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fragileizywriting · 3 years

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locker talk (chapter three) is out now!

pairing: Luka / Marinette (Viperion / Multimouse) word count: 9,846 / 26,058 (in total) chapter: 3/3 rating: E summary: Her fingers are in his hair again, somehow, and she grips him tenderly to not hurt and pull at him— but, gooseberries— it’s so much— she’s not even sure how long it takes for her to come back to reality and blink away the stars from her eyes. He kisses the inside of her thigh. “How are you feeling, Mousey?” “I’m—” Her eyes don’t want to focus. She doesn’t even know what she wants to look at. The ceiling? The blanket? Him? “I’m feeling fucked-out.” That gets a laugh out of him. “Cursing twice in one night? I must be doing something right.”

AO3 | Start Here | Chapter One Link | Chapter Two Link | You Are Here!

Thank you everyone for being so patient! And thank you for all the love you've given me and this fic! You're the best!

She’s never tasted the bitterness of come before.

Okay— she’s read about it. Extensively. She knows that it makes people’s faces pinch, sometimes, when they taste it for the first time because it’s an acquired taste— that for lots of people, the first time tasting it, it’s… strange. Some people don’t mind the taste, she knows— some people love it. She’s spent countless hours scrolling on the internet reading about it on her laptop that somehow has its fans on full-blast at all times, curious as to what it’s like— curious as to what people think about it and how they describe it and if they enjoy it or not— countless of hours of watching videos of people giving blow jobs and moaning afterwards as come spills out the sides of their lips.

Everyone has a different opinion about it.

She’s seen it all— or at least, she’s tried to, being self-conscious about a noisy computer never helps when it’s late at night and she feels like the walls are paper-thin— practicing her techniques on her silicone toy she wipes furiously clean afterwards, hoping that she doesn’t come off as naive when the time comes to actually go down on someone. She’s read, reread, and overread everything she could get her hands on— trying to prepare herself for this ever-elusive fluid that every single person on Earth seems to have an opinion about.

Because that’s what she does, isn’t it? She reads— makes plans— lives in her head making strategies and plans and overprepares. In every single point in her life, Marinette wants to be ready and impress those around her— desperate to live up to expectations. She wants to be prepared. She doesn’t want to be left behind or considered naive for not knowing something.

Multimouse is never unprepared. Multimouse always has a plan. She always has a trick ready up her sleeve— she always has an objective that she squeaks out in Viperion’s general direction when it’s time to defeat Akumas— she always can keep ahead of the curve and be ready.

So she reads. And researches. And learns.

She hasn’t done nearly as much research for something she already has— so even though she’s looked up tutorials on how to give blow jobs, and what it’s like— she hasn’t technically gone out of her way to properly learn how to give oral to what she has between her legs. Obviously she knows how to please herself— and can use that knowledge on whoever, should they be interested— but no one’s really shown up.

She kind of… fell in love with Luka before anything else.

How could she not?

Still, though, she’d poured over all the magazines she could find about the art of pleasing someone— she’s had crushes on all different types of people, even if Luka always came first. She wants to be prepared— she doesn’t enjoy being completely blind when she tries something for the first time in front of other people. She’s not sure if it’s because of her reluctance to show weakness— maybe it’s a mouse thing, who knows— or maybe it’s a form of perfectionism.

Whatever it is— whatever it was— its accompanied her for many curious and many long hours during the nights where she’d take out her toy and please herself and find out every single pleasure point she enjoys. She’s gotten used to the solo action in her life— she’s gotten used to the signs that her body makes when she’s on the verge of orgasming— or when her body craves more.

She wants to be attentive to everything for her partner. She wants to be knowledgeable, so she doesn’t flounder— the last thing she needs is to freak out or go into something blind— she wants to be attentive and helpful and ready and educated before doing it.

Which is why all of it is a surprise to her when there’s come in her mouth because she forgot to pay attention to Luka’s signs that he was ready to come.

“Holy shit,” His lashes flutter as she relaxes her jaw again to let him slip out of her mouth safely without getting her teeth on him. He’s thicker than her toy— warmer, too— but definitely more forgiving with the back of her throat than hard silicone when she relaxed her gag reflex. It’s good to know that he’s sensitive to the way she presses softly at his thigh and his balls with her fingertips— it’s good to hear that bit of a sharp inhale he gives when she makes eye contact with him while she licks him clean at his reddened head.

She’s so happy that she was able to make him come— she almost grins at him, and then remembers that there’s come in her mouth and it’ll spill. There’s a string of it that bridges the side of her lip to the tip of his cock— she breaks it with another swipe of her tongue, still not breaking eye contact with him, giving the base of his dick a soft squeeze.

“Holy fuck.” His eyebrows start to pinch, almost like he can’t make up his mind on what to say to her. He breathes heavily regardless, peeks of his chest rising and falling underneath that wide shirt of his. “Mousey— that was good. Are you— and you’re sure you’ve never done this before?”

His praise feels like fire all over her body— she gives a little nod, looking up at him through her lashes, trying not to catch flame from how feverish she feels.

“Come on, let’s get you to spit that out in the bathroom—”

She swallows when he reaches for her wrists.

Oh.

So that’s what it tastes like.

She understands now— oh, yes— she wants so much more.

Luka’s eyes widen when all she does is blink up at him with her quaint little smile. Time seems to stop for the two of them— and while she can make so many jokes about it and how although Luka never manages to get caught off guard, given his miraculous is about intuition— he looks completely stunned, reaching for her chin and gently wedging a thumb in her mouth to peer inside. “Marinette— did you—?”

“Uhm, yeah— sorry.” She lets him pet at her tongue, even if it tickles— she’s completely pliable between his fingers. “Did you— did you not want that? Or?”

Something flickers on his face— a combination of humor— of shock— of whatever else that she can’t exactly read. “What?”

“I meant—” She can barely squeak— her voice sounds so fucked— she hides her embarrassment by pulling away from his fingers and pressing kisses up and down his shaft. He doesn’t soften in her hands like she imagined he would— she’s not sure if that’s because of stamina or just arousal, but he’s still thick in her palm. She mouths against his skin when he groans. “Did you not want me to do that?”

“Not what I meant— I just— I didn’t think you would—” He sighs, sitting back into the pouf, and— wow, isn’t that hesitation in his voice so good? He’s weak to the way she cups his balls with her palm— she feels how his muscular thighs twitch under her forearms— how addicting. All of this is so addicting. She tucks him back in his underwear with a smile and a bite of her lip when he makes an effort to still her hands with a soft grip on her wrist. “Are you going to make it a habit of keeping me on my toes?”

She tilts her head just barely to the side, trying her best not to pinch her brows together and bite her lip. “Oh. You don’t like that?”

“I love it.” He’s breathless when he laughs, filling her with excitement again. “Every time I think I’ve got ahold of your true personality, you just keep showing me up. Come here— you’ve got some left on you.”

He kisses her.

She wasn’t sure that he’d be into kissing her after he’s come in her mouth— she’s certain that she hasn’t swallowed all of it— but all he does is groan. The hand at the back of her neck is gentle— but firm— keeping her there as he licks languidly into her mouth. She fists his shirt— her other hand against his necklaces and fisting them, too— sighing when he lets her go and nips at her jaw.

“Sit on my bed, I want to take a better look at your clothes and what’s underneath.”

“But you already know what’s underneath,” But she does anyway. She bounces a bit on his mattress once she settles down, smoothing out a little wrinkle on the well-loved blanket underneath her thighs. She feels a tiny bit bashful when he slips his fingers under the hem of her kitty section tee— and tries her best not to giggle or laugh when he tickles her sides.

“You only gave me a peak,” It’s the closest thing to a frown she’ll ever see on his face, but her world is suddenly turned upside down in the literal sense when he flattens his palm right at her diaphragm and eases her onto her back. She does her best not to kick a leg when he kisses her thigh— nips at the inside of her knee— and she helps him pull up her shirt to reveal her bra that matches with her panties. She’s soaking wet from her previous orgasm, it’s true— but the way he looks at her almost makes her come on the spot again. “Oh, so you were planning this, weren’t you?”

Okay.

So it’s not the most expensive outfit out there.

She didn’t go out of her way to buy the most alluring outfit— when she’d gone to the store, she’d fought tooth and nail against Alya’s pulling hands that tried to lead her to the more sensual of outfits. Instead, she’d spent time in the more colorful section of the store— the ones with soft pinks, dark purples, even pretty reds that are just a shade too bright to be considered sexy but just fun instead.

She’d found what she’d wanted after much internal debate with herself— a matching set stamped with pretty little blue flowers. She’s not sure what flowers they are— maybe lilacs, but she’s not sure lilacs come in a blue color— she’ll honestly put down money for them being lilies, in all honesty— but either way, they’re benign and small enough to almost look like dots on the bra unless she actively pays attention to the design.

There’s a little bow in the middle, too— and it seems like his brain is starting to short circuit the more and more he looks at it, smoothing one of his hands up her side along the ribs so he can pet at the ribbon with his black fingernails.

“Is that what you were trying to check for?” She giggles.

“Intuition,” He winks. She really tries her best not to kick out when he presses his flat teeth against her stomach. His necklaces jingle as they hit against each other— and then pool onto her hip— she squirms against the cold metal resting against her skin. Oh, oh— it’s enough to make her eyes roll to the back of her head— she lets a mewl escape from her parted lips. “I just wanted to see if I was right.”

She’s not sure she has total motor control of her lips or tongue at the moment. “What if I just wanted to match?”

“Little mouse, I’ve lived my entire life with two women on this boat. Three, if you count Rose, who’s practically made her house here other than you.” He sits back up, folding her legs over his thin hips. She can feel that sculpted adonis belt underneath her thighs— such wonderful, loving muscles that she wants to hook her legs around for the rest of her life. The brow that disappears behind his bangs makes it all the more obvious that she’s been caught in the lie. “They may be Couffaines, sure— and Rose has certainly adopted the last name for herself— but I’m sure they have some things in common with other women, right?”

She purses her lips, trying not to blush, and definitely trying not to giggle when she hears him mutter the words ‘please tell me I’m right’. “But what does—”

“Rose made me sit down and told me all about it a couple of years ago.” There’s exasperation on his face, as if he’s still overwhelmed by it after all these years. “She made it very clear that people do not match their underwear, and other things, unless they’re trying to impress.”

All she can offer is a very weak ah noise, trying not to blush down to her toes.

Caught her, he had.

One of the many reasons why she hadn’t picked to go full-blown seduction— other than the fact that, in case he’d rejected her, she wouldn’t feel ashamed to look at herself in the mirror when she went back home and detransformed. She’d pulled and pulled at her hair while trying to come up with a solution, even if Mullo kept telling her that nothing would go wrong.

Playful and cute had been her choice to wear— she’s thankful she wore it.

It makes her look soft, she’s sure— instead of trying too hard. The last thing she wants is to give the impression that she’s spent days and days thinking about something obsessively, even if that’s the actual truth. Mullo was going to go crazy if she had to watch Marinette chew through her nails again.

“You’ve never shown up at my house so late before, either— you’ve stayed for a long time during the night during movies, sure— but never showed up this late. Horny little mouse, aren’t you? Showing up in the prettiest outfit I’ve fucking seen.” It should be criminal to look at her that way while slipping his fingers under the band of her panties to tease at her skin. “Poor Mousinette— all drenched with no one to take care of you like you need it. It’s a good thing you came to me, isn’t it? I’ll treat this cunt of yours so well.”

“Vai, don’t be crass—” It’s just instinctual for her to say the phrase at this point, and it makes him smile wider at the wrong nickname. Her scolding dissolves in her mouth when he presses his cock against her thigh— tilting his head to the side just enough to make it obvious he’s challenging her to make him stop while getting distracted.

The hickies on his neck glare purple and blue, almost blending into his hair as it slips partially over his face— it’s shaggy, and long, but curling just the slightest bit now that it’s air drying— so some of the hickies practically disappear. “Sorry, what was that? I couldn’t hear you.”

She hides her steaming cheeks behind her hands as pressure continues to build and build and build right between her legs at the thought of her putting them there. His neck is littered with them— she was the one to cause it. “Oh— sugarcubes—”

“Is the night turning out the way you expected it to?”

Her breath freezes when two dexterous fingers rub against her clit— a gasp escapes her open mouth. “Vai—”

“Come on,” He teases, “I want you to answer my questions for me.”

“Yes— yes—”

He hums low, a noise of approval that makes her body feel like it’s starting to cook. “Oh, good. What did you plan on doing when you got here?”

“Plan?”

“You always have a plan,” There’s something in his eyes when she meets them again. “And I’m sure you had one when you got here, didn’t you? What did you want to happen tonight?”

She gapes, trying her best to focus while he rolls her clit between his fingers. She takes a pause just long enough that she has to wait a bit to remember what the question even is, and she punches out her words out of her mouth before all she can do is whine and cry. “Oh— I— uhm— I came here to— to tell you the truth, Luka.”

“Did you?”

“And— and other things,” She tacks on when his teasing gaze refuses to leave hers. Is he actually going to interrogate her while doing this? Oh— the thought alone makes her feet twitch. “Maybe kiss you—”

His eyes look almost liquid from how blue they are, looking at her with a soft kind of amusement, like he knows she’s not entirely telling the whole truth. “Just kiss?”

“Uhm— I—” She bites her lip. “M-maybe more.”

“More?” He tilts his head when she doesn’t answer, too busy steaming and blushing red. Something in his gaze darkens as he licks at one of his canines. “You can tell me, little mouse, can’t you? Just like you did before you sucked my dick like you were born for it?”

She’s prey.

He’s toying with her like she’s prey.

The thought makes her suck in a breath so quickly that it hurts— trying her best not to mewl in excitement and jitters.

Yes. Yes. Yes yes yes.

“I wanted more than just to kiss. Much— much more. I wanted to continue— with you? I wanted to continue what we’d done in the closet— uhm— just like we promised.”

His face softens, like he’s realized what he’s doing— like he’s afraid to continue treating her like that. Such a boyish look on his face as she looks up at him from beneath her eyelashes— god— she doesn’t know which version of Luka she likes the most. “Good. How long did it take you to cave?”

“Cave? I don’t understand—”

His voice feels like a fever on her skin from how it buffs and soothes her with its rumbliness— he kisses the inside of her knee and it makes her shiver all over. “How long did it take for you to want to come back to me?”

Oh, this man just wants to hear everything, doesn’t he? He needs such wordy reassurances— it’s as if he doesn’t believe her unless she says it out loud— is that why he never understood just how desperate her crush was until she’d actually said it with all of her words in the closet?

“The moment we left the closet,” She confesses easily. He rewards her with a firm press of his thumb pad down, swirling in circles for a good moment— just enough to make the familiar coil of heat stir heavy— bringing her to the edge, but not enough to get her over it. She stiffens at the sensation— grits her teeth to stop herself from crying out from how delirious it feels when he slows back down. “Vai— please, I— I need—”

“‘The moment we left the closet’, huh? Thank fucking god I’m not the only one— I was about to start an Akuma myself on the Liberty if I didn’t see you again soon.” The smile that pulls at his lips is enough to remind him that he has the ability to mouth and teeth at her skin— so he drops his head back down, and nips at all of the skin available to him. She gasps at the pain that starts to blossom on her stomach— her ribs— her diaphragm. “Pull you into my room and ignore anything Hawkmoth attempted to throw at me, just to keep that perfect little ass of yours to myself.”

“Oh—” She gasps, sucking in a breath. “Oh my—”

“That’s it. Keep making those perfect little noises and you’ll get your first treat.”

She pinches her eyes shut enough to see white stars behind her eyelids.

“Take off your bra for me.”

“What?” She snaps open her eyes, sounding a little breathless.

“Please?” He smiles slowly at her. “I want you to undress yourself for me.”

She scrambles to hook her hands behind her back. The clasp is simple to take off— but she can’t do much of actually taking it off because she still has her shirt on— and her miraculous is in the way, too— god damn it— so he pulls back enough so that she has enough space to slip her arms out of her bra straps and pull her band shirt off with a shimmy and a squirm. He braces a hand next to her head when she lays back down— the snake tattoo glittering blue and gold and she’s certain it’s moving against his skin. “Uhm— w-where do you want me to—”

“Leave it there.” He’s completely distracted, definitely not meeting her eyes— and soon enough, she is, too— her hands grip his damp hair as he makes quick work of the new skin presented to him. His tongue feels hot against her chest— swirling around her nipple and she cries out— he introduces his teeth, too, and it’s enough for her to actually kick out one of her legs and her eyesight to go a little crooked.

“Luka— please— oh sugarcubes—”

“You promised me you’ll get to four,” He reminds her when he pulls his lips off of her enough to respond. Her skin pebbles at the cold trail he’s left behind— chilly as he exhales against her skin. “You’ve already done one, so you have three left— is that enough for you?”

“Yes— yes— it’s enough— more than enough— please, Luka—”

“All of the pleasure you want, little mouse— whenever you want, just breathe and let go. I know you can do it— you’re so good at listening, right?”

“But I can’t—” She squirms, sucking in another breath at his reminder. “Not— not just like this— I— I need— I need more—”

It’s never enough to just have a finger there on her clit— she knows this— because she’s the one who’s spent the last six years learning every single pause and flicker of her body. She knows that it isn’t enough— and yet— and yet— she gasps when he presses down firmly again.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. Are you positive that’s true?” There’s a challenge in his voice, she recognizes it instantly— but can barely hear anything else when he moves his thumb at her clit again enough to make her entire core squeeze. He swirls and swirls and swirls— and the stars behind her eyelids are starting to warp and haze into nothing. “Such little faith in yourself. Go on, Mousey. I want you to come.”

“But—”

“Right now,” He nods, as if that was the question she was asking. “I want you to come right now.”

It’s almost a shock to her when she starts coming even before he’s finished talking.

“Oh— my—” She grips his hair harder, trying to keep herself still— trying desperately to listen to the praises that spill out of his mouth and onto her skin as he continues to suck and bite and make good work of her pallid skin and her other nipple. He uses the sides of his teeth to bite on sensitive skin, emulating his fangs when he’s suited up, and oh— it feels so good to have his teeth on her, just like she’s always imagined.

Not even fingered— but she’s so aroused by this man that she’ll do anything his man requires of her if it means he’ll continue— gasping and crying the whole way.

She keeps her voice as soft as she can, knowing that Sass and Mullo are close by and she doesn’t want to disturb them. Sass is a sweet kwami, he truly is— and she doesn’t want to upset the little snake with her noises.

But it’s hard— so difficult for her to keep her voice down when Luka seems to take that as a challenge too, nipping her hard enough for her to yelp and gasp and make noises she never knew she was capable of.

“Good job. Good job.” His voice is low and decadent when she’s done twitching and batting at his thumb to stop. He uses his clean hand to smooth her bangs back, and pet behind her ear— she’s filled with a type of ecstasy that she can’t exactly shake off. Every drag of those necklaces against her chest when he pulls on her legs for her to get closer— every single drag— makes her lashes flutter, her thighs flex, and her walls seize on empty air. “I told you that you could do it.”

She doesn’t exactly have the strength to respond, but forces herself to speak anyway, her chest heaving from her world being turned sideways. “T-two more?”

Oh, isn’t that grin of his arousing?

“Two more.”

She kisses him almost uselessly, her body feeling more liquid than ever— her tongue slow and gentle against his when he slips open his mouth. She helps him take off her panties at mach speed but also infinitely slowly— she’s not sure which direction he slings it off to, but she blinks and it’s gone from his hands— and there are fingertips ghosting against her slit, gathering as much moisture as possible, giving her some brevity on being stimulated on the clit.

A finger slips inside of her.

And it doesn’t take much for a second one to join.

There’s a bit of a squelching noise when he does it— and she steams red to the point where she can almost see it reach her toes— but she throws her head back to appreciate the view of his ceiling instead of dawdling on it too much. She feels the curve of his fingers— insistent and firm, curling to find the place that makes her sing.

Her chest heaves.

“You’re so perfect,” He groans, like he’s the one getting dragged into another building orgasm— like he’s the one experiencing an entire rewrite of everything he’s ever known about his own body. He watches her with those wide blue eyes of his, as if he can’t believe that she’s underneath him— as if he’s completely taken aback that she’s in his bed at all. “That’s it, Mousey. Fuck my fingers real good.”

This body isn’t hers— it can’t be— she isn’t this fast with going again and again. It takes her at minimum twenty minutes to get another orgasm out of herself, and she’s never gone to three before on her own, always so exhausted to keep her fingers between her legs— but Luka’s never been one to stop himself from trying over and over.

Curse of the snake miraculous, isn’t it?

She’s completely at a loss as to why it’s so easy for her to shift her hips and grind down onto his palm— something she would never do if she were in her right mind— but she can’t help it. She can’t stop herself from wanting more and more— sighing softly to the point it’s almost mute in her mouth, letting him coerce her into a third orgasm for the night.

He follows her neck with his mouth— skims her collarbones with his teeth— ribs— stomach— hips— he’s charting something with that smile of his. She’s completely liquid— a certain kind of magma underneath her skin— one that heats to the point of hurting and overflowing when his lips find the center between her legs.

The world tilts for her when she’s licked for the first time.

Oh.

Oh, no— how could she have waited for so long for this? All the articles she’s read about this had tried to explain just how wonderful the feeling is, but, honestly— nothing ever written down would’ve ever prepared her for this.

She wants more. So so so much more.

She jerks at the sensation of his tongue against her cunt, eyes wide and mouth in a perfect circle, her hair spilling down her collarbones. She can’t make up her mind on where to put her hands— but she ends up hiding her mouth behind one of her palms, the other uselessly pawing at the blanket underneath her, hopeful that she doesn’t tear something so very much loved and old. He moves one of her knees over his shoulder, meeting her eyes for the final time before forcing her to pay attention to his tongue and fingers instead.

And she does.

“Oh—” She curls in more— feeling her hard-earned stomach muscles strain in an attempt to keep her up and not flat on the bed. It almost delirious that he manages to push her back with just his palm at her collarbones— like even with her core strength she’s nothing compared to the strength in his left arm— and it burns to know that. This man could fold her— easily keep her pinned wherever he wants her— snatch her and keep her— and the thought makes her body start to prickle.

Because Luka’s strong, isn’t he?

Even with almost ten years of constant dedication to keeping Paris safe with him, Marinette’s not as strong. She’s fit and lean, sure. Loyal to her craft, making sure that she’s always prepared for the next fight. She knows self-defense— she’s gone to classes for it, has certificates and colored belts that prove that even if her miraculous powers are stripped from her, she can still defend herself.

She can easily move out of his grasp if she wants to— even with his strength, with his size, she’s mastered the art of weaseling out of people’s grasps and using their weight against them in order to getaway.

But… but it’s good to lay back and let him push her back down onto the bed with barely any use of his actual strength. It feels wonderful to have him move her and maneuver her in the way he wants like she’s completely caged in by him. Squeezing and hypnotizing her and constricting her just to eat her whole.

“Luka— please, please— oh—”

He’s everywhere, it feels like, licking hot stripes over and over and over— boxing and caging her in like she’s nothing but a tiny animal. She’s polite enough not to squirm as much as she wants to— staying as still as possible to enjoy his tongue and his mouth and his teeth and him, but the desperation is almost too much to handle. His free hand is overloading her body with touch, his palm huge against the small of her waist, or curling up to pinch at her nipple— even soothing her with a gentle pet to the ear and combing through her hair when she cries out.

There’s something a smidge feral in the way he moves his tongue against her, like he’s just as desperate as she is— he’s not gentle with her as he closes his lips around her clit and makes her moan, he’s not gentle with her as he flattens his tongue against her and she can do nothing but exhale, and he’s definitely not gentle with her when he spears his tongue into her, joining his fingers inside of her.

He’s enjoying this as much as she is, no doubt.

But. But but but.

She’s the one that ends up crying behind her hands when he scrapes the side of his teeth against her swollen clit.

She’s the one that squeaks and breaks her promise to keep quiet when there’s a particular curl to his fingers inside of her that find that spot as he pistons his fingers down to the knuckle— that type of curl that makes her breath leave her body with a gasp that is just a touch too loud to be comfortable.

She’s the one who instinctively squeezes her thighs together— putting up a genuine good fight with the strength of his arm to close all the way to his ears. He smiles, of course, nipping the inside of her thigh as punishment when she feels the strength in her legs starts to disappear and fizzle out, letting him win— hiding her face behind her hands.

She comes on his tongue.

She comes on his tongue while crying out his name.

