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starlitangels · 3 years

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Answers (For Once)

@romirola and I briefly discussed domestic!Avior a few days ago and... this was the result XD 1.7k words

—

“This will just take a few minutes, I promise,” I said, shoving open the door to my office. “You can sit down. I just have to write an email to a few members of the academy board to see if I can get the research project approved.” I gestured to one of the seats opposite my desk where students usually sat if they came to see me, but when I turned, Avior was already in my desk chair. “Love. That’s my seat.”

He smiled. “I know.” He patted his legs.

I rolled my eyes, taking his implication and sitting on his lap.

He flicked his wrist and the door to my office shut. “Best not to let any passing students or staff see one of their professors in such an... unprofessional position,” he said quietly.

I smiled as I wiggled my mouse so my computer woke up. I pulled up my work email to compose a new message, muttering board members’ emails under my breath. “To... Lasko-dot-Moore... and...”

Avior’s fingertips lightly trailed over the back of my neck as I typed, drawing figure-eights and swirls idly. I had to tighten the muscles in my back to keep my focus on my computer. Lots of classes were still in session and plenty of people were in the building. I did not need to get distracted by Avior and then caught by a student or coworker.

After a few minutes, I read over what I’d written—twice, just to be sure since Avior’s fingers were still playing over my skin—and sent the email. “Okay. That’s over with. Let’s get out of here.” I moved to climb off Avior’s lap, but his hands slid to my hips and held me in place. “Avior...”

“What’s that, on your desk?”

I followed his line of sight. “The Newton’s Cradle?”

“No, next to it.”

I looked between him and the object in question a good three times. “Love, how do you know what a Newton’s Cradle is but not a stapler?”

“I spent most of my life in Aria, remember? Whenever I wasn’t feeding. I don’t have the most thorough understanding of human culture.”

I leaned forward and grabbed the stapler and two sheets of paper I’d meant to staple anyway. “Staplers aren’t particularly cultural, but I’ll let it slide,” I said. “The idea of a stapler is...” I aligned the pages as evenly as I could and stapled them together in the top left corner. “To keep your pages together.”

Avior snatched the papers and stapler from my hands. “So you stab your papers with metal. How does it work?” His gold eyes narrowed on the stapler, and the staple it had left behind in the corner of my pages.

Gosh, I love you so much, I thought, watching him inspect the stapler with all the seriousness of a biologist discovering a new species.

I started laughing.

“What?”

“Oh, nothing, love. It’s just nice to be the one with the answers instead of the questions for once,” I replied. “Even if it’s for something as simple as a stapler.” I held out a hand. “Here. Let me show you how it works. It’s really not that complicated.” I gently took the stapler from his hands and pulled the top open. “See? These are the staples before they’re bent. That spring in the back makes sure there’s always one at the very front.” I shut the top and clicked it back into place. “Then, this plate here bends the staple prongs toward each other to secure your pages. Or you can push the little circle on the bottom so the plate can rotate to the other set of divets and bend the prongs outward. But no one uses staples that way.”

“Why not?”

“For one, it looks really weird and humans are quirky that way. For two, it takes up more room on the crease when you fold the top pages back to access the ones behind. And third, it’s not quite as secure. Also, staple-removers don’t really work with outward-bent prongs.”

I leaned forward and picked up the staple remover from behind the Newton’s Cradle, showing him how the teeth fit between the prongs to bend them back out.

“Humans are... interesting,” Avior said, looking thoughtful.

I chuckled. “Yes, we are. Now come on! Let’s go home. I’m famished.”

“Yeah... home.” Avior smiled at me, finally letting me get up off his lap and letting me pull him to his feet. I locked the office door behind us as we left.

—

Lasko glanced up from his computer as one of the researchers rushed past his open office door, holding the hand of a man with a somewhat-familiar magical signature. Both of them absolutely beaming. The man’s magical aura... it wasn’t like any human’s Lasko had ever felt. In fact... it was almost like Gavin’s. Demon.

Huh.

He went back to his computer, hitting print on an email he’d gotten—from that same researcher that had just rushed past.

Subject: Project Approval

Hello all,

I am requesting permission for a new magical research project, given my last one was completed successfully two weeks ago. This one is a bit unconventional and requires the collaboration of humans and demons/daemons. After a recent experience, I’d like to request approval for a project studying the Meridian—and, specifically, how demon/daemon rifts interact with it.

Lasko rubbed his eyes, feeling around on his desk with his other hand for the blue-light-filtering glasses he usually kept around his monitor.

He decided it was too late in the evening to care why that researcher was requesting such an odd research project minutes before rushing past, holding a demon’s hand, when just a few days ago he’d heard them joking to a coworker in one of the staff rooms that they probably were never going to find time to date anyone.

“None of my business,” Lasko muttered, shoving his glasses onto his face. A text came through on his phone. He glanced at the contact name. The Freelancer, in their friends’ group chat.

Y’all! Bowling at the student center tonight? Or does anyone wanna try pickleball?

A text from Damien quickly followed. Only if you’re prepared to lose.

Lasko smiled, hitting reply. Bring it on!

He set his phone down.

—

“Starlight, hand me the spatula, please?” Avior asked.

I picked up the blue silicone. “Technically it’s called a scraper. The spatula is the angled one meant to get cake slices out of the baking tin. I mean, my home ec. teacher was very insistent that it’s called a rubber scraper, but this one is made of silicone so I don’t think it technically should count as a rubber scraper. So, it’s just a scraper.”

Avior narrowed his eyes at me. He took a deep breath and sighed. “Some things never change,” he muttered under his breath.

I laughed, passing the scraper over to him. “You could just let me make the dough, you know,” I remarked. “You don’t even eat human food.”

“I know. But I’m trying this because you talked so much about this recipe while we were trapped. And I want to see if I can do it. I’ve never tried baking before. Never needed to.”

“Alright. Go ahead.” I smiled, leaning one hip against the counter island, arms folded, watching him try to get the flour off the inside of the stand mixer’s bowl with the scraper. A small puff of flour rose into the air. Avior huffed, trying to get it out of his nostrils.

“I’ll probably need your help with the rest of the pizza though. The recipe for the sauce looks complicated.”

“Oh I don’t use the sauce recipe on that page. I just get marinara from the store with some basil in it and call it a day. The dough already takes long enough. No reason to waste more time making sauce.” I shrugged.

“Okay. That’ll be easier, then,” Avior muttered—more to himself than me. I snickered. “Don’t make fun of me. I’ve never done this before.”

“I’m not making fun,” I said, raising my hands as though surrendering. “I know it’s your first time—that’s why I gave you this pizza dough recipe specifically. I have a more complicated one that I use when I have the time and patience and appetite for it. But this one is really simple. Nothing fancy. Although, I will be putting some garlic butter on the edges of the crust for a bit of extra flavor. Or showing you how. Whichever you prefer.”

Avior smiled at me over his shoulder. “We’ll see.”

He turned the stand mixer back on to mix in the flour he’d scraped down, his tongue sticking out slightly between his lips. I smiled again.

“God, I love you,” I said quietly.

He gave me that look again—the look he gave me almost every time I told him I loved him. The look that spelled disbelief. Like he could never quite bring himself to truly believe I was in love with him, after everything we’d gone through together.

The expression softened into a gentle grin. “I love you too, starlight.” He moved as though to embrace me, but stopped. “Aaand I’m covered in flour. So... I’ll have to kiss you a little later.”

I chuckled. “Well. The wait makes it sweeter, sometimes.”

—

"I have a question,” Avior said, sliding into bed beside me and pulling me against him.

“Okay,” I replied.

“Why do you make the bed every morning if we just undo it every night?”

I chuckled. “Oh, I really love being the one with the answers instead of the questions for once,” I said softly. “I make the bed because it’s nice to be neat and keep things clean. And it keeps the sheets from getting too wrinkly. Which is nice.”

“Seems a little strange, but okay.”

“It’s just one of those endlessly repetitive things humans do. Like dishes. Or laundry. Adulthood is just never-ending, cyclical chores.”

He snorted. “I’ve noticed.”

I sighed and snuggled against him. “Today was a good day,” I said softly. “I’m glad I got to spend it with you.”

“Me too.”

“Tomorrow’s gonna be even better. Because, for the first time since we got back, I don’t have to go anywhere. So I can stay here with you all day if we want.”

“That sounds well-deserved.”

“Mm...” I leaned my head into his chest. “Goodnight, Avior.”

He kissed my head. “Goodnight, starlight,” he whispered.

#the thing with the scraper vs spatula is a conversation me and my husband had #I was Avior he was Starlight #me: hand me the spatula babe?#him: it's a scraper #Redacted ASMR #fic #Redacted Avior #Avior #Redacted Starlight #Starlight #gender neutral reader #Starlit Fic

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the-tactician-magician · 3 years

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This @flufftober2021 fic turned out differently from my usual style, but I still think it's alright! It also includes some images, if you need a warning for that.

Flufftober Day 9: Text Messages

Rated T for swearing, Seteth/Manuela, ~1255 words (with some leeway due to images)

Thursday Sept 16 • 7:14 PM

Seteth: Manuela, thank you again for staying with Flayn until I could pick her up from choir practice. You went above and beyond your duties as her instructor, and words cannot express how grateful I am for your accommodation.

Manuela: np

Seteth: Np?

Manuela: no problem

Seteth: To prevent future confusion, perhaps you should type out full sentences instead of using abbreviations. (deleted)

Manuela: say if you want to thank me with more than just words

Manuela: do you happen to be single?

Manuela: asking for a friend

Thursday Sept 16 • 8:44 PM

Manuela: hello??

Friday Oct 1 • 5:56 PM

Seteth:

Seteth: Flayn, could you please explain the meaning of this video?

Manuela: this is how you reply after ghosting me for two weeks??

Seteth: Shit (deleted)

Seteth: My apologies, Manuela. I meant to text my daughter. Please delete my messages and forget this ever happened.

Manuela: oh im not mad at you

Manuela: this is l i t e r a l l y the funniest thing ever

Manuela: poor sety needs a lesson on memes?

Seteth: I do not need a lesson on memes. And please do not call me ‘Sety’.

Manuela: you say that

Manuela: yet here you are in my messages asking your daughter what a tiktok video means

Seteth: This video is from Tumblr.

Manuela: who even uses tumblr anymore!! i thought it was dead!!!

Seteth: My daughter and I still use it.

Manuela: anyway

Manuela: the joke behind this tiktok is simple

Manuela: very beautiful

Manuela: very powerful

Manuela: a meme lesson for you, free of charge. youre welcome

Friday Oct 1 • 11:07 PM

Manuela: you get why thats funny right

Saturday Oct 9 • 10:31 AM

Seteth:

Seteth: Flayn, I sincerely hope that you did not want to become a marine biologist because of internet memes.

Manuela: lmao you did it again??

Seteth: Fuck (deleted)

Seteth: My apologies for bothering you once more, Manuela. I promise that I won’t repeat this mistake in the future.

Manuela: wait you arent going to delete my number are you?

Seteth: I would prefer not to, in case I need to contact you regarding Flayn’s choir schedule, but I cannot keep accidentally messaging you when I mean to message her.

Manuela: but i dont mind the memes

Manuela: really

Manuela: your cluelessness is a b s o l u t e l y adorable

Seteth: I do not appreciate being made fun of.

Manuela: im not making fun of you!!

Manuela: this is your problem sety

Manuela: you need to lighten up. thats why you dont understand these memes

Seteth: Lightening up is not my problem. I already allow Flayn a great deal of freedom on the internet, provided that I am able to check her social media on occasion.

Manuela: and then you pester her about memes you do not approve of

Saturday Oct 9 • 11:45 AM

Manuela: hello?

Seteth: Apologies for not replying back sooner. I had personal tasks to attend to, and I was also thinking about what you said.

Seteth: I do not disapprove of her jokes, but perhaps I give her that impression because of how often I ask for explanations. I truly do not get the humor of this generation of children.

Seteth: Please do not tease me, Manuela. This is a serious matter.

Manuela:

Manuela: oh sety

Manuela: you really do need to relax

Manuela: how about this? you can send me memes that you dont get, and ill do my best to explain them

Manuela: and i promise i wont tease you too badly ;)

Saturday Oct 9 • 12:58 PM

Manuela: hey sety i was being serious that time you know

Seteth: Apologies for the wait. I was compiling several recent memes from Flayn. I have 3 of them to share with you today.

Seteth:

Manuela: oh come on you haven’t heard of the squid game

Seteth: I have heard of Splatoon, yes. Flayn plays it all the time.

Manuela: not that squid game!!

Manuela: its a popular netflix show that has nothing to do with squids

Manuela: so the joke is that people like you who dont know about the show assume that its about squids using underwater computers

Manuela: or something like that

Seteth: I see.

Seteth:

Manuela: lol!!

Manuela: youve seen crazy car mods right? Looks like someone put a bunch of crayfish in their car

Manuela: which i approve of btw

Seteth: And I do not approve of it. I shudder what to think if Flayn did this to her own car when she gets one.

Manuela: then dont let her get a car

Manuela: that was a joke btw please let your daughter have a car

Manuela: anyway what else you got

Seteth:

Manuela: ok you got me with this one

Manuela: theres probably a science joke in there and im not a science teacher

Manuela: i know someone who is tho. you know hanneman?

Seteth: Please do not show Hanneman these memes. I do not want my name attached to them.

Manuela: i wasnt going to tell him who sent them to me but ok fine

Seteth: Thank you for your help anyway, Manuela.

Manuela: np

Manuela: you can keep sending me all the memes you want btw

Manuela: anything to save my star singer from her clueless father

Seteth: I am not clueless. I am simply unaccustomed to modern Internet humor.

Seteth: If you do not mind me talking to you for a bit longer, it feels like the internet has changed so quickly. Back then, we had Lolcats, Rickrolling, Newsgrounds, and other jokes that were easy to understand. Now, I am baffled by every other image my daughter sends me.

Manuela: the jokes havent changed that much sety. everything is as silly and random as it was back then.

Manuela: its just your tastes have changed but thats normal. youll get used to it

Seteth: Thank you, Manuela. I must confess that it’s nice to talk about this to another adult.

Manuela: np

Manuela: tho now you got me wondering, how old are you

Seteth: I am 39 years old.

Manuela: no way??

Manuela: before i thought you were m u c h older than me, but when you started talking about lolcats i was like wait a sec

Seteth: Do I really act that old? (deleted)

Manuela: and you still havent answered my question btw

Seteth: Which question?

Manuela: are you single

Seteth: I fail to see how that is relevant to the conversation at hand.

Manuela: im just saying if you want to ever talk about memes in person, im always up for a drink

Saturday Oct 9 • 3:22 PM

Manuela: shit did i scare you off again

Seteth: Not exactly. I was just considering it.

Manuela: either you learned how to joke really fast or youre actually into me??

Seteth: I do not know how to respond to that. All I am saying is I am not adverse to the notion of talking to you face to face. Perhaps about other topics besides memes.

Manuela: ofc we can talk about other stuff!

Manuela: are you free tonight?

Seteth: Not tonight, I am afraid, but we can meet up some other time.

Manuela: kk

Manuela: looking forward to more invigorating discussions from you sety ;)

#fe3h #fire emblem three houses #seteth #manuela casagranda #fics #flufftober 2021

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bangtanreadingcorner · 4 years

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the blind date • kim namjoon

PLOT ─ hoseok sets you up on a blind date with his best friend, namjoon, and it all goes up hill from there.

GENRE ─ college!au

WORDS ─ 6.3k

You attention is drawn to the entrance of the cafe as it opens yet again, your eyes searching for a man fitting the description your friend had given you. Although, right now, you weren’t exactly in the best mood. You didn't want to go on this blind date in the first place, but it was a lot better than trying your hand at it yourself on the internet and potentially getting yourself murdered.

You sighed when you looked the guy over, no way was it that scrawny kid with glasses - although Hoseok did say his friend wears glasses from time to time, according to him his best friend was rather large in form. It's ten minutes past when he should have been here, you see as you clicked the power button on your phone. You heard the bell of the cafe chime but you don't bother looking up, busy unlocking your phone and sending Hoseok a message to tell him that his best friend didn't show up.

