#posting at 5:30am send help

[babyboywilson]

usually im active and destiel posting on the weekends, but this weekend has been a lot. i’ve been preparing for tomorrow and this big big week I’m about to have. tomorrow morning I’m flying all the way to connecticut where i’ll be participating in a 3-day retreat/meeting/CE (continued education) hosted by the company i work for for new grad vets! I have to fly there a day and a half before the event starts due to having to fly from the SW all the way up to the NE of the country (send help i have to get up at 5:30am for a 5 hour flight at 8:15am tomorrow) and leave the morning after the event. I’m both excited and nervous as hell for this. I’m having a lot of anxiety because this is the first time I’m flying by myself so far from home and my family (usually if i fly on my own it’s to fly to my family’s vacation home) but this is my first time going somewhere completely by myself in a part of the country/state that I’ve never been too before. I’m gonna meet lots of new people and learn a lot of vet med information. it’s exciting and scary. new and daunting. thrilling and terrifying. wish me luck with my flight tomorrow and with this retreat!

[eponymous-rose]

It's a fairly busy week, and this kind of thing always helps me stay on-task - here's the day in a nutshell.

7am: Wake up (groggily) - I've found that I like having extra time in the morning, especially early in the week. Cuddles with Clara the cat, a little yoga (I have accumulated enough broken bones and scars that being totally sedentary means my whole body promptly turns to stone), shower, a nice breakfast and coffee while I catch up on work e-mails. A scientist from Switzerland who wants to do a two-year postdoc with me has sent me a document summarizing the research ideas we discussed at our last meeting! It's very neat stuff, and we're going to be putting together an application in the summer to get the full two years funded externally.

9am: Dry hair and set off to work! Manage to catch the 9:20 bus and have a chill commute to campus. Check e-mail again on my way into the building and realize our facilities manager has responded to an earlier e-mail, so I detour to his machine shop and chat a bit about the issue (I'm teaching an instrumentation class this quarter, and one of my students has been having trouble with her datalogger). He gives me a new USB cord, so I jog upstairs to try it out - no luck, just empty com ports and error messages galore :(. I also check out some of the hardware, but there are no suggestively bent pins or anything to give clues as to what's happening, and it looks like the console has stopped remote readings altogether. At a bit of a loss, I send him an update and head down to the lounge to get some hot water for my tea, then sit upstairs and quickly skim through the slides for today's lecture, which I haven't actually seen since last year. While I'm doing that, our facilities manager comes up with a fresh new datalogger and offers to configure it for me while I'm in class!

10:30am: Class goes well! We talk about some fun topics that are near and dear to my heart, and while everyone is a little on the shy and less-talkative side today, two different people are brave enough to confirm they got the right answer for the in-class exercise. Early on, the facilities manager comes in with the fresh datalogger, and I hand it off to the relieved student. Hopefully this does the trick! I get through my slides a few minutes early (probably because of the aforementioned quietness), which gives me time before my next meeting to quickly post grades for the students who gave an in-class presentation on Friday, as well as to link to the cloud recording of today's lecture.

11:30am: Research meeting! A colleague and I are co-advising an undergraduate research intern on a project we're seeking funding for (and have just hired a graduate student onto). She's progressing really nicely and just had a couple questions about a polar stereographic projection she was working on ("Is it meant to look that weird?" "Yes, absolutely."). We got her pointed in the right direction for the next couple of weeks, then raided my candy bowl and hung around a couple minutes chatting about how her classes are going. As she and my colleague leave, I see a message from the student with the troublesome datalogger confirming that the new one works! Whew. I send the victorious news to our facilities manager, with my endless thanks. The meeting wrapped up quickly, so I have time to munch on a protein bar (I usually pack a lunch, but I know I'm going out for a big dinner tonight) and enjoy my tea.

I'm a little nervous about a class I'm teaching next quarter - it's a really specialized grad-level class and if it gets fewer than 5 students, it gets canceled. Currently nobody is registered at all. On my colleague's advice, I put together an e-mail to all the grad students to let them know what the course has to offer.

I still have some time before my next calendar item, so I jump into the early stages of a scientific journal review due on Friday. It's a bit of an annoying process - it was originally rejected, and I got brought onto the resubmission when it was a long-ass paper plus 100 pages of replies to reviewers, and now we've made it through TWO MORE ROUNDS of reviews, so it's basically just a giant novel-sized mess of people yelling at each other. But it's gonna get done!

Just as I'm getting into the swing of things, two of my students pop by and stand in the hallway giggling nervously. Apparently they can't find their TA for another class and have a question about class material, so they figured they'd ask me instead - I gently redirect them to, you know, the professor of that course. "Yeah, but we're scared of him," they say, and I try not to die laughing with the knowledge that his wife is in the office next door to me hearing all this. Mixed feelings on this one - on the one hand, I'm glad my students see me as someone they can come to with questions. On the other, it's a time crunch on me that my old-white-dude colleagues don't have to contend with. They eventually head off in search of their professor while I go upstairs for...

12:30pm: Forecast briefing! We have weekly meetings for a national weather forecasting competition we're all in - it involves issuing 4 forecasts a week. I'm... okay at it (usually in the top quarter of competitors, at least beating the models), but we have some RIDICULOUSLY talented forecasters in our group. Today's briefing is entertaining enough, and we all squabble over where we want to forecast next week (the ~1000 participants vote on the city).

1:30pm: Research meeting! This one is with my most junior graduate student, who's a bit overwhelmed with coursework (the first year of our Master's degree is 9 extremely difficult courses before they finally get to do research full-time). We talk through it a bit and he asks for my advice on project/time management, so we chat about pomodoros, the Star Trek Scotty method (always give yourself a buffer and act as though things are going to take more time than they really will), and not writing the entire day off if you wind up doing nothing all morning - you can still hit a reset switch and have a busy afternoon if you need to. Just generally "be kind to yourself, because in the end the self-imposed guilt of not finishing something will stop you from progressing more than anything else." We also talk organizing code and avoiding hard-coding even when it makes the initial time investment much higher. It's a good chat, ending with some restaurant recommendations when he finds out I'm heading to his hometown this weekend! We wrap up early with some specific goals for the next couple weeks, and, after sending in my forecasts for the day, I get back to my review. I also order 5 lbs of candy to refill my candy bowls. It's been that kind of quarter. An e-mail comes in from a student interested in my course and asking for more info! She confirms she's probably going to take it, after consulting with her advisor. Heard from another colleague that she's got one student interested - two down, three to go!

2:30pm: Research meeting! How obvious is it that I like to front-load my week with meetings? This one's with a freshman undergraduate student who's started working with me as a research assistant on a new project... except the project we were originally going to work on together is going very very slowly (our collaborators at a different university are dragging their heels). He met with my PhD student a while back and got really interested in his work, and he apparently knows more than enough coding to be able to follow along, so I went ahead and got him access to 300,000 core hours and 1,000 GPU hours on a national supercomputer to do some exploratory data analysis. As you do. Tragically, the initial project also only works on PCs, and he's a Mac user, so that's another reason to pull him off one project and onto the other. Alas. The project he can't do is a SUPER appealing project to me (very repetitive, boring work that requires little brain-power - please let me do this from time to time!), so I might participate for the heck of it. Meeting ends a little early, so it's back to the review.

3:30pm: We're hiring! It's a dual hire with another department, so it's been a bit fraught, but the grueling two-day interviews roll on. This is number 3/5, so we're getting into the swing of things, and it's time to go attend the public seminar portion of the interview for this candidate. He is... absolutely astonishing on paper, like a once-in-a-generation kind of mind, so I'm already excited to see his talk. We'd be incredibly lucky to have him, although I'm not entirely clear on why he's leaving a super prestigious professorship two years in. I didn't get to schedule a one-on-one meeting with him since he has to leave earlier than expected tomorrow, but I'll be joining him for dinner tonight. The talk goes quite well, although I hear the students buzzing over whether he's genuinely collaborating or just doing the tech-bro thing of coming in and claiming to solve all our problems... Plenty to think about at dinner tonight. I believe this will be what the kids call a vibe check. (We also have a chalk talk tomorrow where he'll present his work to just the faculty + postdocs, so more chances there!)

5pm: Got some time to kill before heading over to dinner at 5:45. I was originally going to do some work, but my brain is a little fried at this point and I may just zone out and scroll for an hour. More tea! That'll solve everything.

5:45pm: Meeting a colleague to go grab the candidate and Uber over to the restaurant together - I love this place! Lots of good food, and plenty of non-alcoholic cocktails and veggie/vegan/gluten-free options, so an ideal spot to bring a guest speaker or faculty candidate. He was very pleasant to chat with and really knew his stuff despite having just had an exhausting day. Good food, good chats all around. Home by 9:30pm, phew.

[tundralwhisper]

AAAARRRGGGHHH

Literally took a walk into the forest at 2:30am, despite my knee pain that gets worse after walking like 10 meters.

So, before I rant, ramble, and vent, the Context:

I DM a D&D game for friends, on the server where I met most of them. It's a server of about 400 people, though *maybe* 30 are actually active.

Donald J Trump got shot (unsurprising), and a friend (who is in the game) went into the server's "controversy" channel (a bad idea to even have that channel, ngl) and mentioned that this is gonna be a big danger for trans people, because the nutjobs supporting trump have just gotten the most intense incitement to violence imaginable. He may have made a little bit of an inflammatory remark on the matter

Another friend (who is also in the game) did NOT like that. And the conversation got *heated*. I joined, 2 other players joined (that's 4 out of 5, plus me). Over the course of the discussion, they dropped several instances of hate speech. Transphobic rhetoric, xenophobia, it was *BAD*. Mind you, one of the people in the game is literally an immigrant, and him and I are both not very cis.

Meanwhile, I was in a movie watchalong (American Werewolf in London, very funny movie tbh, kept me sane during this) while participating in the discussion.

I postponed D&D, trying to figure out how best to kick the nutjob. Then passed out for 12 hours.

Shit. Went. Down. Other mods got involved, jumped the gun on an announcement without reading the hate speech context, things got convoluted, two people left the server: The nutjob, and the immigrant friend.

I solved things in the end, by making a seperate server for the D&D game and inviting everyone over (except the nutjob, he specifically said he left the campaign, too).

So, bad situation. Not happy.

Now, the VENT PART!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHH GODS FUCK WHY FUCKIK I SLEPT FOR 12 HORUS AND SO M;UCH SHIT IMMEDIATEL WENT DOWN AND ALL THE OVERTHINGKING AND PLANS AND SHIT DID NOTHIGN TO HELP A'CAUSE I WAS ASLEEP FUCKIG SHIT FGUCK.

OKAY. Okay. Phew. I don't usually post anything, anywhere, without double and triple checking grammar and spelling. Not this time. FUCKING HELL.

Between postponing the D&D game I was making PLANS. I was THINKING, PLOTTING even. I was gonna get the other players' views on the nutjob, I was gonna write up a civil and calm message to send to the nutjob to kick him and be done with it, 'cause I didn't wanna cause drama across the active parts of the server.

And then, I just had to fucking pass out and assume things wouldn't implode for a couple hours at least. I passed out for 12 hours, and everything was fucked when I woke up. The drama had already extended beyond the group into server-wide drama, I had to abandon all my plans and improvise (I suck at that), and just. ARGH. I'm mad.

