong with me, I'm about to die.

Della's funeral was an odd affair.

No parents.

No brother.

No Jasper.

Her parents were still in jail. Her brother in juvenile detention. Her boyfriend, well, his parents bailed him out, but he was on house arrest following the prank gone horribly wrong.

They just wanted to prove to her that she had become addicted to her phone. They thought they could scare her straight, get her to see that there's more to life than cat videos and endless scrolling, and they thought she'd find it funny, eventually.

Her parents, brother, and boyfriend all worked together to plan to perfect, multilevel prank. Her mother on one side of the house, her father on the other. Otto used audio to make it sound like they were at a gathering when really they were just outside. They'd parked down the road, and walked back to the house with her Dad and Jasper.

No one knew Della had a heart condition. If they had, they'd have never done it. And they admitted they'd taken it a bit too far, but still, they maintained, they had good intentions. It was the phone that was the problem. The apps. The screens.

And yet, the thing that killed her were the people.

[notitman]

Hello world, again.

It’s been a long time. Very long.

Guess I just got busy and forgot about you.

About this. I guess I haven’t felt the need.

I don’t know.

So many things have happened.

My spirit animal, my cat, my first love.

By baby, he was 10 1/2 years old.

I didn’t have the money to buy his insulin.

I didn’t have the money for the vet to bring him back.

I failed him. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.

He was so happy to see me, he wanted a can of food.

He threw up, I cleaned it up. I didn’t give him what he wanted.

He got sick very fast within a few hours.

Then he couldn’t eat anymore. He couldn’t drink anymore.

I brought him to the vet and didn’t have to money to keep him there to get what he needed like last time.

I let him down. He relied on me and I wasn’t able to provide.

I should have just over drafted and got your medicine.

I thought I had a few more days. It’s all my fault.

Your organs where shutting down. You were suffering.

They wanted to put you down but I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t do it financially or mentally. I miss you.

I miss you so much. I need you so badly.

I’ve needed you since the day you left. I’m so sorry.

I’m so sorry your last days were as miserable as they are.

I’m so selfish and you suffered for it. Loki. My baby.

My spirit animal. My soul mate. You were always there for me.

I didn’t deserve how amazing you where. You loved me.

You deserved better than me. I’m sorry you got stuck with me.

You weren’t just a cat. We had a connection that others could see.

You were supposed to live and see all my children before you left.

I still had so many plans for us.

You didn’t get to meet this new baby. He was in NICU.

He was there for 5 1/2 weeks. It was so scary.

So lonely. I knew it was going to be hard.

But it was way harder than I thought it would be.

I went to bed alone almost every single night.

I cried myself to sleep watching him on my phone.

It would have been easier to handle with you here.

You always had my back and you where always there for me when I was struggling.

You could always tell when I wasn’t okay.

You would come to me and say hi and love me.

You would run against me and make me pet you.

You would always let me hold you close to me and cry.

I’m still not okay. I’ve been up and down “okay”.

I feel so useless and so empty.

So undeserving of any of the good I have.

Who do I think I am to deserve anything? I can’t even do anything.

I can’t contribute anything I don’t do anything.

I’m not working. I can’t even cook dinner and clean everyday at the LEAST.

I feel like I can’t give the proper attention to anybody at home.

I’m not doing anything right. I can’t do anything right.

Everything makes me angry. I can’t handle anything.

Other people can do it so why can’t I?

I mean seriously what the fuck is wrong with me?

All I can do is come up with excuses.

I’m already 3 and a half months postpartum.

I had 5 and a half weeks to prepare and do stuff at home.

But I couldn’t do it. I didn’t. I didn’t do that I needed to.

I didn’t do that I should have. And now I just always feel overwhelmed.

It’s just excuse after excuse. I don’t have patience for anything.

What’s the point of living?

Who am I to think I deserve things I like.

But what’s the point? To like things and sort of feel good sometimes and then die?

So what was it all for? To go to heaven? Then what?

What’s the point of existing at all? I don’t want to die.

But why am I alive? I have purpose just because I have offspring.

The purpose to make them happy and take care of them.

But i can’t even so that properly. I can’t do anything properly.

Always angry. Never doing enough. Not doing it right.

I feel like I’m letting everyone down.

My oldest wants/needs my attention but so does my baby.

But so does my husband. But I’m so tired. But why?

He works everyday and I stay home everyday.

I feel angry because he doesn’t help me more around the house or with the kids.

But he’s the one working and we are barely making it to pay rent and bills.

But since he’s working and I’m not, why am I having such a hard time doing what I’m doing?

Seriously what are my excuses? I have none. No good ones.

No left excuses or reasons to be the way that I am.

The audacity to feel this way and take it out on others.

I’m so ashamed and embarrassed and I hate myself.

I feel so empty and alone right now.

I don’t feel like I can talk to anyone about it.

I love my spouse and he works so hard why can’t I appreciate that openly to him?

But at the same time I don’t feel like I can go to him with this.

It’s just me making excuses to be lazy and moody.

Everyone else will judge or just tell me I am doing a good job.

If I was then I wouldn’t be treating anyone the way that I do.

If I was doing a good job then my son wouldn’t have to ask me for my attention.

If I was doing a good job I wouldn’t be yelling at my husband and sons.

If I was going a good job I would have more patience and kindness towards my family.

If I was doing a good job I wouldn’t make everyone wash their own dishes.

If I was doing a good job then I would do what I need to do without complaining or being snarky.

If I was doing a good job then my house would be clean.

If I was doing a good job then I wouldn’t be depressed or hating myself.

If I was doing a good job then I would be eating healthier and working out.

If I was doing a good job I wouldn’t be so lazy.

If I was doing a good job I would be doing all the house stuff on my own.

If I was doing a good job then I wouldn’t feel ‘depressed’ and I wouldn’t be rapidly gaining weight.

I wouldn’t feel disgusted with myself.

If I was doing a good job then I would be able to take care of everyone.

If I was doing a good job then I would already have a routine.

I would be able to do any housework while holding a baby.

If I was doing a good job then I would already be healed from the cesarean.

If I was doing a good job, it would show.

If I was doing a good job then I wouldn’t be too tired.

If I was doing a good job I would be kinder.

If I was, then I wouldn’t feel too exhausted to handle anyone or anything else.

If. I. Was.

[bluethedream]

.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝐀𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐳: 𝐓𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐀𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 (𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝)

Warnings: NSFW content. Read at your own discretion. Not requested.

❥𝓚𝓲𝓶 𝓗𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓳𝓸𝓸𝓷𝓰

"Hongjoong!"

You were practically swinging your feet in the air, whining and pouting like a child out of boredom and annoyance at being cooped up in the studio with your boyfriend.

"5 more minutes." He repeated.

"You've said that for the last 45 minutes." You groaned, tired of waiting for him to finish up.

"I promise I'm serious this time." He assured you.

5 minutes quickly turned to 10, nearly becoming 15. You let out a huff every now and then, eyes staring daggers into the back of your boyfriend's head. Seriously, why could he not take a little break? You wanted to spend time with him yet even on what's supposed to be his day off, he still chooses to work when you could both be doing.....other things.

Getting an idea, your hands quickly worked to rid yourself of your pants and underwear, Hongjoong, still focused on his task didn't even budge at the sound behind him. But when he began to hear some rather familiar moaning, he swung his chair around and was shocked to see you legs spread on the couch, your fingers rubbing against your clit as you stared at him through hooded eyelids. Hongjoong instantly got hard. Licking his lips, he got up and took his place next to you on the couch. Fumbling with his zipper, he pulled his pants down enough to stroke his hardened member.

"Let's play a game since you're so bored. If you can get yourself off before I cum, I'll eat you out right here. But if I cum first, you have to suck me off."

❥𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓴 𝓢𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝔀𝓪

You were even more tired and angry than when you woke up. Why did your boyfriend have to be so difficult and special about cleaning? You literally spent over an hour lint rolling the shelves over and over again because you had 'missed a spot.'

"Make sure to get the corners, that's where the dust mostly accumulates." He called out from the kitchen.

Not being able to take it anymore, you threw the roller and the rag you were holding down onto the floor. You were tired of being ignored by your boyfriend except when he came over to inspect your cleaning. So you decided it was time to get back at him while simultaneously showing him getting dirty isn't such a bad thing.

Picking up the bucket of murky water, you mentally patted yourself on the back for choosing not to wear a bra underneath your white tank top. Looking over at Seonghwa, who still had his back turned, you put your plan in action. Splashing some of the contents all over you, you let out a squeal that had Seonghwa running over immediately.

"What?" He asked as he came in.

Putting on the biggest pout you could muster, you turned around to let him see the mess you made: white tank top soaked, your breasts completely visible through it, nipples poking out. Seonghwa's mouth dropped as he stared at them, unable to peel his eyes off.

"I'm dirty." You let out a huff.

Discarding the rag he was holding, Seonghwa pulled you against him as he began to peel your shirt off.

"Why don't we get you cleaned up then?"

❥𝓙𝓮𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓾𝓷𝓱𝓸

Once again you tried to pull your boyfriend out of bed.

"Yunho, baby. Come on. You have to get up."

You tried to tug his arm, pulling it but he didn't budge at all. Dropping his arm, you looked at him with an 'are you kidding me' expression.

"You said you were going to get up early to spend time together." You reminded him.

Letting out a tired groan, turned onto his stomach and hugged the pillow underneath him.

"I will....just give me a few more minutes..."

Shaking your head, you smacked his back before getting up yourself. You decided to let him have it his way. You had a lot of things to do today, starting with taking a shower. You made sure to slam the drawers rather loudly in an attempt to annoy your boyfriend, which he did not really appreciate, but still didn't say anything.

You were barely 2 minutes into your shower when you remembered you forgot your shampoo in your vanity dresser. Not even caring to turn off the water since you would be in and out in less than 10 seconds, you sprinted out the bathroom, door accidentally letting out a loud noise that startled your boyfriend. He quickly shot up and his gaze fell on you and your dripping naked body.

"Sorry Yunho, I forgot this." You apologized profusely.

