#they were incredibly toxic in other ways too like. flying off the handle calling me a bitch | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

prose-for-hire · 3 years

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Christmas break

[A (super late) part of my 12 Days of Christmas fics]

Part Two

Pairing: Spike x reader

Request: Could I please request an angst spike. Where the reader and spike are together but get into a huge argument because spike thinks they are sleeping with Angel. Spike says some really hurtful things and when the reader bites back he almost hits her (if you don't like the hitting part you can leave it out)

Requested by: Anon - hope this is what you wanted love 💜🖤

Warning: Spike hits a wall, near you. He’s jealous and threatening. Bit of a toxic relationship.

A/N: It’s the first Spike fic I’ve done without resolving an argument I think. It can be draining to write and I originally took it off my 12 days of Christmas because it was a little hard to write at first (I love Spike and I like to ignore his scarier side)

You and Spike were approaching your second anniversary. Two sometimes blissful, often jealousy-filled, years together.

Spike was aware that he got jealous. He called it ‘passion’, but at least he was somewhat self-aware at times. He tried to push it deep down. Stop flying off the handle at any insignificant interaction you had with strangers. But he found it hard.

You had planned to go to the Christmas markets that had popped up in the middle of the town that evening. You asked Spike to come but he didn’t want to. He wanted to stay in watching tv. He actually wanted you to stay in with him, he pulled you into him and all but pleaded.

You kissed him briefly but still left. You had been really looking forward to this after all. He shrugged, telling you he’d wait up. He said this a lot, he was always awake during the night so he would have never fallen asleep before you came home. He said it because it made you smile.

At the Christmas markets, you bumped into Angel. You smiled, he appeared to be alone too. So, you decided to walk around together.

You and Angel were friends. He was a comforting presence, and he didn’t feel the need to fill every silence with needless conversation. You had a nice time, you laughed and checked out all the little stalls together. He had been a bit embarrassed that he had been there and alone too, but you had immediately put him at ease.

What you didn’t realise was that Spike had followed you. He didn’t know why he had done it. He had driven himself to the point where he couldn’t focus on the television anymore. He had worked himself up into a frenzy. Wondering what you were doing, who you were with.

He had been watching you and Angel. He cursed and blinded but stayed hidden. Stayed to the shadows. Your interaction irritated him. Every lover he had ever taken, there he was. Angel just getting in between you. Conspiring against him. Against his love.

You had been different though, than the loves of his past. It had been so good. Your relationship had been incredible. The best either of you had ever had, the kind strangers on the street envied. He adored you, the honeymoon phase was beautiful. You revered each other. Put each other up on this pedestal. Loving the idea of love and not necessarily seeing the truth of the person before you. The love was fierce, burning bright. But now the flame was catching, threatening to burn the entire house down.

Spike didn’t say anything when you came back from the market. He let you gush about the cute stores and the trinkets you had bought. He was trying to figure out what to do, especially when you didn’t mention that you had been there with Angel the entire time.

He tried to calm down, tell himself you wouldn’t do that to him. But as the week went on, his anger moved from a simmer to it bubbling dangerously below the surface.

You had fun together in that week, though. You and Spike lounged in bed. Baking Christmas treats. Even going for evening walks in the crisp air. All had been good. Festive even.

That was until the Friday before Christmas. You went to Angel’s. You shouldn’t have lied to Spike about where you were going, you knew that. You needed to have a life outside the crypt though and you maintained that it really was innocent with Angel. But Spike wouldn’t get it.

He counted to ten before grabbing his jacket and following you. He didn’t like to do it, it guilted him to. But he needed to be sure or he would go mad.

He turned the same corner as you had moments before, seeing the familiar house. Angel’s house.

He stopped dead. He went cold at the idea you had said you were going elsewhere. You had lied. People only lied when there was something to hide.

You had gone in and greeted Angel. He had made you laugh and he was in a good mood, telling you a story about something from the past. He didn’t like that you dated Spike, but he liked you so let it slide. Maybe he did harbour a little affection for you, but he had never acted on it. He liked your company though. You were understanding and you were comfortable to be around.

Spike had moved to the window of Angel’s bedroom. He watched for a while.

Eventually he turned from his spot at the window, his jaw tensing. He leaned against the wall, he was so annoyed. So pissed off that he had almost trusted you. Almost hadn’t come out and checked up on you.

He had seen something he didn’t like. He stormed off, to the crypt. Shaking in anger.

It was early morning when you returned and the chill in the air was almost a relieving sensation compared to the rising temperature inside your home. Spike was pacing, swearing and kicking various objects that had been torn down. He had pulled all of the Christmas decorations down in a rage, the tree was tipped over with baubles cracked and littering the floor.

“Spike?” You frowned around the room as you entered. There was tinsel everywhere and he stalked over to you.

“I saw you, y’know. At the markets, all loved up” he accused. You frowned, trying to figure out what he meant for a moment.

“Oh, this is about Angel?” You questioned, “It’s not like that, we’re just friends” You explained calmly. You were used to this line of questioning by now.

“Friends don’t stare longingly into each other’s bloody eyes until they’re practically shagging…” He swung around and kicked a pile of Christmas crap to the other end of the room, “Eye-shagging!” He confirmed, pointing at you now.

“We looked at each other, you really don’t need to read so much into it”

“Only a guilty party would be so calm” He pointed as if he had caught you out. He didn’t know why he did this, why he even wanted or expected to catch you out. It drove him mad, but he couldn’t avoid it. Couldn’t escape the feeling.

“You’d say the opposite if I was defensive! Spike, I’ve told you so many times you’re the only one for me” You pointed out, finally raising your voice, “Why can’t you just trust me?”

“Because you would rather be in his bed than mine” Spike shouted in your face, almost spitting in his anger. He had followed you again.

Your eyes went wide, you didn’t like shouting. You whispered a silent prayer that you wouldn’t cry before you replied.

“And how do you know that I was in his bed, hm?! Because you were following me again!”

“So, you admit it! You were in his bed!”

“I sat on it for about two seconds while he was looking for something he couldn’t find!”

He was so mad. You don’t think you had seen him this mad. Well, not since you had spent an afternoon at Xander’s without him.

He had backed you against the wall where the Christmas tree had once stood and he kicked it out of the way for good measure. Your back hit the wall and you had nowhere left to go.

“I shouldn’t have lied, Spike, I’m sorry for that but I knew that something like this-” you tried, one last time, to reason with him as he boxed you in.

The space between you gone, making you feel as confined as you already felt in the relationship at times like this.

“You thought you could bloody get away with it!” He snarled, “Why do you do this to me!?”

“I didn’t do anything!” You shouted back this time, with the same malice. Same disappointment in him. Yes, you had lied. Because you wanted a break from Spike’s shortening leash. You couldn’t spend every waking second with him. You needed friends, even time to yourself without being interrogated. Screamed at over nothing. Something he had made up in his head.

Shouting back just made it worse, angered him more. He was desperate. He was losing you. He was sure of it.

His hand curled into a fist. He swung backwards and you closed your eyes briefly. You heard a loud thud. He had punched the wall in his frustration. It cracked so deep around the crypt you thought you might be buried here. Under the rubble and baubles from the tree.

Trapped in there with only his jealousy for company.

He had done well to hide his violent side when he was angry for the most part with you. But the idea of you with someone else, no, with him, made it too hard to control himself. He was so angry, but he saw the way you had looked when he had punched that wall. It worried him that you were starting to turn away from him for good.

You ducked from where he was blocking you in and went down to the lower level of the crypt. You had decided that you had enough.

He followed you around the room as you picked up anything you could tell was yours. He ran after you, trying to put a comforting hand on your shoulder. But you flinched away from him, leaving his eyes widening. His gaze dropped and he looked ashamed. So ashamed it almost made you want to reach out and comfort him.

But you didn’t.

You packed a bag instead. You were leaving. You had no plan, you weren’t sure if it was permanent or not. You needed space. His accusing and his jealousy was getting too much. You wanted him, you adored him on a good day. But it was too much. His possessiveness that was turning to anger more frequently.

You went back upstairs, ready to leave. The tears making your eyes blur.

“Love… you know I would have never-” The panic rising in his voice as he saw how serious you were. You couldn’t go… you couldn’t just leave this way. He stepped in front of the crypt door, blocking your path.

“I don’t know that, Spike. That’s why I’m going”

“I love you, more than anyone will ever love another. Don’t do this, pet- you don’t want to leave, do you?” His voice wavered at the end. That was what this all came down to. He was afraid you would go, not realising he was doing exactly what would to make this happen.

It broke your heart the way he phrased this. You had promised him you wouldn’t walk out on him. That you wouldn’t hurt him like this. But he had broken the promise he had made to you, that he would always make you feel safe. Right now you didn’t. You weren’t scared of him, you were scared of his jealousy. The way his insecurity burned brighter than his love for you, his trust.

You just stared at him, your face unmoving. He eventually moved aside, allowing you to leave. His face downcast, his biggest fears coming true.

Losing you. At a time that he particularly struggled with. He hated Christmas, this time of year. Memories and things he would rather not think about. It had all felt better with you by his side. But now he had driven you away.

You didn’t look back. So many contradictory thought swirled around your mind. You adored that man but living with him this way. It was too hard. He made you feel dangerously safe with him to the point where you knew there was nobody else for you. But then he acted in this way.

You didn’t really know where you were walking until you found your destination. Your feet had just taken you there.

Buffy was out of town and Xander and Anya was too many people in that basement of his, you didn’t want to squash in there too. Willow didn’t really like that you were with Spike, so you didn’t want to go over and hear an I-told-you-so.

You guiltily went to Angel’s not knowing where else to go. Angel had become all you had.

#Spike #Spike btvs #Spike x reader #Spike x you #Spike imagine #btvs #12 days of xmas #12 days of christmas #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy the vampire slayer imagines #btvs imagine #btvs x reader #btvs x you #gender neutral #gender neutral reader #angel #angel btvs

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the-manor-7 · 3 years

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BTS x Reader Reaction: You Have An Unusual Allergy

A/N: Just a bit of background for this one.

I myself have a lot of weird allergies, including multiple to different kinds of fruits, grains, vegetables, etc.

All of these in here are from personal experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jin

You two were just having a nice time cooking together when it happened.

You had tasted an ingredient that he had prepared earlier, and were just doing your thing, to later find your throat begin to itch.

The all too familiar feeling of your neck slowly tightening began slowly and then got stronger, causing you to cough and look around frantically for your pills.

Realizing you had left them in a bag at work, you ran over to the bathroom door, which Jin was inside of.

Frantically pounding on the door, you began to gasp for air, before slumping to the ground, wanting to save your breath.

In a panic, you could hear him washing his hands, throwing open the door to see your shaken state.

“Jagi? What’s wrong?”

Hearing your gasping breaths had him panicked, which promptly led him to call an ambulance.

About an hour later, when you were comfortably in a hospital bed and everything began to calm down, he asked you what had happened.

“Jin, did you put apple in what you were cooking earlier?”

He looked confused, “Well, you I did. What? Is that what caused this?”

When you nodded, he began to feel incredibly guilty.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Jagiya. I didn’t mean to hurt you…”

You just smiled at him and took one of his hands in yours, “It’s not your fault, Jin. You don’t need to worry about it. Besides, you got me over to the hospital in time. Even if there was a mistake that you made, you fixed it, so it’s fine.”

That calmed him down a bit, but after that rest assured that he will not make the same mistake again. Before the two of you go on a date, he will even check with every restaurant beforehand to make sure that they don’t cook with apples, or at least make preparations for your arrival.

He would be incredibly careful after that and make sure you were safe.

Yoongi

You didn’t mean to worry him, you had just wanted to warn him about some possible symptoms, and to know what to do if you started having them.

You were mildly allergic to oats, which you had eaten on purpose, because the only food around at the moment was a granola bar, and you were just starving.

Knowing that you would have a reaction, you immediately took an allergy pill right after, then tried to explain to Yoongi what was going on.

“This doesn’t normally happen, since I just took a pill for it, but if I start to have a harder time breathing, could you just take me to the hospital? I really doubt it will happen, but just in case.”

Your last sentence, which you hoped would mask the fact you just said ‘hospital’, did nothing of the sort.

“Jagi, what do you mean? Why would I need to take you there?” He asked urgently.

“I just ate a granola bar, and I’m allergic to oats. Like I said, I really doubt anything will happen, I was just saying it as a precaution.”

“Jagi, what were you thinking?! Why would you eat that?!”

“I was hungry! And there wasn’t anything else to eat around here.”

“I could have ordered chicken or something, it would have been here in less than fifteen minutes!”

“But I was hungry now! And I still wouldn’t turn down the chicken, by the way.”

Rolling his eyes at you, he ordered the food all the same, but made sure to make you promise to never do this again. You would tell him if you had any other allergies, and he would make sure you never ate them.

I think he would end up being more cautious than you were.

Hoseok

“Jagiya!” He screamed as he came flying over, knocking a peach out of your hand, “Why is that poison within a five foot radius of your body?!”

“What the heck, Hobi?!” You picked the piece of fruit up off the ground and dusted it off with your sleeve, “This isn’t for me! It’s for you, I was just going to put it in the fruit bowl.”

You pointed to the unassuming glass dish sitting on the counter.

“No!” He snatched it out of your hand and held it away from you, “You are going nowhere near this toxic thing! I hereby banish peaches from this house for all eternity!”

His antics causing you to laugh, you questioned him, “But don’t you like them? What are you going to eat?”

“Anything else! I will not risk my Jagi’s health for my tastebuds!”

(I’m sorry, but why is this gif so perfect for the reaction I wrote?? I wrote it and then picked the gifs, I swear)

Namjoon

“Jagiya.” He scolded you, looking down at you as you sat on the couch with a bag of cashews in your hand, “Should you be eating those?”

Sighing, you leaned back on the couch and popped another one in your mouth, “No, but I really wanted to. It’s that time of the month, and I was really craving them. Besides, I took a pill right before I started eating, I’ll be fine.”

Snatching the bag out of your hand, he threw it in the trash.

“You just wasted five dollars.” You deadpanned, “And I’m still having cravings, you’re being no help.”

“I can give you five dollars, and I’ll buy you whatever else you want to eat, just don’t be eating things you’re allergic to!”

You paid no mind to his last sentence and focused on the middle part, “Anything I want?”

“Anything you want.”

“Yes!” You jumped up and danced around the room, hurrying to the door, “You’re taking me to the store, and we’re going on a chocolate raid!”

Chucking at you, he just followed you out the door, letting you buy what you wanted, as long as it posed no threat to your health.

Jimin

“Jagiya~”

Jimin came waltzing into the room, holding a plate stacked high with watermelon.

“Do you want some?”

“Of course!” You ran over to your purse and pulled out a bottle of pills, “I just need to take this, and I’ll be right back.”

Taking a glass of water, you popped the pill into your mouth and swallowed it.

Quickly making your way back to where Jimin was, you found him looking all confused.

“What is it?” You questioned as you took a piece of that delicious fruit off of the plate and took a bite.

“Are you allergic to this too, Jagi?”

Nodding, you just took another bite, “Yep, but it’s just one I don’t pay much mind to. I like it too much to omit it from my diet.”

“Jagi…”

“Ah!” You waved a hand in front of your face, “Don’t you go scolding me too! I know what I’m doing, just trust me on this one, ok? I’ll be fine, I know what I’m doing.”

Reluctantly, he gave into your wishes, but he made sure to get a detailed list of your allergies soon after that.

He didn’t want to accidentally feed them to you again. He would be extra careful with this one, even if you told him there was nothing to worry about.

Taehyung

After you quietly excused yourself from a family dinner, Taehyung came to check on you when you hadn’t returned from the bathroom after about ten minutes.

