#I liked Enterprise even on my third time through

[theblue6ook]

Other Lovers

Summary: Here’s something I didn’t tell you. Our charming bachelor Bruce is still invested in his old fling Rachel and our beautiful assistant Y/N is engaged (but not for long hehehe).

Pairing: Bruce Wayne x fem!reader

a/n: Listen there’s a reason it’s called a slow burn. For more context you can follow the full “Out of My League” series. Also, Y/N is just turning 22, this is doubling as her birthday post. [B (23) Y/N (22)] [Eventual slow burn with Bruce] [Y/N/N is your nickname]

Y/N had known Danny Russel since primary school. He started working at her dad’s mechanic shop in middle school. They started dating in high school. Russ and her were stupid teenagers in love doing stupid teenager things. Going to Chuck’s Chili way too late on a school night. Taking the cars they were working on drifting. Fooling around in said cars…

He’s been there for her since the beginning. Him and Carrie sat and supported her through her run in with the cops, when her dad kicked her out. Even after she decided to further her education, he was there… on his knee… proposing at eighteen. Again, stupid teenagers in love.

They weren’t stupid teenagers anymore.

It had been a long engagement and she was no where near ready to get married and he was… Russ. Always ready for anything. Always ready to tie the knot and that was great. It was, but they had no money and honestly, they’re in different places right now. Russ really wanted to focus on his music. She needed to focus on Bruce. She means work. Whatever. Bruce is her work okay? When he’s stressed it’s her job to get shit done and he seems really on edge lately.

Plus, her and Russ were kind of going through a rough patch. He didn’t exactly seem pleased she was working with Bruce Wayne or even that she was working at Wayne Enterprises. It had always been her and Russ against the world, but now she was in that world. It didn’t exactly sit right with him no matter how much money she made. But she was trying to schedule a date with him anyway. Well a birthday date. It was her birthday. Bruce had been nice enough to make a reservation for her and a plus one at his restaurant downtown. People waited months to get a table and she had one in less than a day. He assured her it was all his treat for her birthday and to go crazy. So she wanted Russ to come. 

“Y/N/N, you have never been that girl who wants to go to The Occult or whatever it is.” She had been sitting at the office on the phone with Russ for the past 15 minutes trying to convince him to come with her. It was getting to be too much.

“It’s The Ocelot, Russ,” she hissed into the phone. She was trying to be quiet about their spat, but everytime she thought they were taking three steps forward it was five steps back. Rubbing her eyes she said, “Seriously don’t be like this. Bruce is just trying to do something nice.”

“That’s great. Let’s let the millionaire finally do something nice for everyone else.”

“He’s a billionaire, actually.”

“Jesus, Y/N/N I am not going to be caught dead in that snobby place. Lets just do something casual babe. Let me take you to Chucks-”

“Russ, I am twenty two years old,” she snapped, “I don’t want to go to the high school hangout and eat chili dogs. I want to look nice. I want to have a nice drink at a sophisticated restaurant.”

“Babe, I can’t afford to take you there. It is what it is,” he stated so condsending. Like his word was god. Like there was no way in the world he could even show up.

“Well shit good thing you don’t have to worry about the money. It’s already paid for, I have told you this. This is the third time I’m telling you this.”

She could tell they were both getting frustrated and Y/N knows they should take a step back. Compromise. But she had done a lot of compromising lately and what had he been doing? This was her birthday. Was it too much to ask her fiance to take her to a nice restaurant? He didn’t even have to pay for it. He just had to show up.

“Since when did you take handouts,” he scolded. “That’s not the Y/N I know.”

“I’ve got to go, Russ,” she sighed and hung up before he could say anything else.

The conversation felt so backhanded. Everytime she talked to him she felt like she was getting scolded for having a nice job, nice clothes, and nice things. Her boss wants to reward her with a birthday dinner. You’re taking handouts. His driver drops her off at home when she has to work late. Why does Bruce Wayne know your schedule so well? She’s been so excited for this new opportunity, but everytime she wants to talk with him about it he doesn’t want to hear about it. The bands not doing well. I’m busy bartending tonight. What do you mean you have to work early tomorrow? No, I won’t come to your birthday dinner.

It made her question herself. He was making her question herself. Maybe I should just cancel the reservation. I’m being difficult. She picked up the phone again and dialed The Ocelot.

“Hi, I was just calling to cancel my dinner reservation.” A hand came from over her shoulder and took the phone out of her hand, hanging it up. She didn’t even need to look over her shoulder, she knew it was Bruce Wayne.

“I was using that, Mr.Wayne,” she sighed, picking up the phone and redialing the number. He took it out of her hand again and unplugged the phone line. She turned to him, “What is your problem?”

“Why are you canceling your birthday dinner?” he looked at her quizically. “It’s free. I’m paying for it. You love free things.”

“That doesn’t mean anything. Everyone loves free things,” she mumbled as she started look up their other contact information on the computer. Maybe I can find an email.

“Even the rich,” he added, “but that doesn’t answer my question.” He leaned his forearms on the front of her desk and hit the off button on her computer so she had no choice but to looked at him.

She leaned her head back into her chair and closed her eyes groaning in defeat, “My fiance, he’s… busy so I’m not sure who I’d really go with.”

“Your fiance is busy… on your birthday.” She gave him a glare that said, just go with it. “Why don’t you take Carrie then?”

“I shouldn’t she has a lot going on-”

“You don’t want to tell her he screwed up again do you?”

“How did you know he screwed up in the first place?”

He shrugged, “I’ve been talking to Alfred.”

“About my love life?”

“What else is there?” So many other things, but it didn’t matter Y/N decided she was done talking about herself. She decided to pivot.

“You know Rachels going to be at the Ocelot too. I saw it on the Gotham Gazette” She looked up at him. “She’s going out with Harvey Dent to celebrate his campaign.”

“How do you know about Rachel?” She gave him that look. 

“Alfred,” he sighed.

-

It wasn’t that Bruce was in love with Rachel he just missed her. A lot. He missed their late night conversations. He missed having someone down to Earth who understood the crazy uptown world they were in. He missed talking with someone about his… night shift. Most importantly, he missed his friend and the fact that she was his friend made him love her. He didn’t even mean to. He just did.

So what was he supposed to do besides… offer to bring the entire Gotham Ballet to The Ocelot the exact day Rachel and Harvey would be there. He didn’t have a choice; she forced his hand. In all actuality, he wasn’t just moving them around for Rachel. Bane is still on the move trying to steal and harbor chemicals and the next CEO he was planning on visiting had made it obvious they were going to the Gotham Ballet. So… kill two birds with one stone. 

Next episode we’ll see Bruce and Y/N “happen upon” each other at the Ocelot. Maybe old flings don’t need to be flung anymore. It’s time for something new and hot (like birthday candles :D)

Also, this was not edited so sorry, I'm MIA this week. I just scheduled this in advance to keep y'all fed this week.

@pank0w @moejoeflow @padsfirewhisky

#batfam #bruce wayne x reader #batman #batmom #bruce wayne #batboys x reader #slow burn

[quasi-normalcy]

So the thing about Star Trek: Picard is...

Say what you will about the first season, but it’s meaningful. In fact, Rios says explicitly what it’s about in the fourth episode: “the existential pain of living with the consciousness of death and how it defines us as human beings.” Pretty much all of the character arcs are about different reactions to this, and the supposed “grimdarkness” of the setting reinforces this point; the Federation has become reactionary and xenophobic because it was a utopia that experienced mass death right on its doorstep for the first time in living memory. The conflict with the Synths is ultimately rooted in the fact that we die; they don’t. The fact that the finale was called “Et in Arcadia ego” really just telegraphs this; “Even in Arcadia [utopia], I [Death] am.”

And the second season, for all its many flaws, carries this theme forward, proposing that love, togetherness, and companionship are the only meaningful candles in the dark. Q is dying; he awaits meaning, and he doesn’t find it. And so he opts instead to do one last favour for Jean-Luc so at least he can spare his favourite mortal from his own fate of dying alone. Jurati is able to connect with the Borg Queen because she recognises that her own motivation is something similar: the Queen can feel herself dying across infinite realities and she doesn’t want to be alone. Seven and Raffi find each other; Rios gives up his entire life for a shot at love. It’s an infernal mess, a budget-saving exercise in want of a plot, but I’m going to be honest: I kind of adore it. I think it’s beautiful for all its flaws.

Throughout the first two seasons, we have serious contemplations of transhumanism and identity in the face of death. Picard escapes death using technology, even as his friend, a living machine, embraces his end as a necessary part of being human. Soji loses her identity even as she gains knowledge of herself as an immortal android. Jurati too embraces transhumanism and, to some extent, loses her identity by so doing, but–in an interesting twist for Star Trek–this is not stigmatized; this is framed as what’s best for her. All of this is philosophically rich, high-octane fuel for thought, as speculative fiction should be.

The third season, meanwhile–for all that I have loved (some of) the nostalgia hits injected directly into my veins–bugs me because of how absolutely lightweight it feels. Death is gone. Not just as a theme, but gone from the narrative. Sure we kill off Ro, and T’Veen, and Vadic, and Shelby, and Shaw, but it feels like nothing. Death holds no dominion; Data is back; so’s the Enterprise-D; so’s Q (or maybe he’s come in from an earlier point in his timeline; it’s not clear). Kirk apparently is alive again, resurrected offscreen sometime after Generations and kept in a covert warehouse awaiting new adventures. Apparently Terry Matalas has already formulated plans for bringing Todd Stashwick back if when he gets his “Legacy” spinoff. I’m half-surprised that they didn’t reveal that Romulus magically popped back into existence in a background Okudagram somewhere. The Federation is as “grimdark” as it has ever been depicted, but unlike the first season (or Deep Space Nine, or even the first season of Discovery), this is never seriously interrogated or problematised. We go through the motions, cargo-cult-like, of moral debate in episode 7, but it’s not connected to anything. We hear that Vadic was the product of Section 31 war crimes; Picard looks shaken up by this, but then he and Beverly immediately decide to commit some war crimes of their own by executing her. This is never mentioned again. The whole exercise feels perfunctory, as I have said above: like ten-year-olds playing with action figures. It doesn’t feel like Picard, and frankly, for all of the surface detail it gets right, it feels even less like TNG.

So no; I’m not pleased that the first two seasons were ignored.

#star trek picard spoilers #themes #I promise I will shut up eventually

[smittywing]

FicBit 11: Jason Todd/Tim Drake

So, I will post this to AO3 later today once I take another run through the formatting and such but I wanted you guys to have this first. Thank you for all the love and support while I was hiccuping this out in pieces! And as always, thanks to @reccea for enabling and betaing and everything.

Previous parts: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10

~

Jason knew Tim and Bernard had broken up four days and six hours before Tim told him. 

