#also bc i use my parents money. even though they want me to. i feel weird

[mainfaggot]

I was browsing on the asos website for nearly 3 hours and spent 120 dollars on 5 pieces of clothing. Which is like yay purchases dopamine teehee but . I feel guilty even though 1) my parents tell me to buy things I need because i typically don't ask for them compared to my sisters 2) I'm using my first paycheck from work

[darry-queen]

How much Darry and Soda would make modern day and if it would be enough to pay for at least the three of them: (note this may not be incredibly accurate and while yes I did do research while calculating this shit it wasn't super in depth! feel free to correct me on any and all mistakes you notice and feel free to also give your own opinions!! Much love!)

Starting with Darry's:

Before I get into number this is all assuming that Darry works exclusively the hours allotted to him while missing no work, he'd have a 5 day work week at 40 hours which is standard practice in the United States, except for his part time job which he'd be working 25/h a week (i talk about this more later just continue reading) also I'm not giving them any kind of insurance. Sorry! Lol!

Starting salary of a roofer in Oklahoma is $14/h with the average being around $15/h. Assuming this Darry will be getting around 30k a year. I'm going to be generous and say he works for a good company and has a strong union so I'll give him a end of year bonus as well ($200-$800)

His weekly pay would be around $550-$600

This would be taxed though! Using a taxing calculator (bc I'm not doing all that math babeee) He'd be payed around $500 a week.

Darry also canonically has a second job! Though it is never really talked about, not even mentioned whether it's part or full time. I'm just going to assume, generally, that it is probably a part time job that pays minimum wage. (I'm aware that there are many popular hc's as to what this job is I'm ignoring those lol) now I don't live in Oklahoma but I do have personal experience with working part time and it fucking sucks. They have you working only slightly less then a full time employee so they do not have to give you full benefits. It is an incredibly fucked up and exploitative practice.

Something to note is that Oklahoma allows part time employees to be payed half minimum wage the first 90 days of employment when under the age of 20. I do not think I will include this in the calculation because even though Darry would be 19 at the time of his parents death I think he would be 20 not long after and I do not care enough to look into this law to include it in my calculations! Just wanted to mention it because?? What the fuck Oklahoma?

Anyway, part time would have Darry working 25 hours a week for $7.25/h which would be around $180/week. After taxes he'd make $160/week getting him to $660 a week.

Finally, what everyone was waiting for.... doordash fucking driving baby. Considering he lives in a populated area I am going to be generous and say he manages to get around $20/h from doordash driving. Assuming he does this on the days he doesn't work part time (so the other 15 hours) he'd make a whopping 16k extra a year OMG!!

As for any money he'd earn from the state for guardianship of Pony and Soda: Idk! It's kind of confusing trying to figure out Oklahoma giving shit out for this because fostering and guardianship are two dif things and I'm almost certain Darry would have Guardianship over his siblings, not fostering them. So I'm just not including it: he may have received a check upon first becoming their guardian but since that is a one time thing I'm not going to include it in my final calculations (i know this is kinda contradictory for giving Darry a bonus for his roofing work but IDC IDC IDC IDC I AM NOT PUTTING THAT MUCH EFFORT INTO THIS (NOTE I FILLED OUT A MOCK W2 FORM TO GET A ROUGH ESTIMATE OF WHAT DARRY'S TAX RETURN WOULD BE BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CARE))

All of the above considered: Darry is making $960 a week. Wow!

Now for Sodapop!

Soda I'm just going to copy paste what Darry's theoretical part time job would be because it's almost time for me to go to bed and I couldn't find any special rules for 16< year olds, so he'd be working 25 hours for $7.25 which after taxes is again $160

In total him an Darry combined are making a good healthy $1120 a week on average. Probably more if you consider Darry going insane with doordash/overtime! Overall a good $4480 a month

GREAT NOW TIME FOR EXPENSES!!

Expenses Include:

Mortgage payments

power bill

water bill

natural gas

car payments (maybe)

car insurance (maybe)

fuel

food

phone payments

internet bill

probably more I can't remember off the top of my head

OKAY NOW explaining the maybe's rq

You can just, not pay for car insurance. It's illegal, but when you're poor it's not like you can really care about the legality of certain things. Sometimes, it's eating vs car insurance, y'know? Especially because Darry is only 20, that shit is going to be expensive. And the car was def under his dad's name previously so he also def doesn't have any history. I'mma be generous though and say that he does have CREDIT history, which following my own car insurance premiums: my man is going to be paying like, $400 a month. and trust me, I'm being generous here. This is also for liability only. crazy right? With that considered, if I can not get Darry's salary to work with the rest of his expenses I'm saying he's driving without insurance. Hope you understand.

Now for the car itself, it might be payed off already might not. Again it's almost time for me to go to bed so I"m not willing to double check the book to see if car payments are ever mentioned. If they are I'll come back and fix this another time but for now. I'm not including it.

As for the gas for this theoretical truck? I'm going to put it from $250-$300 a month based off of what Reddit car owners said on how often they have to get gas for their own trucks. Great!

OKAY NOW FOR THE REAL EXPENSES! The average cost of utilities in Oklahoma, Tulsa specifically, is $270 a month for electricity, like $130 a month for natural gas, and for water $100 a month. Now you're probably saying, "Paya, isn't that a little high?" to which I'd say, they have 4 (presumably more) other boys coming around almost everyday. SO I feel it's fine to rate that shit on the higher side of things.

Before I forget: the mortgage payments!

This one is kinda fucked! I have no idea when the Curtis parents bought the house in canon. If it was after, or before Darry was born, etc. Because of this you can kinda just make hc's for this. The reason I say this is because obviously the housing market now is VERY different from the one in the 40s-60s which is when they'd have had to buy the house in cannon. In fact, I'm not even entirely sure they own the house in canon I'm just assuming right now! Like, if you're making a modern au: feel free to say that they're renting! Like who really cares about it? I'll even calculate it here for you so you have a frame of reference: Assuming the house is at least 2 bedrooms 1 bathroom it's gonna be around 1.5k a month. If you want to say they're paying a mortgage though, I'm going to assume based off the little data I could find of average home cost in 2004 (I'm assuming the house was bought around the time of Darry's birth) we're looking at somewhere between 150k-250k. I'm going to low ball it though because I think Oklahoma housing prices are generally cheaper and I'm going to assume they'd go for something affordable over something large. So I'll say 175k! Average interest on a home loan in 2004 was around 6%, with a 20% downpayment Darry will be paying 1k a month for the mortgage. Not that bad!

Phone bill is p cheap around 100$ feel like you may be able to play around with this. Like maybe they're paying for Johnny? Who knows not me I want to go to bed!

Food is like so fucking expensive now tbh. I pay $300 a month on grocery shopping a month for my household. Assuming Darry is purchasing food for himself, his brothers, and a little extra for the gang I'm going to put his grocery bill at around $500 a month. I think I'm lowkey low balling it, but I think he'd be a good bargain shopper. Btw, don't ask if he qualifies for food stamps! Because he doesn't!

internet bill is significantly cheaper going to be around $50 a month, as for services like live streaming and other things, we're gonna say it's all pirated. no one is paying for that shit when you can get it online for free! (Personal hc: Steve is a fucking amazing pirate and can get you literally anything you ask for.)

Final cost of living for my boys, not including school supplies, school/extra curriculars/or clothing: $2400 - $3350

Ending conclusion: If Darry works 80+ hours a week and Soda helps out with his part-time job they have more then enough to pay for almost all living expenses. Tell me where I fucked up! Thanks. Btw according to the shittily done w2 I did for Darry he'd get almost 2k in tax returns; i most def fucked something up but I'mma accept it despite that.

[puripurin]

Yan! Llama Hybrid x SheepHybrid! Reader

— Recently, on the farm, a bunch of coyotes and wolves started to snag some sheep hybrids into the woods when they would get too close to the fences. It has gotten so bad that they would do it in broad daylight.

The owners decided that they would introduce a new addition to the herd to combat the coyotes. A male Llama named Lumi. All of the sheep were skeptical at first because they all thought that it was a little odd that the new sheep would have such a long neck and a lot bigger in size, but soon enough, they couldn't help but warm up to him.

Lumi, on the other hand, was still in his awkward phase. He'd recently entered into adulthood and was feeling sad and lonely without his parents there to guide him, but it wasn't until he saw your gorgeous curls and your small little tail that wagged in excitement. Just in that moment, he'd decided to be your life-long mate and started the process of courting you.

You did not give a shit about Lumi. You only cared about the coyotes that ate the rest of the flock. You wanted to start making sacrifices to grow your cult of small critters such as squirrels and rabbits.

This was because you heard from a passing by sheep hybrid that was being transported to another farm about how you could obtain everything you wanted if people devoted their lives to you.

However, you didn't expect Lumi to be so dedicated to you that he'd easily deciphered your messages to your devout followers and your weekly gatherings.

As you walked out of the dead of night, with the intention of killing a coyote that night. But it was oddly still, as if it was waiting for something. The trees didn't ruffle against each other, and the cool wind was nowhere to be seen

You stiffened up and silently walked back. If one of the other sheeps found out about this whole cult thing you had going on, you'd be ousted and killed by the coyotes instead.

But, you were immediately thrown down and turned over. Your eyes widened in panic and started to attack the person who held you down silently, only to realize that blood was dripping on your face.

"My love, I've killed one of those tainted and unpure coyotes for your sacrifice. I would hate to see your delicate hands get stained with something unworthy of your desire... but why... Why do you yearn and look at someone else with interest other than me? ... Only I shall be your eyes and ears, my love..."

Random and barely edit post after months of not posting. I was watch yt shorts and i came across a video abt guard llamas w sheeps. Its been on my mind for 3 weeks and i started this 2 weeks ago. I only decided now to finish it.

You can see the point where i went fuck it because i had no idea what to do with the reader's background so i was like "Ooh maybe they want to smash the coyotes... what's close to smashing coyotes... Cult." Cult leader YN it is.

Anyways below is for the rest of people who want to know what happened after that incident.

