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glitch-zero · 3 years

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Brahms Heelshire Nsfw Alphabet

A: Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

Oh, he’ll let you clean up, usually. But keep in mind that sex always will end in cuddles. No doubt about it. Even if you get up to shower, Brahms willl go and follow you in eventually, demanding as usual.

B: Bodypart (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Brahms loves his chest. His broad shoulders too. Makes him look all mighty and strong, which isn’t a lie.

Brahms also really likes it when you lay on said chest and shoulders.

His partner?... he can’t decide. Whatever he can hold and/or fondle is fair game in his eyes.

…

Though he does like a nice rack. And love handles.

C: Cum (anything to do with cum)

Even if he’s caught up in the heat of the moment, Brahms still somewhat of a gentleman and will warn you when he’s about to bust one so you can avoid it; or direct it away from your face.

Though if given permission, this man will nut in you every chance he gets. He much prefers to fill you.

D: Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Oh. Oh, this man is into watching you do everything. He’ll jerk off into your underwear while watching you shower. He’s a stinky man that can get away with jerking off behind a wall.

E: Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Not experienced at all, but all that lack of sex in his earlier years makes it seem like he’s real good.

All that awkwardness dissolves once you get him going. If he’s on top, he can take the reigns.

F: Favorite Position (This goes without saying)

If you asked Brahms, (with the knowledge that he’ll freeze up and blush so hard his mask turns all hot), he would say he wouldn’t know. Whatever gets the job done.

But he does enjoy holding his partner’s hands. He’s adamant about that.

G: Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Brahms takes it pretty seriously. And even if he’s making a silly face during, it’s not going to stop him from drilling into you till you scream bloody murder.

H: Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Have you seen this man. Do you think this man, having an ungroomed head of hair, a thick ass beard, chest hair so thick it makes him sweat, has perfectly hairless junk.

He’s swamped down there.

I: Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Very intimate. Brahms loves proving how much he adores you. How much he wants to make sweet love to you. Now, he isn’t as poetic as that, but he loves to make sure you’re appreciated every second you’re screwing.

This man cannot fuck. He makes love that just happens to also include fucking your brains out.

J: Jack/Jill Off (Masturbation headcanon)

This man has the whole inner walls of the house to himself. He can drop trou and crank one out whenever he wishes, moaning as loud as he wants.

Then again, if you’re in the same room (expanded on letter K), he’ll pipe down and won’t be as vigorous.

K: Kink (One or more of their kinks)

MAJOR VOYEUR. As I’ve said, this man can watch anyone and anything at all times behind the walls. He loves to watch you masturbate, hear you moan, hear you at your most private. Double points if you moan his name. (He actually might barrel out of the wall and spice things up, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

As much hype Brahms gives watching others, he doesn’t like to be watched. He likes to be in control, and he just doesn’t want to be spectated. Give this poor man some head.

Brahms’s other kinks include mild choking and clothing fetishism. He does like biting, but you’re going to have to fish that kink out of him. He’ll kill a man but there’s no way he’ll bite his beloved without consent.

L: Location (Favorite places to do the do)

You’re alone in this giant mansion. You’re getting that Brahms cock everywhere.

But his favorite place? His room. He loves it, makes him feel good. Surrounded by his territory. You both are safe here, no one’s getting caught, even if it were possible.

M: Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

He’s so easy to turn on. Brahms is so touched starved it’s not even funny at this point. Just tell him he looks ‘kinda hot’ and you’ve earned yourself a clingy, horny Brahms for the rest of the day.

N: NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

Please don’t degrade him, oh my god he’s going to cry. He needs to be praised, he needs to be reinforced, tell what he’s doing is good. It’s more rewarding anyway for both parties.

Don’t light candles/use candle wax either, that should be a given. You can probably get away with incense, but even still.

O: Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Brahms enjoys head as much as the next guy, but the moment you show him some new trick or maneuver he’ll enjoy it a whole lot more. He’s a very dramatic receiver and will not stop looking at you. Hope you like eyes being burned into the crown of your head.

