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#this is giving 2013 for real now
deepfriedtwinkie · 2 years
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am I part of the Walking Dead fandom now: no (sorry, TWD people)
am I part of the Tom Payne fandom now: yes (not sorry to anyone at all)
am I a tourist in the Walking Dead fandom now, strictly for the duration of Tom Payne’s presence: you bet your post-apocalyptic ass
would I die for Paul Rovia: NAME the TIME and PLACE
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how to block posts with that financesonline.com Go*gle result screenshot
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icarusxxrising · 9 months
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Horrible fact of the day: Chevron just released a new boat fuel that WILL give you cancer.
Not "might", not "could", WILL. It has a cancer ratio of 1.3:1, as in, in a group of 10 people, 10 would contract CANCER.
(Edit: apparently some articles are now saying 1.4:1, and some are saying a little under that. Either way, the consensus seems to be anywhere between a 95-100+% of contracting cancer, with some expectations of this fuel not even needing a full lifetime of exposure for you to get Cancer.)
The EPA's safety limit is 1:1,000,000 as in 1 in a million people get cancer.
The EPA approved it anyways. I am not joking. The EPA approved a boat fuel that has a near 100% chance of giving someone cancer. It has such a good chance of giving someone cancer that if you DIDN'T get cancer YOU WOULD BE AN OUTLIER.
Fuck the oil industries.
Edit: If you find this (rightfully) horrifying, have you considered industrial sabotage? /hj
This isn't something we can vote away. This isn't something the rich are gonna apologize and make a 10 minute apology video for this. They don't care if you starve or wither in hospitals or get blown up in their wars.
If you don't know where to get started:
If you already know what to do, then it's time to do it. Participate in mutual aid, raise awareness in real life as well as online, participate in or train in self defense and emergency medical training classes.
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agendabymooner · 2 months
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SOMETHING REUNITED !!! SEBASTIAN V. X FEM!READER! X MARK W. (18+)
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summary: sometimes a cat-and-mouse game of three can last longer than intended.
content warning: smut below the cut (minors dni), explicit language, mfm threesome, dom!sebastian and dom!mark (mentions rbr!mark and rbr!seb), multi 21, oral sex (m receiving) + deepthroat + facefucking, dumbification if you squint hard enough, double penetration + spitroast, praise kink, size kink-esque, age gap (with mark), unprotected sex (NOT RECOMMENDED)
💌re:moony's planner request: "pls more webberxsebxreader preferably smut"
note: i have a couple asks/requests sitting on my inbox for a while and this is the first thing i've written in a while 😭 i'm sorry to disappoint y'all but enjoy regardless xx
something sinful (smut) masterlist
a - n masterlist // o - z masterlist
if you’d like to get on one of my taglists, check this post out
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even ten years later, she still had them chasing after her. 
working with red bull was anything but easy for her back in 2012, being a 22 years old woman and all. women in motorsports were something of a relatively new topic back then and when she made her presence known in the milton keynes factory, she would have expected things to be hard for her.
well… it was hard for her for a brief moment until a certain australian and german molded her into something more bold, giving her the attention and validation she desired. 
yet she persisted, thinking of them as people who merely wanted her to feel comfortable in the formula one field. she didn’t think much of it before.
until malaysia 2013 happened. sebastian vettel won after he stopped following a team order, causing mark webber his p1 and in the process the ‘multi 21’ controversy occurred. 
she was there to witness all of that - from mark’s radio to sebastian’s interview post-race, even their cooldown room segment. she was there. 
that was also the same night mark finally snapped and bent her over his hotel room bed, with her allowing mark to fuck the frustration out of himself while she whined and cried about how big he was— and how full she felt. 
it didn’t take long for sebastian to hear her whimpering and her pleading, as his room was situated next to mark’s. the german driver came knocking on mark’s door, and sebastian found his cock in her mouth and his hands gripping her hair. 
mark, ever the dominant man that he was, demanded the woman to suck the race winner’s cock and condescendingly told sebastian it was a ‘congratulatory gift’ from the australian. 
that was the last night they’ve ever seen each other in the same bed, but they saw each other a lot in the paddock. 
in 2014, mark left for world endurance while sebastian continued to chase after her - to which she explicitly stated that she wasn’t going to do it again. but sebastian pursued her continuously anyway.
now, in 2023, both men were retired but they always found themselves coming back to the paddock or the pit lane. mark webber had been managing a driver who was a rookie this year, while sebastian couldn’t find himself to leave the scene as he was newly retired. 
both had excuses, but no one really knew the real reason why they kept coming back. no one knew but themselves… and her. 
the ten year build up led to her hotel room by the suzuka track, her tits were splayed out and pinched and caressed by both men and her knicker becoming more damp as they continued to tease her. she uttered nothing but a pitiful sigh, something that had both men groaning in delight.
“god, i fuckin’ miss that whining of yours, baby,” mark nipped her ear, his greying stubble grazing her neck and his grubby fingers nestling themselves between her legs. “miss the way you fuckin’ plead. you miss being handled like this, don’t you?”
sebastian chuckled darkly, his hand finding itself stabilizing her chin as he examined her desperate face. “and you thought those men you’ve been fucking were fulfilling your needs,” sebastian’s german accent thickened as he gave her an amused smile, “we’ve been waiting for this for ten years, liebe.”
it was a blur, having to figure out how she went from sinking down to her knees and choking on sebastian’s cock as the tip hit the back of her throat. she could feel a lot of things.
this included mark’s hand that held her hair up and bobbed her head back and forth. mark crooned sweetly and praised her, “there we go. that’s a good girl. keep sucking his cock like that, baby. you’re doing so good for him.” 
mark nearly laughed when he watched her knees close and clench, fascinated at her submissive state as his eyes looked at her teary ones.
sebastian’s usually-bright-blue eyes were darkening as her mouth took in mark’s length, watching the way her tongue swirled around the aussie’s tip before her nose grazed the hipbone of the older man. 
mark let out a guttural groan, feeling his tip at the back of her throat as she skillfully took him in. he let out a string of curses before he muttered, “good girl. keep sucking me off like that. ‘m gonna fuck this throat of yours, hm?” he peered down at her, waiting for her go ahead and witnessing her nod. 
sebastian smirked as mark’s hips began to snap forward, lewd sounds of liquid escaping her barely empty mouth as she continued to indulge in mark’s cock.
“she can take us both so well,” sebastian crooned to the girl, stroking his cock at the same pace mark fucked her mouth with his length.
a few snaps of his hips after, mark finally pulled her mouth away and allowed her to breathe. she panted heavily, looking up at the towering man and still kneeling before them. 
“think you can take both of us, schatz?” sebastian asked the woman as if she couldn’t comprehend a word anymore. her bruised throat didn’t tell them anything, earning an amused laugh from mark and sebastian. she was already fucked out and she only sucked their cocks. 
mark could remember how desperate she was to suck him off after his loss at malaysia, wanting to please him after he grew frustrated with sebastian’s refusal of order in the track. all mark could think about was how ten years later he was going to feel her again. perhaps even better this time.
sebastian laid on the bed, gesturing for the woman to sit on his cock. 
mark’s hand helped the woman up before slapping her ass, his mouth letting out a smirk when she let out a soft sigh at the impact. 
soon, she sat on sebastian’s lap, sinking down on his cock as she let out a moan, “oh fuck…” 
she adjusted, allowing herself to bounce on sebastian’s cock for a moment before she felt mark move and settle behind her. a splatter of lube escaped its bottle as mark spread it generously, in the process his fingers prodded her back hole as she let out a soft whine. 
mark fucked her with his fingers while sebastian continued to thrust slowly, making her writhe and cry out for the two of them. they really had missed this— her pitiful and pleading moan. they missed making her cry like she hadn’t been fucked hard before. 
“mm… so fuckin’ tight,” mark whispered in her ear, pulling his hand away to stroke his cock and lubricate it. 
she nearly collapsed on top of sebastian when mark’s cock entered her slowly, both she and mark letting out loud moans. she felt so full while mark felt like she was hugging his cock tightly. 
“fuck, mark!” she exclaimed, her head nuzzling sebastian’s shoulder for a moment as she babbled, “so fucking big. god, you’re so fucking big!” 
“you’re so tight for us, schatz,” sebastian murmured and kissed her temple sweetly. “so fragile, we can barely fit ourselves in your holes.” 
“seb,” she whimpered as she muttered, “‘m so full.”
“i know you are, bebe,” sebastian said, humouring her submissive state while mocking her in the process, “you’re so full that you can’t think anymore, hm? all you can do is be a good girl for us because you’re already fucked out.” 
mark groaned loudly, now moving languidly alongside sebastian as the two men thrusted in and out of her holes. she couldn’t do much, she couldn’t even reminisce because of the sensations that she’s lost all thanks to their dominance and their primal urge to fuck her endlessly.
“you miss this, baby?” mark whispered heatedly, now moving rougher as she cried out their names. “missed this body of yours.”
“you had us running after you for years,” sebastian smirked, “now you’re a putty in our hands. such a shame you made us wait this long.”
“it’s a good thing we caught you eventually,” mark added as his eyes found her hands clawing at sebastian’s bare chest while she whined and squirmed in pleasure.
“because we’re gonna make sure you’re not gonna slip away anymore. gonna make sure you’re ours. gonna make sure everyone knows you’re ours — we’re gonna fuckin’ ruin every man for you like we did in 2013.” 
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♡ moony’s reminder 🅶 (general): @hiraethrhapsody @avaleineandafryingpan @enhacolor @roseandtulips @woweewoowa @magnummagnussen @happy-nico @architect-2015 @hiireadstuff @biancathecool @scorpiomindfuck
♡   moony’s reminder 🅴 (explicit edition): @glitterf1 @savrose129 @maxillness
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tonicandjins · 10 months
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all of the girls you loved before
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CHARACTERS: lee donghyuck | haechan x fem reader
WORD COUNT: 3k
GENRE: best friends to lovers, all of the girls you loved before by taylor swift
WARNINGS: none, just fluff
AUTHOR'S NOTE: this has been in my drafts for way too long. hope you like it! please consider donating/tipping me
all of the girls you loved before is the fourth installment from 23 moments with donghyuck
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lee naeun, June 2013 - July 2013
Lee Donghyuck’s first love turned out to be the quickest one.
It was a whirlwind romance, like how he would describe it whenever you’d ask him. At thirteen, you and Donghyuck were finally catching up to the rest of your homeroom’s growing pains—both literally and figuratively. Your legs were longer now, albeit Donghyuck’s becoming longer than almost everyone else’s, and you were prettier than most. Letting your bangs grow was a wise decision in the summer, after all. Long gone were your chubby cheeks and you’d learned how to put on some lip tint before jumping on the bus to school. The internet was a better teacher when it comes to styling your hair; you’d never expected hairstyles come with face shapes. Meanwhile, Donghyuck, though his cheeks are still as round as they were in primary school, has learned that the hugs and kisses he used to give everyone in homeroom erupted butterflies all over.
