#also no relatives allowed in the area i woke up in

[salamancers]

guess whos just had surgeryyy~~~

technically it was, like, this morning, but i only now came home to my parents place after spending hours in the car so! still counts even if it took around 13 hours from after the surgery was done until i came home heh

i have four brand new holes in my stomach and one less internal organ and for some reason i feel like this is something to *brag about* lmao

[one-night-story]

I Don't Know You, But I Would Love to Meet You (Jack Hughes)

a/n: I wanted to get this not under the wire, but I can't help but feel like it a little? Which, sorry about that. this is for @writingonleaves by way of @wyattjohnston 's annual winter fic exchange! I hope you enjoy it! this was as always a fun challenge to write. title is from "We Should Be Friends" by Josh Ramsay, which is v cute. (also it's so long oh jeez)

There’s probably a certain age when you’re fairly certain you’re “too old” to be waking up on strangers couches with little memory of A) who’s couch you ended up on and B) how exactly you got there.

I don’t think I’ve quite hit that age yet, so I think I’m in the clear for the understandable confusion I woke up with as the morning sun streamed in from the floor to ceiling windows. 

Shit, not only was I in an unfamiliar apartment, whoever was renting the place was clearly richer than my blood. 

Good news: my phone was on the coffee table and attached to a charger, so whoever I’d crashed with was a benevolent host, which boded well for my continued situation. I checked my texts and it seems last night me had been coherent and just exhausted, seeing as I remembered to text my roommate that I wasn’t coming home saying I was crashing “with friends” and that I’d text her when I got back on campus. 

Huh, promising.

It at least meant she wouldn’t send out a search party consisting of our friend group, their friends, and the National Guard. All incredibly good things for my continued health and existence. 

Now, to figure out who’s apartment I’d just woken up in. 

Carefully, I stretched out my legs and shifted the blankets onto my lap when I realized I at the very least had the sense to not try and sleep in jeans but had left my “nice enough to go out” t-shirt on, and scanned the area. A couple of photos on the wall of a relatively decent sized family, siblings at the bare minimum as they popped up in several photos. Rich, but a bachelor as no one with any interior design sense had popped by to huck a colored throw pillow into the mix, and that was assuming their lease didn’t allow for wall color changes. 

Honestly, I was coming up empty. 

None of my friends were this rich, hell if they were I feel like it would’ve come up way sooner, not to mention why the hell would they bother commuting to campus when they probably could leverage online classes and still come out with a degree. 

I was just about to fashion enough of a blanket skirt to at least try and find my pants so I could start rifling through a mail stack when there was creaking coming from down the hall. Well, maybe I’d have an answer soon enough. I readjusted the blanket a little so I could look over from where I thought the creaking was coming from and was greeted by… okay calling it a familiar face might’ve been a stretch, but so would the text to my roommate saying I was staying with a friend, so somehow that was two birds with one stone. 

I did recognize him, which was an improvement over my worst fear, he was a friend of a friend of a brother of a friend. Which put me at four degrees of separation, and raised my “why the fuck did I crash here” hackles, but the fact that I was on a couch and not in someone’s bed felt safe, even if it wasn’t all there yet. 

He didn’t seem to be fully coherent yet, as he rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his, admittedly very pretty, hair so I tried to hold back a large laugh when he startled at seeing me sitting on his couch.

“Hi,” I said with a sheepish wave. “Sorry, I’ll get out of your hair soon enough,” I remarked. What I really needed to do was find out where the hell half-dead me had hucked my pants so I could tug them back on and then make a beeline to the nearest train station to get home.

“‘S fine, just… uh… shit, there’s no like… good way of asking this,” he mulled over.

“It’s okay, I don’t quite remember your name either,” I said, saving him the embarrassment. He laughed, and it was goofy and light, which was way too endearing for… shit did that microwave clock say 9:30 in the morning? I couldn’t help but join in with a chuckle of my own. 

“Oh thank god,” he said once he stopped most of the laughter, “I didn’t want to seem like a complete asshole, but also there was no way I was going to remember it after last night.” He added.

“Yeah, I don’t remember much either, and I don’t even think I drank that much?” I said with just a dash of question in my tone, he nodded once.

“You didn’t, but I think you mentioned that you didn’t want to risk taking the train back so late.” He said. “I offered to let you crash here when you refused to let someone pay for a hotel.”

Yeah, that sure did sound like me.

“Well, thank you, I’m Sadie,” I said, and as soon as I did, he brightened like he suddenly did remember and just needed the metaphorical kick in the brainstem. 

“Yes! Okay, see I thought it’d be in there,” he said with another chuckle. “I usually at least try to learn the names of the girls I bring home.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he chose to phrase it and even more when he very clearly winced realizing how it sounded.

“We’ll chop it up to “lack of coffee” and call no hard feelings, sound fair?” I proposed as an even solution to our silly little predicament. 

“Fair, I’m Jack by the way.” he said as he came over to the couch and offered up his hand. “Nice to actually meet you Sadie,” he said. 

“Nice to meet you too,” I said with a chuckle as I shook his hand with a bit of teasing vigor. 

“Can I at least offer you breakfast before you sneak out in the middle of the morning?” He asked while still holding onto my hand. I thought it over, and remembered the time, and figured that… yeah I could probably stand to be held up for coffee and a minimal breakfast before jumping on the train. 

“Yeah, if it’s not —“

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack was quick to cut me off. He let go of my hand and wandered back over to the kitchen and I was quick to try and figure out where the hell I’d put my pants so I wasn’t having to talk across the apartment and be perceived as rude on top of whatever else one could make assumptions about a girl who’d crashed on the couch of a guy she barely knew. After being assured that the blanket was carefully tucked around me I leaned down to check under the couch and was relieved when I found them sticking out. I carefully maneuvered my body so that I could reach under the couch, grab them and carefully bend back up onto the couch so I could put them on under the blanket. When I eventually sat back up and stood. Jack was looking at me with a look of bemusement.��

“Were you…”

“No, last night me wanted to not sleep in jeans. So I must’ve haphazardly hucked them off.”

“And you managed to get them on… without getting up from under the blanket?”

“Old trick from summer camp. Trust me, you haven’t even seen half of it.” I could get dressed pretty entirely without getting up from under the covers. When Jack still looked amused I chuckled and finished walking over to where he was in the kitchen. “What? Upstate New York gets cold in the morning in the summer.” I remarked. Jack fully laughed and again, I couldn’t help but join in.

“Oh I know, I guess I’m just used to living in houses with heating too.” He said. I simply shrugged, low tech summer camps, what could you do? I watched as Jack maneuvered around his kitchen to get the coffee going from the cautious spot of his breakfast bar, trying to not take up too much space or get in the way, no one likes multiple people in a kitchen at once, it was practically a fact. “I only have milk and sugar, I hope that’s okay?”

“It’ll be fine, I’m hardly in a position to be picky,” I said as I tried to focus on something that wasn’t the way Jack’s hair was falling that made him seem… softer? than just my brain’s logical, knee jerk reaction of him being “just some guy”. I mean, of all the people that my sleep addled brain could remember, I definitely remember that Jack was one of the better looking ones. I could feel my fingers wanting to pick at my nails and the social morays of it all was pretty much the only thing holding me back from doing so. I wanted to say something, anything, pretend for one morning that I was good at socializing. The fact that I’d managed to get through last night with enough grace and charm that I had managed to score a place to crash after the friend of a friend I came with ditched me to hook up with on of the myriad of white boys that were there that night meant this morning I was praying I had enough left to at least make it through coffee.

Jack set the Keurig off to do its thing and rifled through the cupboards to try and find… something. Honestly, while I was hoping for cereal, I would’ve settled for toast, when I heard him curse someone under his breath and went over to the fridge.

“Shit.” He muttered.

“Roommate eat you out of house and home?” I said taking a shot in the dark. Jack looked over, remembering he was making coffee for two and gave me a look that read as though I’d gotten it in one. He padded back over to the breakfast bar and leaned in conspiratorially, something I couldn’t help but meet him halfway about.

“So… I might’ve lied about breakfast. My brother was supposed to go grocery shopping yesterday after practice and it looks like he forgot.” I chuckled and opened my mouth to assure him that really, it was fine, thanks for even offering, I’ll just go; but he pressed on, “there’s a spot around the corner that does… probably better than I ever could and that includes the coffee. If you want, I could… take you there?” He proposed. 

On the one hand, that was incredibly sweet and his smile was very much continuing my brain’s belief of him being endearing. Not to mention I love a good brunch spot as much as the next girly and that included a good little diner.

On the other hand, I felt gross being in yesterday’s clothes and I didn’t want to impede Jack’s ability to get on with his day. That, and the somewhat social expectation to turn down anything offered with you without an obvious way to pay back. We weren’t really friends, and we weren’t dating, so what the hell could I even do? My obvious gut reaction was to reject it, to chop it up to the fact that really, he was just being polite and there was no real reason to go with him. But then I snuck another glance at him, a little open and earnest and maybe the offer was just a genuine “let me be a good host in spite of the fact that my roommate is making that a challenge.”

“One condition,” I said and Jack nodded, “you mind if I borrow your shower? I feel super gross,” I said and Jack immediately nodded.

“Yeah, course, I’ll get you a new shirt if ya need.” He was quick to add. I smiled and thanked him as he pointed me toward where the bathroom was. It was very clear a bachelor’s bathroom, but at least they had more than one bottle of soap. So… small victories.

I was quick to wash up and thankful for the t-shirt left precariously balancing on the bathroom island that fully suggested it’d been put there without someone looking. Changing was just as fast and I came back out feeling a little less like death. I grabbed my phone and my bag from the end of the couch (ungracefully shoving my t-shirt from last night in) and met Jack where he was by the door. 

The trip to ground level was mostly quiet, with both of us seemingly trying to pick and choose what to say about all of this. I didn’t want to put any sort of anything on it, hell, I was prepared to pay should need be and blow the rest of my fun money budget for the month. 

And Jack hadn’t been lying when he said the place had been around the corner as, sure enough, the glass faced front of a quaint brunch place, Edison light bulbs and all, was in front of us. For a late Saturday morning, it wasn’t horrendous by any means. I predicted a twenty minute wait without reservations, but I was willing to be surprised. Jack got the door for me and I muttered a quiet thank you as we walked in. The front area was small so I suspected that this was probably a strict “reservation or get lucky on a walk in” place. I snuck a glance at Jack, but he didn’t seem to be fazed by any of it as he made his way over to the hostess and they had a quick exchange before menus were being grabbed and we were being led to a quiet little back booth, out of sight of the main windows. The hostess gave her usual spiel about the menus and our waiter being over in a few and we both thanked her for her time. As she left I finally looked over at Jack.

“What?”

“Does the owner owe you money or something?”