I feel better about my dog's death, but we weren't able to get him back due to the poor weather and the fact he was last seen in a drain. So there wasn't a proper burial, but I'm happy that we didn't end up with 2 losses. We had them since they were puppies, and its upsetting that the younger one died, but i understand why they had to kill him.

He's a dangerous breed of dog even though he's docile most of them time. He was a cane corso, and my older dog is a rottweiler and pitbull mix. So not the most safest dogs to be around, but what are you gonna do when your country is busy locking up a man for money laundering bcs they shit at their jobs.

Right, if I'm not lazy enough, I'll go back and redo every one of my ocs bcs im on the verge of deleting them all from embarrassment. Then that will hopefully be a small week long event for my tumblr as im not used to those things. But this might take months.

Also, no won't do kinktober, im lazy, and smut isn't my forte. Anyways bye-bye, see yall when my coffin feels too stuffy~

(soz if this is shit as well bcs i didn't do a whole lotta explaining abt Lumi's behavior)

[shootingcookielover]

Villain!Donald One-Shot

Alrightttt because ppl really like the donald duck villain au...

Have a one-shot. As a treat! (I'm not promising more bc my trackrecord of finishing long-form fics is. Zero. But hey, if u like... Feel free to play around w the idea urself! Tag me in that though, i wanna read it, too xD)

Somehow, Donald had thought the days would feel more... Profound than this. That there would be an invisible weight off his shoulders, that the rage and resentment would have finally, finally cut off. Released, now that he was no longer affiliated with... Everything.

But he felt pretty much the same as he always had - bar the inevitable exhaustion of raising three children as a single parent. Uncle.

Luckily they were asleep for now, down for the night. Louie and Huey had, as always, been the easiest to put down.

How could anyone, anyone look at children - these soft, small, terribly fragile creatures and... Deem them fit for adventuring? For fighting off ancient curses and monsters and the undead?

His own childhood memories sat heavily in his mind, that old, familiar prickle of fear and adrenaline running through his system for a moment.

He shook his head, eyes moving downward to the pile of bills laid out before him. A couple newspapers were spread beside them, all open to show off whatever jobs were available right now.

Most of them had already been crossed out by him, the red crayon he'd used for it still rested in his hands. The color had started staining his feathers a little, not that he particularly minded. His shirt was equally stained, he wasn't sure he actually still had a clean one anywhere on the boat.

The boat he could only just afford with the help of the state, with the help of what little financial aid it offered for single parents. An aid, of course, heavily supplemented by one Scrooge McDuck. Living off of it made Donald feel like gritting his teeth. Like breaking something.

Not that he would. He couldn't risk waking the boys. Or breaking something important he wouldn't have the money to replace.

His head thunked face-first into the tabletop, beak squished against papers. A despondent sigh left him.

Money, it always came back to the money, didn't it? His uncle's adventures had also always cricled back around to that singular goal, no matter how much he'd claimed it was about "scientific discovery" or "archiological finds".

And Della had always eaten it up. Had strived to find the most exciting, mystical artefact, not realizing that Scrooge probably would have just ended up selling it to some schmuck.

Maybe, Donald thought, he could break into the Money Bin and just take some of that money. Certainly, once his uncle realized it was him, he would be left off the hook. What, with how they'd parted ways, with how Scrooge had insisted upon being "family".

Then again, family had always ended where the money began.

Donald balled his hand into a fist and finally raised his head from the table again. He plopped his face into his hand, staring sightlessly down at the papers he'd collected.

Even if he could manage to land a job anytime in the near future, he still needed a babysitter or a daycare of some kind. Someone to take care of the kids while he wasn't here.

The mere thought of leaving the boys with somebody else nearly left him breathless with worry. Enough so that he abruptly abandoned his seat and walked through the tiny "living room" area of the houseboat to his room. Their room.

(He'd seen the kind of terrors this world was home to, had fought them himself, even. Anyone of them making their way inside, closing in on the children - he didn't want to even think about it.)

He opened the door, silently as he could, just enough to peek his head inside. He had a baby monitor, of course, charged and ready to use on his table, but that wasn't enough.

He needed visual confirmation.

And there they were, in that crib that Donald had cobbled together, while the boys had been just in his eyesight, playing with toys.

All three were snuggled into their blanket, eyes closed, breathing calmly and only occasionally letting out little snuffles.

A soft smile crept onto Donald's beak.

Despite himself, he stepped into the room. Careful to avoid the creaking planks he'd discovered within his first week living on the boat, he approached the crib.

He reached down, where the little stuffed lion had fallen, that Donald had recently bought the boys. They'd been in love with it from day one, hardly willing to share it even with each other. Donald's heart still ached at the thought he couldn't even afford two more plushies for them.

The lion was lowered carefully and Dewey, always the most active out of the three, who lay at the very right, immediately snatched it away from Donald's hand. The movement was accompanied by a soft, baby hand smacking into his brother's, Huey's, face. The boy frowned in his sleep and turned around, but didn't wake up.

Donald let out a soft breath of relief as he pulled up the blanket a bit, to properly tuck the three in again. Louie didn't acknowledge any of the changes going on within the crib, blissfully, deeply asleep.

Donald couldn't help himself as he brushed his hand over the youngest triplet's head. For a while, he had been nothing but anxious about Louie. Because the little one had been so much sleepier, much less active than his brothers. But the doctor had reassured him that Louie was perfectly fine, his energy levels simply did not quite match up with his brothers.

The doctor had also promptly slammed him with an outrageously high bill for the appointment, but Donald decided not to think about that for the moment. He didn't want to ruin his mood again, not when he'd just managed to calm himself.

He backed away from the crib, intent to go gather the bills and newspapers he'd laid out, maybe look over them tomorrow when he'd had some sleep. (He already knew Dewey was going to wake him up in the middle of the night again, hungry and fussy and bothering his brothers in the process.)

Except as he softly closed the door, making sure it didn't produce a sound, his eyes caught on the opposing wall. Or, more accurately, the window across from him. Because that window was wide open, letting in the cold night air.

Immediately, Donald was on alert. His shoulders tensed as he looked over the room, poised and ready to defend himself as well as the babies in the next room, should it come to that.

But the room looked entirely untouched, except for the open window. A bit dirty, a bit messy, sure, but not anymore or less so than before Donald had gone to check on his nephews.

His brows furrowed into a frown. Strange.

Perhaps he'd opened the window earlier and forgotten...?

Still he didn't relax, even as he approached the window and closed it again. It looked fine, really, no evidence of being tampered with or anything. And certainly Donald would have heard anyone come in, even from the boys' room. Even through the door - it wasn't exactly sound-proof, after all.

Reasanobly reassured, Donald went back to his pile of papers. A few had scattered off the table and now decorated the ground.

With a huff Donald bent down to pick them up.

But as he did so, something red caught his attention in the corner of his vision. It couldn't be the crayon - he was still carrying that around, after all - no. It was an envelope, half-hidden under the pile of other documents.

Frowning harder than before, Donald reached out and pulled it free. His tension was back immediately and his gaze hushed over to the baby monitor for a second. But no sound came from there, nothing indicating anything being amiss.

Only the red envelope in his hands.

He didn't remember it being in the pile of mail he'd grabbed that morning - mostly bills, really - and there was no address on the front, either. All that was written on it in awfully nice, unfamiliar handwriting was "For Donald Duck".

Even as he turned it, he didn't expect to find more. And he was right, the back was entirely blank.

Already over this, whatever this was, he began ripping open the letter. Meanwhile he tried composing a mental list of Scrooge's enemies and which one was most likely to send a threat to Donald, of all people, when he had so clearly distanced himself from his uncle.

The list shattered into a pile of questions as he read the words trapped within the envelope.

"Dear Mr. Duck,

It has come to our attention that you have recently split off from your uncle and are in dire need of both a babysitter and a job. To prove that we do not have any malicious intentions toward you or the children, we propose a meeting with one of our representatives."

There was more, after that, instructions about a place to meet - a public place, a playground in the middle of Duckburg, yet not too far from the boat. Donald knew it well, went there often if only to satisfy his own need for fresh air.

It was a well-frequented place, always full of other parents - some of which had helped Donald with the kids before, some of which he'd thought of setting up a play-date with. Innocent, potential victims.

The thought of agreeing to this made every single alarm bell in his head ring deafeningly loud, but at the same time... His gaze travelled to look over the newspapers he'd been attempting to find a job in.

He sighed as he put down the envelope beside his bills. His finger tapped the tabletop a couple of times, his tired mind busy debating the pros and cons of the situation.

The cons list was pretty long, at this point.

But, even though it was shorter, the pros list held a couple of very important points that Donald would be remiss to ignore.

His musings were cut short by the sudden cry of a newborn.

Red envelope forgotten, Donald dashed into the boys' room again.

----

He'd debated calling Beakley for back-up, just some silent support in case things went south.

Now he regretted that he'd decided against it.

His nerves were high as he sat on the bench, watching the boys toddle around the sandbox. They stayed close to him today, though Donald hadn't told them to. Certainly, if he had, they'd have soread out as far away from him as possible.

Perhaps the little ones had picked up on Donald's anxiety. He had heard from other parents that children often were a lot more perceptive than adults gave them credit for.

Though his nephews were still so small. How could they realize his emotional turmoil? How could he put that on them? How could he put them in danger like this?

Hardly five minutes after sitting down, Donald stood up again.

This was a mistake. He shouldn't have come. Shouldn't have listened to that letter.

He was just so damn tired--

"Huey!", he had barely been able to call when an unfamiliar voice spoke up from just beside the bench.

"Mr. Duck?"

He turned and his heart sank into his stomach. He'd been right.

This was a mistake.

Stood just beside the bench were two people, one he didn't recognise, a duck with red hair who stayed in the back, not appearing to be paying attention. The second was Black Heron.

He remembered her, remembered feeling terrified, petrified as a child, faced with the supervillain. That same feeling now rushed through his veins, alongside overwhelming concern for the boys.

His eyes darted to the side for a moment, glancing to where they'd been just moments prior. They were there still, appearing unbothered as they dug through the sand.

"Black Heron.", Donald replied, voice cool as he returned her gaze.