Yunho blinked slowly, eyes scanning your entire body as he began to move off the bed.

"Damn...I'm definitely up now." He chuckled at the double meaning behind his statement.

Although you didn't plan it, you couldn't complain when he pulled his shirt over his head and began walking you back into the bathroom.

"Let's hurry before the water gets cold." He said with a smirk on his face as he closed the door behind him.

❥𝓚𝓪𝓷𝓰 𝓨𝓮𝓸𝓼𝓪𝓷𝓰

"I swear to god, you probably love chicken more than me."

Besides the fact your cold boyfriend was being a selfish asshole by not sharing his meal, he had been blatantly ignoring you when you both knew damn well he was more than capable of maintaining a conversation while also eating his dinner. You let out a scoff when he still didn't acknowledge you and just kept munching on the stupid drumstick. Picking up one of his fries, you flung it at his head.

"I am talking to you!" You exclaimed.

"Busy." He pointed down at his food, mouth full of chicken, you don't even get how you even understood that one word.

"Well you definitely answered my question. You do love chicken more than me. I bet if you had to choose between me or a chicken leg, you wouldn't hesitate to grabbed the chicken leg and ditch me."

You were seriously about to smack him when he just stared you down as he reached for another chicken leg.

"Are you serious-"

Getting up in frustration, you were going to go the bedroom and make him sleep on the couch, but suddenly an idea popped in your head. Turning back around, you stood right in front of him from across the table, hands on your hips. He gave you a questioning look when he finally looked over at you and then proceeded to choke slightly when you lifted your shirt up and flashed your boobs at him. The poor boy was nearly wheezing at the sight. Feeling satisfied, you put your shirt down and chuckled at him.

Quickly putting the leg down, Yeosang began wiping his hands on a napkin as he walked over to you.

"I'm suddenly hungry for something else."

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓢𝓪𝓷

"Who's the prettiest girl? You are..yes you are." San cooed at the siamese he was currently smothering in his embrace.

Meanwhile you were on the other side of the couch, no longer paying attention to the movie playing. Well technically neither was your boyfriend, but you weren't watching cause you were too busy witnessing some furry feline steal his attention away from you to the point of abandoning your cuddling session in favor for her.

"San, she doesn't even want to be held." You pointed out how her claws were sticking out, her head looking in all directions trying to search for a way out of his embrace.

"Nonsense! My babygirl loves me." He chuckled as he kissed the top of her head.

"I thought I was your babygirl." You whimpered slightly.

San didn't respond which made you even more jealous of the stupid yet totally innocent cat who just wanted to be free from her owner's caresses. Tapping a finger against your cheek, a sinful idea popped in your head. Taking advantage of the fact a blanket was covering your lower half, you pulled your shorts and panties down without San noticing anything. Pulling the blanket off you and lifting his hoodie that you were wearing slightly up, you spread your legs before calling out to him in a sing song voice.

When San looked over, his jaw dropped at the sight and he immediately put Byeol down on the floor.

"Go on now girl, run along." He patted her behind.

With a sly smirk, he began to position himself in between your thighs.

"Cause there's another pussy I want to play with."

❥𝓢𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓜𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓲

It was supposed to be a date night with your boyfriend. You two had already finished eating the delicious meal you cooked specially for him and were now supposed to watch a movie together, yet his eyes were glued to his phone. Glancing over, you frowned when you saw he was texting no one else but Yunho.

"Mingi?" You poked his cheek.

"Hmm?" He barely acknowledged you.

"You're not watching the movie." You said.

"Yeah I am." He responded, typing something into his phone.

Rolling your eyes, you then asked him what part was it on.

"The part where they found out the butler did it." He answered you.

You wanted to face palm. The idiot forgot it wasn't even a thriller since his baby ass couldn't handle them. Getting up, you told him you were going to the bathroom, which he probably didn't hear since his conversation with Yunho must obviously be more important than his date night with you. Turning on the light, you peeled off your pajama set to reveal the new lingerie set you bought specifically for tonight. Pulling out your phone, you quickly snapped a photo and sent it to him. Hearing a loud thud, you smirked as you knew he saw it and that noise was of him dropping his phone.

When you came back out, he was no longer on his phone, instead his attention was fully on you. Clearing his throat, he stared at the pastel pink set.

"You got that just for tonight?" He questioned you.

"Yep." You nodded.

Letting out a long sigh, he got up and went over to you, an arm slinging around your waist.

"I'm an ass aren't I?"

You giggled at him and pecked his lips.

"Just shut up and come on. I didn't spend so much money on this for it to go to waste."

Mingi was a giggling and blushing mess as he allowed you to lead him into the bedroom.

❥𝓙𝓾𝓷𝓰 𝓦𝓸𝓸𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓰

You covered your ears at your boyfriend's obnoxious and loud laugh, no doubt signaling another victory on the stupid game he was currently playing. He had the volume up so loud you could actually hear some of the sound effects emanating from it.

"Jung Wooyoung!!!!" You screamed at the top of your lungs and yet he still couldn't hear you.

Throwing your hands up in frustration, you gave up and went into your room. Taking out your phone, you began scrolling mindlessly through tiktok. Nothing besides cat videos were actually interesting at this point....

Until you saw the newest challenge that was trending all over. Perfect for girls who had oblivious gamer boyfriends like the one you had. Getting up, you decided to put the plan into action. Stripping out of your clothes, you grabbed a towel to wrap around yourself and grabbed a nearby plushie toy to throw at him since yelling wasn't going to work.

As expected, he did not notice you standing in front of him for a while after you came out. Aiming the plushie at him, you struck him right on the face. He immediately ripped his headset off.

"What the fuck are you-"

He froze when he saw you standing there, a mischievous look on your face. Swallowing hard, he widened his eyes when you let the towel drop on the floor, your naked body on full display for him. Not even bothering to see if he paused the game or not, he quickly got up and started walking towards you.

"Come here babygirl."

Knowing his teasing tone to well, you quickly sped down the hallway, giggling loudly as Wooyoung chased after you, catching up to you and holding you in his arms.

"Stop right there. You caused a problem, now you fix it."

Throwing you over his shoulder, he gave your ass a slap as he walked into the bedroom. Throwing you on the bed, he straddled your lap and began to free himself out of his sweatpants.

"Ok. Why not show me your skills with a joystick for once?"

❥𝓒𝓱𝓸𝓲 𝓙𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓱𝓸

You could not peel your eyes off your boyfriend's arms as they continued to lift up the weights he was holding. You were pretty sure you were drooling at this point. Every time his muscles flexed, you were tugging at your bottom lip with your teeth, your thighs clenching closer together.

"Jongho?" You shyly called out to him.

He didn't respond since he had his earbuds in, music full volume. Besides, when he was concentrated on something it was very difficult to get him to break focus. So you needed to think of something that would work.

Looking down and fumbling with the hem of your skirt, you finally had an idea. Moving cautiously so he wouldn't notice, you slipped a hand inside and began pulling your panties down your legs. Not like you needed them, they were practically drenched already.

Casually walking in front of Jongho, you pretended to be on your phone and 'accidentally' drop it. Bending down, you made sure your skirt rode up enough for him to notice you weren't wearing underwear. That is if he had even looked over at you. Glancing back, you caught your boyfriend's eyes, which were staring at you in disbelief.

"Guess it worked." You chuckled inwardly.

Putting the weights down, Jongho took off his earbuds and walked over to you. His fingers glided down to your skirt.

"Are you trying to tell me something?" He whispered, lips ghosting over your earlobe.

Sucking in a breath, you whined at him.

"I want you to pay attention to me."

Chuckling softly, he pressed your body to the wall, hands going to the back of your thighs and lifting you up effortlessly.

"Well then. Wanna help me out? Let's see how long I can lift you in and out of my cock."

Gifs not mine. Credit goes to their respective owners.

[that-bi-bitch-writes]

A Cursed Reality- JJk x Male Reader (Ch.5)

This chapter is a little longer than usual and very dialogue heavy. (also plenty of swearing). Sorry if the scene is disappointing but I'm not super good at fight scenes and I'm hoping to develop them as I go on. Also if I made [Name] OP then everything would be over too quickly.

Let me know what you think about the chapter in the comments (or the tags!!) enjoy

Last || Next

Chapter Five:

“Kugisaki-chan. Be honest with me. On a scale of Gojo to Yuji how stupid do you think I am?”

“Eh? Do you really want me to answer that?”

“... Yes”

“If I had to pick an idiot I’d say Gojo-sensei. He at least has the brain power to understand jujutsu. I mean he’s a childish and immature old man who ignores what’s staring him right in his face but he wouldn’t ask me what animal the pink panther was.”

[Name] uttered out a confused thank you before thinking ‘I have got to stop starting conversations like this’

He almost never gets the answer he wants. It’s like as soon as he asks the question he becomes humanized and not a mysterious special grade sorcerer a few seconds from ending someone’s life for finishing off the fruit snacks. (Based on a true story. Gojo can confirm.)

“You’re welcome. Why’d you ask anyway?”

“Actually I think I’ll jinx it if I talk about it. Plus I don’t want you to think poorly of your ‘superiors’ but let’s just say there are people plotting behind my back and I’m wondering if I have idiot written across the top of my head”

“Okay... “

“On a lighter note, do you think any of the other first years know how close we are?”

“I was asked whether or not the Pink Panther was a lion and spoken to in 6 word sentences just yesterday. You’re the only person I can hang out with. The other two are people I spend time with”

“What about Maki?”

“That’s totally different. You should know you have a totally different relationship with Gojo and Inumaki.”

“Explain”

“You and Gojo fight and tease each other like siblings or something and you and Inumaki spend time alone. Together. And sometimes you like go out and eat food and stuff”

“You make it sound like we’re dating”

“You’re not?”

“No”

“Hmm”

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

[Name] absolutely hates talking on the phone and everyone knows this. Facetime has been like a happy medium whenever people need to get in touch with him but it’s still extremely annoying to have to have a face to face conversation over the phone.

“Why are you calling me Gojo?”

“My precious little [Name] I was just checking up on you to see how your day off is going?”