I'm mad. Actually, genuinely mad. Not even at the nutjob, he's a victim of propaganda. I'm mad at the "mod" (doesn't even have actual mod powers, barely qualifies as a mall cop for the server) that made a statement to spread the trouble so much further than it needed to be. Like, do you not *READ* something before you type a response? Are you out of your FUCKING mind?!

Like, people were mad not over the economics talk it fizzled out to, but over the ACTUAL FUCKING HATE SPEECH you absolute childish IMBECILE. "Be respectful, agree to disagree" IT WAS ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS, THERE IS NO "DISAGREE" ON THAT YOU DUMB CENTRIST FUCKWIT.

At least he realized when he went back to read it - WHICH I HAD TO TELL HIM TO DO. Do you need a parent to carry your brain after you everwhere so you don't forget to fucking THINK, too?!

But also... it's sad to see that someone I thought a friend had fallen so deep into the propaganda, and someone else I considered a reasonable person turned out to be so fucking stupid as to not consider that context matters a lot.

I hate insulting people like this. Fuck, man. I'm gonna go sink into endless amounts of angsty music now, if anyone needs me try to search the woods near my house.

[suggahsweet]

DITL

Sometimes I think it is helpful to catalog all the boring specifics of a random day. This can help with identifying pain points and what I might do to move my day to day just a little bit closer to ideal. So, without further ado:

6:15am alarm goes off, hit snooze - twice.

6:30am awake and doing ?? on my phone. just generally opening email, instagram, etc. and then closing them after a minute or two.

6:45am showering and getting ready - decided on ankle length green dress

7:00am making lunch/breakfast

7:15am scarf down two fried eggs and a piece of toast

7:30am off to school! Braid my hair and listen to a health podcast (Dr Mindy Pelz) on the way

8:05-8:35am plan the day because I didn't, then begin this post.

8:35-10:35am work work work! Including doing a bit of marking math, photocopying, texting people, sending some emails, getting centred with some breath work and reading the Bible, and of course giving multiple math lessons due to having a split grade

10:35-10:55am break! Listening to the rest of the podcast while checking email and printing the Summer Reading Guide in colour woohoo! eat a homemade dairy/nut-free chocolate chip banana muffin, some carrots and berries and grapes, super delish. go pee!

10:55am-12:15pm: teach teach teach! My bestie/work wife and I set up ancient civilization art centres and the creativity was flowing! It was so fun.

12:15-12:35pm: outside supervision. I got hit in the face with a soccer ball and the pollen sucks. :/

12:35-12:55pm: chatting with coworkers for 10 mins, then a quickie lunch in my room!

12:55-1:35pm: social studies looking at ancient methods of transportation and relating them to modern day

1:35-2:10pm: watching the Summer Reading Guide unboxing! I guess my genre is firmly Thriller/Mystery! If it ain't broke don't fix it!

2:10-2:45pm: more teaching lol plus tying up loose ends at my desk for tomorrow's plans...

2:45-3:50pm: pick up EJ

3:50-5:30pm: slog through a totally insane meltdown based around Lego/having to eat the dinner that was cooked which by the way was delicious and inoffensive (chicken skewers with veggies and pineapple) etc. This was for sure the worst part of my day. A website sent me an email the other day saying something like, "your five year old has outgrown tantrums, but blah blah blah" and I say to that, LIES.

5:30-7:00pm: try to turn things around with a jaunt outside to the tennis courts...it was fun! EJ is pretty athletic and it's so cool that he's able to like...hit a ball with a racquet, run to retrieve it, I just love it! Then we ran across three full soccer fields to get to a far off park (my watch: "you've had a DEMANDING day" haha my heart rate went up to like 150 from that mild jog in the heat and let's face it probably the stress of the previous hour and a half...) and EJ picked me a giant dandelion. It's so cute how he does that!

7:00-8:00pm hydrate, snack, bath, bedtime. At 8:00pm I laid in bed next to him and watched the beginning part of the SRG release. He was asleep by 8:20pm and by 8:45pm I was showering and winding down. Talked to jnils a bit, downloaded a bunch of books to my Kobo, and was in bed reading until about 10:20pm at which point I passed out! Fin!

Things that worked:

-even though I SUCK at caring about how I look lol it turns out that throwing on a dress and braiding my hair makes it look like I put a tiny amount of effort in? Or at least I get compliments like being told I'm beautiful and look like a princess! Which is great because I simply cannot be the sort of person who sacrifices any sort of leisure or sleep time for getting up early to put on makeup or do my hair, lol.

-getting a planning time payback. It always makes me feel way more relaxed. And to be fair, today is my easiest day of the cycle in any case.

-the 2.5 minutes of silence I forced myself to take. It helps my brain just settle the fuck down and all the tasks I've had cycling through my mind as open tabs I can just write down so I can actually close those loops!

-homemade snacks. It's annoying and sometimes I don't feel like I have the energy to make them, but when I do the payoff is fabulous.

-it's possible that eating eggs instead of all carbs for breakfast helped, too? I tried it again this morning and so far am feeling pretty good and level-headed.

-working with my colleagues. Honestly this is probably my favourite staff ever! Not only do I get to plan and co-teach with Odette every day but there is a core group of about four other teachers who I LOVE. They came to the show, they also love music and reading and positivity and it is just a whole vibe here. We're doing a summer book club! I can't even.

-getting outside. Even though my allergies are kicking my ass, fresh air and sunshine seems to be helpful for me and the little guy too.

Things that need some workshopping:

-EJ's picky eating. S O S it's so annoying. I can't remember being picky whatsoever, and neither can jnils, so wtf! Did we somehow bring this upon ourselves? I try to follow all the "rules" (this is the only thing for dinner tonight, you don't have to eat it now but if you're hungry later this is what will be offered, screens off, let's pray together and then eat, etc, etc. and still somehow we end up having a battle semi-frequently...whyyyyy)

-my complete current lack of motivation when it comes to actually getting school-related things done. Maybe I just need to live in this season and it's my body's way of telling me I can slow down and who cares? Lol. Anyway, these are the things I'm pondering.

-wait one more thing. How do teachers keep their desks organized? Because I try every year and I just can't do it haha.

[thatmittengirl2009]

This is just a vent and a place to get it out.

Today was awful. A bad day on top of bad crap on top of more bad stuff.

I was supposed to go in early at 6am because I had a doctor appointment after work. However 5:30am rolled around and I couldn’t even move. Then 6 came and nothing, then 7 and I gave up on the idea of making it in early.

I was struggling hard with my workload right away. I kept telling myself it’d be a better day but then it was just so much nonstop with this person needing this and this person needing that and every 10 seconds, a bloop appearing on screen with a Teams message and 13 different chats going.

Then we have a team meeting and I bring up all my concerns. The only good news was they’re bringing in a temp agency to try to help with keying and help relieve us of that chunk. When that will happen tho? Not soon enough. So I say that the big report they’re making us do is too much. Others finally speak up and back me up which thankfully didn’t make me feel alone or like I was the only one complaining. Then my manager is like wellll we have to do it and I just lost it. And it was embarrassing that I fell apart in front of everyone but my manager said she’d talk to me after. So she ends up calling me after everyone else is like “omg are you ok?” I keep so calm under pressure and I just can’t anymore. So my manager talks to me asking what’s going on. I say the work is unrealistic. I could be working a 16 hour shift and not put a dent in anything. On top of it, I have people emailing me nonstop to fix their stuff or ask why they’re paying so much on tariffs. If I ghost them, they call. And then when I ignore, they go higher above me and now I’m yelled at by upper management.

I explain that report took me 3 hours alone to get through. I explain the intricate details needed to do to remove the new aluminum rules plus add in the exclusions for USMCA and it’s time consuming. I’m behind on my send outs because all I do all day is correct stuff and then people are complaining I’m late sending stuff to them. I can’t win. We begged for new hires for the last two years and now that this shit is hitting the fan it’s like we were setup for failure. She said she’d review the process with her team to try to see what they could do to alleviate the pressure.

The day goes on and then 3pm HR calls me. Last week I shared a link on my PRIVATE FB about how OT isn’t the answer and burnout leads to lower quality of work and doesn’t improve productivity. All I said with it is 20 hours of mandatory OT is insanity. That’s it.

I get a call saying “so you posted on FB and you did nothing wrong but we’re concerned about you & want to make sure you’re getting help.” I said umm ok but why do I feel like I’m still in trouble? He reminds me of the free resources they have so “I don’t feel like I have to vent on social media anymore.” I said well since someone obviously shared my post, I’ll just remove everyone from work and still vent. He was like what no…. I said it’s ironic that work is offering me free counseling when they’re the issue causing all this. I said it’s not an isolated issue but an issue that’s been leading up to this point for years. He was concerned I wasn’t happy with more vacation time and I said we can’t even use it. They throw a fit and deny you due to workload if you even try. Then scramble end of the year to make sure everyone gets their time in that we have zero coverage. I said money doesn’t motivate me. He asked what does and I said not being forced to work more than I want to. Volunteering is one thing but if I decide I need a mental health break and don’t feel like working over, I should be allowed that. He was like welllllll overtime is for everyone sooooo get some counseling and learn a work life balance. Ok but you’re taking over my life and ruining that balance.

We got no where.

I apologized to my direct boss that I’ll need to make my OT tonight since I had an eye doctor appointment and they dilate my eyes so I can’t see right away. She told me don’t worry about it and enjoy a mental health break.

So I go to my doctors and I already warned them I was in a flare and my eyes hurt extremely bad because I had been crying most of the day. They do some tests and my doctor is like “oh holy fuck…” like that don’t make me feel okay. So my retinas are still beautiful and I can stay on my lupus meds but my eyes are sooooooo dry from my Sjögren’s that I have an ulcer starting on the outside of my eyeball. It’s why I’m in pain and my vision is a little off. So I have to do steroid drops for 10 days and if it’s not better I need to come back right away. I have to wear my blue light glasses at work all the time for now. Like this is what stress does. It’s causing me to go blind. And then what work gonna do? The only upside is I get a seeing eye doggo. So he walks me out like he always does and I tried to pull a push door and he let me know I’m not that blind yet. But it’s scary in all seriousness. This job is killing me and I just don’t know what to do. I have no backup plan or enough funds to get past a month. I applied at my groomer to be a bather because I’d seriously rather wash dog buttholes than work one more day at this place and doing this Trump stuff that is sooooooo moronic and incompetent that I’m getting the brunt of from companies. And now the 200% tariff? I’m a target for even having to follow orders and apply it.

So maybe I’ll go blind enough, I just go on disability for a while and just vibe for a year. That’s where I’m at.

[westriverpeacegarden]

November 2024 News & Updates

Dear Friend of the Peace Garden,

I wanted to wish you a happy holidays and provide a few updates about the Peace Garden:

* WRMP Renew Team Meeting, Wednesday, Nov. 20

Friends of the Peace Garden members have recently been attending the meetings of the West River Memorial Park Renew Team, which is a unique partnership of groups working to enhance West River Memorial Park (WRMP) through a technical assistance grant from the National Park Service. As part of the advisory committee for the grant, we are advocating for better connections between the Peace Garden and WRMP on the other side of Ella Grasso Boulevard. The next meeting of the Renew Team is Wednesday, November 20, 2pm on Zoom (and every third Wednesday thereafter). Please let me know if you would like to attend these meetings to support our community outreach efforts.  