The other grinned, reaching out with one hand. A robotic hand, Donald noted, with sharp bits and pointed ends that he wanted never, ever anywhere near his nephews. "So you do remember me. I am flattered, Mr. Duck."

"What do you want?", Donald asked, tone harsh. This sort of thing was exactly why he'd left Scrooge in the first place. He had no desire for the boys to get involved with things like this.

Pulling back her ignored hand, Black Heron rolled her eyes. "Now, please. There's no need to be so hostile."

"Yeah! It's not like we're here tl kidnap the kids or anything! Now, if we were planning that you should be concerned, but honestly I don't know if I could do that. I mean, look at them! They're so adorable, I don't think I could focus long enough to take them! Not that I'm particularly good at focussing regardless, but my point is--"

"Quiet!", Black Heron interrupted the ramblings of her... Accomplice, a severe expression in her face.

The other woman looked sheepish and yet somehow entirely clueless and unaffected as well. "Sorry.", she said simply, giving a bit of a shrug.

Donald didn't feel very comforted by what was going on, though he supposed at least they weren't openly threatening to take the boys. He stole another glance at them. They were fine, Huey was busy digging a plastic shovel into the ground, Dewey had started shoveling sand into his beak and Louie looked about five seconds away from falling asleep next to his brothers.

Wait. Dewey was shoveling sand in his mouth.

"Dew-", he began, already starting in that direction.

But he was quickly eclipsed by the red-haired stranger Black Heron had brought along. She sped past him and picked up Dewey from the ground.

Donald's heartbeat sped up faster than the Cloudslayer could fly. "What are you- Put him down!"

But the woman wasn't paying him any mind. She was swaying Dewey back and forth, and... Talking to him.

"Y'know, I thought eating sand was a really fun idea, too, when I was younger, but then I tried it again recently and oh boy, let me tell you, getting the grit out of your teeth is nearly impossible! And, well, I mean you barely even have any teeth but, still you shouldn't get into the habit, y'know? Besides, who knows what all is crawling around in playground sand! You could get all sorts of sicknesses! Why don't you chew on this instead?"

She reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out... A teething ring? She held it out to Dewey and the boy eagerly grabbed it, before shoving it in his mouth. "There, see? Much better!", the woman exclaimed before setting Dewey back down on the ground.

Donald felt a little lost at the display. "I- what?", he muttered, trying and failing to keep his worldview intact. He shook his head. Maybe all the lack of sleep was getting to him.

"Hm, yes, I was surprised, too, but apparently Agent 01 is quite adept at taking care of children.", Black Heron added, arms crossed against her chest as she watched the kids now, too.

"Oh, yeah, I had to take care of my little siblings all the time when I was younger.", the woman - Agent 01? - added, grinning up brightly at them, from where she sat kneeling in the sand, entertaining Huey.

Donald blinked a few times, still feeling unbalanced. Sort of as though somebody had pulled out the rug from under him. His unease and worry were still there, but he found mild intrigue there, now, too. The letter had mentioned there would be a babysitter. And a job.

Donald's brows knitted together again.

"What do you want?", he said again, glancing Heron's way once more, tone a touch less hostile than earlier.

-----

Working for F.O.W.L. wasn't so bad, really, Donald thought. Of course he wasn't one of the actual agents - moreso filling the role of accountant, fiddling with and filling out paperwork, but Donald didn't mind.

He liked it, actually, the quiet that came with it, the calm. Certainly he wasn't used to it; his life had always been hectic, one adventure chasing the next, chasing the next and then he'd abruptly become a caregiver for three children and the very idea of having a calm day went out the window.

But now? He tapped his pen against his desk a couple of times. He had an entire little office to himself, here in F.O.W.L.'s underground headquarters.

A desk with a chair, a couple of filing cabinets, a potted plant. A cozy little carpet on the floor, a "hang in there!"-poster on one wall. A poster with the F.O.W.L. logo on the other.

This might be the most normal experience Donald had ever had. And it was in the HQ of a secret organization that strived for world domination.

Truly only in this family, Donald thought with a sigh.

He scribbled down a couple more notes on the paper he was currently working on, before shoving it aside on the "finsihed" pile. He felt almost at peace.

His teeth came down on the back of the pen. His gaze flitted to the clock that hung above the door.

The document before him was nearly ledgible.

Nearly, because Donald couldn't focus.

Who was he kidding? He was the furthest thing from peaceful!

What was he even doing?! Working for F.O.W.L.?!

He stood up, chair spinning away behind him.

His steps were quick and crisp as he crossed the room. The door opened easily, unlocked, and as he peered outside he didn't find any guards, either.

They were underestimating him, then. He could work with that. He'd worked with that constantly when he'd been a child and none of Scrooge's enemies had taken him seriously.

The hallways looked basically normal as well, as normal as one could get, who knows how many miles under the earth.

Donald strode with confidence, face set into a snarl.

He knew where the boys where, knew that Pepper - Agent 01, the woman who'd accompanied Black Heron that first time - was in charge of keeping them safe and entertained.

How could he have agreed to that? Agreed to have a F.O.W.L. agent watch over his nephews? Even one as apparently harmless as Pepper?

He found himself picking up his pace until he was running through the hallways. Eggheads shot him confused looks as he made his way past, but didn't say anything.

He slid to a stop by the door of the "daycare".

He had to restrain himself from ripping it off his hinges, in a desperate effort not to draw more attention to himself.

In the room itself - floor covered in soft, colorful mats, looking like puzzle pieces, decked out with all sorts of toys and plushies - Pepper looked up in surprise, Louie peacefully napping in her arms.

"Donald!", Pepper exclaimed in surprise, voice subdued for the benefit of the sleeping infant.

Huey and Dewey weren't far from her, distracted by their own little toys. Dewey was chewing on that same teething ring Pepper had provided him at their first meeting.

"What are you doing to them?!", Donald snapped, voice a dangerous whisper.

Pepper blinked, part confusion, part surprise. "Uh, well, I was going to lay this little one down for a proper nap soon and maybe read Huey and Louie a story, later?"

"No.", Donald replied. "What are you doing to them?! To me?!"

"Uhm.", Pepper looked entirely lost at his line of enquiry. "...nothing?"

"Impossible!", Donald snapped. "I wouldn't have agreed to this if I wasn't, if you didn't--", his words died in an unintelligible garble of noise, frustration spilling out of him.

"Mr. Duck.", a new voice spoke up, unfamiliar in tone and cadence, yet he couldn't shake the feeling he's heard it before.

"What?!", he responded, whipping around to face the newcomer.

To face--- Donald blinked a couple of times.

Was that... The head of Scrooge's board of directors? What?

"Mr. Duck, I undrstand that this is all a lot to rake in, but I assure you, we are doing nothing to you or your nephews - aside from providing them proper childcare, of course."

Donald's mind restarted suddenly and he glared. "How do I know you're telling the truth? You and your people have tried to kill me a dozen times!"

"Oh, no, Mr. Duck, I understand how you could have come to that conclusion, but that is not what we - what F.O.W.L. - is all about, not at all. We have not been attempting to kill you, as you put it, but rather to put a stop to your uncle."

There was something awfully calming, relatable even, in the old vulture's stance, in his tone of voice, the way he spoke. Donald huffed, regardless, glancing over at the kids again.

Huey was staring up at him, now, eyes big, tiny beak curving into a smile.

"So you can take over the world.", Donald scoffed, attention returning to the vulture. He didn't remember the guy's name, but he'd seen him before plenty of times. Always complaining about money spent.

Surprisingly, he didn't try to deny it. He nodded. "Indeed. To make it safer. For you, for me, for... Them.", he gestured to the children.

Pepper was humming a tune as she played with Dewey, Louie still securely wrapped in her arm.

"So that none of them have to go through what we did."

"...we?", Donald repeated, confused.

The vulture wasn't looking at him, anymore, gaze placed on something far off, distant. "Indeed. You are not the only one who suffered through a childhood of danger and adventure at the hands of their family."

Donald jerked back in surprise, eyes going wide. "What- you-"

"My grandmother. She always took me along, no matter how little I wanted to.", the old vulture sighed, gaze meeting Donald's once more. "I only want to ensure that this fate does not befall any more innocent children, Mr. Duck."

Donald glanced betweent he vulture and the children still expertly being tended to by Pepper.

Of course Black Heron had already given him a basic run-down of what had just been explained to him, but... Well, it was hard to argue with that look in the other's eyes.

Donald had seen it plenty of times; that haunted, hollow thing. Every time he'd looked in a mirror, they would stare back at him. Every villain, every menace, every danger he'd faced as a child.

Heron hadn't just made up a story to convince a poor, sleep-deprived Donald to join F.O.W.L. he realized.

Tension bled out of his frame as he stepped into the room. He knelt besides Huey, smiling as the child grabbed ahold of his finger.

"...I'm sorry.", Donald muttered, "I don't know what... I understand."

"That's alright.", the vulture answered, easily. "You were traumatized. I know from experience that trusting people can be hard after what we've both experienced in childhood."

Donald gave a quiet chuckle. It was nice to have someone who understood.

Of course, Della had been there - thinking of her made him wince with pain - but she'd never quite realized how much Donald resented the adventures she loved so much.

He reached down, pulling Huey into his lap.

The little boy giggled, gurgling a couple of indistinct sounds.

He would help make sure no other child had to grow up as he did. Especially these children.

His children.