“It was going fine until you called and interrupted my peace”

“Don’t be like that [Name] I know you miss me”

“As if- No puppy- WAIT!”

Gojo furrowed his eyebrows “[Name]-chan?”

“Hmm?”

“Since when do you have a pet?”

“I made Fushiguro give me one of his divine dogs”

“Aww. That’s so sweet of Megumi. But you can’t keep calling him puppy. Give him a real name”

“He does have a real name I call him yu-yu”

“So who were you calling Puppy?”

“...Yuji”

“.....”

“Don’t make it weird”

“It’s already weird”

“Look me in the camera and tell me he doesn’t remind you of like a golden retriever or somethin”

“You made several points but still”

“It’s supposed to be derogatory”

“It’s a pet name”

“He’s hyper, adorable and excitable. I’m pointing out the obvious. Me calling him puppy has the same energy as calling someone four eyes”

“It does not”

“....I have to go Yuji just found out about Megan Thee Stallion”

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

“Are you a Fall out boy emo or like Lorde sad boy?”

“That’s a loaded question”

“It most definitely is” [Name] replied holding back laughter “But I can like, vibe to either one so just play whatever music you like and I’ll enhance the atmosphere.”

“...Okay”

That day was definitely the most relaxed Fushiguro had been in weeks, and [Name] learned some very interesting things about Fushiguro’s…. tastes. They definitely had some things in common.

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

“You’re sending me on a mission”

“Yes”

“Alone?”

“[L.Name] you’re a special grade sorcerer. You can handle a first-grade curse on your own”

“I most definitely can, but so can others. Both Gojo and Okkotsu are away on missions. Are you telling me in your expert wisdom, you’re making the choice to dispatch all of the Special Grade sorcerer’s for first-grade curses? What if something happens on home turf.”

“I assure you if there’s an attack on the school Principal Yaga can handle the threat.”

“I’m not talking about the school.”

There was a brief silence in which [Name] just stared “You have your orders”

“I do”

And [Name] absolutely did have his orders. Ones that aligned with his personal feelings. You see, a little while ago Gojo ordered [Name] to protect Yuji. And if anything were to happen to the precious angel, it would be the one day that both he and Gojo were away. Yaga cares more for the rules than Gojo or [Name]. That was one thing [Name] didn’t like about both Yaga and Nanami. They cared about the kids, but only to an extent. In their eyes the kids would die out or grow older but rules wouldn’t change, and Yuji’s life mattered less to them than the stagnant outdated rules.

The larger problem was whether or not [Name] was willing to face the consequences for not following orders from the “respected” higher ups. Then there was the whole issue of actual people being in danger and that wouldn’t go over well, not with the old assholes nor with [Name]’s conscience.

‘I fucking hate Satoru.’ [Name] thought as he set out to do actual work. Ever since he got sent on that mission he found himself caring for more and more people. If he was going to exorcise the curse and return to make sure Yuji and the others first years were all safe, he would have to race against the clock. There was no doubt in his mind that something was going to happen today and he knew Sukuna wouldn’t let Yuji die without a fight.

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

“What the actual fuck is going on anymore?? THREE FIRST YEARS WERE SENT TO DEFEAT A WHAT?” [Name] yelled into the phone

“A cursed womb”

“Say it as it really is Ijichi! They were sent in to fight a fucking special grade curse. They’re barely equipped to fight a second grade curse, and it isn’t as if having you there is going to help them much”

Ijichi flinched at that. [Name] only went for low blows when he was pissed, and it was obvious pretty soon someone would have to face his wrath. And because he knew what was best for his safety and peace of mind, Ijichi answered [Name]’s question before he asked

“I warned them not to engage a special grade so they should be fine until you get here. I lowered the curtain myself so you’ll be able to get in. They’re at Eishu Juvenile Detention Center”

“I’ll be there in 10”

[Name] would probably make it in less time than that but he always made sure to be careful with making promises. There was always a chance he would run into some issues on the way there. Grabbing his things, he set out for the detention center hoping Nobara and Megumi were okay. Yuji was stronger than those two, though Megumi could be a suicidal idiot at times. If things got anymore serious they’d let Sukuna out, but that would be a whole other problem.

“Ijichi, i’m here”

“...[Name]”

“What?”

“Kugisaki is hurt. I'm driving back to the school.”

“If you’re driving back, why is the curtain still up?”

“Fushiguro went back in to deal with Sukuna who’s more than likely already taken care of the curse I recommend-”

[Name] hung up. “Fucking rule followers and their precious higher ups. And look what a mess I have to take care of” he said as he looked up at the curtain. He sighed and then walked through

“I don’t feel a curse- is that megumi” [Name] thought aloud

“He ain’t coming back” Sukuna teased “Don’t worry I’m in a good mood. Let’s talk”

“I’m not feeling particularly chatty” [Name] called out. Fushiguro and Sukuna turned to the second year in shock

“Fushiguro you should go”

“No. I’m not leaving you alone. And besides it’s my responsibility-”

“Do you think I’m here to kill Yuji?”

“...”

“I’m here to rescue your sorry asses. I was sent on a mission earlier and came back in a hurry to make sure you were okay. I’m a little sad I don’t get to meet the curse that hurt poor Kugisaki-chan but he’ll make do” [Name]’s voice became darker the longer he went on

“My fighting skill is nowhere near the level of Maki’s, but my cursed technique on the other hand… Don’t worry, Yuji’ll make it out alive”

Fushiguro hesitated. He trusted [Name], it was Sukuna who was the problem. The curse was cunning and took advantage of Fushiguro’s hesitation to enact his plan

“It seems he’s having a hard time changing back” Sukuna started “This must be a side effect of using me without restrictions. It’s most likely only a matter of time though… So i’ve been thinking about my next move.”

Before [Name] or Fushiguro could realize, Sukuna had ripped Yuji’s heart out, smiling as blood dripped out of his mouth and the gaping hole in his chest. The two of them froze. If he were at his best [Name] would’ve been able to stop Sukuna from continuing to monologue or even from swallowing another of his fingers. But he had defeated a first grade curse, dealt with the higher ups and rushed to the first years’ rescue within 3 hours.

Fushiguro seemed to follow the conversation as [Name] just stood there, his ears ringing as if he were standing too close to a bomb that went off.

“Itadori will return” Megumi said confidently “Even if it means his death. He’s that kind of guy”

And Megumi was right, [Name] knew of it. So he made a sacrifice. Fushiguro would have to deal with Sukuna while [Name] figured out what to do next. With two fingers Sukuna might’ve been able to resist [Name]’s compulsion. ‘No’ he thought ‘it would take a few more fingers before he was that strong.’

“Stop”

The both of them froze in place. There was a trail of blood running down Yuji’s chest but [Name] could tell Sukuna had done more damage to Megumi than Megumi had done to Yuji’s body

“Stay out of my way Megumi” [Name] said before looking in Sukuna’s eyes “Yuji, if you can hear me. I’m sorry”

“This brat’s not worth the effort” Sukuna smirked. He may not have been able to move but he was going to try and tempt the second year into losing his composure.

“Choke”

Sukuna began to gargle on the blood that was supposed to be pumping through Yuji’s body. Choking, he fell on the ground. Megumi’s eyes widened and he moved to say something but [Name] shot him a desperate, angry look picking up Yuji’s discarded heart shoving it into the empty cavity.

“Heal Him”

“It’s too late [Name]”

“Yuji?? No! NO! YUJI! SWITCH BACK I CAN MAKE HIM HEAL YOU”

“Megumi. [Name]. And Kugisaki and Gojo-sensei. Well I guess I don’t have to worry about him. Live a long life okay?” Yuji smiled as tears dripped onto his face

“I Heard A Rumor” [Name] whispered “That nothing happened and you were gonna be okay”

“What a nice rumor senpai” “Yuji whispered back before the light in his eyes faded

Fushiguro laid a hand on [Name]’s shoulder looking up to the sky as he tried to keep from crying. [Name] let out a pained scream shocking Fushiguro. Megumi wrapped his arms around [Name] trying to pull him up and meeting resistance Fushiguro just walked toward the exit before stopping. Without looking back he said “I’ll send Gojo to collect you both” and then walked off.

Gojo did come back to pick up the body and the shell shocked [Name] but when he showed up there was nothing there. As if the land behind the two had just up and walked away. Gojo wasn’t informed of [Name]’s rumor but assumed the boy did it out of rage. He was the only one able to wipe a location off the map so cleanly. What he didn’t realize that if the land had returned to its natural state as if nothing had ever happened, Yuji was bound to be okay

[mashiraostail]

Hi I'm soft, can I please have a fix of Aizawa's S/O taking care of him after the USJ attack?

soft is the mood!