Jason was starting to learn that Tim did things on his own time, no matter what kind of crazy it made Jason. 

The important thing was that Tim told him. 

“Bernard and I aren't together anymore,” Tim said carefully. “And I thought.  Maybe.  I could take you out to dinner. On a date.”

“I only put out for lobster,” Jason warned. 

“So I don't know if you've heard,” Tim said. “But I have this really good job at Wayne Enterprises….”

-

“I thought Cannon Fodder made you happy,” Jason said over lobster rolls from a shack in the marina. Jason wasn’t any kind of lobster connoisseur but he was pretty sure this was the best he'd ever had.

Tim was in the process of stuffing the end of his roll in his mouth and had to chew and swallow before he could answer. He scowled when Jason laughed at him. 

“I was happy,” he admitted. “Bernard will always be important to me. He helped me learn a lot about who I am and what I want. I might have just stuck to dating girls because… I hadn't been ready to come out. 

“But the feelings I have for you aren't…new,” Tim said slowly. Jason’s heart leapt in his chest. He kept his mouth shut. “I knew who you were but I didn't know you. And then you were - gone - and then, well, I didn't think there was much of a chance.” He shrugged and looked very interested in reassembling his sandwich. “I thought maybe that was my only chance to kiss you so I took it.”

“I might be open to giving you a second chance,” Jason said. “Maybe a third. If you make it good.”

“Shut up, you asshole,” Tim said, looking up, eyes bright and smile crooked. “You know it's going to be good.”

And Jason had no comeback because Tim’s face was lit up like sunshine and this time he had made it happen, had made Tim feel like that. 

“Anyway,” Tim said, because Jason was too busy grinning to answer. “I didn't want to be that guy but I couldn't handle the idea that we might never figure out what this is between us. So I talked to Bernard and we agreed I should uh, take some time and figure things out.”

“He let you go?” Jason asked, because that was fucking stupid of Cannon Fodder. 

“More like…he needed me to make a choice,” Tim said. “And I couldn’t do that while wondering ‘what if’ all the time.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck because it sounded like Tim was saying he had picked Jason and he wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. Though he was leaning toward gloating.

“I just. I want you to be happy,” Jason said, biting the inside of his lip. “Even if that means seeing Cannon Fodder at Sunday brunch.”

“Yeah, well.” Tim poked at his sandwich and looked up at Jason, his cheeks flushed. “Turns out I just want you to be happy, too.”

~

After a stroll around the tiny marina to “walk off” their dinner, Tim invited Jason aboard his boat and led him below decks.

“Can I take that second chance now?” Tim asked and Jason’s breath caught in his throat. It was just a kiss, they'd done it before, and Jason had kissed half a dozen guys when he was stalking the clubs, but somehow he was still nervous. 

“I mean, you did pony up for the lobster,” he cracked.

Tim reached up and cupped Jason’s face between his hands and drew it down to him. “Hey,” he whispered and then he brought their mouths together. 

It was as good as before, if not better for the longing. Tim’s mouth was sharp and clever and Jason kissed him over and over, unable to pull back. They kissed until Jason’s mouth was dry and he leaned in, chasing Tim’s mouth until Tim’s thumb, pressed against his lower lip, held him back.

“How far did your research take you?” Tim asked and Jason was confused for a moment until he remembered how their conversation in the club had started. 

“Nothing that involved taking off clothes,” he admitted. “I kissed a few guys but none of them were you.”

Tim’s eyes went soft and he stepped back just far enough to pull his t-shirt over his head and toss it behind him. He looked amazing, his arms and chest rounded with muscle, but lithe, graceful. He was pale but had a healthy flush down to his abs. 

“Should I?” Jason asked. 

Tim nodded. “Yeah, if you're comfortable. I think you’ll like this.”

Jason didn't wait to ask what this was, he just dragged his shirt over his head and let Tim look at all the scars that littered his body. They itched under Tim’s intense study and he rubbed self-consciously at his breastbone.

“C’mere,” Tim directed, putting his hands on Jason’s bare waist and pressing back up to his mouth. The heated skin of his chest and stomach slid against Jason’s and Jason gasped with the sensation of naked skin on skin. Tim settled in closer, his palms pushing up Jason's exposed back to his shoulder blades, his arms wrapping around Jason’s ribs and squeezing gently.

“Fuck,” Jason breathed, sensitized and prickling with it, unready for the intensity rising in him. One hand was still pressed against his own chest, the knuckles brushing Tim’s clavicle. He fisted his other hand at his side, unsure what to do with it. 

Tim smiled against his mouth and pulled back, bumping his chin against Jason’s. “It feels good, right?” he whispered. “It's not the same with a girl.”

It wasn't the same with anyone and it wasn't just good. It was intimate in a way that was a revelation to Jason and he brought his mouth down to Tim’s again, hungry and needy in a way Jason hadn’t been with the strangers in the clubs. 

Jason’s skin buzzed everywhere Tim’s fingers had pressed into it. His knuckles prickled where they pushed into Tim’s chest. Jason twisted his wrist so the pads of his fingers grazed Tim’s collarbone and the flesh of his palm curved over warm skin and hard muscle. He paused, mid-kiss, and Tim murmured against his mouth.

“Yeah, like that. Touch me some more?” And Jason had to oblige. 

He spread his fingers, spanning the greater part of Tim’s shoulder and pectoral, his nipple a hard nub against Jason’s palm.  He dragged his hand down until he could circle his thumb over and around it. “Is this weird?” he asked because he'd only ever done it with a girl. 

“Does it feel weird?” Tim asked, tilting his head up. Jason considered. “Because it feels great to me.”

Jason kissed his naughty grin and pinched him lightly. Tim shivered and pressed himself against Jason’s leg and all Jason could think was, I did that.

~

Much later (surely much later than Jason’s internal clock told him) Tim collapsed on the bed next to Jason, his hair falling over his eyes. Jason turned his head, pressing his cheek to the blanket and gazing (sappily, but he wasn't going to be the one to say it) at Tim. Tim’s eyes were closed and he huffed a breath upward, blowing his hair a half inch off his face before it fell back over his eyes. 

“Does this mean we're going steady?” he asked, lifting his hand to brush Tim’s hair sideways across his forehead. 

Tim smiled with that dirty, dirty mouth of his. “If I say yes, do I get to wear your jacket?”

“You can wear whatever of mine you want,” Jason pledged, dropping his hand to thumb Tim’s lower lip. Tim bit him then sucked Jason’s thumb into his mouth. Jason was in the midst of calculating his recovery time when Tim released his thumb with an audible pop. 

“So, um,” Tim said. “Now that you've, you know.  What do you think?”

“You mean do I still think I’m straight?”

Tim smiled gently. “I think we left that idea a while back.”

Jason turned his gaze back to the ceiling. “Yeah,” he said. “Well.” He considered. “Can I just like who I like? Whatever they are?”

“Yeah,” Tim said. “As long as you still like me best.”

“Yeah,” Jason said. “That won't be a problem.”

~ 

One year later…

“Is that blood on your shirt?” Tim asked as Jason settled self-consciously into the place of honor at his Wayne Manor birthday party. This year, he had taken Alfred to high tea at a hotel in New York City for their shared birthday, and Tim had taken him out to dinner - a real, stupidly fancy dinner, with real lobster and only the briefest of supervillain interruptions. 

(But then Bruce said, “Will you come by on Saturday? I promise we’ll keep it small,” and Jason's heart must have grown three sizes that year, because he said,

“Yeah, okay, but don't let the demon brat get me an ant farm.”)

“It's fashion” Jason told Tim archly. “Not that you would know.”

“Not that I would know,” Tim repeated, “from someone whose entire wardrobe consists of cargo pants and black t-shirts.”

Bruce had promised to keep it small and for definitions involving the family, he had more or less kept his word. Dick and Barbara were there, and Tim and Damian, who had been given strict instructions about gifting living beings, but the only other person there was Stephanie. Her gift turned out to be a repeat of last year’s shovel talk.

Tim set a box on Jason’s lap. It weighed a shit ton and wasn't wrapped any better than Jason’s gift to Tim had been. 

“I love it,” Jason said, frowning at the mass of brown fabric inside. “What is it?”

“It's a hammock,” Tim said brightly. “For the boat!”

Jason laughed. “You got me something for your boat?” he laughed. 

“Well, Tim said,  flushing a little across his cheekbones. “I was hoping it might be our boat.”

And Jason had nothing left to say.

#batbrats #tim drake #jason todd #jaytim #jason todd/tim drake #red hood/red robin #red hood #red robin #writing #jason todd's potty mouth #i wrote a thing

[addawithbalmiki]

me wasting my time at my office produced this

(...)

sasuke was never the golden child.

ten year old sasuke would have thrown pens at itachi at that realization. eighteen year old sasuke would have run away and gotten another tattoo in a haze of drunkenness.

twenty-eight year old sasuke makes a face at his cup of cold tea and continues checking his papers. dressed in a proper button-up with no tattoos peeking out, itachi is struck each time by the reality that his little brother is no longer the screaming child, annoyed by the lack of attention.

now, he has graduated to not giving itachi attention.

"otou-san was grim throughout the entire meeting, but my understanding is that he was positively bored. i expected more outrage." itachi sips his third cup of tea. "okaa-san, on the other hand... "

sasuke scowls. he circles one line with his red pen. itachi tries not to take offense at his little brother's distraction.

"i'm beginning to think you're bored of my visit."

"i am." sasuke doesn't even look up as he writes Check the book for once beside his angry red circle. "you are wasting my time here."

"i suppose you'd want to spend more time correcting people's poor attempts at getting dates right." itachi peers at the horrible handwriting. "i don't recall the heian period starting from my childhood."

sasuke pulls back the answer sheet. "kitsune is an idiot." itachi doesn't correct the obviously wrong name. "but he did better this time. and otou-san is indifferent because your decisions in life are always questionable. kisame is atrocious, but it's better than running away from home and joining a gang."

"a society." itachi takes the bait like every single time. it's a comforting pattern. "not unlike your sojourn with your wild friends."

sasuke keeps the marked paper beside him. his scowl becomes more prominent. be it ten, eighteen, twenty-eight - sasuke will never not look like the world has personally wronged him for the decisions he made.

brat, itachi thinks fondly. his appreciation for his brother's rebelling streak never manages to dwindle. itachi might have been the one who left everything and became a lawyer, but he still stayed. he still chose to align himself with the uchiha enterprises. sasuke left and between years of doing odd jobs and trudging through his history degree, he never looked back. as ambitious as sasuke is, he settled to become a high school history teacher with a laughably small salary.

itachi doesn't envy, but it's hard not to. dating kisame might be the most rebelling he has ever done. unlike sasuke, he's not half as brave. or reckless, as he likes to say.

