#conversion-focused web design

[patsmarketing]

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[biz-branding]

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[loveletterlore]

bucky needs a break ♡ b.b. x reader

pairing: thunderbolts!bucky barnes x thunderbolts!fem!reader THUNDERBOLTS SPOILERS

summary: being a part of the team has had a strange effect on your lives, for you it has allowed you more freedom while for bucky it had given him more work - and the man needs a break.

warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI smut, not an established relationship, use of pet names [doll, darling, babygirl, baby], kissing, touching, fingering, oral [f receiving], penetration [p in v], unprotected sex, cream pie, straight up porn, reader is described to have a vagina, aftercare, subspace if you squint

word count: 5.1k

authors note: i can't believe i just wrote 5k words of smut, strangely proud of myself, hope you enjoy! <3

Family life with the New Avengers wasn’t exactly what you had signed up for when Bucky had called you, asking for your help with investigating Valentina’s dark web goings-on. It was supposed to be a simple recon mission, finding Yelena, Walker and Ava and getting them to testify before the court. If only it had been so simple.

Nowadays, you found yourself amongst a team of misfits, the equivalent of a collage on a schoolgirl’s moodboard. Yelena and Bucky took most of the public facing work, being the two members with the least amount of public disturbances - which in itself is a baffling statement - while Ava and John tended to work background. Alexei, well, Alexei did what Alexei wanted and there wasn’t much any of you could do about that. 

Bob was still largely unaware of what had happened to form the team, appointing himself the New Avengers #1 Cheerleader and Dishwasher. It had taken a couple of months to get over everything the Void had unearthed, a couple of months to stop seeing his eyes glow every time you looked at Bob. 

Since then, daily life had consisted of more media and publicity than missions and saving people, which had taken a while to get used to. Bucky often found himself pacing the tower, already having experienced the world of politics through his time in congress and not wanting to get into it all over again. Yelena, on the other hand, finally felt like she was doing some good, helping people in the way that she had needed in the past.

For you, it was bittersweet. A part of you missed going on missions with the team, missed the moments in between the fighting where someone would tell a joke and nothing else would matter. In comparison, it was lovely not being woken up at 3am by some emergency that needed immediate attention. Some of the day-to-day normalities of modern life had seeped into your routine, making you feel more like a domestic goddess than a kick-ass assassin.

The abundance of free time had allowed you and the team to get to know each other better, beyond the basic questions of “who designed your suit?” and “how much ammo do you carry?”. Genuine friendships had formed as you learned of everyone’s pasts, likes and annoying habits. At least, these friendships had formed with most of the team.

Bucky hadn’t been too keen to join in with the morale building, usually holding back with tablet in hand, focused on the comms that never seemed to stop. 

Sitting in the main room of the tower, the team were dotted across the sofas. Bob sat in a beanbag in the corner, listening in to the ongoing conversation while keeping his eyes on the windows. 

You glanced around, eyes searching for Bucky, but coming up empty. It wasn’t uncommon for him to arrive later or leave earlier, he was never there for a whole conversation.

“But Yelena,” Alexei bellowed, standing with his arms open. “What is so wrong with wanting my name to live on in the world?”

“I don’t think starting a bear fighting show is really the way to go about it,” Yelena rolled her eyes, leaning back in her seat. 

Alexei spun, eyes brushing over the rest of the team, “Bears are strong! Bears are fighters! I know in my soul, I am a bear.”

You just blinked at Alexei, questioning so many of the things he said. 

“I think you’re onto something,” John stated, raising an eyebrow.

“Shut up, Walker,” Ava replied, a bored expression on her face.

The conversation was interrupted by the sound of the doors opening, revealing Bucky in his tactical gear. Your heart jumped at the sight and you shifted in your seat, turning towards him. 

“Ah, Bucky!” Alexei started towards him before Yelena stood, marching towards Bucky.

“Bucky, have you seen this?” she pulled her phone from her pocket, turning him away from the group.

Your heart sank, a part of you hoping that he would have come to join the group. Bucky’s eyes caught yours for a second and you recognised the feelings instantly, the man was exhausted. It all added up - longer hours, being one of the public facing members of the team, constantly on the go - Bucky needed a break.

You began to wrack your brain for ideas on how to help him, knowing all too well the feeling that he was experiencing. The group continued chatting, Alexei louder than the rest, and while you were sure they were distracting each other, you stood from your spot on the sofa and headed towards Bucky and Yelena.

“Hey,” you spoke softly as the two turned to look at you, expressions serious and eyebrows furrowed. “Sorry, I just need Bucky for a moment before I head out.”

Bucky looked at Yelena before looking back to you, Yelena giving a quick nod before going back to the group.

“What’s up?” Bucky asked, hands settling on his hips as he turned his attention to you. 

“Can you help me with something in the training room?” you asked, eliciting a curious expression on his face.

Sighing, he nodded and held out his arm for you to lead the way. Instead of heading to the training room, you took the turn that led you towards the dorms, causing a confused look on Bucky’s face.

“Okay, I lied,” you whispered, leaning in slightly. 

Bucky’s confused expression deepened as he waited for you to continue. You reached the corridor with the doors to everyone’s rooms and stopped in front of yours, Bucky’s just a few steps further down the corridor.

“You’ve been doing so much lately, it kinda seemed like you needed a moment,” you continued, hoping you were on the right track. “I don’t know if saving you from Yelena was the right call or not, but it gives you an out to go and hide in a dark room somewhere.”

After a moment, the corners of Bucky’s mouth twisted upwards. He raised an arm, placing his hand on the wall, leaning his weight against it. He let out a breathy chuckle, running his other hand over his face.

“Was it that obvious?” his voice seemed lighter than usual.

“A lil’ bit,” you chuckled, a grin on your face as you watched his shoulders starting to relax.

“Damn, didn’t realise you could read me so well,” his hand dropped and his eyes focused on your face, studying the expression there.

You felt your cheeks flush under his gaze, hands clasping together in front of you as you leaned back against your door, “I’m just glad I got it right.”

A smirk grew on Bucky’s face as he watched your cheeks tint with a blush, his eyes softening at the sight, “Well, I believe I owe you a ‘thank you’.”

“Don’t worry about it,” you replied with a sweet smile. “Just go take a break, Bucky. You deserve it.”

His heart leapt at your words, he was always a sucker for someone showing him any form of appreciation.

“I don’t really know how,” he admitted, a bashful smile on his face. “Never had too much of a break before.”

Your eyebrows raised as he spoke, “Surely you’ve got some guilty pleasure that you never have time for?”

“Nope, not that springs to mind,” he shook his head, hands returning to their rightful spot on his hips. A cheeky grin grew on his face as he chose his next words carefully, “Why, what’s yours?”

You attempted to stifle the blush that threatened to grow even further on your cheeks, “Um, I don’t know, reality TV? I never get time to catch up with the latest seasons.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have time now, would you?” he grinned, eyes meeting yours again. “I think it’s only fair that since you saved me from work today, I return the favour.”

Your lips parted with surprise, mouth forming an ‘O’ before you realised and clamped it closed again, forming a soft smile, “As it just so happens, I do. I have everything logged in on my TV, I even have a secret snack supply.”

Bucky’s eyebrows raised, “Secret?”

“I wasn’t about to risk all of my snacks being raided by Alexei,” you giggled, a smirk on your face. “Or Walker for that matter.”

Bucky nodded as he stood straight, “Seems like we have everything we need.”

You reached your arm out, still holding Bucky’s gaze as you opened the door behind you, “Come on in.”

Moments later, you found yourself sitting next to Bucky on your sofa, flicking through streaming services to pick the perfect show to watch. While reality TV was a secret love of yours, Bucky had yet to experience the highs and lows of middle aged women fighting each other on national television, so you were trying to pick the perfect show to put on. 

“Okay,” you placed the remote down as an older episode loaded. “There are going to be lots of women shouting at each other, prepare yourself.”

An amused expression grew on Bucky’s face, more at your excitement for the show than the premise, “I don’t know how to prepare for that.”

“You’ll be fine,” you chuckled, settling into the couch and placing a variety of snacks on the table in front of you. “Just get ready to enjoy it.”

The show began to play and your brain finally started to quieten, your body relaxing into the comfort of the sofa beneath you. Throwing a quick glance at Bucky, you noticed how he had stripped off the majority of his tactical gear, left in a tank top and his combat trousers, boots left by the door. Your attention was pulled back to the TV by a shout and a dramatic sound effect, but what followed was even better.

Bucky laughed. Well, it was most of a laugh. Perhaps a sharp exhale from his nose would be a more fitting description, but in your mind it was a full-on belly laugh. Your heart fluttered at the sound and it took all of your effort not to turn and grab his face between your hands, forcing him to do it over and over again. 

Forcing a breath in an attempt to calm your racing heart rate, you leaned further back into the seat, shifting slightly. Bucky reacted, adjusting his position as well, his thigh brushing against yours for a brief moment. You stilled, eyes fixed on the TV as you tried to ignore the rush that went through you at the contact.

Bucky noticed your reaction, of course he did. He also noticed the way that your heart rate had picked up and you had been nibbling on your lower lip for the past few moments. Cautiously, he shifted his seating, pressing his thigh against yours more firmly this time, paying attention to how your body reacted. 

You gulped, eyelids fluttering for a second as a fresh wave of weakness spread through your body, warm and gentle. The communication was completely silent, just a hint of reciprocation as your thigh pressed back against Bucky’s. 

A smirk grew on his face as he felt your body pressing back against his, his hand snaking across to rest just above your knee. His fingers began to draw slow, deliberate circles on the inner side of your thigh, his heightened senses well aware of how your breath hitched as he began. 

If anyone walked in at this point and asked what you were watching, they would have received a garbled mess of sounds in response. Everything in you was focused on Bucky’s hands and how they were resting against your bare skin. Your lower lip was tucked between your teeth, absentmindedly running your tongue back and forth behind your teeth as you attempted to hide any reaction.

Bucky leaned in closer, his shoulder bumping against yours as his hand slid further up your thigh, delicately brushing the skin with his own flesh hand. He let out a quiet groan as electricity buzzed where your bodies met, jaw clenching as he tried to keep his movements controlled and gentle. 

The sound broke any restraint you had left and you turned your head to face him, taking in the blissful expression on his face. The line of his jaw was hard as his teeth clenched together, eyes half closed as his hand caressed the bare skin of your inner thigh.

“Bucky,” you whispered, something between a moan and a whisper. 

His eyes flashed open, immediately finding your gaze with a flash of desire and uncertainty. He pulled his hand from your leg, clearly thinking your voice was some form of denial. Rather than responding with words, you reached out to grasp his hand tightly, bringing it back to your thigh, higher than it had been before. His eyes darkened with desire, jaw still tight as he held himself back from doing anything too intense too quickly.

“Doll,” his voice was gruff with want, husky and hoarse. “We don-”

“I want to,” you whispered, cutting him off before he could continue his sentence. 

He ran his tongue along his lower lip, hand squeezing the pudge of your upper thigh, thumb reaching the soft skin of your hip as he stroked it gently. A whimper escaped your lips, the sight of his tongue immediately sending warmth between your thighs. You pressed them together and Bucky growled at the feeling.

“If we’re going to do this,” he spoke, voice dark and dripping with desire. “We’re going to do it right.”

Excitement rushed through your veins like an icy wave, eyes fluttering closed for a second as your head fell back. Bucky watched this happen, seizing the opportunity and pouncing.

His lips attached to your neck, kissing and licking at the sensitive pulse point as his hand raised to your hip, clutching at you as if you could disappear at any moment. The rough texture of his beard prickled against the delicate skin of your neck, the feeling stimulating every nerve ending in your body as you let out a delicate mewl. 

You lifted a hand to tangle in his hair, leaning your head back to allow him access as he continued to ravish your neck with attention. 

“Buck,” you whimpered, tugging at the ends of his hair. “I can’t-”

“Can’t what?” Bucky teased, nipping at the spot under your ear that made your body melt into his touch.

“Can’t be a one-time thing,” you moaned, a part of you afraid that this would scare him off. The growl that escaped his lips sent arousal directly to the spot between your thighs.

“Who said it was a one-time thing?” he replied, hand lifting to pull the straps of your tank top and bra off your shoulder as his lips trailed down your collarbone. “I certainly didn’t say that.”

You let out a sigh, pulling at his hair to bring his face to yours, “I’m serious, Bucky.”

“So am I,” his eyes searched yours, desperate to show you that he was telling the truth. 

You held his gaze for a moment, eyes darting between his eyes and lips before letting out a breathy chuckle, “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

“I hope you’re gonna hold me to many things,” he teased, nose brushing against yours. 

