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trans-advice · 4 years

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Hey, for the past 5 or so years I have privately identified as nonbinary or not conforming to any gender, and even recently requested that my boss and coworkers use they/them pronouns. About a month ago I stumbled across a "gender critical" blog and started reading it. I know it's a bad idea to engage with trolls, especially when it will impact your sense of self, but I felt restless that my existence was being debated and wanted to hear the other side. Now I am feeling confused (1 o 2 asks)

I’m feeling confused and gross, wondering if all this time I have been actually working against my own feminist beliefs, or if I’m just being naive and getting indoctrinated. Like,I worry about me being a female who simply didn’t subscribe to gender stereotypes, tricking myself into thinking I"wasn’t like the other girls". I have also been wondering about what it means to identify into an oppressed group, and why we can’t talk about it without being dismissed as a dumb TERF. (1 o 2 asks) Thx

— Eve: CW: long post, possibly rambley, could’ve used better editing, transphobia, “gender critical”, recuperation, discussion of “terf” politics, recuperation of liberation movements, politics, oppression, rape culture, anti-fascist, anti-capitalist,

So basically I have tried for almost 4 weeks to write a response detailing this stuff. however it’s gotten too unwieldy. i tried to condense it, but this was as close as i got. it’s practically like 3 drafts back to back. I couldn’t figure out the differences & when i saw similarities it seemed significantly different enough. so I’m not editing any further. here’s a mindvomit. i wish i had this more polished but I can’t do that & i didn’t get a response.

however I’m going to make a history book recommendation, a referral to gendercensus2020, and i need to emphasize that these are much more like personal beliefs & not generally the tone of this blog which aims to give advice & positivity, while this is inherently political, the good bad & ugly. and there are trans people of various persuasions so I don’t want alienate them. i dissecting some ideologies that are transphobic, how they became that, how they got recuperated, and how you can find the same concerns being addressed. I’m answering this because it totally makes sense to me that this is asked in good faith & I want to respect your concerns & show that there are better methods of liberation activism that are trans affirmative, or at least must become & develop into such.

So I’m going to recommend the book “Transgender History (Second Edition)” by Susan Stryker, which I have put on our blog’s google drive account, so hence a link. It goes into the historic common ground between the feminists & LGBT+ peoples. It also gets into historic movements. And on top of that, the first chapter is literally a list of terminology deconstructing gender, which is also helpful for analyzing topics feminism analyzes..

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IvCwNvCJ_EiDmOer4zS8SbFGz4m-WDJ1

another thing you need to know regarding the label lesbian back in the day is that it was a catchall for any woman who didn’t have sex with men. now granted, this was a cisnormative understanding, but basically lesbians included celibate women, asexual women, and of course bisexual women in addition to gay women.

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money to have sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (granted, communities cannot be monoliths if they want to be ecosystems, like any movement label there are different interpretations made by members of it, and therefore there are some strands that uphold a homonormative appreciation for conversion therapy. perhaps a middle ground for understanding how that happened is that joke about macho sexuality purity “if a man masturbates with his hand, he’s using a man’s hand to get off, then it’s gay.” granted, there was of course a political/economic reason to this, but still, it seems in terms of history that this joke was considered actually legitimate.)

“lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included ace, celibate & gynephiliac women. part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married which I’ll detail a few paragraphs from now. (while this next thought could be incorrect because I did just learn about ‘compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, I think the vestiges of those economic pressures are basically the gist of “comphet”.) the goal of political lesbian as well as lesbian separatism was to build an economy/get money that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, via marriage, pregnancy etc. so basically in an effort to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

however these networks ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. it makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210] >

birth control helped to liberate women & that accommodation/handicap for reproductive health disabilities (disability is merely inability to do something that’s Normative. so if having a uterus, pregnancy/menstruation/having breasts etc aren’t considered normal, which is especially common in a patriarchal society for these examples, then it’s disability.) It should be said that due to the desire for bodily autonomy to regulate our own body parts, as well as a desire to manage our fertility & sterilization, the transgender movement has a lot in common with feminism’s female-as-disability movement.)

it should also be noted that before the medical transitioning became accessible that us trans people relied a lot more on social transitioning than medical transitioning. it should also be mentioned that the medical procedures are available & used by cisgender people too.

that being said, since both cis females & transgender women were denied birth control etc, there was a very intense fear of impregnation happening & trans women going back in the closet not only to get money under patriarchy but also because life raising a kid is hard. like if you’ve ever seen “the stepford wives” & look at how the ally husband betrays his feminist wife, then that should clue us into how a lack of birth control scared us.

the problem with the school of feminism that emphasizes physiological sex over gender identity (in order to deny the existence of trans people with female-organs or not) is that it doesn’t account for birth control & how that’s affected the landscape, the economy etc, the revolutionary impact of birth control basically. it also ignores that trans people & cis women feminists have the same goals when it comes to getting freedoms about reproductive rights & bodily autonomy. therefore it ends up being transphobic & wanting to run back into the times when we didn’t have abortion access because they want to hurt us.

That being said though, we need to have birth control & more in order to help liberate trans people too, so if somewhere doesn’t have birth control, then we’re not doing well either because it’d pay a lot more to be transphobic (which of course it doesn’t now when we have birth control & various medical & other technologies). i think what I’m trying to say is that similar to disability accomodations clashing with each other, if we of the women’s liberation, the trans liberation, and the gay & lesbian liberation, and the bisexual & ace liberation get stranded then we’re all doomed. granted we might be doing that due to defensiveness with hostility similar to how in the 1980s feminism got very conservative in USA & how some transgender people get spared in systems with strict gender conformity & anticolonialist values, it’d be wrong to say that all our liberations are in conflict with each other. they can be mishandled, but ultimately, safety still tends to favor cisheteropatriarchal people. internalized patriarchal thinking is like internalized queerphobia, and so forth.

I want to emphasize that it is relatively easy for transgender people especially nonbinary people to find gender critical discourse somewhat appealing. Here’s why: TERFs & Gender Critical discourse is agender-normative disability discourse regarding reproductive health & other AFAB organs. (a disability is being unable to do things that society considers normative. so if you can’t drive & your locale de facto requires it, then that’s a disability. also in usa you’ll find that pregnancy & disability are the main things welfare programs prioritize. a pregnancy can be harmful, but can be easier with the right monitoring etc. which again is the same with disability.)

the problem though is that they then insist on misgendering you as one of the binary genders based on objectification of your body (specifically, “morphology”). point being, because you feel dysphoric over being misgendered as something nonbinary as being mislabeled as cisgender, this implies that you are indeed transgender.

https://gendercensus.com/post/612238605773111296/the-gender-census-2020-is-now-open

—

Now to be clear, there are historical economic considerations that made the decisions to specialize on the intersectionality of cisgender AFABs, but the economy & technology has changed. Basically marriage back in the day was economically necessary because there was effectively no birth control available. Therefore, to get child support etc, required getting the father to pay the consequences. However, marriage was very much a chattel property institution, marital rape was still legal, and women couldn’t get credit etc in our own names.

At the same time, similar to birth control being unavailable, hormones & other procedures for medically transitioning trans people were unavailable as well, which meant social transitioning & wardrobe etc were the main methods of affirming our gender. however, we sometimes got lucky & had a doctor write us a note affirming our gender & sometimes we got even luckier & govts accepted this. this however required getting labelled sick & begging doctors to give us treatment & getting money for this since insurance companies etc still discriminated against transgender people even when we agreed to have our gender identity situation labelled as sick & medically necessary. (similarly insurance companies still refuse to cover abortions & so do some doctors & hospitals.)

So this meant that AFABs were concerned about getting hijacked via impregnation. Because of the patriarchal economics of the whole thing, people were afraid of “the stepford wives” repeating itself in their own lives, where the mind can only handle what the ass can stand would mean trans women would go back into the closet.

Granted, that’s a bit misrepresentative of trans women & trans people because trans people & cis women who can get pregnant do have a lot more in common. we take the same meds, go to the same clinics, menopause etc gets taken due to distress over how our bodies work, etc. then again, how would trans AMAB people have gotten the money for child support?

historically & still to this day we basically had to beg doctors for the ability to get hormones to get a surgery to get a gender marker change & so on, which granted, what we trans people had available to us varied from locale to locale because it required collaborations of trans people, doctors, and the local govts & especially their police stations. again, before roe v wade abortion providers were super underground & secretive & there were specialized units at police stations for hunting down patients & providers under the charge of “murder”. it’s the same dynamics.

seriously trans people & people with bodies that can get pregnant, menstruate, menopause, etc, we go to the same clinics! women’s health clinics take trans patients, planned parenthood takes trans patients, do i need to go any further on how trans people & feminists have the same interests regarding reproductive health?

—

as for political lesbianism:

basically the normal advice of wait til you have your own money before having sex, wait til your mid 20s, don’t rely on a man to pay your bills etc, all of this comes from political lesbianism, which was like be celibate or else have sex that doesn’t involve sperm. (i’m not sure what the conditions were like surrounding not piv sex among the straights, and therefore what the likelihood of avoiding piv sex was. I do know that rape culture was much more heavily normalized than it is now.)

“Lesbian” was a catchall for women who didn’t have sex with men. this included: - ace, - celibate - bisexual - gay women. Part of the reason these communities were conflated again had to do with the economic pressures to get married, (while this next statement could be incorrect because i did just learn about ‘compulsory heterosexuality" a month ago, i think the vestiges of those economic pressures such as weddings are basically the gist of “comphet”.)

The goal of Political Lesbianism as well as Lesbian Separatism was to build an economy that didn’t require submission to patriarchy, such as that of marriage, pregnancy etc. In efforts to build like support networks, “men” were shunned as much as possible.

However these networks, (partly due to lacking radicalization) ended up replicating capitalism, (partly due to oppression against communes & other anti-capitalist activities) which then replicated the oppressions of capitalism. It makes sense that transphobia had formed of assimilation/respectability politics for such feminists. To quote from the criticism section of the Wikipedia article on the women’s liberation movement.

> “The philosophy practised by liberationists assumed a global sisterhood of support working to eliminate inequality without acknowledging that women were not united; other factors, such as age, class, ethnicity, and opportunity (or lack thereof) created spheres wherein women’s interests diverged, and some women felt underrepresented by the WLM.[208] While many women gained an awareness of how sexism permeated their lives, they did not become radicalized and were uninterested in overthrowing society. They made changes in their lives to address their individual needs and social arrangements, but were unwilling to take action on issues that might threaten their socio-economic status.[209] Liberationist theory also failed to recognize a fundamental difference in fighting oppression. Combating sexism had an internal component, whereby one could change the basic power structures within family units and personal spheres to eliminate the inequality. Class struggle and the fight against racism are solely external challenges, requiring public action to eradicate inequality.[210]”

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inyournightmares97 · 6 years

Text

The Passionate Discourse

Part of the Thirsty Days of September series, a collaboration with @ijustwantacue. Find her version here!

A difference of opinion leads to a healthy debate between you and the sexy Professor Mark Tuan… and just maybe, a little something more.

Word Count: 7k+

Warnings: A little steamy but no smut, also some strong opinions on feminism and other sensitive subjects. The opinions stated by the reader or Mark are not necessarily my own so don’t attack me for them, I just took up two extreme viewpoints.

This was possibly the most pathetic excuse for a party you’d ever seen.

Then again, your mother had organized the whole event and a large majority of the invitees were busybody women in their late fifties from her new book club. You had been worried that your mother would be sad and lonely after her recent divorce, but she had taken on life as a single woman with fresh vigor by joining a new book club and becoming quite popular among the elderly and retired in your community. You’d never seen her pick up a single book throughout your childhood yet now she met up every Saturday with a group of similarly lonely women to discuss the likes of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.

Oh, well. As long as she was happy you had nothing to complain about. You wished that she wouldn’t invite her friends over here on weekends and pressure you to serve them tea and buy those cute little finger foods while they told you that you looked exactly like your mother and commented on how you were still unmarried.

It was demeaning, really. You were a fully-grown adult woman and you didn’t need to be subjected to this infantile treatment.

“Darling!” your mother came over to you and grasped your arm firmly as she pulled you aside. You had been trying half-heartedly to explain to a group of older women what you did for a living. With their dangerously limited knowledge they had somehow wrongly concluded that you were a doctor and you didn’t care quite enough to correct them. You were rescued from hearing about Mrs. Lee’s backache when your mother pulled you away. “Darling, I must have a word with you. Do you remember I mentioned Mrs. Tuan the other day?”

You blinked. “You might have. I can’t remember.”

“Well, she is one of my very dearest friends,” you mother explained, although it was much more likely that they’d just met a few times at the book club. “She’ll be coming down here to join the party and she messaged me to let me know that her son is dropping her off. Now I know that you don’t really like me to recommend you to my friend’s sons because it hasn’t gone very well in the past-“

You glared at your mother. “Not very well? The last man had been divorced twice already and he was one of those!”

Your mother frowned. “One of those what?”

You folded your arms across your chest and hissed. “Those anti-vaccine movement supporters! He told me right to my face that he would never let his children get vaccinated because vaccines were a conspiracy created by the medical community to make money! Do you know insulting it is as a biomedical scientist to be told right to your face that your entire life’s research is a cheap scam? Was I supposed to date that disgusting man?”