Before you could press send, however, someone called your name softly, and it was a little contrasting with his deep voice. You lift your head, eyes scanning over the - admittedly very handsome - man and he ticked all of the mental boxes to the description Hoseok gave you on his friend. He was wearing a light blue polo neck and a pair of denim jeans. What was strange was that he had one arm tucked behind his back while his other was stuffed with books.

You raised an unimpressed brow, handsomeness did not excuse his tardiness. "Namjoon, I assume?"

He nodded, a sheepish grin slipped onto his face, revealing the most adorable pair of dimples. "Guilty as charged. Y/N, right?"

"Yeah, that's me." You nodded back to him, crossing your arms over your chest. "So, is there any particular reason you're late, or are you one of those who thinks it makes you more attractive?"

"What? No!" His eyes widened and you would have found it amusing or maybe even cute. If he wasn't almost twenty minutes late to your blind date. Speaking of, you are never letting Hoseok talk you into anything ever again.

"It's not like that. I just, I got you these." The hand behind his back came out and there was a small bouquet of lilies and lavenders. You felt something inside of you go very gooey like, because those are your favorite flowers. "And I know it might seem old fashioned but Hoseok mentioned that you like flowers and that these are your favorites, so I went by the flower shop three blocks from here but the queue was longer than I expected and then they had to make the bouquet because they didn't have any in this specific arrangement and I am really, really sorry that I'm late."

You stated at him, opened mouthed and a little in shock at the ramble of words that passed his lips so quickly and nervously.

"Well," You cleared your throat. "As far as excuses go, I have to say, that's the best one I've ever heard." When he still remained standing, looking at you unsurely, you gave a small smile. "This date isn't really going to go anywhere if you don't sit down."

"Yeah, okay, right." He mumbled to himself, holding the flowers out to you. You took it with a grin, and couldn't help but smell them. You don't think you've ever gotten flowers from one of your exes. Not even on Valentine's day. This was a nice, refresh change, especially given your love for flowers. He placed the mountain of five books on the table, hands fiddling with them to have an outlet for his nerves. You couldn't help the smile that spread on your lips.

"What can I get you today?" A waitress asked as she stepped up to you, handing menu's to the both of you.

"Chocolate milkshake for me, thanks." You told her, and you looked at Namjoon.

"I'll have a iced coffee, please." Namjoon smiled at her and you could see the girl swooning a bit. Not that you blamed her, those dimples are killer. Still, this is your date, so you cleared your throat lightly.

"Right," The girl snapped out of it, cheeks reddening a bit at being caught. "Anything to eat?"

"Uh, I'm not really hungry right now." You look at your date. "You want anything?"

"I, um, I'm," He stammered a bit. "Yeah. Actually. Would that be okay? Some people say it's awkward when you eat on a date but the other person isn't, but I've been studying all morning because I was really nervous and I forgot to eat, so it just sort of caught up to me now."

You smiled, not being able to help yourself, his rambles are cute. "Not awkward at all. Knock yourself out."

"Thanks." Namjoon smiled gratefully at you and your stomach flipped, cheeks heating up. He turned back to the waitress and placed his order. Then he turned back to you. "Sorry, I know this isn't exactly an ideal date. I was late and showed up with a bunch of my books."

"Yeah, but you're cute and you had a really good reason for being late, so I don't mind." You smile widened when you saw the tips of his ears turning red. "Plus, you didn't make a comment about my choice of drink, a definite plus for you."

Namjoon frowned, "What's wrong with it?"

"Oh, nothing for me, but so many guys has said to me that it's not healthy and I need to be careful of to many sweet things because I can get fat." You rolled your eyes.

"That's . . . stupid."

"Yeah, tell me about it." You snorted. Not really wanting to delve any further into your other dates in front of this beautiful man, you changed the topic. "So, Hoseok tells me you want to be a Marine Biologist."

"Yeah," Namjoon nodded, his eyes lighting up at the thought. "I mean, I like all kinds of creatures and animals, but I've always loved Marine life."

"That's so cool." You couldn't help but gush, excitement coming easy for you due to your love of the ocean or just anything to do with the outdoors, really. "Do you want to work out on the ocean or in aquarium?"

"Well, I'm not really sure yet. Right now getting my degree is my number one priority." He gave a little chuckle as the waitress comes along with your drinks.

"I hear you, man, I mean, I know most people think that we dance students don't put a lot of work in, but they really don't know shit." You took a sip of your milkshake before you could say something really mean. Like what you think of those judging pricks.

"I get it, I really do. I've known Hoseok since high school, and I know how many hours he puts into getting choreography just right and perfect. You guys have your struggles just like we do."

"Exactly!" You couldn't help but exclaim, feeling like something was lifted from your chest because, finally, someone else gets it. "And you should hear my parents. They do not approve, like, at all. Always telling me how dancing isn't going to be enough for me to live on and I should have gone into law, so I could take over their business and ugh, it's just so frustrating."

"Sorry." He gave you an apologetic look.

"Why?" You gave smile a little smile. "It's not your fault. Anyways, what about your parents?"

"They approve of my choice, supporting me all the way and in anyway they can. But I can tell they sometimes worry that it's to much for me. Maintaining a scholarship is not easy." Namjoon told you, rubbing his neck as he spoke.

"Wow, they must be so proud of you." You stated at him in awe, respect towards him forming inside.

"I'd like to think they are." Namjoon smiled, eyes lighting up when the waitress arrived with his food. He looked at you, "You can have half, if you'd like?"

"No, thanks." You denied, looking at the large burger and fries. "I might steal some of your fries, though."

He pushed his plate closer with a smile. "Feel free."

The rest of the date went by a lot quicker than either of you would have liked. Before you knew it, you two were standing outside the cafe, bill split in two, and ready to go your separate ways.

"I really enjoyed this." You said, smiling up at him, because wow, he is tall. You also wanted to prolong this for a few more seconds.

"Yeah, me too." He was smiling, too, and you hoped it was because he liked this date as much as you did.

You two stood there for a while, just looking at each other, smiles slowly fading, nerves rising between you. Until you both spoke at once.

"Do you maybe want to go out again?"

"Would it be okay to ask for your number?"

You two burst out into laughter, and even when you calmed down, you smiled so hard, your cheeks hurt. "I'd love to go out with you again."

"You can have my number." Namjoon nodded with a happy smile, those dimples were really making you weak. "On one condition." He added.

You raised a brow, "And what's that?"

"You have to give me yours, too."

You laughed, head thrown back as a giddy feeing spread through you. You looked back at him, stomach fluttering. "Deal."

* * *

"So, how was it?"

"Did you get laid?"

You looked at your two friends, head moving from one to the other, who pounced on you the moment you set foot in the dancing studio. You gave them a look of disbelief.

"Okay, first of all, no, Jimin, I didn't get laid. Second of all, isn't Namjoon your roommate and best friend, Hoseok? And third of all, Jesus Christ, you two are nosey."

Hoseok pouted, "Yeah but he wouldn't say anything other than that it went well."

"It did go well." You confirmed, smiling as a warm feeling spread through your chest as you thought of Namjoon. You guys have been texting all weekend and this morning he sent you a heart eyes emoji at the end of his good morning text. That was good, right?

"Come on, I want details. I was the one who set you up, I deserve details." Hoseok whined.

"Nope." You sing-songed with a grin.

Jimin was pouting as he crossed his arms over his chest, "I'm not telling you about any of my dates ever again."

You smirk, "Does that mean you've finally done something about your gigantic crush on Jungkook?"

"No, and I'm not going to until he's eighteen." Jimin repeats for what seems like the hundredth time.

"And then you're going to jump his bones." Hoseok said with a wide smile.

"A whole two years more of celibacy. Well, technically a year and a few months. You know, I'm really starting to respect you for holding out that long." You noted matter of factly, then you smirked. "Poor Jungkook isn't going to know what hit him."

"Why would you even think that?" Jimin whined, cheek going a hilarious shade of red.

"Because one, we've seen him before. And two, we've seen how you look at him." You reminded Jimin. Jungkook has come to see a few times at the studio and you and Hoseok never let him forget it.

Jimin narrowed his eyes at you, "He's like, four years younger than you."

"Three years." You corrected with a concealed smirk, loving how you were getting underneath Jimin's skin. "And age is just a number." Hoseok sniggers next to you.

"Yeah," Jimin grumbled. "I'll remind you of that when they lock you up for going after someone who's still underage."

"Nah, I got someone else in mind." You told Jimin honestly, just now he stresses himself into a stroke because of your teasing.

Hoseok perked up at this, "Is this someone maybe named Namjoon?"

You rolled your eyes, but let out a resigned sigh. These two weren't gonna let up until you told them. "Yes, as matter of fact, the someone is named Namjoon. You happy?"

"Not yet." Hoseok shook his head, curious smile on his face. "What did you do?"

"We both went to the cafe you said, although he was twenty minutes late at first because he brought me flowers and the queue at the flower shop was long, and I ordered a chocolate milkshake and he ordered an iced coffee with a large burger and fries. We talked and figured that if we can have this much fun in a cafe, we might as well do it again. The end." You walked past Jimin and Hoseok, who were both gaping at you. The followed after you, both with excited looks on their faces.

Hoseok was practically jumping with excitement, "Does this mean you're going out again?"

"Yeah, this Saturday." You nodded, heading towards the equipment room, where everything from students' bags to mats and old mirrors were stored.

"Where are you going?" Jimin asked, evidently just as excited as Hoseok about this.

"Dinner and a movie." You said, feeling a lot more excited by something so simple than you normally did.

"That's so cliché. And cute." Jimin grinned.

"Thanks." You grinned, knowing that he didn't mean anything by it.

"You know, I have this big urge to rub both your noses in the fact that this is actually working." Hoseok commented.

"How's that?" You asked, bending your upper body to the floor and stretching your hands to your feet.

"Because neither of you thought the blind date would go anywhere." His voice was a little smug.

"It hasn't gone anywhere yet. This is literally just our second date." You rolled your eyes. "But we have been texting all weekend and he sent me a good morning text."

Jimin gasped, "That's so cute, I want someone to do that for me."

"Don't worry, Jimin, we'll get Namjoon to house train Jungkook." Hoseok quipped just as you switched to the other leg.

Laughter burst out of you before you could stop it, and a glance at Jimin's once again bright red face only made you laugh harder.

* * *

It was deadly silent between you and Namjoon as you walked out of the cinema. Finally you couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm sorry but," You started, laughing a little. "That was one of the worst romantic comedies I have ever seen."

"Oh thank God," He breathed in relief. "I thought it was just me."

"Nope, that was such bullshit. She chose her childhood bully? Okay, I can see the appeal of someone becoming a better person, but really? She'd have been better off with the post boy that gave her advice."

"I know right." Namjoon grinned, moving his hands a little as he spoke. "I'm surprised she didn't need years of therapy after everything he did to her."

You snort, humming in agreement. "Especially that humiliation by dumping ice cream on her head. You know what, I think he needs therapy too. That was such a waste of perfectly good ice cream. What on earth did his mother teach him?"

"I feel worse for the best friends though. You could see that they really liked each other, but never did anything because the two main characters had the whole rivalry thing going on. Which turned out to be some really backwards courting." He said with a light frown.

You nodded, "Yeah it was kind of shitty that they left that opened ended, but I get it. That might just be the most realistic part of the movie."

“A sequel about them might be nice.” Namjoon said and you nodded.

You looked down at his hand, wondering it was to soon to hold it. Then you decided to just go for it. No one ever got anywhere by being scared anyways. So, you took his hand, holding your breath until he moved his hand a little to lace your fingers together. You looked up at him, returning the shy smile he gave you.

Your stomach was feeling fluttery and your heart beat just a fit faster than normal.

"Hey, do you want ice cream? All that ice cream in the movie has given me a craving."

Namjoon nodded, "Sure. I think there's an ice cream shop in the food court."

You two walked to the food court, chattering about this and that, entwined hands swinging lightly between you.

* * *

"So, how do you feel about the aquarium?" Namjoon asked when you two were eating lunch that next Tuesday. It is the first time you two has seen each other since your movie date the previous Saturday.

"Uh..."

His smile dimmed a little, "It's okay if you don't like it, I was just asking."

"No, no, it's not that." You were quick to assure him.

"Y/N, it's really okay. I was just asking." Namjoon placed a hand on yours, squeezing to assure you.

"It's not that. Seriously. I just - and you're not allowed to laugh at me, okay? - but I haven't been to an aquarium since I was like a really tiny kid. And I don't really know much except the obvious." You were the one to ramble for once.

"Okay, that's not a problem. I know enough for both of us." Namjoon smiled brightly at you. "So, do you want to go on Saturday? With me?"

"Can we do it on Friday, instead? Jimin has been on my ass because I haven't been out with him and Taehyung in weeks."

"Yeah, sure." Namjoon nodded, still smiling, but looking a little unsure. "So, how did you and Jimin become friends? I think Hobi's mention him before, he dances with you guys, right?"

“Yup.” You nodded, smiling at the memory of meeting Jimin. “We met at the beginning of the year. See, I was put in school by my over enthusiastic parents a year early, so I graduated a year early. Most people in my classes are a year older than me, and when Jimin came in this year, it turned out that we were the same age and we kind of bonded over that. And with Jimin comes Taehyung, they're like a package deal. Just don't ever ask them if they're a thing because I made that mistake once and never again."

"So, are they?" Namjoon frowned. "A thing, I mean."

"Nope, but they are platonic soulmates and there is a whole discussion about it that you are welcome to enter with them as long as I'm not anywhere near." You told him. "And Jimin is in love with this high school junior who is really shy but really cute, and Taehyung has a lot of girlfriends. Not in the more than one at a time kind, more like a new one each time you see him. Anytime someone asks him about it, all he says is that he’s a very passionate person, but he never hurts them, so I mind my own business."

"Sounds nice." He commented.

"It is and they are." You grinned as an idea suddenly hit you. "Do you want to meet them?"

"What?"

"Yeah, like meet my friends. You can bring Hoseok and your other friends too."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely. It'll be fun." You clapped your hands in excitement.

"Okay."

* * *

"I can not, for the life of me, understand why either of you are so interested in my love life." You deadpanned, shaking your head at Hoseok and Jimin - the three of you laying down on the dance floor, sweaty and breathless.

"Because Namjoon won't tell me anything." Hoseok whined, passing the water bottle to Jimin.

"And I'm tragically single, so I have to live through you." Jimin added before gulping down water.

You sighed, "What do you want to know?"

"I heard that you two ate lunch together yesterday, is it true?" Hoseok asked, wide smile on his face.

You frowned at him, "How do you- you know what? Nevermind, I don't want to know. Yes, it's true. And he asked me out again." By the time you were finished talking, your smile matched Hoseok's.

"Nice," Jimin handed the bottle to Hoseok, who handed it to you. "Where's he taking you?"

"The aquarium." You answered dutifully, gulping down some of the water.

Hoseok tensed next to you, sitting up right, you and Jimin following suit. "Uh, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, don't get me wrong, or anything but Namjoon can get a little overexcited when near anything with marine life."

"I don't understand what you mean." You frowned, a little confused.

"Well, he's a genius. Like, literally. He remembers nearly anything he reads and he reads a lot about marine biology. And he will most likely talk your ears off about anything he sees." Hoseok said, biting his lip. "Most people don't like it, or they find it rude because he talks to much. It's why his last girlfriend broke up with him, she said he talks more about it than her."

"Isn't that's kind of the point of going on dates? To get to know someone and decide from there if you like them and want to know more." You asked, shrugging a little.

"Yeah," Hoseok smiled widely, clearly relieved. "Yeah, it is."

Jimin looked at you with a smirk, "Does this mean you like him already?"

"Oh, piss off." You groaned as Jimin and Hoseok burst out laughing.

* * *

"Are you sure this is okay?" Namjoon asked as the two of you stood in line to buy your tickets to enter the aquarium the next Saturday. He was wearing a loose grey v-neck with a pair of black skinny jeans and more than once had your attention been drawn down to his long legs ever since he showed up in front of your dorm room. He had enveloped you in a tight hug, the moment you opened the door and didn't let go until your phone dinged, signaling your Uber arrived. You liked it very much.

