#hyper market offers

[hasnazameer]

Using the proper method of payment or using grocery offers in Dubai is a good way to cut costs, regardless of how much you spend. Each trip's savings might add up and help offset the rising price of food.

[giantkillerjack]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend accurately conveying what it was like for me to graduate college into a professional world with no upward mobility but A WHOLE LOT of inspirational wall decorations. 🤣🙃🙃🙃

[gojoidyll]

unknown ! yandere x reader

someone from the penacony cast is a yandere for you. the problem is...you don't even know who they are or that they are the one who is trying to keep you in penacony in the first place.

Imagine that during your long awaited vacation to Penacony is going well but your vacation takes a quick turn for the worse when your small space cruiser gets high jacked by some low grade thugs who take it for a joyride and end up crashing it.

Low-n-behold, you are now stranded on Penacony with no money (you left all your credits on your cruiser for safe keeping and those thugs stole it before making their getaway after crashing) and no way of getting home.

And what's worse, your insurance refuses to pay you for your crashed ship. In other words, you're stuck. Which was how you found yourself working three jobs in Penacony and barely getting any sleep as you rushed to have the funds to afford your new found rent problems and the funds to fix your cruiser. You would buy a new one, but many repairmen have told you that it would be cheaper to fix the damn thing instead of buying a VERY overpriced new one.

And they were right. You checked the markets and those new cruisers were way too expensive for you. Even the used ones were something you couldn't afford.

So, with all hope seem to be lost, your shifts are work getting tougher, and your eyebags getting darker - you truly thought you would never be able to go back home and put this nightmare vacation behind you. That is until you meet the members of the Astral Express.

They were very good people. People who you became quick friends with. The MC was kind to you (but seemed to have a weird obsession with trashcans), March was always hyper but fun to be around, and Dan Heng (though the quiet one of the group) was nice and even offered to help you in some of your jobs.

And then came along Himeko and Welt who graciously offered you a spot on the team as a Trailblazer. You could take a ride with them and go home, or join them on their journey wherever it may lead.

Suffice to say, you enjoyed your time in befriending the Astral Express crew that you couldn't help but to join them. Your worries for money and fixing your old cruiser were long gone as a new chapter in your life started.

However, when a certain someone heard of your new found escape, they couldn't help but to seethe with a quiet rage.

They hired those thugs to wreck your vehicle so that you be stranded in Penacony. They discretely made it to where prices were to high for you to fix your cruiser or buy a new one. They made sure that you would stay forever.

And yet some no-name outsiders were getting in the way.

"No matter," they said, the shadows covering them, "this place used to be a prison after all. I'll keep you here one way or another."

[atoltia]

March can be easily flustered...

...If he was aware that the things that he did or were done to him were to be taken as gestures of affection, whether it be platonic or romantic.

There was a method to his madness. Simplicity in logic was to be preferred over convoluted solutions and discussions. The most direct course of action to reach perfection, even when that particular avenue could be misconstrued into something else.

But he couldn't always see it.

When you pointed out that he was being sweet when he gave you that hoe (after fully insulting you, please do not forget) knowing full well how much pride he has on his work, how much blood and sweat he spent on meticulously crafting it to the best it could be, he was a blubbering mess.

He was sober that time so he had the mind to throw you out of the shop with a rather hasty slam to the door, leaving you cackling loud enough for him to hear from inside the blacksmith (loud enough, mind you, to wake up Olric from wherever the hell he was taking a nap).

That one moment you told him that you found it sweet that he took the time to teach you on how to use his forge (with the thickly veiled threat that he will break your arms if you so much as damage his equipment. Don't worry, you threatened to shove his sorry ass into the fire if he ever tried. Both of you had to pull Olric away from the forge because he would have actually fallen into it after laughing so much at the both of you), you were sure he was gonna have a stroke.

When you heard him mention at the Saturday market that he liked hot chocolate, he banged his shin into the stall accidentally when he saw that you bought him a cup (he did accuse you of bribing Darcy to poison it, though. Little shit had the gall to slap your hand away like a greedy little gremlin when you tried to take it back. Both of you were bickering so much that the poor cup of hot chocolate had to be saved by Olric lest it get spilled).

Little instances led you to believe that the man was just a blubbering mess of nerves and embarrassment whenever he ever gets associated with being sweet.

But then there was that time when he took your hand into his, examined every digit, ever crevice, every scratch, every contusion with such intimate concentration that you thought your heart would fail from beating so fast (you didn't even hear him lecture you about being a dumbass in the mines again while he bandaged you, so congratulations on that little victory).

There was that time where you injured your hand (again) and was unable to properly eat your meal. Josephine offered to help you but the gremlin of a man already took it upon himself to feed you himself, all the while continuing the lecture that he started two days before (don't worry, you were much too focused on his very close proximity to you and not choking on the food that you didn't have the mental capacity to process whatever the fuck he was saying).

And then there was that time, one horrible autumn morning, that that fake redhead came barreling towards you, come to a full stop, and rather abruptly press his forehead into yours. You felt yourself short circuit for a moment, hyper aware of the fact that he smelled like nice cinnamon chocolate, both his warm, calloused hands gently pressed at your shoulders to keep you steady, that you didn't even realize that he was berating you for sporting a fever after overworking yourself for the nth time this season (not even when he hauled your ass up his shoulders and dumped you at the clinic himself. Valen wasn't sure if she was impressed or horrified).

None of these changes the fact that he was a wuss at being given compliments. But maybe, just maybe, he was also too dense at being able to pick up on the way his method of care ripped your heart into a torrent of emotion, turning you into the blushing, heart clutching disaster that you often thought of him as. And yeah, maybe you were a little lovestruck. Him too, possibly. Probably. Who the fuck knows. Neither of you surely don't.

(And between you and me, you wouldn't have it any other way.)

(You still hope the son of a bitch kisses you sometime soon, though.)

-0-

check out my masterlist lmao

[alienpossession]

Another take from my end on the continuation of this much-beloved story, this time solely focusing on Andrei & Mike as they meet the ill-fated Steven from the original series by @apushforfolly

Bodybuilding is a rather tight-knit global community. The people you competed back in Las Vegas would be your competitor again in Dubai, in London, yeah, you get the gist of it. So while the Prince is busy consolidating domestic power, what the Prince directed the rest of us to do is to basically get our grip within the bodybuilding community and the ever-growing and increasingly cocky finance bros as stealthy as possible. Sander handled the finance and all those podcast bros flocking to Dubai. Meanwhile, me and Mike are quite influential within the UK bodybuilding circles, and with us based in Dubai, we did leverage that to our benefit as we lured some of the aspiring talent and even several of our old friends for a free Dubai trip which would lead to the end of their life as freedom human entity. Take Rory over here, quite a rather close friend of Andrei before the Prince and then I took this British-Romanian hunk for a spin

Rory eagerly took the offer to rekindle the friendship that just severed out of a sudden as he based himself in Bali while Andrei got his mind fucked by me as I hyper-focused myself to serve the Master and enlarge his influence. I didn't like to waste my time so within the first day he landed, right after I showed him and his girlfriend around their apartment I said to be free of charge as it was still in the market anyway, I simply bitchslapped him until he passed out and then proceeded to infect his girl first, taking the delight of Andrei's fucked up mind that held grudges to Rory for stealing his first crush, her. She cried, obviously, and even harder when she could feel that something terrible is coming with my cock that somehow enlarged beyond her comprehension, because it almost doubled in length and clearly that's not normal and she knows that. As my contained sludgebros released like a damn broken faucet into her throat, her eyes rolled to the back as black sludge overflown her mouth. But she's quick to regain her consciousness and with her mind set to infect her passed out boyfriend, I simply put my sweatpants back on and left the two lovebirds to settle their business.

That's basically one example of our MO, but it's the most effective because these bodybuilders really trust each other, especially when they came from the same country. And when we reached more bodies, it means we have more field operatives to take care off potential puppets. For example, Nico, like Andrei, is Romanian, and he's been out from the spotlight for a while. But, his physique is still great and he's considered a legend among the younger bodybuilders. So, of course I utilized his eagerness to learn a thing or two to become relevant from Andrei as my entry into his tight straight cunt and basically turned him into a puppet.

The legend status he holds gives him easier access to reach the coaches and the more senior bodybuilders, not even a week and he's already turning Jerome Weeks into a puppet too, just look at that wide, slightly off-putting smile the two of them did, if people paid attention a bit more, clearly they can tell that something is a bit not right there

There's also this easily leveraged dynamic of leeching off each other or trying to be in the more influential person's good light, and Mike really milked the shit out of it. He's charismatic, he's also probably the most well-off among the others and you just don't want to mess with him as he can legitimately messed with your influencer career if you crossed him.

Olly and his older stepbrother Craig bumped to Rory and Mike in the middle of a gym, and of course they asked Mike and Rory for a quick pic. The two brothers already planned to utilize the picture for some clout but they are also legitimately looked up to Mike especially, hence the slightly tense pictures despite multiple takes.

What the two humans failed to realize was the fact that both Rory and Mike licked their lips as they watched the siblings walked giddily to the locker room after the pic sesh. They grinned to each other and decided to join the two brothers in the locker room to have some "pep talk". While Rory handled Craig, Mike sauntered the impressionable 20 years old blondie. At first excited to see his idol and tried to respectfully stand up, Olly found himself taken aback as Mike instead pressed Olly back to the seat and then smirked

"I see the potential from you, dude. You can be a jacked piece of shit in no time and fucking popular too. All you neeed to do is open up that mouth, I know you blondie want a piece of this meat,"

Bewildered, Olly tried to fight back but Mike asserted his dominance in a split second as Olly found himself unable to even stand up as Mike held his shoulder and forced him to stay seated

"Don't force me to use my strength, noob. Now, as I said before, you have the potential, just open up that pretty mouth and let me show you how to get big," Mike said with a shit-eating grin so uncharacteristic of him. His crotch just inches away from Olly's quivering lips, and from Olly's POV, he meant every single words he said. Olly still resisted, he tried to scream for help but Mike's hand quickly muffled his mouth, blocking him to even let out a sound. He simply wished that anyone will walk in and caught Mike red-handed, but it seems like it's not goint to happen anytime soon. Unfortunately for him, as his eyes wandered looking for any good samaritan that can help him out of this predicament, his eyes caught a bizarre sight as his married stepbrother bobbed his head up and down Rory's dick like a cum whore! Mike gleefuly said with sinister undertone

"Yeah, even your older brother knows it's the right thing to do. Heck, it's the only way to get big nowadays. It's time for you to also start accepting that as the truth. Now, I won't repeat myself again, open,"

Seeing the tight-lipped Olly, Mike then take the liberty to simply fish out his cock out from his workout shorts, revealing a mean-looking 7.5 incher semi-hard uncut meat throbbing with excitement. He's been going commando since this morning, and the tough workout regiment clearly caused him to accumulate quite some sweat in his crotch. Mike just grazed the tip of his meat right to Olly's pink lips before the young sophomore jock relented to the pressure. His throat felt sticky and sore from all the thrusting, but he found out that he got no gag reflex whatsoever which caused Mike to grin in the first few seconds after the entirety of his cock lodged into Olly's throat

"Ohhh fffuuuckkk you really meant to be a cocksucker bro!"

The whole facefucking lasted for about 6 minutes before Mike started to get tight and exasperated. When Rory and Craig circled around Olly, that's when Olly realized that something is not right when his stepbrother's eyes looking a bit empty and glazed. But not long from both Rory and Craig sauntered the both of them, Mike shot his copious load into the trembling Olly, his body went on a full seizure as the slug takes over his bodily system. Olly eventually regained his consciousness and the first thing he do is to cough out the sticky mess that filled his mouth when he passed out and replaced by an alien slug. He then smiled a very wicked smile

"Now, can I infect other human on my own?"

"Hahahahahah, love the spirit, but not so quick bro, not so quick,"

----

So when Steven Barnett, a bodybuilder with Mining Engineering degree, arrived in Dubai for an all-inclusive honeymoon after marrying his girlfriend for 3 years which also happened to be the daughter of a US Army General, the gym junkie decided to squeeze in several workout session since he knows some of his favorite bodybuilders are based in Dubai. Unfortunately for him, the Prince intel already put a target behind his back the moment he booked a flight to Dubai with his now-wife.