Your mother sighed. “Yes, all right. I see how he wasn’t right for you. For your information, it’s very difficult to find men who can live up to your absurdly high intellectual standards. But Mrs. Tuan’s son is different. I think you might actually like him. He’s a Professor! Isn’t that exciting?”

“Not particularly.”

Your mother frowned and her grip on your arm tightened. She lowered her voice to make sure that nobody else at the party was listening to you. “Now listen. You’re not getting any younger and it’s hard for women like you who are so constantly focused on their careers to find men willing to put up with them. Mark Tuan is a perfectly lovely man. He’s never been married or divorced, he’s a Professor at a rather prestigious university and judging by the summer holiday pictures that his mother showed me last week, he’s also extremely handsome. At least give him a chance?”

You sighed. “Yes, fine.”

“Thank you, darling. I knew you wouldn’t disappoint your mother. It’s been so lonely since the divorce, you know, and I at least want you to find some happiness and not end up like me.”

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes. Reading too much Jane Austen was turning your mother into one of those typical, overdramatic mothers from the Regency era whose sole aim in life was to marry off her daughters. You opened your mouth to tell her that maybe she should remember what century she was in, when the doorbell suddenly rang. Your mother jumped up with an enormous smile on her face.

“That must be Mrs. Tuan! Come with me, darling, let’s go greet them together….”

You followed your mother to the door reluctantly. It was indeed Mrs. Tuan; you smiled and greeted the older woman pleasantly before allowing your gaze to turn to her son standing just a little bit behind her. You froze for a moment while you looked at the man.

Well, well, well. Mark Tuan was handsome indeed.

Your heart did a little leap when he smiled at you, his gorgeous lips spreading into a rather boyish but still extremely attractive smile. Mark was wearing a dark blazer and the round spectacles on his face made him look intelligent and mature despite his young age. Your mouth went dry as he held out a hand to you. His handshake was firm and his skin warm. You couldn’t help but look down at the large hand grasping yours. You’d always liked a man’s hands. Mark’s were smooth yet strong.

“Mark Tuan,” he introduced himself in a soft and deep voice. You looked up into a pair of chocolate brown eyes that seemed innocent, yet briefly flickered up and down your body as they drank you in. You forgot how to speak for a moment so your mother grasped your arm and smiled for you.

“It’s such a pleasure to meet you, Mark. Won’t you come in and join us?”

Mark hesitated and as he exchanged glances with you, you saw a mild hint of panic in his eyes. He clearly didn’t want to be trapped into discussing Wuthering Heights with his mother’s friends. You decided in that split instant that you were rather attracted to this Mark person and that if you were going to be stuck at this stupid party anyway, you would much rather be stuck with him.

“Actually, I had just come to drop my Mother off. I wasn’t planning to stay-“

You gave him one of your most welcoming smiles. Mark was surely handsome, but you knew how to handle yourself around handsome men. “But you must come in for at least one cup of tea! The book club meeting doesn’t start for another twenty minutes and I’m sure that everyone would love to meet you in the meantime. We’ve heard so much about you, Professor Tuan.”

Mark blinked at you in surprise. “Well, um-“

“Come dear, have some tea with us!” his mother insisted, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside. You noticed that both of your mothers exchanged a rather mischievous glance and realized that they had probably been planning this for a long time. Honestly; were they running a book club or a matchmaking ring for their children? Either way, the longer you looked at Mark, the more you decided that perhaps your mother hadn’t made such a terrible choice after all.

You followed them into the dining room where all the women almost literally pounced upon Mark at once. You had to admit that in that dark coat and with his naturally charming smile he looked like a hero straight out of a Jane Austen adaptation. You left the older women to badger him with questions and compliments while you slipped into the kitchen. For once, you weren’t the center of attention and the moment’s respite was a relief. You turned the coffee machine on and listened to the chattering drifting in from the dining room half-heartedly. If he survived the crowd of women and lived to tell the tale, you decided that you would give Mark a chance.

He was definitely a treat for the eyes, after all.

About fifteen minutes later, Mark entered the kitchen by himself. He was straightening his jacket and you noticed that he seemed a little bit flustered. He adjusted his glasses on his face and gave you a small, slightly embarrassed smile that made your knees feel weak. Damn. It should be criminal to have such a gorgeous smile.

“Hi,” he greeted you shyly.

You smiled at him. “Survived the wolves, did you?”

“Yes, they’re finally starting their book club discussion now,” Mark replied, shoving his hands into his pockets. You leaned back and noticed that despite being slender, he looked extremely athletic. The jacket buttons were certainly straining over his chest. He leaned against the counter. “I’m informed that it’s Sense and Sensibility they’re discussing today, although there seems to be very little of either to go around in that group.”

You giggled. He had an interesting way of speaking. Perhaps he taught Literature, or something along those lines. How interesting and poetic. You heard the coffee machine behind you ding and gestured towards it. “Can I offer you some coffee? They’re only serving tea out there today. Apparently it’s in keeping with the Jane Austen theme but neither I nor my mother have ever made tea so I’m sure it tasted disgusting.”

Mark grinned. “The little tea cakes were all right.”

“Oh, those were store-bought.”

“Good decision.”

You turned to grab mugs as you poured generous amount of coffee into them. It smelled heavenly and Mark stepped closer to you in order to peek at the delicious beverage. He pointed out your extremely fancy coffee-maker with a smile. “That looks like the sort of machine you would find in an actual coffee shop. A little bit much for a normal household, isn’t it?”

You shrugged as you added milk into the heavenly brew. It became a lovely dark color and you made a little white swirl on the top. “I love coffee. I bought it as a gift for my mother but I think we both know that it was really for me. Sugar?”

“Yes, please,” Mark replied eagerly. You turned to him and noticed that he still had that handsome, boyish smile on his face. He took the coffee mug that you offered him and took a small sip. You couldn’t help but watch as his tongue darted out to lick his lips gently. God, did this man have any idea how attractive he was? Mark noticed you staring at him and his mouth twisted into a small smirk but he said nothing. “This is delicious. Thank goodness I can finally get the taste of that tea out of my mouth.”

“You’re welcome,” you told him.

Mark nodded and took another sip of the coffee before placing the mug on the counter. He was still leaning against it with his arms folded across his chest and you noticed that his chocolate-colored eyes were looking you up and down gently. His gaze sent a shiver down your spine, even though his eyes didn’t linger at any one place for too long. Well. At least he knows how to keep it classy. You found yourself subconsciously straightening your shoulders so that your chest looked nicer.

“So,” Mark began casually. “Do you live here with your mother, then? I don’t see any other reason why you would spend your weekend doing something like this.”

“Unfortunately, yes. I moved back here after my mother’s divorce was finalized because I thought that she might be lonely. I had no idea that she’d suddenly developed a more active social life than my own,” you said with a small laugh. You leaned against the counter and smiled. “I don’t think I could get this many friends to come over to my house at once. I’m always working.”

Mark blinked. “Oh? And what do you do?”

“I’m a scientist. I specialize in biomedical research and I work for the Medical Research Council,” you explained. Mark’s eyes widened and you could tell from his expression that he was impressed. You gave him a small, teasing smirk “But before you ask, I’m not a doctor and no, I don’t know why you’ve been feeling a little warmer than usual these days. My best guess is either menopause or global warming.”

Mark nodded. “That’s very impressive. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you to diagnose my health problems. Although I wonder if there’s anything you can do about this one constant headache I’ve been suffering. It gets significantly worse when I’m in the same room as the women from my mother’s book club, you see…”

You could tell from the mischievous smile that spread across his face that he was joking. You laughed and rolled your eyes at him. Handsome, intelligent and funny. You wondered if this man could get any more perfect. This was the first time that you’d ever felt so attracted to someone that you were meeting for the first time and from the way Mark’s eyes never moved away from yours either, he was equally attracted to you. You bit your lip and smiled at him.

“So, Professor Mark. Let me guess what it is you teach,” you told him with a flirtatious smile.

Mark took a sip of his coffee and shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“Your comment about Sense and Sensibility was rather interesting. At first I thought you might teach something like literature, but then I realized that the comment was a little superficial. It’s not likely to come from somebody who’s actually read the book and knows that the title is referring to foolish young love and not gossiping old women. So I’m guess your field of study has nothing to do with Literature or Poetry or anything like that.”

“You’re partly right,” Mark told you with an amused smile. “I’m not a Literature professor but I have read Sense and Sensibility. So that leaves your conclusion accurate while your analysis is rather lacking.”

You tapped your cheek with a finger as you scanned him. What did this mysterious man teach? It was difficult to tell just by looking at his face. Mark merely pushed his glasses further up his nose and looked at you calmly while you stared at him. You finally snapped your fingers and pointed at him. “Okay. If you read something like Sense and Sensibility, then you must be a rather sensitive and romantic person. I’m getting some sort of artsy vibes from you. And you have a lovely voice. Do you by any chance teach some sort of music?”

Mark laughed his gorgeous laugh and shook his head. “No, you’re going in the wrong direction. Thank you for the compliment about my voice, though. I’ve never heard anyone say that before.”

You flushed. “It just has a rather nice, deep tone to it.”

Mark simply smirked. “Well, you’d better stop getting distracted by it because you’re losing whatever little game we’re playing. Music and Literature? Is that all you can think of?”

You frowned. “Give me a hint.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a moment. Then he smiled and straightened up a little bit. “Okay. But this is a pretty obvious hint. You know how I said earlier that I read Sense and Sensibility? Well, I did read it from an academic perspective. So make what you will with that.”

A little lightbulb went off in your head and you beamed. “Ah! History, then!”

“No, not History.”

Your lower lip jutted out into a small pout at the slightly triumphant expression on his face. You honestly couldn’t think of anything and you wondered what you could possibly be missing. You sighed and raised an eyebrow at Mark. “Why one earth would you read Sense and Sensibility from an academic perspective if you’re not looking either at the literature or at the historical aspect? What other angle could a Jane Austen novel about a pair of sisters looking for love possibly have?”

“Are you giving up that easily?” he teased as you felt your cheeks warm. You hadn’t intended to make yourself look like an idiot but Mark seemed extremely amused. “I thought scientists were always on an endless quest for answers about the universe?”

You rolled your eyes. “You’re definitely not a scientist if you believe that.”

Mark nodded. “That’s correct.”

“Well then, please tell me. What does the mysterious Mark Tuan actually teach and what academic angle could he possibly have found in a classic romance tale such as Sense and Sensibility? I’m just dying to know.”

“Let me give you a few more hints because you’re almost there,” Mark explained. “Sense and Sensibility was written by a woman. The main protagonists are all women and it talks about the lives of women. So therefore I must be studying….?”

You blinked at him. “Women?” you asked, confused. You stared at Mark for a few more moments until the puzzle clicked in your mind. “Wait… you can’t be referring to feminism?”

“Close enough. I teach Gender Studies.”

You couldn’t help it; a slightly derisive snort escaped your mouth. He couldn’t possibly be serious? You searched Mark’s dark eyes for any sign that he was joking and concluded that he looked perfectly serious. You had to cover your mouth in order to hold back the amused chuckle that was pushing past your lips. You had never heard anything more ridiculous in your life. Why on earth would a handsome, intelligent man like Mark Tuan choose to study something as frivolous as Gender Studies?

Mark raised an eyebrow. “Is something funny?”

“Yes!” you blurted out. You knew you were being extremely rude but you had never been one to hold back whatever you wanted to say. “I mean, why would you choose to become a Professor in something like Gender Studies? You can’t mean to say that you actually did a bachelor’s degree and then a masters and then a doctorate, all those years of study… on something as useless and commonplace as gender?”

The smile had dropped from Mark’s face. There was a slightly serious, more intense look in his eyes and his voice sounded a little hard. “I’m sensing some condescension in your tone.”

“You’re sensing right!”

“I take it you don’t approve, then.”

“It seems like a complete waste of time to me,” you replied with a challenging stare. “I mean, I’m assuming you talk about things like feminism and you argue over whether this gender is more oppressed or that gender is more oppressed or… oh wait! There’s no gender at all! It’s a social construct that has been imposed on us without any scientific backing, and the world is a better place because we’ve somehow all decided that. It’s a waste of time. It’s like arguing over whether jam tastes better on toast or butter. It doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference to anyone or really impact anything.”

Mark bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at you. You could see that his eyes had darkened and his arms coolly folded across his chest. “So if I’m hearing correctly, you think my field of study is… pointless? Or that arguing about feminism or gender-based discrimination is useless?”

You stared back at him, unblinking. “Isn’t it?”

“You don’t believe that women are oppressed?” he demanded.

You sighed and rubbed your temples. “Look. I agree that there are orthodox countries and parts of the world where women are locked up indoors and denied education and the basic freedom to move around and killed if they have sex before marriage. It’s terrible. It really is. I agree that social reformists are extremely important in places like that. But you’re not in one of those countries. Why on earth would educated and developed people like us still sit and whine about gender discrimination in the First World? We’re not locked up. We have access to resources. Everybody agrees that women should be allowed to be educated-“

Mark sighed and shook his head. “You can’t really believe that gender-based discrimination is restricted to orthodox, backward countries where they murder women for having sex.”

