#the unvarnished truth

[graemegardenappreciationsociety]

[m-has-a-blog]

I don’t think torture porn should be a pejorative. I think it should be something I could use to find porn featuring characters getting off on torture

[spockvarietyhour]

Time to dump the last 5 seasons on Flynn

[ortustheninth]

What do you think tazmuir is implying about Augustine

Fratricide :(

[sollucets]

[image ID: a screenshot of a small section of the ao3 statistics page. text on the page reads: Word Count: 100,956]

so i did only start publishing fanfic this year, as you may recall, and i guess with ‘stay close’ i cracked 100k words on ao3! wild! um. idk i don’t really have anything profound to say right now. i’ve said a lot of it before in different places. i’m really happy i finally decided to put the things i wrote out there & i’m excited to keep doing it next year. everyone thanks & i love you

[turningintofeet]

I am not expert but "suck it up" and "just do it" being flung around as the depression advice du jour with a side of disgust at those assumed to not be sucking it up and just doing it feels maybe not super helpful...

[dreamswillbeyourwintermeat]

Friends I got a new phone and could not for the life of me remember my Tumblr login and was bereft for 6 weeks but now I'm back hallelujah

[wwpbviiid]

“Sitting by the fire, he probed gently into how I came to be there, and I found myself disclosing, with a candor I did not intend, the unvarnished truth of not only the night just past, but my life up until that moment.”

isn’t that. isn’t that what the archivist could do. isn’t that the main archivist power

[rebel-girl-queen-of-my-world]

Repost from @theslowfactory and @falasteenrising:

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨 The International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a decision deeming illegal the zionist entity’s settlements in the West Bank and eastern Al-Quds, considering that they amount to “de facto annexation” and are a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The ICJ noted that the zionist entity has accelerated settlement construction in the occupied West Bank with 24,000 new units, thus violating international law and creating an untenable living situation for Palestinians.

The court called for the entity to stop all new settlement activities and for UN members not to recognize “israel’s” presence in the West Bank and eastern Al-Quds.

The court highlighted the zionist entity’s exploitation of resources, prevention of entry of water to Palestinians, and transfer of settlers to Palestinian areas, noting that these contradict “international commitments.”

The ICJ viewed the zionist entity’s practices against Palestinians as possibly amounting to “discrimination and apartheid.”

Zionist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for annexing the entire West Bank after the decision, while “National Security Minister” Itamar Ben-Gvir called the decision anti-Semitic.

Source: ICJ | The Hague

Date: July 19, 2024

Follow us to join the movement. Fact checked. Verified. Authentic. Unbiased. Unvarnished truth. 24/7 breaking news stories. @falasteenrising - Falasteen Rising - 🇵🇸

[geekalogian]

Watching Twitter unravel is really something

I wonder what it's like to be a privileged dickweed who has never had anybody say no to you in your entire life, only to have over half of your new company do so loudly, publicly, and in a way that will cost you literal billions and possibly end your entire business empire

Because that's the crux of it really, isn't it?

This is a man who has lied for so long about his skills and capabilities that he believed his throng of fanboys more than he believed the actual truth: that he's a spoiled rich kid who wrote his name on top of everyone else's accomplishments and trampled over countless actually brilliant minds to fool people into thinking he had contributed anything to society.

I'm watching some of the people be like "this has to be part of his plan!! He must WANT Twitter to go under; there's no way he could be this stupid!"

And like, if a miracle falls into his lap and he ISN'T ruined forever after this, hell definitely claim that

But the unvarnished truth is that he's a charlatan, protected by daddy's money and a society that can't say no to rich white men.

I just really enjoy watching a person's bluff get called in such a dramatic way.