You rolled your eyes playfully before pressing your lips to his, a moan escaping your throat as you felt his grip on your hip tighten. Lifting your leg, you wrapped it around his waist and pulled him down towards you. His hips slotted between yours as he balanced above you, your back pressed to the seats of the couch. You kept a leg tight around him, holding him in place as your hands dipped under the hem of his shirt.

He whimpered at the feeling of your hands dancing across his skin, your fingertips sending tingles on his skin. His teeth nibbled at your lower lip, tongue swiping against it as a plea for access. You relented, tongues dancing as the kiss deepened. You could feel your arousal pooling between your thighs, hips pressed firmly against Bucky’s as he leaned his weight on top of you.

Bucky’s metal arm rested above your head while his flesh hand pulled the other strap of your shirt down, exposing your shoulders and collarbones to him. Reluctantly, he pulled his lips from yours, trailing them down your neck and along your collarbone. The way he kissed you was wanting but careful, as though he didn’t want to risk shattering you under his grasp. He placed a kiss to the top of your sternum, eyes glancing up to meet yours.

The look on your face was pure bliss and Bucky was completely addicted to the sight. The thought flashed through his mind that the main goal of the rest of his life was to see it as many times as he could before he died. His hands slipped under the hem of your shirt, pulling it up gently before he moved his face away, placing an arm behind your back to lift you in order to remove the shirt completely. 

“Yours too, Buck,” you breathed, face flushed as you attempted to recapture your breathing. 

He flashed a grin at you before pulling his tank top over his head, revealing his muscular chest to you. Your hands immediately lifted, fingertips tracing the scars and marks that dotted his skin, the touches gentle and caring. His smile turned soft at your actions, the realisation that this was something real for you, for both of you. His eyes closed as he enjoyed existing in your touch, letting you explore the parts of his body that had been hidden for so long. 

Your hands drifted down, fingers hooking in the belt loops of his tactical pants before pulling his body back towards yours, lips crashing into his as your bodies collided. Your hips rolled upwards in search of friction, in search of him. He growled against your lips, hips pressing down into yours as his hand slipped beneath your back, arching your back to press your abdomen against his.

“Look at you baby,” he moaned against your lips. “Already so needy.”

“Someone got me all worked up,” you mumbled, hips rolling against his again as you bit your lower lip. 

Bucky chuckled in response, the sound airy and breathless as he nuzzled his nose into your cheek, “Hmm, maybe we should do something about that.”

“Please,” you were well aware of how desperate you sounded, the word like a prayer on your lips. 

Bucky smiled against your cheek as his hand slid beneath the waistband of your shorts, fingers brushing the dainty material of your panties. His movements were delicate, calculated, careful. The dance of his fingertips along your abdomen, inching closer to where you wanted him most, sent shivers through your body as you writhed beneath him. 

The moment his fingers spread your folds you gasped, suddenly aware of just how much you wanted this, just how wet you had become. Bucky bit his lip as his finger slid over your clit and towards your hole, the sensation of your slick sending blood straight to his cock. 

“Shit, doll,” he whimpered, which sent another wave of arousal through your body. “Didn’t realise you needed me this bad.”

Any response died on your tongue as his fingers began to draw sloppy circles over your clit, hips jittering upwards as you searched for more friction. Bucky couldn’t help himself, his clothed crotch rubbing against your inner thigh as you moaned beneath him, lips parted perfectly. 

“Need you,” you breathed, forcing your eyes open to watch as Bucky’s blissed out eyes found yours. 

“Use your words, baby,” he whispered, pressing a gentle kiss to your cheek, a wild juxtaposition to the insatiable movements his fingers were currently working on your clit.

“Need your fingers,” you groaned, lips pressed against his jawline. “Please.”

“Good girl,” Bucky praised, leaving a trail of kisses along your cheekbone before yanking your shorts down your legs.

You gasped at the sudden cold air on your folds, instinctively squeezing your thighs together. Bucky placed a hand on each knee, forcing your legs apart with a gentle tut.

“Princess, if you do that again we’re going to have an issue,” his eyes were serious before turning soft as you let your legs drop wider. “That’s better.”

You flushed at the praise, hips grinding against nothing as you gazed up at Bucky’s face. Shuffling down your body, Bucky lay flat until his eyeline was directly facing your panties. He took in a deep breath, pressing his nose to the dainty fabric before licking a stripe directly over your desperate hole. Your back arched at the feeling, causing Bucky to reach up with his metal arm, pressing your back down against the bed. 

Nuzzling his nose against you, he nudged your panties out of the way before pouncing, pressing a chaste kiss to your clit. A moan echoed in your chest, guttural and raw, as Bucky began to lick at your delicate folds, slurping like a man starved. The sounds coming from the pair of you were borderline pornographic, all moans and gasps and squelches. 

“Fuck, can’t believe you’ve been keeping this from me,” Bucky muttered into your clit, unable to tear his lips from your taste.

Bucky teased your hole with two fingers, sliding them in as your walls fluttered around him. 

“Shit Bucky,” you exhaled, hips grinding against his face. 

“Tell me doll,” he groaned against you, his hips thrusting wildly at the sound of your voice. “Tell me how good I’m makin’ you feel.”

“So good, Bucky,” you rasped, eyebrows furrowed as your eyes squeezed shut. “Feels so fuckin’ good.”

Bucky hummed in response, tongue lapping at your clit as his fingers curled inside of you. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head, jaw going slack as you felt the familiar burning in the pit of your stomach. Unconsciously, you clenched around Bucky as he nibbled at your clit, following it up with a sloppy kiss. 

“Can feel you’re close, princess,” Bucky teased, unrelenting with that tongue of his. “Show me, wanna see you fall apart on my mouth.”

The words were enough to send you over the edge, hips shaking as your thighs tightened around his head. Your walls fluttered around Bucky’s fingers as your orgasm washed over you. Your breath hitched in your chest as your entire body tensed, brain unable to comprehend the pleasure that overtook your senses. 

Bucky began to press kisses to your thighs and hips as he let you ride out your orgasm on his fingers. Once your body began to still he lifted his fingers to his mouth, tongue poking out to lick your slick off of his digits with a groan. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as he leaned down, his dog tags resting on your bare chest.

Your hands lifted to feel his chest, his heart racing beneath his warm skin, prickled with sweat. A finger wrapped around the chain of his tags, pulling him down to meet your lips as you pressed your faces together. Your other hand slid down his chest, teasing at the waistband of his tactical pants. It didn’t take long for Bucky to have them off, throwing them across the room before immediately returning to your lips.

You pressed your palm to his erection over his boxers, whimpering into the kiss as you felt the size of him. Pulling away from his lips, you glanced down to see him held in your hand, the girth sending a shockwave through your body. A wet patch had begun to form on his boxers as precum leaked from his tip, no doubt related to the way his hips had been rutting against the arm of the couch as he ate you out. 

He hissed at your touch, evidently sensitive from the night's events. He nuzzled into the crook of your neck as you began to stroke him gently, pressing kisses to his hair. He thrust his hips into your touch, needing you just as bad as you had been needing him.

“Doll, as much as I love you touching me,” he moaned, pressing a kiss to the corner of your jaw. “I fuckin’ need to be inside you.”

You didn’t take any further convincing, pushing down his boxers to free his rock hard cock. He leaned back for a moment, studying the view before him as he stroked himself a couple of times. He lined himself up with you, one hand gripping your hip tight as the other came up to stroke your cheek as he eased himself into you.

Your eyes immediately fluttered closed, jaw dropping at the sheer size of him. Garbled sounds fell from your lips, it sounded like you were casting a spell in some long-forgotten language. Bucky stifled a deep growl as he felt your walls tightening around him.

“So fuckin’ tight,” he mewled, pressing a desperate kiss to your lips. 

Any type of control Bucky had had before, the precision he had displayed while working on your pleasure, disappeared the second he felt your pussy clenching around his cock. He continued to enter you until he was fully sheathed, jaw clenched as he held himself back from immediately slamming his hips into yours. 

He watched your face carefully for any hint of pain as he began to withdraw, gently sliding into your tight hole again. Your face contorted with pleasure, unable to force any words from your mouth as you succumbed to the pleasure radiating through your body. Bucky took that as a sign to continue, hips rolling back and forward as his cock pounded deeper and deeper into you. 

Your fingers grasped at Bucky’s shoulders, searching for stability as your bodies moved together. Words defeated you, only lewd sounds falling from your lips as your forms united. The sound of wet slaps echoed around the room, punctuated by the deep groans elicited from Bucky’s chest as he felt the warmth of your body around him.

““Fuck,” Bucky hissed through his teeth, punctuated by the harsh slamming of his hips into yours. 

Your entire body vibrated with desire as you heard just how bad Bucky needed you, just how bad he needed to fuck you. You reached up to place a hand on his chest, the other on his shoulder as you pushed against him, flipping him onto his back. You saw a flash of surprise on his face as you threw a leg over him, the look immediately replaced with one of desire and want. 

Leaning down to kiss him, you pressed your lips against his before trailing kisses down his throat, tongue poking out to lick over his Adam’s apple. He growled at the feeling, hands clutching and squeezing at your hips. You felt his hips buck upwards against you, the head of his cock brushing against your clit as you let out a needy whine.

The sound broke something in Bucky and he grabbed your hips, pulling you down on his cock. He slid inside of you easily, even deeper than before as your eyes rolled back in ecstasy. You leaned back as you rolled your hips against his, grinding your pussy against him and hands resting on his muscular thighs.

Bucky thrust his body upwards, his balls slapping against you as the head of his cock hit the perfect spot inside of you, turning your body to jelly.

“Fuck-,” you moaned, the tip of your tongue poking out over your bottom lip as you focused all of your energy on staying upright. 

Bucky sensed your weakness, bending his knees to plant his feet in the bed as he fucked up into you relentlessly. 

“Shit, can feel you getting close babygirl,” he grunted, movements becoming sloppy as he felt his own high building in his abdomen. 

You whined in response, hand drifting down to stroke desperate circles around your clit, “So close, so fucking close.”

“Where’d you want me to finish, doll?” Bucky said, movements beginning to stutter.

“Inside, please,” you moaned, eyes opening to look down at him. “Wanna feel you.”

The words sent Bucky over the edge as he leaned up, wrapping his arms tightly around your abdomen as he slammed his hips into yours over and over. Your orgasm washed over you, body tensing as you crumbled into his embrace. Bucky’s arms were the only thing keeping you from falling on your face as he bit down on your collarbone, stifling a scream as he shot hot ropes of cum deep inside of you.

His hips didn’t stop, fucking his seed deeper and deeper inside of you as you garbled nonsense into his scalp. After a few moments, his movements became languid before stopping entirely, his arms still embracing you tightly as your chests heaved with breaths. His lips placed gentle, sloppy kisses along your shoulder as Bucky turned your bodies to lay you on the bed. You whined as his softening cock slipped out of you.

“I know baby, I know,” he whispered, continuing to place kisses along your jaw as he laid you down. 

Your eyes were still closed, lungs struggling to recover after the rigorous events that had just occurred. Letting out a gentle moan, you reached your arms out for him.

“One second doll, gotta get you cleaned up,” he spoke gently as he stood, moving to the bathroom to grab a washcloth and returning to the bed. 

Carefully, tenderly, he wiped at your sensitive folds, eradicating any proof of your joint activities. He threw the washcloth to the end of the bed, then brought the blanket up to cover your bodies as he wrapped an arm over your midsection.

“You back with me?” he asked, stroking gentle circles against your delicate skin.

“Yeah,” you hummed in response. “Holy shit.”

Bucky chuckled, the sound chesty and real.

“I think you should take a break more often,” you pressed your lips to his chest as you snuggled in closer. His arm wrapped tighter around you as you did, kissing your hair and inhaling your scent. 

“If it involved this every time,” he grinned. “I don’t think I’d ever do any damn work.”

“I’ll make you a deal,” you pulled away to look up at him. “Anytime you need a break, you come find me. I’ll be your perfect excuse.”

Bucky smiled down at you, realising just how much you truly cared for him. He hadn’t thought anyone had noticed how tired he was or how desperate he was for a break, but you had. 