-+-+-+-++

Wow would u look at that! I have no idea how i got here but i kinda like it lol

Poor Donald being put under a lot of pressure aint he? Idk what else to say tbh

If u liked it. Please let me know :D

If u didnt like it... I do appreciate constructive criticism lol

Yes, I made Pepper Agent 01 to insinuate that she was the first egghead that joined F.O.W.L.. I just thought that was a fun idea x3

[apollos-olives]

question about hamas - so, i fully support hamas' actions of liberation against israel, whatever they might be. however i feel like i can't fully support hamas, and the only reason is bc i heard they're harmful as a governing body to the palestinians in gaza. for example hamas building unnecessary expensive luxury mosques even though most gazans were against money used for that. like any other unideal goverment that can be corrupt. it would be rlly nice to hear ur opinion on the matter bc you seem to be rlly knowledgeable, and hear if I'm actually completely off the mark lol. thank you and have a pleasant week.

i mean, to be completely honest, i don't really care about hamas. and honestly if anyone thinks this whole thing is still about hamas and not about israel committing as many atrocities as possible, then tbh they're extremely ignorant. not to say you're ignorant, anon, and your ask is totally understandable, it's just i really don't care about hamas. i support them as a freedom fighter group, but other than that i don't pay attention to them or what they do. obviously most governments around the middle east are extremely corrupt, but i don't keep up with what hamas does. i'm sure it's done things that gazans haven't liked and it's done things that gazans have liked, but it's not like any other government doesn't do that either. holding hamas to a higher standard than other governments who do the exact same thing is... well that's not great, tbh. is hamas perfect? no ofc not. but just because they've done unfavorable things doesn't mean they should be condemned more than any other sort of government in the world who has done unfavorable things as well. either condemn them all or condemn none of them. and i lean on the side of "condemn them all", but currently i'm not focused on that. i'm not focused on hamas, i'm focused on saving palestine first. we can deal with hamas and dismantling the corruption within the entirety of palestine later, but we need to pay more attention to saving palestinian lives and dismantling israel as a genocidal illegal settler colonial state. our first priority is supporting groups and fighters who are challenging the illegal settler state, even when it includes hamas. if we take too much time "umm"-ing and "err"-ing over whether or not we should support hamas over one of their actions vs another, we're never going to get anywhere.

and honestly? you don't have to support hamas as a whole. many palestinians have controversial opinions over hamas. my parents hate them to bits but they still appreciate that they're fighting for us. i like them and support their goals to liberate palestine, but in general i don't care about or for them on anything else. palestinians have different opinions and that's totally fine. so it's okay if you don't support hamas as a group and as a whole because of it's policies or beliefs. as long as you are standing with palestine and standing with our freedom fighters, you're fine. no one is gonna judge you.

but i'd recommend to not focus on hamas or let people know your opinions about them, because that's not the priority. the priority is to free palestine. we need to stop talking about hamas so much and focus on helping those who are suffering. if we keep things focused on hamas, we are going to distract ourselves from our goals. israel WANTS you to keep talking about hamas. israel WANTS you to question their policies and actions. israel WANTS you to take time away from focusing on those in need to focus on something less important. that's why i hardly even talk about hamas on my blog. because it's not about hamas. it's about a free palestine.

i hope this helps. also, could you link me some of the info about hamas and the whole mosque thing?? or anything else you're not sure about? i'd like to read up on things like that, and make sure that isn't fake news or propaganda, because i personally have never heard of anything like that. thank you

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for accepting money/gifts from my mom?

(🦭🐟 to help find later)

Ok bear with me here because this is a serious question w/ some context even though the question doesn't seem bad.

My (19NB) mom (54F) is not a very good parent. Things were not great when I was a kid, to say the least. It's complicated to get into so I'm gonna glaze over most of it and say I plan to go low/no contact when I'm older and can afford to support myself on my own. For now I'm amicable since I need help while getting through college. This has been my plan for a WHILE but I've started to feel a little guilty?

My biggest issue with my mom is the way that she treats/treated my siblings. Sometimes she gets on my nerves but I know I have the privilege of being the youngest (and the favorite) therefore my parents don't pull the same kind of bullshit with me. For example one of my siblings had family therapy with her, and she would frequently not show up and leave them to do the exercises with the other families in the group session that they didn't know. She also complained about their suicide attempt. She talks down to my oldest sister because she couldn't pursue the medical career my parents wanted because she couldn't deal with the cadavers, and since she spent her whole education trying to reach their standards she's been lost trying to figure out what she wants for herself, and my parents keep harping on her for not having a career plan and being "useless". This is only the tip of the iceberg, and it's plenty enough for me to feel justified in my decision to eventually go no contact. I am not asking if AITA for cutting her off, that is not where the guilt is.

It's always been the case that instead of directly saying she was wrong my mom would spend a lot of money on us and buy gifts (usually stuff she likes and not what we like, but I figured out I could leverage her guilt to buy specific things bc free stuff ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ even if I don't forgive her). I think this is because she didn't have much money growing up so now she's a shopaholic now that she has the money to do so (both my parents are in the medical field so they are far from poor. abt upper middle class). She also keeps defending our uncle despite us bringing up how he's creepy and pervy and makes us uncomfortable, and she has some... interesting political takes (like defending the price of insulin being so high???)

My mom I think has been trying to be better but she still never apologizes for any of her actions and is guilt trippy by saying stuff abt how we all think shes a bad mom that caused all her kids to be depressed and suicidal. So its not enough of an improvement for me to forgive her, but I do notice that she walks away from situations sometimes rather than blow her fuse, and she's more tolerant of my ADHD and queerness than she used to be. And she's been trying to be more supportive of me and my decision to pursue an art career. I do believe that people can get better and change themselves, I just think in the case of my mom it's too little too late (and she hasn't improved her relationship with my siblings as much). I've also been polite and friendly since I'm still living with her.

So like, this combined with me accepting her gifts makes me think I'm leading her on? Like she thinks that she's salvaging a relationship with one of her kids and that I'll stay. And I feel a little bad about that. Like if it was JUST the gifts I would feel no guilt bc if she thinks she can bribe her way into our good graces without changing her behavior than shes gonna be down money and still have no kids. But shes trying to improve, albeit slowly and not when we needed her, but better nonetheless. So it feels less "this is the least she could do given the trauma" and more "i feel like i'm taking advantage of her".

One of my siblings refuses to accept her money on principle (they've already moved out) and it makes me think I should probably do the same, but also i dont know if I can since I don't have a job yet and I'm still in school, so maybe just refuse the gifts thing? But neither of my siblings seem to have an issue with my relationship with her, so maybe I shouldn't feel bad? She's treating me better so I feel I have less justification for using her wealth for my own benefit, even if I still don't forgive her for how she treated my siblings.

Basically, AITA for still accepting guilt money/gifts from my shitty mom despite planning on cutting her off later on?

What are these acronyms?

[uriekukistan]

HI I BRING INTERACTION pls feed me megu headcanons if u feel so inclined,,,,

hii ty for the interaction :D ofc i am always inclined to megu hcs! he's in my brain 25/8...megumi my beloved <333333333

megumi's always been a light sleeper/had a hard time falling asleep. even when he was a baby, he'd be up like 37 times in the night, so toji and mamaguro would take turns pulling all nighters because what's the point of going to sleep when baby megumi is just gonna start crying 10 minutes later...even when he's older, he still wakes up several times in the night. it's too hot, it's too cold, i'm thirsty, the door slammed four apartments down, etc. of course this only gets worse after the detention center because he starts having nightmares :( dw, this opens the door for some cute itafushi moments down the road im writing a fic abt this

he also wakes up reaalllly early because of this, like 5am...that doesn't mean he's a morning person though. he's very grumpy and almost completely unresponsive to anyone trying to talk to him. not that anyone else is really up at 5am with him...maybe yuuji, but he's on the other side of his sleep cycle (hasn't gone to bed yet, was binge watching a new series) and probably equally zombie-like. anyway, megumi is the epitome of "don't talk to me before i've had my coffee." gojo got him a mug that said that once...

megumi didn't eat breakfast (much to tsumiki's chagrin) until he met yuuji, but that's mostly because he doesn't want to waste yuuji's efforts food :)

to add on to that, he has a pretty small appetite, my personal thought is this comes from when he was younger. he and tsumiki struggled to get food between when their money ran out post parental departure and when gojo came into their lives, so he just got used to not eating a lot...but for the same reason he'll never leave food on his plate. lingering fear that he'll wake up with nothing to eat one day (SORRY i had to make it angsty bc that's just Who I Am 💔💔💔)

um. to end it on a lighter note :) if megumi wasn't a sorcerer, he'd work at an animal rescue facility or a no-kill shelter and he's all the dogs' fav employee :))) (ik a lot of people like vet megumi, but i feel like he'd get too sad when he had to put an animal down bc he couldnt save it........). if he wasn't into that, he'd be interested in ecology and habitat preservation for endangered species.

um i was gonna do a Day In the Life of Megumi but the first points got sooo long so uh. stopped after breakfast.

(the way i write abt him all the time and still had to take a while to write this,,,had to separate au megumi from real megumi)

[jewish-vents]

My entire life, I've yearned for the kind of community the Jewish community and Judaism have provided me. I found out I had Jewish ancestry when I was a kid, I looked into it more later and realized my most recent Jewish ancestor (like three-ish generations back) was almost certainly forcibly converted out, and decided to convert to like. Make amends for that I guess and also because I really vibed with the holidays and how we turn up everywhere in history bc we keep doing cool stuff despite consistently shitty circumstances.

But I digress.

I have waited my WHOLE LIFE trying to experience the joy becoming Jewish has shown me, and that gets shit on constantly.

My sister has started making a truly obscene number of Jew jokes. My mom scoffs at all the 'nonsense rules' and has said repeatedly that she thinks choosing a 'restrictive' religion is dumb and I've made a mistake. She even said it's an insult to HER parenting skills that I would seek out religion after she tried to teach me to know better.

My dad is dead but I never ever in a million years would have told him even if he were alive, and my sister thinks it's funny to threaten to 'out' me as Jewish to his relatives even though they're basically KKK-adjacent so she actually enjoys threatening mg safety at this point. (Yay family right?)

My friends have turned everything into an Israel/Palestine discussion lately and I know damn well what they're doing when they start saying truly horrible shit about Israelis and looking at me. They get mad if I try to temper their extremism so I've given up. I barely talk to them anymore and I spend more and more time with other Jews from temple and I don't want to like. Isolate myself from all non-Jews I guess bc I've always felt like that leads to weirdness and perpetuates shit about Jews being unfriendly I guess idk?

Anyway I digress again. My point is I'm really sick of constantly being expected to tolerate it when people think I shouldn't be Jewish.