He poked his head in through the door, “Jagiya, is everything alright?”

Looking up from your spot on the edge of the tub, you nodded and gave him a smile, “Yes, I’m just waiting for my throat to calm down. I’m allergic to oysters, so it just gets uncomfortable.”

“Really?” He walked over to you with a worried expression on his face, “Are you alright? Do you need anything?”

Shaking your head, you pointed to the bottle of pills you placed on the counter, “I already took my medicine, it just takes a bit for everything to calm down. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

He would stop bugging you about it, but would keep a close eye on you for the rest of the night. If you showed the slightest bit of discomfort, he would immediately question you about, wanting to make sure you were safe and healthy.

Jungkook

“Yeobo, are you alright?” Jungkook would question you as you were hunched over yourself, trying to gain breathe back into your lungs.

You two were on a date, when all of a sudden you felt your throat start to become uncomfortably tight, causing your lungs to have to work harder to get air to them.

Quickly taking a pill out of your purse, you gestured to the drink in his hand, taking a swig of it before swallowing the medicine.

Watching you intently, he asked again, “Are you alright? Do you need something? What did you eat?”

This had happened before with green peppers, although this time you accidentally ate something with strawberry in it, which caused this reaction.

“What was it this time?”

You scrunched up your nose, knowing the look you were going to get from him, “Strawberry.”

Yep, there it was.

“Strawberry??”

Hitting him on the arm, you just took it slow while your body decided to stop attacking itself, then just went on with your day.

For sure, he would store this trigger away in his memory, but he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it.

You’ve got it handled, and he didn’t want to interfere in something he knew you wouldn’t want him to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello everyone!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed.

Please leave a comment/request whenever you would like.

Seriously guys, I would love to hear your ideas.

Thank you and love,

The_Manor

Masterlist

#bts #bts x reader #x reader #bts reactions #bts x reader reactions #jin #seokjin #yoongi #suga #hoseok #j-hope #namjoon #rm #jiminxreader #taehyung #jungkook #allergies #ow

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carewyncromwell · 4 years

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Whew! Three drawings for the price of one for the POTC AU! The first two feature our new Pirate King Jules Farrier-Weasley @cursebreakerfarrier (flanked by Jacob “Black Jack” Cromwell Roberts and Orion Amari), and Cutler Beckett (flanked by Carewyn Cromwell “Carey Weasley” and Patricia Rakepick). The last one features the human form of our Davy Jones, Finn McGarry @theguythatdraws, with his One True Love Chiara Dalma, A.K.A. Calypso! These took a while, but they were fun to do, so I hope you like them.

Jules’s “tunic” is actually the same chemise she cut up while she was still on board the Artemis, as seen in a doodle on a previous post. Carewyn’s new uniform (which we’ll address in this part) is based on yet another of James Norrington’s costumes, this time the one he wears in the third Pirates film. Unlike the character whose role she roughly fills, though, Carey isn’t going to die unceremoniously in the middle of the damn story after getting this costume change. (Why no, I’m not bitter about the fact that Jack Davenport didn’t get more screentime and that Norrington didn’t get to be the Javert to Captain Jack Sparrow’s Valjean in the sequels the way he so could’ve been after the first movie, why would you think that? *snort*)

Now that we’re getting more into the Davy Jones/Calypso stuff, I can acknowledge how much I’ve changed from the original films’ depictions of the characters, as well as why. Personally I find the characters’ relationship to be a bit toxic and not as romantic as it should be. Calypso, being a goddess, could very easily not understand things like the passage of time through a man’s eyes, but the excuse she gives for why she wasn’t there to support her lover after all of the hard and lonely work he’d put in for her after ten years is just “it’s who I am.” I get that she’s a manifestation of the sea and not something you can pin down and all that jazz, but at the same time, it was cruel to follow her own selfish whims over considering her lover’s feelings. She presumably then also didn’t even try following up with Jones after he returned to the sea, as they aren’t able to sort out that misunderstanding before the events of At World’s End. (I mean, she’s a shape-shifting goddess of the sea, and she made him that way in the first place, so it’s not like she couldn’t have met him somewhere that wasn’t dry land.) I understand Jones couldn’t expect her to change her nature, and that’s fair, but it doesn’t make me like Calypso very much or feel much of anything for her relationship with Jones. And on the flip side, Jones decides to take out his pain at this misunderstanding (which he really should’ve tried clearing up AGES before the events of At World’s End) on his lover in the most spiteful, vindictive way -- teaching a bunch of pirates how to trap an immortal goddess into a mortal body that definitely has none of the power innate to her, presumably feels pain, and could even age or die. Rather than trying to quit the job Calypso gave him or even trying to figure out what happened, he decides to clip the wings of the woman he supposedly loves, all due to his own pain at being betrayed. So I don’t feel much for Jones as a character and for his relationship with Calypso either. In the end, when they quasi-make up, I didn’t think it was earned or that it was a good outcome for either of them. I do think there’s some tragedy in the situation, for they clearly feel deeply for each other, but their romance is really dysfunctional in my opinion, and I think it could’ve been handled a lot better if you wanted to make the pairing as romantic as the theme Hans Zimmer wrote for it. (As a side, take a listen to this lovely lyric cover someone wrote for the Davy Jones theme, it’s so good!) This is part of why I like being able to write Chia and Finn (the Calypso and Jones analogues in this AU) with a more sympathetic backstory, as well as some organic development for both them and their relationship while they’re apart from each other, which I kind of think was lacking in Tia Dalma/Calypso in particular.

Previous part is here, whole tag is here, and I hope you all enjoy!

x~x~x~x

Carewyn was perturbed by how fast an armada of ships from Port Royal caught up with the Flying Dutchman, once Rakepick had Jones send one of his cursed crew members with a message for Beckett. It was as though the head of the East India Trading Company had been waiting in eager anticipation of the Dutchman locating Shipwreck Cove ever since he gave her and Rakepick the mission in the first place.

Among the armada was the Clearwater, and Carewyn was shocked and a little happy to see Percy crossing over to the Dutchman from his ship and leaping off the gangplank to greet her. The youngest of the three Weasley brothers who’d joined the Navy gave her a salute for formalities’ sake, but he couldn’t keep the relieved smile off his face.

“Commodore Weasley,” he said formally.

“Captain Weasley,” said Carewyn in return.

As soon as they’d greeted each other, both of them loosened considerably. Carewyn opened her arms and brought Percy into a rather mannish hug, clapping his back the way Bill often did whenever he hugged his brothers.

“Jones’s men treated you well, I hope?” Percy murmured under his breath, his voice betraying some cold suspicion despite himself.

“Well enough,” Carewyn said softly.

When they broke apart, Percy was smiling a bit more fully.

“It is good to see you, Carey,” he said, his faintly pompous voice nonetheless incredibly sincere, “though I’m afraid I’ll have my own ship to run now...”

Carewyn smiled proudly. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. A Commodore needs a talented Captain in his fleet.”

‘I know how long you’ve dreamed of moving up the ranks. Even if the Navy isn’t what it should be...I’m glad that you’re living your dream, Percy.’

Percy’s brown eyes softened, clearly touched. Before he could say anything, however, a familiar, aloof voice interrupted him.

"A Commodore does indeed need a talented Captain...”

Both Weasleys turned to Cutler Beckett as he stepped down onto the deck of the Dutchman beside them. His small eyes were locked firmly on Carewyn.

“...as does the Admiral of the fleet.”

He materialized a folded letter and held it out to Carewyn. Her eyebrows furrowed as she opened it, before her eyes widened upon its contents and the royal wax seal at the bottom.

“I’d already had this prepared ahead of time, prior to your departure from Port Royal,” said Beckett with a cool smile. “I wrote to the King of how impressed I was with your dedication, ingenuity, and talents, and he was most pleased. When I requested you to be at the head of my fleet for this upcoming venture, he agreed immediately. Upon receiving Madam Rakepick’s letter about you initiating the search for the Tower Raven’s old fleet and using one of their own ships to guide us to our target...I knew that my faith had been more than warranted.”

His eyes narrowed slightly over his cold, satisfied smile.

“Congratulations...Admiral Carey Weasley.”

The “honor” the King had bestowed upon her, if one could call it that, made Carewyn feel ill for multiple reasons. Not only did she truly not, NOT want to fight the Pirate Lords and whatever ships they gathered together, but she knew that she had largely gotten the position thanks to the effort of Rakepick -- who had for whatever reason credited Carewyn for following the Phoenix rather than taking credit herself -- and Beckett -- who Carewyn didn’t trust as far as she could throw him, but couldn’t figure out why exactly he had so much “faith” in her. Was she truly that good of an actress to completely fool him? She wanted to think so -- and yet the way he looked at her, not unlike how Rakepick looked at her, spoke of him knowing something she didn’t. Sadly Percy, even if he had seemed legitimately troubled by the hangings in Port Royal, was not distrustful enough of Beckett to express anything but pride in Carewyn’s accomplishment, so Carewyn couldn’t talk to him or anyone else about her suspicions.

When she confronted Rakepick about what she wrote to Beckett, the older woman’s response was oddly coy.

“I already told you you don’t belong on this ship,” she said, her dark blue eyes locked firmly onto Carewyn’s with a murky emotion she couldn’t quite identify. “Now that you’re Admiral, you’ll have more power to command your own ship, overlooking the Dutchman as well as the rest of the fleet.”

Carewyn’s eyes narrowed. “So you wrote that so I’d get off the Dutchman?”

Rakepick’s eyes narrowed slightly too, becoming more solemn. “You heard Lord Beckett -- he’d already planned this for you in advance. Although my reasons are different from his, I’m more than willing to play along with his whims, if it means I get what I want.”

“And what is it you want, Rakepick?”

Rakepick’s red lips curled up into a cool smirk. “Now, Admiral...one can hardly expect a lady to answer such a personal question.”

Not long after confronting Rakepick, Beckett summoned Carewyn to his cabin on his flagship, a Man O’ War called the HMS Lion. Unlike any of their previous meetings in his office, Carewyn found the cabin completely empty except for Beckett when she arrived -- in the past, Percy or Rakepick had been there too, as well as one or two employees of the East India Trading Company. It gave her the feeling that Beckett wanted this meeting to be more private than the others, which gave her a terrible sense of foreboding.

“You wished to see me, Lord Beckett?” she asked, once she’d finished saluting him.

“Yes,” said Beckett.

He was sitting behind his desk, which once again had a map laid out with different model soldiers and ships littered all over it. There were also seven Piece of Eight coins lined up in a neat little row -- he was once again playing with the eighth, rolling it along his fingers lackadaisically.

“Word has come from Shipwreck Cove, from the so-called ‘Pirate King,’“ he said, his eyes on the coin in his hand. “She wishes to rendez-vous on a tiny island on the far side of Shipwreck Island at sunset tonight, a ways away from the Cove. No weapons -- just talking.”

Beckett’s eyes flickered up to Carewyn’s face almost critically.

“...The Pirate King...signed her name as ‘Captain Jules Weasley’ -- so she’d be an old flame of yours, would she not?”

Carewyn stiffened slightly. ‘Jules is the Pirate King?’

She covered up her surprise quickly, her blue eyes narrowing.

“Miss Farrier -- pardon, Mrs. William Weasley -- never commanded any affection from me. Although her father bid she court me, her feelings were always for my brother -- so much so that she followed him into piracy.”

Beckett’s lips spread into a cold smile. “Then it’s as I surmised. Governor Farrier expressed frustration that his daughter had not managed to ensnare your heart, as opposed to your older brother’s -- especially considering how much she seemed to enjoy your company...”

Carewyn could not figure out what Beckett was trying to suss out from this conversation and it troubled her greatly -- so she put on her best, coldest expression and lied through her teeth.

“Whatever woman I respected in the past is dead, now that she’s an enemy of the Crown,” she said harshly. “I know no ‘Captain Jules Weasley’...nor do I wish to.”

Beckett’s smile did not shift in the slightest. If anything, his small, dark eyes flickered in something almost like triumph.

“I understand your sensitivity to the matter. You truly do love with all of your heart, don’t you, Admiral Weasley?”

Carewyn’s eyebrows knit tightly over her eyes in confusion, but she did not reply. Beckett put the Piece of Eight coin down in the row on his deck and rose from his chair, moving over to the decanter of red wine on the side table so he could pour a glass.

“I saw you with Captain Weasley, before you left Port Royal -- and of course, your reunion on-board the Dutchman, earlier today. I also heard quite a few interesting rumors circulated among our prisoners from Tortuga, speaking of your honor and the respect you showed them despite their criminal status...even moving a woman into a cell with her husband without being asked, if I’m not mistaken...”

His voice was very aloof and was tinged with a bizarre fascination, like an entomologist might have for a rare butterfly he’d pinned to his wall. Carewyn felt like her heart was being squeezed, but she dare not say anything.

Beckett finished pouring out two glasses of wine and put down the decanter so he could pick up both glasses.

“It’s not something I’m familiar with, that kind of concern for others.”

He offered the glass of red wine to Carewyn, his eyes boring into her face. Carewyn kept her face as blank as she could even though she could feel the blood leaving it as she took the glass of wine from him, but did not drink it.

“...I did not mean to displease you, Lord Beckett,” she said lowly.

Beckett’s eyes flickered again with that strange satisfaction as he took a sip from his glass of wine.

“On the contrary -- it’s only appropriate, for a woman to have a gentle heart.”

Carewyn stiffened sharply.

‘No. No, no, no -- !’

It was one thing for Rakepick to find out, but Beckett to know -- did Rakepick tell him? No, she said she wasn’t really doing any of this for Beckett -- should she deny it, Carewyn wondered? But if she did, and he caught her in a lie, could that make it worse -- ?

Her hesitation made Beckett’s eyes gleam with greater satisfaction than ever.

“Then I was right,” he murmured. “I admit, I wasn’t sure. True, your voice is higher than one normally hears and you’re smaller than most, but I know first hand that means nothing. And your military record...had it not been for me having met and employed Patricia Rakepick previously, I would never have believed a woman could be so skilled in battle and strategy, nor so aggressive. But when Captain Weasley expressed such interest in me having hired a woman, and even went out of his way to bring it up to you...my interest was peaked. All the more so when I found out how truly useful you are, as an officer.”

Carewyn felt like she was drowning in horrifying, icy cold water. Beckett knew she was a woman -- he knew she was a woman, and could tell anyone about it, if he so chose. She’d not only lose her position -- the one thing that she had left that she could use to protect Jacob, Orion, Bill, Charlie, and Jules...but she’d be cast out in disgrace, leaving her with nothing -- possibly taking Percy along with her for having kept her true gender a secret --

Her blue eyes had drifted down to the floor absently, but were not focusing on anything.

Yet...Beckett had said nothing of his suspicions to anyone. True, he hadn’t known for sure...but why would he recommend her to the King as an Admiral, if he’d suspected?

And then it hit her.

She bowed her head, casting her eyes into shadow as she put down her untouched wine glass on the side table.

“...What do you want from me, Lord Beckett?”

Beckett raised his eyebrows but did not respond.

“You very easily could’ve gotten both Percy and me cast out of the Navy in disgrace,” she said, keeping her voice low in an attempt to try to keep it steady, “yet you’ve kept me and even helped get me promoted, presumably because I’m so ‘useful.’ What use do I have, for you?”

Beckett gave her something of a patronizing smile as he stepped forward, coming up right in front of Carewyn so that his chin rested just shy of her shoulder and he could look at her face out the side of his eye.

“Isn’t it obvious? You are an excellent Naval officer -- a leader and inspiration to those who serve under you. You’re world-renown for your honor, your courage -- your passion. You prompt people to fight with you -- for you -- with a loyalty that even the King of England himself cannot boast. Were you a man, you would be someone I’d be very threatened by, indeed. But since you are a woman...I can appeal to your heart.”

