#he is not eating very much (his last full feeding was about a week ago) and is likely calcium deficient

[boyfeminism]

made a vet appointment for toast, younger duck would be really proud of me

[dammn-dean]

Hii could you do Simon and his wife arguing like pretty badly and their shouting at each other as their arguing she hears her newborn cry and once she goes to the baby room and feeds looks after her baby she didn’t wanna go downstairs to talk to him she just went on her phone on social media.

(If you’re okay with doing that!)

Thank you so much for the request! I hope that this is what you wanted... I changed it up a little, but I still think it fits the request. Thanks again 🖤

Whispers and Words

Pairing: Ghost (Simon Riley) x Female Reader

Words: Almost 3k (oops)

Warnings: Reader is a new mom, Simon is a bit mean/clueless, reader is insecure, arguing, barely there sexual talk if you squint

Staring back at your reflection in the mirror, a small smile on your lips. You felt like you looked nice. A very casual, but cute dress adorned your body for the first time in a long time. Your baby went down for bed already, giving you a little extra time to yourself to shower and get ready for Simon to get home. You even fixed your hair and put on a little make-up. You felt good.

There really hasn’t been much time over the past 6 months for you to treat yourself, much less dress up. Having a newborn was a full time job! Simon had been gone almost the entire time, not by choice but because of work. You weren’t sure if that was supposed to make you feel any better, because.. Well it really didn’t. You missed him so much, and he missed so many things your baby was accomplishing. Getting bigger by the day. He was home off and on for a combined maybe 4 weeks the past 6 months, two weeks straight after she was born and a few days here and there since. All of that felt like it didn’t even really matter at the moment, your Simon should be home any minute now. 

You had decided to spend the time you had getting ready, which didn’t really leave you a lot of time to cook for him like you had wanted. Instead you settled on ordering in from a few of his favorite places, so he would have plenty to eat over the next couple of days. Simon was always a big eater, and you hoped you could get to the market to buy groceries in the next day or two. You loved cooking for him, and he loved eating your food. As much as you would love for him to come home to a big home cooked meal, this would work just fine. The last bit of food you ordered arrived not long ago, so you started moving some food to serving dishes. You hoped it would make it easier on him, just get home and dig in. 

Simon was due home about an hour ago, which had you a little worried. You sent him a text about 30 minutes ago, a simple, “You okay?” with no response. You felt crazy checking your phone every other minute, seeing if there was a call or text from him. Nothing yet. You stood from the stool you were perched at, tired of staring at the now cold food. You decided as an attempt to salvage the meal, you moved some food to baking dishes, turned the oven to keep warm and began boxing up the rest for later. Your back was to the door as you had placed the last of the food in the fridge when you heard the sound of a key entering the front door. 

Giddiness filled your body, a smile on your lips as you quickly shut the refrigerator door and made your way to the living room. Smoothing your dress nervously as he entered through the doorway.

Simon takes a couple steps in the house, pausing by the door to slip his mask over his head and set it on the side table there for the sole purpose of holding his mask. His eyes then search around the flat looking for you. His tired eyes fall on you with a small smile on his lips. You don’t miss the way his eyes flutter down your frame with slow blinks, which make your cheeks warm. You hoped he liked your dress.

“Look at you sweetheart,” he all but coos, with his arm out for you to fall in with a hug.

You couldn’t help the giggle that escaped once you were in his embrace. Your head rests on his chest, arms wrapped around him as well as you can muster. His strong arms swallow you whole, making you feel a warmth you haven’t felt in a long time. 

“I missed you so much, Si.” Your voice is muffled into his chest. You can feel the rumble of his laugh more than you can hear it.

“I missed you,” he responds with a kiss on the top of your head. 

You pulled back a little to look into his deep brown eyes, loving that he is here with you more than you can even explain. Simon leans down to press a gentle kiss against your lips, which you return immediately. His hands began working his way over your shoulders, down your spine, before gently resting on your hips. The feeling of his large hands on you in such an intimate spot, that is a bit softer than it was before the baby, caused your spine to straighten. 

You pulled yourself from the kiss. “Oh! Food, let me pull it out of the oven for you.” You gave a quick peck to his lips at that and pulled yourself from his embrace to head into the kitchen.

Simon followed in after you, watching you pull a few trays of food from the oven. 

“I’m sorry it isn’t homemade… but I ordered all your favorites. I tried my best to keep it warm for you,” you explained. “I was expecting you a bit earlier, so I kept some in the oven for you. The rest is in the fridge!” You clapped your hands together with a small smile. “So you can have more of your favorites over the next few days.” 

Once your eyes fell back onto him, he held an odd expression, almost sorrowful. Your throat tightened at the look. Feeling like you made a mistake with the food. Internally cursing yourself, you were so sure he would be excited about having a bit of all his favorite take out, but maybe you were wrong. 

“Or if you want I can just put it all up and make you something!” You attempted to sound cheery, but you knew there were barely any groceries in the house.

You turned to the cupboards, looking through them all. Hoping something would magically appear even though you know there isn’t much in there besides some dried pasta, canned goods and cereal. For some odd reason your eyes began to burn with humiliation. Of course he wanted to come home to a home cooked meal, he’s been gone for months and I just ordered him take out. 

“Love,” Simon said softly. You ignored him, heading to the fridge. Knowing exactly what’s in there isn’t much better than the cupboards, but you didn’t know what else to do.

Standing there with the door to the fridge open, Simon slips up behind you. He slowly wraps his arms around you, pulling your form firmly against his. Your breath hitched in your throat. As much as you missed his touch, you weren’t prepared for how feeling his strong hands on your soft stomach would feel. Your body has changed a lot since giving birth, which is to be expected, you know that. The both of you just haven’t had any time to be intimate with each other since the baby. Your body needed to heal, and Simon was beyond understanding of that. Then your doctor cleared you, your body was better and this is the first time really seeing him since.

“You did great sweetheart, thank you for ordering all my favorites,” he whispers into your ear. Sending chills down your spine. “I will eat every last bit of it, promise.”

“You sure?” You question softly.

“Of course lovie,” he kisses the back of your head tenderly. “But Johnny asked the team if we wanted to go to the pub tonight.”

Eyebrows pulling down at that with a frown on your face. You turned your head to the side, attempting to see his face from your peripheral. 

“What?” Surely he wasn’t going to go.

“Yeah,” Simon pulled back from you to go around the island and perch on the stool you were previously on. “This last mission was a bit tough, and we all wanted to celebrate it going as well as it did. Happy to be back home, ya know?” He says as plain as ever. Reaching over to one of the baking trays and grabbing some chips to toss into his mouth.

“Sure Si, I get it,” you start, slowly turning around to face him. “But… Well it’s just that I haven’t seen you in almost two months, and I was really hoping we could spend some time together.” You bit your lip softly, eyes not leaving his. You hoped he could see the desperation on your face without you having to say it outloud. After a few moments of his blank stare, you decided to change the subject to your daughter. “You haven’t even had a chance to see the baby. And-”

“Y/N, don’t do that.” Simon started with a bit of an edge to his voice. “You know how much I miss you both. I can go out for a couple of drinks with the team, and I’ll be back before you know it.”

“She’s been asleep for a while now, I know she will be up soon. She would love to see her dada, Si.” You felt your heartbeat in your throat now. If he won’t stay home for you, surely he will stay home for her. 

“That isn’t fair.” Simon stood from his chair. “You can’t hold her over my head. Our daughter isn’t supposed to be used as leverage.” 

“Of course not Simon, that isn’t what I meant. I just meant-”

“What did you mean then? To make me feel even worse about being gone from her? Because I don’t need your help to feel bad about that.” Simon’s voice was unintentionally raising by the second. You had no idea what it was like for him out there, on the job constantly thinking about you and your daughter. 

“I’m not trying to make you feel bad Si…” You gulped in some air, hoping it’ll calm your pounding heart. “I just have been so lonely and I was really looking forward to being with you tonight,” you explained softly. 

“It’ll be a couple hours Y/N.” Simon firmly stated with no room for argument. “I will be back before you know it.”

“I know that, but-” Cries echo throughout the flat, starting at the baby monitor on the kitchen island. You closed your eyes, telling yourself to keep your face even as your bottom lip attempted to wobble. You felt so sad and dejected. “Okay, Si.” You opened your watery eyes and gave a small smile that didn’t quite perk up the rest of your face. “Have fun and be safe okay?” 

You didn’t wait for a response before heading to your daughter's bedroom.

“What’s the matter baby girl?” You ask gently as you lean over the crib to pick her up.

“Hungry?” You whisper. 

Taking your spot in the corner of the room where your rocking chair is. You set up to feed her. You hum a small song to her as her cries finally calm and she accepts you feeding her. After her little belly was full you made sure that she was burped, then you changed her nappy and she was asleep again. You were grateful she was currently pretty good about getting back to sleep at night. Her tiny body was back in the crib as you looked her over. Perfect in every way. You gently brushed her head one last time before you turned to head back out of the room, but before your hand could twist the knob you changed your mind. 

You sat yourself back to the rocking chair, snagging your phone from the end table you had sat it on when you came into the room. You decided to just scroll for a while, not looking at anything in particular, just wanted to mindlessly scroll. Unfortunately it didn’t last long, after 10 minutes of not being able to take your mind off of him. You gave in, phone falling into your lap as the tears began to fall. You held your face in your hand, mascara long forgotten. You tried your best to keep quiet, not wanting to disturb the sleeping baby. Your mind just kept spiraling. 

“How could he not want to be here with me?”

“ I felt like I looked pretty… as pretty as I can look anyway.”

“Maybe I should have expected this. It’s so selfish of me to assume he would want to be intimate with me again, looking like this.”

 And worst of all, your mind started to wonder if he was even going out with the team at all. “Surely there isn’t someone else… No Y/N stop that.”

 You told yourself, nipping that in the bud. Simon would never do that to you, you knew that.  

The tears just kept on going and going, until you had no more tears left to cry. You felt exhausted, you couldn’t remember the last time you cried like this and it really took it out of you.  Checking your phone again, noting how much time has passed, you decided it was time to just go to bed. Using the back of your hands to wipe away the tears as best as you could before standing with a small sigh. You opened the door gently and slipped out without making any noise at all. 

Before heading to bed you wanted to drink some water, you could feel the beginning of a headache coming on. You started on your way to the kitchen, but stopped dead in your tracks before making it more than a few steps. Simon was still sitting at the stool where he was when you went to feed the baby.

“Si, I thought you were gone to the pub,” you breathed embarrassed. You couldn't help but notice the baby monitor in his hand. 

“I heard you talking to her, and humming that song you always do,” he started. “And I was just going to listen for a moment until you came back out.” His hazel eyes gazed upon you, heavy with the weight of sorrow. “Then you didn’t come out, and I heard you…” He stopped.

You swallowed nervously, hands knotted into your dress, eyes on the floor. Trying to do anything to avoid the tension rolling off of you in waves. 

“Baby,” he started only to falter momentarily. “Look at me please.” 

Unsure why, but you just couldn't bring yourself to look up at him. The stool was pushed back, as he gently stood up, his boots thud across the floor stopping in your line of sight.

His thumb and index finger grip your chin gently, pulling it up to force you to look at him. You weren’t sure what to expect, but seeing his beautiful brown eyes watery wasn’t it. 

“I’m sorry Si, I didn’t want you to hear that,” you tried to explain. “I’m just being selfish. I don’t want to force you to be here. I’m okay, go out with the team.” You attempt to reassure him. “I just want you to be happy.”

Your poor dress is a wrinkled mess, your sweaty palms constantly bunching and un-bunching the fabric. You weren’t sure why you felt so embarrassed, but you felt shame to your core over him hearing you cry like that. 

“You aren’t selfish Y/N, and I am happy, here with you and our daughter. It’s where I am my happiest, love,” he clarifies. “You two are my world, and you don’t need to apologize to me. I am the one who is sorry.” Simon pauses for a second to clear his throat, not allowing himself to get choked up. “I never want to hear you cry like that ever again, especially over me. You don’t deserve that, my sweet girl.” He presses a soft kiss on your mascara stained cheek. “The perfect mama to our perfect baby,” he whispers against your cheek. “My beautiful darling.” Mirroring the previous action, kissing your opposite cheek just as gently as before. 

His large hands reach for yours, gently coaxing them from your dress, forcing them to relax. He takes one hand in his and brings it to his lips, placing a soft kiss to it before repeating the same with your other hand. Simon warily looks you over, you are so beautiful, and yet your eyes are so sad. All because you want to spend time with him, how could he be so foolish. 