You’d wondered, of course, because among everyone in class, Donghyuck’s probably given you the most hugs and kisses, yet you haven’t quite figured out what they meant when they say he gives people butterflies.
In the same year, Donghyuck learned consent. His mother and father gave him a lecture on why kissing people randomly isn’t ideal at his age and why consent is important. Hence, he’d stopped giving everyone random kisses. The last one he’d kissed you on the cheek was a week before summer started—not that you were keeping a record of all the stolen kisses—right when you were about to jump off the bus you and him were on.
Lee Naeun gave the first consent at thirteen. On the last day of classes.
She was moving to the US the next school year. Donghyuck made you wait by the benches as she packed up her duffel back after soccer practice.
She was taller than everyone else. Sporty and ambitious, Lee Naeun was every boy’s kryptonite. Just like how Lee Donghyuck was every girl’s.
“Can I kiss you?” Donghyuck asked. Naeun blushed like crazy. She was taller than Donghyuck, so when she’d nodded, Donghyuck had to go on his tip toes to reach her lips.
You looked away when Donghyuck got his first real kiss, wondering if the sudden pain in your stomach is the same as the butterflies that people get when Donghyuck kisses them.
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kim haerin, August 2016 - January 2018
Kim Haerin was Donghyuck’s girlfriend all throughout junior high school.
Contrary to popular belief, Haerin pursued Donghyuck from the first week of classes. You and Donghyuck had moved to a different school after middle school as the one in your hometown didn’t focus much on arts, leaning towards STEM more, which, if you and Donghyuck were being honest, is the last thing you’d want to do in high school. This also meant that you and Donghyuck were new in town—the new girl and the new guy—and that people your age were particularly curious about you and Donghyuck that school year.
Oddly enough, the first thing they needed to confirm was whether you and him were dating. As soon as it was a clear no, you and Donghyuck received flowers left and right. You wondered whether this is what high school should be like and expected Donghyuck to feel the same, but that school year was different. The people liked the extroverted, friends with everybody Donghyuck, so it was easier for him to adjust to the new place and the new people.
They’d started dating the week after school started. Haerin was a part of a big group, the ones who’d studied in the school’s sister middle school down the road, and she knew everyone. She was nice, or so you’ve heard because you didn’t have that many conversations with her to confirm if she truly is, and she’d say hi to you when you passed by her by the lockers.
Donghyuck tried to take you with him whenever they’d hang out, of course, but his attempts could only do much because you weren’t into the same things as they were. Eventually, you’d found your own group and adjusted to the new school all by yourself. It made you worry about Donghyuck less whenever you’d see him all happy and loud like the person he is. While Donghyuck’s name stuck with Haerin’s all throughout high school, yours remain independent. You’d decided you’d start dating when you’re ready.
The only times you’d see each other, apart from the classes you shared, were weekends with your families. You and him talk, of course. Donghyuck at home is different from Donghyuck at school. But it was different. The memories of you and him going to and from school gradually blurred between all the people you’d met in high school.
Kim Haerin broke up with Donghyuck as soon as you all came back from Christmas break on the last year of junior high. She’d started dating the new guy from the other class who transferred all the way from Germany. She’d given Donghyuck a kiss in the middle of the empty gymnasium and told him she’d loved him but the sparks were gone.
Donghyuck waited with you on the bus stop that same day. To this day, he waits with you.
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im jieun, November 2019 – December 2019
Im Jieun was one of a kind, and if you could pick, she was your favorite from Donghyuck’s long list of lovers.
She was a couple of years older than you and Donghyuck. How Donghyuck even got the slimmest chance of dating her, you have no idea. She was a freshman in college. You and Donghyuck met her at one of your seniors’ birthday party; they’d hit it off easily. They had the same personality, almost like twins, and were pretty much the perfect couple in your newly found friend group.
That year was the most life changing for him because Donghyuck lost his virginity with her, and for quite some time, similar to when he’d dated Kim Haerin, he disappeared from your life, and not that you’d cared at much at that time because you were also dating your first boyfriend, Na Jaemin.
Jaemin was everything a first boyfriend should be. Gentle and sweet, determined and future-driven, truly the kind you’d want your parents to meet. He’s been in the same class as you since junior high, but he wasn’t the kind to approach women that easily. He was brought up loyal and kind, and it showed with the way he treated you. He asked you out on a dinner for the first date, at an amusement park for the second, and a picnic by the park for the third—which was the same day he officially asked you as his girlfriend.
When Donghyuck had learned, he was as surprised as a best friend would be.
“You never told me you liked Jaemin,” he commented when you’d told him the news. He was sitting on the swivel gaming chair you and him bought as pairs right beside your bed, where you were still half asleep because he barged in at seven on a Sunday morning. Apparently, he learned it because he saw Jaemin’s Instagram story from your date with him last night.
“Because I didn’t,” you groggily replied. You squinted, trying to make up your mind whether Donghyuck’s a dream or not. “I mean, I like him now. But it didn’t occur to me until he started asking me out for dates.”
Donghyuck leaned his head against your chair, kicking his feet off the floor to spin himself around. “You never even told me you went out on dates.”
You giggled. “Are you sulking now, Donghyuck?”
He sighed. “I tell you all about the girls I date. Even the ones I dream on dating. And this one time you finally decided to start dating, I wasn’t there for you.”
You sat up, watching as your child-like best friend spins himself dizzy on your chair. “Check your phone. Every time Jaemin and I went out, I texted you.”
He sighed again, pressing his foot on your bedroom’s floor, stopping so he could look at you eye to eye. “You didn’t tell me it was a date. You said you were having dinner with him, going to the amusement with him, and hanging out with him at the park.”
“We’re 19,” you pointed out. “What would 19-year olds do alone together?”
Donghyuck tilted his head sideways. “You and I are always alone together.”
“It’s different.” You throw a pillow at Donghyuck, kicking off the blanket from your body and moving to give him some space to lay on. “Come here, you big baby.”
Donghyuck’s mouth formed into a pout but occupied the space on your bed anyway.
“I’m a big girl,” you reminded him as he rested his head on your chest. “I don’t need you to be there for me on my first relationship.”
“Ouch,” he mumbled.
“I will always need you in my life, Donghyuck,” you clarified, knowing well how Donghyuck hates being not needed. “Just, not for this one. I might actually, truly like Jaemin. He’s a good guy.”
Donghyuck hummed. “But I’m still your best friend, right?”
You laughed. Because it’s the most ridiculous thing you’d ever heard. Donghyuck will always be your best friend. You were certain no relationship would break that. You and him were past being insecure about your friendship.
“Always.”
Donghyuck broke up with Jieun before Christmas break. The reason, you have no idea. But he’d told you it wasn’t as fun as it was in the beginning anymore. And Jieun was in university, after all, and you and him had SATs to pass and college essays to ace before the school year ends.
You and Jaemin took him out for clubbing that night, in hopes of cheering him up. It was a mystery to you why he’d suddenly decided to end it when the relationship seemed like it was smooth-sailing. They’d even talk about Donghyuck going to the same university as Jieun next year. You didn’t recall any fights within the relationship, so you wonder why.
Donghyuck leaves the club without you and Jaemin.
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lee naeun (again), February 2020 – April 2020
Donghyuck learned from Lee Jeno that his first love returned from the US to take her bachelor’s degree in Seoul on Valentine’s day. He found her wandering around SNU’s main lobby on the first day of the spring semester. You and Donghyuck were visiting the university after receiving your acceptance letters, looking for an apartment to share. Jaemin was going to another university, so it wasn’t wise for you and him to move in together, hence Donghyuck offered to move in with you to save up some money for rent and other expenses.
Lee Naeun stood there, still taller than Donghyuck, still the first person who ever kissed Donghyuck’s lips, still the first person you’d ever compared yourself to, wondering what she had that you didn’t.
Like the day they kissed in 2013, you looked away when Donghyuck finally reached to where she stood, wondering why, all of a sudden, many years later, the butterflies were flying all over in your stomach once again.
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ginny williams, September 2020 – October 2020
Of course, the first woman that Donghyuck officially dated in university is from the UK. Jeno said he only dated her to show everyone he’s immensely improved in English.
The break-up was proof Donghyuck never improved in English. He didn’t even understand why she was breaking up with him.
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park yesol, September 2021 – February 2022
You introduced Donghyuck to Park Yesol because it’s what she wanted for her birthday.
She had invited you to her 21st birthday. You and her, if you were being honest, barely know each other. You only shared a class in Literature once, so at first, it was a mystery to you why she suddenly invited you. When she’d asked if you could ask Donghyuck to RSVP with you, you’d known that it’s all she wanted from you.
Eventually, they’d start dating. Donghyuck, at that time, had been single for almost a year. He thought he convinced you that college was finally catching up on him hence he’d put a stop to his “demanding” dating life. However, Donghyuck is your best friend, and you could see right through him. You knew he liked someone he wasn’t willing to share with you, and he was probably working up the courage to ask that person out, which, when you thought about it, was new. Donghyuck was cunning and ambitious and he knew what he wanted and how to get it. He was never one to shy away from the people he liked, so it was a little suspicious that it took him almost a year to start dating again. You did not figure out who he liked, and you knew he’d only started dating Yesol to get you to shut up about it.
You and him knew it wasn’t a serious relationship because Yesol was dating other guys while she’d dated him. Donghyuck told you it felt like the relationship was just for sex because of his oozing sex appeal; you’d thrown a cushion at him when he’d said that.
Meanwhile, you and Jaemin were almost at pointbreak.
You didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day being uncertain of the relationship would go, so you broke up with him on the first day of February. Jaemin had gotten an internship in Japan a few months ago, and the company that hired him liked him so much that they wanted to keep him while he finishes his degree virtually. You wished you could say the same, that you loved him so much you also wanted to keep him.
It was finally catching up to you and him, the distance. So, it was better you’d break it off before you and him start failing subjects just to keep a relationship steady.
Two and a half years together wasn’t enough. You and Jaemin wanted to spend the rest of your college years, at least, together. But like he said the night you’d ended it: it wasn’t worth it if it was compromising your mental health and studies. You’d cried so much that night, and you wondered if Donghyuck pretended he couldn’t hear you sobbing from the other side of the apartment.
Come Valentine’s Day, Donghyuck asked you to dress up, throwing a paper bag at you.
The place he “luckily scored” a reservation from, on a busy, fully-booked Valentine’s night, was nice. It was romantic and you were flushed and giddy from all the wine and all of the Donghyuck.
“Why are you here with me and not with Yesol?” you’d asked after the waiter filled your glass.
Donghyuck smiled at you. “I broke up with her two weeks ago.” Around the same time you did with Jaemin. “I figured if my best friend would be miserable on Valentine’s day, I should be, too.”
You laughed. “Well, you don’t look too miserable for a newly single man.”
“I’m not,” he confessed. “I’m never miserable when I have you.”
