#simple text reader software

[txttletale]

hey what’s up, i think you’re pretty cool but disagree with you on the whole ai can make art thing. to me, without the purpose from an actual person creating the piece, it’s not art but an image; as all human art has purpose. some driving factor in a work, compared to a program which purely creates the prompt without further intention. i was wondering what your insight on this is? either way, hope you have a great day

well, first of all, does art require 'purpose'? there's this view of art which has very much calcified in "anti-AI" rhetoric, that art is some linear process of communication from one individual to another: an Artist puts some Meaning into a unit of Art, which others can then view to Recieve that Meaning. you can hold this view, but i don't! i'm much more of a stuart hall-head on this, i think that there is no such transfusion of Intent and that rather the 'meaning' of a piece is something that exists only in the interplay between text and reader. reading is an active, interpretative process of decoding, not a passive absorptive one. so i dispute, firstly, that 'purpose' is to begin with a necessary or even imporant element of art.

moreover i think this argument rests on a very arbitrarily selective view of what counts as "an actual person creating the piece" -- 'the prompt' is, itself, an obvious artistic contribution, a place where an artist can impart huge amounts of direction, vision, and so on. in fact, i completely reject the claim of both the technology's salesman and its biggest detractors that genAI "makes art" -- to quote kerry mitchell's fractal art manifesto: "Turn a computer on and leave it alone for an hour. When you come back, no art will have been generated." in the past, i've posed questions about generative art pieces to demonstrate this

secondly, of course, the process does not end after image generation from prompt for serious generative artists--the ones who are serious about the artform (rather than tech guys trying to do marketing for the Magical Art Box) frequently iterate and iterate, generating a range of iterations and then picking one to iterate on further, so on and so forth, until the final image they choose to share is one that contains within it the traces of a thousand discrete choices on behalf of the artist (two pretty good explanations of this from people who actually do this stuff can be found here and here)

third and finally, that very choice to share the image is itself an artistic decision! we (and by we, i mean, anyone who cares about what art is) have been talking about this since fountain -- display is a form of artistic intent, taking something and putting it forward and saying 'this is art' is in and of itself an artistic decision being made even if the thing itself is unaltered: see, for example, the entire discipline of 'found art'. once someone challenged me, yknow, "if you did a google search, would that be art?" and my answer to that is, if you screenshot that google search and share it as art, then yes, resoundingly yes! curation and presentation recontextualizes objects, turning them into rich texts through the simple process of reframing them. so even if you granted that genAI output is inherently random computer noise (i don't, of course) -- i still think that the act of presenting it as art makes it so.

since i assume you're not familiar with anything interesting in the medium, because the most popular stuff made with genAI is pure "lo-fi girl in ghibli style" type slop, let me share some genAI pieces (or genAI-influenced pieces) that i think are powerful and interesting:

the meat gala, rob sheridan (warning: body horror!)

secret horses (does anyone know the original source on this?)

infinite art machine, reachartwork

ethinically ambigaus, james tamagotchi

mcdonalds simpsons porn room, wayneradiotv

software greatman, everything everything (the music is completely made by the band, but genAI was partially responsible for the lyrics -- including the title and the several interesting pseudo-kennings)

i want a love like this music video, everything everything

cocaine is the motor of the modern world, bots of new york

poison the walker, roborosewatermasters (here's my analysis posts on it too)

not all of these were necessarily intended as art: but i think they are rich and fascinating texts when read that way -- they have certainly impacted me as much as any art has.

anyways, whether you agree or not, i hope this gives you some stuff to think about, thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

[saffusthings]

second chances

mob boss! lando norris x reader

part seventeen: dream a little dream of me

word count: 1.6k

warnings: tooth-rotting fluff

sixteen | seventeen | eighteen

The second date should’ve felt more awkward. It didn’t.

Alex had picked a science museum of all places—not exactly romantic on paper, but the look on his face when he pointed out the replica Mars rover was too earnest to judge. He had this habit where his whole face would light up like a lightbulb the moment before he got excited about something, and Y/N had already learned to clock it like a warning siren.

“So, technically,” he was saying, hands jammed in his jacket pockets as they strolled past a massive display on deep-sea robotics, “the algorithms used for this submersible’s sensor mapping were adapted from AI software developed for self-driving cars.”

“Technically,” she echoed, teasing, “you should probably just work here.”

He looked sideways at her with a crooked grin. “I applied when I was sixteen. They didn’t take me.”

“They’re clearly still recovering from that mistake.”

He tried to play it off cool, but she caught the slight flush of his ears.

She liked him more than she expected to. Not in the way you decide to like someone—more like how you step outside one day and realize the air smells like rain and suddenly, you’re soft and open and all the windows are down. He was like that: unexpected and quiet and warm around the edges.

They made their way through the rest of the exhibits in no particular order, weaving between dwindling crowds of families and groups of students on field trips, neither of them in a hurry. He let her take her time at the forensic anthropology section, where she ran her fingers along the raised edges of a reconstructed skull, and she let him lose himself in the physics wing, where he explained, with ridiculous enthusiasm, why the double pendulum was so cool. It was there that the nickname Professor Albon was born.

At some point, he took her hand. It wasn’t a big deal. He just did it naturally, without hesitation, like it had already been a habit, and for a moment, that simple touch made her feel warm all over.

They ended the night sitting cross-legged on the floor of the museum café, long after it closed, surrounded by vending machine snacks and a half-solved crossword puzzle she’d found in her bag. The overhead lights buzzed faintly, casting a dim glow over the abandoned chairs and tables, but neither of them seemed eager to move. They laughed about everything and nothing, the kind of laughing that came from being tired but happy, the kind that made her lean into his shoulder without thinking.

"Okay," Alex said, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against the page. "Eight-letter word for ‘illuminates or clarifies’?"

As she took a moment to think it over, Alex watched in his periphery as she counted off the letters of her word on her fingers. "’Explains’ fits," she mused, popping a purple skittle into her mouth.

"Hmm." He scribbled it in. "Not bad. Maybe I should keep you around."

"Yeah, yeah," she nudged his knee with hers, grinning. "You just like me for my crossword skills."

"Wrong. I like you for your crossword skills and your terrible puns."

“My puns are great, thank you very much.” She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.

He liked her brain. She liked how funny he was. They made a good pair—two academically overworked people who laughed at obscure engineering memes and played footsie under café tables without meaning to. When they said goodbye that night, he kissed her like he was trying not to smile through it. Like maybe this could really be something.

It felt easy.

And in the days that followed, it stayed easy. He texted her every night.

alex: Made the Mars rover jealous. Can’t stop thinking about you.

Y/N: did you just say that unironically. because I might have to stop seeing you on principle.

alex: Too late, I’ve already added you to my will. You get the Lego Technic collection.

Y/N: wait nvm i’m back in

They made time. Even when they both shouldn’t have.

He’d bring her coffee before her class–something with cinnamon and oat milk in it. He’d scrawl dumb physics jokes on the lid just to make her roll her eyes. She started keeping his schedule in her head without meaning to. She knew which nights he had his advanced systems class and which ones he spent buried in the lab. He’d text her when his simulations crashed at 3AM. She’d send him memes about courtroom drama tropes in return.

He had an engineer’s sense of humor—dry, sneaky, often deeply specific. It took a while to catch on, but once she did, it felt like discovering hidden easter eggs in his sentences.

“You know,” he’d murmur as they lay back in the grass near campus, watching clouds roll over like they weren’t chilly out here in the autumn breeze, “you statistically reduce your lifespan by two minutes every time you eat instant ramen.”

“Cool. So I’ll be dying a noble, sodium-rich death then.”

He turned his head toward her, smiling with closed eyes. “Hmm, a martyr.”

“A hero.”

“Buried with your books and MSG packets.”

She shoved his shoulder. He let her.

On Thursdays, she’d sit outside his lab, cross-legged on the cold tile floor with flashcards in her lap, quizzing him on his presentation slides about failure analysis and impact resistance.

“Okay, explain to me like I’m five—what is a stress-strain curve and why should I care?”

“Because,” he’d say, crouching in front of her with a smirk, “it tells you how close something is to breaking.”

“And that’s relevant to your research…?”

He gave her a confused look, until it turned sheepish as he scratched the back of his neck. “I’m… not entirely sure about that bit, actually.”

She started looking forward to the moments in between—the walks across campus, the shared bag of chips while sitting on the hood of her car, the ridiculous voice memos he sent when he was overtired and delirious.

They kissed in stairwells and library corners and once,perhaps ill-advisedly, on a park bench in the middle of a thunderstorm. The rain had soaked through their clothes, cold and unrelenting, but he had just looked at her and said, "I think we should be stupid about this," right before he leaned in. It was impulsive and dramatic and made her laugh until she had to cover her mouth, their faces inches apart. Her hair was soaked, his glasses fogged up, and they almost dropped his backpack in a puddle, but the moment stuck—sharp and golden and untouchable.

They talked about future dates like there’d be dozens of them—bookstores they wanted to browse together, a tiny Thai place he swore by, a stargazing night he promised would be “scientifically optimized for romance” depending on the cloud cover. She rolled her eyes at that one, but her heart still fluttered.

They were still in the sweet spot—the space between maybe and more, where everything felt bright and possible. 

It wasn’t perfect – but it was promising.

The third date was dinner—some hole-in-the-wall Thai place with flickering neon signage and laminated menus stained with old curry thumbprints. He’d gotten lost on the way and sent a flurry of frantic texts.

alex :) : I passed the restaurant. Twice. There’s a cat staring at me through a laundromat window. I think it’s judging me.

Y/N: be strong. you can beat the cat.

alex :) : Negative, Sargeant. It’s very confident.

He’d arrived breathless, slightly damp from a drizzle, and holding a single packet of Skittles “for your efforts,” he’d said solemnly. She called him an idiot. He looked delighted.

That night, they talked about things that didn’t matter—TV shows neither of them had finished, foods they pretended to like for the aesthetic, the sheer horror of Alex’s undergraduate group project from hell (“We had a guy who thought duct tape was a structural solution”). 

And then, slowly, they talked about the things that did matter.

Like how she used to want to be a journalist when she was little, because she thought it meant you got to ask as many questions as you wanted and never had to apologize.

Or how he still wasn’t sure what kind of engineer he wanted to be—just that he wanted to make things that didn’t break when people needed them most.

“You know,” he said, nudging his glass in slow circles across the table, “you’re not what I expected.”

Y/N looked up. “Is that a good thing or, like, a 'you’re secretly a serial killer' kind of a thing?”

He smiled. “It’s a good thing. Really, really good.”

By the fourth week, they had a rhythm. It wasn’t just dates anymore—it was Hey, want to walk home together? and I saved you the last chocolate chip muffin, but only because I like you more than I like muffins. But barely.

It was him reaching for her hand without thinking, her resting her head against his shoulder on the bus when she was too tired to hold it up.

It was a shared Spotify playlist for when studying is ur 13th reason.

It was early Saturday morning sun filtering into her apartment while they quietly read their own books, his socked foot nudging hers on the side of the couch almost every ten minutes.

It was good.

But between the sleepy smiles and the shared muffins and the texts that kept getting longer instead of shorter, the truth was that they both had dreams. Big ones. All-consuming ones.

And no matter how much you wanted something—or someone—there were only so many hours in the day.

a/n: one of my more favorite chapters! an unfortunate lack of lando though :/ what did you think of it?

[nigtmarcz]

⎯⎯ Love Me Not

hamzah x reader

based off the song love me not by ravyn lenae

summary: hamzah has been neglecting his girlfriend y/n due to his busy work schedule. y/n feels invisible and frustrated by his lack of attention.

warnings: sad???

wc: 1.9k

a/n: hello! this is my first time writing, so I’m sorry if it sucks lol. i was listening to this song and thought it would make a great plot for a story! hope you enjoy it! :3

-

The glow of the computer screen cast soft shadows across Hamzah’s face as he sat hunched over his desk. The air in his room was quiet except for the faint sound of his fingers tapping rhythmically on the keyboard. The newest Slushy Noobz video was almost done—just a few finishing touches before it would be uploaded for their fans who eagerly awaited their next upload.

But tonight, Hamzah wasn’t entirely focused.

His thoughts kept wandering to y/n, his girlfriend. She’d been on his mind constantly lately—more so than usual.

He hadn’t seen her much over the past few weeks. They were both content creators, each with their own projects, and while it was something they’d always been able to juggle in the past, recently it had begun to feel like the space between them was growing. She was in the living room, editing her own content, while he was buried in the latest Slushy Noobz video.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to be with her, but he found himself getting swept up in the grind, constantly chasing the next big upload, the next milestone for his and Martin’s podcast, Out of Character. There was always something to do, something to edit, something to record.

But now, the silence between them seemed louder than ever. They hadn’t fought—at least, not in the usual way—but something unspoken lingered. Something that neither of them had fully addressed. And it was starting to feel like a weight pressing against his chest.

He glanced at his phone. y/n had sent him a message hours ago, but he hadn’t replied. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but everything had felt off.

Her text simply read: We need to talk soon.

The simple words made his heart sink. He knew exactly what she meant. She was frustrated. And he had been too distracted to notice.

With a deep breath, he closed his laptop, pushing the editing software aside. It felt like a relief to step away, but his heart ached with the nagging thought of the distance between them. He stood up, walking into the living room where y/n sat, bathed in the soft glow of her screen.

She looked up when he entered, and for a moment, neither of them said anything.

Hamzah opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, y/n stood up, her arms crossed. She looked tired, not just physically, but emotionally. He had seen that look before—the quiet frustration that came from being overlooked, from being too far down the list of priorities.

“I’m sorry, y/n,” he said, his voice quiet. “I know I’ve been distant. I’ve been caught up in work, and I didn’t realize how much it was affecting us.”

y/n gave a small, sad smile, but there was no warmth behind it. “I get it, Hamzah. You’re busy. But we haven’t really talked in weeks. I’ve been here, just waiting for you to notice, but it feels like I’m invisible.” Her voice broke on the last word, but she quickly swallowed the emotion, not wanting to show him too much.

“y/n…” Hamzah stepped forward, but she backed away slightly, a flicker of something in her eyes that he couldn’t quite understand.

“You don’t even see it, do you?” she asked softly, almost as if talking to herself. “I’m right here, all the time, and yet it feels like you’re living in another world—one where I don’t exist. Where it’s just you and the next video and the next podcast.”

He could feel the sting of her words, and he hated the way they made him feel like he was failing her.