"kisame's face reconstruction surgery is horrible. " sasuke says, blunt in the way he always is. "who the fuck wants to be a shark? "

"you don't understand an artist's soul."

"i don't need to. your choice is horrible." and then: "i'm giving kisame a mask that'll last him 10 years."

translation: i support your choice even though you can do better.

sasuke's kindness is sudden and tinged with so much roughness, it's hard to spot. softness doesn't become him despite his younger years. what would it take for the scowl to go away?

itachi smiles. "i'll give him your warm regards. he'll be happy to know you keep him in your thoughts. "

sasuke opens his mouth - undoubtedly to tear into itachi for his attempt at civility - when there's a knock.

"oh! i didn't know you had a guest. i'll come back later. " a feminine voice interrupts.

sasuke drops his papers on the table. he doesn't smile, but he doesn't need to. he does the closest approximation to beaming - his scowl disappears and his eyes glint like a well-fed cat's.

itachi turns his chair. by the doorway. a pretty pink-haired woman stands, her face sheepish. she has a white coat on.

"hello," itachi greets.

"hello! nice to meet you, " she greets back. a normal person. maybe sasuke isn't as rebellious as itachi thought him to be.

sasuke stands up from his chair. itachi peeks at his expression. if he didn't know his brother well, he wouldn't be able to pin down the slight redness in sasuke's ears.

"sakura," ignoring itachi's widening eyes at the informality, sasuke shoves his hands in his pockets, trying to look cool, "i didn't know you were available. "

the woman in question beams, the softness in her eyes giving away nothing and everything. "i dealt with the students. i wanted something other than mountains of snot. i detest flu season."

"you look tired. sit. " sasuke gestures to itachi's seat.

sakura eyes itachi worriedly. "um, i wouldn't want to impose-"

"-he's going now," sasuke interrupts.

"i am?"

"his boyfriend must be less upset with him now."

itachi stands up and leans forward.

"rude, otouto," he mutters. he shoots a smile at the worried woman and whispers. "a nurse? "

sasuke sniffs with disdain and pride. "a doctor. "

itachi shakes his head and exchanging a genuine smile with the pretty doctor, he heads out. picking out his phone, he calls his boyfriend.

"hello? " kisame asks, confused over itachi calling so early.

"i need the akatsuki to go through the records of a sakura at tokyo metropolitan asuka high school."

#naruto #txt #my writing #sasuke uchiha #sakura haruno #itachi uchiha #sasusaku #ignore my mobile formatting #teacher!sasuke

[southeastasianists]

Tan Ming Li is a certified death doula. Just as there are those who facilitate bringing new life into the world, there should be people facilitating more and better ways to talk about death and dying, she reasons.

In 2023, she started The Life Review, a social venture with the mission to normalise conversations about death, dying and bereavement. Events open to the public include Life Stories, a series of chat sessions with topics such as “Motherless daughters”, “Real men don’t cry” and “Pet loss and our enduring bonds”; as well as Death Over Dinner, in which people come together to have conversations guided by Tan about their personal experiences with loss while sharing a meal.

The last Death Over Dinner took place at South Indian restaurant Podi & Poriyal, where participants were served dishes containing ingredients with special life and death significance in South Indian culture such as black sesame seeds, which signify purification; and jackfruit, the wood of which is often used as funeral pyre logs during cremation.

“What better way for Asians to connect than through food?” said Tan, explaining that Death Over Dinner is actually a global movement that originated in the US, “but we tweaked it so that food was a much bigger component, building the conversations around the ingredients and dishes. In other countries, the concept is just for people to talk about death over the dinner table.”

Tan, who is in her 40s, believes that getting comfortable with talking openly and honestly about such topics is vitally important.

“A nationwide survey conducted last year (by the Singapore Management University) revealed that ‘only 53 per cent of Singaporeans are comfortable discussing their own death while barely a third (33.4 per cent) would do so with someone who is dying’,” she shared.

She feels there is also a tendency to over-medicalise conversations about death, focusing on treatments and doctors.

“As a society, death is not something that is commonly discussed and we tend to be ‘death-denying’. Healthcare and wellness are all about ‘preventing’ death. In fighting against death, we are unaccepting of this natural part of life. This makes it hard to be vulnerable about our emotions around it,” she said.

Even if you haven’t lost a loved one yourself, “When someone else experiences a loss, many of us don’t know how to address the topic and end up using platitudes like ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ or worse, ‘Everything happens for a reason’,” she pointed out.

Ironically, avoiding the subject of death inadvertently gives it more power. “This power can then suppress our thoughts, beliefs and behaviour,” she opined.

NO STRANGER TO DEATH AND DENIAL

Tan speaks from personal experience. When she was 17, her mum died of cancer. “Dad said, ‘Don’t worry, she will recover.’ Her sudden passing left us in shock. I remember my dad brought me to the hospital canteen, broke the news to me and simply said, ‘We just have to accept it and move on’. I don’t think he ever recovered. As far as I recall, there were no conversations about it within the family.

“In the years that followed, I lost my dad, grandma, uncles and aunts… I was frozen in my grief response and it took a mental health crisis for me to start addressing these issues.”

Concurrently, Tan had always been interested in social work, from her university years when she volunteered to support children with special needs, to volunteering to teach yoga and breathing at various institutions including the Society for the Physically Disabled (SPD) and the Institute of Mental Health (IMH). She also lived in Thailand for several years, where she gave her time to a social enterprise helping indigenous craftsmen sell their goods.

Her career was in Advertising Research until she took a sabbatical and travelled to India in 2013. Following that period of time in which to think and reflect, she embarked on a new path, offering services such as mindfulness and movement.

“In the course of my work, I encountered clients who are terminally ill or grieving the loss of a loved one. Curious about how to better support them, I started researching the topic,” she recalled. “One day, I received an email from students working on a grief literacy event, inviting me to facilitate a somatic movement session for parents who had lost their child. Somatic movement involves exploring the body's sensations and movements to promote healing. During this session, many participants were able to release long held emotions within their bodies, even years after their loved one had passed.”

Motivated by the experience, she enrolled in the death doula course offered by the International End of Life Doula Association, an organisation in the US. Participants acquire skills revolving around how to support and comfort the dying and their loved ones.

“As I delved deeper into the subject, I realised that this was something that needed to go beyond supporting my clients one-to-one. The societal reluctance to discuss death openly leads to a lot of discomfort and unresolved emotions surrounding the topic, and I realised the need to scale and bring this out to the public,” she said.

So, “I decided to pursue a Masters of Science degree in Thanotology – even doctors go, ‘What’s that?’ – and start The Life Review as a platform for people to get comfortable discussing end-of-life matters through education and engagement.”

As far as she knows, she’s the only one in Singapore taking a Masters in Thanatology (“When the course started, the Programme Director said, ‘Now we are an international programme, thanks to Ming Li!’”) and one of just four people in Singapore who have completed death doula training.

“While trying to help people going through bereavement and grief, it struck me that I also had to look at my own experiences and work through all the emotions and experiences that I hadn’t known how to deal with – or even realised was necessary to,” she divulged.

“The way society operates, if we experience a loss, we are given three days of compassionate leave – and only for immediate family – and then we are expected to get back to ‘normal’ as productive members of society. But what about losing a friend? A partner? A pet? Do you get over it in three days? Since the norm was to get on with life, that’s what I did. It was only later in life that I realised that it was affecting me in ways that I did not immediately connect back to my earlier experiences, such as in the way I interacted with people in relationships and friendships. I would not get too close in case they would disappear,” she shared.

And so, “The main reason I’m doing this now is because of what I have gone through in my own life. The programmes I’m planning are skewed towards caregivers for now, as I don’t want anyone to be in a situation that I was in.” She added, “It was a turning point for me to adopt cats, knowing that they will die before me, yet to accept this and love them.”

Her work has also turned into “my legacy project for my parents”.

“I have a purpose to fulfil now, to bring The Life Review into fruition, in the remaining years left of my life. And in a way, I’m already planning for my end, making sure that I don’t regret things that I could or should have done,” she said.

DINNER WITH A PURPOSE

At Death Over Dinner events, “The framing of conversations is intentionally designed to be inclusive and non-confrontational. Participants are encouraged to share their thoughts and experiences without feeling pressured to delve into deeply personal reflections or imagine their own funerals,” Tan said.

The dinner serves as a casual starting point for discussions about a normally taboo topic to unfold naturally, fostering a sense of comfort and familiarity around the topic of death, she continued. “The intention is not to impose rigid guidelines or restrictions but rather to offer gentle guidance and prompts to steer the dialogue in a constructive direction” while embracing cultural elements within our specific society.

It is also about equipping people with the knowhow and language to either walk alongside a person who is dying, or to support a caregiver.

There are sessions taking place every quarter, which are open for individual sign-ups. The next Death Over Dinner event is planned for Apr 25 at Podi & Poriyal, with a group size of 12 to 16 people. Tan is also open to private group bookings, and hopes to possibly work with other restaurants as well.

The topic of death is rarely broached when everyone is healthy, she mused. But, in the face of loss, which comes sooner or later to all of us, “People may struggle to find the right words to express their feelings or fears, fearing that broaching the topic could cause further distress or discomfort to the person who is ill. As a result, conversations about end-of-life wishes, funeral arrangements, or even acknowledging the possibility of death may be avoided altogether, creating a palpable tension and unease.

"Dealing with it openly and saying what needs to be said can help the ones left behind adjust to the loss after the person passes away.”

And, “In the case of someone who knows they are dying, people around them not wanting to talk about it can leave them feeling unheard. They may not be able to express their desires; there may be things left unsaid; there may be people tiptoeing around them and telling them, ‘You’re going to be fine’ when they know full well they won’t be.”

The question of how we can begin to approach the topic of death in a meaningful way begs another: How talking about death openly and frankly can help us to live our lives more fully and intentionally.

“Accepting the finite nature of life and finding peace with it can change our outlook on life. When we acknowledge that life inevitably starts and ends, we are able to define what happens in between that holds significance,” Tan said.

“How do we make what happens in the middle matter? How do we leave a legacy for ourselves and future generations? Do we want to spend our time sweating the small stuff and harbouring grudges, or instead, use it to create memories and foster deep relationships? Living intentionally prompts us to confront these questions and align our actions with our values.

“Ultimately, embracing the impermanence of life compels us to live authentically, love fiercely and leave a legacy of compassion and connection.”

To sign up for Death Over Dinner, visit https://thelifereview.org/death-over-dinner.

