#Top AV Receivers

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Top AV Receivers of 2025 for Stunning Home Theater Sound

Introduction:

In short, high-quality audios are the main ingredient of any great home theater list. AV receivers hold the top ranks in this regard. At the brink of approaching 2025, technology is at its best to be able to equip AV receivers with even more avant-garde features fitting comfortably within any form of an audiophile and some casual moviegoer. We will learn what the best AV receivers for 2025 look like, a device that might easily transform your living room into a cinematic heaven.

What Does a Great AV Receiver in 2025 Mean?

Before reviewing the list below, let us understand what makes a great AV receiver this year:. Here are the key features to look for:

• Support for 8K Video: With 8K TVs becoming more common, AV receivers must support 8K passthrough for future-proofing your system. • Dolby Atmos and DTS:X: These audio formats provide 3D surround sound, an experience like a theatre. • HDMI 2.1: It will just fall in love in the gamers' and film enthusiasts' hearts since it includes VRR and low latency. • Room Calibration Technology: Total sonic perfecting using Audyssey or Dirac Live according to the acoustics in your room. • Wireless Connectivity: There is in-built Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, with the multi-room audio system along with AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. • Power Output: When one moves to such higher places in the hierarchy of positions, so that wattage can be enhanced for good sound quality, louder, and also volume-rich sounds So, now let us examine some of the best AV receivers, checking all of them.

1. Denon AVR-X4800H

Why It's Awesome:

• 8K passthrough on up to three HDMI inputs

• Advanced Audyssey MultEQ XT32 room calibration

9.4-channel processing, upgradable to 11.4 channels

If he is one looking for a sound performance and value-gaining one, the Denon AVR-X4800H certainly does it right, as he's definitely going to be enjoying perfect Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support for each and every scene. Multi-room audio goes smoothly with the promises of HEOS.

Best For: Film enthusiasts, mid-range prices.

2. Yamaha RX-A8A Aventage

Cool Factor:

• Prestige-grade construction with anti-resonance technology.

• Multi-room music streaming through MusicCast.

• 11.2-channel surround with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

This Yamaha RX-A8A Aventage is some monster of large home theaters. Using AI-driven sound enhancement, it adjusts its sound instantly—from a crashing explosion to some quiet whispers.

Readmore...

This article was originally published on [techsizlo.blogspot.com](https://techsizlo.blogspot.com)

[star-suh]

Lights, Camera, Action !

Park Jisung x Male Reader

cw: camboy park jisung his nickname is song, big dick jisung (11”), established relationship

—

park jisung or song – how is he known in the av world – is a famous content creator, he’s always on the top of users on the platform. many people would ask why that is. it only takes some clicks to realize why – an 11 inch dick hanging in between his legs – is massive, girthy and veiny. it’s like a dream for the people out there, they want it inside them claiming they can take it all.

-”please let me ride it, i promise i’ll take it balls deep” he read in one of the comments on his livestream.

-“hahaha guys i’m not planning to do collabs, just solo things for now”.

crying emojis flooded the chat, why is he forbidding everyone the pleasure of touching and feeling such massive meat. it’s a question that every subscriber and fan asked themselves, if he did collabs he would escalate spots and be the number one on there. would be a lie to think he hasn’t thought about it but he doesn’t wanna do it with anyone he has just one person in mind, his boyfriend.

they met back when they were living in the university dorms, as a way to pay his fees jisung took advantage of his little friend down there an opened an account on the website, the first video was of him just jerking off, ‘first video’ was the title of it and it quickly gain recognition in between the platform users. ‘so big’, ‘i need him so bad’, ‘until the room stinks’ were some of the comments he received.

the next video was of him squeezing an entire little bottle of lube, coating his shaft in beads of the liquid that rolled down towards his balls and made it glisten in the light. moans and little whispered fucks can be heard in the recording, once again the video was a hit for him, making subscribers eager to know when the next video is gonna be reuploaded. in one of his recordings he made loud noises that disturbed the student next door, yn, who angrily storm his way out towards his neighbour. he opened the door without knocking catching jisung spurting ropes of cum all over his body, he has a ski mask on – to have at least a bit of animosity – after he rode his high he turn his head to the side to see yn standing there, mouth agape and in shock. he just saw jisung orgasming but not only that, he saw that big ass dick hard as a rock. 

“what the hell jisung?” he said surprisingly, a whispered shout, closing the door immediately.

“why do you think i’m jisung?” the man questioned, trying to act fool. “these aren’t shared dorms dumbass” yn turned around breaking eye contact, face flushed and his dick threatening to get rock hard, “cover that monster please” he says as he leaves the room leaving a dumbfounded jisung lying on the floor, tired, “ahh shit i feel so tired to get up and clean myself” he uttered while staring at the ceiling.

next day was awkward between the two jisung apologized for the situation and yn did the same because at the end of the day it was his fault for not knocking first. “ok then but you have to accept my invitation to go eat something”, “i would accept but to be honest i don’t have enough money right now” yn muttered lowly, ashamed. “don’t worry, it’s on me”.

days turned into weeks and weeks into months, the dates became something regular in between them, in one of them jisung confessed to yn how he gets all that money and the av job he had now. “are you disappointed in me?” jisung asked –pouting.

“uhmm… i’m not. it’s your life man do whatever you want as long as it doesn’t affect your well being” jisung looked at him surprised, “besides… you umm… have a really nice thing down there” yn look everywhere around but jisung, his cheeks turning into a pinkish hue, the same happening to jisung, “thanks i guess”. next thing they knew was them on jisung’s bed letting all the steam and sexual tension go.

soon jisung asked yn to be his boyfriend and he accepted, jisung’s content creator side job wasn’t a problem at all for yn because after all is just videos of him stroking his dick. they can fantasize all they want about it but would never have it.

“come on baby, let's do it”, jisung tried to convince yn, “i'll put a ski mask on you too, no one would know it's you”. “i know jisungie but i don't know, you're fine doing it as a solo. what if they stop supporting you because they're seeimg you fucking someone else” he sighs, “their fantasy would fall down” he adds.

“i don't really care prince, plus, this is what they want” jisung walked closed towards yn, handps gripping and kneading yn's ass, “they'll go crazy seeing this slutty ass engulfing 11 inches. such a hungry pussy, almost ☆☆☆☆ if you ask me”. he kissed yn's neck then went up towards his lips brushing them with his tongue. yn opened them up letting him go inside and explore it with it. yn uttered a little "okay” agreeing to do it.

jisung was setting his camera ready while yn got ready when a notification popped up, someone just subbed to his page. happy he opened the app cheering a bit, he opened the camera of the app to record a thank you video for his followers. “are you ready?” yn came into picture, with the black ski mask on him and wearing only a thong, the piece of clothe was so little that the backside was barely covered, it was just a finger-thick string that sat pretty right in the middle of yn’s hole.

“fuck, look at this” jisung smacked his ass, “are you so eager that you are already eating the thong?” he said pulled the string to then let it go smacking yn's hole, drawing a moan out of him”. jisung didn't remember that he was on the platform's camera, he was ready to press the record button when yn sat on top of him, making him slide his finger setting to the live button. he then pressed the red button thinking he was recording.

*SONG IS LIVE* 

song and his boyfriend were making out not noticing the live chat, in their minds they haven’t started recording yet so why bother checking out?. 

-”damn he decided to do collabs”.

-”me next”.

-”finally an ass is bouncing on that pole, we cheered”.

-”so hot, i’m gonna nut so hard!”.

his followers were going crazy, jisung’s heavy dick staying still in between yn’s cheeks, a fat drop of precum forming on the tip. while they were kissing jisung applied oil on both yn’s ass and his dick making them shine. yn pulls the string on the thong up so there’s nothing in between the warm, throbbing dick of his boyfriend and his pulsating, eager hole. then he releases the string for it to fall and stays taut on jisung’s dick, securing it. the string working overtime trying to hold in place such a thick piece of meat.

the precum started to roll down his shaft, landing on yn’s hole. coating it with the clear substance, mixed with the lube poured before. “ufff” yn sighed, eagerly to take the first inch inside him. their fucking is always tortuos for them, not because of the pain but because they have to restrain themselves –yn wanted all of it inside at once while jisung wanted to fuck his brains out. the tip is already inside, loads of precum coating yn’s walls. the head making its way inside in charge of stretching so the rest of the dick could enter with no problem.

yn’s insides stretched to the max, every inch that entered hurt like hell but iit was delicious, a pain that yn loved, soon it will turn into pleasure anyway. sinful noises coming out of his hole, engulfing his partner’s cock, the viewers going crazy in the live chat.

-”woah look at that, he could take it all”.

-”craving that boypussy”.

“you’re taking it like a champ” jisung praises, kissing the pain away –his lips covering the other’s collarbones with kisses and some hickeys here and there. finally jisung bottomed out, his dick bulging the other’s tummy. “tell me when to move” jisung reassured, smacking both his hands on each oiled cheek leaving his handprints on there, then grabbing a fistful to jiggle them around his cock, yn whimpering thanks to the sensation.

-“he definitely trespassed his second hole”.

-”the perfect fleshlight”.

some viewers said on the live chat. “you’re being so good for me” jisung mutters, “a good cocksleeve”. “your good cocksleeve” yn corrected him and kisses him, his tongue licking jisung’s lips. he then moved his hips, rocking them in a circle motion, squeezing his hole around jisung’s throbbing cock. “fuck prince keep doing that” jisung expressed, his hands on yn’s hips to guide him. the bulge on his stomach moving along with each movement. jisung locked his arms around yn’s torso to keep him steady and he started to thrust upwards slowly at first but the pace started to accelerate little by little. his thrust went from slow almost sensual to fast, brutal ones. 

-”is he a bottomless pit? how is he able to take all that?”.

-”I’M CUMMING FUCK!!”.

jisung withdraws his dick leaving just his swollen head still inside, then gripping yn’s hips with force he sank him down his rock hard meat. a guttural moan came from yn’s mouth, every viewer excited about the show their looking at. “fuck, love this greedy boypussy” jisung grunts, “so eager. starving for my big thick cock”. “whose this pussy belongs to?” jisung jiggled his globes with his veiny hands, nails being buried on the skin, “belongs to you baby” yn whimpered. once again jisung pulled out leaving only the tip inside and made another brutal thrust, yn’s body jerked due to the overstimulation. thankfully yn could handle jisung’s dick if it was another person they would surely be broken already. 

yn’s hole clenches on it, with all the strength left in his body. the lube turning creamy white for all the friction created by the merciless thrusts given by the top. “milk me dry baby. swallow it all with your whore boypussy”. yn kissed him while putting his hands on jisung’s shoulders –to gain leverage. then he plops himself on top of jisung leaving him the rest of the job, using yn like a toy to pursue his orgasm.

jisung used yn’s hole like his cocksleeve, giving him gently thrusts that signaled he was close, “cum with me”, jisung uttered latching his lips on yn’s nipples while one of his hands coated in spit jerked him off. yn’s body trembled, being stimulated on both sides was overwhelming him but he loved it, especially if it’s jisung doing it. the top pulled out, giving his cock a few strokes that made him spurt his sperm, ropes of it were expelled like a fountain, covering yn’s back and glutes. meanwhile in the front yn’s sperm was being scooped by jisung who then smeared it on his softening cock to put it inside the bottom, “cockwarm me baby” he demanded and yn nodded.

“we got carried away that i forgot to record” jisung laughs and stares at his phone, his smile fading immediately when he saw the live sign on red, “oh fuck” he uttered quietly. “umm guys, i hope y’all liked it, it’s a teaser of what is coming next on my page so stay tuned” he managed to disguise his concern as if everything was planned. it worked tho, his followers were loving his content even more, now they can see that 11 inch cock in action, drilling on poor asses that are brave enough to take it.

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

It's a Match! || poly!141 x Reader

[Chapter 25] || [Chapter Pre-27] || [Chapter 27]

Pairing: 141 x gn!Reader Words: 1.2k~ cw: smut, penetration, oral sex (m!receiving), gay sex (anal) Summary: While overcoming recent heartbreak, you decide to join Tinder in search of a rebound. Your friends advise to just Swipe Right indiscriminately... What happens when 4 soldiers from the same squad match with you? a/n: we're almost THERE

Chapter 26: Smart mouth

If you thought last time you guys did this was too much, you weren’t ready for this afternoon.