The penthouse arranged by Andrei, the tour around town with Rory, the workout sesh with Mike and Olly, everything is simply part of the plan to ensure that Steven is well-monitored 24/7 throughout his stay. The Prince believed that it's time for him to make another move after consolidating the power in Dubai, and America sounded like a solid plan. So, when Steven walked into one of the last gym that has been recommended by a lot of his online followers, it's already a trap ready to capture him to become yet another puppet in the growing collection of the Master. He's just simply oblivious to the fact that he posed with puppets controlled by mere black slug that looked like a pitch black oil he found in his day job.

[youcouldmakealife]

SOTM: Bryce/Jared, Elaine; Man of the Hour (Day, Week, Month, Year)

For the prompt: One of the articles Bryce mentions. "…like, a profile thing? How it was growing up gay in hockey, that kind of thing… A chance to establish myself as like, I am now,” Bryce says. “Kind of like — not set the record straight, exactly, but like, show I’ve matured and stuff. "

It’s the definition of a typical Vancouver day, drizzly and overcast, when I meet Bryce Marcus. He likely needs no introduction, but I will introduce him anyway: the star centre for the Vancouver Canucks who went from being the enemy while playing for the arch-rival Calgary Flames to becoming possibly the most beloved man in the city: certainly if you you asked the fans streaming out of Rogers Arena after watching the Canucks win the Cup for the third time, or the hundreds of thousands of lining Burrard to cheer on their Canucks at the Stanley Cup Parade on a beautiful sunny day this June.

The weather is anything but glamourous today, however, and at the Marcus Matheson household, the surroundings aren’t either.

Jared Matheson, husband and teammate of Bryce, apologizes as I step over a box in their hallway. “We’re kind of in the middle of a move right now.”

They’re trading their two-bedroom condo for something ‘a little more permanent’. Both have decided that wherever their NHL careers may take them, Vancouver is going to remain home, and they’ve just closed on a house nearby.

“Bryce is weirdly excited about getting to mow the lawn,” Jared tells me as we wait for Bryce to finish getting ready. In light of the hyper-competitive Vancouver real estate market it’s entirely understandable to be excited about lawncare — it means you have a lawn to care for — but one wouldn’t have expected that to extend even to Vancouver’s sports stars.

When Bryce emerges, five minutes after my arrival, he announces himself by swearing as he trips over a box of his own, and then apologising, both for his language and his tardiness.

“He was doing his hair,” Jared says.

“I was not,” Bryce scowls, but doesn’t offer an alternative explanation.

After a quick tour of their condo, which is currently half in boxes, Bryce and I hop into his Audi S8 — naturally courtesy Capilano Audi, whose ads featuring him are inescapable during Canucks games. We drive to Richmond so he can show me his old haunts: elementary, middle, and high school — though he finished high school in Washington while playing for the Spokane Chiefs — his home rink, the Dairy Queen his mother took him after hockey games. He’s a capable, if slightly aggressive driver. I mention this because from the dire warning I received from Jared on the way out the door I genuinely believed I might not survive the drive.

Bryce finally pulls into the driveway of an unassuming but cheerful house on a quiet suburban street. The morning drizzle has faded, and the weather is now just as bright and warm as his childhood home, and the mother who raised him there. Already waiting for us on the porch, his mother Elaine Marcus offers me a glass of lemonade. “Store bought, I’m afraid,” she says with a smile. “I’m not much of homemaker.”

Over lemonade and cookies — “Also store bought,” Elaine admits, “but this bakery is very good!”, and she’s right about that — she shows me an array of childhood and teenage photos while Bryce complains to his mother that she’s ‘embarrassing’ him.

The photos are more inspiring than embarrassing: photo after photo of a beaming little boy in an equally small Canucks jersey, proudly brandishing a plastic mini-stick (Canucks branded, of course). A true example of someone who grew up to live his childhood dream.

Sadly, as he gets a older the smile disappears, as does the man beaming in the background of so many of those happy photos. His father, Ben Marcus, was killed by an impaired driver at the age of 32. It devastated Elaine and Bryce, who was only four at the time.

“It was hard,” Elaine says. “He didn’t understand. I didn’t understand, when it came down to it. It was a hard time. He wanted to play hockey all the time, it was the only thing he wanted. He was really only happy on the ice.”

“I just wanted him to be happy,” she says, smiling tearfully, and as Bryce wraps a protective arm around his mother's shoulders, I offer to give them a moment.

“It was a long time ago,” Elaine says in dismissal, wiping her eyes. “It’s just hard sometimes. Ben loved hockey, loved watching the Canucks with Bryce — he’d have been so proud to see Bryce lift the Cup for them. I am too, of course, but it was always Ben and Bryce’s thing. He would have been so proud.”

I do give them a moment then, and when I return, my lemonade has been refilled and both are all smiles once again, though Bryce's doesn't last. He cringes as we go through photos of his teen years. There’s a sullen look on his face in every picture.

And what was Bryce like as a teenager?

"I'll let him answer that," Elaine says diplomatically.

“I don’t really know,” Bryce says, looking thoughtful. “Angry, I guess. I was an angry kid. And confused.”

About his sexuality?

“Everything was confusing,” Bryce says. “But yeah, definitely that too.”

“Bryce cared so much,” Elaine says. “About everything. He still does. The world’s hardest on the people who care most about it.”

Like so many hockey players who’ve come out since Dan Riley and Marc Lapointe did in 2010, he credits their coming out as a major influence on his journey of coming to terms with his identity as both a gay man and a pro hockey player.

“You don’t really put it together,” Bryce says. He turned sixteen the summer the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, and Riley and Lapointe subsequently came out. “Like, okay, sure, you can be gay and play hockey. Except nobody thought that. I didn’t think that. If you said that, maybe I’d say okay, but I didn’t believe it.”

How, then, did he reconcile being gay and playing hockey?

“That's the thing,” Bryce says. “I didn’t, you know? I was playing hockey, so obviously I wasn’t, right? Because if I was gay, then I wouldn’t be playing, would I?”

“It sounds so ridiculous saying it now,” he reflects. “But that’s what I thought. And I wasn’t the only one.”

But even more than Riley and Lapointe blazing a trail before him, he credits meeting his husband Jared at a hockey skills camp in Calgary. In the year before he met Jared, then twenty year old Bryce was arrested twice, for assault and DWI: the latter in particular shook his mother, considering how his father died.

"I was worried about him," she says. "That's probably an understatement."

“I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn't met Jared,” Bryce says. “I genuinely don’t. I don’t think I’d be out. I know I wouldn’t be happy. You know, everyone says it isn’t like in the movies. Falling in love, I mean. That love at first sight and all that is b******t. But that’s pretty much what it was for me.”

Was it mutual?

Bryce laughs. “You’d have to ask Jared, he tells it better than me,” he says. “But no, not really. I wasn't good enough for him. I'm still not good enough for him, but I try to be."

Another warning I’d received from his husband before my tour around town? That Bryce was an incurable romantic. This warning certainly seems more warranted than the one about Bryce’s driving.

And what does Bryce think about Jared’s warning, and his additional suggestion to take anything Bryce said about him with a healthy grain of salt?

“[Jared]’s just modest,” Bryce says.

“He lights up when Jared’s around,” Elaine says. “It’s just like when he was a little boy — every time he stepped onto the ice, he beamed. It’s the same thing with Jared. He’s so happy. It’s so wonderful to see him like that.”

And how was it, not only getting to play with his husband, but to raise the Stanley Cup together?

“It’s a dream come true,” Bryce says. “Really. I know that’s such a cliche, but so is love at first sight, right? And the hometown boy winning it all for his childhood team. They’re all cliches. But they’re my life.”

“I know just how lucky I am,” Bryce says. “Winning with Jared, with this team — it’s been such a whirlwind of a year.”

I tell him to enjoy it.

“I do,” he says, smiling so widely I have no doubt he’s telling the truth. “I really, really do.”

[shiny-crocodile]

the best person i've ever met

lucy bronze x ona batlle

Summary

lucy and ona origin story; semi-slow burn, semi-quick; multi chapters that will get a little smutty

chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5, chapter 6, chapter 7, chapter 8, chapter 9, chapter 10

CHAPTER 8

chapter summary: doctors and dress up

chapter notes: got a certain request (many many times) for something to happen again, so here you go x

smut

The next day was not what either of them particularly wanted out of their one day off together in London.

Lucy had a whole plan to visit some markets, followed by a fancy dinner but instead they were forced to spend it in a hospital waiting room with Tesco meal deals, accompanied by Peter the Barça physio.

After last nights conversations, Lucy and Ona had their first “girlfriend reveal” trial run with Peter. Lucy peered over to him after the younger girl pecked her on the lips before making her way to the vending machine for more snacks. Peter barely bat an eyelid.

As Lucy’s name was finally called after an hour of waiting, she hobbled after the doctor on her newly acquired crutches, leaving Ona behind for this solo trip to the scanners.

“Break a leg!” Ona called after her, making the older girl laugh, calming her nerves massively. You never quite got used to the overwhelming feeling of dread going in for scans.

As they expected, the news wasn’t good. Ona squeezing Lucy’s hand reassuringly as they were told Lucy would need to have surgery and that the success of the surgery would determine the length of the recovery period.

The World Cup was in 2 months and a potential Champions League final was in 1 month, an incredibly tight turnaround, which everyone in the room was hyper aware of.

After making a few phone calls, Peter returned to offer up some options for next steps.

“So where do you want the surgery?” Peter asked.

“Her knee preferably,” Ona joked, both girls cracking up but Peter staying stern faced.

“Sorry, she’s full of jokes today, what do you mean?” Lucy asked, hand stroking Ona’s leg.

“Well we have great doctors in a number of places where you can have the surgery, as long as you are back in Barcelona in one week for rehab,” Peter explained, “the UK? Spain?“

Lucy looked to Ona before answering, who nodded, the two communicating with looks alone. “Manchester?” Lucy asked, turning back to Peter.

“Sure,” he said, standing up to make more phone calls.

“Nurse Batlle, at your service. This is going to be fun!” Ona said, weirdly excited at the thought of doting on Lucy.

Lucy sighed, not sharing the excitement, but she could think of one concilation, “as long as you dress the part I won’t complain.”

////

A couple of days passed, Ona was pacing up and down the corridor after giving Lucy all the good luck kisses before she was wheeled off.

Using the hospital as her runway for heavy footed nervousness, she quickly started to annoy the hospital staff.

“Well fancy seeing you here,” Ona heard from behind her while mid-pace.

“Staniiiii,” Ona exclaimed as she threw herself into her friend’s arms.

The pair hadn’t seen as much of each other since Lucy moved from Man U to Villa, and as the person who helped Ona settle into the UK, the Spaniard was beyond thrilled to see her again.

“Did Lucy call you?” Ona asked, slightly surprised as when Ona had offered to call her mum, she said she didn’t want to be around anyone like this, so it was unusual if she was actively reaching out to friends.

“Yeah but I am under strict instructions to only be here when the surgery was happening,” Lucy said, guiding Ona back into the hospital room and into one of the chairs. “Wanted me to keep you company and stop you worrying. Clearly it was needed with you pacing the halls like a madman.”

It was definitely needed and Ona felt instantly calmer having this distraction, coupled with the warmth of knowing Lucy was thinking of her while preparing for surgery, responding, “she knows me too well.”

Time passed much faster now Ona had someone to talk to and catch up with, loving that she also had someone she could talk to about Lucy seen as though the other Lucy was the one person who knew everything about their relationship.

Lucy S couldn’t help but notice the difference in Ona from a few months ago, especially her need to mention the english right back every 5 seconds now.

“You really like her, hey?” Lucy asked. She knew how much her best friend liked the Spaniard, but she hadn’t really gotten to see the other side until now.

Ona nodded shyly, “big time. It’s honestly kind of terrifying.”

The younger girl received an understanding stroke of the arm, “of course it is. It’s always scary opening yourself up to someone. But it’s always amazing and rewarding, and honestly, I’m biased because she’s one of my favourite people but there’s truly no one better to let yourself fall for than Lucy.”

Ona couldn’t stop from grinning. Her friend always had a way with words and hearing her talk about Lucy like that was everything.

“Oh apart from my wife,” Lucy corrected, both girls breaking into laughter.

//

A couple hours later, with the surgery done and dusted, Lucy was wheeled back into the room, completely out of it and packed full of drugs.

“Stanniiiiiiiii!” Lucy slurred as she saw her best friend. “What you doing here?”

The Villa player moved over to the side of the bed, squeezing Lucy’s hand while laughing slightly at the state she was in.

“You called me you donut.”