The question made you look at him with a light frown, "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Most people wouldn't really think of an aquarium as a date location." Namjoon said, looking a little put off by that fact.

"You bring all the girl's here then?" You teased, wanting him to relax a little, but all it did was make him tense up even more.

"No. Well, I guess, but not in the way you think. I mean, I did take my last girlfriend out to one but that was just to show her what I'm passionate about. I just," He stumbled over his words, not sure how to phrase it. "It's not something I use to get girls. It usually scares them off, as a matter of fact."

"So, you're trying to scare me off, huh?" You couldn't help your dry tone, mostly teasing but a smidgen of worry climbed into your heart.

His eyes widened, panicking a little. "No, no, that's not what I'm trying to do."

"Really?" You asked, an unexpected surge of hope going through you.

"Yeah, really. Look, I like you. And I just thought that I need you to know this side of me before I can like you even more and you end up getting scared off by it." Namjoon told you and to stared at him, stunned.

Then you smiled and blurted, "I like you too."

"Good, that's really good." He sighed in relief.

"Also, if I didn't want to come, I wouldn't have. Nobody can make me do anything I don't want to." You tell him, smiling when his shoulders finally relaxed.

You two buy your entrance tickets and go inside and just like Hoseok said, Namjoon starts talking your ear off about most of the marine animals you come across, but instead of feeling annoyed or irritated, you just feel an enormous amount of fondness. Which was a little surprising. And every time he turns to look at you, that sparkle in his eyes, your hearts speeds up a little and your stomach flip-flops pleasantly.

"So, why dancing?" Namjoon asked out of the blue, when you guys made your way to the outdoors food court at lunch time.

You looked at him in surprise, this was the first time that he's said something that wasn't marine related. Not that you minded. He has a really soothing voice, very nice to listen too. You took a deep breath, "Ever since I was little, I've loved to dance. I just, I would hear a beat and my body would move with it. I decided pretty young on that I want to spend my whole life doing this. My parents always hoped that I would grow out of it, they never approved because it's not a proper career. We had a big fight when I left last year and I haven't spoken to them ever since. But it's my passion, it's what I love. I have hope though, that one day they'll accept it. They haven't cut me off yet and they are still paying my tuition, so I guess they don't completely hate me."

"That's rough." He said sympathetically as you two walked to a food truck. The conversation between you comes to a halt while you order and wait for your food. When you're seated at a picnic table, across from each other, Namjoon says, "You know, they're your parents, they could never hate you."

"Okay, yeah, maybe not hate." You agreed with a nod. "But they’re definitely disappointed."

"I don't know why though. I can't talk about your dancing, because I've never seen you dance, although Hoseok is always full of praises and awe, but you as a person, I do know. Kind of. And you are one of the best people I've ever met and they should be proud of who they raised."

"Thanks, Namjoon, that's really sweet and I wish it was that simple, but unfortunately it's not." You smile at him, a little sad.

"Why can't it be?" He asked, and you can tell he's a little confused.

"My family, uh, how to phrase this without sounding arrogant?" You give a humorless chuckle, deciding to just say it. "They're rich. Really rich. My parents owns one of the biggest law firms in the country and I am an only child. I was supposed to take the reins over from them, but I've never wanted to do that and if they haven't forgiven me by now, I don't think they're gonna do it anytime soon."

Namjoon's expression falls a little during your explanation, but you don't notice, keeping our eyes down cast on your meal.

"I don't know what to say." He admitted, voice soft and gentle. "I do hope it gets better though."

"Thanks." You look up from your food to smile at him. "Sorry, this isn't exactly second date conversation material."

He raises a brow, "Oh yeah, and what exactly does the dating manual say when is the right time to talk about what?"

You can tell by his tone that he's teasing and it works because a smile breaks through on the corners of your lips. "Fair enough."

After that, you notice that Namjoon has become more subdued. It gets a little better once you're back inside the aquarium and he's telling you all sorts of facts about sharks and stingrays, but some of the shine of the sparkle in his eyes has definitely dimmed. It isn't until he has walked you all the way up to your dorm that you ask him about it. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Namjoon gives you a smile and you see right through. It terrifies you a little, how much you know of him after just two dates. "I just don't think we should see each other again."

Your stomach drops, so does your entire face. It feels like someone knocked the wind from you.

"Why?" Your voice is surprisingly steady, not showing any of what you are feeling.

"Hoseok must have not told you, but I'm not like you. I don't come from money. My parents works hard to make ends meet and to take care of my siblings. I am here on a scholarship and I have a shitty job at an ice cream parlor. We don't fit, Y/N."

You look at him like he's grown a second head, "Who the fuck even cares about that stuff?"

"Your parents do, remember." He says, giving you a pointed look and reminding you of your conversation earlier that day.

"I don't care!" You voice raises a little and you take a breath to calm down. "It's my life and I get to choose and I choose you."

Before he can go on any further, you stand on your tiptoes and pull him down by the neck to kiss him. He doesn't hesitate to kiss back and you melt against him when he wraps his arms around you. He pulls away first, both of you are breathless and you feel like you might float away if it wasn't for his hold on you.

He whispers your name and you just know that you're going to fall in love with him. If you haven't started too already.

* * *

The next day it was the big day. Okay, maybe it's not that big of a deal, but it's been a while since you've introduced someone to your friends and strangely you don't remember ever being this nervous about it.

"It's going to be fine." You mutter to yourself, looking in the mirror one last time before grabbing your jacket and leaving your dorm. You all but skip down the stairs and then quickly make your way to the nearest bar where you, Jimin and Taehyung usually hung out. It wasn't to far the dorms and it wasn't expensive either - the perfect place for broke students to hang out. You smile widely when you see Namjoon waiting for you outside, like the gentleman that he is. He hasn't noticed you yet and you decide to look him over. Maroon button up, tucked into a pair of dark grey form fitting jeans with a pair of sneakers. As you neared him, you let out a wolf whistle.

His head, along with a few others who were loitering outside the bar, turned to you and you watched as a smile lit up his face. You stopped in front of him, grinning, "You look hot."

"Thank you." He ducked his head, smile turning sheepish as his ears burned. You barely resisted the urge to coo at him. "You look very pretty. I mean, beautiful."

"Thank you." You returned the sentiment with a light chuckle. "Come on, let's go inside before Taehyung comes out here." You smiled at him, taking his hand, warmth making your heart beat spread up a bit when he laced your fingers and squeezed your hand.

Inside, you were tackled into a hug. You let go of Namjoon's hand to hug back, laughing at your hyper friend. "Nice to see you, too, Tae."

"I missed you, it's been a while." He said, pulling away from you and stepping right in front of Namjoon. You resisted the urge to facepalm because while they are almost the same height, Namjoon is like twice Taehyung's size. "You hurt her, I hurt you."

"I'll let you." Namjoon said, expression unwavering as he didn't brake Taehyung's stare.

Finally, Taehyung grinned. "In that case, it's very nice to meet you. I'm Taehyung."

Namjoon cracked a smile and relaxed, "I'm Namjoon."

"Oh, I know." Taehyung quipped with a smirk. "I heard all about you from Jimin, who heard all about you from our dearest Y/N here."

"Shut up, Tae." You groaned, cheeks burning, grabbing Namjoon's hand and looking around the bar, sighing in relief as you spotted Jimin and Hoseok, pulling Namjoon along with you.

"So, you talk about me?" Namjoon asked, a slight smirk on his lips.

Ignoring your burning cheeks, you gave him a deadpan look. "I like you. Is it really that much of a surprise to you that I talk to my friends about you?"

"No," He shook his head. "I do it too."

"Then why is Hoseok always complaining that you never tell him anything?" You retorted with a raised eyebrow.

He snorted, "Because I don't tell him. I love him, don't get me wrong, but he knows you and he is terrible at keeping things to himself."

"Y/N! Namjoon!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

"Speak of the angel..." You sing-songed. "Hey Hoseok."

"Hey." He was grinning, like always, and fixed his gaze on Namjoon. "The guys are already here. I mean, my friends is your friends, so I just joined everyone together."

Next to you, Namjoon looked highly amused. "How many drinks have you had already?"

"Not much." He said and that's when you saw it. The flushed cheeks plus the drink in his hands. "I just got a few shots from some of my other friends from other facilities."

"Uh-huh." Namjoon nodded disbelievingly.

You arrive at the table, Jimin standing to give you a hug as Taehyung sat down next to a girl. You smiled at her, "You must be Hye-ji."

She frowned at you, "No, I'm Yeona."

“Oh, I'm sorry.” You grinned apologetically, elbowing Jimin, who was snickering next to you. You lowered your voice to a whisper as you glared at him, "I thought the latest one was Hye-ji."

"It was, they split two days ago because she hates cats." Jimin was still snickering, so you elbowed him again.

"Jesus Christ." You muttered and glared at a smirking Taehyung.

Shaking it off, you looked at the four new faces at the table, who must have been Namjoon's friends. You smiled at them, waving. "Hi, I'm Y/N."

Namjoon took a step forward. "Well, these are my friends, Jin, Yoongi, Jackson, Mark and you already know Hoseok."

"Nice to meet all of you." You said, hoping that they'd like you.

Two hours later, it certainly seemed like your friends getting along perfectly – the alcohol was definitely helping. You and Namjoon were sitting next to each other, holding hands. You were giggling, well on your way to tipsy, as Jimin, who sat on your other side, told the story of how you and Taehyung got stuck in an elevator together a few weeks ago. It was just before you met Namjoon.

"It's wasn't my fault." Taehyung pouted.

"Rightttt." You drawled. "Because it was me who wanted to see what happened when you press every single button at once, even the emergency one."

"What can I say, I'm curious by nature." He smiled and you scoffed.

"I should have taken the stairs with Jimin." You said, leaning against Namjoon as the rest of them laughed.

"Why didn't Jimin take the elevator?" Namjoon asked, his hot breath hitting your ear and neck. A shiver climbed up your spine and you cleared your throat, suddenly feeling hot all over.

"He's afraid of elevators." You answered, turning to Namjoon and noticed how the space between you wasn't much.

"Why?" He asked, wetting his lips with his tongue. You're eyes followed the motion.

"I don't know," You answered distractedly, leaning closer and closer. "He didn't want to talk about it when I asked."

Namjoon's lips were just in your reach, when suddenly icy cold went down your back.

You reared back from Namjoon with a loud yelped, "Jesus, fuck. Park Jimin, I'm going to kill you."

You pulled your shirt away from your back, shaking out the ice cubes he poured down your back. You could hear the laughed from the rest of the table and if it happened to someone else, you might have found it funny too.

Jimin, the idiot, was smirking at you. "I thought you might want to cool off a bit."

"Oh, fuck off." You scowled, grabbing one of the stray ice cubes and launching it at his forehead.

Later that night, Namjoon was walking you back to your dorm, both of you a little tipsy, but not drunk. Your hands were joint and swinging between you as you walked, the cool night air heaven against your warm skin.

"So, that went well, don't you think?" You grinned at him, completely giddy.

"Yeah, very well." He agreed, smile matching yours.

You hummed happily, mind bringing up something you’ve been thinking about earlier that day while you worked on some projects while doing laundry in-between. "Have you ever been ice-skating? I was thinking that we could go for our next date."

"Will you be my girlfriend?" He blurted suddenly and you stopped in your tracks, turning to him with wide eyes. It took you a second to decide.

"Yes." You nodded, no hesitation in your tone as you leaned forward to do what you've been wanting to do all evening. You kissed him, and he kissed back, long and deep.

"I could get used to that." You murmured when you pulled apart, out of breath, heart thumping wildly in your chest.

"Me too." He said, both of you smiling widely.

You realized that for the first time in a long while, you weren't just happy or content with life, you were euphoric. And it was all thanks to this man in front of you.

“So, ice-skating?” You asked, still holding hands with your new boyfriend. Boyfriend. It made you want to squeal out loud.

“We could try.” Namjoon nodded, grin matching yours.

You two start walking again, sometimes chattering, sometimes silent, but always happy to be around each other. You look up at the night sky.

The stars was gleaming above, you knew, even though you couldn’t see them because of the city lights. Just like you knew your and Namjoon’s relationship could only get better from here.

the end.

#namjoon x reader #namjoon x you #namjoon x oc #namjoon x y/n #namjoon #kim namjoon x you #kim namjoon x y/n #kim namjoon x reader #blind date #strangers to lovers #bts fic #bts namjoon #bts #bangtan #bangtan fanfic #kim namjoon

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bloomburnburial · 3 years

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so many thoughts knocking around in my head. one of them being if you see this and i haven’t responded to our messages it’s because i have the social battery of [insert stereotypically solitary creature here, idk, i’m not a biologist].

one of them being that, in gaining the courage to explore and maybe even (gasp) begin to speak about how the psychiatric system has contributed to (or, more often, outright been the cause of) the trauma i’ve accumulated, i have acquired all that i ever desired from “recovery” in the first place. this version of recovery resembles nothing my ex-therapists would approve of, and i love it for that. i love myself when i am myself, and i love who i am when i feel that i am not, and i am no more myself than when i love myself. in certain ways (mentally and emotionally) i am in the very place that, at this time last year, i despaired that i was too broken to ever hope for. like yeah, half the days i am physically reliant on a mobility device to get myself out of bed because i am in so much pain. and while i maintain that s*icidal ideation can be a rational response to circumstances like those in which i find myself now (fight me about it, honestly), i am equally invested in the concept of self-love as a radical act of defiance in the face of a world that has, at every opportunity, loudly and to my face, told me that it has no place for me or my sibling. like, we exist nonetheless. i have spent a lifetime fucking breaking myself to prove that i deserve to be here, and never once did i stop to ask why the world couldn’t make room for us.

anyway i have kissed death with tongue too many times this past year/lifetime (lmao) to continue clinging so desperately to this facade of compliance so i will instead be unapologetically whatever chimera of queer/Mad/etc. i so choose to be. hope this helps

#post

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thisismyhell · 4 years

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Bodyguard (Part 2)

Summary: Reader works with the Avengers as a research Biologist, and receives a worrying text from a toxic ex boyfriend. Loki enlists himself in watching out for reader, and fluff ensues.

Words: 3235

Warnings: mentions of toxic ex / fluff / alcohol

________________________

When you awoke from your restless sleep, you made your way into the kitchen that poured into the common area. From down the hall you could hear some sort of commotion, though it was hard to tell if it was based in anger or passion. As you rounded the corner, everyone abruptly became silent.

You went to relieve the tension, “morning…”.

Tony looked at you wide eyed. “Why didn’t you tell us! Not that we’re caught off guard of course, but it would have been good to know!”

“What are you talking about?”

Loki chimed in, his eyes gentle, “I may have mentioned to the team that you were having a problem with your ex. And they may have made the point that you shouldn’t feel unsafe on the compound.”

Ahh. So that was it.

“Listen, not that my ex is anyone’s business, but I think I’ll be fine. What were you even yelling about anyway? There’s nothing more to this than a text message”.

Bucky looked at you a tad surprised, “Doll, the guy said he’d meet you here on the compound. That doesn’t nauseate you at all?”

You thought about what he said, and the team could see you go from nonchalant about your situation to looking sick. “Oh fuck, you don’t think he’d actually try to get in here? I mean, we have security. And you’re the Avengers for god’s sake. He can’t just waltz in here as he pleases … can he?"

Loki made his way over to you, taking your hand and moving you to the couch where you both sat down. “Love, there is no realistic way for this man, or any man, to gain access to our property without us knowing about it. We were talking about maybe putting a system in place where someone is always with you, so that you do not have to repeat that uncertainty you had last night in the research building”.

You considered what your friend was saying, and looked up to see the rest of your friends and colleagues seeming more concerned than usual. It seemed a domestic interference warranted more creased eyebrows than an alien invasion.

“I hear what you’re saying. To be fair what scared me last night was you, Loki, but I appreciate the sentiment. Maybe you guys are right. But the last thing I want is for all my friends to see me as some helpless person who can’t defend themselves.”