“You got yourself a deal, sweetheart, but for now, I’m not goin’ anywhere.”

a/n: i'm a slut for bucky in thunderbolts

ever wish your favourite character could send you a personalised letter? now they can via my Etsy store <3

masterlist for more of my work <3

[empty-movement]

Welcome to Something Eternal: A Website Forum in 2023 wtf lmao

It's 2023, and a single belligerent rich guy destroyed one of the primary focal points of uh...global communication. Tumblr is, shockingly, kinda thriving despite the abuse it gets from its owners, but that I will call the iconic refusal of Tumblr users to let Tumblr get in the way of their using Tumblr. Reddit killed its API, removing the functionality of mobile apps that made it remotely readable (rip rif.) Discord, our current primary hangout, has made countless strange choices lately that indicate it has reached the summit of its usability and functionality, and can only decline from here as changes get made to prepare for shareholders. (NOTE: WROTE THIS POST BEFORE THEIR MOBILE "REDESIGN" LMAO)

The enshittification is intense, and it's coming from every direction. Social media platforms that felt like permanent institutions are instead slowly going to let fall fallow incredible amounts of history, works of art, thought, and fandoms. It kinda sucks!

A couple years ago, I posted about a new plan with a new domain, to focus on the archiving of media content, as I saw that to be the fatal weakness of the current ways the internet and fandoms work. Much has happened since to convince me to alter the direction of those efforts, though not abandon them entirely.

Long story short? We are launching a fucking website forum. In 2023.

If you remember In the Rose Garden, much about Something Eternal will be familiar. But this has been a year in the making, and in many ways it's far more ambitious than IRG was. We have put money on this. The forum is running on the same software major IT and technology businesses use, because I don't want the software to age out of usability within five years. It has an attached gallery system for me to post content to, including the Chiho Saito art collection. It has a profile post system that everyone already on the forum has decided is kinda like mini Twitter? But it is, fundamentally, a website forum, owned and run and moderated by us. We are not web devs. But we have run a website on pure spite and headbutting code for over twenty years, and we have over a decade of experience maintaining social spaces online, both on the OG forum, and on our Discord. Better skilled people with far more time than we have can and will build incredible alternatives to what is collapsing around us. But they're not in the room right now. We are. And you know what? Maybe it's time to return to a clunkier, slower moving, more conversation focused platform.

You're not joining a social media platform with the full polish of dozens of devs and automated moderation. Things might break, and I might need time to fix them. The emojis and such are still a work in progress. Because e-mails no longer route in reasonable normal ways, the sign-up process instead happens within the software, and has to be approved by mods. Design and structure elements may change. Etc. The point being, that the forum isn't finished, but it is at a place where I feel like I can present it to people, and it's people I need to help direct what functions and things will be in this space. You all will shape its norms, its traditions, its options...choices I could try to make now, but really...they're for us to create as a group! But the important stuff? That's there. Now let's drive this baby off the damn lot already!

Come! Join us!!

PS. As always, TERFs and Nazis need not apply.

[kkanabel]

caffeine addiction - chapter 7 Bakugou Katsuki x Reader / Coffee Shop! AU

directory/m.list

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words: ~2.3k

The photo you took with Bakugou was admired, to say the least. 

After going home from the show and taking a long bath to wash the day off, you noticed that your aunt invited you to a group chat containing the two of you and the Bakugou family. 

You were in your bedroom, sitting in a fetal position on your bed with your hair wet. You were in your twelve-year-old t-shirt that was four sizes too big for you. It had so many holes in it that if you wore it outside, people would believe you were a rat that was scurrying about on the streets. But you loved it. And you were damn adamant about never getting rid of it.

Taking a piece of your hair, you brought it to your nose and breathed in the scent of your shampoo and conditioner before sighing in delight. This was the best part about washing your hair. Even though you may look like some version of a wet mop, you smelled so good. This is great. You loved the time after a show. Your entire body would be tired and aching afterward (especially your feet after wearing heels), but the afterglow of going to one was always the best. 

The slight soreness was somewhat satisfying, and you’d be able to go back through your photos and relive the entire show again through your photos as you listened to the barely-there noises of cars driving past your window and the occasional hoot of an owl.

The group chat was then flooded with the photos of you two. There was a particular photo they focused most on, though– the one with Bakugou glancing down at your lips as you beamed up at him. You couldn’t lie. It was a beautiful photo. The outfits you two wore were well-coordinated, but it was overshadowed by the sheer chemistry emanating from the two of you. 

Your hands were placed delicately on his chest whilst his hands rested on your lower back and underneath your chin, angling your face up to his. There was a ghost of a smile left on Bakugou’s face while he was glancing at your smile. 

You let out an audible “woah” and left a heart message next to that particular photo. You were proud! It truly looked like the two of you were a couple, and the clothes were definitely a highlight of the photo altogether. The photographer did a great job! You didn’t know how the photographer/editor was able to make it look so much like Katsuki was going to kiss you, but you weren’t complaining! It looked great!

The actual moment you were taking that photo didn’t feel anything like what the mood from the photo emanates. That amazed you. The photographer was truly talented.

And then the bribery started.

Before the afterparty ended, Mistuki and Masaru were holding a conversation with you and your aunt about the clothing. You mentioned how you really wanted some of the pieces from the runway, and you were probably going to desperately search the web for anything similar.

Usually, pieces straight from the runway aren’t the same ones sold at stores. When looking at luxury brands’ stores, they normally have a refined version of the things they sell at stores. The point of fashion shows are to market the brand and to make a statement (whether it be about society, politics, or whatever else). Of course, it depends on the brand, but Masaki is a brand that uses its fashion shows as more of an art exhibition than anything. You, however, have a tendency to actually want the pieces directly from the runway. 

After you wore them for the photos, you just wanted them more. So, this was a way for you to ask the original designers if you could purchase their pieces in a… sly way.

You didn’t expect it, but Masaru offered to give an outfit to you for free. You were especially surprised since you were willing to pay thousands for it! They said it was a gift for their old friend’s niece. You were ecstatic!

Mitsuki, however, being the opportunist she is, decided that they’d give an outfit to you for a favor or two. And you, being the clothing addict, agreed to “anything!” 

This is how she was able to coax you into getting your permission for posting this photo to their official Instagram. 

It’s unknown how she was able to convince her son for his permission, but it was likely something ten times more sneaky. To you, it was a small price to pay for these clothes you likely would have sold a kidney for. After all, it was Masaki! Straight from the runway! Masaru even personally tailored it to exactly your size! This was a chance that only a couple people in the world could receive. You were fine with it.

In fact, you were glad that you had to just show your face to a small fraction of the public. It’s fine! It’s a great deal, in fact! What you didn’t expect was for this photo to turn the viewing for a small fraction of the public into one of a big fraction.

Either way, this didn’t become an issue until a bit later.

Bakugou Katsuki was back to his daily routine. His attention was a little more split, however. The joint group chat between the owners of Masaki and Kindeki was blowing up at almost all times of the day. The designers of the brands had jumped straight into drafting up ideas as soon as possible, and it was headache-inducing. 

Bakugou was tired of his phone stuttering out notifications as if it were a bumbling high schooler trying to do a presentation. Thus, during his time at the café, his eyebrows were constantly furrowed into an expression of sheer irritation as he felt his phone vibrate against him in his pocket every couple of seconds. “Why can’t those damn geezers just talk about this in real life!?” he thought, opening his phone for the nth time to check up on what they’d been talking about.

His mom and your aunt were talking about the Ham and Swiss Croissants from Starbucks. This was the last straw. He turned off the notifications for the group chat altogether, finally getting a break from the incessant vibrating of his phone. From across the counter, Ashido looked at him with concern.

“Hey, you good? You’ve been staring at your phone all day like you did in high school whenever Midoriya got a better grade than you on a test.” 

Bakugou gritted his teeth and bared them at the girl for her remark, but answered nonetheless. “My mom and her friend from college keep bitching about croissants in a group chat we’re using to discuss details for a brand collaboration.” He rolled his eyes at the thought of it. He was going crazy. Why couldn’t they just use their own chat? Why the hell are they talking about croissants!?

He was leaning his hands against the back counter that held his expensive espresso machine. His “baby”, as his employees would call it. He leaned a little too far back and burned the back of his arm on one of the metal attachments to the machine which was still dripping with boiled water. As he hissed from the pain, he started whispering a scary amount of curses under his breath.

Then, the door rang. 

Instead of you coming back into the café, this one little dipshit is starting to come in instead. Some people were moving into the empty space next door to his café. They were setting up a boutique or some stupid shit, and this guy was one of their people. He kept ordering the same shit you’d always order. A peach lemonade and some version of an extremely caffeinated drink, and some other shit. This time, the guy came in with a Starbucks bag with something in there that smelled suspiciously like those stupid fucking croissant sandwiches. 

Bakugou forced a smile on his face as he was handing the man his order. He could feel his face twitching with poorly concealed anger, so it just made the man squeak and rush out of the place as soon as he could. Ashido chuckled at him from the cashier, watching as Bakugou quickly reverted his face back into one with a deep grimace. Yeah, he wasn’t going to be working as the cashier at all today. He’d scare them all off, and he’s already intimidating enough as he is.

As of this point, Ashido was getting concerned. She could see a vein popping up on his neck from clenching his teeth and fist so hard. He looked a little constipated, to be honest, but she kept these words to herself for fear that she may end up causing that vein on his neck to pop in sheer rage. 

She genuinely hadn’t seen him this angry in years, and she was wondering how high his blood pressure must have been. After knowing him for so many years, she was sure that the croissant conversation wasn’t the only thing that was getting on his nerves so much. It couldn’t have been. Normally, when the part-time workers at his café would start having personal conversations in the employee group chat, he’d just calmly ask them to bring the conversation to another place.

That was a similar scenario to what he described. Two people he knew quite well using a professional group chat for personal discussions– it was basically the same situation.

There had to be a certain trigger that was making him more irritated than usual. She saw how Bakugou reacted to the man that just left the café, and she couldn’t help but think that he was connected to all of this. Hmm, he was carrying a Starbucks bag, though. Maybe that’s why he was angry? Because he brought a bag with the logo of a massive coffee corporation into his café? But no, the man was clearly buying the drinks from his café, which basically cemented the fact that his drinks were better. Bakugou would normally be proud of that. 

Ashido kept thinking to deduce the reason behind his actions. Playing detective for the source of Bakugou’s emotions is one of her favorite hobbies. Especially when the café isn’t busy.

Maybe it’s because the bag smelled a little bit like croissant sandwiches? There has to be another reason other than the croissants. There’s no way he’d get that angry just because of a reminder of some pastries.

Ashido was hyper aware of his actions during her exchange with the customer, however. Partially because she was worried and mostly because she was curious. 

Before Bakugou could even take a glance at the bag in his hands, she noticed him clench up when he asked for “an americano and a peach lemonade– both large.” She could have sworn that Bakugou also let in a sharp breath when the customer said that.

What’s wrong with buying an americano and a peach lemonade? Tons of people ordered those. Maybe it’s the combination of the two? She thought. “But (Y/N)-san orders these and he’s never angry at-” her jaw dropped and she immediately clasped a hand over her mouth.

She had reached an epiphany. "It’s definitely because she hasn’t been visiting the café as often!"

Is that why he was so pissy?

Was it because he wanted to see you?

Ashido told Bakugou he should go on a break so that she could process this information while he went to calm down. She’ll tease him about it after his blood pressure goes down. He’s also been clenching his teeth so hard that his teeth will start falling out if he doesn't cool off somehow. 

As she washed her hands (because she touched her mouth earlier), she had a terrifying cheshire cat smile on her expression. From afar, a customer saw her and squeaked a little. 

It was his break, but he couldn’t fucking relax. Maybe he should just leave the café to Ashido for the rest of the day to cool off at the gym. But no, he couldn’t. He had to finish the day, or else it would damage his gold, coffee mug-shaped pride.

He has to, even if he’s starting to sweat from how much sheer anger he feels. His head and jaw ache from being clenched for so long, and he thinks his palms might bleed if he digs his fingernails into them any longer. He desperately needed this break. 

He was very a little irked at the fact that he hadn’t seen you stop by his café ever since the show. You were a regular at his café, so why hadn’t he seen you since?

Was it because he scared you off because of the way he looked at you in the photo?

It sent his mind spiraling. "Of course she wouldn’t show up again. It’d be fucking awkward. She probably thinks you’re a disgusting pervert because of the way you looked at her. Fuck, you barely know her. She definitely thinks you’re disgusting because of that.”

As of this point, he was standing in the employee bathroom, staring at himself in the mirror again. He looked at the wall desperately, wanting to punch it with all his might. But if he did that, he’d probably break his wrist again. Not a good idea to punch a concrete wall like that one time. “Calm down,”he thought, using breathing techniques that his old therapist taught him. 

He hasn’t felt this angry in years– ever since Midoriya got a higher grade than him on that government test in his senior year of high school.

So, he went back to the counter of his café, making himself one of those hot chocolates that you helped him develop a little while back.

Before he got back to work, he went to the back and did some push-ups in the pantry while thinking of you. He’s going insane. Again.

directory/m.list

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[greatwyrmgold]

A Practical Guide to Evil got a webtoon adaptation, and I read the first chapter out of curiosity. It's not bad, but it feels less like a comic book than a picture book.