“I don’t want you to feel that way,” Hamzah said, his voice barely a whisper now. “I don’t mean to make you feel invisible. I just… I don’t know how to slow down sometimes. There’s so much going on, and I get lost in it. But I never meant for you to feel left out.”

y/n shook her head slowly. “It’s not that you’re busy, Hamzah. I get it, I really do. It’s just that I don’t know where I fit in anymore. I’m here, and I care, but I’m starting to wonder if we’re even in the same place anymore.”

His chest tightened as the weight of her words sank in. He wasn’t sure what to say, how to fix it. He hadn’t been paying attention to what mattered most.

“I don’t need you to change everything, Hamzah,” she continued, her voice soft but firm. “I just want to matter to you. I want to be something real, not just an afterthought that comes second to everything else.”

“I do care about you,” Hamzah replied quickly, his heart racing. “I do, y/n. It’s just… it’s hard to balance it all. I don’t want to lose you.”

For a long moment, y/n stayed quiet, her gaze on the floor, her fingers lightly tapping on the edge of her laptop.

Finally, she looked up at him, her eyes heavy with a mix of pain and longing. “You say you don’t want to lose me, but you’ve been losing me slowly for weeks. I don’t know if you see it, but I miss you, Hamzah. I miss you, but I don’t need you. I miss the way we were before this whole thing took over. I miss you, come here.”

The words hit him harder than any criticism he’d received. The truth of it all hung in the air, like a silence that neither of them knew how to break.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice cracking just a little. “I miss you, too. But I don’t know how to fix this... I don’t want to keep failing us.”

y/n closed her eyes for a moment, taking a slow breath. When she opened them again, there was something softer in her gaze, something that felt like a mixture of hope and resignation. “Maybe we just need to find our way back. I don’t know, Hamzah. But I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep waiting for you to realize I’m here.”

Her words lingered in the air like a shadow between them, a painful truth neither of them could ignore. Without another word, y/n was gone. The door clicked shut behind her, and the silence that followed was suffocating. The house felt colder now, emptier, as if her absence had seeped into the walls, leaving Hamzah alone with the weight of everything unsaid.

-

Hours later, as the quiet of the night settled in, Hamzah sat in front of his desk again. His video was still unfinished, but for the first time, the video felt less important than the empty space beside him. y/n was gone now, her absence heavier than any argument they could have had. The silence in the house was suffocating, and the stillness in the air made his thoughts spin.

He stared at his screen, but the words from their earlier conversation kept replaying in his mind: I miss you, but I don’t need you, Hamzah. I miss you, come here. Those words hadn’t just been a declaration of longing—they had been a quiet assertion of independence, a signal that y/n was done waiting for him to notice.

Hamzah rubbed his temples, feeling the weight of what she’d said. She didn’t need him anymore, no matter how much she still missed him. The space between them wasn’t just physical anymore; it was emotional, deep, and unspoken. He realized she had given him a choice—one he hadn’t fully understood until now.

He reached for his phone, hesitated for a moment, then typed a message to her: “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I don’t want to lose you. Can we talk tomorrow?”

He hit send and waited. The seconds dragged on, stretching into what felt like hours, but no response came.

A moment later, the familiar vibration of a reply lit up his phone. He quickly unlocked it, hoping for some kind of resolution. But when he saw her message, a heavy weight sank into his chest.

“Okay.”

The words were short, almost distant. There was no warmth, no eagerness to reconnect. Just a quiet acceptance. 

-

They sat on opposite ends of the couch, the space between them more suffocating than any physical distance. y/n’s voice was calm, but there was a sharpness to her words that cut through the silence.

“I miss you, Hamzah,” she started, her gaze never leaving the floor. “I miss how we used to be, but I can’t keep pretending that things will go back to the way they were. I’m tired of waiting for you to notice me, for you to put me first. I need to move on, for my own sake.”

Hamzah opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat. He wanted to apologize, to say he could change, but deep down, he knew it wouldn’t be enough. He knew that something had already shifted between them, something that couldn’t be undone with words.

y/n continued, her voice steady despite the ache in it. “I’ve tried, Hamzah. I’ve tried to make this work, but it’s like I’m invisible to you. I’m right here, and you’re always so caught up in your work. I miss you, but I don’t need you anymore.”

Her words hit him like a punch to the gut. The weight of them sank deep, and he realized that she wasn’t just saying goodbye—she was choosing herself. Choosing independence over the emotional attachment that had once connected them.

“I think... I think it’s time we both move forward,” y/n said, her voice quieter now, but firm. “I can’t keep waiting for something that might never come. You’re not the only one with dreams and goals, Hamzah. I’ve got my own life to live, and I can’t keep holding on to something that isn’t there anymore.”

A silence stretched between them, thick with unspoken words and feelings neither of them could fully articulate. Hamzah wanted to reach out, to say anything that might change her mind, but he could see it in her eyes: she had made her decision.

She was already gone.

Later that night, after y/n had left for good, Hamzah sat alone in the empty house. The space felt colder than it had before, as if her absence had stolen the warmth from the walls. He sat in front of his desk, staring at the finished video, but all he could feel was the heavy silence that had taken her place.

The message he had sent her earlier echoed in his mind—I don’t want to lose you. But as he replayed their conversation over and over, he realized that he had already lost her. He had lost her to the space he had failed to notice, to the time he had neglected, and to the love he had taken for granted.

The realization stung more than he expected. He missed her too, more than words could say. But as much as he longed for things to be different, he couldn’t deny the truth: she was better off without him, seeking her own path, her own independence.

Hamzah leaned back in his chair, eyes closed, feeling the weight of everything she had said. He missed her. But more than that, he understood why she had to go. The ache in his chest reminded him that sometimes, love wasn’t enough to hold two people together.

And for y/n, it had been time to let go.

[biibini]

fuck me thru the phone ˚₊· ͟͟͞͞➳❥

modern!mizu x teasing!reader

tags: nsfw, teasing, flustered mizu, modern mizu, sexting in public? well yes! , brat reader, reader sends nudes, BOLD READER, yall r having a freak off, mizu down bad, college mizu

a/n: i just think ab mizu and sigh sometimes. ao3 is down right now so my imagination will have to run free on here.

Having you as a girlfriend was plenty for Mizu. Content with college classes, some friends, and a beautiful girlfriend who’s there by her side. The stability is good.

At least, for most days, you were on her side.

Some days would be a little different. Of course, Mizu would try to check in with you as much as she possibly could, despite all the classes and responsibilities she had. These check ins were simple: maybe it was a quick text, or a “hi baby, i missed u too”, or even an “are we still on for tonight”.

This day’s texts was filled with… surprises.

18+ content below

It was Mizu’s morning lecture. Thankfully, your morning class got cancelled. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the same for Mizu.

Instead, she has to sit with many engineering students, who are also tired from the amount of projects, and listen to her professor go on about updating software, blah blah blah. In the depths of her backpack, Mizu feels the buzz of her phone. Her hand reaches for her phone, still focusing on her professor’s complicated explanations about the importance of formulas.

Placing the device in her lap, Mizu watches her professor dawdled on and on until—

Bzzt!

She looks down, tapping the screen to find two text messages from you:

Y/N♡ : skip morning class alreadyyyy :(

Y/N♡ : [ image sent with invisible ink ]

The blurred image stares back at Mizu. Instantly, she promptly flips the phone over in her lap. At one glance, it immediately hits her as to what kind of image you just sent: the recognizable skin-colored shape matching with the same colored sheets of her bed in the back, the small bubble of rosy pink that faintly resemble your lips. The lack of clarity of the image teases her, waiting for her curiosity of your body to get to her.

If only Mizu could take a peek…

She looks around to scout the area, keeping a hand to safeguard her phone. Thankfully, the lecture hall was much larger than she anticipated and was able to snatch a seat near the top, far away from most of the students at the front. The closest person was four seats away to her left, luckily occupied with watching Netflix instead of the lecture. To her right was another student, at least six seats away, figuring out how to play sudoku.

With the coast clear, Mizu slowly flipped over her phone, taking the necessary precautions such as lowering the volume, dimming the brightness, and turning off the ringer. The talking of her professor warped into mumbling to Mizu, as her focus was on you.

Opening the phone again, she laid her eyes on the blurred image once again. She looked up one more time to find very student still distracted and a professor describing the details of their colleague’s meticulous work.

Perfect.

Her thumb held down on the image, revealing the image you deigned to send at this hour: a selfie you taken sideways, practically naked, with the morning sunlight peaking through the blinds highlighted your curves, outlining your body from your waist to your hips and down your legs, your breasts blocked by a soft pillow. Mizu searched for your face, cut off except by your teasing, smug smile.

Good lord, you looked good.

So good.

Too good that it felt like heat was radiating off her cheeks. With her heart racing, Mizu immediately flipped her phone over again, the racy sight of you running through her mind over and over again. The thought of you waiting for her in her bed with nothing on, oh the things she could do—

Bzzt!

Mizu flipped over the phone to take a peek at your next message:

Y/N♡ : so r u skipping or r u gonna continue to stare at my ass thru ur class?

She quietly scoffed at the taunt, intrigued at your tone. It’s not everyday that you’re this playful, let alone send a nude so early in the day.

Mizu: i’ll be staring and thinking during class but i’ll be back home in 45

Mizu closes her phone, taking a deep breath to cool down, and attempt to relax her racing heart with every inhale and exhale. She couldn’t help that you can get to her in such deceptive ways.

Before taking the chance to take another check at her professor, two buzzes vibrate in her hand. Turning the phone once again, Mizu reads:

Y/N♡ : what if u made it 30?

Y/N♡ : [ image sent with invisible ink ]

She stares at her phone, studying the blurred shape of the recent nude you sent. It’s hard to paint the image, but one thing is for sure: you’re showing it all for her to feast on.

With no hesitation, Mizu holds down the image to get a glimpse of your promiscuity. There in front of her was a picture you took through the bedroom mirror, sitting cowgirl style on a pillow, bare naked and basking in the sunlight with your whole ass reflecting back. Her eyes lit up as they made their way to your breasts, softly outlined by the sunlight. Their appearance this time around was short lived, due to its lack of visibility from the mirror’s angle.

Holy fuck, she thinks.

She immediately closed her phone as the newest image of you burned in her mind. Every curve, the softness of your skin, the way your lips parted slightly developed her thoughts. In an attempt to shake her thoughts away, she looked back up, focusing on the subject at hand.

Thankfully, no one seemed to notice the dilemma Mizu was in. Some were watching a movie, others were playing 2048, and some were even playing Minecraft of all things. No one could even guess that covered by her sweaty palm, was pictures of you, completely ready for her.

Does she dare leave now?

Bzzzt! Bzzt!

Her breath halts to a stop. With eyes forward, she slowly flips her phone over again, making sure to suck up any final bits of information before she plans to ditch class. After a final nod, she looks down to find another message from you.

Y/N♡ : is this motivating enough?

Y/N♡ : [ image sent with invisible ink ]

Her thumb immediately holds over the hidden image, unmasking your version of motivation. Her jaw clenched at the sight of your body position.

The nude was simple: you sitting atop a pillow, naked, and her favorite strap sitting right in front of your lower stomach. She squinted at the color of the toy, staring at what seems to be a glossy, colorless stain at the tip of a dark blue toy.

Mizu: honey

Mizu: did u play with it w/out me?

She watches her screen like a hawk, taking another deep breath in as the three small dots start to pop up on her screen. There was no way you actually used it before she can put it on and fuck you properly, right?

The dots go away, leaving Mizu focused on one thought: making you finish when you get home.

Y/N♡ : maybe…

Y/N♡ : if u come back, i’ll show u how i did it

Oh, fuck it.

Mizu: make it 10.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

Writing Advice #?: Don’t write out accents.

The Surface-Level Problem: It’s distracting at best, illegible at worst. 

The following passage from Sons and Lovers has never made a whit of sense to me:

“I ham, Walter, my lad,’ ’e says; ‘ta’e which on ’em ter’s a mind.’ An’ so I took one, an’ thanked ’im. I didn’t like ter shake it afore ’is eyes, but ’e says, ‘Tha’d better ma’e sure it’s a good un. An’ so, yer see, I knowed it was.’”

There’s almost certainly a point to that dialogue — plot, character, theme — but I could not figure out what the words were meant to be, and gave up on the book.  At a lesser extreme, most of Quincey’s lines from Dracula (“I know I ain’t good enough to regulate the fixin’s of your little shoes”) cause American readers to sputter into laughter, which isn’t ideal for a character who is supposed to be sweet and tragic.  Accents-written-out draw attention to mechanical qualities of the text.

Solution #1: Use indicators outside of the quote marks to describe how a character talks.  An Atlanta accent can be “drawling” and a London one “clipped”; a Princeton one can sound “stiff” and a Newark one “relaxed.”  Do they exaggerate their vowels more (North America) or their consonants more (U.K., north Africa)?  Do they sound happy, melodious, frustrated?

The Deeper Problem: It’s ignorant at best, and classist/racist/xenophobic at worst.

You pretty much never see authors writing out their own accents — to the person who has the accent, the words just sound like words.  It’s only when the accent is somehow “other” to the author that it gets written out.

And the accents that we consider “other” and “wrong” (even if no one ever uses those words, the decision to deliberately misspell words still conveys it) are pretty much never the ones from wealthy and educated parts of the country.  Instead, the accents with misspelled words and awkward inflection are those from other countries, from other social classes, from other ethnicities.  If your Maine characters speak normally and your Florida characters have grammatical errors, then you have conveyed what you consider to be correct and normal speech.  We know what J.K. Rowling thinks of French-accented English, because it’s dripping off of Fleur Delacour’s every line.

At the bizarre extreme, we see inappropriate application of North U.K. and South U.S.-isms to every uneducated and/or poor character ever to appear in fan fic.  When wanting to get across that Steve Rogers is a simple Brooklyn boy, MCU fans have him slip into “mustn’t” and “we is.”  When conveying that Robin 2.0 is raised poor in Newark, he uses “ain’t” and “y’all” and “din.”  Never mind that Iron Man is from Manhattan, or that Robin 3.0 is raised wealthy in Newark; neither of them ever gets a written-out accent.

Solution #2: A little word choice can go a long way, and a little research can go even further.  Listen carefully to the way people talk — on the bus, in a café, on unscripted YouTube — and write down their exact word choice.  “We good” literally means the same thing as “no thank you,” but one’s a lot more formal than the other.  “Ain’t” is a perfectly good synonym for “am not,” but not everyone will use it.

The Obscure Problem: It’s not even how people talk.

Look at how auto-transcription software messes up speaking styles, and it’s obvious that no one pronounces every spoken sound in every word that comes out of their mouth.  Consider how Americans say “you all right?”; 99% of us actually say something like “yait?”, using tone and head tilt to convey meaning.  Politicians speak very formally; friends at bars speak very informally.