“No, but he is a fan,” he said. That made me tilt my head slightly but I was quick to shake it off. “Relax, I made reservations while you were showering. Got lucky that they had a last minute cancellation.” He said. Yeah, that seemed reasonable all things considered, so I let the topic drop and gave the menu a scan. There wasn’t a lot that didn’t appeal to me, so that was a good sign. 

“Got any recommendations?” I asked as Jack fidgeted with his fork.

“Oh, uh… the pancakes are pretty killer. And my brother swears by their waffles. But pretty much everything’s good.” He said. I nodded and adjusted my own silverware as our waiter came over and poured water. While I was of the firm belief that brunch didn’t count as brunch without mimosas, I just ordered coffee with some of their fancier fixings. We asked for a bit more time with the menus and our waiter agreed to come back with the coffee. We fell into a silence, not quite awkward but nowhere near comfortable, and I settled on biting the bullet first.

“So why New Jersey?” I asked.

“Why New Jersey?”

“Yeah, you don’t seem like you’re from around here so why’d you move to New Jersey?”

“Work,” he answered simply. My memory of the previous night was still a swirling mess of exhaustion and bright lights and a smidge too much noise, but I think I remembered that those at the table who hadn’t been with my acquaintance group were coworkers. Must be a tight knit workplace. “You?”

“School, got a scholarship.”

“What for?”

“Creative writing, not the flashiest of degrees, but it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.” I replied. 

“Working on the next Great American Novel, then?” He asked and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ah, maybe. Right now I’m fighting to try and keep my voice while meeting every professors’ wildly different expectations. It’s a… hassle.” I said. The conversation spiraled from there, breaking to order brunch, but otherwise swapping stories about his family and my schooling. What could I say, I had an odd high school experience, even by American Public School standards, and eventful friends.

By the time food came out, we’d eased up the tension by a couple points, and I only felt sort of bad when my phone vibrated insistently in my pocket. I made a gesture asking if it was chill if I got it and he nodded. I fished it out of my pocket and scanned the notification. Multiple texts from Anna, the friend I was supposed to travel home with last night, as it seems she’d finally woken up from her adventures last night. Most of them were standard, if sweet, a “did you get home”, a “sorry for ditching you”, and then finally “oh holy shit this guy is rich rich”. It was funny, and I was just about to put my phone away when I saw the last text come in.

what kind of rich as hell guy has a two bedroom? Shit, did i sleep with a married guy?

That finally got me to audibly laugh and Jack raised his eyebrow, “The friend I was supposed to get back to campus with, she just woke up and is questioning if she just became the other woman.”

“Nah, none of the guys out last night were married. What’d she look like?” He asked.

“Blonde, dark eyeliner, wearing the purple tank top,” I said. Jack then stifled a laugh.

“Ask her if the guy she went home with had poorly taken care of curls,” he said offhandedly. I did and set my phone on the table as I continued eating my brunch.

A couple minutes later my phone lit up with a notification.

yeah, that is *oddly* specific, how did you know?

“Yeah he is,”

“Oh my god,”

“What?”

“She’s at my place.”

“You’re kidding,”

“She went home with my brother, you’ve been in the same place all night,” he said and I couldn’t help but nearly double over as I started laughing. The entire reason I’d crashed was because she had ditched me and now it turns out we’d been in the same apartment the whole night.

“Oh that’s so fucking funny,” I said once I could breathe again. I shot off a text to Anna.

I’m still downtown, I’ll meet you at the train station in a half hour if you want?

deal.

I finally put my phone back in my pocket and we finished up brunch with a companionable edge. By the time the waiter came back to clear our dishes we were getting close to having to negotiate the bill.

“So…” I started to say.

“I’m paying,”

“You didn’t even—“

“I was never gonna let you pay, my mom raised me better than that.” He said. 

“At least let me cover for my coffee?”

“Sadie, don’t worry about it,” he said with a tone that got me to drop it. Like I wasn’t going to be able to win this no matter how I negotiated it. As the waiter came back with the bill and Jack handed over his card I said a quiet thanks which got a grin out of him. Brain, pick a struggle, we cannot be enamored by this boy after waking up on his couch in a first meeting we can barely remember. He finished paying and we got up to leave and I did my best to keep my internal argument off my face as we did.

I managed to make it to the street corner before I was willing to confront the fact that I had to actually leave and go back to campus, and Jack had to… wait. Hang on. 

The coffee had started to kick in and things were finally lining up. I knew I had to have gotten into school for some reason right?

“Oh shit,”

“What?” He asked with a tilt of his head and okay fine I’ll admit it brain he’s cute, but the realizations that my brain was finally having made it so that this was never going to happen again.

“You’re a Devils player,” I said as I smacked my own forehead and Jack started laughing. 

“You only just figured that out?”

“Leave me alone, I haven’t had a full night's sleep in like a week,” I joked, still covering my face a little. Jack carefully moved me out of foot traffic and gently pulled my hands away from my face.

“Is that a deal breaker?” He asked.

“What?”

“Me being a hockey player?”

“What, why?”

“Well, I thought that went well all things considered and I was gonna ask for your number to hopefully do dinner sometime.” He said with a soft smile, letting his hand fall into mine. I thought it over, between the fact that he was indeed cute, that he was nice, and funny, and asking with such an expression that seemed that, if he wasn’t trying to convince me he was cool and at least a little normal, he’d be rocking on his heels about; and the mere fact that he took me out to brunch after offering to let me crash on his couch. It was pretty much enough in the category of good signs that I was inclined to say:

“It’s not a deal breaker,” and he grinned a little wider, “besides I was going to ask for your number anyway. I have to get your shirt back somehow.” I chuckled.

“Ah, keep it, I can always buy a new one.” He joked. I passed over my phone and he put his contact in before quickly texting himself and passing it back. I chuckled at his contact photo, a terribly taken close up of him, and saw that I had a text from Anna that she was at the station already.

“I guess I’ll talk to you to figure out scheduling?” I proposed with just a hint of awkwardness. 

“Yeah, I gotta check with my brother about some things and what have you.” 

“Okay,” I said with a little chuckle of disbelief. “Thanks for brunch, by the way.” I said.

“Thank you for agreeing and not sneaking out in the middle of the morning,” he replied with a bit of a chuckle that lit up his face. There was no good way to leave this, with a promise of something stronger, but still uneasy about what one's dynamic is in the now, “can I give you a hug?” He asked.

Oh thank god.

“Yeah, yes,” I said with a stumbled out laugh as he matched it before giving me a friendly “see you around” style hug. We parted with a half wave and I started making my way back to the train station.

I made it with a bit of a light jog as Anna dragged me in the direction of the platform so we could catch the train just pulling into the station. We quickly collapsed into seats before she finally turned to me.

“So… who's this?” She asked tugging on the sleeve of the clearly borrowed t-shirt.

“The guy who’s couch I crashed on last night. I made a comment about feeling gross about being in last night's clothes that he lent me a t-shirt.” Lent, gave, I wasn’t certain I wanted to broach that topic with Anna yet. Roommate first, acquaintances second. “How ‘bout you? Did you at least get coffee?”

“Yeah, he made a comment about his roommate being out so we ordered breakfast at his place, he was so nice.” She gushed. I watched as the realization crossed her face, “wait you said you’d tell me how you knew what he looked like when we met up,” she lightly wacked my arm with the back of her hand, “spill.”

I laughed and rubbed the back of my neck, “I was at breakfast with his roommate. Also known as his brother.” I said.

“Shut up! No fucking way,” she said with a laugh. We were getting looks from a few commuters in our immediate area and I tried to quiet her down. “That’s too funny,” she said in a slightly quieter tone. “Are you seeing him again?”

“Are you?” I countered.

“Maybe, he gave me his number, but I’m not certain.” She said, “Now tell me you coward,”

“Maybe,” I countered and she groaned at my dramatics.

“Insufferable, you fink.” She joked. I grinned a little as we continued some small talk before I agreed to let her rest on my shoulder until we got to the campus’ stop. 

I fished my phone out and figured that I should probably try and organize a date huh?

[tfp-enthusiast]

Tiny!Transformers Ratchet

[Saw this a few months ago some where, i sadly don't know where anymore, and the idea came back to me so i decided to make this.]

[I will make other bots too and if you want some scenarios etc.]

It started of as an normal sunday, you and the other kids had a sleepover at the base, in disguise of a sleepover at your place so their parents wouldn't be suspicious about it, and where still a little tired.

Raf just got up and was just reading something while eating breakfast and Jack was still sleeping.

Bulkhead and Arcee where on a mission to possibly find a new relic and Miko was allowed to go with them.

You where just vibing in the medbay and slowly waking up but you still wanted to help Ratchet.

It only got a little more hectic when Miko was back and started to be loud, nothing new about that tbh.

"Hey Ratchet! Look what we found in some old mine! It looks like a music box!"

You could hear Ratchet sigh out of frustration at Miko's nonstop talking but he didn't say anything yet.

Arcee gave Ratchet the relic and to be honest if you didn't know better you too would think that it was a speaker that they used on festival's and concerts.

You heard Jack groan, Miko probably woke him up, and Arcee chuckle before walking towards him and having a small chat.

"What do you think is this Ratch'?

"I'm not sure yet, Y/n, but i will try to find it out by getting a look inside"

You examined it from where you sat, a hammock that was way to big for you that was hangig between the monitors, and the more you looked at it the more it looked like some sort of gun out of your eyes.

It was relatively blocky but it had some sort of trigger and there where also many buttons on the seemingly back.

Both you and Ratchet flinched when you heard Miko's guitar sounds trough the base.

The relic fell down because Ratchet's arm moved a little to fast and it landed with a loud bang on the floor.

Ratchet was about to say something, chances are high he was about to scold Miko, but the relic suddenly made a whirring sound and the room was filled with a white flash for a minute or so.

When you could see again you couldn't see Ratchet, you looked around but still saw the others.

You jumped down onto where the relic stood a few moments ago and looked down to see the relic with a few cracks and some sparks coming out of it.

You also saw something on the floor, you quickly got down but it seems like Bulkhead and Miko where faster than you.

"Ratchet got shrunk down! Awww you look kind of cute like that-"

"Miko don't you dare think about it!"

When you where on the floor you saw it clearly: Ratchet, a very grumpy Ratchet, he couldn't be taller than 40 inches.

Miko was about to pick him up but you could stop her from doing so by stepping in front of her.

She let out an audible groan and pouted at you for ruining her fun.

While you where busy protecting Ratchet from a touchy Miko where Optimus and Bumblebee back from a scouting mission.

"What happened here?"

"We don't know to be honest.."

Bulkhead got Miko to sit on his shoulder after some time, which both you and Ratchet where thankful for, and you helped Ratchet onto the small human area so Optimus could see him and talk with him.

"What are we gonna do now?"