“I do, actually,” you replied with a frown. “Look. Feminism was relevant when, for example, women weren’t allowed to vote. It’s not relevant now. Now people who have all the resources and the money and the time in the world are just wasting their time conducting research about useless things like gender when they could be spending their efforts doing something more productive.”

Mark scoffed. “Like what? Biomedical research?”

“Yes, actually. I’ll have you know that my field of research saves lives.”

“Do you really think that a woman would be able to work in STEM fields like biomedicine if it wasn’t for the work of so many feminists before you? Scientific research is a male-dominated field. It always has been. Not only is it dominated by men in numbers but the inherent structures and the demands of the field are such that men are preferred for the work-“

You scoffed. “Don’t tell me about my own field. Do you think I’m an idiot? I’m a woman who’s been working in biomedical research for over five years and I know perfectly well that gender studies is just an excuse for women who don’t want to put in the hard work it takes in order to study and be successful in such a highly demanding field. Women like that just want things handed to them because they don’t want to struggle. So they like to blame the system.”

“And you don’t think they struggle more than men do?” Mark demanded.

You laughed. You couldn’t believe the nonsense that this man was speaking. “Why on earth would women struggle more than men? It’s exactly the same work! I’m sorry to break it to you, Professor Tuan but there are an absurdly large number of women who sit and study about why there are so few women in STEM fields while none of them actually have the courage or the intelligence to enter into a STEM field themselves… I have nothing to say to women like that, and I don’t think a man like you should be encouraging them to waste their time.”

“You’re unbelievable,” Mark said with a soft chuckle. He didn’t even look angry anymore. He just looked bewildered. “How can a woman like you be so blind to the institutional problems and everyday sexism of STEM fields?”

“Maybe because I’m not looking for excuses to slack off.”

Mark pushed himself away from the edge of the counter and stepped closer to you. You felt your heartbeat thud as he stepped closer, his dark eyes piercing into yours as he approached.

“Okay,” he said in a soft, low voice. “Let’s assume for a moment that you’re right. That my research is a complete waste of time and that women like you don’t need feminism. Let’s assume that the only reason so many women fail to be successful in STEM fields is because they don’t want to put in the hard work. Can you seriously tell me, on a basic level, that men and women are entirely equal in society?” he demanded. The smile had disappeared from his face and he was moving closer to you every moment. “Are you telling me that you are capable of doing every single thing a man is doing?”

Your heartbeat raced as you felt the kitchen counter pressing into your back. Mark didn’t stop moving. He was standing inches away from you and his face was leaning down closer to yours. You could see his dark eyes staring down at you and the perfect angles of his gorgeous face. You tried not to blush and maintained eye contact with him despite the blood rushing to your face.

“Yes,” you replied. “I believe that I am just as capable as a man. And a study trying to convince me that I’m weaker or that the world is unfair and that I need someone’s help is a waste of everyone’s time.”

Mark’s hands moved to both sides of your waist and he gripped the kitchen counter behind you. You were trapped in between his arms while his head dipped down to level with yours. “So,” he said as he lowered his voice to a whisper. “You’re telling me that if I decided to take you, right here and right now on this kitchen counter just to satisfy my carnal urges then you would be able to fight me off?” Mark’s breath was warm on your face and his tongue darted out to lick his lips. “You wouldn’t feel a little bit… powerless? Like it was an unfair fight?”

You couldn’t help but smirk as you leaned closer to him. “I think the question you should be asking,” you whispered in a sultry voice. “Is why I would want to fight something like that at all?”

Mark chuckled. The deep rumble in his chest sent shivers down your spine as one of his hands left to the kitchen counter to gently caress your waist. His hand splayed out on your side, a feather-light touch that was possessive and yet left you craving more. “I should have seen that coming,” he admitted with a small smile as he bit his lip. “You really haven’t been able to take your eyes off me from the moment I entered this house.”

You felt your cheeks flush. “And you’re not attracted to me?” you demanded.

Mark raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t say that. You’re an extremely attractive woman.”

“But you think my views are stupid, is that it?” you demanded. Mark’s eyes were fixed on your lips and you felt a surge of confidence. Gender studies professor or not, the lustful part of your mind had taken over the logical portion and you decided that you wanted this man. Nobody had ever made your heart race like this before. Your body was physically craving him. “I suppose our opinions don’t really coincide, do they?”

“No, they don’t,” Mark whispered. “And that is a little bit of a problem.”

“I have a simple solution.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. We stop talking.”

Mark looked down at the twinkle in your eyes before smirking. “For once, I think I agree with your idea.”

You leaned up and kissed him, your lips colliding together in a furious clash. Mark pressed you against the counter harshly while he devoured your lips and molded your bodies together. Your head spun in a cloud of lust. Mark’s tongue slid into your mouth and his hands cupped your ass. Within moments, he had lifted you up by the thighs and set you on the counter without once breaking your kiss. You moaned as he pulled away from you to breathe for a moment.

“Fuck,” you whispered.

He let out a soft, boyish chuckle. “Enjoying yourself?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” he growled before kissing you again. You let your hands slide into his dark hair as his palms gripped your thighs tightly. You melted against him while he nipped at your lips and smiled into your kiss. Mark kept teasing you and you had to thread your fingers into his hair tightly to keep his lips connected to yours. He didn’t seem to mind at all. Your forehead kept hitting his glasses and you let out a soft whine before reaching up to rip his glasses off his face.

“You don’t really need those, do you?” you teased as you kissed him again. Mark let out a low moan that made your stomach twist. You tossed the glasses onto the counter and whimpered as he sank his teeth into your lower lip softly. It was getting harder to stay quiet and Mark’s hands had started to move higher up and were beginning to slide under your shirt. He pulled away from you and pecked your lips softly.

“You’re getting too loud, sweetheart,” he whispered with a smirk. “Is there anywhere more private that we could continue, uh, not talking?”

You gasped as Mark’s cold hands trailed up the bare skin of your torso.

“Fuck. Fuck, okay, let’s go upstairs. Through the back door.”

“Lead the way.”

Mark Tuan was an amazing lover.

Admittedly, things got a little clumsy and awkward after you’d both fucked in your bedroom. Neither of you could entirely forget that your mothers were right downstairs, discussing a classic romance novel and probably hoping that the two of you would fall in love at first sight, get married and have children. Mark had looked a little embarrassed while he gathered up his clothes. He gave you a sheepish smile and pointed out that he should head back downstairs before your mothers noticed.

That had been your opportunity to say something. Let’s exchange numbers, you could have said. Or do you want to have coffee sometime? Mark had paused in your doorway and looked at you for a few moments, giving you the opportunity to say that this wasn’t a one-time thing. But you simply couldn’t do it. Despite how extremely attracted you were to Mark and even though it was the first time you’d ever slept with a man that you’d just met, you knew deep down that it wouldn’t work.

If I can’t respect what he does, then how can I ever respect him?

So you merely nodded and smiled, letting him walk out of your room and out of your life. Your mother looked heartbroken when you told her that things with Mark hadn’t worked out. But she knew better than to pressure you, and so you simply moved on with your life and convinced yourself that you hadn’t let go of an amazing man.

(A few days later)

You entered the office building and headed straight for the break-room. You were early and you planned to have a cup of coffee before a meeting with your boss. Some of your coworkers were sitting and having a quick breakfast so you smiled at them in greeting.

“Hey guys. Have a nice weekend?” you asked the pair of guys sitting and munching on toast.

“It was all right. You’re at work pretty early today!” Youngjae greeted you with a friendly smile. He was one of the brightest and happiest guys that you worked with, and one of the few that never seemed to differentiate you as a woman. He offered you some toast and shrugged when you refused. “Going to get cracking early on Monday morning, huh?”

You shook your head. “Hardly. I have a meeting with Dr. Lee today, I’d applied to be a part of his research group on antibody research and I’m going to find out whether I made the cut. It’s a five-year project and I’ve been focusing on antibodies recently, so it would be amazing to finally be a part of some solid, useful research instead of all this medical testing nonsense they make us do.”

Youngjae blinked at you. “…Oh.”

“Is something wrong?” you wondered.

“It’s just… um, I don’t know how to tell you this. But I heard that all the positions on that research team were filled. I think the last slot went to Park Jinyoung.”

You stared in shock. “What? Park Jinyoung? But I have at least three years more experience than him and I don’t think he’s ever done any specific research on antibodies before. I thought his specialty was stem cell research? Why on earth would Dr. Lee choose him over me?”

Youngjae looked embarrassed. “I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Dr. Lee.”

You nodded, setting down your coffee mug and storming over to your boss’ office. It was at least fifteen minutes before your scheduled meeting with him but you weren’t going to wait around in order to hear about whether you’d been rejected. You knocked loudly on the door and were told to come in. You put on your sweetest smile as you faced the older man who sat behind his desk.

“Dr. Lee! I hope I’m not disturbing you. I was hoping we could talk about my research?”

The man blinked at you through his glasses. “Of course! Come in, come in. I know you applied to be a part of my special research team and I’m sure you’ve heard already but I had to give the position to Park Jinyoung. I hope you understand that I had to take into account the stability of the project and the limited funds we have.”

You bit your lip as you sat down in front of him. “I… don’t exactly understand, to be perfectly frank, sir. I have at least three years more experience than him. There’s nothing wrong with my work records here and I already have specific research experience in the field of antibodies. Why has he been preferred for the position over me? If there’s something lacking in my performance then I’d like to know.”

Dr. Lee shook his head. “Certainly not! We’ve had consistently excellent performance from you. It was merely a strategic decision.”

“Well, I’d like to know what the strategy you applied was.”

The older man cleared his throat and for the first time, you noticed that he looked a little uncomfortable. You had no idea what was wrong. You’d been working for him for almost four years now and he had always been perfectly pleasant and seemed to appreciate your work. Why wouldn’t he want you on his research team? Dr. Lee placed his hands on his desk and gave you a gentle smile.

“All right, dear. I know you’re one of those people who considers the progress of science to be much more important than individual goals so I’ll be perfectly honest with you. This is a five-year project and I have to get a lot of research done in a very limited budget. I need to be assured that everyone on the team is entirely dedicated to the project and we don’t fall behind schedule.”

You felt hurt. “And you don’t think I have that level of dedication-“

“I’m sure you do. But this is a five-year project and you’re a woman in your mid-twenties. I have to consider… I mean, if you suddenly chose to go on maternity leave for a few months… well, that could be enough to derail the entire progress of the project. I had to choose Jinyoung to be safe.”

You stared at the man, unable to believe what he was telling you. Did he just deny you a position on the research team that you’d been aiming for year merely because there was a chance you could choose to get pregnant? You had never heard anything more absurd. You gritted your teeth and tried not to lose your temper. It wasn’t Dr. Lee’s fault, he was just doing what was best for his research team.

“Dr. Lee, I’m not even married-“

“But you could get married soon, if you chose. And so many women choose to become single mothers through donated sperm these days. As I said, I need a guaranteed five years of dedication.”

You felt helpless. How could this be happening? You weren’t pregnant and you hadn’t gotten married so how could he deny you the position due to something so flimsy? You felt a surge of desperation and leaned forward. “Dr. Lee, you know that I’ve been focusing all my efforts towards contributing to your work in the hopes that I would be able to be a part of this research. It’s one of my life’s dreams, and getting married or having children is entirely secondary to me. I would be willing to sign a legal statement waiving my right to maternity leave or any such benefit if that was what it would take…”

Dr. Lee merely gave you a sympathetic smile. “You know I can’t ask you to do that. Such a document would have no value, it’s entirely illegal to ask a woman to do give up her right to maternity leave.”

You felt a burst of anger flare inside of you. “It’s also illegal to deny a woman a position solely on the basis of her sex. We live in the twenty-first century, in case you’d forgotten.”

“I expected better from you. I thought you would understand that the consistent pursuit of science and saving lives comes before any individual person’s interests-“

You scoffed, glaring at the old man sitting in front of you. You had always thought he was sweet, kind and brilliant but it suddenly struck you what selfish creatures men really were. How dare he deny you a position that should have rightfully been yours? How dare he accuse you of not being loyal to science? You had dedicated your entire life to the cause until now and they still didn’t trust you to hold out for another five years? Would Dr. Lee have hesitated to hire Park Jinyoung if he wanted to have a baby?

“Does it really?” you asked with a sweet smile, as you stood up. “Well. We’ll see how your noble pursuits hold out in court, shall we?”

Professor Mark Tuan was sitting in his office and preparing for his lecture the next day, when he heard a sharp rap on his office door. It was regular office hours. Plenty of students walked in around this time, hoping to discuss the reading material or get help on their research papers so he merely pushed his glasses higher up his nose and called out.

“Come in!”

The last thing he expected to see was you.

You entered his office, looking as beautiful as ever despite the slightly embarrassed smile on your face. Mark felt his heart skip a beat. He hadn’t expected to see you again. If the disagreement you’d had over feminism wasn’t a deal-breaker, then the awkward goodbye after sex certainly had been. Mark had felt angry with himself after he left your house. Sleeping with you had been amazing, but he wondered whether, if he had held on for a little while longer, he could have gotten to know you better. Something about you still intrigued him.