[sunflowerdigs]

It's a testament to how dynamic Loki and Mobius' relationship is that Eric Martin currently describes Mobius as a sweetie pie and likely to soften the truth for Loki. Because Mobius' purpose as a character at the start of the series was to be that voice of unvarnished truth for Loki. His lack of emotional connection to Loki was what allowed him to carry out his role in the story at that time (and, indeed, he was so frank and unyielding that some fans have called that interrogation scene a torture scene). So, for him now to be unable to carry out that role for Loki, for him to have gone from uncaring interrogator to "sweetie pie", shows exactly how much change that relationship has undergone since ep1, and shows that the transformation is based on Mobius coming to care for Loki more and more over the course of the series (and vice versa).

And I don't think Martin is incorrect. Loki going back to that earliest version of Mobius to get a truth that he knew he couldn't get from the Mobius of 2x06 proves that what Martin is saying is true.

[luxe-pauvre]

The study found that the most successful headlines don't convey facts, they promise you an emotional experience. The most common phrase among successful Facebook headlines, by nearly twofold, is "will make you,” as in "will break your heart,"«”will make you fall in love," "will make you look twice," or "will make you gasp in surprise" as above. This phrase is also highly successful on Twitter. Other top phrases include "make you cry," "give you goosebumps," and "melt your heart." Intellectual experiences cannot compete. Pause for a moment and think about what a huge shift this represents. Can you imagine The New York Times or your local newspaper with headlines that told you how you'd feel about each story, but not what the story actually entailed? […] What we are saying becomes more interesting than what is happening. All of this fluff and glitter does more than just dumb down the national conversation: It opens the door for bullshit. The unvarnished truth is no longer good enough. Straight-up information cannot compete in this new marketplace.

Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World

[all-pacas]

really want to articulate Thoughts because i watched humpty dumpty last night and it's so Interesting that chase and house and foreman break into cuddy's house together. and then foreman vanishes as chase demands house tell him if he's ever slept with cuddy, because they flirt way too much otherwise. like there's no way chase would have said this if foreman was in the room. there's no way house would have humored the conversation. like during differentials chase gets picked on a lot but when it's just him and house together they have a completely different dynamic

like would the other two even ask house a personal question like that. who does that. chase does! he just walks up to house sometimes and tells him to stop ruining foreman's job interviews (and gives him advice on what to do next). he asks house why he wants a certain surgery done (and house tells him the unvarnished truth: that he Relates to the patient). he wants to hug house and house makes a joke and chase is just "do you have to be like that?" and hugs him anyway. chase gets stabbed and house tells him it wasn't his fault. texts him and follows him for weeks desperate to get chase to forgive him. house invites chase bowling and they Talk Girls and house takes chase's advice. when rowan is around, house does everything to get chase to talk to him, tries to tell him about rowan's cancer. in the mistake, he convinces chase to not destroy his own career and promises to regardless play along with what chase says. like they're so… honest? frank? with one another? chase can just ask house shit and get a real answer. house makes fun of chase all the time, but allows chase to walk up to him and say i see through you without any sort of challenge.

[mariacallous]

BERLIN — For the first time since the Nazi era, a far-right party in Germany has won the largest piece of the electoral pie in a state election.

Mainstream politicians and Jewish leaders are expressing alarm following Sunday’s elections, in which the anti-immigrant, Eurosceptic and pro-Russia Alternative for Germany party came out on top in the state of Thuringia, with 32.8% of the vote.

The 11-year-old party also earned second place to the traditional conservative Christian Democratic Union party in the neighboring state of Saxony. Both states are in the former East Germany.

“No one can brush this off as a ‘protest’ vote anymore,” Charlotte Knobloch, head of the Jewish community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said in a statement late Sunday.

“Exactly 85 years after the start of World War II, Germany is in danger of becoming a different country again: more unstable, colder and poorer, less secure, less worth living in,” said Knobloch, a former head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany who herself survived the Holocaust in hiding.

The election came just over a week since a Syrian refugee was arrested after a deadly stabbing spree at a festival in the city of Solingen, and only days after Germany resumed its program of deporting refugees convicted of crimes. The knife attack, in which three people were killed, reignited popular anxiety about social unrest connected with the more than 1 million refugees admitted to Germany since 2015.