"I am not sure, we will try to repair the relic and turn Ratchet back to his original size but we don't know what to do until then."

"It was already hard to not step on you kids but Ratchet now? It seems impossible.."

There was a short moment of silence before Optimus had an idea.

"Could anyone of you four help us with Ratchet? Your size would make it a lot easier."

You looked at each other and there was a moment of awkward silence before Jack spoke.

"I'm not so sure how i could explain that to my mom Optimus.. I mean i would love to help but i don't think i can."

"I'm afraid that i can't too. Tomorrow is a holiday and my family is having a small trip, i can't really bring him there."

You could see Miko grin and it seems like Ratchet saw it too because you saw a worried look in his eye.

You didn't have anything to do tomorrow, your parents would only be there in the morning, go to work and back in the late afternoon to go to sleep.

"I could. I have nothing to do tomorrow and my parents wouldn't even be at home to see Ratchet."

"I have nothing to do tomorrow too! We could both watch over him, my host parents wouldn't even question why he is there."

You believed that, Miko told you sometimes about her home here and in Japan, and from what you heard she did you could understand why her host parents where a little scared of her, you would be too.

"I take Y/n's offer."

It was clear that he would choose you, you where his charge and you where sure he was horrified of going with Miko, and you had a feeling that Miko knew it too.

That didn't stop her from pouting but she begrudgingly accepted it.

You stayed for a hour or so before all had to go home, you didn't have to considering it wasn't even 3 pm and your parents wouldn't be home in a few hours but you decided that it would help everyone on the base if Ratchet was away for a short time.

He probably doesn't even know it but he was pressuring everyone around him about turning him back.

You got driven back by Optimus because there was no one else that could.

"Thanks for the drive Optimus. Just text me or call me when you repaired the relic."

"Of course, i wish you a good night Y/n and i promise you Ratchet, we will find a way to turn you back."

"I sure hope so, goodbye Optimus."

You had to take an elevator to your apartment, because you wouldn't be walking into the 21th floor with him in your backpack.

You opened the backpack once you where inside the elevator to look if he was okay, thankfully no one took the elevator that moment, and he just looked around confused.

"Is this your 'home'?"

You had to laugh at his comment but soon you stopped when you reached your floor.

"No, that's my home, over there."

You gave Ratchet a small tour of your home, it wasn't big or luxurious but it was enough for you.

The only room you didn't show him was your parents bedroom, obviously, and your room because you where a little embarrassed about showing it to him.

You where in the kitchen while Ratchet was looking at your living room, the kitchen has an open wall that lead into the living room, and you made yourself a sandwich and took some juice out of the fridge.

"Y/n what room is that? I don't recall that you told me what room that is."

"Oh? That's my room, nothing wild."

"I would like to see it."

It would have happened sooner or later, you just nodded and told him that when you finished eating you will go to your room.

You looked at the clock really quick to see that it was almost 5 pm now, your parents would be home soon.

You stoop up and Ratchet followed suit, it seems like he was really curious about your room.

"Here it is, don't expect too much please."

You let Ratchet in your room and closed it behind him so that if your parents come home they wouldn't see him.

Ratchet went straight for your TV that was on the opposite of your bed while you just took the remote and sat down on your bed.

"What is this?"

Ratchet held a CD in his hand from your favorite game.

"Just a game of mine, do you want to play it?"

Ratchet shook his head and you just shrugged before putting on a random movie to watch with him.

You patted the space beside you so he would sit down next to you.

Ratchet just let out an 'annoyed' sigh and sat down next to you.

By the end of the movie you where barely awake and Ratchet told you to just lay down so you won't fall over and hurt yourself.

So you did, but in your groggy state you didn't seem to think and hugged Ratchet from behind and went under the covers.

He just grumbled while the next movie came on and decided that you won't even remember it and that it is actually comfortable like this.

You did remember and when you where alone you would sometimes tease him about being the perfect teddy bear.

The next day you got an text from Optimus that the relic is repaired and that he will be waiting for you in the next parking lot.

You where kinda say about it but you knew that the base would sink into chaos without the medic.

It was still one of the best day's in your life and for Ratchet it was a good way to make him relax a day.

[wolfeyedwitch]

Charles needed to get blood for the little vampire. But first, Ollie.

He found the man in the living room, listening to music.

“Hello dear. Please, sit with me. I need to speak with you.”

Ollie instantly looked panicked, as he knew he would. Charles took the younger man’s hands in his own and smiled gently.

“Don’t fret, darling. I have news, but it shouldn’t mean much change for you, at least not right now. And I need you to understand, I adore you and will never replace you or get rid of you. Now, as for what exactly the news is, well.”

Charles took a deep breath and then said it.

“Someone sent me a vampire. To be my newest pet.”

Ollie instantly teared up, but he was doing a good job not fully crying. Charles wasn’t sure if that was something that should really be celebrated or not.

“You can cry if you need to, darling. As I just told you, I would never replace your or get rid of you. You are my wonderful muse. I adore you above anything else, my dear. But, that being said, I can’t exactly send the vampire away. They might get mistreated by someone cruel, and I’d never forgive myself for that. Do you understand?”

“I… I don’t know, Mr. Charles.“

“That’s okay. That’s perfectly okay, Ollie. It’ll be confusing for awhile, I’m sure.”

He patted Ollie’s hand, then thought of adding,

“Also, the vampire is quite starved and confused, I think, so I am going to keep them restricted to just a few rooms until they’re settled in. Perhaps a week or two at the most. These won’t be rooms you or I frequent. This will also allow you and I to become more accustomed to the idea of the vampire as well.”

Ollie nodded. A few tears rolled down his cheek. Charles handed him a handkerchief and the young man wiped his face.

“Mr. Charles?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Will the vampire be your new muse?”

Charles consider this for a moment.

“I don’t think so. I’m not very… artistically inspired by them. I strongly dislike starvation, which they have suffered greatly from. Plus, there’s just some people that I just don’t find as fascinating as others. Aesthetic attraction, I believe it’s called.”

Ollie nodded, still clearly quite shaken. Charles let go of one of his hands and cupped Ollie’s cheek.

“Dear, nothing will happen to you, I swear it. I shan’t get rid of you, no matter what. Please trust me.”

Ollie nodded.

“Okay, sir. I do.”

- - -

Charles, with the help of his wonderful assistants, had found a place nearby to buy bags of blood for vampires. He had bought enough to last them just about a week, as he was afraid of quickly the bags might expire.

About two hours after he had left, Charles re-entered the vampire’s room to find them curled up and asleep. They looked relatively peaceful like this, if he ignored the starvation and other glaring signs of mistreatment.

He debated about waking them, but decided against it. Instead, he just elf the blood bag on the other side of the room, figuring they’d just open it when they’re hungry and hopefully wouldn’t get too much blood on the blanket and pillows, since it’s far from the sleeping area, so there should be the minimal amount of spattering.

Part 1, Part 2

Part 3:

CW: starvation, internalized dehumanization, it as a pronoun, female vampire whumpee

The vampire didn't know how long it had been asleep when it finally woke. The room was an interior room, with no windows to judge time by. (It wouldn't let itself become hopeful about the lack of sunlight and what that meant about how its new owner would treat it.) Its internal clock was also all but entirely untrustworthy at this point, so it couldn't judge the time that way.

It noticed the change almost immediately.

Blood.

It could smell it. The plastic-and-disinfectant smell of the packaging did nothing to quell the instinctive surge of hunger as it focused on the bag of blood. It found itself crawling across the room, away from its sleeping nest and towards the empty corner where the blood bag lay on the ground, before it could catch itself.

No. Bad pet.

It was such a stupid creature. It wasn't allowed to take the blood, even if the bag was left in this room. Even if its new owner had said he would get it food, that wasn't the same as giving it permission to eat.

No, this was a test. Another test, just like the leniency the man had described earlier when saying what it was allowed to do. He obviously wanted to see its training in action, to see what it would do given such apparent freedoms.

Well. If he wanted to catch it misbehaving so he could punish it? He was out of luck.

It was better trained than that.

It straightened, transitioning from hands and knees to a kneel. It rested its hands on its knees and did its best to arrange its face into something akin to calm contentedness, rather than the aching, empty misery it truly felt.

Its owner would decide whether he wanted to punish it or not. It wouldn't give him any extra reasons to do so.

---

I'm still not sure who all to tag in a crossover like this, so please let me know if you'd prefer me not to!

@kim-poce @nonbinary-disaster @onlybadendings @neverthelass @its-mysweetlittlesecret-blog @ghostfacepepper @someonesnamesblog @rainbowsandwhumperflies @extemporary-whump @thecyrulik @myhusbandsasemni @heart4brains @kixngiggles @whumpsday @whumppsychology @elrysdoesstuff @towerlesskey @inkkswhumpandstuff @whumpycries @thingsthatgo-whump-inthenight @haro-whumps @pigeonwhumps @cc1010foxy @bloodinkandashes

[kariachi]

I woke up and went 'I should do a post listing some of the changes I use when doing general Pern fic (aka 'not me bitching about something in literary form') to make shit work for me'. This is nonexhaustive and just what pops into my mind because it's one of those days.

Consent! It exists! Rider- and Handlerpairs come to consensuses ahead of time regarding who they're down to chase, who they're down to have chase, whether they're going to have chasers at all or are just going to vanish into the middle of nowhere and fly themselves, etc.

The whole 'this shit is resonating between us' thing is still there, but expanded to other areas and goes both ways. It's just strong feelings and urges in general. The effect is stronger coming from the dragonkin, as a general rule, due to their being naturally psychic and the rider/handler piggybacking off of them, but can be stronger from the human's side if they also have telepathic or empathic powers in their own right, depending on how strong those powers are and the strength of them in their Bonded.

Firestone doesn't act as a sterilizing agent, but as birth control. Golds don't have access to it, but there's always the option of only having non-siring chasers if you don't want to deal with that, and worst comes to worst as with humans Betweening at the right time can solve many problems.

Dragonkin do not care for human worries about disabled or queer or 'improper' candidates. Humans may put restrictions in place, but as far as dragons go all they're looking for is a compatible and complimentary personality of their rank. Everything else doesn't even enter into it. Barring people from Standing just means you get more Stands Impressions. And the whers don't even care about the rank thing, they look at your personality and how wher-y of a mind you have. All about those visual and abstract thinkers.

Dragonkin are divided amongst themselves by rank (green/blue/brown/bronze/gold/the nebulous spot Ruth is in which we'll get to/it depends) and mating style preference (rise/chaser/no thanks/yes please). Left to their own devices they don't have gendered pronouns as we recognize them, but dragons have picked them up from being so closely tied to humans for so long. The above typically correlate to biology, but don't regularly

Humans: It's weird how dragonkin are queer so much more often than humans are | Dragonkin: *know themselves and each other from birth and prioritize mental or physical stuff socially due to being Very Psychic* | Humans: *have queerphobia as a concept and run with it distressingly often* | Humans: Just fascinating how that happens

"Cometh is a he. Yes, he's a green and he Rises, what does that matter?" | "Jerask is a blue, and sometimes a gold- yes, I know she's small and green-colored- also she prefers to chase but running is good too if there's browns available."