* Meeting with City Landscape Architect, Friday, November 22, 9:30am

Recently Friends of the Peace Garden member Paul Bloom and I had a productive Zoom meeting with the City's new landscape architect, Josh Price. We will be meeting again with Mr. Price for a "site visit" this Friday, November 22 at 9:30am at the Peace Garden. We will be discussing and getting feedback about our ideas for possible physical infrastructure improvements to the Peace Garden. You are welcome to join us for this important meeting, or let us know any thoughts or ideas you would like us to share with Mr. Price.

* Peace Garden Work-Days On Hiatus After This Friday

This Friday will be our final work-day at the Peace Garden until spring 2025. We will be meeting with the City's landscape architect (see above), doing some light clean-up and planting some bulbs, but mostly taking it easy. Thanks to everyone who helped out at the Garden this season.

* Peace Garden Advisory Committee Meeting, Monday, November 25, 5:30pm (Zoom)

We will be holding our final advisory committee meeting of the year next Monday, November 25 at 5:30pm on Zoom. The Zoom information is below. Please RSVP if possible. Aaron Goode is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: West River Peace Garden Advisory Committee Time: Nov 25, 2024 05:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84017684556?pwd=INc2pzXhEp2i1jGzO1HmNg8kTqSlwr.1

Meeting ID: 840 1768 4556 Passcode: 982882

I will send out the agenda shortly and post on our website as well.

_______________________

Thanks for your ongoing support and happy holidays.

Aaron G. Friends of the West River Peace Garden westriverpeacegarden.org

[hotarutranslations]

NACK5 "FAV FOUR"..Limsta..BEAMS-san..

Evening

Thank you for the live broadcast of, NACK5 "FAV FOUR"

.📻‪🤍

Wa---! It was really fun! Talking!

The show, Dekami-san and Kosaka Daimaou-san, are in charge of Wednesdays, Kosaka-san was absent due to other work this time, So I got to talk with, Dekami-san and JOY-san~~🌻🌻

I haven't seen Kosaka-san in a while..

When it was decided I would be going on this time, For Ishida's fans, There were those looking forward to it like, 2 from Tohoku~ Kosaka-san~!

It didn't happen this time, I definitely hope that we can get together at some other time!

JOY-san gave us a fresh reaction to Morning Musume '24, and Dekami-san knows so much, too much so she kinda gave supplemental songs to the new songs,

A FAV talk🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻

It was really, a lot of fun~~ Thank you very much~~

Thank you very much, to everyone who listened!

Please use radiko to listen if you missed it📻🤍

Before that I went to,

The YouTube livestream, Limsta!

Thank you very much! Prooppperrllyy watch to see if I call out your name, ok!

There were a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn of applications…

There were many names I couldn't call out, I'm so thankful to everyone🥹🥹

Everyone, I ended up signing while thinking, everyone wants to send out their message as I've announced my graduation, I want to read them, thats right, I get it! lol

Thank you very much for your warm words🤍

Did you enjoy! The live stream!

I kinda thought,

I realized I'm too relaxed doing Limstas,

I end up like yayyyyy✌️,

I hope that you enjoy it!

Thank you very much for watching🤍

From the morning, I had a different recording📼🔌 

If you're interested in this post..

Instagram

Hello Pro Dance Gakuen Extracurricular Activities, with BEAMS-san..

It'll air on September 19th at 11:30PM but, Look forward to the information closer to the airing🙊🙊

BEAMS-san's headquarters.. It was realllyyyy wonderful..

A bit after the shoot, I was sitting on the sofa and relaxing, Its a mystery the time I spent there lol

Last year Morning Musume, They helped us out and, We got to come out with collab t-shirts, I love them❤️

Today my black dress is Ray BEAMS-san

Wa~~

Excuse me, the date has passed

Please have a good rest🥱‪‪‬ᐝ Thank you for your hard work today too..

⋆͛📣FC Advance Reception Until August 8th at 5:00PM

Play▶️List

Graduation Announcement Blog🐣🪽

Hello! Station #531 I also talk about my graduation in this video

📺Hello Pro Dance Every other Thursday at 11:30PM~

📺Sendai Broadcast "Ara Ara Kashiko" Ishida Ayumi Goes~! I appear once a month as part of the AraKashi Family

The previous shows, and makings, are on OX VIDEO STORE!

📺Otoboke POPS

TokyoMX August 17th (Sat) 9:30~10:00PM Ishida, Sakurai, Yumigeta are appearing

Thank you for following.. Instagram💙🩵

💿 August 14th new single✨ "Nandaka Sentimental na Toki no Uta/saiKIYOU"

̗̀📣Cheki Sign Talk Meet Announcement

̗̀📣Limsta

🪩Hello! Project 2024 Summer ALL OF US "Vega" "Altair" From July 13th~September 1st Traveling To 7 Cities Nationwide All Hello! Project groups are performing🔥

🪩"Morning Musume '24 Concert Tour Autumn WE CAN DANCE!"

Its Ishida Ayumi's last tour💙 I'm looking forward to seeing you

🪩"ROCK IN JAPAN FESTIVAL 2024 in HITACHINAKA" September 22nd GRASS STAGE 10:30AM~

→Tickets are on general sale

📚July 20th Release "non-no September" special issues cover is, Morning Musume '24

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Releasing on July 23rd

"Up To Boy vol.341" September Issue I will be on the 7net limited cover page

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📻Morning Musume '24 Morning Jogakuin ~Houkago Meeting~

Airs Every Saturday, On Radio Nihon at 12:00AM~

Past Broadcast Episodes Are Available →Program Details

I visited as a guest🪽 "Sayashi Riho and The Time From Now On" presented by Meiji Bulgarian Yogurt

see you ayumin <3

[reinemichele]

Okay, I was going to make this post the day it happened, but I was already really distraught & felt like typing it all out would just like push me over the edge, and I still had to survive NYE fireworks. I decided to at least wait until after the 1st, but then Life Things kept happening, so I didn't get around to it until now.

My righteous anger has mostly simmered down, so but I think it'll probably still get long, so this'll be another read more post. TW for mentions of animal death, emotional abuse, and declawing

To be 100% super duper crystal clear: I am entirely against declawing; it's unethical and cruel and inhumane. This will become abundantly clear as the post goes on, but I just have seen too many pointless disc hoarse posts filled with people who gleefully, willfully misinterpret posts for any reason to harass people. I'm not going to leave myself open to people who'd send me death threats without even reading the full post. As it is, I'm turning reblogs off bc I don't want my post about my cat dying to be reblogged, but if I need to I can turn anon/asks in general off.

So. At 11PM on the 29th of Dec my cat gets hurt, we get to the vet by 12:30, and by 3AM he died. We got home by 4:30AM and none of us could sleep. We were all still awake at 10AM, and dreading the fact that it was a 3-day weekend and we'd have to face all of it trapped with our thoughts without having our normal day-to-day routines to buffer the first 3 days.

We know a lot of energy vampire type people. Liars, manipulators, people who'd come over to our house just to steal something for funsies, abusers. One of my mom's sisters was an accessory to murder. The same one stole my mom's SSN to open credit cards with. I have more examples, but my family tree bullshit could be its own post. A lot of them are in our family and there's some my mom basically has to keep in contact with due to her job.

So, it's 10AM, and my mom is dreading the 2-5 energy-draining people who consistently text her all day long, no matter what's going on or how busy she is. She can be with a patient who's actively in the process of dying, and they'll just text her "?" repeatedly when she doesn't respond.

She decides to tell these people about our cat dying the night before, in hopes that they'll give her space. Unfortunately, abusers like these people love to violate unsaid boundaries like this, so nothing less than blocking numbers/turning off her phone would work. But it's a step towards being able to say "no" that I've been trying to help her with, so we're going to be proud of her for it.

I don't want to use this person's name because as shitty as they are, they deserve privacy, so I'm going to use her initial.

V . responds . "Oh. My sister is trying to rehome her cat, maybe you can take it?"

So let's go over the timeline again. 11PM on the 29th -> 10AM on the 30th. In less than 12 hours since our cat died, V is trying to shove her sister's cat at us. Please don't try to give her the benefit of the doubt or say she was trying to help us feel better. There's not a single thing this person does that comes without ulterior motives; I've known her since 2015. She goes to strangers' funerals so she can brag about it later. She doesn't feed her own cat wet food, not because she can't afford it, but because she'd rather buy cheap dry food at the dollar store and spend the entire rest of her money on herself, like going on cruises/vacations while I petsit her cat. (And use our own wet food for her cat because it's cruel and fucked up and genuinely a detriment to a cat's health to only feed them dry food). This suggestion was nothing short of an impulsive launch at an opportunity to make her life more convenient, by finding a new home for her sister's cat, so her sister would stop complaining or asking her to take the cat.

My family has always had pets, and I'm the youngest in our house, so by the time I was born, a lot of our pets were already getting old and sick (12-15 for dogs, 20-25 for cats). The first pet that died in my lifetime was our dog Killer, when I was 4. My dad had already died, so I didn't need any lies about going to live on a farm or something. And of course it's always sad, but we've always felt like the best thing you can do to ease that pain is take in a new pet and provide them with a home. You get mutual love and happiness from each other, and day by day it gets easier. But, like, you take in that new pet after maybe a month or so. Not a fucking day.

Before continuing, for some extra context, 2 of our cats already had been from V.

The first one, Joey, she only had for a few months before becoming convinced he was peeing all over the house (hint: it was her 20 yr old cat who had chronic kidney/urinary tract problems from being fed nothing but DRY FOOD FOR 20 YRS @%^#&*^*&@#) and offering him to my mom's sister, who ended up dying a few months after that. (We don't know why or how; coroner declined performing an autopsy.)

We call V and tell her what happened, because we don't know what to do with Joey. Her reaction is like, "Oh... hmm. Huh. That's really a shame. Let me know if you find someone who can take him."

As in, "NOT IT!"

They hang up and my mom stares blankly at her phone screen. I say we should just take him home instead of leaving him in the empty apartment and stressing about finding him a new owner.

Flash forward to December of 2020. V calls my mom crying, saying that her (now ex-)husband thinks their other cat, Smokey, peed on his expensive speakers and is threatening to divorce V unless they find a new home for Smokey. V says all the local shelters are full and when she looked into people who'll temporarily house cats for owners, they charge $200 per day. She says she needs to find Smokey a new home like, now. My mom says we'll help her find someone but V is like, her husband has Smokey locked in a cat carrier and says she won't be let out until they find her a new home, that kind of now. We're like, jesus fucking christ, silently. I mute my mom's phone and say "tell her we'll take her". I'm sure she would've said that anyway, but like, instinctual response to hearing the thing about the cat carrier.

(Btw, he divorced V the next year anyway. I wanted her to be away from him, because he's so abusive and mean. But it's so fucked up that he forced her to get rid of her cat with the threat/ultimatum of divorce, only to follow through with the threat anyway. He could've just divorced her and let her keep her cat!!! She had to deal with the heartbreak of a divorce without the comfort of a cat she spent 9 years with!!! He moved out of state, but every time I think about this, I wish I could go and break his kneecaps.)

The problem to that is that Smokey . is declawed . So she has to be separate from our other cats 24/7 for her own safety. None of our cats are very aggressive or get into "real" fights with each other, but they're still cats, with sharp teeth and claws, with predator instincts, who act on those instincts when they can tell another cat is weaker, whose instinct during a fight with another cat is to swipe at their stomach to disembowel them. That's not something you want to take a chance on. So Smokey is exclusively in my mom's bedroom. Over time, we've started to let her out for 20-30 minutes at a time with supervision, but that's the extent of what we can give her without putting her in danger, and it can't be done while doing chores like taking the trash out or doing the dishes. All because V declawed her fucking cats. (Not Joey, but only because he wasn't with her for very long.)