“(Y/N), everyone in this room knows that you could kick our asses any day of the week. We just want to put your mind at ease while this issue passes”, Steve made a good point.

“I mean, it would be nice to have someone around during those late nights in the library. Maybe this could be useful. This might just help me get over some procrastination. Alright, I’m in. I’m not happy that this is how I’m getting more one on one time with my friends, but I’ll take it”.

The room was thankful, and you all embraced. What could go wrong?

~~~

“(Y/N)? ARE YOU SURE YOU NEED THIS BOOK FROM ALL THE WAY UP HERE?”

Bucky was getting on your last nerve. You weren’t sure what was so difficult for the man to understand. You told him that you need this book, somehow he knew where it physically was in the library, but didn’t listen to you when you clarified that there was also a free PDF online. It didn’t even register in Bucky’s brain what you had said, the man probably didn’t know what a PDF was. But there you were, staring up at him while he balanced at the very top of a 13 foot ladder. In his left hand was the book, and in the right, he was failing to hold the ladder.

~~~

“I’m going to need a new research partner. I broke this one” you explained to everyone while you all stood around Bucky watching Sam sign his cast.

You looked at Loki, who seemed to be stifling a laugh. “The Winter Soldier seems to have an issue with having arms. James, you only have 1 flesh arm, one. And you have broken it. What are the odds there exactly?”

“Not sure but I know the odds of me kicking your ass are getting higher every second we sit here”. Bucky turned to you, “Doll, I’m sorry I couldn’t help you with that book. I know you had something like a PDF or whatever, but I also know you like the smell of books so I thought maybe I could get that one down for you. Guess not”.

You smiled at him, why did he know about that? You must have mentioned it without thought at some point. You glanced at Loki, who was looking uncomfortable. You sent him a questioning look, and he spoke.

“Darling, I think it would be best if I were to help you this time. I understand we were going in a circle to divvy up each others time, but I am enlisting myself as your next companion”. Hm. Well, you couldn’t complain. This was his idea anyhow, and he seems to want to prove himself, to you? To the team? You weren’t sure, but his attitude is coming off quite persistent.

“Sounds good to me. But I can’t wait around, I have a proposal I need to finish by midnight tonight and thanks to this broken arm, I’m about 7 pages behind schedule. Meet me in the library in a half hour. And bring snacks. I work until I’m done”.

“As you wish”. And with that you went back to the research building, leaving Loki with the rest.

“Well, you think you can handle that, Loki?” asked Sam.

“I always manage”.

You went back to your office to gather some more paperwork and stationary before heading to the library. You looked in the bottom drawer of your desk looking for a book, when you found a bottle of red wine you forgot you had been saving. You had bought the bottle ages ago when your thesis was approved, and were saving it for after you submitted the finished paper. Since you made a big deal about finishing it by midnight now, you tucked it under your arm.

Entering the library you found Loki already sitting comfortably, with an array of snacks on the table in front of him. “You’re late”, he said with a smirk.

“You’re early”. You put down your stuff, and sat at your desk. He looked puzzled, glancing at the spot next to him. “Loki, I know you. If I even try to work beside you I know I will get next to nothing done. And don’t pout”. He smirked again, getting more comfortable. “As you wish”.

You crossed your legs, pushed up your glasses, and gained focus. You had 7 pages of information to concisely interpret. You could do this. You could totally do this super important task with an incredibly handsome and distracting audience. You looked over at him, and he looked back up at you, smiling. “Can you shut up? I’m trying to concentrate here”.

“(Y/N), I haven’t said a word”.

“I know, it’s just. I don’t know. I’m not use to working with others around.”

“What about Bucky?”

“That was different-“

“Why?”

“No – its not different its just, I’m just- I’m putting my headphones on”. You reached for them, but they weren’t on your desk. Dammit, where were they? You began to scramble, when in the corner of your eye you saw them. In Loki’s hand. You begrudgingly walked over, and he held out your headphones to you. You reached out for them, and at the last second he pulled his arm back. Causing you to fall on top of him.

“LOKI!”

“Pet, I apologize but you’re going to have to loosen up. You won’t be able to get any work done if you’re so distracted and uncomfortable”.

“I’m distracted because I have a friend here with me who just tricked me into tripping all over him”.

“I apologize. But is there anything I can do to help you focus?”

You could think of a couple things.

“I have an idea”.

“Anything, love”.

“Why don’t you put on my headphones, that way I won’t feel weird talking to myself while I work”.

“Sure, just tell me how they work”.

After teaching Loki how Bluetooth works, you began to relax and get some work done.

You walked over to get a handful of pretzels that he had brought for the two of you, remembering just how excited you were to pop open that bottle of wine you were keeping from him. If he knew you were holding out on him like this, there would be hell to pay.

Loki looked over at you, and noticed how well you were working. Usually you would notice him out of the corner of your eye and look over to smile at him, but it seemed like you were so deep in focus that you had tunnel vision for the remainder of your paper. You were talking to yourself, though he had no idea what about. He realized just how nice it was to watch someone work, you especially. You had a knack for blowing loose strands of hair from your face without much effort. Squeezing your nose to push your glasses back up so you didn’t have to stop typing or highlighting. He found you mesmerizing, and you seemed to be clueless to it. he didn’t mind. He got to watch you work without distracting you, and you got to finish your work without feeling uncomfortable. It was a win-win.

You were almost done your paper. Somehow, Loki brought a sense of calm to your efforts. Sitting pleasantly nearby, sort of as a guard for your peripheral. You were glad Bucky hadn’t worked out like this. You felt somewhat guilty that you had started this train off with someone other than Loki. Since it was his idea in the first place, and he was the one who was with you to calm you down the first time. But he was here now. And you were thankful.

“Loki?”

He looked over at you, “Yes, love?”

You reached under your desk to retrieve your wine and 2 glasses, ushering him over to you. His eyes went wide at the sight of wine, as they always did, and he gladly stepped over to you, leaning against your desk. “What is the occasion?”

What a stupid question. “Loki, thank you for being with me tonight,” you popped the bottle. “I had this saved for when I was finished paper,” you poured two glasses. “And I want to share it with you once I hit ‘submit’ on my computer”.

He smiled, “you’ve finished? Already?”

You looked at the clock. “Loki, its 11:30. We’ve been here for hours!”

He seemed surprised. He noticed how the time he had spent with you this evening went by like a blink. He was cherishing you paying this much attention to him since you had arrived hours earlier.

“I suppose we have. Submit you work darling, and we will cheers.”

You uploaded you work, and hit submit. You had finalized your paper, bringing an end to months of hard work and late nights. And now you were sharing the final moments of it with your friend. You hadn’t even had a sip of wine yet, but your cheeks were already flushed. And he seemed to notice.

You clinked your glasses, smiling at each other. You were so giddy that you were finally finished. You couldn’t help it, you wrapped your arms around Loki drinking him in after your wine. He smelled of cloves and leather, and you pressed your cheek onto his shoulder. He drank you in, subconsciously smelling your hair as he placed one hand on your neck to complete the embrace.

“Thank you, Loki, for sitting here with me. For everything.”

“Dove, I am always here with you, for you. You needn’t even ask.”

You both pulled away at the same time, looking into each others eyes. It seemed like time had stood still for just a quick moment, just for the two of you to enjoy. When suddenly,

BANG!

Loki immediately put himself in front of you, putting his drink down. You followed. “Loki, what was that?” “I’m not sure. Stay here and I will go look.”

You begrudgingly let him go, letting yourself sit down on the couch he had previously enjoyed. You were worried about what could be happening, but you were also royally pissed that the two of you had been interrupted right there and then. Really? Right now? A noise had to happen and scare the crap out of you right when something magical was about to happen? You centered yourself, and had a sip of your wine. Loki came back into the library, looking like he felt the exact same way that you did. “Nothing. No one is in this building besides us”. “Must have been a ghost” you laughed.

Loki sat beside you and draped his arm on the cushion behind you. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It was nothing like you said, so I’m not worried. Thank you for going out to look”. He nodded, picking up his glass and clinking it with yours for the second time, “perhaps we were getting too comfortable”. You looked at him. What did he mean by that? He noticed your questioning look. “That being said, there is not a moment when I am not comfortable with you, (Y/N)”. You gave yourself a moment to feel quant in the silence that fell, but not for too long. Before you could second guess yourself, you leaned into him and gently kissed his cheek. You were too fast to notice, but he was about to lean into your kiss before you pulled away. He missed you immediately.

“So, you’ve finished-“ he said lightly.

“I guess I have, yeah”. You were both staring into each others eyes, waiting for the other to make the next move. “Would you stay here? With me? I- I don’t have anything else to do but, I thought I would have some sort of celebration.”

“Love, I won’t leave unless you make me.”

Good to know.

You both began to relax with more and more wine in your systems. You knew it wasn’t affecting him in the same way that it did you, but he seemed a lot more generous with his communication. He wasn’t holding back with you, not that he ever did. But any time you looked over his shoulder, suspicious of the possibility that another noise would happen, he would shift a little closer to you. You were looking past him for a longer moment than you perhaps intended, and he took your hand in his. The physical touch grounded you in a way that slightly surprised you. This man seemed to be full of surprises.

By now the bottle was empty, and you were almost sitting on top of the god. If you were to get any physically closer.. well that was exactly what you wanted. As you were speaking, a lock of your hair had fallen in your eyesight. Since your reflexes were a tad slower from the wine, it took you a second to register. Loki instead raised his hand to your face, and placed the lock of hair gently behind your ear. His hand lingered on your cheek, and you hoped he couldn’t feel how hot you felt. Your heart was beating pretty fast, and you were worried Loki could hear it, he was so close. You raised your hand to his forearm, rubbing your thumb on his sleeve. He took this as an okay, and started to lean forward, looking down at your lips.

The long day must have made you impatient by now, because you couldn’t wait a second longer. You leaned into him to cut the time in half, and pressed your lips to his. Loki’s eyes opened in surprise, but then drowsily closed once your mouth opened and he took advantage. You moved to sit on his lap and he gladly welcomed you, putting one hand behind your head tangled in your hair, while the other gently grasped your waist. The two of you were getting more and more heated when your phone buzzed, alarming you as you fell off Loki and onto the ground. You jumped back up in surprise to check your phone, just to see a confirmation email that they had received your paper.

Amazing.

Loki reached out to you and helped you stand up in front of him. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, yes I’m alright”. You were both slightly panting, lips swollen and pupils huge. “Would you walk me home?”

Loki smiled and nodded, taking your hand in his as you left the research building. You could collect your things tomorrow.

The walk back to the main building passed in a blink as you crept into the elevator up to your rooms. You had a pretty good amount of floors between now and getting off, and you knew Tony would be hosting a movie night. Loki must have had the same instinct as you did, because as soon as the elevator doors closed, he pushed you against the wall, urging his leg between yours. You let out a small moan, and tugged his hair forward so you could have at least some control. He smirked down at you, and you were making out until the elevator doors dinged and swung open. You both straightened yourselves up, not wanting to explain yourselves to your friends. But, you had to walk past all of them in order to get to your rooms. Loki put his hand on the small of your back, bracing you for what was to possibly come.

As you entered the common area, everyone shouted a big hello. Thank god, they were as pissed drunk as you were hoping.

Nat waved the two of you over, “Soooo…..did you finish it?!”

You nodded and smiled, remembering how hard you had worked and how excited you were to actually be done with it.

“And Loki wasn’t toooooo distractingggg?” she added.

“No, not at all!”

Loki chimed in, “I managed to really help her relax-“, you cut him off with a swift stomp on his foot, shutting him up. Nat was too far gone to notice, thankfully.

You said your goodnights and the two of you walked down the hall, your room coming up first.

“Pet, I had a wonderful time with you this evening”, “me too, Loki”.

You turned around to let yourself in your room, when Loki grabbed the back of your neck, turning you around. He pushed you up against the wall with one hand around your waistt, while the other softly sat around your neck. He moved his hand to make you look up at him, and he drank you in. “You’re so well behaved, pet”. He gave you such a deep kiss that you thought your legs would give out. He pulled away, seeming drunk off his own actions. Loki looked down at you, taking his hands away. You let out a huff, wanting his hands all over you again. “Don’t pout, love. Be a good girl”. And with that he left.

#avengers #avengers x reader #loki #loki and reader #loki x reader #loki fluff #fluff #avengers fluff #loki series

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pierrotdameron · 5 years

Link

Dafne Keen does not much look like Lyra Belacqua, at least not as Philip Pullman describes her in His Dark Materials. In Northern Lights, the first book of the trilogy, she is “like a half-wild cat”, with dirty fingernails, green eyes and grubby blond-ish hair. Keen, who is half British, half Spanish and lives in Madrid, is darker and is already the master of an intense glare, as anyone who saw her alongside Hugh Jackman in the Wolverine swansong Logan will know. When we meet, in a London hotel, she has the self-possessed cool of a total pro, even at 14. But there are plenty of Lyra-esque flourishes that make it obvious why she got the part.

She was almost 12 when she finished filming Logan. She had heard about the BBC/HBO adaptation of His Dark Materials, then in its early stages, and sent in an audition tape. But she didn’t hear back. “I thought, never mind, I’ll just carry on with my life,” she says. “Which is when I got stung by the jellyfish.”

The production team had finally replied, asking her to make another tape. Keen was on holiday in Puerto Rico. “I thought, right, I’m going to have a chilled-out swim and then I’m going to get ready. I suddenly felt this thing on my face and then it started stinging and then it expanded all over my face. I ran to my mum and I went, ‘Mum! Is it really red?’ My mum went, ‘No it’s fine.’ And then she went, ‘Oh no, it’s not fine.’” Her face was red and swollen but she had to do the tape. “So my audition is with a jelly-face,” she smiles.

The next step was to meet Ruth Wilson, who plays Mrs Coulter, one of the best evil characters in children’s literature. “I was sitting in the waiting room with 20 other girls,” Keen remembers. “I was thinking, oh god, they’re all blond. I don’t physically look like this character, and these girls all do. I went in, shook hands with Ruth, and five minutes later, she looked at me and said, ‘You know, you have the same eyebrows as me.’” Fans of the books will know that this is a big thumbs up. Days later, she began rehearsals, with Wilson and puppets. In Pullman’s books, people have daemons, an animal manifestation of their “inner self”, which lives alongside them. Because the daemons on screen are CGI, the actors shot their scenes with puppets to make their interactions as authentic as possible.

When Philip Pullman writes, he isn’t trying to bring down the church, he’s bringing down the system

Naturally, Keen is practised at describing what her own daemon would be, were this world to have daemons in it. “Mine is quite easy to figure out, because it’s what everyone called me on set. Everyone calls me Monkey.” In the books, daemons change form until their human reaches adulthood, when they settle as one fixed animal. Keen particularly liked hers as a pine marten.

We meet the morning after the world premiere of His Dark Materials, which was the first time Keen had watched it. “Everybody had seen it apart from me! I’m really busy filming season two, so I had no time to watch it. I had Philip Pullman right next to me, and I was like, oh god! But I think he liked it.” Did he offer his approval? “His wife came up to me and was really lovely and was saying I was the perfect Lyra. I was really happy to hear that.”

Keen had not read the trilogy before she auditioned. “Now I’m a massive, massive fan. As soon as I read the books, I knew this was a good message to the world, and it’s important that we have stories about young girls, because there aren’t many,” she says. At the premiere, Jack Thorne, who wrote the screenplay, likened Lyra to Greta Thunberg. Though she does not know it, the future of the world rests on Lyra’s shoulders, and she has to fight tooth and nail to defeat the forces that wish to suppress free will and independent thought. Keen approves of the Thunberg comparison. “I am genuinely in awe of that girl.”

There have been various adaptations of His Dark Materials over the years: a Radio 4 series, a play at the National Theatre and the 2007 Hollywood attempt, The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. It was supposed to be a trilogy, but only the first was made – and Pullman’s theme of an abusive authoritarian religious body was watered down almost beyond recognition. The television series seems more comfortable with its source material, and its Magisterium, the governing body of the Church, is portrayed as a fascist regime.