Riderpairs don't survive broken bonds longterm, even if one half doesn't die soon after they pretty much always die by their own choice eventually. It could be two minutes it could be forty years, but they always suffer mental and physical health problems and always choose to die before their time.

Handlerpairs can and do survive broken bonds, though it's far from unheard of for one to be deadly on both ends.

Firelizards and whers can live for absolute ages, far longer than humans. Dragons bond so fiercely that it affects their own aging and that of their riders, allowing the rider a longer life but causing the dragon to age more quickly. The other two don't bond to the same degree.

If a firelizard outlives their bonded then they typically don't rebond to a human, though it's not unheard of. Whers, on the other hand, relatively often rebond after the loss of their bonded, most commonly to relatives of their bonded. In this way a wher can become the center of a family of handlers, having been one of them for generations. Even if they don't rebond, it's not uncommon for whers to stay with their bonded's close family.

Dragons bond too fiercely to share their riders, but whers are fully capable of doing so thanks to their looser bonds. Some have even managed to share with dragons, though it's a very rare occurrence.

While the physical traits of whers weren't planned, their ability to survive without Impressing was. The assumption most who understand dragons and whers were exposed to enough mentasynth to make them people and know the history make is that Kitti was working under the assumption she wasn't getting them to the 'people' stage when she programmed the dragons and that either there was an error somewhere or that a then-unknown facet of firelizard genetics caused the effects to be felt more strongly. Wind Blossom, cottoning on that hatching people who need to bond to other people or die is Fucked Up decided to make the next batches not need to bond, hoping that trait would be dominant. We've seen how it ended up.

Queen Councils. Consist of the active clutchers of a Weyr as well as the Weyrleader pair. Weyrleader pair is in charge of matters pertaining to Thread and fighting it, that's it, all other matters are handled by the queens.

Whers matter. Whers are important and beloved. Your standard bonded pair is typically in a position of status locally- though that status isn't expanded to non-bonded whers, they're just locals- though they're considered outstatused by riderpairs of similar rank. The exception is goldpairs, who share status equal to Weyrleadership, Lords, Mastercrafters.

Weyrs are primarily there for defense against Thread, but also can be called upon for long-distance transport- in general during an Interval and with prior scheduling and an understanding that Fall takes precedence during a Pass- aid with things like clearing land, emergency aid (large fires, avalanches, floods, etc), hauling time-sensitive goods, and more. All considered paid for via the tithing system.

Technically abortion services are included in that, going Between being generally safer than the herbal route, but in that case- where you just need a quick hop, skip, and jump- it's generally easier to just get in touch with a local wher or handlerpair if you can. They're not likely to have the coordinates needed for getting you to, say, Fort, but taking you to the other next cothold over and back real quick? Not an issue. You may have to pay for the service though, depending.

Whites are not a thing. Like, yes there's the very rare dragon that hatches out this odd conglomorate of ranks, but they aren't white. Ruth was white, but that's because Ruth had his own shit going on that made him seriously fucking pale. Normally they're much more saturated in tone and the wide variety of colors is more apparent. There's no real name for the rank, there's only been three dragons and four whers of it since they came into being and never at the same time, it's generally called something describing whatever example exists at the time. These dragons come in a wide size range, generally between 'smaller than greens' and 'small-brown-sized', and also display colors from all the other ranks. So far all evidence points to them being infertile.

.

[justanotherstory]

Hold Upp!!

It is not what you think...

This story isn't about getting locked in a jail lock up, but this story is about me, my sister and my parents getting locked outside our home ..

An adventurous, a thrilling experience in itself. Now when we look back , we laugh about it, but at that moment, when we were in that situation, it was horrific..

Okay, so the story starts with us leaving our home for some relative's  wedding to attend, which was in some other city and took 2-3hrs to arrive.. My grandparents were home as usual (they don't travel much) . My dad locked the door and gave the keys to my grandma and left without taking the duplicate keys .

Everything was going smoothly until we reached back home at around 1 am. My dad parked the car in the garage and pressed the doorbell but no one came out, so he ringed my grandma's telephone once and then again and again,  but everytime it was the same thing, “The person you're trying to reach is out of the network coverage area”...WHHAATT!!?

He then honked the car horn multiple times but neither of my grandparents came to see what was happening..(If you're wondering,their room is literally just above the garage). Now more of my neighbours had gathered 'to check' .

What do we do next !!?? My neighbours tried to offer help by allowing us to sleep in their houses, but the question was not about a place to sleep, but it was more about my grandparents' safety. Were they safe? Did anyone break into our house ? Or was it something else ?

Then my dad thought of a masterplan, and threw his shoe towards their room's window and he missed it terribly .. Then he did the same with the second one and it did hit the target but it wasn't much help. (Just in case you're wondering why he didn't throw a stone or something, then the reason for not doing it was it might break the glass and hurt my grandparents) . We tried using a ladder but it didn't reach the top. So it was time for Masterplan B.

Okay, let me brief you about the plan. So the idea was to get onto the balcony of the adjacent house and then jump to my balcony. Sounds simple and easy, indeed it was. But here comes the twist. We ringed their doorbell and they also didn't reply. Another neighbour told us that they weren't in the town . But wait, we can modify the plan, right!!? So , now the plan was to go to the balcony of the third house, then jump to my neighbour's balcony and then jump to mine. And do you know who was chosen to execute this plan !!? It was me .. (•_• )

I went, on third neighbour's balcony and tried to get on the adjacent neighbour's balcony but there was a gap inbetween the two houses which this small kid was terrified to jump over.

Just imagine a child hanging out on a balcony railing and crying out loud while others are motivated to jump(obv. not to jump off the balcony but to jump over the gap). Finally, my dad pulled me back up and then everyone was convinced that this plan was also a fail until my mom stepped up and said that she would do it .. and she went on and did it..She literally aced it like some marvel character. She jumped on the neighbour's and then ours and then silently walked over to their window and peeped inside and saw ............

My grandparents were asleep, then my mom called them and they woke up and were like ...what are you doing here!!? My mom asked, why didn't you open the door, and my grandma replied that she was asleep so she didn't hear any noise and then she added that we could have just called her.(⁠*⁠_⁠*⁠)

That day I was sure that my mom surely had some Spiderman skills. This story taught us to carry at least the spare keys with us every time we go out!!

So, I was very sleepy that day and now I don't have any clear visuals, plus I couldn't even find anything that represents this situation, so the designs for the post is a representation of our masterplan :

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog . This was 'Just Another Story'.

This is me,

Signing off!! <<33

[somethinginscoutcounty]

June 5th 2024 entry in a diary by Erik Karim-Belyaev

6/5/2024

I'm finally able to write or actually do anything without being in pain. A lot has happened a lot that I don't even remember or was even conscious for. I don't know where to start or even how to start I learned all these things myself rather than remembering or even knowing it. Here I have something that can at least help.

(a section of the Scout County Weekly Newspaper dating to April 22, 2024 is glued into the journal, reading as follows)

"New word on the five young adults who went missing on a spring break camping trip in Scout Wyoming National Park last week, not returning on the day they were meant to come back. Last week on the night of the 16th one of the missing persons, Aubrey Donnely-Yang, was found stumbling around the forest area close to the more populated common grounds dazed, confused, and distressed. She was rushed to the hospital to be treated for injuries and potential effects like dehydration and starvation. However, in the early morning of the 17th, Erik Karim-Belyaev was found farther into to forest in the parts known as Deeper Green unconscious with injuries such as lacerations and broken bones along with other injuries. He too was rushed to the hospital to be treated. The remaining three, Graciela and Michael Ellis-Ramã­rez, and Francisca Lambert are yet to be found, but police, search and rescue, and locals are continuing the search for them in hopes that they can be found and rescued. Details on what happened and caused the disappearances are scarce and it's not known whether the group had gotten lost while out in the wilderness or if something else happened."

(diary continues)

So yeah. I got found in the middle of the woods nearly bled to death. I don't remember what happened to me or even what happened to us. All I do remember was all five of us taking the hike in the park to go and find a campsite for our stay and the first day of the actual vacation but after that I have nothing. The next thing I know I wake up in a hospital room hooked up to all kinds of stuff and my body hurts. Apparently, I was out for a few days and finally woke up on the 20th. I had to get a shit tone of stitches for the cuts and lacerations I had. My left shoulder was dislocated, had a broken nose, and I had two broken ribs. I had some kind of rash on a lot of my body that burned so bad and the bandages didn't help at all. I was bedridden at the hospital for weeks and still ordered to stay in bed as much as I could when I took the option to take the rest of my healing time at home where Dad could take care of and watch over me. Of course, Mama came back home leaving her work down in Brazil to see me and also help take care of me. I've been here since April since SCU allowed me to take all the time I needed to heal.

It hasn't been easy though. For a lot of different reasons. Both because I was in pain most of the time since being found and let out thanks to all the soreness and pain in my body from my ribs and the rash that I had for a while, and also because it's been nearly two months and no one else has been found other than me and Aubrey. I'm starting to get worried I've known Gracie, Michael, and Franky since middle school and high school and they mean a lot to me, so much. I'm glad that Aubrey is okay too but I haven't heard from her at all. I don't know what her condition is or how she's doing. I've been waiting for her to call or even text me but I haven't gotten anything.

Mom and Dad have been doing great at making sure I'm okay. relatives have come to see me too along with Nathan coming over too from the campus dorms since he said the dorm room feels weird being so empty now. he's brought Genie along a couple of times. I like Genie, don't get me wrong, but I don't know her too well like Nathan does but she's still cool.

I just hope everything turns out okay in the end.

-Erik

[samanthamarkle92]

Hey followers! Here part three of my Call of Duty: Modern Warfare fan story! Sorry if it's a little short; I’m building up for the next few chapters that features some big events as the story goes on! My previous installments are here: part one and part two!

Much love to @nsharks @loonyundead @m0chac0ffee and @cravingcoldoreocake123 ❤️ @ladyelissarose

***********

When Ghost woke up the next morning, he felt better.

Still weak, but much better than yesterday. The only thing he noticed was that Farid wasn’t present. Amina brought him some kind of flatbread for breakfast, which he ate quickly.

“Where’s Farid?”

“He went to the village. We grow most of our vegetables, but buy the rice and other food.”

Ghost nodded, knowing the cultural norms of women not being allowed outside their homes.

“Farid jokes that when he’s old enough, we can go into the village together. He doesn’t remember when women could go alone.”

