#this took me 7 hours and 40 minutes give or take

[tabooiart]

I am so glad you changed your mind, kid! You are never gonna regret this

[wosowrites]

Hot Tub Tease Part 2 ( Leah Williamson x Reader )

Warnings: ⚠️ light smut, touching⚠️

A/N: I won’t write detailed smut unless actually asked too, and there are a few people I won’t write smut for. Idk how i feel about having written slight smut though. If you guys want a part 3, please send in a request because I know it’s gonna be smut you want ;) so if you could help me with a scenario, then i’ll write it.

Prompt: y/n and leah spend the night together, and the lionesses sense something going on between them.

You woke up in Leah’s bed, your leg was slung over her waist and your faces were inches apart. Her arm was around your hip, her hand resting on your ass. You didn’t want to move. It was the last thing you wanted. But it was 7:30, and you needed to get back to your room to put on your track suit and be ready to have breakfast at 8:00.

You gently took Leah’s hand off your ass, placing it beside her. You turned over gently, unravelling your leg from her waist. You pulled the covers off of you and walked towards the washroom where your bra and underwear were hanging. They were dry now. You walked out of the washroom with them in your hand, Leah still sleeping in the bed. You quickly took your hoodie and placed it on the corner of the bed. You turned your back to Leah and pulled off your tee shirt.

It’s was as though Leah could sense the lack of clothing on you. She opened her eyes just as you threw the shirt on the floor, watching the muscles in your back flex, enjoying the sight of your nakedness. "Good morning to you too." Leah said, trying not to groan as you turned a little to your side, giving her a view of your side breast.

You made sure you were fully covered-mostly to keep on teasing leah-before turning completely to look at her. "Good morning." You answered, walking into the washroom to splash water on your face. "Come back to bed." Leah whined, watching you wipe the water off your face with a towel. "I have to get back to my room, Lee. Ellie will be suspicious." You answered.

You walked back into the bedroom to see th duvets off Leah, exposing her abs. You breathed in heavily, looking at her stomach. "Um- i’ll see you later, Leah." You said nervously, all your confidence from last night seemed gone as what you felt for Leah sank in. She was captain, captain for your country. But then you couldn’t help think how good a relationship would be. You both lived in London, although your teams had the biggest WSL rivalry. A gunner and a blue?

You slipped out the room and quickly walked down the hall to your room. You knocked furiously on the door until Ellie opened it. "Where were you? I woke up and you weren’t here." Ellie said, letting you into the room. "I’m sorry, I needed air and I forgot my keycard. I just left 40 minutes ago." You lied. "Y/n… i’ve been awake for an hour. Tell me the truth." Ellie said, watching you as you pulled on your track suit.

You froze, realizing you were caught. "I was with Leah." You said quickly. "Did you sleep together?" Ellie asked. "Did we sleep in the same bed? Yes. Did we have sex? No." You answered. Your tracksuit was on and you had tied your hair into a low messy bun. "Do you like her?" Ellie pushed again. "Ellie." You said sternly, feeling bad immediately. "I’m sorry. I don’t know. Actually no that’s not true. I love her. I want to be with her. I want too- we had a moment in the hot tub last night." You told her.

And Ellie being Ellie, gave you that look that made everything spill out of you. You told her about the looks, the touching, the flirting. Everything. And Ellie listened. Soon enough, it was 8:00. "That’s… wow." Ellie said. "I know." You groaned, putting your head in between your hands. "Let’s go to breakfast. You’ll take the day to think. And i’m here for you." Ellie told you. "You’re the best, Roe." You told her, hugging her from the side. You walked out of the room together and walked into the breakfast hall.

———

You expected to walk to breakfast and be met with Leah’s gaze immediately. Instead, she acted like you didn’t exist. It infuriated you. But you ate breakfast anyways, ignoring Leah right back.

"Okay guys, we have a free day today but Sarina wants us to be together. I’m thinking a game day. I’m talking twister, uno, just dance, never have i ever, truth or dare." Leah told the group, standing on an elevated platform to adresse the room. The lionesses cheered, all loving game days. "You guys can all change out of your tracksuits by the way." Leah added, more cheers. You quickly stood up, not letting Leah meet your eyes. But she sure as hell watched you walk away. "Game room in 20!" She declared as you walked out the door.

You went back to your room to change and fix yourself up a bit. You chose to keep your outfit in the sportswear, deciding on a pair of black adidas shorts that went above your mid thigh, and a grey compression t-shirt. You felt daring, and you wanted to drive Leah mad for ignoring you at breakfast. Nothing better than making her sit with your whole team for hours while you showed off your figure. You slipped on white adidas socks and your orange and white air jordan 1’s along with your bracelets. You braided your hair into braid that hung midway down your back. Your natural brown roots were peaking through again, clashing in a way you didn’t really mind with the dyed in blond. Only 15 minutes had passed, so you decided to stay in the room for another 10, deciding to arrive a little late.

"Hey, we gotta be at the room in two minutes." Ellie told you, walking into the room and putting on jean shorts and a white crop top. "I’m gonna wait a bit." You told her, scrolling through tik tok. "Hm… gonna make Leah mad?" Ellie said, plopping down beside you. "Just a lil," you winked at her. "You look nice, but like, effortlessly." Ellie told you. "Thank you, i’m planning on driving Leah insane." You told her. "You drive her insane just by being around her." Ellie joked.

You arrived at the game room with Ellie, both of you being the last ones to arrive. "You came late on purpose right?" Alessia Russo said to you, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Gotta annoy the cap somehow," you answered, winking at Leah from across the room. She was obviously trying not to smile, but she did. Just a little bit. When you looked back at Lessi, she checked you out. She checked out your abs through your shirt, and how the shirt hugged your figure.

———

Three hours of games led to a tired group of english women. So, you all collectively decided to play a less demanding game. The group of you had brought the couches, chairs and beanbags into a circle, getting ready to play truth or dare.

"I start!" Tooney decided. "Hm… Mary, truth or dare?" Ella asked. "Dare."

"I dare you to post the absolute worst picture of yourself to your instagram story." Ella dared her. "And I get to choose."

Mary groaned, but she handed Ella her phone. The manchester united star scrolled through the keepers camera roll, eventually choosing a picture in which Mary’s eyes were rolled into her sockets, her mouth was open strangely and her nostrils were flared. The picture was from the euro final while Mary was making a save. Ella posted the picture with the caption 'vogue, call me?'

"Your turn, Mary!" Georgia said. "Okay… Ellie, truth or dare?" Mary said, asking her fellow keeper. "Truth." Ellie said, leaning back on her forearms. "What’s y/n like as a roommate? Tell us everything." Mary said.

The whole group perked up, 'ooh’s' filling up the room. You didn’t miss how Leah perked up. "Sorry y/n, but i’ve been waiting to expose you for years." She said to you. "She never wears a shirt. Ever. She keeps the doors open all the time and she doesn’t knock. Ever. She sings horrifically in the shower and when she can’t sleep she’ll come lie on top of me in my bed and wakes me up. Most of the tik toks she makes with me are filmed at like.. 2:00 am. She has no filter regarding anything and she talks about whoever she’s into at the moment relentlessly. And I love her very much and I wouldn’t trade her for any of you guys." Ellie said. "So she walks around naked?" Chloe says. "Hey! Not naked!" You say, trying to defend yourself. "I wear shorts and a bra! Shirts are just a pain." You pout at being exposed. "Whatever you say." Millie winked. "Okay, y/n. Truth or dare?" Ellie asked. "Dare." You said without a thought.

Ellie started at you, smiling cheekily. "I dare you to play seven minutes in heaven… with Leah." She said.

Your eyes went wide, looking at Ellie and letting her know you would end her later on. Your gaze glanced to Leah. "Hey, you know I don’t turn down a dare. Leah?" You said.

Leah raised her eyebrows at you, but she stood up.

There was a washroom in the larger game room, which would have to do. She was the first to reach the door and opened it for you, sending shivers through your spine. You mentally cursed yourself.

"Im sorry about Ellie." You mumbled, leaning against the counter of the washroom. "I’m not." Leah said, coming closer to you and trapping you between her body and the marble surface. "You’ve been really bad today. You know? Ignoring me, running out on me, arriving late." Leah listed.

Your breath clearly hitched, partly because of how close to you she was, but mostly because of how her hand was now on your pussy. "Leah…" you said, leaning your head back subconsciously. "Yes…" Leah said, using her spare hand to pull your chin back down so she could look at you. She pressed her hand against you, making you moan slightly. And then suddenly you were sitting on the counter, your legs spread wide and Leah standing between them. Your lips were interlocked, both your tongues fighting for dominance. Your hands roamed over her, your left on her ass, your right on her hip. Her left hand was now on your face, cupping your jaw as her right touched you through your underwear, she had snuck her hand under your shorts. "Is this okay?" Leah said between panted breaths. "Yeah." You almost moaned, moving your hand to turn on the sink.

Knowing you would never have time to finish what you wanted here, you decided to switch roles. You jumped down from the counter, earning a groan of annoyance from Leah. "Shh baby, just go with it." You pushed her up against the wall with a thud, lifting her shirt up and pushing her bra up to attack her left breast. You left marks everywhere on her chest as she held onto you harshly, her nails digging into your shoulder. You knew you couldn’t leave marks on her neck, the team would know. "That’s it." You said, forcing yourself to leave Leah and pushing yourself against the far wall, panting uncontrollably. "Please." Leah said.

You checked your watch. 30 seconds till it will have been 7 minutes. "We don’t have time."

Leah’s shirt was still up. You looked at her, smiling at the colour patches on her skin. You walked towards her, your eyes on her chest, as hers were on you. She was taller than you, and watched you as put your hands back in her shirt, pulling her bra down over her tits, and then tucking her shirt back into her jeans, quickly brushing your hand over ass.

You fixed her hair quickly, and then fixed yours as well as your shorts. You sat up on the counter, turned off the sink and smiled at Leah cheekily. The door opened, revealing half of the team at the door. "You turned the sink on! You totally made out." Lessi said. "No. I turned the sink on to watch my hands because there was some nasty, sticky liquid on the counter. It was disgusting." You groaned, pushing past the girls, your poker face incredible. "What do you have to say Captain?" Jill said. "I- the counter. It was, dirty." She stuttered. Pushing past the girls as you had just done.