“Oh yeah,” Lucy said, letting out a high pitched giggle that no one in the room had heard before. “You look after Ona?”

“I did, she’s all good,” her best friend said. “How are you feeling?”

Lucy was too out of it to even notice that Ona was actually in the room, who stood out of the way, chuckling away as she gave the old friends a minute.

“Gooooooood, it’s a shame we’re athletes because drugs are so good!” Lucy slurred out, earning a laugh from everyone in the room including the nurse.

Lucy was starting to drift off now to sleep, but not before dragging out, “thank you for looking after, you’re the best friend. I really love her and I love you for your matching. I love…”

Lucy was gone to the world, the surgery and the drugs making her so tired she closed her eyes and instantly started lightly snoring.

Lucy S turned round to look at a blushing Ona. “She’s not said that to you before has she?”

The younger girl could only shake her head. She knew Lucy was drugged up but she still couldn’t help having a lump in her throat at the older girl’s confession. She made her way over to the bed before placing a soft kiss on her girlfriend’s temple.

“Naw,” Lucy S said, “well I’m off before this gets even soppier.”

The Villa player spun around, grabbing her bag and cheek kissing the Spaniard goodbye.

“Blowing my own trumpet here, but you’re very good together. Look after my girl and let her know I’ll message tomorrow,” Lucy said before both girls blew a kiss to each other and parted.

The younger girl gently shifted her Lucy onto her side to stop the snoring, before sliding in behind the taller girl on the bed, taking the role of big spoon for once.

Mouth near Lucy’s ear, she whispered, “I love you too,” knowing that Lucy wouldn’t hear or even register it. She placed a kiss behind the older girl’s ear before closing her eyes to nap with her girlfriend.

////

“Oh my god? What are you wearing?”

Lucy had been discharged from the hospital and was now resting up at Ona’s. She had to be back in Barcelona tomorrow for rehab, which she was absolutely dreading, knowing the short turnaround between now and the UWCL final, and then the World Cup.

But she wouldn’t let her mind worry about that now. Not when she was faced with the stunning sight of Ona in a full nurses outfit.

“Are they blood splatters?” Lucy asked, unable to stop herself from laughing.

“Shut up, it’s from Halloween,” Ona said, strutting further into the room. “Now stop laughing, I’m trying to be sexy.”

“Oh baby you don’t need to try,” Lucy said, heart racing as she tried to compose herself, sitting more upright in the bed to fully take this in.

The white and fake blood splattered cropped top showed off her abs perfectly, while the low v was always going to be what Lucy’s eyes were drawn to, Ona’s nipples poking through the fabric.

Ona did her best sultry strut as she flicked her hips, Lucy’s eyes now fixed on her upper thighs every time the skirt flicked up, making it abundantly clear the younger girl wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

Lucy clenched the bed sheets to combat the throbbing between her legs.

“Oh Mrs Bronze, you look like you need some assistance.”

Lucy cringed, much to the confusion and offence of Ona. “My mum’s a teacher, let’s not do Mrs.”

“Ah sorry,” Ona said before getting back in the zone.

“Señorita, you look like you need some assistance,” Ona said, the lip bite from Lucy showing her she was on the right track.

The older girl was getting wet at the show being put on for her, Ona sexily throwing off her nurses cap before slowly crawling up the bed towards Lucy.

“Wait,” Lucy said as the younger girl started pulling off her shorts, “you’ve looked after me enough, let me look after you.”

“Oh cari, you’re going to do more than just look after me,” Ona said, biting her lip with a look Lucy knew all too well.

It was the look Ona gave her when she was about to do her favourite thing to Lucy. Ever since the first time she found out Lucy never did it, she’s taken so much pleasure out of achieving it every single time she tried…

Shorts discarded, Lucy laid back, giving up before the Spaniard had even started.

Ona attached her mouth to the side of Lucy’s pelvis, drawing her first moan out of the older girl as she made a mark.

Sufficiently bruised, Ona lifted her head to look at Lucy, “hey, think you’re gonna want to watch this.”

Lucy did as she was told, pushing herself up, and Ona wasn’t wrong.

The younger girl had her arse pushed into the air, skirt no longer covering her now exposed cheeks.

Ona intently watched Lucy get more soaked at the site of her.

“Now keep watching,” Ona said, before taking her first lick up Lucy’s folds, humming a moan into the older girl’s centre that only made her wetter.

The English girl could barely compute what she was watching, the Spaniard’s naked bum bouncing up and down as she devoured Lucy.

If she could, she would have grabbed handfuls of her cheeks, but instead had to settle for handfuls of hair.

She could have come at the sight alone, but her girlfriend was going to drag this out until she knew the English girl was ready to give her what she wanted.

“Please,” Lucy cried out, so loud that Ona jerked her head up in worry.

The sight of Lucy only spurred the younger girl on. The older girl’s face and chest dripping with sweat, as Ona dealt with the dripping pussy.

She knew Lucy was ready.

Two fingers were inserted at once, quickly followed by a third to get the most insane scream from Lucy.

Ona didn’t even know a noise like that was possible from her girlfriend.

“Fuck, fuck, I’m gonna squirt,” Lucy said coming undone, Ona sucking on her clit but not removing her fingers to drink up the juices like she usually would.

“Ona?” the English girl managed to utter out, the fucking of her pussy and sucking of her clit not relenting.

“Again,” Ona growled, and like clockwork, Lucy squirted, but Ona still wasn’t lapping it up.

The Spaniard removed her fingers, drawing a moan as she spread the girl’s legs further apart, allowing herself even more room at Lucy’s pussy.

“Once more,” Ona instructed, pulling Lucy’s incredibly lips apart with her fingers to expose the girl’s sensitive clit.

“I can’t,” Lucy moaned as the cold air ran over her.

As if she hadn’t heard her, the Spaniard attached her lips to Lucy’s clit, giving it one last sharp suck as everything left in Lucy gushed out, Ona doing the lapping now, tears in her eyes at her own state of bliss.

“My girl,” Ona cooed, looking up at her destroyed girlfriend, “there is nothing I love more than that.”

“Come here,” Lucy said between breaths, leaning forward to pull Ona in by the stethoscope hanging round her neck, pulling her into a searing kiss.

Tongues exploring each other’s mouths as Lucy tasted herself.

Without needing to detach herself, Lucy used her strength to turn both girl’s onto their sides.

After days of barely moving, she clearly still had a lot of energy to use up.

The Spaniard, seeing Lucy could take even more, slipped her hand back down between Lucy’s legs, brushing over her tender entrance before easily pushing two fingers inside her.

But Lucy was determined to touch Ona now, not wanting this to be all about herself.

She mirrored Ona’s movements, drifting her hand under the nurse’s skirt where there was no barrier stopping her gliding her fingers between Ona’s folds.

Catching the Spaniard totally by surprise, both girls moaned in unison as Lucy followed in entering Ona, starting slower with just the one finger but both girls knuckles deep.

“Fuck Lucy!” Ona screamed out, struggling to focus on fucking Lucy while there were now two strong fingers pumping in and out of her, but she was nothing if not determined.

They copied everything each other did, while staring deep into each others eyes.

As Lucy curved her fingers to hit Ona’s G spot, the younger girl did the same.

As Ona brushed her thumb around Lucy’s clit, the English girl did the same.

Watching each other’s blissed out face made everything 10 times more intense, every moan 10 times deeper and their approach towards their peaks 10 times faster.

“Oh my god,” Ona moaned, feeling things she’d never felt before from the dual rush of fucking Lucy while being fucked. She was struggling to keep up the pace of her pumping while hurtling towards her own peak after being so worked up from the squirt show, “I can’t.”

“It’s ok. I’ve got you bonita,” Lucy said, more than happy to help Ona first, but neither girl was going to slow down.

“I love you,” Lucy let out, managing somehow to say it softly despite the cacophony of moans escaping both their mouths.

“I love you too,” Ona said, not quite as gently as both girls crashed through their ceilings, orgasms taking over at the exact same time.

They panted, both exhausted, with the come down accompanied by soft kisses and whimpers, before they slowly removed their hands.

Still facing each other, they both just lay there gazing at each other. It could have been seconds, it could have been hours, neither girl knew as they got completely lost in each others eyes.

“You said that in the hospital, you know?” Ona said softly, not breaking eye contact.

“Said what?”

“That you loved me,” Ona revealed, “when you were drugged up after the surgery.”

Lucy went red in the cheeks, obviously having zero recollection of that conversation. Now thinking of anything else embarrassing she might have said or done.

Ona could see the concern in her eyes, “don’t worry. It was very sweet. You are very sweet.”

The older girl leaned in to kiss her softly, eye contact breaking temporarily as they closed fluttered closed.

“Although you did say it to Stani straight after which kind of killed it slightly.”

Both girls broke into laughter, still perfectly in sync.

“Oh god, was she there? That would explain all the heart and vomit emojis she keeps sending me.”

Ona traced Lucy’s wide smile with her thumb.

“I love this smile.”

Lucy brought a hand up to do the same.

“Not as much as I love this smile, and this nose, and these eyes, and this chin,” the older girl said, brushing her digits over each part of Ona’s face as she declared her love for it.

As they went back to gazing at each other, before their staring competition was interrupted by a vibration, prompting both girls to peer over to Lucy’s phone, all lit up.

Lucy S - 🤮 💚

“It’s like she can hear us,” Ona said, turning around and pushing her back up into Lucy’s front, melting into the warmth of the girl she loved.

///

[qqueenofhades]

In light of OceangateGate, by show of hands, who still wants Elon Musk to send them to Mars?

I mean, this whole thing (like I kept saying in tags) is both grimly fascinating and utterly predictable. Because there's this whole culture that you could and should do absolutely anything anywhere on earth, if you're able to pay for it, and at the same time that the companies offering these experiences can do absolutely everything to cut corners and make profits while placing people in incredibly dangerous situations. Whether it's the mountain adventure companies who take tens of thousands of dollars to shunt total novices up Mount Everest, or this, it's just like... MAYBE YOU SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO MAKE EVERYTHING INTO A HYPER-CAPITALIST COMMODITY JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE RICH AND/OR WANT TO TAKE MORE MONEY FROM RICH PEOPLE! MAYBE!

Within 48 hours of this story breaking, we have learned that:

The sub is not tested or certified by literally any regulatory agency, because "innovation can't wait for rules"

The sub is built of fucking camping store gear and a video game joystick, they did not pay for appropriately certified parts for the depths they wanted to go, and the company fired the guy who pointed it out, rather than dealing with any of the issues he raised

The CEO (one of those now missing on the sub) gave an interview talking about how "at some point, safety is just waste"

In 2018, a literal group of esteemed submersible experts wrote to this guy about how his plans were bad and he should feel bad; he ignored it

The sub does not have basic safety equipment, a readily available backup vehicle, an acoustic beacon, etc, and has gone missing several times before; it is only luck that they found it those times

You can't get out of the fucking thing by yourself even if it is on the surface

It used Elon Musk's Starlink satellites for communication and cited SpaceX as a private adventure tourism model (as noted, you know, the rockets that keep literally blowing up)

You have to sign an enormous waiver (after paying $250,000 a head) acknowledging this entire thing is completely unregulated and you may very well die

Which it looks like these poor schmucks either have or are soon going to, either by imploding instantly at great depth (the merciful option) or slowly suffocating in a freezing coffin in the dark (the absolute hell option)

Like?!?! How was this not COMPLETELY predictable?

And this happened WHILE THEY WERE GOING TO THE TITANIC

You know, the most famous case of Man vs. Nature technological hubris in history

I mean. This is the ultimate outcome and perfect encapsulation of the "no rules no regulations ever, everything including the most dangerous things are crassly commodified for money, everyone is an expert and/or experience is irrelevant, safety rules only exist to hamper innovation and disrupt The Free Market, costs should be cut on everything for more profits, and this should all continue regardless of the consequences or the impact on the other people then required to endanger themselves to rescue them" late-stage capitalist hellscape we are living in. And maybe I shouldn't have laughed, but uh, I laughed:

[sleepy-platonic-yan]

(Platonic) Yandere Spirits + Teenage Reader.

Hello This Is My First Post. I Hope You Can Enjoy This And The Rest My Blog Will Have To Offer. Please Forgive Any Grammatical Errors.

Reader is gn, but the ghosts refer to them as their son—————

You and your mother had moved into a new house. After the tragic death of your brother and father, the house held way too many memories that made it so even walking down the hall could leave you sobbing.