AfD stresses isolationism, takes an anti-EU and pro-Russian stance, and is accused of fomenting anti-Muslim sentiment. Some of its most extreme representatives have also belittled the Holocaust, saying that Germany has paid enough penance for the sins of an older generation.

Mass protests against the party took place earlier this year following revelations that the party had held a secret meeting at a lakeside villa to discuss plans to deport foreigners, including those who had become German citizens. Prominent neo-Nazis attended the meeting, according to the news organization that broke the story, inducing painful echoes of the gathering of Nazi leaders at nearby Wannsee in 1942 to devise a plan to deport and then murder Jews.

But while support for the AfD dipped in polls at the time, it soon rebounded and then accelerated. Now, it has achieved breakthrough results in state elections and raised concerns for next year’s national elections.

The party — whose Thuringen leader, Bjoern Hoecke, has been convicted twice of using a Nazi slogan to boost his party — is unlikely to form a ruling coalition in either state, since it is shunned by other parties. Still, it will have additional seats in the state legislatures and will have the numbers, particularly in Thuringia, to interfere with some governing decisions.

A far-left party, Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance or BSW, also produced notable results, coming in third in Thuringia with 15.8% of the vote. Last month, the current head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Josef Schuster, warned that the party, which has accused Israel of genocide in its war in Gaza, was “fueling hatred of Israel in Germany.”

The new election results bode ill for Germany’s future, Schuster said on Sunday.

“Can we recover from this hit?” Schuster wrote in a column in the Bild newspaper. “Our free society must not fall, especially in the face of Islamist terror. Unvarnished truths — honesty and sincerity — are needed, not populist pseudo-answers from radical parties.”

In Thuringia, the mainstream Social Democratic Party barely squeaked in, with 6.1%. Several parties, including the Greens and Free Democratic Party, received so few votes that they will not have any seats at all.

BSW also came in third in Saxony, with 11.8% of the vote, following the AfD with 30.6% and the CDU with a narrow win at 31.9%.

Younger voters overwhelmingly favored the AfD in this week’s elections, according to an NTV-Infratest exit poll.

“The survivors are asking themselves: ‘Didn’t we do enough to teach, to tell, to show?” Christoph Heubner of the International Auschwitz Committee, told the Guardian.

Some Jewish leaders say German politicians would do well to address the concerns apparently expressed by voters this weekend.

“The election results in the German federal states of Thuringia and Saxony are a clear wake-up call to the centrist parties in Germany to listen to the real concerns and fears of the people,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, said in a statement. “When half the population votes for parties on the extreme fringes, their problems must be addressed openly and honestly.”

Sunday was an “insanely sad” election day, German Jewish journalist Samira Lazarovic wrote on Facebook. She said her 96-year-old father compared the outcome to the opening salvo of World War II, exactly 85 years ago.

Lazarovic said it was is urgent to reach out to younger voters. “It’s not that we know better than they; but we should shape the future together.”

Obviously, it wasn’t enough to take to the streets and protest against the far right, she added: “Populists all over the world have one thing in common. They mean exactly what they say and do everything they can to turn their words to deeds.”

[pin-k-ink]

matters of the heart // ukitake jushiro & kyoraku shunsui (pt. 2)

tw ⇢ highly suggestive content, strong sexual tension, making out, slight nipple play, just a hint of ukitake x kyoraku, lots and lots of complicated feelings

wc ⇢ 3.4k

part one | part two | part three

You found yourself absentmindedly running your fingers along the spines of the ancient tomes lining Ukitake's chamber walls - a nervous habit born from too many silent visitations attempting to soothe his latest spells of ill health.

Even now, after centuries of close companionship, there was something about being alone with the sickly captain that made your pulse skip erratically. A burgeoning sense of anticipation you didn't quite understand fluttering low in your belly.