“You look amazing tonight sweetheart, this dress looks great on you,” he gushed. “I’m sorry I didn’t say it before.” His warm hands resume their spot on your waist. 

“Oh, it’s nothing,” you blush.

“Definitely not nothing, love.” Simon realized his mistakes, he was always a bit slow when it came to things like this. 

“How about we eat some dinner and get ready for bed love?” He asked sweetly. Large hands engulfing your hips, guiding you to the kitchen. “How does that sound?”

You couldn’t help the smile from forming on your lips. 

“I would love that Simon,” you muttered. 

Once he gets you to sit on a stool, he grabs some plates for the two of you and places a bit of food on each before sliding the plates over to where the stools are. Simon takes his spot beside you, and leans over to you and whispers, “Maybe then we can have some dessert, yeah?” 

Your eyes widen at that, as your duck your head to hide your burning cheeks. 

“You up for it, lovie?” Simon beckoned, placing a kiss on your warm cheek. 

“I- uh I mean we can, do whatever you want,” you kiss his cheek in return. 

“I have a few things that I want.” Simon says with a grin. “Eat up sweetheart.” 

Thank you for reading! Please let me know if you enjoyed it, and let me know if you have any ideas or requests.

[teaandmisanthropy]

We had to say goodbye to Snookums a few weeks ago, on August 16, 2024. These are some of the last pictures I have of him.

He was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as a result of (probably) lymphoma and had been losing weight for a couple of months and his digestive system was deteriorating.

He got lots of attention and extra treats at the end of his life, and he lived to the age of fifteen and was a happy, goofy, lazy snugglebug who was full of affection for us and friendly to everybody, including multiple dog acquaintances. He was a devoted, biddable sidekick to the BB (Arwen) (2007-2021) and a wonderful adoptive uncle to Tristana (2020, adopted April 2021-). And despite being a mellow fraidy cat who had always been submissive before, he didn't hesitate to become the senior boss cat and tell off Anubis (who is young and unusually strong and was about half again his size) and actually defended Tristana from Anubis's attempted attacks a few times when he managed to breach containment.

Snookums was my baby, and what you might call my familiar animal or one true cat, from the time we brought him home. He spent three days hiding in a blanket cave in the sauna at our old apartment in Turku and wouldn't eat for over 24 hours, until I finally got him to by feeding him from my hand.

He was afraid of crackling noises and especially plastic bags and loved chasing/ collecting hair elastics and chewing on rubber bands and silicone oven mitts and old wired earbud wires, all of which had to be hidden from him. He loved kisses and his method of kissing was to headbutt you in the head, earning him the nickname "butthead".

He was also the most talkative cat we had ever met when we got him, and used to meet me every time I came home and make a long speech that I referred to as the Kittysburg Address. He purred very loudly and was terrible at cleaning his own claws, which was perhaps partly because he was already missing a couple of the tiny teeth when we got him at age 1.5, but mostly because he was lazy. So he had to have toe gunk cleaned from his claw sheaths basically his whole life and he hated it, but was fundamentally non violent, so the most resistance he ever offered was occasionally squirming in a half hearted escape attempt.

When he was young he also used to wake me up in the middle of the night wanting to play, and I woke up many times back then to find his toys (usually hair bands and silicone oven mitts) in or around the bed. But even when young and irrepressible, Snookums was pretty lazy and spent much more time snoozing and snuggling than the BB, who often ran around bouncing off the walls without him, even though he was her constant companion and playmate.

In later years he got more lazy, as well as becoming more like himself in other ways (snuggly, silly, food-motivated), and he also acquired diabetes, which reduced his energy a lot. But he lived for about six years with his diabetes under control after his diagnosis, and was doing very well recently. The final illness was probably not related to his diabetes.

For many years, actually since he was very young, I used to periodically just start crying while I was holding him in my arms, because I loved him so much. The spectre of losing him someday, even when it was far in the future, was already scaring me. (We got him two years after the death of @waxjism's One True Cat, Lily, so this wasn't out of left field.) Maybe I did some of my grieving in advance. I felt like I didn't have time to grieve right after, but even though the sadness is massive, I have had an easier time adjusting my brain to the new reality than after the loss of past pets. Cornish rexes are very snuggly and affectionate cats and most of them spend a lot of time lying on people's laps, giving out hugs, basically, but Snookums is the only pet I've ever felt was comforting and soothing me just as much with his snuggles as I was soothing him.

[thelampisaflashlight]

A Little Thing

[Very short. Dew learns he's a dad and takes things in stride. Mentions of a baby being in the NICU.] Below the cut.

Dew stares at the incubator, watching a tiny hand wrap around his finger.

"She's so small..." he whispers, awestruck, and the nurse beside him smiles sweetly.

"Strong though. Very strong." she assures him, "She's getting better at eating on her own."

"...And her mom?" he asks, gasping when he feels the tiniest squeeze on his pinkie.

"She looked well." she informs him, looking down at the clipboard in her hands, "...She hasn't changed her mind though. She signed the papers this morning and-"

"...When can I take her home?"

The nurse hums thoughtfully.

"I can't guarantee it will be soon, but she has been looking better over the last day or so." she says, "If she manages to get through her next couple of feedings without issue, she should be able to go home as early as this Friday, so long as she passes the car seat test."

"...And if she doesn't?" Dew frets, "What happens then?"

"She'll stay here a little longer then."

"I see... Did..." Dew wets his lips, "Did her mom... did her mom give her a name?"

She shakes her head.

Dew looks down at the baby.

His baby.

At her little, scrunched up face, at the little birthmarks that sit either side of her forehead where she'd have horns if she were a full ghoul kit, and at the subtle point to her ears....

He laughs.

"I can't think of a single name." he runs his free hand over his face, "I didn't... I haven't brainstormed a single one."

Dew tries not to overthink things, tries to focus on what the NICU staff told him, but it's hard not to when he's here, home, in the kitchen, while the baby is back at the hospital.

He feels like he's left a piece of himself back there.

An important, precious piece that he needs to get back as soon as-

"Dew? Dewy? Why're you pacing a bag of potatoes?" Swiss claps his hands, drawing Dew from his thoughts.

"...She weighs 6lbs." he mumbles, hefting the bag, "She weighs 6lbs. Swiss, that's not a lot, but I keep... I keep thinking. I keep thinking how that's not a lot..."

"She...? Who? Dew, bud, are you okay?"

"...I went by the hospital earlier." he says, "She's 6lbs."

"Oh." Swiss' eyes widen, recalling what Dew had told them a month ago now, "Oh, wow, that's... that's earlier than..."

He clears his throat.

"She though? You've got a daughter then?"

And that makes Dew pause.

"Yeah... Y-Yeah, I've got a daughter." he sets the bag down, feeling a little lost without something in his arms, "Swiss, I'm a dad."

Swiss wraps his own around the shorter ghoul, rubbing his back

"You're a dad."

Dew's eyes water as he settles into the embrace, sniffling.

"I'm a dad."

.

.

.

It takes about a week before his daughter can come home.

She wails most of the car ride home, thankfully, Dew isn't the one driving -Swiss is, because he offered first, much to Cirrus' disappointment, because, "I can only bring one other person into the NICU-"...-, so he can focus most of his energy on soothing her, which goes better than expected considering she's asleep by the time he gets the car seat unlatched and brings it stealthily (Again, Swiss is a real champ for this one, distracting curious siblings and other clergymen as Dew tries to sneak an entire living creature inside the building undetected and unbothered.) down to the ghouls' den.

The others are already waiting for him when he arrives, sat in the common room trying desperately not to get up from their seats to steal the baby greet him.

"She's so little..." Rain breathes, cradling Dew's baby in his arms on the couch.

"She gets that from her daddy." Swiss jokes, earning a small slap on the back from Cirrus, "Sorry."

"She's big for a kit." Aether hums, brushing a hand over the loose, black curls on the baby's head, "That's probably why she came so early... kits are usually half her size when they're born."

"What did you wind up naming her?" Sunny asks, turning to Dew, who is anxiously waiting for his friends to return his baby to him, which they do, once Swiss nudges Rain to give her back.

"Lily." Dew says, adjusting his grip, "...I thought, I thought it was kind of cute."

Dew flushes when the others coo.

"So, are we still going through with the plan?" Aether asks and Dew nods.

"Plan?" Cumulus raises an eyebrow, "What's this?"

Aether moves to sit beside Dew.

"Well... someone will need to stay home with Lily when tour starts, because a tour bus is no place for a newborn, let alone with a bunch of sleep deprived musicians..." Aether begins, "And you all know I've been wanting to take a break from traveling so much, and Dew's contract is still ongoing so... We're gonna co-parent?"

"You sneaky little-" Cirrus huffs, turning to Dew, "When were you going to tell us this?"

"I was going to tell you a little later on, but, well..." Dew dips his chin towards the baby in his arms, "...timeline jumped forward a bit."

"...And Mountain is okay with a baby living in his room part time?" She questions, looking to the tall ghoul, who has yet to say anything beyond a very tiny, "Hello" upon getting his turn to hold Lily.

"What's one more flower?" Mountain shrugs, "I already share a room with one baby-"

"Hey."

"-Point is, I'm fine with it." he says, "...Besides, I'm sure we're all going to wind up babysitting this little one from time to time, so I might as well get used to a bit of crying. Again, from Dew, not the baby-"

"I don't cry-"

The others look at him.

"-often. I don't cry often."

"..."

"It's hormones."

"..."

"...I hate you guys."

[stobinesque]

Make Me Write: SNIPPET

The people have spoken and the people want Jeff to be Steve's bisexual awakening! I now have ~1.7k words written of this fic that had previously been a vague outline in the back of my head. Full disclosure, though: the "awakening" part of this is going to take a good long while for our beloved Steve.

I'm tagging everyone who explicitly requested this for WIP Wednesday (I counted each request as 3 additional sentences to my total count). But I'm going to hang onto the asks and use them for future motivation!

SNIPPET BELOW!

The return to school is a rocky one. The worst of the bruising has faded, and Steve can finally make it through most of a day reasonably alert—at home, at least. But there’s still a persistent ache throughout his whole body, and the fluorescent lights at Hawkins High are suddenly audible in a way he doesn’t remember them being just a couple weeks ago. About halfway through second period he develops a splitting headache that only gets worse as the hours tick by, and he feels seconds away from losing a breakfast he didn’t eat.

And that’s just the physical stuff. Returning to the social feeding frenzy of a small-town high school stuffed with teens with nothing to do than stick their noses all the way up the asses of everyone around them after getting his lights knocked out by the shiny new guy… Max may have knocked Billy out, but Billy’s not the one who had to take a week and a half off. Billy’s not the one with yellowing bruises splashed across his face. Billy’s had time to fashion himself a little amateur PR campaign, with Tommy Hagan as his own personal town crier.

It’s not like Steve had any particular interest in continuing to hover at the periphery of the circles he’d once been the ringleader of. But with Nancy tucked firmly into Jonathan’s side, and staunchly avoiding his gaze, and without the blandly polite interest of any of his other “friends,” Steve is just…adrift.

And on top of all of that, somehow a grade 3 concussion has not managed him a get out of jail free card for the stack of problem sets, papers, and tests he missed while he was out. Steve’s not totally convinced that a couple teachers didn’t tack on additional assignments out of spite.

“Mr. Harrington.”

Steve freezes with one foot in Mr. Donovan’s classroom. “Yes?”

“You’ll be making up the test you missed at the end of last week.”

“Didn’t I also miss the lessons for that test?”

“It’s not my fault if you didn’t have someone to take notes for you while you were away.”

“Away? I had a concussion.”

“Yes, and I’m sure you’ll think twice before getting up to whatever nonsense resulted in that unfortunate accident again. But that does not change the fact that you have a test you need take before you can continue in this class.”

Steve works his jaw, tempted to pull out the ‘my parents will be hearing about this’ card. He probably could get his mom to kick up enough of a fuss to get him out of the test. If he played his cards right, he might even manage to rile his dad enough to get Mr. Donovan fired. But either option was a devil’s bargain, and Steve has had quite enough of hell and its denizens to last himself at least two lifetimes.

Steve swallows down a retort—if he’s not going to try to manipulate his way out of this he’s certainly not going to dig his hole any deeper—and crosses to the front of the room to grab the test from Mr. Donovan’s hand.

***

Almost all of the tables in the small library are full by the time Steve shuffles through the door right on the heel of the final bell. The only one free is the rickety wooden table near the back that has one leg about half an inch too short that always wobbles whenever someone so much as looks at it. Steve sighs, but he resigns himself to sneaking a book thin enough to wedge under the table leg off the shelf while Mrs. Miller is looking away.

