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kithtaehyung · 2 months

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would u? (3tan717) | myg

3tan717 drabble #1: would u? pairing: 3tan!yoongi x reader(f) series: masterlist | three tangerines | 3tan717 rating/genre: pg (18+) ; fluff ; brother’s best friend au, implied age gap au summary: you see a certain fruit-centered trend online.. and decide to test it on yoongi note: i am so so so sorry this is out on the very last day of feb but things have been absolute bananas lately! tbh i’m surprised this is even getting posted on time and i have even more to do after this is shared but eff it shibal!!! note 2: as promised, this is dedicated to the people that submitted the answers i’m using for this drabble: anon, grapes / @yoongrace, and apryl @aprylynn for this idea hehehe! also i literally just finished this so it's legit unedited so i'm sry for any mistakes! off to go prep for events now! warnings: 3tan yoongi as always, working yoongi??, kitchen, period cramps suck but yoongi to the mf rescue drop date: feb 29th, 2024, 10:03pm est word count: 2.3k

Ugh.

Why does this have to happen every fucking month. Why can’t it happen every three? Or six? Or never ever ever?

Groaning, you roll over, burying your face into the pillow on Yoongi’s side.

To some degree, you feel placated, probably due to his scent still lingering next to your dismay. He had to get up early to finish a track, but he assured you can be in the room.

You can hear a little bit of what he’s working on as it bleeds through his headphones, and even just this sliver of sound gives you chills. Not just because of what it sounds like, but the sole fact that Yoongi’s letting you even listen in the first place.

Huffing out a bit of amusement, you remember the last time Yoongi let you stay while he worked—albeit at his place while he went to the studio.

Damn, how much you’ve grown since then. All those memories, those quiet times and tumultuous times, everything leading up to now. How time has molded you with knowing hands.

However, no matter how much has changed all these months, some things have not wavered, like the fact that you needed to be sure he was okay with it—and his answer making you absurdly shy.

Did he really have to say that you’re either staying or he’s gonna leave? That scheming motherfucker!

Some drum beats hit your cheek before you realize the menace himself is playing multiple different ones. It’s only a couple hits before he moves onto the next, and you’re about to lift your hea—

“Fuck, where the hell is that kick?”

Your laugh is stifled by cotton. As tickled as you are to hear Yoongi like this, you don’t wanna do anything to distract him.

But by doing so, that causes your body to tighten and fuck, it hurts. It hurts to move, it hurts to laugh, it hurts to just exist. God, you want him to come back and join you so bad, but you don’t wanna be that person.

…Yet. Maybe if it gets so bad you can’t even sleep?

“Found you! Fucking finally. Thought you could hide from me, huh?”

Oh, fucking hell, he’s adorable.

Yeah, there’s no way you’re making him drop everything right now. This is too precious of an afternoon to stop.

Exhaling a mile long breath, you fight through your pain and feel for your phone, groaning as you shift yourself. When in position under sheets and warm sunlight, you cycle through apps as a distraction.

Scrolling. Scrolling. Smiling at some animal videos a bit before scrolling again.

After all of five minutes, you start to see a trend on your feed, and suddenly get the idea to try it on Yoongi. It’s simple and harmless, right?

You [3:30pm]: would u peel an orange for me

Yoongi doesn’t say anything, and you lift your head slightly to see if he looks at his phone.

When he does, he checks it really quick before setting it back down on his desk, back to clicking on his screen.

Ah. Damn. He must really be in the zone because…

Uhh.

Blinking, you watch as Yoongi rolls his chair out to get up, setting his glasses down and heading out of the room with a light swing of his chains.

Uh. What just happened? Did you upset him? You’re so stunned that his swift exit has you wanting to get up and follow him.

But ow. Ouch. It’s maddening how much your cramps are getting to you.

Bearing the punches to your gut, you start sliding out of the bed, straining and sucking in sharp breaths just to stand and pull Yoongi’s comforter over your tension.

Padding out the bedroom, your worries make your steps tiny and heavy, and you regret sending that text because you literally just said you weren’t… gonna…

On the dining table—quiet—lie three tangerines, peeled and placed next to vibrant scraps while your lover peels a fourth with diligent, devoted hands.

And you can’t even form words that match how you feel.

Your vision swims right as Yoongi looks your way, his body stilling before he puts the fruit down.

When he approaches with concern, you answer his silent questions through hiccups, “I—I thought you left cus—you were mad.”

“Huh?”

“I don’t even know,” you swallow, gesturing to all of your lower half and feeling him hold the slipping blanket. “It’s just… this, I guess.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Like a motherfucker.”

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry, doll. Hold up.” Handing you the comforter, Yoongi goes to his cabinets in the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of medicine before walking it over. “You gotta take something as soon as you feel it. Don’t let it get this bad.”

“I know,” you groan, resting your head on his shirt and inhaling his healing presence. “I didn’t wanna bother you.”

Your forehead is kissed. “You’re not bothering me. Especially with something like this.”

“Okay.”

He walks away again to grab some water, and you watch as he pours some into an electric kettle before starting it up.

Glancing back at the fruit, you sigh, clutching the bottle of pills while feeling the weight of his comforter. He’s probably not pleased with the way it might drag on the ground, so you gather it and pick the end chair to sit on.

And then you sigh, “Sorry for making you peel those. I didn’t even plan on eating anything.”

“Too bad. You’re gonna eat what I make you anyway.”

Wait, he’s cooking? He has work to do! “You’re working, though. Don’t worry about me right now.”

“It’ll be quick.”

“What are you making?”

A glass bowl and pan are procured from random places before Yoongi blinks in place. “Uhh.. You’ll see.”

As he clunks them onto his counter and stove, you watch with hearts for eyes as he bustles around the kitchen space. Even doing things as simple as washing his hands, opening his fridge, and simply grabbing a knife gives you pause.

And this is when you realize that you can watch Yoongi do absolutely anything and be amazed.

Even when he stands, watching you with a look that’s wait why doesn’t he look—

“Take the medicine, baby girl.”

Oh.

Snapping out of your trance, you nod. “Sorry.”

Yoongi continues to give you glances until you swallow down the painkillers, satisfied enough to continue his cooking venture when you take the second one.

As the sun paints the apartment in marigold and light, you keep watching with a smile as he brings the kitchen to life. Butter sizzles in a pan, tangerines are getting halved on a board, and something is getting mixed with a whisk.

Who knew that the neighborhood fuckboy would have a whisk on hand? Not the younger you, that’s for damn sure.

But here Yoongi is, in the flesh, whisking away with veiny forearms that have you thinking the most absurd thoughts during this time of the month. The only thing that would cut through the raging horniness would be getting up to see what the hell he’s making.

It’s starting to smell familiar though. But he put the tangerines in the pan so you don’t even know what to expect right now.

Walking up—blanket left behind—you observe the kitchen before peering over his broad shoulder. “Mm.. Smells like pancakes.”

Yoongi doesn’t answer, but when you see the consistency of the batter, you realize you’re correct. “Oh, it is! I’m smart.”

“You are,” he laughs. “But you didn’t get it all the way right.”

“No?”

“Nope.” Yoongi then gently gets you to move before he pours the batter over the slices, and you crane your neck to watch as he evens it all out. “Just one tangerine pancake.”

“Oh, okay,” you scoff, earning a laugh at your side. “Whatever, chef.”

“We’ll see what you say in a bit.”

Is he gonna leave it or flip it? Probably the latter.

“K. Gonna flip that once it’s done.”

Nice. You smile to yourself, loving how you’re starting to really be on the same page. Nudging him, you keep watching as he lowers the heat and sets the lid on the pan. “What now?”

“We wait,” he responds, dusting his hands together before cleaning up his mixing bowl. “And I’m gonna see if we have any sugar.”

Damn it, Yoongi cannot keep saying that two-letter word. It’s starting to be detrimental to your health. “I can help.”

“S’ok,” he assures, nose upturned. “Just watch me work.”

“Oh, I’m very good at doing that.”

At this, Yoongi turns and gives you a smile that immediately reminds you of summer, and you almost feel like crying again.

“I’ve actually never tried this, but. We’ll see if this works.”

With nothing snarky, or teasing, or fake to say, you reply with a smile and a genuine, “I’m sure it will.”

When he keeps staring, his eyes lower to your lips, and you don’t care that you probably look like a wreck, or feel like one. Because the way he’s looking at you now makes you glow.

If only the kettle didn’t decide this was the moment to stop boiling.

You were probably about to get the kiss of your life.

But Yoongi halts in his tracks before shifting to get a mug, setting it down with a thud before checking on the pancakes. Pancake. Whatever that delicious-smelling thing is gonna be.

“There’s some tea packets in that right drawer. Help yourself cus I’d rather you pick.”

Chuckling, you oblige before scooting over. After seeing a small jar of granules on the counter, you start rummaging through the drawer, exploring the various options while hearing the sound of a plate behind you.

Ah, Yoongi’s flipping it.

As you turn, you’re just in time to watch the muscles in his back protrude through his shirt as he flips the pan, impressed as he sets the plate down because holy hell that looks great.

“Sugar, sugar, sugar… Suga, suga, suga.”

Laughing, you interrupt his silly search as you grab the jar you just saw. “Suga suga, how you get so fly?”

Yoongi stops to see what’s in your hand, and he huffs through a grin before grabbing it. “Thanks, doll.”

You keep humming the song that’s now wedged into your head as you watch him sprinkle bits on the pancake.

“I don’t have a blowtorch,” he admits, “But I do have this.”

Rolling out a drawer, Yoongi takes out a long lighter before holding it to the sugary top, humming the same song you were just singing without even knowing it. As the sugar slowly but surely heats, you both keep humming and basking in a calm afternoon.

And you don’t even feel the pain anymore.

“Go ahead and sit, babe.”

“You sure?”

“Uh huh.”

Following instructions, you make your way to the table, cocooning yourself in his comforter again as you await the cutest meal you’ve had in weeks. Months. Lifetimes.

Speaking of lifetimes… You hope every version of you meets every version of him. No matter when. No matter where. Because you want every version of yourself to find happiness, and Yoongi has been the one to help you finally find it.

And he certainly passed whatever the hell this orange theory thing was supposed to be.

Plates are set down to break you out of introspection, and you glance up with eyes sparkling.

When Yoongi raises a brow, you just smile. When he asks what’s gotten into you, a chuckle escapes before you shake your head,

“Nothing, baby. Just didn’t expect all this from that text.”

As he plops into the next chair, you love the way the sun settles on his skin. Highlights his hair. Shimmers in his eyes.

“Don’t even need to ask, babe.” He captures your attention with a calm look. “I was waiting for any distractions anyways.”

So this was for him, too? Good.

Grabbing your fork, you giggle. “Sounded like you were having a little trouble over there.”

“I was! This is what I get for not saving my shit.”

Both of you sit back in laugher as you throw your hands out. “Do that!”

“I’m lazy!”

“Tough shit!”

“I know!”

Grinning, you loll your head before waving your fork out. “You’re gonna save those sounds, and you’re gonna remember this day and thank me.”

Yoongi just tightens his lips in a smile, eyes creased and glimmering. “Maybe.”

“Yes. I’ll stand there and watch you until you do it.”

"Really.."

For the rest of the afternoon—with full bellies and clear minds—you rest on the edge of Yoongi’s bed, forcing him to find the files he needs and watching him groan his way through saving everything.

Constantly laughing at the ridiculously random names he’s assigning them.

When he’s done, you watch as he spins around in his chair, heart thumping with anticipation as you’re met with a waiting pair of eyes.

Breathtaking.

When he leans in, you feel incredibly shy. Always, always, always. This will forever remain the same.

And—just as well—Yoongi's kisses will forever taste like tangerines.

Three of them, to be exact.

fin. :)

how did the first 717 drabble go! | join the discord hehe

a/n: nothing much to say other than i love y'all so much! i will try responding to anything when i can (there's literally still all the 3tan12 feedback to get to) but i do read all the commentary sent in and it keeps me going strong :'))) so thank you again for being here and being amazingly patient with me. off to work on more things but i shall be back once the wild weeks are over!

a/n 2: suga suga how you get so flyyyy hahaha

#ahhhh here we go!#3tan717d1 #3tan717 #bts fic #bts imagines #*ryenfictalk #bts reactions #bts fanfic #yoongi fic #yoongi fanfic #three tangerines #yoongi fluff #yoongi x you #yoongi x reader #*latest #ryenwrites #bts fluff

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 month

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Why Millennials aren’t leaving Tiktok

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The news that Gen Z users have abandoned Tiktok in such numbers that the median Tiktoker is a Millennial (or someone even older) prompted commentators to dunk on Tiktok as uncool by dint of having lost its youthful sheen:

https://www.garbageday.email/p/tiktok-millennials-turns

But "why are Gen Z kids leaving Tiktok?" is the wrong question. The right question is, why aren't Millennials leaving Tiktok? After all, we are living through the enshittocene, the great enshittening, in which every platform gets monotonically, irreversibly worse over time, and Tiktok is no exception:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

To understand why older users are stuck to Tiktok, we need to start with why younger users relentlessly seek out new platforms. To some extent, it's just down to youth's appetite for novelty, but that's only part of the story. To really understand why people come to – and leave – platforms, you have to understand switching costs.

"Switching costs" is the economists' term for everything you have to give up when you change products or services. Switching from Ios to Android probably means giving up a bunch of your apps and purchased media. Switching from an airline where you're a high-status frequent flier to another carrier means giving up on free checked bags and early boarding.

In an open market, rivals have lots of ways to lower these switching costs (it's an open secret that you can call an airline and say, "Hi, I'm a 33rd Order Mason on American Airlines, will you make me a Triple Platinum Diamond Sky-Baron if I switch to Delta?"). Of course, big incumbents hate this, and do everything they can to increase their switching costs, finding ways to impose high switching costs that punish disloyal consumers who have the temerity to go elsewhere.

With social media, lock-in comes for free, thanks to the "collective action problem." Getting people to agree on a given course of action is hard, and as you add more people to the picture, the problem gets harder. It's hard enough to get half a dozen people in your group-chat to agree on where to go for dinner or what board-game to play. But once you're reliant on a social media service to stay in touch with friends, relatives around the world, customers, communities (say, rare disease support groups), and coordination (like organizing your kid's little league car-pool), the problem becomes nearly insoluble. Maybe you can convince your overseas relatives to switch to a Signal group, but can you do the same for your small business's customers, or your old high-school pals?

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/29/how-to-leave-dying-social-media-platforms/

Taken together, switching costs and collective action problems make platforms "sticky," and sticky platforms inevitably enshittify.

Platforms, after all, generate value. They connect end-users with each other (say, little league parents) and they connect end-users to business customers (you and your small business's customers). That value needs to be parceled out among end users, business customers, and the platform's shareholders. A platform can make life better for business customers at its end users' expense by increasing the number of ads (hello, Youtube!), and it can make life better for its shareholders at its business customers' expense by decreasing the share of ad revenue given to publishers or performers (oh, hello again, Youtube!).

From a platform's perspective, the ideal state is one in which end users and business customers get no value from the platform, because it's all being captured by the platform's shareholders. But if Youtube interrupted every 30 seconds of video for ten minutes of ads and paid the video creators nothing, both users and creators would ditch the platform – and advertisers would follow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dab8sKg8Ko8

So platforms seek an equilibrium: "what is the least value we apportion to end-users and business customers without triggering their departure?" Maybe that means giving more value to end-users (for example, keeping Uber fares low by suppressing wages), or to business-customers (crowding more ads into your social media feed).

