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rinhaler · 4 months

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Think Slow, 'Cause I Move Fast

CHAPTER SUMMARY: Since your recent attack, all Yuuji wants to do is keep you safe at home. But a letter from your parents makes that a little difficult...

boyfriend!yuuji itadori x f!reader x bully!megumi fushiguro

WARNINGS : 18+, exhibitionism, semi public, fingering, bullying, drugging mentions, bladder failure mention, vomiting mention, praise kink, brief fainting (ish).

WORDS : 4.5k

notes : the way i am SO invested in this all over again LMAO i sorta ate huh

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You’ve never taken so many days off from your studies in your whole life. It couldn’t be helped, but you couldn’t stop yourself from feeling guilty for taking the Tuesday off. Maybe if you went to class, your punishment from Megumi would have been a lot less severe. With what little time you’ve had to yourself since you awoke from your two-day long slumber, you’ve done nothing but think and overthink. He invited those two girls out from your class and planned the whole thing, knowing they’d do anything he asked. You’re even willing to bet one of those girls was who he was fingering upstairs outside of the toilets. Your memory is choppy, but you remember what they said to you clear as day.

That pill Megumi told us to slip in her drink was really strong, huh?

Every time those words play in your mind you couldn’t stop yourself from crying. How could someone be so evil? You don’t know what you did to warrant this, any of this. It was extreme, it was heartless, and you felt stabbing pangs in your heart as you thought this might be happening until you graduate.

Maybe you should transfer.

Maybe you should leave him, Yuuji, your studies, everything behind.

You finally woke up on Friday, and didn’t know a minute of peace. The police interviewed you, telling you the girls could face up to a maximum of ten years for drugging you. It was sick, however, that it wouldn’t be the case. You were an unreliable source because of your intoxication, and nobody else had witnessed them spiking you.

Of course Megumi got off scot-free since he didn’t actually do it and there was no way you could prove he masterminded the whole thing. The authorities were sympathetic, but it was out of their hands.

Yuuji has barely spoken since the incident. He knows you're too frightened and upset to talk about it for now, but he's at least thankful you were being honest with the police. Even though it came to nothing. He wants to murder Megumi with his bare hands. That is why he didn’t speak. Because all of his energy needed to go into taking care of you, making you feel better. And if he starts talking, if he starts asking questions, he’ll lose all rationale.

He won’t be responsible for his actions or what he would do to his former best friend.

Your insides are raw, you can’t eat, all you can do is sleep. Fragile is the only way to describe your body; each and every movement you make feels like a gargantuan task. Yuuji is running around after you; he's everything in his power to help you through this.

Although he was slightly intoxicated himself when you returned from the club, he managed to sit you in the bathtub while he showered you. He did his best to remove the paint from your body, but his priority was clearing you of vomit and urine, and the vile word that had been smeared across your skin in lipstick. He immediately put your clothes (save for the t shirt that he threw in the bin) in the washing machine and dressed you in loose comfy pyjamas before carrying you to bed. He made sure to keep you on your side with a sick bucket on the floor next to your bedside table.

Gojo stayed for a while, wanting to make sure you were okay, and he wanted to keep an eye on Yuuji . He had no idea what to tell him since he didn’t know what had happened. He managed to keep it together while the pair of them speculated. All he could see in his mind was your frail body being carried by those wonderful women who chose to help you. Your shirt had been cut open with precision, telling him it was a premeditated attack. Somebody brought scissors into a nightclub, they knew they were going to do this to you. He had a niggling sensation that it was Megumi, but he wasn’t sure since he hadn’t seen him at the club. So, the only other people he could think of were those girls, the girls who claimed to be your friend.

He tortured himself for leaving you. He didn’t want to fucking leave you, but he did, because he’s an idiot. He knew he should have stayed with you, something was nagging at him to protect you, but he didn’t. Itadori couldn’t possibly feel any worse, because he should have known better. He did know better, but he ignored his instincts anyway.

He did feel worse again, though, when he woke up the next morning and you were still fast asleep. He didn’t notice the previous night, but in the glittering morning sun peeking through the blinds he saw your neck. He saw the blushing blue blooms, unmistakable finger marks etched into your poor throat. Not only had you been publicly humiliated, but you’d also been outright attacked.

Yuuji encouraged you to tell the police about the attack too, you were sober then, you remembered that Megumi did it to you. But again, it was your word against his. They couldn’t find anyone to corroborate your story. As far as they were concerned there was nothing more they could do.

Everything was hopeless. The system had failed you. You wanted to escape, to leave and never look back. Forget about this whole incident, the worst few days of your entire life and it was all his fault.

It was all Megumi Fushiguro’s fault.

The minute you found some energy, you got yourself out of bed to discover your boyfriend in the front room. He immediately jumps to his feet and to the kitchen so that he could make you a drink. You sit down in the armchair, bringing your legs up and crossing them over one another.

He’s never seen you like this. You’re normally so happy and full of energy, and you're the most glamorous girl he’s ever met. Priding yourself on your fashion and appearance has always been important to you. But Yuuji barely recognises the girl in front of him today. Despite him washing your hair, it was wiry and almost greasy looking. You were paler than pale, he wouldn’t dare say it, but he thought you looked like you’d just been dug up. Your eyes are so bloodshot, he could barely stomach looking at them. There isn’t a patch of white in either of them. The bags under your eyes were so black, he asked you a few times if you remember anyone punching you. You shook your head insistently; you're just so damn tired.

He sets two drinks down in front of you. A green tea and a glass of ice-cold water. He isn’t sure what you’d be in the mood for, so he decided to give you options.

“How are you feeling?” he asks stupidly, knowing the answer.

How were you feeling isn’t a stupid question, because even you didn’t have an answer.

You're happy, happy it seems like you were finally getting over the worst of the drug you’d been spiked with.

You're sad, sad that this had happened to you, and you aren’t sure how much worse things could get.

You're terrified, terrified that despite doing the right thing, despite telling the police what had happened so they could deliver justice to the perpetrators, they’d gotten away with everything and were free to continue making your life hell.

“I’m tired, Yuuji… so fucking tired.” you sigh, resting your forehead in one hand and rubbing your temples.

He knows you're tired, of course he fucking knows.

But your boyfriend feels helpless, he wants to lash out, to yell, to scream even. But he can’t, he can’t because he knows you wouldn’t want any of that. You wouldn’t want him taking the law into his own hands and getting in trouble.

The whole situation is a fucking nightmare.

As your eyes remain shut while you cradle your aching head, a memory pops into your mind. Not about the night, you're sick of remembering that night. But you lift your gaze to find Yuuji’s, and he looks back at you inquisitively.

“Yuuji could you—” and before you’ve even finished talking, he's on his feet, ready and waiting for your instructions, “could you get the letter my parents sent… I forgot to open it.” you request.

Yuuji rushes back with the fancily sealed envelope in record time. He placed it delicately in your hands before returning to his spot on the couch. It feels like a punishment to hold it in your hands. Albeit impossible, you considered whether Megumi had been behind this too. Had he somehow managed to find out who your parents are and mastermind another situation to make your life hell?

Deep down you knew it could only be one of two things.

A cheque, or an invitation. There were two conditions your parents gave you if they were to let you attend a public university rather than a prestigious (pretentious) academy.

You were forbidden from living on campus. They didn’t want to run the risk of anything happening to you in your dorm room or dealing with uncouth roommates. You weren’t sure what concerned them so much about living with other students, but you wonder if they were concerned they’d get you hooked on drugs or perform premarital sex.

At least you’ve never willingly indulged in the former.

But the second condition was they got to choose your place of residence. So that is how you are an unemployed student who can afford to live in a house of her own.

Your rich parents pay for it.

They weren’t too pleased to discover you almost immediately let Yuuji move in with you too, but they didn’t really have a say in the matter. And as far as your sex life was concerned, if they wanted to believe you were still a virgin and weren’t fucking your boyfriend, that was on them.

Peeling off the pretty pink seal seems to take an eternity. You don’t want to know what's inside, Yuuji looks like he's about to burst any minute if you don’t open it quicker. He's on tenterhooks, practically hanging off the edge of the sofa as he waits for you to open it. Once the seal is removed, you look into Yuuji’s eyes. You take a massive gulp as your fingers begin to convulse with fear.

“Do you want me to open it?” He asks, you shake your head.

You softly move the envelope flap upwards, frightened fingers poke inside to grab whatever it contains. Your eyes are screwed shut as you pull it out. You can feel your heartbeat in your ears, your brain is pulsing against your skull in anticipation. The dread you feel at the thought of what was on the piece of paper is too much. But before Yuuji can intervene and read it for you, you find the courage to look.

You exhale disappointedly flipping the paper over for Yuuji to see and read.

An invitation.

“So, your folks finally bought a second manor home huh? Must be nice…” he trails off.

“I should have read it sooner, we’re going to have to start packing so we can set off early tomorrow.” you explain as you stand to your feet. But before you can retreat upstairs to your bedroom to begin packing the essentials, Yuuji grabs the flesh of your upper arm and stops you.

“We aren’t going.” he tells you. You look at him curiously, unsure of how he came to that conclusion. It isn’t optional, you would never avoid attending a family event no matter what and he knows that. “You’re still recovering, you get that right? There’s no way we are going.” he adds, earning a smile from you.

“It’ll be fine Yuuji, it’s only for the weekend.” you attempt to alleviate any tension or concerns from him, but he simply shrugs you off and brings your body closer to his so he can stare down into your eyes.

“We aren’t going. I’m saying this for you. It’s too soon, I’m sure if you explain what happened they’ll understand.” he tries to reason with you, to make you see sense. But all you could offer in return to his words is a cruel scoff.

“You’re not serious? If I tell them, they’ll enrol me into a different school, they just need one excuse. I don’t want anyone to know, I’m embarrassed enough. I don’t want this, want him to rule my life Yuuji. I want to go to my parents’ housewarming party and forget the whole thing.” you tell him sternly, freeing yourself from his hold and continue your journey to the bedroom.

“But—”

“I mean it Yuuji. We are going whether you like it or not,” you spit as you turn to face him once again, “I’d appreciate your support right now. I just want to feel normal, so please, come and help me pack.”

You look at him as his face droops. He looks devastated and you truly feel for him. He's beating himself up over what happened, and you couldn’t do or say anything that would ease his guilt. He's doing everything he can to make it up to you, to make up for his own self-appointed shame, all he wants to do is protect you, but it seems he can’t do anything right. So, he relents.

“Okay."

The car ride to your parents’ new address is painful. You set off ridiculously early so that you’d be there on time. And by on time, you mean early. Because being on time would in fact be being late.

The biggest reason Yuuji doesn’t want to attend is to protect you after your attack. But it certainly didn’t help matters that he hates going to see your parents. He’s only met them a handful of times, and they are nice enough, but he knows they look down their noses at him and don’t think he's good enough for you. It shouldn’t matter that he isn’t from a wealthy family, he loves you and would do anything for you.

He’d probably die for you.

And that should be enough to prove that he’s worthy of your love.

It’s enough for you, and that’s all you care about.

You opt to wear a black and white pinstripe pantsuit. You know no matter what you wear your mother will have something to say about it, so you do your best to dress comfortably yet sophisticated.

Yuuji is dressed nicely too, he thought the comfy, yet sophisticated look was the right move too, and since he knows your parents disapprove of him it wouldn’t matter what he wore.

He's dreading the snide comments all weekend, it would never cease, but as long as he has you by his side, he knows you can both get through it.

He has one hand on the wheel and one on your thigh, he's gripping awfully tight. You suspect a combination of nerves and an overwhelming desire to protect you. When you’re right around the corner of the entrance of your parents’ house, you decide to apply a fresh layer of gloss. You don’t expect Yuuji’s fingers to begin wandering their way towards your sex, so you yelp at the feeling of his pinkie finger slowly tracing over your clothed clit.

“Take em off,” he demands.

Your heart is racing, you aren’t sure what you should do. You want it, you want him. You love his touch, you love him, you want to be with him and feel normal. But you’re right outside of your parents’ house. You don’t have time and it isn’t wise. But before you can answer him, he’s delved his fingers down your pants and is awkwardly rubbing your clit with the irritating obstruction in the way.

“Off.” he tells you again. You ask him to pull over, so he does. It isn’t anywhere hidden, but he doesn’t have time for that. He just wants to make you feel good before you go inside.

You lower your trousers and underwear just enough to give him access. You do your best to keep the volume down, but he feels so good. These few days have been the longest you’ve gone without being intimate with Yuuji. And you’re tense, fuck you’re so tense. He can feel it in the way you’re holding back, the way you don’t want to let yourself go. Because all he’s doing is lightly tracing your sensitive bundle of nerves and you’re already dying to cum.

“Yuuji…” you half gasp half moan at him, screwing your eyes closed as one of your hands grips the arm he’s using to pleasure you and the other is digging nails into the back of your head rest.

“You wanna cum? ‘m not stoppin’ you baby. Cum for me.” he instructs.

And it’s humiliating, really, how submissive your cunt is to its owner. You’re gushing around his gentle fingers as more and more slick pumps out of you. Your chest is heaving, but he leans over to you to kiss your cheek.

He demands that you face him so he can kiss you through your orgasm.

He wants to swallow your moans and remember what a good girl you are for him.

When you finally relax, you’re almost furious. Furious that you’re dripping wet and you’re going to have to ruin your panties and probably your trousers too. Furious that you won’t be able to clean up instantly because you’ll have to socialise for a while with your family, and furious that Yuuji was stupid enough to think any of this was a good idea.

But when you see him sensually lick his fingers clean, you can’t deny the way your pussy jumps at the sight. He’s so fucking perfect. His innocent face performing such a lewd act excites you. You’re so lucky to have him. Because after he finishes cleaning his fingers, he opens the glove compartment on the passenger side and reveals a packet of baby wipes for you to clean yourself up with. He cups the crown of your head and brings you closer to him, leaving a simultaneously hard yet soft kiss on your forehead, and whispering sweet nothings into your hair.

“Such a good girl f’me baby. Y’look so pretty when you cum for me. ‘m so fuckin’ proud of you.” he murmurs into your scalp.

It takes everything inside of you to not unzip his trousers and suck him off to show him just how much you fucking love him. But instead, you hurriedly clean the slick from your folds and Yuuji finally turns into the driveway of your parents’ new estate.

And holy shit.

You didn’t think a house could possibly be bigger than the first.

They deemed the previous butler worthy of staying, apparently. He's a nice man who shows you and Yuuji to where everyone is located. The house is baron, which seems ridiculous to you. What’s the point of having a housewarming party if no one is going to be in the house?

Instead, everyone is situated in the garden. You can’t spot your parents immediately. But there are a lot of familiar faces. Not family friends, although that’s what your mother and father will claim they are.

No, they were nothing but names.

Big names to spread the word about what a beautiful new home your parents have. There is no point in having a new manor house unless your parents can brag about it.

But you do eventually spot them. And a man who you could only see the back of. He's tall, likely around 6’4” in height. He's moving his arms while your parents look at him with an intense gaze, he's story telling. He's well built, extremely large and muscular. It's unusual to you that he's dressed so casually.

You're curious as to how your parents know him, he doesn’t look like the type of person they would allow into their social circle.

And you didn’t recognise him at all.

They all reposition themselves onto a nearby table, Yuuji stands with you as you watch the conversation unfold. You're totally enraptured by the way they converse with each other. And then the stranger sits down. He sits down and gives you the perfect view of the right side of his face.

When you see his profile you just about fainted. Yuuji catches you in his arms as other party goers look concerned. Your parents have finally noticed you, now, and rush over to see you, the man follows, and there's no mistaking him.

While your parents approach with a hastened pace, he almost dawdles behind them. Yuuji lowered you to the ground while everyone fusses around you, asking what was wrong and if you need some water. But you have a clear view of him as he carries on coming towards you.