“Hi,” he greeted you, unable to hold back a bewildered smile as he saw you hesitate in the doorway. “Wow, I certainly didn’t expect to see you today. What are you doing here?”

You bit your lip as you stared at him. This was so humiliating. “Uh…”

“Why don’t you sit down?”

You sat down awkwardly, wondering how to go about this whole thing. It seemed a little silly to be talking to a man whose life’s work you had dismissed and ridiculed just a few days ago. But Mark seemed genuinely glad to see you and deep down, you knew that he wasn’t holding a grudge over your previous conversation. “Sorry to come to your workplace like this,” you apologized softly. “It’s just that we never exchanged numbers that day and I didn’t want to get my Mom involved so I thought I’d just come to the university and ask about your office hours.”

Mark nodded, his eyes twinkling. “Well, it’s nice to see you again.”

You bit your lip. “You too.”

“Is there something you wanted to say to me in particular?”

You took a deep breath but it was difficult to speak. The events of this morning were still fresh in your mind and you couldn’t get over it. It had taken you years to get your dream job and you had just walked out on your boss and risked everything in a moment’s rage. But the rage was still burning inside of you. Mark seemed to notice the pain in your eyes because he walked around the desk and stood beside you, placing a hand on your shoulder. “Hey. Are you doing all right?”

You shook your head, finding it difficult to speak. “I… um. I quit my job today. Well, not exactly. I didn’t hand in a resignation or anything I just threatened to sue my boss and stormed out of the office, so…” you choked out. Your shoulders trembled and to your surprise, Mark gently pulled you up and wrapped his arms around you. You let yourself relax into his warm embrace. His touch felt amazing; not like the electric sexual tension you’d felt before, but a soft and comforting feeling that you needed.

“It’s okay,” he whispered gently, his deep voice relaxing you. “Take a deep breath and talk about it.”

“You were right. He denied me a position on a 5-year research team because there’s a chance I might get pregnant and want to take maternity leave during that time. That asshole. I thought Dr. Lee was a good person and I thought that he really valued my work because he always seemed to treat me as an equal with all the other male employees but- but the moment my gender posed the slightest inconvenience to him, he…”

Mark’s hand stroked your back comfortingly. “I’m sorry that happened to you.”

You blinked back your tears and looked up at him. “You’re probably thinking that I deserved it, right?”

He chuckled and one of his hands reached up to cup your face gently. Mark’s dark brown eyes were looking down at you with a hint of kindness as well as sympathy. “I won’t lie, there are probably things you could have done if you’d been a bit more prepared and accepted that this was something that could happen to you,” he said lightly but his tone change once he saw your face crumple. “But, no. Nobody deserves this.”

You closed your eyes. “What am I going to do?”

Mark looked down at you and before you could react, he leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead. You were surprised at his sweetness as he stepped back and gave you his charming, handsome smile. “We are going to go and get a cup of coffee while you tell me exactly what happened and then we decide whether to sue this bastard in court or write an anonymous article shaming him before the entire academic community.”

You giggled. “I like both of these options.”

Mark grabbed his coat and put it on before reaching out to squeeze your hand comfortingly. “Thank you for coming to me about this,” he said softly. “I was worried I’d never see you again and I was starting to regret walking out of your room without saying anything that day.”

You bit your lip. “What would you have said?”

Mark stepped forward until he was standing inches away from you and he leaned down to whisper into your ear softly. “I would have told you that you are the most beautiful and sexy woman I’d ever met, and I wouldn’t mind arguing with you every single day of my life if at least half of our arguments ended the way ours did.”

You shuddered as his lips brushed your ear and you gave him a teasing smirk. “You haven’t seen the worst of me yet. I can be extremely stubborn about my views. What are your opinions on multilateral free trade at the international level?”

“Isn’t free trade a good thing?”

You leaned back and smirked. “Excellent. Let’s discuss that in detail, shall we?”

#got7 #got7 scenarios #got7 fanfiction #got7 angst #got7 fluff #mark tuan #got7 mark #mark scenarios #mark fluff #mark tuan angst #got7 imagines #got7 reader #mark tuan imagines #professor mark tuan #got7 professor!au #thirsty days of september

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akitokihojo · 6 years

Text

Rage

Recently, I saw some art of human Inuyasha saving Kagome, which I am all here for! But then it gave me an idea. What if the roles were reversed? Enter bamf Kagome in all of her well-deserved glory.

..............................................

Kagome slid the door open slightly, peeking out into the dark woods from Sango's doorway for what she felt was maybe the eighteenth time within the last thirty minutes. Nothing. Still nothing. Tilting her head back, she eyed the night sky hoping the moon would have appeared overheard since she last poked her head out. Nothing.

Sliding the door shut, she went back to the pacing she'd been doing since the sun set. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest while she flicked her thumb nail back and forth over the nail of her middle finger, creating a clicking sound that did little to distract her.

"I take it they still aren't back?" Sango asked, setting her sleeping one year old down in his makeshift, bedside bassinet and peering nervously over her shoulder at Kagome.

Kagome could only shake her head in response, knowing her nerves were getting the better of her, and thankful all of Sango's children were asleep so they wouldn't pick up on the unsettling emotions that practically oozed from her own pores.

Earlier today, a man from a village a couple of hours out requested the help of Miroku and Inuyasha. A demon had begun reeking havoc on the village the night before, and was holding all of the women hostage while literally devouring the men. A demon like this wasn't something the hanyou and monk were strangers to, being well-known demon slayers now, so they obliged and followed the villager back. Kagome couldn't help but feel surprised when Inuyasha agreed to help so easily. Normally on the night of the new moon he was hesitant to leave the house, let alone agree to slay a demon. And when she asked if he was sure, Inuyasha had promised to be back before sundown.

Sundown was hours ago.

Kagome felt sick, her stomach feeling heavy in her abdomen. Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. And it only agitated her more that Sango appeared so calm when her husband was missing, too.

"They'll be back." Sango placed a light hand on her friend's shoulder, stopping her from her pacing in an attempt to soothe her nerves. "Maybe there was just a small set back. Maybe they decided to stay the night in the village and they'll return by morning."

"On an average night, I might take your word for it. But it's a new moon, and I've got a bad feeling." Kagome's arms dropped to her sides, her voice coming out small and breathy.

Sango felt her heart give an aggressive thud, the anxiety beginning to boil up and spill over. She'd felt something was off all night, and not just because the priestess in her home was a nervous wreck. For hours now, she'd just been telling herself to be patient. Miroku and Inuyasha had run late on numerous occasions before, and have even had to stay in distant villages overnight due to set backs and late hours. Something was different tonight though, and Sango couldn't believe she hadn't realized what tonight was. More importantly, Sango couldn't believe Inuyasha agreed to help out on such a compromising occasion.

"I... I should go after them." Kagome stated, peering back over to the closed door and then to the corner of the room where her bow and arrows sat leaning against the wall.

"Kagome, no. Not alone. It's too dangerous! If something did happen to them, what's to say the same won't happen to you?!" The mother gripped Kagome's hand as she tried to move past, shaking her head with pleading eyes.

"There's no guarantees, Sango, but I have to try."

"What if they're on their way back?"

"Then we'll cross paths."

"Maybe I should go, instead."

"No." Kagome held a tone of finality to her friend's suggestion, letting her know there was no room for compromise. While she was, no doubt, the better fighter of the two, it was more important that Sango was kept safe. "You have three babies here, and they need you. Their mother. I'll be back, don't worry." She gave her friend's hand a firm squeeze before peeling out of Sango's hold. "And I'll have our husbands in tow."

Sango watched the priestess hastily pick up her weapons and strap them over her shoulder with wide eyes. Her friend's bravery still surprised her at times. It was nothing she was unfamiliar with, of course. All that time spent traveling and fighting demons, monsters, and sometimes even humans showed Sango just how bold the girl from the future was. Kagome gave Sango one last look and she nodded an affirmation towards her close friend as she slid the door shut behind her, the cool air of the night that blew through brushing against her clammy skin.

This could all be in her head. Kagome was more than willing to admit that this wouldn't be the first time her imagination has gotten the better of her during tense situations, but she couldn't just sit around and wait to see if she was wrong. The longer she waited, the more danger Inuyasha could be in.

Picking up speed, her jog turned into a run. She'd been to the village they'd gone to save before, accompanying Kaede on more that one trip during the recent, bitter winter to aid the sick. She remembered the way, and it was at least a two hour walk, but she could cut that down some if she ran.

The angry feeling in the pit of her stomach seeded deeper and grew worse, churning her insides with an overwhelming amount of anxiety. As much as she wanted to stop running, to double over from the unsettling nausea and puke, she couldn't. She wouldn't allow herself to yet. Something's wrong. Something's wrong. The chanting wouldn't stop in her head, repeating the words over and over no matter how hard she tried to reassure herself that this was Inuyasha, for goodness sake! She'd seen him take on Tokajin in his human form, fall from a cliff, and live! He may be rash, but he's smart. He knows how to survive.

Kagome's breathing was jagged, lungs burning from each inhale of the crisp night air that dragged through her wind pipes. Kagome braced herself against the closest tree, trying to steady her muscles as her legs shook beneath her, her hair sticking to her slick and sweaty forehead and cheeks. Her run had become a sprint as she began to sense a menacing demonic aura nearby. It was even stronger from where she stood now, not far ahead. She could hear a few panicked villagers off in the distance, letting her know that her hunch wasn't wrong; the fight never ended.

Her sides cramped as she went to take a step away from the tree, her body begging her to rest a bit longer. Then she heard it. The heart-shattering, chill-inducing scream that caused everything inside and around Kagome to stop while painfully twisting at every organ within her abdomen.

Inuyasha.

She stood there a moment as the gears in her brain slowly began working again, her lungs remembering how to inhale and exhale, her muscles regaining movement, the blood once again coursing through her veins with an extra dousing of something hot. Fire, maybe. No, hotter. Lava.

It seared through her body so quickly, her subconscious walk towards the blood curdling scream that had long ended but still rang in her ears shifted and she was suddenly racing forward. The adrenaline silenced her body's plead for rest with the overwhelming need to make sure her husband was safe. Alive.

"INUYASHA!"

Shit. Shit. Shit. This was bad. This was really fucking bad. Inuyasha crawled his way to a half seated position, the hot blood that leaked from the wound in his waist oozing over his calloused fingers as he applied painful pressure to it.

Tetsusaiga was useless. Miroku's pretty messed up, so he's useless. And Inuyasha was human. He was as useless as they get.

"You taste disgusting. Just as I'd imagine a puny dog would taste like." The demon remarked with his boisterous voice, spitting Inuyasha's blood off to the side.

"Yeah, well that's what ya get for biting me, asshole!" He winced as he yelled, clutching his side harder.

"Inu- yasha... Try- not to- anta- gonize it- please." Miroku's words came out with each short, shaky breath. He was bleeding from his temple and the arm his wind tunnel used to plague, and he'd lost quite a bit of blood already.

"He bit me, Miroku." Inuyasha responded, still in disbelief that it had happened to begin with. He'd come across many breeds of demons before, some more animalistic than others. But not a single one of those deliberately attempted to take a chunk out of him as a midnight snack. Luckily, the thing found him gross and pulled away before actually taking a piece of Inuyasha with him, and while he'd normally be offended by being told he tasted disgusting, he'd take his wins any way he could get them tonight.

Still, the bite inflicted a good amount of damage and Inuyasha was losing blood now. A lot of it. Not to mention, the demon's claws had gotten him pretty good on both his right leg and left arm.

This was really fucking bad and he still had several hours until sunrise.

Inuyasha's vision was beginning to blur as he tried to sit up more, his head growing light and limbs trembling. Fuck this human body. Fuck the night of the new moon!

"Since I'd rather not make a half breed like you a meal, especially while you're in such pitiful form, I'll just kill you for sport and eat your friend as a tasty, little snack after."

"Keh. And you called me disgusting." Inuyasha rolled his dark eyes, peeling his aching body from the ground, fighting against the unsteadiness of his muscles and standing up. "You'd eat that guy as a snack? I've spoken to his wife and she definitely wouldn't call him a treat."

"Inuyasha! What good does taunting him do?" Miroku grimaced, coming to stand beside him and gripping his injured arm.

"Time management?" He asked more than stated, a small shrug coming from his shoulders. He didn't quite know what his plan was. In fact, he'd hoped that if everyone kept talking, he'd be able to figure something out. But time was as limited as options.

"Do you plan on telling jokes until sunrise? We'll both bleed out by then. We need to get to safety." Miroku was talking under his breath, but it was clear how serious he was.

"You run if you like, monk, but I ain't going anywhere! You know I can take it! I'm built differently than you!" Inuyasha scoffed, tossing his ebony hair back and off his shoulder as he gave Miroku a deadly look then directed it back towards the demon.

"I hate to break it to you, my friend, but all those other times you survived were pure luck. You know as well as I that tonight you're no different from me."