Every business – including brick-and-mortar, non-digitized ones – wants to find some kind of equilibrium between the value going to its suppliers, its customers and its owners, but digital businesses have an advantage here: digital systems are flexible in ways that analog, hard-goods businesses are not. Digital businesses can alter pricing, payouts and other dynamics from moment to moment – second to second – and make a different offer to every supplier and customer. They have a bunch of knobs, and they can twiddle them at will:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Well, not quite at will. Businesses face constraints on their twiddling. If they get too greedy, users or business customers might weigh the cost of staying against the switching costs and decide it's not worth it. But the more expensive – the more painful – a platform can make leaving, the more pain they can inflict on the people who stay.

In other words, there's two ways to keep a customer or supplier's business: you can make a better service so they won't want to leave, or you can make leaving the service so painful that they stay even if you mistreat them.

There's three ways a digital company can make things worse for their customers and users without losing their business.

First, they can eliminate competition (think of Mark Zuckerberg buying Instagram to recapture the users who'd fled Facebook to escape his poor management):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Second, they can capture their regulators and avoid punishment for trampling their suppliers' or users' legal rights (think of how Amazon has raised the price of everything we buy, both on- and off Amazon, through its "most favored nation" deals):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

Third, they can use IP law to prevent competitors from modifying their services to claw back some of that value (think of how Apple used legal threats to block an Android version of Imessage, blocking Apple customers from having private conversations that included non-Apple customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#if-dishwashers-were-iphones

Companies can't just use this tricks at will, of course. Antitrust laws can block companies from making anticompetitve acquisitions or mergers. Regulators can punish companies for cheating their customers, workers and users. Technologists can come up with clever ways of modding or reconfiguring existing services with "interoperable" add-ons that let users bargain for better treatment by refusing to accept worse:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/07/adblocking-how-about-nah

Day in, day out, the decision-makers at tech companies test these constraints, twisting the knobs that shift value away from users to shareholders. Their bosses and boards motivate them with "KPIs" that dangle the promise of huge bonuses and promotions for any manager who successfully enshittifies part of the company's products:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

Decades of pro-corporate, pro-monopoly policy has loosened those knobs. 40 years of lax antitrust meant that companies had a lot of leeway to buy or merge with rivals – that's changing today, but it's tough sledding:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

As sectors grew more concentrated, they found it easier to capture their regulators, so that they no longer fear punishment for price-gouging, spying, or wage-theft, so applying the same amount of torque to the "break the law" knob cranks it a lot further:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Once you've captured your regulators, you can aim them at your competitors. A monopoly-friendly policy environment has transformed IP law into a bully's charter, allowing powerful companies to strangle would-be competitors who dare to offer their customers tools to shield themselves from enshittification, like scrapers, ad-blockers and alternative clients. Big companies can crank the enshittification knob all the way over and know that smaller rivals knobs won't turn at all:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/20/benevolent-dictators/#felony-contempt-of-business-model

At one point, bosses faced one more constraint on knob-twiddling: their workforce. Many tech workers genuinely cared about their users' welfare, something bosses encouraged as a sneaky trick to get techies to put in long hours without exercising their leverage by quitting rather than destroying their lives to meet arbitrary deadlines. These workers would fearlessly slap their bosses' hands when they reached for the enshittification knob, threatening to quit rather than allowing the products they'd given so much for to be enshittified. Today, after hundreds of thousands of tech layoffs, tech workers are far less like to challenge their bosses' right to twiddle, and far more likely to get fired if they try:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

All this means that tech bosses don't have to change their approach at all, and yet, their services will grow steadily worse. The boss who twiddles the enshittification knob in exactly the same way as he did a year or a decade ago will find it turning much further, because his customers are locked into his platform, his regulators won't protect them, the same regulators will stop his competitors' attempts at countertwiddling, and his workers fear losing their jobs too much to speak up for their users.

That's the contagion that produced the enshittocene: the forces that constrained companies (competition, regulation, self-help and labor – all melted away, allowing every company's MBA-poisoned knob-twiddling leaders to shamelessly caress their knobs with every hour that God sends:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/#ich-bin-ein-bratapfel

Which is why people want to leave platforms. When a platform loses its users, those users have weighed the switching costs against the pain of staying and decided that it's better to bear those costs than to stay.

So why have Tiktok's younger users found the costs too high to bear, and why have their elders remained stuck to the platform?

For that, we have to look at the unique characteristics of young people – characteristics that transcend the lazy cliche that kids are easily bored, fickle novelty-seekers who hop from one service to another with unquenchable restlessness.

Whether or not kids are novelty-seekers, they are, fundamentally, a disfavored minority. They want to do things that the platforms don't want them to do – like converse without being overheard by authority figures, including their parents and their schools (also: cops and future employers, though kids may not be thinking about them as much).

In other words, kids pay intrinsically lower switching costs than adults, because a platform will always do less for them than it will for grownups. This is a characteristic kids share with other supposedly technophilic, novelty-seeking "early adopters," from sex-workers to terrorists, from sexual minorities to trolls, from political dissidents to fascists. For those groups, the cost of mastering a new technology and assembling a community around it is always more likely to be worth bearing than it would be for people who are well-served by existing tools:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/21/early-adopters/#sex-tech

Pornographers didn't jump on home video because of its superiority as a medium for capturing flesh-tones. Home video was a good porn medium because it was easier to discreetly get into the hands of porn consumers, who could, in turn, discreetly view it. The audience for porn in the privacy of your living room is larger than the audience for porn that you can only watch if you're willing to be seen marching into a dirty movie theater.

Every new technology is popularized by a mix of disfavored groups and neophiles, who normalize and refine it – and yes, infuse it with their countercultural coolth – until it becomes easy enough to use to become mainstream. As more normies drift into the new system, the switching costs associated with leaving the old system declines. It gets easier and easier to find the people and services you want in the new realm, and harder and harder to find them in the old one.

This is why tech platforms have historically experienced sudden collapse: the platform that gets more valuable and harder to leave as it accumulates users gets less valuable and easier to leave as users depart:

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2022/12/05/what-if-failure-is-the-plan.html

If you're a Gen Z kid on Tiktok, you experience the same enshittification as your Millennial elders. But you also experience an additional cost to staying: as late-arriving adult authority figures become more fluent in the platform, they are more able to observe your use of it, and punish you for conduct that you used to get away with.

And if you're a Millennial who isn't leaving Tiktok, it's not just that you experience the same enshittification as those departing Gen Z kids – you also face higher switching costs if you go. The older you get, the more complex your social connections grow. A Gen Z kid in middle school doesn't have to worry about losing touch with their high-school buddies if they switch platforms (they haven't gone to high school yet – and they see their middle school friends in person all the time, giving them a side-channel to share information about who's leaving Tiktok and where they're headed to next). Middle-schoolers don't have to worry about coordinating little league car-pools or losing access to a rare disease support group.

In other words: younger people leave old platforms earlier because they have more to gain by leaving; and older people leave old platforms later because they have more to lose by leaving.

This is why Facebook is filled with Boomers. Yes, their kids bolted for the exits to avoid having their parents (or grandparents) wading into their sexual, social and professional lives. But the reason the Boomers were late joining younger users' Facebook exodus – or the reason they never joined it – is that they stand to lose more by going. Facebook deliberately cultivated this dynamic, for example, by creating a photo hosting service designed to entice users into uploading their family photos while disguising how hard it would be to take those photos with them if they left:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/facebooks-secret-war-switching-costs

The irony here is that tech has intrinsically low switching costs. All other things being equal, a new platform can always build a bridge to ease the passage of users from the old one. There's no (technical) reason that moving to Mastodon, or Bluesky, or any other platform should mean cutting ties with the people who stayed behind.

A combination of voluntary interoperability (where old platforms offer APIs to allow new services to connect with them), mandatory interop (where governments force tech companies to offer APIs) and adversarial interop (where new companies hack together their own API with reverse-engineering, scraping, bots, and other guerrilla tactics) would hypothetically allow users to hop between networks as easily as you change phone carriers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/19/better-failure/#let-my-tweeters-go

Tech platforms tend to offer APIs when they're getting started (to ease the inward passage of new users) then shut them down after they attain dominance (locking the door behind those users). The EU is tinkering with mandatory APIs through the Digital Markets Act (though bafflingly, they're starting with encrypted messaging rather than social media). Restoring adversarial interoperability will require extensive legal reform, which is getting started through Right to Repair laws:

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/13/oregon-passes-right-to-repair-law-apple-lobbied-to-kill/

The people who are stranded on social media platforms shouldn't be mistaken for uncool, aging technophobes. They're not stubborn, they're stranded. Like the elders who can't afford to leave a dying town after the factory shuts down and the young people move away, these people are locked in. They need help evacuating – a place to go and a path to get there.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/21/involuntary-die-hards/#evacuate-the-platformsr

#pluralistic

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seongclb · 11 months

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— enhypen when they marry a fan on live to make their s/o jealous !

idol!enhypen x reader, established relationship au, fluff & no warnings.

hi guys! hope you enjoy my first work <3

♫ sunshine girl by jakob

𖠗 이희승 | lee heeseung.

oh gosh

definitely would tease you but at the same time shower you in affection bc he just finds it so so cute that you’re jealous over something like this AAAAA

you’d probably be sitting in the corner of the room while he was on live, reading comments.

at first, even, you’d probably be studying rather than paying that much attention to your boyfriend

but your ears perk up at your boyfriend reading a rather concerning comment

“heeseung will you marry me for ten seconds?”

he lets out a giggle.

and slightly glances at your expression where you’re sitting with a raised brow.

he smiles back at the camera and starts counting down from ten.

you would have scoffed if not for the fear that the fans would hear

as soon as the live ended, you look at him with straight face

“what is it, love?” you almost throw your notepad at the smirk on his lips

“love?” you question. “shouldn’t you be calling your wife that?”

he’d probably walk over to you and wrap his arms around your crossed arms and place a kiss on your forehead :(

“i divorced them bc of how cute you are”

𖠗 박종성 | park jongseong.

i don’t think jay would ever think to do something like this to his beloved himself

he was on live with jungwon and niki who read the comment “jay hyung, a fan asked if you’d marry them for ten seconds”

jay would be hesitant but after seeing a playful expression on his two younger members faces, something irked him to play along

he knew you were at home watching so he suddenly thought about how fun it would be

“sure!” he smiles and counts down from ten.

now, when he gets home he expects to be questioned on why on earth he would agree to that

but instead

hes punished with silent treatment

oh boy does he work for you to give him attention

“y/n, it wasn’t even me! jungwon and niki read it out! if i saw it i wouldn’t have even read it!”

can’t sleep if you don’t talk to him

if you talk to him but you’re still evidently mad, hes gonna cling onto you like a koala when he sleeps

meaning you’re stuck there until you show him some love bc hes never gonna do smth like this again

will probably tell of jungwon and niki for no reason 😭

𖠗 심재윤 | sim jaeyun.

sigh

the type to say “10 seconds?? i’ll marry you for way longer” with a wink or something

or even something like “you only wanna marry me for 10 seconds? that’s a shame, i won’t even be able to give u what u deserve”

deadass would say smth cheesy you can’t fight me on this one and it would be merely for the reason that he knows you’re eventually gonna see it even if you arent rn

and that’s exactly what happens

you probably won’t have seen it for like the first day but since you’re so obsessed with your bf, you follow his name hashtag on like every social media platform

so when a certain video in particular is trending on every single one of those apps, you know it’s bad. you know who you’re dating after all

at this point, jake doesn’t even remember what he said so when you angrily go over to his dorms, phone in hand and ready to scold him, he’s like “when did i even do that?” which only makes you more mad

then when he realises omg he gets so excited like “AAA i’ve been waiting for this”

and then just smothers you in kisses and hugs bc you’re too adorable and no one else compares

*crying* but so are you bc you’re wondering how many more fans he’s gonna flirt with for the rest of your lives together

𖠗 박성훈 | park sunghoon.

this mf omggggg

would def do it with the hopes that you’ll just be so cute with him afterwards so he could just tease you

and tbf that’s what he ends up getting so for him it’s like a success

not only would he agree to marrying them but tbh i think sunghoon would do a bit more

like hugging the camera, bragging about his looks knowing the fans would comment all sorts of things etc

he would just do the most for no reason.

“aww is my baby jealous over a ten second relationship with a fan who i’ve never met? that’s so cute” *cheek pinch*

you’d whack away his hand and pout

“that’s all it took for you to marry someone else :(”

he laughs at all your responses but part of him actually feels bad

he gives you a bit of secret reassurance like before you go to sleep, he’ll cuddle you a bit tighter and say sweet things to you

“you’re so perfect, baby, i’m so lucky to have you.” “i don’t know what i’d do without you, my cute baby”

lots of cheek kisses and pinches

LORDDDD 🙏

soft hoon unleashes in the night

in the day he goes back to “which fan should i let have me for today” to which you throw a pillow at him for

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cuteitgirlinspos · 8 months

Text

౨ৎ How to romanticize this school year 🎀

I know school might be tiring , boring , or even scary , so here are some ways to romanticize this school year , next school year , and all the future school years to come

౨ৎ Stretch in the morning and drink water , usually when we wake up for school most of us don’t wanna get out of our bed and are extremely tired or drained out due to either waking up early or not getting enough sleep from last night 🎀 , so it is very important to stretch doing some poses you already know or watch videos on YouTube that are abt 5 - 10 mins depending on how much time u have , drinking water is also good for your skin and fastens your metabolism it will also hydrate you in the morning which can lessen how tired you were when you woke up . 🧚🏽‍♀️

౨ৎ sleep early , I know this might be very hard for some people because of the amount of things that they have to do , but you can limit the amount of time u take to do those things and take naps or sleep around 8 - 10 MAX , sleeping around these times are more healthy than sleeping around 12 pm or 3 am in the morning , your body needs the most rest it can get to keep it going 🎀

౨ৎ Please be yourself in school , many people tend to want to fit in and change themselves bc of what other people think , what their friend group says , or even how the internet influenced them to behave , you don’t have to change your behavior / personality just to fit in a group / area , real friends / loved ones will love you the way you are 💗🎀 .

౨ৎ Don’t disrespect teachers for no reason at all please 😭😭 , many teachers don’t get paid enough for dealing with kids all day long , make sure you’re being respectful to them and being nice / positive , one way you can do that is by simply greeting them good morning everyday or saying bye to them everyday .

౨ৎ PLEASE try on your grade , obsessing over your grade isn’t good either you don’t have to be sad / mad at yourself bc you didn’t get a 100% remember that everyone isn’t perfect , although you should try and bump your grades or try to be better at the subject you’re struggling with , when teachers notice you try your best in class they most likely bump your grade or try to give u extra credit even if you got a low grade . 🎀

౨ৎ Don’t start drama for no reason , trust me it’s not worth it ; you can get in trouble and that can be draining always try and be positive if someone else is being negative , rude , or annoying ; ignore them or don’t talk to them ; don’t try to engage with bad conversations with them to also get YOU in trouble , if you’re a good student and you barley get in trouble your teachers might let you go or not pay attention to it the first or 2nd time u get in trouble . 🤗

౨ৎ I can not stretch this enough , PLEASE organize your things , being organized can make school less stressful for you since you know where all your things are ! it’s much more easier than stressing when you need a notebook / paper / or an assignment and you can’t find it , an app that can help you be organized is notion ; using notion can track your to do’s like if you finished an assignment , need help with something , and be organized in general 🎀 .