Okay, with that context established, let's go back to V texting us on Dec 30th.

Of course, we could rehome her to someone who didn't have other pets, but she spent 9 years with V, and has now spent 4 years with us. She's a 13 year old all-grey short-hair cat with a bald patch on her belly and on her front legs and below her ears, so it'd probably take a very long time to find someone who'd pick her over a cute kitten, and even longer stuck in a shelter if they had room. And if we had chosen not to be her permanent home, we would've been keeping her at arms' length the entire time, trying not to get attached.

How would that be fair to Smokey? She deserves a life where she spends as many days possible feeling wanted and loved and safe. That's what I set out to do, and I think I've achieved it as much as I possibly could, around her being declawed. I do love her and want her. And I do keep her safe, obviously. I spend as much time as I can with her; we cuddle, we play, we watch birds, I share food with her (when it's safe for cats, obv). With V she was always hiding under the bed and never meowed, just came out to eat. With us, she never hides, purrs non-stop, and is very very vocal. She gets wet food and treats, she sits in the middle of the bed like she owns the place. She gets to be a cat.

I leave my room to go check on my mom. She relays me the text. I say . "What the fuck is wrong with her? It hasn't even been a day."

I ask, "Is V's sister's cat declawed?"

We, like, talk about what a transparently selfish and inconsiderate person V is. I tell my mom I'm gonna try to sleep, but then I stop in the middle of the room.

It's a balancing act to watch out for 1 declawed cat with our other cats, so it would take more mental energy to strategize life around 2 declawed cats, especially with how often I'm asked to petsit. You have to factor in how much time you can spend out petsitting (I usually spend 5 hours there at a time), time you can spend with the Have Claws group of pets (including a dog), and time you can spend with the No Claws pet.

Despite the... misconceptions about cats being detached and aloof, they want (and need) to spend time with you. They want to cuddle, they want to hang out in the same room, they want to hear your voice, they want to play, they want to snooze in the presence of someone they feel safe around; they love you. Same as with dogs.

My mom says she'll find out.

I get some sleep, then I wake up. My mom tells me that no, V's sister's cat is not declawed; she can't find anyone in the state to do it. That's why she wants to rehome the cat.

",,,, How could anyone say that without being ashamed?"

My mom shrugs. "I don't know. I told her, 'wow, we're sitting here miserable because we wish we had our cat back, and your sister wants to get rid of hers because she can't mutilate it' I don't think she liked that because she stopped texting me back."

We laughed.

Silence is telling, you know? V's 20 year old cat died last year, and my mom and I spent months hoping to god that she wouldn't get a new cat, because we didn't want her to declaw it. She swore up and down she regretted doing it to her other cats and would never do it again, but she's also a liar. So after she did get a new cat, my mom and I have checked to see if she still has claws every time we go over. So far she does... but probably because V can't find anyone to do it either.

But then it stopped being so funny when I realized it was probably only a matter of time before one or both of them crossed state lines to look for a vet who'd do it. We can't exactly steal V's cat, but if we take in her sister's cat, we can save it from happening.

I don't really have a good way to finish this. We'd rather take in a cat off the street or from a shelter than have Three cats that came from the same asshole, but if V's sister does declaw her cat, we'll feel responsible for it happening, even if we know it's not our fault.

I just wanted to post about how fucking insane it is to try to pawn off your (sibling's) cat less than 24 hours after someone's cat died. She's almost 70 and has no mental illnesses; she knows better. She's just an asshole.

[thelezzer]

Image description: A flyer posted on a window.

Logo of an eagle with the words "Indigenous Innovations" 122 E. Hastings St, Vancouver BC. Monday - Friday: 11:30am - 5:30pm. Next to Brandiz Bar. John Su 778.806.6993 indigenousinov@gmail.com

HELPING FIRST NATIONS WITH HEALTH CARE With a STATUS NUMBER, we can help with: Feet: Foot doctor, compression socks, custom orthotics, custom knee brace, back/elbow/wrist/ankle brace. Teeth: Dentures, cleaning, cavities, root canal, bridges. Eyes: Glasses and eye exam. Medicine: Doctor appointments, medical prescriptions, First Nations-focused pharmacy, new doctor. Medical Equipment: Wheel chair, scooter, 4 wheel walker, bath tub bars, canes, motorized bed, Power Wheel chair, shower seat, bed bar, Slip mat.

End of flyer. Image continues with a caption from the submitter.

"Hi! Just wanted to share this flyer I was about healthcare for indigenous folks in the Vancouver, BC area. Do you mind sharing the picture yourself instead of answering this ask? Asks doesn't allow sending media by anon, and submitting a post doesn't have an anon option, and I'm not comfortable having my account identity tied so close to where I actually live. Thank you!"

End description.

Ask submitted anonymously to remove name of OP's account.

Included their text as it gives context to the photo.

[rayslittlekitten]

The Little Sister

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

A/N: Okay. This is long as fuck compared to the other parts and hope you enjoy this fun and sweet smut. I honestly had to much fun writing this, probably the part leading up to the sex more so than the actual sex.

Also almost forgot, this is for this week’s Writer Wednesday as well. I knew when I saw the photo prompt that this would be a Ray story.

RATING: E (18+ONLY)

Word Count: 3.2k+

Pairing: Raymond Smith x F!reader/OFC

Contains: protected sex (p in v), almost unprotected p in v sex, oral (F and M receiving), a lot of sweet and playful flirting, also might contain some grammatical/spelling errors (it’s 2:30AM and I’m not about to re-read all this)

Photo Prompt:

You spent your time doing absolutely fuck all at the pub until you got so bored that you started helping Bob out with some mundane tasks while Bunny watched you more intently. Bob was not comfortable at first but you swore to him that he wouldn't get in any trouble and that you would take all the responsibility if Ray or Mickey had any issues with it.

You were even tempted to start serving people just so you can have some human interaction, but that's where Bob drew the line. The head cook also kicked you out of the kitchen because you were asking too many questions and starting to get in the way. 

You've had the hustle and bustle experience of being a waitress, hostess and other odd jobs in the service industry while going to school in New York City. Ros and Mickey would always send you money if you needed any without any question but you wanted to earn your own spending money. 

You're now in the seat Ray usually sits in at the corner of the back room with your feet propped up on the desk and chair slightly tilted back and you're using your weight to balance it on its back legs. It's not quite the dinner rush yet so the room is still closed off to the public. You take out your phone for the millionth time today and scroll through your social media like you're expecting to find something new, as if opening the boring fridge again when wanting a snack after having done it so many times, each try with lowered expectations.

You scoff when you see a picture of Ashley and Brad together looking all cheery.

"What a cunt," you mumble. You're tempted to post a nasty comment, but you're interrupted by a text message from an unknown number.

Unknown: "Are you still at the pub?"

You look at the text for a moment and to be sure, you compare the number to the business card Ray gave you and it matches. You save Ray's number into your phone.

You: "Yes. 🙂"

You see the three dots on your text app bouncing, waiting for his reply.

Ray: "You better not be lying to me or there will be consequences."

You: "Oh yeah? What kind of consequences? 😏"

"The kind of consequences where Bunny and Frazier will take you home and watch you to make sure you don't go anywhere without either one of them and I go home by myself."

You shriek and nearly fall back but the chair is stopped by something behind you. You quickly swing your feet down to the floor and the chair falls forward with all four legs planting onto the ground as it should be. You turn around and look up to see Ray with his hand on the back of the chair.

"Jesus Christ, would you stop sneaking up on me like that?" You have you hand over your chest as you can feel your sudden increased heartbeat.

"Lesson one: always be aware of your surroundings," Ray says.

"Also, lesson two: don't focus your energy on people and things that aren't worth your time." Ray grabs your phone from you and blocks Ashley and Brad's social media accounts and then hands your phone back to you. You roll your eyes at him.

"Are we ready to go now?" you ask. "I've been in this bloody pub for so long, I can probably run it by now."

"Do you want to run it?" Ray asks curiously.

You look at him like he's speaking a language you do not understand at all as you're trying to process his question.

"Are you... asking me to run it?" You tilt your head.

"No, I'm asking if you'd ever be interested in running it, but that conversation can be had when Michael and Rosalind gets back. Right now, I'm going to make sure you not running anywhere." Ray reaches his hand to your face and pinches your chin. "Come on, let's go. My car's out back."

You excitedly jump out of the chair and he gestures with his hand for you to walk in front of him. You feel his hand on your lower back as he guides you to his car. He's already called off Bunny, telling him he's going to watch you for the night and had Bunny take care of Ros's car.

The car ride back to his place was fairly quiet, aside from small talk, like you're both having an impromptu awkward first date. You're so nervous and excited all at the same time. Thankfully it's not a really long car ride. After Ray pulls his car into the drive way, you step outside the car and look around. His house isn't as big as Mickey and Ros's but it's still a very big especially for one person. You follow Ray to the front door and after unlocking it, he lets you in first. As you walk in, Ray switches on the light. You walk further into the house and take in everything.

"Would you like something to drink?" Ray asks as he walks past you into the kitchen.

"I'm fine, thank you." You continue to look around, admiring the open kitchen before heading over to the living room and dining room. 

"You live all by yourself in this large house?" you ask him, running your hand over the top of the smooth leather couches.

"Yes, I do." Ray pours himself two fingers of whiskey.

"Don't you get lonely?" You walk over to the patio doors and take a peek outside.

"Well, most days I'm only home to shower and sleep anyways."

You sense Ray walking up right behind you before you even notice him in the reflection of the patio door and feel butterflies suddenly fluttering away in your belly.

"You know, I think I will 'ave that drink," you tell him without turning around. "I'll 'ave whatever you're 'aving."

As Ray is about to say something, his phone goes off.

"Just a minute. Here, you can have mine. I haven't touched it yet." Ray hands you his glass of whiskey and walks away before answering his phone. "Yes, boss?"

You take a large gulp of the expensive whiskey and let it surprisingly not let it burn your throat. It's actually quite smooth and you're impressed by it. You look around and don't see Ray. You can hear him from a distance though. You start exploring the house further more. You peek into a room and see it’s the bathroom. You enter another open room and the colors and furniture are similar to the ones in the living room.  There's a lot of dark browns and with some grays and blues. It looks like some sort of sitting room or study. Maybe his office. It's quite lovely. His book collection gets your attention and you scan through them. You walk over to the couch by the window and sit down, looking up at the second level where there are walls of shelves lined up on each side.

"Y/N?"

You hear Ray calling out for you.

"In 'ere!" You respond loudly.

Shortly after, Ray comes strolling into the room.

"Is everything alright?" You look over to Ray and he's not just holding another glass of whiskey, but you notice he's taken off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves.

"Everything is fine. Michael just wanted an update on some business related things." Ray walks over to you and sits next to you.

"So...” You take another gulp of the whiskey. “When are we going to…“ you wave your hand in front of you. “You know.”

“When are we going to what?” Ray pushes his glasses up and looks at you strangely.

“You said if I promised you to stay in the pub til you got back you’d take me ‘ome with you,” you remind him.

“And you’re here now, aren’t you?” Ray takes a sip of his whiskey.

You open your mouth to say something but you’re flabbergasted. That cheeky bastard.

“But you… I thought…” You don’t even know what to say. You feel like the fool now. “Oh my God!” You cover your face with your hand.