#Southeast Asia #Singapore #Tan Ming Li #Death

[maxwell-grant]

So yesterday was my birthday and I invited a friend over to watch some movies we’d been each putting off. He showed me They Live, which I’d somehow never seen, for the first time, and I repaid the favor by breaking his brain with Speed Racer and letting him see how everyone ever was 100% wrong about that movie at release and it is in fact the best thing ever, but in regards to They Live:

I expected a good time and had a really great one. I knew about it’s central alien allegory, and how it’s been co-opted by anti-semitic memes and right-wingers who think they’re being cute. I knew it inspired dialogue in Duke Nukem, I knew it was a John Carpenter film starring Roddy Piper with Keith David in it, and that was it. I was blissfully unaware of everything else, including the fact that it somehow winds up being a spiritual successor of “The Challenge of the Beyond”, the pulp writer round robin exercise nowadays most famous for it’s H.P Lovecraft - Robert E.Howard parts.

There’s a post on it that floats around regularly and I’ll link here for better explanation, but in short: Lovecraft’s section of this story had the protagonist George faint from terror constantly and go mad after turning into a giant alien centipede, which was followed by Robert E.Howard immediately retconning said madness in his opening line and having the character embrace his new life as a horrid centipede beast in a new planet and go on a conquering rampage of “titanic adventure” as George the Centipede Barbarian. I bring up George the Centipede Barbarian not because it’s funny, but because They Live intentionally pulled off a very similar kind of brutal tonal dissonance.

They Live is very comparable to The Thing in the sense that it is a 50s concept told through 80s filmmaking and distorted accordingly, to the extent that the black and white parts are not just colored differently, but shot differently from the rest of the film in a way that’s far more reminiscent of 50s horror films. Our protagonist is an 80s meathead cowboy who lives in a struggling urban landscape with mysteries and horrors he never quite understood but continue to plague him and those around him, and he has a moment of truth when he puts on magical sunglasses and finds out that he’s been living in a Twilight Zone episode the whole time, and so has everyone. The black and white allegorical terrors won and have been running everything all along, and that is the point the episode should end with our protagonist horrified and broken, “wouldn’t that be fucked up / doesn’t this remind you of something / these horrors are real” message conveyed, episode over.

Except our protagonist is an 80s meathead cowboy, so instead of surrendering to the horrors after finding out everything is a monstrous lie, he fights back with a shotgun and a bag of one-liners. Dude just immediately, like not even 10 minutes after he first puts on the glasses, starts blasting alien cops and bankers and spaceships. I really did not think that “bubblegum” one-liner happened that early in the movie. This dissonance would have been wonderful regardless but it helps that it’s done so intentionally.

I really didn’t expect that the movie was this 100% completely blatantly unsubtle about the true nature of the alien ghouls as bloodsucking capitalists. It’s not some veiled allegory that can be left to interpretation, the movie tells you repeteadly and explicitly what it is about. The film tells you that the aliens are weaponizing communist paranoia to gain control over cops, preceding a line “We'll do anything to be rich” and then a description of them as “They are free enterprisers. Earth is just another developing planet, their third world” is actual dialogue from the film and that’s just before we learn the aliens all wear expensive watches, that most of the cops going around brutally gunning down the resistance are humans who sold out, and get scenes of the aliens and humans standing around in suits congratulating each other on profit margins. I don’t meant this as an insult but it’s frankly cartoonish in how unsubtle it is, it’s insulting that John Carpenter even had to set the record straight with Yes This Was About Capitalism and Reagan and Yuppie Bloodsuckers You Stupid Fucks like the movie isn’t hammering the point constantly.

If you haven’t watched it, did anyone ever tell you that the inciting incident of the movie is the protagonist being radicalized by police brutality? Yeah, funny, nobody ever talks about what happens in the movie before George puts on the sunglasses. The first 20 or so minutes are about the protagonist, George Nada, arriving in the city and struggling to find a job or place to stay and being offered one by Keith David’s character Frank, who takes him to a homeless community. They have a handful of dialogues together where Frank repeteadly expresses a cynical viewpoint towards life under You-Know-What, over opportunities turning into traps and steel mills giving themselves raises by screwing workers over, and George brushes him off stating he still believes in America, he still believes in getting a fair shot.

George is quickly and immediately reduced to horrified bystander as the police storms his community and destroys their church and goes around beating up them up and evicting tents by bulldozer, while George runs around trying to help and save at least one of them. The next time we see him, he puts on the sunglasses and learns the awful truth and starts his rampage (framed in no uncertain terms as an act of revolution) by doing, what else, shooting cops. Or, well, aliens who approach him as cops and tell him that, now that he sees them, they can work out a deal to profit together if he just goes quietly. The movie makes it as obvious as it could possibly make it.

So yeah, watch They Live, it’s Duke Nukem vs The Twilight Zone’s Episode on Capitalism (with Extended “Guys Being Dudes” Action, I’m glad I didn’t know about that alleyway fight scene beforehand). Also watch Speed Racer, it’s glorious, and it has the exact same villains. Had a really great time yesterday with both.

#they live #film #John Carpenter #roddy piper #keith david #everyone who told me this movie was ambiguous was full of shit #I do wish it was a little more clearly against Othering since that might have prevented it's unfortunate legacy #but you can't blame Carpenter for underestimating how deeply stupid anti-semitists are #it's mostly sad but still funny that american right wingers keep using this movie for their memes #my dudes this movie couldn't possibly be more about you #yes it draws a line between aliens and sellout humans and yes it's more specifically about #unrestrained Reagan capitalism #but come on #the aliens are red white and blue ghouls who treat the world the way America treats the rest of the world #the movie is pointing at you and saying you ruined everything and you deserve to be shot #Avatar wishes it could be this potent as a criticism

[jim-kirks-bubble-butt]

ok ok ok it’s time for my amok time thoughts-

first of all: s p i r k

spock what do you mean your omega heat was resolved by you rolling around in the dirt with your captain??? 🤨

but also just the way kirk was so respectful and understanding about spock’s pon farr and dodn’t make fun of him for it.

can’t believe the 1960’s scifi show had a fuck or die episode which did not result in heterosexuality. truly ahead of it’s time.

and also the way jim and spock were rolling around in the dirt was so gay. no one can convince me otherwise. the way spock slashed his axe thingy (forgot what it’s called) exactly so that it would give jim a tit window??? i know what you are spock.

and of course the biggest moment: JIM :D. seriously what the fuck was that. only time he smiles the wide the whole series (times when he’s under the influence of drugs excluded). homosexuality at it’s finest.

speaking of drugs i find it very funny that the only time spock likes women if either when he’s under the influence or when he’s being mind controlled.

the way spock grabs him and just gives him the biggest stupidest grin. i love spock and spock loves kirk. they are in love you can also see how wide kirk was smiling from the way his cheeks move.

spirk was just so soft with each other this episode, even on vulcan. the way spock was so hesitant to fight him and tried his hardest to convince t’pau even when under the pon farr influence.

the way jim clearly tried not to hurt him through the whole fight,

they make me fucking insane.

anyways

second thing i liked: BONES

i love bones mccoy

spock saying that he’s also one of his closest friends 😭 😭 😭

but he was so smart with the neural paralyzer and i love the way he clearly cares so much anout both of his dumbass friends under his grumpy doctor exterior.

third of all: women

t’pau and t’pring were so powerful and so wonderfully played.

obviously the whole thing with calling t’pring the property of whatever man wins her is very icky but as progressive as star trek was (and still is!), it is a product of it’s time unfortunately.

but besides that, they both just radiated power, and it was so nice to see a woman in a seat of major power.

on another note, stonn has a strikingly small forehead t’pribg i promise i could treat you better.

in my mind uhura wants t’pring (“she’s very lovely mister spock!” i know what you are ma’am.)

fourth: the episode was just. really good.

all of the tension build up before we find out about that spock is basically an omega is masterfully done, and even though i kinda new the plot, i was still sitting on the edge of my seat. incredible.

i also think tbe fight choreography during the gay sex fighting scene was actually really well done, especially when compared to other fight scenes in season 1 (the gorn fight comes to mind).

also the set design for vulcan felt like an actual planet. like usually when they go off the enterprise and onto a planet that’s not basically earth, you can tell that it’s just a bunch of foam blocks, but vulcan was very well made!

the conversation between spirk and kock kirk and spock about “vulcan biology” was very well written and acted in a way that was slightly awkward because of the nature of pon farr, but still felt natural and very in character.

side note: i see online that there’s a lot of people who think that shatner overacts. and i just don’t see it. idk i think he’s really good at playing kirk. i don’t really like the guy, but i like how expressive his acting is.

anyways this was very jumbled but i had a lot of thoughts and yeah.

i too would write the first slash fic in the 60’s if i saw this shit on my tv.

also does anyone know what tag i should use for kirk? i use like 4 different ones each time but is there one that’s more common? same for mccoy.

#star trek #star trek tos #spock #spirk #james kirk #jim kirk #leonard mccoy #first time watching #bones mccoy #james t kirk #amok time #star trek the original series #k/s

[electronickingdomfox]

"The Price of the Phoenix" review

These are the naked voyages of naked Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise...

Published in 1977, and written by Marshak & Culbreath (editors of The New Voyages collection of short stories). I had already read some books by these same authors, and their hyperbolic, hyper-emotional writing is present here as well. There's something really awkward about their writing, and a lot of times I found myself re-reading passages, because I had no idea what was going on. To quote McCoy at one point: "Spock, will you speak English?" There's too much introspection, description of feelings and discourses for my taste. Also, the authors often use the characters to voice their own philosophical ideas, and their theories about alpha males, whether it fits the character or not. Overall, I don't think the novel felt very Trek-like, or that the characters were "right" (Spock, in particular).

The book is sufficiently weird to be worth the reading, though. According to the authors, it was personally approved by Roddenberry. It's also notorious for being quite dark and violent for TOS standards, and for having Kirk completely naked half the time. Which means, this is Roddenberry-sanctioned smut, no less.

Some spoilers under the cut.

The plot is very simple and straightforward. The Enterprise is visiting a rogue planet ruled by the giant Omne, who offers refuge for bandits all over the galaxy. The Romulan Commander (from The Enterprise Incident) is also there, negotiating with Omne. Kirk is presumed dead during an accident on the planet, but Omne reveals to Spock and the Commander that he has conquered death through a process to clone a person, with all his thoughts and memories intact. He offers a new, shiny Kirk clone, in exchange of Spock betraying the Federation, and the support from the Romulan Empire (the prize for the Commander would be keeping both Kirk and Spock for herself, after their betrayal). Things change once they discover that the original Kirk actually survived and is locked inside a subterranean labyrinth. Then Spock, the Commander and clone-Kirk storm the complex to rescue him, while getting into plenty of fist fights against Omne.