Your mother wanted to really get away from it all, to go out in the country side and ‘blend with nature’, but that was not unexpected of her, she’s always been distant and ready to abandon things at a moments notice for work or her own personal desires. She would have put you and your brother up for adoption if it weren’t for your dad.

but at the end of the day all this really meant for you was that you have to do school online now cause mom bought a farm house in the middle of nowhere.

she made sure you were fine with it which was a bit unexpected, and at the time you really were! It’s just, the house was built in the Victorian era and had seen years of use, hundreds of families and many deaths. And although the house has had new things added like heating and hot water, the house freaked you out still is all.

As you pulled up to the house, its tall figure landing ominously against the moon in the sky, the house looks like it belongs in a horror movie. The large willow tree beside the house with a rope swing that sways in the wind making a ‘creeeek’ every once in a while doesn’t help either. You suck in a breath and don’t open your door, but your mother either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care about your fear as she opens her door.

she goes to the back of the car and opens the trunk before shouting “(Readers name) get out of the car and carry your luggage! I ain’t carrying all of this” you mumble an affirmative and open your door. You keep an eyes on the swing, making a note of how it seems to have stopped for an odd amount of time before getting back into swinging ‘wind must be different over there?..’ you think.

you grab your one duffel bag and a few of moms bags before heading to the front door with her. The gravel path to the front door makes crunching noises with each step, making you hyper aware of how loud you’ve been since the second you got here. You shake your head, it’s fine. This is your house. ‘Is it tho?..’

As your mother grabs her key from her purse, you her a weird ‘crunch’ behind you, like the sound of something starting to walk up the path. You whip around but no one’s there. Damn, barely five minutes here and your already paranoid. Your mother opens the door and you walk in.

as you step in, you step into what seems to be the family room, wood floors throughout the house or as far as you can see. The room has a white couch with soft pink flowers as the pattern and white wood legs. That pattern stays with all the furniture in the family room. There is also a old-ish tv.

“hey mom, do you know why the previous owners left their stuff” you ask a bit suspicious, a huge house with good looking furniture selling for a absurdly low price yet it was on the market for months. There’s gotta be something off.

your mom shrugs and tells you it must just be because they don’t need them. You decide to just go with that. Yeah, they just didn’t need them. You and your mother walk around the first floor of the house a bit before ascending the stairs. The stairs are creaky and give a bit to much for your liking with each step. Again your mother doesn’t mind.

as you get to the next floor, it seems most of the rooms are old bedrooms. Your mother immediately goes to the master bedroom with a small yell of “just take any room, I don’t care”

as you look at the hall full of rooms, non seem particularly interesting or safe. You know you have to pick one tho so you peak in each.

Each room contains different items, but each have a painting of a different person. The only one the not have a creepy painting is one of the smallest, with no windows and the bare minimum items.

you end up picking the one that doesn’t have much furniture other then a bed and a desk. The desk is creaky and wobbles at the slightest push. As you toss your duffel bag on the bed the bed creaks loudly as well. You don’t mind, it’s better than being watched by a bunch of most likely dead guys.

You also don’t have much that you brought, so you don’t need much room. You lay down on the bed. This is fine, your just being paranoid.

as you sit down on the bed, or it’s yours now you suppose, you grab your phone from your jacket pocket. As you turn it on you are blinded for a minute by how bright it is, turning down the brightness, you quickly put in your passcode and flip to discord.

as you open up a group chat between you and a bunch of your friends, you begin to talk to them. You talk for a few hours, even hoping on call and showing them your room (they agree it has a creepy vibe to it), you finally say you have to go to sleep at around 3 am.

you remove the blanket that came from the house as you fear it could be moldy, so you’d prefer to just wash it. You take the duffel bag off the bed and open it, grabbing a blanket. The blanket that came with the house is admittedly much better, your blanket is thin and warm with a few holes. But never the less you turn off the lights and hurry back over the bed.

you realize a bit to late you didn’t change clothes, but in all honesty you don’t want to change in this house.

as you lay back on the bed with a creak, you can’t help but think you see things moving around in the darkness.

————

you wake up pretty late in the day. It’s summer break so you don’t have school, or else you would have never stayed up that late. As you sit up you notice oddly enough you’re covered in both blankets, not just yours. You could have sworn you just wore yours but but, uh you must have put it on in the middle of the night!

yeah, that’s what you did. You probably got cold, and put the thicker blanket on for warmth, and if you don’t remember it that’s fine.

As you sit up you notice something on your desk, a piece of paper with a cup of water. As you stand you walk over to the note, it’s from your mom

hey (reader’s nickname), I got a urgent call from work and i need to get back to the office by next week, and I have to leave now to make it. I know I said I work on line these days but they really need me. I know you’ll understand, your nearly a adult you can handle yourself for a few weeks, when I get home I’ll spend lots of time with you.

There’s money attached to the back of the note, and I put all our food from the car in the kitchen.

love - mom

You sigh. it’s always been like this. Seems no matter where you guys live, mom will never be home. You know she works hard but it feels she doesn’t see you as a priority.

although in the back of your mind you recognize the writing looks different then her writing, and she always signs off with her real name and not ‘mom’

As turn the paper around you see that yes, there is money, and it is way too much. 500 bucks. You blink. What. You shake your head, you are not using all of that. You remove the money from the paper and throw the letter in the trash.

For some reason you have a gut feeling not to leave your room. Something feels wrong with this house and it’s even worse with no one else here. You grab your phone again and hop on discord, as you talk to your friends you let them know where you live.

Turns out some friends you met online live real close to you, and they’re cool to come over tomorrow to hang out and keep you company till your mom gets home. You just have to survive today and tonight.

After your friends have to go you’re left sitting on your bed with nothing to do, so you remove the bigger blanket again and decide ‘hey, best way to lose time is to sleep!’ After a bit you slip into unconsciousness.

//change of POV//

as the many pairs of eyes watched their sons eyes close, they can’t help but coo

their sons ‘Mom’ is not fit clearly, so they had to step up. And so far they’ve been doing great, their lovely son is even gonna bring friends over to meet them!

their son is adorable. And all theirs

[realhumanbaby]

The way people are too afraid to offer specific advice. It's a liability risk. Everything comes with a disclaimer. What works for me might not work for you. Everyone is different. Everyone reacts differently. It's modern clinical training. It's hyper-individualism. We work so hard to differentiate ourselves, find our unique commodity, our market niche. Yet, once there, we end up entirely isolated, alienated, no mentorship, no community. Your mentor now wants to destroy you. Your friends don't feel good enough anymore. Really, everyone is the same. I mean, it feels good to admit. We like the same trends, at the same times, for the same reasons. Emotions are shared. Desires are shared. We have nothing unique to offer, just more of the same. But we want more of the same. More sex, more violence, more time spent running through a field. And we want specific instructions about how to get there. It's not about deference. It's about developing a practice. We want a hypothesis to test. How can you get better at something if you don't even know what it entails? Generic advice can never be wrong and so it can never be right. It's feigning care out of self interest. It's risking nothing. It's giving up nothing. It's believing in nothing.

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

A Popstar Grian AU - Ari AU (Part One)

Or, @angeart and I put Grian through a lot of pain for no good reason.

Hello! Like two people showed interest in my post about Ari AU, thus here we are. This is not really a 'fic', but it isn't a short summary either. Let your mind go wild. Let your imagination be free. Read my words, boy.

This is Part One. Part Two is here. Part Three is here. Part Four is here. Part Five is here. The tag for this is #ari au.

But before we start, some introductory things you should know.

This is scarian. Don't read if you do not like scarian.

Grian uses he/she pronouns and is transfem genderqueer, I tend to default to she as it helps differentiate her from other characters a lot, but I mix it up.

I somewhat based this AU on attitudes towards celebrities / stars from the 2000s - present day, so this can be read as a period piece in some ways... This concept started with the song 'The Fear' by Lily Allen. I recommend giving it a listen.

This is the "real world", so no hybrids, no respawn, no "code", etc.

CONTENT WARNINGS for this Part: stalking, physical assault, attempted sexual assault, drugging, mentions of vomit, hospitals, me autismposting about music genres.

You can always stop reading! The AU starts out pretty tame and gradually gets, well, worse. But I promise it has a hopeful ending! Eventually!

(also please ask me questions, send ideas, reblog, comment, etc. because I love this AU a lot) (and thank you to Ange for enabling me and adding amazing scenes to this au)

Album One: ‘Sunshine Sedative’

Grian, better known by her stage name ‘Ari’, is a popular singer-songwriter embarking on a world tour to promote her latest album, Sunshine Sedative. The album is indie pop-y and bright, exploring themes of romance, self-empowerment, and subtle references to gender and sexuality. Grian’s style on-stage is hyper-feminine, flashy, and fashionable. He’s known to be a bit prickly, demanding, and stubborn off-stage, slow to warm up to the people around him.

The tour bus carries both Grian and her key crew. Pearl (marketing, PR and organisational work), Impulse (costumes and tech), and Mumbo (tech assistant and main contact for Grian’s manager). Though Grian likes to self-manage, preferring to do her own make-up and plan the set-lists for her own shows. 

Recently, Grian has been running into some issues with stalker fans and online haters, receiving some threatening messages on social media. Mumbo tries not to let him doomscroll on his phone too much, even going so far as to confiscate the phone while on tour. This is Grian’s biggest tour- no one was prepared for her to become a star or “indie darling” type- and the fans are… a bit crazy.

After the anonymous threats, Grian agrees to get a bodyguard. This is where Scar comes in. At first, Scar is a little terrified. The company he works for advised him not to annoy or upset Grian, and to always call her Miss Ari. Never disagree with her or do anything he isn’t contracted to do. 

Scar throws all of this out of the window pretty fast. Yes, Grian is especially difficult when they first meet, but Scar can tell it’s because Grian is stressed. About the tour, about the fame, about the threats. 

A show results in Grian getting a sore throat, and Scar offers her some tea with honey, rambling on about how his mother used to make it for him when he was sick. Grian begrudgingly takes the tea, and tells Scar to just call her Grian from then on. She’s not a fan of the blurring of her private and public life.

Eventually, Grian gets bored enough to rant to Scar about how Mumbo won’t let him use his phone anymore, and Scar offers to sneak it back to him. They have a laugh scrolling through celebrity news and playing silly games together. Then they get found out and both get a stern talking to from Mumbo and Impulse. (Pearl laughs at them in the background).

As Grian’s tour starts selling out, more tour dates are added, extending their time on the road. Scar continues to sneak Grian’s phone to her, pushing her to have fun rather than scroll through hate messages. It seems like a peak moment for Grian, delighted by the idea that she has so many fans, and beginning to develop a bit of a crush on Scar. Grian even starts acting a little nicer.

Tabloids and Stalkers

The fame comes with more caveats than Grian anticipated. One day, while Scar and Grian are reading some dumb article on Grian’s phone, she receives a random message from a burner account. It’s a picture of Grian, through a hotel window, half dressed. Grian recognises the hotel, one they stayed in a few nights ago just to get away from the tour bus.

Someone knew she would be there. Knew what room she would be staying in. There is a vaguely ominous / threatening message attached. It makes Grian never want to step foot outside again. It makes her feel sick. Suddenly she can’t focus on anything around her.

He has a panic attack. 

Later, as Grian is pacing the floor of the bus, he’s told not to make an announcement about the stalker. She decides herself not to go to the police, and, after some hesitation, not to cancel the tour. They can’t disappoint all those people. 

Over the next few shows, Grian gets closer to Scar. Both because they get along so well, and because Scar is there to protect her. He's clumsy and funny and once he starts talking about something he likes, it’s hard to get him to stop. Grian finds him incredibly endearing and, more importantly, incredibly safe. 

But things are bad. Grian can’t even go to a public bathroom without Scar checking to make sure no one is waiting for her. He feels constantly watched, constantly on-edge, constantly afraid. The paparazzi don’t exactly make it easier.

Tabloids love Ari. She’s a superstar, a real diamond in the rough who came from nothing. They’re obsessed. Anything she does in public can make a tabloid front page. As the tour goes on and her songs rocket up the charts, it only gets worse. The flashes of the cameras have started to scare him.

Scar is an angel, dealing with the paparazzi professionally and confidently. He stands in front of Grian and chases the cameras off. But it feels like they can’t go anywhere. They can’t do anything. Even when they stop at another hotel, Grian can’t tell if the people outside are stalkers or journalists.