Carewyn could feel his breath sliding past her ear and she couldn’t help but cringe. She stubbornly refused to look him in the eye, keeping her gaze firmly on the floor.

“I’m afraid my disinterest in the once-Miss Farrier was not a one-off thing, Lord Beckett,” she said very dryly. “Romance is not something I think about very regularly.”

Orion’s face rippled over her mind, making her heart ache. Oh, if he were there, in that room -- the thought of him seeing her letting herself get pushed around by the man who’d branded him and sent the Navy after him for piracy...it made her feel ill.

Beckett’s lips curled up in a slightly tighter, almost miffed smile as he pulled away just enough that he was facing the wall behind her rather than looking at her face.

“...Oh...no, Admiral...you misunderstand me. I know I own no part of your heart...but Captain Weasley, he most assuredly does.”

Carewyn’s head shot up so she could look at him, her expression stricken despite herself.

“Your younger brother is not nearly as useful as you, but he has shown great dedication to me, since I threw him a bone and ensured his promotion. It’s a loyalty I hope that you will likewise show me...especially considering that both you and he have been given access to information that few others have been...and that I would do just about anything to ensure doesn’t become common knowledge...”

Carewyn stared at Beckett, her shock giving way to cold hatred.

“So that’s it,” she murmured. “You’ll hold Percy’s and my lives and livelihoods over our heads, to make sure that I don’t surpass you, somehow. How I don’t know, considering that the Navy is not part of the East India Trading Company, nor shall it ever be, but clearly you feel loyalty is something to threaten out of people, rather than earn -- ”

“The only thing one can really earn in this world, Admiral, is money, and therefore power,” Beckett cut her off sharply, “and I have no intention of losing either, now that I’ve earned both of which I’m owed!”

He turned to look Carewyn straight-on in the eye, their faces mere inches apart. Gone was any hint of attempt at gentlemanly poise -- there was a hard edge to his gaze, not unlike the way he’d looked at Jones, but because he was actually an inch or so taller than Carewyn, he seemed to relish the power he had looking down at her both literally and figuratively.

“You will use your talents to serve my interests,” he said under his breath, “and I, in return, will continue to reward you and your brother, by ensuring that your careers and lives flourish under me. It’s just good business.”

At sundown, Beckett and Jules met at the tiny island agreed upon. Jules strolled down the long, narrow beach toward the shoreline where they were to meet, Jacob on one side of her and Orion on the other. She’d originally wanted Bill with her, but McNully was able to persuade her that she’d look that bit more intimidating to Beckett if she arrived in the company of two of the most wanted pirate captains in the world, and even Bill had to agree. Jules was determined to stand between Jacob and Orion, though, considering that there was still a lot of tension between them.

Jules had been furious with Jacob, when she’d learned about the deal he’d struck with Davy Jones. Even if he’d originally planned to give Jones “a Cromwell” as in Charles or Blaise Cromwell -- two objectively bad people who had been largely responsible for Carewyn and Jacob’s abusive, unloving childhoods -- Jules was also confident in thinking that Carewyn would be horrified, knowing that Jacob was willing to enslave another person to Davy Jones, just to find her. Jacob refused to feel guilty for that, but he clearly was destroyed by the knowledge that his choice had put Carewyn in so much danger. It was apparent from the way he talked about it and the way his hands and shoulders shook with silent sobs that Jacob would’ve sacrificed himself a hundred times over, if it would guarantee Carewyn wouldn’t be harmed.

Orion, by contrast, hadn’t said a word since Jacob told them what was going on. Throughout the entire conversation, he’d had his hands clasped tightly in front of him and kept his gaze downcast, even taking time to close his eyes for long periods of time as if he were meditating. Despite his silence and his detached affect, his usually stoic expression and unsteady breathing betrayed genuine anxiety. At one point, Bill brought a hand onto Orion’s shoulder to try to comfort him, and Orion actually subconsciously smacked his hand away.

“I’m sorry,” said the Captain quickly, his voice very hushed and tense as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. “Just...please, don’t touch me.”

Bill, Charlie, and Jules all thought they could guess how Orion was feeling. Although the others had forcefully shot down the idea that Orion was the least bit responsible since he couldn’t have known the consequences of calling Carewyn by her real name, their words had done little to soften the Pirate Lord’s brow. If Orion’s past behavior hadn’t been indicative of how deeply he felt for Carewyn, then the way he clasped anxiously at his own hands and shut himself off from everyone else at the thought of her being doomed to spend the rest of her life trapped on board the Flying Dutchman made it crystal clear.

“Orion’s always valued his own freedom more than any kind of loot,” McNully murmured to the three Weasleys under her breath, “more than anything, really. And if he cares about the Commodore so much...”

“...He probably couldn’t bear it, if she lost hers,” finished Charlie, bowing his head and closing his eyes as they welled up with pain and righteous anger.

As Jules, Jacob, and Orion approached the shore, they caught sight of three people standing in the distance. The man in the middle dressed in black Orion identified as Cutler Beckett. On his left was an older woman as tall as Orion with hair as ginger red as Bill and Charlie’s that Jacob immediately recognized as Rakepick...and on his right was Carewyn, dressed in a new yellow-trimmed navy blue uniform and a black tricorn hat.

The three pirates stopped five feet away from the Head of the East India Trading Company and his two female companions, a notable sting of tension prickling at the air. Jules tried hard to keep her focus on Beckett, but her eyes were drawn to Carewyn despite herself. Although her friend faced Orion -- the person directly in front of her -- with a hard, stoic expression, she looked so pale. When Jules glanced over, she noticed out the side of her eye that Orion’s unreadable gaze was also locked on Carewyn, even as he took deep breaths through his nose and his hands clenched absently at his sides.

“Well, well,” said Beckett, his eyes narrowing darkly upon Orion’s face, “if it isn’t my old friend, Orion Amari.”

Orion glanced at Beckett out the side of his eye without turning his face away from Carewyn’s. Although his face remained rather calm, there was a faint edge to his soft-spoken response.

“...I did not think you were ever much in the market for friendship, Cutler Beckett...considering it’s something you cannot buy.”

His gaze returned to Carewyn. Beckett glanced from Carewyn to Orion, his lips curling up in a very cold smile.

“Ah, yes -- you and Amari are old friends also, aren’t you, Admiral Weasley?”

“Admiral?” repeated Orion, taken aback despite himself.

“Yes,” said Carewyn, and although her response was very cold, her eyes pulsed with emotion that she attempted to obscure by glancing to the side in Jacob’s direction rather than straight at Orion. “By order of the King, as a reward for my work alongside Lord Beckett.”

Jules could see Jacob’s jaw clench out the corner of her eye. She too felt like her heart was being squeezed. Carewyn no doubt hated her promotion with everything in her, if it was something she’d earned chasing after them on Beckett’s orders. Still...Jules couldn’t express that flat-out, so she put on the strongest expression she could.

“...I suppose congratulations are in order, then.”

Carewyn flashed Jules a look. “I don’t want congratulations from you, Mrs. Weasley. Or should I call you ‘Your Majesty,’ now that you’ve started playacting as a royal?”

Jules’s lips came together tightly when she saw how broadly Beckett smirked. The small man’s reaction seemed to piss off Jacob too.

“You will show proper respect to the Pirate King,” he said with a fierce look at the Head of the East India Trading Company.

“Respect,” scorned Rakepick. “Is that a word you can even define, Black Jack?”

“As well as I could wring your neck, if I were allowed,” spat Jacob.

“I’m surprised your ‘Pirate King’ would want a man in her company who’s so comfortable threatening a lady’s life,” said Carewyn sharply.

‘Don’t start a fight with her,’ she thought desperately, praying that Jacob would be able to sense her intent even with the act she had to play.

Unfortunately Jacob, as smart as he was, was never the best at reading people’s emotions -- and so when his narrowed eyes shot to Carewyn, she could see a flicker of pain. She surmised that even if he clearly didn’t think she believed what she was saying, it hurt him beyond reason, to see her having to defend the woman who’d tried to kill him.

Orion, however, very quickly adapted to the new method of “conversation,” fixing Carewyn with a calm, but piercing gaze.

“And I’m surprised that a honorable officer such as yourself would be so comfortable in the company of those with no honor whatsoever,” he said.

‘You’re in danger,’ Carewyn surmised he was trying to say. Her eyes narrowed upon Orion’s face.

“I beg your pardon?” she retorted. “I fail to see how a pirate has any leg to stand on, speaking of honor.” ‘What are you trying to tell me?’

“Even I have more honor than a captain who would burn an entire settlement to the ground,” murmured Orion. ‘Davy Jones.’

“Jones follows orders, as do we all...something else a pirate wouldn’t understand.” ‘What about Jones?’

"Orders...from Cutler Beckett, or from you? From what I’ve heard, you were on the Flying Dutchman yourself -- hardly a place one would expect to find Port Royal’s greatest hero.” ‘You must get away from Davy Jones. Get off of the Flying Dutchman.’

Carewyn’s blue eyes narrowed a bit more. First Rakepick wanted her off the Dutchman, and now Orion? Yes, Davy Jones was dangerous, but at present she found him much less of a threat than Beckett...

“A true hero knows that his reputation comes second to the good of the others,” she said very softly. “As does a loyal officer.” ‘I can’t leave.’

Something in Orion’s dark eyes flinched.

“Your older brother will be very disappointed, to know you’ve sold your loyalty so cheaply,” he said just as softly.

Carewyn felt her heart clench. She knew he didn’t mean Bill -- and yet the thought of both her surrogate brothers and Jacob was a silent knife to her back. She didn’t dare look at Jacob for fear her strong facade would crack, so she kept her focus solidly on Orion.

“I would think given your own history with Lord Beckett, you’d know full well how valuable of an ally he is, ” she shot back quickly, feigning temper as best she could, “and how dangerous of an enemy, as well. Both I and the brother who chose to follow the law rather than spit in its face are certainly glad for his aid, in ending your reign of terror.”

‘I can’t leave, not with what Beckett has over me and Percy. And if I do leave, then you’ll be in more danger than ever...’

Her eyes bore into Orion’s fiercely as she begged beyond reason he’d understand.

“...You may tell William...that I am no Bedlam maid in need of saving.”

‘You can’t help me. I love you.’

Deep in the depths of his sparkling black eyes, Carewyn could see a flicker of desperation, almost like anxiety. Afraid that Beckett might notice the crack in Orion’s expression, or in her own at the sight of it, she quickly whirled on Jules.

“He is the one who should stand down,” she said, her voice hardening further in an attempt to obscure her emotions. “All of you should, unless you wish to face down an entire armada.”

‘There are 34 Man O’ Wars waiting out there for you,’ she hoped Jules would be able to discern. Even if she didn’t know an armada had that many ships, Jacob and Orion would.

Jules, to her credit, matched Carewyn’s act with her own cold gaze. “Don’t underestimate us, Admiral Weasley. Both the British Navy and the East India Trading Company have done that consistently from the beginning.”

“And now we have come to the end,” said Beckett smoothly. “Of you and the rest of your Brethren.”

The others all turned to look at him. He flashed Orion a look better suited to a cockroach before redirecting his gaze onto Jules.

“Tell your Court this,” he said in an aloof, condescending voice. “You can fight, and all of you will die...or you can stand down, in which case only most of you will die. I daresay the Governor could be persuaded to spare you from the gallows, if you threw yourself on his mercy...and if I were to be merciful enough to leave out your new position, in my correspondence with the King...”

Jules’s dark eyes flashed with hatred as she strode forward, coming to a stop two feet from Beckett so she could glare right into his face.

“There are few things I can tolerate less than cowards who resort to blackmail just to make themselves feel powerful.”

She didn’t look at Carewyn, but Carewyn could sense Jules was thinking of her, as she said this.

“We will fight. And you’d best hope that we will show more mercy than you would, in our place.”

The Pirate King turned on her heel and walked away. With some reluctance, Orion and then Jacob turned away and strode quickly after her, leaving the other three alone on the shore.

“So be it,” said Beckett with a cold smile.

Carewyn couldn’t look at Rakepick or Beckett at her side. Her gaze was solidly locked on the departing backs of her brother, friend, and love as they began to shrink into the distance.

She’d never been very good at relying on or having faith in others...but in that moment, more than anything, she knew all she could do now was put her trust in Orion -- in Jules -- in Jacob -- in Bill and Charlie and all of the other pirates on Shipwreck Cove.

‘Please...please, be careful. Please be safe.’

In that moment of helplessness, she felt her heart ache all the more, watching Orion walk away. She closed her eyes, trying to bring back the memory of him standing shoulder to shoulder with her on the Artemis -- of him lying in bed as she tended to him, when they were young -- but it was no use. The graveness of the situation was too dire even for escapism...

Carewyn clutched her own arms behind her back. They suddenly felt so much heavier...as if there really were manacles there she couldn’t hope to break.

‘...Please...please live.’

On the opposite side of the island, both Jules and Jacob noticed the silent tears that had streaked down Orion’s face...but none had the heart to address it as they boarded the jollyboat that would take them back to the Artemis and to Shipwreck Cove.

At the same time that the pirates and the leaders of the British Navy were meeting, Davy Jones had been left behind on the Flying Dutchman with Percy supervising the troops. Beckett thought that Jones was threatened into line by how many soldiers were still guarding his heart, but thanks to Carewyn, Jones knew that Rakepick had stolen and relocated it. Now that he didn’t know where his heart was at all, he knew he couldn’t afford to move until he’d found it again -- and with Carewyn likely leaving the Dutchman with her new position as Admiral, it was likely it’d take a while before she could smuggle him any more information she might acquire about that. For the moment, though, Jones had put that concern on the back burner, for the Dutchman’s arrival near Shipwreck Cove gave him the opportunity to catch up with the Phoenix.

As luck would have it, when Jones phased through the Dutchman and onto the Phoenix, the ship was largely abandoned, since the crew had all gone ashore to Shipwreck Cove. The only person remaining was a small woman with long white hair, looking out to sea over the deck. In her hand was a pretty silver locket in the shape of a moon, the lid of which was cracked open so that a sweet, tinkling music box melody played.

Chia Dalma closed the locket half-way through the song, her eyes closing sadly as she clasped the locket close to her chest. She straightened up in shock, however, when she suddenly heard the rest of the tune echoing from behind her. She whirled around, to be faced with a giant, hulking shadow with writhing tentacles sprouting out from his jaw, holding an identical locket in his claw. Anyone would’ve been terrified at the sight -- but Chia looked upon the figure with tears in her eyes.

“Finn,” she breathed. Her lips were curled up in a weak smile, just as they had been before, but the joy was stained with so many other emotions -- grief, shame, and regret.

Davy Jones regarded Chia critically as he took several plodding steps toward her. “You know I haven’t been called that name in years.”

Chia bowed her head. “Nor have I been called my true name in years.”

Jones tilted his head, trying to read her expression better now she was looking away from him.

“I had not expected to find you like this,” he said very lowly. “You’ve never taken on such a small shape before.”

Chia’s eyes flashed with righteous anger as she raised her head. “That’s because this form is one I did not choose to take. It was thrust upon me by the Brethren Court.”

Jones straightened up slightly. His eyes narrowed to slits.

“...Then they did not kill or trap you. They transformed you.”

His voice was as low and growling as thunder. Chia clutched at the sides of her arms with her hands, her gaze smouldering with resentment as she glared down at the deck.

“Oh, but they did trap me,” she said bitterly, “trapped me in this single form, which can’t do even half of what I should be able to. I’ve been able to use what power I have to slow down the aging process, but this body still feels pain. This body still feels strain, and weakness, and hunger, and exhaustion, and longing...”