In 2007, the Catholic League called for a boycott of The Golden Compass, despite the religious references being excised, and the Vatican also denounced the film and Pullman’s writing. Keen had seen it – was she aware that this new version might be controversial, given the backlash the movie attracted? “I thought that was sad, but I understand why they had to do it,” she reasons, diplomatically, of the decision to soften the book’s themes. “But I think people are reading too much into it. When Philip writes about the Magisterium, he’s not bringing down the church, he’s bringing down the system.”

Keen was born and raised in Spain and is bilingual. Her mother María is Spanish, and as well as being her acting coach is also an actor, as is Keen’s father Will. He has a part in His Dark Materials, as Father MacPhail, part of the Magisterium faithful. “He is terrifying,” says Keen. “He always plays bad people. I don’t know why because he’s so nice. I genuinely think it’s because he’s bald and has green eyes.” She practically grew up in a theatre rehearsal room, because of her parents, but she thought she would be a biologist, like David Attenborough. “Then I found out you have to study biology, and to do that you have to study maths, and I went, mmm no, I’m not doing that. I hate maths so much, you can’t even imagine.”

A friend of her mother’s was making a short film, and needed a child for it, so Keen gave acting a go. She loved it. She did a series in Spain, The Refugees, alongside her father. (“He was playing my evil father, yes. Always got to give it the psychopathic twist.”) She picked up an agent, who put her forward for Logan, and she got down to an audition with Jackman. “In the waiting room, once again, there was this perfect LA beautiful blond girl. I was just, like, a small, scrappy Latin girl. I always think it’s not going to work out for me, and then it went really great.” She auditioned with Jackman, then asked if she could try again, only this time she said she’d like to improvise the scene. She was 11. “My heart was beating big time,” she says. “I thought, I’m just going to dive in and ask them, and they loved it, so I was lucky.”

Jackman remembers the audition well. “[Director] Jim Mangold looked at a lot of actresses for Laura. When he told me about Daf, I was hopeful, but when we tested together, I was blown away,” he says over email. “She was every inch Laura. When Jim asked her if there was anything more she wanted to show us, she said, ‘Can I improvise?’ That’s the actor that got the part and who you see on screen.”

“Hugh is the nicest human being,” she grins. “I used to call him the human jukebox because he was always singing. Lin does the same thing.” Lin is Lin-Manuel Miranda, who plays Lee Scoresby in His Dark Materials. He got Keen tickets to see his smash-hit musical, Hamilton. “Two VIP Lin-Manuel Miranda guest tickets. I felt like such a diva.” On set, she would find herself singing the songs from it, but was too shy to sing when he was there. When Miranda had finished shooting, they all went for a meal to see him off. The bartender recognised him, and put My Shot on the stereo. “Me and Lewin [Lloyd, who plays Roger] were like, we’re not throwing away our shot, we’re singing this song.” They all joined in. “I’ve got videos of me and Lin singing it.”

Right now, Keen is preparing to go back to Wales to film season two, which loosely adapts The Subtle Knife, the second book in the trilogy. The third season, which will take on the astonishingly ambitious The Amber Spyglass, may take a little longer to pull together. Still, she is happy to live as Lyra for a while yet. She has taken plenty of her away from the experience already. “She taught me to speak up. Be bold, be brave, be yourself. Don’t follow rules, because rules can be useful, but they can be very stupid and pointless,” she says – sounding very much like her Lyra herself.

#His Dark Materials #Dafne Keen #the part about her dad sjskjskj

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ecto-american · 5 years

Text

DannyMay 2019 themed story, I’m not late I’m just going my own pace pls be nice to me

Day 28: Puppet

The process felt like it would never end. The worst part was the painful lack of results. Two hours of searching through textbooks, and they found little to work with.

Jazz had been faithfully taking notes in neat handwriting on anything possibly worth referencing. She paused only to sip coffee and occasionally ask Ohmer a question. Like her, the lawyer was focused and kept her eyes mostly glued to the pages as she applied sticky notes to relevant places.

Jack couldn't concentrate at all.

He stared at the pages, his mind skipping over words and forgetting the last paragraph. The text was so small, with many words he didn't quite understand. Jack wasn't a lawyer or a brilliant teenager. He was an ecto-biologist. None of this made sense to him. He was useless. Useless to even do a basic thing to help his son. He had retreated to the lawyer's couch to properly stretch out and to give the girls more space to spread out the books.

The office phone began to ring. Ohmer's hand shot out to answer it immediately.

"Hello, this is Elizabeth Ohmer," she greeted. A weak smile came across her face as she forced a small chuckle. "Yeah, I'm still here. Did you get my message?" She sighed and leaned back in her chair, only to immediately sit up again. "Oh? Yes, I will still be here...Please drop on by!" Jack watched the lawyer curiously. "Thank you, see you in a little bit! Mhm! Goodbye!"

She hung up, and she sighed heavily in relief.

"That was one of the other lawyers I called, his name is George Payne, who'd have more knowledge," she explained to the pair.

George Payne...George Payne...that name rang a bell…Jack knew that name...

"That's V-man's lawyer," he suddenly realized. "George Payne, from Payne and Slaughter Firms?" Ohmer nodded, and Jazz went pale.

"You know him?" she asked curiously. Jack half-shrugged.

"Mayor Masters has been a family friend for decades," he explained. "He's had Payne and Slaughter representing his company for a long time, they're the only people he really trusts to represent his businesses anymore. I've never formally met George, but I know he works closely with Vlad." Ohmer seemed surprised, but she nodded.

"George and his partner are both primarily corporate law, but I know they also have a lot of experience with other legal issues," Ohmer replied. "They're a big company these days, they can handle almost any type of legal case you have anymore."

"So is Mr. Payne coming?" Jazz finally spoke up. Ohmer nodded.

"He said that he and his partner, as well as Mr. Masters, would be here very shortly," she replied.

Excitement and relief washed over Jack. Who better would help him than the family friend? A politician, a billionaire, his best friend. Even though he knew Vlad didn't know, Jack already felt at much more ease knowing that Vlad was coming to help, somebody who had more power.

"Vlad's coming too?" Jack questioned. He glanced at Jazz, smiling warmly. Their luck was turning around, but Jazz...she looked even more distressed at this. His smile dropped in confusion.

"That's what Mr. Payne said," Ohmer told them. She stood up, stretching. "In about twenty minutes, so I think I'm gonna take a break. Get something to eat."

"Yeah, sounds good. Jazz? Wanna grab something from the cafeteria?" Jack questioned. He saw Jazz smile weakly.

"Okay," she agreed.

A knock came at the door. Instead of waiting for any reply, a man in a formal gray suit and briefcase opened the door, followed by another man that also had a gray suit and briefcase. Lastly was a familiar face.

"Vlad!" Jack breathlessly called out in relief, standing up. The billionaire paused in shock at seeing him.

"Jack?" Vlad asked curiously. "What are you doing here?"

"I admitted Phantom into the hospital," Jack explained, and he took a step to Vlad, putting a hand on his shoulder. Understandably, Vlad looked skeptical and yet curious as to Jack's claims. Jack didn't blame him. Even to Vlad, he was never subtle about his...previous interests. "Please, can I have a moment? I really need to talk to you about something."

"Not now, Jack." Vlad tried to shrug off Jack's hand, but Jack clutched his friend's upper arms tightly.

"Vlad, please, it's important," he pleaded. Vlad's face scrunched up, and he silently stared at Jack. He gave a deep sigh, and he motioned for Jack to follow him.

They stepped out into the hallway, and Vlad half-closed the door behind him. Jack had no clue where to even begin. How could he explain to his best friend why, without exposing Danny?

"Vlad, it's super important that your lawyers find a way to get Phantom into my custody."

"So what?" Vlad seemed oddly...more bored than any kind of shock at this statement. "So you can dissect him? Absolutely not. I'll let you in on a little secret, Jack." He leaned into him, and he lowered his voice a bit. "Phantom's actually my son." Jack's entire body froze in horror at what he knew immediately was a lie. He stared at Vlad, wide-eyed. "He's a bit rebellious, wanting to go against me, so this is just the perfect opportunity for me to get him home, safe and sound. So no, Jack. I'm not going to entertain the idea of putting my son in your hands like that."

"Vlad, I...I don't think you understand." Where was Jack even supposed to begin?

His friend rolled his eyes at him.

"Jack, you don't understand. This is between a father and his son, and this is also politics," Vlad told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make sure my boy gets home safe and sound."

Vlad didn't wait for any reply. He left a stunned Jack standing in the hallway, going into the room and shutting the door behind him. Jack could only stare at the door, his mind going a million miles. This was just an elaborate, dedicated ploy. It had to be. Vlad was just doing what he could to protect the hero of his town. This son claim, it was only to trick the lawyer into signing him over. Vladdy didn't know, he was just doing what he thought was best. But why the lie, why? Vlad had the money and power to just take Phantom, wouldn't he? Why lie about Phantom being his son?

Jack hurriedly pulled himself together, opening the door and closing it behind him. Vlad paid no attention to his presence, though the lawyers that accompanied him gave a polite headnod. They stood off to the side. Jack could barely muster one in return as he stood with Jazz. She stood in the corner of the room, holding the book she was reading earlier to her chest as she watched on in worry. A distinct fear that stirred feelings of unease within Jack himself. Vlad was standing in front of Ohmer, who continued to stay seated at her desk as she patiently listened to Vlad.

"So, if you just release Phantom into my care," Vlad seemed to be ending a small speech when Jack finally tuned in, "I will handle all the legal fees."

"I'm so sorry, Mr. Masters, but I can't do that," Ohmer lightly frowned. Vlad seemed unfazed by this, giving an understanding nod.

"I meant after his surgery and recovery, of course," he said, and he gave a dazzling smile. One that Jack was all too familiar with. A political smile. "I want my son to be safe and sound when he returns."

"No, Mr. Masters," she replied, shaking her head. Her fingers fidgeted with a pen in her hand. "Forgive me for saying this, but this confession, this, this uh, revelation of sorts, that Phantom is your son is a bit hard for me to grasp." Vlad made a face.

"Of course he's my son," Vlad insisted. Every time Vlad claimed that, Jack felt lightheaded nausea and confusion. Ohmer raised an eyebrow at him.

"Then...why would you so publicly campaign against him during your election?" she questioned. Vlad paused, observing her for a moment.

"Do you have children, Miss Ohmer?" he asked. The lawyer nodded.

"Yeah, I actually have a daughter about Phantom's age," she replied. Vlad gave a smile.

"Then you probably understand how rebellious teenagers can be," he spoke. "We have a bit of a...complicated relationship, but as you know, you always love your children. Even when they act out in such a manner against you." Ohmer leaned back in her chair. She looked obviously skeptical of his story.

"Once Phantom is out of surgery, can he confirm that you are his father or legal guardian?" she asked. Vlad sighed with obvious fake dramatics before shaking his head.

"You will simply have to take my word for it, Miss Ohmer. I'm afraid he'll deny it. You know teenagers."

Ohmer shook her head, lightly tapping her pen on the desk.

"No, Mr. Masters," she replied. "I cannot just take your word for it, especially considering that even you will admit that he will not confirm your story. And this is on top of your very public campaigns against him. You've shot at him before. And you've revealed in interviews before that you had put that million dollar bounty on him. I don't think a judge would allow for a child to stay within a home under those conditions."

Vlad's face had been dropping with every single word she said. On some level, Jack felt relief. The billionaire glanced at his lawyers with a raised eyebrows. They simply nodded to him.

"I'll sue this hospital," he threatened. Ohmer gave an exhausted sigh. "I'll sue this damn hospital for not allowing me to see my child."

She stood up, digging through a drawer in her desk for a few moments. She took out some legal looking papers, looking towards the lawyers standing off to the side instead of Vlad.

"We can do a DNA test," she suggested, and she offered them the papers. Jack could see a flash of panic run across Vlad's face. Vlad's lawyers took the paper, glancing at each other before nodding in approval. "And if that DNA test comes back as a match, then as the biological father of Danny Phantom, Mr. Masters will be given all the legal rights of parenthood."

"I shouldn't have to take a DNA test! That's my child!" Vlad spoke loudly.

"Then take the DNA test so that we can all be legally in the clear," Ohmer told him.

Vlad's eyes darkened as he stared intently at the lawyer before him. Ohmer flinched, but she stayed standing straight.

"Let me speak in a language more people can understand then," Vlad replied. He glanced to his lawyers. They simply watched him.

He reached into his pocket, pulling out a thick wad of hundred dollar bills. Jack's eyes grew to the size of saucers upon seeing it, and even Vlad's own lawyers looked impressed. That had to be thousands of dollars right there in the palm of the billionaire's hand. A drop in the bucket for him.

Vlad offered it out to Ohmer, but she kept her eyes locked with his.

"I am Danny Phantom's legal guardian, and he will be discharged into my care. If you make this happen, consider this fifty thousand dollars right here completely yours. Under the table, cash free."

The temptation to take it was there. Jack could see it in her eyes, and she said nothing for a moment. Ohmer finally glanced down at the money, the comically huge stack of hundred dollar bills.

"No."

Vlad's face dropped in surprise, and the hand around the money clenched in anger.

"What do you mean," he asked. Jack felt goosebumps at how angry and cold his best friend's voice was sounding, and an odd feeling was beginning to fill him. "No?"

For the first time since Phantom was admitted to the hospital, Ohmer looked a bit nervous. But to her credit, she stood her ground and never looked away.

"I stand by my statement," her voice quivered slightly, but she still spoke firmly. "I'm sorry, Mr. Masters."

Vlad said nothing for a moment. He kept locked in a staring contest with the lawyer. Jack could see Jazz nervously fiddling her thumbs as she watched on in worry. He squeezed her shoulders assuringly, shooting her a smile. He kept trying to tell himself that Vlad had Phantom's best interest at heart. But Jazz's glance back to him made his stomach twist, and he knew he was only fooling himself.

"A hundred thousand," Vlad suddenly spoke. Ohmer blinked.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"I'll have a hundred thousand dollars brought here. Right now," Vlad bargained.

Vlad studied her coldly. Jack's hands squeezed Jazz's shoulders lightly as it hit him. Vlad was scaring him. He had never seen the cheerful billionaire in this kind of light. Why would he even want Phantom that badly?

Ohmer didn't budge.

"No."

"Three hundred thousand." Vlad had not wasted a second. Ohmer's lower lip quivered in temptation.

"No."

"Five hundred thousand." Jack's heart raced hard as the prices were quickly going higher and higher. He knew Vlad had no price limit for things he truly wanted. "That daughter of yours could go to any college her heart desires. No debt. Enough left over to probably pay off your mortgage, no?"

Jack's grip on Jazz's shoulders tightened, and he only loosened when she let out a small whimper of pain. He murmured an apology as he saw Ohmer staring back at Vlad. Half a million dollars. That was so much money. A comical amount. Vlad would have to deliver that much money on a rolling cart or something.

"No."

Vlad shot her a dirty look of annoyance.

"Name a price, then."

Ohmer's eyes narrowed at him, and she glared right back at him.

"Phantom's not for sale."

Vlad huffed angrily. Jazz and Jack stayed silent as they watched the affair unfold. An uncomfortable silence filled the air. Even Vlad's lawyers shifted from foot to foot as Ohmer and Vlad stared each other down.

"Mr. Masters, I am not another political puppet that you can make dance with a bribe. If you are Phantom's father, then you should have nothing to fear by taking a DNA test," she told him. Vlad said nothing for a while, but he finally seemed to break.

"Fine."

Ohmer nodded. She reached for her phone, dialing an extension for the hospital. Somebody on the other end picked up, and Ohmer spoke sweetly into the phone, requesting a DNA test to be performed. Jack could hear her briefly explain the situation. After a brief exchange, Ohmer hung up, looking up to Vlad.

"You can go to the third floor, to Dr. Bird's office. He'll perform the swap for you, and we'll get back to you as soon as possible," Ohmer told him. Vlad continued to stare angrily at her.

He snapped his fingers, and one of the lawyers stepped forward. The lawyer pulled an envelope out of his inner jacket pocket, handing it to Vlad. Vlad handed it to Ohmer.