౨ৎ Don’t be nasty , most people like me don’t like to hang around people who smell bad or do disgusting things , stick to a scent that smells good ; you don’t need a bunch of perfume sprayed all over you unless you have 2 or more perfumes mixed together that smells heavenly 😋 , PLEASE use deodorant and brush your teeth TWICE a day that way you can be clean and healthy , also take a shower everyday there’s no point of missing a shower be clean . 🎀

#coqeutte #barbie #aesthetic #school #back to school #summer #romantizing school #romantize your life #pink pilates princess #pink pilates girl #tips #study tips

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reveluving · 1 year

Note

I AM BACK AGAIN WITH MY HEAD IN HANDS AND HORNY BRUCE WAYNE ON MY MIND I NEED THAT MAN ABSOLUTELY INSANELY DESPERATE FOR BATMOM. SOMETHINNG ABOUT THE URGE.... DELICIOUS

BRB MICROWAVE NOISES ARE HAPPENING IN MY HEEEEAD 🏃🏻‍♀️💨

writing milf!Batmom was bound to happen at some point lol I was waiting for the day to finally happen fr fr SO HERE ❤

warnings: smut (18+ content, minors DNI!)

Look, with that many kids in the household, did you really think no one's going to talk about how sexy of a mother Mrs Wayne is?

Don't get me wrong, Bruce being called a DILF is not uncommon! Just look at him; a rich and respectable hunk of a man, who is also a father of six children and counting? So much hotter than when he was known as a playboy all those years ago. It was only natural for the public to talk about the missus in question as well.

Who could've possibly been the one to finally tame the Bruce Wayne and better yet, encouraged him into the married life?

You, obviously, and boy, did the public understand why.

No matter how much the media tries to deny it, they can never ignore your beauty, your grace, and dare I say, your MILF-ness.

C'mon, everyone's eyes were always on you the second you'd step foot into the gala. Oh, Mrs Wayne is here, in her new silky, silt-cut dress, matchint heels and jewellery that complements your every feature?

Sign me the fuck up!

You may have acknowledged the reputation bestowed upon you, but what you didn't realized was just how strong that power was.

But, of course, your reputation comes with a bit of a price to pay. Not by you, but by your children.

If there was one thing Dick, Jason and Tim were especially too familiar of hearing, especially on social media, it's about you, and the Internet can be very open with their thoughts. People are getting too comfortable on the app, as one would say.

While there was no denying that you were in fact beautiful, they were still your sons, and to see such language about you was almost as traumatic as seeing you and Bruce fooling around in bed.

• 'Mrs Wayne is so hot??? HAVE YOU GUYS SEEN HER IN THOSE HEELS??? GYAT'

• 'I've seen her IRL when I was visiting her café and let me tell you; photos do NOT DO HER JUSTICE 🥵'

• 'If my future husband and I don't give Bruce and (Y/N) Wayne energy, I don't want it ☝🏼🤨'

• 'mrs wayne's thighs appreciation: a thread that will having you SCREAMING [includes 10+ photos]'

That last one in particular had an intimidating number of likes, mind you. As if their own set of fans weren't a lot to deal with already.

But hoho, if we're talking about Bruce Wayne's opinion on the matter?

Picture this.

It's like watching an edit of your favourites; going from a random video of you adorably scrunching up your nose to BAM—a slow-mo of you looking like a literal model. How or where anyone's ever gotten that footage from was uncertain, but if you asked Bruce if he's ever seen that video before?

Chances are, he'd say yes.

Repeatedly, even.

Hell, he might've saved it somewhere, amongst other 'tresures', for educational purposes.

He acknowledges the fact that you may be a teenage boy's fantasy, the dream trophy wife of many men, regardless if they were in their lonesome or in a tasteless marriage, but in the end of the day, you were his, just as he was yours.

And while he has the means to save your most intimate moments via his greatest machines, he actually prefers the good ol' polaroid. Saving at least a couple of boudoir photos in his pocket, wallet, the Batmobile, locked away in one of the Batcomputer's rack and much more. Whether they're photos of you lying on your stomach cross-legged in your lingerie, or even a picture of the two of you, glistening in sweat and naked in front of the mirror, he never ran short of his precious 'supplies', and he has more where that came from.

Knowing he was the only one able to not only see you, but make you writhe and scream and cum in his bed—in your bed, around his cock? He could die a happy man, truly. And he'll do just about anything you ask him to, no question?

Want his fingers inside you while he smothers his face in between your breasts? Certainly.

Want him to lie back so you can straddle his face and make you cum with that talented tongue of his? You don't have to tell him twice.

Want him to take your dress and lingerie off so slowly, even though his cock is aching to be touched by those sweet hands of yours? Say no more.

That man is always hungry for you, borderline desperate even, but what's new.

But, if it ever goes down to you, or when the public gets too comfortable voicing out, especially in front of you, and it clearly rubs you the wrong way, best believe he'll do something about.

He doesn't need the comments of others to know how sexy of a woman his wife really is, after all.

I wanted to write smut for this, considering it is a milf!batmom after all, but we all know how long it takes for me to do that HAHA I hope y'all still liked this one tho! Please don't forget to leave some sugar! ❤

#— reve's reverie 🌹#— reve's asks 🌹#a mother's touch series #batmom #batmom reader #bruce wayne #bruce wayne x reader #bruce wayne x you #bruce wayne x batmom #batman x batmom #batman x you #batman x reader #batman

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thelittleliars · 1 year

Text

Hoodie

Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Words: 1.3K

Summary: Someone stole your favorite hoodie.

AN: I had this cute little idea for an au. So here it is! Natasha in a hoodie is still one of my favorite looks of her.

You had been looking everywhere for your favorite hoodie for over an hour but it seemed like it disappeared from the face of the earth. The last time you saw it was a couple days ago when it laid on your desk. You were sure of it. Nothing but an old nirvana t-shirt and purple hoodie that Kate forgot was on your desk. Continue looking for your hoodie would only waste more time so you decided to visit your best friend who lived a couple blocks away.

You quickly threw on a pair of vans and a jacket, grabbed your keys and left your tiny apartment with frustration. The 10 minute walk to the Avengers Tower helped you calm down but still were super bummed that your favorite hoodie was now gone. At the Tower you had to go through security before getting on the elevator up to the lounge where your best friend Yelena was most likely chilling. Steve and Bucky were the only ones there though.

"Hey guys!" You greeted them with a friendly smile. "Has any of you two seen Yelena?"

Bucky shook his head, which you expected since he and Yelena barely saw each other anyways. "I'm sorry, Yelena just had gone out with Kate and Peter I believe." Steve told you. You nodded sadly, thinking about if you should call her to meet up with them or not. "Natasha is in her room though." You blushed at the mention of the red head. Cap and Bucky were the only people who knew of your crush on Natasha. They constantly gave you the chance to be closer to her which was super sweet of them. You mumbled a small thanks before making your way towards her room which was a floor below.

You were so busy with your thoughts that you forgot to knock, you busted right into her room where she was talking to someone or rather something. She talked to her phone, it looked like she was either filming herself or being in a video chat. "Ohh.." You felt the heat of guilt and embarrassment in your face. "I'm so sorry. I should have knocked first."

She turned her head around when she heard your voice, also starting to smile at the sight of you being in her room. You returned a shy smile back to her, trying hard not to show any signs of the crush you have on her. Natasha waved you in before you could make up your mind to just leave her alone. You quickly closed the door behind you before you rushed to her side. Then you finally saw what she was doing, filming something on some app you don't recognize. "Is that TikTok?"

Natasha snorted, "It's actually Instagram." The information of her using Instagram was new to you and also kind of surprising. "You should actually know that since you know... you have an account there."

"Oh honey, just because I have an account doesn't mean I have the app on my phone and use it." The words just came out of you before you could even realize what you were about to say. Nat fully turned her body to you, your eyes immediately took her full form in and that's when you realized that she was wearing your clothes. She was wearing your favorite hoodie, the one you were looking for all this time. How it landed here with her was beyond you. "Like what you see?" She teased you as she caught you starring at her.

"T-that's my hoodie." She looked down her own body, then looking back up into your eyes with slight confusion. "You're wearing my favorite hoodie right now. I was looking for it all day Tasha!"

"I'm sorry, I didn't know it was yours." She apologized. "I stole it from Yelena's room thinking it was her's or Kate's."

"Cука!" You muttered to yourself. It made perfect sense that Yelena stole it, she was the last one visiting you in your apartment a day or two days ago.

Natasha grinned at you, she liked that you cursed her sister in their mother language. "Here let me give it back to you." She took off your hoodie in one swift motion and now stood in front of you in a bra. You were shocked that she was confident and comfortable enough to stand there so exposed. After the shock was over you tried your best not to look at her boobs, so your eyes wandered around her room. When you looked to her desk you saw her and yourself on the phone screen. That was when you realized that it was still recording, you shyly step in front of her phone to cover the camera with your back. "You're still recording." You told her with a hint of uneasiness in your voice. Her eyes suddenly became big. "Oh shit.. Y/N I'm not recording anything, I'm live on Instagram!" The panic was written all over her face.

"Good thing you don't have many followers to tune in.. right?" You ask her cluelessly. She huffed, she would have loved your innocence about social media if it were for a different situation that didn't include exposing herself half naked to the world.

"Detka, I'm an Avenger." She stated. You nodded, "Wow! Who would have thought!" The sarcasm and teasing was dripping from you. "So what?" Natasha sighed, she was getting tired of this situation. "Turn around and look at the upper right corner." You did as you were told to do, there in the corner was a tiny viewer count saying 50K and it kept growing by each second. Only then you realized why Natasha reacted the way she did. "How do you end this live thing??"

Natasha noticed your now new panicked state and found it quite amusing. "You gotta.. uhm.. on the right.. wait let me just.." She stepped behind you and pressed her body into yours, hiding her half exposed body from the world. You felt her arms brushing against each side of your body, trying to navigate her way to end the livestream. With every movement she made you felt her boobs, that were pressed against your back, even more. Warmth spread through your whole body and you start to panic since you couldn't control yourself anymore. Don't say anything stupid. Don't say anything stupid. Don't say anything stupid. You constantly told yourself.

Both of you sighed in relief when you saw that the livestream had ended. She leaned her forehead against your shoulder for a second before taking a step back and turning you around by your waist. "You could have returned my hoodie later." Natasha continued to stare at your face, only meeting your gaze from time to time. "How come you forgot that you were live?"

As soon as the words were out of your mouth, her gaze returned to yours, her green eyes looked into your y/e/c ones softly. "I got distracted." Nat admitted. You raised your left eyebrow, not getting what would distracted her that much. "By what?" "You." Your breath got caught in your throat. "M-me?"

She gave you a small shy smile and nodded. "Yes, you." Your heart beat so fast that you could heart it in your ears. It was also a reason why you could not stop stuttering. "W-w-why?"

"Is that not obvious?" She teased you before her whole aura got serious. "You always looks so cute and you talking russian just made things worse." Holy motherfucker... NATASHA ROMANOFF FINDS ME CUTE. The two of you stood there with blushing cheeks looking all awkward and like two idiots who didn't know how to make a first step.

"I honestly don't know what to say."

She took your hands into hers, holding them softly in between your bodies, squeezing them a bit because of her nervousness. "Would you go on a date with me?" You felt your voice slip away so you just nodded and smiled at her widely.

#natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff #black widow #black widow x reader #natasha romanoff x you #natasha x reader #black widow x you #natasha x y/n #Hoodie

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foreverrogers · 2 years

Text

parallel suns (1/4)

part one // part two // part three // part four

Pairing: steve harrington x f!buckley!reader

Summary: it's summer break, and you need something, or someone, to fill the time with before you go back to college.

Warnings: smut!!!! 18+!!!!! minors please DNI!!!!! friends with benefits, protected sex, oral (f receiving), steve is an adorably charming idiot. post-s3, pre-s4. no s4 spoilers!!

Words: 7.4k (!!!)

A/N: this fic came to me in a vision and i'm in love with it. big shout out to my notes app where i compulsively wrote 1.2k of this at 10pm. also shout out to the song partner in crime by lucy dacus because i am, once again, on my indie song title bullshit

request something! masterlist // series masterlist

Everything is sticky.

The humidity shimmers in the air like it's about to take corporeal form, and even with every AC unit in this Family Video on full blast, everything is utterly, disgustingly sticky.

It's one of the many things Steve hates about Summer. That, and school being on break means the store is always full of children, who are sticky all year round and only get stickier in the Summer, and teenagers, who embody the kind of sticky that tries to sneak into the adult section when they think no one is looking.

It's eight pm, the unforgiving sun just starting to glow yellow and orange at the horizon, and it's about the time Steve lets Robin go home so he can close up for nine.

He doesn't question it when she doesn't bolt out of the store on the hour like she normally does, desperate to go home even if she did prefer Steve's company over most others.

There's a slight jingle of the bell as the front door opens, but Steve is too busy taking his 10-minute break sitting on the floor behind the counter to get up, legs stretched end to end.

Somebody's above him, all of a sudden, announced by two sharp knocks against the counter, and when Steve looks up the backlight of the setting sun makes him think he's seeing an angel. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Robin mutters, hops off her stool and dips down to yank at the backpack sitting at her feet. "Bye, Steve!"

"Woah, woah, woah," Steve starts, so disorientated by the speed of everything that Robin's already slipped behind the counter before he's even thinking of standing up. Steve scrambles to his feet so quickly he almost slips on the linoleum. "Hey, Rob, you're not gonna introduce us?"

You've already taken a step back, and Steve's words stop Robin in her hurried tracks with a sigh. She looks between you, exaggerated turns in each direction, and sighs again. "Steve, this is my sister," She explains, matter of fact, not offering any other information than strictly necessary.

"You never told me you had a sister."

"You didn't?" You ask immediately, faux offense pinching your eyebrows as you look at her. You nudge her in the ankle with the toe of your boot. "Rude."

"Well," Robin starts, pointed as she looks at him. "You clearly don't ask about me as much as you talk about yourself, Steve."

"Hey, I do not- Don't listen to her," Steve cuts Robin to the side, turns to you with an outstretched hand and his cookie-cutter charming smile. It's a perfected art form you don't seem to buy. "I'm Steve, by the way. Steve Harrington."

"Seems like I've heard a lot more about you than you've heard about me, Steve," You smile, lean forward to shake his hand.

Steve thinks he likes the way you say his name. He also thinks your hand in his is warm, but the nice, soft kind of warm, and not the sticky Summer kind of warm he's gotten used to. He also hopes his hand isn't sticky. "All good things, I hope?"

You hum as you pull away, tilt your head to the side and narrow your eyes, your expression questioning. "Like 60%?"

"Okay, well, this has been nice, but we really have to go," Robin interrupts, looks to you then to Steve and gives him a single nod before she's gone, tugging at your wrist and pulling you with her.

"It was nice to meet you!" You call, turn a little to wave as your sister drags you through the door and into the carpark.

