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riacte · 7 months ago

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Unconventional format / mixed media / meta / epistolary fic ideas:

Script format but the characters slowly break fourth wall until they grow self aware and scream to leave but the script confines them.

Mock up notes of an author's fic outline only for a "fan favourite" / "author's darling" character to gain sentience and influence the story. The character changes the outline to suit their own agenda, and their changes are marked with a different colour whereas black text means it's the author's will. Maybe another character using another colour gains sentience. The different colours fight for dominance. Mom says it's my turn with the keyboard hey what the fuck man excuse me I'm literally trying to save my family can you guys let go and let me write your character arcs in peace OH FUCK OFF

Recipe fic. The story is told via those unnecessarily long backstories on a recipe blog in which you learn about someone's grandma or a breakup or literally anything. Bonus points if the actual recipe deals with worldbuilding (what ingredients are available? What utensils are used? How to serve this meal? Woohoo Dungeon Meshi) or in-cheek recipes (eg. "Recipe for making up with your estranged mother - Step 1: Mix patience, nostalgia, and filial piety and let it marinate for ten years. Step 2: Throw that shit into the trash because you're better than that")

Travel fic. A character is lost and trying to find their way somewhere. GPS directions, googling "x place to x place", tickets and dates, train station maps, leaflets. It gets weirder and weirder. You never get closer to your destination. You're walking around in circles. It's always 10 meters away. Where are you going and where have you been?

Receipts. Try to infer what a character is doing judging from the weird things they buy together. Also yipppee inflation tracker. On the other side, maybe it can be about a cashier/ shop owner getting to know their customers and what they order.

Written from the pov of an non-native English speaker, all the English words are italicized whereas their native tongue are the only words not italicized. Inspired by Kupu rere kē by Alice Te Punga Somerville. This is because I got salty about people from Ao3 Reddit saying they won't read a fic in all italics.

Murder mystery / "Among Us" style impersonation fic strictly using the chatfic format. Characters and readers will have to figure out which character has been killed and replaced from the way they text and use emojis. This is also because I got salty about Ao3 Reddit being a wee bit pretentious about emoji usage in fics. Maybe emojis can be important plot devices! Some people prefer to sign off messages with a heart emoji of their signature colour, so won't it be weird if they use another coloured heart? How about someone using lapslock suddenly using proper capitalisation and full stops? Can you tell if someone's phone has been stolen? What if someone's mother is pretending to text like their child? Why is someone suddenly only using UwU speak? Is it a bit, or have they been replaced?

Innocuous second person POV until the last line where it's suddenly revealed to be first person POV all along and the "I" has been stalking and narrating "you".

Other fun bits / Easter eggs / secrets to hide:

Decoding within the text itself. Maybe we get given instructions to find a word in x chapter on page y on the nth line. And when we as readers collect all the words, they form a sentence that spells out an important fact which the characters are oblivious to. Or maybe the in-universe characters find a book with the same title as the irl fic with a bookmark in it, and if you go to where the bookmark is stuck irl, you'll find the murderer plainly stated. The rest of the fic is about the readers having hard confirmation of who the murderer is while characters don't know.

A phrase is subtly repeated throughout the text of the fic and is spelled out with the letter that begins a sentence. It gives off the effect that the narrator is screaming and crying into the void (to the readers in the fourth wall) while trying to avoid detection. Bonus points if the same word is repeated for pages and pages to the point the lack of sentence variation feels weird and clunky.

Morse code!! I love morse code! Using onomatopoeia to convey the dots and dashes! The sound of rain pattering on the tin rooftop— drop, drop, drop. A low whistle of a train rumbling in the distance. He slowly sharpens his knife, creating a shiiing sound. A lengthy, high pitched squeal from his kettle. A dog barks. A sharp knock. His heart thumps. Dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot. SOS. Maybe a character's death scene spells out the name of their mysterious murderer. Maybe a character is reminiscing their deceased loved one and the scene spells out what the deceased person would've wanted to tell them— "LIVE ON" or "I LOVE YOU" or something.

#ria.txt #writing #writeblr #i love unconventional formatting and whimsy #the morse code thing is from a spopera fic i never finished lol #ao3 reddit makes me creative in an annoying and contrarian way

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court-of-starss · 4 months ago

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Figure you out

Pairing: Rockstar Azriel x reader

Summary: Azriel performs his new song not knowing that his inspiration is standing in the front row.

Warnings: Angst (sorry not sorry), the word porn like once, Azriel being delulu, slight Elain slander.

a/n: wow I have been gone for so long, i'm so sorry!! I just had to share this so it would stop haunting me <3

p.s highly suggest listening to Figure you out by VIOLA !!

masterlist

The rain was beating down on your windshield as you pulled into the cramped parking spot, you held your phone to your ear and slipped out of the car, ducking your head to avoid water getting into your eyes as you run for the awning on the side of the bar.

“Hey babe.” Your friends joyous voice is almost drowned out by the loud music in the background, some indie band playing.

“I’m here but you have my ticket.” You huff, glancing around the corner and grimacing at the long line of girls waiting to be let in. “And there’s a massive line to get in Fey.”

“Relax, the bouncer’s a friend. Gave him your ticket, you don’t have to que up!” You roll your eyes at a group of girls who pass you, whispering about the lead singer.

“I think it’s very convenient that you wouldn’t tell me what band we’re seeing.” You already know who will be up that stage, who all these girls were lining up in the rain to see.

“They miss you Y/n, I miss you.” She mumbles, you can hear the pout on her face that makes you swallow tightly in guilt. You didn’t mean to isolate yourself from your friends, they always supported you. But he was in their group, and even after 2 years you still can’t see his face or hear his voice, without breaking more of your ruined heart.

“I’ve been busy with work, and Dec.” You cringe at the name of your current boyfriend. The phone is snatched out of Feyre’s hand with an outraged ‘hey!’

“You mean mister 1 minute wonder who loves rubbing your left flap?” Mor’s laughter rings through the phone, a sound you didn’t realise how much you missed. You scowl at the laughs that follow the question.

“Remind me to never drink with you again.”

“Well, do I need to come out there and get you myself? I won’t be happy babe, I spent an hour on my hair.” She retorts, you can already hear her walking away from the group. Your eyes widen and you quickly turn the corner, walking up to the entrance.

“No no! Just meet me at the door yeah?” You rush out, not wanting the lecture that will follow her hair being ruined. She hums and hangs up right as you reach the bouncer, a familiar face.

“Never thought I’d see your pretty face around here again sweetheart.” Despite the anxiety rushing through you and the never-ending rain, you smile widely.

“I’ve got to give you some entertainment don’t I Luci?” You grin, leaning forward to hug the red head. He chuckles and kisses your cheek, leaning back to unhook the red rope blocking the entrance.

“Give em’ hell Sweetheart.” He winks, you roll your eyes and walk in, shaking the rain off before someone is barreling into you. You smile into her blond hair and wrap your arms around her waist, hugging her just as tightly as she is holding you.

“I’m putting a tracker in your phone next time you disappear on me like that again.” She mumbles into your shoulder. You grin and pull back to look at her, taking in her warm brown eyes. Mor has always been the shining star in your life, her friendship carrying a gentle but strong comfort through your soul.

“Maybe I’ll let you.” You tease, hooking your arm through hers as she turns to lead you to the others. You wince at the jabs she throws at a few girls trying to get through the crowd, the closer to the stage you get, the more clothing seems to disappear from the crowd around you.

“You’d think this was a porn convention.” Mor snickers. You try to hide your laugh in your shoulder when a few of the girls turn to shoot her a dirty look. She doesn’t acknowledge them, just continues to drag you to the front barrier of the stage where Feyre is waving like a madwoman. You can’t stop the wide grin as it grows on your face, rushing forward to wrap yourself in Feyre’s arms.

Your words to each other are lost in the crowd’s applause as the bar’s announcer jumps up onto the stage, taking place before the mic with a few squeals from the crowd. You settle under Feyre’s arm as you both turn to face the stage.

“Well ladies it’s nice to see you all! I won’t beat around the bush as I know you’re all waiting for tonight’s main event!” More screams from the crowd of girls at your back, pushing and shoving each other to try and get closer to the stage. “The next set is by far my favorite, and after travelling all over they’re finally back to remember their roots.” You feel your stomach clench in anxiety, the room around you buzzing in excitement. You hadn’t seen him in 2 years, hadn’t seen his arrogant smirk or messy black curls that always fell into his eyes, hadn’t felt his soft but rough fingers tracing up and down your soft skin in the twilight hours.