You reached out one hand, palm facing Donghyuck. He intertwined his hand with yours. And it fit perfectly. Just like the dress he got you.
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your name, June 2022 – present (or alternately, sometime in 2005 – forever.)
“Lee Naeun, Kim Haerin, Im Jieun, Lee Naeun again, then Park Yesol,” you enumerate. “You were a ladies’ man!”
Donghyuck whines, begging you to stop as you go through his things in his room, particularly the notes and letters from the girls he’d dated.
You and him are moving out. Graduation is just around the corner, and you and Donghyuck decided to move on to a better place. Your boyfriend got a job in one of the biggest companies in his industry, while you’re yet to find yours.
“Don’t forget Ginny Williams,” he teases, throwing you a love letter from the bunch.
“You did not date Ginny Williams, Donghyuck. It was an illusion,” you scoff. “Tell me one conversation you had with her. A real one.”
“I swear to God, she loved me,” he answers. “Stop playing around and help me in here.”
You stand from the carpeted floor and walk towards Donghyuck as he sorts out the things from his study desk. Donghyuck starts with the tower of books and folders, organizing them alphabetically as he carefully places them on the box labeled as books. The other box is labeled as essentials; hence you start throwing his headphones and speakers and its chargers in. While doing so, you get a hold of a small box that contains what you thought were miscellaneous items mixed in with trash, until you realize what’s inside.
There are a few polaroid pictures of you and him from high school, including a picture of you and him on your high school’s graduation day, some receipts from, now you recognize, the places you’d gone to. There’s a receipt from when you and him took the subway to visit a museum at the other side of the country back in 2018, another from Valentines day 2022, when you and him celebrated being newly single, the old ticket from your senior prom when he’d gone with you, and so many more that you could recognize just from its dates.
“Donghyuck,” you whisper as you look at the box of memories. Donghyuck turns, eyes wide when he recognizes the box you’re holding. “Where… where should I put these?”
Donghyuck loved many girls in his life. You can recall their names in the order of when he’d dated them. You had your favorites and the ones you didn’t like that much. Some of your friends wonder if you’ve ever been insecure knowing you weren’t the first kiss or the first person he had sex with and if you were okay with knowing all of that. You weren’t the first and you wish you’d be the last. The only thing you’re certain of, is that he had always loved you, and that alone erases all the other thoughts.
If you could say so, you’re thankful for all of the girls he loved before because they made him the one you’d fallen for. Every dead-end street led him straight to you.
He smiles. “Essentials.”
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jeff-from-marketing · 2 months
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Hey it's been a hot minute, I'm gonna go off about Helldivers 2 for a bit, because the whole thing fascinates me.
Funnily enough it's not even the actual game itself that truly fascinates me, as great as it is. I do genuinely think that, while not perfect, it's a very solid game that knows what kind of experience it wants to deliver, and does a fantastic job delivering on it. The Starship Troopers-esque satire is hilarious, and I love how much the gameplay reinforces that satire through things like reinforcements canonically being a whole new Helldiver sent into the meat grinder, and that the mission still counts as a celebrated victory even if you never make it back alive. I could even talk about how the objectively clunky system for calling in orbital support is actually a positive for the game, but only this game and the type of experience it's selling.
But none of that is what fascinates me about this game so much. Because y'see, I played the first Helldivers game, and it was also a great bit of fun! It's actually why I was interested in the second one to begin with. But I also know that the first Helldivers was not a very wide reaching game, none of Arrowhead's games have been. They've not done poorly by any means, they're still in business and have been for over a decade now. But they've always been fairly niche affairs. Until now. To really sell the picture, I wanna rattle off player counts for their previous games:
Magicka in 2011, Arrowhead's first big game and published by Paradox, had an all-time max player count of 11,727 players according to SteamDB. I don't believe it was on any other storefronts, but I could be mistaken. A quick wikipedia visit tells me that the game sold roughly a million units over a year which, again, not bad! Especially for a game that is admittedly fairly unusual, but is a lot of fun!
The Showdown Effect in 2013, which I only just found out about right now after double checking my numbers, had a all time high of just 3,284 according to SteamDB, and is now delisted from Steam. Though apparently there's a remake from another company happening? There's a lot less info on this one in general.
Gauntlet in 2014, this one I do know a bit more about since I also played this one. A remake of the original 1985 game, and was a good bit of fun as well! This one is trickier to get an accurate player count reading, because it did have a PS4 release and those are harder to find numbers for. Regardless, it was also on Steam, so therefore I can use those numbers at least, which gives me a max consecutive player count of 12,730. I don't know how much PS4 factored into this.
And now we get to the real interesting one: Helldivers 1. Again, this is tricky because not only was it on console, but it was actually on console before it was ever on PC, which heavily skews numbers. SteamDB has the peak at just 6,744, but this doesn't sit right with me. I've seen estimates of 50k people around the place, some say 35k, but never a solid source. It's also very difficult to search atm because of how much Helldivers 2 is blowing up. Speaking of...
So Helldivers 1 is their most popular game, and I'll be generous and say that the 50k count is the accurate one. So surely Helldivers 2 can't be that much more- oh I'm not even going to pretend, you already know what's going on here. The game has reached ~450k concurrent players just on Steam alone! And the game also exists on PS5, and if I recall correctly: there's official statements saying that the player counts are roughly equal with each other. That means a peak of ~900,000 individual players. To illustrate how bonkers batshit insane that is, motherfucking Fortnite has a current consecutive player count of roughly one million.
Let me reiterate: a game that came out of basically nowhere with little marketing, from a small studio with only about 100 employees, is rivaling the juggernaut that is fucking Fortnite. That is insane.
As someone who has played all of Arrowhead's previous games besides The Showdown Effect, this is bonkers. There's a reason the sentiment was "there's no way to have predicted this" when the servers were at their worst, because look at the previous data! How is anyone supposed to predict a sequel to a niche game (from a company very few people have heard about) to get a ~1800% increase in max player count? Their initial server capacity was 250k, which would've been very optimistic if you were just going by Helldivers 1 numbers. But then that wasn't enough. And then 360k wasn't enough. And then 450k wasn't enough. We're now at 700k server capacity and just finally getting things under control. This game just exploded in a way no one could have reasonably predicted. And I have no idea why this is the case either.
I'm not saying it's not deserved; it absolutely is! Like I said, game is great, and there's not even any shitty business practices I can bitch at this time! It's just so sudden and out of nowhere that it baffles me. Such a small percentage of these players would've even heard of the first game, let alone played it. It didn't have a massive marketing campaign, this is pretty much all spread through word of mouth, which is insane in its own right. It's not even like the game is entering an untapped market, it shares its existence with games like Deep Rock Galactic, Vermintide, Darktide, the actual Starship Troopers game, probably some others I'm forgetting. And yet, despite all of this, it breached containment something fierce. I don't have a big conclusion to make from all this, I'd love to be able to say "oh people are just getting tired of Triple A- oh I'm sorry, Quadruple A gaming and this is a breath of fresh air" and it is that, as was Baldur's Gate 3, but I'm not naive enough to think that's the main reason. Not when so many other great games continue to go undiscovered, and so many people still end up buying whatever the next big Triple A thing is. It's a great game to play with friends, and there's a lot going for it and a lot of charm, but such is also the case for the other games I already listed in this paragraph and they don't see the same popularity.
Whether it's just dumb fucking luck, or a really oddly specific set of circumstances at play that I can't see, I'm just dumbfounded and flabbergasted. But I'm not exactly gonna complain. It's fun getting sent into the meat grinder to spread Managed Democracy, and I'm glad the game is doing as well as it is, though I do hope that the devs get to have a bit of rest once the dust finally settles a little bit.
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reallyhardydraws · 4 months
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2023.
i hope any of you reading this will forgive the essay. i started posting to this art blog ten years ago in 2013 when i was just at the very end of high school, uploading short animations i'd made for one of my final projects, preparing myself for art school where i was gearing up to become an illustration/animation student.
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i went into my art foundation course in 2014, still thinking i was going to be going into storybook illustration or with faint hopes of becoming like a concept artist for game/animation, although even then i'd started thinking about patterns...
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and then in 2015 i did go into my BA, going in for that illustration with animation degree that... usually when i talk about it in real life, i say didn't really feel like the best place for me. if i think back, the best things i got out of it were two of my best friends, one of whom is now my partner. looking back on my BA era, there's some bits of sketchbook stuff...
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and while i was at university my main fandoms were thunderbirds are go and x-men for a bit... these are from the end of 2015 into the beginning of 2016...
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then for a little while i was doing this still sort of pastel-ish lineless situation:
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and i alternated between that and this thin fineliner type work (pretty sure all of the linearted pieces were done on paper and scanned, and all the lineless were graphics-tablet-only) - it was in this style that i started to offer commissions for the first time too.
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and i also had fineliner-lined work in sketchbooks that i coloured with marker and posca pens, the colours of which were generally a bit more intense just based on not being able to slide the hue/saturation around on paper:
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also 2016 was when i discovered the spongebob musical just after it's trial run in chicago (which ended in july of 2016) and i started making fanart at that point... which would have the biggest effect on the way i drew (and i did end up handing in a piece of spongebob musical fanart as one of my art school homeworks lmao)
from summer 2016 until early 2017 things were still quite soft and pastelly in my digital art, colour-wise:
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and then suddenly everything got whacked up to 100% on saturation. also i was using the binary tool to give everything really thin pixel lineart for some reason.
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then i went on vacation in summer 2017 and didn't draw for maybe a month? just short of? and when i came back i decided to change everything up again... giving characters blobbier, more ugly-cute faces with large squinting eyes and big nostrils and i was worrying a lot less about making anything look smooth, lineart-wise. i turned off the pen stabiliser in SAI and let it wiggle.
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then... the spongebob musical opened on broadway in late 2017, i went to see it live in person for the first time... and my whole brain was ENTIRELY consumed by my love of it. i was putting that david zinn inspired pattern explosion into everything, even if it wasn't sbm fanart.
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as we go into 2018, i started colouring my lineart. my biggest interest was still broadway musicals (with spongebob at the top of the list)
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i think summer 2017 - early 2018 is probably my favourite art era, i was at my most bright and colourful and exciting... although i know in my actual real life i was struggling a lot with my home situation and i had been for some time. art was definitely my escapism back then, and i think a lot of the time i drew really bright, joyful stuff to try and inject that feeling into myself.
as for my university work, i was putting my focus into 3D paper-mache puppets:
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and i was also starting to do more repeat patterns, mostly inspired by things around me. i'd learned how to make patterns actually tile and repeat in 2017, so made a few during my time at uni just to accompany some of my projects, but never as the focus of them. one of my university tutors told me that maybe i should put more focus on doing surface pattern, and maybe applying it to textiles, but i said i wasn't interested.