[papermint-airplane]

I'm really not doing well guys. Tl;dr my life sucks a lot. That's all you need to know.

My job is still jerking us around on the layoffs. They started in October of last year with "we're selling the department and laying everyone off in February" then when March rolled around and nothing had happened yet, told everyone "lol just kidding the buyer dropped out". So a lot of people quit because this clown company just told everyone it was willing to sell their jobs out from under them and didn't give a shit who was affected or how.

My job is not a job that can function when short staffed. It was already short staffed before they pulled this fakeout layoff shit and now we're lucky to have two people scheduled at any given time. They're paying thousands in overtime, begging people to come in even for a couple of hours on their days off because we don't have enough people to cover one shift, let alone the three they need because the department is 24/7. Customers are rude and entitled. I've been threatened, I've been called horrible names, I've been told I'm a shit human being and don't deserve to live. I'm not allowed to hang up on them. I'm expected to sit there and just take it and not say anything. Most days, we're so busy that I can't take my daily fifteen minute break or even get up to go to the bathroom. And that's only scratching the surface of what goes on at my job.

I have had a history of overworking myself in that job and everyone knows it. I've had literally hundreds of public panic attacks, three full-on mental breakdowns where I was screaming and literally tearing handfuls of my hair out in front of my coworkers from stress, ended up in the hospital twice because I thought I was having a heart attack, and took off three months in 2020 to check myself into an inpatient mental healthcare facility all the way across the country. I have had countless meetings with my supervisors and their supervisors and HR about the toxic work environment and shitty management. I had to beg them to take me off my 8 day rotation (four days of ten hour shifts, four days of eight hour shifts, all in succession with no days off in between) because I started shaking and laughing uncontrollably around day 6 because I was having a literal fucking breakdown. I have literally had to be taken away from work in an ambulance before.

On top of my anxiety being the worst it's ever been (and that includes when I lived with my abusive father), my depression has gotten so bad that all I can do nowadays is work and sleep. Sometimes I don't even get fully in the house before I pass out because I'm so exhausted. I have woken up on my living room floor after work more than once. I told them that I could no longer work shifts like that nor could I take overtime for my own mental health. And they still act like I'm lazy because I don't work 14 hour shifts daily. Bitch, I'm barely holding it together with my weekly 40 hours, and I'm expected to work every Thanksgiving and Christmas but that's just not enough. Nothing I do is enough. And now I don't even have enough energy for the few things I have that I still enjoy. Want to know why my Sims story is on hiatus? Because I have to force myself to do literally anything other than sleep. My house looks like a disgusting hoarder's nest because I can barely move on my days off. I cry all the time. I can't stand to be touched. I shower excessively because I feel filthy when I come home from work in a way I can't adequately articulate. My eczema is so bad that my neck and face are literally covered in bloody red rashes. I look horrible. I feel worse. I have gained over 150 lbs since starting that job in 2006. My thyroid is busted. Some days, I truly believe that I died long ago and this is my own personal Hell.

Now they're telling us that "we definitely have a buyer for the department and all the contracts have been signed". They said there'd be a transition period, after which we'd be laid off but we'd be told when the transition period begins. Now, we got an email telling us we're halfway through the transition period and are probably getting laid off in August "but we don't know when in August, so stay tuned." At this rate, I'm likely to show up one day and be told to go home. I have no idea when that will be and I have no way to know how to prepare.

The only reason I'm still putting up with this bullshit is because...well, to be honest, I've put in a lot of applications and got absolutely no replies. I'm an unemployable useless sack of shit. My company is at least giving us a really good severance package. I'm getting 17 weeks of pay (one week for every year I've worked there) plus another four weeks of pay, plus a $1000 bonus for staying through the transition period. I think I will also qualify for unemployment. I'm trying not to freak out but I don't know what I'm going to do when my severance runs out. I have only had two jobs in my entire life: a grocery store job when I was a teenager for 3 years and this job that I've had for nearly 18 years. My resumé is one page. I have no skills outside of this job. I'm never going to get hired anywhere that's going to pay me anywhere near what this hellhole of a job paid me.

I truly wish I were brave enough to kill myself but I'm not. I keep living and it keeps getting worse and I'm bombarded with hundreds of news articles and Tumblr posts every day telling me how the world is falling apart around me, so even if by some miracle I manage to find a job that pays me enough to fucking live, I don't have a future anyway. I'm almost 40 and I keep waiting for my life to begin but it never does. And it never will. I will never be happy. I will never be safe. I don't deserve happiness. I don't deserve safety. My own fucking parents hated me from the moment my mom read the lines on her pregnancy test. If my own parents can't love me, nobody can. I'm on medication and in therapy but sometimes, I wonder if it's doing anything at all. You can't fix what's wrong with me. I was just born wrong. And no matter where I go or what kind of job I end up in, the same shit will just keep repeating over and over and over because that's all I deserve. I'll just keep on hurting until global warming or war takes me out and I end up in real Hell.

In an hour, I'm going to regret writing any of this and probably delete this post. Because I'm supposed to take it and not say anything.

My Sims are the only thing that gives me any comfort anymore. Even then, I don't have the energy or attention span to do the things I want. I'm just as irrelevant on Simblr as I am in real life. If I disappeared tomorrow, nobody would notice.

[faithhopeloveandtherapy]

There was a big local event on today that foster carers were encouraged to go to with their children. I felt like there was no way I could go with both children, Mr 7 is all high speed and enthusiasm, and Miss 5 is all walk at toddler pace in her own direction. Neither child has any danger awareness or ability to reliably follow directions (stop, wait, let’s go over here etc). In the end Miss 5 is not very well so I left her at home with d3 (who I pay £££ to provide childcare) and just took Mr 7.

I thought, am I being a wimp or just over dramatic , not being up for taking both children?? Then I got to the event and saw other foster carers with multiple children, but the children were walking alongside adults, doing as they were asked, not screaming or head banging…. I had even forgotten that children could do this!! I am so used to hanging onto them at all times it’s become normal to me. I only coped with Mr 7 because a staff member helped me out and let me jump in the queue for food (Mr 7 does not want food and does not like queueing). He didn’t have any meltdowns but did get close at two points - one when he couldn’t find a bow and arrow stall (?!) and once when we couldn’t find anywhere giving out lollipops 🤷‍♀️. The rest of the time, I just followed his lead, so he spent about 40 minutes on the bouncy castle and 30 minutes playing his own made up version of 4 in a row (he won 11 games to 2 but the rules changed every game 😂 I just insisted I had won on two occasions so that he didn’t always get to win).

Later this afternoon, I got a text from the people who were going to do our holiday care for a week in the autumn. They came to meet the children a fortnight ago, and messaged today to say that they think that it will be too much to have the two of them for a week so they are pulling out. Gutted. And not gonna lie, a bit pissed off. Because I will have had them for 5 months by then and they can’t manage 1 week. It also reminds me that these two children do have a lot of needs. It’s just become so normalised to me that I don’t notice it so much anymore. Back to the drawing board for the holiday care hey ho.

Took Mr 7 swimming late afternoon and it was just what we both needed in this heat. He had a great time and we didn’t get home till 7pm, just in time to do Miss 5’s bedtime and then Mr 7 has an hour of quiet play in his room. I hope Miss 5 is on the mend now. She screams the place down and thrashes and spits when I try and get calpol into her (reference earlier posts about giving medication) and I am so over that six hourly battle!

[jeynearrynofthevale]

Just watched the Connor McDavid: Whatever it Takes documentary and my main takeaway is that he’s insane but here are a bunch of random notes and pics:

““If it was up to my mom, we probably would’ve been a skiing family”

The drive, that’s who he is, he’s always been that way, since he was probably 3 or 4, he refused to let his parents help him get dressed and he would carry his bag everywhere, the bag was bigger than he was

“He’s intense and he’s competitive”

Bobby Orr said when he was 15 that he was gonna be the greatest skater to ever play

Tracy Wilson: Olympian and skating coach “what I love about Connor is it’s all about power, doesn’t matter how it looks, it’s about getting there”

Kassian “we haven’t seen a player like that in the game in maybe forever”

McDavid “at the end of the day, you’re still playing an nhl game, but that’s not much to hang your hat on” in reference to being out of the playoffs

“Right on the post square and I just felt the pain right away, thought I’d just broken my leg into a couple pieces”

They keep replaying him going into the net at top speed and it’s fucking horrible to watch

He whispered to me “I think it’s broke”- Kassian

“I was having flashbacks to Stamkos’s energy and I know stammer really well”

Stamkos texted therapist: “did he break his tibia?”

“If I could do it all over again, you’d like to take it back”- giordano

Team physical therapist asked if he could move his leg and told him he could either try to get up or call the gurney. Connor said “no, no, no” and stood up even though he was worried and thought his leg was going to give out”

“I held it together until we got though the tunnel and then I was just a mess” it took them 10 minutes to get back to the room

He said “stop, just give me a second”

3 guys had to hold him up the way back

Lauren “it was really hard when he called me, he just said “I think I broke my leg””

Brian “he was really upset and in pain, as a parent it’s hard”

Kelly: “it’s the worst thing in the world”

“Maybe in hindsight it would’ve been better if it was broken”

Never realized the infamous scene where Leon squeezes Connor in the hallway is from this.

Grade 2 strain of his pcl

“Hey dad, just want you to know I’m going for a second opinion in Colorado Springs”

Doctor told him it was a full pcl tear where tears on bth sides of his miniscus, “tore the popliteus right of the bone”

Full reconstruction of the knee, pcl, and popliteus would require a year recovery, doctor said he needed to do it asap, within a few day

“He was distraught, very, very under described”

His mom wanted him to have the surgery

Surgical intervention is to give it stability back

Had to make decision in 48hrs about whether or not to operate.

“He was very emotional and it was very difficult for him to talk.”