Amina handed Ghost a folded paper. It was a map of Afghanistan and a few surrounding countries. It was in English; left over from her time in school. It showed many different roads.

“We have a radio; I’ve been listening where the different armies are. The black dots are the Taliban held areas. British camps are across the mountains. There are a few people that leave the village regularly to go to the other regions. Those roads are relatively safe and under travelled. You should be able to take one to one of the British camps.”

“How soon can I get there?”

“There’s a few men in the village who worked with both the American and British during the occupation. They can get you there.”

Ghost nodded his thanks. He would need to be careful crossing the mountains. They were steep and jagged. He was certain that once he crossed those passes he wouldn’t be able to cross the border again.

“You can lay low here until we can get you out.” Amina said.

“I’m putting you and Farid in danger just being here.”

She shook her head.

“We’re safe. As long as no one comes out here. The Talibs only come out here to look for food and weapons. They haven’t been here in a few months. ”

“That could change.”

Amina gave him a sharp look.

“You don’t have much time to figure out how to get to England.”

“I’ll think of something.”

“Well, you have weapons at least.” Amina answered, nodding to the gun leaning against the wall. Ghost also had his side arm in a holster and combat knife. He just had to wait; wait until he was healed enough to leave.

[crab-instruments]

Lock and Key Extra - Silco's POV 6

Master <Part 4-5

Pairing: Silco x GN Reader

Summary: After stumbling into a job with Silco as your new boss, you seek to prove yourself worthy to the Kingpin. Shenanigans ensue. As your relationship grows, so do the feelings you deny.

Warnings: angst, fluff

Beta Reader: @unfocusedfish

Silco had Singed look you over and discussed the possible side effects of truth shimmer. While intrigued, he didn’t think it had any lasting effects, especially since there wasn’t the physical effect shimmer usually gave. Singed wanted to do tests on you, possibly reverse engineer the serum, but Silco wouldn’t allow the unethical chemist near you longer than he felt necessary.

Unable to bear the thought of you waking up alone, Silco had you resting on his office couch. He could work from here and it was a relatively good justification to avoid having meetings. Silco was sure you’d be okay with being used as an excuse, you had used his name as one multiple times before.

It was a quiet morning and you had been asleep for a day and a half. Given the amount of harm your body took, it was unsurprising, but Silco was growing more apprehensive by the minute. Your injuries were healing faster due to the use of medical shimmer, but it was only given in small doses to not have adverse effects with any left over truth shimmer.

You stirred and Silco stopped what he was doing to observe you. He didn’t want to get his hopes up as you had moved before, but he couldn’t help it.

As if you were trying to be sneaky, Silco watched as you attempted to roll sideways off the couch but got caught up in the blanket, making your way down to the floor unceremoniously with a loud thud. The Kingpin swiftly moved to his feet, standing above you as you fought off the last bit of brain fog.

He quickly kneeled, putting a calming hand in your hair before speaking. “Are you all right?” His heart skipped a beat when you seemed to lean into his touch but your face became confused a moment later.

“Yeah, I—” you went quiet and Silco worried you hit your head too hard falling off the couch. He was close to chastising himself for not putting you on a bed with larger surface area when your outburst interrupted his thoughts. “OH NO.” You sat up as best you could, still constricted by the blanket. Silco did his best to support you as you thrashed your arms out of the blanket like you were fighting quicksand. Once successful, you took a moment to right yourself. You fell over into Silco, hands on his shoulders for support, and you stared directly into his eyes with serious intent. “They took me before I paid! Silco! I stole because they kidnapped me!”

Silco, thoroughly confused and befuddled by your frenzy, tried his best to focus on your words. Of course you would worry about something completely unrelated to your injuries. “You… steal all the time for me. It’s not a big deal.”

“But this was from a thrift store! Only scumbags steal from thrift stores!” You continued to babble, inconsolable.

Silco said your name a few times to no avail. “It’s fine. We can go back and pay for it. Please. Darling.” You shut up and all of your attention snapped to him, eyes wide and jaw shutting with a click. Silco couldn’t help but chuckle at your reaction, it was so endearing. “So, you do have a pause button? Good to know.” The tips of your ears went red and he wanted to tease you more, but now wasn’t the time. “We can handle that later, I’m sure they will be receptive. Now, I would like to focus on what happened when you were taken.”

You sat back against the couch, readjusting your butt on the floor to be more comfortable and Silco mirrored you. He physically relaxed more having you back in his presence.

“They knocked me out at that shop. I woke up and was tied in the position you found me in. Also, Hank’s name is Gareth. Gareth, Silco.”

Silco cleared his throat. “Was.”

“Huh?”

“His name was Gareth.”

You studied his face for a moment. “I like the ambiguity behind that. You probably had him killed but it also could be that you had him legally change his name to Hank. What a plot twist that would be.”

“No, I had him killed,” he said with a smirk.

“There goes that dream,” you sighed. “His friend… partner…? Coworker? Then showed up and injected me with that truth shimmer. It was unpleasant, to put it mildly. Gareth asked about the blueprints, and I couldn’t stop myself when I said that you already knew.” Silco hummed in response. “He wanted to hurt the person who foiled his plans, which he thought was me, but I told him that my little break-in didn’t matter in the end. He didn’t care, ultimately he wanted to hurt you anyway. He decided to do that by hurting me.” Silco clenched his jaw even though he knew this to be true. Having you say it made it worse somehow. “I told him that was stupid. He overestimated my position. You wouldn’t risk anything for me.”

It felt like a hole opened up in Silco’s chest. He couldn’t understand how you could feel this way after all this time. “… you believed that?” Was all he could say.

“Believed what?”

“That he couldn’t hurt me by using you.”

When you gaped at him in response, he made the decision that he would tell you how he felt today. “I mean… as a plan, not a great one. I’m… expendable. Easily replaceable. Why would—"

“You’re wrong. For someone so smart, you’ve never been so wrong.” He sighed and stared straight forward.

“No, I was really wrong that time I let Jinx convince me—” your voice cut off involuntarily when Silco glared at you, not entertaining your stalling.

When he got the desired effect he hoped for, Silco softened. He really didn’t want to make you feel small but he couldn’t allow you to redirect. “Do you remember what you said? Before you passed out.”

“Ye-yeah. Bits and pieces.” Silco was silent, waiting for you to continue. “I... confessed I was in love with you.” Silco’s eyebrows shot up, eyes wide in surprise. He was not expecting you to say that and was stunned into silence. A rare occurrence. His heart beat faster in his chest. “Not a big deal, I mean, I can still do the work, but I would understand—” You cut yourself off as you watched a smirk on Silco’s face slowly appear. “Did I not…?”

“No, you in fact did not confess that, specifically.”

Silco watched as the gears in your head turned, attempting to find an escape route. When it appeared you couldn’t find one, you spoke again. “Well,” you swallowed, “we can’t unfuck that noise, so yeah. Fine. I’m in love with you.” Your face was a battle ground of emotions, not one settling long enough to name. “If I could make one last request, kill me swiftly, I think I’ve earned a peaceful death.”

It was Silco’s turn to run the math on what was unfolding in front of him, calculating a response. When he finally understood, he gave a genuine laugh, something he had not had the pleasure of experiencing since before the betrayal. “You gain an ounce of courage to bargain—not for your life—but a quick death and you still undercut your abilities. My dear, you are not dying anytime soon, not if I have anything to say about it.” A silence fell between the two of you. Now seemed like the best time to show his hand.

Silco hummed before speaking again. “Do you remember, when we lost weeks’ worth of records because of a clerical error? It was going to take hours, days even, to find the problem. I told you to leave it, but you insisted you could find what was wrong even when delirious and sleep deprived. You hadn’t gotten any sleep the previous day, could barely stand.

“It was then I acknowledged your worth and how vital you were to everything I’ve built. Loyal and dedicated. To stay awake, you attempted to tell a story from your childhood. It was almost incomprehensible as you didn’t finish most of your sentences. It was when you got to the punch line... You were laughing so hard at the memory, unable to breathe. I was faced with the fact that I adored you, so much it hurt. Thought I could shake it off by keeping you close, get over the infatuation, but it only got worse. I started to make plans with you in mind, your nature influencing my every decision. When you… at the mines… I feared I had corrupted that purity.” He sighed, reliving the memory.

“Sevika knew the lengths you would go for me, but I denied it. She had pointed out the change in me, how I ruled with a bit more mercy but in return, you lost innocence. I wasn’t sure how to… stop that… without removing you from my life but I was too selfish to do so. When I got word you were taken… I was willing to risk everything to get you back. Everything.” He huffed a laugh before continuing. “’So yeah. Fine. I’m in love with you.’” Silco mimicked your delivery of your confession with a smile.

He watched as you took in his words, the emotions at war again. When a tear rolled down your face, Silco started to worry he had said something wrong, maybe this wasn’t actually what you wanted? He called your name a few times before placing a hand on your cheek. “Darling? What’s wrong?” He wiped a tear with his thumb as carefully as he could, like you were breakable.

The Kingpin didn’t realize he stopped breathing until you placed your hand on top of his and leaned into his touch. “Sorry, I… never thought I would hear that. From anyone. I just…” you laughed, shedding a few more tears, “I’m experiencing every emotion I’ve ignored up until now. It’s a lot to take in, need a moment.”

Silco smiled, his fears washed away. “I will take whatever you can give. It… has been a while since I have felt this way, so I’m a bit out of practice myself. We can figure it out, slowly.” You smiled back, holding the moment, before pulling Silco by his shirt collar to smash your lips together. Silco made a noise before responding, kissing back a moment later and putting a hand in your hair. Always unpredictable.

You pulled away just as fast as you started the kiss to apologize. “Sorry, I’ve just wanted to—” Silco swallowed the words, and you gave in.

“Oh, mom and dad are making out. Gross. I’ll come back later.” Jinx shut the door forcefully. The two of you broke apart to laugh, resting your foreheads together.

*******

I have no idea if tags are working, rip tags

Requested tags/continuation: @imalovernotahater @distinguished-jeseter-things @thesinoflust1103 @jinxs-monkey-bomb @grapegirly @marine-captain-deku @ohworm-writes @accordionplayingrat

Tag not working: @d0nutkaky0in @mochi-clouds

[much-significant-harassment]

LIGHTNING STRIKES FIRST

(Modern AU! Grimm x Reader)

(Chapter Five)

I woke up with a yawn and stretched, reaching for a shed of awakefulness to enter my body. As the sleep faded from me, I climbed out of bed with a sigh. Looking at the clock, I snickered to myself.

11:17

Not a full 12 hours, but more than 10. Absolutely wonderful. With a bit of pep in my step, I went about my usual morning routine. The only thing I left out was changing into day clothes. Pajamas would do nicely today. As I finished up pouring a bowl of honey-O's, I snatched up my phone from the island (I laughed about how I left it on the counter last night) and sat on the couch, aimlessly switching through different apps and looking at different posts. Eventually, I switched on the tv.