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i graduated from my BA in the summer of 2018, and immediately began volunteering at the whitworth art gallery doing anything i could - stewarding, helping with arts and crafts, dancing with families...
in 2019 i was still very colourful... i was trying out more chunky colouring on characters skintones that i think was def inspired by tumblr artist jadenvargen:
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but the blobbyness and ugly-cute style of drawing faces was gone by here, and i think... the way i drew characters probably had better *anatomy*, proportions were maybe a bit more realistic...
in 2020 i started adding the black shading to under the chins and some other places on characters' bodies because i started watching the anime my hero academia with my brother, lmao (and i was starting to pastelise colours a bit again, these are the most pastel-ish examples) my lineart has really smoothed back out too, though i never turned my pen stabiliser back on in SAI. i think my hand just adjusted. probably seems a bit insane to miss that, but i do.
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by the end of 2020, the almost-year of lockdown over cobid had... made me a bit insane, i think, and i moved out of my mother's house and into a flat with a friend from university.
in 2021 i think things were much the same... i think from this point on is where things have sort of settled. i don't want to say stagnated, but i do think things have been very... like this for a while.
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2022 - got the most exciting examples out...
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also i was very into these little frames in 2022.
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and then on to 2023! in 2022, i did begin trying to shift gears a bit -- hoping to put more energy into sewing and making products (like my tutor has suggested back in uni, even though i'd really resisted the idea.) i sold at a few in-person markets during winter of 2022, but got disheartened by the amount of money i had to sink in up front to sign up for a spot...
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which has made me VERY grateful for the people who have supported me via online sales. it has really helped me stay afloat in 2023 - AND it has felt more wonderful than i can describe that there have been people interested in my work... especially when a lot of it has been my original designs, rather than the fanart that i expect a lot of people initially followed me for.
i've also... in the past 2 years... branched out a bit more when it comes to 'being an artist' - and have had the opportunity to deliver arts & crafts workshops with local refugee & asylum seeker support charity, afrocats. it's taken me to their home base in a church to hotels across the city where asylum seekers were temporarily placed while waiting on their new homes, and of course to my beloved whitworth art gallery, where we welcomed visitors from all backgrounds: from the typical white middle class visitors the gallery usually expects, to all the refugee visitors coming into the space for the first time.
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and through my volunteering at the whitworth, i showed up so often they decided they might as well pay me. so i've also become a facilitator of... creative play sessions, my favourites of which have been outdoors. monthly, year-round, we have 'outdoor art club', where i get to paint with mud and make potions from leaves with kids & families - here you can see me tell you a little bit about it in this video below with 'crempog' a puppet character that makes videos about activities for kids and families around manchester (my bit starts at 01:10 although i am in the intro and thumbnail haha)
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and then of course the summer 'PLAYTIME' activities we've had the past two years: scrap studio in 2022, and play market in 2023. it's the best freelance gig ever -- just to hang out and encourage families to be creative and have fun.
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in working more in these new avenues... outside of being - as i've called myself for a long time - "an internet artist"... i've found myself more interested in this sort of thing. in being a "real world artist" too. in doing surface pattern design, and being a workshop facilitator, i find myself wanting to put more energy into these sorts of projects.
in 2023 i've also dabbled a little bit more in youtube videos! i have had a channel for a while and have made videos in previous years, but 2023 has been the year i've done the most in. admittedly most of them haven't been about my art, and more just like... random things that interest me (the spongebob musical in particular) but i've really been enjoying video editing. that's kind of an art form too, so i'm including it here!
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moving forward, want to keep putting even more of my energy into other things. my shop, with a bigger range of products to offer. workshops in real life, where i can make a difference.
as for my art blog... i feel like i've done the least drawing in many years in 2023, and... well, things have been weird and complicated for a bit in my real life. i hope to draw for fun a bit more again very soon, and to return to doing things in more of a wild and crazy way, to be more creative and exciting with the way i draw things. still, here's some of my favourites from 2023:
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thank you so much to everyone who has borne witness to my art journey this past decade!!! i hope you will stick with me, who knows, maybe for another 10 years if tumblr holds out. especially a big thank you to everyone who has ever commissioned me, or bought anything from my store, you literally keep me able to make art at all and i cannot, cannot, cannot overstate how much it means to me.
i'm moving homes soon, possibly into very cramped temporary conditions for a little while before HOPEFULLY starting my real life with my partner. if i can take one more moment to plug my work, then [here is a link to my online shop] and [here is my ko-fi page too.]
cheers, cheers, cheers!
- LOREN 🌈🍍🎉
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sgiandubh · 3 months
Note
@outlanderskin :"For those who have doubts: just research a little about Caitríona's dating history. See how she treated Dave and James and how she talked about them in interviews. See how she wrote about the Irish boyfriend she had in Paris in that article. Compare all of this to the impersonal way she treats or talks about Tony. Bingo🙃"
Good point 👌
Dear Good Point Anon,
You know, it's really serendipitous, as I have just finished a weeklong deep dive in very, very old press articles on (or at least mentioning) S and C, who clearly had a life before OL, thinking it would be nice to put some of my archive work skills to good service.
I think @outlanderskin was referring to C's New York Times article I reviewed and analyzed last summer, but I just found way better: a very long report in the Irish Independent's Sunday issue of July 11, 2004, focused on the next generation of Irish supermodels. Of which there could be only one, at that time: C, who dominates Roxanne Parker's 'Through Thick and Thin".
I am sorry, there is no link available to my knowledge, so we'll have to work with these very poor xerox scans:
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I took the liberty of generously using my dreaded highlighter and, for the people who need to translate this post with Google, I am now taking my time to type what I find damn interesting in this almost twenty-year old article:
'If Ireland ever has a hope of having its own supermodel, then Caitriona Balfe is it. Sitting in the Pink Pony Café on Ludlow Street in New York, Caitriona swirls a wad of bread into her carrot and coriander soup while informing me that her musician boyfriend just brought her a breakfast-in-bed of cream eclairs and coffee a little over an hour ago. But that doesn't stop Caitriona from finishing her lunch and chasing it with a large cocoa-dusted cappuccino. Ebony-tressed and ivory-skinned, Caitriona clip-clops down the cobbled street after we leave the cafe, heading towards her apartment in Chinatown with Dave Mailone (sic!), the boyfriend, in tow.'
This reads, in 2024, like an interview with a more benevolent C clone from a totally different planet, indeed. A young, carefree, in love and hysterically funny C, who apparently had no problem heavily dishing out happy tidbits of her private life to her home country's press. A C also very much reminiscing anyone with a brain of the 2013-2018 bantering C, as this quote shows:
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Again, you'll have to indulge me retyping it, Anon (tedious, I know - but helpful). She is remembering her real breakthrough, in November 2002, at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, in New York:
That was the most I've ever been paid for a show. I've got 18,000 euros for one day's work! They made me get a spray tan before the show, and I was still the whitest and the least well-endowed girl in the entire show! So what did she have to wear on the big day? `Not a whole lot! I think I described my outfit on the day as something Wilma Flintstone would wear on her honeymoon night. There wasn't a whole lot to it and it had bits of fur hanging off it.'
And, for good measure, we even have a (admittedly, awful) picture with the season's fiancé, with whom things did not end well:
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I know, it looks like a Pravda pic, circa 1957 and I am honestly sorry. But it's still very clear. And, which is more important, very eloquent.
Anon and reader, you draw your own conclusions on this. I know where I stand. The only guy C has similar pics taken with and released in the press or on social media is the peasant some love to bash every single day in here. Their problem, not mine.
Yes, of course Mordor will yell and hiss. Of course they will throw rotten tomatoes at the blunt knife and scream THIS IS OLD. But hey, do you have any better than this poor (but oh, so endearingly authentic) picture or than any given S&C pic before the fucking EFH and IFH, when she gradually started to turn into today's Reclusive, Restrained and Rarefied Greta Garbo wannabe?
Oh, and please: don't give me the 'he's shy' or the paperwork crap again. Her public persona has drastically changed, and not for the better. It's plain to see and there are reasons for this.
Who's to blame? This question is so wrong, in so many ways.
The question should be 'what's to blame?'
I'll stop here, Anon and I hope it was somewhat useful. Thank you for dropping by.
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its-time-to-write · 6 months
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i hold it like a grudge - ch. 5
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I don’t know why this fic wrecked me so much. I’m literally the author. I know what’s gonna happen. I decided what’s gonna happen. Maybe I’m just tired. also does anyone remember that time I said I hated writing chaptered fics and swearing that each one was an anomaly/the last time I’d ever do it?
table of contents you’re still everything to me
Jamie Tartt is in your kitchen, puttering around so he can make a pot of tea and with an eyebrow slit like it’s 2013 again.
He sent you to go change so you slip on sweatpants and curl up on the sofa.
“Here you are, love,” he says, setting the tea down on the coffee table. He sits on the opposite end of the sofa, a respectable distance away.
“Why didn’t I see you?” you ask, staring out the window. The room is illuminated by the streetlight glow from the kitchen.
“How d’you mean?” responds.
“I visited mum last year. I was there all day. Why didn’t I see you?”
Jamie pauses. “I went early.”
“No, no you didn’t. There weren’t any flowers when I got there, and you said you brought her flowers.”
He’s quiet long enough for you to turn and check if he’s even still in the room.
He is.
“I… saw you,” he says eventually. “Didn’t think we’d be there at the same time, but-” he raises an eyebrow as punctuation. “Anyway, I was behind a tree. Saw you sit down and at first I thought I’d just wait in the car, but you started crying and- and I didn’t know if I should say somethin’ or leave. Did neither, so I just stayed. Placed the flowers and paid my respects once you left.”
You sip your tea in silence.
After a long time you say, “I’m glad you didn’t say anything.”
“She always believed in me,” he says by way of reply. “Even when I was being a little shit, she still made me feel like she wanted me around. Three people I want to make proud the most were her, mummy, and you.”
“Wanted,” you correct. “Wanted to make proud. Mum’s gone, and we’re not even friends.”
“D’you think we ever could be?”
You consider. There’s a part of you that feels like you’re friends already. He’s in your flat for fuck’s sake. 
“I don’t know,” you say. “Honestly I don’t. I’ve only ever loved you, Jamie, and for a long time I couldn’t see the future without you. I still can’t see it, I’m just living day-by-day sometimes.”
He chews his lip. “How can I make it up to you?”
He’s asking all the hard questions tonight.
“I don’t hate you anymore,” you say frankly. “You were there for me when I needed you, and you leaving me was the worst. But it turned out good. And, I dunno, over the last few days I just keep wondering what’s gonna stop you from leaving again? Deciding you want someone else more, or my value means less?”
“Maturity.” He says it slightly drawn out, enunciating the consonants. He has a hint of a smile, which is stupid, because now you have one too.
“Seriously, though, I’m not like that anymore. Went of, was a prick, and it were shit. I’ve never heard mum that mad at me, Jesus Christ. Swore my ear off, she did. Didn’t have real friends, wasn’t happy, drank a lot of vanilla vodka. Keeley broke up with me for cheating on her, too, but not with sex, like; just on a date. Said shit about accountability.” 