An example: I’m from Baltimore, Maryland.  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Texas, in which case I’m from “Baltmore, Marlind.”  Unless I’m speaking to an American from Pennsylvania, in which case I’m from “Balmore, Marlin.”  If I’m speaking to a fellow Marylander, I’m of course from “Bamor.”  (If I’m speaking to a non-American, I’m of course from “Washington D.C.”)  Trying to capture every phoneme of change from moment to moment and setting to setting would be ridiculous; better just to say I inflect more when talking to people from outside my region.

When you write out an accent, you insert yourself, the writer, as an implied listener.  You inflict your value judgments and your linguistic ear on the reader, and you take away from the story.

Solution #3: When in doubt, just write the dialogue how you would talk.

[roosterforme]

Batting Practice Part 24 | Rooster x Reader

Summary: Bradley senses you're giving him the cold shoulder. He hates waking up alone, especially on his birthday. But the rec league tryouts and a shopping trip with Everett hopefully puts him one step closer to what he really wants. 

Warnings: Fluff, smut, angst and swearing

Length: 3800 words

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female single!mom Reader

Check my masterlist for more Top Gun fun! Batting Practice masterlist.

Bradley woke up alone in his bed on his birthday. Sure, it was a work day for the two of you, but he couldn't help but feel like you'd become a little distant with him since Sunday evening. 

He wanted to move in with you and Everett, but it wasn't that simple. It was actually complicated as hell. And now he was thinking he shouldn't have been getting Everett's hopes up about it.

Things were moving fast. Probably too fast. Bradley was all in, but he didn't know if you'd even want to take things to the next level with him. Yeah, you wanted him to move in, but he wanted you to be his family. But you'd been married before, and there was no doubt that Danny had probably ruined that entire experience for you.

And not only had Bradley never moved this fast before, he'd also never thought about buying a ring before. He'd barely had girlfriends who lasted longer than a damn month, always bailing as soon as it was clear his feelings were nowhere near as strong as his partner's.

He wasn't sure exactly why you were different, but you were. He wanted to stick around. And he didn't like waking up alone anymore. And now he convinced himself to stop for a little birthday treat, but the Starbucks took so long, he was going to be late for work.

"Damn it," he growled. You had better coffee at your house, but you hadn't invited him to stay over the past few nights. 

Tryouts for the Navy baseball league were being held this evening. Bradley packed the red and white striped Phillies socks you and Everett gave him for his birthday for good luck. When he had asked yesterday if the two of you would be able to come watch, you'd given a vague answer about work and picking Ev up from summer camp.

Bradley drank his hot coffee too fast and had to practically run to the simulation room to get there on time. "Happy birthday," Nat crooned when he walked in out of breath. "Wow, you look like shit today."

"Thanks?" He was already grouchy, and now he had to sit by his best friend who was notoriously annoying when he was in a bad mood. But luckily Admiral Simpson was calling everyone to attention. 

After hours of testing out new simulation software, only stopping for a soggy sandwich for lunch, Bradley's mood hadn't improved. He missed it when you packed his lunch for him. You had sent him a text that said Happy Birthday! which he supposed was a good thing, but he wanted you telling him you couldn't wait to see him later. If you and Ev weren't at the tryout, then what was the point? He really only sent an application because he knew Ev wanted him to play in the first place.

"You ready to pitch?" Bob asked him with a grin in the locker room after they had been dismissed for the day. 

"Yeah," Bradley grunted.

He watched Bob's smile turn to a frown. "If you want to play shortstop instead, I'm sure nobody will care. I thought you were looking forward to this."

"I am," Bradley said, trying to sound reassuring. 

Bob hummed. "I can't wait to see Molly. I've barely seen her since Sunday with her work schedule, but she promised me she would be there."

And now Bradley was scared you wouldn't show.

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

You rushed out of work, your high heels clicking across the tile floor in the lobby. Thirty minutes. You had thirty minutes to pick Everett up and drive across town to get to Bradley's baseball tryout on time. 

As you drove to get Ev, you thought maybe this was why he didn't want to move in with you; everything you did was on the other side of the city from everything he did. Or, you thought, perhaps Bradley just didn't feel comfortable in your house yet. Or maybe he just really didn't want to be around you and your son all day, every day. But it didn't really matter, because your feelings were hurt. And you were finding it hard to be happy for Molly and Bob now. 

When Everett got in the car, the first words out of his mouth were, "Are we going to the tryout? Did you bring my sign?"

You nodded and told him, "Yeah, we can go. Your sign is in the trunk." He had spent an hour last night coloring on some poster board, making a sign so he could cheer for Bradley. 

"It's starting soon!" he whined as you drove as quickly as you could. The tryouts were being held at a beautiful facility near the naval base, and you actually got there with a few minutes to spare. Everett was out of the car and opening your trunk before you even grabbed your sneakers off the passenger side floor. 

"Calm down, Ev. It didn't start yet." You and he walked past Bradley's Bronco, and once you got onto the soft grass, you changed into your other shoes while you walked.

"I'm going to get a spot on the bleachers!" Everett called, running ahead of you. But your eyes caught on Bradley and Bob, standing next to each other and leaning on the chest high chainlink fence. They were facing away from you, looking out over the infield. You had missed Bradley all week, and you knew that you needed to get over the way you felt. He was right; you could revisit that conversation later. Right now, you just wanted him to come home with you and stay all night. You had cupcakes waiting for him just in case.

You were approaching them, ready to surprise him with a huge birthday hug, when you heard Bob ask Bradley, "Think you'll move in with them?"

Bradley took his backwards cap off, and you froze as he ran his hand through his hair. "I think we're holding off for now," he said, turning his cap the other way before leaning on the fence again.

"Why?" Bob asked. "Everett seems to think you'd make a great roommate. He said he wants you to move into their extra bedroom." He chuckled, but Bradley shook his head. Your heart was pounding, and you wanted to walk away, but you just couldn't. So you stood there with your high heels in one hand, feeling like you were going to cry.

"It's not that easy," Bradley said softly. "There's a lot to consider. I know Ev's excited about the idea of it, but the reality would be that his mom's boyfriend would be living there. I just don't know if it's what I should do."

Then Bob asked the question that popped into your mind. "Do you still have reservations? About Everett?"

"Hell no, man!" Bradley said loudly. He sounded angry. "No! I love that kid more than anything. I'd love to be his dad someday. I'd adopt him tomorrow. I just want to do right by both of them. And I'm not exactly sure what that means."

You were dizzy. His words hit you right in the chest. Your mouth was hanging open and you felt out of breath. He was talking about adopting Everett like he'd already made his mind up. 

"That makes sense," Bob said. "Does she know how you feel?"

Bradley was quiet for a few seconds. "She knows I love her. I told her I'm not going anywhere. I'm ready for more commitment."

You ran up behind him, closing the short distance and squeezing him around the waist from behind. 

"Kitten!" He turned, and then you were hugging him with your face smashed to his chest, smiling so hard.

"Happy birthday," you mumbled, kissing him just above the collar of his tee shirt. "I love you."

"I love you, too," he immediately replied, rubbing his big hands along the back of your suit coat and kissing the top of your head. 

You turned your head and said, "Hi, Bob." But then a loud whistle filled the air and you looked up at Bradley. 

He kissed you hard on the lips before he said, "Time for tryouts, Kitten."

"Will you sleep over later?" you blurted out as he pulled free of your grasp. 

He smiled and kissed the top of your head again. Then he bent and picked up his gear bag. "That would make me so happy." 

As he stepped onto the field with Bob, you called out, "You can do it, Coach!"

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

Bradley was sweating. It was hot, and he was nervous. "It's just for fun," he muttered to himself as he stood on the pitcher's mound. "Just a rec league." Then he threw a slider to the catcher and let out the breath he had been holding. When he glanced to his right, he saw Everett sitting between you and Molly, and he was holding up a sign that made Bradley smile.

GO COACH BRADLEY!

He did not want to let that kid down, so he threw a decent fastball for his second pitch. He could hear you and Everett cheering for him as he threw a changeup. The catcher gave him a thumbs up before throwing the ball back, and Bradley was starting to feel good now. So threw two more sliders, and he just kept getting better. 

When the coach asked him to throw one more pitch, he went with a curveball. And then it was time for batting, and on his very first swing, he hit a home run.

He was a bit stunned, but he could hear Everett freaking out, so he ran the bases for fun while Bob and some of the other guys gave him high fives down the third baseline. 

"Damn, you played in college didn't you?" the coach asked as Bradley picked up his bat once again. 

"Yeah," he said with a laugh.

"That was an impressive hit. You've got a great arm, too."

"I actually used to play shortstop," Bradley told him, adjusting his hat and getting ready to bat again.

"Well if you want to pitch, then you made the team."

Bradley looked over to Everett and then back to the coach. "Seriously? I already made the team?"

"Definitely."

Bradley tried to reel in his smile as he hit a few more balls and then went to sit on the bench while someone else tried their hand at batting. But he just couldn't wait to get up on the bleachers and tell Everett that he made the summer league team.

Bradley waited for the tryouts to officially end, hoping Bob would make the team too. His fellow aviator was fast and always seemed to make the catches in the outfield look like a walk in the park. When Bob joined him in the dugout, they stood next to each other, awaiting the final roster from the coach. 

"First base: Hamilton. Second Base: McPhee. Shortstop: Yang. Third base: Ruiz. Catcher: Hernandez. Pitcher: Bradshaw. Relief pitcher: Matthews."

Bob elbowed Bradley in the side and smiled at him. 

"Right field: Merrick. Left field: Wiley. Centerfield: Floyd. I'll post some bench positions as well. Thanks for trying out." 

Then the coach handed each of the starting players a navy blue and white cap. Once they were dismissed, Bradley had Bob in a tight hug. 

"I didn't know you'd be this excited, Rooster," Bob said with a laugh. "You made pitcher!"

"Oh, man," Bradley said, slapping him on the back before letting go. "I missed playing. You were right. This is going to be so much fun."

"You just want to show off for your girlfriend," Bob told him, slipping the cap on his head.

"You just want to show off for your girlfriend," Bradley replied, rolling his eyes and gathering his glove and bat together. Then he slipped his cap on as well, and they climbed out of the dugout, side by side. 

"I'm so in love with her," Bob mumbled, and Bradley saw Molly standing next to you and Everett, waving to Bob like she couldn't wait to see him. Then he looked at you, and Bradley's heart started pounding. But it was Everett running toward him with the poster board that really made Bradley smile. 

"Did you make the team?" he asked, and Bradley scooped him up in a hug. 

"Well they gave us these hats," Bradley said, putting his on Everett's head. "What do you think?"

"They made the team!" Everett shouted to you and Molly. Bradley carried your son over to you and kissed your lips. 

"We knew you would," you told him as you wrapped your arms around him and Everett. "You were so good, Coach."

"It's your birthday and you made the team!" Everett said, wrapping his arms around Bradley's neck. 

This was exactly how Bradley always wanted to be. He felt comfortable, welcome, safe and loved. He kissed Everett's cheek and nodded. "It's a pretty great day."

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

Everyone followed you back to your house, and you were thankful you had taken the time to get those birthday cupcakes for Bradley. He ended up tossing some hot dogs and burgers on the grill in your backyard, even though you told him you didn't mind cooking his birthday dinner.

"Go relax," Bradley told you, nodding toward your deck where Molly and Bob were blowing bubbles with Everett. "I'll take care of it." He kissed you and sipped his beer before flipping the burgers. 

You patted his butt in his snug baseball pants and whispered, "And later, I'll take care of you." His smirk as you walked away had you giggling. 

When you ate dinner on the deck as the evening sky darkened, you watched Everett where he sat on Bradley's lap eating a burger. "Are you going to get to throw all kinds of pitches? Are you going to start every game?"

Bradley held a napkin so Everett's ketchup wouldn't drip and answered every single question. He never seemed annoyed. He never gave you the impression that your son was irritating him. They seemed like they were cut from the same cloth, and honestly it made your heart skip wildly every single time.

"Yep, I get to work with the catcher about which pitches I should throw," Bradley told him. "And I get to start the games."

Then Bradley turned and smiled at you when Everett started interrogating Bob across the table. 

"I love you." The words came so easily now, you said them without thinking about it much. You'd missed him over the past few days, thinking he just didn't want to move in with you. But he probably just needed more time. You weren't in any hurry anyway. You and Everett could wait for Bradley to want to move in. 

"Love you, too, Kitten," Bradley replied, reaching for your hand. Molly grimaced and pretended to gag on her cupcake which made both of you laugh. 

"Like you're any better?" you asked her, kicking her foot under the table. 

"Never said I was," Molly replied, running her fingers through Bob's hair as he told Everett about the rec league. Bob reached up and took her hand in his, kissing her fingers while Everett asked him another question. 

"This was nice," you said with a nod, smiling at everyone before you stood to clean up the dishes. But Molly and Bob ended up cleaning everything while Bradley took Everett to get ready for bed. 

And a little while later, Bradley was the one one grunting in your ear. "This is nice," he groaned, unclasping your bra. "I love unwrapping my birthday presents." He palmed your breasts with a smile on his face.

"I can't wait to see what you wrap up for my birthday," you moaned as he scooped you up and set you down on your bed. You were completely naked for him except for your paw print necklace. He pressed a kiss to the charm before kissing your lips. 

"You can have anything you want, Kitten," he promised. And you thought about having a million more nights like this one, with family dinners and then Bradley's body pressed to yours. 

His shirt was off, biceps warm beneath your palms. "Well you can have anything you want."

Bradley froze with his lips on your nipple. He ran his nose down the valley between your breasts before kissing your sternum and looking up at you. "I want you to know that I am not going anywhere, Kitten."

You nodded and whispered, "I know that."

"I want to be here for you and Ev," he said, kissing the undersides of your breasts. "I want... I want you to know I'm not hesitating to move in because of me. So if you and Everett really, honestly want me here all the time, I have one condition."

You took a deep breath, getting nervous as your legs rubbed the rough fabric of his baseball pants. "What's your condition?" you asked softly.

"A stronger commitment," he said, nodding once like it was nonnegotiable. 

But you weren't sure what to think. "What does that mean?" 

Bradley's lips returned to your body after he said, "It means you'll be my family someday soon. I hope." 

He reached for your hands as you processed his words. Family. You already felt like he was. "Okay."

Bradley held your hands above your head and kissed you until you were whimpering for him. Then he unzipped his baseball pants and pulled himself free as you spread your legs wider. He ran his fingers along your pussy, head tipped back as he moaned your name. Then he coated himself up with his fingers before pressing inside you. 

"I love you," he whispered, fucking you nice and slow. It was his birthday, but you were the one getting it exactly how you needed it. "Love you so much, Kitten."