Had you had all your braincells intact, you would’ve pondered HOW John would end up adding to this, if it was even possible to add an extra person…

But they weren’t intact. You were utterly fucked out, stars prickling at the corner of your eyes…

You were lying on your tummy, legs spread apart to either side of the bed, Kyle steadily snapping his hips against your ass, the sound of his cock plunging into you wet and slick echoing in the room, not even concealed by your muffled moans.

Your head was craned back, your neck straining a bit in that position to allow for Johnny’s cock to plunge deep into your mouth, muffling any of the cries of pleasuring coming from you.

It didn’t help that Johnny was not controlling himself, his cock hammering into your mouth with wild abandon.

But that must have had something to do with the fact Simon was fucking him from behind, a hand gripping Johnny around the hip, the other holding your hair to make sure he stayed buried in your mouth.

The corners of your mouth hurt, Johnny’s shaft so impossibly thick, just like the rest of him, that you couldn’t help but whine and whimper at the stretch it forced your mouth to perform.

And Kyle with his damn moans and sighs behind you, his lengthy cock plunging so deep inside you, his thighs nearly permanently glued to your ass more often than not.

“Tha’s it… Wanted to ‘ave a fucking smart mouth, did ya?” Simon taunts who you know is Johnny, but frankly he feels like he could be speaking to any of you really.

“I-I… I’m sorry L.T.!” Johnny whines, his eyes rolling back, his back pressed firmly against Simon’s chest, head lolling against the taller man’s shoulder.

“Don’t apologise to me. Apologise to the pretty thing that’s got you all the way down their throat.” Simon replies, his tone bossy and authoritative.

“I-I’m sorry, bonnie… A-Ah…” Johnny got interrupted halfway as Simon’s hand bobbed your head back and forth, causing some audible sounds of you choking.

“Fuck… Looks so good…” Kyle huffed behind you, bent halfway over your body, panting right against your shoulder blade.

All he could see from that angle was your nose burrowed to Johnny’s pelvis, Simon’s hand in your hair, tears in your eyes…

Simon’s hand left your hair for a moment, allowing you to swallow the build up of saliva in your mouth and to breathe better through your nose, instead caressing Kyle’s cheek, his thumb grazing his bottom lip.

“You’re all doin’ so good f’r me…” Simon tells you, Kyle’s eyes closing at the praise, his lips parting to suck Simon’s thumb. “Good…”

Your eyes watch the entire scene, or… they would, if you weren’t already 2 orgasms in, too fucked out to think of anything at all beyond the fact this all feels too good.

-

You find yourself stirring awake by a sudden lack of warmth and groggily look around to notice Kyle leaving the warm pile of bodies on your bed, revealing your back to the cold air of the bedroom.

Grunting softly, you're shushed by a kiss on the crown of your head and an arm wrapping around you tighter, rubbing your bare back.

You’re hugging onto Simon, who has an arm around you. Kyle had been behind you this whole time, spooning you, and Johnny had been behind him.

“He's going to let John in,” Simon tells you as he keeps rubbing your back, gentle kisses pressed to the top of your head.

Johnny is sleeping soundly, just like you had been, his breathing steady, not quite a snore, but loud enough.

“John?” You murmur, rubbing your eyes.

“Yeah, he texted me about an hour ago, asking if we wanted dinner.” Simon tells you.

“Dinner?” Johnny murmurs in a half-awake state.

“Bloody ‘ell, did’ya wake up at the mention of food?’ Simon quips with a soft rumble of a laugh against your ear. It sounds like he's purring…

Johnny scoots closer, taking up the space that Kyle had been in until now, his lips beginning to press kisses to your bare shoulder.

“I'm so sore…” You murmur, lamenting how sluggish you feel, not to mention your cotton mouth.

After your session, you had all taken turns showering and Simon had made sure to get you all to drink water, but that did little to help your sorry state.

“At least ye don't have a bum knee.” Johnny quips behind you.

“And don't pull a muscle while sitting down,” Simon remarks.

“Or fuck up your back while having a one night stand.” John announces when he shows up at the bedroom door, Kyle right behind him.

Besides Simon, John’s the only one that's dressed, a pair of dark blue jeans, a white undershirt and a brown sweater on top, his hair slightly disheveled from having taken off the beanie he usually wears as a civvy.

“Hi…!” You greet him lazily.

“Hi, darling.” John replies as he approaches the bed.

He drops a kiss to Simon’s head, a peck on the lips for you, and runs a hand over Johnny’s messy mohawk.

“I see you lot had some fun, hm?” John teases before crouching by the bedside.

“‘f course we did, sir.” Johnny jokes with what you know is a sly little smirk on his lips.

“How about you lot get dressed and get some food, hm?” He quipped and ran a hand through your hair as you remained warm sandwiched between Johnny and Simon. “I brought Indian.”

“Ooh, butter chicken?!” Johnny remarks and immediately bounces up, trampling over you and Simon to get off the bed, causing you both to groan.

“I just said I'm SORE!” You scold Johnny as he starts gathering his clothes, which Kyle is also doing for himself.

“Clearly not sore enough! Guess I didn't fuck yer throat hard enough if your mouth is still yapping.” Johnny retorts, causing you to gasp.

“Johnny-” Simon replies as he slowly shifts and stands up as if already threatening him with another fucking to get the attitude out of him again.

“Tough talk for someone that had a cock up the ass 3 hours ago.” Kyle quips from beside him.

“HAUD YER YEESHT! You’re just bitter Simon didn’t fuck ye!” Johnny retorts as he nudges Kyle, the two of them picking up on their usual bickering.

“I wouldn't count that as fucking, more like putting you in your place.” Simon replies swiftly, joining Kyle in tag teaming Johnny.

“My PLACE?!” Johnny gasps.

John takes a seat in the spot Simon had been occupying, letting you curl up to him instead as the lads descend into the madness that is their usual bickering.

John’s arms pull you up onto his lap, wrapping you in a warm hug, his chin resting on your shoulder as you both gaze at the loud men in your bedroom.

“I'm sorry you have to deal with them.” He tells you playfully.

“And I'm sorry that you've been dealing with them for so long.” You retort.

You both share a glance and a chuckle.

"You know if you ever want a break from them... I've got my own place..." John suggests with narrowed eyes and a smile, puffy cheeks lightly pink.

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

taglist (CLOSED! not adding anyone else, sorry!):

@daisychainsinknots , @bunnysdaydreams , @iite-cool , @lahniu , @pagesfalling , @tapioca-milktea1978 , @live-love-be-unique , @thelaisydazy , @littleghosthunter , @bossva , @emotion-no-hot-yes-hotel-trivago , @chamomiletealeaf , @ghosts-hoe , @kariiiel , @ltbarnes , @irregulardongyoung , @spacelia , @hayleybarnesx , @cod-z , @frescoisnotinthemilitary , @leeeenistop , @lucienbarkbark , @xxshadowbabexx

@severenswife , @enarien, @agoodmoviekiss , @l0lziez , @whos-fran , @greatstormcat , @openup-yourmind , @neoarchipelago , @sodavrr , @cutiecusp , @lilliumrorum , @c-nstantine , @kneelforloki , @comeonatmebruh , @codsunshine , @waiting-so-long , @captainquake42 , @gazspookiebear , @mynameismisty , @reap3erslov3 , @reaper-chan666 , @poohkie90 , @kitwithnokat , @stick-the-dumbass , @mothsdrabbles , @justanerd1 , @thesinsoflust , @thriving-n-jiving , @blckbrrybasket

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

He's My Man (Part 1)

Summary: The reader receives an anonymous text from a new client needing an off the books patch job. However he's annoyingly good looking and the last thing you need is some ex-special ops guy hanging around. Unfortunately for you, Russell Shaw isn't the kind of guy to walk away when he knows something's wrong...

Masterlist

Pairing: Russell Shaw x reader

Word Count: 2,000ish

Warnings: language, gun shot injury

A/N: Contains minor spoilers for Tracker 1x12. Please enjoy the start of this new series! I'm not sure how long it will go but thanks for coming on this ride with me!

__________

Your ears perked up on Saturday morning when your phone buzzed on the coffee table before you. Not your everyday one but your one for work. You swiped it open, pursing your lips when you saw it was from an unknown number.

Need a patch job on a quilt. Doug recommended you as a good seamstress in the area.

Alright, well at least this guy knew one of your clients. Doug wasn’t a regular but you’d seen him once or twice over the years which meant the person on the other end wasn’t a cop most likely.

I can fit you in. More complicated the patch, the more it’ll cost.

Not an issue.

You hummed and stood up, grabbing your coffee mug along the way.

129 Edwards Ave in twenty minutes. Use the red back door.

You took a long sip and went over to the kitchen, tossing the rest down the sink, leaving the mug to be cleaned later. 

You just hoped this job wasn’t as bad as the last one.

Eighteen minutes later you heard the back door open and then silence, a moment’s hesitation as your new client entered what looked like a storage area. You flipped a light switch, illuminating the small enter sign over the doorway to the room you were prepping in. A few moments later there were heavy boots against the cement ground as he entered, turning to tile, your head lifting. 

A man in his forties, a quite handsome one at that, gave the small operating room a cursory glance before settling on you, determining you were the only one there. Meanwhile your gaze shot to his injured left arm, a gunshot from the looks of it. You only spotted one bloody bullet hole and figured that was the worst of it from the way he cradled his forearm.

“You the seamstress?” he asked quietly, scanning the counter full of medical equipment and metal table in the center of the room. 

“Take a seat,” you said, patting the table. You went to a sink and washed up, making sure to keep him in view at all times. He winced and struggled to get the coat off, finally managing and revealing a quick patch job had been done. After drying your hands, you snapped on some gloves, the man’s coat and overshirt now on the table behind him.

“Russell Shaw by the way,” he said.

“Y/N,” you said, carefully taking his forearm in one hand, the top of his muscular bicep in the other. You turned his arm slightly, Russell wincing again. “Looks like a through and through. We’ll do a quick x-ray to make sure there’s no shrapnel and then we’ll get you stitched up and I’ll send you home with some supplies and instructions to care for it. This your only injury?”

“Yeah. Doug said you were good.”

“I am,” you said, offering him a brief smile, he returned. “Do you have any PTSD? Going to come at me if I I need to use a scalpel?”

“No,” he chuckled. “I’m good with all that.”

You hummed, guiding him to lay back. Three minutes later you were pushing your x-ray machine aside and taking the lead vest away, Russell sitting upright. 

“Can I ask a question?” 

“You can ask, don’t mean I’ll answer, sweetie,” you said back, hanging up the vest and going to your laptop on the counter.

“How does one get into this line of work?” he asked.

“Asks the man that’s ex-special ops and does private contract gigs, not to mention killed probably three people minimum tonight.” You glanced over to him, Russell tilting his head. “I know who Doug is and what he does. Makes sense you do it too. You have blood under your fingernails and given the splatter patterns on your jeans, you had multiple different angled shots so multiple bodies you hit.”

“...And you don’t report that sort of thing?” he asked cautiously. You determined his x-ray looked good and washed up again, putting on more new gloves. By the time you were standing before him again, he looked nervous.

“On occasion. But only the monsters. You, you don’t strike me as a monster, Russell,” you said, wiping some antiseptic over his entry and exit wounds. He flinched but only slightly at the quick burn. A moment later you were giving him something to numb the area.

“Someone took Doug. Someone bad. They would have come back if I hadn’t done what needed to be done.” You wiped sterile gauze over his wound and then flushed it, Russell watching your graceful movements with interest.

“Like I said, not a monster.” You hummed as you worked, Russell fixated on you carefully cleaning and then pulling the skin back together, tying it up neatly. You wiped away the evidence of his blood and wrapped his bicep in thick gauze, taping it down so he could still get movement without worrying about it coming off.

You chucked your gloves in the trash and nodded back to the door behind you.