Ray reaches over for your whiskey glass and places both his and yours on the coffee table next to the two of you.

“Lesson three: be mindful of people's words.”

Ray pulls your hand away from your face. You look at him and don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You’ve already had a really rough week and this is just the cherry on top of the mountain of shit you don’t need.

Ray smirks and then leans in to kiss you.

You are completely thrown off and confused now. Was he teaching you a lesson or just messing with you? Either way, Ray is still a cheeky bastard. You want to hit him for what he did but you’re just happy you’re finally getting what you want right now.

You hungrily kiss back and feel Ray’s hands on your waist pulling you in closer to him. You put your hands on his shoulders and climb on top of him, pushing him back against the couch to straddle him. You cradle his bearded jaw and deepen the kiss, licking his tongue and teeth. You can taste and smell the whiskey on him. He flicks his tongue into your mouth and you suck on it. His hands slide down to your ass and squeezes it.

You pull away from him to get some air and rest your forehead on his.

“I was two seconds away from slapping you for fucking with me,” you pant.

“You should have done it. I might’ve liked it.” Ray brushes his lips against yours.

“Oh, you like getting slapped around, huh? That’s why you’re Mickey’s lit’el bitch?” you giggle.

Ray smirks.

“Lesson four: assess the situation and know your limitations before taking action.”

Ray grabs your waist and pushes you down onto your back on the couch, pinning your wrists above your head and settling his hips between your legs.

The sex hasn’t even started yet and this is already by far the hottest thing you have ever experienced. Ray smashes his lips against yours and grinds himself against you. You’re pretty sure this time it’s not a gun. His beard rubs against your face and can feel the bottom of it tickling your neck as moves his mouth to your jaw and then to your neck. You feel his teeth dragging across your skin and then replacing it with the softness of his tongue, soothing his bites. Ray releases your wrists and brings his hands down to grab the bottom of your shirt and pull it up over your head, removing it and tossing it aside. He immediately pulls the cups of your bra down and latches onto one of your nipples, swirling his tongue around it and sucking on it. You arch your back up, wanting more – no, needing more. It feels like there’s an ocean between your legs and your panties and jeans acting as a dam is going to break.

Ray moves his attention to your other nipple and you run your fingers through his blonde slick hair.

“Ray,” you breathe out. “I need you to fuck me. Now.”

Ray looks up at you and releases your nipple with a pop. He smirks and sits back on the couch, lifting your legs and resting them on his lap. He starts removing your shoes.

“Lesson five: patience is—“

“Ray, I’m going to fucking lose it if you don’t get your cock inside me now!” You look down at him. “Inside me fanny,” you quickly correct yourself in case he had other ideas, although you wouldn’t mind sucking him off.

After removing your second shoe, he reaches up for the top of your jeans and start unbuttoning and unzipping them.

“What’s the rush, love? We’ve got all night.” Ray hooks his fingers to each side of your jeans and pulls them down along with your panties over your hips until they reach your ankle. You shimmy the rest off and kick them off to the side.

“I can’t hold it anymore,” you moan.

Ray brings one of your ankles up to his lips and he starts placing butterflies kiss on it, then makes his way up the inside of your leg before finally reaching your dripping core. He watches you as he swipes the flat of his tongue over it, lapping up a healthy serving of your juices, making your hips buck.

“Lesson six: never show all your cards.”

Ray slips two fingers inside you and you swear you are going to cum in two pumps. He slides them in and out of you painfully slow. He presses his tongue on your clit, circling it before pulling it between his lip and sucking on it. You grind your hips against his fingers, hoping to get more friction. You can feel your orgasm simmering as Ray’s mouth draws more blood to your bundle of nerves. His fingertips inside you concentrate on a soft spot and you feel like you’re going to explode. The only sounds in the room are your heavy pants and Ray’s fingers moving in and out of your soaked canal. You bite your lip as you concentrate on your release as you get near it.

“Fuck! Ray…” your hips thrust rhythmically against his face until suddenly the sensation disappears. “Ray!” You look down at him and he’s sitting up on the couch and sucking on the fingers that were inside you, then swiping his hand over his beard.

“What the ‘ell?!” you ask, extremely frustrated. “If you start your next sentence with the word ‘lesson’—“

Ray laughs.

“This isn’t funny, Ray! I’m ‘ere naked and horny and you’re torturing me!” You sit up and kneel on the couch.

“I don’t mean to laugh at you,” Ray continues to laugh. “You’re just so adorable when you’re all worked up.”

You can’t help but smile. You glance down at the bulge in his jean and straddle him again. You lean down and kiss him, tasting yourself on him. Your hands reach down and start unbuckling his belt, quickly working to get his jeans off of him. Ray’s hands run up and down the sides of your body as you reach inside his jeans. He moans into your mouth as you stroke him. He feels like a big one, but honestly if his fingers were close to getting you off, anything bigger than his fingers would do at the moment. Ray pulls his hands away from you to push his jeans and boxers down below his hips and you pull his cock free. You stroke it a little more before rubbing the tip against your opening.

“Y/N,” your name strained in his voice. “I don’t have a rubber here. We have to go to my bedroom for it.” Ray nibbles on your bottom lip.

“Just the tip?” you moan against his mouth.

“I can promise you it will not be just the tip if it goes in.” Ray knows his limit and at this moment, his self-control is pretty low. “Come on, sweetheart, my bedroom is close by. Let’s just get there before we do something we might regret.”

You are tempted to just sink yourself over him and deal with any consequences later if there are any. You’re that desperate right now.

“But it feels so good,” you pant as you continue to rub the tip of his cock on your clit and at times dangerously close to your entrance, applying the slightest pressure. You can even feel Ray gently pushing up against you.

Ray’s phone suddenly goes off.

“Fuck!” Ray grits his teeth and throws his head back against the back of the couch. Ray gently pushes you off of him and reaches for his phone inside his jean pocket.

“Yes, boss!” he answers, a little more aggressive than he intended. “No, I uh,” Ray swallows the excess saliva in his mouth. “I just almost spilled something, is all. Is everything alright?”

You decide to get a little even and drop down to your knees between Ray’s legs. Ray’s eyes open wide as he makes eye contact with you as you grab a hold of his cock and you slide your mouth over it.

“Check up on Y/N? S-sure I can do that.” Ray closes his eyes and balls his free hand into a fist as you run your tongue and lips up and down his length. “No, I’ll-I’ll check on her in the morning. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it. I’ll make sure she’s in good hands.” Ray digs his fingers into your scalp as he watches you deep throat him. “You and Rosalind have a good night as well,” he quickly hangs up and then pulls you up. “Bedroom. NOW!”

He grabs your hand in his and leads you to his bedroom. When you both reach it, he goes to his rubber stash and pulls one out, then frantically strips his clothes off. The whole time, you’re lying back on his bed while you watch him. For a man who doesn’t seem to work out, he seems to be in pretty good shape.

Ray slips the rubber over himself and then immediately climbs into the bed and hovers over you, aligning himself with you. Without warning he pushes into you to the hilt and you gasp at the sensation. He pulls back and then shoves himself back in all the way. He watches your face as he fucks you. The sounds he’s pulling out of you drives him crazy.

“Fuck, Ray, you feel so good!” you moan.

Your praise encourages him to reach deeper. He pushes your legs up, hooking them over his elbows and then pounds into you harder.

“Oh, shit!” you feel your orgasm reaching its peak and you cry out, letting it take over your whole body. You’ve never quite had an orgasm like this before, not even through masturbation. You are seeing stars.

“You alright there, love?” Ray asks, adjusting his glasses. You look at him and nod with the silliest smile on your face. “Good, because I’m not done with you.”

Ray flips you over and pulls your hip back before sinking himself back into you, holding on your hip and thrusting in and out of you again. Your ass is bouncing against his upper thighs as his balls are slapping against your clit, hard and loud. You can’t believe you feel another orgasm brewing. You feel Ray’s hand slip between the front of your legs and he starts rubbing your clit as he fucks you from behind. Your legs starts trembling and you cry out, riding the orgasm. Ray continues to drive into you until he moans and you feel him twitching inside of you. His pace slows down to a stop.

The room is now filled with nothing but your pants and heavy breathing. Ray pulls out of you and lays down on his back next to you as he tries to even out his breathing. He turns his head to look over at you and you smile at him as you also try to get your own breathing back to normal. Ray reaches over with his hand to cradle your jaw and caress your cheek with this thumb. You both look at each other for a few moments and then Ray scoots closer to you and leans in to kiss you.

[thebrochtuarachs]

Something in the Rain - “A Month Apart, Part 1”

A/N: Hi everyone, thank you for your patience as I whipped out this chapter. I had the initial outline on how this chapter will go but more frequent than none, it changes a lot in the middle while I'm in the writing process. :) I love this story and I hope it just gives you the good feels while reading this. We're two years into this pandemic and the world is still crazy. I hope you're keeping safe and being kind to yourself. :) As always, your comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

A modern day meet cute instance between Jamie and Claire.

AO3  / C1: A Day In June : C2: Definitely, Maybe : C3: So We Meet Again : C4: Friday Lunch : C5: Finding Solid Ground : C6: Situations : C7: Interruptions

XXXXX

After their first date, their schedule for the following two weeks we’re packed - with Jamie settling back in the firm after his 2-week trip from London and Claire’s schedule at the hospital and preparing for her trip to Seattle.

Being a lawyer and a doctor weren’t the most flexible jobs - with patients and clients to attend to, surgeries and hearings to prepare for, plus, with both of them in administrative positions, it is additional work on top of their normal duties. But Claire and Jamie were determined to make it work, so they decided to communicate better, be extra patient and understanding, and really commit whatever available time they had.

The first week, Jamie couldn’t make lunch as he had a court hearing to prepare for and Claire couldn’t make dinner as she was on the night shift. So Jamie, one day, surprised Claire outside the hospital by picking her up, invited her to quick breakfast dates instead, and dropping her off at her house to make sure she got home safe.

The second week was a bit lighter but with Claire going to Seattle on Saturday, she had to do extra administrative work to make sure everything was set for her leave. She offered to have dinner takeaways at her office in the evenings which he happily accepted.

The night before her flight, Claire and Jamie were hanging out in her office, sitting at the sofa, admiring the Edinburgh skyline with a little wine and cheese tray.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t go out” Claire apologized.

“Don’t worry about it, Sassenach.” Jamie turned to Claire and patted her hand. “I honestly would prefer to do anything if it means I get to spend time with you - whether sitting here in your office on a Friday night or sitting in the gallery watching your surgery.”

“You’re too good to me, James” Claire quipped in a feigned dramatic voice.

“Ah, you give me too much credit, Claire. I hope you know that you make an effort too, especially these past two weeks”

“Me? It feels like you’re fitting more to my schedule than I am yours!”

“But you met me during breakfast even though you looked too knackered from yer shift.”

Claire couldn’t deny that and she could just smile with Jamie’s understanding.

“Are you all packed up for tomorrow?” Jamie asked, changing the subject.

“Yes. The weather’s mostly rainy in Seattle so I brought extra items for the wet and cold.”

“And what’s your schedule for the month?”

“Have I not sent you my itinerary? Hold up -” Claire took out her phone and quickly sent an email to Jamie. “There, I sent you my schedule but between teaching and surgery, my time’s the same as here just minus the administrative work, which I tell you not, I’m pretty excited to be free of it for the next month”

Jamie just nodded. The next month.