"Go ahead and give this to my son when he wakes up. Tell him if he knows what's good for him, that he will call me when he gets the chance." His voice was chilling, and Ohmer simply nodded. "Otherwise, tell him to have fun rotting in ghost prison."

Vlad turned on his heel, and he opened the door to the office harshly, slamming the door behind him. The lawyers followed him, opening the door but closing it more gently, both of them bidding a polite farewell to Ohmer and the Fentons.

Soon as the door closed, Ohmer picked up the phone again. Jazz returned to her seat across from Ohmer, opening the book with slightly shaky hands. Jack moved to his old spot as well.

"Hello? Dr. Bird? Yeah, I just called you. Listen, can you somehow do that swab I just told you to do, but twice?...Yeah, don't tell him about the second one...Mhm, I don't trust him either...There's just, something off about his story, ya know?...Thanks, you're the best." Ohmer hung up the phone with a deep exhale. She rubbed her face, and Jack's mind raced.

Why was Vlad so hung up on this? So reluctant to take a test, his lawyers, the everything? And his behavior, he was so...stand offish. Vlad had never talked or treated him like that before. Or, well, he kind of had, but very briefly and only in passing and rarely, but now? What? Why was Phantom so important? Why was his son so important? It's not like it'd help Vlad's campaign or anything. In fact, it'd possibly be worse if the town found out that Vlad was harboring Phantom, or if he accidentally found out that it was Jack's half ghost son.

Oh god. Oh god.

No...no...it couldn't...Vlad couldn't…

Jack felt his legs grow weak, and he made himself sit down in the seat. He made no moves to grab the book had previously been forcing himself to try and read. It made so much sense. The ecto-acne...the proto-portal...the years spent ignoring him...the hesitance to become close again…

Vlad...Vlad was also half ghost, and he had to be terrified of Jack too.

It sounded so crazy, but this entire day had been a crazy one. Why not throw a little more on top of it? His son and his best friend both being half ghost. Insane right? What are the odds? High. Very high when...a lot when you caused it. Danny and the Fenton Portal...it was too similar to Vlad with the pro-portal...

But who on Earth would Vlad be? Jack tried to picture Vlad with inverted colors, like Danny, and his mind drew a blank. Nobody came to mind. No ghost he had ever seen. He was stumped immediately. But it had to be true. It made too much sense. Jack caused his best friend and son to...become the very thing he constantly hunted, dissected, talked about and experimented on.

No wonder he wasn't that close to either, much as he wanted to be and tried. Both must be terrified of him.

"Dad? You okay?" Jazz's voice broke him of his stupor, and he locked eyes with her. Without any words exchanged, he knew that she knew what he was thinking. Her eyes shied away, and Jack's gut twisted. Jazz knew. Ohmer spared only a brief glance to them before she had returned to flipping through the book before her.

"I'm...I think I need to stretch my legs a bit more," he replied, standing up. He still felt weak, but the room felt so hot and stuffy. "Get some air."

"Do you want company?" Jazz questioned. Jack shook his head as he went to the door, grasping the knob tightly. He didn't need her to come along, to confirm his worst fears and to unintentionally assure him that he was, indeed, a horrible friend and father.

"I'll just be a few," he replied. He forced a weak smile, and he left to take a much needed walk. There was just simply too much to think about.

#my phics #phics #dannymay #my dannymay #my dannymay19 #dannymay19 #jack fenton #jazz fenton #broken ectoplasm

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guigadraws · 6 years

Photo

I recreated the illustration from Salt+Charcoal by Plini (yes that guy is always an inspiration and I'm addicted to the song these days 🔥) Also as a biologist, I approve Plini's message, that salt is bad for plants 😂 The lovely original artwork was made by Alex Pryle #plini #cover #blackandwhite #illustration #fanart #lineart

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elbiotipo · 5 years

Text

researching common ornamental plants be like

#cosas mias #oh what a pretty flower! EVERY PART OF THIS PLANT IS NEUROTOXIC #botany #plants #biology #I'm a biologist and I approve this message

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enterprisetrampstamp · 7 years

Text

and on and on

also on ao3

carol's world has just fallen apart. her dad tried to start an intergalactic war, a supervillain from the 1990s viciously broke her knee, and she almost died, twice. jim kirk- a tentative ally, a future friend- did.

(and then he didn't.)

so it goes.

she's not sure what she signed up for, except maybe her apparently-callously-evil father's approval, but she doesn't think it was this. she should've...

carol wanted to be a biologist, once upon a time; she'd even double majored in her undergrad before turning down a path she's regretted ever since. she could go back to school, couldn't she? it's not like she has anyone to impress with her proficiency in weaponry any longer.

this is the thought behind her humorless snort as she tosses back some of scotty's mystery liquor; it's the thought nyota, with a tired whisp of something approximating a smile, doesn't ask about as she raises her glass in sarcastic toast.

"amen to that, sister."

carol asks, "does it ever get easier?"

and nyota lies, "of course it does."

they lean into each other, tipsily trusting, as they abandon the officer's lounge later that night. still later, carol doesn't ship out on the five year mission.

before they leave, she clings to jim, a friend turned family in the intervening months of rummy played over hospital sidetables and old movies watched in sweats and old tshirts, and she tries to shake dr. mccoy's legendary hand before he tugs her in with a curmudgeonly scoff and soft eyes, his tall frame bowed to fit around hers.

nyota is already aboard the shuttle.

carol waves goodbye, receiving a soft smile and a flutter of fingertips in return, and this should, by all rights, be the end of their acquaintance. other than one slightly drunken night of conversation and assorted pleasantries exchanged as they passed in the halls of starfleet, they don't really know each other.

yet--

it's nyota she calls when she grows frustrated with the world of academia once more. "I already have a doctorate," she bemoans. she's not even really so old as to be out of place among the other grad students, and yet she feels it.

"should've just gone for a masters," nyota mocks.

"bite me."

"only if you ask nicely," comes the prim response, and carol's startled into laughter.

nyota comms her, too; carol listens dutifully to complaints about jim, complaints about spock, complaints about the two of them together and also the rest of the bridge crew and, more sparingly, the officers under nyota's command in the communications division.

sometimes, nyota calls with nothing to say in particular; on these nights, her smile is soft, her eyeliner removed, her lipstick smudged on the rim of the mug jim recently bought her as a joke--Number One Dad.

(dr. mccoy, of course, had received one labelled "Number One Mom", and spock's had been edited to simply read "Number One".)

carol isn't sure when her calls with nyota had become a part of her routine, but she can't deny how off kilter she feels when the enterprise finally passes out of easy range of earth. nyota had warned her when they last spoke several days before, but that doesn't change the way carol's smile slides from her face when her comm attempt results in an error message.

(in the days following, she does not mope, and anyone suggesting otherwise should remember that at this point in time, her knowledge of the anatomy of terran vertebrates is still secondary to her understanding of the design, construction, and operation of advanced weaponry.)

life, as it always does, moves on.

carol graduates, the enterprise swings back into the quadrant on a diplomatic mission, and jim, somehow, remembers her birthday, after one offhand comment made a third of the way into a gallon of mint chocolate ice cream.

"come visit; we can have a party," he says, but he's using his captain voice.

"you can't sit around and wait for one woman to catch up to you," she scoffs.

"we're about to be on shore leave," he insists. "c’mon, carol, bones misses you." he leans in, eyebrows raised. “nyota misses you.”

and that is... apparently the end of that.

of course, jim has a little more in mind than a simple visit. carol's greeted by him down on one knee, a party hat set jauntily atop his head and a set of science blues held forward on a throw cushion she definitely recognizes from that time jim "broke" them into dr. mccoy's apartment to "borrow" the good booze. "I know you've already gotten a couple other offers, so if you aren’t interested, then no hard--"

"are you kidding me? fork them over."

carol immediately pulls the dress over her head before shedding her shirt and shorts with the ease of a girl who played club football for years and often had to change into her uniform and boots in the back of a hovercar.

who in their right mind would turn down a posting on the flagship? she's positively gleeful as she cancels her passage home and requests her roommates pack her things into storage.

"told you she couldn't resist my charm," jim boasts.

"this is in spite of your 'charm', not because of it," carol shoots back.

nyota slings an arm around her shoulders as jim gasps in mock betrayal. "oh, you'll fit in just fine," carol's told, nyota's voice thick with laughter, and it's strange how the world fell to pieces years ago and yet carol's never felt more complete.

there's no time limit on their conversations now, no impending termination of communication; if carol had thought nyota a part of her routine before, it's only because she hadn’t been able to imagine brown toes tucked under her thigh as their owner waves around a gag gift of a mug and tries out the sounds of a new language. carol smiles to herself and idly scours the mission brief for the familiar--anatomy, hostility, and societal faux pas the likes of which she's known since she was a child at her mother's knee.

a jack of all trades, jim calls her sometimes.

(carol appreciates the look in nyota's eye when he does, given how often she finds herself swooning over nyota's vast array of musical, linguistical, and physical skill sets.)

their first kiss feels--inevitable.

and yet neither of them is willing to take that step, to admit they've long since passed from acquaintances to friends to something else altogether. carol considers, briefly, asking jim for advice--

but, well.

there’s spock.

he's something of an enigma to carol; an adversary turned ally turned good friends' good friend turned workplace supervisor. she both knows him and doesn't, stories she's been told by nyota and jim and dr. mccoy at odds with their lightly antagonistic start. his deadpan sort of sarcasm is both familiar from her british youth and utterly alien in its delivery; the professionalism with which he addresses her, at once soothing and unsettling.

she straightens her shoulders, chin lifted defiantly, as she regards him. this new year's party is a battle ground, and one from which carol intends to walk away the winner.

"how did you do it?" is both an innocuous question, and a highly inappropriate thing to ask of a man she barely knows, given the implied meaning behind it.

spock is very tall, and his eyes are very dark as he watches her right back. "I did nothing," he admits, because there's no point in pretending he doesn't know what she means. "what nyota wants, she chases."

this is, of course, not the answer carol is looking for, given that nyota has had- and forsaken- ample opportunity to chase her.

carol bites her lip and asks, "shall I just give up then?"

spock doesn’t hesitate: "I should think not."

carol nods her agreement, and then, because she's had just enough alcohol to think it’s the best way to thank him for his candor, she asks him to dance. at midnight, spock obligingly leans down to allow her to press a chaste kiss to his forehead, and on the other side of the room nyota laughs as mr. scott and keenser- standing on the back of the couch- kiss her cheeks simultaneously.

they’re adrift in space, no world turning beneath their feet, and still they celebrate the passage of 365 days as if there is:

life. goes. on.

carol locks herself in her room on the anniversary of the night her father died; the night jim died; the night her life shattered along with the bones in her knee. tomorrow, she’ll scrub her cheeks, replicate some ice cream, and celebrate that most of those things aren’t relevant any more.

tonight, she mourns that they ever had to happen to her at all.

is it getting any easier? nyota asks, the words small and black on the screen of carol’s padd.

not really.

yeah. me either.

wanna talk?

gonna open the door?

for you, maybe.

this isn’t the night that carol finally kisses nyota, but it is the night that she falls asleep upright on the couch, nyota’s cheek against her thigh and gently musical snores curling through her quarters. it’s the night that carol listens because she’s not yet ready to speak, and it’s the night that carol realizes nyota isn’t sure what to do when the chase is over before it’s even begun.

their first kiss is--inevitable.

their first kiss is just the first of many.

#carol marcus #nyota uhura #femslash #sapphicstartrek #a tramp stamp original #me: let's just write a quick carol/ny textpost--#also me: has never been satisfied with the canon treatment of carol marcus in any universe #I guess I should probably post this on ao3 #also also me: ...did carol's dad even actually die I totally wasn't paying that much attention by that point in the movie

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nigeiadigitalmarketingcompany · 5 years

Text

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

Digital Elixir 2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

By Lambert Strether of Corrente

Trade

“U.S. agricultural exports to China plummeted more than 50% last year to $9.1 billion as tariffs raised the cost of American soybeans, pork and other farm products. The exports dropped another 20% in the first six months of this year. The pain is rippling through agricultural supply chains. One forecast says tariffs could cost the sector as many as 71,000 jobs over the next two years” [Wall Street Journal]. (Apparently, China’s swine fever epidemic has not cut demand for soy.)

Politics

“But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” –James Madison, Federalist 51

“They had one weapon left and both knew it: treachery.” –Frank Herbert, Dune

“2020 Democratic Presidential Nomination” [RealClearPolitics] (average of five polls). As of August 5: Biden fluctuates to 32.3% (32.2), Sanders continues climb to 16.7% (16.5%), Warren flat at 14.0% (14.0%), Buttigieg flat at 5.5% (5.5%), Harris down at 10.2% (10.3%), Beto separating himself from the bottom feeders, interestingly. Others Brownian motion. So, I think we can conclude that Sanders won both debates.

* * *

2020

Sanders (D)(1): Sanders calls his shot not only the effect of trade deals on workers, but on the two-party system. In 2000. The whole video is worth a listen, since the Tweet doesn’t quote all of it.

In the year 2000, Congress voted to grant China upgraded trade status, helping it become world's most powerful dictatorship.

Bernie Sanders voted against. He stood next to Pelosi at Dem presser and blasted Bill Clinton. "Let me tell you where he got his money," Sanders intoned. pic.twitter.com/JzBZ3UiXka

— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 7, 2019

No wonder they hate him….

* * *

“Few candidates have loyal small-dollar donor bases” [WaPo]. • Few, but not none:

Turns out small donor money isn’t all that fungible.

“Shadow of Dark Money Grows as 2020 Groups Shun Donor Disclosure” [Bloomberg]. “Democratic and Republican groups raising tens of millions of dollars for the 2020 elections increasingly are keeping their funding sources secret, a trend that watchdog groups warn allows high-dollar donors to gain influence with candidates without risking exposure. Priorities USA, which collected almost $200 million to help Hillary Clinton in 2016, says it wants to spend that much or more to help the next Democratic nominee defeat President Donald Trump. This time, however, Priorities is being funded mostly by undisclosed donations.” • What could go wrong?

“Are the Democrats divided? No — they’re poised to win big if they don’t screw it up” [Bill Curry, Salon]. “Everyone wants to see Warren and Sanders face off against Biden because the real dividing line is between the middle class and the donor class. Warren and Sanders never attack Obama, Biden or each other and they won’t do it in September. What they will do is compare their ideas and campaigns to his. The facts will be fierce, but the delivery will be civil. It’ll be Biden’s toughest test. Progressives want to take a new path, but I’ve yet to meet a “Never Bidener.” The stakes are too high. To defeat Trump, Democrats need to answer his racism with a message of both racial justice and social conciliation, and answer his corruption with a message of economic justice and political reform. So long as their candidates don’t make a fetish of their small differences, they’ll get there.” • White House counsellor to Clinton. Not seeing a whole lot about “economic justice and political reform” from establishment Democrats. Of course, if they hadn’t spent three years yammering about Russia, they might have had time to come up with something.

El Paso and Dayton Shootings

“Dayton shooter may be antifa’s first mass killer” [NY Post]. • I dunno. It’s the shooters pr0n rock band that gets me. I see the El Paso shooter, who — assuming the provenance proves out — wrote a manifesto as being ideologically serious in a way that the Dayton shooter, who was just a mess by all accounts, was not. (We should also think back to the Orlando shootings, where literally everything about the initial stories was wrong). And speaking of pr0n–

“Photos from Dayton and El Paso illustrate the grim routine of mass shootings” [WaPo]. • If I see one more photo of beautiful young people holding candles… Honestly, it’s like some weird kind of pr0n. I don’t equate viewing digital images of people mourning as actually mourning.

Where “we” are:

Panic in Times Square After Motorcycle Is Mistaken for Gunshots https://t.co/F5qsndMPfD

— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) August 7, 2019

Somehow, I can’t help thinking that a panicked populace is not conducive to sound democratic decision-making…

“What Experts Know About People Who Commit Mass Shootings” [New York Times]. “Can one mass shooting inspire another? Yes… Are video games to blame for mass shootings? The results of studies attempting to clarify the relationship between violent video games and aggression have been mixed, with experts deeply divided on the findings. How strong is the link between mental illness and mass shootings? Tenuous, at best. Would drugging or confining people showing “red flags” prevent massacres? No one knows for certain.” • This is pretty thin stuff.