Other queer people think I'm somehow compromising my queer identity by being Jewish, leftists think I hunt Palestinian children for sport now apparently, right-wingers think I traffic good Christian babies for organ harvesting or some shit idfk, my friends think that if I'm not being more vitriolic in my hatred of Israel than they already are I'm some kind of secret rabid Netanyahu fan, my family think I've been recruited into a cult apparently and the only other people who show me even an ounce of compassion or regard are other Jews and Gd knows there's like ten of us and that number is unlikely to increase.

Just. Fuck. I've put blood, sweat, tears and money into this, I invested more time and emotional commitment into this than I have into going to college or choosing a career, I love it more than anything and have only loved it more the more I learned about it, and all I get when I express this or even just let slip that I am Jewish and chose to be, I get nothing but hatred. I will never understand how a religion that has spent all 5000 years of our existence minding our business and arguing about the same book over and over can possibly have offended this many people with our existence.

Dmn anon, that is a lot you're dealing with right now. I'm so sorry you're surrounded by people who clearly don't respect you. Because yes this is a lack of basic respect, and it is antisemitic. Now I don't know how old you are and how safe you are, but if you can safely do so, set very hard boundaries. Do not tolerate this amount of disrespect towards who you are. It is hard, and many of us have had to go through similar situations, as you can read all over this blog. But I think having to spend your life surrounded by people who make you feel unsafe and disrespected is worse. I know sometimes there are situations in which people cannot safely set these boundaries, I hope it's not your case, but if it is feel free to come here to vent again.

I know you don't want to isolate yourself from goyim. Many Jewish people don't want to. Sadly, when people disrespect us like this, they're the ones isolating us. It's not your fault. Seek people who love and accept you. Sadly, a good chunk of goyim won't - I'm not saying everyone, obviously, but a portion. Having a good Jewish support network seems to be more and more important, whether it's irl or online.

I hope you can soon be in an environment that's safer and more accepting

- 🐺

[solar-halos]

odesta week. day #2 - take me out tuesday

summary: a glimpse into how annie and finnick's dating life evolved. 3k, fluff, angst (bc it's them)

Do not listen to what everyone says about Annie—she is not bossy. Or a control freak. Or a bad listener. She’s just a natural born leader.

Finnick agrees with her, which is why he’s putting so much effort into planning their first official date. Sure, they’ve been friends since they were little, but that was different. Those were playdates. Not actual dates. 

This, on the other hand, was grownup. A celebration of their adulthood.

Well—okay. Annie is only thirteen, and Finnick isn’t much older, but still. This is exciting. Annie had to be careful about calling Finnick her boyfriend just in case the wrong person overheard and ratted her out to her parents, but her mom made it very clear that all she had to do was hold off until her thirteenth birthday. Then she could have all the little boyfriends she wanted.

Little boyfriend. Of course her mom would find a way to make their newfound independence sound so immature. 

It doesn’t matter. There’s still a lot of rules they have to follow—no straying from where they initially said they were going, no trespassing onto private beaches—but that doesn’t faze Annie. She’s been daydreaming about all the dates they could go on ever since her mom finally agreed that she could call Finnick her boyfriend.

Here’s step one of her master plan: getting ready. She pulls on her nicest dress and manipulates her swimsuit so that it stays hidden underneath the clothes, and then she bugs her mom for some lipstick to dab on. She even manages to swing for some perfume.

This brings her to step two: gather up all her money. Finnick will be paying for lunch—he says it’s the least he can do—but she self-appointed herself for snack duty. She intends on stuffing her face with salt water taffy.

With all the technical stuff out of the way, she occupies herself with some yarn and knitting needles until Finnick finally knocks on the door. She hurriedly swings it open.

He greets her with a hug. Annie works her fingers through the gel in his hair and traces the buttons on his shirt.

“Do you like it?” he asks, stepping away. “The shirt is my dad’s.”

“Same with my mom’s hair clips!” They were pretty and pearly. Perfect for dates. “Think they’ll let us keep it?”

“I dunno. It does make me feel older, though.”

“Same.” Annie grins. She can’t wait until she simply is old, but this will have to do. For now. “Okay. So I think we get lunch first then swim later, so we’re not sandy all day.”

“Sounds perfect to me—it’ll give us more time to window shop.”

Annie loves when he listens to her, and she loves it even more when he throws out equally fun suggestions. Why doesn’t everyone just date their best friend?

Annie’s parents make an appearance to give her one final reminder to be safe and get home before curfew. She nods and nods and nods, then gives them both hugs and kisses on the cheeks as soon as they give her permission to leave. 

Finnick holds his elbow out. “Shall we?”

She giggles, hooking her arm through his. They shall.

---

Ever since Finnick came back from the Games, he’s been very unwell. Annie doesn’t blame him.

He doesn’t wanna hang out with their friends. He hates going to the market. He doesn’t even like being in his house in the Victor’s Village.

Annie doesn’t blame him for that, either. There are way too many rooms and not enough people. It also makes weird noises at night. Mr. Odair claims the house is just settling—Annie is convinced that they’re being haunted.

Honestly, staying home doesn’t really matter to her, but she can tell it’s really started to frustrate Finnick. It’s like his body is working against him—he says he wants to go out with her, but he just can’t. Add that to the long list of things that Annie doesn’t fault him for.

The arena he spent three weeks straight in was literally outside, so Annie thinks he can afford to hole himself up in the comfort of his own room. He might even get acclimated to this strange house. 

He does not agree with her. And that’s fine—she hadn’t really thought about how the arena didn’t count as the real outdoors, but after Finnick points that out to her, she tries to be more supportive. Coddling him wasn’t gonna get either of them anywhere. 

So they go to the market. They have to cut their trip early when someone brushes past Finnick and he brushes back at them harder, but Annie isn’t angry about it. To her understanding, the hardest part about the arena wasn’t the arena itself—it was the people.

He doesn’t say anything the entire walk back to his house. Then, they’re unloading all their groceries, and he starts to cry.

“I’m sorry,” he says, but she doesn’t know what he has to be sorry for. He lashed out at some fully grown man at the market—not some little kid. He doesn’t seem very comforted by this observation. “That’s—that’s the thing, Annie. I don’t think that would have mattered to me, ‘cause all I felt was someone pushing at me, and I just—freaked. It could be a kid next time. It could be.”

It could be. That’s something he keeps coming back to, so Annie tries her best to be comforting. She pulls up a chair and starts rubbing at his back, relieved when he falls into her.

“I want to go out with you,” he says hoarsely. “I’m trying so hard to get better for you.”

“Don’t get better for me,” she says. That’s the one thing she’s sure of. “It’ll stress you out, you know, ‘cause you’re not doing it for yourself.”

“I don’t care about myself.” Annie doesn’t know why that unsettles her more than the crying. Probably because that’s a bit harder to fix. “I don’t mean that in a bad way. I just—I don’t really need to like myself to be happy. You know?”

Annie does not know. It’s not like she’s in love with herself, either—far from it—but life sounds like it would be so much harder if she didn’t like herself at least a little bit.

“As long as you’re happy,” Annie says, because that sounds like the most important part. “Besides, there’s a ton about you to like.”

Finnick shakes his head, like she’s wrong. Annie narrows her eyes. “We haven’t gone anywhere since I came back. We haven’t even gotten taffy.”

Is that what this is about? Going on dates? At least that’s something Annie can definitely find a solution to, so she examines the contents of their groceries.

Bananas. Jam. Those chocolate caramel squares Finnick loves so much. Ice cream that he can finally afford to purchase by the bucketfuls. They even have canned cherries.

It’s like the date planned itself. Annie is totally out of her element right now—for someone who feels everything so intensely, she sure has zero tact when it comes to comforting her crying boyfriend—but the best way she can think of to grab his attention is to simply tap on his shoulder. He emerges from his hands in no time.

“Are you in the mood for a sweet treat?”

Everyone knows Finnick can’t deny a sweet treat. His eyes trail over all the stuff she sprawled over the table. “Yeah…”

“Wanna help me make one? I’m thinking about a sundae, except with jam instead of peanuts.”

Finnick nods. “We always hated when sundaes came with peanuts.”

“Exactly,” Annie agrees, so they get to work. Finnick’s fingers start out shaky at the beginning, but he gets more giggly right as they start piling on all their fillings onto the banana. He ties one of the cherry stems into a knot. “Woah! Can you do a bow?”

“I don’t think…” He trails off. Then he plucks out another one. “I can try.”

They’re three attempts in when Annie realizes that he’s just using this as an excuse to eat more cherries. She snatches the jar away from him, but she’s not actually mad. She just wants a cherry for herself. 

He suggests taking their concoction to the private beach the victors have all to themselves. The tartness of the jam balances out the sweetness of the ice cream.

The (metaphorical) cherry on top is all the seashells Finnick scavenges for her, leaving them right by her feet. She holds out her spoon for him, offering him another bite. He lost his own spoon shortly after his seashell excursion.

“This is better than the stuff they have at the shop.” See? Annie knew Finnick would agree with her. He takes a swift look around, which bums Annie out—he must still be feeling jittery—but she perks back up once he turns to her. He’s smiling. “Should we kiss?”

“Um, duh!” His dad was still at work. None of the other victors could tell them what to do. It was a match made in heaven. She swallows down some excess jam on her tongue. “Okay. I’m ready.”

They kiss. They break apart. An ocean breeze skates over her face, providing some relief for her burning cheeks. Then they’re both taking identically frantic looks around, surveying their surroundings for anyone particularly nosey. 

They’re in the clear. They decide to stay outside for a while longer. 

---

Annie isn’t allowed to do anything with Finnick anymore.

And, contrary to popular belief, it isn’t because Annie broke up with him for being a Capitol whore (because, contrary to popular belief—contrary to Annie’s belief up until two weeks ago—he was not a Capitol whore). It’s not even because her parents are being unfair.

The truth is, President Snow hates romance. Annie never hears anyone in Panem talk about that.  

Finnick is still very sweet to her regardless. Obviously, or else she wouldn’t even be with him. She just means that he shows her off to the other victors (they can be trusted with this information) and invites her to all the dinners he has with Mags. 