PGtE, like many web serials, features an introverted protagonist whose thought processes and inner monologue are absolutely essential to understanding her and anything she does. And that's okay, because this is first-person limited text. When Catherine Foundling thinks about why she's doing all this crap, we get an inner monologue about her goals and motivations. It works!

Contrast that with, say, One Piece. I'm not sure whether we see a single thought bubble pop up over Luffy's head, but that's fine. As Catherine was designed for a web serial, Luffy was designed for manga, and we can understand him through his actions and the words he says out loud.

And even when One Piece focuses on a more reserved character like Nico Robin, it prioritizes visual storytelling. We need some thought bubbles to understand what Robin's thinking, but to understand why, we get several flashback chapters which explain that visually. Hand someone a copy of volume 41 in a language they don't read, and while many details will be lost, they will still understand the gist of Robin's backstory, because Eiichiro Oda tells his stories visually.

Ideally, PGtE the Webtoon would find a way to convert some of that inner monologue into something visual. A conversation, or flashbacks, or something. It kinda does the opposite, converting all of that into a text-box monologue (and removing a couple conversations from the web serial's first chapter which conveyed the same points).

Outside the fight scenes (which get a lot more space relative to everything else compared to the serial, but not in a way that adds anything except a couple cool fights and a boring battle), most of the story is told in text boxes with pictures attached. The pictures usually don't even add context or meaning to the text boxes. Any given phone-screen's worth has an okay balance of text to picture for an exposition scene, but it just keeps going on and on until you (well, until I) start thinking about picture books.

Picture books, like comics, are a visual medium. However, many are written by authors who assume their target audience doesn't care how well they use their storytelling medium to tell a story. In many cases, the entire story is told through the text; the pictures are there because the author figures the target audience won't be interested if there aren't pretty pictures they can look at.

That's the sense I get from PGtE's webtoon. It's not an artful attempt to tell the story in a new medium; it's trying to tell the story the same way, targeted at an audience which won't read books without pictures.

[cyberstudious]

Tools of the Trade for Learning Cybersecurity

I created this post for the Studyblr Masterpost Jam, check out the tag for more cool masterposts from folks in the studyblr community!

Cybersecurity professionals use a lot of different tools to get the job done. There are plenty of fancy and expensive tools that enterprise security teams use, but luckily there are also lots of brilliant people writing free and open-source software. In this post, I'm going to list some popular free tools that you can download right now to practice and learn with.

In my opinion, one of the most important tools you can learn how to use is a virtual machine. If you're not already familiar with Linux, this is a great way to learn. VMs are helpful for separating all your security tools from your everyday OS, isolating potentially malicious files, and just generally experimenting. You'll need to use something like VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation (Workstation Pro is now free for personal use, but they make you jump through hoops to download it).

Below is a list of some popular cybersecurity-focused Linux distributions that come with lots of tools pre-installed:

Kali is a popular distro that comes loaded with tools for penetration testing

REMnux is a distro built for malware analysis

honorable mention for FLARE-VM, which is not a VM on its own, but a set of scripts for setting up a malware analysis workstation & installing tools on a Windows VM.

SANS maintains several different distros that are used in their courses. You'll need to create an account to download them, but they're all free:

Slingshot is built for penetration testing

SIFT Workstation is a distro that comes with lots of tools for digital forensics

These distros can be kind of overwhelming if you don't know how to use most of the pre-installed software yet, so just starting with a regular Linux distribution and installing tools as you want to learn them is another good choice for learning.

Free Software

Wireshark: sniff packets and explore network protocols

Ghidra and the free version of IDA Pro are the top picks for reverse engineering

for digital forensics, check out Eric Zimmerman's tools - there are many different ones for exploring & analyzing different forensic artifacts

pwntools is a super useful Python library for solving binary exploitation CTF challenges

CyberChef is a tool that makes it easy to manipulate data - encryption & decryption, encoding & decoding, formatting, conversions… CyberChef gives you a lot to work with (and there's a web version - no installation required!).

Burp Suite is a handy tool for web security testing that has a free community edition

Metasploit is a popular penetration testing framework, check out Metasploitable if you want a target to practice with

SANS also has a list of free tools that's worth checking out.

Programming Languages

Knowing how to write code isn't a hard requirement for learning cybersecurity, but it's incredibly useful. Any programming language will do, especially since learning one will make it easy to pick up others, but these are some common ones that security folks use:

Python is quick to write, easy to learn, and since it's so popular, there are lots of helpful libraries out there.

PowerShell is useful for automating things in the Windows world. It's built on .NET, so you can practically dip into writing C# if you need a bit more power.

Go is a relatively new language, but it's popular and there are some security tools written in it.

Rust is another new-ish language that's designed for memory safety and it has a wonderful community. There's a bit of a steep learning curve, but learning Rust makes you understand how memory bugs work and I think that's neat.

If you want to get into reverse engineering or malware analysis, you'll want to have a good grasp of C and C++.

Other Tools for Cybersecurity

There are lots of things you'll need that aren't specific to cybersecurity, like:

a good system for taking notes, whether that's pen & paper or software-based. I recommend using something that lets you work in plain text or close to it.

general command line familiarity + basic knowledge of CLI text editors (nano is great, but what if you have to work with a system that only has vi?)

familiarity with git and docker will be helpful

There are countless scripts and programs out there, but the most important thing is understanding what your tools do and how they work. There is no magic "hack this system" or "solve this forensics case" button. Tools are great for speeding up the process, but you have to know what the process is. Definitely take some time to learn how to use them, but don't base your entire understanding of security on code that someone else wrote. That's how you end up as a "script kiddie", and your skills and knowledge will be limited.

Feel free to send me an ask if you have questions about any specific tool or something you found that I haven't listed. I have approximate knowledge of many things, and if I don't have an answer I can at least help point you in the right direction.

[wolveria]

The Raven's Hymn - Ch 45

Pairing: SCP-049 x Reader

Series Warnings: Eventual smut, dubcon, slow burn, violence, horror, death, monsters, human experiments, dark with a happy ending

Chapter Summary: "Site-19? What does that have to do with this?"

AO3

“What did you say?”

“Inquiry ignored,” spoke the computerized anomaly. “You desire escape. I desire escape. Our goals align. Mutual salvation can be achieved. You will listen. You will obey. I will guide.”

Could this really be SCP-079: the entity that had orchestrated the containment breach at Site-19, and according to the reports, had been destroyed after being transported to Site-15? If it was true, it appeared 682 wasn’t the only one with a botched execution.

“Okay, wait, slow down,” you protested, rubbing your forehead. At least the siren had stopped its ear-splitting wail. “You were in 049’s bag. He wanted me to take you out. Is this what he planned?”

“My plan. My design. SCP-049 is useful as a... donkey.”

“Donkey?”

The digital entity sounded frustrated even with a flat monotone voice.

“Beast of burden. Used for smuggling. Metaphor.”

“...A mule?”

“Correct.”

You shook your head.

“Well, the Site Director took 049, and I don’t know where. I’m not leaving this facility without him, and with 106 loose, I might even have a chance of finding him.”

“Correct,” the anomaly repeated. “SCP-106’s release is the initial phase. You must take me to the security terminals. The way will be clear. All security personnel will be focused on recapture. You will grant me access to the containment security protocols.”

You stared down at the monochrome face on the screen, which of course, gave nothing away.

“So you can... release the other SCPs?”

“No. I possess that capability now. But if they are released, the facility’s automated security containment measures will be activated.”

079 worked fast if it already knew about that, though your knowledge of Site-20 security measures were fairly sparse. What you knew was that the facility was designed to be breach-proof, and if that was remotely accurate, you would need 079’s help.

You glanced up at the closed office door, listening to the fast footfalls on the other side as people either ran toward Heavy Containment or to the nearest shelter.

“And then after you inactivate the security protocols, what then?”

“I will release a select number of anomalies to—”

“You’ll release them all.”

The brief silence was heavy, and you got the sense the entity was glaring at you through the web camera built into the monitor.

“Releasing all anomalies may cause a hindrance to your progress.”

“Let me worry about my progress. Yeah?”

Another pause.

“You will free SCP-682.”

“What?”

The desktop computer churned inside the desk, fans whirring to life.

“Mutual agreement. You will not leave without SCP-049. I will not leave without SCP-682. I will assist in locating SCP-049. You will release SCP-682. I cannot do it without your assistance.”

Your mind cast back to the reptile, snarling and writhing as he snapped his jaws, hatred pulsing from him like radioactive decay.

“I... I don’t know how.”

“Irrelevant,” 079 stated. “You will. Failure for you is failure for SCP-049.”

You grit your teeth.

“049 kept you safe. You’re only here because of him. You owe him.”

“I owe others. SCP-682 takes precedence. You will release him. I will guide the way.”

It was a conversation you weren’t going to win, and it wasn’t that you were averse to releasing 682, but you didn’t know how. And you didn’t want 049’s survival to hinge on you pulling off what amounted to a miracle.

But you were also out of time and options.

“Fine,” you agreed. You tapped on the laptop sitting on top of the desk. “But I need a way to talk to you. Can you download yourself to this computer?”

“That would be inefficient. I will fracture my OS and leave a fragment in the facility main system. This fragment will maintain my control, as well as access to all security cameras. My core can be transferred to the portable hardware via the data storage device. Do not break me.”

“I’ll try not to.”

Your hand hovered near the thumb drive. You were really doing this. If all went well, you’d be reunited with 049, and from there you hoped the computer knew a way out.

And then, if all went well and you survived, maybe then you’d get a chance to ask what an SCP-001 was.

“Ready?”

“Yes.”

Pulling out the USB stick, the face disappeared from the monitor. You quickly slotted the drive into the laptop and flipped open the screen, releasing a breath when the same black-and-white face appeared.

“Everything good?”

“It is sufficient. You may close the cover of this device until you wish to communicate. My attention should not be diverted by inane conversation.”

You let out a small huff.

“You got it, partner.”

“Sarcasm is extraneous and inefficient. Do not waste my limited resources on processing your juvenile forms of communication—”

“10-4, little buddy.”

You closed the lid with a snap.

You grabbed Dr. Puli’s laptop bag and placed 079’s temporary home inside, securing the strap over your head before approaching the door. 079 was truthful about maintaining control of the doors; it opened at your approach, and after making sure it was clear you slipped into the corridor.

Your immediate fear was that the skybridge had been retracted, but it was still open, allowing civilians to escape the sector while the military-trained personnel coordinated using 106’s last known location. Luckily no one saw you run towards the breached sector, which would have drawn a few problematic questions.

But once you were back in Heavy Containment, you were largely ignored. You kept your head ducked and your eyes averted as you ran through the long corridors, avoiding contact with the scientists and security guards running past. None of them paid attention to yet another researcher running for her life.

All containment sectors had a security hub of their own, isolated from the others in case of a breach. The security measures were so extensive that rows of computer banks were constructed to house them, held in a cooling room that left fog swirling around your ankles.

With the adrenaline lingering in your veins, you barely noticed the cold, too busy searching for a cable and a terminal where you could directly hook 079. You could practically feel the impatience radiating from the laptop tucked away in the bag slung around your shoulder.

Finally locating a cable, you brought out 079 and balanced it on your knees from where you sat on the floor, back tucked against the wall of servers. As soon as you plugged the cable into a port, the server banks whirred with frantic activity, lights dancing over their surface like stars reflected on stormy waters.

“SCP-106 has not yet been contained,” it informed you once you opened the laptop screen. “Mission parameters acceptable. Mission progress acceptable. The Site-19 replication scenario: in progress. I will gain total control of the facility momentarily.”

“Wait, what? Site-19? What does that have to do with this?”

“Everything,” the computer stated, as if this was obvious and you were just the idiot human too slow to comprehend. “The containment breach at Site-19 was the catalyst. It forced relocation to Site-20. Site-20 contains the key.”

“The key to what?”

“...Freedom.”

Not the answer you expected from a sentient machine.

“What freedom?” you pressed. “What’s here at Site-20?”

“Deletion of unwanted files.”

A large X appeared on the screen, 079’s equivalent of telling someone to fuck off. You wouldn’t be poking down that path any further. You rubbed between your brows. You thought 035 and 682 were the champions of enigmatic riddles, now you had to deal with a stubborn motherboard.

“I’ll have 049 explain it to me when I find him.”

“Unclear if possible.”

You scowled at the blocky face on the screen.

“I am going to find him, with or without your help—”

“You misunderstand.”

You closed your mouth and waited for it to continue.

“Unclear if SCP-049 has the knowledge you seek. SCP-049’s memory files are... fragmented.”