The fluid leaking from his waist and causing his robes to stick to his sensitive wound was proof enough that the monk was right about him not being so different. But he was wrong about luck. Inuyasha and luck didn't mix too well. Hell, if he was lucky, he wouldn't be running into trouble on the one night of the month where he didn't have his demonic powers. Or in his case tonight, willingly running towards the trouble like a dumbass. Still, he survived all those previous battles because he kept fighting. Which was exactly what he planned to do tonight.

"Are you finished?" the creature growled, all evidence of amusement vanishing suddenly, his lips curling back to bear his fangs in a fearsome snarl. "You two interrupted my meal earlier, let my women escape, and I've grown hungry. The villagers weren't smart enough to leave the village while they could, and I can smell a delicious human snooping around nearby. It's time for this to end so that I may feast." He licked his lips, remnants of the blood from the man he was eating earlier still staining his face.

This was a bad time for Inuyasha's legs to threaten to give in. The demon was digging its claws into the dirt, the front of him dipping down as his rear raised up in what he could only guess was preparation to pounce, and as soon as he was airborne Inuyasha was going to have to get the hell out of there. His legs were just going to have to hang on for a little while longer.

Actually, a lot longer.

Inuyasha and Miroku dove in opposite directions to avoid the giant cat, Inuyasha rolling a couple more times as the demon swiped his way, groaning loudly in pain as rocks in the dirt collided with his wounds.

A flash of purple light caught his attention is it flew passed his face and landed just at the creature's paws, the demon barely jumping back in time and coming to a halt. The purple glow faded away slowly, revealing an arrow. A sacred arrow.

What? Inuyasha sat up quickly, ignoring the blinding pain from his movement and whipped his head in the direction the arrow came from to see Kagome standing at the edge of the trees, another arrow already lined up with her bow and aimed directly at the offending demon. Her brow was furrowed together, lips curled downward in a tight frown as she held her tense position, cheeks pink and glowing with sweat.

If looks could kill...

"Don't think my aim was off!" Kagome shouted, pulling her arrow back an inch further. "I wanted your attention!”

"A woman coming to me? Well, that's a first. Usually I have to chase them down, but I'll admit, it's nice to be chased for once." The cat snickered, lips curling up in a menacing smile.

Kagome angled her bow slightly downward and released the arrow, the arrowhead slicing through the skin of his front leg causing the demon to roar and jump back again, his dark red blood staining his dirty, golden fur.

"Shut up!" Kagome demanded, snagging another arrow from her quiver and lining it up perfectly to aim at him.

Her demand rang so clearly that even Inuyasha's hanging jaw snapped shut, eyes wide from her ferocious demeanor. He'd never seen her like this before. Not even in their worst battles they'd fought together did she direct such a fearsome scowl towards their enemies, let alone make them bleed to show how serious she was.

Kagome looked the demon up and down. Yellow fur covered it from head to toe, a bushy, sandy colored mane with darker tips adorning his head and neck. Rounded ears poked out of the top of his head as Inuyasha's did on any other night, and several cuts littered his body from what she could only guess was his ongoing fight with the two men.

A lion? Well this was a first. She couldn't say she was altogether surprised at the new encounter, nor was she particularly eager to be taking on what was known as the king of the jungle in her day and age, but none of that mattered right now. She was here and she'd already challenged him, a weird sense of blind fury numbing her fear. There was absolutely no way she was about to back down now.

"You'll pay for that, bitch!" He growled, lips peeling back to reveal his large set of sharp teeth and his muzzle wrinkling viciously into a snarl. "I'll kill you!"

"Not if I kill you first." Kagome muttered to only herself, watching as the lion poised itself to launch in her direction, pulling her arrow back until the string of the bow was as taut as possible.

"Kagome, get the hell out of here!" Her husband bellowed, trying to stand but quickly falling back to his hands and knees.

She waited another moment, watched as the demon's front legs lowered and his hind legs kicked at the ground sending him speeding in her direction, waited another very, very short moment, then released her arrow. The sacred aura surrounded the sharp weapon from head to tail and as it impaled the left side of the chest of her enemy, the force and power sent him flying backwards, smacking against the ground near Miroku's feet, and twitching slightly from the purification.

"Miroku, hurry!" She shouted, sprinting over to Inuyasha to assess the damage his human form had taken.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

She ignored him and continued looking him over while their enemy was down, noticing the blood that came from a shoulder wound, disappeared underneath his robe of the fire rat, and reappeared at his hands, dripping down the tips of his fingers. His dark grey eyes bore into her waiting for some sort of response, but she didn't care. Now was definitely not the time to catch up with one another. Especially not when she noticed the tear in the side of his robe and the amount of crimson liquid that put the color of his clothing to shame.

The monk quickly joined at Kagome's side looking exhausted and battered, covered in dirt and blood of his own.

"Do you think you can get him out of here, Miroku? The villagers are hiding not too far off, I saw them on my way over. Get them to help you guys." She could hear the lion demon stirring, no doubt itching to rise and attack again.

"You're an idiot if you think I'm leaving you here to fight that bastard alone!"

"And you're an idiot if you think you can help me!" Kagome snapped, gesturing to his current state.

"No, Kagome! Out of the question! I'm not leaving you!"

"Uh, guys..." Miroku was staring at the risen demon, the beast emitting a deep growl as it hurled its body over towards the three. Miroku quickly snagged Inuyasha out of the way, a pained yelp coming from the half-demon as they rolled, and Kagome leapt in the opposite direction, curling her body and landing in a kneel. She snatched an arrow from the quiver once more and positioned it quickly, launching it into his shoulder.

He roared again as her purification powers shot into his system, his muscles suddenly trembling under his weight but then quickly steadying. If it were possible, she swore his snarl grew more vicious and his anger spiked. She could feel his demonic power surging, growing stronger when it should have been growing weaker with the arrows she'd shot at him.

That's not good.

His red eyes slowly peeled up from the ground and found her, searing into her own, a rush of fear racing through her.

"Lady Kagome, you must get out of there!" Miroku shouted, but it was too late.

The lion demon raced at her and she only had enough time to merely drop her bow and shield herself with her left arm. He snatched her forearm within his teeth, the white, scorching pain bringing a deafening scream out of Kagome. He bit down a little harder, another scream burning at her throat, hot liquid spilling from her flesh and in between his teeth. The jungle cat stepped forward bringing the priestess fully to her knees, and with another step she was inching backwards, trying desperately to follow his lead to avoid further pain. And then he was on top of her, arm still in his mouth, his snarl still just as vicious as her blood dripped down onto her chest.

"Kagome!" Inuyasha yelled, kicking and fighting to get out of Miroku's hold. His body grew hot, heart pounding erratically in his chest as a number of emotions punched the air from his lungs. "No! Let go of me, Miroku! Kagome, no! I'm coming! Hang on! LET GO OF ME!"

"You would only make things worse, Inuyasha! She can handle this!" The monk scolded, his grip on the half-demon-turned-human only wavering slightly from the sting of his own wound in his arm. "You have to trust her! You're too hurt to fight!"

Kagome fought the urge to attempt to pry away his teeth from her forearm and instead shot her free hand behind her to snatch an arrow, unable to stop the small whimpering sounds that escaped her lips as any sort of movement sent electric waves directly to the limb currently stuck in the lion's jaw. More hot blood poured down onto her chest and neck, following gravity's lead and trickling down around the curve of her collar bone and throat. Just as his tongue lapped at her arm from behind his teeth she positioned the arrow in her fingers, clutched it tight, and with a powerful yell she stabbed it into the side of his neck.

Kagome was terrified that the demon's reaction would be to bite down even harder, potentially snapping her arm, but luckily he roared monstrously and she was freed. Quickly she peeled herself out from under him, scurrying backwards until she'd put a few feet of distance between them, clutching at her wound while desperately avoiding the sight of it. She knew the moment she paid mind to it was the moment she'd crumble from the pain.

The lion still stood, three arrows now sticking out from his body. She imagined he couldn't speak if he wanted to with the arrow lodged in his throat, but he was still strong enough to stand which made her fear that he was probably still strong enough to fight. She eyed her bow behind him, knowing her chances of retrieving it were slim to none from her position, and she'd really like to avoid tempting him into taking another part of her body between his teeth.

Kagome noticed Inuyasha in the distance. He was pale and drained, still squirming in their friend's hold to be free but too weak to put up an actual fight. Even from where she stood, she could see his black hair matted with a mixture of dirt and blood, sticking to the sides of his cheeks and neck. His dark eyes were half-lidded as he fought in Miroku's arms, cursing and calling out to her.

An overwhelming amount of rage shot through Kagome at the sight of her critically wounded husband, clouding her mind, and without thinking she leapt forward, her fist colliding with the beasts face once, twice, and the third time with enough force to send it stumbling backwards, tripping over its own feet and landing on the ground.

Everything stopped. It was quiet. Inuyasha wasn't fighting anymore and Miroku was hardly hanging on to him. The lion demon's breathing had slowed tremendously, Kagome feeling her powers of purification finally beginning to subdue the creature little-by-little. She was able to grab her bow before he was on his feet again, a searing pain shooting through her arm as she gripped the weapon and pulled one of her remaining arrows taut in the string. A low rumble came from the lion, the sound hardly noticeable but there nonetheless, as he rose once more with his head hung weakly.

"One more of these and you're done." Kagome warned as he took a few, slow steps toward her.

As if to irritate her, he chuckled. It was pained and hushed, but he kept laughing all the while taking one more step forward. "You couldn't kill me if you tried."

"Maybe you're right." Kagome agreed, lowering her bow in front of her, her shaking forearm finding alleviation as she loosened her hold. "Maybe I'm wasting my arrows. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm stronger than you're too proud to believe. Maybe one of us dies here tonight, or maybe you leave and I spare your life."

His thick brow furrowed together, a deep growl coming from the pit of his stomach and vibrating even her own core. Kagome returned his challenging stare, brown eyes colliding with red.

"Leave?" His pained voice queried, half laughing.

"Leave." Kagome answered flatly.

He squinted his eyes into a menacing glare, his snout wrinkling as his blood-stained lips twitched upward to reveal just the sharp tips of his fangs, his ruthless claws digging into the earth. Unwavering, Kagome stood up taller dropping the arrow from her fingers and letting it bounce against the ground before stilling, understanding that she'd have to give in before his pride allowed him to. "Leave." She repeated, her tone coming off as more of an order than the last confirmation she'd given.

His demeanor changed, suddenly. The fierce scowl he'd given her softened, muscles relaxing and jaw unclenching. With a huff from his nose and a shake of his thick mane, he abruptly turned around and began walking towards the dense edge of the forest. Pressing a heavy sigh from her lungs, Kagome dropped her shoulders, the tension that kept her body tight and focused beginning to leave her body as her muscles became shaky, fingers twitching along her bow.

"Kagome," she heard the low, weak moan, quickly snapping both hers and the lion's attention over to the two injured men.

"No," she pleaded, sensing the immediate danger as the beast emitted another rumble in their direction. She should have known the lion's surrender was too easy. She shouldn't have ignored the gut-wrenching feeling that screamed at her for lowering her weapons.

"No." She was a little louder, a little more desperate that time as she watched his path quickly change, watched the intention in his bright red eyes spark and his speed begin to pick up, Miroku and Inuyasha fumbling over their spent, damaged bodies to try and stand. That same, bubbling, excruciatingly hot blood that fueled her before returned with a fury as she pulled her last remaining arrow out of the quiver by its feathers, positioned the items to point directly ahead of the beast's path, pulling the tail back to align with her cheek and line of sight.

"NO!" She screamed, releasing her hold as the monster leapt towards the men, his jaw opened wide, powerful teeth bared.

A flash of purple light blinded them all as Kagome crumpled under her own weight, her energy drastically depleted from the amount of power she'd just used, falling to her hands and knees as she watched the arrow pierce the demon's rib cage and send him flying away from his prey. The silence was nearly unbearable, neither of the three breathing until the rise and fall of the fallen lion's chest finally ceased completely, his demonic aura dissipating into the crisp night air.

"Inuyasha." Kagome muttered under her breath, as if to bring herself back to the present. Back to the entire reason she'd come this far in the first place. "Inuyasha!"

The priestess forced herself up and ran over to the two black-haired men, skidding onto her knees as she reached Inuyasha's side. He was barely able to hold himself up in a sitting position anymore, leaning back onto one elbow as his other hand pressed firmly against the bite wound in his side. His face had paled considerably since the last time she'd noted, breaths coming in shallow and weak. His eyebrows were furrowed together and she could tell that if he just had an ounce more of strength he'd be chewing her out for putting herself in so much danger for their sake.

Miroku looked around them, peering into the dark forest trees and the wrecked buildings and huts that surrounded them as Kagome urged her husband to lay back and took over applying pressure to his still-bleeding wound repeating over and over you'll be okay, you'll be okay even if it was only to convince herself. "Please!" Miroku shouted, "If any villagers remain, we need help!"

Kagome bit back the sob that swelled in her throat, tears stinging at her eyes as they burned a trail down her cheeks. She heard the distant sound of rustling grow louder and closer as several people emerged from the darkness, but couldn't bring herself to look away from her hanyou's half-lidded, vacant eyes. His mouth had opened to say something as he lifted a hand to brush his thumb across her cheek, wiping away a stray tear, but nothing came out. Kagome, herself, was only capable of repeating you'll be okay, you're alright, I promise, you'll be okay, everything's okay now over and over and over until his eyes closed and heavy, forceful hands peeled her away from his battered body.