2018 Post Mortem

No:

.@ChelseaClinton and I are thrilled to announce "The Book of Gutsy Women," out October 1st. It's a conversation about over 100 women who have inspired us—and narrowing it down was a process! https://t.co/DOhSrVq9SC pic.twitter.com/bOVES73FAQ

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 6, 2019

Realignment and Legitimacy

“Is ‘Bernie or Bust’ the Future of the Left?” [New York Times]. • Report on the DSA convention. I dunno, it seems to me that an organization dedicated to seizing the means of production shouldn’t be getting press this good. Perhaps it’s their stand on open borders.

“Twitter says it won’t verify new candidates until they win their primaries” [The Hill]. • Swell. More incumbent protection. That should certainly help Twitter with regulatory issues!

“Inslee Is Doing Very Well in the Power Primary” [Mike the Mad Biologist]. The conclusion: “Democrats in 2021 will need to make people’s lives better in meaningful ways. If not, we will have a repeat of 2010 in 2022, since next time we won’t get Trump, we’ll get someone smarter and more disciplined. As bad as Trump is, President Tom Cotton would be far worse.” • Yep. 2020 is their last shot. Biden/Harris all the way!

They call it historical materialism:

The political continuum hypothesis states that there exist historical precedents besides Nixon and Hitler. It is widely believed outside the United States, in countries Americans have never heard of

— Pinboard (@Pinboard) August 7, 2019

Stats Watch

JOLTS, June 2019 (yesterday): “Moderation in labor demand is this year’s theme of the JOLTS report” [Econoday]. “Quits, which are tracked by Federal Reserve officials for indications of worker mobility and related wage pressure, remain flat… This report hints at easing capacity pressure in the labor market and will likely be welcome by Fed officials who, with last month’s rate cut, are adding new stimulus to the economy.”

MBA Mortgage Applications, week of August 2, 2019: “A big drop in mortgage rates — the result of last week’s rate cut by the Federal Reserve — triggered a surge of refinancing applications” [Econoday].

Shipping: “Slots in heavy-duty truck production lines are opening up but few fleet operators are getting in line. Orders for Class 8 trucks fell last month to their lowest level since 2010” [Wall Street Journal]. “A factory backlog for Class 8 trucks that exceeded 300,000 orders late last year is down by more than a third, and research group FTR expects production to decline 22% next year. The good news for manufacturers is that cancellations have remained relatively light. That could change if weakness in the broader industrial sector gets worse and trucking companies decide to park their current fleet plans.”

The Bezzle: “A pioneer in the meal-kit market is losing its sizzle. Blue Apron Holdings Inc. narrowed its quarterly loss but is still losing customers… and a turnaround could involve a lot more logistics for a business already laden with complicated fulfillment” [Wall Street Journal]. “New Chief Executive Linda Kozlowski says Blue Apron’s plan to boost revenue and customer growth this year will include serving more households and offering greater menu choices, including flexibility to tailor the options…. Perhaps more challenging, analysts say the overall market is already saturated and likely smaller than companies had hoped.”

Tech: “Trump Wants to Make It Basically Impossible to Sue for Algorithmic Discrimination” [Vice]. “The new rule takes aim at a 2015 Supreme Court ruling, which decided that consumers could combat housing discriminatory business practices by making “disparate-impact claims” under the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In a disparate-impact claim, if you find out that a business practice had a disproportionate effect on certain groups of people, then you can hold that business liable—even if it was an unintended consequence….. HUD’s new rule would throw all that out the window by introducing huge loopholes to shield businesses from liability when their algorithms are accused of bias. As Reveal News reported, ‘A hypothetical bank that rejected every loan application filed by African Americans and approved every one filed by white people, for example, would need to prove only that race or a proxy for it was not used directly in constructing its computer model.’ But there is substantial evidence to show that racial bias is fundamentally baked into the way that these algorithms and their data sets are constructed, even if they don’t specifically take race into account.” • Code is law…

Tech: “Amazon Is Coaching Cops on How to Obtain Surveillance Footage Without a Warrant” [Vice]. “When police partner with Ring, Amazon’s home surveillance camera company, they get access to the ‘Law Enforcement Neighborhood Portal,’ an interactive map that allows officers to request footage directly from camera owners. Police don’t need a warrant to request this footage, but they do need permission from camera owners. Emails and documents obtained by Motherboard reveal that people aren’t always willing to provide police with their Ring camera footage. However, Ring works with law enforcement and gives them advice on how to persuade people to give them footage. Emails obtained from police department in Maywood, NJ—and emails from the police department of Bloomfield, NJ, which were also posted by Wired—show that Ring coaches police on how to obtain footage. The company provides cops with templates for requesting footage… Ring suggests cops post often on Neighbors, Ring’s free ‘neighborhood watch’ app, where Ring camera owners have the option of sharing their camera footage.” • It’s a little tough to rank Big. Tech companies for evil right now, but surely Amazon gets a boost for this.

Tech: “Jeff Bezos feels a tap on the shoulder. Ahem, Mr Amazon, care to explain how Capital One’s AWS S3 buckets got hacked?” [The Register]. “After last week’s revelations that a hacker stole the personal details of 106 million Capital One credit card applicants from its Amazon-hosted cloud storage, a US Senator has demanded Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explain what exactly what went wrong. The sensitive information was siphoned from Capital One’s Amazon Web Services S3 buckets by a former AWS engineer, who was arrested and charged at the end of July…. Wyden is particularly concerned that other companies that store their data in the AWS cloud may have been hit in the same way by the suspected Capital One thief, Seattle-based software engineer Paige Thompson. He cited reports that Ford, the University of Michigan, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and others may have suffered similar losses of information at the hands of Thompson, and that this may point to a systemic weakness in Amazon’s security.” • Uh oh. Keeping my data on my hard disk, thank you very much.

Tech: “FCC Plans to Redo Flawed Broadband Maps” [Inside Sources]. “Accurate broadband maps would help under [-served] areas get internet access, and they could also be used to hold telecom companies T-Mobile and Sprint accountable for their pledge to build out 5G to cover 85 percent of rural Americans in three years and 99 percent of all Americans in six years once they complete their merger. (The combined company will face financial penalties if they don’t meet these conditions.) According to the FCC’s Report and Order for the Digital Opportunity Data Collection, the FCC will require all internet service providers (ISPs) ‘to submit granular data maps of the areas where they have broadband-capable networks and make service available.’ Previously, ISPs submitted census block data, which means even if they only served one person within a census tract or county, they counted that entire tract or county has having internet access.” • Wow.

Tech: “More on Backdooring (or Not) WhatsApp” [Schneier on Security]. “Yesterday, I blogged about a Facebook plan to backdoor WhatsApp by adding client-side scanning and filtering. It seems that I was wrong, and there are no such plans.” • A retraction, which speaks well of Schneier.

Tech: “Hacked Equifax Customer Receives 10,000 Stolen Social Security Numbers As Share Of Class Action Settlement” [The Onion]. • News In Photos, so the headline is the joke.

Manufacturing: “Boeing Holds Workshops With China Carriers to Bring 737 Max Back” [Industry Week]. “Boeing invited pilots and engineers from China Southern Airlines Co. to a gathering in Guangzhou on Monday, according to an emailed statement from Boeing. More such workshops will be held with Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp., Xiamen Airlines Co. and Hainan Airlines Holding Co. in their respective hubs this week. The gatherings are among the latest steps Boeing is taking to bring the plane back, though the exact timing remains unclear. Boeing is redesigning the plane’s flight-control system and is still aiming to present a final software package to regulators by September, though the timeline could slip, a person familiar with the plans has said. China Southern and Air China are among Chinese carriers seeking compensation from the U.S. manufacturer for order delays and losses caused by the grounding of the 737 Max in the wake of two deadly crashes.”

Transportation: “Self-Driving Trucks Are Ready to Do Business in Texas” [WIRED]. “The truck developers come for the weather: It can get chilly in Texas, but the state doesn’t get the months of snow, which can bedevil automated vehicle sensor technology.” • So, when the headline says “in Texas,” it really does mean “in Texas.”

Transportation: “How Much Traffic Do Uber and Lyft Cause?” [CityLab]. “Today the ride-hailing giants released a joint analysis showing that their vehicles are responsible for significant portions of [vehicle-miles traveled (VMT)] in six major urban centers… Now, the Fehr and Peers memo indicates that [transportation network companies (TNCs)] accounted for nearly twice the VMT in San Francisco than the SFCTA had estimated, said Gregory Erhardt, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Kentucky who has researched Uber and Lyft’s effects on public transit ridership. That means the services are likely delaying commuters more, too… On average, between the six cities, just 54 to 62 percent of the vehicle miles traveled by Lyfts and Ubers were with a rider in tow. A third of these miles involve drivers slogging around in between passengers (“deadheading,” in taxi-driver argot); 9 to 10 percent are drivers on their way to a pickup.”

Transportation: “Swiss Post Suspends Drone Delivery Service After Second Crash” [IEEE Spectrum]. “For about a year, Swiss Post and Matternet have been collaborating on a drone delivery service in three different cities in Switzerland, with drones ferrying lab samples between hospitals far faster and more efficiently than is possible with conventional ground transportation. The service had made about 3,000 successful flights as of last January, but a January 25th crash into Lake Zurich put things on hold until April. A second crash in May caused Swiss Post to suspend the service indefinitely, and a recently released interim report published by the Swiss Safety Investigation Board provides some detail on what happened—and a reminder that for all the delivery drone hype, there are some basic problems that are still not totally solved.” • In this case, parachutes that deploy “if something goes wrong.” More: “We have no idea exactly how safe Amazon’s drones are, or Google’s drones are. Even Zipline, which has been flying drones dozens of times per day for years, is still working to make their drones safer. What we do know is that crashes can (and do) happen, and the Swiss Post incidents are further evidence that we’ll need a much better understanding of where all of the risk is if we want drones flying regularly over populated areas.”

Concentration: “Australia Strips Google/Facebook to Their Underwear” [Matt Stoller, Big]. “The [Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC)]’s most important contribution to the debate is to say, unvarnished, that Google and Facebook have exceptional amounts of market power and the incentive to use it to manipulate and exploit publishers, businesses, and users. Over the past fifteen years, Google and Facebook have become, as Sims put it in his press conference, “essential gateways for consumers and businesses.” The consequences of this shift are the killing of the free press and the mass manipulation of users….” • Most NC readers already know that, but Stoller’s post is well worth a read for the wealth of detail and clarity of exposition.

Mr. Market: “Carry On Like Nothing Really Matters. Until It Does” [John Authers, Bloomberg]. “It’s no secret that yields on sovereign bonds around the world remain stunningly and historically low. And that, in turn, means a revival in the ‘carry trade.’… Carry trading is best known from its incarnation in the foreign-exchange market. It involves borrowing in a currency where interest rates are low and parking that money in a currency with higher rates, pocketing the difference, or ‘carry.’ Ideally, you get paid for doing nothing… In practice, any increase in volatility or perceived risk — which can be nicely proxied by the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX — spells doom for the carry trade.” • Uh oh.

Today’s Fear & Greed Index: 20 Extreme Fear (previous close: 27, Fear) [CNN]. One week ago: 48 (Neutral). (0 is Extreme Fear; 100 is Extreme Greed). Last updated Aug 7 at 12:19pm. • Restored at reader request. Note that the index is not always updated daily, sadly.

The Biosphere

“Who Will Save the Amazon (and How)?” [Foreign Policy]. “Aug. 5, 2025: In a televised address to the nation, U.S. President Gavin Newsom announced that he had given Brazil a one-week ultimatum to cease destructive deforestation activities in the Amazon rainforest. If Brazil did not comply, the president warned, he would order a naval blockade of Brazilian ports and airstrikes against critical Brazilian infrastructure. The president’s decision came in the aftermath of a new United Nations report cataloging the catastrophic global effects of continued rainforest destruction, which warned of a critical “tipping point” that, if reached, would trigger a rapid acceleration of global warming. Although China has stated that it would veto any U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Brazil, the president said that a large “coalition of concerned states” was prepared to support U.S. action. At the same time, Newsom said the United States and other countries were willing to negotiate a compensation package to mitigate the costs to Brazil for protecting the rainforest, but only if it first ceased its current efforts to accelerate development.” • Ulp.

“Humans versus Earth: the quest to define the Anthropocene” [Nature]. “Crawford Lake is one of ten sites around the globe that researchers are studying as potential markers for the start of the Anthropocene, an as-yet-unofficial designation that is being considered for inclusion in the geological time scale. The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), a committee of 34 researchers formed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) in 2009, is leading the work, with the aim of crafting a proposal to formally recognize the Anthropocene. This new epoch would mark a clear departure from the Holocene, which started with the close of the last ice age. To define a new epoch, the researchers need to find a representative marker in the rock record that identifies the point at which human activity exploded to such a massive scale that it left an indelible signature on the globe. Given how much people have done to the planet, there are many potential markers. “Scientifically, in terms of evidence, we’re spoiled for choice, but we have to pin it down,” says Jan Zalasiewicz, a palaeobiologist at the University of Leicester, UK, and chair of the AWG…. In the end, it will be the rocks that have the final say.” • In more ways than one.

“A mission to Mars could cause learning impairment and anxiety, study says” [CNN]. “On a long-term spaceflight mission to Mars, astronauts will be continuously exposed to low-dose radiation in deep space. A new study found that this exposure can cause impairments in the brains of mice, resulting in learning and memory issues as well as anxiety… Based on their findings, the researchers believe that one out of five astronauts on a deep space mission would likely experienced anxiety. One in three would be more likely to deal with memory issues. And all of them may struggle when it comes to making decisions, which would be crucial on a mission to Mars where communications with the Earth are delayed by up to 20 minutes.” • Surely there is a science fiction story with this premise, though I can’t remember one. Certainly lots of potential for dark comedy…

“This tiny insect could be delivering toxic pesticides to honey bees and other beneficial bugs” [Science]. “According to a new study, neonicotinoids can kill beneficial insects such as honey bees, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps by contaminating honeydew, a sugar-rich liquid excreted by certain insects…. The study suggests honeydew could be another way beneficial insects are exposed to deadly insecticides. This can devastate more insects across the food web than nectar contaminated with insecticides could, the team says, because honeydew is more abundant, especially in agricultural fields… neonicotinoids still account for more than 20% of the world’s insecticide market.”

Our Famously Free Press

“The GateHouse takeover of Gannett has been finalized” [Poynter]. • Ugh. I expect the imminent gutting of USA Today, which has been a surprisingly good paper.

“How to do something about local news” [Substack]. • Basically a hymn of praise to substack by a founder, but it still sounds like an interesting, er, platform (akin to WordPress, not Facebook).

Games

“Investigative journalism startup uses mobile gaming to finance its future” [Journalism]. “In the game, the player uses tools and skills that McGregor and his editorial team need in their day-to-day investigations and reports. With image verification being an example of one of the most difficult challenges, the game will ask players to assess whether a viral image is accurate or not by using software to spot areas of the image that have been edited. ‘It’s the basics and 101 of journalism – teaching people to be sceptical and what tools to use to crack the conspiracy, like searching court records or sting operations on a more extreme level,’ he explained.” • It sounds like the stories and games are fictional. I don’t see why they couldn’t be real.