“There’s a shower in there and some brushes. Turn it on low, scrub yourself clean, under your nails too. Use the blue soap. When you’re done, throw everything away in the bin, including your bloody clothes. You leave your boots, anything you want to keep out here with me. There’s men’s sweats and some shirts on the shelf. By the time you’re done, your boots and other items will have no trace of wherever you’ve been. Got it?”

“I do like a woman that takes charge.” He smirked, sliding off the table and dropping slowly to kneel to unlace his shoes, still looking up at you. “Full service deal you got going here.”

“Yes it is and here’s a friendly reminder for my new client. You come anywhere near me with your dick out, I’ll make you regret being alive. Understand, sweetie?” you said, patting his cheek. “Off you go.”

“God damn, I love you,” he muttered under his breath. You rolled your eyes but smirked when your back was to him. Ten minutes later the room was clean and Russell exited the bathroom with damp, slicked back hair wearing a plain white t-shirt, black hanes sweat pants and white socks. You nodded to where his shoes sat on the end of the counter, Russell taking a seat in the chair nearby as he slipped them on.

After he checked he had his phone, keys and wallet, he raised himself to his feet, pulling out his wallet. 

“What do I owe you?”

“A thousand.” To your surprise, he didn’t flinch at that number. But like most of your clients, he didn’t have the cash on him, at least not that much. Russell smirked as he glanced back in the bathroom.

“Smart woman. You keep the evidence as ransom until your clients pay up. You won’t destroy that until after I pay, will you.” 

“Not until we get to know each other better do I do that sort of thing without payment. Seeing as you’re new and a friend of Doug’s, I’ll give you to the end of next week to pull it together. I offer payment plan options and other alternative forms of care if shit ever really hit the fan for you.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” he said, putting down five hundred dollar bills. “I can bring the other half back here later today. Just need to run to an ATM.”

“Text me when you got the rest. I’ll send you a place to meet,” you said, nodding towards the door. He gave you a small salute and shook his head with a smile. 

Forty minutes later you were sitting at a table in the cafe three blocks over, happily sipping on your coffee while working your way through a cheese danish. You spotted Russell when he came in. He gave you a quick, adorably awkward wave and ordered himself a drink. A few minutes later he was sitting down across from you, a small cup and what appeared to be a banana muffin in hand.

“You’re a coffee snob aren’t you. This place is pricey,” he teased, his brow furrowing when he had a drink from his styrofoam cup. “Shit. That’s fucking good.”

“Beats whatever motel crap I’m sure you’re used to,” you said, his gaze hardening for a split second. “Sorry. I always tail my first time clients to make sure they aren’t…you know who. You know the Elkwood Lodge on route 8 is cleaner and cheaper than what you’re paying for now.”

“How would you know that?” he asked. You shrugged and simply grinned, taking another bite of danish. He licked his lips, pointing at the yet to be touched danish beside you. “Was that one for me?”

“God no. I fucking love danishes and these are incredible,” you said, finishing off the first and biting into the other.

“You are something else,” he said, smirking when he slid a white envelope across the table. You tucked it into your jacket pocket, Russell picking at his own muffin. “You ain’t going to check it’s all there?”

“You’re a smart man, Russell. I think you know not to screw me over.” He looked you up and down, earning a pointed response. “Keep that gutter mind to yourself.”

“If I’m in the gutter, you’re right there with me,” he said, absently rubbing his injured arm. “And uh, if it gets infected or I think it is, I should reach out?”

“Absolutely. That ain’t a normal injury you’re used to. Don’t play tough guy, tough guy.” He nodded, his body twisting ever so slightly towards a standing position. “Nope. Stay for at least five minutes, then you can go.”

“You really like telling me what to do, don’t you,” he grinned. 

“Russell.” Hss grin was wide before he took a long drag of coffee, humming as it went down. 

“What if I want to stay more than five minutes?” You paused mid-chew of your danish. “Come on, one conversation won’t kill you.”

“I don’t get involved with clients.”

“Alright. I respect that but this ain’t my end goal. I’m going to have a normal life someday. I make a pretty mean homebrew. Going to get some land, open up a brewery, have some food, make it a little family place everybody can enjoy. So that’s my goal. I sure as hell know working as a seamstress ain’t your end goal either. So again, what’s the harm in one conversation?”

You bit your bottom lip, Russell’s expression changing, ever so slightly. 

“Jesus, Y/N,” he muttered. “What-“

“Shut up,” you mumbled. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Your fucking face did. You don’t want to be a seamstress, do you? Can you not get out of your line of work?” You glanced out the window, even the wonderful flavors of the pastry doing nothing to help the unease in your gut. “I can help you.”

“I don’t need your help,” you snapped. You sighed, rubbing your temple. “Sorry. I…I’m just crabby because I didn’t have my morning coffee until just now.”

“Nice try.” You glared at him, his green eyes remarkably gentle. “I don’t leave my friends behind. Now either you tell me what’s going on or I’m going to poke around myself and I guarantee that’s going to be a lot more dangerous and you’ll just have to patch me up even more. What do you say?”

You stared at him and stared at him and stared at him for what felt like forever. Then you took out the envelope and handed it back to him, along with the five hundred in your purse. 

“Go buy me two more cheese danishes and a large caramel frappe to go. Then take me to your motel room. This is a long fucking story.”

__________

A/N: Read Part 2 here!

[daniel-oneiroi]

eSIMS are a way to communicate in Palestine, getting info out + letting families know they are alive.

If an eSIM goes inactive, sometimes the person it was gifted to has lost the phone (you know. In a war zone.) Or the phone was destroyed. Or... they were killed.

Please visit Mirna_elHelbawi on instagram to see FAQs about the eSIMs and her program, and how it helps Palestinians. --------- Important Update You can also use Crips for eSims for Gaza to donate money towards the eSims project. There is a paypal link for them as well if you read the page. If you are disabled like me and find it hard to navigate different companies, keep up on checking activation/re-activations, and keep checking top-ups on funding (or can't fund over and over again), there is another way to help. This is the month of Av (Leo) beginning sundown August 4th.

It is a month of bridging polarization: grief and divine love, the disconnect between body and mind, things you want to ignore. This month commemorates the destruction of the Temples, when it's said that the Divine went into hiding. This is followed by a manifestation of divine joy, release, rebuilding. Now is the time to look for community and become open to giving and receiving help. As such, I ask to mourn the destruction of Palestine, and give even $1 to help people there. If you decide to do something else, please give even $1 to a local food bank or domestic violence shelter. They can make money go much further than item donations. But if item donations are what you can do, please do that. Do whatever you CAN do. It is always needed.

[arsenalfanf1]

can I request a smut? if you don't wanna do it you can just ignore me ig, but i'd like something where lando is the one that always gives, he'd rather be the one to give than receive, but one day we're desperate so we basically beg him to sit down and let us suck him up, and when we do that he just becomes a mess, he ends up thrusting into our mouth while whining

You were desperate, you had saw photos of Lando on your timeline and how hot he looked and now all you could think about is pushing him onto the bed and sucking him off until he saw stars.

“Baby I’m home” you heard a voice say, you didn’t even realise the time, he had been out on the track today and had an early morning so this was the first time you would see him. “Hey love” you said meeting him in the kitchen, he had a tight fitting shirt showing off his abs. “I missed you today” you complained “I missed you too but I’m here now” he replied “Saw you showing off on twitter today looking all hot, made me horny” you complained “Sorry love” he kissed your mouth, before moving down to your neck thank god you wore a oversized top today.

He unbutton your jeans but before he could get any further you stopped him “please let me suck you off, all I’ve been thinking about all day please” you didn’t care how desperate you sounded you were desperate “Please sit down let me pleasure you for once” you very rarely got to give him head he would always been the one to pleasure you, he was never a selfish lover.

“I’m never going to say no” he unbuttoned his own jeans pushing them down to his ankles before sitting down on the seat, you had never done anything in the kitchen before thank god you spent the day cleaning it.

You got down on your knees and you pulled down his pants and took out his dick before you started stroking him, he was always hard “I can’t wait to put your cock I’m my mouth” after a couple seconds you felt he was ready, you licked the tip first licking his pre cum, moaning while doing so.

“Fuck we should have done this sooner” you complained. You took as much of him as you could in your mouth, playing with his balls. Lando was a moaning mess, he was so use to being the one giving head, he forgot how much he liked receiving it.

You could tell he was desperate, grabbing your hair and putting it into a ponytail gripping on it. “Fuck you take me so good pretty girl” he moaned out. “As much as I love it if git to fuck your mouth you would like that would you?” He asked already knowing your answer, you just nodded too focused on sucking him off.

He kept a hold of your hair and held you in place so he could thrust into your mouth “Fucking hell baby” he moaned, you had never been so turned on before, you wish you did this earlier.

“Look how pretty and desperate my girl looks” he said all matching with his thrusts. You couldn’t care how desperate you looked you were, you had been thinking about it for so long, he went too deep at times making you gag over his length.

“I’m gonna cum” he moaned out “where do you want it? Tits? Or mouth” he asked letting you reply “mouth” before he thrusted back into your mouth.

He cummed right in your mouth, slowing down his movements, talking about how good you did and how you would definitely do that again soon. “You taste so good baby” you moaned, trying to give him a kiss “no kisses till you brush your teeth I don’t want to taste myself” he complained, instead of fighting it you got up brushed your teeth and even used mouthwash before making your way back over to him to give him a big kiss.

—

Sorry it’s a short one trying to get my requests out I’m struggling a bit

Tag list @ur-fave-ave @nickxcorpse @may7460 @babyprofessorsharkpalace @kennysimp101

[bestanimal]

~ Round 3 is currently underway, with Passeriformes in the lead!

See poll schedule here ~

On a quest to find Tumblr’s favorite animal!

(Pictured is my personal favorite animal: the bearded vulture! Photo was taken by me… if you want to see more I post my photography on my instagram: SaritaWolf ;P)

Ever wondered how your favorite animal stacks up against other people’s favorites? Well you’ve come to the right place!

Here’s how this will work…

Polls will be ranked like so:

My fav is in this group!/This is one of my favorite animals!

I love these/this animal(s)

I like these/this animal(s)

I am neutral about these/this animal(s)

I dislike these/this animal(s)

I hate these/this animal(s)

If an animal is your favorite, it receives 5 points

If you love an animal, it receives 3 points

If you like an animal, it receives 1 point

If you are neutral about an animal, no points are added or subtracted to its ranking

If you dislike an animal, 1 point will be taken away

If you hate an animal, 3 points will be taken away

Note: As of Round 3, the hate option has been removed.

At the end of a polling period, that animal’s points will be its rank.

The top 20 or 50 or 100 or whatever (number to be decided on at a later date) will move on to the next round!

Polls will be open for 7 days

Since it’s not very feasible for me to make 1.5 million polls for every known species of animal, the first round of polls will be by Phylum, the next round will be by Class, then Order, then Family, then Genus, and then Species.

If you want your favs to make it to the top, make sure you know what group they’re in! This can be found via a quick Wikipedia search and a look-see right here (using the bearded vulture as an example):

The Bearded Vulture is in the Phylum Chordata, the Class Aves/Reptilia, the Order Accipitriformes, and the Genus Gypaetus, so now I know to vote for that group as my favorite when it comes up!

The top ranked Phyla will move on to the next round, where they will then be split into Classes, and Round 2 will begin.

Round 3 will take the winning classes and split them by Order, then follow the same pattern.

Round 4 will take the winning orders and split them by Family, then follow the same pattern.

Round 5 will take the winning families and split them by Genus, then follow the same pattern.

Round 6 will take the winning genera and split them by Species, then follow the same pattern.

The Ultimate Round will pit the top 20/50/100 (number also to be decided at a later date) species against each other.

If no clear photos exist of a species, preferably in situ, it will not be included in the polls. (So, if you’re a scientist who just discovered a new moth and it’s your favorite animal you better get those photos on iNaturalist quick)

You can have multiple favorites, I am not keeping track of that, but I do ask that you answer honestly!

I will add a bit of propaganda under a cut on each poll, but please feel free to reblog polls and add your own! If you want your fav(s) to win, these polls need to be seen by lots of people!