Something rippled over her eyes -- something more ashamed and pained.

“...I never knew...how much time truly weighs on a human,” she murmured.

Jones’s expression grew much more grim. “An immortal such as yourself should never have had to learn that.”

“Should never have had to, yes...but...”

She looked up at Jones, her gray eyes pulsing with strength despite the pain rippling within.

“...why did you not tell me, how long ten years felt for you? I have felt those ten years several times over, trapped in this tiny, fragile, helpless body every single moment -- and it’s...it’s been torture. To know you took the job I gave you -- only coming ashore once every ten years, so you could help me with the burden of tending to the dead at sea -- when ten years feels like that, to you -- ”

Chia’s eyes flooded with tears.

“I gave you the position of ferryman because I wanted to spare you from death,” she whispered. “Because if I didn’t give you that role and give you some of my power, you would’ve died. I’d never thought that those ten years would feel so long -- drain you so much...”

Jones was quiet for a long moment. Then he brought up his claw to brush her bangs from her eye.

“It’s only natural that you saw things the way an immortal would. Time is no object to you -- ten years no doubt felt like a small price to pay, in the face of your life span. And...”

His eyes became a bit smaller.

“...it’s not exactly like I wanted to die and be separated from you either. Even though part of me always doubted you’d be there waiting for me, when I returned...even though I resented you for years because you weren’t there...”

A ghost of a smile flickered over his features.

“...I know I shouldn’t have expected you to see things as I have -- to change yourself to suit me. If you did...you wouldn’t be the goddess I fell in love with, would you?”

Chia smiled up at Jones, her eyes shining with tenderness.

“I tried to make it back to you,” she murmured. “When the Court transformed me, I tried so hard to get there, to reach you...”

She extended her hands, tentatively trailing them along his tentacled face. Jones seemed to tremble at her touch.

“I know of the danger you’re in, Finn,” said Chia seriously. “As long as Cutler Beckett has your heart, I know you’re beholden to him. But I have allies among this newest Brethren Court. If they convince the others to break my chains, as I’ve foreseen they will...then as soon as I am free, I will come for you. I will make sure you and I are never separated again...and I will make sure your captors suffer the consequences, for hurting the man I love.”

As her small white hands held his face, Jones’s face and frame suddenly began to morph. In an instant, the slimy texture, the tentacles clinging to his face, and his claw all vanished -- and there stood the tall, handsome pirate she’d fallen in love with so long ago.

Finn McGarry’s face broke out into a broken, soft smile. He stretched out his hand, caressing his love’s human cheek with more gentleness than his claw ever could have.

“Calypso...” he murmured.

Chia’s face broke out into a full smile as well. She knew she couldn’t permanently remove the fishy transformation, as it was something that had mutated Jones over the many years they’d been apart, due to his heartbreak and grief...but seeing him looking so much like his old self after so long...it made her currently human heart swell with love.

“Just as you gave me your heart, when you became captain of the Flying Dutchman,” she murmured, “so too will you always have mine.”

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #potc au #au #pirates of the caribbean #carewyn cromwell #patricia rakepick #jacob #jacob cromwell #orion amari #chiara lobosca #percy weasley #jules farrier #finn mcgarry #other people's mcs #my art #my writing #these drawings and especially the writing took longer than I expected #oh orion you and carey truly do think alike!! you're both so good at reading people and adapting to them!!#why can't you be together the way you should?? DX #look at finn and chia! they're perfectly adorable!#don't you guys wanna be adorable too??#also yes beckett is a complete arsehole #I see him LOVING the fact that he has a new 'pet' who can bite into orion for him #i see beckett harboring a similar kind of resentment for orion as he did for jack in the original films #even if orion was much younger when he became a pirate I see beckett being that little bit younger too #and more importantly orion as an adult ended up being even more of a thorn in beckett's side #all thanks to beckett effectively robbing orion of the freedom to do anything else with his life but be a pirate #don't get me wrong orion's adapted well to being a pirate but you do lose some freedom being branded that way too #the freedom needed to return to port royal and go searching for this girl you once knew without being arrested for example :<

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ficletdumps · 5 years

Text

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind AU (Black Clover ver.)

Yuno groaned as he pulled on the rope underneath him, bringing it up to his chest and tightening the knot tied between the mill’s fans. He kneeled down to make sure it was secure, nodding in satisfaction before dusting off his hands.

“It should be good now, turn it on.” Yuno spoke to Klaus, who quickly ducked back into the building.

Yuno stepped away from the fans just in time for them to start back up, looking at the mechanism up and down to make sure everything was in place before going into the building after Klaus.

“It’s working just fine now. Call me if you need any repairs.”

“Thank you so much your highness!” The owner, a burly man named Rance, bowed, his wife smiling and bowing as well.

Yuno waved them off, “It’s no big deal, you don’t have to bow.” He sighed, wishing his people would stop treating him so differently. He was adopted for Christ sake.

“Can you handle the rest Klaus? I’m late for my scavenging trip.” Yuno spoke to his advisor as he exited the house, making a beeline for the castle.

“I’ll take care of it, but please your highness be careful. Allow me to assist you at least-“

Yuno cut the man with a raise of his hand, marching up the stairs and looking back down with a bored expression.

“I need to go alone. If I have you with me I won’t be able to take my glider.” Yuno spoke matter-of-factly. “And without it there’s just too many places I won’t be able to go into.”

Without another word the prince turned and entered the castle, using the back door to avoid any of the servants. He made it to the equipment room rather quickly, picking up his mask, goggles and shotgun. Afterwards he made sure to have his sword and gunpowder capsules, storing them in his pockets before heading towards his glider.

“Yuno.”

The prince stopped halfway to mounting his glider, turning towards the voice of his father, Licht. He took off his goggles and set down his vehicle, wondering what Licht could want right now.

“What is it?”

Licht gave him that warm smile he gave to all the people he cared about, stepping further into the room and gazing out into the valley just outside Yuno’s landing port.

“You don’t need to do this you know.” Licht started, turning towards his son.

Yuno sighed, he should’ve known this was it. “I know.”

“Then why do you insist on going out there?”

The prince turned away, gazing out towards the valley as well with narrowed eyes. “Because I made a promise to someone.” He answered.

“As you’ve said. I’m surprised you still remember it though, that must’ve been quite some time before you came here.”

Yuno hummed, “It’s important to me.” He admitted, kneeling down to turn on his glider.

Licht stepped back, recognizing the signs of his son running away. He knew he wouldn’t get anything more out of him, it’d be best to let him go.

“Please be careful Yuno,” Licht reached over and held his son’s hand in his “We couldn’t bear losing you.”

Yuno looked at their joined hands for a few seconds before nodding, picking up his glider and readying himself for takeoff.

“You won’t, I promise.”

And then he ran off, leaping off the wooden platform and turning so he landed atop his glider. The people below looked up upon his takeoff, many of them waving at him. Yuno never understood why they revered him so much, but he was polite enough to wave back regardless.

The prince looked up from the valley and angled his glider upwards, taking farther up into the air and over the village’s mountainside. Once he cleared that his objective came into view, the Toxic Jungle’s massive shadow looming over the horizon.

Yuno took the chance to gaze at his surroundings, the vast desert standing between his prosperous kingdom and the Toxic Jungle serving as a great barrier to protect them from the toxins in the air. He quickly put on his mask, sliding it on with practiced ease.

Getting to the jungle was an easy task, the open desert allowing him to fly smoothly all the way to its edge. Once there however he switched his stance so he held himself horizontally over it, taking care of his head as he flew past the giant trees.

He entered without a problem, thankful for his glider’s quiet mechanisms as he landed safely in a small clearing. He gazed out towards the foliage, glad to see no insects were nearby. He quickly folded his glider and hid it between the roots of a giant tree, not wanting an Ohmu to accidentally trample it.

Yuno moved quick after that, ducking under tree roots and over canals in search of anything that could aid in his research. So far nothing, all the plants and insects he came across were those who’s samples he already had in his collection. Still he kept looking, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign of a bug getting too close.

Two hours went by before he finally found something worthwhile. Yuno kneeled in front of a Midnight Spore and pulled out one of his test tubes, carefully removing a few samples of the spores and letting them fall into the crystal container. He corked the sample once he was done, setting it inside his breast pocket with a sigh.

He moved on after that, heading into an opening in the rocks just underneath the spores and letting his eyes wander in awe as he came across a giant cavern on the other side. He made his way across it, marveling at the tracks left in the ground and the cuts in the environment nearby.

These were Ohmu tracks, there was no doubt about that. They were the largest of all the insects that dwelled in the Toxic Jungle, but technically the least aggressive, unless provoked. To think such a huge one would live so close to the jungle’s edge baffled him. Yuno decided to follow the tracks, noticing the still uneven soil and realizing the tracks must still be fresh.

He walked for only a few minutes, letting out a small gasp at what he came across at the other end of the cavern. A towering insect with dozens of uncolored round eyes and a shell-like structure stood before him. It’s sheer size was incredible, he’d never seen such an impecable Ohmu shell before. Yuno was willing to bet this belonged to a healthy female once, given by the strong pincers and wide dorsal structure.

The prince wasted no time climbing onto the massive shell, taking out his sword and stabbing it against its side. He grit his teeth as the blade failed to pierce through the Ohmu’s thick armor, the vibrations running up his arms. He gave a satisfied smile, running his hand across its surface. His people certainly wouldn’t have to worry about finding building materials for a good while.

Yuno then moved to one of its empty eyes, tapping the solid, glass-like cover and wondering what uses it could have. He’d have to take a piece back and study it before he could decide that. The prince took out one of his gunpowder capsules, carefully sprinkling it around the eye’s surface and making sure it covered it completely. Then he took out his gun and opened the loading barrel, setting it down by the powder and pulling the trigger.

The heat made the powder go off, and Yuno bat the smoke away with his hand, putting away his gun and trading it for his sword. He began to steadily dig it into the shell’s burned area, watching the armor give away slowly until he was securely able to pull off the shell.

Yuno lifted it above his head, surprised by how light it was. The people would love this, he was sure Klaus and the others could find a way to make use of it. This was an amazing find. He had to get back to the town and let them know so they could begin gathering parts tomorrow.

He carefully put his things away, setting the eye down and stopping midway when a faint sound made it to his ears. He stood to attention, closing his eyes and listening to it as best as he could. The sound came again, and this time there was no mistaking its source, gunshots.

Just his luck, whatever fool was setting off a gun in the middle of the Toxic Jungle was surely suicidal. He couldn’t just leave them be however, if they headed for the village whatever insect was attacking them would hurt his people as well.

Yuno grabbed the shell and jumped off the Ohmu, running as fast as he could through the passages he’d gone through to find his glider once more. He accidentally stepped on a Lanma when he jumped off a rocky edge, yet the insect gave him no mind as he ran past with a muttered apology.

He found his glider soon enough, setting the shell down by the clearing’s edge and taking off. He flew out of the trees and into the arid desert, looking out above the tree line to try and catch glimpse of the chaos. The gunshots were louder now, but that sound was quickly covered up by the sound of trampling footsteps.

Yuno gasped when he watched a good chunk of trees suddenly burst out, sending wood and spores flying everywhere. The prince pulled back to avoid it, watching as a lone man riding on two familiar Horseclaws ran from an Ohmu. Just what in the hell...?

There was no time to ponder the why right now. Yuno needed to get that guy to safety and that Ohmu back in the jungle before it got too close to town. The prince dove low, coming in to fly next to the masked man.

“Get past the dune just up ahead! I’ll lure it away from you!”

The man looked up at him and nodded, “Alright!” He answered, spurring his mounts forward as Yuno took off gain.

He needed to get to that Ohmu, hopefully his usual method worked. Yuno turned his glider swiftly, pulling it so he matched the giant insect’s pace right next to its eye.

“Pull back! You can’t be out here! You’ll die!” Yuno tried, raising his voice as loud as he could, but the creature didn’t react.

Just talking wouldn’t work this time it seemed, the thing’s eyes were glowing red with rage. He needed to snap the insect out of it before he hoped to ever make progress.

Yuno leaned forward and flew right in front of the Ohmu’s face, tapping one of his glider’s buttons and letting nearly a dozen stun grenades go off right by the insect’s eyes.

The prince watched the rider turn back upon the Ohmu’s pause, but Yuno paid him little mind as he pulled out his insect charm and put it against the wind, letting the breeze blow past it to trigger the whistle insects liked so much.

The Ohmu’s eyes no longer grew red, it’s grey eyes lit up a calm blue, and Yuno was glad he was finally calm enough to listen.

“Go back to the jungle, you’re not safe out here!” He spoke to it, watching as the Ohmu seemed to take in his words before it began to turn its body a few seconds later.

Yuno kept the charm going for a few more seconds, watching the insect make his way back into the jungle through the same opening it had made minutes prior. Only when the creature was finally inside did he let the sound up, storing the charm away as he made his way to greet the idiot he saved.

Once he landed Yuno quickly took off his mask and goggles, watching the man remove his own mask before coming to greet him.

“I thought you’d be smart enough to know not to set off a gun inside the jungle, Vangeance.” Yuno smiled.

The man chuckled, nodding his head and offering his arm for Yuno to shake. The prince took it, glad to see his mentor safe and sound.

“I didn’t know you were coming, you should’ve sent a letter. I would’ve escorted you.” Yuno offered, watching as Vangeance’s carriage birds came over to say hello as well.

Yuno reached over to pet their heads, letting them cuddle up to him and sighing when one of them nibbled his clothes. He pushed them away lightly, rolling his eyes when they put up resistance.

“Perhaps I should have said something. Being accompanied by you would’ve saved me all that trouble for sure.” Vangeance laughed at Yuno’s expense, looking down when a small hiss came from his bag.

“What do you have there?” Yuno asked, finally getting the two Horseclaws away from him.

“Ah, this little thing here is the reason I got into trouble with that Ohmu.” Vangeance opened the bag and they both watched as a small fox-squirrel came out, hissing and swiping at them. “I mistook her cry for a baby’s and tried to rescue her from the Ohmu, but I ended up having to use my gun to get away.”

Yuno hummed, reaching out to the small animal and letting it run up his arm. It ran quickly, towards his shoulder and down his other arm, looking at both men anxiously.

“Be careful, even the little ones are quite feisty,” Vangeance warned, Yuno nodded.

The prince took off his glove, raising his hand to let the small animal sniff it. Instead however the fox opened its jaw and dug its fangs into his finger, surprising Yuno with the amount of force carried in such a small bite. Still he didn’t move, letting the animal dig its fangs into him as it growled.

“It’s ok.” He spoke softly, “I know you’re scared, but you’re ok.”

Vangeance watched silently, wondering in silence just how strong the prince’s abilities were. He had been shocked to see him turn an Ohmu around with nothing but stun grenades and an insect charmer. It was something he’d never seen before.

And still Yuno managed to surprise him, because only a few seconds after muttering those calm words the small fox ceased its growling, pulling its teeth away before shamefully licking the wound on the boy’s finger.

“My my, you never cease to amaze me with that power of yours.” Vangeance complimented.

“I don’t have any special powers.” Yuno looked up from where he was petting his new fox friend. “It’s just research.”

“Right.” Vangeance agreed, though he didn’t truly believe that. “Would you like to keep her?”

Yuno blinked, smiling at the fox as it ran around his shoulders again and nuzzled up to his face.

“If you don’t mind.”

“By all means.”

“Thank you.” Yuno offered his palm to the fox, who hopped onto it, “I think I’ll name her Bell.”

Yuno opened a few of his shirt buttons, letting Bell jump inside before buttoning them back up, he didn’t want her falling off while he flew back to town.