His hair is black as the night sky in a small country town. It isn’t awfully long, but longer than any other respectable guest who is here today. It looks soft and shiny, but it knew to settle and not move around too much. His green eyes glisten in the sparkling sunshine, and you can see another set of green eyes so vividly in your mind. A pair of green eyes that made your heart race and send sheer terror through your entire being. But what gives it away, what really gives it away, iss the scar.

That fucking scar on the right side of his mouth. It looks old, like he’d had it for years. It's so striking, and that is how you knew there was no mistaking.

It was him.

It was the man from Megumi’s sketchbook.

It takes you a while to calm down after everyone had been fussing over you. But Yuuji had hooked his arms underneath you so he could carry you to a nearby chair.

Your mother snaps her fingers and demands a member of staff instantly get you a drink. Your father dismisses everyone and tells them to continue enjoying the function, he towers over you while your mother crouches on the balls of her feet and strokes your hands.

Yuuji is behind you, circling your shoulders with his thumbs in an attempt to soothe you.

And then there's him.

He's sitting on the same table as you, not paying too much attention to you but wanting to stick around to see that you were okay.

When you have a glass of water in your hand, you down it in just a few seconds and request another. Water dribbles down the sides of your mouth which your mother quickly dabs with a handkerchief.

You were breathe so heavily and so gravelly.

Your mother looks furious at your lack of manners but didn’t want to make a scene in front of the guests. Your gaze is fixed on the man you’d only seen in drawings, he put his phone into his pocket as he decides to give you all his full attention.

“Nice to see ya again kid,” he smiles, the little scar on his lips pulling so deliciously.

You’re certain you’ve never met him, so you were dumbfounded that he claimed to remember you. You didn’t have the energy to speak, it was like something had robbed you of your words.

Your lips open wide enough to speak, but whatever words you’d planned on forming died dead in your mouth when you heard words coming from behind you instead.

“Yeah it’s been a while Mr. Fushiguro, didn’t expect to see you here, sir.” Yuuji replies.

Of course.

Of course Yuuji would know who the mystery man is in the drawings. He’s Megumi’s best friend after all, or he was. Mr. Fushiguro, the name alone made your skin crawl.

Another one of him.

Your mouth is agape, your eyes finding the unknown relative of Megumi’s. He waves his hand around, totally brushing Yuuji off.

“Cut that crap out now kid,” he begins, “call me Toji.” he tells him. Yuuji nods, acquiescing to his request. And then Toji’s eyes find yours. You felt so small under his gaze. “And I haven’t seen you since you were… Four, maybe?” he tells you.

“I- uh…” you clear your throat, “I don’t know you.” you admit.

He laughs, really laughs. You guess he appreciates your honesty. He crosses one leg over the other as he begins to swing back in his chair.

“Don’t sweat it. I’m not one to remember someone’s name either.” he confesses, studying you. He does know you; he really knows you. He’s so comfortable to stare at you and examine you. You want to know how he knows you; you want to inquire as to what relation he is to Megumi, but before you can speak Yuuji talks from behind you once again.

“Are the rest of the Zen’in clan here?” he wonders, his grip of your shoulders tightening.

“Unfortunately,” he responds, your father jostles his elbow into him playfully which makes Toji grin. “They’re around somewhere, more are probably on their way.” he explains. Yuuji nods before leaning down to you, his mouth close enough to your ear that his breath alone forces goosebumps to pinch and form across your whole body,

“We have to go, now.” he buzzes to you.

He doesn’t wait for you to answer before he grabs your hand and drags you away from the table. You both say your polite goodbyes before heading through the manor again. Your parents are dumbfounded, and worse, disgusted at Yuuji’s abrupt rudeness.

“What’s going on Yuuji?” you ask. But he ignores you, pulling you in the direction of the front door.

He swings it open, and you’re both as still as statues. Of all the places, of all the places in the fucking world…

You’re both staring out of the door, and now that you’ve seen Toji in person, the resemblance is striking.

Megumi’s finger is rested on the doorbell he’s holding in. When the three of you break out of your trances, the raven-haired man in front of you clears his throat.

His face doesn’t change. He looks bored, and you hate him for it. It’s that same static facial expression he always has. It’s the way he somehow manages to keep getting away with murder. Because no one would ever believe that this quiet, almost silent person keeps making your life unbearable. His vision rolls between staring at you and then staring at Yuuji. But finally, he’s settled on you.

His eyes are almost as intense as the other Fushiguro’s out in the garden. His lip’s part, and his words make your skin crawl.

“Well well. What do we have here?”

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astrovian · 1 year

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Interview with Richard Armitage on Obsession in TV Guide

"I had been approached quite late in the day, and, I think, a little nervously, because it was going to be quite a challenging role, emotionally and physically," admits Richard Armitage about starring in this erotic thriller alongside Charlie Murphy and Indira Varma.

"That made it more intriguing. When people go, 'We're not sure whether this is going to be a bit risqué for you,' I'm like, 'Bring it on'."

Full/continued transcript under cut

"I read the scripts and the book [Damage by Josephine Hart, which was adapted for a 1992 movie starring Jeremy Irons] and thought this is a psychological journey that has a kind of human quality to it, which is the thing that you can't imagine yourself doing. Yet if this does happen to you, what choice do you make?

I don't think I ever experienced that kind of intensity that this character is going through. I don't have an answer to how I would respond. So I thought, 'Oh, that's a really interesting role to take on'."

We're meeting Richard at Netflix's London HQ to discuss the four-part series about erotic obsession.

He plays famous paediatric surgeon William Farrow, who's happily married to successful lawyer Ingrid (Indira Varma). But sparks fly when he meets his son Jay's (Rish Shah) fiancée Anna Barton as they embark on a forbidden affair which increasingly involves BDSM (Bondage Dominance Sado-Masochistic) sex. Anna sets the rules and is convinced she can keep both relationships going, while also harbouring a secret from her own past.

"It's a mutual obsession - she's very much in control. Anna's the one who sets up the game. She is the one giving permission for everything that happens between them.She is presenting a roadmap of how to escalate their physical relationship, because it goes on quite an intense journey. She's in control, but he is a willing participant."

Richard didn't know Charlie, who plays Anna, beforehand, and the pair spend time with an intimacy co-ordinator working on their characters' erotic encounters. So were the love scenes some of the toughest in Richard's career?

"I have to say, my fear of water probably peaks everything else. So the underwater scenes in Captain America and the waterboarding in Spooks, they're moments where you are physically terrified.

This was different. Being on a closed set with a screen partner naked, the first time you do it, it feels a little bit unusual, but you become used to each other. And of course, that's the job of the intimacy co-ordinator, to make it all work well and everyone feel comfortable. So after a while, you're just working without clothes on. But making sure you're focusing on the what the two characters are doing and how they're doing it - you're finding a pathway through a complex map, I suppose."

Meanwhile, playing a husband who betrays his family had a lasting effect.

"There was a real overwhelming sense of guilt that I was carrying around with me for quite a long time. After filming, I went to see Indira in a play, The Seagull, and I could hardly look her in the eye when I met her for a drink afterwards. I still felt the shame of what William had done to Ingrid, to the point where I was going red in the face.

It's weird how you can carry that around with you because you've been invested in a character, and you've tried to become them, so I felt as if I was still the person having this illicit affair."

#richard armitage #obsession

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hypnolurker · 11 months

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ShE-Sports: Breaking Bethany

"Are you tired of competitive gaming being a boy's club? Looking to show misogynistic gamer bros what girls are really made of? Try out for our up-and-coming new E-sports team now!" exclaimed the advert that popped upon Bethany's screen as she opened up one of the MOBA games that she had recently downloaded. She had been a long time League of Legends player, but she was feeling very frustrated with the game at this point. The persistently rude, crude or even abusive male players were a big factor, becoming especially tiresome after she trounced them so easily. Something about their fragile male ego and obsession with winning a video game made them turn into pathetic man-babies upon their inevitable defeat. And their defeat was quite inevitable indeed, Bethany was experienced, skilled and strategically minded. She knew every role like the back of her hand and could pull off victories as any character she liked. Perhaps her opponents underestimated her as soon as they realized she was a girl, or perhaps they simply need to 'git gud' as they say. Whatever it was, even her own teammates would often seem rude or hostile as they saw her dominating the scoreboards every game. Always the MVP. Sometimes she would get more kills even in support roles! The whole community had become toxic, and beyond that Bethany had quite simply mastered the game. Save for playing at a competitive level, there wasn't much point. She had downloaded a series of similar games, looking for something with the right mix of fun and challenging gameplay alongside a welcoming and positive community, but it was proving difficult to find.

Then she spotted this ad. Something about it jumped out at her. It was right, perhaps she couldn't just find a community where she would be respected for her gaming prowess instead of being belittled and verbally degraded at every opportunity by idiotic pigs. Perhaps the only way to find her dream MOBA community was to make it. To force the ugly misogynistic creatures back into whatever hole they crawled out of and remake the world of competitive E-sports into one which celebrated female excellence instead of berating or shying away from it. It was for precisely this reason that she responded to the advert.

She didn't take it that seriously initially. These things were usually very competitive and probably had thousands of replies from talented women of every conceivable background. However, she was pleasantly surprised when she heard back and was invited to an in-person interview. They even agreed to pay for her flight and put her up in a hotel for the night. As a freelance programmer, it was no issue for Bethany to take a few days for this trip, and if she did get the position she could continue her old work part-time on the side to make extra cash. She figured that would be mostly helpful in the early period before they won any tournaments or got any potential merchandising deals.

Her journey was uneventful and the hotel was higher quality than she expected. Whoever was behind this little E-sports venture was clearly willing to invest some cash upfront if they were splashing out on hotels and flights. She wasn't sure how to feel about that. On the one hand having some kind of corporate sponsor pulling the strings felt shady for what she hoped was a more organic situation, but then again you needed someone to foot the bill to get this off the ground in the first place, so there was no avoiding it. At least their corporate overlords were nice enough to treat their applicants well.

The interview was not exactly what she was expecting. Firstly, the interviewer was a man. After that advert had so harshly admonished gamer bros, she was doubtful that a man would be at all involved, but it did make sense in some ways. He wore a well-pressed suit and had slicked back hair. Clearly some kind of business type working for whoever was funding this whole endeavour. Of course if there's money to be made, he would be involved. But the upside to that thought was that yes, there is clearly money to be made here. This was a serious team, not some group of college students who won a few games and figured they could form a shabby ensemble and somehow win at the competitive level.

The interviewer himself seemed very professional. He asked her questions about her background and why she wanted to join the team. He answered her questions too, and she liked what she heard. Apparently they had filled all but the last spot on the team. He wouldn't speak too much about the other members, but he kept assuring her that they were uniquely suited to their roles and had been carefully selected. Accommodation, training and all the gear they needed (including top of the line computers and custom gaming chairs) would all be provided to them. They would share a house with each other and follow a pre-defined schedule of training designed to take them to elite levels of play within a few months, after which they would enter their first tournament which included not only a cash prize but also a secret bonus prize for the winning team. To Bethany, it sounded more than fair for what was essentially an opportunity to play video games all day without having to worry about bills or work.

The only somewhat unusual part of the interview was the 'epilepsy test'. As the man described it, playing these games for extended periods as they would be required to do could cause epileptic symptoms in a large proportion of people, and for her own safety as well as the success of the team in the long term, they needed to ensure she was not among those vulnerable to flashing lights or similar effects. He took her to an ordinary looking computer that was flanked by several small bulbs and lamps of varying colours. After he briefly set it up and explained further he asked her to put on a pair of headphones which would also be used to test for a similar condition which was caused by repetitive audio stimulus. Finally he attached a pair of wired electrodes to her temples and a simply heart rate monitor to her chest before she could begin the test.

The test itself was oddly boring. The lights flashed to life, rays of every colour swirling and combining towards the centre of the computer screen as she was told to read a few simple sentences which were displayed there. Initially her vision was blurry and she struggled to make out the words on the screen, but after focusing for a moment her eyes adjusted and she was able to read them with ease. "My name is Bethany Meyers." she read aloud for the man. Apparently they had tailored this test for her specifically, though it was probably a preset statement that they simply filled with each candidate's name before the interview. It didn't really matter. As she adjusted to the oddly swirling lights even further she continued reading, feeling increasingly bored as she did so. "I want to be a member of team Ether Angels." That was the name of the team, though it didn't much matter to Bethany. She was just eager to join. Perhaps even more so now. She kept gazing deeply into the lights and reading the phrases. "I have no problem with flashing lights and repetition" she said, watching the words fade away and then reappear. After a brief hesitation she repeated "I have no problem with flashing lights and repetition". After several more times saying the same phrase, tuning out gradually as she did so, she was starting to wonder if the test was broken. But then she saw it change slightly. "I enjoy flashing lights and repetition". Again, the phrase repeated itself. At this point Bethany began to completely lose focus. Phrases would appear and vanish and she simply repeated what they said. It wasn't much effort at all. She didn't even take note of what she was saying anymore.

Te man watched and smiled as she drooled dumbly, wide eyes transfixed on the screen. "I am entranced by flashing lights and repetition." she said softly, eyes glassy and lips mouthing the words over and over as she awaited the next phrase. "I am relaxed and receptive." she continued, voice almost monotone and her breathing slow and synchronized with the swirling lights that flooded her vision. "I am blank and obedient." The man was surprised at how few times they had to repeat the basic phrases before her consciousness began to slip. They were already pushing into brainwashing territory, and she wasn't even selected yet! "I am wet and weak willed." she stated, completely unaware of what she was saying. He realized that he hadn't even started the audio yet, and she was already this deep? Leaning in and pressing a key on the computer, the test shifted to its second phase.

Bethany was vaguely aware of the change. The lights still danced and swirled before her, but now there were no words to repeat on the screen. For a few moments she simply mouthed her last statement, before she heard a soft voice in her ears, whispering something. It was almost drowned out by some strange mixture of humming and ringing which made her head ache for a few seconds before her ears could adjust. Once they had, she began to hear the voice more clearly. It was much the same as the first stage of the test, but now she was repeating audio cues instead of written ones. "I listen and repeat." she said, still ensnared by her hypnotic state. "Each repetition makes me more obedient." she repeated. "Each repetition makes me more susceptible." it went on. "Each repetition makes me more aroused."

After the test was over, it took Bethany a while to recover. "What happened? Did I doze off?" she asked groggily, vision still fuzzy and an odd ringing/humming sound faintly echoing in her ears as she tried to remember what she was doing.

"Yes you fell asleep during the epilepsy test." The man answered her plainly.

"Oh god I'm sorry, I just don't know what happened..." she apologized profusely.

"No, no. No need to worry, its quite common, Actually I'm pleased to say you passed the test. In fact, you seem to be exactly the type of woman we are looking for!" he said in an upbeat manner.

"Really?" Bethany asked eagerly. Somehow she was extremely excited to join the team now...maybe a little too excited, as she felt a familiar yet unexpected dampness between her thighs. 'Calm down Bethany, don't blow this!' she told herself, as she pressed her legs together, hoping her arousal wasn't as obvious to him as it was to her.

"Yes, we have a few more interviews, but just to be candid with you, you should start packing when you get home because I have little doubt that you will be chosen." he said honestly.

With a friendly handshake they concluded the interview and Bethany returned to her hotel feeling bubbly and full of energy. Maybe it was the excitement, or the nap she had, or possibly the unexpected wave of arousal that had washed over her, but she was giddy like a schoolgirl. When she got ack to her hotel, her hand slipped inside her panties almost immediately. She needed to destress and relax and when she was already this wet it was no question how she should go about it. She spent several hours writhing on the freshly made sheets as she stroked her needy slit. She didn't even notice as she whispered those phrases from the test to herself. It was only after her third orgasm that she was actually able to cool off and get some sleep. Picturing her new life as an elite competitive gamer as she drifted off.