There's something reminiscent of Westerns in the one-on-one duels, and the general badass attitudes. It's probably intentional, given the Wild West motifs throughout the book. Spock dresses and talks like Clint Eastwood, which is... great. The Romulan Commander is also a total badass, and I liked her better in this novel than in the series episode. As counterpart, we have the scantily clothed Kirk clone, who's pretty cute and vulnerable, and develops a moving romance with the Commander. The love story, for once, has a happy ending. I liked them as a couple. Omne, the supreme alpha male, dressed in a black jumpsuit with a holster for his revolver, is an entertaining villain. Suitably obnoxious in his invincibility. I was a bit confused about his real motivations, though.

To summarize, even if I didn't particularly enjoy reading this novel, it was entertaining in its own crazy way. Also, Spock receives a kick in his groin. Consider that.

Spirk Meter: 11/10*. Yup. This novel is slashier than the series or movies ever were. Spock is willing to risk everything to save Kirk, even betraying the Federation. But that's not it. Things like that happened several times in the series, and it's the whole plot of the third movie. There are, however, a couple scenes that are the reason for this high rating. One happens when Spock mind melds with a totally naked Kirk clone. They move "surprisingly close" to each other, and there's an undeniably eroticism in the descriptions of Kirk being "warm" and "open" to Spock's touch. Not enough? Well, Spock also creates a bond with him, to monitor his movements. Another scene happens when Kirk (the original one) undresses Spock to treat his wounds. Of course, it goes without saying that Kirk's naked while doing so (because Omne treated his wounds previously, and didn't care to give him clothes). So yeah, Kirk gets to bounce his stuff around a lot, as the cheerful alpha male he is. One could argue that the fight in Amok Time surpasses this, since the sexual motif is explicit there. However, I think that the scenes from the book read as more erotic than anything Kirk has done with Spock (or any woman) in the series.

On another side of things, Omne's total obsession with Kirk is quite telling. One moment he's beating him to a pulp, and the next he's tenderly treating his wounds, and planning for them to spend a thousand years together in their bunker. If clone Kirk and the Commander is the main love story, it's obvious that Kirk and Omne are intended as a dark, twisted counterpart for that.

The great loser in all this is McCoy, who despite being the doctor, never got to treat any naked Kirk. He calls him gorgeous, though, and manages to touch his scars a bit while he's dressing. But I guess McCoy wasn't alpha enough for the authors. Sorry, Bones.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #k/s #spirk

[stars-inthe-sky]

15 questions for 15 friends

Tagged by: @village-skeptic

Are you named after anyone? My Hebrew name (Ariel B'rucha) is allegedly to do with two Benjamins, which I've never fully understood but remain grateful my parents went with that instead of Benyamina, in general but also because with Jewish day school I ended up getting called Ariel half of every school day for six years.

When was the last time you cried? Probably in November or December. Morning sickness suuuuuuucked.

Do you have kids? One extant, one en route, one dog that I refuse to call a "fur baby" but she definitely thinks she's people

What sports do you play/have you played? I played softball from ages 9 through 18; you'd think I'd've been better at it. I had a brief kindergarten-era stint on a soccer team but was very much the kid who made daisy chains for both teams (including during gameplay). As an adult, I've been much more into solo enterprises like running and skiing; I'm not especially remarkable at any athletic endeavors, but those make me much happier.

Do you use sarcasm? Frequently, although I try to tone it down around Bébé, who is incredibly verbal and soaks up anything you say like a sponge but doesn't quite appreciate the nuances of adult conversations yet.

What’s the first thing you notice about people? Clothes? Hair? I don't know. If I'm just wandering around the neighborhood it's probably whether they have a dog along.

What’s your eye color? Green

Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings, for sure. I'd even take unhappy endings over anything scary or horror.

Any talents? I've been told reaction gifs are my superpower, but most people don't know that's just being on Tumblr for too long.

Where were you born? Philadelphia

What are your hobbies? Knitting, running/exercise (though less so at the moment because third trimester), this hellsite

Do you have any pets? Phoebe the mini goldendoodle!

How tall are you? 5'5"

Favorite subject in school? English/literature/creative writing, although I majored in political science in college and took enough extra math and science classes in high school that the college counselor thought I wanted to go pre-med.

Tagging: @angstyteenagesam, @ballroompink, @clubgetright, @gallifreyburning, @hondagirll, @iloveyouandilikeyou, @kyrafic, @lulabo, @miabicicletta, @poehlaris, @ryeloza, @sadieb798, @stillscape, @sullenaquarian, and @whimzical

#about me #about me meme #meet the blogger

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

DOVE TALE

Again and again I find myself sheepishly admitting that Star Trek, as in the original series, is my all-time favorite TV show. It's a little embarrassing to acknowledge that, north of sixty years old, I keep going back for comfort and refreshment to the corny sci-fi show that I loved as a kid.

Worse yet, for all the show's sophomoric heavy-handedness and cultural chauvinism and ludicrous science and inconsistently applied social values, I keep finding relevance, even prescience in it.

For instance, this past weekend I watched the third-season episode, scripted by the redoubtable Jerome Bixby (also author of the story that became the Twilight Zone favorite "It's a Good Life"), called "Day of the Dove..."

You may remember it: Both the Enterprise and a crew of Klingons arrive at a planet, lured there under false pretenses by a powerful incorporeal alien Entity. Through a variety of mind tricks and matter transmutation, the Entity gets the Federation crew and the Klingons trapped together aboard the Enterprise, which is hurtling out of control on course to leave the galaxy.

Onboard, the factions are allowed their own turf, armed with swords--Scotty admires "a Claymore..."

...and psychically aroused to furious hatred toward their adversaries and even toward each other. They soon discover that the conflict between them is self-renewing; their wounds heal miraculously and the Entity allows neither side complete victory.

As a kid, I always thought it was a pretty cool episode. It had plenty of action, including swordfights, and the coolest and most badass of all the original series Klingons, Kang, played by the rumbly-voiced Michael Ansara...

...towering over Shatner...

It was also the only glimpse we ever got, in the original series, of Klingon women, notably Susan Howard as Kang's wife and science officer Mara...

In the course of the show Chekov, under the Entity's evil influence, attempts to violate Mara, although it looks like she could smack his little ass across the corridor with one hand.

Along with Chekov, Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and Uhura all get to work themselves up into highly entertaining angry lathers in this one. Shatner's in particularly hilarious, wound-up form here: "Look at me...Look. At. Me." And there's the great moment when the hysterical Scotty, responding to Spock's attempt to calm him, says "Keep your Vulcan hands off me," but it sounds like he said "Keep your f**kin' hands off me."

But watching it the other night, it occurred to me that this episode seems unusually relevant these days. I noticed this a few years ago about the second-season episode "The Omega Glory" as well. The theme, about the dangers of fetishizing and theocratizing America's foundational documents and other objects of patriotic regard like the flag, seems like a pedestrian, basic civics lesson. But it turns out that our society needs to be reminded of it regularly.

Similarly, with "Day of the Dove," the message might seem, at a glance, like the usual honorable but ineffectual Star Trek platitudes about the horrors of war and the bondage of bigotry and the liberating virtue of tolerance. But now, in light of the revelations from the Dominion lawsuit, it has a strikingly specific subtext. Because, of course, the reason the invading Entity is attempting to create this hellish eternal conflict on the Enterprise is that it feeds on violent hatreds, turning from yellowish-white to a happy shade of red...

...when it sucks up some delicious fury.

It creates false narratives in people's minds to stir up their bloodlust--Chekov claims his brother was killed by the Klingons; Sulu later explains that the brother is imaginary, as Chekov is an only child--and feeds both sides with propaganda to gin up enmity. Essentially, the Entity is a farmer, planting outrage so that it can harvest rage.

In other words, the Entity is Fox News, and the "news" media machine of which Fox News is the most successful and egregious example. I mean, isn't it, kind of?

In this context, some of Bixby's lines take on an extra resonance, as when Kirk speculates "Has a war been staged for us, complete with weapons and ideology and patriotic drum beating? Even...Spock...even race hatred?"

Or, when Kirk says "It exists on the hate of others," and Spock replies "To put it simply. And it has acted as a catalyst, creating this situation in order to satisfy that need."

Or, again, Kirk's desperate appeal to Kang, in the climactic minutes: "...and it goes on, the good old game of war, pawn against pawn! Stopping the bad guys. While somewhere, something sits back, and laughs, and starts it all over again."

In the end, Kang is persuaded, a truce is ordered, and the weakened Entity is chased off the Enterprise to hearty laughter from both sides...

Kang slaps Kirk on the back and for a second it looks like Kirk is going to pass out. A lovely moment; I would highly recommend it for our nation right now. But as the Entity goes flittering off the ship into space, it's all too easy to imagine it scurrying down to some TV "News" Network on some unsuspecting planet.

#star trek #day of the dove #william shatner #deforest kelley #leonard nimoy #walter koenig #george takei #nichelle nichols #michael ansara #susan howard #jerome bixby #dominion lawsuit #james doohan #klingons

[izvmimi]

malevolent enterprise ch. 9

cw: ceo!au. you and nobara get to know a little more about each other. header by @/cafekitsune! masterlist

“Third time really is the charm, I see,” Nobara says, smirking as you walk down the front steps of the office to meet her. It’s evening and the orange tones of the overhead sky mix in with her bob, as you approach her, holding your designer bag tightly to your side. Nobara’s eyes pass over it and she looks away but once you meet her, she compliments it and your shoes.

“Finally someone else on our floor has refined taste,” she says as the two of you head down the street to the trendy bar/restaurant at the end of the corporate district, the type that hires men and women that are pretty enough to serve at host clubs but insist they don’t provide that kind of service.

You laugh, but she stops in her tracks and looks at you dead serious.

“This is not a game. These men embarrass me.”

You think about the protein Perrier again and shudder. 

Once you’re seated, Nobara orders a shochu highball with lychee, and you order a Cosmopolitan that you sip slowly while Nobara does her best to size you up as a person, asking you questions that attempt to pick below your overall well-contained exterior.

“How do you like the place so far?” she asks, and of course you have a practiced answer. The community is great, the hours are good, you’ve been able to very easily speak your mind and take stances, Yuuji is a great boss, etc. Her eyes narrow as if she’s uninterested.

“Boring,” she says outright, and you nearly choke on your drink.

“Kugisaki-san, respectfully, did you think I was going to shittalk the place?” you reply, and the casualty of your language delights her. 

“No, but it would have made you more interesting. I like complainers.”

“I’m sorry to disappoint.”

Your sass entertains her more and she grins, slipping a yakitori stick into her mouth and pulls the meat off the stick a little too cleanly. 

“You know, I hate this job.”

You blink. She shouldn’t really be telling you this considering that she’s acting Chief Financial Officer, you think, but you nod, then swirl your drink, noncommittally. It’s very clear that most of her subordinates do the work anyway, although you don’t doubt her abilities.