A minute later, Steve is cycling through a large stack of very small books when he’s startled by someone speaking from behind him. “I’d go with The Awakening.”

“Huh?” Steve doesn’t even turn around, singularly focused as he is on making this table passably usable for taking the goddamn Chemistry test.

“The Awakening? Kate Chopin? Perfect profile for wedging under there.”

Steve scans the spines of his pile until he spots the book. Fishing it out, he sees that there is a small indent on the front cover that looks suspiciously similar to the shape of the table feet. Sure enough, it settles into place easily, and winks the wobble into nonexistence.

“Perfect, thank you.” Steve finally turns enough to catch sight of his savior. It’s another kid from Donovan’s fifth period Chemistry, but Steve can’t recall his name. If he puts his mind to it and casts back far and wide, he can maybe conjure an image of a darker-skinned teen sitting at the same cafeteria table as Eddie freaking Munson, but there’s a strong chance Steve’s just extrapolating based on the fact that the guy is currently wearing one of the silly “Hellfire Club” t-shirts. Not that knowing his extracurriculars helps at all with remembering what to call him. Steve’s never been the best at names and faces, but he’s starting to think Billy knocked something loose up there when he knocked him out (that’s basically what a concussion is, right?), because he can usually at least come up with some vague impression of a sound even if it’s off. His head is totally blank on this one.

Trying to recall the guy’s name just leaves him awkwardly staring into the middle distance, though. So when Hellfire Guy drops into one of the chairs at the table, it startles him into following suit. Hellfire Guy drops an identical packet to Steve’s on the table.

“You too?” Steve asks.

Hellfire Guy just kind of stares at him with a confused smile. “Why’d you think I was here during our shared class, Harrington?”

Steve flushes. “I didn’t really think before I spoke, to be honest.”

“Well at least you’re honest.” His new tablemate flashes a more genuine grin. “I was out with strep last week. Frankie grabbed my assignments for me, so I just have to make up this stupid test.”

Steve nods, pretending to know who Frankie is, and refusing to wish that he’d had someone willing to grab his assignments while he’d been out. It’s not like he could have done anything about them when he was sleeping two-thirds of the day away.

Steve settles at the table, and as he moves to start writing his name at the top of the page, he realizes that’s the perfect way to figure out Hellfire Guy’s name without seeming like a total jackass. He flicks his eyes across the table to try to catch a glimpse of what the other kid is writing. But Steve’s ability to parse other people’s handwriting is lackluster on a good day. Throwing in the additional obstacles of trying to read something upside down from a foot away and he may as well be trying to read French. He can’t get even a halfway decent look without having to strain himself awkwardly—which he nearly does, forgetting that the whole point of this exercise was to be discreet.

Hellfire Guy looks up to meet Steve’s gaze, and he looks a tad irked. “You trying to cheat off of me, Harrington?”

“No, no, I—” Steve cuts himself off, running a hand through his hair. “I can’t remember your name,” he says. The Steve of a year ago wouldn’t even care about whether or not he knew some nerd’s name. He doesn’t want to be that guy anymore, and yet he’s still right here in the same exact place. Only now he does care, and the fact that he can’t remember the name of a guy who’s sat two rows over from him for the last three and a half months is just embarrassing. “But I didn’t want you to think—” Steve blows out a sharp breath. “It seemed stupid to ask.”

Hellfire Guy blinks. “My name’s Jeff,” he says, without any hint of judgment or annoyance shading his tone. Jeff tilts his head and looks at Steve with an intent sort of squinting look. “Hargrove really did a number on you, huh?”

“Oh.” Steve hadn’t been expecting that response. “Yeah.” He paints a charming smile onto his face. He doesn’t want to talk about this. “We should probably stop talking before Mrs. Miller starts to think we are cheating.”

Jeff opens his mouth as though to say something, but then glances over the front desk. Mrs. Miller is talking to another student, but rather than call Steve out on his obvious deflection he just shrugs and returns to working on his own test. Steve lets out a slow steady exhale of relief and continues working on his own.

It doesn’t take long for the headache that’s been building all day to bloom into something distractingly painful. Even if parts of the test didn’t reference material that he entirely missed while he was out, all of the questions about stuff that he does recognize are about things he’s been struggling to grasp. The multiple choice section was fine—even if he’s not particularly confident he knows the answers to more than three of the questions, at least he can just guess and move on. But he’s thoroughly stuck on the segment of the test where he has to balance equations.

“Are you okay, man?”

Steve jolts in his seat and looks up at Jeff, who’s staring at him with what Steve takes to be genuine concern—as out of place as that should be on a nerdy junior whose name he didn’t know remember less than thirty minutes ago. Beyond that—what was Steve doing that even prompted Jeff to ask? “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?”

“Dude, you’re ripping your hair out, and you sound like a dying lawnmower.”

Steve immediately drops the hand that he didn’t realize had been tugging at his roots from his head, and flushes red. Maybe Billy punched a few holes through his filter while he was doing his best to cave his face in. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. You stuck on something?”

Steve scoffs a bit. “All of it.” He runs a hand through his hair again, but this time to try to reverse some of the damage. “I hate balancing equations.”

Tagging: @eriquin @inairbinad @delta-piscium @steventhusiast @bifuriouswaterbender @xenon-demon @steves-strapcollection @spicysix

[bts-hyperfixation]

Outside of the fox

Chapter 16

Y/N longs for a new life when the one she'd been living comes to an abrupt stop. Without much thought to those she is leaving behind, the little fox packs a backpack and disappears. She stumbles across the shelter and makes an interim home for herself while she works out exactly what she wants from her second chance.

Last

If you'd thought the table had been a tight squeeze yesterday, this was almost unbearable. The addition of Jin's broad shoulders around the circular table made it feel like the equivalent of the underground at rush hour. Jin had initially offered to sit at the breakfast bar but Namjoon would hear none of it, insisting on everyone crowding around.

A lot of mumbled apologies flew around the table as everyone reached around to pile their plates high with food. It's a little easier when everyone settles down. Everyone has more than enough food on their plates with the serving dishes still being half full. It seemed like you all might be eating leftovers for a few days.

You accidentally elbow Tae as you lift your fork to your lips. He sighs dramatically as some sauce escapes his spoon dropping onto his slacks.

"Remind me to buy you guys a new table as a courting gift." He grumbles, dabbing at his new stain

"I think it's cosy." Jimin shrugs, cuddling against Taehyung from the other side to you.

The panda snuggled back abandoning his attempt to salvage his trousers.

"You're courting the pack? That's lovely. I don't think I ever asked. How long have you all been together." Jin asks.

"We aren't all together." You answer a little too fast.

Jin looks down at his food awkwardly, clearly thinking he said the wrong thing.

"What she means is we have found ourselves in a very interesting situation." Namjoon supplies. "While our official pack is myself, Yoongi, Jimin, and Jungkook - we have been courting Y/N over the course of the last couple of months. And Hoseok has been dating Yoongi for a few weeks now. And Taehyung..."

"And Taehyung is a completely mad stranger that we are apparently indulging." Yoongi fills in.

"I see you are warming up to me." Taehyung flashes his best smile at the predator.

"What he means to say is Tae is a colleague of Y/N's that we invited to join us for the holidays." Jimin corrects.

"Well, that's great. It must be nice to be so connected to so many people." If Jin finds the situation odd he does a good job of hiding it.

The dinner continues with idle small talk. You all learn a little more about Jin and his background. He is a quokka hybrid, common in the medical field because of their jovial attitude. It explains why his smile so easily puts Jungkook at ease. He moved to the area a few years ago, but work keeps him that busy he hasn't had time to create a social circle outside a couple of other doctors at the hospital.

Far too full for dessert, everyone abandons the table as soon as the main course is finished. Seokjin and Taehyung insist on washing up while Hobi wraps up leftovers leaving you and the others to adjourn to the garden.

The boys had cleaned off the garden furniture especially for tonight, laying blankets out across them for when it got bitingly cold later on.

"I never want to eat again." Jimin groans dramatically, flopping into your lap.

You push his fringe away from his forehead, the exertion of eating too much making his hair stick down in a funny way. He leans up into your touch and you let your hand stay there, playing absently with the copper strands.

"When they've finished tidying up perhaps we should go for a walk?" Namjoon suggests. " We still have a long time before the sun sets low enough to start the bonfire."

There are mumbles of agreement before a comfortable silence overcomes the group, too full to continue making conversation.

You don't really notice as the others join you, slotting silently into spots that had clearly been waiting for them.

Yoongi's arm falls naturally around Hobi's waist as he leans into him. You feed Taehyung some of the blanket that was wrapped around your shoulders as he settles in next to you. Jungkook sits up a little straighter and offers Jin a pillow from the collection he had built himself.

All too uncomfortable to move, you wait until some space reopens in your stomachs' before moving on to your next planned activity.

_____________

It's early evening before Yoongi finally groans back to life bringing you all with him. The sun is still peaking out over the horizon but it won't be long until you can get to the main event. For now though, it seems everyone is still rather looking forward to their walk.

You partner up somewhat accidentally but it makes sense. Namjoon insists on picking Jin's brain, the two have a lot in common it would seem. Taehyung attaches himself to Yoongi, determined to win over the stubborn jackal. Hoseok falls into step with Jungkook, the younger having relented to an uneasy alliance with the man after figuring out he gave the best ear scratches.

That left you with Jimin. You trailed behind the rest of the group, watching as they all talked excitedly about a variety of topics you couldn't quite make out. Occasionally your fingers would graze against Jimin's as you walked together but neither of you acknowledged it.

"Are you having a good time?" He asked, staring at the ground.

"I really am." You answer. "It's nice to see all of the little traditions you guys have built together."

"I hope we can make more traditions with you." He says.

This time as his pinky grazes against yours he takes your hand, and you let him.

He holds on tightly, like a kid with a balloon threatening to fly away.

In the meantime it seems you have fallen behind, the others a spot in the distance. Still close enough to catch up to if you tried but you aren't sure you want to.

"What are you going to wish for tonight?" You ask.

"I'm not sure, I've got almost everything I could ever want. How about you?"

"If I tell you it won't come true will it?" You tease.

"That's not fair! You can't ask me and then not give me an answer when I turn it back on you." He pouts.

"But you didn't answer me properly anyway!" You point out.

"Fine, there is one thing I might wish for..."

"I'm listening."

"A kiss." He states.

"A kiss? You've got three men who will happily kiss you whenever you ask, plus Taehyung if you wanted I'm sure."

"I want a kiss from you.

"Jimin..."

"I know... and I'm happy to keep waiting a little longer. So tell me what's your wish?" He says changing the topic.

"What if my wish is that everyone else's wishes come true?"

"Then you might be kissing more than just me tonight." he laughs as if it's a joke but it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm not sure what I'm ready for Jimin, but I think I can manage a kiss."

His eyebrows crease together as if his brain is trying to catch up with his ears. You imagine if he thought any harder smoke might have started escaping from his nose. You watch as he processes his way through it's evident when the lightbulb appears above his head, eyes going wide with excitement.

"You mean it?" He asks trying to tamper his excitement.

"I do." You confirm.

He stops dead in his tracks, your entwined hands bringing you back to him. He glances over your shoulder to make sure the others haven't noticed.

"Can I kiss you now? I want to kiss you for the first time when we are alone and I'm not sure we are going to get another chance in the next few days"

"But you haven't made the wish yet."

"Then I'll wish for a second kiss, or a third, or a fourth... Or maybe for Taehyung..."

You slap his arm playfully but he just slips his free arm around you and pulls you into him. Your entwined hands fall apart and he encircles you fully.

"Is that a no?" He asks eyes lidded, lips a mere inch from your own.

"It's not a no."

He presses his lips against yours gently to begin with, testing the waters until you respond, applying more pressure to the kiss. He tilts his head to the side and his lips part slightly, you mirror his actions. It doesn't go much further than that. A shout from ahead brings you too away from one another.

"Are you guys coming?" Hobi yells.

"Yeah, one second!" Jimin screams back, stepping away from you.

His hand finds yours again and he pulls you to catch up with the others. You try to focus on the rest of the walk, but you find your eyes keep wandering back to Jimin's lips and the pillowy feel of them against your own.

____________________

Next

Masterlist

____________________

Notes:

The other bottle inscriptions on the perfume if anyone wanted to know are:

MC: to my favourite fox

Yoongi: to the fierce protector I wish to put at ease.

Jungkook: to the bunny I want to show the world

Jimin: To the panda I already might love

Hoseok: To the human I want to ruin in the best ways

Namjoon: to the leader I wish to spoil

Sorry I was MIA again, I went to Disneyland 🤷🏼♀️.