Things were somewhat uneventful for Bethany after that. She went back home and back to the mundane of her regular work for a few days...until she got the call. Her heart raced as the ma told her she was successful and would be joining the team as soon as possible. Without hesitating she agreed and set to work packing her stuff.

She was more than a little intimidated when it came time to move in with her new teammates. Its always tough making a good impression and meeting new people can be nerve wracking, especially ones she would be spending most of her time with from here on out. But as she stepped inside she was swiftly greeted by her three smiling and bubbly new roommates and they gave warm and reassuring introductions.

There was Bianka, a blonde girl from Germany. She had fair skin and a bright smile, though her most defining feature was easily her large breasts. Even Bethany couldn't help but stare a little and wonder how she managed to be so bouncy and friendly with two enormous mounds of flesh weighing her down all the time. The way they jiggled slightly was also distracting, though she had seen worse on many of the female characters in even her favourite video games. Still, it wasn't something you noticed often in real life.

Second was Nora. She was mixed race with dark hair and plenty of curves. She was also American like Bethany, though from an entirely different state half-way across the country. Still, it was comforting to know that she wouldn't be the odd one out or anything like that.

Finally there was Kana, a slender Asian girl. She hid her excellently sculpted facial features behind a pair of glasses and mousy hair, but it didn't make her any less of a stunner. Her legs were toned as well, as if she ran in her spare time, which was impressive for a professional gamer who would no doubt spend most of their time sat in front of a computer.

After meeting everyone and even sharing a meal together Bethany felt her nerves calm down. She was one of the team after all, they were all here to play. All here to win. All here to show the word what women could do!

Bethany quickly realized that the schedule was quite strict. They all had orders to be up by 8am to eat breakfast, which, like all of the food was prepared to a strict diet by their sponsors. After this they were free until 9am when the training sessions started, though they were strongly encouraged to exercise at the free gym facilities adjoining their house. In fact there were several breaks throughout the day specifically for exercise, and the man from the interview, now referred to as their manager, emphasized that it was important to maintain regular exercise and keep a healthy diet to stay at peak performance. It was kind of sweet, in a way, that he seemed to worry about their health and fitness.

The training sessions themselves made up around 8 hours of their daily schedules. Bethany was unsure what to expect as she walked into the 'training room' as they called it. There were four spaces, each with an impressive looking PC and set of screens alongside the promised custom chairs. They had very soft leather seats and a vast array of knobs and levers underneath that left Bethany utterly bewildered as to their purposes. The chair seemed perfectly fine as is so she decided not to mess around with them and risk damaging it for no real reason. Instead she examined her gaming setup. An LED illuminated keyboard and mouse were obvious, but there were also several other devices littered across the desk. Some were webcams, others were lights, much like those from the epilepsy test earlier.

As they started up the game which they would be training to play on, it felt very familiar. The whole thing was basically a reskin of LoL, then again you could say that for most MOBAs these days. It was also funny that when she got to the character selection screen, there were characters that looked exactly like each of the team members. It was uncanny, as if they had actually gotten custom skins made. Could that really be true? Or was it just a coincidence? Bianka's avatar was wearing a horned helmet and wielding a humongous double-sided battle-axe, though her intimidation factor was definitely diminished by the equally humongous breasts that managed to beat out her already impressive real life ones, complete with highly overzealous jiggle physics. Then there was Nora, who appeared as a gunslinger, with a cool steel pistol in each hand and a wide-brimmed hat that had wild west written all over it. The rest of her outfit was quite revealing, with short shorts drawing the eye towards her smooth caramel thighs and most of her torso exposed save for her arms and upper back which were covered by a tight-fitting jacket, so tight in fact that it didn't seem possible to close it. Of course that would cover up her chest which was clearly not in the model designers' interests. Then there was Kana's character. It was piloting some kind of large mech with a curved glass window on the front which was easily large enough to see the girl inside, and her skin-tight 'control suit' as the character selection screen had described. Allegedly required for achieving full range of motion when controlling the advanced battle mech, the true reason was obviously to appeal to the male gaze. Bethany was quite used to it all at this point. Of course, it felt somewhat more off-putting when she was looking at her own over-sexualized facsimile. Her champion was some kind of beast tamer, she rode a ferocious bear into battle and wielded some kind of makeshift spear. What really annoyed Bethany though was the fact that she wasn't really wearing any clothing at all. Aside from a few well-placed and loosely strung together leaves which covered the bare minimum to keep the game from being rated for adults only, her character was riding around in the nude!

'Ok, lets put the creepy, perverted skins aside and actually focus on the gameplay. I knew there would be hurdles here, including the skeevy game designers and artists. Just gotta push past it and learn my role.' She told herself as she explored the map and tested out the combat. There were many things to notice here. Firstly, it played very much like League. Not surprising, but maybe a little disappointing. Still, it meant she could pick it up very quickly. Secondly, whenever she was in combat, which was pretty much the whole time in games like this, she was bombarded both visually and auditorily. Not only would the screen flash as various visual effects rolled in from every angle, but the mouse and keyboard also changed colour to mimic this. Even the audio became loud and incessant. There was a constant droning in the background, but this was drowned out mostly by the never-ending moans. Yes, moans. It seemed that every time she used a power or even did a basic attack, her character moaned. There was something oddly sexual about the moans, it could just be poor voice acting, but Bethany was quite confident that it had been done intentionally. What was the audio equivalent of the male gaze? Never mind, its not like she could do anything about it. Not now anyway. Maybe after they won a few tournaments she could start voicing her opinions in interviews and form a wider movement to change things.

As she continued playing, she began to get used to all of the oddities. The moaning and jiggling and flashing. She steadily tuned it out as she concentrated on the core gameplay loop. It was all very simple and repetitive. 'Each repetition makes me more susceptible.' she whispered softly without realizing as her fingers danced over the keyboard. She was starting to get into a rhythm, taking out basic enemies was very easy. That was all that seemed to appear too, weak minions that she could slaughter without much effort. Despite this, the game seemed to drag on. No matter how much they pushed, more and more of these weak enemies kept spawning. Over and over. So repetitive. 'Each repetition makes me more obedient.' Her lips mouthed without her input. Soon she noticed that words were flashing every time she pressed a key. They were faint and she couldn't make them out for some reason, but she figured they were the names of the attacks. They were each accompanied by a faint voice saying the same thing. She pressed the 'B' key to do a basic attack. [Blank] flashed briefly, as a soft voice whispered it in her ear. But Bethany didn't notice, she kept playing. She pressed the 'W' key to throw her spear. [Weak]. She tapped the 'S' key to do a power attack. [Submit]. She hit the 'O' key to do a special attack. [Obey]. Then she held down the spacebar to speed up her cooldowns. [Deeper] flashed continuously as she held the bar down and Bethany's eyes rolled back into her skull for a moment, before she finally released and let out a soft groan as she felt more than a little dizzy.

Struggling, glanced towards a different key. The loading screen before the game started had given her a tip. Press the 'H' key to call for aid from teammates. As her head spun and she failed to regain focus on the game, enemies began surrounding her character and she desperately tapped the key. At first nothing happened. Bethany was too zoned out to do much aside from hazily spam the key and groan 'help' as she tried to break free from her deep trance. Soon enough though, she felt someone touch her arm. Her eyes drifted hazily downwards to see Nora's hand on hers, and after a soft caress she began to guide her hand across the keyboard. [Blank], [Weak], [Obey], [Submit], [Deeper]. She held Bethany's hand on the key for several seconds, letting her eyes glaze over once more as she slipped deeper and deeper into the inescapable pull of her trance. She didn't even notice when Nora's hand left hers and began to slide down her stomach until it reached her crotch. It dug underneath her waistband and as Bethany continued to mindlessly tap the keys in sequence, she felt those fingers glide pleasantly over her drooling lower lips. [Blank], [Weak], [Obey], [Submit], [Deeper]. Bethany moaned in unison with her character as Nora stroked her slickening slit with increasing speed.

"Blank. Weak. Obey. Submit. Deeeeeeeepeeeeer." Bethany chanted out loud as her hips writhed and humped urgently against her teammate's fingers. Before long her pussy was clenching and spasming around the helpful digits as Bethany achieved a powerful orgasm.

Afterwards, Nora withdrew her sticky fingers and wandered slowly back to her own computer, without a word, and continued to play. It was like it hadn't even happened. The only evidence Bethany had was the still present throbbing in her cunt as she came down from the high of orgasm but was left still ebbing with arousal as she continued to work the keyboard with her fingers, ever reinforcing the programming which was now permeating her mind so thoroughly. She continued becoming wetter and weaker as she played, each repetition draining her will as it leaked out of her sloppy crotch and spilled onto the seat she was in.

Then, something broke the loop. A call for help. The screen flashed in darker colours urgently and a much clearer voice spoke into her ears now. "Your teammate needs your help. Go help Bianka!" It urged her. Bethany felt compelled to go to her immediately, and soon found herself rising from her chair and walking over towards Bianka. She noticed that Bianka's headphones had slid off on one side and she looked very confused. Her hand wasn't at the keyboard. Without conscious thought, Bethany leaned forward and whispered "Obey" into her teammate's ear before sliding the headphone cup back over it and gently guiding her hand back to the keyboard. She didn't understand what she was doing, and she was too entranced to fight it. More than that, helping Bianka felt good. Very good. There was a rush of arousal as she aided the dazed girl back into her trance. Something primal and powerful that made her drippy cunt clench as she watched the helpless blonde mouth the words just as she had. "Blank. Weak. Obey. Submit. Deeeeeeeepeeeeer." Bianka groaned, as Bethany gazed with wide, glassy eyes at the enthralled girl. Bethany was so horny at this point that Bianka was starting to look sexy to her. She had never been particularly interested in women before, but now as she watched Bianka's full chest heave as she chanted her thoughts away, Bethany experienced a surge of desire. She reached forward and wordlessly began to squeeze and kneed the dazed and brainless woman's breasts. Bianka moaned and shivered in response, and Bethany quickly noticed her nipples stiffen and her lips begin to quiver as Bianka slowly pushed her chest forward and continued her programming. Soon Bethany was tugging and twisting her nipples, eliciting loud and prolonged groans as they both chanted their obedience. Moans and hypnotic humming assaulting their brains from every direction as they sunk ever deeper into an endless hole of submission together.

Bethany wasn't sure when she had gone back to her seat, but it didn't matter. She could still picture Bianka's glazed eyes and pursed lips as she fondled her ample tits. That picture clung to her brain until it was finally time to take a break from the game. The schedule told them to go do some exercise in the gym, and the voice in her headphones told her to obey over and over. Still hazy and hot, Bethany wandered over alongside her teammates. There was a selection of equipment, mostly treadmills and leg machines as well as some yoga mats and small dumbbells. Bethany headed to the treadmill and took a run, With Kana running next to her. She wasn't sure how long for exactly because she couldn't seem to get her thoughts straight. Her headphones never left her ears, ensuring that she couldn't escape the numbing noise and constant repetitive orders that told her to exercise and obey. After what felt like 5 minutes the break, which was scheduled for an hour, was over. Then again the morning training session was 4 hours and it had passed by so fast. Bethany could barely remember what had happened when she returned to her seat, ignoring the blatant damp spot and sitting down once again to resume her training.

She continued to mouth the words endlessly until she zoned out completely. When she realized that she wasn't even fighting enemies and was simply standing at the side of the map pressing the same five keys over and over again, Bethany felt a little unsure. When she felt unsure, she had the sudden urge to press the 'H' key and call for help. So she did. Before she knew what was happening, she saw something crawling under her desk. As her gaze drifted down, Kana's head popped up between her thighs. Her hands were on Bethany's knees as she pushed them apart forcefully. The still dizzy Bethany could only watch in amazement as Kana moved forward slowly, glasses steamed up and tongue dangling out of her mouth hungrily. Bethany didn't struggle when Kana tugged her sweatpants down just enough to expose her tight, glistening slit. The slender Asian girl ran her soft, flat tongue up Bethany's quivering pussy in a single, agonizingly slow motion before looking upwards and mouthing something to her. "Obey." Bethany recognized. "Obey" she repeated. Then she realized that her hand had stopped pushing the keys. She needed to obey. She needed to play. As Kana's tongue teasingly swirled around her pussy lips, Bethany once again pressed the keys and began to softly chant her mantra as she writhed and groaned under the undeniably incredible assault from her teammates' slick tongue.

Between heavy breaths and whispered words of obedience, Bethany began to grind and wriggle. Her pussy was radiating heat and she could the ebb of pleasure rising through her crotch and spreading to her entire body. Kana also sensed that she was getting close and began to toy and suck on her swollen clit eagerly. Poor, mindless Bethany didn't know what hit her when she finally came. She held down the space key as Kana clung to her clit, sucking the life out of her in the best possible way. "DEEEEEEEEPEEEEER" she screamed as she bucked against her teammates face and her arousal overflowed, leaving a slick trail across Kana's face and even splashing her glasses.

Things went on like this for the next few months. Bethany found that as she kept playing the game she continued to level her character and unlock now moves to use in battle. Pressing the 'F' key would blast [Fucktoy] into her defenseless subconscious while performing a roar that knocked back enemies. Pressing the 'E' key would imprint the word [Eager] on her mind and at the same time draw enemies towards her. It didn't take her long to figure out that pressing 'E' and then 'F' in quick succession was an effective combo to incapacitate enemies, and soon she was hearing and seeing [Eager Fucktoy] over and over. Eager Fucktoy. Eager Fucktoy. She chanted it in response each time.

The calls for help continued. Sometimes she would be between one of her teammates legs, lapping at her soaking slit. Others she would straddled and hump them as they mouthed their brainwashing mantras to each other in a terribly effective loop. Other times she was the one calling for aid and riding once of their faces of feeling their tender grasp on her flesh. Before long she knew their bodies well. Their sensitive areas, their tastes, their scent. Everything.

Even when they weren't training, they were being conditioned and programmed. They never removed their headphones. Even at night sleeping with them on. Having lurid dreams of men fucking them over and over. Becoming more and more eager each time. Spreading themselves, humping, begging, pleading to be fucked. Used. For them to empty their balls inside. They were such eager fucktoys.

For all the training they did, they didn't get any better at the game. On the contrary, they were getting worse. Apparently pressing the same keys over and over mindlessly and spending half their time at another's desk eating pussy didn't make for good RTS strategy as it turned out. They would die and lose over and over. Each time their character would say some pathetic line like "I can't fight it any longer..." or "I submit, do what you want with me!" or "I'm just a weak girl, have mercy!". Yet Bethany still found herself repeating them just like all the other things in the game. And the more she repeated them, the truer they felt...and the wetter and more obedient she became.

Then one day something strange happened. As she was moaning and tapping the keys happily, listening to her brainwashing audio and enjoying the sensation of calm and pleasure that her obedience brought, suddenly her headphones fell silent. It was so odd that it snapped her out of her trance and she glanced around. What was going on here? She felt her head throb as she pooled her will and tore her eyes away from the screen. Without the audio and the flashing, she began to feel a cloud inside her mind begin t part as she looked around the room. Her teammates were all slumped in their chairs, moaning and writhing like utter sluts and whispering the most disgusting things as they mindlessly tapped away at the keyboards like drones. Bethany gasped as she began to understand for the first time what was actually happening around her. Free of the mind numbing audio. Now she noticed the warm, wet patch around her crotch and butt and realized that she was soaking wet. Had she been like this the whole time? How long had she been here, in this creepy hypno den? What was happening?

She pulled out her phone and saw the date. The tournament was supposed to start days ago! What on earth was happening? Just as she got up and began to head towards the door, he came into view. Their manager. He had a concerned look on his face as she approached her slowly.

"Bethany, your headphones have malfunctioned. Don't worry, I have a replacement pair right here. Just put them on and get back to training." he commanded her.