You combed your fingers through his hair, thinking about how he wanted even more of a commitment. What more could he give you right now? He made you feel like you had everything. 

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

On Monday, you let Bradley pick your son up from summer camp. Everett came bounding toward him, surprised and excited that Bradley was there.

"Are we going to practice baseball stuff today?" Everett asked after he hugged Bradley.

"Nope," Bradley told him, turning his cap backwards and leading him toward the Bronco. "I've got something important that I need your help with."

Everett gasped. "Like a secret mission?"

"Exactly like that," Bradley replied, opening the back door for Everett to climb in.

He'd given this a lot of thought after spending the weekend at your house, falling even more in love with the two of you. After Saturday morning pancakes and an outing to hunt for baseball cards, Bradley treated everyone to a movie and popcorn. The fact that you and Everett wanted him to sit in the middle because you both wanted to be by him had him grinning. 

"Are we going to be spies?" Everett's eyes were huge as he buckled himself in. "They go on secret missions all the time for stuff."

"Not quite," Bradley replied with a laugh. "I need your help shopping."

Everett groaned as Bradley closed the door and climbed in the front seat. "But I don't like shopping!" he complained, and Bradley was still laughing. 

"I don't really either, kiddo. But this is shopping for something really important to me," he said, starting the engine and pulling out onto the road. "Think you can help me out? Just this once? I'll get you a chicken nugget Happy Meal when we're done."

"Yeah," Everett sighed. And a few minutes later, Bradley was scooping him out of the booster seat and taking him inside the jewelry store. 

Once they were in front of the case of diamond rings, Bradley asked, "Do you think your mom would like any of these?" Maybe it was silly to ask a seven year old for help picking out an engagement ring, but Bradley knew you'd like the ring even more if they picked it out together. If you said yes.

Bradley's palms were starting to sweat as Everett scanned everything inside the case. Things were moving fast. There was a solid chance you were going to say no. Or tell him you weren't ready. But Bradley wanted this. He needed to know what was coming next if he moved into your house. He wanted to know he could be with the two of you forever. 

Just as he felt a wave of panic wash over him, Everett pointed at one ring in particular. "That one looks like a baseball," he said, looking up at Bradley and grinning. "I think she would like a baseball ring from you."

"Yeah?" Bradley asked, bending to look at it. When the shop owner came over, he only asked to see that one ring. It was really pretty, and it seemed like something you would wear. Just a solitaire diamond with a platinum band. It was elegant and simple. Not overly frilly, but still something that made you want to stop and look at it. And once Bradley was holding it in his hand, he really thought it was perfect. 

He braced himself to hear the price while he dropped the ring into Everett's hand. Everett tried it on his index finger and laughed at how big it was. The price was manageable, and Bradley briefly considered sending a picture of it to Molly for final approval before deciding against it. 

"You know what?" he asked Everett. "I think we did a good job with this."

"We did," Everett replied with a nod. "She's gonna like it."

Bradley handed the ring across the counter along with his credit card. "I'll take it." He had no idea if it would fit you, but they could deal with that later. Because now he was in a state of shocked anticipation. He wanted to drive right to your place and beg you to marry him. He wanted to show you the ring and hope you'd say yes. 

"She'll like anything you give her. Especially if you say you want to get married!" Everett said with wide eyes. 

"I hope you're right, kiddo," Bradley said, running his hand through his hair. But now Everett's forehead was scrunched with concern. "What's wrong?"

Everett got quieter as he asked, "Does this mean you'll be my dad?"

Bradley swallowed hard and knelt down in front of him. Everett's eyes were so open and sincere, curious to know what this meant for him. "Ev," he started, unsure about how to answer. "If your mom and I are going to get married, then I'll be there all the time. I'll move into your house. We can do your homework together, and eat dinner. And I'll take you outside to play every day. Does that make sense?"

"But will you be my dad?" he asked again, and Bradley pulled him into a tight hug. Because he wanted to be. But he couldn't make a promise without talking to you. Without proposing to you first.

"I hope so, okay?" Bradley's voice was deep and raspy. "I love you."

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

Our favorite coaches made the team! Do we think Ev and Bradley have good taste in rings? Thanks to @beyondthesefourwalls and @mak-32

PART 25

Don't forget to check out Bob and Molly in The Curveball!

@hotch-meeeeeuppppp

@swthxrry

@chassy21

@yaboid19

@solacestyles

@avoirlecoupdefoudre

@daisyhollyxox

@harper1666

@throwinsauce

@beebslebobs

@awesomebooklover17

@wintercap89

@whosyourgnomie4

@rosesinmars

@blog-name6996

@bcon24

@wishfulwithwine

@backinwonderl4nd

@tetragonia

@gingerbreadandpaper

@emptyloverofmine

@apparently-sunshine

@chaoticassidy

@missmirandafe

@topgunbb

@changlingkhat

@sugarcoated-lame

@callsign-jupiter

@avada-kedavra-bitch-187

@katiebby04

@marantha

@averyhotchner

@abaker74

@heli991113

@k-k0129

@noz4a2

@tallyovie

@shanimallina87

@starlightstories

@teddyluvs2sing

@little-wiseone

@ccbb2222

@lilyevanswhore

@o-the-o-grim-o-reaper-o

@xoxabs88xox

[sebsbarnes]

apologizes || tangerine

tangerine x f!reader

summary: you voice your concerns about tangerine's profession, to which he doesn't take kindly

warnings: mentions of injury, swearing, drinking, nothing bad at all

word count: 1.5k+ ; angst(?), comfort(?)

tangerine masterlist

"c'mon c'mon," you harshly whispered gesturing them inside.

tangerine and lemon bustled inside, accidently bumping into your shoulder, breathing out heavily holding themselves against the beige wall.

"we owe you big time," lemon huffed sliding off his stained coat and folding it haphazardly on his arm.

"it's fine. you both know i don't mind."

"well, that can be the problem, love. it's not exactly safe," tangerine tutted wiping blood off his forehead with his palm.

"then i'll pay the price eventually but until then i don't care as long as you two are safe," you peered out the door before bolting it and herding them to the living room.

about twenty minutes ago you got a text from lemon saying him and tangerine were on a job nearby that went bad and they needed somewhere to hide. it was supposed to be a simple in-and-out at a software company but unfortunately, they were ambushed and they were running through the city trying to lose the men trailing behind them. lemon texted that they were close enough to make it to your house while also making sure the men would be gone before they got there. you didn't even hesitate when you texted lemon to come straight here. you wandered back into the living room with two glasses of water in hand and a bottle of whiskey tucked under your arm. tangerine leaned over to the bottle and winced in pain which he tried to hide, horribly.

"you're hurt," you stated.

"it's nothing, just a scratch," he waved off opting to chug the whiskey. when he lifted his arm you noticed the large blood patch on his shirt.

"you're bleeding you idiot. get up," you demanded giving him a knowing look.

tangerine grumbled under his breath like a child but still followed you to the bathroom. he sat down on the sink and you pulled out the first aid kit. he unbuttoned his shirt tossing it to the side. desperately you tried stopping the heat flooding your face. tangerine leaned back on the mirror to expose his bare torso more. you refused to look him in the eyes while he was half-naked in front of you, all you could do was chew at your lip until you tasted metallic. tangerine dabbed hydrogen peroxide on the wound while you disinfected a small needle.

"why do you do it," you asked softly.

"what this job? makes good money. only thing i'm good at," tangerine said looking down his nose at you cleaning the area below his chest.

you sighed, "well i'm sure there's other things you are good at tangerine. besides, you can make good money at a different job."

"i like what i do. why would i leave it?"

"it's not safe," briefly looking up at him, "aren't you afraid at all. like tonight, things could have gone differently."

this is something you've been thinking a lot lately. there's been an influx in how often the twins get sent on, more than usual, dangerous jobs. today they were lucky with only minor injuries but recently they've sustained quite serious injuries, some even resulting in them going to emergency rooms. you couldn't help the feeling of impending doom each time they told you they were setting off somewhere new. since bolivia and the bullet train in tokyo, the twins have piqued many international eyes for their services. of course, you were proud of them, this is what they wanted but it didn't stop your reservations about their career.

tangerine's tone shifted to irritation and his eyebrows pulled together, "obviously i know the risk. if i had an issue with it i couldn't be in this line of work now would i?"

you shrugged, "i don't know. it just seems like sometimes it's not worth it."

"i don't think lemon and i really asked for your opinion, love. besides, can you really talk when you're associated with two killers?"

before your face was flushed due to tangerine's exposed torso, now your face was flushed in anger. your nostrils were flared out and your once gentle hand stitching him together was now tugging roughly at the skin. you weren't sure exactly what to say to tangerine. yes, you helped the twins out when they needed it because you were their friend. what, were you supposed to let them bleed out every night or let them walk miles and miles to their desired location? no. and the fact tangerine was trying to paint you as a hypocrite made your blood boil. yes you were associated but you never knew any important info besides where they are in the world, they kept everything a secret from you for safety reasons and because it's confidential.

you let out a small laugh in disbelief, "personally, i think there is actually a big difference between ending a person's life and helping those injured. but you didn't ask for my fucking opinion did you?"

the last stitch was shoved roughly into his skin. you shoved a small gauze pad and tape onto his thigh before ripping the door open and leaving the bathroom fuming. you stalked down the hallway and into the living room where you snatched the bottle of whiskey off the table and exited the front door. lemon watched with confusion from the moment you left the bathroom to the moment you left the house. he sighed standing up from the couch and headed towards the bathroom where tangerine was still on the sink leaning back onto the mirror with closed eyes.

"i don't want to hear it," tangerine grumbled.

"well you're gunna fuckin' hear it you idiot. what did you do?"

"i made her mad. said i didn't need her opinion on how dangerous the job is and that we should get new ones," he said peering over at lemon who was stood against the frame of the door with a disapproving look.

"sometimes you really are dense aren't ya?" lemon said matter-of-factly.

tangerine sighed sitting up before covering the stitches, "i'm just tired."

"so that gives you an excuse to be a dickhead?" lemon said pointedly.

all tangerine could do was shake his head.

"you realize not once has she ever cast judgment on us right? the day she found out what we did she could've turned us in yanno? she's there for us all the time, when we need help, when we need a place to stay, when we need money, and on top of all that she's a good friend but you're too arrogant to acknowledge any of it. also, maybe if you opened your fuckin' eyes you'd notice that she's practically in love with your stupid ass," lemon ranted, wacking tangerine on the head.

"i'm a shit person aren't i?" tangerine said aloud but he already knew the answer.

tangerine exhaled heavily, ripping at the gauze and covering his wound. lemon had left the bathroom after his rhetorical question leaving tangerine to his thoughts. he knew he was in the wrong. he took his frustration out at the one person who never deserved it. tangerine walked to the closet in your house where left spare clothes for the twins. pulling on a grey sweater and headed to the front door. you were sitting on the stone steps leading up to the door, arms wrapped tightly around you, the bottle of whiskey now abandoned by your side. tangerine replaced the bottle with himself, eyes shifting to your unmoving figure. he took a swig out of the bottle, the liquor burning at his throat.

"something i've been learning recently," tangerine cleared his throat, "is that i'm a prick a lot of the time."

you hummed and grabbed the bottle that was dangling in his left hand.

"i shouldn't have spoken to you like that darlin'."

"oh you think so?" you joked in agitation.

tangerine scrunched his nose, "look i- i really am sorry. i had no right to speak to you like that especially when you were sat there stitching me up. i know i can be a dick but that doesn't make it okay to be a dick to the one person who has always been there for me. for everything you have done, i don't think i'd ever be able to repay you in this lifetime, but i'll try my best."

in a poor attempt you tried hiding the glossiness of your eyes looking at tangerine. you placed your hand on his knee giving it a light squeeze, "it's okay."

there was moments of silence between you two. the air was slightly chilly, the sky now a midnight blue with flecks of light, the occasional car drove past the house, the people in the front seats singing gleefully to the radio, there was an aroma dancing it's way through the doorframe of your house, lemon must be cooking dinner, all the while your hand continues to bring a sense of comfort to tangerine.

"i am afraid," tangerine finally whispered almost as if it wasn't meant to leave his mouth, a true confession to the question from earlier.

"you know no matter what i am here for you, no matter how much of a dickhead you can be," you joked softly at the end.

tangerine cracked the tiniest of smiles and wrapped his arm around your shoulder, pulling you in to lean on him. the thick sweater he wore bringing you comfort against the chill of the night. your fingertips dancing across his knee. it all felt right. and it felt good knowing tangerine was slowly breaking down his walls.

[geneeste]

Creating a personal fanfic archive using Calibre, various Calibre plugins, Firefox Reader View, and an e-Reader / BookFusion / Calibre-Web

A few years ago I started getting serious about saving my favorite fic (or just any fic I enjoyed), since the Internet is sadly not actually always forever when it comes to fanfiction. Plus, I wanted a way to access fanfic offline when wifi wasn't available. Enter a personal fanfic archive!

There are lots of ways you can do this, but I thought I'd share my particular workflow in case it helps others get started. Often it's easier to build off someone else's workflow than to create your own!

Please note that this is for building an archive for private use -- always remember that it's bad form to publicly archive someone else's work without their explicit permission.

This is going to be long, so let's add a read more!

How to Build Your Own Personal Fanfic Archive

Step One: Install Calibre

Calibre is an incredibly powerful ebook management software that allows you to do a whole lot of stuff having to do with ebooks, such as convert almost any text-based file into an ebook and (often) vice-versa. It also allows you to easily side-load ebooks onto your personal e-reader of choice and manage the collection of ebooks on the device.

And because it's open source, developers have created a bunch of incredibly useful plugins to use with Calibre (including several we're going to talk about in the next step), which make saving and reading fanfiction super easy and fun.

But before we can do that, you need to download and install it. It's available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and in a portable version.

Step Two: Download These Plugins

This guide would be about 100 pages long if I went into all of the plugins I love and use with Calibre, so we're just going to focus on the ones I use for saving and reading fanfiction. And since I'm trying to keep this from becoming a novel (lolsob), I'll just link to the documentation for most of these plugins, but if you run into trouble using them, just tag me in the notes or a comment and I'll be happy to write up some steps for using them.

Anyway, now that you've downloaded and installed Calibre, it's time to get some plugins! To do that, go to Preferences > Get plugins to enhance Calibre.

You'll see a pop-up with a table of a huge number of plugins. You can use the Filter by name: field in the upper right to search for the plugins below, one at a time.

Click on each plugin, then click Install. You'll be asked which toolbars to add the plugins to; for these, I keep the suggested locations (in the main toolbar & when a device is connected).