"You seem distracted today, my dear," Ukitake's mild tenor cut through the heavy stillness, instantly commanding your attention. "Is something weighing on your mind?"

You glanced over to find him watching you with those lambent green eyes, expression etched into thoughtful lines as he studied your momentary lapse in composure. A tremulous smile tugged at the corners of your mouth as you turned to face him fully.

"As perceptive as always, Jūshirō," you acknowledged with a rueful dip of your chin. "Though I can't seem to put my finger on what precisely is causing my...distraction this time."

It wasn't quite a lie. While flashes of your heated encounter with Kyōraku continued swirling through your psyche, it was the undercurrent of ineffable yearning in his eyes that wouldn't quite leave you be. As if he'd purposefully laid bare some fundamental truth about your long-intertwined existences that you'd been studiously ignoring until now.

Ukitake made a soft noise of contemplation, seemingly unaware of the direction your chaotic thoughts had taken. "I see. Well, you needn't suffer under its weight alone. I'm happy to lend an ear, if you think unburdening yourself may help..."

He trailed off meaningfully, the achingly sincere invitation settling around your shoulders with gentle insistence. You felt your breath catch minutely, rooted to the spot as you simply drank in the sight of him - hale and vibrant in a stolen moment of relatively robust health.

The tender sincerity bleeding from his every pore acted like a tonic upon your psyche. You felt the tangled knots of tension slowly being massaged loose as the endless expanse of your decades upon decades of close friendship blanketed you like a soothing balm.

How many times had you simply existed in these suspended heartbeats of abject intimacy with Ukitake over the course of your entwined lives? Drawn solace from his quiet steadfastness like a parched traveler at an oasis in the endless wastes of Soul Society's eternal churning?

Too many to count. Just as the number of times you had effortlessly gravitated into his vital orbit without a second thought threatened to blur together into a singular, unbroken spiral of cherished recollections and fevered devotions.

It was this bone-deep certainty of what existed between you that suddenly allowed the chaos of your thoughts to settle into soothing stillness. For all that Kyōraku's burning stare and wrenching confessions had shattered your tranquility, upending your composure onto uncertain new tides...here, with Ukitake, you felt the indistinct pull of a different sort of sublime gravity reasserting itself.

"Actually..." you murmured at last, crossing the space between you with unhurried grace to resettle yourself at Ukitake's bedside. "I think perhaps you're the only one who can help put my mind at ease on this matter, Jūshirō."

Ukitake cocked his head slightly in that endearingly quizzical way of his, patiently waiting for you to elaborate. You inhaled a steadying breath, feeling the treacherous flutter of courage sparking to life as you allowed the words to spill forth in an earnest, unvarnished tide:

"Tell me...do you ever look at someone and realize in a single, dawning moment that they are an inextricable part of your existence? That no matter how far your paths have strayed or how deeply separated your fates have become over the eras...there's some transcendent tether anchoring you together in a way that defies reckoning or separation?"

You watched Ukitake's expression shift into something unnameable and visceral as you spoke, felt an imperceptible current of spiritual energy begin to thrum between your interwoven existences. For several breaths, he simply absorbed your softly murmured epiphany with rapt attentiveness.

Then, slowly, he shifted until you found yourselves a mere hairsbreadth apart - separated only by the gossamer partition of realities as he gentled his larger hand over yours and peered down at you with an achingly tender intensity that robbed you of breath.

"Yes," Ukitake rasped out fervently, each infinitesimal consonant seeming to sear itself into the fabric of your spiritual essence. "I've found...I do know precisely what you speak of."

The look he leveled into you then was a devastatingly radiant testament of truths brought to searing awakening. For in that moment, it felt as though every lingering gossamer shroud between your essences was rendered to smoke and char, leaving only the sublime inevitability of an infinite, soulful conjunction smoldering in the aftermath.