There are tears in her eyes as she registers the fluttering of her walls, as she registers his hums of appreciation, as her body finally lets go of the coil of heat that had been desperate to rebuild and crest like the previous two orgasms hadn’t happened. Her fingers are in his hair again, somehow, and she grips him tenderly to not hurt and pull at him— but, gooseberries— it’s so much— she’s not even sure how long it takes for her to come back to reality and blink away the stars from her eyes.

He kisses the inside of her thigh. “How are you feeling, Mousey?”

“I’m—” Her eyes don’t want to focus. She doesn’t even know what she wants to look at. The ceiling? The blanket? Him? “I’m feeling fucked-out.”

That gets a laugh out of him. “Cursing twice in one night? I must be doing something right.”

He leans over her again, massive— huge— still petting at her face with an expression she can’t exactly read, given that she can barely keep her eyes open. She melts into his hand that pets at her cheek— desperate for more contact— desperate for the way he uses his thumb to massage at a pressure point at her neck. She feels floaty— not exactly there— but grounded with the way he pets at her side and collarbones and shoulder.

“That feels wonderful,” She finds herself saying, letting out a sigh.

“Breathe, Marinette,” There’s that boyish smile of his again. “Come back to me, won’t you? You’re drifting off— I don’t mind it, but, I want you here with me for just a little longer.”

If only meditation felt this good. She takes deep, hopeful breaths, trying to wrangle her brain back from the sated paradise she feels herself casting away to.

She pulls him down by the front of his shirt just when he lowers his guard.

He flattens his hips against her thighs with a muted noise, staring down at her curiously. “Hi.”

“Hi.” She wipes his lips clean with his shirt, fighting back a flushed smile, but failing miserably.

It’s a little difficult because of his necklaces— there’s a bit of a struggle— but he just watches her silently as she pouts to herself, wiping his face clean. Parts of his jaw are slick with her from when he moved his head to bite at her thigh, and she cleans that, too. His necklaces clink together softly as she moves them around so she can wipe him dry, but she’s determined to make him look more presentable.

“You promised me four,” She whispers when she’s done, cupping his cheek.

He takes a good, long look at her, like he’s trying to figure out what’s going on in her head. If only he knew that there’s nothing but him. Has been for a long, long time— just him him him. “You’re not overwhelmed?”

She tilts her head enough to the side to make it apparent she’s confused. “Do you want me to be overwhelmed?”

“No, no. You’re just looking the most relaxed I’ve ever seen you, Mousey.”

“You’re always so good at doing that to me,” She murmurs, her eyes batting slowly from how lethargic she feels. “You always make me feel so calm. And wanted.”

“I’ve always wanted you. Ever since we first met.” He moves his lips in a way that indicates he’s thinking about it. “I feel like I’m going to end up breaking you if we keep going.”

A whine rips out of her throat when he shifts, trying to pull away from her and settle down next to her instead. “No— no— stay, Luka— come on— I still want more— please stay—”

“I’m not leaving you, you cuddly little mouse,” He laughs into her neck when she pulls him down more with all the strength available to her. It’s hard for her, because she feels like she has no bones left in her body— and Luka still is so massive, and much stronger than her if he really wanted to fight off her grasp, but in the end, she’s able to keep him exactly where she wants him. His erection is stiff against her thigh as she wraps her legs and arms around him, smushing her face into his shoulder, hugging him like she’s trying to cling to him like a full-body pillow. “It’s okay. I’m just trying to not crush you. Are you always this cute?”

“I— I have no idea. I’ve never had someone to hold after coming— pillows, sure, but it’s a little depressing after thinking about nothing except you or Vai or both when doing it.” She mumbles into his shirt when he finally settles back down and she wins the proverbial wrestling match to keep him right where he is.

He makes a noise that makes it obvious he’s interested. “Vai? Both?”

“Make fun of me, I dare you— I now know that you love the mouse suit, and I will use that against you the next time there’s an Akuma.” She attempts a frown, but it comes out more of a sigh, and she just sinks with it, nuzzling into him when all he does is laugh and laugh at her weak threat. “Mmmm. I never knew I could get so handsy and grabby—”

“And cuddly.”

“And cuddly during sex,” She smiles, giggling into his collarbone. “I hope it doesn’t bother you.”

“Are you kidding? Absolutely not.” He kisses her face to prove his point. Cheeks, the closest ear, her temples— her forehead under her bangs, too— he kisses everything. “Nothing you could ever do would bother me. You’re the love of my life, Mousinette— you have absolutely no idea how long I’ve wanted to cuddle up into you like this. And, god— Marinette— not to even mention how long I’ve wanted to taste you.”

She blushes when he cups her face with his giant hands on either cheek. “Oh— don’t say that after you’ve been between my legs, Luka— I don’t want to go shy again just as soon as I’ve started being brave.”

He pulls back just enough to look at her, but not enough to pull away and make her whine again. He looks cute with all those stars in his eyes. “Hm? What do you mean?”

“That last orgasm knocked a few self-conscious thoughts out of my head,” She giggles. “I’m feeling very brave now.”

There’s a challenge glinting in his eyes again. “Are you?”

She demonstrates by pulling up his shirt to take it off of him. He follows easily, his eyes greedy as he watches her pull by the hem. She’s quick to duck when they almost bump their foreheads together— him caging her in, matching her by only having his necklaces hanging off his chest. “Your pants, too. Take them off?”

“I like this bossy version of you,” He nips at her wrist when she curls a finger through his damp hair. He doesn’t want to get up, it seems, because he shimmies around, pulling down his sweatpants and trying to kick them off along with his underwear and socks. She attaches herself to his shoulders when he’s done wrestling himself out of the fabric, also completely naked.

She’s thankful that the porthole’s curtains are closed. But it’s too far in the back of her mind as she feels his sturdy weight on her. They’re skin-to-skin, shoulder-to-shoulder, and chest-to-chest. Wonderful and smooth and comforting— his weight feels absolutely perfect against her.

“Am I crushing you?”

“Do you have your weight on your arms?”

“I might,” He kisses her face. She feels the way his thighs clench in order to stop himself from humping her side— she can’t help the way she sighs into his ear and traces his back with her nails. “The last thing I need is to snap your ribs in because of my weight.”

“You’re not going to hurt me, Luka.” She sighs contently, watching him drop his clothes onto the floor with one of his arms. “I’m capable of not dying, thank you very much.”

“I know that— it’s just— I really did take it the wrong way, Mousey. I really didn’t think you liked me at all as Viperion.” He hums. There’s a certain kind of sweetness to his face. “I know that it isn’t true anymore.”

“Obviously.”

“Obviously.” He repeats. “But I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m scary.”

“I am most definitely not scared of you.” She shifts enough for him to hiss and groan. Oh, this poor man— if she wrapped her hand around him, how many times would it take for her to pump him before he’s spilling once more?

“Okay, okay— hold on, hold it. I need to get a condom right now or else I’m going to jizz— if I reach over to get it, will you let me go or will you make more cute noises again?” Something about his eyes gets a little clearer when he watches her open her mouth to stop him. “Holy shit.”

“Well,” She begins, but has to pause because she ducks her head, a bit embarrassed.

“How— what in the— oh, fucking hell, Mousey.” He laughs. “How long have you been planning on fucking me?”

“You’re cursing again,” She manages to pout.

“Marinette,” He’s exasperated. “You can’t expect me to— at least let me curse one more time— you’re not pulling any punches tonight. Let me react earnestly.”

She taps her chin in thought. “Hmm.”

“Unscripted, at least.” He combs his fingers through his hair— once again, Luka looks completely stunned. It’s hard to see Luka completely out of his element— he always has an air of humility that always translates to him feeling calm and collected in front of other people.

Except right now, of course.

“Fine, fine. One more.” She lifts up a finger as she giggles. “Any more than that and I’m biting you.”

“Okay. What in the absolute fuck.” He laughs hard enough to shake his shoulders. “What other tricks do you have up your sleeves?”

“I do not have any sleeves on, so I do not have any more tricks,” She grins.

“You better not. I don’t think my heart would be able to handle it— knowing that the girl of my dreams is just one-upping me in everything. I should’ve known better than to fall in love with a girl who plays mental chess for fun— is this why you have perfect grades?”

She scrunches her nose at him. “You are so mean, Vai!”

“Little nerd,” He teases, pausing enough to smile adoringly at her. “I love hearing you call me Vai.”

“It sounds like you’re making me say it on purpose,” She grumbles, pursing her lips into a little pout.

“Okay. Answer this question: how long have you been wanting to fu— uh— I mean—” He watches her arm fall back onto her chest as she narrows her eyes at him, uncurling her hands from the flick she was going to give him to his arm if he finished cursing. “How long have you been on birth control?”

“I’ve been wanting to get on it for a long time as a precaution— but I’ve only had my implant for two years, so…” She’s feeling a little bit bolder when he just shakes his head, muttering to himself about how she’s always three steps ahead of him. She’s full of laughter and charm when he kisses her cheekbone. “You don’t need a condom, if you don’t want to.”

“You’d let me have that choice?”

She nods her head hard enough for it to hurt. “Whatever you want to do, Luka.”

He looks at her.

Really looks at her.

She has no idea what’s going on in that head of his, whatever he’s thinking or planning— all he does is continue to blink at her slowly, like he’s trying to give her a chance to chicken out. She continues staring back, looking just as confident, smoothing her palms down his biceps that have her trapped on either side of the bed.

He kisses her again.

It’s not a deep one— just a kiss that’s cheeky enough that she complains when he pulls away so quickly— and it’s enough to get his body to start working, apparently, because he slips his hands under his bed for a shoebox that stores what looks like to be a bunch of condoms, and smiles at her in a way that makes her heart stutter.

“Flip over,” He says, having made his decision.

She somehow manages to almost trip over her legs as she flips over, trying to face the other way— even though she’s not even standing— and Luka snickers when her ankles make a clicking noise when they hit each other and she groans from the pain.

She hears the wrapping of the condom slide open. “Don’t hurt yourself, Mousey, as much as I want to just stare at that ass of yours—”

She glares back at him with a warning. “Luka, you promised!”

“Ass doesn’t count as a curse word, I’m calling it now— don’t— don’t kick me. I’m not as tough-skinned as you think— I will cry. You have thighs for days, and I have seen it with my own eyes how you have kickboxed your way out of Akumas trying to grab you.” He laughs. “Besides, like I was saying: give me a second, you horny little mouse— and try not to hurt yourself while I’m busy putting this on.”

“I’m not trying to hurt myself,” She sighs, letting her hair fall over her shoulders and coat the sides of her vision like a curtain when she looks back to the headboard with a little humming noise. She wants to watch him— but she also wants to feel it like a surprise— she’s on the fence of what she wants to pick. “I think I’m a little too excited.”

“I am, too.” He kisses her shoulder.

It’s so easy for him to start slipping his way into her.

She’s never had sex before, it’s true, but it’s easy for him to slide in from how wet she is. She’s soaking— her inner thighs are sticky from how humid she is and how strands of her come bridge between her soft thighs— and she’s always had the help and use of a toy to keep her company when the yearning got too difficult to bear, so it’s not like she doesn’t know how to adjust.

“Good?”

There’s barely any need for him to pause and let her relax, because she’s perfectly fine and content— her walls stretching with barely any pain when he slowly fills her to the brim.

So she shifts her hips and pushes back into him, all the way down to the base, much to his worry. It’s a tight fit, even with how wet she is— but that makes it all the more enjoyable as her core squeezes and squeezes, stinging from how stretched she feels.

He moans.

“Oh, gooseberries— this feels good—” She makes a noise when he presses the heel of his palm onto the center of her spine, curling it for her and raising her hips up to meet with his. The angle feels weird, now— his cock pressing up against her in a certain way that she’s never done before with a toy— she feels fuller. Much, much fuller— now this has some pain to it. “Oh! Oh! What in the— how did—”

“You look hotter with your ass up and curled spine, Mousey— I mean, that’s just my preference. That’s better, too, isn’t it?” He groans, keeping one hand at the small of her waist to keep him anchored as he snaps his hips against her.

“Yes, yes— much better. Holy sugarcubes.”

It’s hard to keep her sighs of appreciation in when all he does is continuously snap his hips over and over into hers, making it feel like she’s punching out her breaths with every lineup with their hips. She feels like a whirlwind— completely flexible and totally boneless as he fills her again and again, hitting the back of her thighs with the front of his. It’s an easy position for them to fall into a simple rhythm— and the two of them being partners for so long in their lives, it’s not hard for the two of them to figure out how to get each other off and how to take it.

She’s in love with the way he moves his hips.

But…

“You don’t have to be so gentle,” She manages to gasp out when he just barely meets her ass with his hips.

“Yes I do.”

“Vai,” She groans. “Stop being scared and fuck me like you want to— I promise I won’t break. Get as aggressive as you want. Please.”

The next snap of his hips has a bit of actual strength behind it.

Their skin meets with a hard slap that is so lewd— so obviously disgustingly hot that she would’ve burst into flames at the noise— but instead all she does is sink further into the blanket underneath her. Her knees ache from this position— being forced to stay the way she is as Luka uses his weight against her, but she can’t flatten herself on the bed because she’s busy snaking a hand around her front and rubbing herself with her fingers.

She manages to cup one of her breasts, teasing and plucking at herself to the point where she finds herself curling her toes. She sounds desperate, because she is— threading her fingers with his hand that supports him as he fucks and fucks.

It’s delicious.

Oh, it’s so delicious.

“You are going to be the death of me,” He groans against her shoulder.

“That’s not part of the plan,” She breathes out, and she’s happy that it pulls out a breathless laugh from him.

The hand at her hip travels to her clit and starts to roll it between the pad of his fingers. She makes a need, filthy noise, nearly losing all of her strength at her knees right there and almost folding herself in— instead, she lets go of her breast to fist at the blanket underneath her as she’s taken to the edge for the final time tonight.

She’s so close.

She’s so, so close.

“Luka—”

“I don’t— I don’t want to come— before you do,” He answers the question she wasn’t asking. “But I’m still a lot closer than I should be.”

“You can come whenever you want—” She can’t finish her sentence because he flattens her shoulders against the bed with his chest.

“Not a chance.”

“Vai—”

“Not happening,” He laughs. The proceeding slap of skin is enough for her to start seeing stars. “I’m going to— retain some upper hand against you— you little minx.”

He slows down— and she’s close enough that it almost makes her growl at the back of her throat, feeling her inch so closely to the edge and not get anywhere close to it. Instead she groans, desperate, feeling unsatisfied even as he continues to swirl his fingertips against her. “Please, please— stop teasing me— I’m so close, Luka—”

“I want you to come like this.”

“What?” No— no— not this again— she’s not prepared to come like this— “Luka—”

“You can do it, can’t you?” He kisses her shoulder. “Come. Right now, Mousey. You can do it.”

And she just— she just— oh, gooseberries— the coil in her snaps.

Of course he goes back to his brutal pace when she’s finally coming.

She’s exhausted, him still pounding away— him still worrying her skin between his flat teeth, sucking in blacks and blues all over her shoulder without a care in the world— him still somehow swirling his pointer finger over and over and over against her clit.

She’s fried.

She’s completely and totally gone, her body flooding over and over with heat and pleasure, feeling like she’s finished an Akuma battle— her walls squeeze to the point it must be pleasurable for him, because Luka loses the tempo he’s kept in his head.

“That’s it. Good— good.” He groans against her skin when she cups his giant hand with hers, trying to pull his hand away from such sensitive flesh. “Thank fucking god.”

She has enough energy left in her to jokingly nip him on the wrist, scolding him for cursing like she’d promised she would— but squeaks when his hips stutter and he makes a noise that’ll keep her awake for the rest of her life, and he’s— oh. He’s coming.

He groans low and hard enough to make her eyelids flutter— she can feel him twitch, and pulse, and she’s a tiny little bit upset at not being able to feel him leaking between her legs, but the kisses and teeth against her neck and his weight against her back are relieving enough.

Maybe the next time she’ll be brave enough to ask him— but until then— all she does is flatten her hips down on the bed while he tosses the condom away and groans into the blanket when he comes back to wipe her clean of residue and stickiness, and latches onto him for cuddles the moment he has his guard down, not letting him resurface from his burrow of a bed for the rest of the night.

He’s so thankful that he manhandled her octopus-like cuddling body under the covers with him last night.

She’s sound asleep, curled into his shoulder, completely gone and completely useless against him in bed. He feels floaty, and wistful— fuck— three orgasms in one night isn’t something he’s done in a long time. Had he known that Marinette was going to show up the night before, he wouldn’t have wasted his time masturbating in the shower.

Had he known that she’d come over, he would’ve at least gotten his bedroom ready. There are no laundry piles in his room, thank god— but he’s not sure when the last time he’d washed his blanket. Or sheets. At least pushed the amps against the wall instead of the middle of the room like he has it— well. It’s too late now.

There’s a poem just nagging at him to be written down, so he’s slapped his hand around next to the box he uses as a nightstand for one of his journals and a spare pen, scribbling away against the lined sheets of paper as he looks at her while she sleeps.

He hides his face into his notebook when he pauses for more than a second to think about last night.

God. Jesus.

He’s a complete and total sap of a person.

An entire sap.

But nothing that he’s writing down in his notebook even remotely fits his vision of what he wants the song to look like— he’s simultaneously frustrated and full of ideas. Every word that he writes down is from the heart, but nothing he writes is anything good enough whenever he looks back down to Marinette sleeping.

The rhythm of the poem isn’t right— and it’s bothering him that he can’t get it down. He thinks about it for a couple of minutes, letting sunlight filter in through his closed curtains, listening to how quiet the Liberty is for the few moments longer before Juleka, Rose, and his mother come back.

He’s so thankful Marinette is under the blankets with him.

She’s covered up— he’s begrudgingly put a shirt on the both of them— given her underwear back even though, honestly, if she wanted to be naked with just a shirt on, he’d beg for it for the rest of his time— including all of the second chances he would have to keep doing for the rest of his life during Akumas.

This is all just in case Rose was to burst through the door, which is a strong possibility.

The plus side is that it’s one of his shirts, and it’s so large on her that the necklines nearly falls over one of her shoulders if she doesn’t adjust it every so often. He can see all of the hickeys he’s given her against her neck and shoulder every time the shirt slips— she’s an entire canvas of it. The downside is that he wishes he could keep her naked for as long as she wants to be— but knowing his household, the answer is a firm no.

Unless she’s willing to deal with his mom barging in on them both with no regard for privacy.

Unless she’s willing to deal with Rose barging in on them both with no regard for boundaries.

Juleka’s fine. But she’d have to open the door if she wanted to communicate with him, so long as it isn’t through text message— but at least it isn’t because of lack of boundaries.

Still though. He’s so thankful that there’s a lock in the bathroom. His mother is a riot. And doesn’t seem to understand that teenage boys— and now young adult men— have urges.

He has no idea where she went last night— somehow his sister had genuinely been able to convince her to disappear from the Liberty. He owes Juleka about a quarter-million favors, now, and it worries him on how she’ll cash it in— but looking back down at Marinette and how she fists his necklaces on his chest in her palm as she sleeps— he’s so sappy he feels like the smile on his face won’t ever come off.

He watches her doze a little longer, and shifts the bangs out of her eyes. Marinette is a cuddler— and latched onto him for warmth and snuggles throughout the entire night. His heart feels swollen in his chest the more and more he thinks about her desperation for heat and warmth and him— to the point where he’s apprehensive to even keep the notebook and pen in his hands in favor of going back to sleep with her.

She’s so cuddly.

And cute.

In the end, he loses against Marinette, even if she has no idea she’d been trying to convince him in the first place. He drops the notebook off onto the pouf next to him, and makes sure to tuck his shoebox of condoms back far underneath his bed before his mother bursts in on the two of them and makes him— not to mention Marinette— feel scandalized. He hides under the covers with her, shimmying back down and making sure that she doesn’t accidentally choke him with such a powerful grip on the silver cords he has around his neck— and tucks her head under his chin.

He tries not to groan when he hears his mother yell out his name and tell him and ‘ the lassie’ to wake up before she pulls the covers off of the two of them because she needs help moving stuff out of the deck.

AO3 | Chapter One Link | Chapter Two Link | You Are Here!

#vipermouse #pro lukanette #pro lukamari #lukanette endgame #viperion #multimouse #fragileizyfic #fragileizyoneshot #fragileizywrites #fragileizylukanette

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c-nan · 4 years

Note

17 for the prompt list thing 💗

Thank you for sending me a prompt!!

I am almost 200% sure this is the 17 you were talking about lmao

This turned out a lot more angsty than anticipated and this is my first time writing action so bear with me (it was great practice)

“You promised me a cookie.”

“What?” Lena looked up from her laptop, surprised by the sudden appearance of Kara--no, not Kara, Supergirl--standing on her balcony, wringing her hands looking less than super.

Lena focused her attention back to her computer, trying to ignore the pain and resentment that ate away at her insides. She must keep her composure. Luthors show no pain. “I owe you nothing.”

Supergirl took a few tentative steps into Lena’s office. Lena closed her laptop and turned her chair towards her, crossing her arms.

“You said if I tried those,” Supergirl scrunched her face in disgust in the exact same way Kara did a few weeks ago, sending a shot of pain through Lena’s heart, “brussel sprouts, then you would give me a cookie.”

“I promised Kara Danvers,” Lena said with as much ice as she could muster. She turned her chair back to her laptop, setting her hands on the cover. “Besides, her and I had a falling out. Now, do you have a real reason to be here? I don’t have time for idle chit-chat, I have work to do.” In all honesty, Lena was just about to pack up and leave for the day, but if she had to stay another hour to prove her point, she knew she could find something to do.

“Lena, I-”

Lena spun her chair back around in annoyance. “You what?” Lena had a long day of meetings with less than compliant business men who seen her as no more than an incompetent woman. She did not have the mental energy to deal with whatever it was Supergirl had to say.

But Supergirl no longer had her attention on Lena, her eyes instead focused outside, eyebrows furrowed.

“Get behind me.”

“If you think-”

“Lena, now is not the time to argue. There’s something out there. You need to get behind me.” Supergirl took her eyes off of the balcony to look at Lena with pleading eyes.

Lena bit her lip and glanced outside just in time to see a massive tentacle slither up the side of the wall. She quickly grabbed the gun she kept in her bottom drawer and took place behind Supergirl.

“What the hell is that?” Lena whispered as three more appeared.

“Not good,” Supergirl answered, raising a fist as the rest of the alien dragged itself fully over the balcony. Her other hand went to her ear. “Alex, Alien spotting at L-Corp. It's a big one.”

If not for the eight tentacles that protruded from various places on his body, Lena wouldn’t guess he was out of the ordinary, his face clean shaven and his hair sitting haphazardly atop his head. His mouth twisted in a crazy smile as his eyes flitted between Supergirl and Lena.

“Supergirl,” the alien spat. “Let's make this easier for both of us. Stand down.”

“You and I both know I won’t do that.”

The alien shrugged, each of his eight tentacles shifting upwards just a little. “Worth a try.” Without hesitation, all eight appendages rushed forward, shattering the glass that stood between Lena, Supergirl and the massive alien.

Supergirl managed to burn four with her heat vision, but there was only so much she could do with the flurry of limbs that filled the office. One of the remaining tentacles slammed into Supergirl’s side, sending her sailing across the room and through a wall, leaving Lena completely vulnerable.

Lena raised her gun, her palms sweaty and arms shaking. The alien, no matter how terrifying, had the eyes of a human and despite what many slander articles against her would say, she would never--could never--kill a human being.

Her hesitance nearly cost her her life.

The gun clattered to the floor as the alien raised her from the ground, the tentacles unpleasantly slimy against her skin. He squeezed her like a boa constrictor squeezes a mouse right before eating it. “I can snap you like a twig, you know,” he said with a twisted smile. “But you’re wanted unscathed. That doesn’t mean I can’t have some fun.” He tightened his grip.

“Kara,” she rasped, her vision going black.

Ringing. An awful persistent ringing. Lena slowly opened her eyes to meet the sight of her office completely damaged; her couch flipped upside down and her desk where her door should be.

A flash of light brought her attention to Supergirl head to head with the alien, her face set in a determined line. Lena could tell her endurance was waning by the slump of her shoulders and the harsh rise and fall of her chest.

Her gun. She needed her gun.

Lena spotted it half hidden behind the leg of her coffee table which had been shattered like her windows. Taking a deep breath, she tried to stand, but it was no use. Her knees buckled under her at the sheer pain that shot through her abdomen and back. She looked to Supergirl--to Kara--who was fighting for their lives and decided she needed to do this. She needed to push through the pain.