The pictures on the tabloid front pages are no longer stunning shots from the shows, but rather blurry snaps of Grian trying to escape the cameras. Images of Grian, wide-eyed and scared by the surprise of a camera flash, before she could put on a fake smile. Grian, through a window in the parked tour bus, with teary eyes. Even private moments are no longer private.

Media outlets start to pay for more intimate photos- anything the journalists might get fired for trying to snap themselves. It gives the stalkers (there are certainly multiple, now) more incentive. Grian keeps the curtains closed in every building he visits, and draws the tiny blinds on the bus. 

Relationship Goals?

In the meantime, Grian’s crush on Scar is getting more obvious, but she’s afraid to say anything. Dragging Scar into this, with all the harassment he would face if they revealed they were together, isn’t what Grian wants. She flinches away when Scar offers a comforting touch, not wanting to risk a photograph. 

Scar is the one, then, who takes the initiative. He sits with Grian on her little fold-out bed at the back of the tour bus, all curtains drawn and the door closed. He holds her close and tells her firmly that no one is going to see them here. They're traveling at 50mph on a motorway and no one can even see through the windows anyway. And that's maybe just enough for Grian to let himself lean into Scars touch. Admit his feelings. 

There’s a sense of shame he's carrying with them. He shouldn't have fallen for his bodyguard- someone who has to stay with him, contractually. She tries to say as much, going on and on about all the terrible risks Scar is bringing to himself by dating her, but Scar cuts Grian off by kissing her, anyway.

As soon as the media gets a hint of the relationship, things seem to go downhill. Diehard fans don’t react kindly to Grian’s choice of man, especially the ones who want to have her for themselves. Someone throws something at Scar when Grian is leaving a show, hitting him on the head. It isn’t a bad injury, but it bleeds a lot, and Grian only feels worse about it when Scar insists he’s okay.

Actual Bodily Harm

The fans seem to get more… intense. Stalking and threats of harm increase, while the fans' behaviour at shows seems to get worse. As the tour is nearing its final few weeks, people start to throw things onto the stage. The first time it happens, Grian cuts the set short without anyone really noticing. The next time, someone throws a glass bottle, and she walks off. 

He tries not to make a big fuss about it, simply leaving without playing a single song. She feels awful, of course, for leaving the normal fans without a show. Perhaps they should refund the tickets, or something. She doesn’t even notice the glass shards in her foot until Scar points them out, horrified. 

Pearl convinces Grian to take a picture of the injury and make a PSA post on social media. Even when the adrenaline wears off, Grian’s resulting breakdown seems subdued. 

No one throws anything at the next few shows, except for a trans pride flag. Grian wears it as a cape, and feels amazing, for once, hearing the cheers and screams of joy at the gesture. She loves that she can be a symbol of hope and love for so many people. It’s even enough of a boost to get him acting more like himself again in private: mischievous, bright, and creative. 

It is near the end of the tour when things go completely, utterly wrong again. Grian and the crew all go to a bar after a show, to celebrate the last week of the tour. Three more shows, and then it’s over. Grian is in somewhat normal clothes, compared to his usual getup, but still puts on his persona just in case they've been followed by the paparazzi (again).

Everyone's having a nice time, drinking a little and hanging out. As always, it is nice to be getting away from the bus. Pearl and Impulse buy far too many shots, much to Mumbo’s dismay. Grian laughs and jokes and raises her voice, not caring if she’s croaky the next day. 

He doesn't notice someone watching him from across the room. Doesn't notice them slip something into her drink when she goes up to the bar. She pays for another pint, and they strike up conversation. Giddily, she chats with them, rambling about how good life has suddenly become. As he sips his drink, he doesn’t register how focused on him they are. How their dark eyes don’t leave him once.

It’s fine, until she stumbles, on the way back to the booth everyone's sitting at, and the stranger catches her before she can fall with strong arms. They're talking, but Grian isn't really listening. She’s nodding along and mumbling about needing to get back to the booth. Back to her friends.

It feels wrong. They keep hold of her shoulders. They're saying something about getting her home safe. Something about how they've been waiting for this…

He realises what’s happening far too late. Panic clutches her chest for a split second. Long enough for him to call out for Scar. She's already being manhandled out of the door before Scar comes to her rescue. Thankfully, by a miracle, close enough to hear the cry for help.

Grian knows something happens to the stranger, because they're on the floor and bleeding. Voices buzz, muffled, around Grian. There are more hands on her. She doesn’t like it. Her head hurts. Scar’s hand is bloody as he hugs her. Grian passes out.

Hospital Visit One

The crew, quite obviously, take Grian to the hospital. He was drugged, and it’s clear what the perpetrator wanted to do. It shakes them all, left wondering whether the creep knew who Grian was, or just randomly targeted a drunk stranger on a night out. Either way, none of them want to go near a bar any time soon.

On the way to the hospital, the press capture pictures of Grian unconscious, or half-awake with no awareness, and by the time the morning rolls in, the papers are already speculating about addiction and ‘gone wild’ narratives. When Grian wakes up, still slightly delirious, he's told, hesitantly, by Pearl, that they have to release a statement soon in order to clear his name and control the narrative. Grian can’t find it in herself to cry about what happened.

Before any statements are made, the police come to talk to Grian. They arrested the perpetrator and searched their house, not that it’ll result in much. They show Grian pictures of rope, duct tape, knives, and a poster from her tour. 

Feeling numb, Grian takes a moment to go throw up in a bin, then tells her team she wants to make a statement now. She wants it recorded, as she is, now. Pearl and Mumbo try to argue that it really isn't a good idea, without a script and looking… bad, but Scar and Impulse back Grian’s choice. Reluctantly, Mumbo grabs one of the nice cameras from his car- the bus was far too conspicuous to park at a hospital- and they record.

They don't know what Grian’s going to say, but, put basically, the video explains everything that has happened- from the stalkers to the glass to the drugging- and apologises to the fans who did nothing wrong. And even the fans who just wanted to know some gossip, because they weren't really to blame. Then she announces that she's cancelling the rest of the tour. 

Mumbo shuts off the camera. Everyone apart from Scar is a bit shocked. Incredulous. Shouldn’t they talk about this? Is it worth it to cancel at the last hurdle? Scar cuts off the protests, pointing out how insensitive it is to try and make Grian perform after everything. Grian stays quiet as Scar somewhat lectures the others. It’s a rambling mess of an argument, but it works. They apologise. 

The statement video is posted online, and Grian is left to rest. Scar remains at his side.

Once Grian is checked over and discharged, they get back to the bus fast. She retreats to her closed-off space at the back of the bus, telling everyone to get on with their jobs. Once she's alone, she replays the images the police showed her in her mind. He thinks about what could have happened. He thinks about the stranger's hands on his shoulders and at his hips. She remembers that she started out just wanting to make music, and she cries.

[penaltyboxboxbox]

i'm here for any breadcrumbs of ur android AU >:V

I ACTUALLY HAVE MORE THAN BREADCRUMBS......heres some backstory some lore its incomplete but yeah take what i have :)

COMPREHENSIVE ANDROID AU

Cars and Drivers essentially have a symbiotic relationship, the cars have been designed to require an android pilot, with their power units/batteries being linked into one another. While traditional safety concerns are not something to worry about, this link between the electronics of the car and the driver means that malfunctions and damage to the car can result in technical damage to the driver. For example, if the car's own power systems begin failing, it may begin leech too much power from its driver, spreading battery life too thinly and causing shutdown for them both. Plugging into the car essentially puts the driver into a hyper-powered state, the car becoming an extension of their body.

Drivers can accrue damage of course, and like with cars there is a limited amount of replacement parts allowed each season, with penalties being doled out if breached.

F100 models are the standard approved android for F1 Racing, replacing the previous F01 models in 2015. The androids themselves are developed by independent manufacturers, each offering specific strengths, focuses, and technologies- teams themselves are forbidden from android manufacturing, ensuring that there is still competition and markets for drivers. The main challenge for teams is to develop cars and software, and then finding android drivers most compatible with their teams systems.

When a team secures a driver, they are fitted with a new head component that visually denotes them as part of that team and also holds/runs any team specific programming, and is responsible for the main compatibility with the car. Android drivers physically cannot pilot other teams cars unless the corresponding head unit is installed.

Androids hold little personal autonomy in this world, and typically have lives very controlled by their teams, as they are as much of an asset as the cars. This may vary depending on manufacturer and team attitude/culture, with some allowing for more freedom of expression and relative "personhood" of their android drivers, but undoubtedly still will maintain a great deal of control.

LETS GET INTO THE DRIVERSSS

Charles: F100-R18 Model by Leclerc Engineering, running CL16 / A charming and quick model, it is rumored that his core programming, processing, and body itself were secretly developed by Ferrari associates rather than fully by an independent manufacturer. This has led to a bit of drama surrounding him, with people questioning the team's involvement in building an android from scratch specifically to drive their cars, but his success has not been dominant enough for people to make too much of a fuss. There has been very little data showing if Charles is compatible with non-ferrari tech, one of the few things that would disprove the rumors around him, but the team shows no signs of trying to part with him any time soon.

Carlos: F100-R15 Model by Sainz Company running CS55 / A unique model of the F100, developed off of the Sainz Company's highly successful RA7-CS model, developed for Rally driving. The RA7 was re-engineered to match specs of the standard F100, while retaining durability and adaptability aspects the RA7 was made famous for. A unique model on the track, he has faced constant skepticism for not being as well optimized.

Lance: F100-R17 Model by Lawrence Stroll, running LS18 / In contrast to other racing androids, Lance was developed with many components more traditional to companion androids, and is treated like a son by his developer, Lawrence Stroll. When not driving, Lance lives a very human life, and is the apple of his creator's eye, garnering them both criticism over Lance's belonging in such a cutthroat sport. He also faces similar scrutiny to Charles, in that Stroll owns the racing team, as well as individually developing driving androids. He continues to state that Lance was developed first as a son, only second as a racing driver, and his model has shown compatibility with other teams cars.

Fernando: F01-R02.WDC Model by FA Alonso Kart & Sports, running FA14 / An otherwise defunct model, Fernando is still running despite it all. New softwares that he should not be compatible with, upgraded parts that should not fit, he somehow manages to make work, and deliver consistent results.

This can be credited to a massive electronic overload during a crash in 2015, in which he suffered a complete system malfunction. He appeared to just need a reboot and recalibration, but the incident unknowingly released previously encrypted team information into Fernando's memory and bypassed/disarmed a number of obsolescence measures that had been placed on his model, allowing his internal AI and adaptive systems to essentially run free.

Logan: F100-R23 Model by Sergeant Manufacturing, running LS2 / The only American made model on the grid, which has faced some scrutiny, as the crossover from American motorsports to International has not yet been the smoothest. A very new and untested model as well, approved for F1 in 2023, he has not proven to be the most compatible with the current Williams car, frequently facing technical issues.

Oscar: F100-R23 Model by Webber Technologies, running OP81 / Oscar's model was developed under the Australian manufacturer Webber Technologies, basing his internal systems off their previously successful F01-R02. He faced controversy when entering the Mclaren team, as Webber Technologies had a long term testing deal with Alpine while developing their F100 and his accompanying OP81 programming. While it is insisted that procedures were properly followed when erasing proprietary Alpine information from the OP81 program, some are suspicious due to his high level of success upon entering the Mclaren. Some theorize something else entirely, that Webber had been secretly testing Mclaren software in the OP81 system for much longer than anticipated, and optimizing the android for their car specifically prior to signing.

[where-dreams-dwell]

It’s almost like the Usher children *knew* they weren’t going to live long and so they intentially left no marks upon the world.

Camille’s speech about how none of the kids actually makes or does anything is so startling: here is a group of people given all the opportunities and access money can buy, all of whom have had this their entire adult life, and they haven’t used it to create or build anything.

You can almost sense Roderiks disappointment in them, in his speech to Perry. He has this hyper focus on what his ‘investment’ money will fund, and says that ‘Ushers change the world’. But outside of himself and Madeline, not one of them has.

Frederick took the money, if he ever got any, and probably funnelled it back into his house or the company. By the looks of it he doesn’t have anything other than his family and his job, so there’s nothing for Roderick to invest in.

Tammy funnelled the money into a lifestyle brand, but one that wouldn’t have her at the front and centre. She scathingly reveals to Bill that she selected him to be her husband based upon his brand and marketability, showing she was ready to create this new empire but with her pulling strings in the shadows. From the outside it probably looks like she hasn’t created anything at all and that it’s all Bill, using his wife’s money. On top of this, the running gag of her storyline is that her brand and ideas aren’t even original, but are ripped off of Goop. So she hasn’t made anything new, and if Goldbug has any impact at all it will be no different to another more successful, more well know product. Hardly ‘changing the world’.