I do encourage people to not vote blindly. Look at the photos, read the propaganda, maybe even do your own research before you decide how you feel about an animal!

And lastly, please keep things civil! We all have different tastes and someone hating your fav is not a personal affront against you!

That being said, we do not “Kill it with fire” here. It’s ok to not like an animal, but we do not tolerate people calling for violence against a species or wishing a whole species extinct.

Important Tags:

#Animal Polls: All main polls

#Poll Results: Completed polls will be reblogged along with their calculated ranking

#Special Poll: Any extra polls

#Extra Propaganda: Any reblogged propaganda added by voters, or reblogs featuring the animals in the poll of the day

#Statistics: A stats post will be posted after each round

#Asks: For any responses to asks (my askbox is open!)

#FAQ: For questions that may come up often

#Extras: For any announcement posts, reblogs, etc

If you are enjoying the tournament and would like to leave a tip, it would be much appreciated!

[conflictofthemind]

TL;DR: HNL was studying how to give human subjects electromagnetic, most specifically visible light based, powers in order to bend space-time for their needs.

I’m going to try and condense this as much as I can because considering electromagnetism as a major force in ST (pun intended) opens up so many potential areas of analysis that can only be a brief cover of without turning into multiple essays.

Let’s go over the electromagnetic spectrum:

I hope you might already be recognizing some symbols we see often in Stranger Things, especially if you’ve been following the BTS and some location and set leaks from Season 5.

The electromagnetic spectrum encompasses the different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation - waves of energy that travel at the speed of light (and produce visible light to us at certain frequencies). You’ve probably heard of most of these, including cancer-causing gamma rays and x-rays, the visible light spectrum (the rainbow), microwaves, and radio waves.

In S5, we have the radio station as a main location for the characters. They’re also driving around in the radio station’s van, which has an image of a hawk emitting a rainbow (visible light radiation). Steve’s car also has a massive antenna on top of it. My first thoughts were that the team was trying to keep in contact with Max in hopes of her being able to hear them in her coma, considering she has a radio near her bedside. While that still may be a reason, I think the characters may have come to realize how important electromagnetic fields could be in their fight against Vecna (this where leader of the AV Club also focused on electromagnetic objects Scott Clarke may make his triumphant return).

Now to pivot onto why electromagnetism is so important to the lore of ST:

What the scientists in Hawkins Lab are likely studying is a way for human brains to produce or manipulate certain types of electromagnetic waves through telepathy. Most obviously this is seen by them having the kids try to manipulate and turn on a circle of light bulbs. Our brains actually already produce electromagnetic waves, but at a very slow frequency. The scientists are constantly measuring brain waves while conducting these experiments. We even get full shots of El’s brain waves during NINA, for example. We also see similar shots in S2 while Will is in the HNL.

You can also observe that the Hawkins National Laboratory has absolutely massive satellite dishes on it’s rooftop; ones that do not exist on the real life building but are added in post because they pose some sort of significance. Nudge, it’s because they are transmitting and receiving massive amounts of electromagnetic waves.

Why are they studying electromagnetic waves then?

They are studying electromagnetic waves because they are a method in which time travel can theoretically be achieved - the focus of the Montauk Project in which Stranger Things is based on. The military likely is investigating time travel as another war tactic against Russia.

Let us take a look at the first chapter of the Montauk Project: Experiments in Time book (they are seriously plagiarizing the living hell out of this thing):

Also, did you catch the whole 'attaching a massive antenna on the hood of my car to pick up a secret signal' thing? That's suspiciously similar to the state of Steve's car! Anyway...

The story of Stranger Things starts chronologically, as does Montauk, with the disappearance of the USS Eldridge and Project Rainbow (named after the bending of the visible light spectrum). Brenner’s father was revealed to have captained the boat in TFS, which disappeared for 12 hours into Dimension X and when it came back, the crew was killed or driven mad (except for Brenner Sr). This inspires Brenner to continue onto the Nevada project, and eventually, Hawkins National Lab’s studies. The USS Eldridge / Philadelphia Project conspiracy from real life went as follows:

They were studying electromagnetism, specifically the bending of light, to make objects invisible. This was only the first step in the experiments. Once Henry got involved and came back from his trip to Dimension X with powers, Brenner must have realized he could potentially use human subjects to manipulate electromagnetic fields themselves. Human subjects didn’t require machinery or set up and could bend space-time wherever they pleased, as long as they were able to learn the ability.

The more conspiratiorial side of Theoretical Physics proposes using circulating light beams to warp time-space, creating a wormhole in which one can literally walk through time. This is pop-science, likely not true but interesting for fiction purposes. This method of time travel being used is heavily implied due to the fact that the USS Eldridge was already able to disappear into another dimension by the bending of light.

This is how it worked in the Montauk Project book (absolutely ridiculous how much they took from this honestly):

My guess is that in the Stranger Things universe, they have not yet managed to time travel, only to create portals into this alien Dimension X. Previously, said portals were only made twice by highly advanced technological equipment. El demonstrated that she was able to open a portal all by herself - another step to achieving time travel with singular human subjects. Season five is when we will see the beginning of the time travel plot line, though it like in Montauk is likely already in a loop.

That’s where we get the name for the Rainbow Room, named after this Project Rainbow. The rainbow represents the full spectrum of visible light, and the goals of the project to bend said light into portals and eventually time travel wormholes.

Implications?:

-Well, first of all it seems very obvious by this point that we are going for a time travel plot line, and this is how it will be achieved.

-Will is heavily connected to light in general, the sun, and of course… the rainbow. He is also implied be the one involved in the time travel plot line. This will be very relevant going forward and deserves it’s own post. Potential funniness of defeating Vecna with the power of the rainbow afoot.

-Coma patients are known to have odd, barely detectable brain waves. The kids will be able to communicate with Max in her coma using the electromagnetic spectrum somehow, probably through the radio waves.

-On the farthest end of the spectrum, we have ionizing gamma ray radiation, which is known to cause cancer in humans. Expect Hopper’s daughter Sara to connect to this plot line (and perhaps Sam Owens’ dead son). There is a whole theory on this site already called radiationgate. I have not managed to look into it yet but I think they are probably onto something there. The original al pitch mentions the UD leakage into the real world causing cancer as well.

[timbitshockey]

AND YOUR STANLEY CUP CHAMPIONS ARE...

THE COLORADO AVALANCHE!

hello, hello, hello! i've (finally, my bad) compiled all the data from the bracket challenge i'm running into a handy little spreadsheet so i can make some charts out of how we collectively feel about these playoffs - or at least how we felt about them last tuesday at 7pm est. (how are we doing, sens nation? how's that tummyache?)

with 29 brackets out of 149 choosing to believe that the power of #LOVEWINS (ej and landy reuniting) will carry them all the way to the top again, the colorado avalanche are the winners of our bracket!

in second place with 24 votes, we have connor mcdavid NOT crying on amazon prime and upsetting me deeply with the edmonton oilers! in third place with 21 votes (and 14% of the vote, not 13.5% like it says there, on account of i accidentally inputted it as "wSH" ONE single time) ovi gets to add another accolade to an impressive year for the washington capitals! and as the only other team with a percentage of the votes in the double digits, the toronto maple leafs take it home for 20 of us (which is ACTUALLY 13.5% of brackets, sorry again).

two teams did not get any votes for stanley cup champs this year, and those teams are the st. louis blues and the tampa bay lightning. the new jersey devils received one lonesome vote, so won't we all feel stupid when one of those teams wins it all?

let's get into the matchup data!

ROUND ONE!

starting out west, 129 of us believe the winnipeg jets will prevail over the st. louis blues, although 20 of us believe even more in the president's trophy curse. my mom is currently having a meltdown over the series being tied, so i hope you all are faring better than she is.

it's a slightly more even split when it comes to the colorado avalanche taking round one over the dallas stars, with 98 backing the avs and 51 taking the stars. these teams look like christmas, and that makes me happy.

tensions are now rising in hockeyblr. with our closest split yet, 79 of us believe the las vegas golden knights will take the series against the minnesota wild, while 70 of us believe in the power of kirill kaprizov. the wild do have the largest percentage of people who chose them in the first round choosing them to win the cup out of all the teams present, so at least they have loyalty on their side.

for the los angeles kings things are looking a little rough, with only 58 of us opting for their victory over the edmonton oilers, who have 91 supporters. a tale as old as time, true as it could be, barely even friends, then a matchup in round one of the playoffs between these two teams

heading over to the east, we have a solid 97 brackets taking the toronto maple leafs out of round one against the ottawa senators, who grabbed the remaining 52. this is the battle of ontario AND the battle of hockey team ticket price averages.

in the almost evenly split battle of florida, 77 of us went for the tampa bay lightning over 72 of us rooting for the returning champions in the florida panthers. this is the biggest drop-off for any team from year to year - last year, the panthers had 81% of the brackets rooting for them over 19% going for tampa.

more like the gr8 113, am i right? ha. get it? because 118 of the brackets went for the washington capitals beating the montreal canadiens, who only received 36 votes. a lot of the people who put montreal forward here ended up with an all canadian top 4, which is pretty cute to me. i'm all for that.

and finishing off our first round, we have the carolina hurricanes overtaking the new jersey devils for 103 brackets, with 46 rooting for little nico hischier and 1.5 of the hughes brothers.

CONFERENCE CHAMPS!

when it comes to who'll take the campbell bowl, the avalanche were the most popular pick, followed by the oilers, the jets, and the stars.

and in the most frustratingly similar color scheme situation for the prince of wales trophy, we have the capitals appearing in the final the most out of any eastern team, with the leafs and the panthers rounding up the rest of the double digits.

thanks for playing, and may the odds be ever in our favors!

[miyahchan]

Week Two - October 9th - Grim Reaper!Higuruma x Reader

Synopsis: After a close call with death, the Grim Reaper himself can’t seem to let you go.

Word Count: 2.6k

🚨 Warnings: 18+ content, dubcon (alcohol consumption), oral sex (male receiving), penetration, girl on top, missionary, pretty smutty in general.

A/N: This post does have some content that can be seen as “morbid”. There’s nothing super graphic or anything but death is a pretty heavily talked about thing in here so be aware. Also, I’m hoping everyone is staying safe here in Florida with this hurricane coming. Evacuate if you need to and don’t forget to stock up on supplies and gas. I’m praying for everyone’s safety! 🚨

Check out the official Kinktober 2024 post HERE!

           3 months ago, Higuruma appeared downtown, dawning his usual suit and briefcase. He didn’t take the train, hail a cab, or even walk. Oddly enough, he just always appeared when he was needed. He stood on the corner of Main St. and 4th Ave, just waiting patiently. The streets were unusually bare, the only sounds filling Higuruma’s ears being the lulling sound of the wind and the occasional rattle of raccoons rummaging through trash cans.

            Who would it be tonight?

            Higuruma started his walk down the street, glancing into the windows that he passed. He passed a bar. Would it be the man who passed out after too many beers? Maybe alcohol poisoning? Then, he passed an office building. Would it be an employee leaving work, only to be mugged and killed? No. Those didn’t feel right.

            Finally, a roar of an engine made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, not from fear, but anticipation. This was it.

            A silver car sped down the street, swerving uncontrollably. Higuruma only watched idly. The car ran the red light before fully losing control and heading directly toward a brick building. It collided with the brick, the front of the car crushing like a soda can and completely caving in. The airbags exploded from inside, suffocating the driver, who hadn’t moved. It was a speedy, harsh crash, one of the worst Higuruma had ever seen in the entirety of his job. He’d seen much worse, of course – sick children, freak accidents, even the grisliest of murders. But he couldn’t pretend that this one didn’t make him wince a bit.

            Had it been a drunk driver? Texting and driving? Over the plethora of years he’d been alive, Higuruma learned how idiotic humans were. For such weak beings, they constantly overestimated their mortality and made the worst decisions. He couldn’t count on ten hands how many people he’d seen die due to the choice of getting behind the wheel while intoxicated, or thinking that a phone call was more important than keeping their eyes on the road. He’d grown indifferent to it, knowing his role.

            He made his way toward the hunk of metal that used to be a car, ready to get it over with, but he stopped in his tracks soon after.