“Shouta, pick your head up.”  “it’s up-”  “No, it’s not, look straight ahead.” A pause as he shifts, then you huff, “thank you.” You comb careful fingers through his tangled hair. Normally you’d really be on his case about letting it get like this, but given the current circumstance..you supposed you couldn’t hold this against him, he was in practically a full-body cast, after all. You spray some more detangler into it.  “How do you feel?” You ask quietly, running a comb through the newly wet strands.  “The same.” His voice is indifferent, if he was in pain he wasn’t gonna tell you. You just hope he’s not lying.  “Not better or worse?”  “Just the same.” He nods again and you hum pulling all his hair back off his forehead and temples, away from his ears.  “I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault.” He deflects you.  “I know. But I’m sorry you’re in pain.” You retort and he mutters something before saying louder,  “I’m not in pain. The medicine is fine. And recovery girl is doing her thing. I should be alright in no time.”  “Shouta. It doesn’t matter how you’re going to feel it matters how you feel now.” He can’t see you from his seat between your legs, but he can tell your frowning from the hardness in your voice. And you’re right.  “Yeah. It’s alright. Sorry I know I shouldn’t do that. It’s not that bad really. I get a headache sometimes, but for the most part the medicine works. ”  “It’s okay.” You kiss the back of his head and he slumps a little bit forward, you can tell he’s done talking about it. “Do you have the elastic?” He nods at it where it rests on the bedsheets by his leg. He can’t help but feel a little useless right now. He can’t do anything, not a single thing. He needed you or Hizashi for everything, he couldn’t even bend his fingers.  “Shouta Aizawa I am not going to tell you to pick your head up again.” You say it meaning to sound stern, but there’s a little laugh underneath it that makes him grin under all the bandages. In all fairness he appreciates your usual prodding, if you handled him like glass he’d honestly simply feel worse. “It just feels good.” He picks his head up again anyways, he couldn’t help it, you were effectively putting him to sleep, your fingers carefully slowly pulling through his hair, wrapping the strands around each other.  You just hum at him affectionately, pulling him back lightly by his hair to kiss the crown of his head again, “push that elastic over here.”  He does his best, it’s probably not as close as you wanted or much at all to really be helpful but you reach it anyways. “Thank you.” He just hums back at you.  “How is it?” You pull away after wrapping the tail of the braid in an elastic a few times, “not too tight?” Aizawa shakes his head as much as he can.  “It feels better this way, thank you.”  “It won’t get too tangled now either.” You hum, leaning back into his pillows and letting him follow, resting his tired frame against your chest.  “Are you exhausted?” You hum and he nods, he’s always tired sure but he can stay up usually...but right now...just sitting up for a few minutes while you cleaned him up was enough to put him out of commission, he’d only gotten up for the day a few hours ago and he already wanted to call it a night, it was hardly even noon. “Why don’t we take a little nap? I’m tired too honestly.” You wrap your arms around his shoulders gently, “and then when you wake up we can take off some of the bandages, recovery girl said she’d stop by as soon as she could this afternoon so we can leave them off for a little bit until she gets here, let everything breathe?”  “That sounds good.” It feels stupid to be so upset. he wasn’t mean to get like this, he was rational, level headed, but all he wanted to do right now was cover your arms where they rounded his shoulders, he wanted to hold you back.  “You know for, a guy who isn’t allowed to shower you still smell pretty nice.” He feels you press a long kiss to the skin behind his ear, one of the only places exposed. “Take a deep breath Sho.” You lean into him, “it’s alright.”  He falls asleep with relative ease after that. When he wakes up again you aren’t behind him anymore. A first aid kit is on his nightstand, and he can hear you pattering around. It takes about 5 minutes for you to find your way back in there.  “Oh! You’re awake!” You sit beside him, “recovery girl came while you were asleep. Feeling any better? You could have called when you woke up.”  He did, a little, and he felt worlds less swollen, though the looseness of the casts on his arms should indicate that to be a reality rather than just a feeling.  “I was gonna, I just woke up so it’s fine.” He shuffles a little bit and you nod. “You really did yourself no favors going back to teach so early.” You scold him, sitting before him in his bed.  “I had to.”  “No, you just let Hizashi talk you into every hair-brained scheme he comes up with.” You beacon for him to sit up, “you need to be more careful. I know you probably don’t want to hear this from me...” You start removing the casts on his arms, “but you seriously had me worried.”  You’d held off giving him this speech until now, he supposed he should hear you out.   “When I saw you all wrapped up in the hospital..” You carefully slide one off, “I thought I was as good as on my own again.” You start wrapping his arm in some tough feeling bandages, he guesses Recovery Girl healed the break, now it was just a crack, a sprain maybe. Either way, he probably had about 2 more days of these slings. “I’m proud of you for keeping your kids safe. I can’t say I would have done anything differently.” Your voice gets quiet, “but how would you feel if it were me sitting there like you right now?” He nods curtly at that, not even really wanting to imagine it.  You pull him toward you by his jaw and press a long kiss to his forehead, covered in bandages. “She said we could take these off now.” You add and he hums gratefully, “thank god.”  You unfasten the wrapping and slowly unwind it until his face is exposed. You’d seen his face a few times since the incident, taking bandages off to change them, it was only for a few minutes but still it was nice to see your boyfriend’s face instead of a mummy man. His nose is wrapped up in a splint and there’s a row of stitches under his eye but at least it’s still Shouta. A couple of extra bumps and bruises sure, but Shouta nonetheless.  “I’m so proud of you Shouta.” You take his jaw in incredibly tentative hands, unsure of what hurt or felt tender without the support of the bandages. “You’re really strong..” Your voice is somehow softer than your hands on his skin. He clears his throat, you’d been together a long time and he always knew you loved him sure but it was palpable right now.  “I just did what anyone else would do...” He’s really not used to all the priase, part of being an underground hero he supposed. You chuckle at that. “I should have guessed you’d say something like that.” You tuck a loose strand of hair back into it’s braid, “either way, you’re really brave. Those kids are lucky to have you...I’m lucky to have you too.”  “It’s been 10 days since we kissed.” You can tell he’s trying to slink out of the spotlight, despite the only people in the room being the pair of you.  “Maybe that’s why you haven’t started feeling any better.” You laugh as you move to sit beside him on the edge of the bed.  “That’s a pretty good theory.” He agrees leaning forward a bit, of course you oblige him, you hated to sound selfish but you missed him like this, you didn’t mind taking care of him and you always would be there to do it whenever he needed you but he got broody about it...well more broody than normal. Getting to feel him relax into a kiss was nice.  “well now that that’s out of the way, we really could use a shave. Stay there.” You stand up and he groans, “I could just go into-”  “No way mister tough guy.” You shake your head at him, “you wanted to go to the sports festival, and teach so bad even with all your broken ribs? Well this is the price you pay. Until Recovery girl says the breaks are all healed you aren’t getting out of that bed when I’m around, do you hear me?” You sit back down, “save your energy for the kids. I’m here and I wanna help, so let me.”  He supposed he couldn’t argue with that, and your hands felt mesmerizingly nice on the sides of his neck and jaw, his eyelids are heavy by the time you’re done with him, carefully patting his newly shaven skin dry.  “Thank you.” He lets his head drop back into the pillows and you hum, “my pleasure.” You say it like it’s nothing, it rolls off you like water, he can’t put into words how much that puts him at ease.  “No, seriously, thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” He opens his eyes and looks up at you, “I’m really lucky to have you.” He turns your words back around on you. “I’m glad I’ve got you worrying about me.”  “Make me worry like this again and you’re dead meat, Shouta.”  He huffs out a quiet laugh at that, “I don’t know, I think some broken ribs, 2 broken arms a broken leg, broken nose and a fractured orbital plate was well worth it for all the extra attention I’ve been getting.”  “If you want more attention just ask! Don’t break every bone in your body you maniac!”  You wanna wack the back of his head but you stop yourself. He just looks really happy with himself, “but it’s sweet when you worry.”  “I can worry about you without you almost dying!” You can’t even pinch his nose because of the splint, “seriously Shouta!”  “Alright, alright I’m kidding.” He insists, “come relax a little.”  You don’t argue, instead you just climb into bed beside him.  “How’s it feel?” You reach out and brush your hand over his jaw, “I didn’t shave it all, you’d look naked.” He laughs as you lean back against him, “I appreciate that, and It feels better, thank you.” You hum and turn his head toward you.  “It’s good to see your face.” You thumb affectionately at his cheeks and he clears his throat as you continued, “I missed it.”  “Yeah I...guess it’s good to be seen.” 

[honorable-wanderings]

Word of Honor - Episode 3 Part 2 - We’re getting INN to it now!

Meanwhile back with Scooby  and the Gang. B-characters realize that the Goldilocks is missing and it was only the 3 bears that were killed.

And we can hear them surprisingly well from this far away. Their voices must carry exceptionally well.

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

The spiderwebs of DEATH

Seriously though it’s been hours. How has no one either taken these wires down or run into them accidentally? You cannot tell me they have checked every bit of this place for ChengLing’s body if these are still up.

Someone has lied to you Mr. White ‘n’ Blue.

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

No you fucking did not. If you were cleaning them up roughly you’d at least get the ones on the main doorways! goddamn.

-----------

Old ppl vs the Ghosts!

COME ON DOWN FOR THE FIGHT OF YOUR LIFE THE ALL DEAD VS THE MOSTLY DEAD THIS SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY BE THERE BE THERE BE THERE.

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

The Ghost Valley is a menace! It’s high time someone went in there and eradicated them all!

Huh... never thought of that before...

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

Eh. Old people chanting the children’s rhymes doesn’t have the same tension. It’s just not the right feel. It’s a no from me.

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

Yes. This is perfectly far enough away. No one could possibly overhear us from this distance! I am a genius!

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

We are all very worried about ChengLing’s well being. Yes. That is all. Only his well being. Nothing else. No ulterior motives here. Nope. Purely just good will and worry. :DDDD

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

Ah yes! Back to my boys! :D

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

You big softie.

Seriously though. He is so considerate of not only Best Boy’s physical well being but really his emotional state and autonomy as well. He doesn’t expect ChengLing to act like a full grown adult but he doesn’t treat him like a little kid either. It’s great and I’m here for it.

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

It’s not stalking if we got here first, right? Now you’re stalking me! :D :D :D :D :D

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

Some day soon I’ll get you to admit you like me ;)

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

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

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat you’re here to? At this random river?????? OMG what are the chancesssssss?!?!?

At this point I just wanna know fuckin how????

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

A-Xiang deserves a fucking medal for putting up with this BS. For real.

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

A-Xu you make-a him sad D:

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

Zhou ZiShu! Look out! They’re stealing your boat!!

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

-Hey if the ghost valley peeps come up to wreck shit it’s gonna be our shit that gets wrecked too you know? -I don’t give a farting fly’s left ass cheek! I’m one foot in the grave already.

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

Glazed armor this glazed armor that give me a glazed donut and let’s call it a day. I don’t careeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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

Are you inn or out?

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

Sorry we’re out of space because for some reason we let ourselves rent out the entire establishment to a single person. Like I get he paid for the rooms but it’d still be bad for business?? Like no one wants to go to an inn if they won’t let you stay even though there are empty rooms. Like the fuck

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

Look elsewhere? Shit you know this is the only inn in town (apparently)!! Where we supposed to go???