FanFicFare (here's also a great tutorial for using this plugin) EpubMerge (for creating anthologies from fic series) EbubSplit (for if you ever need to break up fic anthologies) Generate Cover (for creating simple artwork for downloaded fic) Manage Series (for managing fic series)

You'll have to restart Calibre for the plugins to run, so I usually wait to restart until I've installed the last plugin I want.

Take some time here to configure these plugins, especially FanFicFare. In the next step, I'll demonstrate a few of its features, but you might be confused if you haven't set it up yet! (Again, highly recommend that linked tutorial!)

Step Three: Get to Know FanFicFare (and to a lesser extent, Generate Cover)

FanFicFare is a free Calibre plugin that allows you to download fic in bulk, including all stories in a series as one work, adding them directly to Calibre so that that you can convert them to other formats or transfer them to your e-reader.

As with Calibre, FanFicFare has a lot of really cool features, but we're just going to focus on a few, since the docs above will show you most of them.

The features I use most often are: Download from URLs, Get Story URLs from Email, and Get Story URLs from Web Page.

Download from URLs let's you add a running list of URLs that you'd like FanFicFare to download and turn into ebooks for you. So, say, you have a bunch of fic from fanfic.net that you want to download. You can do that!

Now, in this case, I've already downloaded these (which FanFicFare detected), so I didn't update my library with the fic.

But I do have some updates to do from email, so let's try getting story URLs from email!

Woohoo, new fic! Calibre will detect when cover art is included in the downloaded file and use that, but at least one of these fic doesn't have cover art (which is the case for most of the fic I download). This is where Generate Cover comes in.

With Generate Cover, I can set the art, font, dimensions, and info content of the covers so that when I'm looking at the fic on my Kindle, I know right away what fic it is, what fandom it's from, and whether or not it's part of a series.

Okay, last thing from FanFicFare -- say I want to download all of the fic on a page, like in an author's profile on fanfic.net or all of the stories in a series. I can do that too with Get Story URLs from Web Page:

The thing I want to call out here is that I can specify whether the fic at this link are individual works or all part of an anthology, meaning if they're all works in the same series, I can download all stories as a single ebook by choosing For Anthology Epub.

Step Four: Using FireFox Reader View to Download Fic Outside of Archives

This is less common now thanks to AO3, but the elders among us may want to save fanfic that exists outside of archives on personal websites that either still exist or that exist only on the Internet Wayback Machine. FanFicFare is awesome and powerful, but it's not able to download fic from these kinds of sources, so we have to get creative.

I've done this in a couple of ways, none of which are entirely perfect, but the easiest way I've found thus far is by using Firefox's Reader View. Also, I don't think I discovered this -- I think I read about this on Tumblr, actually, although I can longer find the source (if you know it, please tell me so I can credit them!).

At any rate, open the fic in Firefox and then toggle on Reader View:

Toggling on Reader View strips all the HTML formatting from the page and presents the fic in the clean way you see in the preview below, which is more ideal for ebook formats.

To save this, go to the hamburger menu in the upper right of the browser and select Print, then switch to Print to PDF. You'll see the URL and some other stuff at the top and bottom of the pages; to remove that, scroll down until you see something like More settings... and uncheck Print headers and footers.

Click Save to download the resulting PDF, which you can then add to Calibre and convert to whichever format works best for your e-reader or archive method.

Step Five: Archiving (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Here's the really fun part: now that you know how to download your fave fanfics in bulk and hopefully have a nice little cache going, it's time to choose how you want to (privately) archive them!

I'm going to go through each option I've used in order of how easy it is to implement (and whether it costs additional money to use). I won't go too in depth about any of them, but I'm happy to do so in a separate post if anyone is interested.

Option 1: On Your Computer

If you're using Calibre to convert fanfic, then you're basically using your computer as your primary archive. This is a great option, because it carries no additional costs outside the original cost of acquiring your computer. It's also the simplest option, as it really doesn't require any advanced technical knowledge, just a willingness to tinker with Calibre and its plugins or to read how-to docs.

Calibre comes with a built-in e-book viewer that you can use to read the saved fic on your computer (just double-click on the fic in Calibre). You can also import it into your ebook app of choice (in most cases; this can get a little complicated just depending on how many fic you're working with and what OS you're on/app you're using).

If you choose this option, you may want to consider backing the fic up to a secondary location like an external hard drive or cloud storage. This may incur additional expense, but is likely still one of the more affordable options, since storage space is cheap and only getting cheaper, and text files tend to not be that big to begin with, even when there are a lot of them.

Option 2: On Your e-Reader

This is another great option, since this is what Calibre was built for! There are some really great, afforable e-readers out there nowadays, and Calibre supports most of them. Of course, this is a more expensive option because you have to acquire an e-reader in addition to a computer to run Calibre on, but if you already have an e-reader and haven't considered using it to read fanfic, boy are you in for a treat!

Option 3: In BookFusion

This is a really cool option that I discovered while tinkering with Calibre and used for about a year before I moved to a self-hosted option (see Option 4).

BookFusion is a web platform and an app (available on iOS and Android) that allows you to build your own ebook library and access it from anywhere, even when you're offline (it's the offline bit that really sold me). It has a Calibre plugin through which you can manage your ebook library very easily, including sorting your fanfic into easy-to-access bookshelves. You may or may not be able to share ebooks depending on your subscription, but only with family members.

Here's what the iOS app looks like:

The downside to BookFusion is that you'll need a subscription if you want to upload more than 10 ebooks. It's affordable(ish), ranging from $1.99 per month for a decent 5GB storage all the way to $9.99 for 100GB for power users. Yearly subs range from $18.99 to $95.99. (They say this is temporary, early bird pricing, but subscribing now locks you into this pricing forever.)

I would recommend this option if you have some cash to spare and you're really comfortable using Calibre or you're a nerd for making apps like BookFusion work. It works really well and is incredibly convenient once you get it set up (especially when you want to read on your phone or tablet offline), but even I, someone who works in tech support for a living, had some trouble with the initial sync and ended up duplicating every ebook in my BookFusion library, making for a very tedious cleanup session.

Option 4: On a Self-Hosted Server Using Calibre-Web

Do you enjoy unending confusion and frustration? Are you okay with throwing fistfuls of money down a well? Do you like putting in an incredible amount of work for something only you and maybe a few other people will ever actually use? If so, self-hosting Calibre-Web on your own personal server might be a good fit for you!

To be fair, this is likely an experience unique to me, because I am just technical enough to be a danger to myself. I can give a brief summary of how I did this, but I don't know nearly enough to explain to you how to do it.

Calibre-Web is a web app that works on top of Calibre, offering "a clean and intuitive interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks."

I have a network-attached storage (NAS) server on which I run an instance of Calibre and Calibre-Web (through the miracle that is Docker). After the initial work of downloading all the fic I wanted to save and transferring it to the server, I'm now able to download all new fic pretty much via email thanks to FanFicFare, so updating my fic archive is mostly automated at this point.

If you're curious, this is what it looks like:

Pros: The interface is clean and intuitive, the ebook reader is fantastic. The Discover feature, in which you are given random books / fic to read, has turned out to be one feature worth all the irritation of setting up Calibre-Web. I can access, read, and download ebooks on any device, and I can even convert ebooks into another format using this interface. As I mentioned above, updating it with fic (and keeping the Docker container itself up to date) is relatively automated and easy now.

Cons: The server, in whichever form you choose, costs money. It is not cheap. If you're not extremely careful (and sometimes even if you are, like me) and a hard drive goes bad, you could lose data (and then you have to spend more money to replace said hard drive and time replacing said data). It is not easy to set up. You may, at various points in this journey, wish you could launch the server into the sun, Calibre-Web into the sun, or yourself into the sun.

Step Six: Profit!

That's it! I hope this was enough to get you moving towards archiving your favorite fanfic. Again, if there's anything here you'd like me to expand on, let me know! Obviously I'm a huge nerd about this stuff, and love talking about it.

[brittanyearnestauthor]

Writing Tips for Beginners

Writing can feel intimidating when you're just starting out. There’s a lot to consider, but taking things step by step can make the process much smoother. This guide walks you through essential tips to help you navigate your writing journey with confidence.

1. Why Do You Want to Write?

The first step in becoming a writer is understanding your motivation. Ask yourself:

- Do you want to write entertaining stories with no deeper lessons?

- Are you passionate about highlighting important issues to educate readers?

- Do you wish to share valuable life lessons and inspire others?

- Or is it a mix of all these reasons?

Defining your “why” will shape what and how you write, giving your work purpose and direction.

2. Choosing a Writing Style

Your writing style is a key part of storytelling. Start by exploring:

- Third Person: "Jake went to school late this morning because he forgot to set his alarm clock."

- First Person: "I can't believe I forgot to set my alarm clock last night. Now, I'm late for school."

Both styles are powerful, but picking one to focus on as a beginner can help you find your groove. Mastery of both can come later.

3. Choosing a Genre

Think about what you love to read or watch—those genres can inspire your writing. Your familiarity with the genre will guide you in crafting your story, but always ensure your ideas are original. Copying someone else’s work risks losing the respect and trust of your audience.

4. Brainstorming Ideas

Brainstorming is where creativity starts. Keep a notebook or document of ideas—no matter how wild they seem. Even ideas that don’t fit one story might inspire another in the future.

5. Creating a Writing Schedule

Life can be busy, but carving out time for writing is essential. Even five minutes a day can build momentum and keep creativity flowing. Little by little, it all adds up.

6. Making a Plot Outline

Outlining your plot keeps your story organized and prevents excessive rewrites. A simple outline looks like this:

- Jane goes to the library.

- Jane grabs her favorite book.

- Jane meets the librarian.

This allows for creativity while keeping the story on track.

7. Creating Character Sheets

Characters are the heart of your story. Use character sheets to note their:

- Features

- Personality

- Behaviors

- Interests

This ensures your characters are unique and memorable, reducing confusion for readers.

8. Choosing Writing Software

Pick software that suits your needs. Options include:

- Microsoft Word: Reliable and feature-rich for writing, editing, and formatting.

- Google Docs: Free and convenient, but dependent on internet access.

- Open-Source Software: Free alternatives, though they may have limited features.

9. Writing Tools

Leverage tools like Grammarly to catch errors and refine your work. While AI tools can aid editing and polishing, remember they're there to support—not replace—your creativity. Work smarter, not harder!

10. Editing

Editing doesn’t have to be daunting. Take breaks to see your work with fresh eyes and use tools like Grammarly or text-to-speech programs to catch errors. Rewrite or cut scenes that don’t serve the story’s purpose.

11. Exploring Publishing Options

You have two main routes:

- Traditional Publishing: Requires pitching your manuscript but offers professional backing—though it can take time.

- Self-Publishing: Faster and gives you full control. Platforms like Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) offer free marketing tools like giveaways and discounts.

Research to find what fits your goals.

Conclusion

Writing takes time, patience, and a willingness to learn. By following these tips, you’ll be well on your way to starting and succeeding on your writing journey. Happy writing!

[morgan-va]

Chapter 29: Remembering. (Serial Designation V x reader)

Masterlist

TW: Descriptions of pain and suffering

Back in her room, Uzi spins her chair around, a satisfied chuckle escaping her as N and V begin to stir. It worked. She actually got their memories back.

V, always the quickest to act, barely takes a second before her hand snaps into a chainsaw, the jagged edge revving to life as she growls. "What the hell, Uzi?! What gives you the right to snoop through our heads?"

She stops mid-threat, her optics flicking to the side. Uzi follows her gaze and freezes. Techie is still wired into the computer, slumped in the chair, motionless. Dimmed optics flicker with scrolling text.

ADMINISTRATOR LOCKOUT: SUCCESSFULBEGINNING DISK CLEANUP|||||________________________________ 7%

Uzi’s stomach drops. No. No, no, no. This shouldn’t be possible, Techie should have woken up, just like N and V. 

Unless...

No. That’s impossible. The only way anyone could be locked inside like this is if… they were inside their own memory simulation as well.

Her breath hitches. That human—the one N called Techie. There’s no way, right?

She snaps her head toward N and V. “Explain. Now. Who the hell was that technician?”

N shifts as his newfound memories resurface, "I know! That technician was—"

“An old friend,” V interrupts, her voice unusually subdued. Her optics don’t meet Uzi’s. "From before... everything happened."

V exhales sharply, glancing at Techie's lifeless form. "I wasn’t sure at first, but as I’ve spent time with them, I realized... That drone sitting in front of us? That’s that human."

Uzi’s eyes widen as V’s words sink in. Her voice rises into a near-shout. “And you didn’t think to mention that before I sent them into a memoryscape with that eldritch freakshow?!”

V doesn’t hesitate. Her chainsaw revs louder, the jagged blade stopping just short of Uzi’s throat. “Oh, I don’t know,” she growls, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Maybe because you ambushed us and jammed yourself into our heads before I had the chance?”

Uzi swallows hard, glaring at V even as she leans back slightly from the weapon. “Fine. You make a good point.”

“Damn right, I do.” V lowers her weapon, but her glare remains sharp. “Now fix it.”

Not needing to be told twice, Uzi spins back to her computer, fingers flying over the keyboard as she desperately tries to regain control. Code floods the screen, scrolling too fast for her to process.

“Come on, come on…” she mutters, sweat beading on her forehead. Every second that bar inches forward, Techie’s chances of waking up shrink.

She grits her teeth and keeps typing. She has to fix this.

Light floods your vision. The sterile hum of fluorescent lights buzzes faintly overhead, and the scent of hot metal and solder fills your nose. 

A workbench stretches out in front of you, scattered with tools, wires, and diagnostic equipment. Right. Your final exam—robotics training. You’ve spent weeks preparing for this, and now you’re almost done.

The test was simple in theory: repair a malfunctioning worker drone suffering from an assortment of mechanical and software issues. Simple. But under pressure? Not so much.

You tighten the last screw into place, sealing the drone’s back panel before setting the screwdriver down with a shaky breath. This should be it. You double-check the wiring, hoping you’ve done everything right. There’s only one way to find out.

Your finger hovers over the power button for a split second before pressing down.

The drone’s optics flicker to life. A soft whir fills the air as it boots up, standing upright before turning to face you.

“Hello!” it chirps, its voice light and pleasant.

Success.

A grin breaks across your face. You did it.

Your professor strides over, their sharp gaze scanning the drone as they run through a quick diagnostic check. They lift the drone’s arms, test its mobility, and check the interface for any lingering errors. After a moment, they nod in approval.

"Everything seems to be in perfect working order," they say, turning to you with an approving smile. "Excellent job. You pass with flying colors."

Relief washes over you. You exhale a breath you hadn’t realized you were holding, nodding in thanks as a few of your classmates glance over. Some are still deep in their own work, muttering under their breath as they struggle with their drones. Others shoot you brief looks—some impressed, others indifferent.