3rd opinion in LA: 2nd doctor is right about the issues but thinks the surgery is risky and doesn’t believe in it, wants to try to rehab it

Had to make that decision at 22 in 24 hours

Pcl cut right in half, back of knee joint completely torn, popliteus also completely torn, lateral and medial meniscus are both torn, crack in front of tibia from where he hit the post

“Hockey is my life”

He wanted to hear that he didn’t need surgery

His rehab guy literally lived with him

7 days a week, 10 hrs a day

50% chance to get him maybe skating again by end of summer

He was in a hyperbaric chamber daily for 40 days, 2 hours at a time

Claustrophobic in a literal tube

“At one point, doctor cleared him to flex his quad muscle”

They had to keep the injury as secret as possible, didn’t tell Ken Holland how bad it was

He would call his mom right after every mri appointment

He was in the pool all the time working on his knee

While rehabbing, his core specialist was like “might as well work on everything while we’re stuck here” and they worked on his core, pelvic floor, rotational movement, spine, everything

Gymnastics coach also helped

Didn’t want him to skate till September

He went on the ice with just his dad on his doc’s recommendation before September

He was so happy to be back on the ice with his father, completely changed emotionally that day

You can really see how much he loves just skating

He was so happy to know that even if he couldn’t fully heal he could still go on with the brace and skate

He’s so smooth in these skating exercises while in an insane brace

“One thing to be out there playing the game but another to do it at the level he was capable of”

Tracy Wilson did in their own words “edging” with him for afternoons, taking him through all sorts of movements and exercises without his brace

Opening night started to look like a possibility

He wanted to be there for training camp

He decided not to participate in biosteel

He wanted to play in all 7 exhibition games even though most veterans only did 4

“Like my first game all over again”

Seeing him on opening night was incredible for his training people

Okay, seeing the canucks slashing at him and shoving him into the boards in the home opener is now making me so protective

“He willed himself back”

[sunchaserwings]

Incoming rant about The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Herlock Sholmes from The Great Ace Attorney, and the BBC Sherlock (no major spoilers ahead I promise).

A preface before I begin; I was never a big fan of Sherlock Holmes or any adaptation of the stories. I've seen Elementary although I was very young so I only have the vaguest of memories of enjoying it, and my roommate had me watch a couple BBC Sherlock episodes when I was a tween/young teen. My mother claims she tried to get me into Sherlock Holmes but I'm rather skeptical. Anyhow, onto the story.

Back in March my boyfriend bought me the Ace Attorney games for my birthday which included the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles (or Dai Gyakuten Saiban for those who are still stuck on the pre-localization names ;p). I was on my flight home from my birthday trip after I got the news my manager fired my brother while I was out of the state and figured why not, I'd start playing the first TGAA game on the flight. I'd probably enjoy myself and I couldn't sleep.

Second biggest mistake of the year (first biggest was trusting Les Schwab to do my brake job). I. Was. Hooked. I played the first case and fell in love with Kazuma instantly (he's so Zero shaped!). I played the second case and realized that calling him Zero shaped was way too accurate. We all know what happened there. Most important to this rant, I met Herlock Sholmes (more on my opinions on him later). I could barely put the game down but I had to take a break due to finding a new job and getting adjusted. I ended up finishing the game in June or July, one of the two. I finished the final case of the first game in one long 12 hour gaming session it was that good (my back didn't thank me though).

Now, the man of the hour: Herlock Sholmes. I didn't think much of him initially. He was simultaneously charming and annoying in the second case but as I played more he grew on me. I cried when the start of 1-5 happened. He clawed his way up into like the top 7 favorite characters at the time. The ending of the game with him playing his violin made me bawl my eyes out. I. Loved. This. Game.

It took a few more months to start and finish the second game. In between Adventures and Resolve I played Skyward Sword, Minish Cap, and some others so I had a healthy break. I came back to play Resolve and finished it like two months ago. It hit me in the gut just as hard as the first game did although there are a great many things I'd tweak and do differently. But Herlock Sholmes... man, he's not my favorite but he's up there underneath Kazuma and Van Zieks.

Anyhow, I finished the game but the hyperfixation had started and would not let me go. I've never been one to go out and seek fanfiction due to... personal stuff but I had a feeling I didn't want to go probe the depths of AO3 yet for fear of crying. I started a graveyard shift at my job which severely limited my ability to talk with people about stuff and also there's so many major spoilers but very few people I knew had played the game. A thought occurred to me, however. What about Sherlock Holmes audiobooks? I have an auditory processing issue which has made listening to audiobooks hard but I decided to give it a go. Perhaps it would satiate the TGAA hyperfixation hunger.

I found the ones produced by Magpie Audio, expertly narrated by Greg Wagland. Go check him out, he has over 77 videos of Sherlock Holmes audiobook recordings and all of them are a minimum of 40 minutes, often times far more. I went through over 30 hours of audiobook in a few weeks listening to these. Sherlock Holmes is such a good character and I can understand how and why he took late Victorian England by storm. And you know what the best part is?

Herlock Sholmes is the most faithful adaptation I have personally seen as a character of the original Sherlock Holmes.

They got so many of Sherlock's little idiosyncrasies right and you can tell the entire team were genuine fans of the books. I listened to Mr. Wagland's narration *and I saw 221B Baker of the games*. Especially the jack knife impaling the communications to the mantle being referenced in the game? The sheer mess of the flat? It's so good!

My roommate (whom is also a Sherlock Holmes fan) noticed my newest hyper fixation that spawned off of TGAA and that reignited his Sherlock Holmes obsession. He was a fan of the BBC Sherlock and now recognizes it was not a very great show but it's a comfort media for him nonetheless. He just dragged me into rewatching it and... okay, it's playing into a lot of inaccurate Sherlock tropes I don't like but goddamn Martin Freeman carries the whole show. I love his John Watson because it feels like a reasonable version of a modern, younger Watson. He feels real in a way. I do like the fact that even in the first episode, it's established that John and Sherlock can make each other laugh and smile just like in the books. I don't forgive them calling Sherlock a sociopath, however (speaking as someone with a brother that has been diagnosed with being a high-fuctioning sociopath). He's AuDHD to the max and deserves recognition in that department.

All of this to say, I can trace my current Sherlock hyperfixation back to Mega Man. Finding Mega Man in 4th grade led to watching the Ace Attorney anime in late 2021 which led to playing The Great Ace Attorney and that led to listening to Sherlock Holmes. I don't know why I decided to make this post but maybe I might start live blogging this shit? All in all, this is going to be a wild ride.

[ledalasombra]

My not so normal little sister

Chapter 3: Regrets

Notes:

A little bit of context about what happened mixed with the present.

I hope all of you like it.

……………….........................

Tim stood there for a few minutes in front of the computer, still trying to believe what he was reading. "I have a sister... I have a little sister and she is sick…" he mumbled to himself and that was the only thought going through Tim Drake-Wayne's mind at that moment. He had a 22 year old sister who he didn't know about until 4 hours ago and she was going in for surgery. Tim leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes, staring at the screen in front of him with a half-lost gaze, coming to his senses when he heard voices entering the cave. He saved what was still open in his documents, watching Alfred bring Barbara closer to him.

The butler, who was much more of a grandfather than anything else, looked at him intensely, slightly raising his eyebrow, realizing that something was wrong. He didn't comment on the red eyes of the boy in front of him, just walking over and placing his hand on his shoulder.

" Maybe it's better that you don't go out today, Master Tim. I don't think you have the conditions to be part of the activities." Alfred paused briefly, looking again at the boy in front of him "I believe a good night's sleep will help, don't you think?"

"I... " Tim blinked several times, looking at him and sighing heavily. " I'll be in my room if anyone needs me." He didn't take long, getting up from his chair and heading towards the entrance that gave access to the mansion, bumping lightly into Damian as he entered the place.

"Tt. Watch where you walk Drake. This isn't that difficult if you keep your functionality to a minimum." He said as he saw him go up the stairs frowning " What happened to him? He's not in his normal sleep-deprived state…"

"I don't know Master Damian. Maybe he just needs some rest." Alfred says with concern "You should go change, the others will be here in little time."

…………………………

Tim knew what he needed to do. He went straight to his room, sitting on the bed and turning on the computer. He was going to arrange a flight to Paris the next day, but until then, he needed to find out everything he could about his sister as soon as possible. He took out his cell phone, typing her phone number and opened it to send a message.

Unknow number

I'm going to Paris as soon as possible. 

Send me news when you can,

the sooner the better.

Be safe.

Tim

Paris – 7:40 am

Emilie got out of the car and headed straight for the bakery entrance. As soon as she walked in she could see Sabine at the counter finishing up with the customer. She smiled slightly at her friend, sitting at a table a little farther from the entrance, watching her friend from afar. She was happy to be able to have a good friendship with Sabine for the last 3 years, a bond that grew out of the relationship of their children. She still didn't understand why the two ended up, however both decided not to give details of the reason and just move on. The last 3 months were hard to see both of them walk away, even though they still felt something strong for each other. They were suffering, each in their own way and in their own corner.

Emilie watched her friend approach, standing up and hugging her tight as Sabine placed the tray on the table. Emilie could see Sabine's tired look, her worried eyes as the two of them sat in their respective seats. She held her hand, squeezing it lightly, but before she even asked what had happened, her friend started talking.

"I didn't know you had returned from London. How is your sister? I thought you would spend more time there…" Sabine said putting a cup next to Emilie and taking another for herself with some tea.

"Amelie is great and I ended up spending too much time there. Adrien was pretty wrapped up with college and with the two of them over, I thought I'd better return. He's been pretty reclusive for the last month."

"There's not much we can do, unfortunately. They're adults Em, they need to know what to do and if they need us we'll be there to help." She said after drinking some of her tea.

"I know it's just that… " she paused leaving her cup on the table "Am I the only one who sees that the two of them are getting hurt?"

Sabine took a deep breath before answering, but before she even started to speak she heard the bakery door slam, looking in the direction, seeing a young man her daughter's age come running towards her.

"Peter? Why are you here?" She said in surprise, arching her eyebrow.

"Aunt Sabine! Glad I found you here. I wasn't going to leave that stubborn one alone in the hospital and I came to stay with her. Only she refuses for two days to give me any information. I was going straight to the hospital but I thought it was better to stop by to ask your permission."

"Oh my darling." she said smiling " I'm so glad you came, even though I knew she didn't want anyone there…" she said getting up and hugging the boy who was much bigger than her.

"She's almost a sister... I wouldn't leave her alone now…" Peter replied, hugging her tight. In a way Sabine was very reminiscent of his aunt. Not that they were physically similar, but because of their posture and, sometimes, their way of acting and speaking.

"Hospital?" Emilie looked at Sabine without understanding what was happening, taking a deep breath before speaking.