-----------

He felt heavy. Achy. Like he'd been laying in one position for far too long and his muscles were punishing him for the laziness. Even opening his eyes felt like a chore as he repeatedly blinked away the sleep until his golden eyes were able to focus on the familiar ceiling above him, sturdy beams crossing into a high arch. The blankets were pulled up to his shoulders yet he could still slightly feel the chill of the early morning drafting through his home.

Wait... Home?

He slowly pulled himself into a seated position, hissing all the while from the dull pain in his side. His nose registered the lingering scents around him. Miroku and Sango had been here, though Kaede's scent was stronger in the air indicating that she had just recently left. He took a deep inhale of the most important scent of them all, the incredibly sweet aroma of Kagome calming every confused nerve in his body.

Kagome.

His ear flicked as a sleepy sigh came from behind him, turning his head to see his wife had fallen asleep sitting against the wall next to where his head once was. His mind began racing, remembering the events that had taken place before he'd lost consciousness. The new moon, the beast, and his wife showing up out of fucking nowhere. That explained the pain in his side. He must have been really messed up if it didn't heal at least almost completely when he transformed back into a half demon.

His eyes looked her body up and down. Her legs were curled next to her, her back slouched slightly and her head resting half on the wall, half on her own shoulder. She was wearing clean robes now, wincing as he recalled her chest and neck splattered in her own blood. Inuyasha growled and clenched his fists at the memory, his claws biting into the palms of his hands. Her sleeve was pulled upward revealing her left forearm bandaged from elbow to wrist. It instantly ignited a fire in the pit of Inuyasha's core, remembering the sight of that wretched demon taking a bite out of his woman. His eyes flicked over to her right hand, her fingers resting on her lap and her knuckles a soft shade of red and purple, causing him to grimace. No, this shouldn't have happened to her.

While his basic instincts knew she must have stayed up all night taking care of him and she was exhausted and needed the rest, his demon instincts that needed answers and needed her to know just how much of an idiot she was overpowered them. He crawled off the futon, cursing under his breath at the damn pain in his waist, kneeling just in front of Kagome. He wanted to shake her awake, but the feeling disappeared just as quickly as it arose and he couldn't bring himself to be even close to that cruel to his wife no matter how angry he was. His calloused thumb grazed her soft cheek, momentarily grateful that nothing had happened to blemish her beautiful face.

"Hey," he whispered, easing her out of sleep, still slowly moving his finger back and fourth over her cheek. "Wake up, Kagome."

She blinked open her eyes at the feeling of heat against her face, a low and deep voice bringing her attention away from her dream and back to her chilly hut. It was morning. How long had she been asleep? Couldn't have been long. The soothing hand now began brushing her raven strands out of her face and behind her ear and then combing through the length of her hair with his fingers.

"Inuyasha?" Her voice was small and gentle from sleep, smiling gently as he continued stroking her hair. Her half demon was finally up, his clean, silver hair falling over his bare shoulders. She sat up straight, pushing him back a little to see that the bandages wrapped around his torso were still clean and his wound hadn't reopened, sighing back into a slight slouch from the relief that it was finally closing. "Thank goodness."

"How long- wait, no, how did-”

"You’ve been out for about two days now. The villagers could only help us out so much. They had injured of their own to tend to and homes to rebuild, so they helped me get you and Miroku back here yesterday. How are you feeling?" She asked, reaching forward and trailing her fingers around the curve of his shoulder where a nasty cut had been just before he transformed back.

"Me!? Kagome, how are you feeling?" Inuyasha pressed, snatching her injured arm up in his hands, immediately regretting the unnecessary force he'd just used.

She tried to hide her wince, a small gasp escaping her lips. "I'm okay, Inuyasha. Really."

"He bit you, Kagome!" He argued, gently raising her arm a little higher as if to remind her just why it was bandaged. Did nobody see a problem with being bitten anymore?

"He bit you too!" She took her arm back and gestured towards his own bandages.

"I'm a half demon, remember? I can take it!"

"Are you kidding me?" Kagome could feel something bubbling up inside of her. She couldn't tell if it was anger or exasperation or anxiety or sadness or whatever other emotion that could possible arise at the moment, but it was beginning to boil over and she could feel the heat settle into her cheeks. "You weren't a half demon when you were bitten! You know better than I that you need to be careful during one night of the month! One night! Your regenerative powers won't work in your favor if you don't survive as a human!" She flailed her arms as she yelled, tears stinging at her eyes and spilling over.

"Keh. I'm fine. Why did you come? You know what I do for a living! It's dangerous, Kagome!"

"You promised to be home before sundown!"

"That doesn't mean come after me if I'm not!"

"So I'm supposed to just sit around and wait!?"

"That's exactly what you're supposed to do!"

"You could have died, Inuyasha!"

"I wouldn't have died." Inuyasha scoffed, rolling his golden eyes and crossing his arms over his bare chest.

"You could have died!" Kagome cried, hastily trying and failing to wipe the tears that fell with her sleeves as more and more spilled from her eyes. She shut them tight, hoping that would close the gates, but she just couldn't stop. "If you had kept fighting, or if I had been any later, or if I wasn't able to shoot in time when the demon jumped at you because I lowered my damn defenses!" She hit her fist against the floor, the emphasis on her curse shocking Inuyasha even further.

Inuyasha felt himself soften immediately, her salty tears burning his nose as he felt himself slouch his shoulders in defeat. He couldn't stand seeing Kagome this way. She is the light of his life, and the sobs she let out in between a few words had his heart crumbling away. His fingers slowly wrapped around her small fist that was braced against the floor, bringing it into his lap as he attempted to gently rub out the sting she must have felt from punching the wood. His fingers brushed against her bruised knuckles and he gave in to the urgent need to hold Kagome to his chest. He scooted himself forward, brought his legs to cross in front of him, then gave the hand he held a good tug in his direction that she didn't resist to follow.

He adjusted her in his lap, her legs draped over one of his while she buried her tear stained face into the crook of his neck. He let Kagome cry for as long as she needed to, holding her as firmly as he could without crushing her and pushing up her pants so he could graze his fingertips against the soft skin of her legs. Finally, he felt her relax and the salty scent began to fade away, her trembling body stilling against his hard, steady one.

"I'm sorry, Kagome. You're right. Shit could have gone south, and it's because of you that I'm alive. You fought so well and I'm so damn proud of you, baby." He was subconsciously swaying her back and forth, the curve of her body fitting so perfectly into his. "I'm not gonna lie, even I was afraid of you."

She giggled and it was music to his ears. She pulled back to look at him, wiping away the remaining evidence of her breakdown with her sleeves again then shook her head.

"No, I- I put my guard down too soon. He was so close to getting you at the end."

"But you stopped him. That's what matters." Inuyasha replied, bringing her bruised hand up to his lips and brushing a kiss against each injured knuckle.

Kagome smiled, her heart giving a small flutter as he soothed her worries away. He was right. What mattered in the end was she managed to kill the demon and save her husband. She was sitting in his lap, relishing in his body heat and the small kisses he was now placing along her bandaged forearm, starting from her outer arm, making his way inwards, and ending at her inner wrist making sure to place a few extra tender kisses along the barely exposed, delicate skin. Him knowing full and well that it was a sensitive area that she loved to have touched, and her knowing full and well that she wouldn't be able to enjoy this wonderful moment if she hadn't have pulled through in the nick of time.

"Oh and by the way," Inuyasha began, letting his fingers wander down her legs and underneath her hakama once again. "I wasn't kidding when I said you scared the shit out of me. Could you let me know if I ever piss you off that bad so I can get the hell out of firing range?"

Kagome shot him a questioning look, cocking an eyebrow up at him. "What are you talking about?" The hanyou brought her bruised knuckles into her line of sight, a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"You punched a demon in the face, Kagome." He explained, a look of shock causing his eyes to go wide as he remembered her throwing each powerful punch, realizing that maybe he was rubbing off on her in all the wrong ways. "I'm not looking to be on the other end of that!"

Kagome gave a small smile and giggled again. "Oh," she started, climbing out of Inuyasha's lap to stand, pulling herself into a long stretch then sighing and gently rubbing one of her husband's ears.

"We'll see." She teased, walking away to get breakfast started for her hanyou.

"I'm serious, Kagome!" He shouted after her, worry causing his brow to furrow. She replied with a simple, happy hum as she exited their hut for ingredients. Inuyasha sighed heavily, rolling his eyes and standing slowly to make sure not to further aggravate his side.

"We aren't done here!" He yelled, following her out to their yard. He heard her melodic giggle from the side of their home, turning to see her peeking around the corner.

"You mean the big, bad half demon isn't actually afraid of me and my fists of fury?" She played, walking over to him and pretending to throw a punch, pushing his cheek with a soft fist.

"Shut up." Inuyasha droned, rolling his amber eyes and grasping the offending wrist. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against his chest, heat burning along his cheeks. "Listen, I don't like that you put yourself in so much danger. Please, just trust me to come back to you okay? I will always come back to you."

"And I will always come after you." She replied, wrapping her arms around his neck, her fingers threading in the long strands at his nape and standing on the tips of her toes to place a small kiss against his lips. "You don't have to like it, but that's how we work. That's how we've always worked, Inuyasha."

He shook his head and made an aggravated noise under his breath, but instead of countering her with another argument that she no doubt expected, he pressed his lips firmly against her own, gripping her waist tight in an attempt to pull her even closer. "Yeah, yeah. I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” He sighed, bending down and passionately kissing his wife again, swallowing her giggle and drinking her in.

#Inuyasha #kagome #kagome higurashi #inukag #inukag fanfic #inukag fanfiction #inuyasha oneshot #inukag oneshot #bamf kagome #inuyasha fanfic #inuyasha fanfiction #kagomeinthepast #my writing

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ONE FUNNEL AWAY CHALLENGE

One funnel away

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one funnel away challenge

Firm At the rear of:

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This training problem workbook arrives having a checklist of various day-to-day duties that you choose to need to finish everyday, in excess of plenty of writing and jotting room for putting down important factors and ideas you could get during the system in the problem, each day video coaching one-way links and some other resourceful inbound links which might be beneficial.

3. An Mp3 Participant with One-Funnel Absent Obstacle Live Recordings: A further awesome point you get in the One Funnel Absent Challenge kit can be an mp3 participant with dwell recordings from the stay periods from the past A single Funnel Absent Obstacle.

By way of example, when you register for the coming One Funnel Away Obstacle, you obtain a little mp3 player with the initial Just one Funnel Away Challenge recordings. This is certainly valued at $247.00!

Using this type of machine, you may pay attention to those education periods with your automobile, on the fitness center, if you are traveling or even in your bed prior to deciding to rest. This helps make the training less difficult to observe especially for the people functioning nine to five work opportunities. Basically, you may effortlessly multi-task and hear to classes speedier.

Entirely, you get about 50 instruction lesson recordings and about forty (40) several hours of training lessons.

four. 30 Days of Video-Missions from Russell Brunson: This is essentially the foremost material or price you will get from signing up for the One particular Funnel Absent Obstacle. Upon registering, you'll get a full 30 working day online video missions from Russell himself. These are definitely lessons and guides which will get you because of the hand and enable you to commence and create your first or upcoming profits funnel in 30 days.

If you have tried to start off an internet based business then you would know the way difficult it may be to start out a company, make the right merchandise as well as get men and women to truly invest in. It will take an entire whole lot of your time and strength.

A sales funnel can be a sequence of levels that a business designs which a customer (or possible purchaser) passes by means of to become a shopper. For instance, when a visitor lands on the squeeze web site (or landing site), he or she is then available an incentive to sign up to you e-mail lists exactly where they get tailor-made email content material qualified to having them acquire your merchandise.

The recently subscribed visitor will get specific e-mail articles that concentrates on setting up trust and romance wanted in advance of even promoting any product or solutions. The gross sales funnel program is there for just a pretty long time even ahead of the online market place was born.

Building a product sales funnel for your personal on line enterprise is often authentic difficulty specially when you really do not know where by to start. The trouble of creating individual landing pages, purchase webpages, thank you webpages, up-sell internet pages then connecting them all alongside one another is usually overwhelming. Most situations, entrepreneurs and business people end up supplying up.

Here is the detail;

Without the need of a web based profits funnel for your on the web business enterprise, you are able to not actually create a stable, passive income. You would probably not have the capacity to develop an internet based company that replaces your 9 to 5 task or give you the freedom you need. The reality about most on-line organization proprietors is that they wish to establish a steady regular profits without the need to trade all their time for it. Some on the web company homeowners come up with a good chunk of cash but are usually not truly pleased or free of charge because they trade their time for cash.

A revenue funnel is exactly what can clear up this problem. It requires out the trouble of having to trade your time and effort for dollars and genuinely create a passive revenue stream without having to strain by yourself.

Russell comprehended this and made a decision to start his corporation, ClickFunnels. A Saas business that helps small business proprietors sell extra without the need to trade time. Generally, it helps you create marketing revenue funnels from the simplest strategies possible. This tool has actually been proven to generally be the best revenue funnel creator in the world as entrepreneurs have used it to build sales funnels that have produced a lot of dollars each day.