Not wanting to linger, you quietly gather your things. The exam is over for you, and there’s no point in sticking around. You sling your bag over your shoulder and make your way toward the door.

Just as your fingers brush against the handle, a loud clatter echoes through the room.

You turn on instinct. One of your classmates has just powered their drone on, and while it seems to function for the most part, something is clearly wrong. Its speech module is glitching, causing it to stutter and garble its words in a mess of static and half-formed syllables.

The student groans in frustration, their expression twisting into anger. "Ugh, stupid thing—"

Before anyone can stop them, they shove the drone off the table.

It crashes to the floor with a sickening crunch.

Without thinking, you rush over, grabbing the student by the arm and spinning them around. "What the hell is wrong with you?!" you snap, anger flaring in your chest. "You can’t just treat them like that!"

The student sneers at you, yanking their arm free. "Calm down. It’s just a hunk of metal," they scoff, rolling their eyes. "Besides, what do you care? You act like they’re people or something."

You clench your fists, heart pounding.

They laugh, shaking their head before shooting you a look of disgust.

"You really are a freak."

That phrase echoes in your mind as everything around you fades away—"You really are a freak."

Over and over again, through the black void.

You open your eyes, the soft sheets of your bed comforting as the morning sun peeks through the curtains. Today’s the day—you’ll be heading out of town for your new job. Some technician gig for a rich family out in the swamp. You’ve been looking for something like this for months, and the offer came out of nowhere, just like that! You didn’t even apply for anything—just created a profile through the JCJenson website, but you hadn’t had a chance to actually browse any listings.

You guess someone’s looking out for you after all.

Rising from bed, you stretch, shaking off the last remnants of sleep before turning your attention to packing. You double-check your suitcase, making sure you haven’t left anything important behind. Clothes, tools, personal items—it’s all here. Just as you’re about to close it, something small and round slips out from between your neatly folded shirts, rolling across the wooden floor with a soft clink.

You bend down, reaching for it. A small, smoky blue gemstone rests against the floorboards, catching the morning light. You pick it up, running your thumb over the smooth surface.

You’ve had this stone since you were a kid. It doesn’t hold any deep sentimental value—not really. You don’t even remember where you got it. But for some reason, you’ve always kept it close. A good luck charm, maybe. You can’t imagine ever parting with it.

You slip it back into your pocket, sighing in relief before zipping up your suitcase. Time to go.

You pick up your suitcase, gripping the handle tightly as you take a deep breath. It’s time.

With a steadying exhale, you step forward and open the door.

Only to find… nothing.

The hallway outside your room is gone, replaced by an endless, yawning void. Before you can react, the ground beneath you vanishes, and you plummet into the vast nothingness, the weightless sensation sending your stomach into your throat. You try to scream, but no sound escapes. Darkness swallows you whole.

You’re late.

You slept in.

Late for your first day of work at the Elliott’s.

How is this possible??

You throw the covers off and scramble out of bed, heart pounding as you yank on your clothes in a panic. Of all the ways to start this job, this is the worst. You barely have time to double-check yourself in the mirror before bolting out of your small basement room and up the stairs—

SMACK.

You collide with someone and nearly fall over, barely managing to steady yourself as they hit the ground.

A maid drone.

“Oh, crap, I’m so sorry—!” You quickly reach down and help her up, eyes wide with guilt. “I wasn’t looking where I was going, I—”

She dusts herself off, looking a little flustered but otherwise fine. “Oh, um, no, it’s okay! I-I was actually coming to wake you up.”

Wait.

You blink at her, confusion momentarily replacing your panic.

“My shift starts in—” You check your watch, only for your stomach to drop as you realize your mistake.

You read the time wrong.

You aren’t late.

Your face burns with embarrassment as you run a hand through your hair, letting out a breathless laugh. “Oh. Wow. Uh, sorry about that. Guess I freaked out over nothing.”

The maid drone giggles softly, her posture still a little stiff. “It’s alright. I was kind of worried you’d sleep through your alarm. I was the first one you met yesterday, remember? My name’s V.”

V.

You pause.

Something about that name stirs something deep in your mind, like an old song you can’t quite remember the lyrics to. It lingers on the tip of your tongue, just out of reach.

But then V smiles at you—timid, polite, a little awkward.

And the strange feeling slips away.

You smile at her. “That’s really considerate of you, especially since we only just met.”

V’s posture stiffens slightly, her eyes flickering as she glances away. “Oh, um… it’s not a big deal or anything.” She fidgets, adjusting her maid uniform. “I mean, if you’re late, it affects the rest of us, too. It’s just in our best interest to check up on each other.”

You chuckle. “Still, I appreciate it. Really.”

Her gaze flickers back to you, uncertainty melting into something softer. “...Well, you’re welcome, then.”

You nod, adjusting your clothes. “I’m looking forward to working with you and everyone else.”

V’s lips twitch into a small smile. “I’d be happy to show you around, introduce you to the others.”

“That’d be great.”

She gestures for you to follow, and you take a step forward—

—but the world around you begins to melt.

Colors blur, shapes distort, the floor beneath your feet ceases to exist.

You don’t even have time to react before the memory crumbles away entirely.

You walk over and take the clipboard from V, scanning the list. It was surprisingly thorough—she’d noted everything from loose doorknobs to fading paint along the baseboards.

You smile at her, “I really appreciate your help with all of this, V. I don’t think I could get through it without you.”

She stiffens, her fingers twitching as she looks away. “I-it’s no problem, I don’t mind. Really.”

You chuckle and, on impulse, pat her head.

Error: Unexpected Affection Detected.

You show V how to make pancakes, guiding her as she stirs the batter. She nods eagerly, then accidentally mixes too fast—sending batter flying across the kitchen. Some splatters onto both of you. There’s a moment of stunned silence before you burst out laughing, V quickly following suit.

“Not too fast,” you place your hand lightly over hers to help steady her grip. “You don’t want to splash it everywhere.”

She freezes at the contact for a moment, her optics brightening slightly, but she doesn’t pull away. “Got it,” she murmurs.

The two of you sit side by side in front of a large window, gazing out at the endless night sky. The soft ambience of the mansion fills the silence, the glow of the stars reflecting in her optics. Your shoulders brush, and static electricity crackles between you.

“The moon is beautiful, isn’t it?” you murmur.

V glances at you, her expression unreadable—until a faint blush dusts her face.

“It is,” she says softly.

You lie in bed, your fingers intertwined with V’s as she reads to you. Her voice is steady, soothing, filling the quiet room with a warmth you can’t quite describe. The world outside doesn’t matter. Here, in this moment, you feel safe.

Warmth pools in your chest, unfamiliar yet comforting. Is this… love?

And then, just like everything else, these memories fade away.

You open your eyes as pain wracks your body. Agony is all you can fathom. Your gaze darts around the room, but you can’t move. You’re strapped to some kind of table, hooked up to a mess of wires and devices. The room around you is dimly lit, a run-down laboratory, cold and unfamiliar. You can’t even begin to question where you are—the pain is overwhelming, searing through every nerve like fire. It’s worse than anything you’ve ever experienced.

You force yourself to look down, instantly regretting it. A gaping wound mars your chest, torn open where that eldritch beast’s tendril had impaled you. The sight alone makes your head spin. How are you still alive? No—why are you still alive? Every attempted breath sends agony lancing through what remains of your ribs, and you open your mouth to scream, but nothing comes out.

Then, the door creaks open.

Your stomach drops as Cyn steps inside. She’s in her worker drone form, as if mocking you with her small, unassuming frame—like she hadn’t just torn your world apart. She tilts her head, smiling as she watches you struggle. “Cordial greeting. I see you are awake. Perhaps human medical technology isn’t useless after all.”

Something shifts behind her. Your eyes widen in horror as a slick, black tendril slithers from her back, lazily extending toward a console beside you. It presses a few buttons with unsettling precision, making the monitors flicker. Another tendril whips off to the side, dragging a gurney into view, carrying a powered-off worker drone, its lifeless body still on the cold metal cart.

Wires snake out from the machinery beside you, latching onto the drone like some grotesque experiment. You can only watch in silent agony, unable to move, unable to voice the fear clawing at your throat. Cyn steps closer, her neon-yellow optics gleaming with sick delight as one of her tendrils picks up a thick cable. At the end of it is a long, wickedly sharp needle.

She holds it up, almost playfully, before leaning in.

“Hold still. I do believe this has never been attempted, until now. Giggle.”

You try to resist, but some unseen force clamps down on you, stopping even the slightest movement of your head. Your body betrays you, locked in place as panic claws at your mind. You can only watch, helpless, as the tendril moves the needle behind your skull—out of sight, but not out of mind.

Cyn tilts her head, watching you with amusement. “Don’t worry. I am not finished with you. And you won’t remember any of this. Well, hopefully.” She lets out a small giggle, her gaze gleaming like a predator playing with its food. “Human minds are so much more fickle than drones.”

You barely have time to process her words before searing agony erupts through your skull. The needle drives deep, and a sensation like a lightning strike surges through your entire body. Every nerve ignites, every fiber of your being screams in protest as darkness swallows your vision. But the nightmare doesn’t end there.

Because while you may no longer see, you can still feel.

Pain unlike anything imaginable overtakes you as something indescribable is wrenched from your very core. Your mind—your self—is being torn away from the brain that has been yours since the moment you came into existence. You are being ripped from your own body. Thought ceases, coherence shatters, and all that remains is raw, unbearable agony.

And then, just as suddenly as it began—everything stops.

ADMINISTRATOR LOCKOUT: SUCCESSFULBEGINNING DISK CLEANUP||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||__ 94%

Uzi’s fingers fly across the keyboard, desperation fueling her rapid inputs as she fights against the process. Lines of code blur together as she forces command after command, trying anything to halt the inevitable. But the counter ticks up to 95%, unfazed by her efforts.

V’s patience shatters. She steps forward, optics burning with frustration. “That’s it. Send me in. Like you did with us.”

Uzi doesn’t even look up, still typing. “That’s a terrible idea.”

“I don’t care.”

“If you’re still inside when the process finishes, you’ll be erased too.” Uzi’s voice is sharp, but there’s a flicker of hesitation beneath it. “And as great as that might be,” she adds with biting sarcasm, “something tells me N won’t like that.”

V’s claws shoot out in a blur, stopping just short of Uzi’s throat. Her optics bore into the worker drone’s, raw with something Uzi doesn’t expect—desperation. “Let me try.”

For once, Uzi is speechless. She stares at V, weighing the risk, the sheer insanity of what she’s about to allow.

She exhales sharply and yanks a cable from the terminal, holding it out. “Fine. Plug yourself in.”

You sit in the void of your memories, a vast and endless darkness stretching infinitely around you. Faint echoes of experiences drift at the edges of your perception—things you know you've lived through, but they remain just out of reach, impossible to grasp. It’s all slipping away, unraveling like loose threads in a tapestry you can’t seem to hold together.

You blink, text appearing in your field of view once again:

 A-S Backup Process Enabled.

Purging Incriminating Data

:)

A soft giggle cuts through the silence.

Cyn stands before you, a cruel smile curling her lips as she takes in your broken state. You stare up at her, defeated. There’s nothing left to fight for. Nothing left at all.

She snaps her fingers.

V appears beside her—tall, imposing, her claws gleaming under an unseen light. Her fanged grin is sharp and cold, lacking any warmth.

“A shame my experiment failed,” Cyn muses, tilting her head. “You were quite intriguing to watch.”

V’s claws extend with a metallic shink, her optics narrowing as she sizes you up.

Cyn continues, her voice chillingly indifferent. “I pitied V enough to give you a chance, to be a tool for me just like her, but it’s clear you belong with everyone else—as part of me, the Solver of the Absolute Fabric.”

V lunges.

Her claws clamp around your throat, pinning you to the ground as she looms over you, fangs bared. You don’t fight. You don’t struggle. You don’t even flinch. You’re done.

But then—

V hesitates.

The pressure around your neck loosens. Instead of tearing into you, she lets go, pulling you back to your feet. Her claws retract as she gazes into your eyes, something unreadable flickering across her face.

“As fun as it would be to kill you,” she drawls, smirking, “I think that’d be rather anticlimactic, don’t you think?”

You blink. Confusion stirs in the emptiness of your mind. “What…? Why aren’t you—”

V groans, rubbing her temple. “You’ll get it in a minute.”

Without warning, she raises her arm, her hand shifting into a gun. She fires.

Cyn shatters in a burst of pixels.

Before you can even react, V grabs you by the shoulders, her expression urgent. “Listen to me—you need to snap out of it.”

You stare at her, the weight of her words not quite sinking in.

“You’re inside your own head,” she presses on. “Cyn’s rewriting you. She’s trying to make you forget everything.”

You try to respond, to ask her what she means, but she shakes her head. “No time for that.” Her grip tightens. “You have to remember. Remember me. Remember Uzi. Remember what’s happening in the real world!”

The void trembles. Cracks split through the darkness, revealing blinding white light beneath. The world around you begins to shatter, pixel by pixel.

V’s optics widen in alarm. “No, no, no—stay with me!”

Panicked, she grabs you by the arms and yanks you into a hug, holding you tight. “Come on,” she pleads, her voice almost breaking. “You have to remember—”

The pixels overtake you both.

V gasps as she is suddenly yanked from the simulation, the world around her dissolving into nothing. She flips around, fury already building in her chest—only to see N standing there, holding the cable that had connected her.

Her optics widen in horror. “What did you do?” she screams, her voice raw with disbelief.

She spins back toward Techie, still slumped in their chair, their optics flickering with a new message.

ADMINISTRATOR LOCKOUT: SUCCESSFULDISK CLEANUP COMPLETE||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 100%

The silence that follows is suffocating.

Uzi stares at the screen, then at Techie’s motionless form. Her shoulders tremble, her expression caught between disbelief and devastation. She  failed.

N shifts, gripping the cable tightly as if he can somehow undo what he just did. “V, I—I couldn’t let you get erased too,” he stammers, barely above a whisper. “Losing both of you would just be… too much.”

V barely hears him. She is already at Techie’s side, dropping to her knees as the weight of it all crashes down. Her fingers dig into their arms as she shakes them, harder and harder, desperation creeping into her voice. “I can’t do this,” she chokes out. “Not again. Not again!”

And then, Techie’s system reboots.

Their optics flicker, the dull glow returning as their head tilts slightly.

“Hello,” they say, their voice eerily neutral. “Are you my new coworkers?”

Silence.

Uzi and N don’t move. V can only stare.

Because she knows. They all know.

Techie is gone. Completely erased.