Also this chapter was not at all planned, but here you have it 🙃 I promise next time will be the bonfire that was supposed to happen three chapters ago and then we will move on from solstice. Next time should be next week but ive been working myself up about this chapter so much now that it's going to be very convoluted so it might be the week after.

[fahatesyou]

Hybrid/FishMax Au Snippet

(Mature, some references to Fish biology, Maxiel)

Just a small snippet of my last work in process, maybe this won’t make the Final Cut and I will change it for something else but… it has been sitting on my drafts for so long I may just let it out for some feed back, let me know what you think!

“It’s your fault.” Max said, stepping out of his tight jeans on his way to the bathroom, mindlessly leaving a trail of dirty clothes behind him.

Daniel followed him, too dumbstruck to fight back Max’s accusations. His stomach was evidently bloated, like he had eaten too many slices of pizza in one sitting.

Brad had warned him briefly, just some cryptic words that now made so much more sense than a few hours ago.

At the time Brad’s words could had meant a lot of things; Daniel didn’t spect to find Max full of eggs.

“You just won’t stop touching it.” Max groaned, his pale skin almost shining under the bathroom’s lights. Daniel wanted him to turn around to see more, to get a better look. “That’s why it’s back.”

He dipped his toes to test the water briefly and let out an unpleased sound, sinking himself into the tub anyways.

“Sorry.” Daniel apologized, not really knowing why, just too busy glaring at Max’s soft belly hiding under the water.

Eggs. Max’s stomach full of eggs.

Stomach? Uterus?

Daniel didn’t fucking know.

He had been touching Max’s slit. The consequences of that had been a mystery to Daniel until now.

Of course he knew Max was a hybrid, everyone knew, for better or for worse, Max was one of the few hybrids on the grid, and had smugly silenced most critics since the day his debut was announced.

Max had completely shut down the doubts of those old school pricks about a water hybrid chances of winning a race that didn’t involved a pool.

Daniel had seen Max’s gills countless of times back when they were teammates, so the whole goldfish parts of Max weren’t exactly a revelation to Daniel once both their clothes had came completely off.

Jos had been a proud shark, there was nothing Jos liked talk about more than his depredator instincts and how unfair being a sea hybrid in F1 surrounded by mammals was for him.

It all stank of bullshit to Daniel, Jos complaints had sounded to Daniel’s ears like a bunch of lame excuses for his actual lack of talent.

It was always such a annoying thing to Daniel growing up; having to hear the rest of the hybrid kids and their families excuse themselves on their biology for their failures.

Daniel never wanted to be more than a human. He didn’t need no extra body parts to win a race.

And then there was Max.

Daniel never found Max ashamed of being an hybrid, but it was definitely the last thing Max ever wanted to talk about when it came to racing. That was mostly why he liked Max more than any other teammate he had before. Max didn’t treat Daniel like some poor clueless guy who was missing something. Max liked racing and Daniel liked Max.

It was all it matter.

Sex with Max was a little bit more complex.

Daniel liked to think of himself as someone open minded, nowhere close to a prude. He had fucked men before Max came along, and even some memorable hybrid girl in Brazil whose tail rapped around Daniel’s cock while he was eating her out. He enjoyed it very much, just like the rest of the stuff he did in bed with his partners. Daniel had been around enough to not be surprised anymore, and a tail or a pair of furry ears weren’t the end of the world.

He wasn’t fucking ready for Max’s pussy.

Slit.

That was what Max called it.

So. Max’s slit.

They spent the first weeks of their relationship dry humping and jerking each other off, maybe Max’s lack of balls should had been an initial warning, but hybrids were so complicated creatures Daniel just didn’t pay it no mind.

At first, Max refused to let Daniel touch him anywhere near his soft opening.

So it took a couple of secretive glances and some personal research for Daniel to figure out Max had been lying to him all time long.

Max had told him his slit was nothing but a mating body part, that it didn’t really do anything more than lay eggs each time his estrus came along.

It was bullshit. Or so did the Internet claim.

But Daniel didn’t want to push, and he wasn’t raised to be an asshole. Max had his boundaries, his things he didn’t like and things he loved.

It was just the wet sound of the lips hiding between Max’s legs as he squirmed on the bed from Daniel sucking his dick what was enough to break the self control of even the most honorable of men.

Daniel hasn’t in fact stop touching Max’s slit since.

The first time he fucked Max was like discovering sex all over again.

He was hot and warm in some indescribable ways that couldn’t be compared to the women Daniel had slept with. The brain melting tightness of his slit became Daniel’s kryptonite.

They had spent all off season finding out how many ways there were for Max to come on Daniel’s cock. It had took some hard earned swaying but when Max had finally agreed and parted his legs to let Daniel inside his precious untouched entrance, there was no coming back.

So now Max’s mating cycle had came back.

And apparently, Daniel’s dick was pretty much to blame.

[eroaneki]

Personal update below

Joe's father is likely going into hospice. I've spent the last week trying to keep everything together for us, and I think yesterday between the normal anxiety of my period and the stress of everything going on, I broke. Hard.

I got in my car to go to work and admittedly I didn't eat in the morning because I'm trying to get back into doing intermittent fasting, but I had coffee. And I've done that. I've had coffee on an empty stomach and then ate hours later. Not like something I don't do.

But I was singing along to Queen's "Love of my Life" when all of a sudden I just felt like the walls were closing in on me. I got scared thinking I was having a fucking hypoglycemic episode even though I'm not diabetic so I luckily had some tic-tacs and popped those into my mouth.

It was the same feeling I got when I went into SVT while driving to work 2 years ago. Like that overwhelming sense of dread. But my heart wasn't pounding like it was then. Actually I didn't have my heart racing at all yesterday. Or if I did I didn't feel it. I just had the tunnel vision and the overwhelming sense of doom, and the shakes. Like everything I did wasn't real and I wasn't actually alive and I don't actually exist. It was freaky.

But anyway that happened to me 4 times yesterday. 4 fucking times. And then I ended up getting into a little argument with Joe simply due to a breakdown in communication and he's stressed and I'm stressed and we're both just fucking overwhelmed because we're basically waiting on this poor man to die and it's the anticipation of when is it going to happen, oh my god, and everything else that's going to come after.

Joe's already saying we may have to move back in with his mother after he passes and I don't want that. I really don't fucking want that for us. And I think that's what did it for me. That was the last thing he said to me before I went into full blown panic.

I want our own life. I don't want to be living under the shadow of his mother, my mother, anyone. I want our own fucking life. I want our own privacy, I want our own home, I want our own children, our own dog, our own everything.

And I have felt for my entire fucking life that any time I try getting ahead or breaking free to be my own person, this fucking chain gets yanked around my neck and drags me back. And I think that's why I'm feeling so fucking claustrophobic too. Because I feel like I'm seeing my future being strangled. And I'm going to be entrapped in a situation I don't want to be in.

We were talking about getting married again and quite honestly after the way he acted yesterday and knowing we may have to move in with his mother, idk. I really don't fucking know. I also told him I want to hyphenate my last name and he got like offended by it. He's never had an issue with it up until then. He was trying to feed me shit like "yeah but you giving up your last name is like burying the past" and honestly I wanted to say to him that it's akin to asking me to kill part of myself for you but I didn't want to be dramatic over it.

Idk we're both not handling this situation very well and it's like I know we're gonna get stuck cleaning out his parents' house when he passes and that's the third fucking house I have to clean for family members who have died and I'm 32 and it's 3 fucking houses I have to clean. My grandmother's when I was 19, my father's when I was 30, and now this.

It's just too fucking much. When the fuck am I going to be ok

When is it going to be my turn to have a life I enjoy? That's not surrounded by shit constantly? Why do I have this ever looming cloud over me? Why?

[stormyoceans]

i’m rewatching and i still don’t know how this show exists or what kind of drugs were the writers on, but i’m so glad they were lmao and they have enough for our skyy 2 episodes. Any thoughts about 1) empty cinema scene, 2) talay’s foggy glasses kiss, 3) grafitti library scene, ‘Do you want me to live with you or do you want something 18+’ unhinged daydream, 4) wedding scene, 5) puen reading shojo manga, 6) why they should stop eating so much junk food, 7) snow scene? Sorry this got too long. I just love your thoughts about them so much!

Have an awesome day!

(one day i’ll come off anon, im just too shy and awkward lmao)

[peaks timidly from my inbox] yes hello i come asking for forgiveness ;;;;;; i really am so terribly sorry for how late this answer is, anon, i've been so all-over the place in the few past weeks and wrote this here and there whenever i needed to feel better, which probably means it's even more scattered and less coherent than usual ;;;;; not sure if you're still around or even just still interested in this, but i wanted to reply to you anyway, so here we go!!!

1) empty cinema scene: ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED SCENES IN THE ENTIRE SHOW IM SO HAPPY YOU MENTIONED IT BECAUSE WE DON’T TALK NEARLY ENOUGH ABOUT IT!!!!! literally the proof that no one can cheer talay up and get him out of his own head like puen does!!!! talay's ridiculously fond smile as puen pretends the cinema is full of people, the way he actually plays along with it after the initial 'what the hell are you doing' reaction.... we always make fun of puen for being down bad BUT GOD TALAY IS SO SMITTEN TOO he sees puen tearing up while watching the movie (THEIR movie) and his first instinct is to gently wipe away those tears LIKE IF THAT DOESN'T MAKE YOU WANT TO BITE YOUR OWN ARM OFF AND FEED IT TO THE WOLVES THEN I ENVY YOU TBH. and the most insane thing is that at the time he didn’t even know he was in love with puen, he hadn’t realized it yet, while puen was already fully aware of his own feelings for talay. puen who, during the voice over, says "it's you. if it wasn't for you, this movie wouldn't have happened. without you, my screenplay wouldn't be this good", which parallels what he tells talay at the end of episode 4, "if it's not you, i wouldn't be able to work this well". and looking back at it, i really feel like it shouldn't have surprised me so much to learn that puen realized he was in love with talay at the glass house, because he was basically shouting it from the rooftops. "which scene is your favorite?" talay asks him. "the last scene where both of them meet again in the coffee shop," puen answers, because "i went there with you". it's you. it can't be anyone but you. i love you, i love you, i love you. IM TRULY NEVER GONNA GET TIRED OF SAYING HOW THEY INVENTED PARALLELISM ROMANTICISM SOULMATISM ALSO NOT THEM BEING SO ENTHRALLED BY EACH OTHER THEY DIDN'T EVEN NOTICE THAT UP AND AOU WERE THERE TOO PEOPLE IN LOVE ARE THE WORST

2) talay’s foggy glasses kiss: NO THOUGHTS HEAD EMPTY AND EVEN IF I HAD ANY I WOULD KEEP THEM BETWEEN ME AND GOD BECAUSE THEY SURE AS HELL WOULDN'T BE FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION. like i make fun of puen for being horny all the time but also i get it. if talay confessed to have been in love with me since the very first time we met by using a very similar line i liked from a movie we watched together years ago all while looking so warm and cuddly in an oversized sweater, i would feel compelled to kiss him senseless too. also not to be petty, but as much as people like to say jimmysea can't kiss, this is the only time i can fully believe a make out session left a character breathless, with weak knees, and a little turned on like THE FOGGY GLASSES, TALAY'S LIPS ALL RED FROM KISSING, HIS HAIR MESSED UP FROM PUEN'S HANDS RUNNING THROUGH IT, HIS EYES COMPLETELY GLAZED OVER...... REARRANGED MY GUTS MY SOUL MY ENTIRE LIFE AND EVERYTHING I EVER THOUGHT I KNEW THE SPECTRE OF THE PERSON I WAS WHEN I FIRST SAW THIS KISS HAUNTS MY EVERY WAKING MOMENT THEY REALLY DID THE MOST

3.a) grafitti library scene: PAIN SUFFERING TORMENT AGONY ANGUISH BUT ALSO THE TENSION THE UNDERCURRENT THE WHOLE ENTIRE EVERYTHING OF IT ALL I HATE TO SEE THEM FIGHT BUT GOD I LOVE THIS SCENE I REALLY DO. i just think it's such an important moment, character-wise, and it's also the first big turning point in their relationship, just like the separation in episode 6 is, because the conflict is actually functional to their growth, especially puen's. puen is already so deeply in love here, but it's so painfully obvious that he has no idea how to go about it and that he is still struggling to find himself, so he defaults to what he knows, to being puen the actor, and that's what he ends up putting on, an act, a big over the top romantic one that could have come out from a movie, but even if the feelings behind it are genuine, the gesture itself isn't, and talay KNOWS, because puen is the kind of person that quietly waits outside his university all day just to spend a little more time with him, not the one that makes a spectacle out of it. this is what makes talay finally snap, because while we see him being very confused about his feelings throughout the episode, and very doubtful about puen's too, you can see that part of him did believe in puen's sincerity ("lately, someone has done something nice to me," talay says to dol a little later in the episode, "so nice that i thought he was serious"), which is why it hurts so much to see talay's crestfallen expression when he asks puen "so all you've done is for your screenwriting?" (and since we're talking about it SEA'S ACTING HERE IS SO GOOD AND YET SO UNDERRATED IM EATING MY FIST) and puen doesn't realize how upset talay really is until it's too late, until he tries to explain and maybe even confess something ("im not messing with you. i--") but talay doesn't want to listen anymore. however this rejection is essential to make puen understand that he has to stop hiding under puen the actor and start being puen the person if he wants to be with talay. this is a long process that will only end in episode 10, when he'll finally be ready to tell talay his name, but this was the first step towards it: as misguided as the kiss in the glass house is, it's also the moment where puen stops playing a role and starts following his feelings. i honestly don't think it's a coincidence that in this episode the password used for the association is "you're not a movie. you are real."