Don’t get her wrong—she loves the beach. She doesn’t mind going to the beach at all. She minds that Finnick obviously minds, even though he shouldn’t. It is not his fault that the Capitol hurts him all the time. 

“Hey, my love?” That’s been his most recent nickname for her. It’s her most recent favorite. “Are you awake?”

She’s always awake. She had trouble sleeping even before the Games, but she still appreciates how soft and whispery he’s being. 

“Awake,” she confirms, turning over so she can sprawl herself all over him. 

“Wanna do something?” he asks. 

“Like what?” 

“Stargaze. Maybe a midnight snack.”

Stargaze. She considers that. District 4’s curfew was fully into effect, but there weren’t very many Peacekeepers watchdogging the areas near the Victor’s Village. And the ones that did weren’t even very trigger happy to begin with. 

She accepts. Why wouldn’t she? They have to keep their giggling down the entire time they get ready—some things are just so much funnier in the dead of night, but Mr. Odair didn’t know she snuck out of the guest room to be with Finnick—but Annie chucks on some shoes and walks out of the bedroom door Finnick opens for her.

He pulls an entire picnic basket out of the fridge, a tell-tale sign this wasn’t a spontaneous decision on his part. She’s so overcome with emotion that all she can do is smooch him.

“Thank you,” she finally says, ‘cause kissing always clears her head. “For packing the snacks.”

He smiles, obviously pleased with himself. Good. “You don’t even know what I packed.”

“So what? You know what all my favorites are.” She takes a peek inside to ensure he packed his favorite snacks, too. She insists on washing off a few grapes before they go, because he loves throwing them up in the air and catching them, and he does that the entire walk out of the Victor’s Village. Then they have to be more vigilant. They’re in civilian territory now.

There’s not much they can do—especially now that they’re dodging Peacekeepers—but they make it work. They unpack their picnic on a nearby bench and draw in the dirt with a nearby stick after they finish eating. Annie destroys him in a game of hop-scotch, but he reigns victorious in their tic-tac-toe match. 

They do manage to sneak far enough away to lay out in the sand and gaze at the inky black sky, though. Annie knows all about the stories the stars in the sky have, so even if she has to guestimate where all the constellations are, she tells Finnick all about it. He even pretends like she hasn’t told him the same stories a million times before. 

They scamper back home when they hear gunshots. At least it was fun while it lasted. 

---

Annie doesn’t want to do anything anymore. She has no idea why Finnick keeps asking her to.

Well—she does have an idea. It’s the same reason why she asked him to do stuff after he won the Games. She wanted to keep him company.

Annie doesn’t want company. She just wants her old self back.

She used to have so much fun before she became a victor. She used to do things. 

It makes so much sense why Finnick hated the market so much after he came back. Sometimes, Annie can barely stomach an interaction with her family, and she lived with them her entire life. 

She doesn’t want to do anything. She can’t do anything. 

Matter of fact, Annie doesn't know why the fuck Finnick is acting like he can do anything, either, when the Capitol is ball-and-chaining him so hard all the time. It makes her angry, but she supposes that’s better than not feeling anything at all.

Annie doesn’t want to go out. She just wants to sit in bed and deteriorate into dust.

That turns out to be a good thing. Being angry, she means. It makes it easier to cry, easier to apologize for pushing Finnick away. She clings to him extra hard after that, just to really make it clear that she never wants to go anywhere but his arms ever again.

Well— okay. She’ll make an exception for the beach, but that was the beach. She can’t remember the last time she’s seen her kitchen table—in the Victor’s Village, she means—so Finnick fixes that for her. The only reason she gets up in the first place is because he’s not next to her when she wakes up, and the force of that heart-hammering realization has her flying off the bed. Where could he have gone?

“My love,” he greets her, turning away from whatever they fuck he was sizzling on the stove. “Breakfast is almost ready, sorry, I didn’t think you’d—”

Now that Annie is back in his arms, her curiosity overpowers her jitters. “What are you making?”

She didn’t mean to interrupt him. She’s just never seen the stuff he has on the pan before. They look like pancakes, but way flatter.

He leans over and glances at the cookbook on the countertop. “They call them crepes. You can put all sorts of stuff in them—chocolate or cheese or eggs or whatever.”

Annie chooses chocolate. And strawberries. And some whipped cream. She likes how it makes her teeth ache—almost like she’s alive.

Actually, Finnick pulling out a chair for her and setting plates on the table and a glass of milk next to her makes her feel conscious, and she finds herself really enjoying the feeling, so she forces herself to cling to it. She will not disappear right now. She will not disappear right now. She will not—

She disappears. Doesn’t matter—not to Finnick, at least. He picks up right where they left off, except now that it’s days later, he has to settle on finding a new activity for them to do. He shuffles a deck of cards.

Annie loves cards, even if her reflexes are a bit fucked now. She beats him at Go Fish, but he absolutely crushes her at poker. Then she disappears again.

Disappears. Comes back. Disappears. Comes back. Eventually, all that disappearing stuff becomes less frequent and intense and draining to handle, but there’s still a definite pattern. 

No one seems to mind but Annie—Finnick least of all. He takes her anywhere she wants, and these days, she wants to be everywhere. The bakery. The market. The beach.

“Sky’s the limit, my darling,” he says, even though it’s not. Not like it used to be. “Where do you wanna go today?”

Annie wants to spice it up. “Let’s rent out some bikes.” No one will question that. They’ll just see a mentor taking his insane fucking tribute outside to play. Annie tries her best to suppress that thought. “Hardly anyone’s on the pier this time of day. We can race.”

“I’d be honored.”

He holds out his arm, the gesture as familiar as breathing to her. She flings herself at him, overcome with emotion. 

They have to break apart as soon as they leave the Victor’s Village. They both try to pretend that doesn’t kill the mood. 

---

For somewhere that’s so underpopulated, District 13 sure has a cock-blocking problem.

Coin whisks Finnick away to Command (for some fucking reason—she’s acting like Finnick’s her husband). The doctors force Annie to get therapy (they’d probably lock her up in the hospital otherwise).

Their only saving grace is the hummingbird room. They just have to cross their fingers that no one crashes their dates.

Annie and Finnick make up for all that time 13 forces them to spend apart by holding each other bone-fusingly close. It doesn’t matter what they’re doing or what they’re talking about—she’s getting in his face, and he’s getting in hers. 

She’s also climbing all over him. He flops onto his back, nice and soft under her fingertips.

“Hi, handsome.” He calls her so many nice names. It’s about time she started returning the favor. “In the mood for a kiss?”

“Uh, do birds fly?”

“Depends,” she says. “You know how penguins are.”

He stares at her. She stares at him.

“Kiss me, Annie. Baby. Love. Dar—”

She closes the gap between them before he can fluster her past the point of no return. She doesn’t care how long they’ve known each other—she will never get used to him addressing her so affectionately. 

She’s unzipping his trousers in no time. She doesn’t even register the blinking red light of the security camera in the room until he tries returning the favor.

Blinding, white-hot fear shoots through her before she remembers they’re in District 13. That usually didn’t mean much to her, but they literally recorded Annie and Finnick’s entire wedding, so what were they gonna do if she gave her very own fucking husband some head? Ask them both to do it again for a propo?

“Holy shit. I’m so sorry, Annie,” Finnick says, obviously worried for her sake, but he doesn’t need to be. He was the only one with his pants tangled around his legs. “I think it caught all that.”

Probably. Annie blows the camera a kiss on their way out.

[wheresmymilliondollarman]

heyyyy🫶🫶 for something quick, do you have any hc of certain AUs for warner? also good luck with prom dress shopping!!💗💗

-🪷

omg hi 🪷!! thank u for the luck i need it cus im sewing some of it and im still a beginner LOLL

for au’s i do have a few that have crossed my mind recently, im sure i can do more that this if i put my mind to it

so i had this idea i scrapped before i even wrote the ferrars! reader hcs and basically its a tangled inspired au (ik super ironic bc kenji is the one tangled obsessed)

reader was hidden away at a young age because of her powers and the restablishment uses them to control the word (like how they utilized emmaline basically) so you live in this secluded tower away from sector 45

so aaron is finds you accidentally when he’s on a mission and he gets separated from his soldiers for a bit and sees the tower

then he climbs up and scares you so you hit him with a pan (LOL) and then you explain that you lived there forever but leave out your gift

aaron reintroduces you to the world and secretly keeps you at the base to hide you from his father (once he learns about what you can do)

then for your birthday he takes you to a festival thing but then your both caught by aarons dad

the rest isnt that planned out but rough synopsis of my idea

and then i often think more abt aaron and reader in present times like

imagine reader and aaron going to the met gala (aaron is ur stylist no one tell me otherwise)

or just any red carpet event, you both tend to match

paparazzi pics of you both

being rumored to break up every week or “cheating” scandals

you both arent really into social media but both def have a pinterest / instagram / maybe twitter

your instagram feed is just pictures of aaron, places, and friends and occasionally yourself

aaron’s feed is literally only pictures of you. he posts like once or twice a month. but his stories are active because he likes to post his outfits or yours.

if you post on any media platform aaron is ALWAYS the first to like & comment no matter what

people constantly asking aaron if he can fight (he always responds he can)

kenji’s the type to make u both participate in tiktoks or prank u with current trends

also you have a group chat with juliette, kenji, nazeera, and adam (he was added by accident but then stayed there)

aaron sends you random pictures of things that reminds him of you. anytime your not tigether he’s going to message you a bunch.

sugar daddy! aaron warner is literally the dream. this one is set in modern era

you are a college student struggling financially, and if you dont get money for tuition you can go to school/will be kicked out. your parents kicked you out for following your own dream, so you have no one to turn to

aaron is a ceo, happens to find you at your job as a barista. he immediately thinks tour the most beautiful person ever and wants to know you. so he shows up almost everyday to the place even though its out of his way to work.

you two get to know each other a bit and you let your financial situation slip out, so aaron offers you money, but you decline and such.

you think thats it, but then you later get an email to let you know your tuition is covered.

you feel bad and offer aaron anything to let ypu repay him in some way, so he bargains that you let him take you to places and basically date him.

so that starts your arrangement.