Steve's still not convinced you're not an angel, and spends so long staring after you that it takes him a couple minutes to realise you had never told him your name.

-----

Tonight is a different type of sticky. The type that only happens when it rains all day and the moisture hangs oppressively heavy, like you could drown where you stood if you weren't careful.

Which is why Steve can't be blamed for spending most of his free time standing in front of the huge air conditioner in the back room, letting the cool air bellow out his polo and his vest until he's almost too cold. It's a pretty good plan, except for the fact he can't be stationed at the counter waiting for beautiful women to walk into the store like he normally is.

When Steve emerges from the back room, there's a beautiful woman in the store.

Not that he can tell she's beautiful by the back of her head poking through the aisles of the romance section, it's just that he has a feeling... and it's been a couple weeks since he's been on a good date.

So, as always, Steve stands behind the counter and runs a hand through his hair, tussled and unruly by the effects of the fan, uses the darkened monitor of the computer as a mirror as he adjusts the sit of his collar and smoothes down his Family Video vest. It's the exact shade of dark puke green that always seemed to be a hit with the ladies.

He makes a 90-degree turn, back to the front of the shop, and all of a sudden there you are.

Steve gapes a little, turns left and then right and realises you're the only other person in the store. Oh.

"Hey!"

You're grinning now, too. Which doesn't help. "Hey to you, too."

"Did you, uh-" Steve clears his throat, walks towards you and slides the tape you've set on the counter towards him, pointedly ignores the fact you had just watched him check himself out in a computer monitor for any excruciating amount of time. "Did you find everything you need?"

"Just that, I think," You chuckle, still fighting back your smile as you cross your arms and lean them against the counter.

"16 Candles?" Steve asks, finally actually reading the cover of the film in his hands.

Your smile softens, a little fonder. "Yeah, Rob and I watched it like a million times the year it came out. I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"Really?" He asks, disbelief in his smile and the light pinch of his eyebrows. "Robin? 16 Candles?"

"I don't know what to tell you," You shrug, give a light shake of your head. "Everyone's got a guilty pleasure, her's is romance movies... And if you ever tell her I told you that I will make your life a living hell."

Steve thinks he's already experienced multiple living hells, but is still intrigued about what your could come up with. "Scouts honour," He offers, holds up the palm of one hand and presses the copy of 16 Candles to his heart with the other.

It makes you laugh, and Steve has to smile at the sight before he can remember he's supposed to be doing his job. You really might be an angel.

"And the name the account's under?" He asks, thinks he's smooth and is immediately told otherwise by the way you narrow amused eyes at him, the tug of a smile at the corner of your lips.

"Robin really didn't mention me at all, huh?"

"I really don't talk about myself that often, I promise."

You chuckle lightly, smile bright, eyes bright, makes the neon lights pooling in splotches of wet concrete outside look dim.

You're smile fades a little as the seconds go on, as you hold each other's eyes and Steve really hopes he's not staring right now because his face and his brain have lost all connection.

"Y/n," You offer, simply, and Steve was definitely staring because it takes him a moment to register that the sound that came out of your mouth had been your name.

"Y/n, right," He says, snaps himself out of it, maybe a little too animated in the way he shakes his head if the laugh you give him as he looks down is any indication.

Steve bites his lip as he clacks the letters of your name into the heavy keyboard, intensely concentrated. It's adorable, objectively, and you try not to let it pull anything too world-shattering from your gut into the base of your throat. You swallow it down when he meets your eyes again. "Last name?"

You grin at him immediately, simply raise your eyebrows and wait the few moments it takes him to realise what he's saying, tilts his head to the side with a tight smile as he moves to type in the rest of your name. "Right."

"What do I owe you?" You ask, lean a little closer against the counter, close enough that he can smell the sweet floral of your perfume or your shampoo or both.

"On the house."

"Really?" You start, raise your eyebrows at him. "Thank you... Do all the friends and family get discounts?"

"Just the pretty ones," Steve says, mouth and maybe libido moving too quickly for his brain to catch, words spilling and falling flat on the counter between you.

You're smiling again, gleeful surprise as much towards his admittance as the deep blush that rushes into his face as he realises exactly what he's said.

"I mean-"

"Nuh-uh, can't take it back now," You tease, sliding the tape off of the counter towards you and taking a slow step backwards. He's still mouthing at words to say, and so you take the opportunity to turn and start out of the store. You hold the tape up in the air beside you. "Thank you for the movie, Steve!"

-----

"Hey, why did you never mention me to Steve?"

You're in the middle of 16 Candles. Admittedly, it's not the best time to ask your sister about anything tangible, but something about the cheesy teen romance couldn't let you stop thinking about it. It takes her a few moments to answer, and you're about to repeat yourself when she gives back the uninterested "Why would I?"

"I don't know, the way you were talking about him it sounded like you two were basically best friends... Seems like pretty standard information to know about your best friend."

She shoves a messy fist full of popcorn in her mouth before answering. "It just never came up I guess."

"Right..." Robin still hasn't turned away from the movie, and you still haven't turned back, eyes narrowed at her profile. "So you told him you were a lesbian before you told him you had a sister?"

"Jesus Christ, y/n, fine!" Robin dramatically bends at the waist, reaches over to the coffee table for the remote and pause the movie. "He's a womanizer, okay? I knew that if I told him I had a sister, especially one who was basically the same age as him, he would never let it go and inevitably try to hit on you when you came to visit."

You scoff. "Hate to break it to you, babe, but him not knowing I exist has definitely not stopped him from hitting on me."

Robin's silent for a long moment, gapes at you in the dim light, and you think you can physically see the steam pouring out of her ears as her blood boils. "Y/n."

"What?"

"What did he say to you?"

"What, seriously?" You shake your head, turn back to the paused television screen in a sudden desire to no longer be having this conversation. "It was nothing bad, perfectly kosher. You should have seen the way he was blushing, though. Are you sure that guy gets around as much as you think he does?"

"He tells me about most of them in excruciating detail, so, you know, yeah." You feel her shift back towards the TV, pick up the remote at her side with a sigh. "Just don't fall for it, okay?"

You should let it go, because it shouldn't matter, and you shouldn't care. "What, you don't think he's a good guy?" You're looking at her again, trying to read the shadows of her expression. "You wouldn't be friends with him if he wasn't a good guy."

"Look, I say this with no offence to Steve but he's a Hawkins, Indiana good guy. He's not a New York, smartest girl in her class type of good guy."

You consider it for a moment, clench your jaw as you slide down the couch so you can only just see the screen over your bent knees. "It sounds like you're trying to say he's a 'literally anybody but you' kind of good guy."

"Yeah," Robin smiles, voice warm. "Glad we're on the same page."

-----

You think that maybe being told not to give in to Steve Harrington's fumbled, boyish charm just makes you want a taste even more.

Not that you went out of your way to do the things Robin told you not to, nor were you typically the type of person who wanted what they couldn't have. It's just that you had spent so long trying to be good, trying to get the best grades and get into the best schools and be the best adult, that now, during a Summer that should be inconsequential to the course of your life, you want to try something new. That, and every word and lingering glance you had received from him over the past couple of days had practically screamed how much he wanted you, and it was hard to deny that it was exhilarating.

No matter the way you try to reason it, nothing changes the fact that you're in an empty Family Video at 9am.

It's early enough that when Steve sees you pushing open the door he thinks he might still be dreaming. "Oh, y/n, hey! Hey, how are you?" Steve runs a loose hand through his hair, adjusts his position leaning against the counter a couple too many times to be natural. He flinches, hopes you don't register his fumbling. You definitely do. "Uh, Robin's not working today."

"Yeah, I know," You smile, innocent and polite, move to lean beside him on the counter with your forearms against the cool acrylic. You pick at your nails for a moment before turning towards him, but you realise as soon as you do that you've undershot your position a little, faces are a lot closer than you had intended. Still, you don't back away. "I'm here to see you."

Steve swallows, throat thick and chest fluttering with the proximity. "You are?" He mutters, doesn't have to say it that loudly for you to hear because you're that damn close. His voice is a little squeakier, too, like his body had suddenly forgotten it had already hit puberty five years earlier. He clears his throat, once again hopes you don't notice. Once again, you do.

"So..." You start, look back down at your nails because even though you had fully psyched yourself up to do this, you hadn't quite realised eye contact would be part of the deal. "I'm sure you know that I'm only in town for the Summer, which means I just so happen to have a lot of free time and also... just so happen to not have a boyfriend..."

Steve thinks he's hallucinating. Thinks that there must be something in the water and his sweating palms and dry mouth and tight chest are all symptoms of something awful. Either that or his mind is infinitely dirtier than he thought, because there was no way in Hell you were actually suggesting what he thinks you're suggesting. "I think I need... a little more."

"Oh, come on, Stevie," You start, tilt your head at him, and the combination of the nickname and the way you're looking up at him through your lashes makes his jeans tighten inexplicably. "You gotta have a couple brain cells knocking around that pretty little head of yours."

Steve pinches himself. Actually, physically pinches his arm to make sure he's not dreaming. He's staring again, and he's also a little speechless, silent for long enough that you start to second guess yourself.

"Unless you don't want-"

"No, no, no. Woah, no, definitely not. I definitely don't... not want to..." His hand is on your wrist before you can pull away, position shifted so he's now standing right in front of you, parallel suns across the counter. "I just, uh, wasn't sure that I was getting the right idea for a second."

"Yeah, I, um-" You look down, your well of confidence seemingly exerted too fast too soon. Your cheeks are hot with it. "Robin made it seem like you were pretty, uh... Loose about this type of stuff."

"She said that?" Steve scoffs, makes you look back up at him and the expression on his face is so genuinely offended it makes you laugh. "I can't believe she would- Wait, did you... tell her? About-"

"No!" You interrupt, eyes wide. "No, absolutely not. And Robin never knows, okay? Ground rule?"

"Yeah, right, of course," He agrees, and he registers suddenly that you're two people standing in the middle of a Family Video first thing in the morning defining the terms of casual sex.

"Not so much because she would get mad at me, but because I genuinely think she might cut your dick off."

Steve laughs, does that thing where he tilts his head to the side in a nod that's annoyingly endearing. "Yeah, I could see her trying."

You're both smiling, and you're both so close, his hand on your wrist still anchoring you to the counter. You chew at the inside of your lip, try to suppress some of the heat rising to your face. "This is a really weird conversation, right?"

"Possibly the weirdest I've ever had, yeah." And Steve has had a lot of fucking bonkers conversations.

There's a glint of light across your lipgloss as your smile widens, fresh and sticky and shining and all of a sudden Steve realises you wore it for him, and then all of a sudden wants to know what it tastes like.

You lean forward slowly, like you can read his mind or maybe you're just thinking the same thoughts, the curve of your lips deliciously tempting. "Steve."

"Yeah?" He asks, less of a word and more of a pitched exhale. He thinks he can feel your breath against his skin.

"You have customers."

You pull away, stand up straight just as the front bell rings and a gaggle of children storm into the store, followed begrudgingly by the slow steps of two exhausted looking parents. Steve pulls away, too, clears his throat in an attempt to regain his composure as he offers a tight smile to the two adults.

You're grinning, annoyingly and yet endearingly triumphant.

"That was mean."

"No idea what you're talking about," You start, shake your head with a shrug and a step away from the counter. You try to bite back your smile, bottom lip lightly pulled between your teeth. "Are you doing anything tonight?"

"Oh, you know." Steve gestures around the store, attention immediately pulled to a crashing sound somewhere to his side, like piles of hard plastic falling to the floor.

"You should go do your job," You tease, nod towards the source of the noise and make Steve narrow his eyes at you. "And I will be back at nine."

-----

True to your word, by the time nine pm rolls around you're already leaning against the hood of his car, watching carefully as he locks the door to the darkened Family Video.

You've changed, a light skirt that sits just below the knee to match the humid Summer night. Steve's first thought is accessible, and he immediately scolds himself for it.

"Hey," You smile, voice sickly smooth, sticky and seeping into his bones.

"Hey." He returns, finds it a little less graceful than yours because he's nervous, the kind of nervous that would probably make his chest shake if he stood still for too long. He doesn't think he's been this nervous around a girl since he first got together with Nancy.

"Fun rest of your shift?" You ask, even though you have a pretty good idea of what he might say, kick off the car and make a slow start towards him.

"A painful one, thanks to you."

The admittance makes you smile, too smug and too pretty as you look up at him, height difference exaggerated as you meet him at the curb. He tries not to look at your lips, but your lipgloss is fresh, and he still wants to know what it tastes like.

"My place or yours?"

"Are your parents home?"

Steve scoffs, a little offended. "What makes you think I live with my parents?"

"Oh," You start, eyes widening with something like surprise, embarrassment, maybe a little bit of both. "Do you... not live with your parents?"

"No, I absolutely live with my parents. And no, they're not home, by the way. I think I just resent the implication that-"

"Oh my god," You turn, walk towards the passenger side of his car with a shake of your head. You stand with a grasp on the handle, waiting for him to follow. "If you still wanna get laid tonight you better get in the freaking car, idiot."

"Wow," Steves says, keeps playing his mock offence but starts towards the car anyway. He digs his hand into his pocket in search of his keys. "I guess there's just something about you Buckleys and being mean to me."

You swing the door open as soon as it's unlocked, fall in with enough force to make the vehicle bounce lightly on its wheels. "Car, Steve!"

-----

You've made it this far without any hiccups. Without any bad omens descending from the heavens as a sign that this was all a bad idea.

If anything it felt too good to be true, a ridiculously handsome, charming boy with a genuine interest in you, complete with a mega fancy house and parents who were never in town. Then there was the tiny fact that he was your sister's best friend, but you tried not to think about that one too hard.

"What do we do now?"

Steve's moving to sit beside you at the foot of his bed, soft notes of music drifting from his cassette player slowly filling the background.

You smile at him, at the earnestness in his voice and the wide, open hope in his expression. It makes your chest ache so much you have to change the subject.

"Before anything, I just wanted to say..." You adjust your position, angle yourself to better face him. Steve looks terrified of what you're next move is, and it almost makes you laugh. "I don't know what you did to make Robin trust you enough to tell you... you know... But I just thought I would tell you that I appreciate it. I was really worried at first, about leaving her for so long with nobody else who really, actually knew her... It's just nice to know there's someone watching her back."

Steve wasn't exactly sure what he thought you were going to say, but it certainly wasn't that. It's a gesture that warms him through, not that he would ever admit that to Robin. "Yeah, no, of course. Thank you."

You offer him a gentle smile, nodding lightly as you lean back against your palms. You sigh like you're almost reluctant to keep going. "You're a pretty cool dude, Steve."

"I know," He says, response immediate, does that tilt thing again and proceeds to give you the smuggest smirk you've ever seen. "But thank you for reminding me."

"Oh, shut up," You mutter, nudge him lightly in the knee with your own and roll your eyes, can't help the smile that blooms across your face as he leans towards you.

"What?" He asks, accusatory, smiling, so close you can feel the fan of his warm breath against your skin. "I was agreeing with you."

"Steve," You say, try and almost succeed at pulling a serious face.

He's looking at your lips again, doesn't meet your eyes as he continues. "Yeah?"

"Stop talking."