He says it the same way he said maturity. 
“Hm,” you say. What else is there to say, really?
“Hm,” you say again as you reach to set your tea down and move to the other end of the couch so you’re pressed up against Jamie’s side.
He wraps his arms around you and pulls you close.
“Stay the night?” you whisper. “I don’t want to be alone and I have a guest bed.” 
Jamie nods.
It’s 3am, and you wake up with the sound of your mum saying your name still echoing in your room. You’d been dreaming, showing her the life you’d created and she’d smiled the whole time. She wasn’t wispy, she was the same mum who kicked a football with Jamie, sang horribly off-key with Simon, and convinced Georgie to even give him a chance in the first place. 
Tears pool in the corner of your eye.
I am not drowning. I can do this.
There’s a light tap on the door. “Come in,” you croak.
Jamie pushes it open and sticks his head in. “You’re crying,” he states. “Woke up a minute ago feeling shitty.”
You pat the bed and roll over.
Jamie climbs in under the covers and reaches tentatively for your hand. You let him take it.
“Just because I’m emotionally fragile does not mean that I forgive you,” you tell him tearfully. “I’m just pretending you never left and everything’s fine so I’m not going to hate myself for letting you into my room and letting you see me cry.”
“Alright,” he whispers. “C’mere. We’ll forget about it in the morning.”
You both move closer under the covers. You blame sleep and grief for the kiss you press to his clavicle, and you’re sure you’re dreaming they way he murmured, “How the fuck did I ever leave you?”
Jamie is true to his word. He doesn’t say a word when you wake up, just extricates himself from your hold and goes downstairs.
“I’ll be here for today,” he tells you once you drag yourself out of bed. “After that, you can decide how you feel about me. You don’t have to think about it today.”
It’s a four-hour drive to Manchester, and you’re not sure when it was decided that a) Jamie was coming with you, or b) that he’d be the one driving. He stops to pick up breakfast and coffee and doesn’t say a word about eating in his fancy car. You stare out the window and let the music playing over the speakers flow over you. It’s still raining, less than last night but still heavily. 
You grip Jamie’s hand with white knuckles and cry, truly cry in a way you only allow once a year but this time, there’s a new component.
I could’ve had this, you think. You and Jamie, together.
Something new tugs at your chest and you turn to look at Jamie. Tears have gathered in the corners of his eyes, and he’s sniffling a but, trying not to let it show. 
You readjust in your seat so you’re leaning against his arm, and he tilts his head to rest on yours for a fraction of a moment. 
Your mum’s place is the same as it always is. Her name, printed in rounded letters. The dates, signifying that she did not spend enough time here. You place down your blanket and sit, back against the headstone as usual with your head tilted up to the sky. Jamie stands a good distance away, just watching with his hands shoved in his pockets. 
“Hi mum,” you begin, voice cracking. “Um, I’m sorry I don’t get up here much. But that’s what kids do, right? Leave the nest and only visit on holidays. 
Things are going well still. I’ve gotten offers for collabs with some brands, so I guess that’s cool. Jamie’s here, he’s by the tree though. I don’t- I don’t know what to do about it, mum. I wish you were here. You always saw things clearer than any of us, and I just don’t know. Turns out I didn’t ever stop loving him. Keeley thinks we have this weird cosmic connection or something. Do you believe in that? I think you might have. 
I- I think we’re going to see Georgie and Simon after this. I don’t really know. I haven’t been thinking straight today, you know. I just miss you.  I want to hug you again and I promise I’m okay on my own, it’s just hard sometimes. I thought- I thought-”
You’re unable to get the rest of the words out. It’s fucking sunny out and it feels wrong, like the world should remember this is a day to mourn a soul who should’ve been around longer. The sky should at least have the decency to cry along with you. 
A hand touches your face to wipe away a tear. You wrap your arms around Jamie’s neck and he just holds you for a minute, an hour, a year. Time might be passing but you’re unaware of it. He’s whispering in your ear, saying, “I’ve got you, it’s alright love, take as much time as you need,” but it’s only sounds to you. Sweet sounds, but not comprehensible words. 
It’s safe, here. It shouldn’t be, here on your mother’s grave with your cheating ex-boyfriend in your arms, but it doesn’t feel like that. 
It feels more like you’ve finally arrived home after years of travel. 
Jamie feels the same as he did before he made it to the Premier League, back when he’d nick flowers from a garden and climb through your window late at night, not like the prideful boy who broke your heart in five minutes over the phone. 
“I’m here as long as you need,” he murmurs, and you believe him. 
You pull away slightly to look him in the face. “I love you,” you say. 
He smiles, but only with his eyes as he swipes a thumb under your eye. “I love you too,” he says. “Don’t think I ever really stopped.”
It’s at that exact moment that the sun disappears behind a cloud and it begins to rain. 
table of contents
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vs120shound · 4 months
Text
By any name ⏤ Isabella here or by the widely-known Anka Zapala ⏤ this is one dynamite smoker of rare beauty and grand style. She's doing SF for now until she can open her own line of lingerie!
DEBUT OF 'ISABELLA' (WELL, KINDA/SORT OF) FOR SMOKINGMODELS!
Looks familiar, right? Oh, so, painfully familiar to us all. This is "Isabella" from SmokingModels (Florida, U.S.A.) yet she is much more better-known as Anka "Anna" Zapala, SF Entrepreneur/Smoking model/actress. You know her from www.annasmoking.com, her SF website. And we all know her from her SF modeling careers at Smoking-Models (U.K.) and ElegantSmoking (U.K.) and SmokingSweeties (Spain) as well. But she had a gig with SmokingModels, too, and this might be her prime video among the 12 that were shot by Austin, the web-master/web producer of SmokingModels! This clip is a treat, a real treasure! Another gem by Anna! . . . they nearly all are!
Dual-Media 12-Post, 40-Pack Megapost!
By any name ⏤ Isabella here or by the more accepted Anka ("Anna") Zapala ⏤ she is a radiant vision of utter Smoking Beauty, web-masters/web producers and SF aficionados alike can mainly agree that she is one of the reigning Super Stars of the Greater SF World Community scene, now 27 y.o. James, Fran and Austin ⏤ the site administrators/owners of Smoking-Models (U.K.), Smoking Sweeties and SmokingModels (Florida, U.S.A.), who most likely shot Anna for their websites ⏤ simply did not distinguish themselves against the other two competing web-masters/web producers if this had evolved into a competition. Each did a fine job filming her for their sites. But they each were staring at "screw the pooch" scenarios but failed to fail. They captured her Smoking Sexiness because Anna exudes it . . . at all times. It would've be difficult to fail, even if it were intentional. She aims to give up her SF deal to open her own line of lingerie! She opened a YouTube page in 2013, got into Social Network posting by 2016 and within the next year had immersed herself into the SF World. She was born and educated in London (U.K.). Her mother is from Krakow, Poland, her father from Spain. She is 5-foot-4 inches tall, 45 kg or 100 pounds, slender and exotic and athletic looking . . . and a heavy, joyous, unrepentant smoker. L&M might be her "go-to" brand! Anka is lovely with Virginia Slims 120s Gold Pack as well!
Previous Posts Within Our Family of Anka Zapala!
From lostlighter23 on January 6, 2023 (QUICKHITTER#18) . . .
From lostlighter23 on December 4, 2023 . . .
ANCHOR PHOTOS OF ANKA ZAPALA!
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Anna captured by Smoking-Models (U.K.)!
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Anna on Reddit!
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tanoraqui · 1 month
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the thing is... JK Rowling did write the books. She certainly did write the books, which was the pivotal first step.
However, here is an incomplete list of people who meant more to my experience of reading and enjoying the Harry Potter books than JKR ever did:
My grandmother, who read them because she loved to read and because she wanted to understand what the hell her granddaughter - whom she'd recently moved 3,000 in part to live near - spent 90% of her time talking about; who passed away this past fall.
My other grandmother, who read them for more or less the same reason except without the cross-country move; who passed away in 2014. It was in her honor that I bought the current set of books I own.
The uncle-shaped family friend who always listened to me expound on my latest theories for the next book, and told me his own like an equal in intellectual debate
That one writer on Mugglenet's fanfiction archive who wrote a crack soap opera fic in which Professor McGonagall got pregnant from Crookshanks, and the children were cat-human hybrids whom they called "kiddens." That haunts me to this day.
Honestly, collectively every single person who wrote content, be it recordkeeping, fic, or analysis, for MuggleNet circa 2005-2008. Some people spent their internet-childhoods on Neopets or Club Penguin; I read every single page on MuggleNet.com.
The summer camp counselor who'd read HBP when I hadn't yet, and who responded to my positively tsundere attitude toward spoilers by telling me straight-faced that Harry started dating Luna [not Ginny]. A) The fucking audacity! she lied right to my annoying 10yo face! B) I got to experience the giddiness of finding out what happened twice, once then and again later when I read the book! Thank you, Natalie(?) from Y-Camp!
The two friends with whom I went to the DH midnight release party at my local secondhand bookstore, in closet cosplay. We were all in the first 5 people to get our books, and we promptly started reading them while standing outside the bookstore, in the light coming through the front window. 1 of them was parentally required to go to bed but the other and I stayed up all night reading, until we finished the books sometime mid-morning.
My dad, specifically when he (still) tells the story of having to make a "walk of shame" (his words) back to the bookstore the next afternoon, to ask if they had the broom we'd accidentally left behind.
The tourists from America, England, France and China who were all waiting in line at the Platform 9 3/4 overpriced photo op in King's Cross Station the same time I was, in the summer of 2013, which unironically made me feel more spiritually connected with humanity as a whole than possibly any other experience in my life. Like, this is embarrassing. It's a pure tourist trap. Yet people from LITERALLY all around the world had all made the same journey I had to be there, just because we all loved the same books. and that's...really special.
...you know? So, JKR is doing real harm to the trans community now, and will continue to do more and maybe even worse in the future; and I am so, so sympathetic and angry about that. I have no intention of giving her money or any other support ever again, nor of encouraging anyone else to do so.
But all her present vitriol is only drops in the lake of my warm memories. I don't let them give me a falsely rosy view of her, but nor will I let her poison them. And I encourage others to let themselves find the same balance, if they can.