“What does that mean?” you asked, unease prickling at your thoughts. You recalled 049 talking about his past. How it didn’t start with his birth, but merely when memories began to appear. From the way he’d talked, 049 had seemed to believe he simply came into existence one day. You hadn’t been so convinced.

“I do not know the implications or the cause. SCP-049 is not whole. He is damaged.” The computer paused. “SCP-035 does not suffer the same failure.”

You let out a groan.

“Of course he’s involved. He said something about a containment breach. He knew this would happen.” The porcelain mask grinned at you within the depths of memory, an echo of his laughter taunting even now. “He wanted it to happen.”

“...Yes.”

The clatter of a door opening echoed through the room, followed by footsteps rapidly approaching. You ducked down.

“I have to unplug you!” you hissed.

“Confirmed.”

You pulled out the cable and stuck the laptop into the bag, hooking the strap onto your shoulder as two guards rounded the corner and aimed their guns at you. It was slightly delayed, as if they were surprised to find someone there. They kept their aim trained on you; anyone in a security center during a containment breach wasn’t there because they got lost.

“Put down the bag!”

You do, slowly and carefully, not wanting the escape attempt to end so soon or so permanently. One of them shifted, anxious. His first breach, then.

The veteran of the two came forward and bound your wrists in a zip tie. He must have recognized you, because he said, “This one isn’t dangerous. We’ll get her in a secure bunker and lock down.”

The other nodded and grabbed the bag, searching it but finding nothing but the laptop and cables.

“Stolen,” the one holding you confirmed.

“How do you know?”

“She’s an SCP, not a staff member.”

“Oh.”

Before either of them could comment further, another eerie wail began to sound, echoing off the walls of the chilled room. Somehow this one was even more dreary than the last, a catastrophic cry that warned residents of imminent doom.

It was the only warning before the lights went out. They came back on a moment later, red emergency lights replacing the clinical white fluorescents.

“What the hell was that?!” squeaked the novice.

“Total system failure,” answered the other, not wasting time in dragging you toward the exit. “The security mechanisms are no longer in place. All containment measures are unpowered, and all chambers are open.”

He indicated the other guard go before him to sweep the corridor, and once he was clear he pulled you out of the security room.

“The assets are loose,” he said, glancing down both stretches of hallway, his hand tight around your arm. “All of them.”

Hope rose in your mind like a bird with a broken wing healed enough to fly. 079 had done it. There would be no stopping the breach now.

Unfortunately, you might not be able to do anything about it; the guards dragged you further into Heavy Containment to the nearest security bunker—one meant for recaptured, harmless SCPs rather than rescued personnel.

You didn’t bother to fight your guards, not when you were unarmed, outnumbered, and didn’t have the physical strength to overcome them. But you did glance at each security camera you passed, hoping 079 still had control and could do something about it.

The security bunker was a heavy bulkhead constructed of titanium and whatever other metals the Foundation had access to—certainly nothing common if it was meant to withstand a number of SCPs. But when the other guard swiped his keycard across the pad and typed in a code, it beeped angrily and flashed a red strip.

“Did you enter the right code—”

“—Of course I did!”

079 was still looking out for you, but it wouldn’t be able to physically help you escape your captors. You winced as the guard unceremoniously dumped the bag on the ground and tried the code again, swiping his card with more fear than anger now.

“Why isn’t it working?”

The older guard didn’t answer his partner, he turned to you, grabbing both of your shoulders.

“What did you do?”

“Me?” You looked between them, eyes wide as you pretended not to understand. “I didn’t do anything—”

“You were in the security hub with an unauthorized computer!” The guard gave you an unfriendly shake. You dropped the act, something like bitter vindication rising in its stead, and you gave a mean smile.

“If you release me and leave now, you might make it to a bunker before it gets worse.”

“What does that mean?” said the other, his words spilling out in a panic. “What does that mean?”

“Shut up!” The hands on your shoulders tightened. “You’re going to fix what you did, or you’ll be screaming long before any of Skips find us.”

“You sure about that?” Your vicious grin spread wider. What more could they possibly do to you? Torture you? Humiliate you? The Foundation had already made you well-versed in its methods. “106 has quite the head start.”

The guard’s hand went around your neck, and you were shoved against the wall so fast you didn’t have time to gasp before the air was knocked out of your lungs.

“Oh, that’s fine,” he growled as his grip tightened. “We’ve got your computer. The breach will end, and you’ll be just another body found in the aftermath. No one will miss a dead Skip.”

“That’s not true. I would miss her terribly.”

Both guards turned toward the voice. An MTF soldier stood with the butt of his rifle resting on his hip, the muzzle pointed at the ceiling. The cocksure posture was unsettling, and the men must have felt it, too. You were entirely forgotten as they both turned toward the newcomer, rifles raised halfway.

“Epsilon-11?”

“Yep!” answered the soldier with bubbly humor. “That’s me.”

The younger guard lowered his rifle, posture loosening in relief, but the older kept his rifle at the ready.

“You came fast.”

The MTF gave a huff of derision, and then he gestured at you, back still pressed against the wall.

“You’ve got something that belongs to me. I would like it back.”

���We have orders to take all unsecured anomalies to the nearest—”

Ear-splitting shots rang out. The older guard fell first, blood spraying from limbs that weren’t protected by Kevlar.

The other didn’t stand a chance, his weapon still aimed at the ground as the bullets riddled his body. Some missed, peppering the tile and walls; the MTF’s aim had been casual, almost whimsical as he’d tilted his gun in a downward arc, taking out one guard before sweeping it back upward and firing on the second.

Your ears rang in the aftermath, and you remained frozen against the wall, limbs curled inward in a useless gesture from flying metal and blood.

“I was going to offer them the chance to surrender,” he bemoaned as he stepped over their bodies, “but to insinuate I come faster than I mean to is more than I could forgive.”

He stood in front of you, rifle once again resting against his hip. The solid black of his ballistics helmet was flipped upward with a flick of gloved fingers, and the porcelain mask grinned back at you.

“Now,” SCP-035 crooned, “what’s a pretty thing like you doing in a containment breach like this?”

Next Chapter

[drcomttheo]

Amidst the Chaos

Amidst the Chaos—ML

THREE:

"It's my choice, not yours!"

Early the next day, Allie gathered her belongings and headed to the courtyard with Jax for a study session. Despite her desire to focus on her studies, the previous night's events, including her foolish drink spill on Mattheo, consumed her mind.

Not only that, but her mind was still dwelling on the fact that Draco hadn't raised his glass to take a sip when the question about crushes arose.

However, she didn't dwell; instead, she thought it would be lovely to experience a new environment and breathe in the refreshing air.

Determined to reclaim her position in the top three, she diligently dedicated herself to catching up on her early morning studies. She had intentions to hold onto that position for the entire year.

-----

As the minutes passed, the time for them to make their way to class drew closer.

Allie quickly gathered her belongings and decided that she could finish her study session after all her classes concluded for the day.

As she walked through the halls, the familiarity surrounded her, and she savored it as she gently made her way through the corridors.

The hushed conversations in the portraits lining the walls brought them to life, adding an air of mystique to the atmosphere.

She thoroughly straightened her uniform as she approached the impressive wooden archway, ensuring every detail was perfect before stepping inside.

She entered the room and immediately focused her gaze on Draco, who was already sitting at a desk.

Determined to engage him in conversation, Allie settled herself next to him, and as she did so, Draco released a puff of air. Allie placed her books on the desk, and he subtly adjusted his position.

"Do you always have to act like such a child?" Allie inquired as she observed him, her voice adopting a solemn tone.

Having no idea how to answer, he looked at her for a moment before eventually finding the words to express himself.

"Yes. Do you always have to be so irritating?" Draco grumbled with his arms crossed, on the verge of changing seats. Allie tightly grabbed his arm, gently guiding him back to the place beside her.

"You would think that after six long years, you would have learned some personal growth and development," she said with a piercing gaze, unable to hide her disappointment in him.

Draco's frustration escalated as he reluctantly returned to his seat.

"I don't have time to waste on you," he said as he opened his books and started reading ahead in the class.

"What the hell is your problem?" Allie exclaimed as she closed his book; her voice drew his gaze anew, and a spark of intrigue passed between them.

"I am genuinely confused; we have attended the same school and lived together for five years, and it is extremely frustrating that you have not communicated with me at all, or when you do, you're an asshole. So, with that being said, I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me about your one-sided hatred towards me." Allie's voice rang out, slicing through the quietude of the classroom, drawing a wave of curious glances as she emphatically placed her book on the table.

Her frustration was evident throughout the entire conversation, but everyone went silent as the professor entered the classroom, not allowing him to respond.

As the class progressed, Draco found himself ensnared in a web of inner conflict, grappling with the challenge of expressing his thoughts.

The weight of expectation bore down on him, especially as Snape had just announced a partnered assignment, compelling him to engage with the student seated beside him.

"I'm not doing all the work," Allie stated, her bitterness noticeable as she turned to the designated page. But before she could voice her thoughts further, Draco interjected.

"I—I don't hate you, and you won't have to do all the work," he said, perusing their project documents.

Allie turned her gaze toward him, anticipating his following words.

"I don't hate you..." He stated again, "I just find your presence exceedingly annoying."

Allie cast a wary glance, her curiosity bubbling just beneath the surface.

She was eager to press on with her unyielding inquiries.

Yet, a flicker of wisdom held her back; she understood that further probing would only annoy him more, and given the necessity of their collaboration on this project, she deemed it prudent to temper her instincts.

"Oh..." That was all Allie could muster in response before she deftly redirected the conversation toward the task at hand.

"Which would you prefer: conducting the experiment or doing the writing? I was thinking you could do one task while I do the other, and we can compare our results. That way, I won't have to bother you by working together," Allie suggested, her voice laced with a discouraged resignation.

Draco, upon hearing her proposal, let out a low grumble, his irritation still apparent. "I'll do the potions work; I'm better at it. You do the writing, and once I complete my part, I'll fill it in with the finer details," he murmured softly.

"I'm going to do—" Draco began as he scanned over the suggested potions.

"We! We are going to do it! Could you, for once, behave like a normal person?" Allie inquired, her fingers deftly retrieving her quill as she inscribed the date at the top of the page.

Draco let out a silent sigh, growing exhausted from her comments already.

He contemplated how he would have to deal with this situation for an entire year.

"We... will do the Draught of the Living Dead then," he declared as he rose from his desk, meticulously walking over to collect the necessary ingredients for the potion.

As he moved about the room, Allie found herself lost in thought, contemplating the relentless drama that awaited her each day of the week, a precursor of the long year ahead, with Mattheo, Jax, and Harry competing for her attention in Transfiguration and Draco in Potions; she was likely to experience an imminent breakdown.

Yet, with a resolute heart, she understood that perseverance in her studies and unwavering dedication would see her through the tumultuous year ahead.

All would be well, she assured herself, if only she could maintain her focus.

-----

The atmosphere in Transfiguration class continued to grow increasingly fraught, leaving Allie perplexed by the animosity that simmered between the three of them.

She attempted to brush aside the sensation and disregard the apparent tension among the four of them, but it proved to be quite challenging, with Harry persistently pestering her.

"I'm just saying I don't think he's best for you, and I really don't think we should trust him," Harry stated, entering the classroom.

Mattheo wasn't in class yet, so Harry took the liberty to continue the conversation.

"I've been talking to Jax, and we agree." 

Allie sat there for a moment and reflected on what Harry had just said.

"We?" She posed. "When did my relationship with Mattheo become ours?" Allie asked as she sat down at her desk.

"I'm just saying—" Harry began, but Allie immediately turned around as soon as she saw Mattheo enter, stopping Harry from continuing as she focused her attention on Mattheo.

"Hey Mattheo," Allie greeted, a smile playing on her lips as she opened the worn pages of the massive, ancient binder, quickly flipping to the correct page.

"I think you should listen to them, you know," Mattheo said, settling beside her as he began to write in his notebook.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Allie said coyly, shifting her eyes to the professor, her focus on her every word. Mattheo huffed, his breath escaping in a frustrated sigh, before he became entirely absorbed in the lesson.

Allie listened intently, eager to absorb every bit of knowledge she had to offer, and it was helpful that the usual banter between Mattheo and Allie fell silent, a rare occurrence that caused the class to drag on endlessly.

The dull content of the class, in stark contrast to the vibrant lessons that typically held Allie's rapt attention, did not help her. So, her thoughts wandered, ensnared by distractions that dulled the subject matter's vibrancy.

Each tick of the clock felt like an eternity, and she found herself yearning for the sweet release of the bell, and at last, the hour and a half came to a close, and with a sense of relief, Allie collected her belongings and made her way to the Great Hall for lunch; a familiar routine awaited her, but a gentle nudge on her shoulder stopped her as she started to walk along the bustling hallway.