“We should get going though, everyone will be very happy to see you back.”

Vangeance nodded, watching the prince grab his glider before turning to him once more.

“Oh, before we go, there’s something I’d like for you to carry back for me.”

“What is it?”

“An Ohmu eye.”

Vangeance almost lost his footing on the sand beneath him.

#black clover #yuno black clover #william vangeance #licht black clover #klaus lunettes #nausicaä of the valley of the wind #nausicaa au #ficlet #might be continued

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insomniac-dot-ink · 5 years

Text

You’re Not Handling the End of the World Very Well

genre: superheroes, end of the world, wlw

words: 3k

summary: After all of civilization has properly and meaningful collapsed, there are only a handful of meta-humans and villains left on the empty world.

So what happens when the villains win? When the planet has apocalypse-d and it’s all gone to shit? The real question is what do super-villains threaten heroes with now that everything else is gone.

The world’s over. Lucy Goren just wants her damn dog back.

Ko-Fi ⭐Patreon ⭐ WordPress⭐Twitter ⭐ Ao3

story for one of my patrons for ‘Random-Pick-a-Prompt’ event for April!

Lucy’s boots scraped across the chunky rubble on the floor. It echoed low and grating across the empty space, a reminder, no, a very tired and heavy-handed statement.

Lucy looked over the gloomy, remote hallway, cast in long shadows and flickering fluorescent lights overhead. She rolled her eyes gracefully at it. It was an underground government facility that had long since been abandoned, bombed, and then abandoned again. Cracks spread in fine spiderwebs from the concrete ceiling to the wall, with little peak-holes into the dark ethers of the building.

She stepped around the next heap of rubble and made her way toward the nearest fire exit at the end of the hall, technically, she could fly there, but what would be the point?

The exit sign blinked red and cast a fiery neon glow across the grey walls, a splotch of color in the faded dingy surroundings. Water dripped from somewhere far away and stagnant air entombed the hallway.

A speaker crackled to life from a black box in the corner, staticy and jumbled, it had obviously been jerry-rigged together recently compared to every other broken thing in the dilapidated setting.

It started with a laugh. A simmering boundless sound, building and rippling off the walls, echoing down the hall and toward its demise situated directly up it’s own arsehole.

Lucy kept her eyes focused straight ahead and made no move to acknowledge it.

“It’s been too long, Lady Remix.” The voice purred as the laugh died, “I suppose you’re surprised to see me again.” “Yeah,” she responded without venom. “I kinda thought you’d manage to choke on your own spit by this point?” She tipped her chin up, unwashed blonde curls tickling her shoulder tops. “Since it’s so bullshit flavored and all.” The laugh returned, hot and pleased with itself. “My, my,” the voice radiated a perfectly practiced sense of glee. “Someone updated her vocabulary. Tired of being a role model for ungrateful brats, hmm?”

Lucy made a face up at the ceiling, “You’re the only left who thinks I’m a big deal Stephanie.” She said dryly and reached for the exit door, putting her hand on the cold dented handle. “But I’ll kick your ass into next Tuesday to be my own damn role model this time.”

She opened the door and stepped into a drafty stairwell, a damp cold crawled up her spine numbly, it smelled metallic and dusty.

“Lady Remix,” the voice tutted gently, “Your confidence becomes you. But I’m afraid you’re too late.” Lucy grimaced and looked up the endless grey steps both below and above. “You’ll have to go down the rabbit hole to meet your fate, little hero!” She cackled, “And see exactly what your chivalry has brought you.” Lucy simply held up her middle finger to the camera this time. She carefully oriented herself in space, getting a sense of her body, her beating heart, and boxy solid surroundings. She touched off from the ground.

This trick had taken years of training, sweat and tears, to be able to reorient empty space itself and allow her to float.

When Lucy was a teenager she had risked her life in a toxic oil field (as you do) and managed to stop a major spill into a local water supply. She had gotten terribly sick afterward and assumed it was over. However, a mysterious figure arrived and asked if she’d like to change her fate, reorient her dying cells and everything else around them.

She was 17, she completely and totally accepted. She had been gifted the power of Spatial Manipulation, she could reorient anything within seven feet of her. That was a long time ago, it gave her a headache if she thought about it too hard.

It had seemed worth it at the time. Now she just snorted lightly.

She stared up at the speaker in the stairwell, tracing the wires with her eyes: following the cables upward and into the wall. Lucy gave a shallow smile and then threw herself toward the next story, gliding past the gaps in the stairs and doors hanging off of their hinges.

“I said down the rabbit hole, little bunny,” the speaker said tartly. “Down. Stop that.”

Lucy quickly made her way to the second story of the underground facility, confirming her own hunch. A big red door sat with the word ‘Restricted’ painted in bulky white letters across it. The letters looked freshly applied.

“Ugh,” Stephanie did not sound pleased.

Lucy twisted the locked door away, reorienting it in space to gape wide open and reveal a dark, noisy room. The place buzzed with machines and beeping monitors, appearing to be a vast repurposed storage area with only various fuzzy glowing silver screens to give it light.

Wires criss-crossed the floor, sloppily taped down and sprawling out from the center like messy vines. A personal generator hummed in the corner, computers heaped on top of each other in a maze of defunct tech, and one central enormous screen bathed the area in alien wintery light.

Lucy took a breath in through her nose and landed heavily, she let her shadow cut a long and imposing silhouette across the concrete floors, backlit by the stairwell lights. The inside smelled musty, warm, and like corn chips that had gone incredibly stale.

A giant chair faced away her, high-backed and on a set of little rolling wheels, it was positioned directly in front of the main staticked screen. Lucy didn’t bother to inspect anything and simply strode in, letting her voice fill the room. “Where is my damn dog?” She growled. “Mmm,” Stephanie’s voice was low and rumbling, the door slammed loudly shut behind Lucy. “Have you finally learned the lesson?” Lucy groaned, “Oh my God.” “After all this time,” the other woman turned slowly, painfully slowly, her face caught half in the shadows and half light of the screen. “Have you finally learned the price of loving?” Lucy made a face, blinked several times, and then turned around in a tight circle. “Kitt!” Lucy called loudly, picking her way across the floor. “Kitt, come here girl!”

“Your precious pup is-” “Shut up, Steph.” She said dryly, “Literally nothing is stopping me from re-orienting your heart outside of your damn body.”

Stephanie paused for a moment, obviously startled, her mouth pinched shut and twisted off to the side. Lucy crossed the room to a darker corner, an area evidently lived in: strewn with clutters of trash, a mini-fridge, raggedy sweatpants, and a mattress all shoved to the side.

Lucy looked back to Stephanie mildly.

“Haven’t you heard?” Stephanie puffed herself up, recovering neatly, she tossed her head back with a flare. “There’s nothing for you to orient, hero... I never had a heart to begin with!” “Oh my God,” Lucy massaged the bridge of her nose. “Are we doing this? Are we still doing this?” “Oh precious, ignorant Remix,” she simpered, purple lipstick catching the light in an easy smirk. “Pure, brilliant power will never stop. It never rests for the foolish heroes of the world! Those easily worn down and broken. I am endless.” “Have you been just,” Lucy glanced at the pile of trash in the corner, “holed up in this shithole this whole time? Stephanie,”

“For I am!” She continued blithely.

“That mattress has mold on it.” “THE HEGEMON.” Lucy gave her a completely toneless look, twitching and unamused. “Are you done?” She looked her up and down. “Because I am.” “I don’t know the meaning of ‘done’! I am The Hegemon and you will know LOSS and GUILT, those things subjected to me at a young age, a blessing of pain that gave me insights into human nature itse-” “First of all, last time I checked your name was Stephanie Brewster and you worked in accounting for seven years.” Stephanie frowned dourly at that. “And I don’t care.”

Stephanie’s nostrils flared. She was a wry, bony woman with short, wild black hair that stood up like a faux-mohawk with too much product. She had a pair of purple goggles covering eyes and patented dark shiny lipstick. A black lab coat was buttoned all the way up to her throat and tall shiny black boots clad her calves.

Her usually purple nails were chipped and bitten down to their very nubs, she looked softly more restless than usual, shifting in place and drumming her nails on the arm of the chair endlessly.

“God this place smells awful,” Lucy kicked an empty tv dinner tray. “Steph, this is so bad.”

Stephanie sniffed loudly, petulance entering her tone. “Well you aren’t looking so great either.” That was a fair statement. Lucy hadn’t showered in an uncountable number of days, her dirty blonde curls much dirtier than usual and slouchy jeans ripped around the cuffs. She wore a dingy pink night shirt, beaten up gym shoes, and a lumpy sports bra from an unknown era.

Obviously, her face was maskless and when she caught her reflection in the dead tv screens she looked back at her own bloodshot, baggy eyes. Her skin looked slightly sickly and too pale, she had even lost some of her iconic round hips and full figure.

People magazine called her an ‘Icon of Plus-Sized Girls Everywhere,’ but that was by Hollywood standards and her thighs had been mostly muscle back then. That was all a lifetime ago.

“Kitt!” She cupped her mouth and called, “Come here girl, let’s go home.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Stephanie wheeled her chair around, trying to keep Lucy’s attention. “She’s not coming.” Lucy turned slowly, thoughtfully. She put her hands on her hips, “How attached are you to your teeth Steph? 32 always seemed excessive to me. But we could discuss.”

Stephanie pulled back in her chair, expression tensing. “You’re being kind of an asshole right now.” It was almost a whisper.

Lucy rolled her eyes, “Yeah, well, the world ended and you stole my dog.” She stomped her way over toward the villain, “Only one of those things I can change.”

Stephanie looked away, tone shifting from it’s usual mocking drawl. “Oh, it’s not that bad.” She frowned deeply, “Minnesota is still fine.” “Ugh,” she groaned loudly, “Pestilence got them last month. You’ve really been here this whole time, huh?” She wrinkled her nose at several packs of energy drinks stacked in the corner.

Stephanie got to her feet, unfolding her body like a lithe house cat stretching out, she tilted her head to the side. “I took shelter.” She said aggressively, “It’s what Gentlemen Damnation said to do for us Chosen.”

“Do we really have to call him that?” Lucy did another aimless turn in place. “Like, I know he painted it in blood on all major monuments. But considering those were destroyed too maybe we can stop?”

Stephanie crossed her arms over her chest. “He is the new and eternal lord of Lamb’s Blood New Earth. What else would we call him?” Lucy scratched her chin, “I’m thinking ‘Gunk I Find in between my Toes During the Summer’.” “Well, I mean-” “Burst Pustules on the Buttocks of Men in Unwashed Saunas.” “That’s kind of a mouthful.” “Ratty McRatman, the Sequel. Baby Whose Birth Certificate is an Apology Letter from Trojan. A Barnacle on the Ballsack of-” “Yes, I get it,” Stephanie reached for some sort of electric staff, “How long have you been saving those up?” She shrugged listlessly, “When is the last time I saw your face?” “Haha,” she turned around, “If I had known your banter had become so… unpolished. Well.” Lucy took a couple threatening steps toward her, “Enough.” She moved her hands quickly, “It’s almost Kitt’s dinner time and I just found a DVD copy of Space Jam buried last night. I have shit to do.” Stephanie cleared her throat, “I see you’re impatient for my hand to be played.” She tried to plaster on a new taunting smile, “I have a series of challenges even you will lose heart at! The grit of heroes tested by my might and ingenuity, tested- only to find themselves,” she licked her lips, “Lacking.” Lucy narrowed her eyes, and then took a sudden step toward her, bringing Stephanie into her zone of manipulation. She re-oriented the other woman upside down in space, Stephanie flailed for a moment, reaching for her weapon.

Lucy quickly re-oriented anything in her pockets and staff to the other side of her. “On a scale of one to ten, how fond of breathing are you?”

Her eyes went wide, “What?”

She separated the villain’s air supply from her lungs.

Stephanie’s face went two shades paler and she started clawing at her throat and kicking in space, arms pinwheeling and trying to right herself and gasp for air. Lucy’s eyes just narrowed further. “Now.” She growled. “Where is my dog?”

Stephanie kicked and spittle dripped down the side of her mouth, she gaped for another couple of strained seconds. Finally, she pointed toward the space under her enormous office desk off to the side. Lucy let her fall unceremoniously to the floor and made a beeline toward the desk.

She knelt down quickly and caught sight of a wire cage pushed into the corner. She pulled the thing toward her and exhaled. A lumpy form lay on top of a thin blue blanket, the chest of her floppy brown beagle rose and fell gently inside.

She managed a smile and unlatched the cage, reaching in to pet the dog’s side and scratch her behind the ears. Kitt didn’t stir, but Lucy knew it was only a heavy sedative.

She carefully gathered her dog into her arms and turned around.

Stephanie was sprawled on the floor, gasping for air and clutching at her chest. “That was,” she rasped and unsteadily sat up. “Completely against The Code.” “Don’t you get it?” Lucy strode over, reaching the scientist and taking her purple goggles in hand, she tore them off her head. “The Code is gone. The hero society is collapsed. Everybody’s off planet or dead,” she bore her teeth. “You won.” Stephanie’s eyes were an animated misty grey and flicked all around the room until they landed on her own empty open palms. “Yes. Gentlemen Damnat- David.” She said softly, “he said we’d win.” “Yeah,” Lucy jerked her head up to the ceiling, holding her dog close. “Woopee. He got what he wanted. Society’s over and villain’s are stealing my damn dog.” She looked down again sharply, “She’s just a dog Steph!” Stephanie’s chin dimpled delicately, “I wasn’t going to hurt her.” She looked away. “This isn’t how you play.” “I know.” The weight, the heaving immeasurable weight, settled on her shoulder tops. Lucy fell to her knees and sat dully on the floor next to her. “The rules are gone. It’s over… you all got what you wanted.” Stephanie scratched the back of her neck, “I don’t think everyone was supposed to… go.” She said quietly, “Just the foolish and soft-hearted and those who toted light and selfishlessness above the-” “Yeah, yeah,” Lucy put her hand up, “Have fun reveling in your victory. Imma go watch Space Jam with my dog.” Lucy got up to leave, knees creaking and a warm body limp in her arms. Her thoughts drifted over to the task of flying all the way home from here, even in its death throes D.C. was a nightmare to navigate.

“Wait,” Stephanie called weakly, “Lady Remix.” She carefully addressed her, “It wasn’t my plan to create The Four Horsemen. I didn’t know…” “Duh,” Lucy shook her head, “You were like, a C villain at best hun.” Stephanie wrinkled her nose, “Can’t you call me Hegemon once? For old times sake?” “No,” she said flatly, “You can call me Lucy though.” Stephanie balked, “Absolutely not,” she scrambled back, “terrible.” It was Lucy’s turn to laugh, “God. You’re so old school.”

Stephanie slowly crawled to her feet again, much less nimble and calculating than before. “Yes.” She said slowly. “It’s not as if David gave us much of a choice on how to rebuild the world,” she looked toward the dark corners, the outside. “Not even an email.” Lucy shrugged, “He took out a lot of villains too I heard,” she said offhandedly, “Everybody. And anyone who made it out just left the planet.” Stephanie considered her for a long moment, “Not you?”

She looked back to the door, “Not me.” She sighed, “duty and all that I thought.” She scowled at the door handle, “Plus… not everyone deserves off-planet.” Stephanie burst out into a dark laugh, voice resonating to it’s rough purr. “Deserve? What hero language! An arrogant mechanism of the weak to justify their own actions.” “Seriously?” “Right. Sorry.” Stephanie took a couple hurried steps toward her, hair askew and bright grey eyes surveying the area. “So, where are you now in the fight?” Lucy took a step back, “Nowhere. You can tell your master I’ve thrown in the towel,” her eyes unfocused, “there’s no one left to save.” Stephanie opened her mouth, and then closed it. She looked down at the floor unhappily, “There’s your dog.” She said in a controlled tone, “And you.” Lucy shot her a tense look, “Goodbye Stephanie.” She adjusted Kitt in her arms to reach for the door. “If you bother me again I will be more off Code than you know.” She didn’t stop her as Lucy shouldered the door open and started climbing the last of the stairs back outside. She was halfway toward the faceless metal exit door when she heard a number of hurried steps chasing after her.