A heavy, electrically charged silence descended as Ukitake's words seemed to resonate through the space between you with a profound weight. You felt the delicate hairs along your nape prickling as an unmistakable frisson of anticipation began thrumming through your spiritual signature.

Almost unconsciously, you found yourself shifting nearer until the sides of your bodies were flush - heedless of propriety or restraint. Ukitake's intense jade regard didn't waver an inch, burning straight through to your deepest core as if he could perceive the molten truths roiling just beneath the surface of your composure.

You parted your lips, intending to respond, but the simple inhale felt thick and heady - as though the atmosphere itself had transformed into something molten and viscous. Charged with undercurrents too primal and indefinable to put into mere words.

Ukitake seemed to recognize the weight of the moment as well. His free hand drifted up in an unhurried, reverent glide until calloused fingertips ghosted along the line of your jaw with maddening delicacy. You couldn't quite smother the full-body shiver that lanced through you at the featherlight caress, suddenly hyper-aware of every molecule of air displacing against your heated skin.

"Tell me..." Ukitake rasped out, the low timbre of his voice seeming to reverberate straight into your marrow. "What finally allowed you to perceive the truth of this...inextricable bond between us?"

He emphasized the last few words with an achingly poignant lilt, thumb tracing the curve of your lower lip with tortuous leisure. You shuddered again at the sensation, feeling your composure rapidly splintering into a thousand incandescent shards as his spiritual pressure seemed to enfold you in a palpably smoldering embrace.

"I...Shunsui..." You managed to stammer out, feeling the brand of Ukitake's touch searing away any semblance of coherence. "He tried to..."

An infinitesimal furrow creased Ukitake's brow at the mention of your other oldest friend and confidant. His expression settled into one of rapt contemplation as he parsed the implications of what you were struggling and failing to articulate directly.

Then, with a subtle shift of weight, he was bridging the final scant inches between your bodies - close enough for you to feel the scorching thrum of his spiritual pressure like an electrical storm resonating in your bones. Ukitake pinned you with his piercing stare, the hand cupping your jaw flexing with undisguised possession. When he spoke again, each word dripped with smoldering intensity.

"Go on..." he commanded in that low, reverent rasp that seemed to ignite lancing trails of heat across every inch of your tingling flesh. "Tell me how our dearest friend finally revealed the depth of what this has always been between us. What inevitability we have only been deluding ourselves against embracing fully until now..."

You could only whimper softly at the blatant undercurrents of challenge and promise threaded through Ukitake's murmured intimations. He held you completely transfixed, helpless against the intoxicating sensory onslaught of his proximity and burning spiritual magnitude.

It would be so easy to finally surrender entirely in that moment - to arch into the delicious friction of your bodies pressed infinitesimally nearer and close the remaining distance into oblivion. To seal your existences into the sort of rapturous coalescence you now realized was the inevitable culmination of this fraught, eternal dance you and Ukitake had been engaged in since the dawn of your earliest recollections.

But the flickering remnants of propriety and self-restraint wouldn't permit such an absolute dissolution...not yet. So you clung to every fraying thread of composure and managed to drag coherency back into your words in trembling, breathless fragments.

"He...Shunsui tried to seduce me after reliving heated memories of our promiscuous Academy days," you rasped out in a confessional rush. "He held me and kissed me... But then pulled back, reminding me that you were the one whose yearnings deserved to be honored."

A muscle ticked in Ukitake's chiseled jaw as he absorbed your staggered recounting. His thumb traced a scorching path along your kiss-swollen lips before sinking lower to languidly follow the thrumming pulse at the base of your throat.

"I see..." he rumbled at last, the words seeming to reverberate straight into your hollow marrow with bass intensity. "So it took our dear friend openly showing his desire for you to finally break the fragile delusions that were hiding this unchangeable truth?"