buys you quite literally anything — even if you dont say you want it. if you glance at it in a store, you’ll see it on your bed the next day.

you even get to move into his apartment because he hates the idea of you in those ugly small dorms, and i’ll be easier for you both to see each other. (he’s clingy)

you go with him at any event, he literally never went to any before he started seeing you now he wants to take you everywhere in pretty dresses

even when your officially dating he won’t stop buying you things, if anything it doubles.

this ones dark so TW but with the the hype of the scream movies going around it got me imagining ghostface! aaron warner working with ghost face! kenji (i imagine this set in the 90s type era bc 1st scream is so iconic)

in this au aaron’s abusive childhood enabled him to have psychopathic tendencies so he starts off with random killings then later gets into the ghostface thing after wanting to get revenge on juliette for cheating on him with adam.

aaron enlists kenji because kenji’s the one that figure out it was him, but he’s doesn’t want him to turn aaron in, he wants to help. but kenji is kind of easy to manipulate so aaron is the master mind.

aaron makes the calls and kenji does most of the killing.

aaron and you are already dating when the killings start happening

you were originally meant to be killed bc you’re bffs with juliette but then aaron fell in love with you so now he protects you (#couplegoals)

if anyone messes with you or a guy gets too close with you, they’re gone. if a person is involved with you then aaron is likely to kill, especially if he already doesn’t like them

adam is the first to go (LMAOO), then its brendan, ian, nazeera (queen was a fighter im sorry

your so oblivious to it all and very scared that ghostface going after you next. and aaron thinks that’s so cute. so much that he calls your house as ghostface just so you can call him all scared and run into his arms for protection.

and if you somehow figure it out he’s just going to kidnap you and lock you somewhere you can’t escape and leave him <3 (i’m insane for wanting that)

[velvetvexations]

So this is going to be kind of an insane ask to get but I don’t have anybody I can tell in my real life and you’re like the only person I follow who seems to genuinely give a shit about Ukraine still so. You can just delete it if you want to, I don’t mind. Just actually writing it out to another person will help.

I’ve been considering for the better part of 2024 joining the Ukraine volunteer army. Like, seriously considering, not just some throwaway thought. I even got my passport specifically because I was thinking about it. I know someone who did. Haven’t heard from him in a while but that’s the nature of this sort of thing, as far as I know he’s still out there. I want to also. I’ve got extended family in both Ukraine and Russia (which is more common than you’d think) but my parents are immigrants (it was long before I was born) and I’ve always been close to my extended family and people I’ve talked to from both places in my family are unhappy and everybody hates that this is happening. There’s this like chasm between both halves of my extended family now bc people can’t see each other anymore. Multiple of my extended family from Ukraine had to either run away to other countries or join the military, and I had one of my Russian cousins almost get caught immigrating to avoid being conscripted (he made it, he’s fine, he lives out of country now) and I hate being here in America watching it all happen and not able to do a damn thing about it, I donate as much as I can to a variety of Ukrainian funds and send money to family too, but I work at a fast food place and rent a shithole apartment I can barely afford, I can’t really donate much. But I’m a guy (well, not really, but I’m 0% transitioned and I’m fine with staying like this for something more important), I’m decently fit, I speak a little Ukrainian, I know how to use a gun, and from what I heard from the person I knew who went and what I’ve heard looking on forums and stuff that’s basically all they want at this point. Hell two of those things, language and experience with guns, seem to be slipping out of the requirements too because they need more people so bad. I feel like if I don’t I’m going to be crawling with regret for the rest of my life especially, ESPECIALLY, if Russia gets the upper hand and Ukraine falls. At least if I do this I could try to make a fucking minuscule sliver of a difference. But I know my parents will be really upset, especially if I just take off. My friends too but I don’t have a lot of those anyways. And obviously I know I might die, or be disabled or whatever but I just don’t care, even though I feel like I should. But I just don’t, because I feel like doing my part would be worth either of those things. Maybe I’m just crazy and blinded by how upset this entire fucking “conflict” makes me, but like your other anon said it really feels like the entire world forgot, or at least America forgot, unless you have personal connection to the region. I don’t even know how to end this ask. That’s my confession. You and maybe your followers if you do post this are the only ones who know now and that’s that

I love you, anon. I won't tell you not to but I want you to know - you can still help without volunteering. Donating helps. Spreading awareness helps. You will have nothing to be ashamed for if trying your best does not extend to sacrificing your life. You are still strong and providing desperately needed value.

I just want you to please consider that, okay? You said you don't have many friends - but even though I don't know who you are, you and your life matters to me. If you'd ever like to talk to me you can DM me for my Discord. I'd be happy to be your friend.

If not, that's okay as well. I just want you to know that your life has value, too, even if you help in other ways.

[quinnslogan]

This movie feels so surreal, the quogan content we got after decades!!! But we were robbed of so much when it easily could’ve happened.

1.) I hate how we didn’t even get to see the ceremony?? They could have easily fit in the vows, the movie is based off of THEIR wedding. Give us more insight on their feelings for one another. To tease Micheal giving a great ceremony and not show it is cruel LOL.

2.) how the rehearsal dinner speeches about them were cut off / zoeys ruined because of her reality tv show dude. would have been a perfect moment to get some history about quogan. how their friends felt when they found out, etc.

3.) Quinn and Logan’s parent basically being furniture, again could have been good background to some history.

4.) the lack of any alone moments of them, besides the cute but quick makeup scene.

5.) Logan’s second little proposal was so short (sweet) but short. I needed a “we fell in love here” kind of thing. There was 0 mention of PCA being significant to their story and why Quinn loved the set up so much.

6.) chase and Zoey telling their stories to the jewelry store workers should’ve been quogan

I guess you can relate all this to being a movie with Zoey as main compared to the series where everyone had subplots. After years I can’t complain too hard but we did get the absolute BARE MINIMUM. It’s sorta sad.

Yeah I def agree ESPECIALLY about the ceremony. I can get over the lack of Quogan alone scenes because I got more than I expected but tell me how you make a movie about a wedding and don’t show the actual ceremony. It becomes especially frustrating when you realize Micheal’s role in the movie was basically he’s their officiate and they didn’t even let him do that??

We know there are deleted scenes I would bet good money they did film their actual wedding/Chase’s full speech but cut it for time reasons. It’s annoying bc literally who’s watching this movie for anything other than quinn and logan but alright. I will say though I am a quality > quantity person and I absolutely LOVE the scenes we did get so I’m not super disappointed just kinda annoyed personally but I do get where you’re coming from

ALSO THE JEWELRY THING! When that happened I wanted so badly for Zoey and Chase to continue pretending to be Quinn and Logan and tell the jewelry lady their love story but instead they told their own lame one 🙄

FOR THE REPROPOSAL I HAD SO MANY EXPECTATIONS but also I don’t think anything Logan said would’ve beat I love Quinn Penksy I love Logan Reese so again I could live with it 😭

The parents annoyed me so bad the number of scenes Logan’s dad was just standing there and didn’t say a single word was hilarious tbh😭 like he was basically just an extra they could’ve had their parents not there wouldn’t have made a difference. I do think again they did have lines but they were cut probably

But yeah overall a few more lines AND A TWO MINUTE CEREMONY would’ve made such a difference and I too am annoyed and blame j*mie tbh. ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT ZOEY AND CHASE GETTING BACK TOGETHER AT THEIR SECOND WEDDING LIKE WAY TO STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT?? I hated both of them this movie like sorry

But I’ll make my peace because this scene I never expected and i’m irrationally obsessed with it

[reigenismyhusband]

hi (vibrating uncontrollably w happiness) mp100 is my fav manga i legit remember where i was when it ended (i cried) and reimob is literally one of the only ships in media ever i have ever liked. you're my friend now (politely)

may i get a reiace lore dump or acemob or just anything about your self-ship lore if you'd like to :333

OMG HIII this ask made me SO happy oh my god!!!!! mob psycho is SO good i love it so much and im so glad u are also a reimob connoisseur its so so good. its basically the dynamic i base reiace on shhh its a secret (its not a secret sorry mob)

LONGISH ramble under the cut about selfship lore thats kinda disjointed thoughts and feelings and tw for mentions of age gaps, grooming, sibling incest etc

RAHH okay so i have two main "timelines" if you will for ace: one where he just, completely replaces mob and is a kageyama. for the most part, this one follows the events of the show, except with ace lol. (sorry mob i love you i swear) ace is more liberal about using his powers than mob is, and hes not quite as powerful, but hes still powerful and trusts reigen so so much. i love to play around with how they got together, but i loove ace that looks up to reigen so much and has a huge crush on him and wants to be together so bad, and eventually reigen gives innn. ace's name is aoi kageyama, and hes transmasc. hes thankful that his given name is gender-neutral, and tries to be stealth as possible (as much as a 14 y/o can). hes stealth at school, and generally people dont know, but there are rumors of course and he gets bullied for this + his powers a lot. he doesnt like fighting back with his powers so he just kinda takes it. his parents in this are very supportive, but aren't around as much, and theyre not very financially well off. this leads to lots of time with just him and ritsu alone, and they have a pretty codependent relationship as hes kinda raised him even though theyre pretty close in age. especially because even though they dont say it, ace can sense that his parents prefer ritsu; hes smarter, hes more althetic, etc.

this is why he initially sought out spirits and such; a small, frail, 10 y/o ace shows up at reigens doorstep and asks him if hed hire him, hes really good at fighting ghosts he promises! reigen takes pity on him and takes him on as his apprentice, paying him a bit more than mob gets in the show lol. ace comes to be really handy for exorcisms, and early on reigen starts calling him "ace" because hes "the ace up his sleeve" when it comes to tricky jobs!! (this is where i get my ship tags from hehe) ace really likes this name and prefers it over his given name, although he doesnt hate it per se.

as time goes on, ace hangs around the office more and more, helping reigen in his various jobs. with his parents gone so much, they start to hang out more after work too; going to dinner together, spending time together, even sleeping over or going to overnight jobs to farther away onsens and inns. they grow close, much closer, and eventually they get together!! i like reigen getting touchier and touchier until they actually do stuff and whoops cant hide your feelings about this anymore!!