Lucy stopped in place but didn’t turn.

“He really ruined it you know.” She started babbling, “He really missed the point we were all trying to drive home.” Lucy sprouted a lopsided smile and glanced over her shoulder, “What are you trying to say?” Stephanie drew herself up, “I may have been a C villain but even I know this isn’t how it was supposed to go, and I should,” she licked her lips, floundering slightly. She hunched her shoulders, “and what kind of woman of action would be if I didn’t do something?” Lucy threw her head back and laughed, it was filled with all that suffocating weight of the ages, “Are you going to be a hero now?” Stephanie put her hands on her hips, “Absolutely not!” She looked away petulantly, “hero? God no.” Her gaze followed her upwards, back to the door. “Are you?” “I don’t think so.” She reached for the door and it swung open, pouring in the ashen light of the storm clouds and empty roads. “Want to come?”

She blinked a couple times, frowned, and then nodded stiltedly.

They walked out into the broken world together.

#wlw #sapphic #short story #superheores #original story #f/f #my work #dark comedy

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kgyeomiex · 5 years

Text

Secrets (M)

“We weren’t meant to be. We should have never kissed. I should not have become that weak soul which needs you. We shouldn’t have met, but we did.”

Summary: I call him devil because he makes me want to sin. And every time he knocks… I can’t help but let him in…

Hoseok was my brother’s best friend. He was nothing but bad news, but the more I spent time around him… the more I couldn’t help but fall for him…

Temptation is a dangerous thing… especially with a guy like him…

Has become a youtube series: (Trailer) (Part 1) (Part 2)

Previous Parts:

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 // Part 9 // Part 10 // Part 11

Part 12 is finally here...

More Parts:

Part 13

Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have no idea why Hoseok cares whether I’m jealous or not. Hoseok shouldn’t care anyway, especially since the boy now has a girlfriend. I crossed my arms and instantly rolled my eyes.

“Why would I admit to something that’s not true?” I asked Hoseok and he just smiles.

I swear Hoseok is toxic. The moment he smirks I know he finds it amusing to bother me and I’m sick of it.

“Jennie, it’s okay you had your chance but you rejected me,” I mean what else was I supposed to do? Let Hoseok come into my life to fuck everything up? No thanks. I almost did that and after I snapped back into reality, I realized that it was a major mistake.

“You and I both know you don’t do relationships. Just because you’re in one now doesn’t mean that the two of you are going to last,” I didn’t mean to be a complete asshole to Hoseok but it’s true.

Everyone who knows Hoseok knows he’s a fuckboy. He easily gets tired of girls and moves on to the next. I feel bad for his girlfriend right now but hey she should have known what she was signing herself up for.

I was waiting for Hoseok to make another comment but he stayed quiet. I stood there for a bit staring at Hoseok in silence waiting for him to say something. However, he just stood there looking right at me. Well, guess this is my cue to leave.

Not saying a single word so I walked off.

I don’t like Hoseok… I don’t like Hoseok…

If anything I hate him.

“Jennie!” I heard my name being called. I instantly jumped up and looked at Kevin waving his hands in the air side to side. Oh shit, when did he get here?

Here I am laying in bed completely distracted trying to admit to myself that I hate Hoseok. I had my eyes closed listening to music and here comes Kevin trying to capture my damn attention… I mean I could have been sleeping… How rude.

“Sorry, what?” I asked as I took off my headphones and Kevin rolled his eyes.

“I could have been dying and it would have taken you five years for you to realize I’m dead,” one thing Kevin and I had in common was that both of us are incredibly dramatic. I guess you can say it runs in the family.

“Oh come on, it probably would have been longer than five years,” I said playing along and instead of Kevin making a comment he grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it right at me.

“I’m kidding,” I pushed the pillow aside and looked at Kevin. What did he want anyway?

Usually, when Kevin comes into my room it’s a favor… There has never been a moment I can recall where Kevin just comes into the room out of the blue just to have a conversation….

Nope never happened.

“Anyways what’s up?” I asked Kevin looking at my phone but instead of hearing him talk I heard pure silence…

Why is he quiet…

I slowly picked up my head and seen Kevin smiling from ear to ear. Oh no… He wants something… Just from that smile, I know that no is not an answer…

“Oh no…” Kevin quickly ran up to me and grabbed my wrist.

“Jennie! Please… I need you to do me this favor,” oh god…

“Let me hear it,” I said crossing my arms and Kevin just smiles.

“Just say you’ll do it,” the bad thing about Kevin is he wants you to automatically confirm that you will do his favor without even letting me have a chance to hear it first.

“No, the last time you made me say yes I ended up carrying Hoseok and you all the way home because first of all you two were sloppy drunk and no one had money for a cab!” I reminded Kevin that tragic night and Kevin looked down.

“I told you I was sorry,” bullshit but whatever.

“So before I agree to anything I need to hear what your favor consists of,” I said crossing my arms putting the most serious face I could on and Kevin looks right at me.

“It’s not as bad as you’re probably thinking,” so that means it doesn’t involve Hoseok and him being drunk? Or Hoseok at all?

“Okay, so what is it?” I have no idea why Kevin can’t just simply tell me what the favor is. I mean I’ll keep asking him to tell me but instead, he’s beating around the bush.

“Okay… So let’s just say I have a date tomorrow,” okay what on earth does that have to do with me?

“And what do you want me to do about that?” Was Kevin going to make me call his date and lie that he left out of the country or something?

“You know… First dates are usually awkward,” Kevin stopped talking for a split second tried to find a way to properly ask me.

“And well I was hoping you and Jungkook could tag along with me and my date to an amusement park,” well this is the first time Kevin’s favor isn’t bad… It’s kind of too good to be true.

“What’s the catch?” I instantly asked and Kevin just looked at me and smiled. Okay, that smile says it all.

“Hoseok and his girlfriend will be joining us too,” nope nope at first I was going to give Kevin the benefit of the doubt but hell no I am not going to be around Hoseok. No one can force me to be around that ass anymore.

“Yeah no thanks,” I said and Kevin looked right at me.

“Come on! I know you hate Hoseok but you’re going to be with your date so you won’t technically be around him,” Who cares if I know Hoseok’s presence is around me I won’t be able to focus on Jungkook without being worried that Hoseok will come with a plan up his damn sleeve.

“Kevin, I love you but I’m selfish. I will not force myself to be around someone I hate,” I feel bad saying no to Kevin but if I agree to go I have a bad feeling about it… Why would I want to make myself suffer like that?

“Jennie,”

I shook my head and rested my hand on Kevin’s shoulder.

“Look Kevin let’s just drop it, no matter how many times you ask me I will continue saying no,” Kevin got up and looked at me.

“Well although you told me no, if you change your mind you know exactly where to find me,” I know I wasn’t going to change my mind however I just nodded my head and watched Kevin walk away.

I laid back down and stared at the ceiling. Not only would Hoseok try to do something to destroy my relationship with Jungkook but the whole tension would feel awkward… Although I hate Hoseok it’s hard not to act weird around him especially because I shared my first kiss with the boy.

Maybe Taehyung was right… Sharing my first kiss with Hoseok wasn’t a good idea, I have no idea what on earth I was thinking in the first place.

I grabbed my phone and knew I had to ask my best friend for some advice. Taehyung always knew what to do and right now you needed help making up your mind.

Why did I agree to this? I swear I am going to regret ever saying yes to this. Just the fact that I am going to be with my boyfriend and Hoseok sounds like trouble.

I just hope that Hoseok just stays focused on his little girlfriend and learns to leave me alone. I can’t do this playing with my feelings anymore.

“Jennie,” I looked over and noticed Jungkook finally approaching my brother and I. Not only are we all going to spend time in the amusement park but also we are all going to be in the same car.

“For a second I thought you weren’t going to make it,” I said as Jungkook was now standing right in front of me and he smiled.

“You know I wouldn’t miss our date in the world,” Jungkook slowly leaned in getting ready to kiss you until…

“I’m here!” Both Jungkook and I pull away and there I see Hoseok looking over at me with a smirk.

Was that necessary?

I swear I will try my hardest to be on my best behavior but if Hoseok says or does anything that will piss me off I swear everyone will see a flying shoe being thrown his direction.

“No one cares,” I mumbled and jungkook looked over at me but I just smiled.

“My date is running a couple of minutes late… If you guys want you can start heading into the car,” I looked at Jungkook and in no time the both of us approached the car.

As we reached the doors I was about to grab the door handle till...

“Oh my my look who we have here,” Hoseok was right in front of you smirking.

You all haven’t left yet to the date but here you are getting annoyed with Hoseok already.

“Hoseok… Do you mind pushing over, Jungkook and I are trying to take a seat,” Hoseok looked at the car door and then back at you.

“I actually do mind, maybe I wanted to take a seat first,” I took one look over at Jungkook and he looked at me a bit concerned.

He probably has a feeling that I'm ready to attack this man. Or maybe he knows that this trip was going to be a long one since I’m probably going to be arguing with Hoseok.

No matter how many times the both of us talk and discuss about being friends it’s never really an option just because both of us got on each other's nerves…

I have no idea why we can’t seem to get along but oh well…

“Let’s just let them take a seat first,” Jungkook says looking over at me and I glanced over at Hoseok and seen him smirking.

“But-,” I was going to continue arguing and make sure that I didn’t let Hoseok get what he wanted but there was no point.

Maybe I should have done what I was planning to do and ignore Hoseok’s existence. I swear no matter how hard I try to ignore Hoseok and his presences, it never seems to work out. He’s everywhere…

Hoseok walked over to the car and took one look at me before entering. He smirked and looked at me up and down. Oh, this boy has some nerves…

I wanted to react and kick but with Jungkook by my side, I knew I couldn’t. I had to act like I wasn’t bothered especially with Jungkook by my side.

As Hoseok and his girlfriend sat in the car, Jungkook and I looked inside and realized there was one more seat left. I looked over at Jungkook and noticed him awkwardly scratching the back of his neck.

“Looks like there is only one spot left…” Well great going Kevin…

Wait, why am I blaming him? Oh, that’s right he’s the main reason why you even agreed to come to this stupid trip in the first place.

“I forgot that Kevin’s car is extremely small.” Jungkook looked at you and awkwardly smiled.

“I mean if you want you can sit on my lap, if not… Hos-” I instantly cut him off the moment he began to call out Hoseok’s name.

“I’ll sit on your lap,” Jungkook slowly makes his way in the car and at that moment I hopped in as well and took a seat at his lap.

I don’t know why but as I was sitting on Jungkook’s lap, I looked over at Hoseok and noticed how bothered he seemed to be. A huge smile of satisfaction spread across my face.

Maybe this trip will be fun after all…

After that long trip of sitting in a car for a couple of hours, we finally arrived at our destination.

I knew the trip with going to be interesting especially since Hoseok was also joining me and my brother with his girlfriend... But I didn’t think it was going to get interesting this fast in the day.

The moment I sat on Jungkook’s lap, Hoseok already started to act immature and salty for no reason.

As I tried to talk to my brother or even Jungkook, Hoseok would make noises or even talk but made sure that was louder than I was. He even had control of the music so the moment he saw that I was about to talk he would put the music louder than my voice.

I was annoyed but I tried not to let that get to me, I tried my hardest to act as if that didn’t bother me but then he began to do other things that began to annoy me. After giving me such a hard time trying to even speak, he let me speak eventually but he had a comment to almost everything.

A person can only take so much.

Jungkook tried to calm me down but I snapped. Eventually, after dealing with Hoseok and his annoying mouth of his, we argued the whole car ride here...

Now I hope my brother understand why I don’t like coming out.

The moment we arrived I was the first one out of the car annoyed and ready to strangle a person… And by a person, I meant the one and only Hoseok.

“Jennie… Everything is going to be fine, we’ll just be as far away as possible from Hoseok, okay?” Jungkook says looking directly at me and instead of continuing with the issue I just nodded my head and accepted it.

“Okay fine,” I mumbled trying my hardest to be the mature one in the situation.

At last everyone was out of the car and we all walked on our way to the main entrance. I tried my hardest not to look over at Hoseok but I couldn’t help myself especially because I swear I feel his eyes on me.

“Shoot... “ Kevin stopped walking and then looked back at us.

“What happened now?” I asked as I watched Kevin pat down his pockets and instead of saying anything, he just awkwardly laughed…

Kevin didn’t even have to say much… I already knew what was happening. I watched him awkward pat his pockets and then looked over at us still smiling…

“Okay… So I have bad news,” I can tell…

“Let me guess you forget your wallet?” I asked Kevin right away not giving him much of a chance to explain himself.

Kevin stood quiet but slowly nodded his head.

“I know I brought it… But I think I left it back in the car,” I don’t know what came over me but it must be the fact that I don’t want to be around Hoseok any longer…

“I’ll get it,” everyone including Jungkook all looked at me surprised.

“What? I'm trying to do something nice… Is that so wrong?” I said before I walked off walking back to where Kevin parked his car...

Honestly, I was expecting some quiet but it wasn’t long until it was suddenly rudely interrupted.

“Isn’t it just a nice day to go out for a walk.” I looked over my shoulder and there I see Hoseok right by my side.

I thought if I were to leave the area for a few I would have a break from Hoseok… But I guess the joke is on me because he’s still right here by my damn side… I swear can’t Hoseok get the damn clue, get lost.

“Why are you here?” I asked Hoseok annoyed and irritated and instead of answering my question, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and smiled.

“Don’t you think that if we spend more time with each other we can finally learn how to get along?” Hoseok says and I couldn’t help but to automatically laugh.

How many chances has Hoseok had to fix things and how many times had he fucked up all his chances? Way too many to count.

“Hoseok I don’t have time to play your stupid childish games,” I’m pretty sure I told Hoseok this before but it hasn’t processed clearly into his damn head.

“Jennie, come on,” he grabs my hand and stops me from walking.

I froze and looked at his hand.

“Hoseok let go,” I will talk to Hoseok if that’s what he wants, however, I don’t want him to be touching me as he does so…

“I’m sorry,” he removed his hand and sighed.

“Look let’s face it… You and I can’t be friends, it won’t ever work out and you know it,” I didn’t want to be so mean about it but it’s true. Hoseok and I can’t ever seem to meet eye to eye plus… Every time I’m around him this unfamiliar feeling comes out of the blue and I don’t know how to react or what to say so I rather keep my distance.

“You’re right,” He says and I was expecting that respond… It was the response that I should be happy to hear however I felt rather disappointed… Now I’m just confusing myself.

“Alright then,” I was getting ready to walk to my brother's car but then Hoseok suddenly starts speaking causing me to stop walking any further.

“You and I might not be able to be friends… But maybe that’s because you and I are meant to be more,”

I felt my heart suddenly race and I felt my mouth go dry. What do I even say?

To be honest, right at this moment I have no idea if I should believe any word Hoseok is telling me or not. Hoseok tends to lie a lot and I don’t want to fall for any of his lies again.

“Hoseok, come on. You and I both know that we are bad for each other.” I said looking right into Hoseok eyes to make sure he knows I'm serious.

“You don’t believe that,” Hoseok says and although deep down inside I have this little hope where Hoseok and I can be together… I know that we shouldn’t because we are bad for each other….