“Please welcome to the stage, The bat boys!” The crowd squealed as they came onto stage, drowning out your anxious gasps. Rhysand was always first on stage, smirking and blowing kisses into the crowd like the preening Madonna he was. Cassian was next, his hair dripping down to his shoulders as he twirled his drumsticks around his fingers with a boyish grin before settling behind the drums with a few winks.

You felt your mouth dry as Azriel stepped onto stage.

The girls around you screamed even louder, but you couldn’t hear them over the buzzing in your head. His Hazel eyes scanned the crowd with what you knew to be nerves, his shy but confident smirk as familiar as your own reflection in the mirror.

You always forgot just how beautiful he was, the perfect lines of his face that you used to trace in the morning sun surrounded by soft silk sheets. The soft and messy black curls that draped over his eyes, the crinkles by his beautiful eyes that highlighted his wide grin.

How could you forget, for even a second, how much you loved him?

“Hello Darlings.” Rhys purred into the mic, shooting a wink towards Feyre who was blowing him a kiss from beside you. The crowd screamed again, you missed your friends. You missed sitting in Rhys apartment with pizza boxes scattered around you as the group watched Cass serenading Nesta with half his clothes off. You missed the movies night, the nights spent together tossing lyric ideas around for their next song.

You missed the life you had 2 years ago, before he broke your heart.

Your eyes flicked to Azriel again as he started strumming the tune to the first song on their set. The relaxed grin on his face as the crowd started humming along the tune, the one he hummed to you for months as you laid next to him. You watched his eyes focus on his hands, though you were sure he could perform in his sleep. Your heart was cracking as you watched him play, the song a familiar comfort in the back of your mind.

How many times had you been the one screaming the lyrics at the top of your lungs? How many times had you been in this exact position but with a wide grin on your face? Now your lips were pressed together to stop the painful sob forming at the back of your throat. Now your eyes that used to gleam with joy, love and happiness, were misted with years of pain.

You felt Mor’s hand slip into yours from your left, a silent comfort to your mess of emotions. She didn’t offer you a soft smile or careful words, didn’t even turn to look at you, just continued singing along with the crowd. You swallowed the tears, the heartbreak and the longing, and pulled her closer into your side as the song came to an end.

The crowd was deafening as Rhys smirked at them, his white teeth gleaming in the red spotlight above him.

“What a warm up!” He chuckled into the mic, running his hand through his hair as he turned to say something to Azriel behind him. Azriel slung his guitar behind him, shaking his hands out as he stepped up to Rhys side.

“Now for something different. You’ll be the first audience to hear this song, something special for someone special.” Rhys grinned before stepping back to Azriel’s spot, picking up his own guitar. You felt your heart fly up to your throat as he stepped up to the mic, his voice floating over the crowd.

I heard he got you a penthouse On the westside when will he learn That you're afraid of heights? I heard he got you a new Benz With the white wheels, when will he learn That you like to tandem bike?

And I hate that

Azriel’s voice rang through the bar, the lyrics shooting straight to your heart. His smile flashing behind your eyes, his laughter ringing through your mind.

I could love you with my eyes closed Kiss you with a blindfold Figure you out I might hold you with my hands tied Show you I'm the right guy To figure you out na-na-na, na, na

You felt your eyes water, stronger this time. Memories flashing through your mind, soft words pressed into your skin in the early hours of the morning. Kisses interrupted by smiles so wide that you thought your skin would split.

I heard he got you some new friends With some big dreams, when will he learn That you already got your own? Oh, I heard he got you the front row At the rap show, when will he learn That you like The Rolling Stones?

How could you ever get over this type of love? How could you walk away from him again after he broke your heart a second time?

And I've been thinking Of all the little things That you've been missing When will you learn?

Mor squeezed your hand tighter as she watched the tears roll down your cheeks, guilt pulling her brows down into a frown.

I could love you with my eyes closed Kiss you with a blindfold Figure you out (figure you out) (yeah) I might hold you with my hands tied Show you I'm the right guy To figure you out na-na-na, na, na

The crowd around you was swaying with the melody, oblivious to the way your heart was being broken by the very angel before them on the stage. To the lyrics of a broken heart that used to belong to you, that used to beat in your body. To a heart that was singing a melody of stolen love.

How dare he?

I could treat you so much better I've known you forever, figured you out Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh

I could love you with my eyes closed Kiss you with a blindfold Figure you out (figure you out) (yeah) I might hold you with my hands tied Show you I'm the right guy To figure you out na-na-na, na, na

The girls around you screamed again as the song came to a close, cheering for the guitarist that had finally shown his secretive emotions. You tugged your hands out of your friends embrace as you turned away from the stage with a sob.

“I can’t do this.” You pushed and shoved through the crowd, ignoring the calls of your name from your friends. You couldn’t stop. You couldn’t face this again. You couldn’t watch him stand up there and sing like he hadn’t ripped your heart out.

The rain was still pouring when you finally made it out of the bar, making you tuck your arms around yourself to hold yourself together. How were you supposed to shove this away? How does one forget the love of their life?

You stilled as you heard his deep voice call your name. The rain was plastering your hair to your head, running down your face masking the tears that wouldn’t stop.

“Y/n please wait!” He called, his boots thudding through the water on the ground. You whipped around to face him as his hand caught your elbow, anger and heartbreak swirling through your eyes.

“How dare you.” You snarled at him, not caring about the sad look in his eyes. What reason did he have to be upset? He was panting, the rain plastering his stubborn curls to his forehead as he leant forward to wrap a heavy jacket around your shoulders.

“You’ll get a cold.” He mumbled, adjusting the jacket so the hood was covering your already soaked hair. You blinked at him stunned, the anger swirling through you demanding you to shrug the jacket off your shoulders. But you couldn’t. You couldn’t remove the scent of his cologne from invading your senses, a smell that had faded from your pillow years ago.

“What do you want Azriel?” You watched him wring his hands in front of him nervously, picking at the skin around his nails before he opened his mouth.

“I missed you baby and I-”

“You missed me?” You barked out a laugh, shaking your head in disbelief. “You cheated on me. You don’t get to miss me and then trick me into attending your stupid gig.” He shook his head and stepped closer, ducking his head to meet your eyes. You took a step back with a frown on your face.

“I regretted it the second it happened.” He mumbled, cringing when he thought back to that night two years ago. The night he had stupidly kissed Elain Archeron. He didn’t miss the way you flinched back and looked down to the ground, as if recollecting yourself.

“You only regret that you were caught.” You said to the ground, not looking up at him. You didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of seeing the heartbreak in your eyes, of seeing how fresh it still was.

“No-”

“Don’t lie to me!” You yelled, whipping your head up to him with a glare Azriel felt twist the organ beating in his chest violently.

“You told me I was the love of your life, your soulmate.” You didn’t bother try to hide the agony bleeding into your eyes. “And then you went and spewed the same bullshit into her ear.” You turned away from him again to try and compose yourself. You squeezed your eyes shut to try and erase the image you had seen that night. Of Azriel pressing Elain up against the wall with the same passion he shared with you just hours before, of him kissing her soft lips as if they were his oasis.

Of him kissing her the same way he kissed you.

“You are!” He sobbed, stepping closer. “You are the love of my life! You’re both my favourite dream and my worst nightmare, haunting me every second of every day.” He panted, trying desperately to get you to turn and face him again. He had been deprived of your beautiful eyes for two years and he wanted, no needed, to see their beautiful colour again.

“Is that the same thing you tell Elain?” You mumbled out. He flinched back at how small you sounded. You had always been the centre of the room, laughing and glowing by his side.

What had he done? How could he fix this?

“I’m not with Elain.” He said, clearing the knot from the back of his throat as you turned back around to face him. Your eyes were red from crying, but Azriel couldn’t look away. You were still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, a true goddess amongst mortals.

“I don’t care anymore Azriel. I just want you to leave me alone.” He tried to reach for your face but you took several steps back, shaking your head as more tears trailed down your cheeks. His hands shook as he reached for you, his own tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Wait Y/n, please.”

“No more. Please just let me go.”

He wasn’t sure if it was the way your voice wobbled or if it was the roaring agony in your eyes that made his brother step in. Probably both.

“Enough Az. C’mon bunny, I’ll walk you to your car.” Rhys wrapped a warm arm around your shoulders, a familiar brotherly comfort. You shot one last look at Azriel over your shoulder as Rhys started leading you to your car, your heart squeezing in your chest at the pain in his beautiful eyes.

“Goodbye Azriel.” You said softly, offering him a wobbly smile before turning into his brother as you walked away.

He watched you walk away with a heavy heart, knowing that he had lost the love of his life forever.