It’s all rather bad timing if you look at it. The first month, they’ve been rather inseparable with going to lunches almost everyday and weekends at the center. The following month, quick dates and meetings as Jamie was away at London and their crazy schedule at the hospital and the firm. And now, going into the third month since meeting, they’d be completely separated by roughly 4,485 miles.

“Did you hear what I said, Jamie?” Claire asked while waving a hand in front of Jamie’s face.

“I’m sorry, what?” Returning to the present, unaware that his mind has gone away a bit.

Claire gave him a softened look and sat closer to him. “What were you thinking?”

Jamie stayed silent but Claire’s look urged him on.

“Nah, ye’ll think me daft” Jamie said but Claire shook her head.

“Fine” Jamie stretched his arm to pull her closer and she gladly leaned on his shoulder. “I was just thinking about how I’ll not be able to see ye for a month, how much I’ll be missing ye, and how excited I am once ye return here.”

“Oh,” Claire knew the feelings were simple but it’s his words and the way he said it that touched her most.

“I told ye it’s daft.”

“It’s not daft.” Claire tried to mimic Jamie’s accent but they both just have to laugh at her attempt. Turning serious quickly, she took Jamie’s face by the hand and looked deeply into his eyes. “You know that I am going to miss you too.”

Jamie just nodded in agreement, looking at Claire so sweetly and lovingly that she couldn’t help but lean in for a kiss.

Since their first kiss after their date, they hadn’t been shy in showing affection to each other. Nonetheless, it’s all been very respectful to the boundaries to whatever stage they are in their relationship. Hand touches, hugs, pecks and kisses here and there but never really beyond that.

But with her impending departure, Claire seemed to be eager for more. Instead of completely pulling away, she kissed him again some more.

Jamie quickly picked up the signal and allowed himself to pull Claire closer and to his lap. A few minutes later, Claire felt Jamie’s tongue on her lips asking for entrance which she happily obliged. The air around them was electric.

Jamie was first to pull away before the moment got away from them. Claire sighed - not from disappointment, but by the fact of how chivalrous Jamie really is. And she doesn’t really mind it one bit. “I’ll be back before you know it.”

The following day, Jamie picked up Claire to drop her off at the airport. They thought they had time for a quick bite but traffic was so horrendous that they got to the gate just in time before boarding began.

With barely any time left, Jamie pulled Claire to a tight hug as the PA system called her flight. “Go, you’ll miss your plane”

Claire reluctantly released Jamie with a grunt. “Let’s go somewhere when I return”

“Sounds like a plan” Jamie tried to hide the longing in his voice but it was too late.

“The month will be over before you know it, okay? Message me everyday, call me every afternoon when you can” Claire encouraged him. With one last kiss, they bade each other goodbye as she started walking to her gate and Jamie was no longer in sight.  

As Claire waited for take off, the silence of a constant message ping on her phone slightly unsettled her. It was then she realized the vast distance between Seattle and Edinburgh. A single tear escaped but she quickly pulled it together. She’s not even gone yet but homesickness hit her right away.

-

So the four-week long distance trial began.

The 8-hour time difference is not too crazy between Seattle and Edinburgh with their available times falling at the start and end of the day. They’ve been coping well with their synced calendars and communication options.

Jamie sends flowers and snacks to Seattle Grace, earning Claire points from the staff for all the treats she’s been giving away.

Claire, on her end, sends late messages to Jamie to wake up to in the morning and asks Mrs. Kim’s Korean Street Food Hub to delivery chicken wings to Jamie every so often.

They’ve also reserved some time on the weekend for extended calls with conversations falling from happenings to their week to what hairstyles and colors they’ve done in the past.

It wasn’t till late in the 3rd week that things started to shake up.

It was a random Thursday evening in rainy Seattle. Between two surgeries and one class, Claire was ready to call it a day. She was settling on her sofa, drinking her tea for a little night cap when her phone pinged. It was 9:30PM Seattle meaning it was 5:30AM Edinburgh, too early for anybody to contact her over there unless it was important.

Grabbing her phone, her notifications show it was from Geillis. It was a link to a tabloid along with a message “HAVE YOU SEEN THIS?”

With the link, she can see the preview of the title “Jamie Fraser is off the market!” Curiosity prevailed Claire and she clicked the article

-

On the other side of the world, Jamie, as always, promptly arrived at the firm. Just as he was to pass Mrs. Fitz, she called him out.

“Ah, lad”

“Yes, Mrs. Fitz?”

“I dinna ken yet what ye or Claire are yet but have ye spoken to her today?”

“Today? Not yet. Why?”

She motioned for him to come round the reception and take a peek at her monitor.

She showed him the same article Geillis sent Claire and as soon Jamie saw the accompanying photo, he fished out his phone and immediately contacted Claire. It was midnight in Seattle but Jamie didn’t care - he wanted to clear things before things got misinterpreted.

“Erm, hello?” a groggy Claire answered the phone on the other side of the line.

“Hi, were ye asleep?” Jamie asked as he walked the hallway to his office.

“I was but I answered already, what’s up?” she replied, her voice still muffled by sleep. She knew why he was calling though but wanted to hear it from him. “Did you just arrive at the firm?”

“Yes,” he replied, closing the door to his office for privacy. “Well, I don’t want to keep you long but an article came last night about me and well, in case ye’ll see it, it is not true.”

Jamie heard Claire sigh on the other end, “I’ve seen it” she confirmed.

“Ye’ve already seen it?” he repeated in disbelief, looking at his watch, it’s only been posted a few hours ago.

“Geillis sent it to me earlier, I think it just came out then. She’s a bit of a morning person so…”

“Claire, it isn’t true. It was all in a bad angle. The Dunsany’s have been a long-time client of ours and we had an unexpected dinner meeting yesterday. I was just escorting their daughter to her car when the paparazzi got wind of us and ran with whatever story they could think of.” Jamie quickly explained in summary.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah. I mean you say it’s not true and I believe you.”

“You don’t have any questions?” he asked, a little baffled.

“Not really. I mean was there more to it?”

“A bit but something we can talk about later.”

“Okay”

It was both refreshing and confusing as to why Claire seemed nonchalant about all this. On one end, she might be really understanding. On the other end, she might be harboring ill-feelings she didn’t want to discuss.

It was Jamie’s line that turned silent. Claire, guessing he might need more despite her sleepy state, obliged him. “Jamie, I won’t lie. I was surprised at first because of the photo and how the article was written with your family histories. Add to that, that I didn’t see it in the calendar and you didn’t text me about it.”

“Why didn’t you call -?”

“But” she interrupted him, “I also know you, Jamie, and I know about us. If I was really concerned, I’ll call you right away. But I’m not and we’ll be meeting later anyway, so I know we’ll talk about it eventually.” she paused to catch a breath. “Besides, you already explained it, I don’t need to know any more because I trust you, Jamie.”  

“Okay” it was Jamie’s turn to give the one-word reply.

“Are we okay now?” she asked.

“Yes, as long as ye are too.” Jamie replied to which Claire mummed in agreement. “Thank ye, Claire.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I’ll go back to sleep and see you later.” With that, Claire ended the call, a small smile crept on her face knowing the relief and joy Jamie probably feels right now.

[forzalando]

goodbye kiss | s.r.

pairing: steve rogers x fem!reader word count: 1.2k warnings: mentions of anxiety (briefly), mentions of a head injury (briefly), cursing, mentions of food/eating a/n: this is a fluffy steve fic i've had finished for literally forever and i just never posted it bc i thought no one would read my marvel stuff hahahaha here it is. maybe there will be a part 2 to this....if anyone wants it :)

summary: Steve and Y/N are so clearly infatuated with one another, but oblivious as can be. One morning, Steve's shocking behavior may shift their relationship.

“Good morning, Y/N,” Steve and Bucky called out in sync as they barreled through the doorway of your shared home.

Every morning was practically the same; wake up at 5:00am because Bucky couldn’t be quiet if his life depended on it, start breakfast at 7:00am right as Steve and Bucky get back from their run (and pretend like you just woke up), shower at 7:40am, and start heading to the compound at 8:30am.

The consistency helped with Bucky’s anxiety, as well as your memory issues from a head injury you had sustained a while back on a mission.

Steve was just Steve, and he ran a ship tighter than his ass and his workout shirts that you knew for a fact ripped after their third or fourth wear.

The three of you worked and lived together, mostly in tandem, but occasionally something would happen that derailed the balanced home life you all strived for. It was usually minor; ‘accidentally’ eating someone’s leftovers, leaving dirty dishes in the sink, playing music too loud at night, etc.

But sometimes…sometimes it was the way Steve looked at you across the dinner table that made you nervous around him for days. Sometimes it was the way your fingers found their way into his sandy blonde hair after a stressful week. Once, about a month ago, it was because he walked into the bathroom not knowing you were taking a bath. And most recently, it was the casual comment made by Bucky about how he was sick and tired of you and Steve dancing around your feelings for one another like “the fuckers in the Russian Ballet”.

Eventually, the awkward period would fade away and things would return to their normal, harmonious ways, with Bucky grumbling all the while about your cowardice.

“What do you have for us today, doll?” Bucky called out as he exited his bedroom.

“I think I have a cold so you and Steve are getting scrambled eggs and toast because it requires minimal effort. Also, we’re now out of eggs. And bread.”

“I just bought three cartons and a loaf two days ago,” Bucky groaned as he slumped against the counter.

“You and your buddy Steven consume a carton each so either eat less or shop more. Take your pick, Barnes.”

He walked behind you and snatched the spatula from your hand, scooping some eggs into his mouth with a cheeky grin.

“I choose to shop more.”

You quickly grabbed the spatula back and shooed him away before he turned your pristine kitchen into a crumb filled nightmare.

“Steve,” you shouted indignantly, “breakfast is ready and I do not have time for your slow ass today.”

Bucky grumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and immediately after, a loud crash echoed from across the house. Bucky shrugged his shoulders in response, pretending to be unaware of whatever could have caused Steve to wreak accidental havoc so early in the morning. It certainly was not his whispered comment, loud enough for only a super soldier’s ears, about how you surely had time for anything to do with Steve’s ass.

“Sorry, sorry,” Steve huffed as he shuffled out of his room.

“What the hell happened in there?”

“I, uh, mis-stepped and tripped over my bed frame, no big deal.”

You rolled your eyes playfully and graciously stepped away from the stove, accepting Steve’s good morning hug and forehead kiss with a dopey smile.

A strangled gag interrupted your precious moment, and you shot daggers at Bucky while he shoveled his breakfast into his mouth like he was starved.

“Sorry, egg must have went down the wrong pipe. Continue your love fest.”

“It’s not a love fest, Buck,” Steve mumbled as a heated blush crept up his neck.

“Then how come I don’t get tender hugs and forehead kisses every morning?”

“Because you don’t cook me breakfast and Y/N is much more kissable.”

Steve froze while Bucky, the cheeky bastard, chuckled into his perfectly buttered toast. You quickly composed yourself and patted Steve reassuringly on the back, laughing along with Bucky.

“I wouldn’t want to kiss Bucky’s ugly mug either, Rogers.”

The rest of breakfast was silent; the sounds of clinking forks and satisfied sighs seemed like exploding C4 and gusts of wind in the cozy kitchen. After finishing your breakfast of hot tea with lemon and honey, you wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed. Before, you felt that it was just a little cold, but the longer you were upright and moving around, the more sick you felt.

“We don’t have anything important planned today, do we?” You asked while hobbling towards the couch.

“Not that I know of, are you alright, doll?” Steve inquired, concern evident in his eyes.