“I do,” I have to stand my ground even if that means lying to his face.

“Then tell me right now that you want me out of your life for good. That you want nothing to do with me and I will leave you alone for good,” this is easier said than done…

I’m afraid that I can look at him straight in the face and say those words…

“Hoseok… I want you to…” I stopped talking and suddenly forgot how to even form a proper sentence out of my mouth.

Shit, I think that cat caught my tongue…

I wanted to tell Hoseok to leave me alone and stop playing these pathetic games but for some reason, I couldn't get myself to say it… It’s like even though my brain might believe that I don’t want anything to do with Hoseok my heart says something completely different.

“You what?” Hoseok says waiting for me to finish my sentence but again I couldn’t dare say a word.

“I… I need to get my brother wallet,” I blurted out instead and I quickly removed myself from Hoseok and went to my brother's car.

I know I messed up by not telling Hoseok off but it seems nearly impossible to even say. Now that Hoseok knows what kind of effect he has on me I highly doubt that he will ever leave me alone… Great…

I can’t believe I couldn’t say those damn words. I want you out of my life. SEE it’s that easy.

As soon as I arrived at my brother's car I opened the door and grabbed his wallet.

“What took you so long?” Kevin asks as soon as you arrive back to the group.

“Sorry… I was trying to find it,” I tried to use the best excuse I could to avoid speaking the truth.

“Look for it? Why it should have been right there…” Kevin says making everyone look at me even Hoseok... Shit, I should have seen this coming.

“Well you should know this by now I am blind, “ I was hoping Kevin wouldn’t ask me any further questions.

I could feel Kevin look at me not convinced with my response but he didn’t say anything after that. Instead, he smiled and clapped his hands.

“We shall go,”

“Did Hoseok say anything to you,” I jumped up and looked at Jungkook completely caught off guard.

“Sorry, what?” Where was this coming from?

Jungkook and I were strolling through the amusement park and out of the blue he asks me about Hoseok.

“When you went to get your brothers wallet, did Hoseok say anything to you?” Why was Jungkook all of a sudden interested in Hoseok?

Where was this suddenly coming from? Is there something going on between Hoseok and Jungkook that you don’t know about?

Right now I could automatically blurt out why, but if I were to do that then Jungkook would be suspicious. I decided it was a better idea if I answered his question first and then question him back.

“No why would he?” I asked turning the question back to him.

I feel like there is some kind of tension between Jungkook and Hoseok but no one tells me anything.

“No reason... Just curious,” I could tell that Jungkook was trying to keep the conversation short. Okay, what was up with all of this?

Did Jungkook and Hoseok talk before Hoseok went to look for you? I am beyond suspicious but right now talking to Jungkook about Hoseok will just ruin the mood for an amusement park… Right now all I have to do is bite my tongue and wait till we leave.

“Okay, now onto more important things. Today it’s just about you and me.” I said grabbed a hold of Jungkook’s hand and he smiles.

“That’s perfect, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” Jungkook says giving me his famous bunny smile.

“But what should we do first?” Jungkook asks looking at me. In the beginning, I began to think… Hmm, we can go straight to the rides or…. Before I could finish my train of thought I noticed a couple walking near Jungkook and I.

The two were wearing those themed headsets couples usually wear and it gave me an idea. To be honest I have watched a lot of K-dramas's in my life so I know what those headbands mean.

“Jungkook…. I have an idea,” Instead of explaining myself I grabbed Jungkook and dragged him to the nearest store.

Maybe it won’t hurt too much to try to reenact a K-drama cute scene.

Hoseok’s Point of View

I have no idea why I am here with Chanmi… If anything I have no idea why I thought having a girlfriend would be a fun idea. I don’t even want to be here with this girl…

I looked over at Chanmi and noticed that she was still talking. I couldn’t help but block her the whole. I swear the only thing I hear come out of her mouth is her bragging about herself. We get it you love yourself now can we move on.

“Baby,” Chanmi grabs my hand and I quickly pulled away.

“What?” I didn’t mean to be a complete ass but right now for some strange reason the only person that kept coming to my mind was Jennie…

Where did Jungkook and her go? Did she find somewhere she could go avoid me…

The more I thought about Jennie the more I thought I should go look for her and see what her and Jungkook are up to.

“Hoseok!” I turned around and see Kevin and his girlfriend, next to them I noticed Jennie and Jungkook.

Shit, I need to do something fast. I looked over at Chanmi and grabbed a hold of her hand. Chanmi looked at me confused but then smiled.

Trust me, I am not holding her hand because I want to. I am holding her hand because I see Jennie and Jungkook… Plus on top of that, Kevin believes that I like Chanmi and I have to play the part so he won’t figure out who I really like.

As the four approached me and my date, I couldn’t help but look over at Jungkook and Jennie. The first thing that caught my attention was that I suddenly noticed that Jennie and Jungkook had matching headbands.

What is this…

Jennie’s Point of View

Today I planned to enjoy my date time with Jungkook but Kevin had other plans. After meeting Kevin back at the store, he immediately had an idea.

Kevin believes that if we all go on the rides together it will be way more fun than just being with your date…

I have no idea if I can agree to that, especially with the fact that Hoseok has joined us today. I wanted to refuse Kevin’s plan but I felt bad. The purpose of today was to help him out with his date… I couldn’t be a complete ass even though I wanted to be selfish and avoid Hoseok at all causes.

As Jungkook and I followed behind Kevin, I saw Hoseok and his girlfriend from afar.

Ugh great… Now I have to go back to dealing with him.

As soon as Hoseok was right in front of all of us he looked right at me and then at Jungkook.

“Wow how lame, aren’t you two too old to be wearing headbands,” Hoseok says smirking thinking the comment had some kind of effect on me but it didn’t.

“What? Babe, they look adorable,” Hoseok’s girlfriend says defending Jungkook and I and I just simply smiled.

I am not even going to lie…. I forgot that Hoseok had a date, she has been quiet the whole time until now.

“Hoseok over here is still new with the whole relationship idea so he doesn’t understand what’s in,” Kevin tells his date and Hoseok’s girlfriend they just nodded their head.

Yeah, I don’t think that’s the case. If anything Hoseok just had to simply say something to try to get on my damn nerves. To be honest, Hoseok can just simply breath and he will get on my damn nerves.

Hoseok noticed that no one was affected by his snobbish comment which made me smile in satisfaction.

He already tried to ruin the date in the beginning but I won’t let him do it now. Right now it’s all about Jungkook and you and no one can ruin that…

And when you say no one, you mean no one…

Not

Even

Hoseok.

“By the way, before you all decide to split off I had an idea,” Kevin suddenly speaks and you all looked at him.

“Instead of everyone splitting off and doing their own thing I was thinking why don’t we all just stay together and enjoy the rides that way,” what?!

This wasn’t a part of the plan? When did you agree to this?

How long can you be around Hoseok before you decide to kill him?

I looked at Jungkook and he didn’t look too happy… I looked over and noticed that Jungkook was eyeing Hoseok...

Is there something I should know about? Does Jungkook think Hoseok and I have something going on…

~ To Be Continued

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years

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The Points Person founder Brian Kelly has lavish life and costs

This story is readily available exclusively on Business Insider Prime. Sign Up With BI Prime and begin reading now.

Brian Kelly is the founder and CEO of The Points Person, a travel and credit-card-rewards site also referred to as TPG.

Kelly lives a luxurious lifestyle of superior flights and luxury hotel suites in locations including the Maldives, Venice, and Japan.

Some previous and present TPG employees explained an office atmosphere they saw as toxic, consisting of claims of verbal abuse and public shaming by Kelly.

2 previous freelancers each said Kelly inquired to buy cocaine for him while on a work journey in Asia.

One of those freelancers, a manufacturer, declared Kelly made an undesirable sexual advance during a work trip to Costa Rica in 2016.

In a declaration to Organisation Expert, TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures, said Kelly “unequivocally denies all allegations of drug use, unwanted sexual advances and assault.”

Check out Organisation Expert’s homepage for more stories

First, he hopped aboard a first-rate flight from New York to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in a private cabin with butler service and its own restroom.

It may sound elegant, however for Kelly, the founder of The Points Person, it’s simply another week on the job.

The Points Guy, a travel and credit-card-rewards website likewise known as TPG, was founded 10 years back.

To numerous, operating at TPG appeared like a dream task where they were assured a slice of Kelly’s jet-setting lifestyle, which he relays everyday to his 232,000 followers Pictures of him cavorting at $2,000- a-night-plus hotels in Venice and the Caribbean sit along with pictures of Kelly hobnobbing with Martha Stewart and partying at the Oscars as a Marriott executive’s date.

Several sources explained Kelly, who was also understood for his kindness, as having a quick mood.

The business has seen an exodus of senior workers because early 2019.

Organisation Insider spoke with 28 current and previous staff members, freelancers, and professionals, 23 of whom explained a harmful work environment they said was fostered by Kelly.

Success and a life of excess

Kelly got his start as a recruiter at Morgan Stanley, where he made less than $70,000 a year

Two years later, he sold the blog to Bankrate for more than $20 million, according to a source with knowledge of the offer.

The company has been lucrative every year it has actually existed, and its top-line revenue grew by more than 50%in 2018, Kelly told Digiday, an online trade magazine for online media, in October.

Mike Pont/Stringer/Getty Images.

” I think the big thing that [TPG] got right, which is something that publishing is awakening to from a business-model perspective, is that just putting ads in front of people isn’t good enough. You need to get people to take action,” Brian Morrissey, the president of Digiday, stated.

In spite of his incredible expert success, several former workers told Service Insider that they didn’t believe Kelly was fit to be the CEO of a 100- person business.

His supreme goal, sources said, was simply to be well-known.

” Brian would call the website ‘The Points God’ if he could,” a former staff member who worked on TPG’s marketing team said.

Josh Dixon, a former Olympic gymnast who dated Kelly from 2016 to 2017, stated his ex “absolutely has an extravagant lifestyle.”

Dixon stated Kelly had unlimited freedom at TPG and would take him and pals on all-expenses-paid journeys around the world, traveling to the Maldives, Greece, and London, to name a few locations.

” I was whisked away to Coachella for 36 hours on a private jet. I resembled, ‘Oh wow, this isn’t regular,'” Dixon stated.

Josh Dixon, left, Brian Kelly’s then-boyfriend, and Kelly at an amfAR gala in New york city City in June2016

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images.

Bankrate, the financial-services and marketing business that acquired TPG in 2012, appeared to approve of, or at least not concern, the business’s spending routines.

” There was a lot of wiggle room with what he could get away with,” Dixon stated, citing an extravagant 2016 TPG holiday party aboard the Intrepid, a maritime museum inside a ship docked on the Hudson River in Manhattan.

But when Red Ventures, a portfolio of digital-marketing and e-commerce business, bought Bankrate in 2017, Kelly’s excessiveness was unexpectedly viewed as a liability.

Throughout a 2019 work trip to Israel, Kelly allotted $50,000 to his individual security detail.

It was the single biggest expenditure of the $138,00013- field trip on which Kelly and 4 crew members embarked.

According to the business budget plan memo acquired by Business Expert, another $30,000 was approximated for a regional tour business. The hotel budget was $35,000, and airfare and hotel transfers were anticipated to be $8,000 The rest was allocated for regional fixers and place costs.

The trip included Kelly flying very first class on El Al Airlines and remaining in a suite at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem, the latter of which Kelly booked with points.

” When I talk to people, one of the things individuals will state is the advantages have actually been getting even worse,” the present staff member said.

The travel honcho hosted celebrations at his homes in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Pennsylvania, and Miami Beach, the latter of which he offered for $2.

” There were a couple of times where even he would state he had actually been partied out of home and home in East Hampton,” Dixon stated, including that the raging would end up being too much for Kelly to handle and he would leave his own home while his visitors continued carousing.

The partying would sometimes seep into Kelly’s work life too, according to sources.

A specialist who traveled with Kelly said that on work trips, the CEO “was drinking and partying in a way that was not professional.

A freelance manufacturer said Kelly got “blackout intoxicated” during a 2016 work journey to Las Vegas.

2 people, the freelance producer and another source, likewise said Kelly asked them to procure drug for him on work trips in Asia.

During a journey to Japan in spring 2016, the freelance producer stated Kelly asked for drug– demanding he not come back without it.

The other source echoed the sentiment, saying Kelly told him during a separate Asia trip, “If you desire to get the other half of this check,” when the CEO asked for the source go out and discover him drugs.

Nevertheless, even after partying, Kelly managed to place on a nice front for TPG.

In 2013, a buddy said Kelly “went on live TELEVISION after not sleeping and on a bender,” including that with Kelly’s composure, “you would never ever understand.”

However his partying, at one point, led to an allegation of an improper sexual advance during a work trip.

The freelance producer who had traveled to Japan and Vegas, said Kelly tried to kiss him in the swimming pool at the Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo during a work journey in March 2016, a couple of weeks prior to they traveled to Asia.

” Our last night in Costa Rica, we were shooting for JetBlue, and he just kept on getting more and more tequila and then he wanted to enter the swimming pool afterwards,” the freelance manufacturer said.

” He swam approximately me and showed up in front, so I had my back to the wall, and put his arms on both sides of me, so I was kind of caught. And after that he pushed his entire body up against me so I was pinned in between him and the wall. He just began trying to construct with me and I was like, ‘What the f–?’ and pressed him off and swam away.”

According to the freelance producer, two buddies of Kelly’s remained in the swimming pool at the time. One friend did not react to requests for remark. The 2nd good friend stated he was “not exactly sure what you’re referring to” when emailed about the occurrence at the hotel pool. When Company Expert offered further details via e-mail, the second pal did not respond.

The swimming pool at the Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo.

Andaz Costa Rica Resort At Peninsula Papagayo.

The freelance producer says that he went back to his room at the Andaz Papagayo hotel alone after the occurrence with Kelly.

” I was just in shock and extremely uncomfortable,” the freelance manufacturer said.

The freelance producer told both his best friend and another TPG professional about the incident.

While Kelly’s substance abuse stayed an “open trick” among coworkers at TPG, according to the former editorial staff member, Red Ventures implemented a strict no-tolerance policy. A former senior coworker and the former editorial employee informed Service Expert that one of their colleagues was fired after acknowledging utilizing a cannabis vape pen in June at the New York City Pride March, where TPG had a Boeing 747- themed parade float

After Red Ventures purchased TPG, all brand-new employees were required to take a drug test. Those currently at the business were spared, multiple current and previous staff members told Business Insider.

Some ex-employees describe Kelly’s treatment of his staffers as condescending, impolite, and unprofessional

Despite working at a business hailing high-flying travel and first-class hotels, workplace life might be tense at TPG, according to sources.

A number of previous staff members explained a pattern: If you didn’t challenge Kelly, they stated, you ‘d remain on his good side. The minute you began to question his decisions, your days at TPG were numbered.

” I have actually seen it happen with 3 separate people,” a previous staffer said. “You get on that bad side, and after that it snowballs and snowballs, and then you’re eventually pressed out.”

Frequently, Kelly’s “public shaming,” as several sources called it, would occur on Slack.

Instead of sending a direct message to the person and their manager, Kelly would regularly assault the individual in the companywide Slack channel, according to sources. The previous senior coworker said Kelly would mock staffers and write comments along the lines of: “How could you not have considered this currently? How could you still be stopping working like this?”

Some said his temper was popular among workers.

On one event, throughout a conference in Kelly’s office, a previous high-level TPG source stated the travel CEO “tossed down his phone in anger” regarding a job-related matter, and it bounced across the desk toward her.