"Marinette will have surgery in 3 hours. She's already in the hospital, Luka just texted me a warning. We were just finishing things around here and we're heading there. It was all very fast since we found out she was sick until they scheduled the surgery...."

"I was at the company yesterday and Adrien told me she was going on vacation?" Emilie looked at Sabine confused, trying to understand how this information didn't reach her. "As I understand it, everyone at the company thinks she’s on vacation…"

"She didn't want to tell anyone there and asked me to avoid telling other people" she said feeling Peter put his arm around the eldest shoulders, in a sign of support  "She's in a difficult process, she said she doesn't want anyone worried anymore with her or for people to stop what they need to do to help her. She's closing down more and more... Peter and Luka are one of the few people she's been talking to." She sighed, lowering her head slightly. "I'm sorry for the lack of manners, Emilie…" she said, hugging the boy from the side "this is Peter Parker, a great friend of Mari, he lives in New York."

Peter extended his hand to greet the woman in front of him "It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am. Mars always speaks with great affection and admiration of you…"

" She told me about you... " Emilie smiled slightly at the boy, still showing a slight confusion and frustration in her face "How did she say... "if it wasn't for him I would be lost in New York until today”. " she smiled slightly at the memory, turning her attention to Sabine "What happened to her?

"Peter, why don't you keep your things in Mari's old room? Tom and I are leaving in a little while to go to the hospital and you're coming with us, okay?" He nodded quickly, heading towards the back of the bakery, greeting Tom quickly and heading towards the apartment at the top.

"She has a brain tumor, found out when she got back from New York a little over a month ago…" Sabine started talking as soon as she sat down again. "The doctors said that the surgery despite being very aggressive has a success rate of almost 100% but that the recovery is expected to be slow." Sabine took a deep breath, drinking a little more of the tea to calm down " it all happened so fast. One day she was fine and the next we were in the hospital after she had a bad headache and passed out. " Sabine started to cry as her friend held her hand to reassure her that she was there to help her. "She didn't want to tell anyone and with all the rush of exams that went on in the last month…"

"Hey, calm down Sabine... It's okay, it's going to be okay! She is a young woman, strong and it is obvious that she will be alright!" Emilie said, looking her friend in the eye "do you want me to go to the hospital with you?"

"No, you don't have to. She didn't want to tell anyone, if there are a lot of people there she'll get agitated" she sighed wiping her tears  "I'll call you to let you know how the procedure went. All going well, the doctor said she should stay a little more than a week in the hospital." Sabine squeezes her friend's hand lightly, getting up and follows. "I need to go, she made me promise that we were going to leave the bakery open with Jonas taking care, because according to her, life can't stop because she's sick."

"Be well and send me news as soon as possible." She said hugging her friend "if you need me let me know! I'll come back later so we can talk better." They said goodbye briefly, with Emilie leaving the bakery and getting in the car heading straight for the company, while Sabine went to organize herself to leave as soon as possible to the hospital.

…………………

Emilie arrived at the company going straight to her son's room. Adrien was one of the directors and, despite not having finished college, he was doing very well at what he did. She glanced at the watch on her wrist and from the time she knew he still hadn't left for his late-morning classes. She knocked lightly on the door before entering, seeing him reading some documents on the computer.

"Adrien, my dear. I didn't see you when you left this morning…" she said as she entered and headed towards the table, sitting in a chair right in front of her son "I just met Sabine." She said putting her bag on the chair next to him, looking at him.

"I didn't know you were going there... How are they? I confess that I haven't been there since Mari and I broke up." - He finished the sentence with a low voice, sighing and turning his attention to her mother. "Did something happen? you usually come back excited from it."

"When was the last time you and Mari talked? Sabine told me she's in the hospital, checked in this morning... Did you know that Mari is sick?"

"What do you mean is Mari sick? What happened to her?" He got up from his chair, heading towards his mother, sitting next to her. He looked at her worriedly, trying to understand what she was talking about "mom, Mari was here in a meeting two days ago, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Marinette is going into surgery in two hours." She said, passing her hand on her son's face "Sabine didn't give me details, but from what I understand it's not very simple. She's going to have a tumor removed…"

Adrien leaned back in his chair, looking at the wall behind his mother not really knowing what to say and what was going on. "We haven't spoken directly in a month or so… she hinted that she didn't want to talk to me at the moment and had been avoiding me for the last few weeks. She didn't tell me anything." He spoke in a devastated voice, running a hand through his hair. "We had an argument when she got back from New York, I said I was sorry, that I wish we... I shouldn't and didn't want to break up with her…"

"Oh Adrien, I'm so sorry... but if you guys talked why…"

"She said you can't forget what was said and, honestly, you can't go back with the words I said. I said things to her when we broke up that she didn't deserve to hear, not after all she's done for me... When we spoke last time she made it very clear that she needed space and time for us to talk again…"

"Do you want to talk about it? We can try …" - She said hugging his son.

"No, I definitely don't want to talk about it." He took a deep breath moving away from Emilie "Do you have news of where and how she is?"

"No honey... Sabine promised me that she would let me know and give me news when the surgery was over. She asked no one to go there, she said her daughter didn't want anyone to know…" She said, rubbing her son's face, removing some tears that had fallen. "It's going to be okay and as soon as I have news I'll pass it on to you. Do you want me to stay here a little longer?"

"Thanks Mom." He took a deep breath "if you want to go, I'll be fine here. I don't think I'm going out today. I highly doubt I'll be able to do anything before I hear from her."

"Alright then I'll go to my office and take the opportunity to get you some tea... ok?"

Adrien just nodded, his eyes fixed on the wall in front of him. He sighed, remembering the day he'd realized the biggest mistake he'd ever made in his life.

Flashback

"MyLady, it's a pleasure as always to see you here…" He smiled in her direction "You've been missing for a long time since we've seen each other, were you still in training with the order?"

"Hello Chatton. My training ended a few months ago, but with the rush of everyday life I didn't have time for night outings" she laughed weakly "I was very immersed in work that was delayed precisely because of training."

"Did something happen? Any specific reason to call me?" He looked at her from afar. She was depressed, lacking the smile that always accompanied and lit up her face. Something must have happened. He watched the woman he loved so much sit on the only sofa in the empty living room, in front of a large window that overlooked a park with the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was the highest floor of the building and the view from the place was beautiful.

"I brought you here to talk to you about something important. A few months ago, Bunnix took me to the future to solve a problem. Not to mention things that could interfere in the future and to give a brief summary, an ancient secret organization called the League of Assassins managed to get hold of some miraculous and it can be said that things got out of control very quickly." she paused looking at him seriously "I need you to avoid going out like Chat Noir as much as possible. I know how important this is to you, but unless we have more information, it's best to keep the Miraculous as hidden as possible."

Chat's eyes widened in surprise at her comment, processing what was said. "Do you think there's any chance they're after us? I remember you commenting on them some time ago…"

"I don't know... But I'm trying to see the options we have. If they go after the Miraculous, the first place they'll look is…"

"Paris!" He completed her sentence sitting on the sofa next to her" especially after the news had become international. "He paused thinking about the matter" As the identities of the other wilders were not disclosed they will have no problems...

"I don't think so either... At the moment only Fluff, Tikki and Plagg are active, I don't think that's a problem." She paused, trying to direct the conversation as best she could. "Adrien, I brought you here because with the training of the order I was able to magically create something similar to the dimension that exists for the Kwamis and I want to try to give you access to it. You will be able to put anything in there, however you will only be able to take it out if it was something you put in. Just like you won't be able to take anyone inside... If you realize you're at risk, you'll be able to access the room from anywhere."

Ladybug stood up walking into the apartment, stopping in front of a door and reciting brief words with her hand on the door handle. When she was done, she opened the door, revealing a place resembling a small library, with books, a small sofa, table, and a chair. She took Chat Noir's hand, placing it over the invisible wall that restricted his passage in the room. After she spoke a few more words, which he couldn't quite make out, his hand went through the invisible barrier, allowing him through the door.

"Uow MyLady .... This is very ... " he looked at the place and was impressed, turning to her "I really appreciate you trusting me like that."

"I trust you for almost everything Adrien… " he turned around quickly "I call this place pocket dimension. The entire apartment is protected with some spells to prevent the place from having any kind of unwanted visitors. The magic placed here was made precisely so that those who are outside see mundane things even though it is discreet and difficult to track…"

Chat Noir looked at her somehow, a little hurt by the words, but he would come back to that question later "Whose apartment is it? How long have you been organizing all this?" He looked at her, seeing her turn towards him.

"I started to think about it when I was finishing my training in order. The apartment is in my name... there's something else I need to talk to you about before we leave. I'm going away on a trip and I don't know when I'll be back. Probably a month from now, or a little longer I think…"

"LB, what happened? You're down…" He said, looking at her intently. Ladybug was always a very energetic person and despite her insecurity when they were younger she always knew what to do and seeing her the way she was made him feel devastated.

She sat in the closest chair, still looking straight ahead "Some personal issues that came up…" Ladybug looked at him pointing to the spot next to her "My boyfriend and I ended our relationship after three years and things are a little complicated. Can you say that I'm still adapting?"

"Relationships are difficult. I know you liked him a lot from the few times we talked, but maybe it was for the better?" he said, sighing "It seems that these last few days have not been very good for either of us. My girlfriend and I broke up too. But if you want to talk, I'm all ears…" He said sitting next to her.

"There's not much to say, we can't change what people feel" she smiled weakly making a brief pause "But why did you break up?"

"Marinette is a wonderful person and I like her a lot, don't get me wrong, it was probably the hardest decision I made. But it didn't make sense to be with her thinking about someone else" he finished the sentence looking directly at her, the hint of his words being perceptible.

Ladybug closed her eyes lightly, letting a tear fall, wiping it away in the same instant he felt it. After a few moments she took a deep breath opening her eyes so she felt calmer. "When I told you that you wouldn't love the person under that mask you never really believed it... You always said you'd recognize me anywhere." he looked at her without understanding, seeing her get up and go towards the door, stopping without even turning to him "eight days ago you broke up with me because I wasn't the person with this mask. I'm sorry I was a little skeptical and emotional about what you just said, but it's a little hard to believe you at the moment.” She spoke without a hint of anger or resentment.

Adrien stood looking at her, not understanding what she was saying, when he finally registered what she had said. He sees all the glamour of the suit fall, the presence of the person in front of him being clear. His expression changed from confusion to desperation in seconds. 