            There was movement. 

            The airbags looked like they were breathing as something moved underneath them. They separated from each other and something peeked out from the gap. A head. Higuruma watched as the driver pulled themselves from the wreck, squeezing through the crushed metal to escape. 

            “Help!” They screamed as they limped into the middle of the street.

            Higuruma stood there, frozen in place. Something wasn’t right. He looked down at his own form, for the first time feeling something he hadn’t felt in quite literally forever – confusion. He questioned why he’d appeared there that night, never having appeared when he wasn’t needed. But, most of all, he questioned… you.

            He had seen people pass away from much less, but there you stood, full of life after crashing straight into a brick wall. Higuruma hated questions. He hated the feeling of something being incomplete. He saw the world as black and white, right or wrong. It was why he was so good at his job. Death had no grey area – you were either alive or dead. 

            You were an anomaly.

            You had cheated death.

            Higuruma never left any questions unanswered. Before he’d became what he was now, when he was merely a human, he had been a defense attorney. He’d prided himself in defending those who were unjustly convicted, going out of his way to take on cases that other attorneys wouldn’t dare touch. It wasn’t because he necessarily cared about doing the “right” thing. No, it was because, in his eyes, just like death, the law was black and white. Either you did the crime, or you didn’t. Either you were guilty, or you weren’t. People who were in prison for crimes they didn’t commit were imbalances in a world that Higuruma needed to be balanced. He supposed this mindset followed him to his otherworldly state.

            If it hadn’t, he probably wouldn’t have been following you now.

            The three months between then and now had infiltrated Higuruma’s mind in a way that he didn’t think was possible, not anymore. His days were still full of the usual reapings – he would never let anything come between his job. But, when he caught the incredibly rare millisecond where no one in the world dies, he would spend that millisecond peeking into the window that was your life. 

            He’d caught you in the hospital, checking up on your ankle that you had fractured in the crash. He’d caught you celebrating your friend’s birthday. He’d even caught you fresh out the shower once, though he’d felt embarrassed, something he hadn’t felt in millenniums.

            You made him feel a lot of things, perplexed being the overwhelming feeling from the list.

            Why you?  

            The question ran through his head every time he caught a glimpse of you. Had the universe sent you to as a cruel joke? Higuruma tensed every time he thought about it. You were just a loose end, a puzzle piece that didn’t quite fit. 

            He had a habit of tying loose ends, so he made the ultimate decision on a Saturday night. 

            He hadn’t been in his physical form in a long time, if ever. He wore the same suit and carried the same suitcase, but he wasn’t just a spectator anymore. Humans glanced at him as he walked down the crowded sidewalk, making his way to the bar on 4th Ave. He knew he was breaking some sort of rule, but he needed to scratch the itch.

            Higuruma scanned the faces in the bar on 4th, cursing at how crowded it was. He knew you were in there, but his physical form had its restrictions. He made his way through the crowd of people until he finally reached the bar, where you sat.

            You had on a skintight, black dress and black pumps, sipping on a martini and looking bored out of your mind. It was like you had waited for him. He took the empty seat beside you, immediately catching your attention.

            You eyed him up and down, focusing on the suitcase that he brought along with him. “Businessman?”

            “Hmph. I guess you could say that.” Higuruma ordered a drink. Whiskey, neat. Alcohol had no effect on him, but he couldn’t say that he didn’t miss the taste of a nice drink.

            You smile at his response. He figured you were already a bit tipsy when he eyed the two empty martini glasses next to your half full one. “I don’t know. You have a very strict, no-nonsense thing going on. I don’t know anyone that wears a suit at a bar.”

            He remembered another thing about humans in that moment – they were very judgmental.

            “Just had a long day at work, that’s all.” Was his simple response. 

            “Let me guess. CEO?”

            He shook his head.

            “Lawyer? No, attorney?”

            “More like a… judge.”

            You giggle at that. “You look pretty young to be a judge.”

            He smirks. “I’m older than I look.”

            The rest of the night passed in a blur. As much as you had invested yourself in the conversation, Higuruma hadn’t allowed himself that pleasure. It felt more like an assignment than a pleasant conversation between two strangers. Throughout the night, he’d taken to trying to figure you out. It wasn’t like he had expected you to admit that you were some sort of immortal demon that was sent to trick him, but it would’ve eased his mind a bit, admittedly. Instead, you were just like every other human he’d ever seen. 

            Higuruma never took to believing in luck, not even when he was human. Luck allowed too much room for oddities, too much room for things that just didn’t make sense. But, as he sat in the bar with you, he realized he would be forced to question whether such a nonsensical thing existed.

            You weren’t only an anomaly. You were also incredibly lucky.

            Lucky enough to convince Higuruma to come home with you.

            He knew humans had… desires. He’d seen a lot of them put their desires before anything else, leading to stupid decisions. Even back when he was human, he remembered having his own. He would bring women back to his penthouse, fulfilling every desire he had before kicking them out the next morning. It wasn’t the right thing to do, but he was a busy man. You were no different.

            As soon as the two of you entered your apartment, you were on him. 

            You smashed your lips against his and Higuruma returned the kiss, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you against him. The sweet taste of your cherry lip gloss and the bitter taste of liquor on your tongue created an intoxicating combination, making Higuruma kiss you even harder. His hands slide down and cup your ass, and he curses the leather dress that acts as a barrier between him and your soft skin. He feels you begin to work on undoing his tie and unbuttoning his white button up before he helps you rid him of his layers. He, then, unzips the back of your dress and it falls to the ground.

            You stand before him, completely nude and vulnerable. He admires every dip and curve of your body, taking note of every single detail so he could remember it for the next few centuries. You were breathtaking.

            You grabbed his hand and led him to the couch, making him sit. Higuruma watched as you kneeled before him and began to unbuckle his belt. You reach into his dress pants and pull out his dick, your eyes widening at the size. He knew he’d been blessed in that department, but seeing a human reaction to it made his pride swell. You take it in your grasp and place a kiss on the tip, a string of precum connecting your lips to him. Your lips then wrap around it, lightly sucking. Higuruma threw his head back against the cushion and let out a relieved sigh. He groans as you start to suck on his length, bobbing up and down. You were slow and meticulous in your actions, staring up at him through thick lashes and gauging exactly what he liked. He appreciated your attention to detail. He squirms when you deepthroat him, your throat pulsing around him and engulfing him in wetness. Fuck, you were good at this. He didn’t know if he felt powerful or powerless. This had been the first time in centuries he’d had any contact with a human, and here you were, making him feel so good. Higuruma can feel himself coming close to release, but you pull away at the last second.

            He’s irritated until you straddle him, lining his dick up with your entrance. You rub his tip on your clit a few times, letting out a light moan at the sensation, before you finally slide down on it. With you wrapped around his so tight, Higuruma is breathless. He placed his strong hands on your hips, encouraging you to move. You ride him slowly at first, grinding down on him. He stretched you out so good, hitting every spot inside of you. Your moans are music to his ears and he feels himself grow addicted to the sight of you fucking yourself on him. His moans mix in with yours, and he grips you tighter before helping you bounce on him. He moves you up and down faster, and you let out a sharp cry as he hits your g-spot. He’s forgotten how sensitive and fragile humans were. In that moment, he felt like he had the upper hand, guiding your every movement. He repositions himself so he can thrust up into you and his hands cradle your thighs, providing support. He fucks you from underneath, and you go crazy.

            “Ah! Right there!” Your eyes are squeezed closed, relishing in the pleasure. Your body shakes above him as you come undone, a string of incohesive words spilling from your mouth. Higuruma continues to drill into you, watching as you leave a ring of cum around the base of his dick. When your orgasm washes away, your knees grow weak and Higuruma holds you to stop you from collapsing. He flips you over, laying you flat on your back against the couch cushions and he hovers over you, spreading your legs and sliding back into you.

            You gasp as he fucks you into the cushions, not even bothering to hold back. He throws your legs over his broad shoulders, angling himself deeper in you. He fucks you relentlessly, your moans spurring him on more and more. He has your ankles by his head, and he turns to place a kiss on the ankle you had fractured in the car crash. You cum again, thrashing against the cushions. Higuruma attempts to hold you still as he feels his own release coming. He thrusts until he finally pulls out and spurts his hot cum across your torso, long strings of white painting your perfect body. A low moan erupts from him as he rides his high. He was disappointed that he couldn’t come inside you – not that he physically couldn’t, but he didn’t know what the repercussions would be if he did that with a human. He didn’t mind risks, but not that type of risk.

            Higuruma helped you off the couch and he helped get you settled for the night. He ran you some bath water and watched as you slinked off to the bathroom, closing the door behind you. It was uncharacteristically warm of him, but he figured it was the least he could do. He got himself dressed and grabbed his suitcase before he left your apartment. 

            6 months later, Higuruma appeared at a scene. He was in the middle of a hallway, standing at a door. Apartment 244. He doesn’t immediately recognize the place, but he knows he’s needed there. He comes through the door, stepping into the living room. Only then does a wave of realization hit him.

            He remembered the couch. He remembered the colorful decorations you had hung up on your walls in an attempt to make the bland apartment seem more lively. He even remembered the sweet smell in the air from the candles you liked to burn. However, it wasn’t the same anymore.

            Drawers were pulled out and objects littered the floor. The couch cushions had been flipped over. Chairs were overturned. And was that…? Higuruma looked at the large, red stain on the carpet, then his eyes travelled to the trail of red splatters that led into the kitchen. He followed the red until finally, he saw you. There you were, laying on the tile floor.

            A home invasion gone wrong.

            He had seen countless but seeing you on the floor was an entirely different experience. He’d talked to you, touched you, tasted you, and there you were, another soul to collect. He cleared his throat and made his way toward you. Business was still business. He placed a hand on yours, both of your skin equally as cold, and he reaped your soul. A white aura surrounded your body, engulfing you like you were sitting in a bed of clouds. Then, that aura split from your body and turned into a bright orb, floating in the air. Higuruma opened his suitcase, looking at the various colored orbs that rested inside of it. He gathered your orb in his hands and guided it inside the case, placing your soul amongst the others. He closed and locked his suitcase before making his way out of your apartment, but not without glancing back at your lifeless corpse.

            Humans were such mortal creatures.

[feathersandfarmers]

I have more stuff to add to my Kipper timeline yeehaw!

Kip is around 4 years of age when she gets taken in by the Tweedys.

(Here is the whole page!)

Here is Kip at 4 years old! At this point, she's timid and hardly speaks a word when she meets her aunt and uncle for the first time. Slowly over time, she does warm up to them, and her playful and kind personality finally shows through! Sadly, my timeline starts when she is separated from her mother who is sick in the hospital. While her mum receiving treatment, Kip is sent to live with the Tweedys, (her only living relatives) on their farm!

I love drawing Kip at different ages, it allows me to experiment and gets me thinking about what she is like at different stages of her life!^^

Who did this affect?? The chickens on the farm of course!!

Bunty huffed and crossed her arms as they caught a glimpse of the small child coming out of the farmer's old lorry.

Ginger, a teenage hen, pointed upwards. She used the wing that wasn't injured to point at the red-headed girl following the farmers into the old farmhouse. "Look! who is that?!" She cried.

"Good grief, Bunty grumbled, now we've got a bloomin' THIRD human to watch out for now!"

Babs peeked over Bunty's shoulder with an innocent grin spread across her face. You would have thought she was pleased with the whole situation.

"Perhaps she's just here on holiday!" Babs suggested, peering at the stranger.

Mac adjusted her glasses and simply stared off as the three humans entered the house and shut the door behind them. "Hope'fulleh, Mac added, sheh wun't be much av' o' thrat, bein' just a wean"

The four friends knew this wasn't good. Another human to look out for?? How difficult were their escape plans going to become?? And just who was this child, and what was she doing on the farm??

(I did my best here to make everyone look younger, hopefully, they are still recognizable enough! I imagined Ginger being more or less a teenager at this stage and being rather accident-prone, hence all her bandages..she's not quite good at being an escape artist just yet!)