So she crawled. She crawled as her body begged her to stop. She crawled as her hands and knees were torn apart by the shards of glass that litter the floor. She crawled until she reached the gun just in time to see Kara get lifted up in the same fashion Lena was not minutes earlier.

Kara used her heat vision on as many tentacles as she could but there were too many. She cried out in pain as the alien squeezed at her midsection.

Lena swung the gun around and pointed it at the alien. She had the advantage of surprise. He wouldn't have time to defend his human-like body with his tentacles.

This time without hesitation, Lena pulled the trigger, lodging a bullet in the aliens right leg. His grip slackened, releasing Kara, who hit the office floor with a thud. His knee buckled, nearly causing him to lose his footing. For extra measure, Lena shot the other leg, sending the alien sprawling to the floor with a cry of pain...or rage, Lena couldn’t tell.

Kara lied on the ground motionless, her cape draped over her like a blanket.

The alien shot Lena a look of pure hatred. “A couple bullets won’t stop me, Luthor.”

She raised her gun again, pointing this time at his heart. Or at least where his heart should be.

“Don’t try to play the hero,” he said, using two of his non-burnt tentacles to hoist him up in makeshift legs. “You and I both know you wont pull the trigger.”

Lena swallowed the lump in her throat, and glanced towards Kara. Her former friend who got roped into this mess trying to rekindle their friendship all because Lena was too hard-headed to forgive her.

Narrowing her eyes, she gripped her gun more tightly. “I promised her a cookie, and she will get one.”

“Wha-?”

Two shots in the chest sent him on his back, his face forever frozen in a look of shock and confusion.

“Secure him, I’ll check on Lena,” Alex said stepping around the desk that blocked the doorway. Behind her, half a dozen DEO agents filed in, guns raised and pointed towards the alien.

Lena dropped her arms, watching in shock as Alex knelt in front of her, saying something.

“What?”

“I asked if you were alright.”

“I-yes-Kara-”

“Kara will be fine, are you hurt?”

“My stomach…” was all Lena could say before passing out once again.

---

Lena awoke to the sound of beeping and one thought.

Kara.

Her eyes flew open as she searched for any sight of the alien that attacked them. She then noticed that she no longer stood in her office. She was at...the DEO? She scanned her surroundings more thoroughly, spotting beds like the one she lied on and unused monitors like the one that beeped loudly in her ear.

She thought back to what she remembered last.

The alien picking up Kara.

Her shooting the alien's legs.

The alien towering over her.

The alien falling even though she didn’t shoot him…

“Alex!” Lena called sitting up and immediately regretting it as pain surrounded her abdomen, nearly causing her to black out again.

“Lena, what are you doing?” Alex rushed into the room, checking the monitor before giving Lena a reprimanding look.

“Is Kara…?” Lena thought back to the sight of her lying on the ground. She couldn't be…

“She’s fine and you will be too if you don’t try to sit up anymore.” Alex took one more look at the monitor, and went to head out.

“Can I see her?” Lena called at her retreating form.

Alex turned, her lips pressed together in a straight line. “She doesn’t need the stress of another fight,” she said with a bit of a bite. “She overexerted herself trying to save you.”

Lena looked down to her hands, fiddling with the blanket. Alex had every right to be angry with her. She had said terrible things to Kara in the past few weeks. Things she wished she could take back but can’t. It would probably be best if she just-

“Alex?” Kara’s voice floated through the med-bay doors and not soon after Kara appeared, still donned in her Supergirl apparel.

Lena’s shoulders sag in relief at the sight of Kara who looked much better than the images her mind imagined.

Kara rushed to her side, looking at Alex. “I thought you said she was alright?!”

“She is.”

“Tell that to all these cuts,” Kara said, examining Lena’s arms and hands, “and that big bandage around her waist!”

“Kara,” Lena said.

“Alex, have you gotten her an CAT Scan? She could be bleeding internally!”

“Kara.”

“And what about this big gash on her forehead? Does it need stitches?!”

“Kara!” Lena yelled, finally getting Kara’s attention. Looking into Kara’s worried eyes, Lena smiled. “I’ll be fine, I can barely feel it.”

“But-”

“I’m fine.”

“Oh thank Rao,” Kara breathed, wrapping Lena up in a fierce hug that did nothing to ease the pain in her abdomen.

“Easy Kara,” Alex warned, looking to Lena with a look that basically said ‘if you hurt my sister, I’ll hurt you.’

Kara pulled back with a sheepish smile. “No hugs. Noted.”

“I wouldn’t completely write out hugs. Just make sure they're not so...intense,” Lena said with a small smile, feeling some of the familiarity they had before their fight. “Now, about that cookie…”

Kara’s face broke into a radiant smile and for the first time in a while, Lena felt hope that maybe, just maybe, her and Kara could rekindle their friendship. It would take time to heal and many apologies, but Lena had hope.

#supercorp #supercorp fanfic #supercorp fanfiction #kara danvers #lena luthor #alex danvers #kara/lena #lena/kara #kara x lena #lena x kara #angst #fanfiction #my writing #mine #i hope you enjoyed reading!

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twittytelly · 4 years

Text

An Unexpected Gain

Chapter Four - Once Upon a Time

Colin Shea X Female Reader

Previously…

Series Masterlist

A/N: So this is the end of the main story, but not the end of the road. I am planning on writing a little epilogue, plus once I get it off my old laptop I'm going to edit my first first draft of chapter 3 and turn it into another side chapter. I just want to thank you all so much for your feedback on this story, it really means the world to me – I will definitely be writing more Colin stories alongside fic for some of Chris' other pre-Cap roles in the future. Also this chapter would probably not exist without @southerngracela read this to see why.

Warnings: Sexual references, swearing, bleeding in pregnancy, miscarriage scare.

Mood board by@imanuglywombat

Colin didn't sleep that night, paralysed by the guilt that had flooded his veins. He was desperate to find a way to make things better, to make things right. He knew that things could not go back to how they were before, but he didn't mind. Deep down he had always wanted the traditional rituals, pumpkin carving, Easter egg hunts and Christmas tree decorating; but he figured that being raised by his father, who's only method of father-son bonding was to bring him along to a stakeout coupled with his selfish nature meant that fatherhood was not for him.

The blinding sun that invaded through the crack in the curtains informed Colin that morning had arrived. Forcing himself out of bed, he had a new resolve. Colin figured that he may have blown his chance with you, but he could never forgive himself for fucking up his chance with his kid. Besides, you deserved far better than he could ever give you.

Things had gotten better between yourself and Colin in the weeks following the showdown in the hallway. While that night was not mentioned again, Colin had gone above and beyond to show that he wanted to be as involved in your pregnancy as possible. The day after the confrontation, you had arrived home from work to find a big bouquet of your favourite flowers alongside a hamper full of crackers, hard boiled sweets, and all the ginger flavoured snacks and drinks available with a note saying:

If none of this works or you get a weird craving, let me know. I'm at your beck and call. C xx

But that was just the start of it. Colin seemed to have obtained every baby book in Boston, and then set up a shared iCalendar so he could be there for every appointment. There was also the extensive research he'd done into midwives, antenatal classes and even hypnobirthing. Not a day went by without Colin sharing a link to a baby product, stating that he would have to buy most things for himself to keep at his place anyway – as much as that stung you were pleased that he was prepared to step up for the sake of the baby.

You were trying your best to overcome your feelings for Colin, but his actions had caused the opposite to happen. How could you not be in love with your handsome neighbour who rubbed your back as you vomited and looked at you as if you were most amazing person on the planet; who would always get you whatever you were craving after a gig, even if it meant going out of his way; who you could talk to about anything and everything, from absolute nonsense to your deepest fears about motherhood?

Colin was tearing his apartment apart looking for the right cable for his amp. Band practice may have only been taking place on the roof, but he didn't want to make his bandmates wait around. While he was rooting around his desk, he knocked his mouse, causing his computer monitor to come to life and your face lit up the screen. Colin remembered snapping that moment months ago, when you found him alone on the rooftop after one of your dates had gone wrong. You had weasled Colin into playing one of your favourite songs and began dancing in the moonlight. Colin recalled how he had to capture the look of pure unadulterated joy on your face as you swayed in the glow of the city. Colin could still hear you giggling as you raced down the stairs to his apartment and he realised then that he was done for. He didn't fuck you that night: for the first time in Colin's life, he had made love.

Colin was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the frantic banging on the door. He looked away from his computer and sighed.

“Hang on I'll be up in a s-”

“Colin I'm bleeding!”

Colin would never remember how he had gotten you both to the hospital, but he could never forget the tension that filled the air as you sat in the waiting room in the maternity ward. Colin was trying his best to stay calm for your sake, but his insides were still twisting and turning. His heart shattered as he felt you tremble in his arms. He did his best to soothe you by delicately running his hand along your back, your face buried in his shoulder. If Colin had his way he would pull you onto his lap, however he knew that now more than ever he had to respect your boundaries. Colin noticed his shoulder moisten as your trembles turned into sobs, he tightened his arms around you and placed a chaste kiss to your temple.

“Hey, hey you're gonna be okay” He said desperate to comfort you. “Whatever happens, I'm here.” You hands tightened on his plaid shirt as you looked up into his eyes. In that moment, Colin swore that he would do anything to take away the fear that was in your eyes and used his thumb to wipe away the tears on your puffy cheeks.

“I'm just so scared Colin.” You said in a voice barely above a whisper. Colin leant down to place another kiss on your forehead.

“I know sweetheart, me too.” Colin confessed. Colin opened his mouth to say something else, but before the words could come out your name was called out. Once again your destiny was calling you, except this time you were hoping with every fibre of your being that pregnancy would be the result. Colin rose from his seat and turned to you holding out his hand.

“I promise that we're in this together.”

Once you had heard your baby's heartbeat, it was explained that it was likely a sub-chorionic bleed and you were still likely to have an healthy pregnancy. As the nurse explained that you needed to take it easy for a few days, you couldn't help but zone into Colin's demeanour. As your twelve week scan was still a couple of weeks away this was Colin's first scan. When you saw the look on his face as he heard his child's heartbeat for the first time, you knew that no matter how abnormal this whole situation was; you could not be happier that you were doing this with Colin.

You felt that you should have been excited or at least relieved, but you were numb and exhausted. As you climbed into the passenger seat of Colin's van, you barely registered him speaking to you; luckily he didn't press you for an answer and he began to drive. Instinctively you placed your hand on your belly, where your warm hand brushed against the strip of skin that was exposed after your top had ridden up slightly.

You were still preoccupied when Colin made an unannounced stop and so you didn't notice that he had gotten out of the van until he was getting back in. He passed you a warm paper bag that smelled of fries. As the engine came back to life you noticed the excitement was rolling off Colin in waves and for the first time in what felt like decades a small smile crept across your face.

Soon enough you were outside your apartment block, where Colin escorted you inside with one arm slung protectively around your shoulders. Once you were inside and settled on the sofa, Colin retreated to the kitchen, but within seconds was back and handing you a plate of your exact order from one of your favourite burger places. Without saying a word, you inhaled your meal like a lioness devouring her prey. You noticed Colin sit beside you as closely as possible and you both ate in silence.

You couldn't help but think of the parallels between now and that night a few weeks ago; especially as Colin was there for you in the exact same way. It was as if he intuitively knew what you needed. You knew that the pair of you were committed to having this baby as friends, but you couldn't help but feel that he was acting more like a boyfriend. You knew that once the stupor had worn off you had to bring it all up again.

When you both had finished eating, Colin took the empty plates into the kitchen. As he returned you noticed that the excitement had evolved into nerves as he tried to calculate his next move. He stood to the side of the sofa and fidgeted about, until you stood up and made your way to him. Taking your hand in his, you looked up into his beautiful blue eyes.

“I don't think I can sleep if I'm here on my own, please can you stay until I drop off?”

“Of course I will sweetheart,” Colin answered. “You know I'd do anything for you.”

Once again he let you lead him into your bedroom, but Colin looked away as you kicked off your trainers and socks. Not bothering with your pyjamas, you shimmed out of your jeans and bra. As he heard rustle of your quilt Colin lay on the bed beside you, staying above the duvet.

“Sorry for being such a misery guts, I know I should be more excit-”

“Don't be silly Y/N.” Said Colin sympathetically. “God knows you've been through the ringer tonight, of course you're exhausted.”

You nodded gratefully. “I know this may sound a bit silly, but could you just – I don't know – tell me a story or something – I need to take my mind of tonight for a bit.” Colin gave you a thoughtful look, before kissing you on the forehead again.

“I know just the tale.” He said jokingly as you made yourself comfortable and closed your eyes.

“Once upon a time, just down the corridor lived a jester. The jester was handsome, smart and sexy as hell.”

You did your best to suppress the snort that broke free, of course Colin would use the opportunity to talk about himself.

“The jester was a gifted musician, who would often use his talents to enchant a wench back to his chambers: where he would demonstrate his other mind-blowing capabilities.”

“Colin if you're gonna use this as an excuse to brag about your sexual escapades then I'd rather be alone.” You said in faux annoyance.

“Of course not and if you stop interrupting me, you'll see this is an epic love story.”

Sighing, you indicated to Colin that he was free to continue.

“One day the most fair and beautiful maiden moved in opposite the jester. The jester tried with all of his might, but the maiden was immune to the jester's charms; for she dreamed of being swept off her feet by a handsome prince and the jester believed that true love was not his fate.”

You opened your eyes and looked at Colin as he was staring at the wall. Was he talking about you? A past conquest? Some made up fantasy woman? As Colin turned to look at you, you quickly closed your eyes and hoped he didn't catch you staring.

“The maiden found many suitors, but they did not appreciate the maiden's beauty and kind nature. One fateful night, the jester saved the maiden from the clutches of a troll disguised as a prince. The maiden thanked the jester by letting him spend a magical night in her chambers.”

Your heart started to pound against your ribcage. Yes, he was talking about you, but why? What was Colin trying to achieve?

“The next day the jester promised to help the maiden find her true love and would satisfy her needs in the mean time. However, as the jester spent more time with the maiden, he began to enjoy her companionship and as the weeks turned to months the jester realised that he had fallen in love with the her.”

Your breath hitched in your throat and your heart skipped a beat. Colin was in love. With you... But when? How? Why the fuck didn't he say anything?! You noticed that Colin's breathing had changed and as his fingertips tentatively brushed your across your face to move a stray hair, you opened your eyes to see the azure of his eyes looking right back at you with the boldness to take down a dragon. Before you had the chance to say anything, Colin continued to speak.

“The jester knew that he was not good enough for the maiden and believed that once she had found her prince charming he would have to do whatever it took in order for her to be happy.”

“Colin I-”

“Sh!” Colin interrupted, pressing his index finger to your lips. The story isn't over yet sweetheart.” You decided not to argue to see where Colin was trying to go. As Colin removed his finger, he took a deep breath.

“One day the jester decided to visit the maiden to find that she was most upset. The jester did his best to comfort the maiden, but he found something that did not belong to him... something that... I assumed that it wasn't mine.”

You sat up, your heartbeat accelerating. “Colin wh-”

“The week before, you brought home that James guy home.”

“He missed the last train home and I offered him the couch, but he tried to get into bed with me so I kicked him out. Anyway Colin I was six weeks along when I found out.” You explained as you tried to figure out if you were angry or hurt. “You were the only person I was sleeping with for a while. Colin we could have been together weeks ago, why didn't you say anything?”

“Because I'm not the guy girls want to end up with, I'm just the slutty neighbour. All everyone wants from me is a second round in the morning.”

“Yeah and you proved that when-” you started feeling more agitated.

“If I could take that back then I would!” Colin almost snapped, hurt filling his eyes. Colin went to look away, but you reached out and put your hand on his cheek, forcing him to keep eye contact. “Y/N don't forget that you hid from your feelings for as long as I did. You deserve to be swept off your feet and to ride off into happily ever after with your prince charming, and that's not me.”

“Listen here, Jester.” you said as your thumb stroked Colin's cheek. “I don't want that bullshit. I want Once Upon a Time with you; the guy who never fails to make me laugh, who filled his cupboards with the exact brand of ginger tea that I like, who always comes to my rescue when I need him most.”

Colin's eyes widened like a child on Christmas morning as you leaned in closer and dropped your voice to a whisper.

“Also don't tell the little one, but the sex is pretty mind-blowin-”

Before you had a chance to finish, you felt Colin's soft lips on yours. Bedsheets were shoved to one side as arms wrapped around each of your bodies, pulling you both as close to each other as possible. You deepened the kiss, allowing Colin's tongue entrance, where you both tried to disclose the feelings that words could not define. Eventually, the kiss came to an end, and you both parted for air. Resting your head on his shoulder, you watched as Colin hesitantly placed his hand on your belly. There was no bump yet, but you couldn't help the goosebumps that appeared as Colin stroked your stomach. Colin looked up, with the biggest grin you could ever imagine, excited for what the future had in store.

“I love you Y/N.” Beaming back at him, you replied simply with the only four words needed.

“I love you too.”

Taglist: @whiskey-cokenfanfic @mrs-captain-evans @ransomsweatersandcappuccinos @southerngracela @katiew1973 @supersoldiersruined-me @kelbabyblue @amiquette @feelmyroarrrr @patzammit @daydreamerinadazedworld @denisemarieangelina @jeremyrennermakesmesmile @bellaireland1981

#mrs-captain-evans writing challenge #mce writing challenge #colin shea #colin shea x reader #Chris Evans #chris evans fan fiction #chris evans fanfic #chris evans fic #chris evans fanfiction #what's your number #captain america #Steve Rogers #miscarriage scare #bleeding in pregnancy #TwittyTelly writes

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lovemesomesurveys · 3 years

Text

survey by ehxsnos

First lets get the basics out of the way...

What's your name? Stephanie.

How old are you? 31.

Where are you from? California.

What color are your eyes and hair? I have brown eyes and naturally dark brown hair, but I dye it red. I’m a year overdue, though...

When were you born? July 28th.

Now for the fun stuff! Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? They don’t have doors; I have a curtain instead that I do keep closed.

How many people have you slept with this week? Zero.

What size is your bed? Full.

What do you drink with dinner? I don’t always have something when I eat unless I already happen to be drinking something, like coffee or a Starbucks energy drink. I do always have water nearby, though. But yeah, I usually don’t drink while I’m eating, it’s usually before and after.

What do you dip a chicken nugget in? Ranch or Chick-Fil-A sauce.

Last person you kissed/kissed you? Joseph, almost 10 years ago...

What movies could you watch over and over and still love? There’s several.

What is your usual bedtime? After 7AM. :/

When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween? It varied, but there were a lot of vampire and witch costumes.

Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? Six years ago for my UC graduation.

Take a vitamin daily? No, but there’s a few I should be taking.

What do you wear to bed? What I wear during the day, which is leggings and graphic tees.

Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? Wal-Mart and Target. We haven’t had a K-Mart in well over a decade.

Ever have plastic surgery? No.

Do you want kids? No.

Where did your last kiss take place? I think it was in his car.

Four words to explain why you last threw up? I had a stomach bug. That was like 4 years ago.

Last thing you ate? Wingstop for dinner, which was at 8PM. I skipped out on my nightly ramen tonight that I typically have around 2-230AM and now it’s 4:53AM and I’m starving. :/ I actually fell asleep around 10PM last night cause I had a bad headache and then woke up around 230AM, but I didn’t feel like getting up and making it. Sigh.

Do you get your nails done? Nope. I’ve only had my nails done once, and that was for my 8th grade promotion.

When did your last relationship end? Back in 2013.

So tell us, what room ARE you in? I’m in my room.

How many stories does your home have? Just one.

Do you own headphones? Yep, I’m currently wearing my new Beats earbuds my lil bro got me recently.

Have you ever... Gotten a Brazillian wax? No.

Gotten so drunk you couldn’t remember wtf you did? The last time I drank I got really drunk (and really sick) and there’s parts of that night that are spotty.

Been called a bitch? Jokingly. Seriously as well, I’m sure, but not to my face.

Slut? Jokingly.

Pierced anything? *Okay, finishing this at a much later time now cause I ended up zonking out.* Anyway, I just have my earlobes pierced.

Had a tattoo? No.

Smoked a cigarette? No.

Smoked weed? Yes.

Missed someone so bad you couldn’t eat or sleep? I’ve gone through really hard times after losing loved ones.

Worked out at a gym? Yes.

Snuck out of the house? Nope.

What’s the nearest furry object? My throw blanket.

Is the room you are in messy? No.

What is the single largest item in your house? Hmm.

How much money did you spend today? Zero.

What is the biggest amount of money you have ever had at one time? I think 5,000.

What kind of cell phone do you have? An iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Have you ever been under anesthesia? Several times.

Which Disney parks have you been to? Disneyland and California Adventure.

What does your bed comforter look like? I don’t have one. I use a throw blanket, which is rose gold and fluffy.

When did you last cry? Last night.

When is the last time you took medicine? Over an hour ago.

What was the medicine for? It was my pain medication.

What kind of health insurance do you have? I’m not sharing that.

What is your birth control method of choice? Well, I’m a virgin but besides that I can’t get pregnant, sooo.

How much do you spend on your parents for Christmas? A lot. I love saving up and spoiling my family with what I can.

If you were given $1k and had to use it on 1 purchase, what would you buy? Uhhh. I’d have to really think about that.

Have your parents ever caught you drinking? I honestly didn’t try to drink before I was 21.

Have you ever crawled through a window? No.

What do you spend most of your money on? Food delivery, heh. :)))))))) It’s my favorite way to spoil myself. <<< Saaame.

Is there a secret you've never told your parents? Yes.

Do you still have pictures of you & your ex? Yes.

Has someone ever spread a nasty rumor about you? No.

How many rooms does your house have? It has 2 bedrooms.

Would you sex tape with you in it for 3 million dollars? No.

Are you happier single or in a relationship? All I really know is being single and while I’m not happy, it’s not because of my relationship status. Being in a relationship wouldn’t fix my problems and would add more stress.

Do you have curly hair? No.

What is a compliment you receive often? I rarely receive compliments.

How tall are you?: Like 5′4.

Who was the last person to say they loved you and when? My mom recently.

What is the last thing you said aloud? I said goodbye to my mom as she was leaving for work.

What was the last thing you had to drink? Coffee.

What is one thing that can ALWAYS be found in your freezer? Ice cream. My dad likes to always have it.

How many pets do you own? One.

How old will you be turning on your next birthday? 32.

Last time you went out of town? February 2020.

First thing you wash in the shower? My body. What kind of shampoo & conditioner do you use? A salon style for red dyed hair.

Do you own something from Hot Topic? I own a lot of things from Hot Topic, from clothes to accessories to collectibles. Majority of my graphic tees are from Hot Topic and their sister store, Boxlunch.

Have you ever bought anything from Pac Sun? Yeah.

How often do you hold hands with someone? I hold my doggo’s hand a lot, ha.

What was the most recent thing you bought? Food.

Could you ever forgive a cheater? I don’t know. Possibly. It would depend on some things.

Do you have Verizon? Yes.

Have you ever been pregnant? No.

What is your average cell phone bill? I don’t know. I’m on a family plan and my parents and brother handle it.

How many piercings do you have? Two; one in each earlobe.

Do you start the water before you get in the shower or when you get in? When I get in.

Have you ever had stitches? Yeah, I’ve had several surgeries.

Do you think it’s right for straight guys to get their tongue pierced? Uh, it’s a piercing. Who cares.

Are you more of a coffee or alcohol drinker? Coffee all the way. I don’t drink.

Do you have a wireless keyboard and mouse? Nope.

How many songs are on your iPod or MP3 player? *shrug* I haven’t used my iPod in almost a decade.

Where did you get that shirt you're wearing? Speaking of Hot Topic...

What are your pet’s names? Princess Leia, either one for short. And a ton of nicknames.

Honestly, are you in love right now? Nope.

Honestly, what color is your underwear? Blue.

Honestly, do you think you are attractive? No. I’m a mess.

Honestly, do your wrists hurt? Not at the moment.

Honestly, wouldn't you rather be having sex right now? No.

What would you do if the doctor told you that you were pregnant? Say they got me mixed up with someone cause that’s impossible.

Was there anyone who "made your day"? My mom went and got me my favorite breakfast before she went to work.

Are you vegeterian? Nope.

How many windows are open in your computer? Two.

Do you read Perez Hilton? Nah.

Is there a baby in the room with you right now? No.

Do you plan on moving within the next year? We’d love to, but I don’t see that happening.