3.b) ‘Do you want me to live with you or do you want something 18+’ unhinged daydream: PEAK DERANGED PUEN MOMENT HE REALLY SAID LET ME ADMIT OUT LOUD ALL THE ROMANTIC DOMESTIC HALF HORNY FANTASIES I'VE EVER HAD ABOUT YOU. IM PRETTY SURE THAT IF TALAY DIDN'T STOP HIM HE REALLY WOULD HAVE GONE INTO FULL 18+ NSFW XXX TERRITORY THERE IS JUST NOT A SINGLE OUNCE OF SHAME IN THIS BOY'S BODY AND YET TALAY STILL THINKS HE’S DOING IT FOR THE BIT. INSANITY LUNACY MADNESS AND PEOPLE WONDER WHY HAVE I GONE CRAZY. on a more serious note, i already said it before, but i absolutely love how the talay in puen's daydreams is just like the real talay, so much so that we could hardly tell that what we were seeing wasn't actually what was happening, because it shows that puen loves him as he is, warts and all, and that in puen's head their relationship turning into a romantic one wouldn't change who they are or how they interact with each other: they would still bicker and banter and be friends, and that's one of the things i love the most about them. ALSO ALL THE DETAILS IN PUEN'S FANTASY ACTUALLY BECOMING TRUE MAKES ME WANT TO RIP MY HEART OUT AND EAT IT BUT LET'S NOT GO THERE

4) wedding scene: I HAVE MULTIPLE ORGANS FAILURE EVERY TIME I REWATCH THIS SCENE POSSIBLY BECAUSE THEIR OUTFITS HERE ARE MY FAVORITE FOR BOTH OF THEM IN THE ENTIRE SHOW BUT MAINLY BECAUSE PUEN IS REALLY OUT THERE JUST SAYING SHIT LIKE "I SHOULD JUST MARRY A COLORIST" IN EPISODE 4!!!!!! BOY HAS JUST REALIZED HE'S IN LOVE LIKE 2 DAYS AGO AND IS ALREADY PLANNING THEIR WEDDING IN HIS HEAD!!!!!! also i adore how the writers use this specific setting to let us know the characters' current attitude towards love: puen talking about getting married and having a partner vs talay being focused on working on the video, puen catching the bouquet with no fear vs talay shielding himself from it.... THIS IS WHY I DESPERATELY NEED THE PUENTALAY WEDDING IN OUR SKYY I /NEED/ P'X TO GIVE ME THIS PARALLEL IT WOULD SIMPLY BE SO DELICIOUS. and not to be that person but fucking raw in that venue right then and there would have been less obscene than the looks they be throwing at each other while puen tells the entire room he is hitting on talay and then gives him the bouquet. jimmysea really be showing up on set every day like we're gonna display so much adoration desire yearning and love through the look in our eyes alone AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH FOR IT

5) puen reading shojo manga: OF COURSE PUEN WOULD LOVE SHOUJO WHEN HE IS SO INTO LOVE AND ROMANCE IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE AND IT'S HONESTLY SO ADORABLE I HOPE TALAY BUYS HIM AN ENTIRE LIBRARY FOR HIM TO FILL WITH ALL HIS FAVORITE MANGA. and i think it's interesting to point out that shoujo, much like the color pink, is something that has been forcefully connected to a whole set of 'feminine' characteristics that society tells men are off-limits for them: men don't need to be caring and sweet and romantic and cute.... but puen is very much all of these things, and maybe his reticence in admitting he likes shoujo is yet another way he hides his real self away because he's scared not to be liked, which makes talay's genuine interest all the more important. also we tend to associate shoujo with romance, but the three more common narrative themes in the genre are a focus on human relations and emotions, characters that defy traditional roles and stereotypes surrounding gender and sexuality, and depictions of supernatural and paranormal subjects. IDK ABOUT YOU BUT THAT SOUNDS VERY FAMILIAR TO ME

6) why they should stop eating so much junk food: THIS MAKES ME LAUGH SO MUCH EVERY TIME I READ IT BUT ALSO I REALLY DO HOPE THEY’RE SNEAKING SOME VEGETABLES IN BETWEEN ALL THE CHIPS AND FRIED CHICKEN AND PREMADE NOODLES AND DIFFERENT KIND OF SWEETS OR THEY’RE GONNA GET A HEART ATTACK BEFORE THE AGE OF 40 (thank god for the 0% sugar oishi drink at least sfjkshfkgs). also not me suddenly getting choked up at the thought of the two of them getting to 50 years old and finding out that talay’s pressure tends to get too high so puen studies a proper diet for it and makes sure talay follows it scrupulously NOT ME THINKING ABOUT OLD PUENTALAY GROWING VEGETABLES IN THEIR GARDEN AND REMINDING EACH OTHER TO TAKE THEIR MEDS EXCUSE ME FOR A SECOND I NEED TO GO WALK INTO TRAFFIC REAL QUICK YEAH NO BRB

7) snow scene: there are honestly many things i could talk about in this scene ("when you see snow again next time you will think of me", puen and talay having to play the characters, puen kissing talay's cheek, talay saying he doesn't like to be hugged, the freaking shaved ice made with snow and the oishi drink) BUT THE ONLY THING I CAN THINK ABOUT IS "YOU MUST ONLY BE HAPPY TALAY" LIKE IM SORRY BUT ISABELLE ADJANI GOING TITS OUT INSANE IN THE TUNNEL SCENE FROM POSSESSION HAS NOTHING ON WHAT I FEEL ABOUT THIS LINE IT'S IN MY TOP 10 MOST ROMANTIC PUEN'S LINES AND IT DRIVES ME CRAZY IN WAYS I CAN'T REALLY EXPLAIN AND I WISH I COULD SAY ANYTHING COHERENT ABOUT IT BUT RN THERE ARE JUST AMBULANCE SIRENS GOING OFF IN MY HEAD

[blackhiil]

Happy Birthday, Nat

summary: VERY late i know but it’s natasha birthday and maria has the perfect plan

December 3rd, 1984. The day Natasha Romanoff was born. Natasha doesn't like celebrating her birthday, mainly because the Red Room didn't allow for such things, so she doesn't feel like it's important. However, Clint along with Maria, Maria R, Carol, and Fury, she's learning that things such as birthdays, downtime, and other things are just as important as getting missions done. So today, they all made sure the world wasn't ending so Natasha could spend time with them as a family.

Maria woke up bright and early to make Nat breakfast which consisted of homemade blueberry muffins, a recipe her grandma taught her when she was younger. She had made them for Natasha last year and Nat fell in love with them. Maria smiled as he plated the final muffin before picking up a candle and lighting it before putting it on the top muffin. She picked up the plate and carefully made her way back to their bedroom. Maria gently opened the door before smiling at the sight of Natasha curled up in bed, burrowed under the covers because of the slight chill while Liho was asleep on the cat pillow near Nat's head. Maria gently sat the plate down on the bedside table before making his way over to Natasha's side of the bed.

He gently ran his fingers through her hair. "Sweetheart, wake up." Maria whispered softly. Natasha stirred but didn't wake up. "Baby, get up." she said a little louder. Sleepy green eyes locked onto hers, "Mia, what time is it?" Natasha muttered, bringing a hand up to cover her yawn. "It's just after 11." Maria said, glancing at the clock on the table. "Ugh, it's our day off Ria, why'd you wake me up so early." Natasha pouted. Maria just rolled over to grab the muffins. "Happy birthday, my love." He said, presenting the plate to his girlfriend. Natasha's eyes lit up seeing the plate. "Are these the homemade blueberry muffins you won't tell me the recipe to?" Natasha asked, eyes full of glee. "Yes, these are those muffins. Now, make a wish." Nat closed her eyes and made a wish before blowing out the candle. "Thank you, baby. I adore you." That was the closest Maria would get to an 'I love you' and he was fine with that. Natasha was still learning that love wasn't for children and that she was deserving of love and that she could give love. 

Natasha took a muffin off the plate and took a bite. "Mhm. This is so good, Mia." Natasha moaned. Maria's cooking was out of this world and Natasha loved it so much. Maria cooked for them and always tried new recipes, while Nat tried the food and failed at cooking with Maria. But it was nice, having someone to come home to, someone who takes care of her like this. She's never had that before. Maria moved to sit against the headboard. "Eat up. We're going out and we have to get ready soon." Maria told her. "Where are we going?" Nat questioned curiously. "We're going ice skating." she replied. Natasha squealed. Squealed. Maria was expecting a good reaction but he didn't expect her to squeal with excitement. "Seriously?!" See, Natasha had gone on a long rant a few weeks ago about how she really wanted to go ice skating because she wanted to try some of the tricks and with her ballet training it shouldn't be that hard, but could never find the time. Maria being the amazing girlfriend that she is, rented out an entire rink just for today. Natasha didn't know about that yet. "Yes, seriously. Now come on, we have to get dressed. Go shower and I'll feed Liho." Maria ushered her out of bed before picking up Liho and leaving the room. 

Natasha smiled as she watched her girlfriend and cat – but not her cat even though it's been 3 years – leave. She's never been this happy, especially not on her birthday of all days. She really loved him, even if she hadn't said it. She wants to say it, she'd wanted to say it when Maria literally walked through fire to save her after a mission went wrong, but she's scared. Good things don't last for her, they never do. She's still the Black Widow, people want her dead and will go to any and all lengths to get to her. If they find out about Maria, they could hurt her. Or worse, kill her. Of course Natasha knows Maria can take care of himself just fine, however it was just a fear she couldn't shake. Natasha shook her head. It was her birthday and her girlfriend was taking her ice skating, so that's what she should be focused on. 

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After both women showered and got ready, it was time for them to leave. Maria didn't tell Nat any other details about their ice skating trip, just that it wasn't that far. Natasha was practically bouncing with excitement, Maria can't remember seeing her this excited; but she thought it was cute. When they pulled up to the rink, Natasha practically jumped out of the car. "Come on Mia! I'm ready to skate." Maria laughed and quickly got out of the car. She took Natasha's hand to lead her to the rink. Maria flipped on the lights and to Natasha's surprise Fury, Carol, Maria Rambeau, and Clint all yelled "SURPRISE!" Natasha jumped back in surprise before a big smile graced her face. 

"What are you guys doing here?!" she asked excitedly. "I wasn't going to miss the birthday of my favorite child." Fury told her, ignoring the offended gasps of both Marias, Clint, and Carol. "Don't act offended, y'all are too smart to not have known." He replied like the smartass he was. Natasha jumped on Maria, who just barely managed to not fall over. "Thank you!" she muttered over and over. "There's no need to thank me. Now, we have this place to ourselves for two hours, so let's have some fun." Maria said.

The group went to put on the skates they had gotten from the skate rental when they arrived earlier, Clint bringing over Maria's. Nat went to head over there when Maria stopped her. "You're not gonna be needing those." Maria stated matter of factly. Natasha made a confused face "Why not?" Maria didn't reply, just signaled to Fury who picked up a bag and handed it to Natasha. She took the box out of the bag and opened it to find a pair of black ice skates with red laces. There was even an 'N' in the corner of the skate. Nat was speechless. No one had ever gone to these lengths to make her happy, she didn't know how to feel. "They're beautiful." she whispered out as she stared at the in awe. "Now, put them on and we'll see if you'll actually be as good as this as you say." Natasha and Maria put their skates on and headed toward the ice. Nick flat out refused to ice skate, something about not wanting to embarrass himself and keep his dignity.