Victorine has some medial training but she looks to be a supporting role to her partner within their clinic, in which Al is the talented surgeon who people come to see and Victorine is a kind of silent partner. So she decided to go into medical devices or smart medical tech, but she relies upon the ideas and skills of others. As Camille said ‘the mesh is the surgeons, that’s why she’s fucking the surgeon’. And her medical knowledge seems to be limited if she thinks just her word and some money will move their experiments into human trials. So she also hasn’t ‘changed the world’ she’s just found someone else who was trying to and co-op-ed their ideas. You could even argue she poisoned those ideas, as Al mentions that the pain medication Victorine has been supplying looks like street drugs and wouldn’t stand up in any medical paper or research study.

Camille is, like she said, spinning furiously and going nowhere. She looks skilled in her field (from the analysis scenes we get, and Madeleine’s signing off on her PR analysis post Perry’s death) but she works from the shadows and hasn’t ‘created’ anything that wasn’t there before. There have been PR spin doctors before and there will be more to come; Camille offers nothing new ans hasn’t ‘changed the world’ in any measurable way. From what little we see of her work she hasn’t recreated a PR agency, hasn’t trained up other spin doctors under her, hasn’t created a brand or company which will outlast her. She leaves nothing behind to show what her skills or talents were.

Leo is shot down quickly when he claims he makes games: he doesn’t, he gives money to people who do. So he too will leave little to nothing behind when he’s gone. His references to past boyfriends show no long lasting relationships in his life and he has no other hobbies or pursuits we know of. Like Camille he hasn’t created a company to help with game design, hasn’t trained up others within this field he claims as his own. Even with the gaming ‘world’ it sounds like he changed very little. Fredrick’s throw away comments about Leo’s flat reveal that Leo hadn’t even had input in the decoration or style of his own home: he just latches onto the styles, ideas, aesthetic of his current boyfriend and goes with their ideas and plans. It’s such a small tiny thing but he truly has no original ideas in any aspect of his life.

And finally Perry, who’s desperate for that start up money but clearly has no plans or ideas on how to use it. He’s had a year and his main idea is an exclusive whisky bar. Even this idea, for all its crude intentions, shows his lack of vision: he doesn’t understand that to get the reputation he claims his bars would have will take time. You don’t just ‘create’ a consequent free bar celebrating decadence and privilege overnight. Reputations take time and as Madeline asks ‘what will be different about this one’ to draw people in to begin with? Studio 54 (which he compares his club to). only operated for 3 years before closing: not the smartest inclusion in an investment pitch.

To be fair to Perry though, looking at what the other siblings did or didn’t do with their loan money it seems a bit unfair that his ‘Blow job whiskey bar’ was shot down so decisively and cruelty. Assuredly Leo’s ‘video game studio for just myself’, Camille’s ‘PR agency just for me with my two assistants’, Victorines ‘medical training and clinic where I help out other surgeons’, Tammys ‘subscription lifestyle brand ripped off from a celebrity’ and Fredrick’s ‘I’d just like to work with you Dad’ were all clearly given the green light. But Perry apparently wasn’t good enough. Maybe this was a reaction to Roderick getting the news he was dying as so he wanted Perrys investment at least to actually change something, but still. He might as well give him the money either way at that point.

And I think it’s probably intended as a commentary on the ultra wealthy. Like of course people with more money than most counties have no plans to leave anything for the next generation. They have achieved their high levels of success by being solely focused upon themselves and so are honestly incapable of considering others. They are solely interested in enjoying the life they are currently living and why strain themselves to fight and build something when they don’t have to?

But it also works so well as a supernatural legacy and ironic conclusion to Roderick’s deal: he agreed that none of his bloodline would outlive him, and so none of them built anything that would.

[onskepa]

Whole new exposure

Helloooooooooo everyone! So for this fic, I decided to combine two requests since it makes so much sense to me, and also for how opposite they are to each other. Here are the requests!

Request A: can you do Sully family or Na’vi with a goth reader? this is the same person who asked for the goth reader. I know Slipknot and korn isn’t goth but can like can the reader listen to them or just metal?

Request B: can you please do Sully family with a gyaru reader?

Now I had to do a lot of research about the Gyaru culture since I don't know SHIT about it. But hopefully this fic is enjoyable for everyone!

BTW THIS TAKES PLACE IN MODERN ERA!!!

------------------

The sully kids all huddled on their family couch, peaking out to see the house across the street. It was a nice house, a two story home recently renovated. Only a few days into the market and in a snap it was sold. Today was the day the Sully family got new neighbors. Moving trucks were starting to pull up on the drive way, movers beginning to put furniture and other stuff inside. 

“You think they have kids?” Tuk asks as she shares her snack with spider. The blonde boy in question shrugs, “who knows tuktuk, but I hope they are nice” he says. Everyone nods in agreement. 

“Oh, maybe they are like lawyers or some big boss to afford to live in this neighborhood” lo’ak says. True to it, they live in a nice neighborhood that is upscale, calm and quiet. 

“Who knows, but remember what mom and dad said. We have to give our new neighbors the full Sully welcome, " Neteyam says. And as they all watched, a van pulled up to the driveway and four people walked out. There they were, their new neighbors. 

“What in Eywa’s name are those?” Kiri asks as she stares at the new neighbors. Well, two of them to be more specific. The new neighbors consisted of a mother, a father, and two daughters that seem to be around her and lo’ak’s age. 

 “Maybe instead of staring at them like creeps, we should go and greet ourselves? The cookies are ready so why not do it now?” Spider suggests. A small moment of silence passed before the siblings reached a conclusion. 

“Fine, but I swear if that creepy girl appears in my nightmares, I'm moving to grandma’s” Lo’ak says as he stares at one of the girls. Tuk runs happily to get her tray of cookies she baked with the help of Kiri and their mother. Already imagining how she will greet her new neighbors. 

“Come on baby bro, lets go greet them” neteyam says as he pats lo’aks shoulder. Grunting out his mask, when really he was just as excited as everyone else. So everyone prepares the needed welcoming and make their way to their new neighbors home. 

“Halloooo~!” 

“Sup” 

The sully kids were really at a loss for words. Tuk, who is even the more social butterfly among the siblings, couldn't find the words to greet them back. 

Why? 

Because the new neighbors were nothing like what they expected. Two girls stood in front of them. One of them had exaggerated bleach blonde hair with massive curls, decorated in prettys bows. Tan skin, save for the pale areas around the eyes. Light pink lip color, Lisa frank esk style with multiple colors and animal patterns and fuzzy shoes. Long colorful nails with various patterns and beaded gems and glitter.

The other was the complete opposite. 

Super pale skin, black lipstick color, dark eyeshadow, dark goth clothing with a band shirt of the classical band “Slipknot”. Chains on her skirt and dont forget her massive 5 inch boots with belts all over it. Choker around her neck and more belt bracelets. Long but sharp black nails with a more simple tone yet so shiny. 

“Um…hi, welcome to our neighborhood….” Spider said out slowly, still trying to process what he is seeing. 

The hyper pink girl gladly took the tray of cookies that tuk offered. “Thank you so much Nya~!” 

“Stop it”

“Make me”

“Sorry for the mess, we are still unpacking” the goth girl says as she opens the doors for the sully kids. Everyone walks inside to see the house, clearly it has been renovated and the smell of fresh pain along with stacks of boxes and unopened stuff laying around. 

“What are your names?” the pink girl asks. And everyone introduces themselves just like how their parents taught them in a polite manner. 

“What are your names??” Tuk asks, her nervousness went away. The goth girl pointed at herself, “you can call me ‘Zila’”. 

The pink girl snickered a bit, holding in a laugh, “yeah, like godzilla”. 

Zila slapped her sister on the shoulder, making the pink girl squeak in surprise. “Shut up, you know it means something else”. 

Kiri looked at the pink girl and smiles, “what about you?” she asks. 

With a small twirl on her hair, the pink girl happily answers “You can call me Asobi”. Zila rolled her eyes, “Junko would have been much better” she says. Asobi taps her sisters head like a kid, “nope, Asobi is leagues better than her”. 

A few seconds of silence passes by.

“So…. want a tour of our place?” Zila asks. 

After a couple of minutes touring their home, kiri took note that in the living area, kitchen, and guest bathrooms were all surprisingly normal. Neutral colors of greens and browns, giving a peaceful, calm vibes to the place. Something Kiri has come to like. 

“So that concludes our home” Zila says as she claps her hands in a swinging manner. Asobi stands beside her, rolling her heels back and forth. 

“Nu uh! What about your rooms? I wanna see” Tuk whines while stomping her feet. Neteyam was quick to shush her, even picking her up. “Sorry about my sister, she can be a bit nosey in places where she isn't supposed to be” Neteyam apologizes on tuk’s behalf. 

Asobi giggled a bit, going over to playfully pinch tuk’s cheeks, making tuk laugh a bit in return. “It's ok, we dont mind showing our room. Come here sweet pea” neteyam easily hands tuk over to Asobi as she happily accepts the child. Zila shrugs, not really caring at the moment. “Come on, back to the hall” Zila guided the group. 

Lo’ak sighs and walks up to asobi, “you don't have to give into her every whim. She is already spoiled by everyone in the family” he kindly warns. Tuk narrows her eyes on lo’ak as she sticks her tongue out at him. Making lo’ak doing the same in return. This little antic made Asobi giggles again. She pats tuk’s head, “its ok, Tuk is the baby of your family right? She deserves to be spoiled like a princess”. Tuk happily agreed with her statement. 

Down the hall they reached two doors. One was painted black with crimson accent trims, the other door was pink with light pinkish white trims. 

“Soooo…which one do you guys want to see?” Zela asks. The sully kids took a moment, having a silent conversation. 

“That one” They all said in unison. Kiri and neteyam were pointing at Zila’s door, while spider and tuk were pointing at Asobi’s room. Lo’ak was pointing at both of the doors. The two sisters looked at each other then back at the five kids. Asobi puts tuk down and both do a quick rock-paper-scissors game, Asobi wins, thus opening her door first. 

“Welcome to my-” 

“Candy core rotten teething hell of a room-” 

“Realm~!” 

Asobi enters her room, expanding her arms to show the full view of her room. And the Sully kids were having mixed reactions. 

“Oh wow….”

“It's sooo…..”

“Ummmm….”

“I LOVE IT!!”

Tuk, without hesitation, ran inside of Asobi’s bedroom and danced around, letting out another round of laughs and admiring every little thing. “It's like a princess room!” she shouts in excitement. Kiri inwardly hissed, “tuk! Don't go into her room like that!” she scolds, but Asobi shrugs. “It's ok, she seems to have fun anyways” Asobi says, “come on, you’re welcomed in” she encourages. 

Walking over, Asobi starts to show some items to tuk, to which the child happily admires every bit. It was like a dream bedroom! 

To kiri, it looked like a unicorn vomited everywhere. She can already smell the cotton candy scent emitting from the pink room. While it is cute, and definitely something Tuk would love to have, its way too much. Lo’ak and spider believed they would have pink eyes from so much pink going on. Neteyam being polite, rather than not having much opinion about the pink hell heaven room.

“So what is your room like?” Lo’ak asks to Zila. A little huff escapes her black lips and smirk forms. “Welcome to my little peace and quiet” Zila says while she opens her door.

If the outfits weren't enough to tell just how different the girls were, the rooms were a definite confirmation. Unlike Asobi’s chaotic room, Zila’s room gave away a sense of calmness but definit not a full chill, comfy place either. 

“You guys are welcome to come in too, nothing here will bite you” Zila says as she lays on her bed.

“What about scaring us?” Spider says in a nervous manner. There were two creepy looking dolls near the window. Something straight out of a paranormal horror movie. Zila looks over at her dolls. “Oh them, don't worry. I checked if they were haunted when I bought them. They aren't” she answers. 

Lo’ak raised an eyebrow, why does she sound so disappointed? 

Kiri looks around from the doorway, peeking in. It was a bit cold in Zila’s room, but less noisy and minimal stuff going on. 

“Got music to play? Its pretty quiet” lo’ak asks. Neteyam hit him on the back of the head, making lo’ak groan. “I have CD’s on that shelf, knock yourself out”. 