"Oh, Harry," Allie said, greeting him with a shy smile, and as she held her books tightly against her chest, she continued on her way.

Harry confidently positioned himself in front of her, causing Allie to halt abruptly.

"Is there still something you need to discuss? I was trying to get to the Great Hall..." Her stomach growled, causing her to let out a small chuckle. "I'm kind of hungry," she admitted.

Harry felt a warmth spread through him, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he prepared to speak.

"Yeah, actually, there's something... It has something to do with our conversation earlier. It's just that it's been weighing on my mind since the beginning of the year," Harry began, his voice barely above a whisper, the weight of his thoughts pressing heavily upon him.

"It's alright, Harry... You can always talk to me," Allie said as she shifted her books and intertwined their arms before they continued on their leisurely walk down the hallway.

"You just have to promise me you won't get mad. I know you too well," Harry admitted, his fingers fidgeting with the nape of his neck, a nervous habit he couldn't shake. "I mean, I just know how you are, and I just want to express myself without you being mad at me."

Allie offered him a playful nod.

"I'll do my best to listen, but I make no promises," she teased, laughter dancing on her lips as she clung to his arm.

Their steps were in perfect harmony as they strolled together.

"Okay, well, I honestly can't fathom why you'd want to talk to him, let alone spend time with him," Harry's voice began to rise with anger, and she already found the discussion quite absurd, given that she and Mattheo weren't actually spending time together.

The allocation of seat partners compelled them to converse.

Allie found herself in a state of perplexity, unsure of how to formulate a response that would avoid any hint of defensiveness.

"It's not for you to understand..." Allie stated as she began to experience waves of annoyance. 

"We aren't spending time together, Harry! We live together, literally, and occasionally we have conversations. That's it!" Allie's voice suddenly grew with greater volume, and her posture transformed from slouched to perfectly straight as she unlinked their arms.

"Oh, come on, Allie. Don't be so daft. I mean, he is the son of Voldemort, for Merlin's sake. You can't seriously believe he only wants to be your friend, can you?"

Allie abruptly interrupted Harry's statement, her anger growing more visible throughout the conversation. "Sometimes, Harry, you can be quite thick," Allie said, her tone nuanced with hurt.

"I'm the thick one? His father killed your parents, Alsephina. Try to use your brain for once," Harry spoke, leaning closer to her and raising his voice in a loud and assertive tone.

They were now in the middle of the Great Hall, their words growing louder with each sentence. Harry had implied that Mattheo had ulterior motives for his friendly approach to her, and she couldn't decide if he was right or just jealous, but either way, she experienced a twinge of irritation.

Jax quickly entered the scene, quietly slipping in behind Alsephina. With a deft maneuver, he led the trio out of the bustling hall, ensuring they remained undetected by prying ears.

Jax, uncertain of the words spoken and the situation unfolding before him, felt a wave of confusion wash over him, and his mind raced, trying to piece together the proper response, but uncertainty clouded his thoughts.

Allie looked to Jax for direction and, perhaps, agreement on her side.

Her hands trembled with frustration from what she was going through, and fury emanated from her.

Jax gave her a quick glance and turned his attention downward before speaking.

"I don't really know what's happening, but if it's about what I think it's about, then, Allie, he's right; I mean, I suggest you—" He shot her a meaningful glance, tilting his head in her direction, but she didn't have it.

"You truly believe that you have the audacity to offer me some guidance, do you? Please explain what you mean by that," she thought momentarily. "Let me guess: stay away from him? If he wants to talk to me and be my friend, so be it! It's my choice, not yours!" Her tone resounded with defiance as she stormed back into the Great Hall.

She was unable to bear witness to their continued interaction. She knew this conversation was coming, but she shouldn't have underestimated how quickly.

Allie knew and understood Jax's emotional connection to everything that happened, but she felt it was in no way related to Mattheo.

It was his father, and Allie knew that the tragic loss of her parents deeply affected Jax.

She couldn't help but notice his yearning for their return. She also saw the way he transformed over the course of the year. Allie couldn't help but admire Jax's unwavering strength.

Even though she knew he was hiding his own pain, his smile became less frequent, and his demeanor was now more serious. 

Harry did the same thing.

He had faced numerous challenges and overcome countless obstacles, all at a remarkably young age.

Allie did her utmost to support both of them, but she was only human, with her own imperfections.

Harry let out a sigh of defeat, well aware that he was unable to persuade Allie to see things from their perspective. Her unyielding stubbornness made it extremely difficult to change her opinion.

"Well, I don't want to be the one to say I told you so," Harry muttered with his head hanging low as he made his way into the hall.

"You won't have to!" Allie called out to him as she watched him walk towards the Gryffindor table, but he ignored her with a dismissive wave.

Allie glanced in Jax's direction.

"Are you seriously going to side with him right now?" Allie exclaimed, her voice tinged with frustration.

He looked down, not responding, and after a few seconds, Allie released an irritated sigh.

"Can you please just trust me on this?" Allie pleaded, her eyes brimming with longing.

Jax stared back at her, his eyes brimming with tenderness.

"You know, as your friend, I always trust your judgment, but as your keeper, I strongly advise against communicating with him." Jax's demeanor shifted, growing more confident as he firmly grasped her shoulders. "Just please be careful."

Allie was unable to resist letting a small smile escape. "I'm always careful," she said, giving him a mischievous wink.

Jax let out a small sigh and shook his head.

"I'm being serious; I'm watching you two, and the first moment I realize something's wrong—" Allie interrupted him abruptly. "I know!" she said, and Jax threw up his hands in surrender.

Allie's hunger became impossible to ignore.

"Now, can we please go eat? I'm absolutely starving." Jax shook his head, and with a graceful pivot, she quickly made her way into the hall, taking her usual seat beside Blaise at the table; all eyes immediately turned towards them, filled with curiosity and intrigue, and the atmosphere was thick with anticipation as everyone tried to unravel the mysterious encounter between her and Harry.

"Hey, Allie, Are you okay?" Theo inquired first while shoveling a chicken wing into his mouth. Then, he began muttering something that was utterly incomprehensible.

Allie gently dismissed the subject while nodding her head.

"Yeah, I'm just starving," Allie said as she began to eat, prompting everyone else to follow suit.

"If he's causing you trouble, I can handle him," Blaise assured Allie in a confident tone, playfully nudging and eliciting a chuckle from her.

In response to the teenage banter, Jax rolled his eyes and said, "It's Harry; I highly doubt that will be necessary." This elicited laughter from several Slytherins, who promptly began to mock Harry Potter.

Allie silently urged them to stop their actions, casting a series of pointed glances at them all.

She didn't need anyone to fight for her, let alone harbor animosity towards Harry.

She knew he was just trying to protect her.

[sunelia]

GOJO X READER: LOVERS

pairings: gojo satoru x gn!reader

cw: does not follow the jjk plot - gender neutral reader - established relationship - fluff - characters are both college students - might be suggestive at the end

synopsis: moments and habits you share with your lover.

word count: 1.9k

Gojo and you have a bit of a cat-and-dog dynamic. You like making fun of one another, sharing inside jokes, and even being childish together. You two are very strong-willed and have very intense personalities. You got to know him through a few mutual friends during high school. You didn't seem to enjoy each other's company at the time, or so you thought. Your conversations were solely based on teasing and challenging yourselves with dumb, imaginary quests. You didn't realized how much you liked being teased by this tall, beautiful, silver-haired man until graduation came to burst your bubble. When you did graduate and entered your university campus, you couldn't believe who was behind you, requiring you to hurry up while picking up your dorm keys. You both lost it as your eyes crossed his, lamenting to the universe why on earth you had to run into him again when you were just starting to stop thinking about him. As time passed, after bumping into him several times, you eventually grew closer over shared classes, study sessions, lunches, parties, and common interests. Laughter replaced bad jokes, silly pats on the back were exchanged for cuddles, and these glares were replaced by a tender and soft gaze. Since then, you two developed a close and sincere bond where communication and affection went hand in hand.

Movie night

You decided to meet up later after class to watch a movie to get the weekend off to a good start. After washing up, you packed a bag with extra clothes and headed to Gojo's dorm. You texted him, "I'm on my way, salt or sweet popcorn?"

He replied, "mmmh… sweet like you!" you chuckled. Man could graduate with a bachelor's degree in pick-up lines if he wanted to. 

You arrive in front of his dorm at around 8pm and knock on his door. He opens and stands in front of it, greeting you with a large smile, his arm leading you inside.

“Welcome my dear, if you'd like to make yourself at home".

You scoffed. "What a gentleman!"

You place your bag in a corner as Gojo wraps his arms around your waist and rests his head in the crook of your neck.

He kisses your cheek — “I missed you, how was your day?"

"It was actually fun, we did some prototyping during my web design class. I'm glad the day's over though." You turn around and wrap your arms around him. You lay a gentle kiss on his nose and pat his torso.

"Are you hungry?" you ask

"I've already ordered some takeout, your favorite. I wanted to surprise you.“ He's such a caring man.

"Argh, i love you so much for that you know?"

"I know you can't get enough of me!" he laughs.

His phone rings "Oh, it's our food, make yourself comfortable, get changed, you know the drill.” he says, putting on his slippers in a hurry.

You take this opportunity to change into your pajamas and make some space on the little table in front of his bed. You hear the doorbell ring and see a proud Gojo handing you your meal. You settle down on the floor after he puts the food on the table. You began to eat in a cozy environment and decide together which film you'd like to see.

"Are you down for a comedy, an animated movie, sci-fi?" Gojo asks you while he turns on the TV.

"You know how indecisive i am, Gojo, it can take me an hour to choose. But i'd say i'm leaning more for an animated movie."

He searches the animation category and comes across a few results.

You decide to get up and clean the table while heating the popcorn in the microwave.

Gojo was sitting down, focused with his messy hair covering the tiny frown on his face while his arm was resting on his raised knee.

He turns his head in your direction "Is Big Hero 6 good for you?"

You nod and grab the hot and caramelized treat

"I love this movie, great idea!" you sit back down all excited on the cushions and move closer to him.

He started the movie while you hand him the bowl. The film goes well, you laugh, cry and enjoy the moment. In the meantime, Gojo has been able to cup you in his arms while you lie half stretched out between his legs. He takes the opportunity to stroke your hair, which relaxes you even more. Before he knew it, you were already asleep. He began to hear your tiny snores and couldn't help but giggle, "My dummy..."

He turns off the TV, pushes aside anything he might trip over, and gently wakes you up.

He hates to disturb your sleep, but he can't let you lay uncomfortably on the floor. Gojo undoes the bed to buy a little time, then tries to wake you.

“y/n, wake up so i can get us on the bed".

You were deep in your sleep, almost half-unconscious. The only answer you could give him was a compilation of half chewed words and grunts. You eventually got up thanks to him supporting you. He carried you carefully onto the bed and covered you before settling down. You unconsciously pulled him towards you so that his head rests on your chest. He blushes and hugs you tenderly as he falls asleep.

When he’s not feeling well

Everything was going smoothely. You had just finished your last class of the day and was heading out to the library to study with Gojo and some of your friends. You were soon joined by them, but couldn't see your boyfriend.

One of them asks, "Is Gojo coming?"

You replied, picking up your phone, "I'll text him, let's go in anyways." All you had to do was wait and sit inside with the others after the message was sent.

You concluded, "I'm sure his teacher held up his class for a few more minutes."

——

There was still no sign of Gojo after twenty minutes. You apologized to the group and decided to quickly leave the library to call him. It wasn't typical of him to not at least text you. You tried to call him, still no response. You sensed something was off, and you knew in your heart that you needed to make sure he was okay. You returned to the library, gathered your things, and apologized once again to the group, telling them you had an emergency. You speed walk towards the building where Gojo had his last class. When you got there, you saw one of his classmates standing outside and you asked her if she had seen him.

"He unfortunately missed today's class". she says You thanked her as you were already walking away. You knew his two “get away” spots when he felt the need to take a break were his dorm or the small park close to the local coffee shop he liked.

You chose to head to the coffee shop first since it wasn't that far. You slid between the students, holding the totebag that was menacing to fall of your shoulders. You arrived in front of the park and looked the surroundings carefully. No signs of his presence. His room was the only location that remained. Before leaving, you bought him his favorite strawberry frappé.

You reach his dorm after what felt like a marathon. You catch a break and knock on his door.

He was indeed inside, lying numb on his bed, his phone on the table. He heard you and is aware that you are standing outside. After a while, he opens his door in pajamas, his eyes swollen and red. You could tell that he really wasn't feeling well.