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Natasha’s a natural on the ice, but no one’s really surprised. Maria can’t help but watch in awe as Natasha glides across the ice so effortlessly, so freely. She looks beautiful and Maria thinks he just fell in love with her all over again. Natasha does tricks that have taken even the best of ice skaters years to learn and perfect so easily. Carol being the competitive person that she was, tried and failed to outdo Nat but that just landed her with a face full of ice and her girlfriend scolding her in the corner while she pouted. 

“Masha, come here!” Natasha's voice captured Maria’s attention. He skated over to the center where Natasha was waiting. Maria went to speak but was interrupted by Natasha pulling Maria her down in a tight hug which Maria returned just as tight. “What’s wrong?” She asked after she heard Nat sniffle in her ear. Nat pulled back from the hug so she could look Maria in the eyes. “I never thought I would have this. I never thought I would be free, let alone celebrating my birthday with people that actually care about me. I don’t deserve this, Mia. Not after all the bad I’ve done.” She was a killer, she didn’t deserve to be happy after all that she’d done. 

“Hey, none of that. You deserve good things and you deserve to be happy. You didn’t have a choice then, but you have one now. One that you’re using to be better, to do better. Everyone here loves you regardless of what you’ve done because you cared enough to be more than who they made you.” Maria spoke softly, but firmly. Natasha often thought she was undeserving of many things, but Maria would always be there to remind her that she was. "I love you.” Nat’s voice was shaky when she said the words, fear lacing her heart. She loves Maria so much, “Can you repeat that? I don’t think I hear you over how loud my heart is beating.” Maria’s voice cracked a little. “Maria Hill, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I lo-” Maria cut her off with a kiss. “I love you so much more.” She said after they came up for air.

“Hill! Keep your hands where I can see them! That’s my favorite daughter you’re kissing on!” Fury yelled from where he was sitting. Maria just put her middle finger up toward him while bringing Natasha in for another kiss. Fury and the others just laughed. Natasha was happy and in love and that’s all that mattered. 

[kabillieu]

Pumping stuff under the break

I have not pumped enough this week to keep up with the bottles Baby R eats at daycare. I've been able to use my frozen stash to supplement, but obviously at this rate I will deplete that stash soon. I'm pumping enough for roughly 3/4ths of his bottles, maybe a little less. I read a little about it on a breastfeeding website, and it seems like I'm actually probably pumping enough but that he's being slightly overfed at daycare. I tried to send bottles with a little less milk a couple days ago, but the daycare workers reported back that he seemed still hungry afterward. Sometimes babies eat bottles quickly and don't register that they're already full, so maybe that's what's happening. Regardless, he's always been very low percentile with regards to weight and length (his doc has continually insisted that he's fine, just small), so it won't hurt to overfeed him if that's what's happening. So that leaves me back at the problem of not pumping enough. I was worried that maybe my supply had been impacted--I very much want to be able to keep breastfeeding him mornings, evenings, nights, and weekends, but this website has made me think my supply is probably fine and will probably stay fine. It seems like I'm already doing everything I possible can to pump the amount of milk I'm pumping. The only last thing is I need to start using new replacement parts for my pump. I ordered off-brand parts (because they were cheap) and haven't noticed a difference, so I ordered brand parts, and they'll arrive next week. If that doesn't make a difference, I'll just be stuck here in the inevitability that I will need to start sending an extra bottle or bottle and a half of formula every day, and that will be fine. It won't affect my supply. He'll still be able to nurse normally at home when he's with me.

I'm writing this down because while I rationally know supplementing is okay, it's difficult for the animal part of me to accept that I can't 100% cover him with pumped breastmilk. The desire to feed my baby with my body is rooted deeply, probably an evolutionary desire. And add to that how much I struggled to breastfeed him initially, and add to that the fact that I only have one working breast. It's miraculous that I have been able to nurse him at all, much less nurse him exclusively up until this point.

It has been so difficult to say goodbye to him in the mornings. We co-sleep from about 3am to 7am, and it is my absolute favorite. I love snuggling with him and feeding him at 7 before he has to leave with my husband, who drops him off at daycare on his way to work. I'm sad that I can't seem to pump quite enough for him to eat while he's away from me, but I'm happy that it seems like my supply should be (should be) fine, and that I should be able to exclusively nurse him while he's home with me, hopefully for as long as I want to.

[ocoree]

A midge over a day almost exactly a week ago I was perusing the local pet store getting cat litter, and as part of my usual ritualistic circuit browsing from the bird section around back past cat, through dog, and ending at small critter, I detoured by the betta wall in the middle. Had been thinking about them for a while, as my office wants to see a tank set up again, and I happened to have a spare 20 gallon long tank floating around gathering dust. Last pass through I saw a gorgeous black and white betta, and wondered if there were other gems this round. Sure, some pretty ones, nothing that really stood out to me though (was kinda leaning to a platinum or opal betta to make a darkwater tank, bonus if they were a sturdy king plakat with no frilly fins to worry about being chewed on by tank mates). My eyes drifted over to spot a section of 'Glow Bettas', and felt my lip curl in disgust after seeing the ones that came through the doors at my prior pet-store job in a rival store - and now noticing there were yet new colors forced upon them. Leaning down to inspect them better, I happened to notice a sad little slip of silver in a dirty cup next to them. I didn't know what alien bettas were - and seeing the few active ones on another section I couldn't parse out what made them distinct from the rest with their muddy green shine. This one felt different for me, and when I held him up to the light I saw a blue and purple sheen over him, and he was a little disgruntled that I disturbed him from his curled up position. "Huh, that's different." I thought, and toyed with the idea of a silver betta instead of a white one in my communal tank. His condition wasn't the best, but neither was his water situation with it being fouled and yellowed by too much food - an easy fix, and his responsiveness despite it indicated he'd bounce back with some fresh water and proper feeding. Next day I was still thinking about him, and my co-workers urged me to scoop him up if I felt confident taking him in. So I scrambled out on my lunch break and found him still in the same spot quite ignored over the showier and healthier individuals. Lad wasn't too happy about it, but soon after I got him situated in his travel tank with some spring water he started turning the most vibrant blue and moving around considerably. He was still falling to the bottom of the tank though, and laying curled on his side when he tired out, which tipped me off to him having possible swim bladder issues (think like a tummy ache from too much food for non-fishkeepers that affects their ability to stay afloat - it either makes them sink like a stone, or float like a cork which is bad for a betta that needs air if left untreated) and a game plan to help him pull through it. First night home, I dug out a little 2.5 gal tank I had intended to use for craft displays for whenever I got around to doing craft shows, and got him more properly situated with a sandy bottom and modified silk plants (plus a little anubia and a couple moss balls to start off with for my first live aquarium plants). Little dude was happy exploring between periods of resting, and looked a lot livelier even with the tank half-full -

I happened to fall sick right at the same time from a coworker coming in and sharing her bug with everyone, so the weekend gave me time to spend around his tank and keep him under observation. Watching him exploring and getting improving in his environment was a treat -

And then finally, after a tentative meal of thawed pea to make sure his system was thoroughly cleaned out, it was time to give him a proper meal of thawed bloodworms - just two, as he's a little fellow. Boy, I think I opened his eyes to what a betta should be eating. Dude couldn't get enough and started doing a very energetic Begging Dance and zoomies afterwards -

After that day any time he saw me move near his tank, or even turn my head to look his direction, he'd go into an excited fit of zooming around the front of the tank, look up to the surface, and zoom some more! I even tried to see if I could carefully walk up to the tank out of what I thought was his view, but when I peeked around the railing of the shelf he was on - little dude was staring right back at me from that corner of the tank! Today was the first day I did a water change in his tank - wasn't sure how he'd take it, but he was mostly baffled by the strange thing intruding his space, and curious about the stream of water coming into his tank. Later I found him contemplating the new water level in his home from when he started out (the blur line is where the old water level was, I just need to get in there and scrub it off) -

Sure he may always have his issue with staying afloat in the water, and may have to live out his life in this little tank because of it, but darned if I'm not gonna try to make sure he's well cared for. My eventual goal is to make his little tank fully planted like a mini world, maybe put a little cherry shrimp or two in there with him, and keep serving him food on a toothpick like the spoiled boy he is. I would have loved to try to put him in the 20 gal communal tank when it goes up, but I worry that may cause more issues for him if he can't maintain his buoyancy in any water deeper than this tank. It's clearly not dampening his style though! I'm not entirely sure what spurred me to take him in - likely a mixture of, "I can help this animal that would have otherwise been overlooked time and time again until he fell too ill to recover", disdain from having seen how this store handles their betta stock compared to the one I worked with, and.. maybe a little bit of spite... A point of principle so to speak.. A way to show that even if they're not the flashiest or most active in their little container, a little bit of careful love and awareness can make a difference for one little fish. Currently waiting on some lava rock to arrive that I ordered to start hardscaping the bigger tanks, so I'll try to post updates as his tank evolves! Any advice for setting up a planted tank would be great! I've not done much in the way of exploring that aspect of fishkeeping, so if I can hit the ground running with as much knowledge as possible the better I can make a successful setup! At the moment my plant plans are - Java Moss, duckweed, Anubia +/or hornwort + some kind of carpet plant for the bottom - not sure what though.

[j-graysonlibrary]

The Xiang Chronicles: Book One Chapter 11

Title: The Xiang Chronicles: Book One

Author: Jay Grayson

Word Count: 83k

Genres: Fantasy, adventure, drama, LGBT+

Available on: my website

Synopsis: Every few centuries a hero is born—one chosen by the God Tiandi to carry out his will in the mortal realm. The Xiang. Whether it is to quell a war instigated by the forces of shadow—of Shakti herself—or whether it is the miasma that poisons the world, the Xiang is born to bring the world back into balance.

Shu Pangu Min knows what his purpose is and he does his best to fulfill it even if he doesn’t fully understand all of the details. He must travel from city to city—lord to lord—to clear out the miasma. Along the way, he is to enlist the aid of four disciples. Each is to be of a different country and each must have high resonance and deep faith.

The holy men who raised him have great confidence in his future successes and they leave him to begin his journey on his own. But, can Pangu live up to the expectations of those around him? Can he really save the land like all other Xiang before him or will his unconventional methods doom them all?

Full chapter 11 under the cut

Chapter XI

On the border of Terra, Pangu finally removed his outermost robe. The forest cleared out around the group and a great, wide field greeted them. Kira had a frown resting on his face while Pangu checked the map in front of him.

“Alright, we need to head south now,” Pangu mentioned before folding the paper up and holding it close. “Huang territory is our goal.”

“So Sun-Shi city?” Raine guessed. He was somewhat familiar with geography but he hadn’t been far into Terran territory. Other than the few towns that straddled the border of Terra and Kyrie, he hadn’t seen much of his neighboring country.

“Ugh, that place is the pits,” Kira complained openly. “I bet it’s full of miasma.”

“We will see,” Pangu said as the horses were turned to head in the correct direction. He knew Kira was nervous about being in Terra since he had fled it some time ago.

Through their various conversations over the past few weeks, he had come to know quite a bit about the man’s past. Since he ran away from his mother, he had been in Kyrie. This was the first time he had returned to his home country since he left it to join the Kyrie military.

Kira kept silent on the ride and recalled the last time he was in Sun-Shi. He was very small and his memories were fuzzy of those days.

Still, one day stuck out from the fog. He wasn’t sure of his exact age but he would guess somewhere between five and seven.

His mother woke him up earlier than usual—the sun was just peaking over the horizon. She was full of energy and she even wore an uncharacteristic smile.

“Wake up, I have an exciting adventure planned for us,” she said and practically pulled Kira out of bed. She helped him put some clothes on and she readied herself for a day out on the town.

Yet, instead of going further into the city, they went to the outskirts and to the orchard. She insisted they needed to play a game and handed Kira a basket.

“Collect as many fruits from other people’s baskets as you can and run back here, okay? Don’t get caught or the game is over.”

She stayed behind while Kira rushed out into the field. He didn’t have a concept of theft so he really did think it was just a game. He ran about, taking apples, pairyans, and ananas without so much as one worker catching him in the act. He recalled having to hold in a laugh as he bounded between their baskets in a furry.

When he returned to his mother with a basket full of assorted fruit, she was delighted. She even hugged him. “Now let’s hurry back home.”

They returned to their shack of a home and took turns eating their spoils. Kira happily allowed his mother to feed him—enjoying the amount of attention he was getting. He wondered if they would make a habit out of this game and spend more days together like this.

It didn’t last, however, as his mother shooed him into a cabinet as she got to work for the day.

At the time, he thought fondly on that morning because he didn’t know any better. Now, when Kira looked back, he could do nothing but sneer.