In reality, 1 of Russell’s funnels crank out a minimum of $500,000 each individual thirty day period.

This idea at the rear of the Just one Funnel Away Obstacle is just to indicate small business homeowners that ClickFunnels can really enable them to grow their firms to the things they dream of it. With ClickFunnels, you may create a company and escape the 9 to 5 occupation trouble for good.

Russell’s movie lessons educate you ways to get started on from very little and establish a funnel that may mature your organization exponentially. These movie lessons will manual you through the methods you require to just take to go from $0 to 1000s of pounds in gross sales applying only one product sales funnel.

These classes tend not to only educate you but in addition provide you with just how you can do it in just 30 days. Pretty terrific is not it? You furthermore mght find out how ClickFunnels functions and the way for getting started off making use of the software.

5. 30 Days of Coaching from Stephen Larsen and Julie Stoian: For each and every on the internet instruction session marketers be part of, you can find generally a necessity for coaching sessions where by students get to talk to personalized thoughts and acquire responses from knowledgeable men and women. The One Funnel Absent Challenge is no distinct.

Russell has picked two (2) income funnel industry experts, Stephen Larsen and Julie Stoian for this. I really had Julie Stoian on my podcast not long ago and she shared an awesome strategy on ways to essentially provide your courses before you even develop them.

Pupils reach check with queries and get them answered by knowledgeable gurus. This fashion, studying is less complicated and overwhelm is minimized.

Here's the tutor breakdown;

Russell Brunson would be the mastermind powering the Just one Funnel Absent Problem and also the strategist. Russell will tutor you with day-to-day teaching videos that will help you create the right product sales funnel in your on the internet company. He'll put down the main groundwork there is to developing a product sales funnel, the basic principles of getting going and the way to scale your funnels.

Julie Stoian could be the transformer and would enable you to switch your thirty working day thoughts into a actual funnel that is constructed. Mainly, she’s an authority at turning mere small business thoughts from your desire stage into truth that really generates money. Aspect take note: I did have Julie Stoian as a visitor on my podcast and he or she practically rocked it.

Ultimately, Stephen Larsen could be the executioner and will mentor you day by day on stay group calls. Primarily, he receives all your questions answered and in addition offers an additional hand to those people who may possibly will need it.

Stephen is just one which makes certain learners execute their duties, assignments and actually establish their gross sales funnels.

THE Program BREAKDOWN:

Here’s a simple breakdown overview on the training course classes you get any time you sign-up and join the One particular Funnel Absent Obstacle.

7 days one: Pre-Training (State of mind)

Week 2: The Hook, Tale along with the Offer

Week 3: Create the Funnel

7 days 4: Targeted visitors and Efficient Advertising

Week 1: THE Frame of mind

The main week on the One Funnel Away Challenge mainly concentrates on having your mindset suitable. Before you decide to can actually make a internet marketing product sales funnel that could adjust your lifetime, you will need to have your frame of mind proper very first. While using the completely wrong mentality, there exists practically very little 1 can perform to achieve his goals and aims in everyday life.

Russell helps you correct your belief, obtain your way of thinking proper, discover your worst fears plus your strengths. The only strategy to escape from that 9 to five occupation will be to get all these suitable.

Think of it for a pre-training attitude that is definitely intended to acquire you suitable with the big deal. To get ready you for that big offer, Russell focuses on igniting some thing in you. He focuses on inspiring you and acquire the flames burning to have the ability to conquer whatever task or problem you could experience from the future thirty times.

These mainly assist you learn and believe in you in addition to have confidence in that you can achieve anything you established to to obtain. Can it be escaping the nine to 5 headache? This concentrates on acquiring you the mindset needed to strike this focus on within the following 30 times.

7 days 2: THE HOOK, Tale plus the Provide

To get a organization to really get folks to pay you in your products and solutions or providers you may need the hook, story and state of mind. This is often what sets your online business aside and truly receives individuals to have confidence in your merchandise or solutions.

There's a favorite stating that men and women buy the tale not the attributes. This part of the A single Funnel Away Challenge concentrates on location you up for this.

The hook is just that which you publish, say or communicate in your concentrate on audience to acquire them really psyched or pumped up regarding your company and also your solutions (or providers). The hook is always the main step within your income copy concept. It is actually a method that not just company homeowners leverage but in addition speakers, trainers or instructors.

The tale would be the meaty part of the duplicate. You require to find a novel and fascinating tale that appeals specially on your goal viewers or potential consumer. Russell Brunson is learn at this as every of his tale receives me.

His stories are often on point plus they usually capture and captivate his audience which gets them over excited to obtain his solutions or be part of his applications. Russell is often a learn at this!

At last, the Give is the place you truly current your products or services. The supply is what men and women pay for.

The supply is your item (or solutions) plus your products really should address a selected issue that your target viewers faces. Discover a unique angle that the competitiveness is lacking out and hit your goal viewers with it. The supply is totally useless and not using a great hook along with a charming story.

Like I discussed, Russell is really a learn at this and will stroll you thru ways to turn into a professional at it far too.

7 days three: Build THE FUNNEL

This module demonstrates you accurately ways to start off and develop your precise funnel. At this time, you bring out your thought into actuality. You deliver it out into an precise funnel that could begin making revenue instantly.

This module exhibits you the way ClickFunnels is effective and accurately how to get began utilizing the software.

Russell exhibits you around the shoulder video clips from the ClickFunnels software program and that means you can practically see how you can make squeeze pages, landing internet pages, thank you webpages as well as your upsell webpages easily. The ClickFunnels computer software was constructed for simplicity and relieve not simply for that business enterprise house owners and also the shoppers.

ClickFunnels aims at earning your consumer at ease and his obtaining encounter pleasurable and straightforward. In this way, your shoppers would often need to come back for additional.

With this particular software program application, company proprietors could setup substantial converting product sales funnels for their products and services inside of couple of minutes. In actual fact, I have viewed one of Russell’s video clips wherever two persons constructed a complete income funnel making use of the ClickFunnels in below an hour.

The A single Funnel Away Obstacle reveals you the way it is possible to do that in your enterprise far too.

Week 4: Traffic AND Successful Advertising

To put it simply, with no visitors and powerful marketing, every advertising and marketing profits funnel is ineffective in spite of how wonderful it is. Marketing and traffic would be the fuel of each gross sales funnel, squeeze or landing website page. Just about every on line enterprise needs ample traffic to endure, thrive and become in a position to grow.

There may be no business enterprise devoid of folks coming to it. Without visitors not one person would know your goods exists not to converse of purchasing them.

With this chapter, Russell concentrates on showing the top traffic technology procedures you could potentially use to generate 1000s of world-wide-web visitors into your gross sales funnels. These strategies consist of social media marketing, search engines like yahoo and paid out ads. As an example, Russell pays attention to facebook advertisements because he believes it is actually a person from the only tips on how to push folks for your product sales funnel immediately.

Using an expenditure of the number of bucks, you might push 1000s of people in your squeeze web site in which you sell to them and have back again your ROI (return on expense). Search at it this way;

You develop a $50 item and establish an efficient income funnel for it. You then invest $200 into facebook advertisements. This could drive 1000s of people for your income funnel and with only four income, you'd probably get better back again your facebook advertisements investment decision.

Value

To join the A single Funnel Absent Challenge, it fees only $100. With $100, you can get the many characteristics, trainings, bonuses and coaching classes there exists in this schooling series. It can be completely value every single penny. In fact, this system is valued at $3,126 however, you get all these for just $100 right now.

For that cost, I are unable to advocate this software additional. $100 to develop the aspiration enterprise you have got constantly wanted or maybe 100 bucks to flee the 9 to 5 stress.

Last Verdict

In conclusion, the One Funnel Away Problem is valuable expense you'd make. The material, bonuses and teachings you can get are top notch and they are much value a lot more than a $100 investment decision. No matter what business you're in: large ticket nearer, start-up, or currently at 7 figures, you will get a tone of price from this problem.

I remarkably advocate that you simply sign-up for that coming A person Funnel Away Obstacle currently and get ready to make the company you and your loved ones have earned.

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wecouldbelongtogether · 5 years

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Not your typical love story because a girl woke up and fell in love with a gay sweetheart. It's a tough journey.

I'm a bisexual girl who happens to like girls a lot. I had two ex girlfriends and zero boyfriends in the past though I dated a few guys too. For the past years, some people considered me as lesbian already as my interest in men almost hit the rock bottom while women gets my attention effortlessly. As I get to meet more people and evaluate myself, I kinda realize maybe I'm demisexual or something. It's so easy to be interested with anyone but it's a different story to fall in love with someone.

I have this circle of friends at school called marupokswhom I am badly attached and close to. We go on adventures together, share little secrets, get drunk, sneak out, cry together and I have to say that there is one special person in my circle, let's name him 'K'.

Let's drop the bomb, K is gay. Not the guy looking gay but he is very gay. The moment he speaks, the moment he moves, the moment you hear him, you know he is that gay. So cute.

In our circle, we have bisexual guys too who acts feminine too but I have to say that K is the girliest of them all, maybe even girlier than the other real girls in our squad lol. Still cute.

K and I? We weren't really close. We share jokes — he is witty and very funny — and stories and hang out but we're not that tight. If you leave us together in a room — just us — there might be some awkward silence. You know?

I don't really pay attention to him that much, he was just a normal school friend before though there are times he is there drinking with me and some of our mutuals, he heard my tragic story about my ex girlfriend, he heard the complicated stuffs about me and my love life and my mind bleh. He's a good listener in my opinion, but then one day I woke up and asked myself: He always listen, not just to me but to each of the squad's stories, but did I ever try to listen to him? That's the time I started to notice him.

His eyelashes are so long, his skin glows, it fascinates me to stare at him when he talks. Our squad is composed of about 11 members so it's kinda hard to speak in big groups, some won't pay attention, some gets distracted, some may not even know you're speaking but when he speaks, I try my best to listen. And then I knew a little bit about his story.

He's either sleeping or laughing or smiling. But then behind those happy and sleepy bean, there is another book.

A broken family that he keeps wishing to be complete again. Struggles in life to survive this cruel world. He needed to work while studying to help his family and himself. Jeez. I can't imagine myself being in such situation considering that I am so lazy and my family are well and stable, we never really had financial problems or anything related to that.

I remember what K said, he was like the mother and father to his own family. Masyadong maaga pa but he had no choice. Sucks. Now he works at a fast food chain — Jollibee, my favorite, lol!

You know what's so fascinating about it? He loves his work. I don't think it's just because of the money he earns from it but he is that appreciative kind of person. Maybe he appreciates his colleagues, his manager, the fast food chain itself, the operations, the memories that he learned to naturally love what he is doing. Imagine that? Instead of cursing and going like "Hay nako may duty nanaman ako." He goes like "May duty ako." There's a difference.

I can feel his passion and care for the place he works on. It's amusing and sweet at the same time. He is really appreciative of things — very.

He also do sidelines to earn, that's so diligent of him. I remember him selling coin banks. Ang sipag samantalang ako tamad tamad. Lol! He is also a student council treasurer of our school's organization ACES-PICE. Btw, he won the elections by a super landslide (I'm so proud! He deserves all the votes yessssss!!) He hosts civil engineering events on our school too even without any talent fee — just love. Ain't he the nicest?

Last year, November 2018 we had a ball and he hosted it. He had a co-host and it irked me to hear that there was an instance where a student officer handed a food for his co-host and had nothing for K. Jesus. What the actual fuck? She even asked K to hand the food to his co-host.

Man, I saw all K's efforts for that whole week, for that whole event, he hosted the event without asking for any fee but to treat him like that, like "Wag ka na bigyan ng pagkain, sayang budget."

Where's the appreciation? Where's the consideration.

Ano ba naman yung kahit food nalang oh. Sick. Don't get me wrong but that student officer is a trash. Sorry not sorry. I'm so angry lol.

As a busy officer that night, I still managed to eat at the buffet, K was so occupied with the hosting and the only time he was able to munch something was when I brought my plate backstage and he had a few bites of my food. I hate that I wasn't able to do anything for him that time. Ugh.

After that night, I appreciated him more as a person. I didn't have heavy feelings yet but I barely noticed that the path I was taking was on the way there.

I started with throwing banats and cheesy jokes on him on our group chat. Our friends laugh at us a lot because I am their friend that they can't imagine being with a guy more because I AM THAT INTO GIRLS FOR ALMOST MY WHOLE LIFE and K is so gay that he's like created by the heavens for a guy. Then it went on and on then one day I realized, I really like this person.

I went crazy. I locked myself in a room and evaluated myself and my feelings. Maybe I'm lost? It's just a crush but no it wasn't JUST a crush. I kept it for myself for a while. I never saw it coming — me liking a friend who is gay who is biologically a man. That is like against all my rules and against the norm.

I remained silent. I didn't want to make things awkward but people were right. The more you hide what you feel, the more it demands to manifest.

Then I couldn't take it anymore. I had to tell someone about it and I told one of the marupoks, Abbi, about it (love her). She was startled because as I've said, it was against all my rules and the norm but she is the most understanding and open minded person in our group, she knew how great K is and there is literally nothing not to like about him.