“Slipknot, slipknot, Black Veil Brides, slipknot, Rosetta Stone, Bauhaus, the cute, Pierce the Veil, ACDC, slipknot, within temptation, leaves eyes, oh, even baby metal” spider was listing off many band names of Zila’s collection. So say she wasn't picky in what she likes. And clearly a big fan of Slipknot with how many albums she has. 

“Yeah, still exploring different alternatives” Zila’s replies as she paints lo’aks nails black. Neteyam was chilling in her black velvet couch as he takes in all the stuff she has and the vibes she accomplished. However his curiosity was cut short when tuk and Asobi entered the room. 

“Look look! Asobi gave me a makeover!” Tuk happily shouted. Her braids were full of cute little bows, every color you can imagine, a rainbow tutu with way too many bracelets on each arm. And light colored makeup, only a bit of eyeshadow and pink rosey dust on her cheeks. “And she gave me a manicure!” showing off tuk’s nails which were a mix of blue and pink. 

Tuk skips over to her siblings to show off her new looks, kiri looks over at Asobi with a slight concern expression. “Don't worry, the makeup is vegan, and the nail polish can be easily wash away in a few hours” Asobi treasures. “Oh yeah, that's one thing you can count on. Any makeup, nail polish, other products, it's all vegan and certified animal cruelty free”  Zila informs as she finishes lo’ak’s nails. 

“Huh….thats actually nice” Kiri mutters. Tuk twirls around and sees Zila’s old Victorian doll house. Quietly she goes over to the girl and nervously asks “can…can I play with it?”. 

Neteyam sighs and leans forward to reach out for tuk, “come on tuk, you already had enough-” 

“Yeah sure go ahead” Zila happily answers. 

Neteyam slightly frowned at that, only for zila to smile at him a bit smugly. “What? She is the baby, no?” zila asks in a bit of a playful mockery. Turning to tuk, zila says “if there is anything you want tuk, just ask alright? No need to be scared”. Tuk nodded happily and went on to play with the doll house. 

Spider rubbed his chin as he observed Asobi and Zila chatting about something. Seeing how they behave and still wonder how the hell they are related. 

“Are you two really sisters?” spider asks so suddenly. Lo’ak and kiri were quick to hit him on the head, “SPIDER/BRO!” the two shouted in unison. Spider hissed from the pain he received but was quick to defend himself, “what? C’mon! They are totally different! I get it! Kiri and I are different too but we have similar styles and shit! So it's really confusing to me!”. 

Asobi lets out a fit of laughter, holding her stomach as she falls back on zila’s bed. Zila on the other hand was covering her mouth to hide her laughter. Spider couldn't help but blush a little, did he make a fool of himself? 

“Oh my…!! Hahahaha! Oh boy this will never ever get old..!! Pfft….HAHAHA” Asobi let out another round of laughter. 

“Indeed, it still amazes me that people are still unconvinced” Zila agrees. After a few minutes, the sisters calmed down. “Hey, how about some tea? All this talking is drying my throat” Zila suggests. Everyone agrees and heads to the kitchen to prepare some tea. 

Everyone sat down in the half empty living room with foldable chairs and one plastic covered couch. Having a few sips of green tea, all the excitement slowly calming down.

“So to answer your question spider…” zila says first, dragging a bit of her sentence. Asobi sits next to zila, in a criss-cross manner. Her hands warm from her tea cup, “we are most definitely related” Asobi answers. However, doubt is still there. 

“Look, we get the same reaction all the time. Yes our styles are very different, yes our manners are different, and yes our vibes are basically the opposite of each other” Zila goes on to say. 

“But that is it. That is the limit. Just because our lifestyles are different, that doesn't mean our blood makes it just as different. We were born and raised in the same way, neither of us are better than the other. We just like our own styles” Asobi finishes. 

“Yup. My style is alternative goth” Zila points at her clothes, Asobi does the same “and my style is gyaru. We Like to go all the way, down to our way of sleeping and living” Asobi explains. 

“But why…?” Tuk asks. 

“Why not?” the sisters as in unison. 

“Much like how you guys have your own style, so do we. Our styles define who each of us our, and live it like that” 

“We like what we do and not be swayed by the normies”. 

“We live like how we want to live” 

“Kids come down, they will be here any minute so get your act together” Jake shouts from the kitchen. It was evening as he and neytiri prepared the dining room, making sure that they looked their best for the arriving guests. 

Upstairs in game room where the sully siblings were at, all checking each other that no a hair was out of place. Yet at the same time they were each holding a different amount of guilt. 

“Were we too mean or rude…?” Lo’ak asks. Clearly asking the question everyone was thinking. “I want to say no but…we might have” Kiri answers. Neteyam scratches the back of his head, “Tomorrow we should apologize, it's the right thing to do” he suggests. Silently everyone agrees, and with that, they all head downstairs. 

And right on time as well. 

As the last sully reached the living room, the door bell was heard. 

“Show time” Jake says as he opens the door. 

New voices were heard, neytiri and jake greeting whoever came. 

“Come come, meet our children” Neytiri says a bit loudly, signaling her children to stand up. 

And entering the living room was a family of four. A man, a woman, and two identical daughters. Exact same hair color, same facial features, wearing wine red long sleeve summer dresses with matching black shoes.

“Hello children, I am Mr. Obeni, my wife Mrs. Obeni, and our lovely twin daughters, Zila and Asobi” 

“Halloooo~!” 

“Sup” 

“WHAT?!”

Sorry if this took a bit, had to keep going back to make sure I got the goth and Gyaru culture down. However I like how this turned out, until next time! See ya!

-------------

Zila = Meaning “shadow” in Hebrew

Asobi = from the anime "Lords or Pastimers"

[dandydingo]

Why I’m Leaving Freelance Commission Work An essay about doing furry commissions by DandyDingo

Preamble  First and foremost I’d like to state that this is not a post geared toward complaining about commissioners or fellow artists in my industry. I’ve simply noticed a concerning disconnect between commissioners and artists about several topics and wanted to make something that explains, clarifies, and elaborates on some of those issues.

I love the community I’m a part of and would like to see it do better! Though it’s a meme that if you want to make money as an artist you should become a furry, it’s actually a double edged sword that I’ll be trying my best to pick apart and display. The following points I’ll be rambling about are also based on my personal experiences working in this type of career for 3 years. I am by no means the most qualified but I’m not the least qualified either; this to say please take what I say with a grain of salt. It won’t apply to all situations!

With those disclaimers out of the way, get ready for a whole lot of reading!

What is this job and how does it work? Typically when someone is referring to a furry artist they mean an artist selling illustration commissions on a freelance basis. There are many different kinds of independent creators though and this could include someone who sells merchandise, makes a living off patreon with comic work, or does fursuits. For the sake of staying focused we’re discussing artists who specifically sell illustrations and work one-on-one with commissioners to accomplish this.

As any seasoned commissioner knows, the way an artist’s process works can be varied but typically involves:

buying an open slot for a commission type (ex: a painting)

handing over your references, requests, and paying 

waiting for a work in progress image to approve 

receiving the final product

This process is the basic premise, an industry standard if you will. The artist gets the benefit of controlling when they can take on work and the commissioner has the opportunity to communicate what they want at multiple stages of the project.

But why are there so many variations to what projects an artist will even accept, what’s in their TOS, and how long it takes them to do it?

Specialization  The thing about many furry artists is we’re independent creators with little to no formal education in illustration. We’re not the type of artists you see putting together Magic the Gathering cards or developing a big title game. To expect that level of industrial standard with speed and quality would be ludicrous! This is what makes us appealing to commission though- you’re not going to find our product anywhere else and you’re supporting an artist you like directly. 

In fact, every furry artist is a unique snowflake with their own specializations. This is partially since art takes a ridiculous amount of time to get good at. An artist is almost forced to choose what they can offer and what they’re going to invest in trying to sell. This can even be out of our control! For example, one of the running jokes with my slice of community is the fact that after drawing a single bird furry there was suddenly an entire flock asking me to draw their bird sonas. 

Specialization directly rewards furry artists with more steady income / clients and thus they might have to restrict what they can offer. Again, learning to draw something new takes a lot of time. An artist who has never touched backgrounds will struggle a lot to suddenly try and include them in their work. This doesn’t mean it can’t be done or that an artist doesn’t want to. I would even argue this hyper specialization can often leave artists in a depressing loop they feel they can never escape from. If they suddenly draw something else it won’t sell, their personal interests have been buried by what actually works on the market.

Some artists do break this mold though and either enjoy the specialization they’re in or are experienced enough to draw whatever they fancy at a high quality. Perhaps even, their audience expects and celebrates an experimental approach from them which is something that’s true in my case. One of my most successful commissions were “surprise bags” where requests and edits weren't even allowed! Others are not fortunate enough to have that option though.

In any case, this is not the sole reason for the insane variety we see in furry artists and why their commission processes vary so much but it is a huge part of it. For context, the level of skill you see in my art took 5 years to get to and I would consider myself intermediate at best. It’s truly an underrated skilled trade.

Prices - Part 1 Cost of Living Money, everyone’s favourite non-controversial topic! So why is furry art so expensive? 

It costs a lot to be a living breathing creature with a roof over your head and food in your belly. We all feel the current effects of inflation and ridiculously high rent. This is definitely a big reason why art can / should cost a lot and believe it or not MOST artists do not make minimum wage.

This doesn’t just apply to furry artists of course and I would be beating a dead horse on something we all already know, the economy is in a terrible state right now. It depends on what country / area you live in, what your living situation is, if you have any pets or health issues, etc.

In general though, that $200 price tag for a reference sheet doesn’t make the cut in most places. It might be the single biggest reason why I cannot continue this work anymore, the price I can sell something for is only so high but my workload will remain the same. That reference sheet will take me 2-4 days to complete no matter what if I want to maintain the good quality a commissioner is (understandably) paying me for. 

Depending on what you're selling and where your experience level is at (the more experienced you are the less time it takes to complete something at an acceptable quality) a commission can take 1 hour to finish or it can take 12 hours. So… just do a lot of smaller cheaper stuff right? 

Prices - Part 2 The Great Artist Killer, BURNOUT If an artist cannot manage to sell a few big things to meet their monthly bills they might instead switch gears to sell lots of small affordable things. This can mean doing 20-40 commissions a month at a back breaking pace. While all jobs slowly drain the life out of your soul, art demands a level of mental focus that is often overlooked and in the case of this career, you only have you to do the work that is required. 

There is no one to cover your shift, there is no one to assist you, and if you don’t make your deadlines your reputation is at stake. The very same reputation of good work ethic that keeps your commissioners coming back the next opening. You must push through the burnout! You must work until your hand aches and bleeds! You must- there is no one to save you from this Hell!

If you try to be an affordable or high production artist this is the life you have to look forward to. Desperately churning out product as you retrofit your creativity and passions into a well oiled machine. Often to try and prevent this artists will raise their prices to something they can live off without breaking themselves or have a mix of high / low prices. A middle ground if you will, something that still doesn’t make the standard of living but isn’t a death march either. It’s a precarious and strange limbo with financial insecurity but hey… at least you’re not dead. It should be noted as well that most artists struggle with some form of mental illness and selling commissions might even be the only career open to them. This is not a topic I feel qualified to speak on but it does play an enormous role in experiencing burnout and the general struggles of this career. 

Prices - Part 3 Afterthoughts While I wish artists could push for an appropriate living wage, I understand the commissioners' side as well. Spending $100 that could go toward groceries is just not feasible for the vast majority of us and so when we see something that is actually in our range, a $20 headshot or $10 sketch, we often hop on it without a second thought on the ethics of paying that low. It is okay to buy a treat for yourself that is within a price range you can afford though! You should never spend what you can’t nor should you ever feel pressured or guilty to buy something.

If a commissioner is concerned about paying enough I would recommend saving up and giving as big of a tip as you can! Artists are almost always underselling themselves and even just a $5 tip covers the cut that Paypal takes or buys them a coffee to get through the day. Buying what’s reasonable for you is absolutely still supporting them and a little goes a long way!

NOTE : any artist can experience burnout or struggle with meeting minimum wage no matter what they’re selling; this is a hard topic to pick apart Making Art - Part 1 The Process So how does making art work? That might seem like a silly question but it’s hard to understand when you’re not the one creating it. Given how closely a commissioner and artist must work together in order to achieve a desired result I think it’s worth breaking down what goes into making a piece. Of course every illustrator is different but here’s how it generally works:

Hope You’re Mentally Well Art requires mental concentration, particularly for something complex such as a city. Often a bad mental state can be worked around but sometimes the process stops here- you’re just not able to focus enough to measure out that perspective or break down the complex anatomy that goes into drawing a hand.