“Why so?” you ask. You try to keep your tone casual and non-confrontational but it occurs to you that there’s very little you could ever do to ever intimidate someone like her. She shrugs.

“I want to be an influencer.”

As she says this she’s scrolling through something in her phone, and then shows you her lifestyle Instagram. She’s not famous enough that you would have heard about her, but she has a decent amount of followers and you imagine that with more dedication, she could be quite popular.

“Offices, meetings, paperwork, all that nonsense, have never really been my thing. I’m just helping out Itadori since we’ve been friends for so long, since college. We started at the same time, when his grandpa insisted that he join all because he said he needed a friend. I ended up this high up as a fluke.”

You nod. You’ve figured out that they were a bit close due to the way she interacts with him between board meetings and run-ins in the hallways, but didn’t figure that there was that much history involved. 

“So why haven’t you left?” you ask. She gives you a look, then sighs.

“Didn’t want to ditch him during his time of need,” she admits. “I don’t come from a fancy background like he does, so I have to remind him when he’s being too bourgeois once in a while and making a big deal out of nothing. He wasn’t supposed to inherit, you know.”

You do know. Your thoughts flit to him and his easy smile, then to the pensive furrow of his eyebrows. He doesn’t make huge mistakes, but he’s unsure at times. He asks you for your opinion too much, he worries too much about how his employees feel.

“The salary is good though,” she mentions. You nod. Your check is fat enough that you’ve been able to put away Gojo’s severance package as a little nest egg in your savings.

“Have you told him you want to leave?” you ask. 

She laughs. “Need to save a little bit more if I truly want to travel for the rest of my life.”

“Mm,” is your reply.

“I think Itadori would be willing to fund my channel at least in the beginning but the idea of being indebted to a man kind of disgusts me.”

She reaches for another yakitori stick and you take the opportunity to stuff your mouth with gyoza. You have to admit that you’re a bit more curious about their relationship, with an urge to pry. Kugisaki is beautiful and elegant, but crass enough that it pleasantly brings her down to earth. They make a good pair.

You try to avoid your urge to ask more questions by joking, “I know that’s right,” as you clink glasses with her.

Her eyes narrow for a moment, then she props her chin up by her hand.

“Interested in anyone?” she asks. The sudden question catches you off guard, but you figure with girl talk this will eventually happen.

“Actually, I just got out of a bad relationship,” you say, keeping your tone light. Bad is an understatement. You’d caught your boyfriend trying to arrange an orgy in your home with three girls while you were on a business trip and kicked him out expeditiously without bothering to even take the time to really yell at him. After all, he might have been more of a pet than a partner, but that was an entirely different story. 

“Loser?” Nobara asked, sipping the last of her drink through a tiny straw, the pull-through of air loud.

“Cheater,” you offer. She looks at you.

“Damn. Let’s stab him.”

This makes you laugh out loud. 

“Thank you, but not worth it. I didn’t really care about him by the end anyway.”

Nobara offers you a high five. “Are you seeing anyone?” you ask, finally, despite having told yourself to avoid probing just moments ago. 

“Kind of,” she again appears to act uninvested but you can see a gentle pink flush on her cheeks that you’re not sure is from the alcohol. You think about Yuuji again then blurt out,

“Workplace relationships aren’t frowned upon here, are they?”

Nobara looks confused for a moment. “No, why would you ask that?”

It’s your turn for your cheeks to warm. “Oh, I assumed maybe, with Itadori-san, you-”

“I like women.” Nobara says flatly, a hand up to stop you from even considering the thought. You blink, and your mouth forms an O, and she’s amused enough about your reaction to laugh. 

“Don’t worry, I don’t fuck where I eat though,” she pauses, then looks you up and down again. “Although you’re cute, I won’t deny that.”

Another clean yakitori stick, and you have to shake the fact that she has genuinely flustered you out of your head. She’s caught this too, and she laughs, slapping your shoulder.

“Relax, newbie!” 

You loosen up, then consider that you might need to order another drink. The waitress comes around for another round and you find that you’re relieved at the thought that Kugisaki is not interested in either you nor your boss.

“How was it like working for Satoru? You didn’t try to fuck him too, did you?” she asks upfront. Your eyes widen, and she grins. “Listen, I might be immune to his charms, but not many in Tokyo are.”

“He’s kind of gross, but he’s kind in other ways.” 

Nobara’s displeased face throws you off so much you end up snorting.

“Okay, no more talk of men, we’re not passing the Bechdel test at all, are we?” she pivots.

You laugh. The remainder of the evening has you talking about your background, your families and all of your friends, and you’re thankful to have a new one by the end.

#nobara kugisaki x reader (platonic) #nobara x reader (platonic) #daydreams: jjk #mimi's notes #mimi writes: malevolent enterprise

[disgruntled-lifeform]

Here we go, fibre haul! You guys ready?

So all of these lovely bits of floof were purchased from The Fiber Imp.

The owner is so nice, I thought I'd give them a little shout out so you guys can buy any floof you like the look of here:

Most of the nerdy stuff I am sourcing my info from is a site called NWyarns.com which has great indepth info in the histories of many breeds of sheep and how they became the sheep we have today.

If I grab info from another website then I'll mention it specifically but otherwise this all comes from NWyarns.

Now let's dig in shall we?

First up, we have Rocky Mountain Skies

This one is commercially dyed and all 100% merino.

Domesticated in Mesopotamia sometime between 11,000 and 9,000 BCE

If you were not select royalty you were pretty much out of luck – there were no legitimate ways for the average sheep farmer to get a prized Merino ram or ewe until about the first decade into the 1800s. However, there were certainly illegitimate ways. Paying someone to smuggle Merino sheep out of Spain offered the chance of a prized ram or ewe. Certainly that is how the U.K. acquired their first Merino sheep (4 rams and 2 ewes), which Sir Robert Banks paid some enterprising business person to smuggle out of Spain via Portugal.

However, more often than not, it appears that the people purchasing Merinos through less than legitimate means during this time frame were either getting scammed or simply provided with any Spanish sheep that smugglers could manage to get out of Spain.

Merino is renowned for its fineness and elasticity, which can be made into woven, knitted, crocheted or felted wool fabrics that can be very comfortably worn directly against the skin. Merino is graded to a variety of micron widths including Superfine (17.6-18.5 microns), Fine or Extrafine (18.6-19.5 microns), Fine Medium (19.6-20.5 microns) and Medium (20.6-22.5 microns). Unless otherwise specified, you will find that most merino available in commercial clothing and most yarns is in the Fine Medium to Medium range. However, even though the Fine Medium and Medium Merino is the most common, it is by no means coarse! 22.5 microns is still quite fine, and extremely comfortable to wear directly against your skin.

Next up is Spellbound

75% 18.5 Micron Merino / 25% Mulberry Silk

This next bit of info comes from Casper.com:

Mulberry silk comes from the Morus Alba tree.

Originating in China over 5,000 years ago, “sericulture” is the ancient process of spinning silk.

Mulberry silk is made from the cocoon of the Bombyx mori moth. Before metamorphosis, the caterpillar feeds exclusively on the white mulberry leaf.

Smoother and stronger than any other silk in the world, mulberry silk is a textile powerhouse. Famous for its durability and lightweight quality, mulberry silk is able to retain up to a third of its weight in moisture. Because of this, it doesn’t emit a smell when damp and doesn’t need to be left out to dry for a long amount of time, making it relatively easy to manage.

Au Naturel

Undyed blend of superfine merino, dark brown alpaca, mulberry silk and baby camel.

Alpaca:

Alpacas are in the camelid family -- the same biological family as camels and llamas.  

Although they can be found around the world today, alpacas originated in the Andes mountain range of South America. They are descended from vicuña, a wild camelid native to South America, in the Andes mountain range.  The domestication of the alpaca for fiber and meat began up to 6000 years ago, with the people who lived in the Andes.

Alpaca hairs are hollow, making it a go-to fiber for crafters and manufacturers who are looking for softness with superior insulating properties. It is also surprisingly strong for such a soft, fluffy fiber.

Alpaca fiber comes in various qualities, ranging from fibers nearly as soft and luxurious as cashmere to lower quality fibers with a similar texture to fine wool. Most yarn and spinning fiber available relies on the high quality, fine alpaca. It is more difficult to find coarser alpaca, as there is little demand for it in North America. Alpaca is also hypoallergenic, making it very popular for people with skin sensitivities.

This next bit is from SpinoffMagazine regarding the Bactrian camel:

Bactrian camels have two humps and are found primarily in Mongolia and China.

Bactrians are the source for the soft down we associate with fine camel hair garments. Their fiber naturally sheds and can be combed away or gathered as it falls.

While the website for the Cashmere and Camel Hair Manufacturers states that Bactrian camels produce as much as 17 to 22 pounds of fiber annually, other sources cite amounts as low as 5 pounds. The higher amounts probably include both hair and down.

The outer coat and mane hair is long (12 inches or more) and coarse. It protects the animal from the elements, shedding dirt and water. The fine undercoat is much shorter, averaging 1 to 5 inches long, although it usually measures less than 3 inches in length. Some of the fiber shortness in commercial camel preparations may result from the dehairing process. The micron counts (fiber diameter) for camel fiber have a huge range. While the down averages 20 to 23 microns (similar to Merino wool), it can be as fine as the finest cashmere.

Samples from some United States Bactrian camel hair that had all the outer coat fibers removed ranged from 6 to 120 microns, with most of the sample measuring 18 to 19 microns. Camel hair has some crimp and a small amount of elasticity.

When working with the fiber in batt form (a cloud of carded fiber), I simply peel off thin layers of fiber.

Rovings (strands of carded fiber with a small amount of twist) and top (strands of long fibers in parallel arrangement) require no further preparation although they are sometimes easier to spin when split into narrower strips.

Because the camel fiber is short, thin strands of roving or top will probably drift apart if you try to predraft. You can also prepare for a lightweight yarn by handcarding the down fiber from any form into rolags.

This next bit of fibre is what pulled me into the shop in the first place, Dragon's Breath

Bamboo:

In the late 19th century, the first semi-synthetic fiber in history was invented – viscose rayon! Known as artificial silk until its rebranding as rayon in 1924, rayon has become a significant part of our fiber landscape.

In the yarn and fiber world, we most frequently run into rayon when it is labeled as bamboo or viscose.

More recently, you can also buy viscose rayon labeled as rose fiber (having been sourced from the cellulose of rose bushes), or even purchase viscose rayon fiber that comes from seaweed.

While these fibers are often advertised as eco-friendly because they come from plants, that is not necessarily the case.

It has had a history of adverse health effects on the workers involved in its manufacture right up to the present day.

A short and somewhat abbreviated version of viscose rayon production goes something like this.