V sits back, her arms falling limply to her sides as she gazes at the drone before her—not them, just an empty shell, stripped of everything that made them Techie. All that remains is the default programming of a Worker Drone.

How ironic.

All the destruction she has wrought, all the pain she has caused—and this is how the universe chooses to punish her. Not with fire, not with death, but with loss. Loss of something she only just got back.

N had forgotten his past. But she never had. She remembered everything. She knows exactly what she has done. And yet…

Here she is.

With a slow, weary exhale, she rises to her feet.

She takes one last look at the drone sitting before her, their optics scanning the room in vague curiosity.

What’s the point in fighting anymore? Cyn will win. She always wins.

She reaches out, her hand trembling as she places it against their cheek. A tiny crackle of static sparks between them.

The moment their metal touches, Techie’s visor glitches, their entire body shuddering violently.

V steps back in shock as the drone collapses, crashing to the floor in a twitching heap.

Even in her last act of comfort, she’s managed to kill something. How tragically ironic.

Your optics flutter open as your systems jolt back to life, rebooting in a rush of energy. The world around you sharpens into focus, bright and overwhelming, as everything comes flooding back at once. It’s disorienting—the sheer weight of your memories crashing over you like a tidal wave. You try to sit up, your joints stiff and unresponsive at first, but you push through the discomfort. Blinking rapidly, you take in your surroundings.

Uzi and N are standing in front of you, their expressions twisted in confusion, eyes locked onto you as if they’re unsure whether to believe what they’re seeing. You glance past them, spotting V in the corner of the room. She isn’t looking at you. Instead, she stares off into space, her posture stiff, her face unreadable. 

You turn back to Uzi, your voice hoarse and unsteady as you manage to speak. “Uzi? What… what the hell did you do to me?”

The reaction is immediate. Uzi’s eyes go wide, her whole body tensing. She sucks in a sharp breath, realization dawning in an instant—you remember her. Her shock is evident, but before she can respond, something else happens.

V moves.

Before you can react, she is suddenly in front of you, grabbing you by the shoulders and lifting you off the ground. The intensity in her yellow optics burns into you as she stares, searching your face with a desperate kind of urgency. “Techie?!” Her voice is sharp, demanding, almost frantic. She scans your expression as if looking for a glitch, for some kind of mistake.

Your body tenses at the sudden force, and you struggle slightly in her grip, groaning in protest. “Yes! It’s me! Please put me down.”

For once, she listens. She sets you down on your feet, a significant improvement over her usual habit of just dropping you. Your legs feel unsteady, but you manage to stay upright, adjusting to the sensation of simply being again.

V wastes no time. “Do you remember everything?” she asks, and something in her tone makes your systems freeze for a second.

Everything.

The word echoes in your mind, and suddenly, it all hits.

Your life—your entire life—rushes back to you in an instant, slamming into your consciousness with the force of a collapsing building. It’s overwhelming, the sheer amount of it, so much that it feels like your head might split open from the sheer pressure. Your time as a drone, your time as a human, all of it returns in a flood, every emotion, every experience, every loss, every joy. The weight of an entire existence, something you hadn’t even fathomed regaining, comes crashing down with relentless intensity.

You stagger slightly, your fingers twitching as you try to process the sudden influx of knowledge. It’s too much all at once, the past and present colliding in a way that makes your head spin. Every moment, every decision, every version of yourself that you thought was lost—it’s all here. You’re here.

And you have no idea what to do with it.

Your voice catches in your throat, your entire system struggling to process the sheer weight of what’s just returned to you. You force out a breath, trying to steady yourself, but even that feels like too much. "I... I remember..." The words are shaky, barely more than a whisper. "I remember everything..."

Your optics flicker slightly as a name slips from your mouth. "Cyn..."

At that, Uzi's entire posture shifts. Her expression tightens, and a look of realization flashes across her face. It’s like she had momentarily forgotten why any of this was happening—why they had gone through all of this in the first place. But now, with that single name spoken aloud, it all comes rushing back.

"Nope," Uzi says, cutting off whatever breakdown you’re about to have. "We’re putting the 'my entire life is a lie' crisis on hold. We need to leave. Now."

You barely have time to react before a glow ignites around her hand. That same energy surges outward, wrapping around you before you can so much as blink. The room distorts, reality twisting and folding in on itself, the world around you shattering like a fractured mirror. The force nearly knocks you off your feet as everything warps.

Then—nothing.

Except cold.

Your optics adjust to the sudden change in lighting, and you realize you’re no longer inside. The facility, the walls, the floor—all of it is gone. Instead, you're standing outside, the frozen wasteland of Copper-9 stretching out in every direction. Ice crunches beneath your feet, the wind biting against your frame. The brutal cold is nothing new, but the suddenness of it leaves you reeling.

You barely have time to process what just happened before you see them.

Standing in front of you, unmistakable even through the swirling snow, is Doll. Next to her is J—her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. And beside them...

A woman.

You don’t recognize her. She’s clad in a space suit, her helmet obscuring most of her features, but there’s no doubt about it, she’s human.

Your mind races, trying to grasp onto something—anything—that could make sense of this. Your eyes dart to the nametag on her chest.

Tessa.

What the actual hell is happening?

[witchygagirlwrites]

Back to You-Pt. 1/3

Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz X Reader

When Hank tells you he's hiring a new Tech expert the same week Mouse is due back stateside you never think to make the connection until he's standing in front of you and you're faced with every emotion you tried to bury for two years.

Warnings: I think maybe just some cursing?!

When your alarm went off you reached blindly for the button on top that would get you relief from the shrill noise. When you finally smacked it you pushed yourself into a seated position in the bed and reached for your phone that had an alert flashing on it and groaned to see it was a text from Jay that read He's coming home this week. He wants to see you. You shook your head and threw the phone behind you onto the bed. You couldn't deal with that. It'd been almost two years and the subject still hurt.

You glanced up at the dog tags hanging from the mirror on top of your dresser. The light streaming in the window reflected off the metal surface as if the entire world was meaning to drag your heart through the dirt. You brushed off the dreary feeling and kicked the blankets off your leg. A nice hot shower and some coffee was all you needed to feel human again.

When you walked into the precinct Trudy smiled at you from behind the desk, that smile growing when you held out one of the cups of coffee to her "Morning Trudy" "Morning sweetheart" She said with a nod as you headed up the steps towards intelligence. The fog you'd felt that morning was slowly beginning to lift. If you could dive head first into a case well that would be all the better.

---------

"What? No coffee for us?" Adam asked with a mock expression of hurt when you sat a cup down on Kim's then Erin's desk and stuck your tongue out at him "You see Ruz us ladies have to stick together." Hank shook his head with a laugh from where he stood talking to Jay and Al. "When you're through passing out coffee and busting Ruzek's balls I need to speak with you for a minute"

"Yes sir" you replied trying to remember if you'd done anything worth being yelled at for. He tilted his head towards his office so you followed him curious as to just what was going on.

----

"Have a seat" he said motioning to the chairs in front of his desk so you sat down. He walked around to sit in his chair, eyes never leaving you. "We're getting another tech expert in here soon" Oh so that's what this was about. Did he feel like you would say something against the new person in that slot?

"Sounds good to me. No offense to any of the team but we all sorta suck at that end. I mean I'm decent and I still suck compared to the skills we really need"

You were trying to make a joke and actually got rewarded with a half smile from Hank. "Good, I'm glad you feel like that. Thing is we don't exactly know when they're gonna start so I need you to install the new software that was sent over for the tech room downstairs" "Why me?" You asked suddenly wishing you had never picked up anything about computers.

He shrugged and said "Well out of all of us here you picked up the most skills. It's simple stuff really but anyone else I'm afraid they'd crash the entire system"

You weren't going to argue with him so you nodded "Yes sir. I'll go get started now so if we happen to have a case pop up later" You stood to walk out but stopped when Hank added "Thank you. I mean I know you don't have that detective shield for shit like this but it helps"

You smiled and said "Don't mention it boss. I get my hands plenty dirty in the field. Why not put some tech work under my belt?" Then walked out to head down to the tech room.

----------

You walked into the room and felt a chill run through you and suddenly wished you'd brought your jacket downstairs. The equipment in here had to stay a certain temp and it used to not bother you but now? It felt like a frickin ice box.

You sent Kim a text begging for more coffee and your jacket before picking up a new laptop that was still in the box and looking over the manuals that were with it. "Well let's see how much actually sunk in" You muttered to nobody in particular as you went to work.

When Jay left around lunch saying he had to run to the airport everyone still in the bullpen spun around to face him "Is Mouse coming home today?" Erin asked, glancing back at the hallway you'd have to come up through. "Yea. She knew it was this week but not today. He's been dying to see her and I really hope Voight isn't going to want him to start until I can ease it onto her" Jay answered as he pulled his jacket on. "Wait, he's the new tech guy?" Kim asked in shock.

"He knows this team and I know he can be trusted" Hank cut in from where he stood at his office door.

Adam let out a low whistle and when everyone looked to him he pointed at your empty desk "Any of you think about the shit storm you're bringing down on her?"

"Yeah! I mean Jay you should've told her and Hank! C'mon man why would you spring something like that on her?" Erin threw in knowing out of everyone she could get away with calling Hank out.

He faced her before saying "She's a strong woman Erin. She can handle it. We need him here to fill the position and she isn't going to argue something for the good of this unit. As for her personal feelings she didn't let what happened affect her on the job and I don't see her letting it now. When and if there is a problem I will handle it"

Jay pointed towards the door "Well I'm gonna go. All of you can curse me once I leave and try to convince Erin to kill me in my sleep" "Such bullshit" Kim muttered to Kevin who nodded in agreement. "I give it two hours before they're either fighting or doing something that shouldn't go down at work. The way the two were about each other, that doesn't disappear" "She was a wreck when he left. I'd put my money more on fight" Adam cut in earning him a glare from Kim. Al stood up from his desk and said "Whatever does or doesn't go down is between them" and that was the end of the conversation.

-----------

You were sitting in the middle of the tech room surrounded by new coms, new cameras,tablets and laptops currently growing a headache. "I hate this shit!" You groaned and heard your phone go off where you had sat it on the desk but at the moment you could've cared less about anything anyone was telling you via text. If you were really needed they'd send someone down after you. Hank had banished you to this tech hell and you would be damned before you headed upstairs in defeat.

Walking up the stairs to the twenty first was a surreal feeling for Mouse. The last time he'd been here you had left in tears after telling him goodbye.

Every day he regretted hurting you the way he had. You had been made to feel like you were forcing him to choose to do what he wanted to with his life or being with you. You'd taken yourself out the equation and his heart still hurt when he remembered your eyes that night. You had still written to him once a month.

It was less personal then if you'd sent a hallmark greeting card but it was at least a sign you were alive and remembered he existed. The letters had stopped the moment he'd told you he had a discharge date. He wasn't stupid. He knew you didn't want to see him but when Voight had offered his job back along with the perks he'd offered he couldn't say no. Even if you hated him he would be able to see you. He was willing to hide in the tech room all day to stay out your way but the truth was more than anything he wanted another chance with you.

Trudy spotted him first and an actual smile perked up her face "Oh my god! Mouse!" He was shocked when she came around the counter to pull him into a hug. "You look good Gerwitz" "Thanks Trudy and I heard congrats are in order. You got married!" He replied smiling when she showed him the ring. "I'm gonna take him up" Jay threw in nodding towards the steps. Trudy's face went blank with horror "Um Jay she's still down in the tech room" "Good thing we're going up first huh?" Jay responded, dragging Mouse up the steps by his arm.

"Guessing she doesn't know I'm coming here today and probably doesn't know about the job?" Mouse pondered as they headed up to the bullpen and groaned when Jay did a so-so motion with his hand "Oh for fuck's sake Jay! You shouldn't have sprung this on her!"

"That's exactly what I said!" Kim spoke up from her desk before standing to hug Mouse "but welcome back still" The overall greeting was welcoming back a family member but there was still a feeling of dread that came along with knowing they were welcoming one and putting another's heart at risk in the process. After Al hugged him he pointed him towards the stairs "Well kid why don't you go down to the tech room and rip the damn bandaid off?"

If there was one thing Mouse was certain would never change, it was Alvin Olinsky. That man called everyone's bullshit.

He headed for the stairs hearing murmurs behind him but focusing on the fact that you were in front of him.

-----------

"Ugh! You stupid son of a bitch I already did that! I think you just don't fucking like me!" Yes you were arguing with a tablet but damn, it had gotten on your nerves.

"Well sweetheart if it doesn't like you it's got really bad taste" You heard a familiar voice say from behind you, causing you to startle as you jumped to face Mouse who was standing in the doorway.

You could feel your brain fuzz out like an old tv as you looked at him. His shoulders were broader than they had been before, biceps straining against the material of his t-shirt with his movements. A layer of scruff covered his jawline and he was about three shades tanner than the last time you'd seen him. The chain of his dog tags sticking out his collar made you subconsciously reach for the chain you hadn't worn in a year, knowing it wasn't at your neck.

When he moved his left arm you could see the hint of a tattoo peeking out his sleeve and knew you probably looked like an idiot sitting there surrounded by equipment and staring at him slack jawed but you couldn't help it.

All the love you felt for him and all the anger you'd buried at how he'd broken your heart washed over you in a crushing wave and it took effort to get your brain started back up. "Greg" you all but whispered and when he smiled had you been standing your knees would've gotten weak "She remembers! Can I get a welcome back?" You mentally slammed the door shut on all the emotions threatnening to spill over and held up the tablet before saying "Welcome back now come fucking help me"

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

You could feel your hands shaking as Mouse helped you to set up all the new equipment in no time. "Guessing you're the tech person?" You asked, breaking the silence in the room. He glanced up from the laptop he was currently typing on and smiled, something so familiar it made your chest ache "Only if it's ok with you. Voight offered"

"Why wouldn't it be? We split before you left, remember?" You knew you sounded cold but you had to. You couldn't bear to let yourself slip around him or you'd be pulled in. You couldn't let yourself feel everything you wanted because what if you did and then he decided once more it wasn't enough? "How could I ever forget about you telling me you didn't want to be with me anymore?" He asked in a small voice and you felt tears spring to your eyes so you quickly got to your feet "Looks like you've got this. I'm heading up"

Mouse regretted the words the moment he said them. He'd promised himself he'd give you space and time but God being this close to you after so long and not being able to touch you, you barely looking at him. He'd broken your heart he knew that but he hadn't exactly escaped unscathed either.

He called your name when you sprung up to leave but you practically ran from the room. A part of him wanted to run after you but he knew now wasn't the time. This was your job and his now as well. This was also just his first day back in Chicago and Jay hadn't even warned you. He looked back down at the stack of equipment and let out a sigh "Welcome home Gerwitz" he mumbled to the empty room before starting to put everything in its place.