#acotar series #azriel #acotar #modern!azriel #modern!au #modern!acotar #azriel x reader #azriel x reader angst #azriel angst #azriel x reader fluff #azriel x reader fanfic

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mostlysignssomeportents · 7 months ago

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“That Makes Me Smart”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/04/its-not-a-lie/#its-a-premature-truth

The Biden administration disappointed, frustrated and enraged in so many ways, including abetting a genocide – but one consistent bright spot over the past four years was the unseen-for-generations frontal assault on corporate power and corporate corruption.

The three words that define this battle above all others are "unfair and deceptive" – words that appear in Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act and other legislation modeled on it, like USC40 Section 41712(a), which gives the Department of Transportation the power to ban "unfair and deceptive" practices as well:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

When Congress created an agency to punish "unfair and deceptive" conduct, they were saying to the American people, "You have a right not to be cheated." While this may sound obvious, it's hardly how the world works.

To get a sense of how many ripoffs are part of our daily lives, let's take a little tour of the ways that the FTC and other agencies have used the "unfair and deceptive" standard to defend you over the past four years. Take Amazon Prime: Amazon executives emailed one another, openly admitting that in their user tests, the public was consistently fooled by Amazon's "get free shipping with Prime" dialog boxes, thinking they were signing up for free shipping and not understanding that they were actually signing up to send the company $140/year. They had tested other versions of the signup workflow that users were able to correctly interpret, but they decided to go with the confusing version because it made them more money:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/05/amazon-execs-may-be-personally-liable-for-tricking-users-into-prime-sign-ups/

Getting you signed up for Prime isn't just a matter of taking $140 out of your pocket once – because while Amazon has produced a greased slide that whisks you into a recurring Prime subscription, the process for canceling that recurring payment is more like a greased pole you must climb to escape the Prime pit. This is typical of many services, where signing up happens in a couple clicks, but canceling is a Kafkaesque nightmare. The FTC decided that this was an "unfair and deceptive" business practice and used its authority to create a "Click to Cancel" rule that says businesses have to make it as easy to cancel a recurring payment as it was to sign up for it:

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/

Once businesses have you locked in, they also spy on you, ingesting masses of commercial surveillance data that you "consented" to by buying a car, or clicking to a website, or installing an app, or just physically existing in space. They use this to implement "surveillance pricing," raising prices based on their estimation of your desperation. Uber got caught doing this a decade ago, raising the price of taxi rides for users whose batteries were about to die, but these days, everyone's in on the game. For example, McDonald's has invested in a company that spies on your finances to determine when your payday is, and then raises the price of your usual breakfast sandwich by a dollar the day you get paid:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/05/your-price-named/#privacy-first-again

Everything about this is "unfair and deceptive" – from switching prices the second you click into the store to the sham of consent that consists of, say, picking up your tickets to a show and being ordered to download an app that comes with 20,000 words of terms and conditions that allows the company that sends you a QR code to spy on you for the rest of your life in any way they can and sell the data to anyone who'll buy it.

As bad as it is to be trapped in an abusive relationship as a shopper, it's a million times worse to be trapped as a worker. One in 18 American workers is under a noncompete "agreement" that makes it illegal for you to change jobs and work for someone else in the same industry. The vast majority of these workers are in low-waged food-service jobs. The primary use of the American noncompete is to stop the cashier at Wendy's from getting an extra $0.25/hour by taking a job at McDonald's.

Noncompetes are shrouded in a fog of easily dispelled bossly bullshit: claims that noncompetes raise wages (empirically, this is untrue), or that they enable "IP"-intensive industries to grow by protecting their trade secrets. This claim is such bullshit: you can tell by the fact that noncompetes are banned under California's state constitution and yet the most IP-intensive industries have attracted hundreds of billions – if not trillions – in investment capital even though none of their workforce can be bound under a noncompete. The FTC's order banning noncompetes for every worker in America simply brings the labor regime that created Silicon Valley and Hollywood to the rest of the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/26/hit-with-a-brick/#graceful-failure

Noncompetes aren't the only "unfair and deceptive" practice used against American workers. The past decade has seen the rise of private equity consolidation in several low-waged industries, like pet grooming. The new owners of every pet grooming salon within 20 miles of your house haven't just slashed workers' wages, they've also cooked up a scheme that lets them charge workers thousands of dollars if they quit these shitty jobs. This scheme is called a "training repayment agreement provision" (TRAP!): workers who are TRAPped at Petsmart are made to work doing menial jobs like sweeping up the floor for three to four weeks. Petsmart calls this "training," and values it at $5,500. If you quit your pet grooming job in the next two years, you legally owe PetSmart $5,500 to "repay" them for the training:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/04/its-a-trap/#a-little-on-the-nose

Workers are also subjected to "unfair and deceptive" bossware: "AI" tools sold to bosses that claim they can sort good workers from bad, but actually serve as random-number generators that penalize workers in arbitrary, life-destroying ways:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/26/hawtch-hawtch/#you-treasure-what-you-measure

Some of the most "unfair and deceptive" conduct we endure happens in shadowy corners of industry, where obscure middlemen help consolidated industries raise prices and pick your pocket. All the meat you buy in the grocery store comes from a cartel of processing and packing companies that all subscribe to the same "price consulting" services that tells them how to coordinate across-the-board price rises (tell me again how greedflation isn't a thing?):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/04/dont-let-your-meat-loaf/#meaty-beaty-big-and-bouncy

It's not just food, it's all of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Take shelter: the highly consolidated landlord industry uses apps like Realpage to coordinate rental price hikes, turning the housing crisis into a housing emergency:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/24/gouging-the-all-seeing-eye/#i-spy

And of course, health is the most "unfair and deceptive" industry of all. Useless middlemen like "Pharmacy Benefit Managers" ("a spreadsheet with political power" -Matt Stoller) coordinate massive price-hikes in the drugs you need to stay alive, which is why Americans pay substantially more for medicine than anyone else in the world, even as the US government spends more than any other to fund pharma research, using public money:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/09/23/shield-of-boringness/#some-men-rob-you-with-a-fountain-pen

It's not just drugs: every piece of equipment – think hospital beds and nuclear medicine machines – as well as all the consumables – from bandages to saline – at your local hospital runs through a cartel of "Group Purchasing Organizations" that do for hospital equipment what PBMs do for medicine:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/27/lethal-dysfunction/#luxury-bones

For the past four years, we've lived in an America where a substantial portion of the administrative state went to war every day to stamp out unfair and deceptive practices. It's still happening: yesterday, the CFPB (which Musk has vowed to shut down) proposed a new rule that would ban the entire data brokerage industry, who nonconsensually harvest information about every American, and package it up into categories like "teenagers from red states seeking abortions" and "military service personnel with gambling habits" and "seniors with dementia" and sell this to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone else with a credit-card:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-proposes-rule-to-stop-data-brokers-from-selling-sensitive-personal-data-to-scammers-stalkers-and-spies/

And on the same day, the FTC banned the location brokers who spy on your every movement and sell your past and present location, again, to marketers, stalkers, foreign governments and anyone with a credit card:

https://www.404media.co/ftc-bans-location-data-company-that-powers-the-surveillance-ecosystem/

These are tantalizing previews of a better life for every American, one in which the rule is, "play fair." That's not the world that Trump and his allies want to build. Their motto isn't "cheaters never prosper" – it's "caveat emptor," let the buyer beware.

Remember the 2016 debate where Clinton accused Trump of cheating on his taxes and he admitted to it, saying "That makes me smart?" Trumpism is the movement of "that makes me smart" life, where if you get scammed, that's your own damned fault. Sorry, loser, you lost.