The Last of the Feral Hogs, I Swear

For our readers in the United Kingdom:

“30-50 of them, you say?” pic.twitter.com/M07mLraoSE

— Josephine Long come to my show please it’s urgent (@JosieLong) August 5, 2019

A kind soul summarizes:

in the final analysis, the great moral victory of feral hog twitter was that it was much more of a carnival atmosphere with people aiming to make each other laugh than a dunkfest on the feral hog guy

— elizabeth bruenig (@ebruenig) August 6, 2019

News of the Wired

Bake like an Egyptian. Wonderful thread:

Two weeks ago, with the help of Egyptologist @drserenalove and Microbiologist @rbowman1234, I went to Boston’s MFA and @Harvard‘s @peabodymuseum to attempt collecting 4,500 year old yeast from Ancient Egyptian pottery. Today, I baked with some of it… pic.twitter.com/143aKe6M3b

— Seamus Blackley (@SeamusBlackley) August 5, 2019

* * *

Readers, feel free to contact me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, with (a) links, and even better (b) sources I should curate regularly, (c) how to send me a check if you are allergic to PayPal, and (d) to find out how to send me images of plants. Vegetables are fine! Fungi are deemed to be honorary plants! If you want your handle to appear as a credit, please place it at the start of your mail in parentheses: (thus). Otherwise, I will anonymize by using your initials. See the previous Water Cooler (with plant) here. Today’s plant (EM):

EM writes: “You have been saying you need plant photos. I was just in the garden weeding when I remembered to capture this and send it to you. The pink hydrangea on the left is my favorite this year but I am also partial to the coreopsis beneath it.” I like the path, which looks like it would be nice to walk on in bare feet.

Bonus (PS):

PS writes: “Does this fill the bill?” Re Silc sent in his mobile, and Mark52 sent in his steel silhouette, and now PS. I didn’t expect a response like this. Reader, how about you?

* * *

Readers: Water Cooler is a standalone entity not covered by the annual NC fundraiser.Remember, a tip jar is for tipping! So if you see a link you especially like, or an item you wouldn’t see anywhere else, please do not hesitate to express your appreciation in tangible form. Regular positive feedback both makes me feel good and lets me know I’m on the right track with coverage. When I get no donations for five or ten days I get worried. More tangibly, a constant trickle of donations helps me with expenses, and I factor in that trickle when setting fundraising goals:

Here is the screen that will appear, which I have helpfully annotated.

If you hate PayPal, you can email me at lambert [UNDERSCORE] strether [DOT] corrente [AT] yahoo [DOT] com, and I will give you directions on how to send a check. Thank you!

2:00PM Water Cooler 8/7/2019

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2ZFjVI7 via IFTTT

#Digital Marketing #SEO #Social Media Marketing #Nigeria Digital Marketing Company #Lead Generation

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evoldir · 5 years

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Fwd: Job: QueensU.AnimalEvolution

Begin forwarded message: > From: [email protected] > Subject: Job: QueensU.AnimalEvolution > Date: 31 July 2019 at 18:50:05 GMT+12 > To: [email protected] > > > > Department of Biology - Integrative Animal Biologist > > The Department of Biology at Queen's University invites applications for > a tenure-track faculty position at the rank of Assistant Professor with > specialization as an integrative animal biologist. The preferred start > date is July 1, 2020. > > Queen's is a research-intensive university, with a diverse Department > of Biology that encompasses observational, experimental, and theoretical > approaches, on questions ranging from genes to ecosystems. The department > seeks a broadly-trained integrative animal biologist who uses molecular > approaches to explore important research questions. Examples of research > areas could include, but are not limited to: neurobiology, immunology, > energetics, and endocrinology. The successful candidate will complement > and broaden the department's existing expertise and strengths and will > contribute to teaching in core and elective courses especially in areas > related to animal physiology. Applicants with an integrative approach > and/or strong potential for collaboration with colleagues from diverse > fields of biology, and across scales of biological organization, are > especially encouraged to apply. > > Candidates must have a PhD or equivalent degree completed at the start > date of the appointment. The main criteria for selection are academic and > teaching excellence. The successful candidate will provide evidence of > high-quality scholarly output that demonstrates potential for independent > research leading to peer assessed publications and the securing of > external research funding, as well as strong potential for outstanding > teaching contributions at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, > and an ongoing commitment to academic and pedagogical excellence in > support of the department's programs. Candidates must provide evidence > of an ability to work collaboratively in an interdisciplinary and > student-centred environment. The successful candidate will be required > to make substantive contributions through service to the department, > the Faculty, the University, and/or the broader community. Salary will > be commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position is > subject to final budgetary approval by the University. > > > > The University invites applications from all qualified > individuals. Queen's is committed to employment equity and diversity in > the workplace and welcomes applications from women, visible minorities, > Aboriginal peoples, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ persons. > All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, in accordance > with Canadian immigration requirements, Canadian citizens and permanent > residents of Canada will be given priority. > > To comply with federal laws, the University is obliged to gather > statistical information as to how many applicants for each job vacancy are > Canadian citizens / permanent residents of Canada. Applicants need not > identify their country of origin or citizenship; however, all applications > must include one of the following statements: "I am a Canadian citizen > / permanent resident of Canada"; OR, "I am not a Canadian citizen / > permanent resident of Canada". Applications that do not include this > information will be deemed incomplete. > > A complete application consists of: > > * a cover letter (including one of the two statements regarding > Canadian citizenship / permanent resident status specified in > the previous paragraph); > > * a current Curriculum Vitae; > > * a summary of research interests that highlights your three > most significant contributions (maximum 1 page); > > * a summary of your future research directions (maximum 1 page); > > * a statement of teaching interests and experience > (maximum 1 page); > > * a diversity statement describing your past and planned > commitment to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in > your research programs and outreach activities (maximum 1 > page); and > > * three letters of reference to be sent directly to Brian > Cumming, Professor and Head, Department of Biology, c/o Anne > Dumont ([email protected]). > > > The deadline for applications is September 9, 2019. Applicants > are encouraged to send all documents in their application packages > electronically as PDFs to Anne Dumont at [email protected], although hard > copy applications may be submitted to: > > Brian Cumming > Professor and Head > The Department of Biology > Room 3102, BioSciences Complex > 116 Barrie St. > Queen's University > Kingston, Ontario > CANADA K7L 3J9 > > The University will provide support in its recruitment processes to > applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that takes into > account an applicant's accessibility needs. If you require accommodation > during the interview process, please contact Brian Cumming in The > Department of Biology, at [email protected]. > > Academic staff at Queen's University > are governed by a Collective Agreement > > between the University and the Queen's University Faculty > Association (QUFA) , which is posted at > https://ift.tt/1OWt7w9 > and at http://www.qufa.ca. > > > > Regards, > > Anne Dumont > Administrative Assistant to the Department Head > Department of Biology > Queen's University > Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6 > PH: 613-533-6132 > > Anne Dumont > via IFTTT

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tacticianlyra · 8 years

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Decided to put together an updated compilation of my Battleborn OCs:

Lyra Mitchell — a biologist with a keen interest in the Varelsi, she devoted practically all of her LLC-approved funding to try to learn what exactly they are aside from the label of “eldritch monstrosity”...even though she was supposed to be working on something else.

Her employer did not take kindly to this at all, and she soon found herself jobless and evicted from her lab in the Arcfleet. She wasn’t down for long, however, as she came across a broken-down runaway space-yacht piloted by a Magnus named Apollo.

Though she prefers to stay safely on Apollo or Nova, she’ll sometimes agree to do some field work, wielding a modified UPR-issued laser-pistol, and bringing a bio-engineered raptor of a species native to a desolate wasteland of a planet in a star system long since darkened, which she named Silverwing.

-her birthday is September 25th, and she has the most pairs of fluffy socks out of everyone.

*I have another OC with the same name, though I will specify which one I speak of in the tags.

Apollo — having been the faithful carrier of a wealthy family, he began to take great offense at being treated as little more than a flashy belonging when the Magna Carta went offline, and soon sent a message of resignation to his now-former owners.

Unfortunately some pirates took note of him zipping around and attempted to commandeer him; he managed to get away, but not without sustaining considerable damage and crash-landing, coincidentally near where Lyra had been at the time.

One thing led to another, and they formed a wary partnership: Apollo having someone to fix him up, whereas Lyra had a makeshift home that she could redecorate to suit her needs.

-first came online on January 20th, and has a big dorky crush on Nova, but he’s too shy to say anything about it.

Revyn — a freelance mercenary who calls the Detritus Ring home, he claims to be “one of the most unluckiest people in the remaining universe” for the reason of being half-aelfrin and half-Jennerit.

Most Eldrid view him as an abomination, especially after Rendain’s betrayal, and what family he has left on Tempest prefer to pretend he doesn’t exist, resulting in him having a severe lack of self-confidence when it comes to interacting with people.

He would have first encountered the crew after the events of the Friendship Raid, having been after The Lorrian for stealing a family heirloom from the aelfrin half of his family: an ancient sword-and-shield capable of storing and discharging energy in short, powerful bursts.

-His birthday is February 24th, and anyone who finds his book of self-written poetry has instant blackmail material on him.

Xander — a Jennerit prodigy, Xander was brought into the Keepers of the Blade at a younger age than usual: a self-imposed goal so that he could stay close to his elder sibling, who had been inducted into the Silent Sisters.

Then the Battles of Jennar happened.

While the other Keepers were led along blindly by Rendain, Xander wasn’t convinced, and worked to form a rebellion, unaware that a second one was running adjacently to his, each unknowing of the other. At least, for a time.

To save itself, the second rebellion sabotaged Xander’s, and he was sent to be executed publicly. In a cruel twist of events for the leaders of each respective rebellion, Xander’s executioner was his sister.

Years later, after Rendain’s banishment, the crew was sent after a crazed aviant by the name of Arilou who was hellbent in bringing her husband back from the dead, in the process having reanimated others - Xander included. Even after Arilou was killed, the magic animating him didn’t fade, and he remains among the living.

-his birthday is December 30th, and despite his standoffish attitude, he’s a giant marshmallow.

#Battlebarn #this took a while to write #questions are extremely appreciated!#I WANT TO RAMBLE ABOUT THESE BABS!!!!!!!!#My OCs #kind of a long post

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phgq · 4 years

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Senate ratifies Bayanihan 2 bill

#PHnews: Senate ratifies Bayanihan 2 bill

MANILA – The Senate on Thursday ratified the Bayanihan to Recover as One (Bayanihan 2) bill, a measure that seeks to allow President Rodrigo Duterte to realign funds for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.

This, after the congressional bicameral conference committee approved the reconciled version of the Bayanihan 2 bill on Thursday after three days of marathon sessions. The House of Representatives is set to ratify the bill on Monday (Aug. 24).

The measure sets aside PHP140 billion for the coronavirus pandemic response with allotments for various government programs to help affected Filipinos and sectors, plus an additional PHP25.5-billion standby appropriations.

In his sponsorship speech, Senator Sonny Angara said the PHP140 billion of regular appropriations included PHP3 billion for the procurement of face masks, personal protective equipment and face shield; PHP4.5 billion for the construction of temporary medical isolation quarantine facilities, field hospitals, dormitories, expansion of government hospital capacity; and another PHP4.5 billion to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) for isolation facilities and other requirements for the rent of various facilities, as well as food and transportation of Covid-19 patients while the government constructs more permanent facilities.

The measure also allocates PHP13.5 billion for the Department of Health (DOH) to employ emergency human resources for health; PHP820 million as a fund for overseas Filipinos under the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA); PHP13 billion for the government’s cash-for-work program and other support programs for impacted sectors.

Meanwhile, PHP600 million is allocated as subsidies and allowances for students severely impacted by the pandemic; PHP300 million as subsidies and allowance for teaching and non-teaching personnel and part-time faculty in state universities and colleges (SUCs); and PHP180 million as allowance for national athletes and coaches, among others.

Angara said about PHP40 billion will be allocated to government banks as capital infusion to aid businesses and entrepreneurs to weather the storm brought about by Covid-19.

The tourism sector, which is the most impacted sector by the pandemic, will receive PHP10 billion in allocations, to be divided into the following: PHP6 billion for soft loans for tourism micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) under the Department of Trade’s (DTI) Small Business Corp.; PHP3 billion to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) for assistance to displaced tourism workers; and PHP1 billion for tourism infrastructure under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

The agriculture sector will be allotted a PHP24-billion assistance under various programs under the Department of Agriculture (DA); while PHP9.5 million assistance will be given to the transportation industry under the Department of Transportation (DOTr).

For the education sector, PHP3 billion is allocated for the development of smart campuses across the country; PHP1 billion for scholarships under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA scholarships); and PHP4 billion will be allocated for the implementation of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) digital education adjusting to the new normal.

In the meantime, PHP6 billion will be given to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for assistance to individuals in crisis situations; PHP1.5 billion as assistance to local government units (LGUs); and PHP2 billion as interest subsidy for loans by LGUs from government financial institutions.

The Department of the Interior and Local Government would be given PHP5 billion to hire more contact tracers; PHP2.5 million for the computer-based licensure exams of the Philippine Red Cross; PHP10 million for the research fund of the Health and Technology Assessment Council (HTAC); and PHP15 million for the UP-Diliman computational research laboratory.

As for the PHP25.5 billion standby fund, Angara said that when the funds are generated, PHP10 billion will go to the DOH for testing and possible procurement of vaccine; and PHP15.5 billion will be allotted as additional infusion to government banks.

On top of these appropriations are measures authorizing the President to exercise powers necessary to implementing a host of Covid-19 response and recovery interventions.

Angara said these includes, but not limited to: expediting the accreditation of virus testing kits that diagnose Covid-19; hiring of skilled medical technologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists and other skilled laboratory technicians to conduct the Covid-19 testing; the provision of emergency subsidies to affected low-income households under specific quarantine conditions, as well as to households with recently-returned overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

It also provides for the liberalization of the grant of incentives in the manufacture or importation of critical equipment or essential goods, including PPEs, health care equipment and supplies; and the acceleration in the deployment of critical ICT infrastructure, particularly additional cell towers, equipment, software and wireless technologies to address the need for digital connectivity, internet speed and stability, among others.

Bayanihan 2 also provides for a 60-day grace period for the payment of all existing current and outstanding loans falling due on or before December 31, 2020. There is also a 30-day grace period on residential and commercial rents as well as the payment of utilities.

“The Covid-19 pandemic may have forced us to go into quarantine, but today we demonstrate how there is no locking down the Filipino spirit of bayanihan, especially during times of crisis and calamity… in the true spirit of bayanihan, nagkaisa po tayo (we united) to pass this measure in a relatively short amount of time despite the many issues involved,” Angara said.

Angara also thanked all his colleagues for fully supporting the measure.

“With the swift passage of Bayanihan 2, we hope to reinvigorate our people and renew their confidence in the future,” he said.

Duterte wants transparency

Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III was quick to emphasize the importance of transparency in the implementation of Bayanihan 2, saying Duterte himself specifically instructed him Wednesday night on the need for transparency.

“The President of the Philippines sent a very important message that he wanted all these transactions be transparent and make sure that Congress is given a report on how this is going to be spent,” he told the plenary.

“The President also specified that the Commission on Audit (COA) should also be given a copy on how the Bayanihan 2 funding will be spent. It was a specific order by the President of the Philippines last night,” Sotto said.

Angara said that like the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, Bayanihan also mandates the Executive branch to regularly submit reports to the Oversight Committee of Congress, and, in compliance with Duterte’s directives, also to the Commission on Audit (COA) for added transparency.

Senator Christopher “Bong” Go confirmed Sotto’s pronouncements.

“I would like to confirm, gusto ng Presidente na transparent ang executive and lahat ay accounted saan nagastos ang pera ng gobyerno (the President wants the Executive to be transparent and everything is accounted where government funds were spent,” he said.

He also thanked all members of the Bicameral Conference Committee for coming together in support of Bayanihan 2.

As chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Go commended the committee for providing benefits for healthcare workers, both public and private, who have contracted mild or severe Covid-19, or died due to Covid-19 while in the line of duty.

He also commended the Committee for heeding the President’s call, by providing additional benefits to public and private health care workers, like special risk allowance, life insurance, accommodation, transportation, and meals.

“This measure shall go a long way as we move forward on our road to our recovery as one,” Go said. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "Senate ratifies Bayanihan 2 bill ." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1112963 (accessed August 21, 2020 at 05:38AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "Senate ratifies Bayanihan 2 bill ." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1112963 (archived).

#Philippines #News #Filipino #Pinoy #Tourism #Politics #Culture #Editorial #Environment #Society #History

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