“It’s probably just a head cold but will you tell Stark I’m calling in sick today? I don’t even have the energy to send him a text right now. Plus, I don’t want to deal with him telling me this wouldn’t happen if I took his prototype horse pill, super food vitamins.”

“I’ll let him know,” Steve mumbled affectionately as he draped a blanket over your shivering frame.

In a matter of minutes, he and Bucky were headed out the door; Steve with his briefcase and Bucky with his reusable grocery bag he deemed secure enough for sensitive documents.

When the door shut, you closed your eyes, relishing in the quiet, empty space you would have to yourself for the next 9 hours, until a sharp ringtone pierced your eardrums and ignited a monstrous headache.

Steve’s phone buzzed upon the kitchen table and you groaned; his forgetfulness never ceased to amaze you. You dashed across the room, hoping and praying that he and Bucky hadn’t already driven away. After flinging open the door to your house, you crashed directly into what you knew to be Steve Rogers’s insanely muscular chest.

“I forgot my….” He trailed off, noticing that you had it in your hand while simultaneously taking note of the annoyed expression on your face.

“You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached to your shoulders, Steven. I feel incredibly overworked and under appreciated looking after you.”

He threw his head back and laughed, the sound momentarily easing the pounding headache behind your eyes.

“You’re definitely not under appreciated doll,” Steve murmured as he took his phone from your outstretched hand. “Don’t forget to take some cold medicine, it’s in the hall bathroom cabinet behind Bucky’s aftershave. I’ll bring home some soup and a movie.”

Before you could thank him, he dipped his head and captured your lips in a delicate kiss. However, all too soon, he backed away with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

“Did you just…” you gasped.

“I’ll see you tonight, bye!” He shouted before taking off in a sprint and bounding down the front porch steps.

You watched him from the window as he awkwardly ran back to his car. Just before he opened the door, he turned around and locked eyes with you. You blew him a kiss, as dramatically as you could, and smiled as he laughed and ducked into the driver’s seat.

The sensation of vibrating pulled your attention away from Steve and you reached into your pocket for your phone, swiping across the new text message.

From: Bucky Barnes

I. Saw. Everything.

taglist: @gredmforge @vogueweasley @gcdricreads @nuttytani @kaye-lantern @barnesjamcs @thisuserlovesyouandyouandyou @fallingforyou123 @phoenixes-and-wizards @gloryekaterina @hannahmeyer1999 @beautyschoo1dropout @loonylovegood13 @saara-sanders @le-weasley-simp @peachypotter @omghufflepuff @weelittleweasley (if your url has a strikethrough, I was unable to tag you! please let me know if you would like to be added to my marvel taglist and thank you for reading!!)

[archtroop]

🎶✨️when u get this u have to put 5 songs u actually listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favourite followers (feel free to do it or not, positivity is cool)🎶✨️

Oh wow oh wow

So Spotify 2022wraped did the job for me, so, I'll post my top 5 from that list:

Ok this one literally A COVER THAT IS A LOVE IN FIRST SIGHT SRSLY CHECK IT OUT. MOOD

Ah, a classic. This one is one of my faves for years now. This is my S4 SamDean song.

Bodies is one of my favorite songs to listen to on the bus on my way to work at 7:30am. Invigorating, yasss

Ok this one isn't the next on the list but God damn it's a MOOD. One of my JASON todd songs, huh

Oh you can see I'm a bit old fashioned I guess. But this one. This one. That's a fuckung war cry. Love it. Also one of my Jason Todd songs actually. I have a Playlist for the guy Gods help me.

[hqbbg]

big and bad.

pairing: matsukawa issei x reader

summary: the woods are a dark place.

genre: fantasy

word count: 1.6K

warnings: i didn’t have this beta’d and this was completed at 5:30am so there might be mistakes but uh, none otherwise that i can think of (but please message me to correct me)

author’s note: heyo! 🤪 I’m back with another HQHQ server collab fic! you can check out the other amazing writers’ works here! i have our dear mattsun for both collabs (and both parts are now posted)!! n e ways as always, I hope you guys enjoy! 💕

part two (18+)

Your legs are shaking and you can feel your knees threatening to give out. The cold air burns your lungs as you continue to run through the dark forest, swatting at branches in your way. You don’t know how long you’ve been running, but you know for a fact that you wish you hadn’t skipped gym class all those years ago in grade school.

After what feels like ages, you finally see a dim light ahead of you through the foliage. As if hit with a sudden burst of energy, you try to push through and feel so close to the end, the light practically within reach. Just as you’re about to get to it, your path is suddenly blocked and you’re shrouded in darkness once again. Halting to a stop, you panic, trying to get a grasp of what just happened.

Suddenly, you no longer feel alone and feel every nerve ending stand on edge. Your heart is pounding in your ears and you do everything in your power to refrain from doubling over to catch your breath. The sound of a branch breaking startles you and you whip around.

“You know, it’s not safe for people to be out alone in the woods at this hour.” You’re unsure of what you’re expecting, but it’s definitely not the silhouette of a tall man standing before you.

You open your mouth to speak, but no sound comes out.

“What shall I do with you?” His voice drawls lazily and in any other situation, you might consider being comforted by it.

While you can’t see him, you hear him move. He seems to be circling you and you do your best to remain facing him, though you’re beginning to feel your head spin.

“What’s the matter, doll?” You can practically hear him smirking. “Cat got your tongue?” You jump when his voice sounds right up against your ear.

Before you can react, you feel hands grab you and open your mouth to scream, only to jolt up from your bed in a cold sweat. Your heart is still pounding in your chest and you’re breathing heavily.

It was only a dream.

Laying back down, you sigh softly to yourself. Just as you’re about to close your eyes to go back to sleep, you hear your alarm go off and groan. Great.

You practically throw the blanket off and toss your legs over the edge of the bed, willing yourself up to begin your day. Glancing out your bedroom window, your eyes warily linger on the trees of the forest below before you force yourself to get washed up.

When your parents had asked for you to drop by for lunch, you were more than willing to accept, never one to turn down free food. However, as you begin your walk down the sidewalk towards the bus stop alongside the thick brush of trees, you feel a chill run down your spine and you want to go back home. Something just simply doesn’t feel right.

Swallowing your paranoia, you quicken your pace until you arrive at the small bus stop. You can’t help but feel as if you’re being watched, but when you look around, there’s hardly anyone around and their attention is fixed elsewhere. You hesitate for a moment before turning to glance towards the thicket of trees behind you and nearly jump when you meet a pair of dark gold eyes looking back at you. When you blink, they’re gone and the bus arrives.

Throughout the whole lunch, you do your best to forget the morning’s events. Your parents notice that something is off, but you brush it off with an excuse of just being tired. It’s true; you’ve been exhausted these past couple weeks with moving into your apartment while still trying to maintain the various responsibilities of life. Maybe that would explain the paranoia and the hallucinations—that’s what that was earlier, right?

As you step off the bus, the air feels colder and the sun is already setting. Where has the day gone? You should’ve left your parents’ home sooner before the sun had begun its descent. The streetlights around you flicker on to illuminate the sidewalk, but you see that your path home is blocked due to road work that’s scheduled to last all night long.

You resist the urge to let out a groan. It looks like the construction extends through the whole main road and the designated detour will take you an extra half hour to walk around. You look warily to your right towards the heavily wooded area that separates you and your building, hesitating momentarily. In all honesty, it would be faster to simply cut through the trees and if you’re quick, you might be able to make it before total nightfall.

Weighing your options, you figure you’re just being extra paranoid because of your dream—or rather, nightmare—and simply inhale deeply before stepping off the concrete towards the brush.

The wind whistles lowly and the setting feels eerily familiar. As you listen to the crunching of leaves and fallen branches under your feet, you’re reminded of the stories your grandmother had told you as a child.

“Beware of the big bad wolf,” she had said, though her sing-song voice hardly instilled the same fear that was snowballing within yourself at the moment.

You feel like you’ve been walking for nearly ten minutes, so you should be near the edge of the forest now. However, with the sun finally set, it’s harder for you to navigate your steps and the gnawing in your chest blooms. You try to maintain a straight path, but you could’ve sworn that you passed the same tree five minutes ago.

Deciding to take a brief break, you pull out your phone to check the time and ideally pull up a map to help you navigate your way out. Unfortunately, you have no signal so your phone is deduced into nothing but a glorified clock.

As you had felt this morning, it seems like you’re being watched, followed. When you glance around, you’re alone. Right as you turn back around to face forward, putting your phone back into your pocket, you let out a scream in surprise when a man is standing before you, golden eyes looking directly at you.

“I wasn’t expecting visitors so soon.”

There’s no mistaking that you know this voice; it sounds exactly like the one from your dream. It’s hard to see him clearly, but you can make out the familiar outline of his tall figure as your eyes steadily adjust. You see him take a step forward, making you instinctively take a step back.

“No need to be afraid, sweetheart. I don’t bite.” The low rumble of his voice sends a shiver down your spine. He takes another step forward into a small area illuminated by moonlight seeping through the blankets of leaves above and you can finally see his face.

He has a lazy and almost bored look donning on his features, the upwards tilt of the right corner of his lips being the only thing indicating his amusement at the fear in your eyes. His eyes seem to rake over you, as if evaluating you.

“Are you going to kill me?” You try to steady your trembling voice, unable to look away from him.

“Kill you?” He muses as he takes another step forward. You take another step back. “What’s the fun in that?”

“Well, if you’re looking for fun, I have an idea or two,” you say, trying to look for a way out.

“Do you now?” The man is now smirking. “Enlighten me.”

“For starters, you keep me alive.” He chuckles but it does nothing to calm your racing heart. “Second, you either tell me who you are and how to get out of here, or just cut the formalities and go straight to telling me how to get out of here.”

He laughs as he takes another step forward, taking you another step back. You feel your eyes widen when your back presses up against a tree you were sure wasn’t there before.

“How cute,” he says as his laughter dies down. “I think you’ll be fun to keep around for a little longer.”

He takes two more steps forward until he’s towering directly over you, propping his elbow against the bark above your head. He leans down to be at eye level with you and you can feel his breath fan over your face. You turn your head slightly, wanting to avoid him in any way you possibly can.

“Issei.”

“Excuse me?” Looking up at him with a frown on your face, you realize just how close he is and feel your cheeks heat at the proximity.

“My name. I think you’ve earned it.”

You’ve hardly done anything, so you’re not sure what that means. Before you can question him further, he cocks his head to the side slightly.

“Tell me, doll. What’s someone like you doing in a place like this?”

“Currently looking for a way out of here,” you answer truthfully. You know better than to trust a stranger, especially given the circumstances you’re in and the alarms are blaring in your head.

“You’re sure you don’t want to stay? I’m pretty convincing and can make it worth your while.” He smirks down lazily at you.

“I highly doubt that and would like to see you try,” you say, trying to swallow the lump in your throat. Perhaps you could’ve worded your sentence differently, a fact emphasized when he leans in dangerously closer to your face so you can feel the ghost of his lips brush yours whenever he speaks.

Your instincts are screaming at you to move, but it’s as if your brain and limbs are disconnected, failing to cooperate.

“Don’t tempt me,” his voice lowers. You hesitantly lift your eyes to meet his and see that they’ve darkened.

Well, that can’t be good.