Strawberry. That's the first thought Steve has when you kiss him, impossibly soft lips moving against his, turning his brain to fuzz in an instant.

It's all instinct from that point on, when he slots one hand around your waist and brings the other beneath your ear, thumb brushing against your cheek and opening you up for him.

"What?" You laugh, breathe it between sweet, sticky kisses.

"What?"

"You said something, I couldn't hear you."

Steve is only half paying attention, too busy pressing you back until your back hits the mattress. Oh.

"Strawberry," He repeats, hadn't realised he had said it out loud the first time. "Your lip gloss. It tastes like strawberry."

"That's what you're thinking about right now?" You're grinning at him, smile too wide to keep kissing and so Steve takes the opportunity to trail along your jaw, dips down to follow the column of your throat until he hears you sigh.

"It's not the only thing I'm thinking about," He mutters, presses curved lips to the crook of your neck and focuses on the spot.

Your breath is coming out a little heavier, your fingers tangling into his hair as he continues the gentle assault on your neck, but you try to keep up. "Care to share with the class?"

"Well," Steve starts, hands wandering downward to start to bunch up the bottom of your shirt. "I'm thinking about taking this off, for one."

Your position at the foot of your bed is a little awkward to manoeuvre, so Steve takes the opportunity to slowly stand over you, plants one last sloppy kiss to the dip of your throat before he's on his knees.

It makes you gasp, the sudden shift and the sight of him between your legs as he kisses the soft flesh of your stomach he's exposed. "I'm thinking about how fucking warm you are, and how soft your skin is." He leans back, moves to sit on his heels and brings one of your knees up to sit over his shoulder. The position makes the light fabric of your skirt fall back, bunches at the top of your thighs and leaves the cotton of your panties just hidden from his line of sight. He kisses the inside of your knee, one strong hand grasping the outside of your thigh, doesn't tear his eyes away from yours the entire time. "And I'm thinking about what other parts of you must taste like."

"Jesus Christ," You mutter, fall back against the mattress and look up at the ceiling because this might just be the best stupid decision you've ever made.

Steve chuckles, a deep reverberation that sends aftershocks through your body where his lips are still connected to your skin. "Are you gonna let me find out, sweetheart?"

"Jesus Christ," You say again, because what else are you supposed to say to something like that. You press up on your elbows, look down to see Steve already smiling at you, still annoyingly smug. "You can't just go around saying shit like that."

"Is that a yes?" He asks, and if there was any doubt in your mind all would be resolved by the feeling of his hand snaking under your skirt, fingers slipping just under the hem of your underwear.

"Please, yes. Fuck."

In any normal circumstance, you might register the fact that the two of you are still fully clothed, at the very least take off your shirts before you let another person take off your underwear. But this wasn't just any normal circumstance, and in that moment any force that could delay the feeling of his mouth on your cunt was sorely unwelcome.

Steve makes it slow, draws it out for as torturously long as he can before you're starting to squirm beneath him. He leans back, just so he can start to tug your panties down your legs, goosebumps rising at every tiny point of contact until the flimsy fabric has slipped to the floor.

Steve doesn't think he'll ever get over the way you say his name, not when he's heard it like this, the heady whine of it he earns with the first contact of his mouth on your clit.

Your hand is in his hair immediately, fingers threading through the thick strands and pressing him closer toward you, needing everything closer, craving everything impossibly closer than you could get it.

The tug isn't purposefully, simply another involuntary response your body gives at the feeling of him sucking your clit between his lips, along with your gasp and the arch of your back and the flex of your thighs. It does, however, pull something guttural out of his throat, the hum of it pressed against you sending a sharp shock of pleasure up your spine.

You say his name again, choked and frayed as it escapes through ragged breaths.

Steve pulls away, cruelly, awfully, leaves you hot and aching as he presses slick lips to the inside of your thigh. He kisses along, down, back up again, leaves behind quick little nips you're sure will leave marks tomorrow.

You laugh, a little because it tickles and mostly because you're not sure a guy has ever made you feel this good in your life, and this was only the crescendo.

"It's dangerous laughing at the guy who hasn't made you cum yet..." Another nip, quickly soothed by the warmth of his tongue. "Unless you wanna finish the job by yourself."

It just makes you laugh harder, knees coming up a little to close together and Steve has to tighten his grip to bring them back down. "No, no, no," You start, out of breath for multiple reasons, and when you look down at him he's grinning back at you, inexplicable and bright and beautiful. You comb your hand through his hair and bite your lip, slowly trying to tug him back towards you. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I won't laugh, promise. Just keep going."

Steve hides his smile back against the inside of your thigh, leaves one last mark. "Are you gonna ask nicely? I think it's the least I deserve after-"

"Fine! Fine, Jesus," You laugh, even though you had just promised you wouldn't, take a moment to compose something resembling a serious expression, make your best wide, innocent eyes at him. You give his hair a harsh tug. "Please make me cum, Steve."

And it has been a joke when he said it, but hearing the words come out of your mouth doesn't sound so funny anymore. The only thing hearing them does is make the strain in his pants exponentially tighter and brings his mouth back to you in an instant.

It's harsher, this time, relentless in the movement of his tongue and his lips over your clit. This time there's no mercy when it's too much, when you try to squirm and lessen the intensity of it all, the arm hooked around your thigh moving to spread over your pelvis and keep your hips in place as he works at you.

You try not to look at him, think as soon as you do the sight alone might be enough to make the rapidly growing well of heat in the pit of your stomach overflow. You can't help it though, when you feel the pads of his fingers start to tease at your entrance, tests the waters and let's another hum slip through when he finds you already dripping wet.

Your eyes meet his, and Steve gets to watch the look on your face as he presses two fingers into the sopping heat.

Steve wants that face burned into the inside of his retinas, wants to see it every time he closes his eyes and relive the feeling of your cunt clenching around his fingers. Your entire body is wound tight, he can feel it in his hand still spread over your hip and the flex of your thighs, sees it clear as day in the contortion of your face, and every point of tension is heightened tenfold when he starts to curl those fingers inside you.

You say his name again, different this time, pleading and needy and you want to let go so bad. Want to dispel all this energy into the universe and feel the waves of it drown you, crave the relief of that first deep breath of bliss that fills your lungs.

"I've got you, baby," Steve mutters, like he can read your mind or maybe he's just good at reading the cues, nods the best he can while still pressed against you when you look at him.

It snaps, like being cut loose, doesn't take much more of his mouth and fingers to have you falling and falling and falling.

That. That way you say his name. He's not sure you'll be able to top that.

Your hand slips out of his hair, meets your other one as you stretch out against the mattress with a sigh, a slow shiver creeping up your spine. "Jesus fucking Christ." You close your eyes and you laugh, because it's the only response you find fit enough for that.

"Now, what's funny?"

There's a mess against your thigh when Steve pulls his fingers away, slick and saliva melting on your skin as he slowly moves to crawl back up your body.

You open your eyes as soon as you feel his face hovering over yours, grinning and sloppy and hazy. You don't answer, say enough in the way you kiss him and wrap your arms tightly around his neck, welcome the taste of yourself on his tongue and the harsh squeeze he gives to your hip. "God, you're so fucking pretty."

You smile, catch him in another quick kiss, tugging his bottom lip between your teeth as you pull back away. "Funny, I was about to say the exact same thing." And it's true, because his hair is a mess and his face is flushed and you don't think anyone has ever been prettier.

"You think I'm pretty?" He asks, smug again, dips down to kiss the peak of your jaw.

"Like you haven't been called a pretty boy your whole life, pretty boy."

Steve gives you a lopsided grin and somehow becomes prettier. "And I never get sick of hearing it."

Steve kisses you, presses his smile to yours and waits until you're lucid enough to kiss him back. It's softer, for a little while, gentle in the way he cups your cheek and soothes the skin there with his thumb. It's you who deepens it, chases it as you bring your hand to the hem of his shirt. "Too many clothes."

You're right, of course; the two of you are still entirely clothed save for your underwear, a sore fact that Steve immediately moves to rectify, tugs his own shirt off and starts on the buttons of your blouse before you even register it.

"Careful, Jesus," You giggle, worried he might break a button, but even that's short-lived by the hasty urgency with which he takes off your shirt.

You have to sit up to let him slip the fabric down your arms, and as soon as you do he kisses you again, mumbles something unintelligible against your lips before his hands are at your waist and pushing you up the bed. "That's better."

You gape at him, not that he notices, too busy with looking down to work at the button of his jeans and kick them off.

He freezes when he meets your eyes again, reads the expression on your face. "What?"

"I can't believe I just got manhandled by Steve 'the hair' Harrington."

Steve sighs, dips his head into your neck so you can't see the deep blush that only exacerbates the condition of his face. "She told you about that?" He asks, muffled, oozing embarrassment, and it makes you laugh again.

"She absolutely did."

Steve nips at the crook of your neck, makes you gasp, and you're about to keep teasing him when he brings his face back to yours. "Let's change the subject?"

"To what?" You ask, smiling, tilt your chin up at him.

"To how perfect your boobs are and how much I want to fuck you right now."

You hum against him when he kisses you, effectively shutting you up as he takes a handful of your clothed breast and squeezes. His other hand slides up the outside of your thigh, hooking your leg around his waist, and with how close he's pressing against you you can feel just how hard he is. "A gentleman."

Steve smiles, presses one last heated kiss to your lips before he's leaning over you, dragging open the top drawer of his bedside table.

You take the opportunity to watch him, take in the solid, carved muscle of his stomach, the mass of dark chest hair, the flex of his bicep as he reaches for the small foil packet.

You want to touch him, and then you realise that you can, kiss him hard as soon as you can, hands slipping around the side of his waist to pull him in before gliding down his front.

The first inch of your fingers under the hem of his boxers makes him gasp, nodding when your eyes search his, asking for permission to dip further.

"Fuck," He mutters, squeezes his eyes shut for a moment and has to shake the fog in his brain loose, looks down to where he can just see the slow twist of your hand in his boxers. "You ready?"

You take the cue, remove your hand and mutter a quiet, "Yeah," before he's kissing you, kisses you and kisses you as he kicks off his boxers and moves to slip on the condom.

Steve pumps himself in his hand once, twice, four times, and then he's lining himself up with you, tip only just kissing your entrance. "I'll be gentle, yeah?"

You smile at him, shake your head into another kiss. "You don't have to be gentle with me, Steve."

He looks at you, mouth slack, and you have to nod to reassure him, a gentle squeeze at his waist to spur him on.

There's a slur of muffled, breathy profanities as Steve sinks into you, so slowly fills you up, makes you feel each tiny stretch of your walls around his cock.

You're both breathing the same hot, heavy air, open mouths slotted over the other, and the feeling of him finally pressed in to the hilt makes you both sigh. "Can I move?"

"Please," You breathe, and it's all Steve needs to start slowly pulling back, only makes it about halfway before he's pushing back in.

It's enough to knock the breath out of your lungs, regardless, the fullness of it all immeasurably more intense than you had prepared for. Steve's head is buried in your neck, pulls a little further out with the next movement of his hips, drives in with a little extra force.

"Faster, please, baby," You whine, needy and impatient and unashamed. The words make his grip on your thigh tighten, and he does what you ask, kisses down your neck and along your collar bone and peppers you in more tiny marks as picks up his movements.

It makes you moan, deep and echoing around the room and suddenly you don't know what you would have done if his parents had been home, or if you had had to sneak him into your place, don't think you could keep all this energy inside you without exploding.

"So big," You sigh, can't help the breaths and whimpers that catch in the back of your throat as his hips get even faster, chasing that same white-hot friction. "Feels so good, Steve. So- Fuck."

Your head presses back into the pillow, one arm coming up to wrap around his torso and dig your nails into his back. "Oh, fuck, there you go," He mutters, feels the sudden clench of you around him and thinks he might be done for, now and forever and until the next time you let him feel you like this again. "Can't believe how fucking tight you are, baby. So perfect."

Steve pulls his face back, dips his head to look at the place your bodies are connected, at the place you're swallowing him up and dripping onto his bed sheets and knows immediately it was a mistake, feels the shiver of pleasure it spreads throughout his body almost make him tremble.

But Steve's a gentleman, even if the brief manhandling may have told you otherwise, and he would be damned if he was gonna let himself cum before you.

He's not quite sure how you keep coming up with new ways to say his name, but the sound that slips out of you mouth when his thumb meets your clit is certainly new, only gets through the first couple of letters before melting into a low moan. You clench around him again, fluttering and velvet hot, and it makes Steve quicken the circling of his thumb, looking up to watch your face pinch with it.

"Are you gonna be good and cum for me, honey?"

"Holy fuck," You whine, don't miss a beat, open your eyes to already find him looking at you intensely, jaw slack and eyebrows loosely knit together, concentration and pleasure overwhelming his features. "Need it harder, baby. Wanna cum for you."

"Need it harder?" He repeats, doesn't wait for your answer for the next drive of his hips to be harsher, deeper, hits that spot inside you so well it almost makes you scream. "Need it rough? Like- Oh, fuck, I can feel you."

Steve can apparently tell you're about to cum sooner than you can, because all at once everything it too much, hits you so fast and so hard you don't even have time to warn him before you're coming apart around his cock.

And thank God, too, because Steve was already about to lose it, thumb on your clit working you through your orgasm as he stills inside you, moans into your mouth with a rough kiss.

Your legs are shaking, trembling in his touch and Steve registers the rush in his ears, high-pitched and muffling your shared pants into white noise.

Steve is now indubitably certain you're an angel.

-----

"You can drop me off at the end of the road, just in case Robin's still awake."

"Oh, right. Sure." He seems unsure, a little distant, and after the last couple hours, it makes your heart sink.

You turn to Steve, in the darkness, watching the street lights paint shadows through the angles of his face, his brow and his nose and his jaw. He's prettier than you think you'll ever admit, prettier than you could ever make him understand. "You're cool with this, right? Because nothing else has to happen if you're not."

"No, I'm cool with it. Totally cool, just like you said, I'm a cool guy." Steve smiles, and you smile at him, meet his eyes as soon as he's rolled the car to a stop at the bottom of your street.

"Cool."

You lean across the centre console and press a quick kiss to his cheek, feel the heat beneath your lips and know he's more flushed than the dim light is letting on.

You don't really pull away when you pull away, hover a couple inches away from his face as he turns towards you. Something pointy and solid is digging into your ribs, but you don't really care.

Steve kisses you, moulds you to him the same way he had in his room not so long before. His hand is on your cheek and his tongue is in your mouth and everything is hot. Too, too hot.

"Good night, Steve," You whisper, lips still brushing his because you're giving him another chaste kiss as soon as you say it.

request something! masterlist // series masterlist

You finally settle back into your side of the car, and all at once you're gone so fast Steve's own "Good night" hangs empty in the air.

part two

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x buckley!reader #steve harrington #stranger things #stranger things 4 #no stranger things spoilers #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things fanfic #steve harrington smut #steve harrington fluff #steve harrington fanfic #steve harrington angst

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glindaupland · 4 months

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The Phantom of the Opera | Seoul, South Korea | October 8-14th, 2023 [REVIEWS]

Wow it's about time I posted these reviews that I kept lying about (this week! tomorrow! in 10 years!) Better late than never?