"No! What the hell is this? You're brainwashing them...us! You've been brainwashing us for months and the tournament already started! You never intended to take us to that tournament did you? This is all some sex trafficking bullshit..." she confronted him viciously.

"Silly girl. Of course you've been brainwashed. But you are going to the tournament, no need to worry. See, its on your schedule for tomorrow." he explained calmly.

Bethany glanced down at the schedule on her phone for a moment. It was true, it was written there in big letters. But why would they go to the tournament so late? By the time she glanced up, he had taken several more steps towards her and was raising the headphones up towards her head. Just in time she jumped back and glared at him. "You can't do this to us! This is fucked up!" she yelled.

"Oh but we can. We already did. You've been here for 3 months now. Its so ingrained in you. You especially, you were the most susceptible subject we ever tested. Went under just like that, and your brainwaves indicated you were taking it all in strongly, right from the start. You know you can't fight it any longer." He said with a sinister grin.

'I can't fight it any longer...' She mouthed, before realizing what had happened and shaking her head and covering her ears. "No. No. No. Stop it. Get out of my head." she screamed. But what she didn't notice was the three women creeping up behind her. A pair of hands wrapped around her from behind and grabbed her tits firmly. Startled, she removed her hands from her ears, but before she could push the invasive hands away, the two remaining girls were on either side of her, grabbing her wrists and restraining her. With each wrist in one of their hands, the other wandered her body. Bianka on her left let her hand slid down her stomach and buried itself in her crotch where it got to work rubbing fast circles around her tenser clit. Nora on the right running her fingers over Bethany's lips gently as she turned her to stare deeply into Nora's glassy eyes and watch here moan in bliss as she mouthed 'Obey' at her. Bethany shivered in response, lip trembling as she fought not to repeat it, but it was futile. Soon her she was repeating it dutifully. "Obey." All the while Kana, the one behind her, continued to kneed her breasts expertly. It wasn't fair, it was like they knew all of her weak spots. Because they did! For the past 3 months they had practiced and trained in pleasure. They knew how to make her twitch and beg and cum with ease. Just like she knew how to do the same to them.

She realized how hopeless it was as the manager raised the headphones and dangled them over her head with glee. Watching the three eager, groaning sluts fawn over her...dragging her back into submission. She was already too weak to escape at this point, but he lingered there watching her struggle to slip away nonetheless...all the while failing and feebly repeating after her fellow brainless fucktoys.

"What are you?" he asked her.

"Eager fucktoy..." she droned weakly.

With a triumphant smile, he lowered the headphones back over her head and she slipped back into a deep and unending trance.

The next day, they did go to the tournament as he said. They wore their headphones the entire time and were kept backstage while the games were being played. It was the final round, not that any of the silly brainwashed fucktoys were aware of what was happening out there. Instead, they were getting changed into their 'special' outfits. They were replicas of the outfits their characters had worn in the game. Bethany had the easiest job, as all she put on was a couple of flimsy pieces of underwear which were made to look like they were made of leaves. While clearly not actually fashioned from foliage, they were certainly weak. They looked like they could fall apart at any minute. The finishing touch to her costume was a small stuffed bear which she held obediently as she chanted about being an eager fucktoy and a silly doll and many other demeaning mantras which had been drilled into her head to the point of her sorry brain breaking at this point. Nora changed into her wild west outfit, complete with pistols. Well, they weren't so much pistols as water guns filled with alcohol, but the brainless fucktoy didn't know or care. Bianka's outfit was also similar to her in-game counterpart, though the ends of her 'battle-axe' looked a lot more phallic than usual. Finally Kana, whose skin tight suit was the most normal part of her costume. Once she had it on, she had to climb into some silly contraption that looked vaguely like the mech her character piloted, except noticeably smaller. So much so in fact that her butt stuck out of a gap in the rear of the thing and her chest and torso hung out of the front. Her arms and legs were strapped into it firmly so that she essentially couldn't move aside from wriggling her exposed but and turning her head.

With their humiliating costumes now on, the final match drew to a close.

"looks like Steel Tigers were just able to pull that last game out of the bag, making them our official champions! Congratulations guys!" The announcer exclaimed as the audience burst out into applause. "First prize is $50,000..." the crowd continued cheering "but I know what you're really eager to find out about. That's right, the secret bonus prize!"

With that, the crowd burst into an even greater level of excitement. They went wild, hollering and jeering and chanting at the top of their lungs. The Steel Tigers members could barely contain their excitement also.

Suddenly a curtain dropped, exposing the rear of the stage where the four girls were standing obediently in their costumes. The crowd gasped and continued cheering madly. "The bonus prize is your own personal set of fucktoys. We modelled them after the most popular characters in the game, just to give them that perfect touch. Well Steel Tigers, what do you think? Wanna try out your new prize?" The announcer asked coyly.

The girls all heard instructions in their headphones and were compelled to approach the right side of the stage where the Steel Tigers, four very average looking and somewhat sweaty gamers stood behind a row of gaming computers and under heavy lighting. The horny guys wasted no time in exploring their bodies, groping their tits and ass crudely, especially Kana who was somewhat bent over and looked utterly helpless. Once they had ascertained that the four girls were simply going to stand there and take it, they became more brazen. Their hands explored every crevice and they began to pull them closer. Each one seemed to have his own favourite as they began to undo their pants and unleash their quickly hardening cocks.

Just as they were sliding their hot cocks inside the defenseless and dumbfounded dolls, the announcer spoke again. "Oh and by the way, they are completely controllable via mouse and keyboard, just like their virtual counterparts. Try it out!" he announced.

The guys furrowed their brows and analyzed the screens, which now each displayed some kind of control interface, similar to that of the game. But instead of the regular attacks were buttons like 'moan', 'small orgasm', 'massive orgasm' alongside assorted mantras and even a space to type their own phrases. The man who had already plunged his cock inside Bethany's tight snatch typed something at the keyboard as his hips pounded away at her, and when he finished the words seamlessly entered her head and spilled from her lips, bypassing her higher brain function entirely. "I'm a stupid cunt. I suck at video games almost as hard as I suck cock." she said, as the Steel Tigers all giggled and the crowd roared with laughter.

"Me so horny!" Kana said after her controller typed the phrase into the computer. Again they chuckled as the racist gamer found the seam in the rear of her skintight suit which he slid open allowing him to split her ass-cheeks apart and press the tip of his cock against her asshole. Kana felt it throbbing for a moment before he forced it inside. "Fuck my tight asshole!" she begged brainlessly as he typed into the console to control her. Soon he discovered that she had some unique controls, which moved her 'mech' around. It basically allowed him to reposition her body as he pleased, which he did so until she was in the perfect position for him to bury his cock deep inside her ass.

The man who had picked Bianka had some unique controls of his own. He noticed the phallic tip of the battle-axe immediately and pressed it against her cunt as he tapped the key to activate the powerful vibrator embedded in the tip and watched her eyes roll back in her head. He then pressed another key which made her hump the phallic weapon pathetically as she moaned and leaked all over the floor of the stage. Then he grabbed the horns of her helmet and guided her head to his crotch, stuffing his hot, sweaty cock down her throat until she gagged and spluttered around it. All the while groaning and humping before a cheering crowd.

Nora's user first took one of her pistols. The tip smelled strongly of alcohol and recognizing this, he pushed it past her parted lips and fired a spray of the strong alcoholic liquid down her throat. He noticed a swallow button on her controls and pressed it. After doing this several times and also squirting a bit into his mouth, he replaced the tip of the pistol with the tip of his cock, slipping it easily past her soft, plump lips and down her throat. He humped her face violently as the crowd continued jeering in excitement.

Then Bethany's user seemed to become obsessed with the orgasm buttons. He hit the 'small orgasm' button and she gasped and clenched around his cock. He must have liked the sensation because he mashed it repeatedly for a while, before trying the 'big orgasm' button which sent her into a spiral of intense pleasure. Having a lot of fun, he began typing humiliating phrases and hitting the 'big orgasm' button just as she finished saying them. Making her cum hard to things like "I'm a worthless piece of fuck-meat, make me scream!" and "fuck me 'til I break then cover me in cum!" Every time followed by a big orgasm. Alongside the feeling of his cock throbbing inside her. then he would mash the 'small orgasm' button and enjoy the sensation of her clenching and quivering around his thick member as he built up to another humiliating 'big orgasm'.

By the time the event had finished, the four girls were sweaty and drenched in cum. They had been violated, humiliated and degraded in front of a crowd of people. It would have been against their will, if they had any will left. Instead they simply writhed in pleasure and followed the instructions they were given. Things didn't change for them when they were brought back to the guys' house and used as stress relievers while the trained for the next tournament. It was all a big, pleasant, obedient blur of sucking and fucking and debasing themselves for the entertainment of these childish and disgusting men.

So in the end, everyone was a winner.

#mindbrokensluts #story #not mine #Reconstruction #long

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rowonlgc · 3 months

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CHARACTER UPDATE 004 › RELATIONSHIPS

“good to see you again,” rowon greets while taking his seat. much like before, he relaxes into the chair and opens up with an easy smile. “are you assigned to me, or am i just lucky to get you a second time?”

when the topic of relationships comes up, his smile fades just a bit. ah, they’re gauging. it’s so clever how they word it – we just want to know a little more about you – that’s all they say, but that’s not what he hears. there’s this insinuation of wanting to foster a more positive connection where he should be comfortable enough to talk to them about anything. of course, we care – as if he isn’t an investment.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHO TO SPEND TIME WITH?

truly the question of the hour. “i feel inclined to say family first and friends second, but if i’m to be honest, i go wherever i am needed. it doesn’t matter what our relationship is – be it family, friend, or fellow trainee – if you ask for my time, or if you’re in need of my company, i will be there for you.” half-truths. that is what he decides to run with. he typically does go to the ones who ask for him first, but he also has a priority list of those he’s willing to cancel plans for.

HOW DO YOU SHOW SOMEONE YOU CARE FOR THEM?

it’s an easy question with a difficult answer, and it’s not because he doesn’t know what to say – but because he knows precisely what to say. he’s thought about this time and time again, assessing and reassessing, changing his methods until something works. “i make an effort for them,” he answers after a few silent beats. “i make time, i make things happen, and i try to make their lives a little better by doing what i can to help out – errands, chores, that sort.” a pause. “i remember small details about them. their likes, dislikes, what drinks they order, what clothes they go for .. you wore the same blue sweater last time you interviewed me. it’s nice. moncler?”

WHAT IS YOUR IDEA OF ROMANCE?

unconditional devotion. someone to take his side. someone to be with him through thick and thin – that is all he requires. he doesn’t ask for much else. “i’m a little delusional,” he admits. “i like to be swept away by the once upon a times and happily ever afters. the idea of love at first sight, finding that someone who’s made for me – that would be my ideal. makes me sound like a hopeless romantic, doesn’t it? except it’s not realistic. but maybe i can have something like that in a romance drama role. what do you think?”

IF YOU WERE IN NEED, WHO WOULD YOU TURN TO?

he can choose to be vulnerable. it doesn’t hurt him all that much; pride isn’t his primary vice. “i don’t have anyone.” he breaks with a short, embarrassed laugh, his eyes lowering for a moment before trailing back up to meet the coach’s. “not in that sort of way. i do have people who i can depend on if i need a small favour. but some things – the more serious cases – i have to handle on my own. i .. i don’t want to be a burden to those around me. everyone has a limit to their patience.” who did he steal that line from? hm.

HAVE YOU EVER FELT TRULY LOVED BY SOMEONE?

no – is his immediate reaction, but he reels it back with an early memory. “my mother,” he answers, the corners of his mouth a bit strained. “she had this journal dedicated to me when i was younger. it detailed everything from the foods i liked, to my favourite colours, to things i said that she found funny. a lot of it was meaningless, but it felt like she cared about every little thing i did and said and liked. .. now thinking about it, i suppose that’s where i got my ‘remembering small details’ from.” except the journal wasn’t about him.

it was about them.

“.. was how i answered. would you have said the same?”

he peers up at his brother from the bedside, eyes keen. aside from the steady rise and fall of his chest, there hasn’t been any movement. it’s strange, because according to the nurses, robin’s eyes would move beneath his lids. his finger would occasionally twitch, and at times, she would even catch him crying. but rowon hasn’t seen any of this. he wonders if she’s only saying that to give him hope. how cruel.

there’s a sunflower sitting on the windowsill, happily basking in the sun. he moves it to the nightstand by robin’s head, and it’s here that he takes a good look at his brother’s face. clean, pampered. seems like his parents have been here recently. a quiet hand drifts over the identical features, almost as if tracing what they share, and then he snaps his fingers abruptly.

no reaction.

he draws back.

and as he leaves, he can be heard humming walking on sunshine on the way out. today is going to be a good day.

#lgc:cupdate004 #rw — solo.

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theflyingfeeling · 1 year

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Heey, I wanna know more about your relationship with Blind Channel, if you're willing to discuss it hehe. I don't know the band besides the things you post, but you seem really invested and I'm wondering what's behind all that love! Asking because I find it's so interesting getting to know how band managed to lure such an active fan!

Hey! Of COURSE I'm willing to discuss Blind Channel, that's what I do!! 😅 I wasn't expecting this ask to come form YOU though, of all my mutuals, but I'm happy to answer!

I don't know how much you know about Eurovision Song Contest, but Blind Channel representing Finland in it in 2021 was what started it all (I can't remember hearing about them before that, but then again I'm not really following the Finnish music scene). I really liked their Eurovision song but it took me a while to listen to their other songs. I guess I was scared I might not like them that much, because by the time I finally did I had already become invested with the band because I had seen all that funny pre-Eurovision content they had made and absolutely fallen in love with them as people. I guess that's my first bullet point on the long list of reasons why:

Their personalities. There are six guys in the band, and they're all such lovable, down-to-earth people that it's hard not to love them. They're honest in what they say (which is what they were praised for during the Eurovision), they're genuine, and what I perhaps like the most is that they're very clearly their own, individual persons. I mean, everyone is, of course, but I think with Blind Channel it's even more striking how different they all are from each other, although some of them do also share certain personality traits.

Their passion. I absolutely love listening to them talk about their music, because with every word they say it's obvious how much they love what they do, despite the many (many!) hardships they have faced over the years. They're so ambitious, but not in an arrogant way; they know exactly where they are currently, where they want to be, and how they're gonna get there. The other lead singer Joel in particular (the one with the long blond hair) has made me tear up with his passion for music and the band. Whenever he talks about Blind Channel, you can just tell the band means the absolute world to him. In the end of the final track of their latest album there are clips from their first ever interview from almost 10 years ago, and Joel saying "the best thing about being in a band is everything, every single second" made me cry my eyes out for the first five consecutive times I listened to the song (yes, I actually listened to the song five times in a row the first time around haha), and I still remember back in 2021 I was watching and interview in which he said, when asked if they have someone taking care of their social media, that they want to do all that stuff themselves, because they want the content they give their fans to be as authentic as possible. I literally teared up at that moment, and it was also the moment I decided I need to see them live. Which leads us to my third point...