The apartment here has free cable so I use it every once in a while. Today the screen started on the news. Power district news. With a groan I went to switch the channel, but something about the report caught my attention. The bug on screen (I think they're a cicada) is talking about a show that is happening live in the Power District theater. A picture appeared beside their head as they mentioned that the act was by a group known as "The Grimm Troupe".

The picture showed a collection of bugs before a deep scarlet backdrop. All of them wore blacks and reds, all adorned with frills and scarlet jewels. I recognized two of them. The larger mantis woman (if I remember, her name was Divine?), and Grimm himself. I didn't realize his troupe was that popular. The reporter continued talking but I didn't notice until the picture faded away. After a second I changed the channel.

I wasn't sure what came on and I don't really care at the moment, as my kind wanders and thinks about what to do today.

I had the option to continue to stay home. Play games, watch tv, etcetera. But, I also have the option to go and watch a theater show that I keep seeming to hear about.

Hmm...

_____

I left the front door and locked it, pulling the hood of my new poncho up over my head and holding my umbrella above me. The rain is moderate today. A drizzle. Not stormy or windy enough to be bothersome, but too heavy to not use any gear. I wasn't quite sure where the Power District theater was... I assume it is near where that Divine lady got off the tram, but I can't remember what stop that was either. As I walk towards the tram station, I pull out my phone and look it up.

The Power District theater is in the more central area of the district. The website says that most shows are relatively expensive, but sometimes there are shows that allow the Common District to seep in. As I check the schedule, tickits to watch The Grimm Troupe's shows are only 40 geo per bug. A practical steal looking at some of the other shows...

I check a map to see the closest tram station to the theater as I pull out the card for the tram. After getting on, I take my seat (luckily an empty one) and keep an eye on the stop labels.

Eventually, the tram gets there and I all but claw out of the now crowded box. I get out of the station and up to the surface area, looking around. I can see the theater easily. Large in the distance, with pillars lining the entry and outside walls. The stone is carved in smooth parts and detailed designs all over. There is a small line by the entry way, presumably the line to get seats. I make my way to the line and wait to get to the front.

Eventually, I get my ticket and seat number -F32- and get into the building. Just entering the large place is almost magical. The feeling here is extravagant, powerful. The smooth, marble stone lines the ground and walls. The air is rich with the conversations of fellow bugs chatting about the upcoming shows, or about others they've seen. The feeling is welcoming, buzzing with energy and excitement. Yet still, there is a sort of hush to every action, as if to show a sort of respect to the grand building we all reside in.

I get into the seating area and find my seat. After shifting past a few other sitting bugs, I plop down and make myself comfortable as I wait for the show to begin...

Soon, the theater lights dim and the chatter quiets to silence as the stage curtains draw back. The stage is dark, nothing seen at all, until two spotlights light at the ends. Accordion music begins to play as the lights begin circling the stage. They both stop in the middle, overlapping as the music halts...

A burst of red smoke appears in the light and a figure seems to fade in through the clouds. As they shift away, we can see who stands there, facing away from the crowd. Grimm, the Troupe Master, stands in a suit, all blacks and scarlets. Fine metallic details hang from the horns of his mask and his collar and wrists are a frill of laces. After a moment of silence in which the crowd is enraptured by his mere presence, he turns to face us and the music begins again, slow and quiet, but haunting. His scarlet eyes gaze over the crowd.

"Fine bugs of today. I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming to see our show. I would like to introduce myself." He bows to the crowd, "I am Grimm, the master and leader of this theater troupe." He stands tall again and raises his right hand out to the side of him, snapping. Spotlights come on behind him, revealing his troupe of many. A large variety of bugs stand about, heads faced directly to Grimm himself. They all wear masks almost like Grimm's, but only covering the fronts of their faces. Black eyesockets with lines dashed through them. Some have extra details, but the lights over them cut before I can get a better look over them all.

Grimm resumes his speaking as he brings his arm back behind him. "Today you will see acts of all kinds. Feats of danger and skill, skits made to entertain, wonderful music, and most importantly..." his arm shoots above him and he snaps again.

Large, blazing red flames burst behind him where all the troupe members were only moments before. The crowd gasps and gazes in awe and some in fear. He looks at the crowd with a blaze in his eyes, a powerful spark. "Fire."

The music rises louder, other instruments joining into the melody. "One and all! All and one! I give you-" He stretches his arms outwards and the flames rush out, the music hissing to a halt and all lights shutting off. Glowing, scarlet eyes open all about the stage as Grimm speaks the last words.

"The Grimm Troupe."

[rebrandedstoryline]

Overlapped Timelines - 2

Next part of the weird au of an au that features @zenkaiankoku’s noodle bois.

          When the woman woke, she woke with a start. Then with a groan. Her body ached all over. Mostly her chest and her right arm, which had suffered the most beneath the insane grip of the daytime attendant. To make matters a bit more of a hazard, she was in a high up area with no plausible means of safely getting down on her own. Not to mention the fact that when she awoke, she awoke to find the animatronic looming over her. If not for the fact that she was in a fair amount of pain, she might have tried to drag herself away from him.

          “Hello---o friend~! Did you enjoy your nap~? Golly, you were out for a while. Have you been getting enough sleep at night? Oh! Should I go find some blankets?! We can have a sleep over!” Sun spoke, blurting out a whole series of questions in an excited manner. All the while moving closer. He leaned down, practically pressing his face against the woman as his hands tightly gripped the floor beside her. Though he was seemingly unaware of his own strength, he appeared to be putting a conscious effort into not manhandling her further.

          That idea did not put the woman any more at ease. Knowing that she could be unexpectedly grabbed and smothered at any moment was rightly concerning. Slowly, so as to not somehow alarm the animatronic with an abrupt movement, she began to back herself out from under him. At first, he seemed oblivious to her actions. However, he was not so easily tricked into allowing her to get away. She only need to move a short distance, before whatever hesitation he had in grabbing her was gone.

          One long, rope like arm snaked down to grasp her by the leg, at which point he nonchalantly yanked her back to him. There came a very quiet pop in response, followed by a twinge of pain. That had been her hip popping out of socket for a moment. Only a moment. The bone only came partway out, resulting in it immediately being sucked back into place. She was going to be very, very sore following today’s events. If she actually managed to survive. At this rate, she may actually get violently snuggled to death.

          “Now, don’t wander off, friend~! You need to keep close. Stay where I can see you~ It’s no time to play hide and seek.” Sun excitedly uttered, now moving to stand. Ayala was then dragged a short distance from where she had been napping, over to a little area that had been set up for arts and crafts. Being dragged across the floor was unpleasant in its own right. Especially after nearly having her hip dislocated.           “Its time to color~!” He added, lifting the woman up by her leg, before using his other hand to grab her by an arm. He then let go of her leg, sort of allowing gravity to flip her upright. At which point he just sort of dropped her back onto the floor. Her bum hit the hard surface with an audible thud. Once she was sat down, a messy stack of crumpled coloring books were pushed in her directly. Along with a relatively mangled box of crayons.           “I don’t have a lot of colors left, but that’s okay! We can use our imaginations!” He added, happily ripping open one of the remaining coloring books to look for a page which hadn’t been scribbled on yet. For a moment, the woman was left staring at him in a state of confusion. She was weighing her options. With how casually this animatronic manhandled her, she realistically needed to find some way out of his possession as soon as possible. With her so high up and pretty seriously hurt, she also needed some means of him getting her down without her body winding up in a worse state.

          She shifted rather uncomfortably, already feeling her hip beginning to throb in protest of her recent robot-manhandling. The throbbing pain emanating through her body admittedly dampened her ability to think coherently. The best idea that she could come up with was bluntly telling him that she needed to go home soon and needed to be able to see Moon before she left. Given that she couldn’t think of anything else, that would have to do it.

          “Sunny, sweetness. I don’t have time to color today. I need to home soon, and I still need to speak with Moon.” Ayala uttered, snapping the daytime attendant out of his happy little daze. She audibly heard the crayon he had been coloring with get crushed in his grip. Oh. Oh that probably wasn’t a good sign. His smile had wavered. He seemed to be pouting a bit.

          “But why---y?! Why talk to that meanie at all! He’s bad! You can just forget about him and color with me until its time to go home!” Sun responded, pouting rather obviously as he spoke. He unintentionally crumpled his coloring book into a ball in the midst of his protest. That response only made her nervous. There was a genuine fear that she might wind up being the next thing to be crumpled into a ball, given the recent string of events. Okay. She had to try and rein him in. She had to try and get him to give her a bit of control over the situation.

          “Sun. I’d love to stay and color, but I still have work to do. I have to meet with Moon, and when I get home I have to get started on things for the books.” Ayala responded, only to be rewarded by an irritated noise from the animatronic. Alright. Try again. Rein him in.           “Sunny, we’re friends, right?” She inquired, giving the animatronic a sort of pleading look as she offered a soft, sort of hesitant smile. The daytime attendant offered a violent nod in response to this.

“Yes! Yes! We’re best friends!” Sun replied, sounding both excited and worried. Like he was afraid that he was about to be told that she didn’t want to be friends with him.

          “Well. Friends try to help each other. They make compromises with each other. I still have to get my work done. I’ll be gone for a few days. If you do me this little favor, and let me talk to Moon, then I’ll do you a favor when I come back. Anything you want.” Ayala offered, attempting to reason with the animatronic. In response to this, the daytime attendant grumpily crossed his arms and pouted. For a moment, it looked as if he wasn’t going to cooperate at all. Then he cast her a sort of pleading look of his own.

          “Anything? You promise? You promise?” Sun responded, almost sounding desperate. The woman mentally kicked himself for unwittingly signing a verbal contract she might regret having to comply with.

          “Anything you want.” Ayala replied. As much as she might regret these choices, she needed him to cooperate. Given she would be working in close proximity with him for a while, she just had to hope it would be a promise that she was physically able to keep.

          “... Then you have to come back play games with me. All day! Until the Pizza Plex closes.” Sun responded. The woman mentally let out a sigh of relief in response to this. The poor guy must have been pretty lonely, all locked away in the daycare all the time.

          “Of course~” Ayala replied, offering a more genuine smile.           “I can even bring some new crayons and some coloring books, if you want. These ones seem a bit... Old.” She added. This wasn’t some coy tactic at manipulation. The coloring books were all very clearly old and had already been scribbled in and manhandled multiple times, from the look of them. It only seemed fair to try and bring along some extra supplies to make it easier for them to play. There were only so many ways to re-color a picture book with three different broken crayons.