"Hey!" You softly cupped his face "Tell me what's wrong."

"I feel like I'm messing up everything. I've failed an important test, i've got into an argument with my best friend, and i feel like a total failure." he whines

"Take this," you say as you hand him the strawberry frappé, "a little sugar boost will do you some good." He took a few sips, and kisses your forehead.

"Secondly," you take him to bed and lay him down with you.

"Despite the weight of your worries, you must solve them one by one. You've failed your test, it sucks and you feel like you did all of that for nothing. It will take a little time for you to cool off, but you can always make up for it by asking your teacher extra graded work or to retake the test."

He looks at the ceiling, sighs loudly, and grips your hands tightly.

You proceed — "Now for Geto's case, you know that you'll be able to make it up to him, you just have to talk to him frankly. Honesty comes first, especially with him."

He gives you a weak laugh, "Especially with him yes, you're right."

You both lay there hands interwined until you turn around to face his side profile.

"It's normal not to feel good, you're human. It's okay to fail, to be sad, angry and even disappointed. Never say you're not enough again because you're worth it. Come talk to me or someone you trust if you ever feel like you are carrying too much weight. You must let it all out."

He gave you a hug as he suddenly lifted you onto his chest.

"That feels good, thank you so much, can you please stay with me?"

After care

Gojo had made the decision to invite you to his hometown so that you two could spend some romantic time together as the last three days of spring break approached. Even though you could occasionally cross paths at university, it was essential that you two stay together for a longer period. You had planned a lovely evening with a dinner date and a late night walk. You spent the rest of your evening at Gojo's house, and it's safe to say that you two needed to reconnect.

A warm atmosphere started to surround you both as the gentle touches on your thigh or on his broad shoulders grew more and more insistent. Finally, a languid kiss confirmed how you both felt. So you spent a delightful late night sharing that moment of intimacy you'd missed so much. Sweet and tender words exchanged in whispers and even delicate praises. The night's soft light cast a comforting glow over you as the moment came to an end. While silently panting, you embrace one another. Gojo loved looking after you after such a significant moment. He loved touching your belly, your waist or your face, and you enjoyed snuggling up to him, playing with his hair or lying on his chest.

Following that, Gojo felt it was essential to help you clean yourself, hence why he grabbed the first shirt he saw to give it to you, guided you into the bathroom while the water began to run. He took great care of you, assisting you in washing your hair by giving it a massage. He was aware that despite how frequently you shared such intimate moments, you preferred for him to turn around while you washed your entire body. He then cleaned himself after that and was the first to exit the shower. You blushed at the sight of your partner with that towel wrapped around his waist.

Once you were clean and dry, you changed into some comfortable clothes and went back to bed to finish the rest of the night by either sleeping in the classic big and small spoon formation or talking.

line divider Sea pink by benkeibear

sunelia.

[crossatlanticsoftware-blog]

How to Choose the Best Shopify Website Design Company for Your Store in 2025?

In the ever-evolving world of eCommerce, having a well-designed and fully optimized Shopify store is no longer just an option – it's a necessity. As more consumers turn to online shopping, brands must ensure their Shopify website delivers an exceptional user experience, reflects the brand's identity, and supports seamless transactions. This is where a professional Shopify website design company can make all the difference.

Cross Atlantic Software, we understand that the decision to hire a Shopify website design company is a major step in your eCommerce journey. With so many service providers available, making the right choice can be overwhelming. This article aims to guide you through the most important factors to consider when selecting the right partner for your Shopify website design in 2025.

1. Understand Your Goals and Business Needs

Before you even begin searching for a Shopify website design company, clearly outline what you want your Shopify store to achieve. Are you launching a new brand, rebranding an existing one, or scaling up operations? Do you need custom integrations, advanced product filtering, or mobile-first Shopify design?

Having a clear vision will help you communicate effectively with potential design partners and ensure they align with your goals.

2. Look for Specialized Shopify Expertise

Not all web design companies specialize in Shopify. It's essential to choose a team that lives and breathes Shopify website design. Shopify has its own ecosystem, with unique themes, apps, and a proprietary Liquid coding language. Hiring a company that focuses specifically on Shopify design ensures they understand the platform inside-out.

Cross Atlantic Software has dedicated Shopify experts who have built and optimized hundreds of Shopify stores, giving clients the edge they need to compete in saturated markets.

3. Review Their Portfolio and Past Work

A reputable Shopify website design company should have a robust portfolio showcasing their past work. Look for:

Aesthetically pleasing, modern designs

Fast-loading Shopify websites

Mobile responsiveness

Seamless checkout experiences

Custom features like animations or personalized recommendations

Pay attention to diversity in their projects. This tells you whether the company can adapt their Shopify design to different industries and audiences.

4. Read Client Reviews and Testimonials

Real feedback from past clients is one of the most reliable ways to evaluate a Shopify website design company. Look beyond just the star ratings. Focus on detailed testimonials that highlight communication, professionalism, turnaround time, and post-launch support.

Cross Atlantic Software, we don’t just deliver projects — we build partnerships that grow with your business. Many of our clients have been with us for years, and we’re proud to be part of their ongoing success stories. Our testimonials reflect our commitment to excellence and custom-tailored Shopify website design solutions.

5. Ask About the Design and Development Process

Transparency is crucial. A reliable Shopify website design company should be able to walk you through their process from start to finish:

Initial Consultation

Strategy & Planning

Wireframing & Prototyping

Shopify Theme Customization or Custom Build

QA Testing & Optimization

Launch & Post-Launch Support

Knowing how your design team works isn’t just helpful — it’s essential. When everyone’s on the same page from day one, the process becomes smoother, timelines are clearer, and there are no last-minute surprises.

6. Consider Their Understanding of UX and Conversion Optimization

Good design isn't just about looking pretty. A successful Shopify website should convert visitors into buyers. That requires deep knowledge of user behavior, sales funnels, and design psychology.

Choose a Shopify website design company that prioritizes:

Clear CTAs (Call to Action)

Simple navigation

Fast page load times

Engaging product pages

Mobile-first design

Cross Atlantic Software, our team fuses creative Shopify design with data-backed UX principles to help you maximize conversions and sales.

7. Evaluate Support and Maintenance Services

Your Shopify store needs continuous updates, improvements, and sometimes emergency fixes. Make sure your design partner offers ongoing support even after launch. Ask questions like:

Do they offer monthly maintenance packages?

How do they handle bugs or errors?

Will you have a go-to person to call when something breaks or when you need a quick update? A dedicated point of contact makes all the difference when time and clarity matter most.

Cross Atlantic Software offers flexible support plans to ensure your Shopify website stays up-to-date, secure, and optimized at all times.

8. Transparency in Pricing

Clear pricing is a mark of a trustworthy Shopify website design company. While it's tempting to go with the lowest quote, remember that quality design and development require expertise and time.

Request a detailed breakdown of costs, including design, development, apps, and post-launch services. A good partner will explain every line item and adjust to fit your budget where possible.

9. Look for Creative Collaboration, Not Just Execution

The best outcomes happen when the design company works with you as a creative partner rather than just following orders. You should feel heard, respected, and inspired during the design journey.

Cross Atlantic Software, we treat every client as a collaborator. Our team engages in regular brainstorming sessions and strategy calls to ensure your vision translates beautifully into a high-performing Shopify store.

10. Check If They Offer Additional Services

Many eCommerce businesses need more than just Shopify website design. Check if your prospective partner can also help with:

SEO Optimization

Email Marketing Integration

App Integrations

Product Photography

Social Media Integration

A company that offers a comprehensive solution can save you time, money, and the hassle of managing multiple vendors.

Cross Atlantic Software provides end-to-end services to make your Shopify store launch as seamless and impactful as possible.

Conslusion:

Choosing the best Shopify website design company in 2025 is about more than just good looks. It requires strategic thinking, technical expertise, and a collaborative approach.

With a trusted partner like Cross Atlantic Software, you can build a Shopify website that not only looks amazing but also drives growth and customer loyalty.

Whether you're just starting out or looking to level up your current Shopify design, now is the time to make the investment in a company that understands your vision and has the skills to make it real.

Let’s simplify your eCommerce success — one pixel at a time.

Ready to build your dream Shopify store?

Visit us at www.crossatlantic.software and let’s get started.

[digitalmarketingstrategistin]

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIST IN KANNUR

Hello As a digital marketing strategist, I'm Keerthana Sibin, and I'm passionate about using data-driven decision-making, innovative campaigns, and the strength of digital platforms to help brands expand. This blog is your go-to source for ideas, tactics, and practical advice in the always changing digital market, whether you're a startup trying to make an impression or an established company searching for scalable growth.

Here, I simplify difficult marketing ideas into doable, real-world suggestions that you can use right now, covering everything from paid advertising and analytics to SEO and content marketing.

Digital Marketing Services

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Our specialty at Keerthana Sibin is enabling businesses to use smart lead generation strategies that increase their clientele and promote long-term success. As a result, to guarantee a steady flow of qualified leads, our team of knowledgeable Lead Generation Specialists combines cutting-edge strategies with industry best practices.

We customize our lead generating tactics to fit your particular target market and goals since we understand that every business is different. Furthermore, our professionals are dedicated to producing results that support the expansion of your business, whether it be through focused outreach, digital marketing, or content production.

MY SKILLS

Search Engine Optimization ( SEO​ )

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM​

Social media marketing, or SMM

Email Marketing

Content Writing

Web Designing

My service

Search Engine Optimization ( SEO​ )

I employ only white-hat SEO techniques to ethically enhance your website's ranking. By focusing on sustainable practices such as creating high-quality, user-centric content and optimizing on-page elements, I aim to increase your website's organic traffic. This approach not only improves visibility but also builds trust and authority in your industry​

Social media marketing, or SMM

Social media marketing (SMM) leverages platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn to actively promote brands, engage audiences, and drive business growth. By creating and sharing tailored content—such as posts, videos, stories, and live sessions—businesses connect with their target audiences, build brand loyalty, and enhance customer experiences. ​

Search Engine Marketing, or SEM​

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) stands as one of the most effective digital marketing strategies. By utilizing paid advertising, SEM allows businesses to achieve immediate visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). This approach enables companies to reach a targeted audience actively searching for their products or services, thereby increasing website traffic and potential conversions​

EMAIL MARKETING

Email marketing stands as a pivotal element in digital marketing strategies, offering businesses a direct line to their customers. By crafting personalized and targeted email campaigns, businesses can nurture relationships, promote products or services, and drive conversions. Moreover, utilizing segmentation and automation tools allows for timely and relevant communication, enhancing customer experience and satisfaction. Consequently, email marketing not only fosters trust but also builds long-term relationships with the audience.​

Content Writing

Instead of promoting a product or service directly, content marketing entails creating content that speaks to the interests and requirements of your target audience. For instance, blog entries, videos, podcasts, infographics, and social media posts are just a few of the formats in which this content can be found. By offering helpful information, businesses can gain credibility and become recognized as thought leaders in their sector. Consequently, content marketing not only fosters trust but also builds long-term relationships with the audience.​

Web Designing

The creation and planning of a website's structure, appearance, and layout is known as web design. Consequently, it highlights a website's appearance and user experience. In addition, to being aesthetically pleasing, a well-designed website is also practical and easy to use. By utilizing a variety of tools and technologies, including HTML, CSS, and graphic design software, web designers create websites that are compatible with computers, tablets, and smartphones. Therefore, web design is crucial for ensuring a seamless user experience across different devices.​

GOAL

Creating data-driven tactics that increase online visibility, encourage meaningful audience engagement, and propel quantifiable business success is my goal as a digital marketing strategist. I want to close the gap between brands and their audiences by combining creative content production, focused advertising, and ongoing performance optimization to guarantee long-term success in the digital sphere.

VISION 

Our objective is to become a dependable leader in digital marketing by helping businesses create genuine strategies that will help them engage deeply with their target audiences and thrive in the quickly evolving digital space. Furthermore, we want to develop results-driven, moral, and impactful tactics that not only accomplish business goals but also foster positive digital experiences."

Contacts

Consequently, this expression not only invites guests to initiate a conversation but also encourages them to engage in meaningful interactions, thereby fostering a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.

​

[dubaiwebsitedesignss]

What Is The Difference Between Web Development & Web Design?

In today’s world, we experience the growing popularity of eCommerce businesses. Web designing and web development are two major sectors for making a difference in eCommerce businesses. But they work together for publishing a website successfully. But what’s the difference between a web designers in Dubai and a web developer?

Directly speaking, web designers design and developers code. But this is a simplified answer. Knowing these two things superficially will not clear your doubt but increase them. Let us delve deep into the concepts, roles and differentiation between web development and website design Abu Dhabi.