Ukitake shifted again infinitesimally, until his nose was a searing brand against the vulnerable juncture behind your ear. You felt his lips ghost a searing whisper of contact against your flushed skin as he continued in an even deeper, grittier rasp:

"Good...then I suppose I should show you precisely how much more fierce and inextricable my own yearnings burn, hmm?"

The unspoken promise in his richly intoned words washed over you in a searing tsunami, effectively scouring away what miniscule reservations still flickered. In that suspended breath, you simply nodded in a tiny, helpless motion and surrendered utterly - finally embracing the inevitability of Ukitake's rapturous possession without resistance or restraint.

Ukitake's lips curved into the barest hint of a smirk as he absorbed your silent acquiescence, emerald gaze blazing with the first inklings of unholy intent. Without preamble, he slanted his mouth over the scorching pulse point beneath your jaw in a featherlight graze of contact.

You couldn't stifle the trembling whimper that spilled free at the exquisite brand of his mouth against your hypersensitized flesh. Ukitake simply hummed out a low rumble of approval, apparently taking immense satisfaction in reducing you to such delirious disarray.

His questing lips trailed higher in a string of searing, gossamer kisses along the elegant column of your throat. Each maddening point of contact seemed to sizzle straight through to your very core, stoking embers of rapture you'd been determinedly smothering for far too long.

At the same time, you felt the slow, torturous drift of Ukitake's thumb skating up from where it had been branding patterns into the pliant flesh of your inner wrist. Higher and higher it inched in a molten glide until finally brushing the pebbled peak of your nipple in a devastatingly casual caress through the thin material of your kosode.

You bucked helplessly into the white-hot frisson of sensation with a strangled keen of need. But Ukitake was utterly merciless, maintaining that same infinite leisure as he scattered scorching whispers of intimacy across your bared throat and scissored his thumb and forefinger around the sensitive bud of your breast in an expert pinch.

Just when you felt on the precipice of shattering completely beneath the banked intensity of his onslaught, Ukitake stilled. You blinked up at him in a haze of frantic bewilderment, only to find his burning stare fixed over your shoulder towards the distant doorway. A heartbeat later, you sensed the subtle displacement in the atmosphere signaling another spiritual signature rapidly encroaching.

Kyōraku...of course. As if the universe itself had decreed to slam you back into harsh reality before you fully surrendered to oblivion.

Ukitake exhaled a soft, rueful huff even as he withdrew from your intimate tangle with maddening nonchalance. Though his eyes still blazed like emerald suns gone supernova, the inscrutable mask of composure had clicked firmly back into place.

By the time Kyōraku came ambling into view, there was no outward indication of the seismic undercurrents still roiling between you and Ukitake - save for the fine sheen of perspiration beading your brow and the slightly dazed look you couldn't quite banish.

Kyōraku's gaze tracked between the two of you with palpably weighting intensity. And in that pause-laden moment, you realized with searing clarity that he perceived the shift, the unmistakable blaze fueled to rapturous awakening between his two closest companions.

Yet his expression remained jovial and easy, the facade of their easygoing dynamic reasserting itself smoothly as he quipped a suggestive joke about interrupting an intimate moment. You couldn't quite restrain the flare of heat that rose in your cheeks, but Ukitake's answering chortle and breezy deflection was flawlessly executed.

The atmosphere was thick with unspoken undercurrents as Kyōraku settled himself next to Ukitake's bedside. You could practically feel the weighted stares he kept cutting between you and the pale-haired captain, clearly sensing the charged shift that had occurred.

"Well now, what sort of private moment did I intrude upon?" Kyōraku remarked lightly, though his perceptive gaze revealed he knew there was more than idle chatter at play.

Ukitake's responding chuckle seemed almost too casual as he waved a dismissive hand. "Nothing untoward, I assure you. We were simply...catching up as old friends are wont to do."

The meaningful look he cut your way made your pulse spike treacherously. You fought to keep your expression impassive, though Kyōraku's knowing smirk said he missed nothing.