Then I continued to keep all my feelings to myself. Some of the squad started to ask me who am I blushing to, who is my crush but I kept it hidden and when I drop K's name, they won't take it seriously. I thought it was a good coincidence.

I gave him a polo top as a Christmas gift from H&M. I thought of buying it because I remember one time he showed me a polo top from a shop (I forgot) and he looked so amused by it. Hindi naman siya maluho that's why I thought it wouldn't hurt to buy him something he can use and might like, right?

Man, it's been ages since I felt that feeling. You know? Going to a mall and thinking what is a good thing to buy for him? This looks good on him? He might like this. I forgot myself and that's so rare.

My friends think I'm joking whenever I put efforts for K but the truth is I'm actually expressing. I thought maybe K would find it as a joke too because I've been very playful with him ever since but then as days go by, I don't know if I'm getting off guard or if he is just that sensitive to notice. Some of them started to worry about me.

Baka masaktan ka.

'pag ikaw umiyak—

Control control lang.

I always tell them he's just my happy crush but I knew I was in love.

HOW WEIRD IS MY LOVE FOR K?

I knew I was when I thought about rejection but I was ready for the pain he might cause and I wasn't afraid of it. I knew I was in love when I didn't care if he tells me he doesn't feel the same way because the only thing I want is for him to know.

I didn't want him to know because I want to oblige him to love me back or to pressure him to reciprocate what I do, I just wanted him to know that there is someone believing in him, there is someone appreciating him, there is someone out there loving him for who he is because that's what he deserves.

You deserve all the love in the world.

I always tell him.

He said he was so touched when I said it to him the first time but I always wonder why nobody has told him that yet or why isn't there anyone reminding him that? Jesus. He's so wonderful, it hurts.

Ever since I had my heart broken from my first girlfriend, I've been very wary of the people I date and people I get interested to. My walls went so high, I may get interested but when I see one flaw in the person I date, I tend to just choose giving up and stopping everything because I was traumatized by my past. I was destroyed when I gave almost everything to my former love, courted her for half a year even if she was straight. Nabasted for a couple of times but I thought she was worth the struggles, I won her but then she just ended up cheating on me after being with me for two years. I just find it hard to be interested with someone and trust them completely. I was tainted, I had trust issues with everyone thinking they will just all end up hurting me like my ex.

I dated a lot of people but honestly, I haven't felt the strong admiration I had for my ex to anyone until K came along. He was special, even I was surprised.

Akala ko di na ako makakafeel ng ganitong kilig, ganitong devotion and determination for someone. I even wrote a song for him. He inspired me that much.

Man, I have so much words for him. He is perfectly imperfect and I love his assets and flaws — I don't mind seeing more.

We already talked face to face.

He said he thinks I'm out of his league. I'm above him, he said. Then I told him "Eh I'm looking up to you." Hoping he'll realize that I am not in anyway out of his league and he is wonderful, don't he ever dare to put himself down.

He said he doesn't deserve me, I deserve someone better because he's just him. Common line but I know my worth. I know what I deserve but put me out of the picture — YOU are the one who deserve so much more. You're amazing.

He said when he knew that I liked him he was surprised, he couldn't believe it. Then when I started to be vocal and showy about my feelings, he had no choice but to take it in and he confessed that it overwhelms him to have someone to put so much effort on him and he just couldn't help but think of how to return the feelings, efforts and gifts. I told him I don't need him to return all of that, I don't need him to think HOW to reciprocate and return all of it, I just want him to think WHY I do all of those efforts and WHY I give him all those appreciation and surprises. Simple. Because he deserves to be treated that way, he deserves to be loved that way, he deserves to be spoiled that way.

He deserves more and all.

He once smiled with a face of disbelief as if everything he's hearing was surreal, then he asked me bakit ako? Then I laughed because I couldn't believe he had to ask why? Is life that shit to him that he doesn't know how wonderful he is? I replied bakit hindi? He was silenced. I hope he realized his worth, bakit nga ba hindi?

Then I looked at him in the eye and told him how most of the people close to the both of us ask me why do I like him, it's weird, it's unusual but then I told him alam mo kung ano sagot ko? He asked what? I told him: What is not to like about him? What is not to like?

He once told me he is afraid to take risk and he doesn't want to take risk because things might go out of hand and he doesn't wanna hurt anyone or me. I told him it's okay. He can reject me that very moment face to face and I will accept it. I told him I might be even proud na nabasted ako ng isang katulad niya knowing how great he is. I won't be ashamed of it. He is really something to be proud of. Best thing I never had.

I told him not to worry about me. If he doesn't like me back that's okay. I saw it coming already, I was half ready for it. I won't be lying but that shit hurts but what is pain? It heals and when it heals,it leaves scars and scars remind us of lessons.

I'm so enchanted. I'm in the state of wanting him so bad but I won't complain if I won't for as long as he is happy. I don't care if he reciprocates the love or not for as long as I see him smile. My walls are down for him, kahit masaktan okay lang, I'm such a masochist but the pain he is inflicting on me reminds me that I still feel and I still know what love is — thank you for that.

I have no bad words for K. I'll stick to my words. He is wonderful and I know whenever I get hurt because of him, it wasn't his intention. His intentions are pure, I trust him so much that my guards are all down.

I admit it hurts me to think one day he might find someone else but then on a second thought, I won't mind because seeing him happy is at the top of my list — masasaktan lang naman ako for a while pero at least siya forever na masaya if he finds his perfect pair, what's so bad about that?

Nevertheless, after all the talks, I knew the feeling wasn't mutual and that's okay. I told him you can reject me everyday but I won't stop putting efforts for you. Just because he didn't feel the same way for me ibig sabihin he became less wonderful? E he deserves all the love nga 'di ba? Why stop? Just because nasaktan naging hypocrite?

K is worth pursuing, K is worth fighting for.

I think he lost words already and he knew there is no way to change my mind about him so he just told me to just stay and we'll try to get through it without being weird around each other. I agreed. Kinda hard at first but kakayanin dahil yon ang gusto ni crush. I'm just a puppy. Jk.

I told him to just let me appreciate him because I'm happy, if he's in the state just not being ready, I can wait for him but alongside, I promised him that I'll stop when he finds his perfect man — I won't interfere, I'll let go, life goes on. In return, I asked him to promise me to choose the one who will treat him the way he deserves.

NEVER SETTLE FOR LESS, K! YOU DESERVE ALL THE LOVE IN THE WORLD. :)

#self #lgbt #love #k #personal

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amandajoyce118 · 6 years

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Friday Five: I wish…

Since this is the last weekend of Women's History Month, I thought I’d return to a female character themed Friday Five. This time around, I’m giving you five female comic book characters I wish Agents of SHIELD would bring to the screen. The show has utilized an amazingly large number of comic book characters considering it was built around a group of people not in the comics. Some of these are my favorites. Some of these are just characters I think would have been a good fit for a lengthy arc.

Five: Ms. Marvel

Every young person reading comics wants Ms. Marvel to get her own onscreen property. There was a lot of speculation that she would be part of one of the shows in development at Freeform since the network is aimed at “emerging adults” or whatever their tag is now. That doesn’t appear to be the case, and quite frankly, I think it’s unlikely to see her get a TV project unless its on a cable network that has the budget for the VFX her shapeshifting ability would require.

That being said, I would have loved to see Agents of SHIELD introduce her for a one off episode. The SHIELD comics (which, really, were hit or miss and I only recommend them if you are genuinely interested in how different writers work with the characters) featured her for a single issue in which Jemma Simmons went undercover as a high school teacher. She and Kamala ended up teaming up to take on a bad guy, and it was such a fun issue that I’ve wanted to see a version of that on the show ever since.

Four: Iso

This one is a bit of a cheat. Why? Because NuHuman Xiaoyi Chen actually reminds me a lot of Skye before she fully embraced Daisy Johnson. Iso is the Inhuman name the character takes on, but when she’s introduced, there are different people hunting her because of her abilities, and Reader (who is basically the comic book basis for Gordon on the show) is the one who finds her. Iso’s abilities include manipulating pressure, very similar to Daisy’s “pushing” of vibrating molecules together. I feel like introducing someone like Iso would allow Daisy the chance to give someone the benefit of her own experiences though, which is one of the reasons I love the similarities between them.

Iso was “given” to Ennilux, an old Inhuman organization that placed Inhumans into business opportunities, sold people into slavery, and operated kind of like the Inhuman version of organized crime. It’s a comic book piece she could have brought with her to the show which could have been fascinating.

Three: Miss America

I almost didn’t put America Chavez on this list because I feel like it’s inevitable that she (and Kate Bishop) will eventually join the MCU. The characters are too popular and fans are too vocal for producers to ignore them forever. That being said, she’s a character who can literally kick holes in the doors between universes. Given that Agents of SHIELD has already played with the comic book What If scenario in the Framework, went to space and time travelled in season five, and they’ve introduced Ghost Rider who can also open doors between dimensions, America would be a fun addition, even for a short arc.

America is also an out lesbian in the comics, and for all the great representation that exists for SHIELD in ages and ethnicities, different sexualities are not represented well. The writers have a habit of getting rid of characters n same sex relationships. Admittedly, this has largely been because the actors aren’t available, but the show’s writers should at least try to rectify that and America is such a fun character, so it would be a win-win.

Two: Victoria Hand

What’s that you say? Victoria Hand was already on the show? I can’t hear you over the sound of that fridge door closing on her. Killing off Victoria Hand so quickly is one of the things I hate about the series, even though it provided such a great moment with the reveal that Ward was Hydra. Victoria Hand is one of the highest ranking SHIELD agents the show has ever had involved, even in just a few short appearances, and I would have really enjoyed seeing what the show did with her. In the comics, she’s a real badass, and the show didn’t get to explore that very much.

I also really love Saffron Burrows and hate that she’s not in more stuff I actually watch, so... I’d like her back, please.

One: Shadowcat

Considering Kitty Pryde is one of my favorite Marvel comic book characters of all time, there was no way she wasn’t making this list. She’s also the one person on this list who, realistically, will never be in the MCU unless Disney decides to make the FOX buyout official. Because Kitty’s comic book history is rooted in the X-Men, her screen rights belong to FOX. Three different actresses have already played her on the screen, including the lovely Ellen Page, but the character hasn’t really been on par with who she is in the comics.

She grew from a bubbly teenager who loved dance classes into a young adult with a fondness for guys named Peter and an eventual leader of the X-Men. She has been through nearly as much crap as the big names (like Jean Grey and Wolverine), and she’s been a SHIELD agent in a couple of story arcs. It’s a shame the show couldn’t use her and her ability to walk through walls. I guess I can’t be too angry since there is a movie in development over at FOX surrounding her character.

Honorable mentions go to Kate Bishop (of course! Because the female Hawkeye is kind of a mess, but we love her anyway), Dazzler (because her character was so ridiculous in the 80s and I’d love to see SHIELD deal with someone whose famous having special powers they kept hidden), and Black Widow (for the obvious reason that she was SHIELD and Coulson was her team leader, but with a certain actress in the role, that’s a very unlikely option).

#agents of shield #ms marvel #victoria hand #america chavez #shadowcat #iso #friday five

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ehentha · 6 years

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Maldives twitter last week #1

Here are some interesting things Maldivians talked about on twitter last week. A long term collection could be very useful for reflection and analysis.

1. @reallynattu creates satirical voting app

Since this has leaked and people got a glimpse of this super duper top secret extremely sensitive totally legit app we've been working on. So releasing #VoteApp for public use. Tweet your features to add to this. iOS: https://t.co/yZYEepIJ3i Android: https://t.co/8W1jtkTwpz pic.twitter.com/EGbczx12rw

— Nattu (@reallynattu) March 7, 2018

An English translation:

The top text reads "Voteapp". Next to it is a drop down menu that says "Presidential election".

Below that the title says "Candidates". Below this the same portrait of current president Abdulla Yameen is displayed five times in a row, giving the voter a wide range of candidates to vote for.

Below this is the presidents full name, "Yameen Abdul Gayoom". The president doesn't use this version in his campaigning or current activities perhaps to distant himself from his brother Maumoon. Next to this the text reads "The driving force behind the progress that the Maldives is experiencing".

After this is a section where the voter decides what kind of reward they want for voting. They are given a choice of money (from well wishers), employment (a coordinator position), or a flat from Hulhumale'. In the mockup the voter has chosen money, and the options for collecting it (deposit, cheque, or a letter delivered to your residence) are below. As the voter has selected the first option, a field to enter their account number and reward amount sits next to the Bank of Maldives and Maldives Islamic Bank logos.

At the very bottom the text reads "press to vote", with the subtext "I swear to god that I won't change my vote". The word used for "my" is "alhugandu", a relic of the Maldivian caste system, which is the self depreciating word one must use for oneself when talking to someone who demands respect; whether it be your elders, a teacher, or certain dictators. The literal translation of "alhu" is slave.

2. @paperclippenny and @legacyofpain attend mandatory marriage classes

Marriage class: https://twitter.com/legacyofpain/status/971438002890203136

"no anal!!" - Marie #marriageclass