Have you been to a baby shower? I’ve been to several.

What brand is your computer? Apple.

How many cars can fit in your driveway? Two.

Are you taller than your mom? No.

Are you a cuddler? Not really.

Sleep on your back or stomach? I have to sleep turned toward my side and propped up due to acid reflux.

Do you go to the bathroom with the door open or closed? Always closed.

Do you dress for style or comfort? Comfort, definitely.

Think of the last time you were angry. Why were you angry? Blahhhh.

Would you marry someone if they were unable to have sex? Sex isn’t a big thing for me, honestly. Also, I don’t plan on getting married.

Have you ever made a boyfriend or girlfriend cry? My first boyfriend did when I broke up with him.

Does heartbreak really feel as bad as it sounds? It’s horrible.

How long has it been since you had sex? Virgin here.

Who was the last person to call you babe? *shrug*

Last reason you went to the ER? I haven’t had to go for myself since my accident.

Were you a planned pregnancy for your parents? Yes.

How old was your mom when she gave birth to you? She was in her early 20s. Have you ever taken pictures in a photo booth? Yeah.

When was the last time you shaved your legs? It’s been awhile. My legs don’t really get hair growth for whatever reason, but that’s fine with me.

What facial cleanser do you use? I don’t.

Do you use a blowdryer? No.

How many purses do you own?: Several.

What are your top five favorite stores to shop for clothes? Boxlunch and Hot Topic.

What kind of clothes do you mostly wear? Graphic tees and leggings.

What about shoes? Adidas.

Have you ever cheated on the significant other that you have now? I’m single, but no I’ve never cheated before.

What are your first thoughts when your visitor visits? It’s always like, ‘ohhh, that’s why I’ve been feeling like that.’

Favorite underwear brand? I don’t have a particular favorite, really.

Last thing you bought at the mall? It was Christmas gifts a couple years ago.

Do your parents like your boyfriend/girlfriend? I’m single. What color are your pillows? I have like 10 pillows and they all look different.

What if an ex asked to be back in your life? No.

Don’t you just love DVR? It’s nice to have.

If you're on a laptop, how much charge does it have left? It’s plugged in, so it’s at 100%.

Last gift you recieved? My brother recently bought me a new pair of Beats earbuds.

Lesson you recently learned? *shrug*

#personal #text #survey #surveys #long survey

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bugaboosandbees · 5 years

Text

Reine Ruse Part 6

Hello again all! I’m so sorry that this took so long. There’s been a lot of stuff going on irl that has delayed this quite a bit. I hope that you all enjoy this chapter and that I actually get the next one done semi-on time, lol.

As usual, tags are at the bottom, if you’d like to be added, send me an ask, comment, or message. It has been a really long time since I’ve updated, so if I forgot to add you, please let me know!

Much love you guys. You’re all amazing!

Adrien

“Hello, Paris.” Adrien looked over the camera lens at Alya, who smiled sadly and gave him a thumbs up. He cleared his throat. “Chat Noir here. I am here today to clear something up once and for all and to apologize to both my partner Ladybug and to the people of Paris who put their trust in me. I don’t know if any of you have been caught up in the last few akuma attacks, but, in case you have, and even if you haven’t, there are a few things that I need to say.” He paused, taking a deep, somewhat shaky breath. “This isn’t easy,” a somewhat awkward, strangled chuckle, escaped, “but, it needs to be said.” He tried to wipe all traces of the nervousness he felt was swallowing him from his face, and stared straight into the camera. People had to see he was serious. “I am not proud of the way that I’ve behaved towards Ladybug recently. Without giving too much away about my personal life, suffice it to say that I grew up pretty sheltered.” A sheepish hand mussed his hair. “I’ve been homeschooled until pretty recently and don’t have much of a clue about how to interact with people. I want to make it clear that in no way does this excuse the way I’ve been behaving.” He paused.

“I’m sure that you all know the way I feel about Ladybug -- I seem to shout it from the rooftops often enough.” He smiled ruefully. “I should never have done that. The second that she told me that I was making her uncomfortable, I should have stopped. It was never okay for me to disregard her feelings like that. It’s never okay for anyone to disregard someone’s feelings like that. Ladybug, I understand if you don’t want to talk to me right now, or ever, but I want you to know that I am so, so sorry for what I’ve done. I know that I can’t take back the words that I said, and I understand if you can’t forgive me, but I want you to know that I am going to do my best to make up for the things that I did and to become a partner that you can be proud of again.”

“And, to the citizens of Paris, I apologize to you as well. It is my job to protect you and this city, and I’ve been doing a poor job of that. You deserve heroes like My Lady, strong and confident, and utterly focused on protecting this city we love and ending the threat that Hawkmoth poses to it. I promise that I will do my best to make it up to you as well -- to become a hero that you can be proud of again. For now, I urge you to look around you in your everyday lives. If you see someone behaving in the way that I’ve been behaving towards Ladybug, say something. Hawkmoth isn’t the only problem we Parisians face, but we can solve the other problems we see by being heroes ourselves. Thank you for listening to me, and, again, I’m so, so sorry.”

After he stopped talking, Adrien could hear Alya pressing the stop button on her camera, but neither of them could find the right words to say to each other. They sat in silence for what seemed like forever until Alya shook herself out of a stupor and moved to her desk. She plugged her phone into her laptop and pressed several buttons.

She paused, looking back over her shoulder at him. “Are you sure about this?” She asked softly.

He closed his eyes. “Yes.”

Marinette

Marinette stared unblinkingly at the screen of her computer, the dark rectangle of a finished video stark against her pink screensaver. Despite… everything that had happened with Alya in the past few weeks, she still followed the Ladyblog. When the notification had popped up on her computer, she wasn’t sure what she was going to see. She hoped that no one had been akumatized. What Hawkmoth did to people at their most vulnerable was awful. She’d never wish that on anyone. Then again, what was the alternative? A new interview with Lila? She had tried to hard to be the bigger person, to tell herself that she was just being dramatic or blowing things out of proportion, but the fact of the matter was that she was just a teenager, and she was hurting and that she was allowed to hurt. She didn’t know if she could take another example of her best friend choosing the word of a liar over her own.

Whatever she had expected, it wasn’t what she saw. Chat Noir’s video took her completely by surprise. She didn’t quite know what to feel. On the one hand, he’d apologized, validating feelings that only Tikki and Chloe had told her she’d been allowed to have. She felt like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. On the other hand, he was right, she couldn’t forgive him -- not right away. He’d made her feel so small and so afraid. Especially with everything that had been going on at school, he’d shaken her faith in herself and in others.

Suddenly the screen in front of her lit up again. She moused over the notification and quirked her lips. Akuma. For better or for worse, she’d have to face Chat now. Despite the complicated feelings involved in Tikki giving the fox miraculous to someone other than Alya, she couldn’t help but be reassured by the fact that there would be another hero, another partner, who she could trust herself to work with without flinching.

“Tikki, SPOTS ON!!!”

Alya

After Chat Noir left, Alya just sat, still and quiet, her mind spinning. She dimly heard the chiming from her phone and computer as the video she’d just posted accumulated views and comments. God, what had she done? A good journalist always checks her sources, bullshit. She’d believed a stranger over her best friend. If she even deserved to call Marinette her best friend at this point. She’d never had friends at the small-town school she’d attended before Francios-Dupont. She’d been too pushy, too intense, they’d said. But Marinette and her sunshine smile had accepted her the moment they’d met, encouraging even her craziest ideas and telling her that she was brave and good and just.

She was crying, she realized. Out of the corner of tear-blurred eyes, she noticed a sticky note she'd stuck to the frame of her computer monitor days ago. That's right. She and Lila had planned to try to find Andre's Ice Cream stand that afternoon. Her jaw firmed. The gullible Alya that Lila expected wouldn't be showing up today. She grabbed her phone and threw on her favorite plaid shirt over her tank-top. She didn’t have the armor of her miraculous, but damn it all to hell, she was going into battle.

The walk to the Pont des Arts seemed much shorter than it usually was, but, then again, her mind was racing -- she was pretty sure she hadn’t noticed anything she’d passed along the way. She sat on the bench that she’d agreed to meet Lila at and tapped one foot anxiously against the pavement.

After a few minutes, she looked down at her watch. Lila was late. Honestly, Alya was almost relieved. She still didn’t know what to say to the other girl. From what Chat Noir had said, it sounded like she’d been cooperating with Hawkmoth willingly and Alya herself had seen what Lila had done to Marinette… and to Alya’s own credibility as a journalist. Before she’d left her room, she’d filmed another video -- her own apology to Ladybug for invading her privacy during the Oblivio incident, and to the people of Paris for posting false information on a news source that they’d trusted.

She hadn’t posted it though, not yet. Despite everything… Lila had been a good friend these past few weeks. Alya was hurt by the things that she’d learned about the transfer student. She felt uncertain and betrayed, but she wanted to ask Lila herself about it -- to see the truth with her own eyes and to get her closure for all the dreams that would be snuffed out with Lila’s lies, and for all the damage that she herself had done, if what Chat Noir said was true. (It was, she knew it, deep in her bones. She just didn’t want to admit it quite yet.) Did it make her a bad person if she still desperately wanted it all to be a joke?

“Hey, bestie!” Lila’s voice broke through her thoughts. “I’m so sorry that I’m late -- I was on a conference call with Prince Ali about our environmental initiative that I just couldn’t get away from. You understand, right?”

“... Yeah, of course.” Had her smile always looked so fake? “You ready to get some ice cream?”

“Of course! I’m so excited to be able to have ice cream again. I was diagnosed with severe lactose intolerance when I was younger and I haven’t had it for years, but a doctor that I met when I was traveling in England put me in a clinical study and cured me!”

Alya tried her best to hide the twitching in her eye. Sabrina had lactose intolerance -- the whole class knew that she could have ice cream just fine if she took some lactase supplements beforehand. Seriously, that wasn’t how lactose intolerance worked at all! If she’d lied about something this small…

She’d about made up her mind to say something, to shout or scream and try to get Lila to finally tell her the truth for once when the ground beneath them shook hard enough to knock her off of the bench she’d been waiting on. Looking up, she saw a woman made entirely of some sort of metal, spikes shooting out from her suit and a wickedly sharp glaive in her hand.

Shit. Of all the times for an akuma.

Chloe

Chloe sat on her bed, notebook in front of her, listening intently to Trixx as they explained more about their miraculous and what exactly a mirage could do. They were floating back and forth through the air in front of her as if pacing, every once in a while stopping to eat one of the jelly beans in the crystal bowl on the bedside table that she’d ordered from room service for them.

“The power of the mirage is limited only by your creativity. The illusion that you cast can be as small or large as you want -- it can even be fluid if you concentrate properly. Your mirages can speak, or simply make a particular sound at whatever volume you decide. It can be threatening or unassuming, something targeted to a single person or meant to touch many. For now, your mirage is also limited by the timer in your miraculous -- the illusion will vanish with your transformation five minutes after you call for it. It will also evaporate if it is touched, although, if you train properly and hard, you’ll eventually be able to cast illusions that can hold their own form temporarily.”

The tiny god turned large, purple eyes on Chloe. “What you must truly know, and take to heart, as the wielder of the fox miraculous, are people. Your power is only effective if you can read others, know what your target needs to see. Tikki seeks creativity in her bugs, that’s what they need to make the magic of the ladybug miraculous work. Plagg wants compassion to temper destruction, Noroo empathy to connect to his champions. The thing that I value above all else in a wielder isn’t cunning or cleverness or skill at lying -- on the contrary, the best illusions always have a grain of truth to them. I need a wielder who can analyze people. Someone who knows the damage that lies can cause, but can keep their feelings subdued to use their illusions however the mission requires, even if others might see the mirage as underhanded.” They smiled. “Rena Rouge was fun to work with, but she didn’t suit the fox miraculous at all. She’s too straightforward, too eager to spring physically into battle, yet not willing enough to truly hurt someone emotionally. I have a feeling you’ll do much better as my kit, Chloe.”

Chloe’s pen paused halfway across the page as a small, soft smile stole across her lips. She quickly tempered it and looked back up at Trixx. “Th-- er… Thank you Trixx.” She felt a sharp, staccato buzz against her hip and looked down at her phone. Swiping across the screen to unlock it, she saw the bright red text of an akuma alert scroll across the screen. She looked up at Trixx, who met her eyes with a smirk.

“Well, kit, are you ready.”

Chloe nodded. “Trixx, let’s pounce!”

Tags:

@demydreamer-otaku-and-book-lover , @anastasian-dreamer, @donegonewrong , @twinkletoes-rp , @asandygraves , @fatimaabbasrizvi , @im-here-for-the-content , @theorangelizard , @captainrose35 , @pleasefollowmeuwu , @the-ice-goddess , @ofpassionsandobsessions, @starberry-mina, @mikantsume, @bloody-no-kissu , @chocolatemilk52 , @angelofthequeers, @bluelioncupcake, @ml-cartoons, @thelifeofmely, @shadowberrybinch, @creativetwit, @lordsmeldingtonthethird , @royalchaoticfangirl , @elliecake5 , @kristycocopop

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #chloe bourgeois #chloenette #fox!chloe #Reine Ruse #Reine Ruse au #adrien agreste #alya cesaire #ml salt #ml redemption #tikki #trixx #plagg #ml au #my au #my writing

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hoodiehan · 5 years

Text

Heights - Han Jisung Imagine

Synopsis: Despite his extreme fear of heights, Jisung proposes going to an amusement park to help you feel relaxed and happy.

Genre: Fluff

Pairing: JisungxReader

Word count: 1490

A/N: Ah yes hello I have come out of writing hiatus to write this little drabble for Karen, @00hj . Happy birthday, Karen! I hope you have lots and lots of fun today! You deserve all the greatest and happy things in the world! Thank you for being such a wonderful and incredible friend, I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH, HAVE THE GREATEST DAY EVER BUB!!

──────

"Gosh darn it," you groaned setting your laptop to the side as you stretch your legs out. This was the sixth time that you hit a roadblock on your essay that was due in approximately 2 hours, and you've only written about two paragraphs. The urge to say "to hell with it" and turn in a half-assed essay began to overcome you as the deadline became smaller. Procrastinating on such a large essay was not one of your smartest decisions.

“I hate writing these useless essays,” you grumbled sending sharp glares at your barely written paper. The stupid thing caused you too much stress. You didn’t need this in your life. You were a digital communications major, not an English major. So WHY on EARTH did your lame coding professor assign you to write a 7-page essay about the history of computers?

“You say something?” Jisung asked not even taking his eyes off of the music sheets in front of him.

“I SAID I HATED THIS ESSAY,” you raised your voice louder than necessary. The mouse of your computer was hovering over the submit button. Just what would happen if you said ‘screw it’ and pressed it with what you had written… You’d be free from the confines of the deadline but filled with regret… Submitting the essay didn’t seem like such a bad thought.

“Yeah well I hate getting writer’s block on music too but we all can’t get what we want!” Jisung threw his hands up into the hair and pushed his chair on wheels away from the table, rolling away from his work. Jisung lolled his head to look your way and examined the stressed look you had on your face.

“You know what we should do? We should go to an amusement park! We’re both clearly tired and overworked. I think that we both deserve some Fun Time!” Jisung’s proposition took you by surprise, causing you to accidentally click the submit button on the essay that you had only written 2 paragraphs for.

“J-Jisung! You idiot I just-" you couldn’t even finish your sentence because of the amount of shock you were in.

“What? What did I do?” Jisung frowned. He thought that his idea was pretty good. Both of you had been stuck in his studio for the entirety of the weekend, and frankly, he was tired of seeing the same four walls.

“My essay it was… it wasn’t finished and-” you looked up at Jisung with watery eyes, unable to form proper words.

“Well, you can finish your essay when we get back! Come on y/n, let’s get going!” Jisung was out the door before you could even reply. You stared at your laptop in dismay. You let out a heartbroken noise knowing that your grade was about to take a toll, but in the end, you got up to follow Jisung out the door. Might as well make the rest of the weekend before you went back to school on Monday to get an earful from your professor.

──────

Both of you had been at your local amusement park for the past 2 hours, but you had yet to go on any of the rides. Any ride that you asked to go on was shot down by some lame excuse on Jisung's part.

"The ride looks too dangerous, it doesn't have any seatbelts!" "I don't want to get wet." "That one always leaves me feeling nauseous." "Have you been on that ride? The feeling of your stomach dropping is the most disgusting feeling in the world."

The more excuses you heard, the more you wanted to ditch Jisung and go by yourself onto all the rides at the amusement park. Jisung was the one to suggest going to the gosh darn park, yet he wouldn't even go on any of the rides!

“Jisung, I want to go on this ride and I will not take 'no' for an answer." You stopped Jisung in front of the Viking ride and stood your ground.

“This? This ride?” Jisung questioned nervously, eyeing the ride that swung back and forth at a dangerous speed.

“Yes, this ride.”

“.. Are you sure?”

“I have never been surer in my life. I want. This one.” With every sentence, you stepped closer and closer towards the line for the ride. If Jisung said no the ride, you would surely leave him at the exit and go on it yourself.

Fortunately for you, Jisung said, “.. okay..” Yelping in delight you grabbed Jisung's hand and ran through the line before he could back out of his decision. Jisung would soon feel regret as he let you drag him around the amusement park for the rest of the day.

It was nearing the end of the day and you had yet to go on the ride that you were most excited for. The glorious, all mighty, fantastical ferris wheel. The entire day had been spent with Jisung, and you wanted to end it with your favorite ride ever.

When the two of you had finally sat down inside the ferris wheel cart, you immediately started knocking on the window in excitement trying to peer outside to get a glimpse from everything down below.

“Aww look at all the lights!” You exclaimed pointing out the window on Jisung’s side.

“Oh yeah, the lights look really pretty,” Jisung replied stiffly unable to look outside.

“How can you say that? You didn’t even look out,” You frowned. In order to appreciate the glorious beauty that was the outside world, one first had to fix their gaze on it in order to admire.

“I don’t have to look outside to know that it looks pretty,” Jisung pressed his mouth closed, afraid to even take a peek at the height that you both were at.

You looked at Jisung with a confused expression, but once you saw how he was tightly holding onto the inside railing to the point that his knuckles were turning white, you began to realize why he was acting like this.

“Are you… afraid of heights?” You asked cracking a small smile.

“No,” Jisung sharply said. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, you’re sort of holding onto the seat for dear life.”

“I just really like this seating.”

“You won’t even look outside.”

“I don’t have to look outside when I can just look at you,” Jisung winked at you slyly.

“That was so cheesy, I want to punch you for that,” You said holding up a fist looking like you were about to actually hit him.

“Ah, no you can’t do that to the only person who loves and admires you!” Jisung flinched away holding his arms up to protect himself.

“You’re not the only person! I have lots!” You protested actually landing a slap onto Jisung’s shoulder this time.

“Yeah? Who else do you have then? Your sister doesn’t count!”

“I have Hyunjin! He’ll always be there for me,” you pouted.

“Hyunjin could technically love anyone in the world without a second thought. A stranger could go up to him and profess their love to him, and Hyunjin wouldn’t say a thing,” Jisung refuted trying to make your claim invalid.

“Hyunjin is a loving and kind friend nonetheless, and right now you’re not my friend,” you glared at Jisung feeling offended at his comments. The nerve that the kid had.

“I’m sorry, y/n. It’s just the truth though,” Jisung said placing a hand gingerly on your shoulder. To which you shrugged it off and faced away from him, giving him the cold shoulder and the silent treatment.

“Are you really that mad at me?”

Silence.

“Y/n,” Jisung whined poking your shoulder. “I didn’t mean it!”

A passive-aggressive glance was thrown over your shoulder.

“I know that you have a lot of friends! You have me too!”

Your stare remained outside the window and on the fairy lights that had been hung up.

“…I’m sorry?” Jisung said in a confused tone.

You pressed your lips together and cocked an eyebrow, still refusing to look at Jisung. But you knew that he had seen your expression. He knew what kind of words you wanted to hear.

“… I’ll buy you ramen,” Jisung mumbled staring at the ground and sliding his foot across the floor in front of him.

You immediately perked up at his offer, “Ramen and….?”

Jisung sighed in defeat knowing that his bank account was about to take a hit.

“Ramen and dumplings. With pastries afterward.”

“You could have just stopped at ramen and dumplings, but since you offered pastries too, alrighty! I forgive you!” You cheerfully said launching yourself onto Jisung to pull him into a hug.

“Wait what I don’t have to buy you pastries afterward-"

“Now you do, come on let’s go get food!” You grabbed Jisung’s hand and tugged him away from the window and out the ferris wheel cart that had reached the ground.

"I should have just stopped myself at the dumplings," Jisung fussed letting you drag him around for the umpteenth time that day. In the end, Jisung was still satisfied with the opportunity to make you happy one last time before the day ended. Seeing you stuff a forkful of cake into your mouth made him feel better. Perhaps he was fine with going broke, as long as he was able to make you happy. But he also hoped that you would be the one to pay for his food the next time that you both went out to eat.

#stray kids #han jisung #straykidznet #thekpopnetwork #straysunshinesnet #district9net #jisung #han #han jisung imagine #jisung imagine #imagine #imagines #happy birthday karen I LOVE YOU SO GOSH DARN MUCH #also when looking for a gif to add i tried looking for one of your gifs #but ultimately i found all of your gifs that weren't jisung ahh #but min's gif is also adorable af so let us appreciate jisung and min's gif ahehehe

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chromium-siren · 5 years

Text

Nightingale (Part 4)

(A/N: After writer’s block, I can finally continue the story! Yaaaay! Also, a big thank you to @kyber-hearts-and-stardust-souls for helping me with ways to continue the story!)

TW: bomb threat.

PHASMA

Brendol’s visit brought us some reassurance, but of course, we didn’t know who to trust. What if Brendol was still working for Vader? No, that probably wouldn’t be reasonable, especially since I literally just met him today. Nonetheless, Hux and I waited for that Tuesday Brendol said he would arrive with the equipment.

The days seemed to inch by, almost as if some higher power was intent on tormenting me- a fact made obvious by the nightmares I was beginning to have about Vader. He would loom above me holding a machete, a sadistic grin twisted on his face, or I would watch him set fire to Nightingale packed to the gills with patrons. Just as soon as he was about to push me into the flames, I woke up in a cold sweat to the sound of my alarm and Pudge’s concerned meows.

“It’s okay, Pudgelet, Maman had a nightmare,” I cooed, gently petting him as I looked at my phone lockscreen. It was a picture I took of Hux, one of him in deep thought with his sax across his lap- until I took note of the day. Tuesday. It was here. Brendol was supposed to meet us at the club to set up the cameras at around four, which meant there was just enough time for me to prepare everything (mainly my costume) for Friday’s ball. Immediately, I slid my finger across the lockscreen and texted Hux.

[txt]: today’s the day brendol comes

[txt- Armie]: four o’clock, right?

[txt]: yes. set up and everything, maybe a tech rehearsal

[txt]: is your costume ready?

[txt-Armie]: working on it. making white tie look like a mess is tough.

[txt- Armie]: also, fake blood and saxophones don’t mix. I think I ruined a mouthpiece.

[txt]: ditch the blood or put it somewhere else?

[txt-Armie]: probably. see you, love.

[txt]: xoxo

Sighing contently, I made my way downstairs to have breakfast, feeling the satisfaction that we might as well be getting our revenge on Vader soon enough. Or so I hoped...

HUX

Life at the law firm went on as usual- meetings, marking sheet music, Krennic looking like his usual shifty self. Hold up- Krennic being shifty? This was new, even for me. Hesitantly, I stood outside his office door, expecting to hear music- instead, I heard a frantic phone conversation.

“It’s at seven p.m., but we can afford to be fashionably late. Yes, Nightingale. I have all the information, I picked it up a while ago. Do I have to come in- oh, fine, it is a Halloween Ball anyway. I figure I’ll wear the cape. Yes, I’ll see you then. Thank you.” The phone hung up and I heard footsteps. Immediately assuming the worst, I tried to get away as soon as possible. Almost luckily, Krennic made his way out of his office in the opposite direction. But I was still so nervous, that when my phone vibrated, I almost yelped in shock. Looking down, I noticed it was my dad. Thank the Maker.

[txt- Brendol]: Just checked into my hotel, will be at Nightingale at four. Athena reminded the staff ahead of time.

[txt]: Thank you, dad. See you then.

I put my phone away, but not before reminding myself about the meeting at four.

“Adelaide?”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’ll be leaving a bit early today for, um... an appointment.”