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milligramspoison · 9 months
Text
List of FOB songs that can possibly be magic 8 ball songs at some point
Evening Out With Your Girlfriend
Honorable Mention - last performed on January 22nd, 2007
Switchblades and Infidelity - last performed on August 28th, 2004
Pretty In Punk - has never been performed live (yet)
Growing Up - last performed on November 7th, 2008
The World’s Not Waiting (For Five Tired Boys In A Broken Down Van) - has never been performed live (yet)
Short, Fast, And Loud - has never been performed live (yet)
Moving Pictures - last performed on November 23rd, 2005
Parker Lewis Can’t Lose (But I’m Gonna Give It My Best Shot) - has never been performed live (yet)
Take This To Your Grave
Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today - last performed on July 30th, 2013
Sending Postcards From a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here) - had its only live performance ever on March 12th, 2004
The Pros and Cons of Breathing - had its only live performance ever on November 19th, 2007
Grenade Jumper - last performed on February 20th, 2009
Reinventing the Wheel to Run Myself Over - last performed on November 19th, 2007
My Heart Will Always Be the B-Side to My Tongue
My Heart is the Worst Kind of Weapon - has never been performed live (yet)
It’s Not a Side Effect of the Cocaine, I Think It Must Be Love - has never been performed live (yet)
Love Will Tear Us Apart (cover) - had its only live performance ever on June 10th, 2004
From Under The Cork Tree
Our Lawyer Made Us Change the Name of This Song So We Wouldn't Get Sued - last performed on March 23rd, 2008
7 Minutes in Heaven (Atavan Halen) - last performed on January 4th, 2007
Champagne for My Real Friends, Real Pain for My Sham Friends - has never been performed live (yet)
Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying (Do Your Part to Save the Scene and Stop Going to Shows) - had its only live performance ever on May 6th, 2006
XO - last performed on December 2nd, 2007
Snitches and Talkers Get Stitches and Walkers - has never been performed live (yet)
The Music or the Misery - last performed on August 12th, 2006
(Note: I didn’t include I’ve Got A Dark Alley as Pete has said that song will never be performed live)
Infinity on High
Don't You Know Who I Think I Am? - last performed on December 2nd, 2007
The Carpal Tunnel of Love - last performed on April 4th, 2008
You’re Crashing, But You’re No Wave - has never been performed live (yet)
It’s Hard to Say “I Do”, When I Don’t - has never been performed live (yet)
Folie à Deux
The (Shipped) Gold Standard - has never been performed live (yet)
Tiffany Blews - last performed on September 19th, 2009
w.a.m.s. - has never been performed live (yet)
20 Dollar Nose Bleed - last performed on September 29th, 2013
West Coast Smoker - has never been performed live (yet)
Pavlove - has never been performed live (yet)
Lullabye - last performed on April 26th, 2009
Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits
Alpha Dog - has never been performed live (yet)
“From Now On We Are Enemies” - has never been performed live (yet)
Yule Shoot Your Eye Out - last performed on December 18th, 2013
Save Rock and Roll
Alone Together - last performed on November 17th, 2017
Just One Yesterday - last performed on September 12th, 2014
The Mighty Fall - has never been performed live (yet)
Miss Missing You - last performed on January 14th, 2015
Death Valley - last performed on September 12th, 2014
Young Volcanoes - last performed on May 7th, 2018
Rat A Tat - has never been performed live (yet)
PAX•AM Days
We Were Doomed from the Start (The King Is Dead) - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
Art of Keeping Up Disappearances - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
Hot to the Touch, Cold On the Inside - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
Love, Sex, Death - last performed on June 14th, 2014
Eternal Summer - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
Demigods - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
American Made - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
Caffeine Cold - had its only live performance ever on November 29th, 2013
New Dreams (cover) - had its only live performance ever on September 13th, 2013
American Beauty / American Psycho
Jet Pack Blues - last performed on May 7th, 2018
Novocaine - last performed on March 27th, 2017
Fourth of July - last performed on March 22nd, 2017
Twin Skeleton’s (Hotel in NYC) - has never been performed live (yet)
Mania
Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea - last performed August 18th, 2019
HOLD ME TIGHT OR DON’T - last performed May 7th, 2018
Wilson (Expensive Mistakes) - last performed November 4th, 2018
Church - last performed April 30th, 2018
Heaven's Gate - has never been performed live (yet)
Champion - last performed on December 6th, 2019
Sunshine Riptide - has never been performed live (yet)
Young And Menace - last performed on October 10th, 2018
Bishops Knife Trick - has never been performed live (yet)
LLAMANIA
Past Life - has never been performed live (yet)
Footprints in the Snow - has never been performed live (yet)
Wrong Side of Paradise - has never been performed live (yet)
Lake Effect Kid
Lake Effect Kid - last performed on October 10th, 2018
City In A Garden - has never been performed live (yet)
Super Fade - has never been performed live (yet)
Believers Never Die, Volume Two - Greatest Hits
Dear Future Self (Hands Up) - last performed on December 6th, 2019
Bob Dylan - has never been performed live (yet)
So Much (For) Stardust
So Good Right Now - has never been performed live (yet)
I Am My Own Muse - has never been performed live (yet)
Flu Game - has never been performed live (yet)
So Much (For) Stardust - has never been performed live (yet)
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lovelytsunoda · 3 days
Text
life in the fast lane // miles teller
summary: the life and times of trailblazing indycar driver y/n y/l/n, and her celebrity husband, miles teller. in the weeks leading up to the indy 500, the pair have a very special announcement that will alter lives forever.
pairing: miles teller x andretti driver! reader
author's note: its hard to write an smau about a man with no public instagram account lemme tell you that real quick-
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y/ny/l/nteller just posted!
indianapolis, indiana.
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liked by josefnewgarden, monicabarbaro, valkilmerofficial and 4,578 others
y/n/y/l/nteller indiana never felt like home to me until i had you on the open road.
indy tests start monday, and we are officially one month out from the five-hundred. let's do this, indiana!
see all comments
valkilmer you got this kiddo! we're all rooting for you!
-> ynylnteller 🥺🫶🏻 love ya Val!
kyle_kirkwood i have known your husband for four years now and he still looks awkward in every single photo that gets taken of him at the track. how does he do it?
user babe come home, the children miss you?
-> y/n/yl/nteller miles and i don't have any kids (yet)
ashleynewgarden shocked we got through that dinner without josef and miles singing beyoncé at the karaoke bar
-> josefnewgarden that happened ONCE. I wish miles had social media so he could help me defend these accusations
-> y/n/y/l/nteller take it up with the hubby, not me
user does she look like she’s out on a bit of weight?
-> user it’s probably muscle lmao she’s an athlete bud
patriciooward most photogenic couple in the paddock!
monicbarbaro booking my flights rn
-> ynylnteller girls weekend here we come!
y/ny/l/nteller just updated her story!
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ynylnteller just posted!
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liked by reesewitherspoon, coltonherta, glenpowell and 5,145 others
ynylnteller god I’m going to miss all of this
*this caption was deleted*
ynylnteller days like these 🫶🏻
see all comment
user did anyone see the original caption?!? where is my girl going!
stingrayrobb thanks for making my nieces day so special! she looks up to you so much and she spent all day talking about how awesome you were. thank you and god bless!
-> ynylnteller your niece was an angel, it was my pleasure!
coltonherta your straight line speed this morning was absolutely incredible. are we thinking an andretti 1-2 is in the cards this weekend?
-> ynylnteller absolutley! let’s get it!
glenpowell everyone is talking about straight line speed and I’m just amazed that you can balance on the tires like that-
-> ynylnteller it took five years of practice to be this good glenn
ynylnteller just posted!
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liked by monicabarbaro, katherineracing, scottdixon and 4,653 others
ynylnteller as much as it pains me to say it, the todays Indy 500 will be the end of my 2024 season. while I’m upset that this season is coming to an end prematurely, I am also beyond excited. if the pictures above didn’t give it completely away (and my husband was able to keep his mouth shut all weekend), I am beyond overjoyed to announce that miles and I are having a baby! we tried to keep it under wraps for as long as we could, but as of the next race, baby teller would be too big for me to race without hurting them or myself,
while I won’t be on the track itself for the rest of the season, I couldn’t give this place up if I tried. Instead, my car will be driven by the amazing callum_ilott and I will be joining my bestie jameshinchcliffe in the commentary box.
when I was little, I only had one dream: to be a race car driver. but as I got older that dream began to change, and I realized all of that meant nothing if I didn’t have anybody to share it with. I wanted a family.
We are so excited for this new chapter in our lives.
Lots of love,
Miles and YN Teller xx
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scottdixon I’m so happy for you, darling! that baby is going to be so loved and so cherished. please pass my congratulations on to miles as well!
-> ynylnteller none of this would have been possible without you, so you’re the real hero here!
user mother is going to be a real mother now!
valkilmer congratulations yn! if you and miles ever need anything at all, you know where to find me (or mercedes and jack)
-> ynylnteller thank you val!! ❤️
glenpowell I am going to be the best godfather this kid has ever had
-> ynylnteller first of all who said you were the godfather?
-> coltonherta yeah it’s gonna be me actually
-> ynylnteller actually it’s going to be neither of you
-> coltonherta but why? I’m already a great uncle?
-> glenpowell yeah so am I!
-> ynylnteller everybody be quiet or we’re making Val the godfather -Miles
-> coltonherta you’d pick the old man over us?!?
-> ynylnteller he *is* less annoying
ashleynewgarden so pleased for you both! this will be your next great adventure! kota is looking forward to having another little buddy to hang out with 🫶🏻
callum_ilott I promise to take good care of the car! rest up and relax over the next nine months, god knows you might never sleep again
user miles is becoming a dilf!!! miles teller is becoming a dilf!!!
TAGS:
@magnummagnussen @libraryofloveletters @cartierre @lorarri @diorcharles @httpiastri @sidcrosbyspuck @thatsdemko @userlando
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kingofthering · 2 months
Note
saw your tags when Fabio was supposed to follow on Marc s footsteps, but a mess happened with his manager.
I am new what exactly happened
Okay, so. Going to gather all the information from Fabio's biography by Michel Turco.
Fabio's first ever manager was Eduardo Martin.
Essentially, Eduardo's main issue is that instead of growing Fabio's career to make Fabio better, he chose the directions of Fabio's career to better fit the promotion and marketing of his energy drink (Wild Wolf) [note : the brand never ever really came to life).
In 2011, Fabio was riding in 80cc and that's where Eduardo approached his parents. He started helping Fabio and buying him a bike so he could train for the next category. He helped Fabio secure a sit in CEV Moto3 in 2013, with the team Wild Wolf Racing. That year, Fabio also moved to Spain in Eduardo's house.
Fabio won CEV Moto3 in 2013, winning the last 3 races (championship had 9 of them).
At that time, Emilio Alzamora (Marc's manager for 18 years, until mid-2022) was working with Monlau Competition and Estrella Galicia to build a ladder to bring young riders to Moto3 and then Moto2 (they had already done it with Alex Marquez and Alex Rins).
During the 2013 season, in Albacete (so either June or September), Emilio approached Eduardo to talk about Fabio. Apparently, Eduardo wasn't liking the potential move to Marc VDS in Moto2 and the presence of Monster (remember when I said that Eduardo only cared about his energy drink brand?) and Emilio said that it took him days and days before being able to have Fabio's contract signed.
In 2014, Fabio was finally in the Monlau Competition structure and he joined team Honda Estrella Galicia 0,0. Emilio says that they taught Fabio a lot of things then, especially in the way his race weekends were structured. Fabio also got to try new bike parts that HRC was then giving to Alex R. and Marc.