Nowhere do you see this more than in cryptocurrencyland, so it's not a coincidence that tens – perhaps hundreds – in dark crypto money was flushed into the election, first to overpower Democratic primaries and kick out Dem legislators who'd used their power to fight the "unfair and deceptive" crowd:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook-pm/2024/02/13/crypto-comes-for-katie-porter-00141261

And then to fight Dems across the board (even the Dems whose primary victories were funded by dark crypto money) and elect the GOP as the party of "caveat emptor"/"that makes me smart":

https://www.coindesk.com/news-analysis/2024/12/02/crypto-cash-fueled-53-members-of-the-next-u-s-congress

Crypto epitomizes the caveat emptor economy. By design, fraudulent crypto transactions can't be reversed. If you get suckered, that's canonically a you problem. And boy oh boy, do crypto users get suckered (including and especially those who buy Trump's shitcoins):

https://www.web3isgoinggreat.com/

And for crypto users who get ripped off because they've parked their "money" in an online wallet, there's no sympathy, just "not your keys, not your coins":

https://www.ledger.com/academy/not-your-keys-not-your-coins-why-it-matters

A cornerstone of the "unfair and deceptive" world is that only suckers – that is, outsiders, marks and little people – have to endure consequences when they get rooked. When insiders get ripped off, all principle is jettisoned. So it's not surprising that when crypto insiders got taken for millions the first time they created a DAO, they tore up all the rules of the crypto world and gave themselves the mulligan that none of the rest of us are entitled to in cryptoland:

https://blog.ethereum.org/2016/07/20/hard-fork-completed

Where you find crypto, you find Elon Musk, the guy who epitomizes caveat emptor thinking. This is a guy who has lied to drivers to get them to buy Teslas by promising "full self driving in one year," every year, since 2015:

https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/autonomous-driving/timeline-of-tesla-self-driving-aspirations-a9686689375/

Musk told investors that he had a "prototype" autonomous robot that could replace their workers, then demoed a guy in a robot suit, pretending to be a robot:

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-unveils-his-funniest-vaporware-yet-1847523016

Then Musk did it again, two years later, demoing a remote-control robot while lying and claiming that it was autonomous:

https://techcrunch.com/2024/10/14/tesla-optimus-bots-were-controlled-by-humans-during-the-we-robot-event

This is entirely typical of the AI sector, in which "AIs" are revealed, over and over, to be low-waged workers pretending to be robots, so much so that Indian tech industry insiders joke that "AI" stands for "Absent Indians":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

Musk's view is that he's not a liar, merely a teller of premature truths. Autonomous cars and robots are just around the corner (just like the chatbots that can do your job, and not merely convince your boss to fire you while failing to do your job). He's not tricking you, he's just faking it until he makes it. It's not a scam, it's inspirational. Of course, if he's wrong and you are scammed, well, that's a you problem. Caveat emptor. That makes him smart.

Musk does this all the time. Take the Twitter blue tick, originally conceived of as a way to keep Twitter users from being scammed ("unfair and deceptive") by con artists pretending to be famous people. Musk's inaugural act at Twitter was to take away blue ticks from verified users and sell them to anyone who'd pay $8/month. Almost no one coughed up for this – the main exception being scammers, who used their purchased, unverified blue ticks to steal from Twitter users ("that makes me smart").

As Twitter hemorrhaged advertising revenue and Musk became increasingly desperate to materialize an army of $8/month paid subscribers, he pulled another scam: he nonconsensually applied blue ticks to prominent accounts, in a bid to trick normies into thinking that widely read people valued blue ticks so much they were paying for them out of their own pockets:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65365366

If you were tricked into buying a blue tick on this pretense, well, caveat emptor. Besides, it's not a lie, it's a premature truth. Someday all those widely read users with nonconsensual blue ticks will surely value them so highly that they do start to pay for them. And if they don't? Well, Musk got your $8: "that makes me smart."

Scammers will always tell you that they're not lying to you, merely telling premature truths. Sam Bankman-Fried's defenders will tell you that he didn't actually steal all those billions. He gambled them on a bet that (sorta-kinda) paid off. Eventually, he was able to make all his victims (sorta-kinda) whole, so it's not even a theft:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/08/business/ftx-bankruptcy-plan-repay-creditors/index.html

Likewise, Tether, a "stablecoin" that was unable to pass an audit for many years as it issued unbacked, unregulated securities while lying and saying that for every dollar they minted, they had a dollar in reserves. Tether now (maybe) has reserves to equal its outstanding coins, so obviously all those years where they made false claims, they weren't lying, merely telling a premature truth:

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/cryptocriticscorner/episodes/Tether-wins–Skeptics-lose-the-end-of-an-era-e2rhf5e

If Tether had failed a margin call during those years and you'd lost everything, well, caveat emptor. The Tether insiders were always insulated from that risk, and that's all that matters: "that makes me smart."

When I think about the next four years, this is how I frame it: the victory of "that makes me smart" over "fairness and truth."

For years, progressives have pointed out the right's hypocrisy, despite that fact that Americans have been conditioned to be so cynical that even the rankest hypocrisy doesn't register. But "caveat emptor?" That isn't just someone else's bad belief or low ethics: it's the way that your life is materially, significantly worsened. The Biden administration – divided between corporate Dems and the Warren/Sanders wing that went to war on "unfair and deceptive" – was ashamed and nearly silent on its groundbreaking work fighting for fairness and honesty. That was a titanic mistake.

Americans may not care about hypocrisy, but they really care about being stolen from. No one wants to be a sucker.

#tether #ftx #scams #trumpism #caveat emptor #cryptocurrency #twitter #sleaze #premature truths #bossware #pluralistic

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ollyissleepy · 15 days ago

Text

𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦

pairings: platonic yandere!batfam x uninterested!male!reader summary: After being caught red handed stealing, (name) finds himself in the Wayne Manor, surrounded by his new family. (Name)'s disinterested in bonding is met with equally not caring siblings and father. As he spends his days alone, (name) realises his new family might care much more than he originally thought the did. cw: stealing, swearing, underage smoking, reader commits a crime, stabbing (in a way?) a/n: you see this part? how (name) is doing in it? yeah keep it in mind reading the rest of the parts. Also can you tell I binged-watched final destination? based on this idea I had

(Name) walks into Gotham's bus station right before the last ticket kiosk was about to close. The woman behind the glass looked annoyed at one more customer; however, upon seeing the bills in the teenager's hands, she had forced herself to smile for one more customer.

The boy finds out that the first bus out of Gotham travels to Metropolis in the early hours of the morning. (Name) knows he doesn't have any other options, and so he buys a one-way ticket to the city. He gave the woman selling it to him a large tip 'for the trouble'.

Sitting in the waiting area of the bus station, (name) quickly learnt that buying the ticket was the easy part. Waiting for the right bus proved to be much harder for the boy. He kept looking around, worried that his 'family' had found out he was not in the manor and came looking for him.

In order to calm his mind, (name) goes to the bathroom in hopes that some cold water could help with that.

The boy splashes his face multiple times, trying to regain his composure. He looks up to the mirror, staring at his face. He looked… tired. (Name) couldn't believe those dull eyes once belonged to a rather happy child. He wondered if that little boy was still somewhere buried deep inside of him, rotting away. If only he wasn't caught that night. Maybe if he wouldn't meet Bruce and Dick and Jason and…

And Tim.

(Name) reached inside his back pocket, pulling out his phone. Out of habit, he had taken it with him. He stares at the black screen, his mind wandering off to the joke Tim made about putting a tracker on him.

The teenager wrestles with the device, trying to open the cartridge where he saw Duke put a SIM card in. It takes him a moment to figure it out, but once he has the card in his palm, he flushes it down the toilet. The phone was carefully placed next to a sink, hoping that someone would take it, throwing the Waynes off.

He spends the remaining time even more nervous than he was before. (Name) kept looking towards the clock to watch the minutes pass. The bouncing of his right leg made the person sitting next to him scoff and move to sit further away.

Getting on the bus, (name) chooses a seat far from anyone else, closer towards the end of the vehicle. He rests his head against the window, keeping his eyes half-closed to check who else would be riding with him without anyone noticing him staring.

The ride to Metropolis wasn't as bad as the teenager was worried it would be. The other passengers kept it for themselves for the most part. (Name)'s nerves seemed to calm down a little with each passing kilometre.

The teenager felt himself relax the moment his eyes were met with the 'Welcome to Metropolis' sign. He knew that this city wasn't his last stop, but the distance he put between himself and the family was enough for the time being.

(Name) felt like a new person as he was getting off the bus. He took a look around, pride filling his heart. It was the first step to his freedom.

Walking the streets, the teenager realised one thing: Metropolis was nothing like Gotham. In practice it meant two things for (name). The first one was the fact that finding a place to stay might be much harder than he anticipated. On his walk he only saw one abandoned-looking building, and with how put-together the city appeared to be, there was no way he could get a hotel room.

On the first night in Metropolis, (name) spent napping on the bench hidden deep in a park. In the morning, he woke up cold and more tired than before he went to sleep.

The second night, the teenager had more luck. He found a poorly locked store. That night, the boy slept well, surrounded by warmth.

After that, he purposely looked for stores without high security, breaking into them and sleeping. After each night, he made sure that the store was left untouched to minimise the police catching a whiff of him.

Unbeknownst to him, (name) did catch the attention of a certain someone.

During a late-night patrol, Conner had spotted him breaking into a store. The Superboy was ready to swoop in and stop the robbery, only to find out that there was no robbery. It was just a teenager his age who was setting up what appeared to be a place to sleep.

"Stop right there!" Superboy yelled out, his fists up in the air, ready to fight.

"Listen, I promise I'm not trying to steal anything," (name) mumbled, his hands in the air. "I'm just looking for somewhere to sleep."