Um... why don’t you try looking at I don’t give a FUCK

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

Well well well. Who could have seen this coming?

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

Zhou ZiShu is about read to add a few more nails

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

This old ragged beggar man is hot as fuck. Set him up in my room at once!

Just end my suffering. I beg you

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

ChengLing just gonna keep his mouth shut and stay out of it

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

-I gave you my own room! -My room now. Kindly GTFO -But I bought you clothes too! -Yeah no one asked you. GTFO!!

-How have my seduction techniques continued to fail??????????

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

Love me pls D:

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

If Oedipus invented a wire tap he’s gonna have to work harder to get past me!!

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

But he doesn’t look like he’s a bad person

Bad people rarely do.

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

Take the bed? I couldn’t possibly!! No! You’re taking care of me and protecting me and you’re old! You take the bed! I’ll sleep on the chair! I’m the best boy!!!

Bitch did I fucking stutter?

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

You owe me no explanations. I’m sure you have your reasons and that they’re good ones. But don’t suffer needlessly. Treat your wounds and I won’t ask any more about it.

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

MY BOY DOESN’T DESERVE THIS. ALL THIS OVER A PIECE OF FUCKIN SEA GLASS??????????

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

Ain’t nobody dope as me I’m just so fresh, so clean (So fresh and so clean clean)

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

Daaate niiiiiight

----------

So I get that you’re like persistently stalking me and all that but like Why??

Because I know you cute as fuck. Why you hiding? Show me what your true face and I’ll tell you what I want. What I really really want.

You first bitch

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

Local man tries to pry secrets out of only human in a 10 mile radius who has no ulterior motives and is confused when it doesn’t work.

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

Das gay

HDU

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

Clink Clink bitch

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

Master can you please keep it in your pants for 5 minutes? It’s all I ask. Just 5 minutes of peace! Please!

---------

Pop Quiz! Who is the second cutest person in the world?

I will settle for anyone who feeds me

Naw. Tsundere is where it’s at.

*Is unimpressed in tsundere*

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

Then who is the mostest cutest?

A tsundere with long legs, slim waist, fat ass.

Heavens strike me down now. Please end my misery. Why did I sit here? Didn’t I know better?

Anyone have any more torture nails? Anyone? Please?

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

*Insert Mii channel theme*

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

We are the unwashed masses. Let’s go fuck some shit up

---------

Hey guys. Does this look like anime style to you? Someone said it looks like anime but I don’t see it.

I think it looks great! I can’t even draw a stick figure! hahahaha

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

Sleepy boi <3

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

How the fuck did I become the third wheel?

-----------

*mii channel theme continues*

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

Your honored uncle here wouldn’t let us eat anything until you woke up even though he sat at my table. D:

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

-Stop acting like a little brat and start acting polite and demure like the other girls

-Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh gross

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

We’re doing found family and we’re doing it now!

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

Why aren’t you eating?

Yeah! We had to wait all this time for you to get here and you’re not even eating anyway!!!!!!

Well my home and my entire family died, and so did that random boat man who protected me. And also there’s a hole in my stomach. So I don’t have much of an appetite atm.

Oh My God. can you not???

But that’s how I show affection!!!!!!!! D:<

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

Shoving food in your face to hide your tears. A time honored tradition.

Also D: Best boy is sad </3

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

Oh no. More people I’m supposed to remember.

JESUS FUCK REALLY???

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW MANY? You cannot tell me they are all important. Please tell me I’m not supposed to remember this many people. I can’t handle this.

aaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG

THAT’S 11 PEOPLE AT ONCE! WHAT THE FUCK

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

Whenever this guy speaks it sounds like he’s trying really hard not to cough in front of the board meeting.

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

Okay so what I got from this is

There was a treaty between these peeps and the ghost peeps to say they’ll leave each other the fuck alone

The ghost peeps broke that promise by fucking with the mirror lake sect and so these peeps decided to retaliate

and they’re gonna retaliate by throwing a party? Like I guess they’re just gathering forces? But like it’s a weird way to do it.

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

Oh for the love of god.

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

Pffffffffffffffff welcome to the circus

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

*sigh*

Okay y’all I can remember like 6 people. 7 Max. Y’all gonna have to be picky about who’s important here.

How many of these people do I actually have to know?

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

Now what the fuck happened here and why are the twin jades here?

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

You two have a piece of the glazed ham. And even though no one is using it it’s really important that we keep it that way. No one must hold all pieces of the glazed ham. Or..... bad things?

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

Oh my. Pain o’clock already?

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

SOMEONE GET THEIR ASS IN THERE AND GIVE MY BOY A HUG!

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

Hey! What do you see? Is he in there? I can’t see a goddamn thing.

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

So I know that he’s like what, 15? And like grew up with a dad. But like you know they made him scream “A-Die” and then wake up to Zhou ZiShu’s comforting touch on purpose. You know that was planned.

Maybe not a father, but certainly a father figure.

(Also thanks, A-Xu for answering my request from earlier for someone to comfort the poor boy.)

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

What’s this? The sounds of a scuffle???

Whelp. Not anymore.

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

Couldn’t he have just ordered them to leave instead?

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

The Ghost Valley seems to be following me rather closely.

Oh you have no idea. ;)

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

Alcohol detected

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

Let me call you a cute pet name and I’ll let you drink from my bottle of nectar. ;)

Oh my god this shit again?

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

You know what?

Two can play at this game.

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

You wanna see what lies underneath? Rip it off yourself.

Don’t worry! I’m patient! Sleep well! Dream of me! I know I’ll be dreaming of you! ;)

[procrastinatorimagines]

I Want Us Part 5

Fandom: Chicago PD / SVU

Series: I Want Us

Part 1 //  Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 // Part 9 // Part 10 (Final)

Pairing/s: Sonny Carisi x Intelligence!Reader

Warning/s: tw rape, murder, assault

Word Count: 1,623

Summary: The Intelligence Unit’s last case with Manhattan SVU had them flying out to New York to track down an abducted boy, and had Dectective Y/L/N and Detective Carisi growing close in the process. Now, a string of rape-murders in Chicago has SVU boarding the next flight out, believing the suspect to be the same man responsible for a set of identical crimes 10 years prior. As the case unfolds, Y/N and Carisi are brought back together, reigniting the spark between them.

As it turned out, it wasn’t too long at all. About six months after you’d closed your New York case, putting a child abductor behind bars where he belonged and reuniting a boy with his family, you received an urgent message from Voight requesting you all come in to the district. 

It was early on a Saturday morning following a few drinks at Molly’s the previous night, but it was so rare for Voight to call you in like this on your day off that you knew it had to be important. 

You were just multi-tasking getting dressed and downing an inordinate amount of caffeine when you got a phone call, ‘Detective Carisi’ flashing up on the screen as you paused, one leg in your trousers.

“Hey you,” you answered, putting the phone between your shoulder and ear so you could continue to get ready, curious about why he was calling. 

“Morning, sorry to call so early, but I figured you’d be awake,” he greeted, sounding like he was walking somewhere, the familiar sounds of traffic filling the background.

“Yeah I am, I’m about to head into work though, Voight’s wants us in for some reason, what’s up?” You informed him, looking around for your keys as you finished the last drops of your coffee.

There was a pause on the other end of the line, “Your Sergeant didn’t tell you? It’s why I’m calling actually, we’re coming to Chicago.” Now that did take you by surprise, Voight’s message hadn’t said anything about SVU, but you weren’t that surprised, it was Voight.

“Oh yeah? Know anything about the case?” You asked, your slight smile at the thought of seeing Carisi somewhat quashed by the fact that it meant something seriously bad was going on in your backyard. 

“A serial rapist that went dormant a few years back seems to have resurfaced in Chicago-” he explained, getting cut off by the sound of someone calling his name in the background, “Sorry, I’ve got to get to my flight, see you soon?”

“Yeah, let me know when you touch down. Oh, and Carisi?” You heard him pause, “this time you get to see what real pizza is supposed to taste like.”

He laughed on the other end of the line, “uh huh, we’ll see; bye Y/N.”

“Bye,” you hung up, a bit of a smile still on your face as you went about finishing up to leave your apartment. 

You and Carisi had kept in contact since you’d gotten back from New York. Nothing serious or anything, but you’d had a good time together and really seemed to connect on your short visit. The conversation had always felt natural, just chatting into the night for no other reason than just enjoying each other’s company. It was nice, whatever it was, and you were looking forward to seeing him in person again.

Throwing on your shoes and coat you headed out the door, making your way to the 21st. As much as you were looking forward to seeing Carisi, you had a job to do. 

-

You arrived at the 21st at the same time as Antonio, catching up to him on the steps as you entered. “Know what we’re doing here on this glorious Saturday morning?” He asked, gesturing to the brilliant sunshine and cloudless sky. 

Antonio had been planning a weekend with his kids, he’d been talking about it all week, and you felt a pang of guilt for not remembering until now. You might not have had plans, or much of an actual life, but that didn’t mean the rest of the unit, your partner especially, hadn’t had to drop a lot to come in today.

“Only that it’s important, SVU’s on their way,” you filling him in on what Carisi had told you as you waved good morning to a desk Sergeant you didn’t recognise. At least Trudy still got the weekend, you thought to yourself, but then even Hank Voight wouldn’t risk her fury at being asked to come in on a Saturday morning. 

The pointed look Antonio gave you had you rolling your eyes, but he was the only one who knew that you still kept in touch with Carisi, though the rest of them had given you hell the second you’d boarded that plane home from New York.

You buzzed the both of you in upstairs, not the first to arrive but not the last either as Jay, Hailey and Kim milled about the bullpen, helping Voight set up the board with your new case. 

“Need a hand?” Antonio asked after morning greetings were made, examining what was up on the board so far. You joined him after throwing your jacket over the back of your desk chair, picking up with folder Voight had left on your desk. Everyone had one laid out for them, so you flicked through it as the others spoke.

“Nah we’ve pretty much got it all set up, this is a pretty thin case considering, well, everything about it,” Jay answered, following his eyes to where he glanced at the board, a row of 9 young women, nearly identical in their pale skin, blonde hair, and delicate features. 