No... It couldn't be. He blinked a few times quickly, when he finally managed to react "Mari… ? No…"

"When you want to get out of here, just put your hand on the doorknob and think about where you want to go. When you open the door, you will be in the exact place you thought, as long as it is empty." she said putting her hand on the doorknob, taking a deep breath without looking at him" See you another time Adrien …"  she opened the door and he could see her room just before she closed the door behind her.

[fangirltothefullest]

It's time to fix Logan's Scheduling Problems(TM)

@ironwoman359 had a really good post and it inspired this one because I could not stop breaking down Logan's priorities chart. I have boarded the hyperfixation express and taken it all the way down to the dreaded mathville just to think about graphs and charts. Oh dear. This is so unlike me. But the chart is so funny and they actually took a decent amount of time to think through the amounts of time spent on each task, allowing us to break down the original schedule before it was "fixed" to adjust for Roman.

So buckle up because I have double checked the math but I am very adhd and often quite a bit stupid from stress related brainfog so who fuckin knows if this is accurate.

LET'S GOOOOOOO

This is Logan's original proposed schedule which I borrowed from @ironwoman359's post:

We can see it's a nice chart, lovely and hand made which I greatly enjoy. And luckily we have numbers to work with so we can figure out exactly how much time is alotted to what based on the percentages in a 24 hour day.

And oh guess what! They're ridiculous numbers designed specifiily to allow that 0.5% for Dreams but I'll get to that in a moment.

If you're anything like me, (quite a but math stupid) those percentages don't really give enough info on how long they're actually taking for each just by looking at it. So here's the breakdown in hours because finding out how many hours each thing accounts for should give us an idea of Logan's priorities.

40% - Work (9.6 hours - oof)

33% ‐ Sleep (7.92 hours)

12.5% - Eat (3 hours)

8% - Exercize (1.92 hours)

4% ‐ General Hygene (57.6 minutes)

2% - Dental Hygene (28.8 minutes - mega oof)

0.5% - Dreams (7.2 minutes - fuckin ouch)

As we can see, Logan's chart is heavily skewed to work, sleep and eating. But these numbers are still potentially hard to understand. "Why does it say 57.6 minutes?" You might be asking. So we will round those numbers to a more understandable range because ideally we are trying to add up to 24 hours:

Work: 10

Sleep: 8 hours

Eat: 3 hours

Exercize: 2 hours

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

Dental Hygene: 30 minutes (seriously, oof)

At this point when we round, that is 24.5 hours which already goes over so we are obligated to round one down instead of up for the sake of the 24 hours- we will round work to 9 hours 30 minutes instead of ten hours and this still leaves no room for dreams or recreation of any kind at all. We can assume this was the ORIGINAL proposed schedule before the changes. That's why he's got such weirdly specific numbers. He's alotted time specifically for dreams by taking minutes from everything except eating and work, leaving only 7-ish minutes.

Which is bullshit so let's break this down in each one to validate each choice's logic:

Work: 9 and a half hours

This is way too much. Therefore, we will snag an hour and put it aside for later and snag that other 30 minutes for breaks.

Conckusion- 8 hours for work and 30 minutes for breaks.

Number of time saved: 1 hour

Sleep: 8 hours

The recommended amount of time, we will not touch this number.

Number of time saved: N/A

Eat: 3 hours

1 hour per meal and since c!Thomas canonically rarely cooks, it is an ample amount of time to heat up something quick and enjoy the meal. We can count this number as untouchable as well.

Number of time saved: N/A

Exercise: 2 hours

This is our second potentially flexible number. It's recommended 30 minutes every day to be healthy, not two full hours so there is a potential hour and a half that could be taken here for something else. This is important.

Number of time saved: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Gen. Hygene: 1 hour

This accounts for shower time and presentability time, IE hair brushing and clothes. This is a decent amount of time and could leave room for flexibility as not everyone needs an hour, however we will leave this time to itself.

Number of time saved: N/A

Dental hygene: 30 minutes

Oh boy what the actual fuck Logan. The American Dental Association says the recommended amount of time for brushing yoir teeth is 2 minutes 2 times a day. That's 4 minutes, not 30. Then it's plus 1 minute for wetting the toothbrush and applying toothpaste, and another 2 minutes of wiggle room for a once a day flossing. Plus another minute or whatever for mouthwash or something else.

Conclusion- We will generously round this number to 10 minutes for dental hygene.

Number of time saved: 20 minutes.

That brings us to a total of 2 hours and 50 minutes for literally everything else and this is a good number. Thats almost 3 hours worth of time we can be slotting to dreams and leisure acrivities and also socializing!

So now we have it folks, we have a better understanding of why the schedule is fucked and how we can fix it to satisfy much more with this improved breakdown:

Work: 8 hours (fixed)

Sleep: 8 hours (fixed)

Breaks: 30 minutes (fixed)

Eating: 3 hours (fixed)

Exercise: 30 minutes (fixed)

General hygene: 1 hour (fixed)

Dental hygene: 10 minutes (fixed)

Dreams: 50 minutes (flexible)

Liesure: 1 hour (flexible)

Social: 1 hour (flexible)

Logan hire me to fix your schedule sir

[ckmstudies]

I just wanted to give a quick update on how my exam day went today since it was a complete mess. First off, my exam was scheduled for 8 am this morning and I got to the testing center at 7:30 in the hopes of starting early and finishing early which didn't work since I still had to wait in line for 30 minutes. I start to go though the check in process, which involves standing in front of camera to prove I don't have any writing on my wrist and getting metal detected to prevent cheating and I'm about halfway through when I hand over my driver's license as my form of identification and the machine the woman behind the counter puts it in won't accept it. After five minutes she realizes that my license expired TWO DAYS AGO and proceeds to tell me that this is no longer a valid form of identification and I cannot take my exam. The world dropped out from under me and I almost started crying in front of her. In the US there's a 60 day grace period if you get pulled over by a cop and you have an expired license. That grace period apparently doesn't extend to exam identification. So I had to drive across town to a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office and get my license renewed. The DMV is known for taking hours to get anything done and really long lines but this was the only good luck in my day since there was only once person in front of me when I got there and I had my temporary license within 20 minutes of being there. I went back to the testing center and checked fully in and started my exam at 9:15.

Now the exam itself also sucked as I was not expecting it to be as math heavy as it was. I had friends take it and say that maybe 40% of their questions involved math. At least 70% of my exam was math and I was not at all prepared for that. All three of my friends who already took this exam said that none of their four simulations had math and two of mine involved math. I honestly usually don't mind math but with over 90 formulas to memorize for this exam, there was no way I was going to be able to be prepared and with everything that happened before the exam, my brain was fried.

Anyways today was not a good day and I'm going to have to take this exam again in December for sure. But in the mean time, I'm going to prepare for my trip to Chicago for work orientation next week and then when I get back I'll start working full time and studying for my retake of my audit exam which is scheduled for November 15th.

Hope everyone else a good day and make sure you know when your identification cards expire 🙃

[riptideripley]

Chapter Twelve of Addicted

word count: 1,072

_______________________________________________

Saturday May 25th.

“Can you get up please?” Rhea pleaded, tugging on Jey’s shirt. He sighed and sat up, seeing Sami’s title match on the screen. “Where’s Roman and.. Seth?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.

“Seth and Dean took him out to brunch for his birthday, we have to handle dinner.” Rhea told him, slipping on a pair of sweatpants.

He nodded, flipping the covers off his legs and walking to the bathroom. Rhea checked her phone to see her group chat blowing up, Damian getting fussy with Dom for the most part. She sat her phone down and pulled Jey’s hoodie over her head, slipping back under the covers. “So.. who won so far?” Jey asked as he returned from the bathroom, getting under the covers with her.

“So Bianca and Jade retained their titles, and Liv beat Becky because Dom was an idiot.” she told him, resting her head on his shoulder. He nodded, wrapping his arm around her.

Time Skip.

“Babe, what time did you set reservations for?” “7:30” he replied, looking through his closet.

The PLE had just ended a few hours ago and to say the least, Rhea wasn’t too happy. Dom really let Liv take her title so now she has to deal with that, along with hearing Damian’s complaints. Not to mention Randy lost when he shouldn’t have.

Rhea walked down to Roman’s bedroom and knocked on the door, “Hey Ro, dinner is at 7:30” she told him through the door hearing an ‘okay’ shouted back to her. She walked back to her room to see Jey pulling out a black dress from the closet, seeing as it matched his suit. “Ya know.. I feel like something is off with them.” she randomly blurted out, sitting on the bed.

“Yeah? Like what?” Jey asked, grabbing some of his hair products from his bag. “I dunno.. just Damian and Finn feel off. The whole group feels off and I feel like they’re hiding something from me.” Rhea sighs as she explains it to him, standing up from the bed. “Let’s not worry about that tonight okay? Tonight is about Roman and having fun.” Jey reassured her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

She smiled in return, planting a soft kiss to the side of his head. “Hey are y’all almost ready? It’s 6:40 and the place is an hour away!” Seth slightly yelled through the door, making both of them let out a slight giggle. “Don’t worry, give us 20 minutes!” Rhea yelled back, smiling at Jey.

Time Skip. 12:35 am May 26th.

Jey stumbled inside the house, carrying Rhea over his shoulder. Roman and Seth thought it was a smart idea to see who could out drink who, Rhea clearly winning between the three. Jey carefully set her down on the bed, making sure he sat her up right and gave her some water.

“Are you taking this off?” he asked, lightly kissing her shoulder to keep her awake. “Y..yes” she mumbled out, feeling slightly dizzy. Jey chuckled softly to himself, slipping her dress off her shoulders and down her body. Rhea suddenly clung to him, drifting off to sleep slowly.

Jey sighed and gently pulled her off of him, taking his clothes off. Suddenly she whined once she realized the lost of contact, stirring around. “Shh shh.. I’m here” he whispered, climbing into the bed and pulling her close as he slipped the covers over them. “I..love you” she whispered out through her tiredness, Jey coming back to reality. They may love each other.. but she isn’t his.

Monday May 27th, 10:30pm.