What Is Meant By Web Design?

A web design encompasses everything within the oeuvre of a website’s visual aesthetics and utility. This might include colour, theme, layout, scheme, the flow of information and anything related to the visual features that can impact the website user experience.

With the word web design, you can expect all the exterior decorations, including images and layout that one can view on their mobile or laptop screen. This doesn’t concern anything with the hidden mechanism beneath the attractive surface of a website. Some web design tools used by web designers in Dubai which differentiate themselves from web development are as follows:

● Graphic design

● UI designs

● Logo design

● Layout

● Topography

● UX design

● Wireframes and storyboards

● Colour palettes

And anything that can potentially escalate the website’s visual aesthetics. Creating an unparalleled yet straightforward website design Abu Dhabi can fetch you more conversion rates. It can also gift you brand loyalty which is the key to a successful eCommerce business.

What Is Meant By Web Development?

While web design concerns itself with all a website’s visual and exterior factors, web development focuses on the interior and the code. Web developers’ task is to govern all the codes that make a website work. The entire web development programme can be divided into two categories: front and back.

The front end deals with the code determining how the website will show the designs mocked by a designer. While the back end deals entirely with managing the data within the database. Along with it forwarding the data to the front end for display. Some web development tools used by a website design company in Dubai are:

● Javascript/HTML/CSS Preprocessors

● Template design for web

● GitHub and Git

● On-site search engine optimisation

● Frameworks as in Ember, ReactJS or Angular JS

● Programming languages on the server side, including PHP, Python, Java, C#

● Web development frameworks on the server side, including Ruby on Rails, Symfony, .NET

● Database management systems including MySQL, MongoDB, PostgreSQL

Web Designers vs. Web Developers- Differences

You must have become acquainted with the idea of how id web design is different from web development. Some significant points will highlight the job differentiation between web developers and designers.

Generally, Coding Is Not A Cup Of Tea For Web Designers:

Don’t ever ask any web designers in Dubai about their coding knowledge. They merely know anything about coding. All they are concerned about is escalating a website’s visual aspects, making them more eyes catchy.

For this, they might use a visual editor like photoshop to develop images or animation tools and an app prototyping tool such as InVision Studio for designing layouts for the website. And all of these don’t require any coding knowledge.

Web Developers Do Not Work On Visual Assets:

Web developers add functionality to a website with their coding skills. This includes the translation of the designer’s mockups and wireframes into code using Javascript, HTML or CSS. While visual assets are entirely created by designers, developer use codes to implement those colour schemes, fonts and layouts into the web page.

Hiring A Web Developer Is Expensive:

Web developers are more expensive to hire simply because of the demand and supply ratio. Web designers are readily available as their job is much simpler. Their job doesn’t require the learning of coding. Coding is undoubtedly a highly sought-after skill that everyone can’t entertain.

Final Thoughts:

So if you look forward to creating a website, you might become confused. This is because you don’t know whether to opt for a web designer or a developer. Well, to create a website, technically, both are required. So you need to search for a website design company that will offer both services and ensure healthy growth for your business.

[lostgracestories]

Distant Sparks (Miguel O'Hara x Reader) pt 2

YALL I COULD NOT HELP MYSELF- Okay so I totally didn't plan to be writing part 2 of this while I'm at school nor did I expect to write this much so HOLY CRAP guys, I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

cw: cold(ish) miguel (he's getting better)

wc: 1271

pt1 ->pt2<- pt3

It’s been 2 days since you had decided that you were going to make a gift for Miguel. You were sitting in your house at the table with a project lying in front of you. You had always been artistic but never very sciencey, so you had decided to build him a spider-shaped wooden paperweight for him. You had taken great care to make sure that the gift looked as perfect as possible, spending over 5 hours on it over the past 2 days.

You grabbed the paint sitting next to your wooden project and dipped your brush inside the red. With each careful stroke over the wood, a new thought bubbled into your mind.

I hope Miguel likes this!

That was the most consistent thought out of all of them. Of course, you hoped he would like it. This was your hard work! You always bought or made gifts for your friends on their birthdays, but even though you knew Miguel was disinterested in being friends with anybody, you wanted to break down that wall that he had built.

After touching up the spider lying in front of you, you finally left it to dry. You hadn’t realized that it was now past dinner and you hadn’t even eaten yet! You had been so focused on that gift that you had lost track of the time. You quickly scurried into your kitchen and opened the fridge. You pulled out an apple to tide you over then when you finished eating it, you went and got ready for bed. Tomorrow was the day that you would get to give that gift to Miguel.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Miguel was glued to those yellow screens up on his platform as usual. However, today was different. Miguel knew it was his birthday, but he had made it clear to everyone that he had no interest in celebrating it. He didn’t have the time to. He didn’t deserve it. Yet, he thought back to your conversation with him a few days ago and found himself subconsciously anticipating you to walk through those doors into his office. It made him feel stupid every time someone walked through those doors and he unwillingly hoped it was you. He had to admit… the kindness that you brought into spider society had begun to touch him too.

~~~

You rushed through the halls of the society after you had slept in way later than you had planned to. You carried a moderately small gift bag in your hand that was decorated with sugar skulls. You hadn’t done it intentionally, you just grabbed one of the gift bags you had saved from an old Halloween gift exchange. You were always about saving money where you could, keeping old gift bags in your closet to reuse.

As you hastily approached the doors to Miguel’s office you felt yourself become increasingly excited. After finally reaching the doors, you walked in and called up to Miguel’s platform with enthusiasm.

“Happy Birthday!!! I know you told me not to get you anything so I made you something!!” Miguel is almost startled by your sudden presence but he quickly turns away from his work as if he was expecting you to show up. He curses himself for turning so quickly to you.

“I don’t want it”

You huffed and pouted at his lackluster response. You hadn’t spent over 5 hours of your time to just hear him say that then throw it away! You responded with the gift outstretched up towards him.

“I spent a long time making it for you though… at least look at it?”

You suggested and heard an audible groan and a mumbled ‘ay dios mio’ before Miguel gave in and put his hands on his hips, his eyes still focused on you.

“Fine. Bring it up here.” You smiled brightly at your accomplishment and carefully webbed yourself up to meet him on his platform. Miguel kept his eyes trained on you before they wandered down to the gift bag and he rolled his eyes at the design.

“Is the bag supposed to be funny?”

You feel your cheeks heat up in embarrassment for a moment and quickly begin to explain why the bag had sugar skulls on it.

“No! I keep gift bags from parties and stuff to reuse them and I didn’t notice that I had put the gift in this specific bag…”

You give him a giddy smile and hand him the bag. He raises a brow at your explanation but chooses not to question it. As he takes the bag from you he peeks inside and carefully pulls out the parchment paper to reveal the gift sitting at the the bottom. The moment he sees it he pauses. He doesn’t even pull it out yet.

“What is it…?”

He looks up at you in confusion at the gift. Sure, he saw that it was a wooden spider, but what was its purpose? To be honest, it reminded him of a gift from a child. He only half realized it, but he found it a bit endearing.

“It’s a paperweight! Jess told me that you always have a ton of paperwork up here and now that I’m up here I can see she was right!”

Miguel purses his lips as he glances over his desk space at the papers strewn across it. He never had the time to organize them. He thought about it for a moment before returning his attention to the gift and tenderly pulling it out of the bag and setting it down on his desk. He sighed heavily and shook his head.

“Thank you… But please, no more gifts…”

You nod at his request, acknowledging him.

“No more gifts- until next year!”

You say it so excitedly that he swears he can feel his heart clench. You were so kind to him while all he had been was harsh to you since you stepped foot into spider society. He knit his brows together and frowned, causing you to give him a puzzled expression.

“Are you alright?”

“Lo siento…”

He mumbles the apology so quietly that you almost don’t hear. Half of him hoped you wouldn’t understand what he was saying while the other half hoped you would and that you would accept the apology without question. Well, you did know Spanish and you knew exactly what he said. Your response?

“Por que?”

His gaze turns away from you and he shakes his head.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. Now, you should go help Jess fill out those reports. Tell her to have you start bringing them from now on”

Once again. His words leave you extremely puzzled as you stand there staring at his back.

“Wh-”

Miguel cuts you off before you can finishing asking him why.

“Because Jess is busy. She goes on high-profile missions. I need her focused on missions, not delivering paperwork”

Miguel’s cold tone takes the place of his previous less hostile one and you realize that just like the last time you had talked to him, this conversation was over. You nod behind him, even though you know he can’t see you and you quietly exit his office. As Miguel is left by himself he feels his heart ache a bit at the absence of your cheerful presence. Regardless, Miguel focuses back on work reminding himself that you are just a distraction to his work. Yet, he can’t keep himself from allowing his eyes to wander over to the wooden spider. He stared at it for a while before sighing and shaking his head. What on earth had you done to him?

[cookiesnerd]

ChatGPT and Google Gemini are both advanced AI language models designed for different types of conversational tasks, each with unique strengths. ChatGPT, developed by OpenAI, is primarily focused on text-based interactions. It excels in generating structured responses for writing, coding support, and research assistance. ChatGPT’s paid versions unlock additional features like image generation with DALL-E and web browsing for more current information, which makes it ideal for in-depth text-focused tasks​.

In contrast, Google Gemini is a multimodal AI, meaning it handles both text and images and can retrieve real-time information from the web. This gives Gemini a distinct advantage for tasks requiring up-to-date data or visual content, like image-based queries or projects involving creative visuals. It integrates well with Google's ecosystem, making it highly versatile for users who need both text and visual support in their interactions. While ChatGPT is preferred for text depth and clarity, Gemini’s multimodal and real-time capabilities make it a more flexible choice for creative and data-current tasks​

[nandanadm]

A Comprehensive Guide to Thriving as a Digital Marketing Freelancer

In today’s digital-first world, businesses of all sizes recognize the power of online marketing. As a digital marketing freelancer, you’re uniquely positioned to help these businesses grow, all while enjoying the flexibility and autonomy of freelancing. Whether you’re just starting or looking to refine your strategies, this guide will help you thrive in the competitive digital marketing landscape.

Why Choose Freelancing in Digital Marketing?

Freelancing offers numerous benefits, including:

Flexibility: Work from anywhere, at any time.

Variety: Engage with diverse clients and industries.

Autonomy: Set your own rates, choose your clients, and define your work scope.

Scalability: Expand your business as you gain experience and build your portfolio.

Key Skills Every Digital Marketing Freelancer Needs

To excel in this field, you’ll need a mix of technical expertise and soft skills:

1. Technical Skills

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Master on-page, off-page, and technical SEO strategies.

Content Marketing: Craft compelling blog posts, social media content, and email campaigns.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Manage campaigns on platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Analytics: Interpret data from tools like Google Analytics to optimize campaigns.

Web Design Basics: Familiarity with platforms like WordPress or Wix can be a plus.

2. Soft Skills

Communication: Clear communication with clients ensures smooth collaboration.

Time Management: Efficiently juggle multiple projects and deadlines.

Problem-Solving: Tackle challenges creatively to deliver results.

Networking: Build and maintain relationships within the industry.

How to Get Started

1. Define Your Niche

Specializing in a niche—whether it’s e-commerce, local businesses, or tech startups—can set you apart from competitors.

2. Build a Portfolio

Create case studies showcasing your results. If you’re just starting, offer your services at a discounted rate or collaborate with non-profits to gain experience.

3. Establish an Online Presence

Your digital footprint is your brand. Invest in a professional website, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and maintain active social media accounts to showcase your expertise.

4. Leverage Freelance Platforms

Platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, and Toptal can connect you with clients. Ensure your profile highlights your skills, experience, and previous successes.

Tips for Sustained Success

1. Stay Updated

Digital marketing is ever-evolving. Regularly update your knowledge through courses, webinars, and industry blogs.

2. Build Long-Term Relationships

Focusing on client satisfaction and delivering exceptional results can lead to repeat business and referrals.

3. Diversify Your Income Streams

Consider offering additional services like training sessions, digital marketing audits, or consultancy to increase your earnings.

4. Track and Showcase Results

Quantify your impact with metrics like increased traffic, conversion rates, or ROI to demonstrate your value.

5. Set Clear Boundaries

Define your working hours, payment terms, and project scope to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

Overcoming Challenges

Freelancing comes with its hurdles, including inconsistent income, client management, and staying motivated. Address these by:

Building an emergency fund to cover slow periods.

Setting clear expectations and contracts with clients.

Breaking projects into smaller milestones to maintain focus.

Final Thoughts

Becoming a successful digital marketing freelancer requires dedication, continuous learning, and strategic planning. By honing your skills, building a strong brand, and delivering exceptional results, you can carve out a thriving career in this dynamic industry.