The 2014 season of CEV Moto3 contained 11 races. Fabio won 9 of them and finished the other two second. He obviously got a second title that year. Please have a look at one of my fave quotes from the book, where Emilio compares Marc & Fabio at 14 years old.
In the summer of 2014, Emilio had to go talk to Carmelo Ezpeleta because back then, the minimum age to participate in a GP was 16 (note : Fabio would only turn 16 on the 20th of April 2015, the day after the 3rd round of that MotoGP/Moto2/Moto3 season). After a bunch of discussions, Emilio managed to have the big instances say that "a 15 years-old crowned in CEV could start in the World Championship even if his birthday was after the start of the season" [note : we essentially still have that rule today except now you have to be 18 and 17 years old are accepted if they were crowned champions the year prior].
Now the year is 2015 and Fabio is riding for Estrella Galicia 0,0 in Moto3. His season does not go as he would have hoped. He gets two second places in the early part of the season but finishes 10th and has a couple of crashes, ends up beat by his teammate Jorge Navarro.
Here's what Emilio had to say about the situation : "The issue wasn't Fabio but this Eduardo, taking care of him. [...] He didn't know much about racing. He only had one thing in mind : to see Fabio on top of every practice session. He wanted him to win before he had even learnt what had to be learned. This attitude didn't benefice anyone."
Mid-season, Emilio said : "His results until now have exceeded our expectations. The objective of the first half of the season is to gain experience. Some people seem to forget that he's only 16 years old."
As the season progresses, tensions rise between Eduardo and Emilio. Eduardo wants to take Fabio to Leopard Racing (they were on top of the Moto3 Championship with Danny Kent then) while other team managers are interested in Fabio, including Aki Ajo. Aki said that he was really interested in getting Fabio and that he did a lot of efforts to have him in his team. He said : "I remember that it was a real challenge and that insisted a lot, I was convinced that we could do something to help him. When I met him in my office, I immediately felt like he was the type of guy I would really like to work with. I think that he felt the same thing then but there were other reasons, coming from his management or elsewhere, that made this not happen."
Towards the end of August, in Misano, Fabio gets a double fracture in his right ankle and shortens his first Moto3 season. Fabio wasn't doing well then but that's when he met Tom, please see some of my other favorite quotes.
At the end of 2015, Fabio leaves the Monlau structure. Back then, Eduardo justified it by saying this : "When we started renegotiating the contract with Alzamora, the question of our liberties for the future came. The contract we were offered was engaging us for a longer time than I wished for Fabio. Leopard was giving us this freedom and everything else I asked for. The Estrella Galicia project went from CEV to MotoGP, going through Moto3 and Moto2. I understand this philosophy and I suppose it suits most riders. It wasn't fine for me because Fabio is not a rider like the others. He's a special rider and he needs to be free so he can always make the best choice at the right time. The Almazora project is not flexible enough for us."
Also, like I mentioned earlier, Eduardo didn't want long term because he didn't want to end up in Moto2 with Marc VDS. Michael Bartholemy, then head of that team, says : "This guy was crazy. He didn't know anything about motorbikes and racing. He thought he was managing Lewis Hamilton, he wanted 300-pages contracts, wanted to choose the sponsors, etc..."
We'll finish this with one last quote from Emilio, still having regrets about not being able to finish this missions with Fabio six years later [note : the book was published in 2021] : "It was a waste. We had sponsors like Estrella Galicia who had already invested a lot in the project. They were counting on Fabio to launch themselves on the international market, notably the French market. Everything fell through because of a manager not very clear-sighted... At the same time, this taught us how to better write our contracts. On my side, I'm very happy that Fabio managed to bounce back and that his talent didn't end up being wasted."
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darknight3904 · 5 months
Text
The Stars
Masterlist / Main Masterlist
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Asgard 2013
Warnings: Loki's dirty thoughts about  Astri, Loki talking about his life with Thanos.
For someone who had been locked up for weeks, Loki looked a little too desirable. His deep voice was soothing as he read the book he had chosen for tonight. Astri had long ago stopped focusing on the words and was admiring him through the yellow barrier that separated them. His hair was a bit curlier today than it had been yesterday, Astri wondered if he had done it like that on purpose. The green leather and golden armor he normally donned was gone and in its place was a softer more comfortable-looking outfit, perfect for the lounging that took up his days.
   "You aren't listening," Loki said suddenly
   "Sure I am." She lied
   "I chose a romance book because I thought you'd enjoy it." Loki sighed
   "And why would I enjoy a romance book?" Astri asked
   "I thought most females enjoyed romance books." He reasoned
   "How stereotypical of you, Loki." Astri smiled
   "Well if you don't want to read what do you want to do? Our options are limited given I'm stuck in here." He said, snapping the book shut
Astri thought about what they could do with Loki stuck in a cell. The idea of trying to push her way through the golden barrier crossed her mind, sure her magic might be strong enough but was Odin's rath worth it? Astri wasn't quite sure. 
   "How about we just sit and talk?" Astri suggested 
She took Loki's silence as agreement and began the conversation. 
   "What do miss now that you're stuck here?" 
   "Everything," Loki admitted 
   "If you had to pick one thing," Astri said
   "I guess I'd choose...the stars. It was always peaceful looking out my balcony at night when the stars shone. I wish I could experience it again." He chose 
   "Interesting choice." Astri complimented, standing up
   "Where are you going?" Loki asked 
   "To my chambers. I'll see you another time." She explained as she walked away 
She could hear Loki scampering to find a reason for her to stay longer, even offering to never choose a romance book again for them to read together. Astri was glad that he had chosen something simple for her to bring to him, had he chosen something like conquering Midgard that would have made her idea much harder. Now, all she had to do was figure out how to get through that damn gold barrier.
Loki didn't see Astri for the rest of the week, the only signal that she wasn't angry with him was the romance book she had sent to him via a guard who had handed him a note to go with it. 
Thor's lady, Jane, says men who read romance books are hopeless romantics themselves. 
Was he a hopeless romantic? Surely not. They were just means of entertainment for him after all he had a higher purpose that he'd someday fulfill. Astri's analysis was wrong. Speaking of Astri, where the hell was she? She had said she'd see him again but didn't give a date or a time and it was driving him mad. The only other real interaction he'd had since she left earlier this week was with Frigga who projected herself to his cell. Sure, it felt like she was close to him but it hurt when he'd try to reach for her only for his hands to slip right through. Loki loved Frigga deeply but he yearned for Astri's sharp remarks and how she'd immediately call him on his lies. 
He wondered what she'd be wearing the next time she entered the dungeons. Perhaps a lilac dress? She had been in a pale pink the last time they spoke. Of course, he'd love if she wore the blue one she had that had white lace embroidered on it, that one was his favorite. The way it accentuated what she thought was hidden so well under the fabric was perfectly sinful. Astri's figure had been on Loki's mind a lot recently. Initially, he thought it was because of being stuck here and the fact that she was going through his mind at night. But it had continued the entire week and he hadn't seen her at all. Sure, it could have been her going through his mind but that didn't explain why he thought of her even during the day. He'd spend time reading or drawing and find his mind wandering to her what her lips would taste like. He had smelled the stuff she put on them once, it smelled like fruits, would she taste like it too? Loki's mind spiraled more as he wondered what she'd look like if he slipped his hand up her skirt and into the apex between her thighs. He'd love to pin her down on the bed he was sitting on now and press his face between those same thighs until she screamed from overstimulation. He wondered about what she'd look like above him, gasping in pleasure as she took what had always been hers.  Loki wanted to be able to press a kiss to every inch of Astri's body and yet here he sat, imprisoned while she flitted about in the castle about him.
   "Good, you're still awake." 
Astri. Finally, she showed. Loki's hands fumbled with the pillow beside him as he placed it quickly over his lap. It was so late what was she doing down here now? 
   "Well don't be shy, get up and greet me properly." She commanded 
Loki eyed her arms which were overflowing with a bundled-up blanket and a big wicker basket. Ordinarily, he would've risen to greet her but his half-hard cock wasn't something she'd want greeting her so he stayed put. 
   "Fine, be rude." Astri huffed, pushing the blanket and basket through the small weakness in the yellow shield that was meant for delivering his meals. "You'll be thanking be after this." 
Loki's eyes widened as Astri's closed. A soft blue hue covered her body as she took a step towards the shield. 
   "What are you doing? The guards will-" Loki stopped his words as Astri phased right through what was penning him in. "When did you learn to do that?" 
   "What do you think I've been spending my week doing?" She smiled crossing the cell to get to him 
Loki wasn't expecting a warm hug but he welcomed it anyway. 
   "I can't believe you tried conquering Midgard," Astri said pulling away and giving him a hard shove 
No sooner had he opened his mouth to explain his glorious purpose than Astri had slapped her hand over it, shutting him up entirely. 
   "You can talk about glorious purpose later. I have a surprise." She smiled, turning around and laying the blanket on the ground. 
   "What are you doing? You do realize this is a dungeon...how did you get past the guards?" He asked suddenly curious 
   "A cloaking spell." She smiled and began unpacking her basket which as it turned out was full of food. 
   "So you're here to have a midnight picnic with me?" Loki asked finally standing up 
   "No, silly. You said you missed the stars, so I brought them here." Astri smiled pulling him down on the blanket with her. 
Loki decided to indulge her desires and got comfortable beside her. His hand reached for a grape as Astri snapped her fingers beside him. The area around them dimmed and the ceiling of the once bleak cell was transformed into a brilliant light show. The other cells disappeared as Astri's magic took over and seemingly wrapped them in their own little bubble. The stars twinkled and danced in front of Loki's eyes as he observed what she had done for him.
   "Do you like it? I know it's not the stars from your balcony but it's the best I can do right now." She said
   "I love it." He smiled, looking at her 
   "Good...I also brought some food." Astri awkwardly pointed out
   "Yes, I see, thank you. " He said genuinely 
They sat in awkward silence as Loki tried to think of something to say to the girl next to him. This was the first time they had been physically in front of each other in weeks. His hands itched to take hers in them, they looked impossibly small as she picked at the skin beside her nails. 
   "What the hell were you thinking?" Astri asked suddenly 
   "I bed your pardon?" Loki asked, confused. 
   "You knocked me out, destroyed Joutunheim, then let go and fell who knows where after Odin woke up and tried to help you and Thor." She explained 
   "Is that what they told you happened?" He laughed 
   "Yes. I want an explanation, now." She demanded, reaching to poke at his ribs, an oddly ticklish spot for him 
   "There was no point in staying behind. There still isn't anything for me here on Asgard, my rotting in this dungeon proves it. I have never and will never be essential to the house of Odin." He said 
   "Nothing here for him he says." Astri sighed "What about me? Or Frigga? During the year you were off gathering an army did you ever think about what we were feeling?" 
Loki felt his anger boiling in his stomach. Did Astri think he was off galavanting across the galaxy, feasting war generals so he could use their troops to win Midgard? 