Rhea stared at her phone in silence. Everybody saw it, including Jey. “Hey..look-” Jey started but was cut off by her breaking into sobs. Seth stood in the kitchen, placing his phone down on the counter. He understood how she felt and it pained him to see her go through this. Jey carefully sat next to her, pulling her into an embrace. Her phone was constantly going off, from Charlotte to Damian to even Shayna.

A name appeared across her screen, someone she didn’t expect. Sonya. She picked up her phone and answered the call.

“Hey Rhe..I’m probably the last person on your mind right now but look, if there is anything I can do to help trust me I’ll do it.”

The line went quiet.

“Thanks..I’ll um.. keep in touch.” she responded, hanging up the phone. Suddenly Dom called, making her heart shatter. “Answer it if you want, okay?” Jey told her, looking at her. She nodded and answered, waiting for him to speak.

Or at least she thought it was him.

“No Dom move- oh Hi Rhea”

That familiar high pitched voice pierced her ears, “What Liv.”

“Awe.. someone seems mad, but don’t worry he’s safe and sound! With me of course” Liv laughed, tempting Rhea to throw her phone across the room.

“You can keep him. And for all I care Liv he can keep you, okay? I am sick of both of you. Do you not understand how humiliating this is for me right now? Calls after fucking calls. But neither one of you care do you? DO YOU?!”

Dom listened closely, feeling a small pain in his chest at her words. Liv just rolled her eyes, “Well Rhea this is what happens when you choose to be a little bitch about things!” Liv responded and hung up, leaving Rhea with her own silence.

There was a sudden knock on the door, everyone’s heads turning but hers. Roman carefully went to the door and opened it, Andrade.

“And look at what we have here.. I warned you Rhea. I really did but you didn’t listen.” he spoke, glancing over at her. She sat there quietly, fiddling with her fingers. “Sorry about the window by the way but uh, I was relaying a message. One that she clearly did not take.” he spoke, chuckling to himself before walking away.

Roman heard and felt a bag slip past him, Andrade being the one who threw it. He stood there confused before closing the door and picking up the bag, seeing Rhea’s name on it.

He gave the bag to her to which she snatched it from him, confusing both him and Jey. She wouldn’t and most definitely couldn’t open the bag in front of them, standing up and running upstairs.

[candy8448]

Physics paper 2 (final exam!!!)

Gcse rambles

Our school let us come in after break time if we didnt do geography so i got to lay in 3 extra hours (i had fallen asleep at 6pm last night, woke at 2am, slept again at 4am and woke again at 6am 0.0) and i walked to school.

Because i wouldnt be able to get the dinner ladies to sign my shirt or notebook cuz they wouldnt be in school after school, i got them to sign my notebook and they all thanked me for involving them all in this becausd nobody else had asled them (we couldnt sogn shirts just yet cuz we couldnt take them into the exam woth writing on)

There is a cleaner in the school who is really nice and she is so sweet and i made her a card but the past two or so weeks she was nowhere to be seen and im so sad i couldnt give it to her, or get her to sign my shirt or notebook

The exam honestly was just a blur because i was too excited to get to signing sjirts that i dont remember anything

Anyways right after we ran outside and they had hired an icecream truck!! And they paid for each of us to have a free icecream!! And we went around signing shirts and it was fun and all (this is my favorite "tradition" that we do in school, i had come PREPARED with all of the colours and a pouch to carry them all in that my grandma made like almost 2 years ago)

One of the history teachers signed my shirt and i noticed he had a prigress pride pin which was tiny, but as i walked away, i said "nice pin" and he looked kinda bamboozled and a bit embarased as i quickly scrambled away. Later i found out from my friends who were actually taught bt him that he has two lesbian daughters! So that's really nice to know, that's a great thing for him to do, that's so nice and sweet!!

Then we had a leavers assembly where they gave out prizes apointed by each teacher of each subject (i didnt get one :( ) and one girl got a special prize for attendance. She only missed HALF A DAY in the PAST 5 YEARS?!?!? HOW??!?!? everyone was shocked cuz we would all go insane, they gave her a £40 voucher and a massive art folder with art supplies because she is going to do art in college and honestly she deserves it cuz that is crazy!

One of my friend got a gift bag (one of the prizes) and another friend gave him another so he had 3 so i half begged/asked him to give me one and he gave me one with a plant sprout which coincidentally my sister is obssesed with house plants

The rewards were so fun, usually uts jut mediokre claps but this time there was full cheers, claps, celebrations, and it was so loud and fun and great

They gave us free copies of our whole year group photo and tutor group photos which was really cool of them, and my tutor gave us all in our tutor group a photo of our tutor in year 7 (aww) with a message on it. It was super sweet cuz she was the best, she joined the school the same year we had but in yr 10 we couldnt have her as a tutor and half way thru year 11 they gave us a maths teacher to teach us maths in the mornings instead, but my tutor was my safe-space and i could go to her for my problems and home situations and she was the best. I started tearing up when i gave her a hug good-bye.

I wanted to get my drama teacher's sign but she had already left since we had gone an hour after school time :(

I took last minute selfies with all the friends who i talk to less but are still like best friends and such, one of them wrote his phone number on my shirt since i didnt have it yet (I messeged him when i got home) and it was honestly sad seeing the hall emptying.

In year 7 they told us "in the year 2024 you guys will be leaving us, isnt that crazy" and it felt like forever away, it started feeling like this would never end and even until the last week, while i knew it was going to end factually, i still hadn't processed what that actually meant, i still dont hink ive processed that i will never come back again, and that is crazy!

Me and my friend since when i moved down here in year 2 stayed behind to take photos of the school building, and we started walking to the bus stop and it was all sentimental. This was the only time ever where i didn't want to go to school.

Its crazy how my best friend since year 2 is continuing with me into the same college. Im glad.

Its sad ill probably lose contact with many of my friends. As much as we say we will stay in contact, its hard, ive not been in contact with my primary school friends and we stopped contact with my yr 8 friend so close after she moved away. Its really sad tbh. I will miss them

Our leaver's hoodies were apparently delayed to we will be invited one last time to collect them. I wont be able to be there for results day so im glad i have one more chance

Anyway, here are some memes, im going to make a seperate post with my entire gcse slander compilation very very very soon, keep an eye on my blog!

Enjoy your summer! We've all deserved it!

And it felt like it would never end and that this would be our whole lives, and it was hell most of the time, but goodbye secondary school!

[heavyhitterheaux]

How Ree's car got totaled on the way to Kentucky, she went back home to Maryland and still made it back on time for the show and Jackman gave her backstage passes 🥴😐

Okay, buckle the fuck up because

HERE

WE

GO

Okay sooo I'm really not going to get into the whole accident part because I'm still pretty sad about it for obvious reasons but I will give yall a timeline about how everything worked out

I left on Friday at 3 am from Maryland in order to get to Louisville by 1:30- 2 pm because the way I drive, it was NOT about to take 9 hours

Zoom zoom, bitch

Okay anyway

We are literally 3 and a half hours away when the accident happened and why when my dumbass made sure I had all my limbs and my glasses weren't broken, I was like.... okay soooo.... how are we getting to Kentucky?

BITCHHHHH THE FUCKING DEDICATION

I was very upset because I knew that I had to call my sister and I feel like I failed because I wanted to prove that I was responsible enough to do this seeing as I basically don't go anywhere without her

I have literally never been away from my sister longer than like 72 hours

And of course she's like you're my only sister and I could care less about the car all that matters is that you're alive 🥺

And of course we both proceeded to cry

Long story short, I had to end up going back home (keep in mind ya girl was more than halfway there)

So Shantai who was driving my car at the time (remember she went with me to see him in October)

She gets admitted to the hospital because she basically blacked out while she was driving my car and yeah

ANYWAY

So my big sister, Rae, comes to the rescue

She had dropped me off at the nail shop because two of them broke in the accident and she's like it looks like we're going on a road trip 😭😭😭

She knows how important this was to me and that this was basically a late birthday/Christmas gift to myself and I was determined to get back to Kentucky because I fought for my damn life to get those tickets

Like I was crying so much that it wasn't even funny

I got some things out of my car when I originally went home, but coming back with Rae, I got the rest and took the plates off

(We not gonna talk about how my front license plate was basically ripped off and sitting in the back seat along with other pieces of my car 🙃)

Like airbags are deployed and the entire underside is ruined and yeah soo

TOTALED

Just grateful to walk away without any broken bones, I'll take the broken heart from losing my first car that I worked so hard for

Onto bigger and better and I can't change the past

We left Sunday morning at 3 am, got into Louisville around 2 something and because the reservation was still in Shantai's name and they actually HELD THE ROOM (which we were all very surprised by), we stayed at The Galt House Hotel which is right next to the KFC Yum Center.

THAT SHIT WAS NICEEEE

It was like a damn apartment up in that bitch

And I was lowkey sad about not being able to be there that long

Like ya girl was about to visit Churchill Downs, eat Alfredo at Vincenzo's and go to Morris Deli

But it's okay, I'll be back

So because I am fucking exhausted, I go to sleep and get up to take a shower and get ready

BITCHHHHH I'm hype now

I GET TO SEE MY BABY FOR THE SECOND TIME IN 2 MONTHS

Okay so let's get into this outfit

White shirt

Black tulle skirt

Fishnets

Combat boots

Leather jacket

YA GIRL WAS LOOKING FUCKING AMAZING, OKAY!?! (And I got Hella compliments. Everyone was like you look so pretty 🥺😭)

By this time, it's like 7:40 and we walk to the arena

IT WAS FUCKING FREEZING

Anyway, the arena is huge and it took us a minute to find our seats

Once we did, I could have cried because it was like the perfect view 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Okay so me and Rae are vibing to the opening acts and then I hear the first notes of Talk of the Town and I was like

BITCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HERE

WE

FUCKING

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

AHHHHHHHH

When he hit the stage I SWEA TA GAWD he looked so fine and I said it loud as shit too lmao

My sister was like Oh... he is cute

I was like HEAUX BACK UP!