          “Really~?!” Sun blurted out, sounding genuinely excited by that suggestion. In fact, he seemed so excited that he was very clearly about to grab her again. Call it some quick thinking. Call it fight or flight mode switched on to the max after having already been manhandled a few times already. Ayala somehow, by means of a miracle, managed to out maneuver the robotic limbs of the animatronic as they reached to ensnare her again. It was if she’d reacted to a life and death situation.

          Everything had suddenly slowed down for a moment, allowing her to sort of grab Sun’s arms well enough to sort of push herself towards his body and away from his arms. Something which seemed to not only catch her off guard, but catch him off guard. He offered a short but excited cackle in response.

          “Golly! That was a good trick! Are you an acrobat~?!” Sun chimed, seemingly so distracted enough by what she had just done that he didn’t immediately try to grab at her again. Which was good. She most definitely couldn’t pull off that stunt a second time. The awkward part about this was that she was once again trapped under him, having only been prevented from sliding down further by bumping into his knees.

          “Er... No, not really. I uh...” Ayala awkwardly stammered, genuinely baffled by what she had just pulled off. She hadn’t performed a stunt like that since trying to evade the black mass of goo and wires that Afton had become. And when she had done that, her body was in pretty good condition. Right now, her body was absolutely livid with her for having done what she just did. She awkwardly cleared her throat, trying to think of a way to change the subject while heavily distracted by the pain.           “I-I just realize how close it is to being time for me to leave! Yeah. So we really need to bring Moon out so I can introduce myself.” She responded, sort of awkwardly going with what first came to mind. This, in turn, coaxed another groan out of the animatronic. He was still being grumpy. Still wanting to resist the fact that Moon needed to come out.

          “Humph. Fine. But there are rules! Rules that you have to follow! No buts! Mr. Moony Meanie Pants is very dangerous and could hurt you! So you have to stand in the light outside the daycare. Don’t leave the light. I won’t be able to help you while the lights are out.” Sun responded bitterly, giving the woman some very, very stern instructions. She sighed in response. Alright, fair enough. Her Moon had technically been dangerous, so it made sense that this one was a bit of a threat. Probably more of a threat. If this Sun was so unintentionally rough, there was no telling what this Moon was capable of.

          “Alright, Sunny. I promise.” Ayala responded, making a sort of ‘cross my heart’ motion as she did so. Not that it really seemed to satisfy the animatronic all that much.

[harmoniousworld]

I wanted to document this here if that's allowed. I have a comorbid situation along with EDS. I went to the ER today. Idk if I'm having a side effect from a new medicine or not. While at the ER, at about 4:00 a.m., I took "magic mouthwash" along with Amoxicillin, given by the ER doctor. I have taken the Amox. in the past and tolerated it rather well.

The side effects I felt of the mouthwash only lasted for 30 minutes. My throat got tight, but it was nothing major... nothing overly alarming.

Then I got home at about 5 or 6 a.m. and fell asleep by about 7:10 a.m. I slept for only 45 minutes before a new, unusual, alarming "ailment" woke me up. **Note: I may have had a similar event during 20 min of sleep before even heading to the ER, but I was not fully aware of what happened during my sleep that triggered the medical attack.

So, as for the medical event at 7:10 a.m., I really don't know if this was the same event as which I experienced before or if it was new and possibly from the medicine. Maybe the Amoxicillin was too strong of a dose for my body size.

This new symptom is extremely scary, and I'm not sure how to describe it fully, but I'll do my best:

I woke up with intense head pressure, but not my usual migraine or pressure that I have everyday. This was on top of it. And during this episode, I felt intense seizurish activity, but no seizure that was visible or even felt. No shaking. No staring type of seizure either. Electrical feeling. During this episode, I felt like my brain was very confused and disoriented (way worse than when you typically awaken). I felt like I was about to have a seizure, but I didn't. (I do get seizures regularly and oftentimes will get the warning.) But this was so different. It really didn't feel like a type of seizure. Anyway, it also felt like I was actively dying.... not to be confused with being afraid of dying. I was not panicked or afraid. It happened out of nowhere. I felt my brain like scrambling the electrical wires and trying to connect while the intense head pressure let up. The episode mostly resolved, until I went back to sleep for 1 second and it happened again. I woke up, took 20 seconds to recover, and went back to asleep... only to repeat again. I do have central sleep apnea, by the way. I feel like this is a mixture of some existing ailments, combined with a bad reaction to one of the medicines. I am now avoiding sleep because when I fall asleep I literally feel myself start to enter this most horrifying (for me) symptom.

I also need to mention I have an infection in a gland with tons of swelling (when I eat) that has spread to my head, ears, & neck.

Despite the infection, I don't currently feel feverish, weak, or the way one usually feels with an infection. (I did feel weak and feverish yesterday, though.) I only feel intense pain near the areas of the infection. I also do have a migraine with ear and eye pressure and hundreds of other symptoms that aren't new for me.

I feel the doctor was very negligent because he addressed no side effects of the medication, and he told me there were no further tests for my gland, which was a lie. He was confident that I had a tumor or stone— something blocking my salivary gland. He also kept walking away every time I tried to ask a question. I think he probably just had a lot of patients to tend to and maybe they were understaffed. I just felt like I was kind of left in the dark with all of these questions, and he felt really annoyed with me having to answer any of them let alone the 20 questions I had. They were actually relatively short questions. He cut me off when I 1st arrived as well and I never got to give him the full story. I spoke for 3 minutes straight and I was not allowed to really give the story.

[marshmallowwitharubberband]

This morning I woke up with the realization that the cop who pulled me over at mignight on a deserted street for skipping a stop sign (that I didn't see bc I was looking for an address, sorry) and kept insisting the fine was really expensive, like REALLY expensive after I assured him, multiple times, that it was ok, it had been my bad, and to just give me the ticket and please tell me where the street I was looking for was (phone had died) didn't actually had pity on me out of the goodness of his heart (I went to pay the fine the next day and there was no infraction on the system, now that I recall he didn't physically give me the ticket either, he just drove away) . He was trying to goad me into bribing him. It's sad, but it's relatively common in my area, that cops will try to pin infractions on people, said people will offer a few bills and the infraction will be dropped, I've even seen it happen, it just hadn't happened to me... now, maybe this cop was a genuinely good person who saw a lost and stressed young woman in a 25-year old car and went "ugh... no, my conscience won't allow it". But honestly, all signs point to it being a bribing hook and me being too dumb to bite. It also took me 3 months to realize it.

I'm, apparently, too stupid for corruption.

[lindsaystravelblogs3]

Days 95 to 97

Day 95 28 August

It was a wild, windy night and we sheltered deep in the Ataa Sound to avoid the worst of the gale and high seas, but morning saw us in calm, sunny conditions surrounded by soaring mountains and glistening icebergs.  We were out in the zodiacs early and soon visited the abandoned European-style settlement of Ataa: a thriving commercial site in its time, but completely deserted by 1960.  We continued to explore the coastline and saw lots of birds: a large raft of Eiders, hundreds of Kittiwakes and Glaucous Gulls, and even a few of the less-common Iceland Gulls.  The landscape was awesome, with amazing geological structures, towering waterfalls, deep gullies, and the lower hillsides covered in tundra.

During the afternoon, we headed off, away from Greenland towards the southern part of Baffin Island in Canada, with the wind and sea rising as we went.  How I love being at sea, especially when there is enough swell to feel the ship's movement underfoot.  There is always a small risk of sea-sickness but you can’t deny the thrill of a rising sea.

Day 96 29 August

There are lectures every day and documentary films most evenings.  We go to pretty much all of the lectures, but usually prefer bed to the films at night.  We usually hit the bar after dinner and take a drink or two back to our cabin most evenings – and with the long twilights, we can sit up in bed and watch the scenery drift past our window in comfort.

We enjoyed a couple of extra hours of sleep as we passed into a different time-zone and woke to find ourselves in thick fog that lifted to brilliant sunshine as we approached the Canadian coast.  There was another rigorous biosecurity check, vacuuming all our clothing and equipment inside and out, before we fronted the Canadian authorities to clear Customs and Immigration prior to being allowed to land at the Inuit village of Qikiqtarjuak (try pronouncing that one after a couple of red wines!  Most people just call it Kik.).

We explored the village with the help of some local guides but I also escaped to check out the birds along the coast and in the big inlet on which the village is located.  The village was one of the more interesting ones we visited and i got into conversation with some of the locals as well as enjoying a rather elaborate show they arranged for us – traditional music and dancing, art, some wrestling and other athletic games, displays of indigenous craft and, of course, a visit to their buying opportunities – none of which we could patronise because anything we purchased would not pass either the US or the Australian Customs authorities.

Day 97 30 August

We followed the coast of Baffin Island during the morning with magnificent cliffs and towering mountains guarding our passage - and we were all back in the zodiacs after lunch.

The first of our citizen-science projects were in action today.  We sailed deep into the Sam Ford Fiord, out of the wind and swell, and this allowed us to explore the area from the zodiacs in relative comfort – although it was still pretty cold. 

The Fiord is utterly stunning with its astonishingly high cliffs and rocky escarpment.  It was bitterly cold but we were loving cruising some of the most majestic and magnificent cliffs and mountains we have seen anywhere.  They sprang straight out of the ocean and towered several hundred craggy metres above us.  They were literally awesome and no amount of photographs could ever do justice to them.  The upper half of one particularly impressive sheer cliff periodically got lost in the clouds that scudded in and around the mountains.

Some people got a distant view of the first polar bear of the trip (I didn’t see it) but there was quite a lot of birdlife and numerous seals popping their heads up and showing their curiosity about the visitors.  We did our first Secchi-disk measurement as well as a bird survey (on board) and a Cloud Observation survey – as well as having fun exploring the coastline.  It started snowing again as we returned to the ship and it was good to get back into our warm cabin for hot showers and a pre-prandial drink or two before dinner.

It was something of a celebratory dinner, being the birthday of the eponymous Sylvia Earle for whom our ship was named, as well as the 105th anniversary of the very first Northwest Passage crossing.  We all had to toast both events so we could have become quite merry had they found any more celebrations to acknowledge.

[humansun]

thao dien/wakanda 4evr/emotional wreck type day

Written November 21st at 6:01AM

I woke up snoozing today so that means I am really getting acclimated!

Things that are top of mind:

I dedicated multiple hours of concentration on finding some apartments and it was a bit stressful, but I’m glad I got through it. 

I still have a lot of work for New Wave so I need to get on that as well.

Literally I don’t think my life would change significantly having that person back in my life. Why am I missing them so hard?

Today I woke up with a weird dream about my ex-coworker. It’s probably because I haven’t responded to his text! In the dream he was mad that I didn’t respond.

The apartment thing is driving my anxiety to secure something ASAP, so please don’t mind my lack of realizations and whatnot!