” I was very startled,” she said. “Not only was it less than professional, improper, and a reaction disproportionate to the situation, it was truthfully extremely scary originating from someone who was in a leading position of power. I ‘d never ever had a fellow employee– not to mention a remarkable– display physical aggressiveness like that in a meeting.”

The former senior coworker stated she believed Kelly had little faith in his team members.

” He would trust almost anyone in the world before he trusts his own staff members,” she said.

A number of staff members would resort to asking their good friends to leave comments on TPG stories, videos, or posts so that Kelly would see their ideas and ideally execute them.

” It leads to a sense of confusion in the workplace of, ‘What’s going on?

The former senior colleague said that Kelly gravitated towards the more recent staff members.

” Brian likes brand-new and glossy things,” the former senior associate stated.

3 previous staff members told Business Insider of a circumstances when a freelancer was provided a full-time task at TPG after working at the company for several months.

Former staff members said that regardless of the downsides of working at TPG, Kelly could be generous and charming.

Amy Nobile, a pal of Kelly’s who has traveled with him to places consisting of Guatemala and Iceland, told Company Expert that Kelly is a “generous soul” with his buddies and household and would frequently have extravagant surprises planned for their journeys, consisting of a helicopter trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, after they left an ice cavern.

Years after a previous colleague’s other half assisted teach Kelly search-engine optimization, Kelly gifted the household enough points for a trip to Ireland.

This kindness sometimes extended to his workers.

The previous top-level TPG source likened her experience of working with Kelly to having an alcoholic dad.

” You may get the daddy that is in a great state of mind and is giving out presents and praise like it’s sweet, or you may get the bad dad who is on a raging bender,” she said.

Despite raking in millions, some experts state Kelly does not have reliability

While lots of insiders in the points and miles market appreciate Kelly for bringing their specific niche to the mainstream, some think Kelly’s coziness with credit-card issuers prevents him from offering unbiased credit-card guidance.

Much of this boiled over when Marriott’s global marketing officer took Kelly as her date to the 2019 Oscars.

Kelly safeguarded himself in an Instagram post, stating he was welcomed to the Oscars as part of a little group of ambassadors for Marriott Bonvoy, the brand name’s commitment program, which a Marriott spokesperson confirmed to Service Expert.

In spite of the criticism, buddies explain him as a visionary with deep commitment to his work.

Adam Kotkin, TPG’s former chief of staff, informed Company Expert that if Kelly didn’t like running the company, “he most likely wouldn’t be there.”

” Without a doubt, he wouldn’t want to do anything else … he is giddy about planes … and attempting brand-new things,” Dixon included. “There’s no question that he loves what he built.”

Still, the life of excess has its risks.

” If you’re truly proficient at it, it’s going to be tiring,” Dixon said. “At points, I remember being in a hammock in the Hamptons and asking him, ‘Is this lonesome?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, it is.'”

Disclaimer: Insider Inc, Service Expert’s moms and dad business, has an affiliate service collaboration with The Points Man.

BI Select The Points Guy Brian Kelly BI Graphics

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/the-points-person-founder-brian-kelly-has-lavish-life-and-costs/

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clarenceomoore · 6 years

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Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain

Predictions are like buses, none for ages and then several come along at once. Also like buses, they are slower than you would like and only take you part of the way. Also like buses, they are brightly coloured and full of chatter that you would rather not have in your morning commute. They are sometimes cold, and may have the remains of somebody else’s take-out happy meal in the corner of the seat. Also like buses, they are an analogy that should not be taken too far, less they lose the point. Like buses.

With this in mind, here’s my technology predictions for 2018. I’ve been very lucky to work across a number of verticals over the past couple of years, including public and private transport, retail, finance, government and healthcare — while I can’t name check every project, I’m nonetheless grateful for the experience and knowledge this has brought, which I feed into the below. I’d also like to thank my podcaster co-host Simon Townsend for allowing me to test many of these ideas.

Finally, one prediction I can’t make is whether this list will cause any feedback or debate — nonetheless, I would welcome any comments you might have, and I will endeavour to address them.

1. GDPR will be a costly, inadequate mess

Don’t get me wrong, GDPR is a really good idea. As a lawyer said to me a couple of weeks ago, it is a combination of the the UK data protection act, plus the best practices that have evolved around it, now put into law at a European level with a large fine associated. The regulations are also likely to become the basis for other countries — if you are going to trade with Europe, you might as well set it as the baseline, goes the thinking. All well and good so far.

Meanwhile, it’s an incredible, expensive (and necessary, if you’re a consumer that cares about your data rights) mountain to climb for any organisation that processes or stores your data. The deadline for compliance is May 25th, which is about as likely to be hit as I am going to finally get myself the 6-pack I wanted when I was 25.

No doubt GDPR will one day be achieved, but the fact is that it is already out of date. Notions of data aggregation and potentially toxic combinations (for example, combining credit and social records to show whether or not someone is eligible for insurance) are not just likely, but unavoidable: ‘compliant’ organisations will still be in no better place to protect the interests of their customers than currently.

The challenges, risks and sheer inadequacy of GDPR can be summed up by a single tweet sent by otherwise unknown traveller — “If anyone has a boyfriend called Ben on the Bournemouth – Manchester train right now, he’s just told his friends he’s cheating on you. Dump his ass x.” Whoever sender “@emilyshepss” or indeed, “Ben” might be, the consequences to the privacy of either cannot be handled by any data legislation currently in force.

2. Artificial Intelligence will create silos of smartness

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a logical consequence of how we apply algorithms to data. It’s as inevitable as maths, as the ability our own brains have to evaluate and draw conclusions. It’s also subject to a great deal of hype and speculation, much of which tends to follow that old, flawed futurist assumption: that a current trend maps a linear course leading to an inevitable conclusion. But the future is not linear. Technological matters are subject to the laws of unintended consequences and of unexpected complexity: that is, the future does not follow a linear path, and every time we create something new, it causes new situations which are beyond its ability to deal with.

So, yes, what we call AI will change (and already is changing) the world. Moore’s, and associated laws are making previously impossible computations now possible, and indeed, they will become the expectation. Machine learning systems are fundamental to the idea of self-driving cars, for example; meanwhile voice, image recognition and so on are having their day. However these are still a long way from any notion of intelligence, artificial or otherwise.

So, yes, absolutely look at how algorithms can deliver real-time analysis, self-learning rules and so on. But look beyond the AI label, at what a product or service can actually do. You can read Gigaom’s research report on where AI can make a difference to the enterprise, here.

In most cases, there will be a question of scope: a system that can save you money on heating by ‘learning’ the nature of your home or data centre, has got to be a good thing for example. Over time we shall see these create new types of complexity, as we look to integrate individual silos of smartness (and their massive data sets) — my prediction is that such integration work will keep us busy for the next year or so, even as learning systems continue to evolve.

3. 5G will become just another expectation

Strip away the techno-babble around 5G and we have a very fast wireless networking protocol designed to handle many more devices than currently — it does this, in principle, by operating at higher frequencies, across shorter distances than current mobile masts (so we’ll need more of them, albeit in smaller boxes). Nobody quite knows how the global roll-out of 5G will take place — questions like who should pay for it will pervade, even though things are clearer than they were. And so on and so on.

But when all’s said and done, it will set the baseline for whatever people use it for, i.e. everything they possibly can. Think 4K video calls, in fact 4K everything, and it’s already not hard to see how anything less than 5G will come as a disappointment. Meanwhile every device under the sun will be looking to connect to every other, exchanging as much data as it possibly can. The technology world is a strange one, with massive expectations being imposed on each layer of the stack without any real sense of needing to take responsibility.

We’ve seen it before. The inefficient software practices of 1990’s Microsoft drove the need for processor upgrades and led Intel to a healthy profit, illustrating the vested interests of the industry to make the networking and hardware platforms faster and better. We all gain as a result, if ‘gain’ can be measured in terms of being able to see your gran in high definition on a wall screen from the other side of the world. But after the hype, 5G will become just another standard release, a way marker on the road to techno-utopia.

On the upside, it may lead to a simpler networking infrastructure. More of a hope than a prediction would be the general adoption of some kind of mesh integration between Wifi and 5G, taking away the handoff pain for both people, and devices, that move around. There will always be a place for multiple standards (such as the energy-efficient Zigbee for IoT) but 5G’s physical architecture, coupled with software standards like NFV, may offer a better starting point than the current, proprietary-mast-based model.

4. Attitudes to autonomous vehicles will normalize

The good news is, car manufacturers saw this coming. They are already planning for that inevitable moment, when public perception goes from, “Who’d want robot cars?” to “Why would I want to own a car?” It’s a familiar phenomenon, an almost 1984-level of doublethink where people go from one mindset to another seemingly overnight, without noticing and in some cases, seemingly disparaging the characters they once were. We saw it with personal computers, with mobile phones, with flat screen TVs — in the latter case, the the world went from “nah, thats never going to happen” to recycling sites being inundated with perfectly usable screens (and a wave of people getting huge cast-off tellies).

And so, we will see over the next year or so, self-driving vehicles hit our roads. What drives this phenomenon is simple: we know, deep down, that robot cars are safer — not because they are inevitably, inherently safe, but because human drivers are inevitably, inherently dangerous. And autonomous vehicles will get safer still. And are able to pick us up at 3 in the morning and take us home.

The consequences will be fascinating to watch. First that attention will increasingly turn to brands — after all, if you are going to go for a drive, you might as well do so in comfort, right? We can also expect to see a far more varied range of wheeled transport (and otherwise — what’s wrong with the notion of flying unicorn deliveries?) — indeed, with hybrid forms, the very notion of roads is called into question.

There will be data, privacy, security and safety ramifications that need to be dealt with — consider the current ethical debate between leaving young people without taxis late at night, versus the possible consequences of sharing a robot Uber with a potential molester. And I must recall a very interesting conversation with my son, about who would get third or fourth dibs at the autonomous vehicle ferrying drunken revellers (who are not always the cleanliest of souls) to their beds.

Above all, business models will move from physical to virtual, from products to services. The industry knows this, variously calling vehicles ‘tin boxes on wheels’ while investing in car sharing, delivery and other service-based models. Of course (as Apple and others have shown), good engineering continues to command a premium even in the service-based economy: competition will come from Tesla as much as Uber, or whatever replaces its self-sabotaging approach to world domination.

Such changes will take time but in the short term, we can fully expect a mindset shift from the general populace.

5. When Bitcoins collapse, blockchains will pervade

The concept that “money doesn’t actually exist” can be difficult to get across, particularly as it makes such a difference to the lives of, well, everybody. Money can buy health, comfort and a good meal; it can also deliver representations of wealth, from high street bling to mediterranean gin palaces. Of course money exists, I’m holding some in my hand, says anyone who wants to argue against the point.

Yet, still, it doesn’t. It is a mathematical construct originally construed to simplify the exchange of value, to offer persistence to an otherwise transitory notion. From a situation where you’d have to prove whether you gave the chap some fish before he’d give you that wood he offered, you can just take the cash and buy wood wherever you choose. It’s not an accident of speech that pond notes still say, “I promise to pay the bearer on demand…”

While original currencies may have been teeth or shells (happy days if you happened to live near a beach), they moved to metals in order to bring some stability in a rather dodgy market. Forgery remains an enormous problem in part because we maintain a belief that money exists, even though it doesn’t. That dodgy-looking coin still spends, once it is part of the system.

And so to the inexorable rise of Bitcoin, which has emerged from nowhere to become a global currency — in much the same way as the dodgy coin, it is accepted simply because people agree to use it in a transaction. Bitcoin has a chequered reputation, probably unfairly given that our traditional dollars and cents are just as likely to be used for gun-running or drug dealing as any virtual dosh. It’s also a bubble that looks highly likely to burst, and soon — no doubt some pundits will take that as a proof point of the demise of cryptocurrency.

Their certainty may be premature. Not only will Bitcoin itself pervade (albeit at a lower valuation), but the genie is already out of the bottle as banks and others experiment with the economic models made possible by “distributed ledger” architectures such as The Blockchain, i.e. the one supporting Bitcoin. Such models are a work in progress: the idea that a single such ledger can manage all the transactions in the world (financial and otherwise) is clearly flawed.

But blockchains, in general, hold a key as they deal with that single most important reason why currency existed in the first place — to prove a promise. This principle holds in areas way beyond money, or indeed, value exchange — food and pharmaceutical, art and music can all benefit from knowing what was agreed or planned, and how it took place. Architectures will evolve (for example with sidechains) but the blockchain principle can apply wherever the risk of fraud could also exist, which is just about everywhere.

6. The world will keep on turning

There we have it. I could have added other things — for example, there’s a high chance that we will see another major security breach and/or leak; augmented reality will have a stab at the mainstream; and so on. I’d also love to see a return to data and facts on the world’s political stage, rather than the current tub-thumping and playing fast and loose with the truth. I’m keen to see breakthroughs in healthcare from IoT, I also expect some major use of technology that hadn’t been considered arrive, enter the mainstream and become the norm — if I knew what it was, I’d be a very rich man. Even if money doesn’t exist.

Truth is, and despite the daily dose of disappointment that comes with reading the news, these are exciting times to be alive. 2018 promises to be a year as full of innovation as previous years, with all the blessings and curses that it brings. As Isaac Asimov once wrote, “An atom-blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.”

On that, and with all it brings, it only remains to wish the best of the season, and of 2018 to you and yours. All the best!

Photo credit: Birmingham Mail

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techscopic · 6 years

Text

Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain

Finally, one prediction I can’t make is whether this list will cause any feedback or debate — nonetheless, I would welcome any comments you might have, and I will endeavour to address them.

1. GDPR will be a costly, inadequate mess

2. Artificial Intelligence will create silos of smartness

3. 5G will become just another expectation

4. Attitudes to autonomous vehicles will normalize

Such changes will take time but in the short term, we can fully expect a mindset shift from the general populace.

5. When Bitcoins collapse, blockchains will pervade

6. The world will keep on turning

On that, and with all it brings, it only remains to wish the best of the season, and of 2018 to you and yours. All the best!

Photo credit: Birmingham Mail

Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain syndicated from http://ift.tt/2wBRU5Z

0 notes

babbleuk · 6 years

Text

Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain

Finally, one prediction I can’t make is whether this list will cause any feedback or debate — nonetheless, I would welcome any comments you might have, and I will endeavour to address them.

1. GDPR will be a costly, inadequate mess

2. Artificial Intelligence will create silos of smartness

3. 5G will become just another expectation

4. Attitudes to autonomous vehicles will normalize

Such changes will take time but in the short term, we can fully expect a mindset shift from the general populace.

5. When Bitcoins collapse, blockchains will pervade

6. The world will keep on turning

On that, and with all it brings, it only remains to wish the best of the season, and of 2018 to you and yours. All the best!

Photo credit: Birmingham Mail

from Gigaom https://gigaom.com/2017/12/11/five-2018-predictions-on-gdpr-robot-cars-ai-5g-and-blockchain/

#Gigaom

0 notes

techscopic · 6 years

Text

Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain

Finally, one prediction I can’t make is whether this list will cause any feedback or debate — nonetheless, I would welcome any comments you might have, and I will endeavour to address them.

1. GDPR will be a costly, inadequate mess

2. Artificial Intelligence will create silos of smartness

3. 5G will become just another expectation

4. Attitudes to autonomous vehicles will normalize

Such changes will take time but in the short term, we can fully expect a mindset shift from the general populace.

5. When Bitcoins collapse, blockchains will pervade

6. The world will keep on turning

On that, and with all it brings, it only remains to wish the best of the season, and of 2018 to you and yours. All the best!

Photo credit: Birmingham Mail

Five 2018 Predictions — on GDPR, Robot Cars, AI, 5G and Blockchain syndicated from http://ift.tt/2wBRU5Z

0 notes