The towns and villages on the way were far more spread out than in Kyrie so much of the trip involved just riding and training for the disciples. Pangu was happy with both of their progress—Raine had been able to create whirlpools and waterspouts with little effort and Kira had created a hill taller than Raine in under a second. They were both more comfortable with their energy and Pangu didn’t worry about either of them having any accidents.

“Your extra energy training is really helping, isn’t it?” Raine asked Kira as Pangu slept on the ground a few feet away from them. Because the towns were so far apart, many of their nights were spent out in the open rather than at an inn.

Kira leaned back on his elbows and looked up at the sky. The stars twinkled even through the veil of clouds that passed over them. “I am getting the hang of it.”

The Kyrie disciple smiled a little before lying all the way back. Kira did have the first watch so he needed to sleep before his turn came around.

“I am glad,” Raine said before turning on his side in an effort to get more comfortable.

The guilt of lying to him was present in Kira’s chest but he didn’t let it bother him too much. He’d done worse things before. Telling a fib to Raine was just bad on principle—not in practice. But he knew if he was honest with him then he would be concerned about his health or possibly even his intentions still.

If the miasma started to affect Kira in any way then the secret would be out but, until then, he figured it was best to keep it between him and Pangu.

Though he did wonder why Raine had so quickly jumped to the conclusion that the two of them were, for some reason, sleeping together. Kira hadn’t said it outright but he still felt his attraction to Raine was rather obvious. He tried to hide it but he stared at the man so often and for so long that he always expected to be called out on it.

Not even Pangu had mentioned it, however. So, perhaps, he was hiding it well. He had too many secrets to worry about, he thought to himself before silently chuckling.

***

Sun-Shi city was walled off into districts with the lord of the area at the very center. Nobles surrounded him and after that first wall, there were upper class residents and the nice markets and inns. Next, there were laborer houses and after the last wall was where the poor of the city were located. Left in the most under developed and vulnerable areas, hungry children roamed the streets and citizens begged for money and food.

A dark cloud covered the air and Pangu gulped in the presence of so much miasma. He hadn’t doubted Kira but he also hadn’t expected his prediction to be so true.

“Lovely,” the second disciple stated and placed his hands on his hips, “This is just as much of a shithole as I recall. Worse, actually.”

“Here I must agree,” Raine said with a frown. “There are class divisions in Kyrie, of course, but none so visually apparent. This almost appears ironic or satirical…”

“As much as it pains me,” Pangu spoke up as he looked to an old woman and her young companion—most likely a grandchild—holding their hands out for spare gold or food, “We cannot make an effort to fix any of this aside from the miasma. This is an issue with the governing of the land and, as such, I cannot interfere.”

“Nothing you could do to fix it anyway,” Kira grumbled, “It’s always been like this and always will be.”

Pangu walked to the old woman and reached into his satchel to retrieve five gold coins. He wasn’t sure how the pricing worked in Terra or in this region specifically but he knew she and her grandchild could at least get food for a few days with that amount.

“You are too kind, stranger,” the woman said with tears streaming down her face.

“Use it well, ma’am,” he responded before taking out a couple of pairyans as well. They could restock further in—these people needed the food now. “I will remove the poison from the air…please hang on a little longer.”

“You are the Xiang?” Her eyes went wide and she looked to the child beside her. “Hear that Han? The Xiang is coming to save us.”

“Xiang!” The young boy shouted and jumped up.

Raine touched Pangu’s arm and gestured with his head. “Let’s move forward.”

Reluctantly, he followed. Kira lagged behind for a few more seconds and when Pangu looked back, he spotted him handing another beggar some coins. A smile spread across his face but he didn’t bring it to light—he had a feeling it would embarrass the man.

Outside of the palace, a small entourage of guards awaited them. Word from King Din Raime Cast had already been sent to the clan leaders of Terra so they were expected.

The difference between the two counties was most notable in the fact that Pangu didn’t need a slip of paper that gave him permission to travel about and clear miasma. Since the country of Terra was broken up into three large territories, each ruler was in charge of how they dealt with the issue.

In the Huang territory, there were a few different clan leaders as the family was scattered about. In Sun-Shi, Huan Lao Weiyan was the lord. But, instead of having control over the entire mass of Huang territory, he mostly looked after the city and the small towns around it—none of which Pangu had stepped foot in yet.

The only towns in Terra that had been cleared of miasma had been, for all intents and purposes, independent of a higher rule. There was something liberating about it—especially now that Pangu had seen how the city of Sun-Shi was run.

“Are you the Xiang we have been expecting?” one of the guards asked as he looked between the three men. “Lord Huan Lao Weiyan has eagerly anticipated your arrival.”

“Yes,” Pangu answered and placed his palms together before his face and bowed. It was different than the Kyrie bow and he made sure it was exactly how his masters had taught him. “I am Shu Pangu Min, the Xiang. These are Song Raine Sei of Kyrie and Kira of Terra—my two disciples.”

“You may enter and speak with Lord Lao.”

Pangu was surprised, pleasantly, that none of them had to prove their identities. He supposed his reputation was beginning to precede him.

Inside the audience chambers, an older gentleman sat with dark green robes and golden jewelry adorning his head and neck. His light brown hair was pulled back tight and tucked mostly under his headpiece. The robes were clearly worth more than what any of his citizens would make in their lifetimes and the interior of his chambers were borderline gaudy with how much gold and jewels Pangu could see.

It was very difficult for him to see what was in front of him and not judge the Lord.

“Your lordship,” the Xiang greeted regardless and repeated the same bow, followed by his disciples. “We have come to assess your miasma situation and work on recovery efforts.”

“The timing it impeccable, Xiang,” the man said with a croak in his voice. “For a year now, the streets have been full of dissenters who rile up the poisonous fumes of Shakti and the city has been in decline for some time. If you could rid us of this cloud I would be most grateful.”

“I will do what I can.” Pangu wanted, badly, to bring up the state of his outer wall and how the poorest of his citizens were treated but he held it in.

“The source must be dealt with as well as I’m sure you are aware,” Lord Lao continued on, “You see there are is so much discord in this city because—”

He didn’t get to finish as the doors burst open and a soldier ran in, out of breath and looking terrified. Everyone turned to look at the man expectantly. “Apologies Lord Lao! I have urgent, terrible news.”

Lao stood from his throne in a huff. “What is the meaning of this? Who allowed you in while I was in the midst of an important consult?”

“I apologize, Lord! But I must let you know, your sister’s city has been attacked by Agni forces!” The messenger yelled out as he knelt onto his knees. His head was completely bowed and he visibly shook.

“That is impossible,” Huan Lao Weiyan rebutted, “They would have to have passed through Feng. Did no one on the border stop them?”

“We do not know how it happened, Lord Lao!” the man continued to practically scream his report, “But backup and aid has been called!”

“There is a ceasefire!” Lao raged, “How could they do this?! The miasma is bad enough without them waging war on us!”

“It is likely the Phay clan, my lord. If they win the city…”

“No,” he stopped him before looking to Pangu’s group, “You are sworn to stop the spread of miasma aren’t you? And you have abilities that no one else has! Please, push the Phay’s back into their own country!”

“I am not a political figure…” Pangu attempted to give his usual speech but Lord Lao snapped.

“Do something!”

The Xiang took a deep breath and quickly assessed the situation. “If it is a matter of lessening the production of miasma then I can travel to Agni and speak with Phay. But I will not fight them or involve myself in any of the battlegrounds.”

“You will not help my sister?” Lord Lao frowned.

“Send troops to assist her. I aim to stop the dispute altogether through what diplomatic means that I have. Anything beyond that is out of my element.”

While the Lord was clearly not happy with his decision, he let it go and dismissed him. Pangu led the way back to the stables with his disciples at his heels.

“So, we’re going to Agni?” Kira asked, trying to understand what the plan was. He was thrilled if they were leaving Terra behind already even if he knew they would eventually have to come back.

“Yes,” Pangu said with a sigh, “I fear we won’t get far in Terra—at least not in the Huang territory while these attacks are happening. And with Feng being involved on the border, that would just leave Meala so we may as well try to put a stop to this before it grows out of control.”

“Agni has officially broken a perfectly reasonable ceasefire as well which is an issue that needs addressing,” Raine added and jumped onto his horse. “It may just be the Phay clan but there has been tension on this border for far too long. It is a breeding ground for miasma.”

Kira helped Pangu up on their horse and the trio rode off into the west.

Talks of strategy and tactics filled the majority of the trip—even when they were training or eating. Pangu was unsure of the Phay clan’s religious views but considering the fact they invaded Terra in the midst of a miasma outbreak, things didn’t look great for him.

They were probably of the belief that miasma was a natural resource of the earth and just emerged en mass every few decades to few centuries in a cyclical fashion that had nothing to do with Shakti or Tiandi. If that were the case, Pangu would have to speak in more political terms which he would lean more on Raine for.

Of course there was a chance that a soldier of Kyrie would have little to no bearing on what a Lord in Agni thought.

“So what do we have to lean on if Phay does not listen to reason? We cannot start a fight…” Raine mentioned as they settled down for the night. No one was saying it but they all hoped this would be their last rest stop in Terra.

“Well I’m not religious and Pangu still charmed me,” Kira mentioned with a snicker. He gave the Xiang a nudge with his arm.

“I am not sure I could simply charm my way into Phay’s good graces…” Pangu sighed. He started the fire and took a seat next to it.

“Well if he doesn’t like you no matter what, then I’ll kill him.” Kira shrugged. “Easy.”

Raine’s jaw dropped. “You cannot! That would be seen as an act of war—”

“He knows that,” Pangu interrupted before glancing to Kira. “Right?”

The man shrugged again which just riled Raine further.

“Kira!”

“What?” He snickered. “I’m just messing with you—you’re too easy, Raine.”

Pangu shook his head at them but smiled at the same time. “I…we will think of something. I am sure Phay is more reasonable than Lao gives him credit for.”

***

The border of Terra and Agni was forest but a different kind than in Kyrie. While the trees were mostly all green, colorful flowers and shrubs lined the floors of the forest and more poisonous fauna could be found hiding in the brush. Kyrie was home to larger, intimidating beasts while these forests were teeming with secret threats.

Their horses had some trouble traversing the terrain but they managed to emerge from the forest with a good helping of dedication and tenacity. On the other side, they were faced with sparse sand and the more arid plains of Agni.

The change was stark, while there were still some patches of trees here and there, most of the land was in open view. Mountains spanned the horizon in the distance but it would be some time before they got near.

As the group sped to their destination, Pangu lurched forward suddenly. He had no idea what had happened or how he had ended up on the ground but he saw that Kira had fallen off of the horse somehow as well. Raine’s horse reared up and whinnied loudly, bucking him off of its back before it ran off.

Pangu looked around and saw his and Kira’s horse on the ground, unmoving. A few arrows protruded from the animal’s body so he quickly surveyed the area for the source. Some trees rustled to the side but he saw no archer. Still, he kept up a barrier around them.

And it was a good call since a hail of arrows descended on them. Each bounced off the dome of air he had created before falling, unthreateningly to the ground around them. Raine rose to his feet and pulled out his trident while Kira unsheathed two knives.

“Get behind us,” Kira instructed the Xiang, “Stay by the horse.”

Pangu slowly did as he was told even if he had yet to actually see their attackers. “What is happening…?”

In a flash, at least twenty men emerged from the small group of trees to the left of the road. They wore red tunics with matching red pants that were tucked into black boots. Each had a red hood pulled up over their heads and their faces were covered by wooden masks that bore the facades of demons. 

One of them yelled out, “Kill the Xiang!” to which the others responded with a roaring cheer. Pangu’s jaw dropped—he certainly hadn’t expected this to be his introduction to Agni.

[survey--s]

457.

Are you going to be busy tomorrow? Nah, Sunday is my day off but I do have to go and feed Benny in the morning and before bed.

What was the last topic you read about on Wikipedia? It was a TV show called Family Matters as I was trying to find the names of some of the guests, but it wasn't very helpful lol.

Have you ever donated money to Wikipedia? Nope.

Is your country part of the Commonwealth? It is indeed.

Around what time of the year do you start your Christmas shopping? About two weeks before Christmas.

Do you have blinds or curtains on your windows? Blinds upstairs, curtains downstairs, but the curtains really need replacing as Toby climbed them all as a kitten so they're full of holes lol.

What are the most common birds you'd see around your home? Blackbirds, seagulls, robins.

Did you sleep well last night? Yeah, I was absolutely exhausted so I think I pretty much passed out lol. I think I went to sleep about half ten which is almost unheard of for me.

Did you live within walking distance of school when you were a kid? No, it was about a 15 mile drive.

What board games did you play when you were growing up? Monopoly, Chess, Ludo, Scrabble.