Again i tried my best to make Willard and Melisha Tweedy look younger!! haha This is Kip, seeing them for the first time. ;v;

Not fully sure for this part of my story yet,,,, but The Tweedys would travel from the Dales to pick their young niece up to live with them. Mrs Tweedy, obviously is not thrilled with the idea...not wanting an extra problem to deal with on top of all the work there is to do on the farm! Mr.Tweedy, on the other hand, is quite excited about it, he always wanted to be a dad.

"Oh hello, little Kipper!, Willard Tweedy greeted sweetly, last time i saw you you were only this big!" The young man made a small shape with his hands, indicating his last encounter with the child was when she had been a baby. Kipper, shy and frightened by having to go live with these strange people, remained silent, staring up at them.

Mrs Tweedy sniffed, looking down at her young niece with very mild interest. That red hair and those freckles...so familiar...and those blue eyes?...she knew them too well....

More thoughts struck her: Another mouth to feed...ugh...She didn't know anything about children...AND she didn't know a thing about being...*gulp* a mother..Hopefully, Kipper's (what a stupid name) stay wasn't going to be for very long and she'd be outta their hair in a fourth night.

"Come along" Melisha Tweedy called out, leading her husband and niece over to the lorry to make the drive home.

[rwrbmovie]

BTS of #RWRBMovie: cakegate

From Collider:

ML: "It was hundreds of extras, it was cake, it was a vision, it was choreography through space, and it was a lot of dialogue. That was three days of me, just gritting my teeth. I can’t tell you that I had fun on those three days. I knew that I had to get it right, in so many different ways. But I had a great team, and I had Nick and Taylor, and we got through those days. When people see the movie, you don’t see all the real effort that went into that filming that scene."

From AV Club:

The entire wedding reception scene took three days to shoot on location at the Royal Naval College in London (which served as the setting for the receiving line) and Goldsmiths’ Hall in the city’s financial district (where the reception takes place). But López began preparing for it long before he got to the set. Together with production designer Miren Marañón, he tested the physics of bringing down the cake using models and filming smaller cakes in motion to see how they would fall. “We were really scientific about it,” he says. “Would it slide? Would it tumble? Is it sort of like a tree coming down or does it break apart? What we decided was that actually what happens is not necessarily Alex knocks over the cake, Alex breaks the table, which then sends it over. We realized that it was a question of a cascading series of events leading to the cake falling on them.” Taylor Zakhar Perez, who plays Alex, and Nicholas Galitzine, who plays Henry, were both game for anything when it came to the physicality of the scene. To help block the sequence for maximum comedic effect, López brought on theater director Cal McCrystal, who had previously worked as a physical comedy consultant on the Paddington films. The actors rehearsed with McCrystal to get each beat of the scene right before Alex is knocked into the table, which was rigged with hydraulics to make it collapse on cue. The crew spent a day and a half filming the reception before it came time to tackle the cake scene. There were two cakes created for the scene, a fake one made of foam and latex that could not only hold up under the lights for long periods of time but safely be dropped on the actors without injuring them, and a real one made of sponge and buttercream frosting to dump on them once they hit the ground. “We shot the scene many times with the fake one coming down, just this big cake coming down on top of them,” López says. “We shot it from all different angles. Then we reached the point of no return and we had to drop actual cake on them.”

That’s where the fun part came in. The crew brought in several white industrial ��buckets of buttercream” frosting and chunks of real cake to throw on top of the actors. “We set up three cameras, and my production designer and I carefully lined up the shot. And I counted to three and we tossed the cake into their faces.” The cast and crew had planned to film the scene multiple times, and there was time built into the shooting schedule for the actors to shower and change into clean costumes in between takes, a process that could potentially take up to an hour. But, according to López, in the end it wasn’t necessary. “That first take we hit the bullseye. And I went back to look at it with my director of photography and my producers, and I’m looking at it and I’m like, we have it. Let’s move on. Let’s not waste our time. One take of hitting their faces, and then we just got the rest of it.” López describes the mood on set that day as “very, very focused” but there was still a sense that they were creating something special. It turned out to be one of his favorite days on set. Even the background players, many of whom were themselves in the cake splash zone, erupted in applause once it was finished. “The boys were in a very good mood, which helped. But I think, for an actor, it’s like the ultimate fantasy, right? As a kid, you want to be in an enormous food fight. And then here they are getting paid to be covered in cake. So yeah, it was the most technical bit of filmmaking we had to do on this movie. That said, everybody, for as focused as they were, everybody was in a very good mood that day. And it must be said that we had a lot of fun.”

From EW:

In the film's opening sequence, Galitzine's Henry and Taylor Zakhar Perez's Alex, the First Son of the United States, create an international incident after a spat leads them to crash into and destroy a royal wedding cake. In the process, they both become utterly covered in cake and frosting. But Galitzine didn't find it so bad. "You would get quite peckish throughout the day," he tells EW in an interview conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike. "The fact that you could just have a snack peeling off your body, you can have a little nibble there, was super convenient." Things got even messier when the crew tried to turn the sequence into a food fight. "A lot of the crew were very keen to get involved and throw cake at us in the second half when the cake's already hit us," says Galitzine. "But it was a really fun experience getting to work within that physical comedy space, very slapstick with icing on the suit, then the whiskey being used to dab the suit, and the cake coming down on top of us." Galitzine could, at least, clean up relatively quickly once they wrapped — the English estate where they were filming had a shower upstairs that the cast could access. "Afterwards, I went and stood in the shower for a good half an hour," he says, with a laugh. But he still couldn't escape the cake. "Even that evening and the next morning, I'd find something in my ear or behind my ears, and be like, 'What is that?'" he explains. "And it was bits of icing. I didn't eat those."

From CineMagna:

NG: The cake dropping scene was probably one of the most fun scenes to film. It was just such a couple days. First of all, I just love being with the rest of the cast. It’s just mostly been Taylor and me throughout the entire process, but when you get to really spend time with the other actors, it’s just so much fun, the group of us together. There was so much pomp within this room. We had about 200 extras dressed to the nines, and just the act of this cake falling on top of us is just a very bizarre day at work that most people don’t get to experience.

[mialentia]

OKAY SO. Ave Mujica episode 9 was insane. Insane enough that I felt like I needed to write about it like some of my friends do lmao

every member of both MyGO and Ave Mujica had at least one tiny moment in this and I really wanted to just yap about them because holy fuck?????????????? Going in order of least to most focus

First is Taki, which is probably the character that gets the least focus out of all eleven of them. I feel like she takes on a sorely-needed caretaker role? Namely for Umiri, though she also expresses worries for Mutsumi. Taki’s always been a very caring character under her rough exterior, so this doesn’t surprise me. Like I said there isn’t much to say since the episode has so much on its plate in the first place but still

Next is Soyo, who gets the second-least amount of screen time but does SO much with it??? I love how they use her to mirror Sakiko’s role in It’s MyGo: one of them wants to revive Crychic, while the other has moved on and expresses no interest in reliving those days. I especially love her expression when she receives Anon’s message.

Overall, I feel like she serves as the voice of reason in the conflict of reviving Crychic; she’s the one most vocal about not wanting to bring the band back together, and that’s an important stance to have as the clear best thing to do in this situation: you have to let bygones be bygones and move on with your life, and that’s something she was taught by both her band and even Sakiko.

Next up is Raana, who’s the character that gets absolutely the least screen time as always, but it’s Raana so the two sentences tops she utters are all absolutely not wasted! She establishes herself as a very important character moving forward, since she can immediately tell Mortis is acting out Mutsumi’s role in the final scene of the episode, which is something only Nyamu can notice aside from her, though she’s much more antagonistic about it… Mortis will definitely need Raana’s support to get through the very rough times ahead.

I feel like we may as well finish off MyGO given the order we’ve been going in, so next up is Anon. I feel really bad for Anon overall: Raana’s detached enough that it doesn’t matter to her, but Anon is smack-dab in the middle of the Crychic/Ave Mujica drama, and can only let herself be carried by the raging waves of angst around her. She’s brought to RiNG by Sakiko to talk about Crychic, she meets with Uika to talk about Crychic, it’s all Crychic for her… and she’s not even in the band! I wonder how she feels about all of it, as someone who had issues with feeling wanted during It’s MyGO. It’s a good thing her bandmates are vocal about caring for her, MyGO, or both. Poor girl…

FInally, we have the most important character of MyGO to this episode: Tomori. It might seem like Anon is more so, and in some ways she is, but there is one scene that makes her completely eclipse the guitarist: of course, that’s the observatory scene.

To me, Tomori feels like the “eye of the storm” of this episode, so to speak. She doesn’t really get into any outright conflict, but a lot of it revolves around her, and the bands she leads, both past and present. A lot of characters look to her for support, comfort, or validation, and all she can do is wonder what she should do, what the best path forward is. Clearly, her lyrics struck quite the painful chord within Uika, so it seems her songwriting might be a way out of this nightmare once again…

Okay, that’s enough of last season’s band, lol. Let’s talk about the titular band now, starting with its initiator: Sakiko.

Sakiko’s role is… interesting in this episode. While she was the driving force of most of the conflict so far, in this one, she instead takes a relative back seat and simply tries to mend old wounds. She spends all of the episode doing her best to bring her old band back, mostly framing it as being “for Mutsumi”... but I wonder how true that is. Sure, it’s at least partly true; she cares a lot about Mutsumi, but what about her feelings? Like Mutsumi herself puts it, the Sakiko in Crychic is so much happier than the one in Ave Mujica. There’s no way she hasn’t noticed, but is she letting herself feel this way? Does she feel like she deserves happiness after uprooting her childhood friend’s life and shattering her psyche (at least, from her point of view)? Lots to think about.

Next, I want to touch on Nyamu. Technically, Umiri probably has less going on, but I’ve made it no secret that I do not care for her, haha. So let’s go through what’s going on with her and then get into the real meat and potatoes of the episode.

Nyamu’s still convinced that Mutsumi and Mortis’s psychological struggles were simply really good acting. Despite being there when Sakiko mentioned her having two personalities in Episode 4, she seems to still be convinced it’s all an act. My annoyances aside, it does make her struggles with acting interesting. She feels overshadowed by her former bandmate in everything, and it’s downright paralyzing her.

Clearly, this is more setup for her going to talk to Minami Mori again next episode, but I wonder when it’s going to hit her that Mortis is not some stage play, and is a real facet of Mutsumi. She finds her act “disgusting” at the very end of the episode, and I can’t help but wonder what that means for the beginning of the next. I feel like the catgirls should talk about this, haha. Raana has understood what’s happening, so maybe she’s the best one to talk to Nyamu about this? I wouldn’t mind more inter-band relationships either way.

Okay, next up is Umiri. I really feel for her in this one. She’s still desperately trying to bring Mujica together again, going after all her bandmates and trying to motivate them to give this another shot… but she’s still having a hard time getting through to them, especially Nyamu and Sakiko. It was kind of a bombshell to see her quitting all of her other bands, especially when the previous episode established that her work in DISRUPTiON is what allowed her to keep food on the table! In said episode, it was touching to see her trying to mend things, but it still felt rather unconvicing… seeing her do this, however, definitely makes it more convincing. Just what is it that she finds so fulfilling about Ave Mujica specifically? DISRUPTiON brought her companionship and care in ways Mujica never could. I dunno, maybe I missed something, but I can’t imagine this is the end of Umiri’s character development. I’m looking forward to hearing her reasoning. Hopefully her friendships with Mortis and Taki keep her afloat through the roughest part of the storm coming soon.

Only three characters left… and they’re the ones with the most going on with them. It should be obvious who I’m saving for last, so let’s talk about Mutsumi and Mortis now.

Mutsumi and Mortis… holy shit. We knew things weren’t gonna go well given Episode 8’s infighting, but I never expected Mutsumi to straight-up vanish! We don’t know if she’s dead or anything, and I honestly doubt it, but the imagery of her falling into the darkness and the crowd of Mutsumis reappearing makes me wonder if the “Mutsumi” alter shattered into its thousand pieces, like before she met the guitar.