   "Do you honestly think I was living my best possible life after I left here? What do you think I was doing all that time?" He snarled, upset that Astri was only talking about her and his 'mother'. 
   "I've wondered every night what you were doing where you were but you never speak of it." Astri said 
She had him there. 
   "Have you ever heard the name Thanos?" Loki asked, he felt his hands shaking. Why is he telling her this? Stop it. Send her away, yell at her to go back to her room, and push her away. 
   "I've heard it, in whispers from travelers and reports from across the galaxy, Odin has mentioned him." She said, Loki could feel her eyes on him, his gaze cast at his lap. 
   "After I let go I ended up in a place called the Sanctuary. I met Thanos there. He offered me control of Midgard in return for the Tesseract." He said shakily. 
   "What more? Months after you went missing, I kept trying to find you, and one night I did, or I think I did. You were suffering heat or something was being used." Astri said gently brushing her hand along his shoulder. 
   "He uh...He, Thanos used a tremendous amount of heat to buy my submission." Loki said, shutting his eyes. "Frost Giants can burn as it turns out." 
Loki felt Astri's hand rubbing at his back and her chin resting on his shoulder. 
   "After I had submitted to his whims, he used the Mind Stone, one of the Infinity Stones to do his bidding. After that, he sent me to Midgard, Infinity stone in hand." He said, "It remains there, those Avengers have it." 
Loki heard Astri let out a soft hum of confirmation next to him. Minutes passed and Loki dared open his eyes when he felt Astri shift beside him. 
   "I want you to know something, Loki." Astri said hooking a finger under his chin so he'd look at her "You are good. You always have been even if can't see it. 
Their noses brushed as Loki's eyes fluttered shut again. He felt hot tears run down his face at Astri's words. Damn it why did he always cry when he wanted to express emotion? 
   "Thank you, Astri. I don't feel that way, though." Loki said his eyes opening to meet Astri's whose face was close to his. 
   "You will. One day." She reassured 
Astri was indescribably warm as she pressed her forehead to his. Their breaths mingled as Loki took her hands in his. 
   "I missed you. There wasn't anyone to read with or joke with." She admitted 
   "You could have with Fandral." Loki smiled 
   "Oh please, Fandral reading?" Astri scoffed 
   "True, I think he'd rather chop off his right arm than pick up a book," Loki said, sitting up and pulling away from her slightly. 
Astri's hands broke from his, and she grabbed at his shirt, pulling back towards her. 
   "Wait." She murmured 
   "What is it?" Loki asked 
Astri's face grew redder the more Loki looked at her. 
   "Don't you have something to say? You told me to wait." He teased 
   "I just..." 
Come on, say what's going through that pretty head. 
   "I like it when you're close to me." She whispered as if it were a secret.
   "I it like when you're close too," Loki admitted, reaching out and twirling a strand of  her hair around his finger 
Astri let out an amused giggle and leaned closer. 
   "Guess I should stay nearby then." 
Loki had no complaints about that statement and nodded in agreement. Astri's scent invaded his nose, it was exactly as he remembered. Fruity yet flowery at the same time, and yet it wasn't too overpowering. He watched as her tongue appeared, slightly wetting her lips, it was like she was trying to tempt him into touching her. 
   "What're you thinking about?" Astri asked 
   "You," Loki said 
Astri barely had enough time to crack a smile at his admission. Loki knew what was next, a smart comment about how she was always dancing around in his mind. So, he stopped it in what he thought was the cleverest way possible and brushed his lips on hers. They tasted of fruit just like he had imagined for so many years. Astri had let out a small squeak of surprise when Loki had leaned in but now, he felt her smiling into their kiss. Smaller arms wrapped around his shoulders as she let out a laugh, breaking away for air. 
   "What was that?" She breathlessly asked 
   "You said you liked it when I was close." He said a wide smile on his face. 
Astri tossed her head back with a laugh and Loki felt his own laugh bubbling up through his stomach and out his mouth. He felt Astri's hands playing with the hairs at the nape of his neck, her nimble fingers pushed through his dark strands and a shudder ran down his spine. Their lips met again, this time with Astri initiating. Loki gently cupped her face as he felt her invade all of his senses, her presence was casting an unbreakable spell on him and he gladly welcomed it with open arms, after all, it was all he could ever dream of. 
Hehe first kiss for Loki and Astri. 
I am having Coriolanus Snow brain rot. Tom Blythe is one sexy mf. 
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goodnightmemes · 1 year
Text
CATCHING FIRE (2013) SENTENCE STARTERS
feel free to change pronouns / terms / tense as needed!
❛ You're okay. You're safe. It's okay. You're here with me. ❜
❛ It's only a few weeks. I'll be back before the snow melts. ❜
❛ A lot can happen in a few weeks. ❜
❛ I did what I had to do to survive. If I didn't, I'd be dead. ❜
❛ If you wanted to be babied, you should've asked [name]. ❜
❛ You are a strangely dislikeable person. But you do have your virtues. ❜
❛ Such bravery. Such spirit. Such…contempt. ❜
❛ My dear, I think we can make this so much simpler if we agree not to lie to each other. What do you think? ❜
❛ What is to prevent, say, an uprising? That can lead to revolution. And then, in a fraction of time, the whole system collapses. ❜
❛ You should imagine thousands upon thousands of your people dead. This town of yours reduced to ashes. Imagine it gone. ❜
❛ Tell me. At what point did he realize the depth of your indifference towards him? ❜
❛ I don't want to kill you. I want us to be friends. But if not friends, then allies. ❜
❛ That was nice acting. Almost thought that kiss was real. ❜
❛ All you need to do is give a few speeches, wave to the crowds, and enjoy your time in the spotlight. ❜
❛ I'm really not in the mood for a lecture. I'll apologize to [name] later. ❜
❛ You don't have to apologize to anybody. Including me. ❜
❛ If you can stop looking at me like I'm wounded, then I can quit acting like it. ❜
❛ I've never been very good at friends. ❜
❛ She was too young, too gentle. And I couldn't save her. I'm sorry. ❜
❛ Wait! No! Leave him alone! ❜
❛ I never meant for anyone to get killed. ❜
❛ I'm sorry. I didn't know what to do. He threatened to kill my family. ❜
❛ Well, I have family, too. Okay? People that I need to protect. ❜
❛ Come here. You're gonna be okay. I promise. ❜
❛ It was just a dream. I'm sorry. ❜
❛ Will you stay with me? ❜
❛ We could get married. ❜
❛ Eyes bright. Chins up. Smiles on. I'm talking to you, [name]. ❜
❛ Everybody who's anybody is here. And they all want to meet you. ❜
❛ It's appalling. Still, if you abandon your moral judgment, it can be fun. ❜
❛ Well, maybe it was you who inspired me to come back. ❜
❛ She's not who they think she is. She's not a leader. She just wants to save her own skin. It's as simple as that. ❜
❛ I agree she should die. But in the right way. At the right time. ❜
❛ It's moves and countermoves. ❜
❛ It won't work. Fear does not work as long as they have hope. ❜
❛ They're gonna hate her so much they might just kill her for you. ❜
❛ If we leave right now, we can be far away from here by tonight. ❜
❛ [name] threatened to have you killed. ❜
❛ You know how I feel about you. But I can't think about anyone that way right now. ❜
❛ The only thing that I can think about every day, every waking moment, is how afraid I am. There's no room for anything else. ❜
❛ You haven't hurt people. You've given them an opportunity. They just have to be brave enough to take it. ❜
❛ We have to go before they kill us. They will kill us. ❜
❛ People are looking to you. ❜
❛ I don't want anyone looking to me. I can't help them. ❜
❛ Look, you're new here. Trust me, I'm trying to help you. ❜
❛ Thought you'd be gone by now. ❜
❛ I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna stay right here. Cause all kinds of trouble. ❜
❛ How can we live like this? How can anybody live like this? ❜
❛ You understand that whatever I do comes back to you. I don't want you to get hurt. ❜
❛ You don't have to protect me. ❜
❛ If you cannot contain [name], then I will have to terminate her. ❜
❛ And you've come to, what? Ask me to... die? ❜
❛ What's it say that [name] was here 45 minutes ago begging to save your life and you only just now show up? ❜
❛ You could live 100 lifetimes and never deserve that boy. ❜
❛ There are survivors. There's no winners. ❜
❛ Do whatever you can. [name] lives. Not me. Promise me. ❜
❛ How could any of us even trust each other? ❜
❛ It's not about trust. It's about staying alive. ❜
❛ You look pretty terrifying in that getup. ❜
❛ I haven't dealt in anything as common as money in years. ❜
❛ I'm an open book. Everybody always seems to know my secrets before I know them myself. ❜
❛ So what do you think? Now that the whole world wants to sleep with you? ❜
❛ I guess we just try to figure out who we trust least and work our way backwards from there. ❜
❛ There's always a flaw in the system. ❜
❛ How are we gonna kill these people? ❜
❛ God! Does anybody actually believe this? ❜
❛ You know, I'm getting totally screwed over here. ❜
❛ Well, you know what? Fuck that! And fuck everybody that had anything to do with it! ❜
❛ Just be your usual self. Actually, be your happier self. ❜
❛ Make him pay for it. ❜
❛ We're a team. Aren't we? ❜
❛ You both deserved so much better. ❜
❛ Any last advice? ❜
❛ Stay alive. ❜
❛ Remember who the real enemy is. ❜
❛ I don't want to be with anyone else in there. Just you. ❜
❛ Look at this. They're holding hands. I want them dead. ❜
❛ Good thing we're allies, right? ❜
❛ Well, I guess we're not holding hands any more. ❜
❛ I don't care about any of them. ❜
❛ Be careful. There's a force field up there. ❜
❛ Oh, my God. You were dead. Your heart stopped. ❜
❛ Someday I want to love someone that much. ❜
❛ We should set up camp. Take turns sleeping. I can take first watch. ❜
❛ That thing I did back there for [name]? That was called "saving his life." ❜
❛ If I wanted to kill either of you, I would've done it by now. ❜
❛ Don't worry about anything else. I'll be right here with you. It's okay. It's okay. ❜
❛ She sacrificed herself for me and I didn't even know her name. ❜
❛ They know they're outnumbered. I doubt they'll attack again. ❜
❛ They can't hurt me. There's no one left that I love. ❜
❛ Love is weird. ❜
❛ I don't want to be the one that shoots first. ❜
❛ They're not gonna make that same mistake again. ❜
❛ You know and I know there's only one person walking out of here. ❜
❛ If you die and I live, I'd have nothing. Nobody else that I care about. ❜
❛ See, this is why no one lets you make the plans. ❜
❛ We couldn't tell you with [name] watching. It was too risky. Better for you to know nothing. ❜
❛ You have been our mission from the beginning. ❜
❛ This is the revolution. ❜
❛ You promised me that you would save him over me! ❜
❛ You promised me! You're a liar. ❜
❛ You're okay. You've just been asleep for a few days. ❜
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