Conner didn't believe him. Not at first. It takes several nights of watching the teenager from afar for Conner to understand that he wasn't lying. He watched the boy's night-time routine: finding a store, breaking inside and setting up a place to sleep. If said store sold food, Conner noticed that he would leave money for any eaten items.

Unsure of what to do with that knowledge, Conner confided in his parents. He told them how he had met a boy around his age who keeps breaking into random shops. Not to steal anything, but just as a form of shelter. Clark promised to check on the teenager.

That night, the two heroes watched (name) breaking into a butcher's store, setting up a space to sleep behind the counter.

(Name) rummages through the shelves in the back, trying to see if any workers had left their uneaten lunches behind for him to eat. The boy is so focused on the task that he doesn't notice that he's no longer alone in the store.

He hears someone clearing his throat right behind him. Startled, (name) quickly turns around, ready to face whoever had caught him. He didn't consider how slippery the floor was from the cleaning supplies.

His mind doesn't fully register the fall before (name) feels the excruciating pain in his lower abdomen. He clutches his stomach around the object currently sticking out of it, looking up to see the shocked and terrified expressions of Superman and Superboy.

The last thing the boy sees is the two men rushing to his side, trying to aid him. After that, all he remembers is the darkness around him.

He doesn't know how much time has passed when he opens his eyes again. (Name) groans, his eyes blurry as he attempts to move.

"Easy there," a woman's voice said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Wouldn't want you to ruin your stitches."

The teenager stops struggling; instead, he takes a look around the room he was in. The room was small and, judging by the decoration in it, seemed like a guest room. On the bed sat a woman with short, dark hair and purple eyes. On her lap were lying a few medical supplies, as if she came to tend to his wound.

(Name) looked down onto his body, a groan escaping his lips after noticing bandages on his abdomen.

"You were lucky, you know?" The woman said, placing the medical supplies onto the bedside table. "If the metal stabbed you a few millimetres over, you'd be dead."

"I came to change your bandages," she stated, ignoring the lack of response from the boy. "Now, since you're awake, it should be much easier. Can I?"

The teenager nodded, knowing that due to how dry his mouth felt, talking wasn't really an option for him now.

(Name) follows each instruction that the woman gave him, not really in the position to do anything else. He learnt that her name was Lois and that she was the mother of the hero that had saved him.

After successfully changing out his bandages and applying ointment to his wound, Lois left the room with a promise to bring him some water.

The teenager isn't left alone in the room for long. He doesn't even get to think of what his next should be when Lois comes back, accompanied by a man. The woman returns to the boys' side, handing him a glass of water.

"Good to see that you're awake," the man said, not moving from the doorway. "We figured bringing you here would be a better bet than taking you to the hospital."

"Thank you". (Name) took another sip of water. He looked down at the glass, thinking.

"I'm sorry for being so much trouble," the boy mumbled. "I'll leave the moment I get better. I promise."

"Nonsense…" Lois started speaking.

"We wanted to help you, so we did," the man had finished. "You can stay here for as long as you want."

"I won't stay here," (name) argued.

"Nobody will force you to do that," Lois tried to soothe the teenager. "We're just offering."

The boy loses himself in his own thoughts for a moment. Could he really stay here? No. Not like that. Not for free. Nothing's free.

"You could help around the farm if you want," the man offered, as if he was reading the boy's mind. "We could use an extra hand."

(Name) looks up at the man. Helping around while he was staying with them didn't sound that bad after all. The boy nodded. He could stay with them for a while before continuing with his journey.

"Great," the man smiled. "Make sure to get plenty of rest then. We'll get you back on your feet in no time."

Just as the man promised, who later he had learnt was called Clark, (name) had healed in no time. With the doting of Lois and company on both of their kids, he slowly regained all of his energy. Going from not being able to move, to sitting along them at the table.

Once the boy could walk again, their youngest, Jon, took him outside to show him around the farm. That's when he found out about the workers' quarters in the upstairs of the barn. That night he had pushed the couple to let (name) move there.

From that day on, the boy had fallen into a routine. Each day he would wake up at the crack of dawn, learning how to care for animals from each of the family members.

Right after breakfast he rushes along with Jon to feed the chickens and listen to the boy explain what each bird is called. Then, he does general maintenance along Conner and Clark. If there's nothing he could help with, he spends his time in the kitchen with Lois, helping her prepare meals for the family.

(Name) had also found himself enjoying eating with the Kents. Watching them banter with each other and listen to Jon and Conner talk about their days in school felt nice and refreshing. Even if allowing Lois to fill his plate with seconds with a soft 'eat up, you need to grow strong, sweetie' made him feel a little guilty at times, he apologised to his mother for betraying her like that.

After dinner he would often stay out, watching the night sky along Conner. It was nothing like he knew back in Gotham. In Smallville, looking up at night meant seeing multiple stars shining bright, while in Gotham the only lights in the sky were from the helicopters flying above.

Watching the stars along Conner felt more meaningful after he had figured out why the teen seemed so familiar to him. Hanging out in Conner's room, he saw a photograph the teenager had with Tim, who, Superboy confirmed, was one of his closest friends.

It was getting close to midnight, the two of them wrapped in blankets provided by Lois, watching the night sky. (Name) points out a shooting star, Conner reminding him to make a wish.

"Sometimes I feel like I already know you from somewhere, you know?" Connor broke the silence, his eyes still focused on the sky. "I just can't figure out from where." (Name) tensed up, glancing towards the teen.

"Yeah, that's crazy," (name) laughed, internally trying to calm his heart. Deep breaths.

(Name) spent the rest of that night unable to focus on anything else than Connor's words. Even hours later, as he lay in bed, they were the only thing he could think about. That night became the first night at the farm that he didn't get any sleep.

"Rough night?" Lois asked the next day, placing additional pancakes onto the boy's plate. "Here, a little more, since today will be rough for you."

Accepting Lois' love came quite easy, the woman reminding the boy of his mother in more ways than he would admit.

Allowing Clark closer felt impossible at times. Growing up, (name) didn't have a father figure, and Bruce, his biological father, he…

The boy shook his head; the man was far away. There was no way he could find the teenager here. Even though Conner is friends with his 'brother'.

Even so, he couldn't help but glance at Clark working on the farm tractor. The man had the sleeves of his shirt rolled up, his hands covered in oil. Watching him, it felt good, domestic in a way. Almost as if (name) was always destined to be here with him, with them. Is it really it? Is it the place he could finally stop running?

Clark must've sensed the teenager watching him, turning to look at him. He closed the hood of the tractor with a heavy sigh.

"I'm starving," the man said, walking up to (name). "Let's go home, son."

And he does.

taglist: @amber-content @bellethesleepypotato @leeiasure @sleepdeprivedcrappywriter @tenthmilo @eyeless-kun @holyfishbailiffpeanut @cuntiesweet @jsprien213 @marsmabe @cssammyyarts @ilovecoffe0 @phoenixgurl030 @esposadomd @alittlelostmoonchild @stargirl404 @xnutz0 @s4raahi @reeyy0-2@ironsaladwitch @chemicalwindexbottle@ityourguy @im-so-goddamn-tired@dirtydiavolo@etern1tyxxx@whognuthis @verypersonadazzel @staarflowerr @hai-there-how-are-you @depressed--therapist @flightless-magpie

#yandere batfam #yandere dc #platonic yandere #yandere bruce wayne #yandere dick grayson #yandere jason todd #yandere damian wayne #yandere alfred pennyworth #yandere batman #yandere #yandere x reader #yandere x male reader #yandere x y/n #yandere x you #soft yandere #yandere tim drake #yandere cassandra cain #yandere barbara gordon #yandere stephanie brown

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adalindofcabinsix · 1 year ago

Text

that kind of love never dies (II)

summary: the one where jake realizes the complexity of a supposedly simple plan.

pairing: jake x mc

word count: 1.4K

warnings: tkolnd takes place after the events of episode 10; cover images found on pinterest; english is not my first language.

author’s note: i love this chapter. it was so much fun to write jake's first meeting with mc. the game left many unresolved questions and i will try to answer them based on the information we already have and a little imagination.

masterlist

Without any hesitation, he nodded. There was no point in lying now, not after everything they had done to get Hannah back. And, even if it bothered him a little, Barbara had won his trust.

“A penny for your thoughts.” The hacker asked, seeing the confusion in her eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“It's a long story.”

“I have time.” She crossed her arms over her chest, waiting.

Jake took a deep breath to calm himself. They definitely didn't have time. However, he knew he would need to do his best to make her trust him again.