“Christ,” you muttered, looking from their images on the board to the crime scene photos in the file in your hand. All the women looked like porcelain dolls, their hair and make up immaculate, and all of them were dressed in different ball gowns, their hands laid over their chests with a single rose inclosed. 

“Not the start to the weekend you expected huh?” Kim commented grimly as Voight emerged from his office, two photographs, the rest of the unit filling in up the stairs.

“I think Jessica Connors would agree,” Voight answered, drawing the attention of the room as you greeted the others, sticking up two more photographs next to the other 9, who must have been the New York victims. 

The next two women looked nearly identical to the others, flicking to the back of the file to find their reports as Voight spoke. “She was found late last night, same M.O as the rest,” he told you all, pointing to the second photograph he’d stuck up. “This is Lily Hamilton, found the same way a week ago. The connection between the victims was made last night and a further connection was made with these other 9 women, all matching the M.O to the letter, including aspects not released to the press, and all coming from New York 10 years ago.”

“Special Victims?” Kevin asked, earning a nod from Voight.

“Captain Benson, Detective Carisi and Officer Tamin are already on their way,” he replied, “this is going to be a big case, the press is already picking up on the story, and the Commissioner thought it would be best if we took it given our history of working successfully with New York’s Special Victims Unit.” 

Your mind went instantly to Carisi but you shut him out, now wasn’t the time to think about seeing him ago. This case would have been before he’d joined the unit, but you figured maybe Captain Benson would know more, they might have even working it back in the day. 

“All the women, practically identical, went missing within a 6 month window, with gaps ranging from a couple of days to a couple of months. The only connection NYPD found was their appearance, and he seems to have kept them alive for varying lengths of time before killing them and dressing them up like this. They never found out where, but they weren’t killed in the woods. Signs of sexual assault were obvious, but actual damage to their body was minimal. The cause of death was a concoction of lethal drugs injected into their system, the contents of which were not released to be public but match both our cases and New York’s,” Voight relayed the basics.

“So how are we working this?” Hailey asked, perched up on her desk with her head rest on her chin, staring thoughtfully at the board in front of you all.

“I want Burgess, Ruzek and Antonio on the old New York cases, see if anything was missed or if any potential suspects have surfaced in Chicago recently. Atwater and Rojas will re-examine the first crime scene, I want every stone unturned. Upton and Halstead will interview both of the families, see what they were doing when they went missing, but remember, we only found Jessica last night, so tread carefully.”

You couldn’t help but notice one name not mentioned. “Sergeant-” You began to ask, slightly raising your hand. He turned to you before you could finish.

“Y/L/N, Benson requested you work with her unit for this case, seems you made quite an impression in the way you handled our last case with them, you’ll be heading to the most recent crime scene after you’ve all reviewed the case notes, meet them there when they touch down,” he explained, Antonio suppressing a smirk and others glancing at you curiously. 

You didn’t know what to say, so you nodded to let him know you understood, Benson’s comment about a change of scenery resurfacing in your mind. You hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but maybe she’d actually been serious. 

“What are you all still doing standing around, let’s get moving,” Voight ordered, snapping all of you into gear as you quickly pushed that from your mind too, heading back to your desk and ignoring the raised brow Antonio gave you.

You had a case to work and a killer to catch, and with Special Victims touching down in a couple of hours, whoever this rapist was, their luck had just run out. 

[sparklingdust4612]

Review time!! "One"

I really like weird, unexpected pregnancies that send tons of people on a tailspin lol

Really loved this, the characters, Katniss' huge expanded family, Peeta's reformed mother (i love when jlala makes Mrs Mellark change for the greater good :D). This was such an amazing story about choices, responsibility, family, character development with a healthy amount of smut and HEA was the perfect cherry on top. I am so glad I read this though it took me nearly 8 hours to XDD

Favourite parts time!:

1- “Mommy, what’s ‘get wasted’ mean?” Jenna looked up at them curiously. She was four, with Gale’s grey eyes and Johanna’s piercing stare.

“It’s something that you’re never going to do,”

2- “I don’t know why I stay with you fools,” Thresh said.

“’Cause we’re the shit,” Cato responded with a grin.

3- “You bitches turn around. I don’t want you staring at this magnificent vagina—it might be too much for you to handle.”

4- “Missed a little bit of Peeta Mellark in her, right?”

5- “You told me ‘to get over here already’, which I took as you not needing me to put anything on,” Peeta replied through gritted teeth.

“What kind of idiot comes up with that conclusion?” Katniss’ eyes were blazing.

“The one that got you pregnant, obviously.”

6- "Trust me, I cringe thinking that this woman has seen Johanna’s vagina and now she’s going to be looking at mine.”

“It’ll be a nice bonding moment for you two.”

7- “Yeah,” Gale added from her left. “It looks like it’s waving—like it’s saying ‘Hi, Mommy…’” His voice cracked as he tried to raise it. “Sorry, I’m no good with fetus impersonations.”

8- she turned to Gale, her eyes serious.

“Daddy, finish coloring for me, okay?”

9- “If I could be as excited about one of those companies as much as Jenna did baking with you—then it would all be worth it. You spend a majority of your life trying to grow up, thinking it’ll make you happy. In the end, you wish that you were still a kid.”

10- The door burst open and Cato rushed in, his face crimson.

“I can’t wait—IF YOU TWO DON’T GET OUT OF HERE, I’M GOING TO PEE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU!”

11- “Your boobs look bigger than they did last week.” Annie eyed Katniss’ chest. “Can I touch one? Is there milk in there already?”

12- “They say I look just like him.”

Katniss grinned teasingly. “So he was a hot blond with amazing dexterity, too?”

“Don’t make me pull this car over.”

13- “Mom is infamous for finding girls in our rooms.”

14- "so for the love of God, please stop sending me little hormonal messages that make me want to vomit.”

15- “About time you two got down here,” Will said, amused. “We were about to send up the search party.”

16- “No—it’s more like ‘whenever the baby wants me to suffer’ sickness.”

17- “Peeta’s baby mama,”

18- “You knew, didn’t you?”

“Not many women look like they want to throw up when they meet me,” he responded with a charming grin.

19- “That’s a big deal. There was a moment while I was in college where Mom thought I was into girls – she kept on leaving all these books about coping with ‘sexual confusion’ on my desk every time I would come home.”

Katniss placed a hand on her stomach. “I’ve got her ‘sexual confusion’ right here.”

20- “I’m Gabe Everdeen, patriarch and prisoner of the household.”

21- “Not even Gale?”

“I don’t count Gale as a boy.”

“How do you suppose he got Johanna pregnant then?”

“She could’ve done it herself,” she told him with a grin. “Johanna is that powerful.”

22- “They all thought that you would die a dried-up virgin.”

23- “How could you let her get pregnant?” Angelica asked her daughter.

“Yes, Mom,” Johanna responded with a glare. “I physically stood there and LET him impregnate her. I even drew a DIAGRAM!”

24- “I know I was definitely breathless when I met you.”

“Smooth line, no wonder I ended up pregnant.”

25- “From the moment I met you, I knew there was something special about you and I was right. You’re beautiful, smart and you’re the strongest woman I know. I’m lucky just to be holding your hand. I hope that you’ll give me the honor of spending the rest of my life with you—will you marry me?”

Thresh held the box out for Cato.

“MY NUBIAN KING!” Cato mock swooned before tackling Thresh to the ground. “You are more handsome than Denzel Washington and Will Smith put together!”

26- “Are you crying?”

“No! I was just hastily snorting crack!”

27- “Good morning, baby.” His hand went to her bare legs and she arched as he reached her inner thigh. “I hope you don’t mind, but your mom is looking incredibly sexy this morning and I just—need her. One day, you’ll understand; unless you’re a girl because I won’t allow any boy to touch you.”

28- “You want to marry him!” Johanna teased as they walked down the street. “You want to marry him and have his baby—whoops, too late!”

“I DO NOT!” Katniss protested. “You can’t be held accountable for what you say when you have the gloriousness that is Peeta Mellark’s penis inside of you—“

29- “Hi, I’m single—I mean Prim!” She turned crimson. “Oh, crap…”

30- “I’ll explain later, but let’s just say that your brothers know a little more about your cock than I’d want them to.”

31- “We heard you have a glorious cock.”

32- “I’m proud of you every day, Peeta,” she said as they held one another.

“I choose us every day, Katniss.”

33- “Wait—there’s a third option? What is it? Like through the ass?”

34- “Definitely not a water birth.” “It was like she was blowing a bubble from her vagina! Do you think it’ll look like that when I give birth?”

35- “All babies are supposed to be beautiful.” Her eyes caught one of the babies spitting up. “Okay, maybe not.”

“Spit-up baby judges you

36- “He said that he wanted to look into the eyes of the man who would be taking his daughter away from him—in the most non-threatening voice,

37- her own vow that she would love him that way for the rest of their lives: quietly yet powerfully and always unrestrained.

38- “Thank God—those dark, mysterious looks only cause men to fall to their knees.”

39- “You two belong together! You’re both insane!”

40- “Sad boy music?”

“You know—songs that only use an acoustic guitar, and the musician sounds like he’s swallowed rocks to make his voice low and gravelly.”

41- “Showing your weaknesses just gives people the chance to hurt you,” Katniss said quietly against him. “I don’t want my child to see me or our families that way.”

“Without weakness, there would be no compassion,”

42- “You’re the cutest,” Katniss told the little boy. “Do you want to be our ring bearer?”

“NO!” MJ shook his head. “I’m gonna marry you!”

“HEY!” Peeta gave the boy a good-natured smile. “I’m going to marry her!”

MJ stared him in the eye for a moment. “Well, okay, but can I marry your baby?”

43- “WOW, your breasts are huge!” Annie joined them on their bed. “It’s so not fair! I’ve been drinking these protein shakes that are supposed to help these itty-bitty things, but NOTHING!”

Katniss gave her friend a pointed stare. “Protein shakes, Annie?”