This isn’t the first time Mortis is stuck at the wheel, but this definitely feels more definitive, and not in a good way. Her decision to act out Mutsumi’s role is a desperate choice, and I can’t imagine it’ll end well for anyone involved…

I wonder how Mutsumi will feel about this once she inevitably returns, as well. She was essentially killed by her alter, after all. Will she forgive her? Or do we still have drama between them to look forward to? I guess it all depends on Mortis’s coming development.

Beyond the current drama, it was fun seeing the two being opposed on their stance on Crychic. It made for interesting scenes and dialogue, like every time their headspace is depicted. I especially love the shot of Mutsumi grabbing Tomori’s hand, which then cuts to her squeezing Mortis’s throat… after all, reviving Crychic would equal killing Mortis, in her opinion, wouldn’t it?

And finally, we reach the most shocking and most fascinating character this episode: none other than Uika. I mean, where to even begin with her? She’s matching Mutsumi and Mortis’s DID with her own BPD, apparently! This band is full of mentally ill girls and I’m loving it.

Anyway, she isn’t taking Sakiko’s absence well at all. She’s mentioned wanting to always be by her side, and now she’s moving away from her, looking happier than ever with Crychic and spending all her time with Mutsumi… so she’s been left alone, and she’s both devastated and very, very upset about that. I mean, her expressions speak for themselves in this episode. I don’t think I’ve seen anime this expressive before. And I’ve seen my fair share of anime.

And the scene of her throwing Mutsumi down the stairs???????????? Thank god that was just her imagination, she would not have survived that! That was absolutely blood-curdlingly violent, especially for a show that uses physical violence very, very scarcely. It came out of left field in the best way, and I adore how it was presented. It really gave off the impression that Uika has completely lost control over her psyche, and is only barely holding on thanks to her values. And by “values”, I mean the general teaching of “It’s not okay to kill people”. Yeesh.

The increased outbursts from all the members of Ave Mujica really worry me. I don’t think they could kill each other, per se, namely because they need to sell the band in the gacha game once the anime is over, but it seems like they could hurt each other really badly… and yet, there’s only four episodes left! How’s that even possible!? I have full trust in the writers to finish the story in a satisfying way, but it feels like black magic to be able to resolve everything in so short a time. I guess we’ll see. I know I’ll be tuning in as soon as possible to see what’s next!

[hiraethwa]

one summer day

08 to be human. where ushijima forgets that he is only human and you remind him

<< 07 sun and moon. | >> 09 (coming soon)

pairing: ushijima wakatoshi x reader a/n: sorry it took so long to post this part, it just never came out right - ave word count: 2.6k warnings: angst, fluff if you squint tags: @lemurzsquad

your violin rests on the stand in the corner, practice for the first chair audition forgotten as you once again get distracted checking your phone for any new notifications. 

you click into the group chat anyway, scrolling through their updates from tokyo. the latest text time stamped 8:59pm three days ago was a photo of the three of them at tokyo tower, with a caption of ‘missing our fourth :’)’ from semi,. there was another one of them with their food at their hotel and a collection of random photos that they thought to send you when they are away for a match. 

then there’s the photo you had received from tendo of ushijima doing a push-up while you were eating, causing you to choke on your food and coughing within an inch of your life. you did a double take and true enough, he sent it to you as a private message. 

you had left him on seen, naturally.

sliding down to your knees with your back against the wall, you let the device clatter to the floor next to you. 

tonight the silence is deafening in your ears. you thought you enjoyed the peace and quiet that you get to yourself in your home, but perhaps you had just grown accustomed to it. just like how you had grown accustomed to being around your friends, even enjoyed their company. 

you hug your knees, feeling a certain hollowness in your heart in the shape of a certain someone with eyes of the color of your favorite drink. you allow your memories to rush over you, remembering the night you shared as the weather turned cold, huddled in your barely warm enough jackets with a thin blanket laid out on the freezing ground, sharing your dreams for the future under the night sky with only the stars as your witnesses. 

“i am going to go professional as a volleyball player,” wakatoshi had shared with you. not surprising as he was one of the top three spikers in the country, it had only seemed natural, almost expected of him. “tokyo, maybe.”

you had turned to lay on your side, head propped up on your elbow to look at him in all seriousness. “i never told anyone, but my dream was to go play for tokyo philharmonic orchestra. after all these years, i think i still want to do it.” 

you shrugged, “i know i am nowhere near good enough yet, but i want that to be my reality someday when i become good enough. i have been working hard to audition for the first chair in the school orchestra. the teacher even said that with a little more work i have the potential to be in that position next year.”

you stopped abruptly, having realized you were rambling. it must have sounded stupid, you thought. you were nowhere good enough, unlike wakatoshi, to go to the national stage, and yet, here you were, talking his ear off about wanting to join the tokyo philharmonic orchestra.

you dropped onto your back, looking away into the darkness of the night. “never mind, that was stupid.”

“no, no, look at me.” but you had refused, thinking he was probably just trying to make you feel better about yourself. 

his hand had cupped your face, gently turning you towards him. your heart skipped a beat, feeling his skin on yours, and realizing that he was close enough for you to feel the warmth of his exhale on your freezing cheeks. it was right that moment that you were so sure that your cheeks burned under his touch.

when you met his eyes, you had expected to see surprise, but to your own surprise, you found only pride and belief in them. as if he saw it coming. that he believed in you. 

“let’s go to tokyo together then,” you thought you saw hope glimmering in his eyes that night. 

or maybe it was the reflection of the twinkling stars, you keep telling yourself to quell your own hope rising in your once barren heart. wakatoshi had gone and planted a whole garden lush with flowers of every variety you could think of. had watered and tended to the shrubs with care and affection. with stolen glances and half-smiles. 

in his absence, your heart yearns for its owner. i’m yours i’m yours i’m yours, your traitorous heart whispers in his presence. 

you are afraid. for you have learnt that hope, this fragile thing with feathers, has been singing its tune in your ears this whole time. you are scared of being the only one who feels this way and getting hurt. you are scared that this whole time, you are the only one who needed him, that he does not need you. you are scared that hope has skewed your perception and you have been lying to yourself about the small possibility that he feels the same towards you.

a frantic knocking breaks you out of your thoughts. to your surprise, you find semi at your door with hands on his knees, panting for breath. a ghost of a smile passed over your face, reminded by the time wakatoshi showed up in a similar fashion on your doorstep.

“when did you come home from tokyo?” you frown, unaware that the team is back from nationals. you take in the defeat in his eyes, the quivering hands by his side. and you piece it together. the radio silence since three days ago. the fact that he is back home in sendai. oh. oh. 

shiratorizawa lost.

“i thought he told you, he said-” semi shakes his head. “never mind”

before you could say anything else, semi pushes past you into your house, grabbing a thick jacket and holding it out for you to wear. confused, you oblige, and he pushes you towards the door, fishing out a random pair of shoes. “it’s ushijima. we need to go now before that idiot does something stupider.”

semi pulls you into a fast paced run passing familiar houses and scenery. on a route you recognize because you walk it to school everyday. to shiratorizawa, you realize. 

“semi-” you protest through your panting, unused to the physical exertion on your body. your lungs are burning, throat dry and hurting with every breath that irritates it further. 

the cold wind bites at your skin. the barren tree branches swaying as if urging you on towards wakatoshi. worry clouds your mind, running through the worst scenarios that could be happening right down. if they had lost the nationals, why didn’t any of them tell you? and the ‘he’ semi mentioned, who could it be if not ushijima?

the blood freezes in your veins as you come to the conclusion that ushijima decided not to tell you. ushijima decided not to tell you.

the volleyball gymnasium comes into sight as your breath catches in your throat, feeling it squeezed out of your lungs. lips trembling, you snatch your hand out of semi’s, as you double over, retching onto the exposed ground next to the paved walkway. 

semi looks at you worriedly, rubbing your back guiltily. “i’m sorry”

your eyes meet his, lips parting to ask for an explanation, but not before another wave of nausea hits you. “what happened.” you manage the question before taking a shuddering breath, trying to remember how to breathe as the world spinned before your eyes.

“he’s not stopping. or listening to any of us.” your body sways as you stand up, so semi guides you to the entrance, looping an arm around your waist to support you.

you immediately find him on the court, ordering shirabu for another set. the young setter seems conflicted over his words, but tosses to him anyway after some hesitation. three other players trying to block his spikes. exhaustion showing through their sluggish movements.

and ushijima. you notice the unfamiliar black pad gracing his left knee. semi huffs, “his knee is irritated but he refuses to rest, and the first years are too scared to not listen to him, even if it is for his own good. the rest of us, we tried to talk to him, but he is not listening.”

the sight of him causes embarrassment to bloom in your chest. you have a pretty good guess of who semi meant when he said “he didn’t tell you?” earlier. your cheeks flush scarlet not only from the exertion of running here, but also from the betrayal you felt from being left out of the loop. how could he?

“what makes you think he would listen to me if he wouldn’t listen to you guys? when he didn’t even bother to tell me that you lost in nationals?” you clench your jaw, tamping down on your rising temper. 

“y/n!” tendo shouts excitedly from the other side of the net, looking like his savior just arrived.

you give him a glare in return. they are all complicit in withholding this information from you. 

ushijima winces as he lands on his feet, the spike bouncing off the back corner of the court. your traitorous body reacts instinctively to make sure he is fine, hand reaching out towards him as your feet itches to bring you to him. your heart betrays your mind, worry for his well being threatening to overcome the disappointment and betrayal you feel.

you clench your fist, lowering it to your side. semi gives you a look, to which you respond, “don’t”

ushijima turns around, almost surprised to find you there. then his eyes dart to where semi has his hand on your waist, and they darken as he meets your stare. as if semi crossed an unspoken line. 

you lift your chin, holding his gaze as if asking what about it? your chest heaves in angry short breaths, barely noticing how the court dies down as the second years quietly usher everyone out. 

and then he starts walking towards you, looking so much like a hunter who caught his prey in a trap. you tense, unknowingly taking a small step backwards. you had a feeling this is how his opponents feel when they stand on the other side of the net against him. and yet, they had won the match against shiratorizawa.

you feel taken aback when he leans down and envelops his arms around your frame, head nuzzled into your neck. the sensation of his breath on your skin as he breathes you in skyrocketing your heart rate. traitorous heart.

it is unlike the ushijima you know to behave so intimately. sure, it is common for some physical affection here and there as friends, but this… you swallow. this, you think, is crossing the invisible line as friends. suddenly, the unwelcome thoughts of him liking you back invade your mind, and spiral into whether you should tell him. but what if he does not feel the same way? 

you don’t know if your fragile heart can survive that. you shake your head, banishing the thoughts away into the void.

your brain tells you to push him away, to keep him at a distance with your anger, while your heart wants you to pull him closer and never let him go. you blink, heart at war as the two sides fight for dominance.

you lift your arms to return the hug, but hesitate as the logical side of your mind reminds you of the person in front of you. he is not meant for you. a tiny crack appears in the heart he put back together. you clench your fists, about to let them fall back down to your side, when you felt something warm trickle down the dip of your collarbones. 

and your heart breaks all over again for him. you hug him back tightly, one hand buried in his hand, with the other running up and down his back to soothe his tired heart.

one last time, you promise yourself, remembering the line he’d drawn between you by not telling you about their loss. the last time you put him before yourself, you think, as you shove your own disappointment and anger away. but you couldn’t help the question that popped up in your head before you did just that — what exactly am i to you, toshi?

you know there is no words you can say to make the loss hurt less. you know he has replayed the match over and over in his head so many times to analyze their mistakes, and likely came up empty handed. 

so you offer him something else instead. “you promised me to take care of yourself.” a quiet invitation. a safe space to express his locked up feelings, having to play his role as the captain in front of their team. 

you could almost taste the disappointment and the sadness of the defeat from the way his shoulders started shaking and the warm liquid wetting your jacket. oh, the things you would do to take his pain away. even at the cost of your own heart.

that night, as you pulled the blankets over him after giving him an earful about pushing his limits when his body needed rest and moved to leave, he asked you to stay. despite your better judgment, to which you blamed it on the time of the night, you climbed into bed next to him after putting one of his shirts on. 

with little protest, he had pulled your shivering frame against his, arm slung over your waist as his breathing slowed and he fell asleep. you had whispered his name in the darkness before turning around to face him. 

there was a little frown between his eyebrows that you smoothed away gently. you thought that he looked younger in his sleep with his mouth slightly open in an ‘o’ shape without the weight of the world on his shoulders. your hand rested on his cheek, admiring his profile in the light from the small rays of moonlight peeking through the blinds, bathing him in a soft glow.

with your parents, you thought you had seen the worst love can do to a person. with ushijima, he’s the one who’s seen you at your lowest, the first one you want to tell your good news to, the one you want to see after a long day, long before you fell for him. it hurts on a different level that he doesn’t see you in the same way that he is there for you. that he doesn’t feel he can come to you with his own problems when he was there for you. 

and it frustrates you to no end. what does he expect out of this, really? when he ran to your house that night? it makes you angry, but you don’t regret it. this feeling in your chest, it makes you want to pluck the moon from the sky and give it to him. anything he wants, you will give it to him if you could. 

without him, you would still be lost. he had shown you the way out of that darkness, stayed by your side through it all. why wouldn’t he let you do the same for him?

when the morning came, you were gone before he woke up. there was no trace of you having stayed the night that ushijima could have sworn he dreamed you up in his arms. except a mildly threatening note for him to rest and stay away from practice that sends a smile tugging at his lips.