“Long story short, an old alert from Nym-0s showed results yesterday saying that you bought a plane ticket to Switzerland. Since the airport was close to Duskwood, I thought I'd better investigate.”

“Have you been following me since New York?”

“Not exactly, I bought a nonstop flight from Tokyo to Zurich.”

“Why didn't you tell me who you were when we bumped into each other at the airport?”

He hated the fact that his tone was more hurt than angry. Jake opened his mouth to apologize, then closed it. Looking over her shoulder, he noticed the presence of a hooded figure standing in front of the open door of the chinese restaurant, hunching his shoulders against the pouring rain.

Barbara's cell phone immediately started ringing with a call. Frowning, she reached for the device inside her bag, and Jake didn't need to understand portuguese to know what was written on the screen.

“Unknown number?”

“Yes.” She lifted her head, meeting Jake's eyes.

“Great.” He said ironically, taking the cell phone from her hand and sliding his finger to the left to reject the call. “Come on, I'll explain everything to you on the road.”

“All right.” Barbara answered, allowing Jake to lead the way. “But if you're lying about who you are, I'll break your nose.”

“It's fair.”

The hacker kept walking , and she ran to keep up with him, dodging a puddle of water. Two minutes later, they stopped in front of a gray Mercedes-Benz crowned with a red convertible roof parked behind the Gates Hotel.

“Please tell me it’s not stolen.”

“It's not stolen!” Jake looked at her offended, opening the passenger door.

“Sorry! It's just that in my mind you were poor. Which, when you think about it, doesn't make sense, right? How would you do everything you do without money?”

“You are impossible, Barbara.” He shook his head in disbelief.

“I can't be impossible, Jake, I exist.” She replied, rolling her eyes theatrically. “I think you meant that I'm unbelievable.”

“Get in the car straight away.” He ordered, but he was smiling, his eyes filled with something like pleasure.

“I have some questions.” Barbara announced when they stopped at a red light.

“Of course you have.” Jake smiled amusedly, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

“Earlier, at the airport, was our meeting on purpose?”

“Yes. I couldn't risk my position by tracking you via cell phone so I had to be creative.”

“Something tells me you're the type to put trackers in people's favorite coat pockets.” She was surprised when he didn't deny it. “Seriously?” Barbara scoffed, rubbing her hands down her arms.

“That worked, didn't it?” He said, undoing his seat belt. “Here, you must be cold.”

Before Barbara could object, Jake took off the leather jacket he was wearing and handed it towards her.

“Thank you, Jake.” She accepted the offer, her cheeks blushing beautifully as she quickly looked away from the defined muscles that were marked by the white t-shirt.

“You're welcome.” He looked straight ahead again, covering his mouth with the back of his left hand to hide a smile of pure satisfaction.

He looked straight ahead again, covering his mouth with the back of his left hand to hide a smile of pure satisfaction.

“Were you in Tokyo this whole time?” Barbara questioned, placing the jacket over her shoulders.

“Tokyo, New Delhi, Manila... I needed to keep myself busy so I didn't think about you too much.”

“I'm unforgettable, aren't I?”

“Too unforgettable for your own good.” He agreed, replacing his belt and accelerating the car to get them moving again.

She sighed loudly.

“Yeah, I guess that explains why the FBI won't leave me alone.”

“What?”

“You have no idea why I'm here, do you?”

“Considering who I saw at the chinese restaurant, I think I might have an idea.”

“They sent some messages yesterday, inviting me to that same restaurant we talked about last time. The writing was very similar to yours, but it wasn't the same.”

“You knew it wasn't me and you came anyway?”

“We had an agreement, and as a future lawyer, I couldn't let them get away with this so easily.”

“What was your plan?” He waited for an answer, but Barbara just shrugged. “What? Didn't you have one?”

“We brazilians work better under pressure.”

Jake had to stop himself from giving her an irritated look.

“Well, at least this time the FBI is innocent.”

“What do you mean?”

“Old habits never die, right? I figured something was wrong when you didn't go directly to Duskwood, so I accessed the security cameras around the hotel and watched the footage from the past two days.”

“Did you find anything?”

“Nothing too out of the ordinary, but there was one guy who caught my attention. I think I've seen him before. Anyway, I've run his face through facial recognition software and will have confirmation by the end of the night.” He met her eyes, his expression becoming serious. “Barbara, do you understand how…”

“Stupid to come here alone without knowing what I would face? Yes, the reality is starting to knock. In my defense, I would never imagine that someone from the outside could have access to our conversations.”

“Breaking into the FBI database is complicated, but not impossible. This guy was supposed to be looking for information about me and ended up finding you along the way. I'm sorry for bringing you into this.”

She made a nonchalant gesture, dismissing his apologies.

“You're only here because I was impulsive and played my role as a decoy very well, so I think we can say we're even.”

“I will always be in your debt.” Jake declared softly, weaving through traffic with ease.

The rest of the trip flew by, and the next thing he knew, he was parking near the Aurora's curb.

“What are we doing here?” Barbara looked at him uneasily, her voice sounding louder.

“I need to drop you off somewhere safe before I go back to get my gear from the hotel I'm staying at.”

“A bar is the last place I would think of, I have to admit.”

Jake snorted.

“As much as you approve, we only came here to get Jessica's address.”

“I thought you gathered information on all of us when Hannah was kidnapped.”

“I did, but Jessica moved out a few months after Richy got arrested. And since the FBI is monitoring activity around your friends' digital data, I'm forced to do this the hard way.”

“You mean... Talking?”

“Talking to Phil.”

She stifled a laugh.

“You can wait in the car if you want.”

“I'm not leaving you alone with this guy.” He rolled his eyes, stepping out into the drizzle that was decreasing with each second.

“In that case, why not go to Lilly or Dan?” Barbara commented, carefully slamming the car door. “I'm sure it would be less unpleasant for you.”

“I don't want others to know I'm in town.” Jake said, stopping beside her under the bar's canopy. “Not yet.”

“You're avoiding your sisters, aren't you?”

“It is complicated.”

“I know it's none of my business, but they'd be happy to hear from you. Especially Lilly.”

“Since when have you been Lilly's defender?”

“Believe me, I'm as surprised as you are.” Barbara laughed, brushing an invisible speck of dust off her dress. “How do I look?”

Jake analyzed her from head to toe for a few moments, seeing the way Barbara's hair fell over her arm in messy locks, how her smudged mascara highlighted the beauty of her light brown eyes, and how her dress, almost completely dry, outlined each centimeter of her body.

“Beautiful.”

“I'm serious, Jake!”

“Me too.” He smiled adoringly, intertwining his fingers with hers. “Come on, I don't want to prolong this any longer than necessary.”

taglist: @daniiiworlds; @labemquarts; @deinily

#iamjake #duskwood #moonvale #everbyte studio #jake x mc #duskwood fanfiction

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elysianightsss · 8 months ago

Text

RUN FROM ME DARLIN, YOU BETTER RUN FOR YOUR LIFE | PART TWO

You grab your duffle bag, with one last glance at Kate and the red vials still on the table, you left.

Part of you knew that Kate didn’t know what had happened to you, only that you had been sent away but back then you didn’t care. You hated her and you sure as shit made sure she knew it.

At first you thought it was a good thing, that you missed the helicopter ride out of there, you started to make up with Kate. Bond. But then there wasn’t another helicopter out of there for four months straight. Soon enough you became suspicious and found out why.

The team, excluding Kate, had been ordering whoever was flying that week not to land at the base. You were stuck there and after being there for so long you eventually began to pick up on their obsession with you. At least one of them had to be with you at all times.

Once you got semi comfortable with them they became way too touchy. The one time you managed to get away from them you searched Johnny’s room only to find sketches of you in inappropriate positions and pictures of you sleeping.

You managed to get ahold of Kyle’s phone to find a group chat with the four of them in talking about you. What you smelt like, looked like, your likes and dislikes. All the things they’d love to do to you. They were insane. You knew a crazy person when you saw one and there were four of them on base with you and your sister.

Your sister. The little trust you had built up shattered when you told her what was going on. The guys had been finally called away on a mission, one they couldn’t reject. You were so happy to get rid of them, to have you freedom back, even if a small part of yourself missed their presence. Not that you’d even admit that even to yourself.

You had told Kate all about what you’d found but she didn’t believe you and even scolded you like a child for making up such accusations. That was it, you’d had it. With the four of them following your every move and Kate giving you the silent treatment, you were starting to feel as though you were back in the red room.

You packed your bag in the middle of the night and hot wired a car before driving far far away. You made it to the mainland where you were able to go to the nearest hotel. You waited patiently before watching this older lady leave her laptop open to go get another drink. You swiftly grabbed it and ran into the nearest bathroom.