“There might’ve been a little something else in there, too…” Annie said nonchalantly. She clapped her hands together. “Well, it looks like you two are going to bed, so maybe next time?” The couple nodded and their petite friend walked quickly to the door, muttering to herself, “No wonder they always want to stay home…”

The door clicked shut behind her and Katniss turned to him. “It’s happened. We’re officially lame.”

44- She turned to look at the group of women who practically raised her, plus her soon-to-be-mother-in-law. Angelica and Hazelle looked amused, her mother was bright red though Katniss could see a hint of a smile and Anna looked like she was thinking of ways to torture her and Peeta.

“Let’s just keep looking for dresses, okay Annie?” Her face was probably beet red at this point.

Her friend nodded with a distracted smile. “Okay!” Annie suddenly turned to the table of women. “Before I do, I have to congratulate your mothers.” She went to Laurel. “Congratulations on having a very vocal and instructive daughter; she is very firm in telling Peeta what will make her happy in their bedroom.” She then looked to Anna. “Your son is a very virile lover—if he wasn’t, Katniss wouldn’t wake everyone up despite our hangovers whenever she climaxes—“

“Annie, honey!” Johanna led her friend away. “Why don’t you look at this side before Katniss has an aneurysm?”

“Oh yes, Katniss! Don’t you worry, honey,” Laurel said in a calm voice. “Your father and I conceived you during a Hall and Oates concert. So you see, it’s completely normal to have that high of a sexual drive.” Her mother grinned to herself. “I think you get it from your father.”

“Just kill me now,” Prim muttered a few feet away from her.

“Interesting. Because I pretty sure that Peeta was conceived at an Eagles concert,” Anna suddenly said, her finger on her chin. “Or was it Van Halen?”

45- He looked over at Effie, who gave him a sympathetic smile. “We’re getting to the point where she feels like everything is your fault.”

46- Marvel joked as he lifted Ada into his arms. “Let’s bring these two to their beds and then I can introduce you to my other two tax breaks.”

47- “Katniss is very active,” Annie stated, a finger twirling around her dark hair hazily. “The guys and I make bets all the time on how many times she and Peeta get down in one night—I’m averaging on three times.”

48- She stomped her foot and burst into tears. “Mommy—he won’t let me in!”

“Here comes ‘Only-child Johanna’…”

49- “I’m not sacrificing anything,” Peeta told him. The waitress’ eyes softened at his words. “I marrying the love of my life—and the mother of my child.”

50- “She just knocked the wind out of me.”

“In return, you knocked my best friend up,”

51- “You are like Casper, the Friendly Ghost white.”

52- “Peeta?”

“Yeah?”

“When I imagined my bachelorette party, I didn’t think I would be surrounded by breasts.”

53- “Fights, stripping, and getting us kicked out of the club,” Peeta told him. “The fighting was Johanna, the stripping was Gale, and the getting us kicked out was them as a duo—they were like fucking Batman and Robin against security.”

“Worst part is that Gale was Robin,”

54- “She also told me that only a real game-changer could throw you off,”

55- “Effie, will you be our kid’s Haymitch?” Katniss asked. “You know—be there when we’re driving him or her crazy? See the things that we’re sometimes not able to see?”

Effie beamed at them and nodded. “That’s about the weirdest way that anyone’s asked me to be their kid’s godparent—but I accept.”

56- “It’s all going to be okay—and we knew that this would happen eventually. Except for when you thought that I was a lesbian and all. On the other hand, lesbians can get married, too. I think it was more about finding ‘the one.’”

57- “I’m sorry, but I have to warn you—while I’m still normal,” she told him tiredly. “I’m going to be a nightmare; a crazy bitch of a nightmare.” Katniss looked over at their families. “And I can’t deal with them while I push this meatloaf out of somewhere that is as small as a toothpaste tube opening.”

58- “Giving birth seems wicked boring,” Annie groaned as she moved her head from side to side. She looked over at Gale and Johanna. “So how was it for you?”

Johanna smiled at her. “For me, it was painful until the drugs.”

“Sounds bad…” Annie responded as she played with her hair. She looked to Gale. “So does her vagina feel any different now that a giant baby head has popped out of it?”

He stared at her for a moment. “Huh?”

“Does it feel different? Like, is it like throwing a hot dog down a hallway down there?” Annie continued, her eyes penetrating the man.

Gale looked over at Finnick. “Do I have to answer?”

“I find that the more you don’t answer, the more personal they’ll get,” Finnick replied.

59- “Peeta?” Katniss looked to him, tears from the pain of her last contraction glistening off her cheeks. “I’ve learned a very important lesson from all this.”

“What is it?” he responded with a smile.

“Sex is bad.” She laid back against her pillow. “I mean, really bad.”

Peeta sat next to her on the bed. “Is it really all that bad?”

60- Taking the cup of ice chips on the side table, he took a piece and ran it over her lips. She felt the familiar shiver of his touch run over her before Peeta leaned down to kiss her softly. Katniss let his tongue brush over her and she sighed against him as he pulled away.

Katniss stared at him incredulously.

“What?” he asked.

“I can’t believe how seriously turned on I am right now,” she told him and he chuckled before placing a kiss on her nose.

“Well, I’m about to obliterate that feeling.” They looked to see Effie approaching them as she took a pair of disposable gloves from the holder by the door. “It’s time for me to check how dilated you are.”

61- “I have very peculiar tastes,” he told them.

“Like Fifty Shades kind of tastes?”

62- “She is definitely a beauty.”

“I can’t take all the credit,” Katniss replied with a smile. She looked over at Peeta, who was currently being embraced by his parents. “My husband contributed half of her genetics.”

63- “She’s so tiny—not at all painful to push out of your hoo-hah.”

64- “And she’s not as funny looking as I thought.”

“HEY!” Katniss yelled. “That’s our kid that you’re talking about.”

“Hey, Lizzie-bird—Uncle Thresh here. So I’m sure that you’re a little underwhelmed by your father—“

“Seriously, Thresh?” Peeta scowled at him. “I will kick you out of this room.”

“Dude—will you let me finish?” Thresh looked back down at the baby. “But he’s actually a pretty good guy and meeting your mother—who, by the way, is so far out of his league—”

“THRESH!”

“Calm your tits, Peeta!” Thresh told the man. “Anyway, they make each other better, so I think you lucked out, kid. You’re going to be okay.” He met Peeta’s eyes, then Katniss’. “You’re all going to be okay.”

“Let me hold her!” Finnick suddenly called out and he held out his arms. “GIMME!”

“This is not like passing a bong,”

65- “That’s what life is—an infinite number of loops that we spend our time unraveling. And, if you’re lucky, you have somebody alongside you helping.”

66- “It seemed that fate had found two people who were perfect for one another,” Thresh said. “Because the two could not dance for shit!” Everyone let out a laugh at his words. “Alcohol, while liberating them, could not even help two such rhythmless dancers.”

67- Daddy was the only one who called her Lucky. When she asked why, he told her because once he found out that Mommy was having her, he became the luckiest person on earth.

68- “You look funny, Aunt Effie—your eyes are doing the same thing as my Mommy’s when she looks at Daddy too hard,” she told the woman.

“Oh, really?” her Aunt said.

“Yeah—and then her and Daddy have to go take a nap in their room.” Lizzie took a sip from her carton. “But I think they’re really jumping on their bed.”

“Why would you say that?” Uncle Haymitch asked. He looked over at her Daddy, who was looking down at the papers.

“Because the bed squeaks so loud!”

Big people didn’t know anything about how to jump on a bed the right way.

“I can hear it even if the door is closed! But they’re not very good at jumping on the bed—because they jump so fast and get tired too quick!” She looked to her Daddy. “Daddy, you shouldn’t jump too quickly. Mr. Gloss says that when you do activities—you have to warm up first!”

69- “Now can we please go inside? I have to pee because Effie made me drink a lot of water—and your new niece is jumping on my bladder!”

70- “Daddy says that I’m not allowed to slide off the banister—so no one else can, either!”

“We’ll restrain ourselves,”

71- “Oh—TMI, there,” Uncle Cal said with a grin as he looked at Mommy and Daddy. “No wonder you’re having another baby—too much jumping on the bed.”

“If you jump on a bed then you’ll have babies?” Lizzie turned to her parents. “I jumped on a bed with Francis and Ellie—does that mean I’ll have a baby, too?”

“No, honey,” her Mommy said before she looked at Uncle Cal with her mean face. “That’s not how babies are made.”

“Then how are they made?” she asked.

72- They were always screaming, or yelling, or crying. Sometimes they stared too hard at one another, or they would slam doors or chairs.

But, they also did other things—nice things.

Mommy and Daddy always danced with each other—only when they thought no one was looking.

Phew! that was long, i mean @jlalafics wrote a ton of stuff i really couldnt help but save in this post lol. I loved this and you should totally get a standing ovation for your amazingness :D

[greyfongschemmenti]

Lin x reader request: Happy New Year, my love

I’m so sorry I’m publishing so late. I am so blocked so I literally took all day to try and write something for this request. Hopefully I did not let you down. Luckily this will be the last fic of 2020!!! So this is a milestone in itself. 

It’s currently 11:16pm where I’m at so it’s still 2020. So I still accomplished getting this request in the year. 

Hopefully you like this one anon. If not....I’m sorry *tears*

Happy New Year, My Love | Lin x Reader FF

Word count: 2510

It was the first new year’s celebration you were going to spend in Republic City, and you weren’t sure if you were excited or treating it as a normal day. Walking up to Air temple island and seeing Bumi and Meelo carrying boxes of fireworks “Ahh I see the island is going to have their own show” you smile. Both men give you their shit eating grin and nod “of course, It’s going to be huge!” Meelo jumps excitingly as he hurries over to the safe location to set up. “You are going to keep it safe right, Bumi?” you give him a glare as you fold your arms, and he smirks. “Of course, plus if things go south Kya can use her bending to wash it out. Wouldn’t want the chief to fine us” he laughs, and you shake your head. “there is only so much leeway I can do to not get you arrested, Bumi.” You exasperated and slid your hands in your pocket.