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[mariacallous]

Americans love to focus on presidential campaigns. The House of Representatives and Senate receive some attention every now and then, but our political love affair tends to center on the race for the White House. When congressional elections gain some attention, it usually happens during the midterms when political junkies don’t have much else to talk about.

But this is a mistake. Congress matters. The outcome of congressional elections during a presidential campaign is crucial to shaping the first two years of an administration, the period when the opportunity for legislating is greatest. In the coming months, the fate of the Democratic Party agenda—regardless of who wins the presidency—will depend as much on how power is distributed on Capitol Hill as who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Even after a mandate election, just one chamber of Congress can be sufficient to check a new president’s agenda. This was the story in 1980. The election was devastating to Democrats. Ronald Reagan, who was a key figure in the modern conservative movement that took hold in the 1970s, promised to move the national agenda sharply to the right after the one-term presidency of Jimmy Carter. And then, for the first time since 1954, Republicans won control of the Senate with a majority of 53 seats.

The saving grace for Democrats that year was the House, where they remained on top. While Reagan defeated Carter in an Electoral College landslide, 489-49, Democrats exited Election Day with a 243-seat majority. Though the number of conservative Democrats had increased, the caucus as a whole was quite liberal compared with the Republicans. Under the speakership of Tip O’Neill, the lower chamber became the last bastion of liberalism. Using this as a base of power, Democrats were able to veto many of Reagan’s boldest initiatives while continuing to push forward their own agenda, even as the chances for passage were minimal.

The impact of a Democratic House was evident in both domestic and foreign policy. Republicans were forced to back away from many of their most ambitious plans to slash the social safety net. When the administration moved to reduce Social Security benefits for early retirees in 1981, O’Neill mobilized a coalition as he warned that the president aimed to dismantle this popular program. Republicans were shaken. Rep. Carroll Campbell was frustrated with the electoral impact: “I’ve got thousands of 60-year-old textile workers who think it’s the end of the world. What the hell am I supposed to tell them?” Democrats also approved a budget that raised taxes, a move that was anathema to Reagan’s acolytes. In 1983, the administration worked with congressional Democrats to shore up the financial strength of the program. The Democratic majority would be bolstered in the 1982 midterms, which took place in the middle of what O’Neill called the “Reagan recession.” The political scientist Paul Pierson showed in Dismantling the Welfare State? the limited progress Reagan made on cutting most major programs.

Similar effects were evident with foreign policy. Reagan’s hawkish posture toward the Soviet Union had been defining as he rose in national prominence during the 1970s. He railed against Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Carter for practicing the policy of détente, easing relations with the Communists, while ramping up rhetoric against the Soviet Union, calling it an “evil” empire in moralistic terms that presidents had traditionally avoided. He also curtailed negotiations over arms agreements and increased support for anti-communist operations in Central America.

House Democrats responded in force. In 1982, 1983, and 1984, they passed the Boland Amendments, which curtailed Reagan’s ability to provide support to the government of El Salvador and the anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua, the Contras. The global nuclear freeze movement also found strong support on the Hill as a number of members supported resolutions for limitations on nuclear arms production. “I can’t remember any issue, including Watergate, that has moved so many people so quickly,” Democratic operative Robert Squier noted in 1982.

None of this meant that Reagan could not achieve big changes. After all, the president pushed through a massive supply side tax cut in 1981 that made deep inroads into the finances of the federal government and began a path of ongoing cuts that privileged wealthier Americans and business. Scared to oppose him, many House Democrats voted for the cuts of their own accord. Reagan increased the defense budget, and his administration used illegal methods to direct support to Central America. And House Democrats couldn’t stop the enormous impact that Reagan had on pushing national rhetoric toward the right, either. Nonetheless, House Democrats played a pivotal role in restraining conservatism while protecting the liberal legacy of the New Deal and Great Society.

The reverse has also been true. Some congressional elections are extraordinarily dramatic. For all the attention paid to the legendary political prowess of Lyndon B. Johnson, the fact that the 1964 election produced massive Democratic majorities in the House (295) and Senate (68), while shifting the balance of influence within the party away from conservative southerners toward the liberal North, was instrumental to the passage of the Great Society legislation: Medicare and Medicaid, the Voting Rights Act, higher and secondary education funding, immigration reform, and more all became possible because of the size and structure of the Congress that Johnson was able to work with. “The once powerful coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats appeared to have been rendered impotent, or nearly so,” the New York Times noted in 1964. Once the 1966 midterms revived the conservative coalition of southern Democrats and midwestern Republicans that had ruled Capitol Hill since 1938, Johnson’s window for legislating closed.

Most recently, there was the 2020 election. One of the most important outcomes was Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock winning in Georgia, giving Democrats two Senate seats and effective control of the upper chamber. As soon as they won, the Biden administration’s fortunes changed dramatically. With unified control of Congress, Biden’s path to legislative success opened. Although the administration would have to struggle to placate the demands of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Biden kept his party united enough to move a series of major bills on COVID-19 relief, infrastructure, and climate change. In so doing, he racked up an impressive record.

When Biden was still at the top of the Democratic ticket, one of the greatest sources of concern for Democratic legislators such as former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Adam Schiff was that he was making a Republican Congress almost inevitable. Democrats in many parts of the country watched as their polling numbers plummeted.

With the energy and momentum that Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have brought to the campaign, the odds for Democrats to win control of the House and possibly the Senate have vastly improved.

As much as Democratic voters will be focused on raising money, canvassing, and promoting their presidential candidate, they would do well to devote as much energy to key congressional races—whether the seats in Long Island that Republicans picked up in 2022 or Senate races in states such as Montana and Ohio.

Johnson always understood how Congress controlled his fate. In 1968, when Treasury Secretary Henry Fowler told the president, “You are the master of the Senate and always have been,” Johnson responded: “I’m not master of a damn thing.” As a veteran of Washington, Johnson always understood that his legacy would ebb and flow based on the composition of the Congress.

This time around, Democratic control of one or two chambers will be pivotal, regardless of who wins. If Donald Trump is reelected as president, congressional power will be essential to impede his inevitable efforts to aggressively deploy presidential power and dismantle the administrative state.

If Harris wins, on the other hand, congressional power will be essential to ensuring that she can use the limited window she would have to expand on and strengthen the legislative legacy of Biden—and to start tackling new issues aimed at exciting an emerging generation of voters.

[thesagesjournal]

[Voicelines] White Day 2025

Oz: The Northern wizards have started grappling amongst each other to settle who will be the first to give you their gift for last month. Fear not, for I will protect you from any harm. ..Mm. On that note. Here. A gift from me to you. …Very smart? What is?

Arthur: Is something the matter, Master Sage? …If you’re worried all your sweets will go bad before you get the chance to enjoy them… <Pernoctant Nixzo>. There, now they’ll last for a while longer. Please, take your time savouring our gratitude to your heart’s content.

Cain: I feel real bad for not getting ya any return-chocolates, so let me make it up to ya, okay? How’s this sound? You, me, and the entirety of tomorrow, we'll go wherever you want! …Nothing gets past you, huh. I mean, can ya blame me for wanting you all for myself?

Riquet: Here’s my return chocolate for you, Master Sage. Ehehe, you can decide whether they’re “devotion” or “obligation” …Did you hear that? ...Why is there smoke coming from Mithra’s room?! What is he doing this time… I’ll go check on him, but I’ll be waiting for your answer!

Snow: My, did you make these adorable flower-shaped candies for me? As a thank-you for the chocolates last month? Oh, dear, you needn’t have! But they’re delightful indeed. I do feel a tad guilty eating such a saccharine flower field by myself…

White: My, a present for me? Hohoho, what delightful saccharine candy flowers! Is this perhaps a thank-you for the chocolates last month? Oh, dear, you needn’t have! However, since you went to such lengths… I shall take my time savouring these petal by petal.

Mithra: Are you ready to go fishing, Master Sage? …It’s not sudden at all. Today’s the day I’m supposed to give you something back for last month, right? You said eating raw fish was normal in your world, so we’re going to the sea to catch some right now.

Owen: Here’s my return gift for last month. Come now, open wide. A~hn… Heh, you look like a pathetic fledgling waiting for its mother to feed it. Your mouth will be stuck like this for a while, so take this chance to beg the others for their gifts. Maybe they’ll feel sorry for you.

Bradley: Ya want me to bake ya cookies as a return gift? Heh, look who’s learned to ask for what they wanna get. Sure, I’ll humour ya. I’ll make ya the best damn cookies you’ve ever had, since ya didn’ appreciate my artistic vision last time.

Faust: I got you these cat-shaped madeleines as your return gift. They don’t really suit me, but I thought of you the moment I saw them in the shop… I hope this isn’t too much.

Shino: A return gift for Valentine’s? Thanks. Now you have to feed them to me just like I fed you last month. A~hn.

Heathcliff: The chocolates I gave you last month were a bit over-the-top, so this time around I settled for a simpler animal design. The fur and eyes were tricky but I think they're rather realistic… Perhaps, too realistic? Aw, I should’ve gone with something cuter instead!

Nero: Ya didn’t ‘ave to get me anythin’ back, but I appreciate it, thanks. Is this one of those whatchamacallit “chum caramels”? Or maybe it’s that other, more special one? …Don’ sweat it, message received, loud an’ clear.

Shylock: Pondering over what to get you was quite fun. Picking out items, thinking of the best way to make this moment special and imagining what your reaction would be… I’m confident I’ve made the right choice, and yet, now that we’re face to face, my heart is sent aflutter.

Murr: Here comes your return gift, Master Sage! Now, close your eyes and gimme a wide a~hn! …Ahaha, can ya tell what this is? It’s super yummy, crunchy, yet springy and creamy! Don’t worry, it’s 100% edible! Wanna try another one?

Chloe: Did you make all these cookies, Master Sage? They all look super delish! …And they’re supposed to make us “best friends forever”? That’s so~ cute! Aw man, I can’t possibly eat them now!

Rustica: …Chirrup? Ahaha, I know what this is. You’re giving me back chocolates the same way I gave you mine by chirping like a cute little birdie, aren’t you? Truly a most thoughtful gift. I’ll treasure it dearly.

Figaro: <Possideo> Well, what do you think? Beautiful, isn’t it? Amidst this rain of candies is a single golden one. Find it, and the good doctor will grant you one wish.

Rutile: A return gift for last month’s chocolates? My, thank you so much, Master Sage! Can I assume these are “devotion” ones? …Haha, sorry, I couldn’t help myself. I’ll take my time with these.

Lennox: Here is my return gift to you, Master Sage. I tried to match your skill and make these myself, but they’re far from perfect… Now I know just how much feeling and effort you put into the ones you gave me.

Mitile: This ink’s for you, Master Sage! I got it to thank you for your gift last month… You me got the same one?! H-How can that be… Ehehe, that’s kind of cool, actually! It’s like we read each other’s minds!