All rayon begins with pure cellulose. This cellulose is treated with a caustic soda, and goes through a number of curing processes and chemical treatments, including a process called Xanthanation in which it is mixed with carbon disulfide. The resulting material is dried and ground into a powder, and is dissolved in yet another caustic solution to form the viscose, the viscous solution from which viscose rayon receives its name. Allowed to stand for a period of time, the viscose solution is strained and then extruded through spinnerets, which land in a bath of sulfuric acid, forming rayon fiber. The fiber is then washed to remove any residual chemicals and make it safe for the wearer.

By the time rayon fiber and fabric hits the market, there are no traces of any chemicals that could harm the person wearing it. The same can’t necessarily be said for the factory workers, either in the past or today.

They go into more detail if you want to dig in further but I will need to research more myself before I commit to further bamboo purchases.

I will continue this in part 2!

#long post #wool #alpaca #camel #bamboo #fibre #show and tell #fiber #hand spinning #yarn #craftblr #part 1 #haul

[dragonsongmakhali]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags:

Basic rules: choose 10 fandoms that you are part of/support, and choose a favorite character from each of those. Then, tag ten folks!

Tagged by: @jigschosai @sealrock @reikatsukihana and @sasslett! Thank y'all :'D

This is not ordered by how much I'm into them, they're just in whatever order came to mind :) I will caution that I don't tend to choose favorite characters, I'm more of an OC maker. Feeling chatty, so I'm putting the actual list under a cut. You're welcome.

1. FFXIV : Pretty self-explanatory for the xiv sideblog. Since I'm not as in to the MSQ, I don't think I actually have a favorite character (which I know is illegal, I'm sorry :<). I really love seeing what the community does with the characters, though!

2. Halo : The storyline went to hell long ago, but I do still adore the original trilogy and constantly mine it for gpose captions. It was basically what I lived off of in high school. If I had a tumblr back then, I'd have been insufferable. Favorite character is easily Rtas 'Vadum.

3. WoW : Kind of. Asterisk. I really only know Classic, and even then, I'm way more Horde than I am Alliance. I have approximate knowledge of many things. No favorite there either - I'm all about the world and making OCs. We have two concurrent WoW tabletop games running at the moment, so this is where most of my headspace is. Their shared timeline is different from the canon, so I'm not really in the fandom per se.

4. Mass Effect : Alien dating sim, my beloved. I even enjoyed Andromeda (jump jets implemented perfectly, fun combat, the Jardaan reminded me of Forerunners). If you ask me to choose a favorite, I'll cry. How is a mother supposed to choose between her two sons (Legion and Grunt)? Drack also gets an honorary mention for his 100s of low res pictures of guns email.

5. Elder Scrolls : Mostly Skyrim, some Oblivion. I know, I'm one of those fans. Anyway, I've probably played over 1k hours of Skyrim by this point and yet. And yet! I don't have a favorite. The entirety of the Companions? I just wish that the faction questlines in Skyrim weren't "you killed 3 wolves and have been here a week. You lead us all now", but it does give me good scaffolding which. As an OC fiend. Grabby hands.

6. The World Ends With You : This game made me good at calculus in high school. My favorite character from here is Sho Minamimoto, and I was a completely normal teenager who dealt with that by doing calculus problems for fun. Turns out, the trick to get good at math is repetition.

7. Pokémon : Probably my earliest fandom. Still play the games now and again, just got Legends Arceus (super late, I know), and that's been a lot of fun. My favorite character from the franchise is Sinnoh's Rock type leader, Roark. I had a long-running sideblog dedicated to the Sinnoh region because gen IV is my favorite in general! It's inactive at the moment.

8. Guild Wars : 2, to be more precise. I started playing about a month after release, and since it's f2p, I still drop in from time to time. Like every MMO, I have no favorites. I really love playing Sylvari, though! (The glow!! The nightmare!! The [[Heart of Thorns spoiler!!]] They're just so neat)

9. Star Trek : we're now getting into "shows I watched and didn't hate" because I'm definitely not in the 'fandom' for Trek. We've been going through the old series as a way to wind down before bed, starting with TNG. We're on Enterprise now, and I'm sad that it got canceled. Still will probably have a better ending than Voyager. I don't have a favorite, but I can tell you that the writers' collective favorite must be either Seven of Nine or Data.

10. Uh. Various anime? I can't say I've recently loved any particular series to the point of fandom, but as a whole, I've been a weeb since I was in middle school. "Recent" series that I've enjoyed have included Mob Psycho and Love is War. Coincidentally, they both saved the most banger opening for their third season.

We had to stretch a little bit, but we made it to ten! Proud of this community (this community is my brain desperately trying to remember 10 things I like)

Have no idea who's been tagged in this, so if you've done this, please ignore! Or reblog it again!

@miqojak @airis-ray @wilanserulia @ahollowgrave @blackestnight @starstrider @iron-sparrow @sumifinalfourteen @jump-n-dive @otherworldseekers

#it was so hard to come up with more than 8 imma be real #i tend to hyperfocus for years on things so I'm more depth than breadth #sorry makhali all of my brainworms are for the tabletop :( #tagged

[queenlyfae]

HEADCANON: You’re Captain Christopher Pike’s Feral SO

Captain Pike x Female Reader

Authors Note: this was partially beta read but 100% written on my phone

◦ Really?

◦ You.

◦ No really, you?

◦ This is Captain Christopher Pike of the USS enterprise and you’re… you.

◦ When the discovery heard that Captain Pike long time SO (or as he told Michael ‘I have a Lady, she means the world to me and I had to pull a lot of strings to bring her over from my ship to here.”) was coming over from the Enterprise, they were expecting… not you.

◦ This got told to your face multiple times, especially by Tilly, not even questioning why she was helping carry your stuff to the captains quarters until she was halfway back to her own quarters and then she was like ‘…wait’

◦ Tilly’s your favourite, tbh.

◦ As Paul Staments once said when the entire ship realised you were Pike’s SO:

“it’s nothing against you, it’s just that you’re… you and Captain Pike is Captain Pike. When you think of who Captain Pike’s Lady would be, you think of someone very… Pikey. Not… you.”

◦ (If you imagine it in Anthony Rapp’s voice it makes total sense and doesn’t sound bitchy at all)

◦ In the crews defence, at no point did you or Pike ever attempt to correct them or let them know who exactly Pikes SO was.

◦ They just knew you came over from the Enterprise, that’s it.

◦ No one’s exactly sure what you do, like one moment you’re working with the ship’s Botanists and they’re like ‘oh okay’, and then the next moment you’re spelunking down a turbolift shute becuase Tilly’s gotten stuck in one.

◦ Even Spock not sure what you do. Do you know how hard it is to confuse a Vulcan?

◦ it’s actually Not that hard but now’s NOT THE TIME

◦ Then people starting seeing the two of you interact, usually in the form of you complaining as Pike took your second, third, it’s only my fifth if you’re going by binary numbers, caffeinated drink from you in the mess hall, shooting you a smile and a comment about how he doesn’t need his crew members all wired up.

◦ And because of well, everything about you (your lack of height, seemingly permanent babyface, etc etc), everyone just assumed that maybe you were a ensign of some sort that he felt a kinship too and was attempting to mentor through the command training program, because clearly you’re a ensign right?

◦ …Right?

◦ Oh, you’re a commander?

◦ *censored*

◦ You being Pike’s SO isn’t even a remote possibility, which is weird because you would think that they would suspect something, considering you’ve left the CAPTAINS QUARTERS IN DAYLIGHT HOURS IN FRONT OF OTHER CREW MEMBERs

◦ Also that one time you sat on Pikes lap during a party one time but everyone thought it was because you were tipsy and nobody noticed the way his hand was resting super high on your thigh and you could get away with it because ???

◦ It’s not until the one MINOR explosion that lands you in medbay and when the Captain hears about you getting some minor shrapnel to the leg and suddenly he’s running to medbay, pale as a ghost, and suddenly people realize this isn’t some weird mentor/mentee relationship but rather some weird romantic relationship.

◦ I mean, they didn’t realize something until you started getting into a very loud argument with him.

(it’s not uncommon for you to start arguments you’re a very argumentative person)

anyone passing by medbay that day saw you on the bed, yelling at him, while he stood there, hands on his hips, dumb smirk on his face like he’s turned on by it.

◦ He kinda is, not going to lie.

◦ Then Someone, yelled something about inches, and that’s when it clicked all across the ship.

◦ The man goes into double digits let’s be reasonable here.

◦ Jett Reno’s been suspicious of you two since the beginning, and it was pretty much confirmed for her one night when she ran into you and Pike stumbling out of his ready room with slightly messy clothes, giggling like teenagers, but it wasn’t her place to say

◦ Which again, begs the question- you?

◦ I mean he’s Captain Pike, he’s like the poster Boy Scout of Starfleet.

◦ You can usually be found scowling in the background somewhere, clutching your beloved caffeinated drink, a scowl on your face, usually grumbling about idiots as you diffuse yet another crisis.

◦ you also don’t like people, really.

Okay you don’t like MOST people, besides Pike, and that’s… questionable most days.

Pike said something about having some tramua from childhood you still need to resolve but idk

◦ Also you drink hot sauce on its own who does that.

So while you could usually be counting on for helping out the various groups and units on the ship, the only person you really opened up too on Discovery was Pike.

How you and Pike became a couple no one, not even Pike, are not really sure.

Okay Pike knows how but his mother raised him to be a gentleman and a gentleman doesn’t discuss dirty laundry.

Unless it’s with Spock and they were really drunk on Klingon Blood Wine and he felt so guilty about it afterwords he swore Spock to secrecy.

Spock does tells it to Kirk and Bones years later because he doesn’t understand why you and Pike were a thing really.

They don’t either tbh

So it’s a understatement when theres a unspoken rule formed shortly after you arrived was that no one got between you and your food.

If someone needed you for something and you happened to be eating during that moment, they could wait.

Even Pike knew not to mess with you unless it was like the entire crew/universe was at stake (and if that was the case he’d get you to get your food to go because in Pike’s words ‘you get bitey when you’re Hangry.’)

◦ That is until some jackass in engineering made Tilly cry over a minor mistake she made, and the day you hear about it, you’re having lunch.

A lunch you’ve been talking about looking forward for six weeks because Pike got his hands on some Bajorian argendi sandwiches for the crew, and it’s not everyday that you get bajorian argendi sandwiches.

Sometimes Pike will make one for you but that’s only after you do that one thing for him, and the last time Chris even thought about asking you to that one thing, it gave Spock a month long migraine so it’s been a hot moment for the two of you.

◦ You have a vanilla latte, a banjorian argendi sandwich on mapa bread, and a new bottle of hot sauce in front of you.