“where is the chief anyway? She is not with you?” Bumi looks behind you as he holds up the box and you shake your head. “no, why would she be with me?” you look at the eldest son of the cloudkids and he gives you a knowing look. You and Lin have been dating for a couple months and so far Bumi has been the only one catching on. As far as you knew Bumi was the only one…. The island sure loves to talk even if they are all about peace and quiet. It gets really noisy with the gossip. You sigh as you rub the back of your neck

“Actually no, she had to work tonight. You know because crime spikes up in the holidays.” you stress, and he rolls his eyes “hey I got this. It’s not my first time dealing with these beauties.” He smirks as he walks over and helps Meelo set up with the help of a few acolytes.

*

Lin has never really given an ounce of care for the new year celebrations. If anything it gave her more work and paperwork since it seems there are always crimes. Busted windows, drunken fights, disturbance calls, noise complaints, just to name a few. But this was the first new year since Tenzin that she was going to have someone, you. A part of her felt bad that she had to work, but duty came first. You of all people understood and for that she was grateful. You had told her that you were going to spend the evening alone, but Lin suggested to head over to the island with the airbending family instead. Once the shift was over Lin would head over, but the both of you knew that Lin would return in the wee hours of the night, after the festivities would be over.

Lin sighed as she glanced down at the paperwork in front of her and got back to work as her officers answered calls.

*

After a couple of hours playing with the kids you told them to run off and let them give you a chance to get something to drink. Kya walks up beside you as you sip some water and gives you a smile. “Fancy seeing you here. Actually I’m glad you’re here. No one should be alone for the new year.”

You gave her a soft smile and nod “yeah, I suppose that is true. I’m glad too. I love the family as if they were my own.”

“I’m sure everyone loves you too. Sad Lin couldn’t make it through.” She sighed as she folded her arms, and you looked a way for a second as you nod. “yeah, you know Lin. Always working to keep the city safe.”

“yeah, but I’m sure the city won’t crash and burn one night.” Kya huffs and you softly laugh “that may be true, but who are we to stop the chief from doing her duty”

A snicker is heard from behind the both of you and Kya rolls her eyes “really Bumi, how old are you exactly? You still snicker over that word”

You smile watching the banter back and forth from the two siblings. You slip past them as Bumi gets defensive at how funny the word sounds.

Stepping outside and feeling the cool breeze as some citizens couldn’t contain their excitement and started already setting off their own personal fireworks.

No one should be alone for the new year.

Kya’s words repeated into your mind and you glanced back at the temples. She does have a point, but who were you to just step into headquarters at this time of night. There is just two hours until midnight.

*

“you know as much as we love having here. I’m sure there is a certain chief of police that will love to be brought into the new year.” Bumi sits beside you at the wooden gazebo as you look out towards Yue bay and you playfully scoff “is this your way of kicking me off the island? And only with an hour left of the year”

“No, but what Kya said had some truth. No one should be alone during new year’s” he smiles softly as he nudges you before standing up. You look at him puzzled before looking back towards the direction of where headquarters would be before looking back at the eldest brother. “Go, I’ll come up with some excuse to give the family.” He nudges you before you finally give him a smile and stand up. Lifting your sleeve up you look at your watch and see you have less than an hour to head over. “Traffic is bad. I’m not sure I’ll make it” you mutter as you purse your lips. “well you better get going. Isn’t that why you have your motorcycle to begin with?” he smirks, and you return the smile. Giving him a hug “happy new year, Bumi” he returns the gesture, and you climb over the railing and earthbend down the island.

*

Lin looked over at her clock on her desk, 11:40 P.M., she groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose. There would be no use to call the island, all the lines are busy with everyone else trying to call their loved ones. It’s just a day, tomorrow everything will be back to normal, surely you did understand and aren’t feeling out of sorts.

*

You were revving your bike weaving and bobbing through other cars and vehicles that were trying to do the same that you were going. Trying to get to your loved ones to wish them a happy new year. You almost collided into a guy balancing boxes of baked goods on the sidewalk when you swerved past a satomobile. You yelled out your apologies while he yelled out exploitative at you. Looking ahead at the road with the cold wind blasting in your face causing your cheeks to turn a rosy pink. Glancing down at your watch, 11:50 pm, “I can make it. HQ is right down the road.” You mutter under your breath as you revved and sped quicker.

*

A knock on the door brings Lin back to the present as she files a report in her cabinet, “Better be important” she calls out as she metalbends the door open. “Hey chief, with five minutes left to the new year I was wondering if you want to celebrate in the bullpen” Officer Zan talked to the Chief. Lin looked over and indeed the clock had just turned 11:56 P.M. since the question. “thank you for the offer, but I have work that needs to get done.”

“of course, Happy New Year, Chief” the officer bowed

“Happy New Year, Zan” Lin nodded at the officer and he closed the door.

“just 3 minutes until the sky is bright and the noises” Lin muttered as she looks into her cabinet for her stashed bottle of sake.

*

“10!”

You jump off your cycle at the front of the building as you start to sprint inside the building.

9

Running past the front desk as the secretaries were watching the television watching the broadcast. You hear the muffled counting.

8

You run up the stairs as you reach the top floor towards the bullpen. You’ve come here once or twice to visit Mako and in turn was a way to see Lin. Which was how you met the chief and got introduced to her, the start of that relationship. A smile appears on your lips as you think back to that moment.

7

No, this is not the time.

6

You push past the door and look around trying to remember if it was a left of right to the bullpen. You close your eyes as you try to visualize the floor plan. “Crap, ok focus…. Once you go up the stairs you make a….. right” you look in that direction and hurried over.

5

“followed by a left” you voice out the directions and then the first door to the right will open into the bullpen. Sure enough the bullpen comes into view

“Hey, you’re Mako’s cousin right? He’s not here” Tan looks at you as the guys are all holding cups to cheer in the year.

4

“I’m not here for Mako, is the Chief in? I need to report something” you urged to the officer and he shakes his head “She doesn’t want to be disturbed”

3

“It’s fine. She knows me” you brushed him off and l remembered where her office is, but Tan stands in front of you. “She’s busy” you glare at him and push past him

2

“Stop!” Tan shouts out as you grab the handle and open the door to Lin’s office.

Lin looks up and her eyes widen when she sees you and then looks at Tan “What is the meaning of this?!”

1

“Happy New Year!!!” the cheers coming from the bullpen as the three of you are looking at each other. “I’m sorry Chief, I tried to stop them” Tan quickly explains and Lin raises her hand up to stop him “It’s fine. You’re dismissed Tan, enjoy the festivities in the bullpen.”

“yes, Chief” Tan bows and he gives you a look before walking out as you closed the door behind you.

“What are you doing here, y/n?” Lin stands up and walks around her desk as she looks at you. Her voice laced with a slight anger that you caused a commotion at her place of work and surprise.

“Happy New Year to you too” you smile as you stepped closer to the metalbender.

“Still haven’t answered my question” she smirked as she leaned against the desk folding her arms.

“No one should be alone on New Year’s, Lin” you spoke softly to her as you stepped right in front of her. “if you couldn’t be with me where I was, then I figured I should come to you.” you gave her a smile as you looked into her eyes.

“it’s just like any other day, y/n” Lin muttered as she looked away to hide her slight blush.

“That maybe but I wanted to start the year with someone I love” you smiled more as Lin’s eyes widened slightly before looking over at you.

“what?”

“I love you Lin Beifong.” You confessed, looking right at those pale green eyes that you love to lose yourself in. A blush appears on your cheeks as you turn your eyes away from the slight embarrassment.

“Do you really mean it?” Lin looked up at you, this isn’t the first time you’ve dropped the word, but it still surprised her that someone would come to express it towards her. She didn’t think she would be able to find someone else to share those emotions with. She looked almost hopeful that you wouldn’t have doubts or regrets from saying it, doubts about you not really loving her. It all vanished instantly when you looked back at her and smiled. The love of your face is evident to anyone who looked at you.

“Of course, I do.”

Lin heard the fireworks setting off in the background followed by the cheers. You and Lin missed the countdown, but the most prominent sound that was going off was her own heartbeat. She was glad that you didn’t develop the skill to have seismic sense or else she was done for.

“Isn’t there some sort of tradition between couples?” you smirked as you stepped closer resting your hands on either side of Lin’s waist.

“I’m not sure I know what you mean” Lin breathed out as you looked at each other’s eyes. 

“well the tradition is to kiss the one you love. Since here you are”

“Here I am” Lin smiles as your eyes glancing down at her lips. Your head came down to meet hers, and you kissed her.

The kiss started off slow and sweet. A slight uncertainty at first, each unsure about how far either one could go, but it slowly became more and more confident. Lin wrapped her hands around your neck as your arms made their way around her waist, and you pulled her even closer to you than Lin thought possible. Lin felt herself relax against you; she has never felt anything more... Right. You opened your mouth, hoping to deepen the kiss which Lin responded eagerly.

After a couple of moments, Lin reluctantly broke off the kiss, to get some air. Both of your faces flushed as you rested your forehead against hers. Slowly opening your eyes and looking into each other's eyes, each with a smile imprinting on each other’s faces. You brushed your hands down and held her hands into yours as you stepped back. Lin’s brow raised wondering what you were doing, and you smiled as you tugged her towards the window.  

You spun her around once and Lin let out an amused laugh before you pulled her close to your embrace. Wrapping your arms around her waist as her back is pressed against your chest. A soft kiss on her neck as Lin’s face is illuminated by the bright lights of the fireworks. The other of you stand there a moment to enjoy the quiet moment and the sound of the city celebrating the new year.

"y/n," Lin muttered against you as she looked out in front of her.

"Yes, dear?" you muttered back, rubbing her waist as the both of you slightly sway side to side.

"Happy New Year," she looks over her shoulder to look at you watching you smile. How she loves your smile, it causes her to turn to face you as you cup her cheek.

“Happy New Year, my love” you whisper as you smile lovingly at your beloved. Lin pulls you into another kiss; and Lin knew at that moment, that if this year was even half as good as it was at this moment... then It was going to be a very good year.