(this version of things doesnt always include mob, but im including him in this bc ive been loving thinking about reimobace lately <33) in the other one, ace's name is aoi hayashi. his parents died when he was young, leaving him and his sister to live by themselves. they inherited a house and money, and are doing okay, but with just eachother their relationship gets even more intimate than it was before. his older sister is a NEET and a hikikomori, doing nothing but staying in their house and mostly in her room. shes also an esper, though not a very powerful one. she drops out of school, but ace continues, where he is bullied a lot. one day when hes around 11, he gets trapped in an alleyway by some older bullies, and his powers almost go out of control - but who would be walking by than a 28 y/o mob? mob is able to control ace's powers, deal with the bullies, and take him back to spirits and such to treat his injuries. mob and reigen are together (and have been since mob was ~15 or so) and run spirits and such together, although reigen continues to be the face of the company. (honestly i havent thought about where serizawa and tome would fit into this…so pretend theyre not here for now lmao) mob helps out with the real spirits, of course, and him and reigen are sweeties together <33 mob tells ace that hes a powerful esper too, and if he wants, he can train under him to control his powers and do some good in the world. ace is thrilled, he hasnt had any nice older figures in his life like ever, and loves the attention and care he gets from mob and reigen. and since its just him and his sister (and she barely leaves her room to know where he is at any given time anyway) he spends a lot of time with mob and reigen after work; after a certain point, its almost like he lives at their place rather than his own.

they all get together at some point; the specifics vary depending on how fucked up i wanna make it lol. right now im thinking of them grooming him to be with them, esp considering hes already been groomed and has experience, they take advantage of that (since reigen groomed mob) and its totally normal and theyre sweet. i think mob would be pretty possessive of ace; he doesnt want him to get hurt in the way hes gotten hurt before, and he also hates how ace gets bullied so often. i like to think ace gets kidnapped a lot by people trying to get to mob (since hes the worlds most powerful psychic after all) and they have to come rescue him a lot <33 reigen loves both of his younger boyfriends and i Really like the idea of ace being able to give reigen his powers like mob does in the show and then two very powerful espers have their way with him <3333333 my fav ever.

BUT YEAJ SORRY THIS IS SO LONG IM JUST VERY EXCITED feel free to send me asks anytime or dm me to ask for my discord id love to chat ab mob psycho or anything really!!!!!!!! TYSM

[freakin-edikan]

Help Dusty Get out of Florida Fund

Hello. I'm Dusty. I moved back home with my parents after school because I couldn't afford to stay in NYC and they refused to help pay for me to stay up there while I was looking for work. My parents stress me out, it sucks and I hate it here. I'm trying to move back to NYC where 1) most of my friends are and 2) I can visit my brother more easily if I need help with something. I take commissions if you want me to draw something (please ignore the music commissions, I don't think I can do those right now) and I think my prices are pretty low. Links below, sob story under the cut

vnmo: @freakin-edikan cshapp: $freakinedikan Paypal me Commission post

My goal is $3300. 0/3300

My parents piss me the hell off and I want to leave. They say they're not stopping me from doing anything but there are so many "soft" restrictions it's basically total control. I can't leave the house because the county's transit sucks shit, I don't have a house key, and I don't have a license (and even if I did, I wouldn't have a car). I have no mental health provider so I've been rationing out my ADHD meds. But even if I did, I'd have no way to get there because I don't have a car. My dad was supposed to get me a bike with a lock but he didn't. He wants to teach me to drive but he's 1) never home bc he works (obviously? how would that work) and 2) when he tried to teach me in 2019 he wasn't helpful at all and was always yelling or almost yelling at me. But he also doesn't want me to get lessons from an outside agency. I keep getting pushed to take some retail or food service job which I know will burn me out so much I'll barely be able to focus on anything else. And I wouldn't be able to get there because I have no transportation. And because I don't clean the whole house or cook every meal I'm seen as "neglecting aspects of life." Meanwhile dad will eat up all the food and not buy groceries or he'll ask me to buy groceries. Even though I don't have an income or a car or a license. Also my dad got mad at me and did this to my door on Friday

and has the audacity to eat the food I bought for me and my friends with my own money. For my birthday. He's been eating my birthday food. Also the door no longer closes.

I am tired of having to play nice around my dad's volatile anger, which I've put up with since I was in elementary school. My parents paid for me to do a lot of things, which I appreciate. However, they also have repeatedly called me names, they interact with my hobbies with thinly-veiled contempt, they play passive aggressive when they're mad at me in front of guests, and they used to hit me all throughout K-12. They constantly frame their obligations to me as purely financial, they think they have no responsibility to be emotionally supportive or uplifting, but they also want me to baby their feelings and lie about how they treated me while accusing me of making up my mental issues for attention and sympathy. My dad keeps talking about how old and frail he is and how he could die any minute now and where I'm at is that I do not care and if/when he dies I will not be there. I'm literally sick of this behavior and they acted like this in 2019 when they were supposed to be taking care of me after I was hospitalized for attempting suicide. I'm still not over that and yet they're annoyed at me for being disorganized/scatterbrained, stressed out, and depressed.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I blocked/ghosted this guy I can't quit?

so I've(nb25) known this guy(m29) about 8 months, but we haven't seen each other that many times. maybe 10 total. It's just a friends with benefits situation but he's very generous, he's splurged on hotels in the city for us we didn't really need, expensive meals, he's also just given me pocket money straight up before. He will kind of do whatever I want, all I have to do is mention it and he will make it happen. i mention I wanna see the ocean at 9pm and he's driving us around to find a beach that's open. i mention a food im craving and he's already ordering it, etc. he's not rich either, he lives with his parents(I think it's more for cultural reasons than financial) but his job pays pretty well I guess. he talks about the money and I think he's trying to impress me but I know so little about money and still rely on my parents I don't even really have the context. he's constantly trying to impress me with stuff like that or how much he can bench press and i find it super off-putting and don't respond to it. He's been nothing but nice to me I think, but I think he's got issues and he can't really open up emotionally. I am very suspicious of how "nice" he is and I find his positivity to be really invalidating sometimes.

Recently I got mad at him for an insensitive comment, and while I was chewing him out he just smiled at me and kept saying "I like you". It really irked me and I felt like he wasn't taking me seriously, even after asking him why he was reacting that way he just elaborated saying he liked me because I stick up for myself ? I was upset so I kicked him out of my place, it was the middle of the night. He left with a smile on his face still. it creeped me out and I almost felt like he was gonna come back and kill me while I was home alone.

I know that I'm not into him. not just that but I actively think he's annoying, and his toxic positivity thing really gets on my nerves. Ive explained that to him and he still wants to hang out. every time were together, our dynamic gets worse. im not mean to him, but I don't hold back when I think he's making something up to sound cool/nice or being fake. he says he likes my honesty and often puts me on a pedestal for it, and im constantly having to take myself off the pedestal bc im just a human being, capable of lying and inauthenticity.

He knows I don't want a relationship and I don't think that's what he wants either? hes never asked. i know he's dating and looking for someone though. I don't even really know what he meant when he said he liked me.

Every time I see him, I end up feeling like I don't wanna see him again. I find him really annoying and end up feeling really alone with him. ive tried to break it off before which he respected but would still DM me on insta occasionally, and it's bad but eventually I just went back to him bc I liked the way he was nice to me and spent money on me. it's really pathetic but it makes me feel worthwhile? but I want to stop seeing him. and im thinking, he doesn't have my phone number and I could just block him on Instagram then Id be done with it. I think we're bad for each other and that I probably frustrate him more than he shows, I think he tried to make me jealous recently by talking about some "beautiful blonde girl" he slept with, who didn't have a "good heart" like me or something. it felt weird and negg-y. overall just really weird, bad vibes. Would I be the asshole if I just blocked him ? i have a feeling that the only other way this will stop for us is with something worse than that.

What are these acronyms?

[beauzos]

i had my driving lesson today and i lived bitch!!!!

it actually went much better than anticipated. driving is still rather stressful for me-- of course it is, that was the first time i'd ever been behind the wheel KRKF but like. i paid for 2 hours and i was driving probably an hour and a half of that time so i got a great feel for driving. i wasn't sure how much time i'd have since i was starting from 0 experience having gotten my permit THREE YEARS AGO. driving is so. oh god, it's scary and i still hate it KSDFS but i actually feel like ... it's attainable for me to learn?

like i was on the roads dude. being a menace who brakes too fast and is driving below the speed limit until the last little bit where i finally kept remembering to speed up to the actual speed limit. i even drove like. 10 minutes back to the driving center. i did that! that's crazy!

teacher was nice. he was great actually. really calm so i never panicked if i made a mistake, i just fixed the problem. that's useful because driving is still a scary concept for me. i cursed a lot and apologized a lot but i never felt necessarily afraid of it since he was handling it well.

he's rather old, he's older than my dad (78) and you never know what these older folks are gonna be like but he was very nice. and he talked a lot about politics but he isn't conservative and that was a huge relief. like i was kind of afraid of that. i don't want to politically debate an old guy while trying to figure out driving, especially because i'm still masking and i know how people get but no he was very nice and we got along well. like if he was conservative, whatever we're here to learn to drive, but don't talk to me about it, but nope, no problems here.

i knew i was getting more comfortable driving because i started being able to have a conversation with him while driving too, though i'm not great at multitasking while driving-- i get distracted by checking my speedometer way too much, or get too focused on breaking appropriately and forgot my turn signal or whatever. there's a lot of things to think about when driving and it's tough for me. but i'm learning and getting better already.

i also struggled a bit bcs i never found the right seat position for driving and my foot was fucking killing me the entire time bcs i was stretching my leg + foot out too much, so that's something to work on. because once i do that, i'll get better at speed and breaking management bcs it was uncomfortable reaching for the gas pedal even after adjustments.

all in all, it went really well. i feel good about it. i feel good enough to start practicing with my parents. i feel confident i could practice the drive to work or the store, for example, albeit not well quite yet. i do plan on at least one more driving lesson from this guy, though, after a bit of home practice because he's a better teacher than my dad or mom could be. well worth the money.