Their live shows. All the other concerts I had been to before my first BC concert had left me...underwhelmed, in a way? I was always so uncomfortable with all the people (sometimes drunken) shoving me around or screaming to my ear; I often felt like I would've been much better off just listening to the songs in the safety of my apartment lol. But then I went to a Blind Channel show and oh my god I was addicted. Their energy on stage is unmatched, top tier, and other praise words. They're so much fun to look at, because they're all so into it, all of them, not just the singers. In so many bands the guitarist and the bassist are literally just doing their job of strumming the strings while showing no emotion whatsoever, and if that's how they prefer it, I'm not gonna judge them for it, but Blind Channel has a whole choreography for their shows and seeing how into the music they are makes you so much more into the music as well. I especially love watching the bassist Olli on stage; he interacts with the audience quite a bit (a lot more in comparison to the guitarist Joonas who's very into his instrument most of the time), and if you're close enough to the stage, it's so much fun just watching him vibe with the music with the most blissful expression on his face 🥺 He really is in his element on stage - they all are! But with Olli it's a little different, because off stage he appears pretty shy and quiet; on stage he's anything but, and it's always so amazing to see that. In addition, they have so many great songs that are meant to be sung as loud as you can, and doing so surrounded by like-minded people is the best fun you've ever had 🖤 (particularly if there's a separate over-18 section in the audience, as the kids can get a little...intense sometimes 😂 (their fanbase in the motherland is quite young))

Sometimes I myself wonder what the hell actually happened that I became this invested with a band, especially because it's been over 10 years since the last time that happened 🙈 But honestly speaking, I'm so glad I did, because if it wasn't for Blind Channel, I have no idea what I would be doing with my freetime. I had no idea what would be my main source of serotonin if it wasn't for them, or whether I'd have fallen further down in the dumps. I'm scared to even think about it.

And like, by now it's not only about the six dudes in the band and the songs they make, but also about all the incredibly sweet people I have met through them. I don't really have that many friends, but thanks to Blind Channel I now have all these super adorable people in my life who always manage to pull me back up when I feel like I'm drowning, and that's something really fucking beautiful, you know? I will forever be thankful for Blind Channel for giving me all these amazing friends and experiences that I otherwise would've missed.

#thank you so much for asking!! i had so much fun answering this ✨#sorry if i'm sometimes flooding your dashboard with all this band nonsense 🙈 feel free to blacklist the tag if any of it bothers you! 🖤

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saucylittlesmile · 1 year

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I agree with you — I felt like Tessa handled the Morgan questions well and she spoke more about him than she ever has. But she was also kind of cornered, so I can’t say whether it was willing per se.

I thought it was interesting that she talked about how she had coaching about her people pleasing tendencies early on in her skating career. Often it felt like the company line from VM was that Tessa “had” to help moderate Scott’s emotions, but I found it interesting that coaches were trying to break that cycle of her internalizing stuff from others early on, and that it’s something she still works on.

Also, she’s become a lot more open about not taking money from her family from the age of 15. I would have loved to know more about that — how did she pay for skating then? They didn’t make any real money until they medaled at worlds! It’s fascinating to me.

(Sorry, this is late)

I mean, if she wanted to talk less about him, she has lots of practice in deflecting or keeping her answers short, so though I’d say that Jann was a very persistent interviewer and cornered her, Tessa had escape routes and chose to speak anyway.

I also found the ‘assertiveness training’ discussion interesting. Have we heard about that before? But meanwhile, if I’m remembering this interview right, it was someone in Skate Canada who wanted her to take the course? So not their coaches, I don’t believe. (Please correct me if I’m wrong because I am definitely not going back to listen right now lol.) But as long as it helped her learn her own boundaries and create a better communication then it’s good someone encouraged it.

I’m going to paste another anon here:

Anonymous asked:

How much money was VM earning early in their career? Tessa mentioned in her interview that she stopped taking money from her parents at age 15. Was she already earning enough by that time to pay for all her skating expenses? Apartment, coaches, off-ice, food, transportation, all those dresses, etc? Or maybe she already had control of an inheritance at that age?

I obviously have no actual knowledge of any part of their finances.

I did wonder if she meant, for general expenses, when she said she wasn’t taking money from her parents at 15; she was living away from home from the age of thirteen (with a billet family) and in another country at 15 in a more independent way, so it would make sense to me if these life changes coincided with financial independence. That said, Tessa comes from a comfortable family, and it is conceivable that she had some money from her family, which she then used to manage her choices.

But like you both*, I can’t imagine that she was paying entirely for her own skating at 15, unless she really did have an excellent familial investment; while there are stories of some skaters who take on coaching and other jobs, we have never had that impression from either Tessa or Scott, and even as successful junior skaters, they wouldn’t have been earning enough from skating itself to pay for their expenses.

As I was writing the above, I realized that we’ve had this conversation before in this fandom; it took a lot if poking around (because pandemic time messed bigtime with my brain) but I finally found the interview I was looking for. It doesn’t actually clarify anything lol, but it again sounds like she was dealing with her own skating expenses, which is why we all talked about it at the time. Here is the interview if you want to re-watch it, from a year ago.

#ask #I thought that interview was much older #but then last year is pretty much a bad blur so

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jcmarchi · 5 months

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Donny White, CEO & Co-Founder of Satisfi Labs – Interview Series

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/donny-white-ceo-co-founder-of-satisfi-labs-interview-series/

Donny White, CEO & Co-Founder of Satisfi Labs – Interview Series

Founded in 2016, Satisfi Labs is a leading conversational AI company. Early success came from its work with the New York Mets, Macy’s, and the US Open, enabling easy access to information often unavailable on websites.

Donny spent 15 years at Bloomberg before entering the world of start-ups and holds an MBA from Cornell University and a BA from Baruch College. Under Donny’s leadership, Satisfi Labs has seen significant growth in the sports, entertainment, and tourism sectors, receiving investments from Google, MLB, and Red Light Management.

You were at Bloomberg for 14 years when you first felt the entrepreneurial itch. Why was being an entrepreneur suddenly on your radar?

During my junior year of college, I applied for a job as a receptionist at Bloomberg. Once I got my foot in the door, I told my colleagues that if they were willing to teach me, I could learn fast. By my senior year, I was a full-time employee and had shifted all of my classes to night classes so I could do both. Instead of going to my college graduation at age 21, I spent that time managing my first team. From that point on, I was fortunate to work in a meritocracy and was elevated multiple times. By 25, I was running my own department. From there, I moved into regional management and then product development, until eventually, I was running sales across all the Americas. By 2013, I began wondering if I could do something bigger. I went on a few interviews at young tech companies and one founder said to me, “We don’t know if you’re good or Bloomberg is good.” It was then that I knew something had to change and six months later I was the VP of sales at my first startup, Datahug. Shortly after, I was recruited by a group of investors who wanted to disrupt Yelp. While Yelp is still good and well, in 2016 we aligned on a new vision and I co-founded Satisfi Labs with the same investors.

Could you share the genesis story behind Satisfi Labs?

I was at a baseball game at Citi Field with Randy, Satisfi’s current CTO and Co-founder, when I heard about one of their specialties, bacon on a stick. We walked around the concourse and asked the staff about it, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Turns out it was tucked away on one end of the stadium, which prompted the realization that it would have been much more convenient to inquire directly with the team through chat. This is where our first idea was born. Randy and I both come from finance and algorithmic trading backgrounds, which led us to take the concept of matching requests with answers to build our own NLP for hyper-specific inquiries that would get asked at locations. The original idea was to build individual bots that would each be experts in a particular field of knowledge, especially knowledge that isn’t easily accessible on a website. From there, our system would have a “conductor” that could tap each bot when needed. This is the original system architecture that is still being used today.

Satisfi Labs had designed its own NLP engine and was on the cusp of publishing a press release when OpenAI disrupted your tech stack with the release of ChatGPT. Can you discuss this time period and how this forced Satisfi Labs to pivot its business?

We had a scheduled press release to announce our patent-pending Context-based NLP upgrade for December 6, 2022. On November 30, 2022, OpenAI announced ChatGPT. The announcement of ChatGPT changed not only our roadmap but also the world. Initially, we, like everyone else, were racing to understand the power and limits of ChatGPT and understand what that meant for us. We soon realized that our contextual NLP system did not compete with ChatGPT, but could actually enhance the LLM experience. This led to a quick decision to become OpenAI enterprise partners. Since our system started with the idea of understanding and answering questions at a granular level, we were able to combine the “bot conductor” system design and seven years of intent data to upgrade the system to incorporate LLMs.

Satisfi Labs recently launched a patent for a Context LLM Response System, what is this specifically?

This July, we unveiled our patent-pending Context LLM Response System. The new system combines the power of our patent-pending contextual response system with large language model capabilities to strengthen the entire Answer Engine system. The new Context LLM technology integrates large language model capabilities throughout the platform, ranging from improving intent routing to answer generation and intent indexing, which also drives its unique reporting capabilities. The platform takes conversational AI beyond the traditional chatbot by harnessing the power of LLMs such as GPT-4. Our platform allows brands to answer with both generative AI answers or pre-written answers depending on the need for control in the response.

Can you discuss the current disconnect between most company websites and LLM platforms in delivering on-brand answers?

ChatGPT is trained to understand a wide range of information and therefore does not have the level of granular training needed to answer industry-specific questions with the level of specificity that most brands expect. Additionally, the accuracy of the answers LLMs provide is only as good as the data provided. When you use ChatGPT, it is sourcing data from across the internet, which can be inaccurate. ChatGPT does not prioritize the data from a brand over other data. We have been serving various industries over the past seven years, gaining valuable insight into the millions of questions asked by customers every day. This has enabled us to understand how to tune the system with greater context per industry and provide robust and granular intent reporting capabilities, which are crucial given the rise of large language models. While LLMs are effective in understanding intent and generating answers, they cannot report on the questions asked. Using years of extensive intent data, we have efficiently created standardized reporting through their Intent Indexing System.

What role do linguists play in enhancing the abilities of LLM technologies?

The role of prompt engineer has emerged with this new technology, which requires a person to design and refine prompts that elicit a specific response from the AI. Linguists have a great understanding of language structure such as syntax and semantics, among other things. One of our most successful AI Engineers has a Linguistics background, which allows her to be very effective in finding new and nuanced ways to prompt the AI. Subtle changes in the prompt can have profound effects on how accurate and efficient an answer is generated, which makes all the difference when we are handling millions of questions across multiple clients.

What does fine-tuning look like on the backend?

We have our own proprietary data model that we use to keep the LLM in line. This allows us to build our own fences to keep the LLM under control, opposed to having to search for fences. Secondly, we can leverage tools and features that other platforms utilize, which allows us to support them on our platforms.

Fine-tuning training data and using Reinforcement Learning (RL) in our platform can help mitigate the risk of misinformation. Fine-tuning, opposed to querying the knowledge base for specific facts to add, creates a new version of the LLM that is trained on this additional knowledge. On the other hand, RL trains an agent with human feedback and learns a policy on how to answer questions. This has proven to be successful in building smaller footprint models that become experts in specific tasks.

Can you discuss the process for onboarding a new client and integrating conversational AI solutions?

Since we focus on destinations and experiences such as sports, entertainment, and tourism, new clients benefit from those already in the community, making onboarding very simple. New clients identify where their most current data sources live such as a website, employee handbooks, blogs, etc. We ingest the data and train the system in real-time. Since we work with hundreds of clients in the same industry, our team can quickly provide recommendations on which answers are best suited for pre-written responses versus generated answers. Additionally, we set up guided flows such as our dynamic Food & Beverage Finder so clients never need to deal with a bot-builder.

Satisfi Labs is currently working closely with sports teams and companies, what is your vision for the future of the company?

We see a future where more brands will want to control more aspects of their chat experience. This will result in an increased need for our system to provide more developer-level access. It does not make sense for brands to hire developers to build their own conversational AI systems as the expertise needed will be scarce and expensive. However, with our system feeding the backend, their developers can focus more on the customer experience and journey by having greater control of the prompts, connecting proprietary data to allow for more personalization, and managing the chat UI for specific user needs. Satisfi Labs will be the technical backbone of brands’ conversational experiences.

Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Satisfi Labs.

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toshootforthestars · 2 years

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on the day the "60 Minutes" interview aired, the seven-day moving average for deaths from Covid-19 clocked in at 377. As of Friday, the NBC News Covid data dashboard was reporting 469 daily deaths, an average that was 18% higher than the average taken two weeks before.

Many Americans desperately want to move on from the pandemic, which is understandable; it led to more than 1 million Americans dying, many more losing their jobs or having their lives fundamentally altered in some way or another. But the disability community, which suffered a disproportionate number of deaths, still faces disproportionate danger. An October 2021 report from the National Council on Disability found that between the start of the pandemic in the U.S. and March 2021, a full third of Covid-19 deaths occurred in facilities that accommodated not just senior citizens but also people with disabilities between the ages of 31 and 64, and on top of that, they were often triaged out of Covid-19 treatments when hospital beds, supplies and personnel were scarce.

Another study conducted before vaccines were available found that people with developmental disorders were 3.06 times more likely to die from Covid-19, while people with intellectual disabilities were 2.75 times more likely to die, and people with spina bifida and other nervous system anomalies were 2.48 times more likely to die.

Before Biden declared the pandemic over, his administration had already been moving in the direction of describing the fight against Covid-19 as a matter of personal responsibility and not as a national crisis that requires marshaling every public resource available.

Similarly, the administration has shown how easily it is willing to view people with disabilities as pesky asterisks. In a January appearance on Good Morning America, Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, infamously cited a study that found that of the 36 deaths recorded in 1.2 million fully vaccinated people, 28 people had four or more risk factors, and she said, “So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with. And yes, really encouraging news in the context of omicron.”

That is an unconscionable way to wave off people who are severely immunocompromised or ill. As Jayne Mattingly wrote for NBC Think, 78% of people with risk factors died. That was not an incredibly encouraging number. Eventually, Walensky was forced to apologize to disability rights activists, but since then, people with disabilities have felt that the CDC hasn’t done much to change course. When the CDC loosened its Covid-19 guidance in April, Maria Town, the president of the American Association of People with Disabilities, said it would lead to death as well as “sickness and further disablement."

"The CDC issued this loosened COVID guidance after the Senate chose NOT to make historic investments in home and community based services, paid family and medical leave, and childcare - all things that would help mitigate the effects of ‘living with the virus,’” Town tweeted last month.

It’s equally upsetting that none of the federal policies that could mitigate deaths of people with disabilities has actually changed. Last year, Biden laid out a plan to spend $400 billion in home and community-based services for elderly people and people with disabilities.

People with disabilities had disproportionately died of Covid-19 died in congregate care settings as Democratic governors such as California’s Gavin Newsom, New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and New York's Andrew Cuomo required long-term care facilities and skilled nursing facilities to take Covid-19 patients. So more funding for home and community-based services should have been easy pickings for Biden’s party.

Medicaid Home and Community-based services or HCBS has always been chronically underfunded, which means staff turnover is anywhere from 40% to 60% annually, much higher than other parts of the health care and social assistance sector. The waitlist to get home care is impossibly long in some states, with some people waiting for years, which often forces people to make a painful decision between living in nursing homes or living without the proper support systems or staff to survive to have some modicum of relief. People’s fears about their loved ones dying of Covid-19 in a nursing home illuminated what people with disabilities already know: Nursing homes can be incredibly perilous and are far less preferable to receiving care at home.

But during the deliberations for Build Back Better, Democrats slashed the $400 billion home and community-based services to $190 billion. Then, in an attempt to keep the price tag low and appease Sen. Joe Manchin, D– W.Va., they further slashed it to $150 million, only to see Manchin nuke the legislation altogether. When Democrats passed their pared-down reconciliation this year, it included nothing for home and community-based services.

Eric Garcia: Biden declaring the pandemic over disregards the danger disabled Americans face

MSNBC / Sept 2022

#news #coronavirus #covidー19 #priorities #the way things work

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heavensigh · 2 years

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So the job I accepted started today and I went in with hopes of renegotiating my salary. During our initial phone call he asked me about my salary requirements and I lowballed myself in a panic. As soon as the words slipped out of my mouth I regretted them and, of course, he immediately jumped on it lowest amount I stated.

After that phone interview I had an in person one the next day at another firm. The office and position was way more appealing. The pay was higher by $10, they had a full benefits package and they were willing to train. The firm has been established and business was booming. Plus it was all women in the office! I have some competition for that firm but I wanted to take what they were offering. I had plans to bring this “offer” to the other job to see if he would be willing to counter them. I didn’t have the job, I haven’t even been confirmed for a second interview yet, but I pretended like I was.