“Noted,” she said, typing away at her laptop. Obviously I couldn’t say what I was doing, otherwise someone would hear and get suspicious. At around three or so, I got out of my chair, shut down my computer, and made a beeline for my car. Within a few minutes or so, I was at Nightingale, facing my father. I noticed Kylo and Poe were there as well, they had explained that they were volunteering as wait staff to help catch Vader in the act.

"Okay, everyone, thank you for coming ahead of time. As some of you know, Nightingale is in trouble- Vader wants to take control of the club in the name of some Emperor," Brendol said. "We'll need to set up cameras throughout the club, because we'll have evidence to send Vader to jail. Sound good?" Everyone nodded and got straight to work setting up the cameras. For a while, I glanced at Finn, the staff supervisor and our maitre d', stealing a kiss with Rey, our tech person.

"Will you two be at the ball?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm letting Thannison have maitre d' duties so Rey and I can go on a proper date," he said before whispering in my ear. "I'm also hoping I'll propose to her, Maker willing."

"Good luck," I said, smiling at him as we both placed and set up cameras, making sure to keep them in inconspicuous places. But little did we know, we were being watched.

PHASMA

After preparation, rehearsals, and all that jazz, the Halloween Ball finally came. Thursday's technical rehearsal went off without a hitch, and it was relieving to know the lights (and cameras) worked properly. As for me, I made sure my ghostly flapper costume looked fabulous- and it did. A white dress I found was tattered and stained with dirt and blood, with a high enough slit showing one of my garters- and the skeletal leg! At the center of my feather headband, instead of a jewel, there was a skull, and a strand of black pearls made for a fabulous lavaliere rather than the classic white pearls. But what I prided myself on was my makeup- I had made my face look pale, and painted my eyes and cheeks to look sunken in, and topped it off with a ruby red pout.

The team was also ready for the evening, made obvious by their elaborate costumes- Rose wore an elaborate steampunk ball gown, Poe was dressed as a goth, Kylo wore hippie togs, Thannison wore an elegant pirate's costume, and Mitaka was dressed as the Phantom of the Opera. Now, I knew Hux and I looked good in our zombie Jazz Age couple costume, but Finn and Rey certainly took the cake. Rey's arms were wrapped in gauze, and a bejeweled white dress shimmered in the faint light. Next to her was Finn, a mighty pharaoh who commanded respect. Right next to Thannison was a skeleton toting a double bass, as well as Frankenstein's monster with a guitar. Along with a wolfman with a trumpet, an evil clown on trombone, and a ghost on drums, Hux introduced them to me as friends from a band back in his college days who would be accompanying us. I was glad to see everyone present, but I worried about Brendol. Why was he running late? Hux then took me aside, still looking handsome in his destroyed white tie and tails.

"My dad will be here in a minute or so, darling, so don't worry," he said, gently placing a kiss on my pale forehead. Like a miracle from God, Brendol's car pulled up to the curb and stopped. He emerged from the car with a bow, wearing an elegant baroque ensemble that would make him the envy of the Sun King or any other monarch.

"Forgive my lateness, but thank you all for arriving on time," he said with a nod. "Now, waitstaff," he said, turning to Rose, Poe, Kylo, and Thannison, "you are equipped with pens that can record conversations, which would come in handy when around anyone that seems suspicious. But remember, this is no easy task since everyone will be in costume."

"Understood," Rose said.

"Rey, you and Finn are our spies. Both of you have hidden microphones and cameras in your costumes, so as you mill around, you'll be taking pictures discreetly by touching the red gem on your collars." Both of them nodded. Brendol explained the rest of the plan to the staff as I made double adjustments to the cameras hidden within the plants. "Very well then, are we all prepared?" Brendol asked. Everyone nodded in agreement as we all got ready for the ball to begin. "Wonderful. I'll be helping tend bar ut needed. Best of luck, everyone," he said, as we all walked into Nightingale. All the staff (including Pudge, our resident mouse catcher) was equipped with cameras to see if anything suspicious was going on. Once the ball ends, we would probably be sifting through footage to see if anything of interest popped up.

I sat at my vanity, warming up my voice and putting on the last of my ghostly makeup when I heard a slight jingle and the sound of Hux's shoes tapping on the floor. The door then creaked gently open, and Hux appeared before me, his white tie and tails destroyed and covered in dirt and fake blood. His face was painted pale green and adorned with nasty looking scars, and a biohazard symbol was “etched” into his forehead. Hanging from his neck strap was an alto sax that looked like it had seen better days, the shine gone from Hux playing it so often. Despite that, I smiled sweetly at him. “You look dapper.”

"It's almost time," he told me, offering me his arm as Pudge nudged my leg, his black bowtie collar jingling merrily. I walked out onto the dark stage, the audience silent as corpses (ha, ha), waiting for what I had in store for them. I nodded at one of the backstage technicians, and he began to play a custom CD we had made for the beginning of the concert. With help from Hux's co-worker Kylo, we made a perfect voiceover welcoming out guests to the ball. Now an ominous voice boomed throughout the club, startling many of the patrons (I swore I even heard a few screams!).

Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Gory Twenties. Blood flows like bootleg liquor, the jazz is hotter than Hell, and the dead walk the Earth once more. There is no escape from this possessed speakeasy- no one has survived to make it out and tell the tale! Keep your wits about you, otherwise you may be cursed to remain in this prison forever among restless flappers and murderous mafiosos! Like we said, there's no way out!

Psychotic laughter, followed by ghostly sounds played over the loudspeakers, along with clanking chains and cries of desperation. All was silent as a fog rolled across the stage. Then my disembodied voice rang out.

Those fingers in my hair/That sly come hither stare/That strips my conscience bare/Ooh, it's witchcraft...

The lights go up, and we are revealed with wild applause to the audience, creatures of the night welcoming our victims to an Art Deco bloodbath. I sang on, scanning the audience for some sign of Vader, but there was no gas mask in sight. During the bridge, I did my usual routine- flirt with Hux and anyone else in the audience, vocalize a little, and do a sultry dance in place. It was during this that Rose gave us a confirmed sighting.

"He's here. Do you see the mobster guy in the white cape?" she asked. I silently replied, making sure to step away from the microphone. "That's where Vader is sitting. I'll notify Brendol and the others ASAP. Tell Hux." I slid close to Hux, whispering in his ear about the bad news while Mitaka played a solo.

"Mafiosos, over at table twenty," I said, and then that was when I noticed his face turn pale as a sheet.

"Krennic."

"What?"

"The man in the white cape is Krennic. I know him, and I hate that bastard," he said angrily. "I have the great misfortune of him being my co-worker."

"Should Kylo investigate him?"

"I would think so, but he'll have to use a fine-toothed comb to go through it all." Mitaka cleared his throat at us, and that signaled me to start singing again, all the while shooting death glares at Krennic.

HUX

I was angry. Angry at myself for telling Krennic, angry at Krennic for having the gall to show up, and angry in general because I had an untrustworthy co-worker I had confided in who would probably betray me! Nonetheless, the police were called, and would be on their way to, eventually, remedy the situation. But for the time being, nobody did anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, and the performance went off without a hitch- the crowd loved it!

Despite our situation, we were having a good time and the patrons enjoyed themselves. The fun kept going when one of the other musicians handed Phasma his trombone. Knowing the direction this was taking, she smiled and laughed- as did I.

“I only have experience with piano, ukulele, harp, and some percussion so I’d like to apologize for this trombone concerto,” she said with a joking smile. “Armie, will you accompany me and make this a duet?” she asked, fluttering her eyelashes.

“Yes indeed, my love,” I announced, readying my alto sax with great ceremony. Both of us nodded at the drummer, who picked up a woodblock. The drummer began tapping out a light beat on the woodblock, keeping time. Phasma flashed a dainty smile, and raised the trombone to her lips. What followed was something that sounded like a Wookiee getting in a fight with a porg- I was the porg. From my spot, I could see that despite her lack of trombone experience, Phasma was having fun and getting into it. Inspired by her, I got into it as well, punctuating her notes with trills, awkward squawks, and glissandos, even adding an altissimo scream. I played the part of the stereotypical cool jazz musician, lifting my saxophone up, swinging it forwards and back, and swaying it from side to side with every crappy note we played. Phasma and I played our final sour notes, and the woodblock assumed the role of the metronome one last time. The audience applauded (either because it was funny or out of relief-maybe both) as I bowed and she curtsied, an angelic smile dancing on her face. She handed the trombone back to the original owner, a faint ring of lipstick on the mouthpiece.

“And for my next performance, I will attempt to play Armie’s sax,” she said jokingly, as I dramatically clutched the alto to my chest.

“Oh no you won’t!” I joked, and she laughed in response.

“Just kidding! I can't play it anyway," she replied, kissing my cheek gently. “Now we’re going to be a bit more serious for this number,” she said, lowering her voice an octave or so, perching on a bar stool. In her ruined white flapper dress, crystals and sequins glittering, she looked like a dove, but also like an angel. None of the other musicians played as I closed my eyes and played a slow, yearning (and in tune) melody. Like she tended to do during these sensual numbers, she closed her eyes and did a breathy hum before beginning the lyrics. The others joined in as I played a sensual phrase just as soon as she lifted her eyes and sang.

“The moon was all aglow, and heaven was in your eyes/The night that you told me/Those little white lies…” Just then, she stopped short and let out an audible gasp of fear. Standing in the foyer of the bar, looming like monsters in a bad dream, the mafiosos stood, smirking. In a stark black pinstriped suit, Vader stepped forward, dark glasses making him look even more sinister than he was.

"Lovely ball you've put together, Miss Phasma," he intoned.

"You don't belong here, the police are on their way," Phasma hissed.

"Not anymore," Vader argued. "We've brought you a gift." Krennic stepped forward, holding one of the cameras, and proceeded to pour his expensive glass of champagne on it, dropping it to the floor. It sparked like crazy, and burst into flames as Brendol ran forward with a fire extinguisher.

"You won't get away, Vader!" Brendol hissed, as they laughed viciously.

"I believe we have, and for that, your deadline got shorter and shorter. You have until the first of December to scrape up that ransom money. We'll be watching," Vader said, but not without leaving a suspicious box on his table. Immediately, I whipped out my cell phone.

"I need the police."

PHASMA

With that, Vader left the club, along with his goons. I looked nervously at the box, which began to tick ominously, fearful for what might happen. Police sirens wailed, and a squad car as well as the bomb squad showed up just in time.

My mind immediately went to Vader and Krennic. how somehow, he must have known- or someone had tipped him off. Who could I trust? After all, Vader wasn’t just a threat to Nightingale, but to the town as well. And frankly, not knowing what his plans were scared me. Desperately, I looked at the anxious crowd, my eyes meeting Brendol’s. I thought I was being paranoid when I assumed that Vader might have placed something like a bomb in the club, but the box confirmed my fears. In the best interest of the patrons (and because one of the police officers advised me to do so), I decided they would have to evacuate for their own safety.

“Ladies and gentlemen, due to safety reasons, we’ll have to end the celebration earlier than we expected.” I awaited the boos and demand for refunds, but no one said a word. Sure, there were a few groans of disappointment, but those were halted by firm words.

“Last call for drinks!” Thannison said, getting into his role of a Caribbean pirate, and a steady stream of people made their way to the bar, hoping to get in a last drink order before the fun would have to end. Immediately, I had an idea. I whispered something to Mitaka, and he played a longing piano line. The bassist and drummer picked up the tune, and Hux played a wistful tenor moan. Bowing my head and closing my eyes, I took a breath and sang into the microphone.

“I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places…” The party atmosphere slowly dissipated, thanks in part to Vader’s surprise appearance, and all that remained was a somber mood. It seemed more like a funeral than a Halloween celebration. I heard the sound of someone sniffling and holding back tears, and noticed that my own eyes were starting to mist and tear up. My voice quivered as I continued to sing the melody, making the song sound even more melancholy than it was. At the end of the verse, I composed myself as Hux and Mitaka took a solo. Pudge knew I was sad, and ended his mouse catcher duties to rub up against me and comfort me. The rest of the musicians fell silent as they were evacuated, leaving me singing as I made my way out of the club, makeup ruined by my tears- but I didn't care. Just as I sang the last note, the police came running out, the suspicious package being revealed to be a smoke bomb which was recently defused.

Patrons milled about outside, confused and desperate for answers. One of the police men handed me a megaphone, and I began to confess everything to the patrons.

"Ladies and gentlemen... Nightingale is in danger. Vader is demanding five hundred thousand dollars by the start of December, and if we don't make it," my voice began to quaver, "Nightingale will be no more." More murmurs resounded through the crowd, and I handed the megaphone to Brendol.

"But... we'll find some sort of way to catch Vader in the act and get the club back. Mark my words, it will be done!" he said, to the cheers of the patrons. Someone took up the chant of "Save Nightingale!" and the crowd roared the chant in unison. It was a powerful scene, one that empowered me- and sent the wheels turning in my head for a plan. If we were going to get Vader out of the way and Nightingale back, then we might as well have to do an old-fashioned heist. Because Vader should have known better than to cross paths with me.

#nightingale #my writing

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thriftyseo · 2 years

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Trying the New Keyboard

So recently, I just deidd to get back to my goal of writing something everyday. Well, pat of it is getting my tools prepared for this endevour that I would like to go into.

The first thing that I decided to look for is what are the goal and what I wll use for this project. I know that for writing, I need a keyboard, a mouse and a computer/tablet/desktop.

Thing to consider:

Easiness of use

Since I have been pushing this for a long time now, it would need to be eas y for me to use to make sure that I don’t get bored again and leave this project for the second time.

Portability

I plan to bring this content creation thing wherever I got, comes portablity, It simply means that I need to be able to stil do work wherever I go, instead of being stuck at home in front of my desktop.

Know comes the decision part.

The Mouse

This is the fastest decision I did since I have 2 extra mouse laying around that I can use. since I do enjoy using the Rapoo brand, I still have 2 extra mouse that I can use for this project.

Tablet? Computer? Desktop?

In rush of the Sale last month, I decided to build another desktop computer with a much better specs to before. Personally, I think this is a rush decision, but since I already ordered some parts, I decided to push with the best since this would be a computer I’m planning to use in the next 5 yrs or so, might be longer.

haven’t received the parts yet but I haven’t decided where to put it to ba able to maximize and use it, I am now thinking of the possibility of putting the new desktop in my sons room where a 4k tv can be used as the monitor, being it having a good authetic, I would say that this would be much better compared to putting it in the fish room or my office and cramming the little table space I got.

Laptop

I’m pretty sure that I would be using this eventually more on graphics or such, but just by thinking of it right now, this would be not as often that I can think off since I really don’t like how the keyboard on it feels. But this is just personal preference and might chnage when circumstances happens.

Tablet

I have had this tablets since last December as a gift for myself with the main purpose of using it for reading ebooks to further enhance my category. This tablet has always been said to be a good model for the tablet and it does look like it is working as expected.

I plan to use this tablet to create both text content and simpel graphics that I really think this tablet can do perfectly.

With it being a touch screen tablet, this would be much faster for me when typing and scolling on things when needed.

Keyboard

Being a cheapsake that I am, I have been contemplating in getting the smallest keyboard and cheapest that I can find to work with this tablet. With portability in mind, I opted for another Rapoo keyboard, a smaller version of the one that I am using at home, this would be easier for me since I don’t need to adjust much on how I use the Keyboard.

There is something wrong though with this keyboard, I have been mistyping lots of words maybe it is due to on how this was actually made.

Right now, I am looking at the Keychron K series since I am intrigue on how the mechanical keyboards feels like when it comes to typing, which I think I will get in the future.

Currently, I am still happy on how this keyboard is working for me but I am getting constant keys that are not registering. Possible since this is a new item, the keyboard still need some time to be use to get the best out of it.

Forgive me if this post is now getting longer as expected, but I am enjoying how this tablet and keyboard is working properly. I’m not sure why I am getting something dusty when using this keyboard, might be the environment, but I’m getting that dusty feeling right now.

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sending-the-message · 6 years

Text

Never Buy Cheap Computers on Craigslist by 2017Interloper

Ever notice the little lightbulb icon at the top of the MS Word screen, to the far right of all the options like File, Home, View, etc.? Well, I don’t know about yours, but mine isn’t working properly. It showed me something I didn’t want to see, and I may have used it to kill my girlfriend.

I just got a new laptop. For a broke ass grad student, finding a customized Lenovo ThinkPad b66 with 32G Ram and all the other awesome specs it comes with, WITH WINDOWS 7 INSTALLED (Huge selling point for me) for $300 was unreal. I use my laptop for gaming, streaming, work, school, you name it. I had to go check it out. I didn’t realize the b66 was a Lenovo model, but reading the tech specs on the Craigslist ad gave me a nerd boner for the ages.

The older lady who answered the phone number listed on the craigslist ad was really nice, and said it had belonged to her grandson. “He is gone now,” she told me. “I have no use for the thing. Is three hundred too much? It looks like a nice computer, at least, to me.” I could have been a total dick, and talked her down to 200. I am sure of it. But, I would have felt bad about it, and I happened to have the cash. Granted, it was all I had, but I had gas in the car, coffee, and my girlfriend and I had some things in the pantry that could pass as food, so we’d be ok for a few days. I noticed that the lady didn’t specify what ‘gone’ meant in reference to her grandson, whether he had died, moved away or what have you, and thought it a bit odd that she had mentioned it. Hey, maybe she was just a lonely old lady and I was the first person she had spoken to in a few days, right? I told her I was sorry about her grandson, went and cleaned out my bank account at the nearest ATM and sat in my car at the Evergreen Town Park where we had agreed to meet, waiting for her to show up.

I had to call my girlfriend, Alex. She and I had been talking about getting a new laptop for a while now; the one we currently shared was getting a little long in tooth. There was one we were looking at that was decent and in our price range, but I was resistant to spending any money on it, because they all come with Windows 10 now, and I freaking hate Windows 10. We settled on looking at used ones, and figured it would be cheaper that way anyway.

“Hey!” She answered. “Good timing. You just got me on my break. What’s up?”

“Well, I drained my bank account, but you are never going to guess what I just found for three hundred bucks!”

At first, she was weary about the cost but when I told her about the operating system and had her google the specs on the thing, all she could say was “damn.”

I saw the lady I was waiting for, at least, I figured it was her. She was driving a green Buick, and craning her neck, likely looking around for me and my car as I described it on the phone. She was probably feeling the slight anxiety that most people get when meeting someone from Craigslist, that ‘what if I just gave my car’s description to some serial killer’ feeling. I figured I’d not keep her waiting on me, and I was psyched about the computer. “Babe, I gotta run. I don’t want to be all rude and make this old lady wait. Love You.”

“Love You. Good find. Can’t wait to check it out.” We hung up and I got out of the car and waived at the lady in the Buick.

She rolled down her window halfway. “Are you Colin? The young man I spoke to earlier?” She asked, a little hesitantly.

“Yes ma’am, thank you for meeting me. My girlfriend and I have been looking for a good computer for a while now,” I told her, trying to small talk a little to make her feel at ease. I got the impression she was nervous or uncomfortable. Craigslist ads get a lot of bad publicity. For all the scams and bullshit that undoubtedly originate with Craigslist ads, most times when you buy secondhand things, rent an apartment or adopt a pet go without a hitch. But, those aren’t ever the ones you hear about. Plus, I’m a dude, so I don’t worry about that stuff as much as Alex does and I imagine other women might. I mean, it’s not like a bigger dude couldn’t lure me out to a dark alley and jump me or whatever, I guess it’s just not my nature to worry about things like that. If it happens, I’ll deal with it when the time comes. Then, I just wanted to make the old lady feel at ease, because she was doing Alex and me a huge favor with this cheap laptop.

She seemed a little uneasy still, but she stepped out of the car, and we walked over to the bench. She took the laptop out of the case and handed it to me. “Go on ahead and fire it up,” she said. “You can take a look and make sure it has everything it is supposed to have, and no viruses or bugs or whatever it is that steals all your information.” She smiled. “Forgive me, I don’t know much about these things. I had my daughter type out all of the information on that computer ad you found my number on. She showed me how to use Facebook on my phone, and that’s about as far as I go with this sort of thing.”

The laptop booted right up, appeared to have all the usual bells and whistles, had a full version of Microsoft Office on it (I would remember to switch the subscription to my name later) and a surface inspection of it looked fine. I told the lady as much. “It looks fantastic to me. I believe I owe you a few dollars?” I produced six fifty-dollar bills from my wallet and handed them to her, trying to be discreet. I’d rather have a casual onlooker think it was a drug deal than jump her because they saw me handing her cash.

She still looked a little uneasy as she stuck the bills in her wallet. “Thank you,” she said.

“Ma’am?” I asked, hoping that she hadn’t realized that she was practically giving the computer away. “Is everything all right?”

She sighed, barely audible. “Yes, thank you.” We got up and walked toward the parking lot. “I just…” She paused, looking as if she were trying to decide whether or not to tell me something. “My grandson… he was on the computer a lot. I can’t say for sure what got to him at the end, but… I don’t know. Just be careful,” she said warily. With that, she got back into the Buick and left.

I sat there holding my new computer and feeling kind of weird. I mean, what had happened to the kid? Had he gone into a chatroom and met some kind of creepy pedophile? Disappeared? Suicide? It really was nothing but idle curiosity and I supposed it didn’t matter anyway, but it gave me the creeps. I shook it off and drove home.

I took the computer into the apartment I shared with Alex, and set it down on the small, round kitchen table we had. It was getting dark, so it was probably around 6:00, and I was hungry. I figured Alex would grab a bite on her way home. She didn’t get off work until 10:30, and I wasn’t a great cook, nor did I feel like making pasta or a sandwich, which were currently my options. I grabbed the take-out box of last night’s Chinese and put it in the microwave. While my crappy takeout dinner reheated, I unzipped the bag the laptop was in and fired it up. There was a wireless mouse, a wall plugs, and a manufacturer’s CD-ROM that came with the computer neatly tucked into the bag with the laptop.

I shuddered a little seeing the dead boy’s name pop up with a little icon of a soccer ball. I was going to click “guest,” but I told myself I needed to access the admin account on the computer to create my own profile, run some anti malware and antivirus BS and all that. If I were being honest with myself, I wanted to snoop a little, because the lady’s comments were kind of weird. I pulled up Google, and just as I suspected, the kid’s account was still logged in. The microwave startled me when it let me know that my food was done with a pretentious little ‘ding!’ I got up and got my food and a fork, realizing that I felt guilty, like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar, thinking in that brief second that I may have been discovered snooping through a dead kid’s computer.

No. MY computer, I mentally corrected myself. I purchased it, and the previous owner just had something unfortunate happen to him. It wasn’t the computer. And it isn’t snooping, because it is my computer, and I would like to know if the kid had visited any websites or received any sketch emails that I should worry about stealing my credit cards and internet porn search history or anything like that. Right?

Right. And so, with that justification in mind, even though I wasn’t actually concerned about any of that, I went about my snooping. I was curious, and felt kind of guilty and a little spooked. There is something that feels intrinsically wrong about snooping through a dead person’s files, especially a dead kid. Maybe he hadn’t died, but I had the feeling he did, from the way his grandmother had warned me. My mind kicked into justification mode again and told me it was no different than wandering around an estate sale after someone died, and Alex brought me to those all the time. Truth be told, they creeped me out a little, too, but it’s just what people did. Best not to think about it.

Over the next few hours, I found very little, if any, surprising or suspicious activity on the computer. The kid mostly hung out in chat rooms, played WoW, had a reddit account, and had spent a lot of time on YouTube. Nothing that looked like it would be installing malware. (And, I thought, nothing to indicate the kid was suicidal or into anything weird). Somehow it felt like ghosts should have come flying out of the screen or something. None did, and I decided that none of it was my business anyway. I selected anything I found in documents, music, pictures, or on the desktop and each time hit shift+delete, so it would bypass the recycle bin and I would not be tempted to snoop. Snooping like that is sort of a rabbit hole, and one thing my mother always said when we would house sit for the neighbors or found ourselves in anyone else’s home when they weren’t home rung true with me here: ‘if you go looking for trouble, you’ll find it. Doesn’t enough trouble find us on its own?’ That was her ‘don’t snoop through shit that isn’t yours’ spiel, and she was probably right. Time to make it my own.

I wiped the signed-in account on the browser. I went in to the ‘users’ screen and created my own as an Admin, and I made sure any programs I would need to use were installed in a way that any user could access them. I signed in as me, and deleted the poor, dead kid’s account. I opened up Word, intending to sign in to my own “Office 365” Account, so the lady didn’t get charged or anything, and I went to the top of the screen for the “sign in” option.