Do you know any sign language? I do not.

When was the last time you bought new clothes? What did you get? Uhh, I got new socks about two weeks ago lol. I don't really need any new clothes otherwise.

What, other than books, do you have on your bookshelves? A printer, photo frames, jewellery box, candles, DVD's, wax melts, cans of Pepsi (as I hate it cold), glasses cleaner...all sorts, really.

Do you ever watch streamers on Twitch? Nope.

How close are your nearest neighbours? Well, we're in terraced housing so they're right next door.

Has your house ever been broken into? How did you find out? My house hasn't been, but my parents were broken into while they slept upstairs. My mum forgot to lock the door and they stole her handbag, plus the car off the drive. My dad realised when he couldn't find his laptop and found it by the door. The police reckon my dad getting up to pee in the night disturbed them and they dumped it and went. It really freaked them out for a long time afterwards.

What do you usually eat for breakfast? Lately it's been peanut butter and banana on toast, coffee and a glass of either apple or orange juice.

What's the first thing your hand touches if you reach to the left? My phone.

Describe your favourite mug or cup. It's white with multi-coloured polka dots. 

If you could teleport to any country right now for a holiday, what would it be? Zermatt, Switzerland, for a skiing holiday please and thank you.

Are you overwhelmed right now? Nope. 

Did you share a bedroom with someone when you were growing up? No. I was an only child.

Have you ever had anything dry cleaned? Yeah, some of my school uniform was dry-clean only when I was younger.

How many group chats are you in? Do you participate in them much? Just one, and not really.

What's the best concert you ever went to? Plain White T's and Lily Allen were both amazing live.

Do you like to watch subtitled movies? Not really.

Are you still in touch with any of your exes? We're friends on Facebook but we're not really friends or anything like that.

How old were you when the first American Pie movie came out? I turned 11 right at the very end of the year.

Do you know how to change the oil in a car? What about a flat tyre? I know how do to both, but I can't physically change a tyre on my own.

What do you do for work? I run my own dog walking and pet-sitting business.

[m1sosazai]

I posted 814 times in 2022

That's 571 more posts than 2021!

4 posts created (0%)

810 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@browniefox

@inkstaindusk

@imfluentinfangirlandgay

@obstinaterixatrix

@pearlescentpearl

I tagged 629 of my posts in 2022

Only 23% of my posts had no tags

#lol - 45 posts

#:d - 29 posts

#yes - 28 posts

#lmao - 16 posts

#<3 - 10 posts

#hell yeah - 10 posts

#*wheezes* - 9 posts

#yes!!! - 9 posts

#xd - 8 posts

#nice - 8 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i was gonna suggest 'not feeding the elderly/queens/sick+injured/kits before warriors and apprentices' as crack but that's actually p shit?

I sent 2 gifts in 2022

My Top Posts in 2022:

#4

So it turns out that blocking the stupid shaving balls Tumblr does not in fact block the ad from my dashboard 😢

0 notes - Posted April 28, 2022

#3

i spent way too much money pulling for Butler suit ingo in pokemas... But i can't help myself, the submas addiction is too strong! Also i DID get him (along w sygna suit elesa, and a bunch of other random ppl) in the end!!!! So HA.

I guess I'll just... Avoid looking at my bank statement for the month... And hope i make all that money back when i go back to work next week... 😅😭

0 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

#2

PROFESSOR BELLIS STOP GIVING ME MANKEY EGGS TO HATCH CHALLENGE

0 notes - Posted March 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

ok so i've read the fics where ingo recognizes emmet right away, or very soon after meeting, or when he sees emmet he gets flashbacks and tries to run away or something bc he thinks his brother is actually some illusioned-up zoroark or something. also those fics where they meet in their dreams, or in the rifts. which are all very good!

but specifically that one fic where ingo sees like, little hallucinations of emmet out of the corner of his eye after he gets some of his memory back stuck w me. and basically i think...

what if when the twins meet again, maybe w the PLA protag or the clan leaders... emmet sees ingo give a quick glimpse at him, then pointedly ignore him.

he can't figure out why (is his brother mad at him for not finding him sooner? has he been so traumatized by the separation that he can't look directly at him, the way emmet had a hard time w mirrors during ingo's disappearance?), but meanwhile, ingo is frantically running down his mental checklist of tasks.

1. did he get enough sleep? (yes, a full eight hours before he was roped into this meeting, plus w the baby sneasels and lady sneasel.)

2. did he have enough to eat? (yes, he had a meal at the wallflower a few hours ago... with some cake lures and berries as emergency provisions if he does get hungry.)

3. is he injured anywhere? (no, the last wounds he got, some abrasions from the debris that flew up while he was fighting akari a few weeks ago, healed up just fine.)

having checked off all the criteria, ingo slowly looked up, and despite his better judgement, very carefully met gazes with the white-clothed man with his face that was still, inexplicably, there.

"warden ingo, are you alright?" professor laventon's assistant asked him quietly.

"yes, my engine is in perfect condition," ingo lied, deliberately turning away from the obvious hallucination. maybe it would vanish when he stopped making direct eye contact with it, like it always had before - he couldn't entertain the possibility of his mental state potentially getting worse and having the white-clothed man appear outside the dire situations he'd always seen him it in.

(he didn't need more people in the pearl clan whispering about his uncanny habit of talking to the air, or akari eyeing him with concern whenever he was caught spacing out while turning to the left after she'd felled one of his pokemon in battle.)

so yeah, ingo is very used to seeing emmet whenever he gets into trouble somehow... so much so that he has a hard time remembering that he CAN talk to his twin now, in the flesh, without people looking at him crazy lol.

of course, emmet isn't going to stand for his brother ignoring him forever, no matter what he might've done or what ingo thinks, so he ends up goading him into talking to him right in the middle of the meeting (about past-future information exchange or something prolly, idk), and ingo ends up yelling at him like "not now, sleep hallucination! we're in the middle of something!" (bc most of the time he's suffering from insomnia when he sees hallucination-emmet, and "injury hallucination" is significantly more worrying to most - and also rolls off the tongue less imo - to say), which attracts everyone's attention. and the twins have an argument-sation about whether emmet is hallusionary (thank you esama for that great combination of hallucination + illusion), whether it was polite to yell at your brother (remembered or not, real or not) after not seeing him for a while, and how much sleep ingo usually got in a night.

after a while of this, rei is like "...who are you talking to, warden?" (bc honestly akari gets all the spotlight and i like to include cute nerdy assistant boy more), and ingo points at him like "SEE, he just asked who i was talking to, THAT MEANS you're as fake as always!" and emmet scoffs (still smiling in relief tho) before rei is like "actually, i meant 'who is that man who looks like you, warden?'"

ingo realizes that people can see his hallucination, somehow, and spends a brief moment horrified that some zoroark has brought his friendly illusion to life to torment him, or perhaps he's dreaming right now - before it hits him.

the illusion is... real. that's a real man standing before him, feeling very familiar, who looks just like him.

and ingo just derailed a meeting to debate with him and reveal his possibly decaying mental state.

...ingo is very embarrassed.

144 notes - Posted March 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

What a week! That dude that took over Twitter is driving it in the ground with a gigantor hammer all while we watch from the cheap seats sipping our soda and eating popcorn. What a spectacle.

This week was a busy week at work, promotion time. Lots of meetings. I’m all Zoom’ed out.

Enjoy that morning elixir of life. I certainly am. ☕️

Wired

Eugen Rochko looks exhausted. The 29-year-old German programmer is the founder of Mastodon, a distributed alternative to Twitter that has exploded in popularity in recent weeks as Elon Musk’s ownership of the platform has rained chaos on its users.

I’ve heard some folks doubt the survivability of Mastodon and doubt hate can be squashed there. In my experience on the platform it’s quite the opposite. If you’re running a server full of racist white nationalists, Nazis, or other hate groups it’s extremely easy for the admin of your server to block federation of that entire server.

I’ve found Mastodon to be so much better for conversation with folks outside my little friend bubble on Twitter.

Brent Simmons

For writers, artists, podcasters, journalists, and people who make things in public, Twitter was the one social networking site we all had to use.

Brent is a long time blogger, Mac programmer, creator and leader of the NetNewsWire team, and all around great guy. If you’re a consumer of RSS point your feed reader to his site. It’s a great read.

Platformer

Musk went on to say that “Twitter will be much more engineering-driven,” and that while design and product “will still be very important,” engineers “will have the greatest sway.” And then Musk presented employees with an ultimatum: click “yes” on a Google form affirming your desire to “be part of the new Twitter,” or leave in exchange for three months’ pay.

I’ve heard from a friend that most of the US Engineering staff left. That’s just wild.

Last week, I made the decision to leave my role leading Trust & Safety at Twitter. Today, I'm sharing a few thoughts about what comes next for the site. https://t.co/QPAQR6zpqU

— Yoel Roth (@yoyoel) November 18, 2022

I don’t have a NY Times subscription but I’ll bet this piece by Mr. Roth is quite good.

Daring Fireball

If you had told me three weeks ago that Twitter, as a company, would today be embroiled in turmoil — perhaps outright existential crisis — over a company-wide email from Elon Musk centered around the phrase “extremely hardcore”, v-1 is not the scenario I’d have imagined.

In my career I’ve worked for some hardcore companies, like the old Microsoft, it’s not fun. Don’t do it.

NEW: Email from Elon to the engineering team: "Anyone who can actually write software, please report to the 10th floor at 2pm today. Before doing so, please email me a bullet point summary of what your code commits have achieved in the past 6 months" 1/

— Zoë Schiffer (@ZoeSchiffer) November 18, 2022

I don’t understand why he continues to ask for snippets of code from his employees. It’s just some random metric he’s using to what what end? What about the devs who made Twitter better by removing code?

CNN www.cnn.com/2022/11/1…

Amazon confirmed on Wednesday that layoffs had begun at the company, two days after multiple outlets the e-commerce giant planned to cut around 10,000 employees this week.

It’s been a rough couple weeks in the tech sector. I’m sorry to see so many folks having to deal with this. Here’s hoping they land on their feet quickly.

Fresnoland fresnoland.org/2022/11/1…

While Central Valley agricultural leaders warn of jobs loss during California’s ongoing drought, some local leaders say it’s time for less water-dependent economic opportunities.

California is in deep trouble so the United States food supply is in deep trouble. You’ll see it at the grocery store.

Becky Hansmeyer

When I tweeted my way into the iOS community so many years ago, I felt the same energy and excitement, if not necessarily the same level of closeness. You all gave me the confidence I needed to keep going with programming when I felt like giving up. We’ve person. Like her I lament the loss of the Twitter we knew but all good things come to an end, right?

America, America

I’m not anywhere close to assuming redemption for Rupert Murdoch or his publication for their role in empowering the dangerous desecration of the last six years, particularly since Fox News showed reluctance in quitting the man by airing nearly all of his sour announcement. (For me, the announcement at Mar-a-Lago had more of the air of a man running from the law than running for the presidency.)

How TFG avoids jail time at this point is beyond me.

The Register

Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich has had it with C and C++, time-tested programming languages commonly used for native applications that require high performance.

Russinovich is a legendary software engineer. It’s gonna be interesting to see how many new products come out of Microsoft and other companies written in 100% Rust.

The Brookings Institution

In this second edition of our October 2021 report, we review the investigation and its basis. We assess the publicly known facts and relevant law and analyze the extent to which the former president may be held criminally responsible for his conduct in Georgia. We conclude that Trump is at substantial risk of criminal prosecution in Fulton County.

At substantial risk? How is he not already in handcuffs? If any of us “regular” people had done this we’d be thrown in a dungeon.

Jalopnik

Haas’ Kevin Magnussen just scored his first-ever pole position in Formula 1 during the Brazilian Grand Prix. Yes, I intended to write that sentence. It’s not April Fool’s Day. Kevin Magnussen is polesitter for Saturday’s sprint race.

I support Haas. It’s an American F1 team and I’m happy for Kevin Magnussen and Haas. Now, get some podiums! 😂

PZ Meyers

Between the Church Militant and Nick Fuentes, it’s pretty clear what the theocratic Right wants to do: they want to kill you or force you to be as mad as they are.

Nick Fuentes is a piece of work but at least he’s not hiding his White Christian Nationalism behind dog whistles, no sir, he’s just saying it out loud.

From: @twittereng To: @elonmusk Subject: pic.twitter.com/EiDADFtMCN

— DM of Engineering 🎲 (@dmofengineering) November 17, 2022

Go check out that tweet thread. It’s full of Twitter Employees saying goodbye after the hardcore time limit expired.

It’s a sad day for the social network. How long will it stay up?