You booked the quickest plane ticket you could find, it didn’t matter where it was for. Thankfully for you it wasn’t too bad. You would be flying to Italy in an hour, plenty of time for you to get to the airport. Slipping the laptop back when no one was looking, you made your way out of the hotel lobby and out the front.

Now, when you thought that Kate’s team was obsessed with you, you were actually nieave enough to believe it began and ended with you being on base with them. You never even imagined in even your wildest dreams or nightmares that these men would follow you.

Not until you were about to turn a dark corner and you heard the familiar thick Scottish accent, “She’s ain’t just a regular civilian Cap, she’s trained for this type a shit. We can’t underestimate her.” Your hand covered your mouth as you fell into the dark crack in the wall.

Holding your breath as he went past, you watched Johnny with curious eyes before they darted around you. He was there but where were the others? Even bigger question was, did it matter?

At this moment in time, Johnny was the one standing between and the stolen car. Thing probably had a tracker on it, you needed to find a new vehicle but with him right there you wouldn’t get far and it didn’t look like he was moving any time soon.

Your hand moved down to your gun, flicking the safety off it while it still sat in your thigh holster. Just as you pressed the strap away you heard him speak again, something about Kyle coming to his location. It suddenly dawned on you that you didn’t have a silencer on the gun, if you shot him the rest of the team would come running and you’d be in an even worst situation.

Flicking the safety back on and the strap that held it in place you made your decision, you’d have to fight him. Hand to hand combat. Clicking your neck you rushed forward running at a ridiculous speed, he turned just as he heard your footsteps only for you to slam into him.

Both of you bursted through old metal doors, as you stood you took in the dusty, empty warehouse. Rusted railings and stairs, a filthy floor where Johnny was standing from with a cough. Your eyes were back on your target as you pulled out a knife and dropped your duffle bag kicking it to the side.

“Easy princess, just wanna talk.” He holds up his hands in defence while eyeing the knife in your hand cautiously. You ignore the throb between your legs at the nickname rolling off his Scottish tongue. No, you couldn’t be distracted right now. Not when you had a fight to win.

Your pupils widened, eyes darkening as they blackened. A sight Johnny had to admit made him nervous. You were a trained killer after all, but then again wasn’t he?

“No talking.” You clicked your neck to the side, before descending on him. You moved quick he noted, using all his strength and tricks against him. You were right about the girls, you were matching every move he made, countering them with such efficiency and a ruthlessness even Simon couldn’t match.

He’d never seen or felt anything like it.

You were coming at him once again, after getting up like his punch meant nothing. Not even a flinch. Johnny started to panic. Panic that he’d loose this fight and in turn loose you for himself and the team.

He kicked the knife from your hand and managed to be swift enough to kick the back of your legs as well, taking you down to the floor.

“Did you just- kick the back of my knee? Are you fucking serious? Childish little-“ you growl taking another swing which he doges but it gives you plenty of time to grab your hidden two inch knife and stab him in the side just below the ribs. He groans loudly stumbling back away from you.

“Did you think I’d be easy? I warned you didn’t I?” You scoffed, jolting forward sticking your leg out and swiftly taking out Johnny’s legs, he dropped to the floor, using your foot you kicked him in the shoulder sending him across the room, just as you had done to your bag earlier.

“You messed with the wrong cyka.” You growled as he got up, you stalking towards him fury blazing in your eyes.

Johnny grinned like he was enjoying this fight, maybe you were too. His big hand gripping itself on your neck, you grabbed his wrist pushing yourself off the ground swinging around his body and using his weight against himself slamming him down on the ground. He blinked up at you in complete shock, allowing you to grab the knife he’d kicked out of your hand.

He was down and you were ready and rearing for another round, he couldn’t believe it. A little thing like you, “Y’know people only have a certain amount of moves.” You smirked, Johnny raised an eyebrow groaning as he stood up. You didn’t even give him a second, rushing yourself forward jumping on him.

“You have five!” You yelled squeezing his head between your legs, his big hands coming up to grip the fat of your ass. You created a first, the handle of the blade sticking out of it, and hit his head right on the nerve you had studied to make someone pass out. Johnny yelled in pain, his eyes slipping close as he fell unconscious. His grip on you loosened to nothing as he fell backwards onto the floor. You simply landed on your feet looking down at him, your chest heaving.

You ran to your bag, grabbing it and running from the scene. Looking for a car, eyes spotting a brown jeep. Perfect. Hot wiring the car wasn’t even necessary, whoever owned the car had left the keys in the ignition. You pressed the gas and sped off as fast as you could not even looking back, though you did catch a glimpse of a ghost in your rear view mirror.

Shifting gear to four, you kept going. There was no way you were stopping now, you just needed to find a place to go. You weren’t going to make it to the airport on time for your flight. Ah well it wasn’t your money you wasted. Poor old lady.

You didn’t have a plan except to keep on driving until you could think of one.

Hours and hours of driving, petrol stations and greasy food later you pulled into a town which wasn’t marked on the map you stole at WHSmiths next to the Starbucks that had the best coffee you’d ever had in.

You definitely weren’t lost, you knew you’d driven all the way to Glen Coe, the north part of Scotland. Regardless of Johnny’s heritage, seeking shelter here right under their noses was probably a better plan than getting on a plane and moving from place to place where cameras can pick up where you are.

Out here in the wilderness, without WiFi and internet. They’d never find you. You walked around town for a bit then hit the road driving into the forest area to see if you could find a shelter further away from civilisation. And you did.

The present…

Happiness is a fickle creature. A constant companion to some, hides herself entirely from others. She’s been an elusive creature to you. You don’t particularly remember the last time she had visited you, it had been so long since she’d hidden herself away, you barely remember what she looks like. Nevertheless you feel yourself still seeking her out, even if you’re wholly against putting yourself into situations with others.

Just like this one, the Halloween bash. A stupid idea really but..oh who are you kidding it was an idiot idea and you knew it. But they hadn’t found you in the now five months you’d been hiding.

What’s the worst that could happen?

To be continued…

Tags | @fruitymoonbeams-blog

#elysianightsss #RUN FROM ME DARLIN SERIES #poly 141 #141 x you #yandere 141 #141 smut #141 x reader #cod 141 #task force 141

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delawaredetroit · 15 days ago

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This Tetsutetsu dialogue is so much better at setting up Kendo's parallel with Momo than that whole beauty pageant and commercial nonsense. Why is this initially built up as some catty girl rivalry, especially when it doesn't make sense with either of their personalities. This is a fight between two hero course leaders that could have been 75% improved by scrapping the random misogyny.

The crux of their parallel is this: Momo might be a genius with more theoretical knowledge and strategist potential, but Kendo is a level-headed thinker who can make sound decisions in the heat of the moment. Momo gives the vibe of a hyper-competent technocrat while Kendo is a charismatic down to earth type.

Kendo achieved what Momo initially wanted in her class - Kendo is the class president of Class 1B. She has an easygoing charisma that makes her the role model and leader for her class. Momo has a leadership role in Class 1A as vice president but was never seriously considered for the top of the ticket. Momo missed the opportunity to have that kind of leadership role in Class 1A because pre-Sports Festival Momo thought she would make it to the top through demonstrating her individual superiority over building relationships with her peers. She became more of a team player after the Sports Festival, but she lost self-confidence. This lack of self-confidence prevented her from stepping into a leadership role in dire moments in the first half of the story.

The narrative could have gone farther with this parallel. Take their respective roles in the Forest Training Arc/Kamino for example. Kendo defeated Mustard and saved everyone in the forest from the poison gas cloud. But Momo provided the gas masks that allowed Kendo and Tetsutetsu to win that fight and she put a tracker on the noumu. The Forest Training Arc could have been highlighted more to demonstrate that Kendo is the type of leader that rallies the troops to go into battle with her while Momo is the type to consider the logistics and contingency plans.

#bnha reread #bnha 198 #bnha #yaoyorozu momo #kendo itsuka #tetsutetsu tetsutetsu #unlike the last matchup - i have a lot to say about this fight #this could have been an interesting rivalry based on what it means to be a leader if horikoshi had any interest in either of them

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project-sekai-facts · 10 months ago

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Project SEKAI 4th anniversary: Brand New Your World - recap post

Much like last year, I thought it would be useful to make one long post recapping all of the information about the 4th anniversary updates. Even if there won't be as many major updates and changes as last year, we still will be receiving news about other related projects like the movie during the anniversary thanksgiving festival, so I'll be recapping that too.

Note that all of this applies to the JP server only.

Official site link

Before we start, the next Broadcast Station episode will be held on the 27th, featuring Isobe-san, Jiena, Imai-san, and Daichan. It will be broadcast live from the Thanksgiving Festival. Related event speculation will be done in a separate post, and the stream itself can be found here.