It wasn’t there. Huh, weird, I thought. Could this have been one of those older copies of Microsoft you bought on a disc and didn’t have to pay a subscription fee for? Score again! I thought they had stopped making those. It looked pretty new, though. Weird. The front door opened, and I heard, “Hellooooo!” in Alex’s sing-songy voice.

“Hey babe.” She came in and kissed my cheek.

“So, you gonna show me this new hotshot computer of ours?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, yours.”

“You can use it sometimes,” I teased. She shoved my shoulder playfully.

As I suspected, she had grabbed something from Zaxby’s on the way home. I grabbed one of the fries in her meal and savored it. Zaxby’s coats their fries in seasoned salt, and they’re freaking delicious. She slapped my hand away and whined, “Hey! I haven’t eaten since noon. Back off!” She turned away from me. “Hey…” She grabbed the wireless mouse and moved it to the top of the screen. Microsoft Word was still open.

“This a bootleg or something?” She was hovering the mouse over the top part of the ribbon, where it says ‘Home, Design, Review’ and the like. Next to those options was a little lightbulb that said “TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO” and it was blinking red.

“I don’t know, but I tried to sign in to our account, and there is no place to do that,” I told her. “What makes you say that?”

She ate another fry and thought about it. “I don’t know, it just looks different. Maybe the blinking red ‘Help’ thing?” She sat down and moved the laptop in front of her. “May I?”

“Sure.” I gestured for her to have at it. My girlfriend currently works in retail, at a department store, and a lot of people mistakenly assume that retail jobs don’t have any use for tech skills. As the Assistant Manager of her department, she used these Microsoft programs as much or more than I did.

“I can’t get over the blinking ‘TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO’ thing,” she said. “It’s weirding me out.” She clicked it and it stopped blinking.

She typed, ‘I want to get a raise at work’ and hit enter. “Let’s see what a discounted two-thousand-dollar computer with a bootleg copy of Word can do for me,” she joked.

The screen sat there loading for a minute before a pop-up appeared on the screen.

No Registered User Found. Would you like to register, Alex McCabe? (Yes, No)

“What the fuck?!” She said, scooting her chair away from the table. She looked at me.

I should have been scared, felt defensive, or been worried, but I was fascinated. “How…?”

“You should uninstall that,” she said. “It’s probably some kind of black market copy that steals your…. I don’t know.” She walked over and clicked No. The screen reverted to its usual, mostly normal format, except the red blinking message: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. “I am getting in the shower.”

As soon as I heard the bedroom door shut, I immediately began typing into the red blinking area on top of the MS word screen. ‘Tell me how you knew my girlfriend’s name.’

Loading again. Error message.

‘No registered user found. Would you like to register, Colin Davies? (Y/N)’

I clicked yes. Should I have been a little more concerned that it knew the difference between me and my girlfriend? Absolutely. But I was oddly transfixed by it, and for some reason, it didn’t seem odd at the time. Maybe I was just careless, and maybe it was something else that made me click Yes; I can’t be sure now. Hindsight is always 20/20, right?

‘THANK YOU, COLIN. YOU ARE NOW THE REGISTERED USER. PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND END USER LICENSING AGREEMENT, THEN TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.’

Does anyone ever read the terms and conditions? I didn’t. I typed again, ‘I want to know how you knew our names.’

Error: invalid query.

Okay, well, good parlor trick, Microsoft. Our Wi-Fi/Cable provider billed us on a joint account, so I figured it was pulling our names from the ISP. Great privacy policy, Comcast. I rolled my eyes and typed, ‘I want to see Alex get a raise at work tomorrow’ and hit enter.

DID YOU READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS?

I clicked Yes, Ignoring the link.

Loading. Nothing happened.

“We’ll see.” I chuckled to myself and closed the lid. I figured I’d join Alex in the shower. And I did. As we were drying off, I told her how I’d registered the software in my own name, and that I told it to get her a raise.

She said, “You erased that creepy bootleg and just downloaded the regular one, right?”

“Of course.” The lie was on my lips before I had time to consider it. In hindsight, that too was odd, because Alex and I had a policy of absolute honesty. The kind of honesty that I wouldn’t recommend for most couples. She had been cheated on in the past, and I had a roommate that got into Heroin and stole from me, so when we first started dating, it was something we had easily agreed on: no lies. And usually, I kept to it. Usually, I had nothing to lie about. I didn’t even think about it as we curled up for bed that night.

Later on that night, I woke to a godawful racket that I can only compare to some sort of a ‘roided-out digital dog whistle. An alarm of some sort? I nudged Alex to see if she could hear it too. She had to. It was loud, abrasive, and probably waking the neighbors. Was it in the house? A neighbor’s alarm system? How the actual fuck was she sleeping through this? Wow. She rolled over and mumbled something incoherent. Sleeping like a baby. I got up, grabbing the .22 varmint rifle I kept next to the bed, and went to see what the noise was. In retrospect, on some level I knew that an intruder couldn’t make this sort of screeching, ear shattering noise, but I was half asleep and did the guy thing: grab gun, defend turf. Like a magnet, I was drawn into the small kitchen, and I could somehow feel that the sound was coming from that area, even though it permeated the air in a way that it was no louder or softer in one room than any other. My new laptop sat innocuously, closed, on the kitchen table, but it was emitting a sickly, orangeish red glow from the small space between the screen and the keyboard. The unnatural light formed an odd, glowing square around the laptop, except the side with the hinges that the screen rested on when you flipped it open.

Okay, I thought. I knew I should have considered that there would be something wrong with this thing. Too cheap. But could it really be making this noise? I half considered shooting the damn thing and going back to bed. I wish I had. Too much paperwork, though. Discharging a firearm in city ordinances would surely get you in deep shit, even if a rabid racoon was attacking you. Instead, God help me, I decided to open it up and see if there was some sort of alarm system or something in the computer causing the noise. Note to self, I thought, turn the damn thing all the way off before bed. In fact, remove the battery.

I sat down at the table, the unholy screeching still in my head, and flipped open the screen. The screeching immediately stopped, and the sickening glow went back to the usual, blue-light laptop screen that all of our retinas have come to know and love. I blinked a couple of times, to clear the sleep fuzz out of my eyes, and because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I’m sorry to wake you, Colin.

I need you to read the terms and conditions.

(OK/Cancel)

I clicked “cancel,” and the error message returned, and the screeching began again, worse than before. It was actually causing my eyes to water, sort of how you’ll involuntarily cry if you get punched in the nose. I never knew that ears had the same connection with the tear ducts. Today I Learned, thought dryly as I clicked Yes.

I had no intentions of reading any terms or conditions at that hour, but I knew as I was slowly scrolling through them that I would file a complaint with Lenovo, Microsoft and any other company that had any software or hardware in that computer in the morning, because that is one obnoxious way to get someone to read an End User agreement. I slowly scrolled to the bottom and when I figured that the appropriate amount of time had passed that the computer would (think???) that I had actually read all of their legal garbage, I clicked ‘I Agree’ at the bottom of the pop-up window.

I had often thought to myself that one day, I would actually need to start reading things before signing/agreeing to them. If you pay attention to the news and tech articles, you’ll see that there are certain functions on our SMART tv’s, cell phones and computers that you are not required to allow or agree to, but that we all generally do, essentially allowing these devices to access all of our personal data. I had nothing to hide, and thought that maybe if someone wanted to steal my identity, they could pay my student loan balance while they were at it, and perhaps file last year’s taxes for me. But, like a good red-blooded American, I bought anti-virus software, carried a wallet that protected my bank and credit card info from devices that could remotely steal the info, and upgraded my cards to the ones with the chips in them when my bank asked me to. This time, though, I didn’t read it because I don’t like being told what to do. It’s possible that my stubbornness has caused me a lot of trouble, because the Terms and Conditions the stupid computer wanted me to read weren’t even all that long, compared to some of the other crap I’ve had to scroll through to access my software and apps, but I was tired and still had a headache from that stupid “Terms and Conditions Police” alarm the computer had blasted into my head. I looked at the screen, which was on Microsoft Word again. I shook my head, already forgetting about how I had (told??) my computer that I wanted my girlfriend to get a raise at work.

When you do things like this, little goofy, innocuous things, you tend to forget about it. Alex and I thought we were being clever, typing about her getting a raise into an oddly-worded field (TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO) that was obviously a help field. The text would have been ingeniously created by some Adderall-popping millennial with a three-day beard and a skinny-pants suit somewhere in Silicon Valley behind a desk, who had probably been paid an obscene salary to come up with some words that were more ‘user-centered’ than the word “Help.” That’s how all of these things work, isn’t it?

Not this one. Anyway, I went about my daily business, attending classes, working my side hustle (which is what I called my part-time office job to make it sound cool. It was my only hustle, and was boring as all hell) and using the computer as one might – I worked on my Masters thesis, sent emails, procrastinated on Reddit, Facebook and occasionally (I know, NERD) played WoW or browsed the crappy, free amateur adventures of YouPorn. Normally, I didn’t bother with Porn, because Alex was… well, I’ll say the kind of girl that didn’t require a huge hand-to-man relationship most of the time. She was an awesome girlfriend, or, at least, I thought she was, before all this. She had been coming home late a lot lately, and acting a little different. Stress, I assumed, and didn’t think twice about it. I certainly didn’t want to add to it. She was hoping to go from Assistant Department Manager to Assistant Store Manager, and she had taken on some extra responsibilities in order to do that.

One night, I sat at the computer, three beers deep, trying like hell to write some stupid paper for school. I can’t even remember what it was. I stared at the computer, tired and drawing a blank, and noticed the help message at the top corner of my screen blinking red: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. I don’t know why I did it. I missed Alex, hadn’t been hanging out with my buddies from school or work much, and I guess the computer was saying something that spoke to me I typed, I WANT TO SEE ALEX.

Go figure, no weird error messages this time. I went to delete my typing and go back to my research when an odd program popped up. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. It was Alex, all right, and she was at work – but she was in the back room, I was guessing, bent over a table with her tits hanging out of her button-down shirt and her skirt hiked up around her waist. A man held her hands behind her back while he fucked her from behind. I knew this guy, it was Dan, the Store Manager. And he was fucking my girlfriend. Let me tell you, this shit put YouPorn to shame. Alex was hot, and if I wasn’t so freaked out by this, and if I wasn’t looking at my own girlfriend and her boss, I would have had a rager to take care of. If not for the audio, I could have suspected she was being raped, and sprang into action. Only, she wasn’t. People who were being raped didn’t usually tell their assailants to fuck them, and moan, and… Oh, God. I felt sick. I was in shock. There was no way that was Alex… except, hadn’t that been the outfit she left today wearing?

How the fuck did the computer do that? Maybe it was some kind of elaborate hoax. I did the only thing that my numbed brain could think of, and I called her. If I spoke to her, and she didn’t sound like she was letting some guy drill her like a porn star in the back room, maybe I would just set fire to the computer and be done with it. I called her cell phone number, and god damn it I heard her ring tone. Through the audio on that God damned video.

No, please, no. I heard her say “He’ll call back.” And with that, I knew she was cheating on me. For a sick, voyeuristic moment, I sat and watched this unfold. As they were switching positions, her on her knees, and he approaching her with his dick in his hand, I found the X at the top of the screen and closed it. Now, I had a lot on my mind. Alex, whom I was sure I would ask to marry me after grad school before that moment, was cheating on me. What’s more, somehow, my computer knew it, and had found a camera somewhere in the room and showed it to me. What was anyone hoping to accomplish with all this? What the fuck was up with this computer? What was wrong with this world?

I should have gone to Alex’s work and asked for her. I should have broken up with her on the spot, and beat the ever-loving shit out of ‘Dan,’ the man who was undoubtedly currently getting a blowjob from the mouth that kissed me every morning. Instead, I went back to the computer, and stared at the field where I had typed ‘I WANT TO SEE ALEX’, blinking red, with the message TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. My voice cracked, I could hear it through the empty apartment. I said, through very un-manly tears that I was furiously trying to choke back, “Why?”

It wasn’t loud and it wasn’t a scream; more a perfect reflection of the confusion, hurt and anger I was currently feeling. How could she? How long had it been going on? Had she ever… before we…. My train of thought was interrupted as a dialogue box popped up on the screen of my computer that said, “SHE REALLY WANTED THAT RAISE, COLIN.” I picked the computer up and heaved it against the wall, expecting to be sweeping it into the trash in a drunken rage (I pounded the rest of my beer and opened two more very shortly after) along with my hopes and dreams of a future with Alex, but it bounced off the wall and fell harmlessly to the ground. Not a chip, scratch or crack anywhere on it. What the fuck? I let out a feral cry and charged the thing. I guess I tried to tackle it. I bashed it on the floor, the table, and punched at the screen. I was seeing red.

When all was said and done, I looked at my computer, which was now on the other side of the kitchen after having been punched, slammed, kicked and punted across the room into a wall, and it sat there, unharmed, the screen seemingly taunting me with its blinking red message, which I could see across the room: TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO DO. My drunk, angry brain had now reached an eerie state of calm as I began to accept one thing about this shitty situation: somehow, this computer was able to… do things. See things. Know things. Show me things. Possibly even make things happen.

What I should have been thinking of were bets, lottery numbers, riches, success and the like. I should have confirmed what I honestly already knew. All the late nights, her emotional distance, the extra few minutes in the mirror before work, the new underwear… It all added up now, I just didn’t want to see it those past few weeks. No, I was too angry to ask my bootleg copy of Microsoft Office to give me the key to success or make me rich. All I could think of was revenge, and I sat down before I lost my nerve, opened my seventh beer for the night, and considered all of the ways I could exact it. I finally decided on one, and slowly began to type. “I want Alex McCabe to kill her boss.” The little circle spun on the screen, loading.

I sat in the dark, drinking, and waiting.

#reddit #nosleep #scary #story

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sapphicscholar · 7 years

Note

Hey, can you write a fic where Eliza Wilke realizes years later that she's gay and she tracks Maggie down to apologize cause she finally realizes just how much she hurt her and her life?

Hey, I just posted this chapter to AO3 here

A/N: Slightly nsfw at the beginning, then angst, CW for mentions of past homophobia and internalized homophobia

Also, some of this is written from Eliza’s point of view. I know she doesn’t always get the most sympathetic portrayal in fanfic, but I think hers (at least as it’s prompted here) is also a story worth telling. I think—and maybe I’m projecting—a lot of us have been Eliza, even if the consequences of our actions haven’t been nearly so dire. And maybe it’s just me who sent apology letters like this that were far too many years overdue, but I suspect that there’s something here that just might resonate for others too.

Chapter Text:

Maggie squinted down at her screen, pulling up the same notification that had been blinking up at her all day, constantly drawing her attention back to her phone, to her computer, to the memory of it. She’d gotten very little work done, pulled into focus only for a car chase that was over much too soon.

“Whatcha looking at?” Alex asked, leaning over and wrapping her arms around Maggie from behind. She kissed her cheek and brought her hands up to Maggie’s shoulders. “You feel tense.”

“I’m sure you could help with that,” Maggie flirted, closing her laptop and standing up from the desk. “Why don’t we head into the bedroom and find some way to relax together…”

“Mm, you know I’ll still want to know what happened today to make you this stressed, right?” Alex murmured, even as she dropped her lips to Maggie’s neck, kissing and sucking at the sensitive skin there. She smiled as she felt Maggie shudder, felt her breath catch as she let out a small gasp when Alex’s teeth found her pulse point.

“But bed now?” Maggie managed, unwilling to deal with this conversation at the moment and very much in need of a distraction to drive it from her thoughts.

“I suppose…” Alex trailed off, a teasing smile playing at her lips. With a bend of her knees and a swift movement, Alex scooped Maggie up into her arms and carried her over to the bedroom. Maggie’s squeak of surprise quickly morphed into a needy whimper as Alex slid a warm hand up Maggie’s shirt and flexed her abs, urging Maggie to grind against her. Rather than taking Maggie straight to the bed, Alex turned and brought them over to the wall, pushing Maggie up against it and groaning as Maggie hooked her legs around Alex’s waist, drawing her closer as she claimed her lips in a searing kiss that left them both gasping for air.

Feeling Maggie shifting in her arms, desperately trying to find friction, and hearing the steady stream of needy whimpers just barely stifled when she dragged her teeth across Maggie’s lower lip, Alex pulled back. Before she could ask what Maggie wanted, the other woman was gasping out an order: “Bed. Now.”

With a look of pure want, Alex pivoted and crossed the room in two long strides, tossing Maggie down into the pillows and quickly joining her, bracketing her with arms as she leaned over and flicked her tongue across Maggie’s lower lip, begging for entrance.

Eventually Alex grew impatient and tugged at Maggie’s jeans. “Off?”

Maggie nodded, helping to expedite the process by shimmying them over her hips and down her legs, biting her lip as Alex cast a hungry gaze down at her. Alex hooked her fingers beneath the waistband of Maggie’s boyshorts and slipped them off and down her legs. She dropped to her stomach and trailed teasing kisses and gentle bites up and down Maggie’s inner thighs until Maggie’s fingers tangled in her hair and urged her toward her dripping center.

Deciding there had already been enough teasing, Alex dipped her head down and flicked her tongue between Maggie’s folds, groaning at just how wet she already was. “You taste so good,” she murmured.

Maggie’s grip tightened in Alex’s hair at her words. It had taken a while to get Alex comfortable with really speaking up in bed, but god, when she did…

Maggie let her head drop to the pillow and her eyes flutter closed as Alex worked her up, pushing her higher and higher—but with her eyes closed, all she could picture was the blinking red notifications, the reminders of a past that apparently refused to stay in the past. Shaking her head, she tried to focus in on the moment, to be here with Alex, her very sexy girlfriend who was doing amazing things with her tongue that were apparently not going to have any effect until she dealt with her stress. With a loud sigh, Maggie dragged herself up onto her elbows. “Why do you think Eliza Wilkie sent me a message request on Facebook?”

Alex pulled back, her mouth sticky and an eyebrow arched. “I’m going to assume sex is over?”

“Sorry! I just…I don’t think anything is going to work until I know.”

“Well…did you open the message?”

Maggie shook her head.

“Do you think maybe you should try accepting it to see?”

“Just—I mean, why? Why, after more than 15 years does she suddenly care?”

“Do you really think she didn’t care all those years?” Alex asked, pulling herself up the bed to settle in next to Maggie.

“She’s the reason—the reason for, you know,” Maggie trailed off, finally giving up with a shrug of her shoulders. She had never been one to dwell on all the ways that things could have turned out differently—it wouldn’t change anything; it could only ever upset her—but Eliza’s message had sent her spiraling back into her own past, to all those what ifs she’d tried to suppress for so long now.

“But does she know? Did she know? I’m not defending her—god knows I’d love a chance to go back to Blue Springs and ruin the lives of everyone who made yours a living hell. But I can’t help but think…I don’t know, what would it mean if I reached out to Vicky after all these years? It’s not the same! Not at all. We hurt each other, but not in that same immediate kind of way. But I just, I guess that I’d hope that even after all these years, she’d at least listen to what I had to say, even if she didn’t want to forgive me or try to go back to what we had or anything like that.”

“I—I want to know. I want—I don’t know exactly what I want. I want her to be sorry. I want her to realize that even if she didn’t mean for my parents to find out, for the whole fucking town to find out, that’s what happened. And I had to go through it all alone. She didn’t have to say yes; she didn’t have to like me back; but it would’ve been nice if she—if she didn’t just leave me,” Maggie finished, her voice cracking as she rubbed roughly at her eyes.

“Oh, Maggie, I know,” Alex whispered, wrapping her arms around Maggie and holding her close. “And you don’t have to open her message. You don’t have to respond. But I think, well, if tonight was any indication, I think you need to figure out what you want to do about it, even if it means deleting it.”

“You mean you don’t want to talk about it during sex again?” Maggie joked, trying for lighthearted.

“You know, it wasn’t my favorite form of dirty talk.”

An almost full carton of vegan ice cream and a glass of wine later, Maggie sat in bed with her laptop, Facebook open, mouse hovering above the message icon. She knew Alex was right; she wouldn’t rest until she’d made up her mind about what she was going to do with Eliza’s message. And deep down she knew that if she deleted it, she’d always wonder, always want to know if maybe something had changed over the years, if maybe some part of her felt guilty for the way she’d treated Maggie, the girl who was supposed to be her best friend, all those years ago.

With one swift motion, Maggie clicked and squeezed her eyes shut, finally forcing them to open as she let out a shuddering exhale.

Hey Mags (or maybe it should be Maggie? I probably don’t deserve to call you Mags anymore…),

This message is so, so many years overdue. I didn’t—I tried. I started this message a lot. I tried it as a letter a few times, but I didn’t know where to send it. So I thought about Facebook. Sorry, these sound like excuses. There aren’t any excuses. None that make up for what happened, for how I let you disappear from my life without putting up a fight. I guess I should start with the two words I’ve wanted to say to you for the past 15 or so years: I’m sorry. They don’t erase anything that happened, I know, but I just…they’re true.

I don’t know that you want to relive any of what happened, so maybe skip this part…I don’t know. If you don’t want to read it, maybe just skip to the bottom?

I got your card, and it was sweet, but I was scared. I didn’t know how to feel about it, and at 14 everything that you don’t understand just feels like the biggest deal, like…like everything could come crashing down around you at any point in time. And so I did what I always did—I went to my big sister. She was cool, you know, at least that’s what I thought. She was 18 and knew about things like boys and makeup and didn’t rat us out that time she found us with dad’s cigarettes. And I figured if anyone would know about these things, it was her.

But I guess…well, she wasn’t okay or cool or chill when it came to gay people, and she took the card straight to my parents—never told me what she was doing. And then they called your parents and came down to the basement and told me I was never seeing you again. And they were, god, I just—I can’t imagine what it must have been like for you. Because my dad thought I was perfectly innocent and even then I got yelled at for hours, sent to a priest and taken to extra services down at St. Mary’s. And you—well, you disappeared.

Eventually word spread about what had happened. Part of me didn’t believe it. I knew that our parents were angry, but I never really thought—well, I never thought it would be like that. I thought they’d get over it. That you’d show up to school a week or two later like that time you were gone for almost a week after your dad caught you sneaking out of the garage with his whiskey. So I didn’t try to call. And then weeks stretched into months, and still you weren’t there. But at that point…well, I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’d forced myself to get over it. I heard what everyone was saying about you—the kids, the parents. The few people that tried to say you were just a kid and didn’t know better—god, the town was ready to tar and feather them too. And I didn’t think I was strong enough. You’d been forced to be strong enough, but you were always the brave one out of the two of us. I just…I sat back and acted like you hadn’t been my best friend, like I hadn’t loved you more than anyone else in that bumblefuck town.

My dad threw out all of our pictures and stuff, but I kept that bucket list we made in the back of my copybook huddled together during Mrs. Sanders’ English class. It had all the places we wanted to go—the things we wanted to see. I saw on Facebook that you got out and ended up in California. It always was the first place on your half of the list. Did you drive there and eat Red Vines and blast Destiny’s Child the whole way there like you’d planned? I hope you did. You deserve it—you deserve to accomplish every dream that seemed like a lifetime away on that list.

Anyway, I’m going to be in California just half an hour or so away from National City for a conference this week, and I thought—I don’t know, it’s probably stupid. But I’d like to see you, Mags. I don’t have a right to ask or to think that you might say yes, but it’d be really nice to apologize in person, to see the amazing woman you grew up to become even if…even though I wasn’t the best friend you thought I could be for you.

I’m on Facebook or you can call me at 402-767-1349. I hope you’re doing well, Maggie.

Eliza

—

Alex found Maggie in the bedroom tears streaking down her cheeks as she read and reread the message. “Do you need anything?”

Sniffling, Maggie shook her head, looking up at Alex through watery eyes. “No, no, you’re good.” With a shaky breath, Maggie shut her laptop and gently placed it on the bedside table. “If it’s okay with you, I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Of course. Anything you need.”

Maggie nodded and held up the covers for Alex to join her, dropping her head to Alex’s shoulder as she curled into her side, letting herself be held and comforted like she could have used all those years ago.