I SAW HIM FIRST 😭😭😭

So we're dancing and singing however why do I always happen to pick the section that is NEVER lit

(Section 111 do better, babes. Ya killing me smalls)

But I don't fucking care

YA GIRL IS GOING IN

SUNDOWN

GHOST

21C/DELTA

TYLER HERRO

LUV IS DRO

WARSAW

Literally screaming every lyric at the top of my lungs

Okay so boom

OUTFIT CHANGE

I was like okay baby I see you looking like you stepped out 1970

Oh important side note: URBAN WAS FUCKING HIDING ALL NIGHT FROM ME AGAIN (I'm getting real tired of his shit)

Okay back to the story

LIKE A BLADE OF GRASS

MOVIE STAR

NAIL TECH

POISON

WHAT'S POPPIN

ALREADY BEST FRIENDS

INDUSTRY BABY

Oh

My

Gawd

When he did State Fair, I just about MELTED 🥺🥺🥺

And then the girl with the sign talking about the titties missed you

And Jack was like excuse me this is a family show 😭😭😭

But yet...

You got a song called I Wanna See Some Ass bro....

Okay, Jackman

Of course he had the hose and acted like a damn fool

And of course the little basketball thingy

They kept missing except one person so Jack was like if I make it, they all win

He missed like 3 times

And I was like bitch

Cancel the movie NEOW 😭😭😭

Like he is the definition of white men can't jump lmaooooo

I kid, I kid lmao

Anyway

IT WAS HOT AS FUCK IN THERE

And the fire DID NOT HELP

I was like STINK TURN.IT.OFF.NEOW.

A bitch almost came out her clothes

(Backstage with Jackman's eyes only of course)

So I'm just so PROUD OF HIM 😭😭😭

Of course he ended with First Class and we wait until it clears out because I wasn't trying to get trampled and if someone stepped on my skirt it would have been on sight

And when we get to the merch line, my sister was like uhh yeah imma need a shirt too 😭😭😭

She has officially come to the dark side

I saw my mother in law and she is actually taller than what I expected

Like I was just walking, turned to the left and did a double take lmaoooo

And I told her I would help cook for Christmas lmaoo

Like Jack stole her entire face 😭😭😭

So we get our shirts and... I TOOK A PIC NEXT TO THE KFC BUCKET WITH BIG HEAD'S FACE ON IT!

That bucket was tall as fuck

Okay so after that

We only slept for four hours before getting back on the road to go home

We made it to the Maryland state line in 6 hours 😭

Very thankful my sister drove because even though I wasn't driving when the accident took place, I just can't bring myself to do it right now.

All in all

I had an amazing time and much thanks to my big sister for saving the day and making her little sister's wish come true 🥺

[bangmechann]

Kinktober Day 8

8. Han (SKZ) ~ Stranger

Mentions!: Han x Reader, giving!, kissing, public (almost getting caught), a bit roughnesses, name calling, doing the “deed” unprotected (don’t do try this at home young ones) especially with a stranger

——————————————————————————

You decided to stay back at school to work on your paper in the library. While you were there, there was this kid at the other table. He looked really cute, the way he looked so focused. He looked up at you and you broke your neck back at the computer screen.

About 40 minutes passed and you’ve guys caught the other looking and exchanged a smile a couple of times. You got tired and looked at the time, 7:06.

Damn, I’ve been here for two hours!

You decided to take a break and walk around and see anything that interests you. You found a horror book and decided to read the the back. There were footsteps but you didn’t think anything of it until you felt a pair of hands on your waist. You tuned around quick only to see the same boy from the table.

“Hm, this looks interesting.” He took the book, looked at it, and the put it back on the shelf. He narrowed the gap between you two.

“Han, nice to meet you beautiful.” His smile was so beautiful.

“Y/N.” You smiled back.

“So Y/N…” he put one hand on the book shelf and leaned in closer. “Are you taken?”

“Mmmm, no.”

“Good.”

He raised your head up a bit and kissed you. He shoved his tongue in and started to suck on yours, pulling away with a pop.

He pulled your shirt up and started to suck on your chest hard. You grabbed at his hair and he bit your nipple.

“Ha-“ you were about to shout his name but he covered your mouth quick.

“Maybe let’s try something else that’ll keep you quiet.” He pushed you to your knees and pulled his pants down.

You pumped him a couple times before taking him in your mouth. He let out a long groan. You wanted to get him back for making you shout, so you started to suck him harder and take him all the way in your mouth.

“Ahh-“ he grunted out.

You felt his hands on your head and looked up at him.

“Since you did that, your getting payback.” He held your head still and started to trust into your mouth.

You opened your mouth and let him continue. It turned you on so much to feel him at the back of your mouth and he saw this.

He went a bit harder. You realized you were being a bit too loud and he pulled away.

Han grabbed you and made you face the bookshelf. He pulled your pants down and placed two fingers in you.

“Oh my.” He came closer to your ear. “All this for me? Your such a pretty little whore aren’t you?”

You melt at those words. You never thought you would love be degraded like that.

He rubbed the tip of his member on your entrance and pushed in. You both moaned out.

“Baby, just letting you know, I love to be rough.” He pushed in hard and you nearly screamed. He didn’t stop.

There were footsteps and keys jangling.

“Han.” You tried to stop him but he grabbed your hair, pulling you.

“Listen. I’m not going to stop. Got that? So I would keep quiet if I were you sweetie.”

The steps were getting closer. You covered your mouth to make no noises but he changed his angle, hitting your spot deliciously making you see stars.

It was a security guard looking around. He stopped a shelf before your isle and walked away. You hear the library door close after he leaves.

“Good thing he left now, I’m about to come Y/N.”

He pulled you off of the book shelf and placed you on the floor without pulling out.

He kept at his same pace and came into you.

You felt weak but craved more.

He pulled you up and hugged you.

“Say, wanna continue this back at my place?”

“To hell with that essay.”

[sukunasstomachtongue]

"Wrong one, Nanami-san!"

Welp guess who the cat done dragged back out of hell and outta her shell. Quick lil post, and yes I did just get braids.

Rating: PG | warnings: cursing probably, one asscheek squeeze, poorly edited

introducing Bambi, my newest reader stand-in

"Wait, you said you took zelle?! I didn’t bring cash.” Bambi looked back at the woman, bewildered. It was 3:40 pm, and she had been in the small braiding shop since 7:30 am. Her head hurt, her leg started cramping, her stomach been growling since noon, and her ass was numb like she got injected with novocaine on both cheeks. 

The struggles of being a bad bitch.

“No, no, no. my sister does zelle, but she is not here. I only do cash.” As she spoke through with accented tongue, the braider had begun retracting her hands, resting the tools of her trade that had been working non-stop all day. Bambi could feel her irritation grow. As much as this whole situation peeved her off, she would be damned if she returned home with half her hair done. 

“Okay, lemme call my boyfriend. He’ll bring the money.”

“Okay, honey. Call him now. I take break now.” Bambi nodded, getting out of the worn stylist chair to get her blood circulating while her fingers tapped on the phone screen. The call was brief, all she had to do was ask for him to stop by with the money. A question from him had Bambi call out to the braider, who had moved to the front of the shop to check in with her family and other clients. 

“Gena? What time will we be done?” The woman paused her vivid storytelling to respond to Bambi. 

“Two more hours. Remy, come help me finish and we’ll leave after. Okay?” Called to attention, a little girl no older than 12 removed her earplugs and put down her iPad. 

“Okay, momma.” Bambi relayed the message to the receiver, smiling, and pressed the red end button when he promised he would personally come to deliver the money.

“He coming with the money, hunny?” 

“Yes.”

“Good, good. Okay, let’s finish.” 

Two hours passed torturously, her focus spit between pressing down on whatever braid was being tugged on to relieve pain and prevent her follicles from getting ripped out, and watching the foreign romance drama playing on the mounted tv via the mirror’s reflection. In the two hours, Bambi watched with envy and scrunched nose as two of the seven other clients leave, the scent of hairspray and small drips of boiling water showing their trail. 

“Stay still, hunny.” With a minute nod, Bambi did as she was told, steam licking the fine hairs of her ears and neck. “Almost done. Where is your boyfriend?”

“He’s-” the sound of the old bell above the door being ringed silenced Bambi. Call her crazy, but she likes to think her senses were acute when it came to her boyfriend. She could tell by the summer breeze that filled the room he was in the room. 

“Bambi?” Yuji’s upbeat voice reached all the way to the back where she, Gena, and Remy were stationed. 

“Here.” He followed her reply into the back, pushing beads that separated the front from the back out his way. He gave a soft smile, in awe of seeing her in such a state. It wasn’t often anyone got a glimpse of her primping and preening. Most of the time the group only got the end result, hair and accessories already perched in place. The Bambi in front of him looked vulnerable, unease written clearly in her expression. 

“Who do I give it to?” he looked at the other two people in the corner, fighting the muscles in his face wanting to keep his expression neutral. 

“Gena.” Without hesitation, Gena got up from the chair, hand out, ready to accept her payment for almost twelve hours of labor. 

“Thank you. Your boyfriend is very handsome, Hunny.” Gena quipped as her fingers ripped open the sealed envelope. 

“He’s not him, Yuji, where is Nanami?” She could feel young eyes peep up to her, to Yuji, towards the front, before refocusing on dipping the ends of the braids. Remy’s mother gasped, done counting her payment. 

“Too much! Almost ten thousand.” She uttered, mind frazzled at the amount in her hand. Bambi gave a scrupulous glance at the braider before looking at Yuji, who had turned a soft pink. 

“I’m sorry, give me one second!” Ripping the money out Gena’s hand, the young man flounced back to the front, ringing the bell as he opened the door to talk to his boss. 

“Wrong one, Nanami-san.” The occupants of the shop went hush, waiting on how the mysterious man that had been pacing back and forth like a predator, talking swift and curt on the phone, would respond. A few still chirped on though.

Bambi heard the bell ring once again, ignoring the whispers between mother and daughter trying to speculate who the hell was in their shop. Bambi liked Remy’s guess of ‘conman’ the least. Nanami would never do something so lowbrow as conning. 

That was her territory. 

He came in with the next gust of wind, trenchcoat flowing behind him like a cape. The conversations come to a full halt then, all the patrons and workers fixated on his simple movements. Bambi swore even the beads moved out of the way for the man as he crossed over to the back, the phone still pressed to his ear, the ticked-off expression he wore morphing into a fonder one. He tapped the mute button on the screen to address the room.

“Sorry, ma’am. My mistake.” He said nothing more, producing a new unopened envelope for Gena. This package was noticeably less dense. Just as she accepted her payment, Remy squeezes the last of the boiling water out of the fibers of synthetic hair. Bambi can’t control the groan released from her spirit. 