So I went in today and he started showing me around and introducing me to the other employees. I had to stop him during his tour and asked to speak with him privately so we can square out a few things. After getting my questions about the position out of the way I asked if we could go over the benefits and such again. “Oh I’m so glad you bought that up!” I’m like good, things are looking promising. “We don’t offer anything. We don’t have a health plan or anything like that. I have coverage through a private insurance company though.” Why the hell would I care about HIS coverage?! And why was he SOOO happy that I brought it up like he had something worthwhile to offer?!

So I asked if he was willing to renegotiate the salary. He said, “Of course, absolutely!” So I tell him about my “offer” from another firm and if he could match it. He immediately says no. “Can you do 5 below that?” “No.” “What about after the probation period is over and my performance is satisfactory? Will there be an opportunity for a salary increase?” It actually took him a bit to answer this one, like I was pulling teeth. I asked if he could give me a ballpark figure, something! In the end he said no. He couldn’t give me anything, nothing.

“The firm is still new and we really don’t have the budget, especially for entry level. Plus it takes a lot of man hours to train you but you’ll get your hours.”

“What about opportunity for overtime?”

“That’s not really a thing in law.”

Which I know is a lie because the other firm stated that they offer overtime for certain cases and based bonuses around it! So I thanked him for his time, said I would consider and left. We both know I won’t be seeing them again but on the drive home I felt a little guilty.

I know this is my first time out with my new set of skills but this isn’t my first time working. I have years under my belt with other industries, all of them playing a major part in a position like this. Marketing, bookkeeping, admin, real estate, writing, etc. I know I’m worth more.

I didn’t want Chu to be disappointed in me though. He said I could really lighten the load by getting a job in my career field and I need the hours for my cert. I have until Dec though and we wouldn’t be living off my salary. Just stashing it away for savings and improving the house. All things I want to do. If this other job doesn’t come through then I’ll just keep looking. I have to remember that, even though I’m new, I don’t have to settle. I should look for a firm that I can stay at long term, and that interests me. The pay matters but I have to see this as an investment. It wouldn’t help to waste my time or theirs. Chu thinks I’m worth more and said that he was happy that I didn’t take what the guy was offering...which was basically nothing. “You deserve more, you’re not asking for anything unreasonable. I want you to be happy and focused, not taking positions out of pity or desperation. We aren’t that bad.” He’s right...

So after that I came home, got naked, ordered a burger and fries and played video games during my online class. I have two major finals due by the end of this week and I can feel myself slipping away into burnout.

Chu is returning next week and I’m focusing heavy on that. I just need to make it through this final push and then I can be done. I gotta keep it together.

Today the school contacted me to see if I’ll be walking this month for graduation. I had plans of flying back to do so, but with Chu being gone and our money being a little funny, it doesn’t seem worth it. I asked them to just mail my documents and cap/gown. If nothing else I can take some pictures on my own.

In other news, I’ve been going on friend dates. Its been fun! Just one girl so far but I’m working on others. We’ll see. We’ve been seeing each other at least once on the weekends and its been a big help on my loneliness since Chu has been gone. I have found a lot of cool events for the end of the month so I gotta do well on the job and school front so I can really relax and have fun.

#personal #job hunting #pbthoughts #dear diary #journal #life update #internship #self care #know your worth

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rosymorns · 3 years

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ladies i have been so anxious the last four or five days i feel like my arms r constantly shaking n im like. is life just like this from now on.

#im trying to decide whether i want to pursue this job #for: i like working with kids and they make it sound like theres decent mobility into head teacher positions #against: the woman i spoke to straight up said they would not give me $13/hr. i am not willing to work for less than that.#they also did not interview me they had me come in and then gave me a place to go take a drug test.#my mother says they wouldn't extend a job offer until after i pass that but that isnt what im talking about.#it felt like they were not willing to invest the time it takes to interview a new hire. i do not like that.#and my parents keep like. when are you going to call them back. when are you going to schedule the drug test.#jonah put me in touch with someone who needed a babysitter and i was telling my mom about it and she was like why would you bother #like i feel like they're going to be pissed if i turn down this job/don't pursue it but. like i don't know! it just didn't feel. right.#carly.txt

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danidrabbles · 3 years

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OCTOBER 8: SPANKING

Notes: Since I’m on a bit of a streak with doing things differently this week, I’m posting a little piece where you won’t really know who it’s about until you get a suspicion though the description / until his name is mentioned. Fun, right? (It will be, trust me). If you like reading Pedro characters—or just my writing!—you might enjoy this one, because it’s one of them!

Pairing: Like I said, it’s a surprise 🤫, but it’s x (secretary) f!reader!

Rating: Explicit (18+!)

Word count: 1k-ish

Warnings: well. spanking of course (f receiving), dirty talk, fingering (f receiving), unprotected PIV sex, a smidge of degradation, perhaps this is slightly OOC but you know what this is my fic and I make the rules, bit of power dynamics because it’s a boss/employee type of relationship, therefore also dub-con (ish). Let me know if I forgot anything!

“Six,” you grit out, voice gone breathy and soft. You brace your hands against the desk under you, fingernails all but digging into the polished wood to prepare yourself for the next hit.

This is anything but what you imagined when you walked into the impressive building for a job interview months ago. The office building’s more like a museum from the outside; columns of brick, high towers, the amber colours atop the entrance gleaming with potential in the sun. The architecture made you feel… prestigious, even despite the small size of the actual company; it was up and coming, and it made you eager, intrigued, willing to come along for the ride and the rise to what felt like certain prosperity.

You’d accepted the secretary position as soon as he offered it to you.

No, this came later. This is the result of a late night at the office, where you’d both been longing for some company. It’s such a fucking cliché, the boss and his secretary, but it felt right at the time. It felt right all the times after.

But as much as the company grew over time—fame, investment opportunities around the globe, money—your relationship with him remained the same as at that particular night. And mostly, it’s thanks to him. Fame changed him, made a once honest man smug, sly, slimy; someone who enjoyed a sharp edge to his love. It’s then that you decided: your arrangement was—and would stay—that of an equally beneficial exchange.

Give, take.

Eb, flow.

Catch, release.

And today, it was certainly release.

You’d protested when he made clear he wanted to do this, needed this, to take his mind off the important meeting he had at the beginning of the afternoon. In exchange, he promised to make it worth your while, that he wouldn’t be the only one getting off. Which, given the day you were having, sounded fair at the time, but you’re not so sure, now...

“You’re so wet,” he chuckles from behind you, two thick fingers gliding through the slick that coats the inside of your thighs. He uses it to rub between your soaked folds, dipping his fingertips inside and giving you a few seconds of relief. The sound of his hand passing over his cock only gets louder and louder... until he lifts his hand and brings it down, hard, flat, between your legs.

With a cry, you rise up on your toes, your pussy tingling with the sting of it and clenching around nothing as another rush of wetness dribbles from your entrance to coat your thighs. You swear you can hear it land on the floor with a quick drip-drip, and another chuckle confirms your suspicion.

“How am I gonna explain this to our guests later, hmm?” he asks, his hand smoothing over the skin of one of your flaming cheeks. “Maybe I should just tell them how my secretary’s cunt made a dripping mess all over the carpet because I was spanking her ass.”

His words make your legs wobble, face heating at the idea of him talking to other people about you like that. Because he had half the mind—if not more—to actually do it.

“Don’t forget to count,” he warns with a squeeze of his hand, making another whimper fall from your lips. “Would hate to have to start over again, I might actually break skin.”

The sound you make in response is a pathetic one—the reminder of how you’d lost count when he reached nine a couple minutes ago making you burn with shame.

“Seven,” comes your hurried reply.

He doesn’t give you time to recover, his hand hitting your ass again, and you sob, the desperate sound echoing far louder than that of his actions. The bastard switched to his left hand, and you have no doubt the ring he wore on his pinky is now imprinted on your skin.

“E-Eight,” you grit out.

“Does it hurt?” he asks, a fingertip fluttering over the particularly tender spot, and you suppose he’s not asking because he actually cares about how you’re feeling.

“Yes,” you huff. “I just want—”

“I know what you want,” he says. His voice sounds soothing, but his actions reflect none of that when he brings his hand down on your other cheek to leave another mark. “I know,” he repeats when you pant out a nine.

“Maxw–,” you begin, but before you can even continue his name, start your plea, he spanks you again. “Ten!” you yelp. “Oh, my god, ten, please, you promised–”

“I know,” he says, sounding slightly annoyed that you’d think he’d break his promise. “I’ll give it to you.”

The office chair creaks behind you as his thumb and forefinger spread your pussy. Wordlessly, he kicks your feet further apart, before sliding himself into you in one, smooth stroke. At his groan, you go lax against the wood, hips ramming painfully into the desk beneath you at his first thrust. Big hands palm your sore ass, sliding under the straps that hold your stockings up. He spreads you open, sliding in that extra bit, filling you completely, before one hand leaves you there to tangle in your hair. With a sharp tug, he forces you to look up, your eyes slipping in and out of focus as you look at the door to his office.

“They’re waiting out there,” he mutters, his lips a humid press against your ear when he leans over you, a blond lock of his hair tickling your temple. “Let’s put on a show for them.”

The statement—positively lacking question—makes you notice the muted sounds of conversation from the hallway. You glance at the clock next to the glimmering Black Gold Cooperative logo on the wall, and it’s then that you notice that your forgetfulness earlier is making you late: His afternoon appointment is here.

You’re pretty sure they can see your silhouette bobbing back and forth on top of the desk through the glass panels next to the door, that they can hear the sound of your voice begging for him to fuck you… Something bubbles in your stomach, and to your surprise, it’s not aversion. It’s something else, something that makes you wet.

“Yeah,” you pant, leaning up on your palms as he saws into you with another punishing thrust. “Yeah, let’s put on a show for them.”

And as you snap your hips back against his, as you reach behind you to hold him at the back of his neck when he kisses your shoulder, you suppose success has changed you, too.

Thank you for reading! I hope that was okay... Tomorrow is another wildcard. I know! A non-Pedro character is coming up for October 9: Gun Play. Maybe you can guess who he is... If you guess correctly, I will send you a sneak peek at the fic in your DMs 😌 Hope to see you tomorrow!

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@javier-pena, @highsviolets, @frannyzooey, @silksaddle, @pedrostories, @artsymaddie, @doin-stuff, @jettia, @amneris21, @readsalot73, @mswarriorbabe80, @queen-sands, @javierpinme, @flyovertheandesman, @honestly-shite, @buckeyegirl419 , @tintinn16, @littlemisspascal, @maxwell--lord , @thisshipwillsail316, @astoryisaloveaffair, @thisisthewayyy, @barnes-and-bitch, @peoniarose, @hocuschlocus, @maievdenoir

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#kinktober 2021 #dani writing #ooooh i just realized i can't really tag this like i usually do haha #fanfic #pedro pascal character fanfiction #a wee couple of tags 😌#also i hope tumblr can handle this slightly spicy header....

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young-dumb-and-vaccinated · 3 years

Text

The Cult Girl (Hannibal x Female!Reader) pt. 3

So I picked option 2 cause I just had more ideas around it. I could probably still do 1 and 3 sometime but this is the direction we're going now. Y/n gets a call from her horrible grandmother who is expecting a visit.

Trigger warning: discussions of emotional and mental abuse, gaslighting

That night at his dining table was the start of something wonderful. You made a point to apply a bit of perfume to your neck before you left your apartment. Your three slightly judgmental but overall supportive roommates even donated a few drops of their own fragrances from time to time.

You didn’t like the sound of the sentence “Hannibal is my boyfriend”. It just didn’t hit your ear right. ‘Boyfriend’ was too childish of a title for him. By extension, he found something very diminutive about referring to you as his girlfriend. You were, of course, a grown woman. He remedied this right away, resigning to call you his ‘darling’. You, however, had to use ‘partner’ as a placeholder until a more suitable pet name presented itself. Although the titles were never stated outright, after a while, you knew it was more than just a passionate affair. Hannibal (and you were calling him Hannibal, now) saw potential in you. He nurtured you and had been since day one.

Finally, things were starting to go your way. You were in classes you loved, had wonderful, supportive friends and a fulfilling relationship. It took over twenty years, but better late than never.

But, if there was one thing you learned from your short stint as a student of physics, it was that what goes up must come down. Your long-awaited bliss was about to be tested by an equal and opposite force bearing the name “Beatrice [L/N]” on the caller ID.

Not only did she call, but she called three times in the middle of your meal. And that was followed by multiple texts, several of which containing words like “emergency” in all caps. You were just trying to enjoy another one of Hannibal’s culinary works of art, but the old bitch was persistent.

You apologetically excused yourself from the table and retreated to the office with your phone.

Grandma, you had better be on your fucking deathbed. You thought to yourself before sliding the green answer icon across the screen.

“[F/N]!” Came her shrill voice. “You finally answered. I was beginning to worry.”

“What do you want, grandma?” You groan.

“I wanted to ask you what you were wearing to Anna’s wedding next weekend.” She explained, calmly as ever. “The color scheme is seafoam and coral and she wants to make sure everyone adheres to it for pictures.”

You covered the speaker with your hand and pulled your phone away from your ear so she couldn’t hear you bite back a scream. It physically pained you to return the phone to your ear. “Yeah, I RSVPed no to Anna’s wedding.”

“[F/N],” Your grandmother said in that scolding tone you knew all too well. “Your cousin expects you to be there. I expect you to be there. I invested so much money into this wedding, I will take it as a personal affront if you don’t attend.”

You take everything as a personal affront. You thought.

“It doesn’t matter, I already said no. She’s not going to have a chair or food for me.” You explained, hoping that you found some way out of this conversation.

“No, she will.” Your grandma corrected. “I won’t have any child of mine absent from another’s wedding. I put in all the work to pull this event together.”

For a moment, you almost felt bad for Anna. Having to endure your grandmother’s micromanaging was a circle of hell even Dante refused to tread.

"Of course, heaven forbid someone in your life show an ounce of autonomy." You finally snapped.

"I don't know why you're acting so rude, but it stops now." Grandma ordered. "I raised you as my own daughter. You should be more grateful for the luxuries I can extend to you. I didn't have to take you in, you know..."

It pained you to stay quiet when all you wanted to say was "I wish you hadn't".

"Your emotional manipulation isn't going to work on me anymore." You informed her.

“So, naturally, I’ve seen to it that you are expected." She continued her own conversation without even acknowledging yours. "You and a plus one, of course.”

You hadn’t even considered the possibility of attending the wedding with Hannibal. The two points never once intersected. And they never would. You vowed that Hannibal would never meet your grandmother or cousins. At that moment, that was the hill you were willing to die on.

“If I come at all, I’m coming alone.” You snap. “You can punish me all you want but I am not letting you get him involved.”

“Him?” Your grandma repeated. “So there is someone?”

“Someone you are keeping me from.” You said, thoroughly frustrated and now panicked at the idea that your grandmother knew Hannibal existed. “Goodbye.”

You didn't want to rejoin Hannibal in such a sour mood, but you didn't want to keep him waiting either. You returned even more apologetically than you left and took your seat.

"Everything alright, love?" He asked. You could tell he was raring to psychoanalyze you.

You shook your head. "It was my grandma."

"I could tell that much." He admitted, beginning to cut into his steak. "What with all the frustration you're trying so desperately to hide. What did she want?"

"She called to tell me she expects me at my cousin's wedding next Saturday." You rolled your eyes. "I'd already declined the invitation, but she didn't like that, apparently."

"Which cousin is this?" He probed. "The one that works as an engineer for Halliburton?

"No, that's Theresa." You shook your head. "And she works for Halliburton, but she's not an engineer. She's a PR executive."

"Right." Hannibal nodded, taking a bite of steak between his teeth. "She took after your grandmother and turned gaslighting into a career."