Find References An artist may need to take an hour or so to find the right references or to make thumbnail sketches. Especially if your client asked for something specific (like a particular brand of whisky) you need to know what it looks like and how it will fit into the piece. For small quick pieces though this is usually a waste of time and skipped.

Sketching Here is often where the commissioner sees the first glimpse of work done- the sketch! Some artists are messy, some are neat and tidy. They might be drawing you a reference sheet or a headshot but either way you typically get to take a glimpse at their blueprint and ask for changes before the rest happens. Sketches are easy to change and can be redone from scratch with the least amount of time lost if needed. It is the optimal step to work with the client on making sure expectations are met.

Rough Render To keep it across the board for all types of art (painting, cell shading, lineless, etc) we’ll call this part the rough render. A commissioner may be shown the flatcolor swatch to ensure markings were drawn accurately, the lineart to double check all requested details have been included, the rough lighting to give an idea of the mood… the list goes on and on! Some artists skip this step entirely if it’s not needed, there is such a thing as oversaturation when it comes to communication.

Final Product This is simply where the commissioner and artist part ways once everything has been approved, the final product! It may have taken hours or days to get to this step but either way it’s been completed.

Making Art - Part 2 When It Doesn’t Go Smoothly Sometimes an artist’s workflow is so rigid even a single missed day from bad mental health or a life event can have a cascade effect that puts them behind schedule. Quite literally an artist can only draw for so many hours before their hand (or body in general) physically gives out. I’ve had work days where I’ve tried to push myself in order to catch up, to the point of rubbing the skin off my finger enough to make it bleed. In the long run this can mean career-ruining cases of carpal tunnel in the wrist or hand and like with any other desk job; your neck and back aren't very happy about the workload either. Artist work days are often shorter than what’s considered normal which adds to the general difficulty of the career as well. While some artists can certainly work that full 8-10 hour shift, others might only be able to handle 3-6 hours before they can’t concentrate or are in too much pain to continue (speaking in long term for that one, it took a few years of regular work before I started having real physical issues from drawing too much). Given most are stuck at certain price points for selling their art it’s almost impossible to charge more in order to compensate for these possible missed days. It’s an issue with other careers as well which I do want to acknowledge; missing even one day of work could mean less groceries that week or cost someone their job in extreme cases. We truly live in a society! It should be noted though that keeping an impossible schedule is a huge stressor for artists who are stuck having to produce more than they can mentally or physically take on. They often know they can’t do it but what other choice is there- not buying the medication you need that month? This always seems to lead to something public and discussed a lot in the community; the instances of being issued a refund out of the blue or seeing a lengthy mental breakdown post about suffocating in the stress of it all. The wear and tear on creativity is visible as well. An artist’s work may become monotone or lifeless as they sink further from the weight of impossible to meet expectations. They might struggle to produce what they used to be able to as time marches on or simply feel unbearably hopeless. If the unsustainable workflow continues for too many years passion becomes strangled and real physical consequences are apparent. 

Some are able to escape this or don’t have this issue! Others suffer in silence or might not be aware of the strain they are being put through, as is the case with plenty of other careers.

How Can I Support Artists? If you’re interested in making life easier for your favourite artist there are a few simple things you can do; specifically in regards to the commission process!

Read the Terms of Service This is not something you should skip over as it could detail how edits are handled, what an artist is willing to draw, etc. It's beneficial for everyone that the TOS is read.

Look Before You Buy Take a peek at an artist’s gallery and decide if you like their style before you purchase anything OR buy a small sample to see if you enjoy how they draw your character! I feel some commissioners don’t understand that an artist cannot change how they stylize on a whim (for example a semi-realistic artist isn’t going to suddenly draw anime). If you’re indifferent or you like experimentation then this isn’t something you need to worry about.

Have A Reference Sheet Although reference sheets are expensive, if you frequently commission artists and are able to afford it BUY ONE! It saves a huge amount of time and frustration- so much so that some artists won’t even consider accepting your commission without a proper reference sheet. Having to guess the body type or colors takes a lot of time and can easily be prevented!

Leave Wiggle Room Give an artist some room to breathe with a bit of artistic freedom! Do not expect them to get that exact #CCE5FF shade of blue you want or draw every single marking of a complex pattern. Lower your expectations if they’re that high, you’ll enjoy the piece more when you do!

Tip Particularly if you’re commissioning a character with a lot of detail or have very specific requests, leave a tip. Again all it takes is a $5 tip to make a difference!

Advice For Artists If you’re truly looking to get into this industry or have been in it for a while, here are some tips that can (hopefully) help make your job a little easier or get started. I don’t want to discourage people from this job by any means! We wouldn’t have the community we do without freelance artists. NEW ARTISTS

Start Small If you’re just starting out you’ll want to aim for the $10 - $50 price range with marketable pieces such as icons or chibis. You may have to heavily undersell yourself for a while to grow a client base. If you don’t sell anything at first don’t be discouraged! It’s perfectly normal to struggle for a while (even years) before you have anything steady.

Experiment Now is the perfect time to experiment and see what works and what doesn’t, what you like and what you hate. Try different platforms, different commission types and styles, whatever you fancy! The goal is to find a niche you can wedge yourself into, feel happy with, and work towards; not to fish around for immediate results.

Focus On Studying The more experience and tools in your belt, the better. For the first while you should be focusing on improving your art if you’re not at an intermediate level. Once hands don’t feel like such a struggle you know you’re at the right place! This will set you up to be more efficient and feel less frustrated down the road.

EXPERIENCED ARTISTS

Personal Time For the sake of your mental health you need to set aside time to do personal art, experiment, and relax. This could mean having a consistent day off, finding a new hobby, or making vent art just for yourself. Also, don’t be afraid to post personal art! You should not be apologizing for taking reasonable time to yourself.

Experimental Commissions Allow yourself to open weirder commission types from time to time. Maybe lately you’ve been really into drawing beach scenes, you could open a 2 slot commission that promises summer vibes. These could be filler between your bigger pieces or replace them every now and then depending on what you can get away with. Other examples I’ve seen are selling goretober calendar slots or $10 artistic freedom sketches. Just try to get yourself out of that repetitive loop if you feel like you need to, worse case it doesn’t sell!

It’s Okay To Quit Not all of us have this option given personal circumstances but there is no shame in leaving this career. Doing commissions even as a casual filler can rob you of the passion you once had for your hobby. If you feel genuinely unhappy with this job and come across the opportunity to safely leave, go for it! In my case I’m going from commission work to comic work, something within the same general field that I can do at my own pace. 

Afterword Although I tried to cover as much as I could with this, I know not every issue of the relationship between commissioners and artists was addressed. There are artists who take large amounts of money and then ghost their commissioner. There are commissioners who negatively nitpick at every step of the process and leave an artist feeling like a beaten down dog. The furry community is huge with lots of different folks, there will of course be bad eggs that make things harder for both sides. 

I simply hope this leaves commissioners with a better understanding of an artist's perspective and gives some well deserved compassion to the creative people that breathe so much life into our community. We as artists should also appreciate the clients that support us with positive enthusiasm. This special relationship doesn’t exist in a lot of places and I hope I've offered something to help furries have a better understanding of one of the biggest aspects of our community. 

Written with much love for the wonderful people that have cheered me on over the years and the community that has always shown it's full support toward me.

[slowfae]

Games to use for face claim + designing dr houses, waiting room, etc

Life Simulation are great to well…simulate your dr and offer visuals for your shifiting script. I did a post like this in the past, it was one of my very first one, so I thought I would update it.

-Inzoi

I just tried it and it’s kind of what prompted this post. it’s great, more on the hyper realistic side, except the eyebrows colour on the female character wouldn’t change colour in my game but for the male model, it was working fine ? I have no idea how it works, but this is just a demo, not the final game. For some reason I couldn’t change the features on the child model either, I tried to do my younger siblings and nothing was moving.

The different life stages are here (no teens and no toddlers though but there are three adult life stages) and i thought the elderly looked really great. I definitely encourage you to try while the demo is on. You can see below my attempt at my dr Dad and grandma (I did try to do me, but the dark eyebrows are throwing me off, especially because I have close to no eyebrows irl)

The demo is just the character creation but I think the build mode for apartment and house might just dethrone the sims 4 for me. Although i love making fantasy houses with the sims so maybe not.

But I saw a video about the build mode and apparently you will have the ability to scan in 3D objects in your house and put them in the game, which sounds absolutely crazy !

I will also just mention paralives here, who looks interesting especially the building mode, but it’s not out yet when I’m writing this.

- the sims 4

As long as you are ok with the cartoonish style, I think it’s still a good option. Especially since mods exist and there is a way to make your sims look hyper realistic with them. Normally I don’t like alpha ccs personally , but If the goal is to make a face claim/ body claim and you don’t care your sim looks off with the rest of the game, why not?

I love building in the sims 4, i didn’t build anything in a while though. I always recommend downloading the base game since it’s free and download cc, there are tons of good one. The expansion packs are so expensive and often not worth the full price imo, especially if you’re like me and not really interested in playing in life mode.

I do think it’s a fun way to channel your dr though, by seeing how your dr sims interact with each other ( I did it for a little bit, got a lot of unexpected things happening)

- Life Makeover

The game is free, as long as you’re not weak with gacha games. I don’t spend too much, because I feel like there is enough possibilities with the outfits you gain by playing, so I’m fine not finishing limited sets. The last mermaid set was a close one, ngl but the universe heard my prayers and I got the mermaid tail with the gems I already had, so I’m not paying to pull more.

Anyway, the character creation is the best one I know. The style is in between realism and cartoony. My profile picture is made with that game. Bigger, animated like eyes look better on the character in my opinion, but I definitely saw very realistic looking characters made by people more talented than me lol. It’s one of the only game I own where I can make myself pointy elf ears and it’s very important to me lol.

Only down side for face claim is there is no male model. Then again, there is always way to work around it by making the character look more androgynous (kind of unrelated but I think there would be a market for male dress up games, they should think about it)

The big plus though is to get inspiration for your dr wardrobe ! I might have spent a whole day screenshotting my favourites piece of clothes + styling some outfits to put into my script 😂

I think it’s especially great for idol / K-pop or even celebrity dr with the style of the outfits, there is also things that would work for a fantasy/royalty dr.

Since I am talking about my addiction for dress up games once again, for fantasy outfits I also use Shining Nikki, but it doesn’t have a character creation which is why it’s not officially on this list.

Life makeover on the right, Shining Nikki on the left

Surprisingly, there is also a house building mode, which looks really great imo but definitely more limited than the sims (doing cool roofing is a nightmare in this game because the roof doesn’t disappear inside a room like it does in the sims 🥲) . Here is one of my waiting room as an exemple, my mermaid retreat:

- Baldur gates

Now, I’m starting with games I haven’t tried yet. Baldur gates is on my list but I’m waiting to have money to spend for it, and to have time to spend hours obsessing over a new game, which I don’t really have either right now 😂

The character creator looks incredible for fantasy drs. This is the kind of game where you spend a whole day in the character creator before you actually play.

literally any fantasy races you could think of is there, I think there are mods that add more too. I love how versatile it looks, there are a lot of skin tones, horns, lizards guys (I’m not familiar with dnd races, I’m sorry) I saw wings too but that might have been mod

- Once human

I found about this game in this post from @elizabethhearts-shifts : https://www.tumblr.com/elizabethhearts-shifts/758372410780221440/once-human-for-face-claims-hey-shifters-i

I don’t have a computer, don’t have the money for the kind I would need, the steam deck was a much more affordable option for my games, but unfortunately the steam deck doesn’t take in charge this particular game, I don’t really know why, it wouldn’t even let me try to download it anyway, like I had to do with Inzoi.

In any case, you can see the face claim of Elizabeth on her post, and it looks incredible so I still wanted to include it in the list ^^

I realise this is a post for the gamer shifters x)

Personally, Pinterest is not enough for me. I think it’s my autistic brain but I need to have a clear idea of the space I live in my drs, and find that having a 3D representation of the space really helps. When I get into meditation, I then get very real images about my drs in those spaces. Same goes for people, I create a representation and then can get vivid images about them in my head.

So as usual, I hope this helps and inspire,

Happy shifting 🧚🏻‍♀️