Written 6:38PM

So many thoughts today. So many GOOD thoughts today. I am grateful for Benz for being a wonderful thought partner as well.

First of all, I am actually loving my calls with my mother. Like so much. She seems oddly happy that I’m in Vietnam even though she was the first person to oppose it. It’s almost like, the people who are the most skeptical about something end up being the most committed at the end of it. I wonder what that says about human psychology! She’s still mom, so her worries are oozing out of every word she says, but for the most part, I can tell that she loves that I am here and in some way, I am making her proud. Look at that!

General recap of the day: Wrote, meditated, worked out, cannot swim because of tattoo, left to Thao Dien (really fucking fun - ok but why are touristy areas like this place way funner and more manageable than D1 and D4, make it make sense), went to Honeycomb Real Estate, got Com Ga, coffee, talked to Bienz, hit the mall, watched Wakanda Forever, got coconut water and a Vietnamese burger for dinner! Very eventful day that comes with a reasonable set of realizations and thoughts.

Where do I actually begin with my thoughts of the day! When I have more than 1-3, I resort to bullet form in order:

Yesterday’s Gym Thought That Got Left Out of Yesterday’s Post: I am allowed to be pretty. This sounds like the most bizarre realization, but sometimes our thought processes and analyses we have about aspects of our lives doesn’t fully make the most sense even if we think so in those moments. I am allowed to be pretty, just like anyone is valid in having any form of material interest. Material items do bring joy and they do make sense. To fully strip myself of something that does spark joy is not very Marie Kondo of me. I miss Christina!

Meditation Thought: For a while, I saw myself as someone who doesn’t go through things. This is more likely because I know I am a privileged person being Vietnamese-Chinese-American and everything when it come to relativity game - I am very lucky and grateful. But I do that thing where I make my problems small because I consider other people’s problems bigger. Now that I’m sitting here and thinking about it though, I’ve been through a good handful of bullshit experiences that traumatized me or made my heart race in a horrible, horrible way. So yeah. I just validated myself writing this, so cool. Moving on. (I spent some time talking to Zino about this as well and he found his own answers, which means he validates his own experiences! All good things!)

Meditation Thought: It’s not where you’ve been that necessarily builds your character. It’s what you’ve been through (good or bad). In a way, I do believe I practiced a bit of escapism coming to Vietnam. In a way, I expected my character and perspective on life to shift completely. Has it? No. It’s a gradual process and I can’t count out the fact that where you go affects you, but I do also believe that experiences that we have are what build our stories and shape who we are as individuals. Coming to Vietnam itself, the traveling and being physically here might not shift who I am so much, but what I see, who I encounter, my interactions, the feelings and emotions, all of the experiences I’m having, are what help me reflect and shape what actions and decisions I make moving forward. Interesting food for thought! 

Discussion Question Post-Movie: What makes a person “great”? Why do humans value noble traits? Practicing integrity based actions is a good thing because not only does it bring positive impacts to your life but also to others. This means you and others will live a good life. I don’t know.

Discussion Question Post-Movie: I am smart. I may not be as great when it comes to retaining facts or identifying certain Disney execs (who are like, all old white men! How could you really tell any of them apart? I’m evil I’m sorry), but I think I can still be the best Betty possible regardless if I am as intelligent as the next person. 

Discussion Question Post-Movie: “Fuck up” - I might not be the typical success story in America but I’d rather be a success story for myself. 

Dealing with vulnerability today was next level. The last time I felt as vulnerable as I did today was at Lightbox this year when I had to battle my stress episode. To summarize, I cried on the motorbike drive home from Thao Dien. It was painful. There were moments that I kept thinking I was going to die, because we were going at 60mph and any small wrong move meant my life was over. I have never been afraid of death necessarily, and perhaps this feeling will dawn on me a bit later in my life, but the thought of losing my life in the drive home was terrifying. I couldn’t help but think that I was a weak American, because all the people next to me drive these paths on a daily basis. I reflected on my ethnocentricity and how the rate of death in the US is probably bad as well. It was frightening thinking about all of those feelings all while knowing that the only thing keeping me safe in that drive was how well I held onto the driver. So yeah, tight. If there is a lesson I learned from that excruciating 22 minute drive, it is that emotional breakdowns can happen on motorbikes. They can. My feelings are valid. Tears are natural when you are doing something very out of your comfort zone that demands some amount of courage on a daily basis. I am practicing and exercising that neuropath in my brain to be brave and I am proud of myself.

I have an insane amount of space to think, document, and reflect. This is exactly what I needed. SO MUCH IS COMING TO ME AND I ACTUALLY HAVE THE ENERGY TO WRITE IT ALL DOWN, GODDAMMIT!

Last few thoughts are that I am getting way more comfortable in the streets of Vietnam and I’m fucking proud. Am I brave? Of fucking course. Other thoughts - should I continue my education? I don’t know. Life is really short. I should do what I want right fucking now. Time isn’t slowing down for anyone!

[divergent-one-1984]

Organized Crime Ring in Astoria, NY in a neighborhood under the jurisdiction of 114th Precinct. I have experiencing Targeted Psychological Harassment and Stalking / Community Harassment in this neighborhood since Summer 2016, shortly after resigning from NYC Department of Education, where the Targeted Harassment officially started in 2015 in the form of Workplace Mobbing. Noise Harassment and Illegal Surveillance (Based on my experience over the years I believe audio and video surveillance has been illegally directed at and inside my residence.

i just woke up and opened my tablet a couple seconds afterwards the police started sirens outside my apartment window. This happens frequently, its not a coincidence, enough time and experience tels.me this is a pattern and its intentional. What has been done to me and continues to be done to me for 7 years and counting could not be done without the full participation of corrupt law enforcement, government entities, corporate entities, etc.

This Noise Harassment, which also goes hand in hand with Sleep Deprivation because this noise is often carried out during off / inappropriate hours such as this early in the morning, the police sirens went off around 7AM, or late at night or in the middle of the night while most people, including myself are actually sleeping. Where I reside is very residential, there should not be as many police sirens going off as does occur and despite the Organized Crime going on here it is considered pne of the safest neoghborhoods in the city, so for the police to be here making this frequent disturbance, they are doing it because they are involved in the Organized Crime because they have no legitimate reason to be in a residential area that has mostly apartment buildings and houses for several blocks. I have been part of this community for over 40 years also, so I am familiar with how the neighborhood operates. For those decades I have been part of this community I dont remember the police being such a physical and audio presence because it would have been out off place, uncharacteristic, and unnecesssary. Their presence is here because they have a large part in the Organized Group Stalking / Community Harassment directed at me and my relative who lives in this community and has lived here for over 40 years with no issues until Summer 2016

These are some of the Noise Harassment activities are carried out often throughout day including during off hours (extremely early 5, 6 AM, in the middle of night 3, 4 AM, extremely late, 11PM, 12 Midnight) causing Sleep Deprivation (to wake up out of my sleep or not allowing me to get to sleep or take naps):

Police, Fire, Ambulance Sirens and Flashing Lights

Loud Music playing as cars drive by or people walk by, or park directly outside apartment building, sometimes just passing through sometimes sitting for hours.

People.walking by windows or sometimes driving by windows yelling insults, screaming, talking and laughing loudly, this occurs inside my apartment building as well, mostly from the Latino family that lives next door and the 2 Muslim families that live on the other side of my apartment and directly above my apartment.

Latino family next door has their young child running back and forth all day from sometimes 6 am in the morning till evening on a daily basis, also the child bangs on the walls, and is constantly slamming a door, probably a closet or bedroom door, based on the location the noise is coming from and the fact that as I stated I have been part of this community for over 40 years I know the layout of their apartment as well as the apartment on the other side and above me.

Constant revving of vehicle engines as they drive by or just sitting there

Constant slamming of car doors and setting off of car alarms / car door openers

Constant Diesel / Mack Trucks driving through making noise with air breaks, engines, and axles / wheel mechanisms. again, another entity, like the police and fire people, this is a highly residential are and all these large body vehicle have no real legitimate reason to be here except they were placed here for the purposes of harassment. This neighborhood is practically next to a dead end street, the amount of commercial vehicle traffic outside the usual postal, delivery (Amazon, Fedex, Sanitation, etc) trucks should not be making as much traffic around here as they do, the nearest main street to get the commercial construction vehicles to their destinations is a few blocks up, there is basically kind of a dead end situation around my street, two sides surrounding my street involves a big ass park that takes up several blocks going doen as far as Astoria Park and the way down to Conedison plant, the other side is a huge ConEdison plant and parking garages that go on for blocks, and Rikers Island further up and if any of these noisy ass trucks are trying to go to any of those places you don't need to drive down this far, basically coming down here especially in the direction this constant parade of commercial vehicles come from, they are coming from the direction of the main street to come down to a dead end essentially, this does not make sense, its being done purposely for Noise Harassment. The seemingly unnecessary ongoing road construction is a couple of blocks over at the moment. Those trucks should not beomg coming down here especially when. The street that is parallel to the park for several blocks is extremely narrow, it is a 2 way street, but in actuality probably should be 1 way, cars cannot even pass each other without having to stop and let the other go by or stop and pass each other very slowly so they avoid a colllision, but these commercial vehicle trucks are a constant presence since Summer 2016. I've been part of this community for over 40 years, I have a pretty good finger on the pulse and operstions of the neighborhood. All of this traffic and noise is uncharacteristic and did not start occuring until Summer 2016. Also, there seems to be constant work on the roads around here which seems excessive considering there are probably some highways / main streets thst need the construction more, seems like every year for multiple weeks / months there is what seems to be unnecessary construction going on on the roads

Kids constantly yelling and screaming outside my windows and playing and riding bikes in the middle of the street interfering with traffic

People standing under my windows talking loudly

People throwing objects at my apartment windows

Muslim neighbor above stomping/ walking heavily on my ceiling and dragging heavy furniture across the floor everyday multiple times throughout the day. Also talking loudly on the phone, I believe this neighbor is in possession of some kind of amplification tool that loudens and directs sound to specific areas in my apartment, basically where ever I am positioned at the moment. The walls may be thin, but not thin enough to the point where I can hear you clearly talking on the phone as if you were sitting inside my apartment. It has occured in just about every room of my house at various points in time.

Muslim neighbors next door mostly talk loudly, stomp / walk heavy, at one point were playing loud Arabic music multiple times a day, constantly dragging furniture across the floor. since I have been part od this community for 40+ years and know th layout of this apartment because I have actually been inside it visiting with my neighbor from several years ago before, long before these evil people move in, my bedroom and their kitchen are aligned. These people sit in their kitchen all day just to make noise and harass. This is unusual, unless you live in a spacious home to spend that much time in a kitchen. Most people spend time in their living room or probably a bedroom as opposed to a kitchen. They stay there damn near all day from super early to late at night because they have been instructed to harass me.