Part 2

[reazreviewzone]

AdMotion Review: Create Trending and High Conversion Movie-Style Video In 1-Click by [Arifianto Rahardi]

Welcome to my Honest Review AdMotion Review. The current world depends on video marketing social media video marketing, and running ads. The content creator and marketer compete with each other. How to promote their video, how to instant viral media, and how unique to each other. Recently launched a powerful software to help you create a cinematic video in any language, thumbnail design, create intro video, marketing video, run ads, animation, and you forget about expensive production costs, endless editing hours, and outdated video-making methods- AdMotion Create any video in 3 simple steps. TURN NORMAL VIDEO INTO HIGH-QUALITY CINEMATIC VIDEO WITHOUT HAND-FREE.

What is AdMotion? AdMotion is a high-converting video creator app that creates cinematic videos in any language like Bollywood- just 3 simple steps without any skill and monthly fees, the AdMotion works automatically and generates Ordinary Videos into Stunning, High-Converting Cinematic Commercials Video Effortlessly in a Few Seconds. AdMotion is easy to use for your favorite social media, Video Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Run Ads, Design Thumbnail, Intro Video, and Ready-Made templates, and does not require complicated downloads, or frustrating installations- just make seamless, professional-quality videos from your Canva Free Account in a few seconds. I believe it! You forget 100% about expensive production costs, endless editing hours, and outdated video-making methods and start a new journey with AdMotion. Grab attention, engage your audience, skyrocket your results, transform Marketing, and create cinematic video and animation start everything with AdMoton,

Overview – AdMotion Review First, a customer optimizes the products quality or benefits the site. Who is the person who built the app? Discount price: why build the app? And who is the best choice for it? Everything. That is an ideal customers quality. Don`t worry; I covered the part for an ideal person. I think you are an idealistic reader.

Read more here>>

Author/vendor – Arifianto Rahardi Product –AdMotion Launce date – 9/03/25 Official website – VISITE HERE Front-end price - $19 Business – ok Instantly Create Text Into High-Quality 4k HD Video Watch/ Create Video – Any Language Social Media Marketing – Number One passive income – ok Recurring System – OK Payment – ONE Time Local Business – High Recommend Money-Back – 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee Funnel/Tool – Automated & Done-For-You Support – Effective Niche – Any Niche of your choice

How does AdMotion Work? AdMotion review works in 3 simple steps. Set it unique to other apps. Use simple steps to generate thousands of profits every single day.

Stpe-1 Sing Up, Login & Choose Template:- The First Sing-Up & Login your Canva account and choose the template you want.

Step-2 Customize & Rebrand:- After Choosing the right template quickly upload and rebrand, replacing the video, pictures, and text to your choice.

Step-3 Publish & sell:- After a customized process ready to use your favorite social media, business, and more you want.

Why Unique AdMotion to Other App? AdMotion app has some wonderful parts that make it unique to other apps worldwide. Every time you feel cinematic videos test and grow your audience day by day, and dominate your business win competition with each other.

How can AdMotion Help You? Different software has different quality. The same AdMotion has some effective different quality. 1- Cinematic style: AdMotion automatically generates cinematic animation like Bollywood cinema that surprises any customer for a few moments.

2- Promote Video Ads: It is too easy to promote video ads. The app makes realistic videos of hypersonic quality.

3- Intro Animation Effect: This is amazing. AdMotion creates automatic intro VIDEO human-like. So the agency wants to choose a template only.

4- Outro Animation: Create a realistic and cinematic outro in a few seconds.

5- Third Animation: That is too popular for your young generation. The generation demands software that makes a video hero worldwide.

6- Call Out Animation: Users can easily promote a country, office, project, agency, and any video they want. AdMotion gives all free templates.

7- Square Video Animation: Every social media does not allow uploading all-size videos. The social media company fixed a few sizes. Don`t worry you promote square video easily.

8- Vertical Video Animation: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook short video and YouTube Short video allow vertical video. To promote an easily vertical video and grab money in your bank account.

9- Thumbnail Design: There are thousands of free templates. Log in, choose, and promote then profit.

Key Highlight – AdMotion There is an awesome key feature that helps make profits, grow an audience, and promote video seamlessly. The feature converts your audience to more leads. AdMotion Review is the world's first revolutionary software that gives you high-quality content and designs.

Why AdMotions is a Breakthrough? The video and graphic agency wants to buy software that helps them with high-speed internet, improved video compression methods, and the widespread availability of powerful computing devices. As a result, the agency built an app that provides lower costs and more production for content providers and distributors for entrepreneurs. The app provides the audience with user-friendly tools high-quality effects, and content, including professional-grade software like Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Every video's quality is cinematic like a Bollywood movie. Does not require monthly fees and subscriptions. If the app doesnt work qualityful or doesn`t provide cinematic video then he money back in 30 days -announced to audience Arifianto Rahardi. The agency gives a PLR license to the audience. An audience can create unlimited video and design. Who is AdMotion's Best Choice? Every person can use the app to promote everything. The agency needs to unlock the app and the app works in 3 simple steps generate video, design, thumbnail, data upload, File upload & export, and promote any product easily with AdMotion. Now who is the best choice for it:

Digital Marker: Make your audience with awesome, high-quality unique video animations then convert lead generation to the sales page.

Affiliate Marker: Promote product or service by creating unlimited cinematic videos and animation to get the best-converting sales.

eCommerce Store Owner: Create unlimited video or animation for product promotion.

Advertisers: Eyecatching videos grab new and valuable audiences easily.

Freelancer: Freelancers would demand money from clients to create movie-style videos and designs.

Social worker: instantly viral every video and grow audience in a few months- follow only 3 simple steps.

Home Business: A mother can create her world with AdMotion easily and earn massive income from large companies.

Read more here>>

AdMotion`s Positive & Negative site

Positive site: -Instant create thumbnail -High-quality cinematic video -Valuable outro video -Real animation of intro video -Image, music, file video unlimited export and import -Customize any design or thumbnail -Promote any product in any language -Provide PLR-free license -World-class effective support -30-day money-back guarantee -Humanlike and real-like video creation.

Negative site: -Depend on internet connection -Everyday post on your site -Make unique ideas.

OTO, Funnel & Bonus

Front-End Price: $14 - $24

OTO 1 Price: $27

OTO 2 Price: $47

OTO 3 Price: $54

Cinematic Movie Style Animation Templates (Worth $750) Promo Video Ads Animation Templates (Worth $750) Intro Opener Animation Templates (Worth $450) Outro Animation Templates (Worth $450) Lower Third Animation Templates (Worth $375) Call Out Animation Templates (Worth $375) Square Post Animation Templates (Worth $750) Vertical Post Animation Templates (Worth $750) Thumbnail Designs (Worth $500) YouTube Channel Designs (Worth $500)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are images and videos included? Yes, They have done all templates. You use this template of your choice.

How to get the app? First log in, select the template, and promote the video on social media.

Is there any passive income system? Yes, the agency gives us the utmost priority for recurring and passive income.

Are there monthly fees? No, one-time payment and auto-update are all features.

Affiliate disclaimer

Thank you for perusing my genuine audit. My fair conclusion is shared within the survey.

An affiliate disclaimer may be an explanation to advise gatherings of people that a company or person may gain a commission or other emolument on the off chance that they buy items or administrations through joins on their site, web journal, social media, or different stages. This disclaimer is basic for keeping up straightforwardness and complying with legitimate requirements, such as those set by the Government Exchange Commission (FTC) within the Joined Together States. It guarantees perusers or watchers know of any potential predisposition or budgetary motivating force behind proposals.

Ordinarily, the disclaimer is set noticeably at the start or conclusion of substance and clearly states the nature of the partner relationship. For illustration, "This post may contain partner joins, meaning I win a commission if you buy through my joins at no additional taken a toll." This builds belief with the group of onlookers while ensuring the substance

[moonspren]

MAKE YOUR OWN (2025) AO3 WRAPPED!

I'm going to start this off by saying that this does take a lot of leg work on the user end, and a little bit of setup to customize for your preferences. I made all of this from scratch with a limited-moderate understanding of spreadsheets & a lot of queries to Reddit forums, and its not completely perfect or bug-free, but it does what I wanted it to do in general, and I had fun with it, so I thought I'd make it available to share!

The first thing you'll need to do is open the link above and select File -> make a copy. This will make a copy saved to your account that can be edited to your preferences & with your fic history/information. I don't have a business account, so I can't create a template, and this is the best option I found! (Also, sorry if you don't want to use G**gl* I really couldn't find a program that did all the things I wanted it to do and was also shareable)

The second thing you may want to do to personalize the spreadsheet to your own tastes is to edit the list of AU/Theme options for the dropdown. To do this, simply click into the dropdown menu on the first table row and click the "edit" pencil at the bottom right. I included a few that I prefer to read and/or want to keep track of through the year, but it will of course vary by reader, so feel free to edit this list to your hearts content.

To make sure the charts are accurate, once your list is finalized, click into the "Reference" tab at the bottom of the page, and find the table titled "AU or Theme." (This is where it starts to get a little tricky & technical, though if you have experience with formulas, it shouldn't be too sticky.)

You will need to delete any columns that are no longer listed in your dropdown menu, and add a column for any new additions. Once your table columns match your dropdown list, make sure the formula in the row beneath each column matches the one below:

=COUNTIFS('Data Entry'!K2:K,"*AU*")

You can copy/paste this formula into the cell beneath each of your AU/Theme columns, making sure to change the red text to match the text from your dropdown menu for each column/category.

And that's it for the setup! At this point, you can hide the "Reference" sheet if you want, as you shouldn't need to look at it unless you add options to the AU/Theme dropdown, or you add or delete columns from the Data Entry sheet.

All you'll need to do is enter the information for each fic you read on a new line in the table on the "Data Entry" sheet, and you'll have a beautiful list of all the fics you read this year, and charts on the "Charts" tab will automatically generate to show how your fandoms, pairings, ratings, AUs/Themes break down, as well as showing your work/word count per month and total for the year.

If you want to create a wrapped video (like the one in my original post), the charts on the Reference page will come in handy for top author/pairing pages, but they can be clunky to look at, so I've not included them with the Charts page.

The biggest issue I have with this setup is WIPs - there's not really an accurate way to list WIPs so that your word/work count is 100% accurate by month, since as the work updates, you'd either need to add an additional line per chapter (skewing the work count) OR change the word count on the original line and update the "date completed" field (this skews the word count, but is the option I choose to use). If you have any advice or expertise on this, PLEASE feel free to reach out!!!

And last but CERTAINLY not least, I want to include a link to the super amazing Canva template I used to create the video! AO3's brand colors, fonts & logo are all publicly available and easy to find, and I just used bits and pieces of that to edit the template.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy! If you have suggestions or requests, please DM me and I will try my best to help <3

[airionvez58]

TEXT TO SPEECH FREE SOFTWARES/Aironvez.com

1.AIRONVEZ.

An all in one software great for creating high quality videos for photo conversions from pictures and converting text to speech on free basis.

Visit:aironvez.com

2.NATURAL READER.

Is one of the best free text to speech software experiences with plenty of user options and features such as:built in OCR, choice of interfaces, browser extension and dyslexic friendly font .

Visit:www.natural readers.com

3.BALABOLKA.

Best for custom voices with features such as : excellent file format support, variety of voices ,can create audio files and bookmarking tools.

Visit:https:// balabolka.en.softonic.com

4.PANOPRETER BASIC

Best for beginners to text to speech conversion,it is quick and simple to use, exports in MP3 formats and a good range of input formats.

Visit:www.panopreter.com

5.WORD TALK.

Best in processor extension, integrates with Microsoft word, customizable voices & speaking dictionary.

Visit:www.wordtalk.org.uk

6.ZABAWARE TEXT TO SPEECH READER.A great choice for converting text from websites to speech,converts texts from clipboard and has good file format support.

Visit:www.zabaware.com

https://aironvez.com#aironvez #aironvezAI #Aironvez.com

[java-dragon]

Bookbinding Tips for Beginners by a Beginner.

Trouble Shooting edition.

As I am redoing- and reprinting a text block from scratch. I learned some stuff that may help along the way. This will be brief. I am still compiling all of the photos I need for the potential last post of this little series of mine.

But some trouble shooting.

Printing

Printers are by nature a horrendous beast. Once you think you have them figured out they will either throw a temper tantrum to end all temper tantrums, fuck up the print, or make you grovel by their perch pleading for them to read the file.

"I have single handedly gotten my grandmother, and my mother to realize that there isn't a Nigerian Prince that needs their help. I have recovered corrupt files, and gotten that 90s VCR to work for some inexplicable reason but hell it made ma happy... I am the biped in this equation.... Now print you son of a bitch!"

I can't trouble shoot those moments but I can help make misprints a little less "Void your spine and your soul" at the same time.

This is me advocating for JS Binder- and getting your pdf broken up for the pure simple reason you can track the pages easier. I have had my printer pull two pages at a time and print on one side of one page, and print on the other side of the other page. The easiest thing to do is to pull the pages that have printed, and pull the pages that have misprinted. Stand them up so they're noticeable and allow the rest of the printing to conclude.

Now with adobe you can select what pages you need to reprint from the document in question, and there is a small section around the middle/bottom that has the page count. To reprint only the pages you need track the document number down for the ease of use:

The page count for Adobe looks similar to this.

For the ease of this example I'm just going to say that my printer fucked up the first and second page of the print.

Hit print:

The layout for Adobe PDF reader will look as such.

In the "Pages to be Printed" Section near the top hit "Pages" and manually type in the page numbers. For this example One (1) and Two (2).

Also remember to flip everything on the short edge or else you will be having right-side-up and up-side-down pages alternating. We don't want that. Always ALWAYS make sure to flip on the short edge.

What if the printer misses a few pages? Similar concept but a few more steps before we get back to the print stage.

Best I can say- is if there are a massive amount of missing pages or they just don't look gook.

Check your ink levels. If it's not the ink, do a head cleaning usually there's a setting for that built into the software or on the printer itself. I can only speak to inkjet printers, if you have a toner printer.... damn lucky. Toner printers print damn fast and are quieter and more reliable than inkjet.

Anyway, once the cleaning has been accomplished and it looks like everything is as it should- see above or grin and bear the whole reprint for that section of your bind.

Usually I've gotten away with just going through the software for ink head cleanings. In extreme cases you might have to manually clean the heads. I know certain older printers are like that. Best I can say is find the manual and see how it goes.

IF that doesn't work still....

Invest in a toner printer if you can and borrow your friend's inkjet if you're printing colour covers for your books.