"Is that so?" he drawled, taking an indolent sip from the sake dish never far from his side. "My, it seems I may need to loosen up a bit in my twilight years. Such innocuous 'catching up' shouldn't leave lovely faces so delightfully flushed."

You couldn't stop the telltale flush from warming your cheeks further at his blatant insinuation. Ukitake simply made a soft noise of mild reproval in the back of his throat, though the gleam in his green eyes spoke volumes.

The three of you settled into familiar, easy banter after that - trading jokes and gossiping about the latest Seireitei happenings. But the undercurrent of charged tension wouldn't dissipate so easily.

You were hyperaware of every weighted look and pregnant pause between Ukitake and Kyōraku, the two men communicating entire paragraphs of subtext with the slightest arched brow or quirked smirk. Meanwhile, the lingering imprint of Ukitake's callused fingers continued branding itself into your flesh like a searing brand any time your gazes met and held.

The depths of desire he'd allowed to flare so blazingly between you before Kyōraku's interruption seemed to smolder in the heated jade of the captain's stare. As if he was simply biding his time until you were alone once more to pick up where the rapturous awakening had been halted.

For his part, Kyōraku played the fool with his usual masterful grace and nonchalance. But you caught the occasional shadowed look he shot Ukitake when he thought you weren't observing - weighted with knowledge and unspoken admissions that raised the fine hairs along your nape.

Whatever had finally catalyzed the tectonic shift in dynamics between the three of you, it was clear the former boundaries and easygoing affections would never again be tenable. You had crossed firmly into new intimate territory - one thick with inexorable gravities and the heady promise of profoundly intertwined fates finally being embraced without restraint.

As Kyōraku's boisterous stories and Ukitake's mild rejoinders washed over you, you couldn't shake the sense that you were teetering on the brink of rapturous surrender. That inevitable moment when the last vaporous veils would finally part...and the truth of what existed between your entwined existences would blaze into searing transcendence at last.

You spent the next little while basking in the comfortable camaraderie and familiar rapport shared between the three lifelong friends. The easy jokes and gentle ribbing flowed as naturally as breathing, helping to soothe away the last lingering wisps of charged tension thrumming beneath the surface.

At least for the moment. You caught Ukitake's gaze straying to you with unmistakable hunger more than once, only for him to quickly shutter it behind that placid mask of mild pleasantries whenever Kyōraku's sharp stare flickered his way.

Finally, you decided to take your leave before the fragile veil of propriety surrounding the intimate undercurrents could disintegrate entirely. Rising fluidly, you fired off one final teasing wink at the two captains.

"Well, this has been a delightful interlude as always, gentlemen. But I really must be going before poor Jushiro combusts from any more wicked teasing."

Kyōraku barked out a rich laugh at that, eyes dancing impishly. "Our dear friend makes a fair point, Ukitake. Wouldn't want you overtaxing that stubborn health with any overindulgences this evening."

Ukitake made a show of rolling his eyes long sufferingly, though the subtle uptick at the corners of his mouth revealed his amusement. You simply shook your head with a fondly exasperated smile and swept from the room, conscious of both men's weighted stares trailing after you.

The moment the door slid shut, cutting off your exit, you could have sworn you felt the atmosphere in Ukitake's chamber thicken perceptibly once more. You paused briefly, suddenly curious if either would breach the lingering tension now that you were out of sight. But their voices remained pitched too low to discern anything distinct, so you finally continued on your way.

Behind that closed door, Ukitake watched you depart with a hungry longing he didn't bother trying to disguise in front of Kyōraku. The other captain's deep chuckle rumbled through the stillness.

"Careful now, Ukitake. You're practically panting after our dear friend like a man half your age," he teased, amber eyes dancing with mirth.

Ukitake felt his cheeks warm slightly but didn't look away. "As if you were being the perfect example of subtlety earlier with all your crude insinuations."