In this post I'll drop a few general things about the production, but the performances are analyzed in my reviews linked here. I recommend reading those all in order since I revisit points about actors I've made previously along the way to avoid repeating myself. Also leaving a disclaimer that these performances are from October so there are some changes in what the actors are doing now (with the exception of Jeon Dong-seok since he left in November) Apologies in advance for my wordiness, but this is more of a "release my feelings for my sake and if anyone else likes it that's cool too" kind of thing? Listen - I wrote a lot of notes on my performances there. So just go in knowing this is the more coherent version of my insane looking notes app!

Before I start I want to thank a few lovely friends who helped me out with this trip because it wouldn't have gone as well as it did without them!

Thank you to @lucygold95 for helping me so much with planning over the past months and for giving me the best time in Busan. Thank you @capitanogiorgio for all the shenanigans we went through and the most special time going to the 1500th and meeting Yoon Young-seok. Thank you to @fadinglandtragedy for the fun talks and the good advice before my trip! The best part of things like this is making friends of course! : )

PERFORMANCE REVIEWS:

STAGE & THEATER

This was as close to the original staging as possible. So I was able to take it in one more (or I guess 6 more?) times post-Broadway closing. The Charlotte Theater is a lot smaller than the Majestic so every view was pretty solid in my opinion, even the second to last row. I took a video of my view from 4th row under the chandelier during the exit music on October 11th so you can see! The angel and chandelier are shown halfway through. I'd say 5th row was almost the cut off for the chandelier drop (that was my spot next day) Broadway seats in this area were always too expensive for me so I'm glad I was able to grab these spots for this production

There were photo zones you can take pics at which you've probably seen. One was a large rose wall, the other was the cute statue of their mascot 오유령. People also take forever lining up for the cast boards for photos and yes I was one of those people. Here's a comparison of the cast boards from the second season (pictures I found when reading old reviews on Naver) and the cast boards now (I forgot to take a photo of one on the top floor though)

I found this review where someone took more detailed clean photos than I did if you're curious about the layout and decorations!

MERCH AND GIFTS

The tickets had these designs! If you booked on Yes24, you received a special envelope and a ticket holder with the face of the Phantom performing for that show

I only didn't receive a second Ju-taek because that was booked on another site - Interpark (bottom middle ticket). I also received paper masks with printed autographs every day I went to commemorate the 200th performance of the run/100th for Seoul and the 1500th overall Korean performance. We used them for the curtain call photos on those two dates (with Jeon Dong-seok then Kim Ju-taek). There are multiple versions of the program book and at the time of writing this I have all except the Daegu one. The first Busan program book was pretty bare and only had the teaser pictures - the same was the case for my Les Mis program book in Busan. -There are different photos in each one, so to me it was worth grabbing them all. My third version signed by Kim Ju-taek is currently on display as you can see below! (The writing says "내 노래를 날게 해 주오 - Make my song take flight") Once again thank you to Lucy for this! 🥹❤️

Here's some of my POTO merch (including a spare cupsleeve from the coffee shop next door, I also had a keyring, but I forgot to show it) RIP to the second program book I sacrificed for scans I still have the pages stored/displayed though! I'm not wasteful! I'll have more to post soon after sharing these reviews

TRANSLATION

Let me emphasize this: my Korean abilities are limited, so don't look to me as the expert on this at all. But I'll still share my notes and perspective as an outsider who's studying The lyrics have changed quite a bit since 2001-2. There are still lines kept or songs that are mostly similar. MOTN had a lot of similarity to 2009-11 even with its changes, STYDI was identical to 2009-11, but Angel of Music was pretty different from even the last season, etc etc. The Phantoms all have unique lines sprinkled here and there, mainly in MOTN (this happens sometimes in Korean musicals). You get some things like random single line changes in some parts depending on the actor or different order/wording of the same lines as well. Just tiny diversions from the script. This is the case for the Christines and Raoul to a lesser extent. Additionally, actors are often permitted to do some occasional improvisation/ad libs. Some unique lines are pretty normal parts of their interpretations now, some appear depending on the feeling of the performance, some are one time only events. I'll mention some of the actor-specific ones and such in their actual reviews, but I have been trying to mark down all of the differences like these for example

Of course, some things obviously have to be adjusted to make sense because of cultural / linguistic reasons. So one example would be the "Wrote...written" line in Notes I. Firmin speaks rudely and informally, but quickly tries adding a more respectful ending particle 요 after Raoul and André give him a shocked 'what did you just say?' kind of look. So "대체 뭘 썼다고 하는 건데...요!" is pretty much like "What the hell are you saying I wrote?" André would look so embarrassed by this each time 🫣

퇴근길 / STAGE DOOR

Stage door doesn't really work the same as it does in places like New York, London, etc. Most of the time if an actor comes out it's more like a quick greeting or chat with the fans. Some actors (not in this case) might sign or take photos in designated spots, but it really depends and it's not so common. It's gotten more restricted ever since COVID as well. 퇴근길 -> "way home from work" is literally what this is called. Dong-seok did wave at us a few times happily after the 200th performance, Gun-ha briefly came out to thank fans after the 1500th while Ceci and I waited to meet Young-seok who had agreed to meet us. I did not have the time (or strength) for the Seung-woo mob, but he usually greets fans after shows.

I literally asked Yoon Young-seok directly on Instagram if Ceci and I could meet him and give him gifts because I figured it didn't hurt to try! When he agreed, my anxiety was not necessarily about meeting an actor, but more about my ability to express my thoughts in another language. But he was truly the sweetest guy and incredibly patient. I think he got that I understood everything he said, but that replying was a whole other challenge. I'm glad I was making enough sense that he was able to get my points and helped me finish sentences if I looked stressed about it 😂 I basically told him I had been planning this trip since the cast announcement because it was too perfect to miss and that I came for 6 shows. I really like to listen to his Phantom on the cast recordings and I thought he made the shows I had seen so far so much fun.

We both said where we were from (the US and France) and he was amazed. He was also shocked when I pulled out my original Korean cast recording (I still laugh thinking about the way he said "와, 세상에!" like "Wow, oh my god!" and enthusiastically took it agreeing to sign when I was mid-way asking him haha) I also thought it was funny when he asked Ceci if she saw his Phantom last season. We wish! But she mentioned she had gone to Busan a few times and he looked very touched and appreciative that we went to multiple performances 🥹 This poor man was tired he signed our things with November (11.13) though and he also spelled Ceci's name wrong first time, but it was the 1500th show though okay. And if he says it's November...who are we to question him? Ceci should also legally change names so he isn't wrong. Anyway, ramble over you can find the art we made for him in this post

OTHER

Here's just bonus fun I had that I will manage to connect to POTO despite it not being POTO because I love doing that. I mean I went because I like these musicals as well (otherwise I would've been foolish enough to go see Ben-Hur but I have, uh, standards for my plots sorry to Park Eun-tae 😭), but it's fun to point out these things. I'm happy to share my show experiences in a different post if anyone's interested in my thoughts on those

Rebecca

I went to see Rebecca, mainly focused on seeing a scheduled date for 이지혜 Lee Ji-hye (Ich) and 장은아 Jang Eun-ah (Mrs Danvers). The whole cast was fantastic. Some Korean musicals have special encore bits they do where the leads sing a part of a song from the show during bows so that was really fun. Unfortunately, we don't get to have fun at POTO like that haha

Lee Ji-hye was in Y&K Phantom as Christine in the same cast as Jeon Dong-seok (Erik), Yoon Young-seok (Gérard Carrière), and Lee Sang-jun (Cholet). Two other cast members in Rebecca were in Y&K as well - 에녹 Enoch (Maxim) who was Philippe and 신영숙 Shin Young-sook (Mrs Danvers) who was Carlotta. Sadly, they had such few shows this season due to a busy schedule, so I couldn't see them (when will trot give Enoch back to musicals). Original Korean ALW Raoul and Y&K Erik 류정한 Ryu Jeong-han was also on rotation as Maxim, but I picked another day for my show so I didn't see him either

Les Misérables

I went to opening night of Les Mis in Busan! It was the Dream Theater, same place POTO played at before. As many of you already know, Choi Jae-rim is playing Jean Valjean at the same time as the Phantom.

I could recognize him easily as the Phantom, but honestly when he appeared at the very start of Les Mis it took me a minute to process that it was him! While I did enjoy his Phantom a lot, I think I enjoyed his Valjean performance a little more. It was only opening night, so curious to see how things develop!

The actor who played Javert that night, 카이 Kai (stage name), was a former Y&K Erik for two seasons too. So many Phantoms!

Frankenstein

On the last day I got to see Dong-seok and Ji-hye once more in a concert for the musical Frankenstein which they have been in together. So have some pics I took without a mask blocking his face!

Ending Note

Thinking back to December 2022 when I said: "Maybe I'll go to Seoul and see Dong-seok once or twice and that's it" That was funny. That was really very very funny and silly of me to say. 9 performances and 6 of those were POTO! But I'm so grateful and I have zero regrets about it. This is one of the best experiences I've had even if it might look ridiculous to some people to do something like this...I don't care! I hope my crazy essays can help paint a good picture for you!

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realhotgirlshitah · 10 months

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Chocolate and Vanilla Swirl

Jack Champion x Fem Reader

Warnings: None just teeth rotting fluff lol. Implied black reader but not too heavily.

Synopsis: Jack’s been following you on Tiktok for a while but doesn’t expect to actually meet you when Jasmine and Mason take him out clubbing to play cupid.

You loved TikTok. It was a fun and cute app where you took every given opportunity to post your thoughts and random lil videos bc you're silly like that.

Soon enough after downloading and posting for fun you built up quite large following who found you both hilarious and amusing.

Including Jack Champion.

At the time he started following you, you weren't quite sure who he was and didn't think much of it but following the release of Avatar 2 and Scream 6, you realised that this dude was... following you, like you were followed by an actual celebrity.

However you had the attention span of a bagel and were a massive scaredy-cat so you hadn't watched either movie. So, you just carried on your merry business making TikToks that people found funny and relatable and watched your following grow from there.

One thing that you didn't like about how people viewed your content was that on TikTok, the assumption was being insanely attractive and funny were mutually exclusive. You were funny, HILARIOUS even but you were also gorgeous, it's just your personality was so big it shone through.

So when you'd post a video and get comments that said stuff like:

Why's she kinda-

Hear me out

Wait why are you low-key cute

It bristled you a little, you wanted people to stop playing in your face like that.

So one evening, while getting ready to go out clubbing with your friends, you went completely against your character by posting a thirst trap. An absolutely scrumptious one.

The outfit was cute as hell. A pink miniskirt, a cream low-cut top that made your boobs pop, some cream knee high boots and some accessories to match.

"You look so fine Y/N," your bestfriend squealed before snapping a bunch of pictures. "I would honestly kill for a body like yours!"

You grinned and threw your arms around her in excitement. "I love you so much girl, thank you for letting me borrow your boots,"

"Anytime, now let's film that TikTok!"

Jack was in London doing press for the movie Scream 6. When the cast had finished for the day, they went back to the hotel together and Jack decided to chill out with Jasmine and Mason as per usual, not to do anything but just for the company.

"Dude, you're probably in here more than I am," Mason laughed causing Jasmine to chuckle in agreement.

"I'm just so bored," Jack sighed scrolling through tiktok and flopped against the bed.

"Well since we're in the UK we could always go out tonight, giving that you're legal an all- Jack?

Jack wasn't paying attention. Because that's when he saw your TikTok.

He was speechless (for once) staring at the way your plump glossed lips moved to lip sync with the attractive sound with a smirk. The way your seductive dark eyes looked up at the camera before placing it down and showing off your outfit. The way your French curl braids bounced with every step you took backwards (your hair wasn't the only thing that bounced with each step). In short, Jack was enchanted, he'd always thought you were gorgeous, as well as funny. But in your usual videos, your intention was to get your point, or lack thereof, across, to rant, to make people laugh.

However, your intention with this video was almost to seduce the person watching. You were confidently acknowledging how attractive you were and making it known.

And boy did Jack know.

"Jack? Jack? Dude, why has that sound been playing on your phone for the last 10 minutes?" Mason walked around to the bed and caught what the brunette was watching before he could hide it. "JAS, COME LOOK AT WHO JACK HAS A CRUSH ON!" The whoop of delight that simultaneously left Jasmine and Mason's ears was almighty.

"Jack! You're into Y/N? I didn't know you were down with the swirl, somebody wants to be invited to the cookout," Jasmine smirked teasingly at him as he blushed profusely. "We're mutuals on TikTok, she's literally the sweetest! If you want I can-

"No!" Jack exclaimed. He was scared. He genuinely didn't think a bad bitch like you, who was confident and brash, not to mention intimidatingly gorgeous, would want anything to do with him. Yes, there were many many girls all over the world who would throw themselves at him but he thought you were WAY out of his league, you didn't even follow him back on TikTok! "Let's just- change the topic please?"

Mason and Jas looked at each other with a knowing glance before shrugging in unison.

"Sure little bro, like I said earlier, how about we go clubbing? I know a great one nearby and you'll be able to get in since the minimum age in the UK's 18 instead of 21," Mason smiled. "If you go get ready now, we can grab a taxi and leave in five minutes?"

Jack, who was grateful for the subject change, nodded in excitement. "Yeah, that sounds like it'll be fun, I'll go get ready,"

Before he knew it, they were at a nightclub, he had a couple shots but decided he wasn't too fond of the taste and wanted to have awareness for the entire night so stopped his drinking there. However he had enough alcohol to make him even more smiley than usual and man he wanted to hit the dance floor.

"See any girls you like, Jack? Or are you still thinking about your TikTok crush?" Mason nudged him playfully earning a laugh and shove back.

"Leave him alone, Mason, he'll find what he's looking for soon enough," Jasmine smirked.

Oh. That sounded ominous.

Jack however, was too laid back to care and decided to dance a bit, so he made his way through the crowd to find space.

That. Was when it happened.

'Movie' by Megan thee Stallion was playing, and everybody who knew you knew that was your song. You also didn't have too much to drink but enough to make you clap your hands in excitement as your body buzzed to get on the dance floor with your friends. You felt hot and the song made you feel hotter. As your body moved in sync with the music, you rapped along with the lyrics, your friends hyping you up and smacking your booty, screaming about how fine you were.

They weren't the only people who thought you were fine.

Jack had just pushed his way through the crowd and immediately his eyes were on you, absolutely enthralled, shocked and terrified. Out of all the places in London he could've gone to, it was the one you were in? He turned back to glare at Mason and Jasmine who were grinning at him and putting their thumbs up, encouraging him to say something.

They knew. It was a set up, they set him up!

He felt like his feet were stuck to the ground as he watched you dance, moving like nobody was watching when in reality they were, people stared at you in jealousy and awe at such effortless beauty. Jack of course was staring with the latter.

He was about to retreat back to Mason and Jasmine when 'Killshot' by Magdalena Bay started to play, not as hype as the previous song but it was one that made you feel even sexier.

As the chorus was about to start, you turned around and made direct eye contact with Jack, his eyes widening at your gaze. You didn't recognise him immediately but it clicked after a couple of seconds since there were edits of him all over TikTok, not to mention you noticed Jasmine grinning with Mason.

You recalled the text convo you had with Jas before you left for the club.

Hey Y/N, I saw your recent and noticed on the caption it said you were going clubbing, where you off to?