—

Eliza tapped her foot nervously against the bricks, pressing her back into the wrought iron chair and letting the cool firmness, the slight twinge of discomfort, ground her. She checked her phone again, checking that it was still early, that she hadn’t gotten any messages. It was still just the single one: “Coffee. 3pm on Saturday at Noonan’s?” She’d quickly agreed, but the only confirmation she got in return was the small checkmark indicating her message had been read. She wondered if Maggie would show up. She certainly wouldn’t blame her if she didn’t. She hadn’t really expected a response. All the times she’d ever drafted something before, she’d deleted them, too scared of the indictment she deserved, too nervous that somehow she’d end up fucking up Maggie’s life yet again.

As she looked down at her phone once again, she saw a pair of boots step in front of her, followed by the sound of a throat being cleared. She snapped her head up, finding Maggie Sawyer—her best friend, if a little taller and with a much better fashion sense—standing in front of her. “Maggie! Um, hey.”

“Hey,” Maggie greeted with a small wave, stepping back awkwardly as Eliza rose to her feet.

“I, um, I got you coffee—or well, I got you your usual. I don’t know if it’s your usual anymore. I just, um, I know it used to be your favorite. But I guess, I mean, people change. I don’t know. Here,” she finally said, thrusting the cup to Maggie.

Maggie glanced down at the sleeve, finding the markings for a vanilla soy chai tea latte. “Thanks.”

“Is it, um, is it okay? I can get you something else?”

“It’s good.” She sipped at it as if to demonstrate that she was okay with it.

“Okay, cool,” Eliza nodded, drumming her fingers against the side of her leg before grabbing the other cup on the table and busying herself with picking at the sleeve.

“Do you want to walk?”

“Oh, uh, yeah, sure.”

Eliza followed as Maggie led them down a few blocks until they got to a park with a small path that wound around the perimeter. As they fell into step with one another—Eliza tried not to dwell on how they used to spend days down by the track trying to match each other perfectly or be the exact opposite; it was how they always won the three-legged races—Eliza spoke up. I guess, well, maybe not, but, um, you saw my Facebook message?”

“I did,” Maggie confirmed, her gaze trained straight ahead.

“Right, well, I just wanted to say—I wanted to say how sorry I am. I didn’t mean for any of it to happen, but I know, I know it’s my fault. We were best friends; I should have asked you.”

“You said it yourself; you were confused.” Maggie shrugged her shoulders, biting at her lip as she tried to look nonchalant.

“Yeah—I was. But I never meant—I didn’t mean for it to end up like that. But that’s not an excuse.” When Maggie didn’t say anything, Eliza forced herself to keep talking. “I should have tried harder to find you after.”

“Would’ve been pretty hard to find me—wasn’t exactly down the street anymore.”

Eliza winced. “I know, I know. I biked past your house a few times—after, you know. Your light was never on.”

Maggie nodded, gritting her teeth as she tried not to let her emotions get the best of her.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that alone, Maggie. I’m so sorry I wasn’t the friend you needed, the friend you thought you had.”

“Thank you,” Maggie finally managed.

With those two words, Eliza let herself break just a little. And when Maggie pulled up short, pulling her into a hug that was certainly nothing like the bone-crushing ones they’d once shared but was more than she’d ever imagined she would have again, she felt a sob heave its way through her chest, and when she felt warm, wet drops on her shoulder, felt the shudder that racked Maggie’s small frame, she pulled her closer, willing the embrace to somehow make up for years of lost time.

“On your left!” came the cry of an older woman on a bright blue bicycle—her basket filled with groceries and a small bouquet of wildflowers.

With a watery chuckle, Maggie motioned to the bench a few feet up the path. “Maybe we should sit?”

Once they had settled in on the bench, Eliza began, “So,” just as Maggie asked, “Why—?”

“Sorry, you go,” Eliza gestured.

“I was just going to ask how the conference was going.”

“Oh, um, yeah…it’s okay,” Eliza answered with a small chuckle. “It’s not the most fun I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s a beautiful state.”

“Yeah, I won’t complain.”

“Have you been here long?”

“No, I was in Gotham for a while until I made it out here about two years ago.”

“Following the superheroes?” Eliza teased, hoping it was okay to do so.

“Something like that.”

“Have you met the Girl of Steel?”

Maggie laughed, thinking of how Kara had spent the night at their apartment, lounging around in a novelty Supergirl snuggie Winn had gotten her for the DEO’s holiday Pollyanna while shoving inhuman amounts of pizza into her mouth. “I have—work and all.”

“That’s so cool,” Eliza gushed. “Now, I know that meeting Superman was on your bucket list, but does this count?”

“How do you have such a good memory of that list?” Maggie asked. Sure, she remembered a fair amount about freshman year of high school, but she thought she had a pretty good reason for it.

Eliza blushed a faint pink as she reached into her bag and dug out her wallet. Maggie looked on quizzically as she dug through and pulled out a graying, square. Eliza deftly unfolded it, carefully smoothing out the creases as she handed it over.

“You kept this? After all those years?”

“I’d been a shitty enough friend to abandon you once. I couldn’t do it twice.” Eliza chewed on the inside of her cheek as she looked for a reaction, wondering if she’d gone too far. But then Maggie’s gaze dropped back to the paper as she skimmed the list, her mouth finally breaking into a smile that lit up her features.

“So, did you ever get to see Britney Spears in concert?” Maggie asked, barely covering the laugh in her voice.

“Tragically I did not.”

“Shame…I did make my roadtrip to California, so I’m winning 1-0 now.”

“But the important part is obviously the snack list. Did you get your Red Vines?”

“Yep, and a whole tub of Oreos—all the surprisingly vegan snack staples.” She shook her head as she made her way further down the list. “Now, did you ever make it out to Broadway?”

“That I did, thank you very much.”

“Important follow up: did you act on Broadway?”

“That dream was abandoned. Alas, I ended up a mere high school teacher, though I supervise the drama club, so it’s basically the same thing.”

“Basically.”

Eliza let out a snort of amusement. “Now what about you? Did you play professional women’s soccer?”

“I slept with a professional women’s soccer forward. Does that count?”

“I mean, this list was all about our biggest dreams. I can only imagine that idea might have been a recurrent dream…or at least a fantasy,” Eliza teased, watching as the last layer of defensiveness in Maggie’s posture seemed to fall away.

“It was pretty great,” Maggie agreed. “Your turn. Did you ever…let’s see… Oh! Did you marry Justin Timberlake and spend your honeymoon in the Bahamas?”

With a dramatic sigh, Eliza shook her head. “No, JT and I just couldn’t make it work. Though I did spend my honeymoon down in Turks and Caicos, so I think maybe I get some points.”

“Well congratulations on the wedding! Who is the lucky guy? Anyone from back home?”

Eliza swallowed harshly, shaking her head. “No, uh, definitely not from back home.”

“Eh, you could do better than any of those jackasses anyway.”

“Yeah, um, I think I did.”

“So meet in college?”

“Yeah, senior year. She was one of the grad students in the department.”

“Wait, what?” Maggie asked.

“Her name is Gabriella.”

“You’re gay?”

“Funny how that worked out, huh?” Eliza tried for light, though her voice was strained as she waited for some reaction—anger, perhaps, or disgust with how long she’d spent denying it, spent playing straight, being accepted and getting to stay in Blue Springs with a family that loved her and friends that didn’t look at her with revulsion and fear.

“Wait—what? Why didn’t you open with that?” Maggie asked with a slightly incredulous bark of a laugh.

“I didn’t want you to think you had to forgive me or talk to me just because I ended up being gay too. I didn’t—I didn’t necessarily deserve that.”

“I,” Maggie paused, letting Eliza’s point sink in, “I appreciate that.”

“Yeah.” Eliza shrugged, waiting for Maggie to make the next move.

“So when’d you end up coming out?”

“Uh, senior year of college. It, um, took me a little bit to, uh, admit to certain things.”

“Hey, everyone comes out in their own time in their own way. There’s no shame in that. Not exactly like a lot of people make it feel particularly safe.”

“Yeah…I don’t know. I was taking a creative writing class. Gabriella was actually the TA, though she was only two years older. We had some prompt about a memory of a person who’d meant something to us, and I, well, I wrote about you. Got an A,” she added with a chuckle. “But, uh, during office hours—and god, I should have known I was gay when I was always the first in line for Gabriella’s office hours instead of wanting to meet with the actual professor who was assigning the grades—but she said something. She asked me if it was a memory of a first love.” She heard the catch in Maggie’s breathing but ignored it, looking down at her now empty coffee cup and picking at the lid. “I, well, I kind of panicked and mumbled something about needing to get to work. It wasn’t totally a lie… Anyway, I spent a couple of weeks avoiding her, but I couldn’t help thinking—maybe other people didn’t think about their friends the way I did. Maybe it wasn’t normal to want to hold your best friend’s hand and snuggle with her and spend all of your time together. Maybe my appreciation for beautiful women wasn’t just wanting to look like them or have their outfit or hair or whatever. I walked back and forth past the LGBTQ Center so many times, just trying to gather my courage to go in. Well, one day Gabriella was in there and happened to see me. So she came out and asked if maybe I wanted to get coffee with her—just to talk. She said she thought I could use a friend right now.”

“I’m glad you had someone.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t.”

“It’s—it’s in the past. It doesn’t do much good to dwell on things we can’t change.”

“Right, well, we got coffee, and I ended up blurting out that I thought she was really pretty and asked if that was normal.” Maggie snorted and tried to cover it up, only to find Eliza laughing right along with her. “No, you’re right. It was humiliating. She sort of sat me down and told me she could be there for me as a friend, but only as a friend—TA and all. Anyway, eventually I came out. Actually came out in my final writing piece for the semester.”

“Another A?”

“But of course,” Eliza joked. “So, a few months later—right around spring break time—I ran into her at the LGBTQ Center again. And she asked if I wanted to grab coffee. And, well, coffee one day turned into drinks the next, turned into dinner, turned into spending whole days curled up reading together while everyone else went home for break. And eventually I think I managed to convince her that it was worth a shot and that since she wasn’t my TA, she should have no ethical qualms about it.”

“That’s awesome, I’m so happy you found someone like her.”

“Yeah, she’s pretty amazing,” Eliza agreed, a dreamy expression on her face. “What about you? Still sleeping with all the professional athletes?��

“No, no,” Maggie shook her head. “I’ve settled down—engaged, actually.”

“Oh really?”

“Yeah. She’s—god, she’s just incredible. She’s smart and beautiful and passionate and a total badass.”

“Well it sounds like you met your match, Ms. Sawyer.”

“Aww, now you sound like Mrs. Sanders.”

“Did I not mention that I teach high school English these days?”

“Oh god, you’ve become her!” Maggie shrieked, teasingly pushing at Eliza’s shoulder.

“Whatever, she was cute.”

“In retrospect…yeah, she kinda was,” Maggie agreed with a chuckle. “So, still go back to Blue Springs pretty regularly?”

“Oh, uh, not really. My parents got divorced, and my mom moved out to Michigan, so I mainly just visit her.”

“Don’t spend much time with your dad?”

“Ah, yeah, no. As it turns out, his reaction to everything was pretty indicative of just how he felt… We haven’t talked since graduation when he met Gabriella.”

“Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“No, no, don’t worry. I mean, I still see my mom, and Gabriella’s family is amazing.”

“Yeah, Alex and I have our own little makeshift family here too—they’re a bit on the weird side but—”

“You’re a bit on the weird side,” Eliza interjected, shooting Maggie a knowing look.

“Yes, well, if you’d let me finish, I was going to say, but I wouldn’t have them any other way.”

#ask me #anon #sanvers #maggie sawyer #eliza wilkie #alex danvers #some smut #angst #cw homophobia #fanfic #supergirl #prompt fill #ao3feed

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myriadskies · 5 years

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With tears in your eyes, you told me you forgive me, that you love me, and that everything will be okay, that we still love each other and that’ll get us through this mess. I relax, I believe you. But as long as I changed. I had to change for this to work, you insisted. Then with a sinking heart, I’d watch you get agitated again. Your face slowly crumbles, and you break out into sobs on your desk. I’m standing in the corner, waiting, bracing myself. You look up, ugly snot and all, and scream at me asking why, like you didn’t ask me dozens of times in the last few hours, as if my answer would change. Every time I tried to open my mouth you would scream liar. I was too scared to even wipe the spit off my face. I froze, I could not move, I couldn’t answer. You’d scream at me to answer you, but no answer I gave would ever satisfy you. You only wanted to hear that I was a liar, that you’re right. You only wanted to hear what you thought of me, the truth ceased to matter a while ago. How could you hurt me like this you screamed, you’re an ugly bitch and a liar, I deserve so much better you scream. Then you’d calm down again and apologize. You say that you’re upset now but as long as I changed, we can start over and be happy again. I forced myself to believe you, because you continued to block the entrance to your room, my escape. You haven’t let me leave your room in a couple of days now. Neither of us have really slept in a couple of days. It’s all a blur in my head, you picking up the knife and threatening suicide in front of me, me physically restraining you, you throwing me off, me banging on the wall screaming for help, you throwing me on the bed and telling me to shut the fuck up you bitch, you asking me if I was turned on, you kissing me, me sucking you off while you talked on the phone with your therapist, acting as if you were fine and stable, you telling me I lied to you and took advantage of you when it was you who initiated sex over and over and over again in this time period. You punched yourself and the objects around you so many times and you screaming out in pain as a result of it. I couldn’t take it anymore, and I asked you to hit me. It only took you a few seconds to decide to do it. You hit, no, punched, slapped, and kicked me many times after that one incident. You called me so many names I can’t possibly remember them all. You cried looking at my bruises, saying that I caused you to do this, you aren’t that kind of person, you could never have done this, that it’s my fault, I’m the bitch and I ruined your life. You were scared, you were out of control. I didn’t know what to do. I rarely slept and ate, but I always made sure you ate. You even screamed at me once to get you food, like it’s my job. When you finally did fall asleep, I would sit by you to make sure I was here when you woke up. If I wasn’t in your room, you would come check up on me and call me over and over and over again to make sure. I don’t know what you were making sure of, but you didn’t leave me alone. I couldn’t sleep, I would wake up from nightmares, I couldn’t eat, I felt sick. You got mad at me that I was losing weight, saying that I had to take care of myself so I could take care of you in such a kind way that I couldn’t not eat the food you presented to me, which ultimately came out of my wallet. You haven’t gone to your classes in a few weeks, neither have I, and it’s my fault that you missed your midterms and you’re failing. You used to keep a daily mood and productivity tracker on Microsoft Excel and you made all these pretty graphics depicting your progress. Everything was colored in red, which meant bad. See, you tell me, shoving this graph in my face. I’ve fallen so far behind cause of you. How can I catch up? Help me, correct the wrong, fix this for me you say. I try to write your emails to your professors, I try to do some of your econ homework while you cry in bed. I tried my best in everything. You were convinced that I did this to sabotage you, I swear it was an honest to god horrible careless mistake. Not an accident, a mistake. And that guilt weighed on me. You confiscated my laptop and phone for days, you went through every picture, every search history, and website I’ve visited instead of doing your homework and sleeping. You sent my friends text messages defending yourself and telling them that I was the liar all along. You would get very upset if they defended me, believing I was the one sending the messages, and you would start crying and again, say that I had to fix this. I can’t stand people thinking that I’m a bad person you said, I need you to get them to see the truth, I need you to fix this. You forced me to talk to my friends in person while you watched to make sure I didn’t go back on my word that I’d change. You convinced me that I was a sociopath, that there was something deeply wrong with me and I needed to tell my doctor immediately. You sat me down and watched me write out the email I sent to her, detailing everything I’ve done wrong and my self-diagnosis. You just wanted me to get help you said. You love me, and you believed I can change for the better. I really believed you, I truly did. So of course, I did what I could to fix what I’d done wrong. I bought you a $1,000 computer and monitor set with a keyboard and mouse, a gamer’s dream. I sat next to you while you tried to play a game of Starcraft for the first time in days, trying to forget the reality you’re living in. On top of that, you’ve been increasingly abusing your cocaine-like stimulant in the last week to cope with me. You didn’t even bother to put away the rolled up $20 bill and clean the powder remnants off of your desk anymore, it’s not like anyone was going in and out of the room. If you got a good high, we would have sex, and you would get upset again about it. I had to always be in the mood, I would break your already broken self-esteem if I didn’t want to have sex, because it would mean that you were unattractive. You scoured my texts for any insult on your penis, you were so insecure about it. You made me believe that I insulted your genitals and that I deleted the evidence. If I wasn’t with you, you would send me unsolicited nudes and ask me to compliment you, then proceed to get upset all over again. I couldn’t tell anyone, not my friends, not anyone, because that meant that it wasn’t my fault, and it was all my fault. I tried to cut you off multiple times because my therapist told me it would be in your best interest. You didn’t believe she said that, and then you accused me of lying to her and that I was being a sociopath by cutting you off. I had to fix what I wronged to change. When we finally agreed to spend time apart, which you wouldn’t let me do initially because you would show up at my door, and I was deathly afraid that you would kill yourself, you immediately threw me away and found someone else to occupy your time. I still look at all the texts you would send me sometimes to remind myself that this happened. I’m scared that if I lose the evidence, then I’ll somehow convince myself that I made it up and this was all me victimizing myself. I still have a hard time believing that I was wronged at all. I know I wronged you, but I don’t know how much of this I deserved. Your screaming face still shows up in nightmares. Sometimes I get scared you’ll walk into my room in the middle of the night like you used to. I don’t know why I wrote all of this, I guess I just wanted to acknowledge that this happened. I think the sickest part of it is that I miss the void that was my being during this time. I wasn’t anything, I was just pure fear, and I liked the lack of responsibility that it gave me. I guess I’m just a child, and I still am after all this time.

#tw #abuse #dreams #intrusive thoughts

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charllieeldridge · 4 years

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Teacher Feature: Living in China and Teaching Online

In this interview, we’re chatting with Kacie, an American teacher living in China while teaching English online.

Learn about what it’s like to live in China, what a day in the life of a teacher looks like, how much the salary is, what qualifications she needed to get hired, and the pros and cons of the job and lifestyle.

Here we go!

Hi Kacie! Please tell us a bit about yourself.

I grew up in a small town in Southern Illinois. My family traveled quite a bit, but only in the United States. In college my husband, Derek, and I had the opportunity to study abroad in Italy.

After university, we settled into full-time jobs, but quickly realized that we wanted something different in life. We both loved our time in Italy so we decided to make traveling more of a focus in our lives.

Over the last few years we have been living off of our savings and trying to build up remote work so that we can become location independent!

I decided to look into teaching online, but most companies require that you have teaching experience.

Kacie teaching a class in China. She now teaches online

So I got my TEFL certification and took a job teaching in a classroom in China! Now I teach English online as well with two companies, plus some blogging on the side about our travels and life in China.

What made you decide to become a teacher? Did you have any prior experience?

I was looking for a flexible way to earn money remotely.

After a brief career in banking and customer service, I didn’t feel like the skills I had were very marketable for remote work, at least not the kind of work that I wanted to do.

So I looked into a ton of different options before trying out a whole new career opportunity.

After teaching at a brick and mortar school in China, I applied to a few different companies to teach English online.

As I mentioned, these companies typically require that you have experience, but what I didn’t realize early on was that that experience can come from anywhere!

It doesn’t have to specifically be experience from teaching English as a second language.

Do you have experience babysitting? Kids of your own? Worked at a school in your country? Volunteered at a youth summer camp?

Any kind of teaching, training, or experience working with children will help. You don’t have to live abroad before you can teach online, but that is certainly a great way to get experience, too!

Where in the world are you currently teaching online and what’s it like living there?

Derek and I currently live in a development district of Nanjing, China.

There aren’t many foreigners on the outskirts of town where we live, and we don’t speak Chinese very well. So there were definitely plenty of challenges navigating the city in the beginning.

But the people here have been so kind, welcoming, and helpful. We visit the same restaurant almost every Sunday, and the owners talk to us through translation apps on our phones!

Kacie enjoying fried rice at their favourite Sunday Restaurant

The online teaching companies that I work for primarily have Chinese students so it’s great to learn about their lifestyle and culture first hand.

And being in the same time zone that they are is awesome. It makes teaching online so convenient!

How did you find a job teaching online?

I spent several days researching the most popular online ESL companies. I decided that I wanted a company that didn’t have a minimum availability requirement, as well as one that offered 1 on 1 classes.

I first applied at VIPKid, but they rejected my application because I hadn’t included all of my experiences teaching and working with kids.

After refining my resume I applied at GoGo Kid and was hired in just over a week. I absolutely love it!

My sister was a former brick and mortar language arts teacher in the USA and she had recently started teaching online with Qkids.

Qkids didn’t meet my initial requirements in an ESL company, but after hearing about her experience working with them, I decided to apply, too.

Can you tell us a bit about the online teaching companies that you work for?

GoGo Kid is a parent-booked company. That means that the teacher has to set up a profile to market his or herself to the parents.

Bookings will be sporadic and probably pretty low at first, but over time as you build up reviews and repeat students you will find yourself settling into a routine.

GoGo Kid does require that the teacher use at least two props as well as a secondary reward system in the class.

There are so many great ideas out there on the internet for classroom equipment and props, and most things can simply be printed and cut out.

Pro tip: If you don’t have access to a printer, you can buy a couple of children’s activities books and cut out the graphics as props. I spent about $10 to buy a few books, and that’s all I’ve been using since I started.

These requirements do take a little bit of prep time, but it’s one of my favorite things about teaching these classes. They really can be so much fun!

Classes are 25 minutes long and they are 1 on 1. You will also need to write reviews for each of your students after class. The reviews don’t have to be more than a paragraph, but they do need to be personalized so they can be a bit time consuming for new teachers.

Kacie’s ESL classroom

GoGo Kid has an amazing training program for new online ESL teachers. I think I would have been a little lost getting started if it wasn’t for their online academy training and live workshops!

Qkids is about as different from GoGo Kid as it can be!

It’s a company-booked platform so once you give them your availability, they will take care of scheduling you. You will rarely see the same student twice.

They do require that teachers have a minimum of 12 classes of availability each week, but this isn’t a guarantee you will work them. You are, of course, able to open up more classes each week, too.

The minimum required availability really isn’t an issue since their teacher cancellation policy at Qkids is so forgiving.

You will also have a coach at the company who may give you feedback and help you adjust to teaching with Qkids. Some coaches are really great to work with, but others not so much. It’s just luck of the draw, but if you get a coach who isn’t working out for you, I hear you can request another one.

The majority of classes are 1 teacher to 4 students. The classes are 30 minutes, and you do have to enter the class 3 minutes early to greet the students. It can be pretty exhausting for an introvert like me, but there are many things I like about Qkids as well.

They don’t require props or secondary rewards, but you are still welcome to use them if you want. Evaluations are brief multiple-choice questions that you answer for each student at the end of class.

Even though their actual class time is longer, I spend less time overall for each of my Qkids class than I do when prepping for, teaching, and writing feedback for my GoGo Kid students.

They are both great companies, with very different perks to offer. It just depends on what kind of an ESL company you’re looking for. Or if you’re like me and you enjoy the variety, why not do both! You get the best of both worlds that way!

Did you need to have any qualifications to get a job teaching with them?

Both online companies that I work for do require that you are a native speaker from either the USA or Canada, and you must have a four-year degree and some kind of ESL certificate.

I got my TEFL certificate through MyTEFL. It’s a text-based online program that I completed in a couple of weeks. It gave me a very basic idea of what to expect going into the classroom.

Prior experience will also give you a leg up over other applicants! Get creative with your resume and include anything that might be relevant.

For example, I included peer mentoring that I did briefly in college and training other employees at my banking job. Neither were directly related, but they still counted and helped me get hired!

SEE ALSO: Teaching Without a University Degree – Top 10 Companies That Pay

What does a day in the life of an online teacher look like?

My students are anywhere from 3-14 years old, and they are mostly from China. Occasionally you will come across a student from another country, but it is rare.

Kids will be kids, so occasionally there are behavioral issues that may pop up, but overall the students are so sweet, cute, and eager to learn!

I may have anywhere from 1 to 6 classes a day, but depending on how you set your schedule you can have more. That’s the beauty of it. You’re in control of your own schedule!

It can be slow starting out, so I don’t recommend quitting another job to teach online, but over time as you build regular students or seniority (depending on how the company books the classes for its teachers) it should become more reliable.

Kacie’s ESL Profile Pic with props in the background

However, there can be slow periods when the students are busy with their other school duties and there just aren’t many students booking classes. Just take it in stride and get ready for the next peak season!

Each company has its own requirements for the equipment you will need, but in general, you will need a relatively up to date desktop or laptop computer with an ethernet connection.

You will also need to have a headset with a boom mic for your classes. Although they don’t require an external mouse for a laptop, it’s almost essential! It will make your life so easier if you get one!