Kyōraku's grin widened wolfishly. "Who, me? I was simply having a bit of fun reminiscing about old times, my friend. Though I must admit, the prospect of reliving certain...intimacies from our Academy days does hold some appeal still."

The suggestive arch of his eyebrow made Ukitake chuckle despite himself. Leave it to Kyōraku to steer any conversation into salacious territories without preamble.

"Is that what you'd call your drunken groping and slobbering kisses the other night?" he rejoined dryly. "Reliving old intimacies?"

Rather than looking abashed, Kyōraku simply laughed again - rich and full-bellied. "Ah, so she did fill you in on those details! I wondered if she'd confess to our heated indiscretions."

"She mentioned your antics, yes," Ukitake confirmed, unable to keep a slight edge from sharpening his tone as he recalled the pain he'd glimpsed lurking behind your eyes that evening. "Among other revelations that reordered certain...inevitabilities between us, it seems."

The meaningful weight he let linger on those last few words didn't go unmissed by Kyōraku. The older captain's expression sobered somewhat as he studied his closest friend's earnest countenance searchingly.

"I see," he murmured at last. "So you've finally allowed yourself to embrace the yearning you've carried for our friend all these long centuries, have you?"

Ukitake didn't look away from the other man's knowing stare, movements unhurried as he shifted closer until their spiritual signatures mingled with intimate proximity.

"I have," he rasped out simply. "Though I suspect you already discerned that awakening earlier, despite your teasing deflections."

Kyōraku's answering smile held no guile whatsoever as he reached out to clap Ukitake's shoulder warmly. There was only unvarnished approval shining in his russet eyes as he gave his oldest friend's arm a meaningful squeeze.

"You know I'll accept whatever path your heart has drawn you towards, Ukitake. Especially if it finally allows you to find happiness with the one whose radiance you've orbited since we were all young and reckless."

He let the weighted sincerity of his words linger meaningfully in the stillness for a beat, allowing Ukitake to parse his steadfast blessing of the profound intimacies now reordered between them and their third companion. Then his smile turned wolfish once more as he slanted the pale-haired captain a sly look.

"Though I do hope that path will still allow room for myself to...indulge in life's finer pleasures from time to time. I shudder to think of being wholly bereft of our dear friend's delectable company."

Ukitake surprised himself with a rich laugh at the shameless proposal, shaking his head ruefully even as he reached out to grasp Kyōraku's shoulder in a warrior's grip of profound understanding and fealty between them.

"As if anything could ever truly keep you from her, Kyoraku..."

[so-idialed-9]

Whether you are a Larrie or not, or believe Louis is straight or gay or bi, you have to admit, it's odd that in the entire documentary, 107 minutes of Louis' personal story, there is not a single reference to his dating anyone, ever. And I am so used to caginess around his love life that it took me five hours to even notice.

It's the story of Louis' relationships, his triumphs, his tragedies, his growth - and the man was publicly in a LTR 90% of the time - and no mention at all of dating.

3 of his siblings, his grandparents at length, Niall and Liam, Oli, Nizam, his current band, his manager, his security, purple hair girl, fans, his (non-)son...but no romantic relationship discussed, even in passing.

This is the man who says he's "actually quite romantic." Whose lyrics are about finding and losing and fighting for love. Who has repeatedly described his music as "lyrically honest." Whose favorite story is about cooking for his date.

Even with the BUA, with a story centered on how he survived his mum's and sister's deaths, and other loss - it would have made sense to mention a supposed GF who he was said to have reconnected with because of his mum's death. But...nothing.

Unless you count where he gave as an example of the closeness of his relationship with his mum by saying he'd called her when he lost his virginity (gender unspecified).

JD the security guard had more of a presence in this film than Louis' romantic life.

And what I get from this, is the story he wants to tell is no longer about being a guy who has had girlfriends. It wasn't the unvarnished truth, but I appreciate he didn't pull that out to try to varnish it.