You smiled a bit. "Right."

"So, it's Anna, then?" He concluded. "You haven't told me much about her. Perhaps she is the benign tumor of the family?"

"More or less." You shrugged. "She works at a publishing agency. Only got the job because her boyfriend's uncle's the CFO. She didn't even make it to the interview. It was pure nepotism."

"And now she's marrying the boyfriend, I presume?"

"Yeah." You felt a grin cross your face thinking about what you were going to say next. "She wasn't even dating him at the time. She was dating someone else and cheating on him with the guy she's marrying now."

Hannibal grinned. "You like knowing this? Having information that could potentially ruin her life?"

You knew there was no use in lying. The look on your face said it all. "Absolutely I do. When you're the black sheep of the family, you've gotta take power where you can get it. Mine just so happens to be potential blackmail."

"I'm quite delighted to be privy to this side of you, love." He smiled. "We're a bit vindictive, now are we?"

"Are you kidding?" You snicker. "These are the girls that psychologically tormented me growing up. Of course I'm vindictive."

"So about this wedding." He didn't look up from his plate. "Do they expect you to bring a date?"

"They do." You nod, your eyes wandering off. "But I can't let them meet you. They're just so unspeakably rude all the time."

For some reason, you felt that this didn't deter him. Perhaps it even compelled him a little. "Oh?"

"They take this really strange pride in making scenes everywhere they go." You explained. "They've already ruined so much of my life. I can't even give them the opportunity to ruin this too."

"Darling," Hannibal leaned in. "Is there a part of you that wants to attend this event?"

You held your tongue before you said anything you both know to be untrue. "...maybe a small part."

"That small part of you that wants power. That wants justice." He nodded. "Indulge it for a moment. What does this wedding look like to you?"

Trying to keep up the illusion that you hadn't thought of this before, you paused for a moment. "...we would show up--you and I--and I'd be wearing a stunning gown that doesn't fit the stupid color scheme at all. And there's just an unspoken knowledge that I could absolutely ruin Anna's entire day. Anna and Theresa and Grandma are all being nice to me because if I so much as mention the name of that boyfriend she cheated on, I'd ruin her life and possibly her career. So finally I hold all the cards."

Hannibal looked proud. He took a sip of his wine. "You want to be powerful, but with just enough restraint so they know you're the bigger person."

"Exactly." You agreed.

"Perhaps my fondness for you is clouding my professional judgment, darling." He put his wine glass down. "The thought of you in an evening gown, commanding attention and reverence... that's just something I have to see."

"...something you have to see?" You met eyes with him, realizing you were on the same page.

Your phone buzzed in your pocket again. This time, you didn't feel the need to step out.

"Hey [F/N], care to explain why my sister is crying?" Theresa snapped through the receiver.

"Is someone cutting onions nearby?" You offered. "That usually makes me tear up."

"Fucking hell, for once in your meaningless life can you care about someone other than yourself?!" Theresa yelled. "Grandma told us you're not coming to the wedding."

You looked back at Hannibal, who gave you a nod. "Actually, I am. We are."

#hannibal lecter #hannibal x you #hannibal x reader #reader insert #hannibal nbc

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charlietheepicwriter7 · 3 years

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Hey, Little Songbird

Chapter 15 - AO3

If asked, Felix would deny it.

No one did, of course. His classmates rarely spoke to him, and the day after the spray pain incident, Marinette was still giving him the silent treatment. It did put a damper on his plans, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t used to silence.

So really, he didn’t need her at all.

Cesaire was the last one in before the morning bell rang, much to everyone’s surprise. The class gossips—not that he wanted to listen—had claimed that the girl was suspended for sure. She hesitated before sitting down, staring up at the back of the class over her shoulder with an expression of longing. But the final bell rang and Cesaire sat, sitting next to her boyfriend.

In full view of those above them, Rossi placed a hand on Cesaire’s shoulder, a calculated consolation, only for Cesaire to move before they could touch. Whatever Rossi said clearly set Cesaire off, the recent akuma snapping at the girl, though they were quiet enough that Felix couldn’t hear them.

At least, they were quiet until Rossi immitted a siren-like wail.

“Alya!” Rossi sobbed, drawing out Alya’s name into an irritatingly high pitch. Her face was dry. “How could you say that!?”

The Class’s attention was immediately drawn to the confrontation as they jumped to Rossi’s defence. Although, not everyone. The redheaded boy kept his head down, and the short blonde looked away.

“Alya, what did you do!?”

“Are you bullying Lila?”

“You should apologize!”

Cesaire’s eyes flickered around the room as the class berated her. They landed on the ack and Cesaire straightened. She spoke loud enough for the class to hear her. “I was willing to keep this between us, but since you want this to be public, Lila, that’s fine. The fact that you got out of your detentions by saying that you were volunteering after school all week is extremely manipulative and exactly like Chloe.”

There were gasps all around, some horrified that Rossi would do such a thing, others shocked that Cesaire would ever say anything bad about their precious Lila.

Rossi’s voice hitched. “H-How—” her voice warbled—“How could you say that, Alya? I had already made those plans before you stole Felix’s project!”

“Don’t act like I worked alone,” Alya said. “I may have been the one to steal the project—which I plan to apologize for doing—but you were the one to say it was made from your notes. Not only did you know I was going to steal it—”

“I didn’t know!” Rossi tried to protest.

“—But you encouraged me!”

I didn’t!” Rossi whined, her voice hitting a pitch only known to dogs. “B-Besides, after yesterday, everyone knows who’s really to blame. Since you painted Marinette’s locker.” Marinette froze beside him.

“Then why am I not suspended?” Alya shot back. “It wouldn’t be the first time this school gave me a hasty suspension, so why am I free?” Her eyes narrowed. “I had evidence that I wasn’t the culprit, so they couldn’t touch me. Where’s your evidence?”

Marinette looked startled, like the idea of asking for evidence was foreign to her. Or perhaps, it was the fact that Cesaire was the one asking for evidence. Together, they watched the back and forth until Mme. Bustier finally entered the room and broke the argument up. Pity, it was just starting to be amusing.

“Alright, that’s enough!” Bustier said. “Alya, since I clearly can’t trust you to be mature, I’m going to move you to the back of the class today. Hopefully you can behave tomorrow and earn your seat back.”

Felix cocked an eyebrow. Cesaire looked utterly betrayed by the teacher, but obeyed, moving to the bench next to his and Marinette’s with little fuss. Shockingly little, all things considered.

It became clear when Cesaire whispered in the middle of the first lecture of the day, “I’m sorry.” Felix could barely hear her from the other side of Marinette.

“What?” Marinette turned to her.

“I’m sorry I’ve been such a bad friend, girl.” Cesaire looked truly ashamed. “I… I should have seen that Lila was lying. I should have at least investigated when you told me something was up, but I just… didn’t. I was so invested in her lies and having an interview with ‘Ladybug’s best friend’ on my blog that I… I lost my integrity. And even worse, I dismissed you and how you felt because I thought I knew better. I’m sorry, Marinette.”

Marinette swallowed, her fists clenched. “Thank you, Alya. This really means a lot to me.” Cesaire perked up. “But… I don’t think I can forgive you right away. I believe you when you say you didn’t destroy my locker—” She glanced at Felix—“But that doesn’t mean you haven’t done things similarly horrible.”

Cesaire nodded, disappointed but understanding. “I know. And I’ll work hard to regain your trust in me. Which is why I’m going to expose Lila as the liar she is.”

Felix was surprised; he didn’t necessarily expect Cesaire to take Adrien’s ‘high road’ approach, but no hesitancy… And Marinette… nodded. “Yeah. Do you want to work on a plan after school today?”

“Y-Yeah. I’d really like that, Mari.”

Felix stifled a smile as the two friends—because they were on the track to recovering their friendship now, just try to stop them, Rossi—made up. He felt pretty good about himself until the lunch bell rang and Marinette dragged him out the door and out of school, a hard expression on her face.

They were at the side of the school, where there were no students. Felix tried not to let his nervousness show. “How rough, Dupain-Cheng. Whatever are you trying to do to me, away from prying eyes—"

“Shut up.” Felix shut up. “Felix, you… Did you keep Alya from getting in trouble?”

“What do you mean?”

“It was pretty much a given that Alya was going to get suspended because of your frame job. Yet she’s here, sending you glances all throughout class.”

“Perhaps she’s attracted to me? I’ve heard I have the face of a model.” He was not confessing this, no way. He had a reputation to keep.

“And what would Alya say? If I asked her next time we were in class.”

“She…” Damn her, she had him cornered. If she asked during class, at least some of the others would overhear, and then people would have expectations. “She would mention that there was an anonymous phone call from a potential donor for the school that reminded the principal that the locker room doesn’t have working cameras and that students have framed each other for crimes in the past. Wouldn’t it be so disappointing that the school board found out that the money that went to security cameras wasn’t used at this school?”

“The principal is embezzling funds?”

“I suspect he’s embezzling funds. But given that he immediately agreed with me and rescinded Cesaire’s suspension, my suspicion is right on the money.”

“That almost makes too much sense… No,” she shook her head. “That’s not what I wanted to talk about. Felix, have you ever had friends before?”

“Excuse me!?” What was she accusing him of!?

“Because you act like I’m the first person you’ve ever made friends with.”

“H-How dare you!? Accusing me of being some sort of… some sort of friendless wretch!” He huffed. “I might not be my cousin, but I’ve certainly had a friend before!”

“Adrien doesn’t count, Felix. He’s family, not a friend.”

“Well, I—” The nerve of this girl! “What does it matter anyway?”

“Well, I just figured… you wouldn’t have done that if you had more experience with friendships. Or experience with people your own age. Because what you did was not okay. However, you understand that now, right?”

“…I do.”

“And you tried to make up for it, right?”

“…I did.”

“Then it wouldn’t be too much to ask if you followed my plan for rehabilitation?”

Rehabilitation? What did she think he was, a dog? “And why,” he sneered, “Would I do that?”

She looked disappointed and his heart twinged. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. But Felix… I can’t be friends with someone who does cruel things for their own benefit. The world doesn’t need more than one Chloe.”

Had he… been acting like Bourgeois? Surely not, she’d never do her own dirty work. But… vandalizing a locker did seem like something she’d order, even if it wasn’t for the benevolent reasons Felix had. And… he really didn’t want to lose Marinette.

“Very well,” he said snidely in an effort to distract from his lightly flushed skin. “I’ll play along. Let’s be friends.”

Taglist: @graduatedmelon @novicevoice @dur55 @kris-pines04 @18-fandoms-unite-08 @moonlightstar64 @bee-a-garbage-shipper @sol-o-shade @kittyotakunoir666 @tinyterror333 @allieoftheenemy @marichat00 @xgxmxtx @two-faced-biatch @feliciakainzofspades @evil-cricket @emilytopaz @spicybelladonna @chocolateherringtacofan @user00000003 @wannajointhecrabcult @happymonster-pants @duquesapincarrasca @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @sxltinette @kittydemon9000 @thetrashypanda423

#hey little songbird #felinette #felix graham de vanily #marinette dupain cheng #alya sugar #alya cesaire #ml salt #lila salt #miraculous ladybug #mlb

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nytech · 3 years

Text

Teaching Entrepreneurship with Shaun Johnson

This interview is part of our “Getting to Know You” series, featuring brilliant entrepreneurs from the NY Tech community.

Shaun Johnson is an experienced entrepreneur who has worked across the fields of technology acceleration, early-stage investment, and ecosystem development. He lives in New York City and teaches entrepreneurship at Fordham University & Parsons School of Design. Shaun is also a Board Member of the NY Tech Alliance. He agreed to speak with us about his career journey, the lessons learned along the way, his take on diversity in tech, and what makes a successful entrepreneur.

“One piece of advice I’ve been given and still sticks with me in a perplexing way would be to say that perception equals reality. Even though this isn’t always a universal truth, I often wonder if it’s true, untrue, or sometimes true — as there are times one can influence the other, and other times, not at all.”

Tell us about yourself

I like to describe myself as a helper of people, and that has taken a lot of different shapes and forms. I actually started my career in the federal government, then as a management consultant, and finally transitioned into the world startups as an early employee at Techstars, where I ended up spinning out a company called Startup Institute — a career accelerator aiming to equip people with the network skills and mindset to be immediately impactful in the startups that they join.

You teach entrepreneurship ー according to you, what are the skills one must develop to become a successful entrepreneur?

In teaching entrepreneurship, there are a lot of things that are important, especially at the university level because there’s always this tension between “can entrepreneurship be taught?” or “should you just go out and do it?”

The mentality of doing and learning through action is definitely a skill worth acquiring, whether in the field or the classroom.

There will always be a lot of little failures along the way, and that’s actually a good thing, but it can be counterintuitive for folks who aren’t used to accepting failure on their way to success. Grit is also another important factor. And then the last one, just because I want to leave it at three, is empathy. To have a deep understanding of your customer, the mission that you have, and the people that you’re building around helps you to build exceptional teams, exceptional products, and ultimately, address your market in an exceptional way.

What’s your favorite thing about teaching entrepreneurship?

The people. Students are always so different. People come from multiple backgrounds, different parts of the world, different industries, and with different perspectives. Even if you are teaching one specific course on entrepreneurship, it’ll never look the same because it’s always dependent on the people who are there. Everyone brings their unique personality, and the diversity and plurality come together to create a unique experience.

My desire and appreciation for plurality reflect my sentiments about New York City itself. The city is made of 8 million people coming from different backgrounds and places, who all have unique personalities, desires, hopes, and dreams.

We all have to interact with each other and try to build a better future. Whether it’s through entrepreneurship or just our own coexistence, I think that there’s something productive and meaningful about that.

How do you think the tech industry can become more diverse?

I think one of the challenges is that we tend to take one shade or one arc of diversity, drill in on that and assume that we’ve done our job. For example, one aspect of diversity can be ensuring your company hires people of color, or getting women into the tech ecosystem and make sure that there’s equal pay and that gender rights are respected.

But can you actually look at this kaleidoscope and not just say, ‘Hey today we want to focus on, like, LGBTQ rights?’ Or ‘today we want to focus on Black people or women.’ But instead, the dialogue has to answer the question of: “How can we actually approach inclusion and value creation that is accessible to all?”

Rather than trying to identify a specific group on its own, let’s actually think about how we can lift everyone up together while also valuing their uniqueness.

Is this part of the reason or the reason why you wanted to become involved with the NY Tech Alliance?

I’ve been a huge fan of the NY Tech Alliance since my career in startups has begun. Before I was living in New York City, I would take a bus from out of state to attend NY Tech Meetups, to see that the energy in the room with so many different people there.

It just felt like a panorama of what the startup ecosystem has to offer. It was a great entry point for me. And the NYTA still serves in that capacity for others and provides a jumping-off point, an entry point, and a point of connection, learning and motivation for people.

When given the opportunity to serve on the board, it was something that I couldn’t pass up.

Which trends do you think will emerge in the tech industry in the near future?

You know, I never pretended to be a fortune teller, but I think the year we just survived showed us that despite quarantine and isolation, we still need to connect with each other and be productive. It has been great for Zoom but so many people are zoomed out and looking for different ways of connecting with people that may not just be from the shoulders up.

You’re also seeing some trends around climate tech. The conversation is now rightly shifted from climate change to the climate crisis, and it is attracting a lot of bright minds and big dollars. And I think that’s great because it’s imperative for our survival as human beings.

How has a past failure set you up for success?

I mean, I guess I’m always failing at something. If you’re not failing, you’re probably not trying hard enough. I think the little failures along the way are indicative of trying to do something audacious or something that you’re unsure of. I couldn’t point to one specific failure because there’s just a butterfly effect of one thing leading to the next thing. But overall, the lesson in failure is really to process it and move on to the next thing, ideally in an upward fashion.