How much does an English teacher with GoGo Kid and Qkids earn?

The two companies have very different pay scale systems that can be a little bit confusing and intimidating at first.

Salary With GoGoKid

GoGo Kid will offer you a base fee per class in the contract. This can be anywhere from $7-10 depending on your qualifications (master’s degree or additional teaching certificate, etc.) and experience.

They also have an incentive program based on your attendance and performance (ratings) in the classes that you teach, as well as how many classes you teach per day.

It took me about a month to start earning the incentive earnings on top of my base pay, but now I can earn anywhere from $17-22 dollars an hour teaching with GoGo Kid.

Teacher cancelations can severely impact your bonus earnings, but they do have an appeals process if you can prove that your cancellation was beyond your control.

Travelling around China while teaching online

Salary With Qkids

Qkids offers a base rate of $8 per class, but if you get good ratings from the parents you will earn an extra $1 per class.

Also, if you teach more than 15 classes per week, you will get an additional $1 per class.

So here you essentially will make $16-20 per hour.

However the schedule is a little bit different. They are 30-minute classes with 10-minute breaks in between (and remember you have to start each class 3 minutes early).

So it will actually take you an hour and 13 minutes to teach two classes.

Furthermore, you have no control over whether or not they will schedule you to work at least 15 classes each week. Sometimes you just can’t make the attendance bonus.

Qkids will not punish you in any way as long as you give at least 5 hours’ notice before cancelling a class. This flexibility really works well for some teachers!

What are the pros and cons of teaching online?

Teaching English online can be really great! The pay is good, and the work itself can be very fun. Not to mention, you can work in your yoga pants from the comfort of your own home! It’s so convenient.

It’s also really amazing to see your students start to understand English and be able to share things about their lives with you. You’re helping to break barriers and cultural differences to connect with these wonderful kids from another continent.

Of course, every job has its downside too!

There’s a steep learning curve in the online classroom. Every company has its own tools, teaching techniques, and features on its platform. At first this will probably be pretty stressful, but after a few weeks you’ll feel like you could do it in your sleep!

The behavior issues can be so frustrating at times, but usually trying one of a few different strategies will solve the problem. I’ve taught dozens of classes now, and only three of them have been a real struggle.

Also, while teaching online helps to bring in “remote” income, it’s not exactly location independent.

You can teach from a lot of places, but you do have to have access to a strong internet connection and a quiet, private teaching space.

Kacie and Derek at the Temple of Heaven in China

You are also not considered an employee, but rather an independent contractor.

You will have to handle withholding all of your taxes and traditional benefits like retirement savings on your own. It’s a bit of a headache at first, but a good tax lawyer or account can help you figure it out.

Any final advice for an aspiring English teacher?

No job is perfect, but teaching online can come pretty close. It requires very little risk to get started!

If you have a university degree, you can find the ESL certification course that works best for you, and you’re all set. You can print props or just use things you already have around your house.

You really have nothing to lose by giving it a try. If you think you might enjoy teaching in the online classroom, chances are you’ll probably love it!

If you’re thinking about joining GoGo Kid or Qkids, or if you just have questions about either company, feel free to email me at kacie(at)gobeyondtheborders(dot)com. And, make sure to check out our travel and lifestyle website, Go Beyond The Borders.

Note: the lead image in this article was provided by Shutterstock — a website for sourcing high quality, royalty-free images and videos.

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The post Teacher Feature: Living in China and Teaching Online appeared first on Goats On The Road.

Teacher Feature: Living in China and Teaching Online published first on https://travelaspire.weebly.com/

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terryblount · 5 years

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Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Review

It seems like an eternity since I was last called to service as a Division Agent. It was set shortly after Black Friday, 2015, a date that can’t be erased from my memory. This was the first time I was called to save people and even humanity from a mortally dangerous virus unleashed in the heart of New York on that busy Black Friday.

In the original game there was much exploration through city streets and scavenging of abandoned vehicles. I united with my fellow Division Agents, and after many missions the operation was a success. We did it, together. Now, three years later, I’m yet again called to service as a Division Agent in a new decimated city with whole new threats to humanity. It’s time to once again change our lives, forever.

This is where you’ll start. A pleasant setting leading to greater conflicts.

As a personal note, I’ve been really hoping for a sequel to 2016’s The Division. However, I was a bit worried that a sequel might be like the first at release: great but unfinished and buggy. Plus the original’s end-game was an endless “Dark Zone” grind, which was sort of like a warm but tasteless soup.

Hence, I didn’t want to yet again have to wait for months of patches and DLC to finally experience a complete and engaging experience. Thankfully, The Division 2 avoids these problems, as we’ll soon discuss.

There’s many urban centers like the first game, but the mood is brighter and more vibrant.

The Division 2 starts exactly 7 months (in-game time) after the first game and throws you into the action without much of a concern about all the things you missed if you didn’t play the first game.

From the beginning the game feels like a tighter and more focused product than the original, but the wonderfully apocalyptic and American-centric blockbuster atmosphere it is still present. And what city could fit better as the setting for American Armageddon than the capital city itself: Washington D.C.!

The main menu is nice looking and easy to use.

As for the backstory, the epidemic that began in New York was unable to be contained and it spread to other major cities. Even Washington D.C. has fallen under plague and madness, reaching the President’s very own White House.

Given the bleak setting, sadness and sorrow are ever-present among the survivors, and nature itself is now able to do what it does best: invade and grow. It’s not unusual to find animals running around looking for food or to find plants and grass growing on buildings, roads, and cars.

The White House! The Division 2 wonderfully recreates iconic locations like this.

The original game from 2016 looked great with it’s semi-sparse New York city streets. There was a great Christmas/nighttime atmosphere throughout the game, but for this second installment the developers have made things even greater.

In The Division 2 you’ll find more guns and loot, more missions (main and secondary), and more liveliness overall, be it people, animals, plants, or living centers. Bases are now more populated by survivors, and you can find children playing, singers, and musicians.

Just a typical walk around in the neighborhood. It’s a bit gloomy today.

Every time you complete a mission you can use various materials or your experience to make life better in the living centers, creating new areas, new playgrounds, and new rooms for example. Everything is more alive than ever, even if the plague’s still there.

I might summarize the first game with the term “explore.” This second game also has exploration, but it is more about how you engage with the world. Hence, this second game is more linked with the word “interact.”

Look at the pretty graphics and reflections on the water!

You interact with your gear and progression. You interact with your companions, helping them to survive and build their bases. You study your enemies and environments to find clues to help you more wisely interact with your world.

For these reasons, I found myself enthralled with the beauty and fantastic level of detail of my surroundings. There’s just so much to find and do as you go from mission to mission.

This was a car. Now it’s a barrier. That’s how life goes sometimes.

A large part of the fun in the game is the badass enemies set on killing you and your friends. They feature a more modern artificial intelligence and are much more aggressive in their clever use of the environment. Hordes of these enemies really make your survival harder than ever.

While The Division 2 gives you bigger and better environments, the gameplay controls are virtually the same as the original. This is a fine thing since new players will easily learn the solid controls, which are customizable to suite everyone’s tastes. Veterans will find the same layouts and fall right back in to the enjoyable gameplay loop of the first game.

This is me trying to survive hordes of enemy. Duck and cover.

The game also features great support for either mouse and keyboard or gamepads. This is very welcome for those of us like me who prefer to play with keyboard and mouse at the office and a controller on the couch. (At home I play on my laptop, laying on the couch, while using an Xbox 360 controller, and I have no regrets about this.)

For those who really love the PvP “Dark Zone” location of the first The Division, you’ll love the new take on the “Dark Zones.” This second game gives you three zones placed around the city, so you’ll be able to play in PvP mode with more variety and easy access than ever before.

This is me, still trying not to die. There’s a lot of taking cover in the game, FYI.

When finishing the main story in the original The Division, players had the chance to replay missions over and over or compete in the PvP area. This binary option was a bit boring and made the game feel incomplete and unsatisfying to many of us.

In this sequel, the endgame continuously gives you new challenges through encounters with new and stronger enemies (the Black Tusks) and new materials and loot, always better than the previous items.

Even at launch, The Division 2 feels like a complete game, and update after update will continue to add more challenges for those who are strong and brave. If you commit to the game, there’s a potential for seemingly limitless character evolution.

There’s so much loot and equipment to find and equip.

It should be noted that this is an online-only game; being online is mandatory at all times. This game also is much easier when playing in a group. You can try to complete each mission alone, but it’s not ideal. Thanks to a built-in matchmaking system, you can easily join with friends or strangers at every part of the game. Sometimes you’ll also respond to (or send) S.O.S. calls from other players.

There’s matchmaking to facilitate partying up!

On the technical side, the Snowdrop engine’s excellent power is on showcase in this sequel. Graphically, things are great. There’s some texture pop-up, which is sometimes distracting, but this is a minor issue. Overall, the game crafts a credible and vivid Washington D.C. location that’s just as impressive as the original game’s New York.

While there’s very little to complain about regarding the engine or performance, sometimes the game can crash on certain computer setups when using the DX12 renderer, which requires manually editing the config files to restart using the DX11 renderer.

Did I mention there’s a White House in this game? Yep, it’s the White House.

Apart from the crashing issue, using max settings on my 1050 Ti-equipped laptop gave me an average of 30 frames per second without any worries. Reaching areas with many enemies dropped the FPS a little bit, but reducing shadows quality fixed this. The game should run very well on more powerful systems.

I died. It happens. Thankfully death isn’t too extreme in this game.

I admit I’m not the best shooter player, and after 7 hours I was still at level 6. I’ve died many times on missions, even with the help of other players. But it doesn’t matter how many times I die, lose, and retry. I always feel that I’m evolving, and I think each play session is rewarding for players. This means even newbies will not have to worry about the sense of failure that comes with less forgiving games.

I love shopping! So many pretty outfits to try on! Must gear up!

In conclusion, the first game started something interesting but this second one delivers on the promise. What began as a more bare-bones franchise has developed into a robust looter-shooter that makes everything bigger, better, and more interesting.

Since booting it up, it feels like a complete game that will continue to get even better down the road. I feel this is the perfect mix between strong story missions (even if filled some clich?s), an interesting PvE open world, and competitive PvP modes.

This is me running away from my inevitable death. Even if I die, I’ll enjoy the experience.

I have never been to Washington D.C., but after playing The Division 2 I’m sure I’ll feel some d?j? vu if I ever do visit. I feel like I’ve lived in the city and experienced so much, eliminating the bad guys and saving countless lives. The Division 2, with its Washington D.C. setting, is a truly unforgettable and unmissable experience.

Plenty of content

Great voice acting

Graphically impressive

Matchmaking is easy

A complete experience

Repetitive at times

Playing solo can be tough

DX12 renderer issues

Always online

Playtime: 20 hours total (and counting). Mathieu has not completed the game, but he’s still playing it!

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit laptop computer, with 16GB of Ram, Nvidia 1050Ti.

Also read the The Division 2 PC Performance Analysis.

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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goadapter-blog · 6 years

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The Asus N552VW Review

The Asus N552VW batteria asus n552vx is often a laptop computer designed for gaming and multimedia.The lid from the laptop is coated which has a dark gray metallic product.It includes Windows 10 and it has McAfee Are living Safe and sound software pre-installed.The laptop functions a 2.six GHz Intel Main i7-6700HQ processor,16 GB of DDR4 RAM,an Nvidia GeForce GTX960M,a 128 GB Good State Push plus a 2 TB hard disk for space for storing.Both RAM modules is usually replaced.Its fifteen.6 inch monitor that has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels gives provides superior performance for gaming and multimedia.Colour protection and precision are first rate.The laptop is ideal for simple desktop jobs and media encoding jobs.The keyboard comes along with a range pad as well as touchpad supports most of Home windows ten gestures which include Cortana and window variety.A DVD drive is involved as well as the connectivity is respectable.There are actually three USB three.0 ports,a USB three.1 Type-C port,a Gigabit Ethernet port,an HDMI port,a DisplayPort,an SD card reader plus a three.five mm headset combo jack.What's more,you will find a 720p webcam for online video conferencing.The N552VW weighs 2.53 kg and its battery daily life is about three hrs.We explore all components of the Asus N552VW in the review under.

Design

High-powered laptops are likely to tumble into two unique camps in recent times.You have your significant,brash gaming laptops,which choose all-out power and specs,and don't provide a fig for portability.After which you've got a selection of elegant, far more sensible machines.It is really this classification which the Asus VivoBook Professional N552VW falls into,and although its main specification has far more in widespread with gaming laptops,it cuts a more refined and chic figure.Around the outside,you will find Asus's trademark brushed steel concentric circle finish,resembling the grooves of a vinyl document,even though within is a stylish silver keyboard tray.Admittedly,I did discover a little bit flex within the keyboard base,however it was not particularly worrisome,and also the relaxation of your establish and style and design,whilst not up to the significant requirements established by Dell's XPS selection or Apple's MacBook Pro and Air laptops,is nice more than enough.For all its elegant superior appears,the N552VW is still pretty hefty,measuring 29.9mm thick asus li ion battery pack a41 k56 and weighing a sizeable 2.5kg,so it is not the most beneficial laptop for carrying all around all day.Most of its bulk might be attributed to its built-in DVD travel,however the thick,black bezels round the screen also drag down its total charm.However,this really is obviously created like a desktop-replacement laptop computer rather than a skinny,modern ultra-portable,which makes it a contact simpler to forgive its fairly unwieldy proportions.The 720p webcam just isn't significantly great.Despite its sensible resolution,it won't tackle improperly lit or backlit topics incredibly nicely.With daylight shining in through gaps hp spare 807957 001 in the roller blind guiding me,the digicam set its exposure to minimise the sunshine and my face was mostly obscured.Inside a lit place devoid of backlighting illustrations or photos have been still noisy,but my experience was at the very least recognisable.The microphone isn't really great: it really is flawlessly satisfactory for online video chatting,but if you are going to be chatting quite a bit,an external headset or microphone might be a much better guess.

The keyboard particularly was exceptionally comfortable to form on.The keys possess a excellent number of vacation using a superior action to each stroke,plus they all sit exactly exactly where your fingers would assume them to,which means I'd no acclimatisation interval and only created quite infrequent problems.Extra importantly,the keys Batteria HP 15Ak100 are relatively tranquil,much too,and that is great in the event you value unobtrusive working.The one disappointment was that my specific critique model lacked any backlighting,so be sure to look at the model variety prior to deciding to acquire. The large touchpad is equally comfortable to use and its sleek,slick surface area lets your fingers to glide across it without having a lot resistance.It felt lovely and responsive during screening,and also the built-in mouse buttons worked properly,far too.The sheer dimensions of the notebook means you can find a lot of home for ports and sockets.For info,you obtain three USB three and a single USB three.1 Type-C port.There is certainly also both a full-size HDMI output and mini-DisplayPort for hooking up external displays.The aforementioned DVD-RW travel is on the ideal aspect and there is also place for an SD card reader and Gigabit Ethernet.Wi-fi,in the meantime,is covered by 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.If disregarding the whole absence of bass,the two upward-facing speakers do a superb occupation.Dialogs in movies seem abundant and normal.The most volume really should be adequate for medium-sized rooms of around twenty m2.Audio is rendered plainly,without any distortions batteria 586007 853 in any respect and it doesn't annoy with fluctuating volumes even at substantial amounts.The default driver offers fantastic configuration possibilities for adapting the audio good quality.Configuration by using the AudioWizard is also available.The author did not use this since the subsequent two options previously supplied superb benefits.Low-pitches can be set extremely perfectly through the equalizer preset "Club" and "Live".Dynamic and surround are remarkable for just a notebook once the possibility "Virtual Surround" is enabled.Significantly less is sometimes simply just much more,and it's user-friendly to obtain these kinds of excellent effects using these modest environment solutions.Weighty tracks like Madonna's "Frozen" are rendered adequately and therefore are under no circumstances as flat and tinny as identified in laptops.Nonetheless,the person should really not anticipate finding a Bose property audio system inside of a laptop.The audio excellent of your audio jack batteria lenovo b590 at the side of a superb headset can make an excellent impact.Excellent ends in dynamics and basses are achieved thanks to your default driver's good configuration alternatives.The internal speaker and audio jack of Asus' N552VX are managed via the built-in High definition Audio Controller of Intel's Skylake PCH-H.

Performance

The Asus N552VW will come outfitted with Intel's top-end Core i7-6700HQ CPU,which is a single in the most powerful cell processors all around.It's a quad-core chip that has a base clock speed of two.6GHz plus a optimum Turbo Improve of 3.5GHz.Paired with 16GB of DDR4 RAM it's capable of excellent performance in basic desktop tasks and multi-core-focused media-encoding duties batteria bose soundlink mini 2 as well.The laptop's thirteen,168 Geekbench multi-core benchmark score is actually a testomony to everything.This puts it within the league of high-end gaming laptops with regards to processor efficiency,even though at this value you would assume absolutely nothing less.Graphics power is furnished via the mid-range Nvidia GeForce GTX 960M,and that is a highly capable card at Comprehensive Hd resolutions.It only has 2GB of memory versus some models' 4GB,but it really is nonetheless a decent piece of package.I fired up a video game of XCOM two and applied the game's encouraged configurations based upon my hardware.Its selection of Significant was rather optimistic batteria hp pavilion dv6 and although this turn-based video game was surely playable at 27fps,I found dropping depth configurations to Medium and turning off anti-aliasing enhanced matters to the constant and sleek 47fps.Asus' option of exhibit is really a curious 1.It's a three,840 x two,160-pixel panel,meaning every little thing is super-sharp and high-resolution material seems superb,but in the majority of normal utilization circumstances you will not often begin to see the profit.As a way for on-screen items to be remotely legible,Windows' screen settings need to have for being set to scale up by 250%.What is additional,although the graphics card batteria originale hp 250 g3 is eminently capable,it only offers superior gaming functionality at Comprehensive High definition resolutions and beneath,so these a high-resolution monitor seems like overkill.With that said,photographers will definitely value it.You can expect to manage to see more of each and every of the pictures you're taking in greater depth,which means you won't need to zoom and pan all around your snaps so generally.Actual display screen efficiency is cheap.It can be reasonably dazzling at 260nits,even though this is certainly commonly eclipsed by higher-end screens,and its 0.27nits black ranges equate to great,deep blacks when taking part in atmospheric game titles.I did locate the display screen erred toward fairly crushed blacks and greys occasionally,which lessened depth in a few scenes.Color protection is reasonable,too,with all the screen running to deal with ninety seven.5% from the sRGB colour gamut,and accuracy is rated at a delta E of 6.seven,which is not notably good,but completely high-quality for non-professional use.The N552VW runs Windows ten and includes fairly number of bundled items of bloatware.Regrettably,McAfee LiveSafe is pre-installed and might once in a while result in challenges carica batteria computer compaq cq61 when opening some systems,blocking them by surprise.I might uninstall that rather promptly and discover alternate safety program.In addition to that,Asus has corralled all its bloat right into a program called Asus Giftbox that's a website page of apps that deliver you to definitely the Windows ten Retail outlet to download.There's also a pre-installed Gameloft app that provides inbound links to your firm's several games,which,again,redirects to the Home windows ten Retail store.So far as bloatware goes,it's a somewhat slight offender as opposed for the likes of Acer and Lenovo.

The variety of interfaces within the N552VX is satisfactory.Compared together with the predecessor,a USB three.0 Type-C is added.Unfortunately,it is far from a USB three.1 Gen2.This was verified through the specialized help of Asus Germany on inquiry.For that reason,this USB three.0 Type-C will not deliver both Thunderbolt lenovo b50 30 caricatore or DisplayPort.Furthermore,a few "standard" USB three.0 ports,an Ethernet socket and 3.five mm combo audio in/out jack are installed.Two exterior monitors may be related via a mini-DisplayPort and HDMI out.These interfaces and the DC-in can be found on the still left.Too undesirable: Nearly all the ports are already positioned incredibly shut towards the entrance,which could lead to obstructions when extensively utilized.An optical generate is also current.Only CDs/DVDs are compatible with the evaluate sample,but Asus claims configurations with Blu-ray and 4K panels in long term.We can easily only hope that this assure is going to be saved.The SD card reader is situated on the entrance.We examination its overall performance with our Toshiba Exceria Professional SDXC sixty four GB UHS-II reference SD card.Based on AS SSD,the SD card reader achieves eighty four.7 MB/s in read and 55 MB/s in compose.Copying 250 JPG image data files was carried out at 54 MB/s.These effects are common.While the standing LEDs to the laptop's entrance edge will not be in the place of the enter equipment,they can be plainly obvious.This is often especially valuable in the evening since standing LEDs alimentatore dell xps 13 from the vicinity on the enter equipment may well confirm distracting.One particular LED shines orange when the battery is very low and inexperienced when fully billed.All other LEDs glow white.To place items straight: Asus' N552VX is not really significantly slimmer than its predecessor.Nevertheless,the clever design in the matte-black underside indicates a trim notebook.Mild brown,silver and black dominate the casing.The latter is identified over the display's matte bezel and non-slip structured underside.Asus promotes the N552VX as "One-Body Aluminum Casing".Sadly,this is not real because the base consists of two components plus the lower element is plastic.Nevertheless,the upper side shimmers in aluminum that defies fingerprints quite successfully.The identical is genuine of your lid's aluminum again.It looks like the concentric minimize familiar in Asus' ZenBooks by having an illuminated Asus emblem inside the center.In addition to the rounded corners and effective surfaces,the concentric perforated grille below the hinges established visible highlights.The base is often effortlessly warped that has a whole lot of effort.It doesn't make any noises.The stability and evidently impeccable create high-quality express a solid effect inspite of a whole lot of plastic.The display's lid is straightforward to open with one hand and rocks only marginally in the course of actions.Awareness has been paid out to make sure ample stability right here.Asus N552VX has much more than plenty of energy for the many regular software eventualities alimentatore asus f550c with Intel's Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor.It's not at all a ULV processor,but a typical cell processor.The CPU clocks at a foundation pace of two.6 GHz,which often can be boosted to 3.1 GHz,3.three GHz and three.five GHz through Turbo.Turbo is also used routinely,but however only in AC manner.Cinebench R15 delivers a reasonably realistic CPU load.We looped the program and learned the critique sample has a tendency to throttle excessively at a load of down below 45%.The outcome is only half the rating then.Regretably,the graphics card presents exactly the same photo.We've to notice positively which the entire performance is offered when inserting the power twine into an outlet.As soon as the battery is recharged by 45%,the general performance of Cinebench R15 could be the similar in AC and battery method.The Skylake processor hp elitebook 840 g4 caricabatteria can only outperform its immediate Broadwell predecessor Intel Core i7-5700HQ in single-thread apps.The Broadwell design has the direct in Multithread purposes thanks to its bigger Turbo Strengthen.The improvements designed on the Skylake architecture usually are not enough to compensate with the increased speeds of your Broadwell products.Skylake brings pros to built-in GPUs alternatively.As opposed with very last year's Intel Main i7-4720HQ and Intel Main i7-4710HQ Haswell styles,the Skylake architecture delivers a very equivalent general performance amount Caricabatterie HP 17 G4 in single thread apps.On the other hand,in line with Cinebench,Skylake shines in Multithread apps and Intel's surpasses the Main by 25%.

Conclusion

There's a whole lot to like with regards to the Asus VivoBook Pro N552VW.It truly is great benefit taking into consideration the specifications on provide,and it's a much better gaming laptop compared to mid-range ROG GL552VWwithout even seriously seeking to be a gaming laptop.It can be equally as swift as the substantially dearer Dell XPS 15,as well,although its design does not very stay up to the identical expectations. Continue to,for approximately £900,you're obtaining a decent 4K screen,top rated overall performance plus a respectable dedicated graphics card,making it an excellent all-rounder when you are searching for a desktop alternative.Offered you happen to be joyful with its heft and a little lousy battery life,it's a good preference.There is a good deal to like with regards to the Asus VivoBook Pro N552VW.It truly is very good value looking at the technical specs on offer you,and it's a halfway-decent gaming notebook,much too,whilst that's not its main objective in everyday life.It really is equally as fast because the substantially costlier Dell XPS fifteen,too,regardless of whether its style will not quite are living as many as exactly the same expectations.Continue to,for around £900,you might be having an honest 4K screen,top overall performance,and a respectable focused graphics card,which makes it an incredible all-rounder for any person seeking a speedy desktop alternative.Furnished you are satisfied with its heft and slightly disappointing battery lifetime,it's a good selection.

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