Hey sis! I'm off to Kiko's, really nice club about a 10 min drive from the O2 xx

Oh cool! I'm staying at a hotel with some friends I think you'd love, our hotel's literally connected to the O2, see you there maybe?

Now girl, you know what happened the last time we went clubbing together

We'll behave, I promise!

If you turn up you better get us our own section pookie

You know I will!

I know das right!!

Then it dawned upon you that Jack was the friend and judging by the look on Jasmine's face, she had a plan. The sneaky devil.

You didn't mind though, there was no denying he was a massive cutie, tall, strong looking and very handsome but he also looked really sweet. Also, the way he was looking at you like you were the only girl in the room gave you butterflies, his eyes were so gorgeous, it was difficult to not stop and stare.

So you smiled at him, making his heart stop and his eyes widen. He was already hooked.

"I'll be back, you guys want any drinks?" You asked your friends. They all shook their heads no and continued dancing prompting you to make your way to the bar as the chorus continued to play. "One shot of tequila please,"

"Make that two shots of tequila please," You looked behind you to see none other than Jack Champion looking down at you. "Hey, I'm Jack,"

"I'm Y/N, nice to meet you Jack," you flashed him a pearly white smile, immediately making him forget himself. "I'm guessing you're here with Jas?"

"And Mason, they really wanted to take me here clubbing and now I think I know why," he grinned making you laugh.

That laugh.

Jack would literally dress up in a clown costume and do the worm in front of millions just to hear that laugh. It was like music to his ears, a drug he'd have no problem becoming addicted to.

Two shots of tequila were put in front of you along with lime and salt on a small plate, the way he looked at it dumbfounded made you giggle slightly.

"Never had a tequila shot?" You smirked.

"N- No, this is my first time going out and drinking, back at home the legal age is 21," Jack explained as heat rose to his face.

"I'll teach you if you want," you looked up at his towering frame and must have said it too quietly because he looked at you inquisitively before bending over so your lips were nearer his ear.

Girl, if you could blush...

You smiled and pulled his hand up in front of you before balling it up in a fist. Then you took a pinch full of salt and sprinkled it on his hand before doing the same for yourself.

"Lick the salt off your hand, take the shot and then suck on the lime as quickly as possible in one go," you said into his ear, which looked a bit red. You both picked up your shots and tapped the glasses before licking the salt, drinking the alcohol followed by the lime. The eye contact paired with the little smile he gave you during the mini lesson made a wave of heat wash over you and go a lil feral but he didn't need to know that.

"Oh, ooo big no no," he screwed his face up at the taste making you laugh again.

"Not the first time someone's reacted like that, maybe you're more of a beer guy?"

"Nope, I hate the taste,"

"Finally someone that gets it! Beer is just despicably vile, an abomination to beverages" you declared passionately making him smile at your voice. "What're you staring at?"

"Your accent is so incredibly cute," he looked down at you with a soft grin making your cheeks heat up again.

"I can't even imagine how many girls you must have said that to,"

"Only you, I honestly think I could listen to you speak all day,"

You smirked up at him as 'Wild Thoughts' began to play. "Wanna dance, Jack?"

"I uh uhm-

Before he even had the chance to answer, you took his hand within yours and pulled him through the crowed back onto the dance floor. As you led him through, his hand immediately found the small of your back, protecting you from the crowd, making your knees go weak. Soon, his arms were around your waist and your arms were around his neck, moving to the beat of the music.

"I love this song!" You grinned up at him.

"Me too!" He smiled. "You know... I follow you on TikTok,"

"Ah, I thought you did! Just wasn't 100% sure,"

"Well now you know,"

You gasped thinking "shit I don't follow him back"

He read your thoughts perfectly and smirked "It's okay, I'm here with you now so hopefully I can leave with something even better,"

"Oh really?" Your smirk mirrors his perfectly. "And what would that be, Mr Champion?"

"Your number plus a time and place i could take you out,"

Fuck this guy had all the makings of the perfect heartbreaker.

Once again, your heart rate increased at both his words and smile, that fucking smile.

"Depends. How many dates have you gotten since you've arrived in London?" He laughed again at your words.

"The only women I've properly spoken to since getting to London are you and Jas,"

You hummed thoughtfully, knowing that he was telling the truth, but not wanting to make your feelings too obvious. Jack felt like his heart was going to explode with the way you kept your dark eyes on his, a small smile tugging on your lips as he leaned in closer.

You were dangerous. And he was loving it.

He smiled softly at you, his thumb gently caressing your waist and bottom lip tucked under his teeth.

"You're so perfect, you're so so unbelievably perfect," he whispered, absolutely enamoured by you.

You grinned back, lightly twirling his curls at the back of his head with your fingers as he leaned in closer before making eye contact with Jas. She raised a brow at you and nodded towards the stairs, making you quickly catch on.

"Come with me," you smile against his ear making him go red as you tug him back through the crowd and up the stairs. Immediately the two of you are in a more private section of the club, guarded by two bouncers who let you through. The interior was very expensive looking and while you could see everything that was going on down where everyone else was dancing, it was a lot more private, with only you two occupying the room.

"Where are we-

"Private section of the club, Jas really hooked us up," you laughed. "Now I can actually hear you without having to lip read,"

The words coming out of your mouth however, fell upon deaf ears. Jack still couldn't get over how gorgeous you were, and still trying to understand how much time you were spending together without you thinking he was a waste of your time. His gaze was on you and nothing but you, thinking of you and just wanting to spend the moment with... you.

"Jack? Earth to Jack?" His eyes snapped back to yours, finally showing that he was paying attention. Immediately his arm found your waist again and he gently pulled you in, maintaining his gaze on yours. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Yes, the music was still thumping and causing the room to vibrate but it was like the two of you were floating away on a cloud, lost in each others eyes.

"Y/N... I'd really, really like to take you out on a date," Jack confessed, gently caressing your cheek as your eyes widened. "I mean I've actually been wanting to for a while but I thought you would probably be way too cool and think I'm too boring or you'd want someone better but I really would love to get to know you mor-

"Jack," you laughed adoringly at his nervous rambling before placing a hand on the back of his head, getting on your tiptoes and pulling him in for a kiss.

And what a kiss it was.

Time felt like it had stopped for the curly headed brunette as your lips moved in synch perfectly. He felt his heart melt as you leaned more into him, nibbling his bottom lip lightly. It was perfect, you were perfect.

And in that moment, Jack knew that he wanted to spend every moment of his existence making you aware of how perfect you were to him.

"Jack Champion I'd love nothing more,"

A/N: My gawd he’s so cutie patootie pookie. Also side note: I saw a tiktok comment talking about how it makes perfect sense Jack is the “We rocking with Mark bc Mark is rocking with us” of the friend group and I in fact have not been the same since, it actually inspired this storyline lol.

#jack champion #jack #avatar #atwow spider #ethan landry #scream vi #jackchampionfluff #ethan landry fluff #ethanlandryxblackreader #jack champion x black!reader #interracial

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jiminsass-istant · 3 months

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LOVE DID WIN: some observations

The way my eyes got watery at first watch. Then i read the lyrics properly on my second watch and let the tears run down. The IU's palate episode didn't give away any chemistry between IU and V but look at them?!

Anyway, for those who don't know, i love analysing music videos and here's some observations that haven't been mentioned on X app yet (probably)-

1. In majority of the MV, it's IU holding Tae's hand and leading and him following along, whether they were having fun or running from the cube. It's significant..just keep this in mind for now.

2. The name of this mall/shopping centre being 'horizon portal' where they find the camera which lets them enjoy their last moments together, imagining themselves as normal people pre-disaster.

3. The text sticker in bottom right corner says 'smile'. As in this is the scene where IU discovers that the camera lets them see happy moments and Tae smiles softly too, a little amused that he's being asked to smile in this situation.

4. In these scenes, the rest of the surroundings are in chaos, the people in black are even disturbing(?) them but they don't care because in their imagination, the normal world has always been cruel and chaotic.

5. Lol, small observation but this polaroid scene was the one Tae was re-enacting at the Golden party with JK. Pretty sure, at least JK has seen the Love wins all MV.

6. Tae's expression here when they were confronted. He really is such a good actor. Tragedy ✅ Romance ✅Thriller ✅

7. THIS scene is the one where Tae finally takes the lead. I believe IU leading him before was partly also because he was blind in 1 eye. But this is the scene where he decides to fight for them, in the face of death.

8. The hand acting. Broke me.

9. This scene going down in history.

10. I'm guessing the cube just absorbs the bodies and leaves behind the clothes/shoes into the cloth pile. (Like Spring day cloth pile, bye)

They both die, so why is it called 'love wins all'?

I tried really hard to find a reasoning that doesn't seem like finding a pin in a haystack. So, I looked at the lyrics. If you read the lyrics for the final chorus, you see-

In the storyline of the MV, they have not actually gone astray on purpose. It's actually a situation they have no say in. But that's how they want to see it as. That they have gone astray on purpose, hold each other on purpose, and are sad with each other on purpose. Anyway, the more i think about it, the sadder I get. I knew the ending would be sad but FUCKKK.

This is like Black Mirror, but romanticised.

#kim taehyung #bangtan boys #bts analysis #bts

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thegeminisage · 6 months

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THE VOYAGE HOME breakdown

i liveblogged this on the notes app on my phone bc i could not be bothered w tumblr while i watched it. 10/10 movie i love spock's little bandana

first scene was really rough bc they made us watch the enterpise blow up again. i did NOT like reliving that. she's a beautiful woman and i loved her

kirk being in trouble was so funny. like hes been in trouble in tos before but not THAT kind of trouble

did gasp aloud when they said vulcan exile. kirk spock and bones were on VULCAN EXILE for THREE MONTHS and you're telling me they didn't fuck. impossible. i have so much fanfiction to read

gasped when i saw spock far away on that cliff too. i went from watching the movie to doing whatever it is i do when i see spock on my screen. i was so instantly invested like 100x more than i had been previously. cathy made fun of me for calling it the spock movie but lo: there was spock

thrilled to see his mom again even though she fucking sucks. i thought she had died or something since she wasn't in search for spock lol he doesn't need that!!

me when they mentioned yorktown: omg another aos reference

i knew this movie was about whales but not in what capacity. so when the probe showed up we went back and forth for a really long time on whether this was The Whale. we were very impressed with its little laser

uhura remains the most beautiful woman to ever live. she gets hotter in every film idk how she does that

i liked when kirk gave bones a direct order to like "stay here" or whatever and he said with his mouth "no way" and followed him out anyway. fucking hilarious there's no use trying to hide behind rank anymore captain. their relationships have evolved so wonderfully <3

the time travel cgi was wack. idk what they were doing but it made me uncomfortable

"we can get back but only with NUCLEAR POWER" it's just like back to the future fr

spock's bandana.

i knew he wore it in this film because i have seen fanart and a couple of gifs but it was even better to see it in person as it were

spock was great in this film. unclear how much of his personal memories he had back, i would like to assume most of them? but back at factory settings nonetheless. i liked getting to watch jim and bones teach him to be "human" all over again, even down to jim asking to be CALLED jim, instead of by his title. i have a feeling we're gonna get a lot of that with data in tng and knowing i will love data is all that makes it possible for me to part from spock. spock failing at swearing, being bad at lying, being bad at loving italian - bones said he wasn't firing on all thrusters and he was right, but he's still competent enough to get them back to their own year. i also really liked him knocking out the dude with the radio lol. AND THEN EVERYONE CLAPPED which would have been ridiculous for anyone but spock.

whaling videos sad. i do love that this movie was pro-whale propaganda...i feel like we got a lot of that in the late 80s/early 90s, so maybe whales really WERE gonna go extinct and we saved them thru the power of cheesy movies. one likes to dream

kirk is losing his touch as a honeypot. he so throughly failed to seduce this biologist it's embarrassing. she only cares about whales, dude.

scotty hunting and pecking on the keyboard at the speed of light is me fr. i never learned to touch type and now i have a role model. i mean you can't expect HIM to touch type he's missing a fucking finger

giving the molecule to those guys early is ALSO an aos reference. this is where spock got the idea in the 2009 movie i bet :(

chekov being russian when he got caught is both more hilarious and more distressing, like. considering.

"he is a man of deep feelings" on vulcan this counts as a slur

extremely skeptical of them taking the whale biologist until she pointed out that if whales were extinct there would be no whale biologists in the future and so they needed her. fair point, movie

i feel like movies just never have real water anymore. is that just me? 90s movies had water all the time and these days you never see any real water. shit's expensive. they just cgi it.

THEIR SWIM PARTY CELEBRATIONNNN it was so good. jim dunking people in the water but also william shatner would have drowned in leonard nimoy wasn't holding him up lol that shit looked choppy as hell

i recognized their outfits at the trial all together like that from the photo in aos...made me sad

GIVING JIM THE CAPTAINCY BACK...god FINALLY. the sheer hell he goes through as a retired man...let him work...

i wasn't gonna cry during this movie but when spock said i feel fine i did in fact: cry. HE FEELS FINE.

AND FINALLY. ENTERPRISE BEING BACK. perfect touch to a perfect movie

tonight we start tng (we're going in release order) and i am sooo nervous to leave them but at least we have two more tos movies left so it'll be a gradual transition...ik im gonna like tng but i don't think i'll ever love any star trek character more than i love spock. hes everything to me!!!

#personal #star trek blogging #tvh lb #HIS LITTLE BANDANA #so far my fav movie is still search for spock #wrath of khan and voyage home tie in a very close second tho. i go back and forth on which one wins second place

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mariacallous · 9 months

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Sixteen years ago, software developer Jeremy Vaught created the Twitter handle @music to curate news and share stories about, obviously, music. Tens of thousands of Tweets later, he’d built a following of more than 11 million. Then, last week, Twitter—now rebranded as X—took the handle off him. An email from X, which Vaught posted to the platform, offered him no explanation but told him he could choose one of three other handles: @music123, @musicmusic, or @musiclover. All three were held by other users and so would presumably have to have been taken off them.

“It feels like this would be this forever thing where somebody's got their account taken and they were allowed to go take another one,” Vaught says. "Where would we end up? That'd be crazy."

He has since been assigned @musicfan.

The confiscation is entirely within X’s terms of service. As the company tries to turn itself into an everything app, from music to video to finance, it’s likely it will need to stake a claim to handles related to its new business lines. But unilaterally taking a popular handle off a user could be bad business and another demonstration of how X under Musk is stripping away the things that made Twitter, Twitter.

“I definitely think that it gives pause to building any sort of a brand on there,” Vaught says. "When you can't have any confidence that what you're working on is not just going to be taken away, that's huge."

The platform’s success was built on people, like Vaught, doing the work to build followings and create organic communities around shared interests. Heavy-handed land grabs on top of surging hate speech, shifting policies on verification, and, of course, the dropping of a globally recognized brand in favor of a letter, reinforce the feeling that Twitter is more and more becoming a place catering to a usership of one: Musk himself.

“It seems to me that he wants it to turn into a fanboy platform where people just go agree with him no matter what he says,” says Tim Fullerton, CEO of Fullerton Strategies and former VP of content marketing at WeWork. “There has been just this ongoing attack on the Twitter users that have made Twitter what it is. He doesn't respect the user base.”