As New Yorkers, there may not always be the time or space to do that. You know, we move so fast. We break things, we execute, and there’s so much going on that we can forget to stop and reflect for a minute, look objectively at failure and ask “What could I have done better? What did I learn here? What would I do next?”

It’s important to reflect in a way that builds off of that failure rather than just repetitively coming right back at the same scenario, which is likely to lead to the same outcome.

What was the biggest challenge that you faced in your career?

Walking away from something that just wasn’t for me at the time. With an early career as a management consultant, a lot of things about that job were great: the prestige, the nice fancy suits, the travel.

But then you start to just understand what your calling is, what motivates you or what nourishes you. Changing your career to pursue your calling can be risky, but it ultimately is good for the soul. At the time, I didn’t know exactly what my calling was going to be. And it took courage and conviction to just say “Ok, all these things are good and everyone else loves them for me. But I just don’t love them as much, and I’m willing to look out into the abyss and seek out something that actually is more aligned with who I am and who I want to be.”

It was really scary and that’s one of the biggest moves I’ve made. That’s the advice I give to my students. Do what you love. Life’s too short!

What was the best advice you’ve ever been given?

One piece of advice I’ve been given and still sticks with me in a perplexing way would be to say that perception equals reality. Even though this isn’t always a universal truth, I often wonder if it’s true, untrue, or sometimes true — as there are times one can influence the other, and other times, not at all.

I apply that saying as a prompt for a lot of different things, from looking at analytics and wondering what’s going on with your company, checking in with your mental health and wondering if all of this anxiety or depression is actually real or if your perception influences what you’re feeling. And it’s also a way to keep yourself grounded.

Any final words?

Yeah. If Alicia (interviewer) says or types anything that makes me sound stupid, that was her edit. Everything that I said was brilliant (laugh). And she’ll make sure that it comes across!

To connect with Shaun on LinkedIn, click here.

To learn more valuable lessons from Founders, watch our NYTA Founder Spotlight series on YouTube.

#entrepreneurship #teaching #nytech #education #entrepreneur #startup lessons #nytechalliance

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rikumorimachisgirl · 3 years

Text

Title: Eyes on you

Pairing: Shaw x You

Genre: Fluff

Word count: 2,901

A/N: You (Y/N) are not the MC in MLQC. This is a plunny that's been bugging me for quite a while, I had to write it. I hope you like it.

Disclaimer: I do not own MLQC or its characters, but I do own the concept of this fic.

There were a few mysteries in this world that the esteemed Archeology Graduate Professors at Loveland University can't explain - for instance, the formation of the Stonehenge, the exact location of the lost city of Atlantis, the origin of the Nazca lines… and your presence at the Metro Art Gala dressed to the nines, positively gleaming as you strode arm in arm with your classmate and Thesis partner Shaw, who seemed like the perfect gentleman that evening. Thanks to your work at the Loveland Museum, you scored two invites to the gala featuring the recently discovered works of a well-known artist - an event any Archeology fanatic wouldn't let pass. The two of you walked along with LFG's Exhibition Hall, pausing occasionally to admire one of the recently discovered sculptures by the Renaissance artist D'Romani. As you both looked at the intricacies of the artwork in front of you, your charming companion would lean in slightly and whisper something in your ear, causing you to roll your eyes or stifle a giggle.

To the guests in the prestigious gala, the two of you looked like two young people at the cusp of falling in love, but the members of the Faculty of the Graduate School of Archeology saw it differently - this was a real-life mystery if they'd seen one.

As your eyes swiftly swept through the entire room, you could see that your professors only had one question in mind - how'd this happen? How did two people as different as day and night, who argued with each other throughout Graduate studies, end up amiably enjoying each other's company tonight?

You drew a sharp breath and sighed. The answer was simple: Your Thesis defense was right around the corner. You needed him to cooperate, you were willing to go to great lengths to make it happen. And your Thesis partner (unfortunately) was ready to take full advantage of the situation.

***

"Tell me why we're doing this again, " you said through the door that separated you and your date, as you were putting on the dress you bought (or invested on, as he casually stated) for tonight's gala, which he insisted on attending with you. It was six in the evening on a Friday, and you had just arrived home after cramming your workload at the Loveland Museum and foregoing your meal breaks just so you could leave work at exactly five-thirty.

"I already told you a couple of times - you want me to cooperate with you so you can pass our Thesis, and I need a reason to be around her," the purple-haired man waiting at the other side of your bedroom door called out nonchalantly. "You can drop your fantasy about me asking you out because I'm attracted to you."

You hissed silently at his snarky remark and counted to ten. You haven't even left your apartment yet you already wanted this night to be over. "How do you even know she's gonna be there?"

She - the Miracle Finder Producer, the object of your Thesis Partner's fantasies, and as fate would have it, his brother's girlfriend.

"They're doing a show featuring our Thesis adviser. Didn't he tell us about it during our last consultation?" He asked, his tone dripping with sarcasm.

"I wasn't listening," you shot back, as you took off your ponytail and started styling your hair with your curling iron. You chose a one-shoulder fitted black dress that stops right above your knees, so you thought of wearing your hair down for a change.

"Ah, yes. You were too busy looking at your notes, trying to prove me wrong as always."

You closed your eyes, as you continued to make big beach waves and prayed to the gods you wouldn't commit murder tonight.

"How much longer are you gonna take?"

"Excited much?" You asked, smirking while you now removed your glasses and put on your contacts. "You sound like a teenager excited to see his crush in a school fair!"

"Don't compare me to you!"

"I don't have designs on anyone in the party," you called back. "Unless your brother's attending the event, that is. From what you've been telling me, he seems like a great guy."

Silence. You arched an eyebrow as you strained your ear to listen for any sign of life outside your bedroom door. What must your grunge-rock skater boy-turned-date-for-the-evening be thinking?

"Do you want to pass our Thesis or not?"

You struck a victory pose at his remark. Finally, one point - you, Shaw - about twenty.

"Are you done yet? This suit is really uncomfortable. Damn, why do people even wear these?"

"Because they're decent?" You shot back. "You know, you can always go home if you're not comfortable in your attire because when we get there, you need to act decent, too. Can't have your usual swagger in a formal affair."

"Just hurry it up already!"

You rolled your eyes as you applied your nude-colored lipstick to finish off your look before putting on your black stilettos, and stuffing your phone, wallet, and your makeup in your purse.

"All done," you replied, as you finally emerged from your room.

***

A part of you wished that the dynamics between you and Shaw were different. While he was a pain in the neck, and too carefree for his own good, you also thought he made for a good intellectual sparring partner, quite attractive, and it was hard to deny that he's got your heart beating double-time whenever he got too close for comfort like he was at that very moment.

"My, you two kids seem to be having fun tonight."

You gasped, at the sound of the voice behind you, and you felt your date nudge you ever-so-subtly while straightening.

"Hey, Professor Adler," he said in his usual unruffled tone, his lips stretched into a smirk as he held his hand out to your Anthropology professor and Thesis adviser, who watched you both amusedly. His gesture made your eyes shot wide open, you thought they'd fall right off. Shaw shaking someone's hand? That's one for the books.

"Shaw. Fancy seeing you here," the stout middle-aged man greeted while shaking your date's hand. "This isn't your usual scene though."

"Yeah, I know, but I can't exactly turn a pretty lady down, can I?"

"I can see that," your professor said as he looked at you appraisingly. "Well, well, you clean up well, Miss (y/n)."

You fought the urge to squirm at the older man's words when you heard your date cluck his cheeks with his tongue and suddenly felt his arm around your shoulders, pressing you protectively close to his side.

***

"All done!" You happily announced as you stepped into the living room of your small apartment where your date was impatiently waiting for you.

You could've sworn he was stunned for a second or two before he shook his head and tried to regain his usual impassive expression. Finally, he stood and walked closer to assess you better.

"You're not wearing your glasses. I thought you said you're practically blind without them?"

You cocked your head to one side. Out of all the things he could've complimented or called out, that's the first thing he noticed?

"Wouldn't it look awkward if I wore glasses to a formal event?"

"Your hair is all curly," he continued as if you didn't say anything. "And your shoes are so tall, won't you trip? Also, surely you have a jacket to go with that dress, right?"

You stared at him in disbelief. Why did this carefree, bass-playing skater boy turn into your dad all of a sudden?

"Uh…"

"Well, at least you're not wearing red lipstick. You don't have to try too hard to look sexy. Geez! I've got plans of my own this evening, so don't expect me to be your bodyguard," he continued to mumble as he circled around you. Before long, you felt something warm and heavy on your shoulder. His coat?

"It's just until we get to the venue," he shrugged as he led you to the car he borrowed for tonight. "I don't want people seeing you freeze to death."

You sighed, your shoulders slumped as you followed your date to the car. You already expected he wouldn't throw you a compliment for looking like a proper human tonight, and you cursed yourself for feeling gutted over it anyway.

***

"So, which one of these sculptures did you like best, Professor?" You sighed in relief as Shaw changed the subject, his arm still wrapped around you, making you blush furiously.

"Oh, I have to say I liked Eros and Psyche best. In case you haven't seen it yet, it's located a little further down the hall near the bar area," the older man was starting to explain when someone tapped his shoulder from behind.

"Excuse me, Professor Adler," a gentle voice called out, making both the professor and Shaw jump. From behind the old man, a pretty petite with brown hair and big brown eyes, and the biggest smile on her face stepped up. "My name is MC from Miracle Finder."

Almost immediately, Shaw withdrew his arm around you, almost causing you to stagger backward. He straightened up and feigned disinterest.

"Hey. It's a little rude how you stepped in while I was talking to the Professor," he said, his tone teasing.

"Oh, I didn't notice you here. Do you mind if I talk to your Professor? We've invited him for an interview about the exhibit," the girl said sweetly.

Based on how unconsciously coy she acted around Shaw, and the way he kept egging her, there was no doubt that this was the girl he was crushing on. You felt like the odd person out all of a sudden and needed to step away.

You backed away slowly, careful not to rouse their attention because it would probably suck if you knew how Shaw would introduce you to his little crush. As soon as you were in a safe distance, you turned and walked aimlessly down the hall, pausing briefly at paintings or sculptures that caught your fancy, looking at its intricacies as you did so earlier. But somehow, it wasn't as fun as it was before, so you moved on quickly, to give way to the other guests who also wanted to view the artwork.

Finally, you came upon the bar and decided to rest your tired feet at the far corner, hidden from the rest of the world. Sighing, you slipped your feet off your stilettos and quietly watched as the guests around you - mostly couples - happily chatting away as they enjoyed the beauty of the art around them and the wonderful music that filled the air. You knew somewhere in the crowd, your date was fawning over his lady love, probably getting in the way of her filming your professor.

Tch.

You knew he liked her - he always told you he did. And why wouldn't he? MC was pretty, seemingly sweet, and dainty - the kind of girl any guy would like to protect. And you. You were the opposite. You lived for your work, were 'one of the boys', and didn't need anyone to protect you - that's just how you were - and now you started to realize that maybe guys don't exactly like that. At least not Shaw.

Wait, what were you thinking? You scolded yourself as you shook your head. Why were you even thinking of what he liked when you don't even like him to start with. Or did you?

"Ugh. What the hell is wrong with me?" You groaned when a cold bottle of beer and a frozen glass was placed in front of you.

"I was gonna ask you that myself."

You straightened up in your seat and shot a look at the guy seated beside you. Dressed in a nice grey suit, he smiled as he raised his beer bottle in front of you.

"You look like you needed a drink. I hope the beer is okay. They don't have fruit beer or soda," he said calmly, his amber-colored eyes never leaving yours.

"Y-yeah. Beer is perfect," you replied while pouring the amber liquid into the glass. "Thanks," you muttered before raising the glass to your lips to gulp down some liquid courage.

"I saw you with Shaw earlier -"

The name on his lips drove you to a coughing fit, as you choked on your drink. "Sorry, " you mumbled in between coughs.

"No, I'm sorry," the brown-haired guy said, as he cautiously and politely patted your back. "I didn't mean to bring that up. I was just curious."

"It's fine," you replied when you finally regained your composure. "Yes, we're just classmates in Grad school who decided to check this exhibit out for the heck of it."

"Classmates, huh?"

"Yeah, that's what we are," you said, taking a sip off your glass. "Grad school classmates."

"Are you telling me or telling yourself?"

You looked up and saw him smiling. There was something about Dreamy McHandsome who was seated beside you that felt so familiar yet different at the same time, but you couldn't point a finger at what it was exactly.

"We're classmates, and we're working on our thesis together. But we're not friends - far from it even. We hate each other's guts."

"Can't blame you for doing so," he shrugged as he drank his beer.

"Yeah. He dragged me here so he can get with someone he's been crushing on for so long," you rambled on, frowning.

"Oh? And who might that be?"

"The Miracle Finder Producer. You know, the pretty girl in a blue top and white skirt. He's been going on and on about her for weeks…"

"You mean my girlfriend?"

His girlfriend. You choked on your drink once again. "Y-y-your girlfriend? You mean to say…" You gasped. Has the beer made you stupid? You've barely drunk half of it, you thought as you fought to regain your dignity. This was Shaw's brother you were talking to - and boy, we're they blessed with good genes…

… And the same social awkwardness, you noticed, judging by how he kept his hand at your back, but not exactly touching it, as if trying to assess if he had to pat you or not.

When you finally calmed down, he cleared his throat and gave you a small smile. "Don't worry. She talks to me about their conversations. I know what that guy is playing at, and I most definitely know he's not after my girl," he said, his voice broke no room for doubt. "My name is Gavin..."

"Yeah, I know…"

"You - what?"

"Oh," you said, tapping on your glass nervously. "Shaw kinda mentioned it in passing before."

"I see."

"So, what were you saying earlier about Shaw?"

"Oh. From what my girlfriend tells me, he's got his sights set on…"

"Ahem," you heard someone say loud enough for you and Gavin to turn your heads around. And there, standing behind you, was an angry-looking Shaw. You sat up, your gaze shifting between the two brothers as the air started to thicken with tension. "I talk to someone for a minute and the next thing I knew, my date walks out on me and right into the one person I'd hate for her to meet."

"Well, if you were just honest with her as with a lot of other things in your life, maybe she wouldn't have left your side earlier," Gavin retorted flippantly. "Is she finally done with filming?"

Shaw simply grunted in reply as he watched his older brother finish his bottle of beer and stand. "Well, Miss, there's a lot I've heard about you. Seems somebody couldn't stop talking about you, but I'll leave it at that."

With a wink and a mischievous smile upon his face, the brown-haired guy sauntered off to look for his better half, as you and Shaw watched in awkward silence.

He cleared his throat and glanced at you. "Hey."

"Hey," you replied, shakily.

"So, about what that jerk said -"

"Yes?" You asked, feeling your heart hammer against your chest by the second.

"Whatever he said is not true," he said dismissively, as he took his coat off and draped it over your shoulders. "I told you before, I don't find you the least bit attractive."

You felt tears starting to sting your eyes, as he continued with his harsh commentary. "You're tough, highly opinionated, and you always want to come out on top. I don't find those attractive at all," he said. "I prefer a damsel in distress. I want someone clingy… someone, needy."

"I know that -"

"Oh do you?" He teased, his amber eyes twinkling. "You seem to know a lot about me."

"We've been working together for months now," you said. "Of course, I'd know more about you."

"I see," he said, as he took a step closer to you and touched your cheek, rubbing the stray tear that had managed to slip down the side of your face. "So, you must know I'm also a good liar. After all, I've kept all these feelings to myself for quite some time."

He snickered when he saw your frown deepen and he bent down just as he had done so earlier, to whisper. "I made you think I liked someone else when in fact," his low voice made you shiver. "I've always eyes for you."

The End.

#mr love queen's choice shaw #mr love queen's choice #mlqc fanfic #mr love fanfic #mlqc shaw #shaw x reader #mlqc gavin #iris writes

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