◦ The one thing that would make this day perfect is if you had someone’s you know what to look forward too later but THATS NOT THE POINT

◦ But then Tilly comes into the mess hall, trying and failing to hide her tears right as you’re pouring hot sauce on your argendi sandwich.

◦ You see this and everyone else goes quiet when with a sigh, you push your sandwich away and you walk over to her, and ask if she’s okay and you take her for a walk to talk about it.

◦ When asked about it, Tilly just smiles and makes a joke about how she underestimated Pike’s… girlfriend? Wife? Life partner?

◦ Again what are you?

◦ Jett Reno later sees you dressing down the crew member that made Tilly cry but again, not her place to say anything, she says, as she retells it though with glee.

#Star Trek #captain Pike #Christopher Pike imagine #Christopher Pike X F!Reader #captain Pike imagine #Star Trek imagine #Christopher Pike HC #star trek headcanons #headcanon #Christopher Pike X Reader #captain pike x reader #disco pike #star trek discovery #star trek strange new worlds #anson mount

[firewalkzwit]

runt // jonathan crane x reader. (22)

Chapter 22

cross-posted on AO3

masterlist.

So weep not for me my friend

When my time below does end,

For my life belongs to him

Who will raise the dead again.

It sounds oddly paradoxical to say one feels homesick in their own home, but the lack of human company that brought a house alive turned it into a forlorn commodity. The apartment was always dark, light is a luxury which she preferred to spend on the everlong chatter of the television to keep her company. She laid on her bed unresponsive to the desires of her body to make use of her muscles, her feet ironically sore at the lack of contact to the ground. Crane had knocked her door on his routinary visit to pick her up to drive her to Arkham, but she hadn't answered. He knew she was there, she couldn't be anywhere else, but the absence of a response was more than enough of an answer to him. He didn't insist, as much as he knew she wanted him to. She would have wanted him to knock the door down to see that she was alright, but he wouldn't, he was too weak to do so anyway, in his brawn and heart alike.

For the first time, the desire to disappear was more impetuous than the desire to unmask Batman, and the selflessness of her biggest purpose dissipated to a more individualistic take. Crane wasn't entirely to blame for her state of despondency, but he did nothing to help either. It was foolish of her to expect him to anyway, she'd agreed to surrender the wellbeing of her psyche to work with him, and she was not ignorant to his cruelty when she had made her decision. His display of malice and indifference was so sheer that they had met through it, why expect compasion of a man as sadistic as Dr. Crane?

Dr. Crane, to her that was all he was.

He continued to visit her for the next three days, but it was only the third day that she finally opened the door for him. Y/N didn't resent him for her misconceptions about him, yet she reduced her dialogues with him only to the strictly necessary. The drive was awfully quiet, but she wasn't bothered by the stale air or the taciturnity of the prolonged trip under the rain. He, on the other hand, surrendered to the control of his arrogance, refused to initiate contact. He couldn't deny he liked her better when he got off to her woe, now longing to ease her pain instead. He dreaded it, but there was nothing he could help anyway, the situation dug too deeply and for as long as they were both proud people, it seemed beyond repair.

He hated to be infected by her humanity and the emotions that came with it, feeling it drove him away from his stagnant cruelty, and after all thought it was for the better if they parted their bond for greater good. Once again, he had to be reminded there were greater things to pursue than each other, and both had already enjoyed enough time together.

As she looked at him in silence through the corner of her eye, she finally began to catch an attentive glimpse of the beauty of his side profile. His bone structure was more perfect than she'd originally seen it, almost feminine. With an androgynous and delicate slope on his nose, his lips perfectly pouted outwards ridiculously symmetrical. His features were gentle to contrast with the severity of his constant grimace, harmonising the features. His blue eyes had never passed unseen by her unlike the rest of his features, perfectly gracing and complimenting the rest of his face. Even behind the glasses, they highlighted and intensified the sharpness of his cheekbones and jaw.

"Wayne Enterprises is scheduling to begin redeveloping. It'll take a few months before they can get started I presume, but we're accelerating my plans either way. I hope you can accommodate to that." Her staring was interrupted abruptly by his vicious nature that infected the angelic look in his eye. He 'hoped', but it didn't bother him whether she could or not, her commodity making no difference to him.

"That's fine." She muttered, turning away from the intoxicating sight of him.

She felt foolishly childish, abruptly ripped apart from under her brother's wing, she was lost and orphaned of guidance. Her brother was not an exemplary mentor, but it was all she had, and without it she had subconsciously replaced a paternal figure in Crane. He had no fault for that, but the suits he wore and the way he spoke almost condescendingly, reminisced an idea of someone wiser in his years, teaching his subordinated daughter with severity of all she didn't know about life. Fathers are often cruel, inadvertently and in the nature of their masculinity, they tear apart innocence to teach their daughters how to live in a world so primal.

"Are you sure?" The question lit up her senses, turning to look at him once again in spite of her despair.

"Do I have a choice?"

"Well, no. But neither do I."

"So? Why do you ask then?" Please give the answer that one needs to mend all dismay.

"I'm just making sure you're alright."

"Hm." She looked away, but under her chest the fire of her heart ignited and burnt the organs around it, causing her exhale to come out forcibly. She wanted to grab his face and dig her nails into his cheeks like claws to never let go, to eat him and make him part of her.

"You went to dinner with Mr. Wayne."

"Sorry?"

"How was it?"

"I never told you I went to dinner with Bruce."

"Bruce... That's interesting."

"What?"

"Nothing, how was it?" His tone was cold and indifferent, but his intentions were the farthest thing from it.

"It was... Fine, he offered me a job and I declined, something to do with my brother. How did you know?"

"Please, don't dine where all of Falcone's people go if you want to keep a secret."

"I wasn't keeping a secret, just because I didn't tell you doesn't mean I'm intentionally secretive."

"Fair point." There was a prolonged awkward pause and the warmth in her chest turned into a cold drop of weight on her chest, feeling a void up her oesophagus. "You really think he just offered you a job because of your brother?"

A sudden need to defend the millionaire in spite of having no relationship with him whatsoever solely to contradict Crane answered faster than she could reflect on the question. "The Wayne's Renewal Fund is a great contributor and I suppose that's why they had access to my information through Gotham U." She was almost too fast to defend him, the white corner of Crane's eye suddenly filled by the azure of his iris.

"That... or he's using you to lurk in our affairs. I'm sure you were cautious enough not to inform him on anything that he and us alike know he shouldn't be."

"Do you take me for an idiot?"

"No, don't misinterpret my sentence. I simply believe you can be a little naive sometimes." By that point she was livid.

"And just when I thought you cared!" She cackled sardonically, her feet kicked under the car's compartment in authentic disappointment as she slapped her knee in a mocking mimic of someone who was just told a terrific joke.

"If you don't want me to take you for such, stop giving me displays of innocence like this. That I asked you about Mr. Wayne, which you deliberately kept from me, doesn't mean I care any less, but if that's what you want to assume then be my guest."

Well, he cares, that's a start. But on the grounds of a cruel lecture, patronising and almost painfully fathering. She hated him when he acted like it. "Stop the car."

"You know I'm not doing that." He didn't obey, but as soon as they reached a congested area, which didn't take too long, she bursted the rear door open and darted out of the car, abandoning her belongings inside and escaping his fatherly malice.

#jonathan crane #scarecrow #jonathan crane x reader #scarecrow x reader #batman #the batman #batman begins #nolanverse batman #batman x reader #cillian murphy

[dramaticvhs]

Hey! Hoping you could recommend any smut fics for me where it’s Stiles Stilinski x The Hales. It could be just a couple of the Hales, all the male Hales, or all the Hales. As long as there’s more than one hale.

hi! I don't remember getting this ask so I have no idea how long it's been sitting in my inbox. I'm terribly sorry.

I don't know a lot of fics (unfortunately, because I love them) but here are a few I do have bookmarked! :) Also unfortunately, I don't seem to have many Stiles x male Hale's that aren't just Derek and Peter.

if anyone has more please feel free to comment/reblog with fics, or send me an ask! I love finding new fics (:

as always remember to read tags !!

New Experiences by EmeraldTrident and mikkeltwink (Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski/Peter Hale)

Stiles Stilinski heads to a remote cabin in the woods for a one night stand with an older guy he met online. When he arrives, Stiles discovers the man brought a friend to join in on the fun. Stiles doesn't have a single complaint.

Live & Thrive by callunavulgari (Derek Hale/Laura Hale/Stiles Stilinski)

“Now, for your first assignment of the week, I would like you to tell me,” Laura Hale tells them, casting her eyes relentlessly around the room. Searching, meeting each of her student’s gazes, until those dark intelligent eyes finally come to rest on Stiles. “What would drive you to kill?” Stiles Stilinski, sixteen years old and new to the Future Agents in Training program, falls in love.

A Night of Morally-Questionable Decision Making by marguerite_26 (Cora Hale/Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski)

"He's perfect, Derek," Cora says, like she's asking permission. Her breath is hot against the back of Stiles' neck while her fingers toy with his belt buckle. Stiles squirms in her hold, confused and self-conscious. They're still in the apartment doorway, talking to her brother. He doesn't have a lot of experience, but he's pretty sure this isn't normal hookup procedure.

Filling the Void Within Me By demonkatgurl17 (Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski/Peter Hale)

Derek backed Stiles up against one of the steel girders in the abandoned station, stopping mere inches away from him. Stiles’s eyes were trained on the floor, staring at anything else but the warm body in front of him, nearly pressed against him. He didn’t know why he was here, what had driven him here, to Derek of all people. He was sure that if there was a shred of sanity coursing through him right now, then he would have never have left the relative safety of his room.

Virgin Territory by jujukittychick (Derek Hale/Laura Hale/Stiles Stilinski)

Stiles has a photo shoot for Hale’s Belles BDSM magazine where he’ll be subbing for Laura while Derek photographs. Things go quickly off script as the twins find themselves attracted to the cutie, and Stiles is completely flustered by the attention from the two smoking hot siblings

here's these as well that have several pairings:

Knotfest by Triangulum

"Remember," Peter says loudly to the audience, "that very few people come from penetration alone, so paying attention to your partner is key." Peter strokes Stiles, loving how it makes the boy tighten around his knot. Peter rolls his hips, nudging the boy's prostate and making him whimper. "Peter, I'm close," Stiles gasps. "Mmm, be a good boy and come for me," Peter growls in Stiles' ear. OR All year, Peter and Talia work to set up Knotfest, a three-day festival devoted completely to knotting. There are vendors, demonstrations, even a group play area. And finally, the time is here.

The Job Interview by Inell

Stiles is attending the third interview for the job he’s applied for at Hale Enterprise LTD. He has no idea that the third round of interviewing is going to require him to be the center of a Hale pack gangbang.

#teen wolf #steterek #teen wolf fics #fic recs #stiles stilinski x the hales