Before purchasing Twitter, Musk was a super user of the platform, having tweeted some 19,000 times to an audience that now stands at 152 million. This meant that his experience on the app was likely radically different than that of most users—the average Twitter user has 707 followers, and many have no followers at all. On pre-Musk Twitter, about 80 percent of tweets came from just 10 percent of Twitter’s users.

Verification helped average users figure out who was worth following. Twitter invented the blue check mark (which now exists on other platforms like Instagram and TikTok to indicate a verified user) after the manager for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team threatened to sue the platform over a parody account. From then onward, it was used to indicate the authentic accounts of public figures such as celebrities, journalists, and politicians, as well as brands or particularly large accounts (like @music).

Verified accounts “were the people who were producing the majority of the content that was driving more people to stay engaged and increasing the number of people who were using Twitter,” says Fullerton.

But to an influencer like Musk, a blue check was a valuable commodity. Who wouldn’t want to pay for it? So in December he launched Twitter Blue as a pay-to-play “verification” program, replacing the previous merit-based system.

It was, Fullerton says, the first step in its erosion of the communities that made it so popular.

According to a report from Similarweb, only 116,000 people signed up for the $8-a-month service in March. Less than 5 percent of the platform’s 300,000 legacy verified accounts have signed on to keep their blue ticks. Of the 444,435 users who signed up for Twitter Blue in its first month, about half have less than 1,000 followers, according to reporting from Mashable.

And for most users, removing verification has done away with a key visual shorthand that allows users to easily discern if the account or information they’re looking at is real. Firing most of the company’s trust and safety staff, the people who made and enforced the company’s policies around hate speech and misinformation, exacerbated the problem and made the platform increasingly unusable as a real-time source of information and news.

This week, Australia’s national broadcaster, ABC, became the latest large news organization to say it was leaving the platform over its “toxicity.”

For advertisers—still the largest source of X’s revenue—the growth of hate speech and misinformation is a major problem. In the first six months of Musk’s ownership, Twitter lost half of its advertising revenue.

Before, verified accounts and organizations were vetted by Twitter staff for authenticity and legitimacy. These accounts could drive conversation about certain topics, even without getting paid. The communities and engagement that they drove was part of what made Twitter attractive to advertisers.

“It's clear [formerly verified users] are not getting the traffic that they once did, because it's just a jumble and that's not what people want to see. They want to see the news. They want to see political people or sports,” says Fullerton. “When the Grammys or the Golden Globes or something like that happens, you're littering the feed with the RFK Jr.’s and all these awful right-wingers who used to be—rightly—banned.”

Musk has tried to entice influencers with a revenue-sharing program, which requires that users be verified to access. But, as Benedict Evans, an analyst and former partner at Andreessen Horowitz, pointed out in a tweet, confiscating the @music handle illustrated “essentially why no creator in their right minds would invest in Twitter’s monetization products.”

Research from Media Matters for America, a nonprofit watchdog group, found that the revenue-sharing program was cutting checks to right-wing conspiracy theorists. One user identified by MMA, Dom Lucre, regularly pushes QAnon conspiracy theories.

In December, shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced that he would offer amnesty to accounts that had been previously banned from the platform, including right-wing influencers and Andrew Tate, who has been indicted for human trafficking. While these users may not be the ideal community for legacy users of Twitter, Bill Bergman, a lecturer in marketing at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, suggests that perhaps Twitter’s current users are not the ones Musk is seeking to retain or draw in. “I get the impression Musk, with the direction it's going, doesn’t care what Bill Bergman, who has 400 followers, thinks, because Twitter as Bill Bergman knows it doesn’t exist anymore.” But what is coming next (except perhaps an ill-fated super-app) seems unclear.

And while his antics may have hurt Twitter’s brand, Bergman notes that the company is getting consistent if somewhat outsize coverage, a “pretty good” promotional strategy.

“Has he intimidated and upset all of the advertisers? Absolutely. Has he intimidated and upset all of our users that have been with this platform for 20 years? Absolutely,” says Bergman. “But he doesn’t seem to care about that.”

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blazehedgehog · 3 months

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Thoughts on the Microsoft Third Party news?

I mean if Xbox is getting to be a big enough brand that people are raising questions of whether or not exclusivity means monopoly, then yeah, spreading more of your games out across multiple platforms makes legal sense.

More and more of the game industry is regrettably going to be moving in the direction of "account ecosystem" rather than hardware platform. Years ago there was talk about how one day there would be no Xbox or Playstation console, just an Xbox or Playstation App you launch on something like a Roku.

The final disgusting endpoint in all of this "no more sales, just service" drive. No discs, not even local data, just a monthly streaming subscription. Forever. No ownership, no ability to mod games, no way to play offline.

Even in the best case scenario, we're looking at a Netflix where you stream 90% of what you play and only "buy" the 10% of games you truly love.

The only thing that flies in the face of that is, like, Steam. The state of movie ownership is what it is because Netflix got there first. The streaming arm of Netflix is the entire reason the "Hollywood Streaming Industry" exists right now. It predates Prime Video, it predates Tubi, it predates everything.

Fewer people probably remember this, but the original premise of Hulu was to get TV networks signed on to simulcast their newest shows online, because none of them were doing that yet. "Netflix Instant" (the original name for Netflix streaming) even predates that. Hulu was trying to fill a need that Netflix could not because Netflix did not actually stream TV shows at first. Not even syndicated rerun stuff. It was just movies. Streaming Seinfeld or The Simpsons or The Office was just outright impossible.

Netflix got in there and shifted the direction of an entire industry, before borders had been staked out or consumers had built up substantial libraries they were protective of. So we went from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray to Streaming, where "Streaming" usually means a subscription service and not any form of ownership.

But that's not the case with games. Users expect backwards compatibility, they expect their libraries to carry forward, and in some cases people may own hundreds or even thousands of games in a digital library. I know on the Xbox 360, I own at least $200 worth of digital games, because I won a sweepstakes specifically for a $200 Xbox gift card. And my 19 year old Steam account will gladly tell the entire world I own over 1600 PC games.

That's just on Steam! Epic is still always giving away free games (200+), GOG is occasionally giving away free games and holding sales where you can get stuff for a couple bucks, etc. etc. etc. It's like the warehouse of mythical items from Indiana Jones over here.

People own gigantic libraries of digital games they expect to keep and willingly modify in perpetuity. It's a lot harder to push people to stream everything off the cloud as a result. It's why the big selling point for game streaming is "No downloads!" and it's why it's struggling to catch on. Sure, a 100gb+ game is huge, but if I take my download limiters off, it doesn't actually take that long. A 90 minute download for a 30+ hour game seems like a pretty fair exchange, all told.

But Microsoft is still going all-in on "account ecosystem." It's like, think of it this way: every game publisher is in a constant war to have the one big holiday game that everybody buys. And for guys like Microsoft, that one big game a year is their primary moneymaker. If they can get everyone to spend at least $60 on their game once a year, they stay in business.

Game Pass is $60 a year. They side step having to put out that holiday season's biggest game and get to say, "Well for the price of one game, you can get access to an entire library." It changes the perspective on so much of their business model. Suddenly they don't need the big flagship holiday blockbuster, they just need to get more people to pay for Game Pass.

And the ultimate end goal there is probably to get Game Pass in as many places as they can. There's already a PC Game Pass. If they can launch some version of Game Pass for Playstation? Game Pass for Switch? They'll do it. The Xbox almost doesn't matter anymore. The subscription and the ecosystem does. It's why Microsoft rebooted the Xbox app on PC a few years ago -- it used to be a "Companion App" for your console, but now the Xbox App on PC is where all of their PC gaming and Game Pass stuff lives. Xbox isn't hardware anymore, it's a service you subscribe to, and that's where the real money is. Especially considering what a gigantic money pit hardware is; I don't think Microsoft has ever, even once, turned a profit on Xbox hardware (and neither has Sony, as far as I know).

Get rid of the need for hardware and that $60/year looks even sweeter, doesn't it? Especially when you start to consider that something like Game Pass Ultimate is actually $180/year. If you can lure people in on the $60 but upsell them to the $180... well, gosh, that's almost the price of a whole new console every year, isn't it? That's a lot of constant cashflow without needing the years and years of deeply expensive research, development, and manufacturing.

Getting people to spend a console's worth of money on your service without actually needing the console itself is massively desirable. They'd be saving millions, if not billions of dollars while making millions more elsewhere. There's a chart out there some executive is drooling over where a line goes straight up by something like 900%.

The only problem is the whole consumer rights/ownership factor. Which I am not a fan of. I objectively refuse to support Game Pass for what it's obvious goals are. I will buy and own every game I want to play. No compromises. I will buy physical if space and money allows. I will not be bled dry by temporary access.

#questions #Anonymous #xbox #microsoft #game pass #subscription #streaming #stadia #amazon #netflix #hulu

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sorcerous-caress · 4 months

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I can't fall asleep so here is a fun story.

When I was 16-17, I watched that russian sleeping experiment video, and it stuck with me for a while. I thought there was no way it's real, like it was clearly a creepypasta, but also I knew the best lies were built on half-truths, so it must have held some truth to it.

I did some digging on the Internet and found an article that stated how the stages the human body goes through the more they go without sleep. It was summer break, and I thought, what's a better use of my time than testing this out on myself?

I was curious and skeptical, i felt like some of the stuff in these articles were exaggerated. I didn't have a plan i just had a lot of free time, a locked room, lots of energy drinks, coffee, and a very uncomfortable chair.

The first day went easy. I spent it normally and stayed up playing video games and watching movies. Nothing unusual.

The second day went fine at first but I had to give up the bed, I dragged a very uncomfortable plastic chair into my room, it didn't even have arm rests. That's also the day i started slowly drinking energy drinks. My focus was deteriorating so I couldn't do anything but scroll through the apps on my phone.

The third day is when strange things started happening. By that point, I was unbelievably exhausted. I drank so much caffeine that I could see the veins on my hands slightly bulging out, and their colour was more prominent.

I couldn't stay sitting down because I would fall asleep, so I forced myself to get up every 10 minutes and walk around the room in circles. I was listening to loud metal music at max volume during the whole thing because the second my mind relaxed, I knew I'd fall asleep.

It was barely the start of the day too, this was me 1/4 through the day. I really didn't to fail now especially when I came this far.

The article mentioned that the hallucinations start on the third/fourth day. It's also when your brain forces you to fall asleep each time you blinked, it's called microsleep.

I did experience it. It wasn't like a normal blink where the world around you resumed, more like a long, slow blink that disconnected you from your brain for a second before you snapped back into reality.

So i kept this routine up for 3 hours. Sit, scroll through social media, stand up, walk around, and sit back down. Rinse and repeat.

I kept reading through the article, It was the only thing motivating me at that point. Especially since I had an argument with a friend earlier during day 2, when they screamed at me to go to sleep. I almost ended up losing them because of it, so I just lied and said i will go sleep.

They just didn't get it, yk? I already committed to this. I can't turn back after everything I endured. I wanted to see what happens, to witness it first hand because each one of those articles about sleep deprivation sounded like the plot of horror movies, and I wasn't buying it at all.

Also, I hate the taste of black coffee, but by that point, I just swallowed it all down without care. I don't even remember if it tasted like anything. My hands were shaking so much, but I knew I'd fall asleep without it, so I kept going.

I successfully made it halfway through the day, I've reread the same article so many times.

I kept thinking about the hallucinations, wondering when they would finally start. Would it be like seeing a ghost in the room? Auditory hallucinations were out of the question because I never stopped listening to the loud music, I also locked myself inside my room, just in case I attempted to wander outside and sleep on a couch or fall down the stairs by accident.

While I was circling the room, I kept staring at the poster on my wall. It was the Vitruvian Man by Da Vinci. It was the only humanoid poster I had up, so my eyes kept naturally seeking it out.

And there was something about its stare.

Each circle I finished would get me closer to it bit by bit, I couldn't see anything else besides it. I couldn't stop feeling like its eyes was speaking to me.

I kept remembering the article and the hallucinations, wondering if this is when it's finally starting. I embraced it and felt excited, i wanted it to speak to me, to come out of the poster and stand in front of me.

I couldn't even hear the loud music in my headphones anymore, only its stare. I stopped walking and kept standing still staring at it, waiting for something to happen.

But the look in his pupils, the crystal clear meaning of it.

Oh, i realised, it wants to kill me.

That empty stare in those soulless eyes, terror washed over me, and all excitement was replaced with fear.

Genuinely bone-deep fear. Me, a teenager in the 21st century who has had a comfortable modern life for all my years of living, felt true fear for the first time in my life.

It's going to murder me, I kept repeating. I was afraid to look away because I genuinely believed it would jump out at me the second I did.

Then I remember day 4 in the article, how they described that any hallucinations will get more intense, more real.

I was terrified, and I didn't want to die, so I did what any normal person would do when faced with a whispering cheap poster of an old creepy painting.

I caved in and went to sleep.

Laid on the bed, i imagined it walking behind me, I imagined him slowly moving towards me.

My heart was beating so much, every fiber of my being was beyond terrfied.

I was convinced he is standing in front of the bed.

Thankfully tho, It didn't take more than 3 seconds for me to fall asleep after I closed my eyes, I didn't even have to try.

I've only made it to the middle of the third day, by the time I woke up, it was the afternoon of the next day. I slept a whole day and my body felt beyond broken.

I needed to eat, i needed water, and I needed to go to the bathroom. I did all of these things in an hour and then immediately went back to bed.

I slept for another full day.

The following week, I slept for 16 hours per day, then it dwindled to 13, then 8, and after a month, I went back to my normal sleeping schedule.

But the thing is, the painting doesn't have eyes, really. Not clear ones, at least. They're so small already, and it was printed on a cheap poster, so they were basically a couple of pixels.

Yet I remember seeing clear eyes on the third day, with pupils and everything, i could almost count the eyelashes. And they didn't seem out of place either, it felt like they were always a part of the painting.

Anyway, I never threw that poster out. It cost me 10$, which to a broke teenager was a lot of money. Also, Da Vinci is a pretty chill guy. I felt kinda mean to throw his painting out over one murder hallucination.

I did get my answers, tho! My experiment wasn't a complete failure, and I went back to the friend I lied to so I could inform them of my results. They weren't pleased, and we ended up falling out because of it. It's alright.

But since that day, i never could stay up much. Like whenever I get sleepy, I really really get unimaginably sleepy. Feels like my brain removed my admin access to my sleep cycle, and I lost the ability to stay up for more than a day.

Probably for the best, it's been years since this happened and my sleep still suffers from the same problem really. Which is funny because sometimes I do get insomina and can't sleep, but it never lasts for more than a day before my brain forcefully shuts me down.

It was fun I guess? I don't recommend doing it because the results aren't that impressive really. Thank fuck I didn't have a mirror in my room at the time, I feel like it would've made the hallucinations come by quicker.

Also, I am very aware of how stupid and an endangerment of my life it was to do that, now that I'm grown at least. You don't have to tell me about it. I don't plan on repeating it, and none of you should, really. It's more of a cool story I tell nowadays, a found memory of when I almost self-indunced psychosis. And yes! That russian experiment video was fake af.

Anyway, here is the painting for reference.

I had tiny stickers to cover his peepee so dw dw.

I couldn't find the article I was reading at the time, but here is a really similar one that explains the stages and is very accurate to what I experienced.

Imma sleep, goodnight <3

#don't even know what to tag this wjth #♡not writing?

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