Yuji followed his boss back in and was about to offer a hand to help her out of the chair until Nanami gave him an unreadable expression. She got her boyfriend’s hand instead.

Bambi smiled cheerily as he gently pulled her out of the chair, raising their joint hands towards the yellowed fluorescent lighting. He looked at her like a king does his god. Her long braids flew behind her when she fell into his embrace. Letting go of her hand, Nanami wrapped his arm around her waist, securing her to him. 

“Absolutely stunning.” His low tone sent shivers down her spine. Already she could feel skin melt and stick to his aura. He didn’t care about the others in the room with them, he only had eyes for his Bambi. 

“Thank you,” Swallowing the lust in her throat, Bambi turned to Gena and her daughter. “Thank you, see ya’ll next time.”

“Okay, hunny. Goodnight.” Gena spoke automatically, her focus refusing to move from the stack of money in her hand. It was still twice as much as she charged. She didn’t even attempt to cover her daughter’s eyes or admonish the couple when Nanami gave a quick but strong squeeze to his girlfriend’s ass. 

“Let’s go. I have to make another stop and get a new envelope and-” The voice on his phone increased its volume, reminding everyone he was on a call. Kissing Bambi’s gleaming forehead, he mouthed a sorry as he pressed the mute button again. 

“Yeah, I’m here.”

Bambi waved as she left the shop, happy to be free from the pain and suffering. The door hadn’t even closed all the way when she heard the explosion of conversation they left in their wake. She turned to Yuji and poked him in the cheek, right under his scar. 

“Make a stop at Whataburger, yeah? I’m craving a shake.” 

“Sure thing, boss.” 

[lulubelle814]

Just Dizziness - Chapter 40

Your POV

“What are we doing again?”  I was confused, thinking we were going to work on the plan.  “I should be figuring out what to do for Tom, not shopping.”  I wanted it to be something really good and didn’t really have much of an idea where to start.  That’s why I wanted Sophie and Emma’s help.

They smirked at each other before Emma responded.  “Right now, you need some girl time.  Relax, and take a deep breath.”  They dragged me from shop to shop trying on different dresses and outfits, only stopping long enough for lunch.  Finally, when they seemed to be happy with our haul, they pulled me into a salon.  Sophie said it was part of the ‘girls day out’, but I wasn’t so sure.  “After this, we’re taking you to a nice, relaxing dinner.  You’ve had so much going on that you just need to sit back and unwind.”

Something seemed off, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.  ‘What are you two up to?’

Sophie’s POV

I could see her suspicion, but I tried our best to keep her mind occupied with other things.  Emma left a bit ago under the guise that she forgot she had some dry cleaning she needed done asap.  In reality, she was starting the next phase of our plan.

Emma: Even if she figures out something is up, she’ll never know what it is lol

Sophie: You’re right.  I’ll check in with Ben.

Emma: Tom started messaging me about twenty minutes ago asking for help because Ben forced him out of the house.

I switched over to see how Ben was doing only to see a slew of texts from him, most of them talking about how Tom was complaining he didn’t want to go out or trying to figure out he should do now that his wife’s texts showed as ‘read’ because he couldn’t figure out what to do. Should he go all John Cusack and hold up a stereo outside of our house?  Should he run over with flowers and chocolates and get on his knees to beg for forgiveness.

It wasn’t until I saw Chickie looking at me funny that I realized I was audibly laughing.  “Ben’s just asking about how you’re doing because Tom keeps pestering him.”

Sophie: So Tom is being a pain?

Ben: You have NO idea

Sophie: Is everything set up?

Ben: Yep.  Emma popped over for a minute to give me that thing you two put together.  Tom said he thought he heard something, but I told him I just had to check something in the car.

Sophie: Our gal has been the same, antsy, trying to figure out what’s going on.

Ben: I’m not surprised.  She always seemed to figure out when something was up.

Sophie: I’m not sure she’ll be expecting something like this.  But lets go over the details one more time?

Ben: The place is set up.  I’ll get Tom over there at 7 pm, and you should arrive shortly after with his wife.  Maybe then he’ll finally shut up.

Sophie: Love you babe.

Ben: You’d better.

“Remind me why I have to get my hair and makeup done?”  She wouldn’t let it go but turned when she heard someone approaching.  Emma had caught back up to us.  “I got there just in time.  And to answer your question, we’re going out dancing tonight, help you relax,” said Emma.

“But I need to…..”

I piped in before she could continue.  “I know.  I figured a day of shopping and relaxing would help clear our minds so we could better figure out what you want to do.”

She gave me a look but seemed to accept my answer, at least for now.

Tom’s POV

This has been an extremely frustrating day.  Ben won’t tell me what’s going on, and Emma stopped responding about 2 hours ago.  He took me to the barber to get a fresh shave and a haircut.  Apparently my look needed to be ‘cleaned up’.  He said we were going to a gentlemen's whiskey and cigar club tonight since I apparently haven’t left the house in a week.

“I don’t want to go to the gentlemen's club.  I should be working on someth….”

He placed his hand over my mouth before I could finish my sentence.  “You really need to learn to shut up and trust me.  You need to get out and relax.  You’re no good to her in the state you’ve been in.  This is a guy’s day to get you to relax.  I promise, tomorrow we’ll work on a plan.  Getting you out and about will help you clear your mind rather than putting together a half-assed plan.”

I gave up at that point as he dragged me into the tailor.  By the time we left, I had 3 new suits and still no clue what was going on.  Ben looked at his watch causing me to look as well.

“It’s about 5 pm.  Let's go back to the house, get changed, and then pick up some food before we go to the club.  Can’t have you drinking whiskey on an empty stomach.”

“Ok, I’ll go along with your plan, but it doesn’t mean I’ll like it.”

Ben smirked.  “Stop being such a baby.  When have I ever steered you wrong?”

I gave him a look.  “You’re kidding me, right?”

“Okay!  Okay, but this isn’t one of those times.  By the end of the night, you’ll feel like a new man.”

I don’t know about that, but I guess we’ll see.

Before too long, it was 6 pm, and Ben was badgering me to get ready.  “Our reservation is for 7.  We need to leave soon to ensure we’ll make it on time.”  Since when did places like that have reservations?  I thought you just showed up.  Apparently it’s a new place.  By 6:30, I was ready, and he practically dragged me to the car.

A few minutes later, I thought we had arrived, but all I saw was a coffee shop and a few closed stores.  Ben looked at his watch.  “It’s just before 7 which means we’re running on time.  It’s just around the block, but apparently parking there is hell.  Why don’t you wait in the coffee shop while I find somewhere to park the car?”

Seriously?  It wasn’t an issue to go with him to park the car, but he wouldn’t relent.  While the shop looked empty, the door seemed to be unlocked.

Your POV

“Can we just skip the dancing?  I really don’t want to go out, and I’m getting hungry.”  By my watch, it was just after 5.  “ I really wanna sit down and start figuring out something special for him.”

They were relentless.  Emma looked at Sophie then back to me.  “Nope.  This will help you a lot!  Plus, you’ll feel like a brand new woman before the night is over.  I swear.”

It was almost 7 pm before we finally left Sophie’s.  Emma had left earlier because she didn’t find anything she liked and had to run home to change but promised to meet us there.

She slowed down as we were supposedly nearby. “I’ll drop you here and go get parking nearby.  The club is just around the corner tho.  You wanna head inside the coffee shop and wait for me?” 

I turned to look at the coffee shop.  It appeared to be empty.  “Soph, I’m pretty sure it’s clos…..”  Before I could finish, she was already gone.  Alright.  I guess I’ll see if they’re open.  It is just after 7, but it’s a little cold to wait outside.  With that, I went over to the entrance and found the door opened easily.

Chapter 41

[nonuggetshere]

If you don't mind asking, what was the longest time you ever spend in a drawing? -🦂

Oh jeez, I think it must be this one commission I did for a friend that took me like 19-20 hours (painted background, detailed shading, all that jazz). But it's very possible that it's actually a different commission for the same friend that was all painting, but unfortunately, I don't have the raw file anymore to check the time. But I think it'd also be around 20 hours

These are the extremes though, most of my fully finished artworks take around 3-7 hours to complete, depending on the polish and the detail. The longest I took on a non-painting drawing is 9 hours, and it's this one

Didn't even do the background, lol, it's just an edited photo I took. I fully blame the jacket for that time

If we're counting other art projects, my Brutus animatic, Poplar St MAP part, She Wants Me (To Be Loved) MAP part and Spiral of Ants MAP part 22 triumph over anything else. I can't give you the exact numbers but I can make an estimate

Brutus I made in 3 days, barely sleeping and just chugging through that bad boy like my life depended on it. It was fully made in FlipaClip so I'm not sure about the exact time but excluding the time I slept, rested and ate, it probably took like around 12-18 hours. Which is insane considering how unfinished it is compared to the other projects on this list LMAO. I just remember it took a long time and I was exhausted by the end.

She Wants Me (To Be Loved) took me around 6 hours and 35 minutes to draw character references, then 15 hours and 35 minutes on all the frames, then putting it all together in FlipaClip and tweening it probably took me like another hour? So around 23 hours total.

Poplar ST was my first fully lines and coloured frame by frame animation. The references for the characters took me 4 hours and 15 seconds, and all of the scenes combined took me 26 hours and 12 minutes, then I had to put it all into FlipaClip and animate it which I'd again estimate to around an hour of work, makes it an around 31 hours long project.

Spiral of Ants part 22 was a massive beast, but not even because of the finished product but mostly because I almost finished a different version of that part before losing momentum and deciding on something else entirely. The three frames (one of which is lost to time) of this original concept took 12 hours and 27 minutes to make. Unfortunately, the reference sheets were on my old phone so I don't know how long they took, but seeing how long the other references took me and considering the amount of characters in this, I'd say 4-5 hours is a fair estimate. Then after that didn't pan out, I made two storyboards for my ideas for this part, which took me 3 hours and 54 minutes. Then the references for that took me 4 hours and 51 minutes. Then making the frames for that took me 11 hours and 30 minutes, and tweening I'd say took me around 2 hours in total. In total, that's roughly 40 hours of work for one MAP part.

But these are all animations, so it's a given that they'll take way longer than a singular artwork

As a bonus, have these frames for the original Spiral of Ants concept that never was and some of the refs that survived Nuking (phone change)

(that fire frame alone took me 6 hours)