Section 1 - Game Updates

Most game updates will be announced during the aforementioned Broadcast Station stream, but some things have already been announced, such as:

Virtual lives (after lives/holiday lives) will now be held every hour, cutting the long wait times between some showings.

You will now be able to collect character rank XP for an entire unit in one go, rather than going to each member's page individually.

Calendars for songs and events will be released in advance, so we finally will actually know in advance what days songs are being added and what days events will run (though by the sounds of things, event lineups will be kept a secret outside of the unit).

Broadcast Station News

A new game mode has been added, called MYSEKAI. It's an Animal Crossing-esque side game that will be available through the main app. More details on this will be in section 6.

A story completion progress tracker will be added. You can earn crystals and gacha tickets based on your progress

You can now earn gacha tickets through Clearing and Full Comboing songs on different difficulty levels. These can only be claimed on the first time you clear/FC a song of each difficulty from 15 to 37. Autoplay doesn't count and you can earn up to 140 tickets.

All Kizuna ranks will be added! All of them! However, the new ones will not have specific titles or unlockables for levelling up the rank. Instead you will be given a title that says "X & Y Fan". The unlockables will be implemented when relevant.

You can now autoplay during Challenge Show. You will also be able to get CH show rewards up to a score of 2.5 million, as well as increase CH rank up to level 150

Project SEKAI is opening a store on their official website. You will be able to buy gems and get some freebies by using it. You will have to use your apple/google account to sign in. By the sounds of things this will replace the in-game crystal shop

Max character rank has been increased to 160, and as always new titles for max player rank and daily login will be added

As per the norm, character rank missions will be increased

Live bonus has been reworked. You will now be able to recover up to 15 bonus energy naturally (the limit is currently 10), and you will be able to overfill the meter to 999 instead of 99. Bonus energy's effect on event pts will also be reworked, refer to the chart below for the new bonuses

It will now be easier to obtain another vocal tickets. Their cost has been reduced in the event exchange and wish piece exchange, and two tickets will be given out from character rank and birthday lives. However, to balance this, the cost of a solo alt vocal has been changed to two tickets. The amount of another vocal tickets you own will be adjusted accordingly in the update.

Fes cards will now count as event bonus towards the event they were released alongside. E.g, the Rui and Rin Bloom Fes cards will count as event bonus for the upcoming Nene event.

The rewards earned from completing the tutorial will be increased. Existing users will be compensated accordingly.

You will now be able to exchange limited gacha tickets for wish pieces

All stories will now be fully voiced, even for faceless NPCs. Currently unconfirmed if this will apply retroactively

Starting from October, the number of random rerun limited gachas will decrease to one. This is because they ran out of gachas to rerun.

Birthday gacha reruns have been reworked. Rather than rerunning all past birthday cards separately, they will now be lumped into one gacha.

Kizuna rank for Honami/Mafuyu, Saki/Mizuki, and Haruka/Len implemented

Section 2 - Campaigns

Here's a list of all the campaigns and gachas that will be running over the next few weeks.

Fortune Flower Parade

This campaign will be held from September 30th for one month

You will be able to collect Fortune Flowers and Petals from event exchange, live missions, and stamp missions.

You will be able to exchange those items for some other special items, such as costumes, skill up scores that will instantly max out your skill, Character Rank XP vials, and some special wish jewels (i'm not exactly sure of their purpose but they have a unique design)

There are six different colours of petals and each can be obtained through different methods and be exchanged for different items. Refer to the chart below

Present 4 You

To celebrate the fourth anniversary, four presents will be given out to players

Present 1: Five 4* guaranteed gacha tickets will be given out to all players. These will also replace the 3* tickets for any new players.

Present 2: All another vocals will be released on youtube for two weeks. You will also receive two another vocal tickets for every character.

Present 3: There will be an in-game survey asking players to pick their three most wanted prizes from a list for the next couple days. The three most picked prizes will be awarded at a later date.

Present 4: There will be a prize giveaway on twitter. For following their twitter and retweeting the campaign post, there's a chance to win some prizes (they're really random like a gopro and a coffee machine lol).

Other campaigns and gachas

Operation Welcome to SEKAI will run again

Special Prize gacha: a gacha where you can earn prizes the more you pull in it. This will run between the 28th and 30th of September. It will also have doubled 4* rates.

Stamp missions and paid costume gachas as per the usual

Happiness Package gacha

Limited edition select list and memorial select list (same as last year)

Section 3 - Songs

Anniversary Song

The fourth anniversary song has been announced! The title is Neppu and it was produced by kemu! Below is kemu’s comment on the song (via @/pjsekai_eng on Twitter).

Song Campaign

The song campaign hint sheet has been revealed, and actually has hints again for the first time in a while. The answers will be revealed during broadcast station on the 27th.

Note: blank tiles include special characters

Answers

Mozaik Role -Reloaded- by DECO*27 (L/n cover + 3DMV)

Mesmerizer by 32ki

Kisaragi Attention by JIN (MMJ cover)

Main Character by *Luna

Call Boy by syudou (BAD DOGS cover)

Kimi to Boku no Resonance by nanameueP

Tensei Ringo by PinocchioP (WxS cover)

Blackjack by YuchaP

Shadow Shadow by Azari (N25 cover + 3DMV)

Outside of the campaign, we also have Cat Food by doriko covered by MMJ + Miku.

This year's high-difficulty commission has also been announced. The song is called Seimeisei Syndrome and was produced by Camellia. It will have a master difficulty of 33 and an append difficulty of 36. A preview can be viewed in the livestream archive (for some reason it was not uploaded to Twitter).

Section 3 - Lives

4th live

Project SEKAI's 4th live was announced last month, titled Unison!! The live will be held in two locations: Osaka on December 13th-15th, and Tokyo on January 24th-26th!

A PV can be found here!

The official account for all information about the live is, as always, @/pjsekai_live on Twitter.

Here are some close-ups of the group artwork above, as well as some chibi artworks. The costumes used as the ones that will be available from the Fortune Flower exchange.

youtube

A video teaching player the glowstick movements and chants for I'm Mine has also been posted to Youtube!

Connect live

A connect live to celebrate the fourth anniversary has been announced. It is titled Brilliant Stage and will be held on the 6th of October! There will also be a "meet and greet" session after the two performances of the live, similar to Resonance Beats. A short login story to commemorate the live will be available on October 5th & 6th.

A medley of previously unperformed songs will be performed during this connect live. The songs were given as Aioi, Hug, Hitsuji ga Ippiki, CYBERPUNK DEAD BOY, and I nandesu.

Section 4 - Event and gacha

The next event will be Carry These Feelings! Dream Stage, a Nene-focused event. Shiho, Airi, and Toya will be the other rateups! The 3* is Ena based on the event logo. Rui and Rin will be featured as the Bloom Fes cards.

The bfes gacha will be Dream Pick, utilising the same system as last year (you get two extra slots to fill). You will also be able to get Fortune Flowers as a reward for pulling on this gacha.

As mentioned earlier, there will also be paid costume gachas. You will be able to earn Fortune Flowers from pulling in these gachas. Here's a preview of the costumes.

Section 5 - Project SEKAI: The Movie

youtube

A Project SEKAI movie animated by P.A.WORKS was announced back in July. More information on that can be found here. A new trailer was shown during Broadcast Station, which can be found linked above. Some new character visuals will be posted below, but aside from that, please refer to the linked post which will go into the new information in further detail.

Section 6 - MY SEKAI

youtube

MY SEKAI is a new gameplay feature that will be added during the 4th anniversary. It's an Animal Crossing-esque farming/life sim game that you can play using your Virtual Live avatar. You can build you own SEKAI and house and decorate it however you like! You will also be able to talk to chibi versions of the main characters and interact with them, as well as visit your friends' SEKAIs!

Your MY SEKAI will also have a new feature called the transformation machine! This is where you can exchange some of your excess resources into things that are more useful to you (that's right they finally made the materials exchange).

I do not know how much storage or power this will take to run. I am very sorry for your devices.

Section 7 - Misc News

A livestream leading up to the 4th anniversary has been scheduled for 29th September at 11:30pm JST (2:30pm UTC). The stream will feature Chiruriin, Honchan, Akina, Daichan, and Ruirui.

A digest video of the previous Colorful Lives will be shown on Youtube on the 5th of October at 6pm JST (9am UTC). This stream will not be archived, so make sure to catch it!

#project sekai #will be updated as new information is released #(also!!! updates will probably be slow on the stream day because i have uni induction stuff literally right after the stream lol)#Youtube

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