[galaxa-maiden]

Seiun's daily routine as the House of Lamentation's butler

[ A/N: Now, I wanted to try something new to spice up my page (I was also running out of scenario ideas) so I decided to make posts similar to these per se. So, this post is going to talk about Seiun's daily routine as the 7 demon lord's sorcerer butler. Also, reminder! Some of the stuff Iwill mention are sometimes headcanon ideas revolving around the Demon brothers since I needed some things to fill out in this, okay? Anyways Enjoy! ]

Morning

Seiun wakes up at 6:00-6:30am in the morning, freshening and dressing himself up for the day. Leaves his room at 6:40am after looking over at his planned schedule in his journal. Arrives in the Kitchen to cook and prepare breakfast for the Residents (Including MC). Individually the inhabitants come out of their rooms to the dinning room. (The earliest to arrive is either Satan or Lucifer between 7:00-7:20am, the latest is either Mammon, Levi or Belphie between 8:20-8:30am). Seiun waits for everyone to finish their breakfast and some leave to RAD at 9:00am. Seiun only eats some of the remaining foods on their plates. Preparing bento boxes for the brothers and mc with some newly cooked and remaining food items from todays breakfast in handmade wooden boxes, writing name tags on them and putting them in a storage to keep the bento boxes warm and dry. Wrapping some of the untouched, enduring food items, e.g. banana nut bread in cling film and putting them in the fridge for Beelzebub or anyone who wants to eat after school hours. Cleaning and drying the dishes and kitchen evenly until 9:45am.

Leaves the kitchen at 9:50am to do his chores; vacuuming, dusting, mopping floors, cleaning furniture, freshening out the rooms by opening windows, bringing out the trash, changing sheets from cushioned furnitures,washing and folding laundry for the residences, cutting the grass outside, watering the house plants, feeding the pets in each room of the house until 1:00pm (Though, sometimes he skips some of his usual chores because he either gets informed that the residences already did one of the tasks or he does the leftover tasks at another time of the day). At 1:15pm Seiun then lets his mammal assistant Sirius deliever the earlier mentioned lunch boxes to the individual House of Lamentation members. Sirius then stays there to watch after the brothers and MC until 1:30pm to later on return to the house and report new important information for Seiun to note down.

Noon

Seiun takes a physical-mental break from work by being in his room at 2:00pm. Producing more of his Moon Water potions, practicing his moon magic, meditating with his astrology based properties, Nap, eating his favorite dessert, writing some things in his journal, proceeding his research about astrology magic, chatting with Sirius, using up the time to send a letter to his priest friend Lucius about recent news and progress to his mission and so on. Of course, he won't be able to do all of them within 2 hours.

At 4:00pm, Seiun leaves the house to grocery shopping and picking up orders from stores for the brothers. Most of the pick-up orders are from Majolish, Akuzon, The Royal Library, Hocus Pocus or Madam Scream's (But sometimes, he gets orders / requests from the brothers or even from mc to pick up somewhere else other than the main five locations mentioned earlier). As soon he arrives back to HoL at 5:00, he brings the pick-orders to their requesters rooms and sorts the groceries into their specific places. Already expecting the members return (Probably around 4:45pm). [Occassionaly during those times of the day, Seiun would be dragged in one of the brothers' shenanigans. Shenanigans such as you would witness in the game, the lessons or events for instance. That or he'd mostly follow on what schedules he has to fufill related to the brothers. For example; serving coffee to Lucifer, helping Mammon with his homework, fill in the gap by being Leviathan's second player gaming buddy, Accompany Asmodeus to his shopping spree, assist Satan by sorting out his bookshelf, help out with Beel's work out, stroke Belphie's head while he's napping and so on. The brothers can order more if they so wish but only until 5:45, in which Seiun has to prepare dinner for everyone.]

Evening

Seiun cooks dinner and sets up the dining room at 6:05pm. The residences of the house arrive at 6:15pm and the food gets served at 6:20pm. Everyone, including Seiun eat together at the table, discussing about today and their plan for the future, like upcoming events until around 7:20. After dinner, Seiun and a volunteer helps to clean the dishes and the kitchen at around 7:35pm. Seiun may have some extra schedules and even appointments in his journal, he'll finish them including the rest of his chores until everyone goes to bed at 9:00pm or later. Since Lucifer is the eldest with a lot of responsabilities in his hands, Seiun goes to his room to look after him, manage some portion of his tasks and serving coffee every now and then to keep the Morningstar active until he decides to sleep too.

Seiun then uses the remaining time to check up on the people sleeping; making sure that no one is having any bad dreams or something like that. Also making sure that Beel wasn't raiding the fridge. The human butler would be done for the day and spend the rest of his free hours doing the things, mentioned earlier at noon. He'd also let his staff and DDD charge "overnight". Then he'd sleep until the next day comes and the similar routine repeats.

[thran-duils]

Thran-duils’ heavily encouraged dark!character writing challenge

I’ve wanted to host a writing/prompt challenge for a long time but I’ve always been too nervous (it’s a perpetual thing lmao). Well, I am taking the dive! Rules and all the information below the cut!

Credit to @santacarlahorrorshow for the lovely header! <3

RULES

1. This challenge is 18+. Seriously, don’t be a dick and ignore this rule.

2. Following that, all characters and reader insert are to be 18+

3. I really, really, really encourage dark!characters or dark!reader or both (soft!dark, dark, heavy!dark) for this but they do not have to be if that makes you uncomfortable. A lot of these prompts are going to be leaning towards dark but there are ways to not utilize them that way I’m sure!

4. These fics are to be reader insert.

5. Fandoms accepted are: Supernatural, Marvel, The Walking Dead, and Lord of the Rings verse (I’m begging for some Thranduil here lmao no shame).

6. All characters welcome! But please do not use real life actors for this!

7. Please do not write beastiality. That’s really the only thing I’m gonna be like “plz don’t” kink about.

8. The fics for this must be new, not adding to an already existing story. They can be drabbles, one shots, or a starting chapter for a new series.

9. I went back and forth about this but I think I am not going to put a limit on how many people can choose a prompt. This may come back to backfire on me but one prompt just might be popular and it would be fun to see what variations can come from it!

10. Send me an ask with your prompt you would like and character/s. I will tag you next to the prompt.

11. If you need to back out of the challenge, send me a DM and I will remove you. Things happen!

12. Make sure to tag your fics appropriately if they are dark! Not only does this help people avoid triggers but also you’ve done your due diligence to tell people to gtfo and if they don’t, well, then that’s on them.

13. You do not need to be following me to participate!

14. Please tag the fics as #thranduilswritingchallenge and also tag me to make sure I see it!

15. For lyrics and quotes, please use them in the fic! If there’s breaks in the lyric, feel free to break it up in the fic though. Situations are for encouragement. I did edit one lyric, Olivia O’Brien. I put the songs next to the lyrics in case you want to listen to the song.

16. The deadline for this challenge is September 4, 2021. I will make a masterpost and I will post it either 9/5 or 9/6!

Lyric Prompts

01. “You right, I got my guy. But I, I can’t help it, I want you” (You Right by Doja Cat)

02. “Good girls don’t cry and good girls don’t lie” (Good Girls by CHVRCHES)

03. “But you keep breaking me apart” (Fabric by Half Waif)

04. “Dance like you’re not a liar” (Last Night of an Empire by Imogen Heap) 05. “Two nights in a row, now I know that it’s broken” (Two Nights by Lykke Li) 06. “I want my ring back, baby, that’s a diamond” (Violent by carolesdaughter) 07. “I’ll show you how revenge can taste so sweet” (King by Lilith Czar) 08. “It’s certified, I’m not the nice one” (The Devil by Banks) 09. “Learn to take a hint. I thought I fucking told [you]” (No More Friends by Olivia O’Brien) 10. “What have you been doing? Don’t forget I am your home” (Purge the Poison by MARINA) --> @phantomwarrior12 (Dark!Gabriel) 11. “If I ever gave you a good reason to say goodbye I would regret it” (Getaway by VINCINT) 12. “Find your way back to my bed again” (Tulsa Jesus Freak by Lana Del Rey)

13. “Stop defending me, we’ll go down together” (Night Sway by Dance Gavin Dance)

14. “Don’t apologize for things you really felt” (Love Somebody Else by lovelytheband)

15. “Feeling stuck is fucking up my sanity” (All Your Love by Sir Sly)

16. “You’re so perfect from the outside. I stalked and studied away” (Who I Am by Code Orange)

17. “I used to know you. I never got you back” (Sideways by The Anix)

18. “You show up when I’m all alone” (Numb by Kiiara)

19. “Look out the window, see what you could’ve had” (Weird Leisure by Biffy Clyro)

20. “I hope that I mean it. Doubt it, right? Yeah, so do I” (AWOL by Every Time I Die)

Quote Prompts

01. “Hold out your tongue.”

02. “Can you keep a secret?”

03. “Temper, temper…”

04. “I don’t really feel like fighting.”

05. “Loving you was the most exquisite form of self destruction.” – David Jones

06. “Why are there weapons in my bathroom?”

07. “Go to hell!” “And leave you here all alone?”

08. “I love you.” “Don’t do that to yourself.”

09. “Here. Hold my morals.” --> @shadowshamrock (Dark!Sam Winchester)

10. “Hungry dogs are never loyal.” --> @mdemontespan1667​ (Dark!Jake Jensen)

11. “The girl I’ve heard so much about.”

12. “I was protecting you!”

13. “Just because you’re speaking in a different language doesn’t mean I don’t know you’re cursing me out.”

14. “Oh, don’t blame them. They did their best to try to kill me.”

15. “I don’t know how I would survive without you.”

16. “The whole world thinks you’re dead.”

17. “I wanted to see how you are doing.”

18. “How do we keep getting into these situations?”

19. “You stay awake, do you hear me?”

20. “I’ll hunt you down if I have to.”

21. “Do we have to do this game all over again?”

22. “I said I would be here when you need it.” ( @dollslayer​ -- Dark!Steve Rogers)

23. “You’re quite possibly the worst liar on Earth.”

25. “What is so urgent that you had to wake me up at 2:30am?”

26. “You know if you had just listened to me, we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

27.  “Could you stop being an asshole for just a moment?”

Situation prompts

01. Reader accidentally stumbles upon character burying body and is kidnapped to keep them from talking.

02. Dom!Reader denies character multiple orgasms

03. Reader is a hired assassin and does not expect their target to thwart them with their own skills.

04. Reader and character stranded on the side of the road, night is coming.

05. Reader is ignoring character’s advances and character decides to break into their home to set up a romantic dinner.

06. Winter vacation with reader and character.

07. Mutual masturbation

08. Stormy night and the power goes out. Reader and character find a way to entertain themselves.

09. Reader keeps finding things missing from their apartment and eventually finds out who is taking them.

10. Reader and/or character are in an established relationship with someone else. Unfortunately for them, sex pollen gets in the mix. And oops, one of them let it out on purpose!

11. Reader is a in a dom/sub relationship with character. Ignores dom’s orders to not go out for the night and faces the punishment when they come home.

12. Uniform change turns into something naughty.

13. Reader runs into character, who happens to be their ex that they ghosted.

14. College AU where Reader is an RA and one of their residents is hell bent on getting them to break the rules.

15. Reader goes to the cops with evidence that character is stalking them.

16. Reader being hunted by character (or even more fun, characters!).

17. Pregnant sex

Remember to have fun!!!

Tagging some people who may be interested in participating (please do not feel obligated!!): @sherrybaby14 @shadowshamrock @greenappleeyes @mcudarklibrary @mcnegan @afanofmanystuffs