Don’t underestimate his giving skills though. He’s not well versed in oral, but the moment he hits your sweet spot he’s going to absolutely pounce on it. He can feign skill pretty well.

P: Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

It all depends on how he’s feeling; Brahms doesn’t choose one over the other. His sweet innocent voice makes it seem like the latter, but don’t be surprised when you get the pounding of your life. It’s just how he is, be ready for both (unless you explicitly ask)!

Q: Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

He doesn’t mind a quickie! He’ll bend you over the dining table or pin you to the laundry room wall. Brahms is a big pushover though, and if you want to take it to the bedroom, he’ll carry you right over!

Brahms also enjoys quickies for the sake of how many positions can he get you in! All depends on the room.

R: Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Not much to risk, unfortunately. Living in a big empty house, far away from the big city. He could fuck you on that tiny balcony as much as he wants, but there’s no risk of you both getting caught (plus it’s England and cold, don’t do it outside hello).

If there was a chance, even, he’s game. He’s been jerking off in the walls for years now without so much as a peep, he knows he can shush.

S: Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

He’s always satisfied with a single round, but you better be in for the long haul if you want to wear him out for good. He loves your enthusiasm! But don’t be surprised if on round four you’re exhausted. Your determination is funny to Brahms, but he’s a horny man!

T: Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

Brahms totally would have a fleshlight, wouldn’t he. He’d be a creep and fix your underwear on it. But I don’t think he’d own one; he prefers to not leave the house and his parents would never buy such a crude item.

I think vibrators would be too overwhelming. He’d be happy to try, though. He’ll always humor you!

U: Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Fuck yes, Brahms loves to tease. He’ll grab your waist, tickle your neck with his beard. He won’t take his mask off, but you can feel his hot breath emanating from inside.

He haaates being teased though. He gets all huffy, he immediately thinks that you want sex now, but when you step away to make lunch is the moment he gets cranky. How can you leave him like this!!! You know how easily worked up he gets!!!

V: Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Very. Sure, you’d think Brahms prefers to be quiet during his life in the walls, but he’s just a ball of loud moans, ranging in severity. His voice gets all loud and squeaky, begging and whining, you’d wonder if he’s crying at this point.

W: Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Hugs are the only thing that doesn’t rile him up. He recognizes that hold as something sweet, something to treasure, something he’s never felt in so long. Brahms loves to be doted on.

Unless you buck on his hips. Oho, don’t get him started.

X: X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants)

Bushy man. Decently thick. Perfectly rounded tip that has a slight curve. Cut. Seven inches when hard. Sports a noticeable thick vein trailing on the side.

Y: Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Everything gets him hard. It’s not difficult to turn him on, just looking at his junk can make a night different.

Z: ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterward)

Most of the time, he’ll park himself on the nearest nappable surface and pass out with you.

#brahms smut #brahms heelshire #the boy 2016 #horror #slashers #im a simp

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selinakidreams · 3 years

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Ship your moots!!!

👁y’all done it now, I was WAITING for this one OO I’m gonna spoil my moots SO bad ! I love you guys 👁

this is gonna be long I’m so sorry

@keishinslove - carter,,,, I love you and I love you w me mister keishin ukai- NOT just because that’s your ✨mans✨ but because I fuckin see it with my eyes. mister man is out here smoking a cig while he waits for you to get off of work. everyone is out here looking at him like “who dat b he’s sexy” and then you walk out and he drops the smoke on the floor, steps on it, and smiles as you make eye contact. You smile too, finally allowing exhaustion take over as you slump in the welcoming hug he pulls you into. He’s like, “I know baby, let’s go home and I can make us some ramen and tea.” The rest of the night is full of terribly sung songs, heavy MAKEOUT sessions (maybe more) and feathered touches along your skin. He’ll take good care of you (in every means) and that’s all I want for you <3

@alto-march-of-death al I ship you with tsukki- now let me tell you why. I see you with someone who’s very reserved with who they show their emotions to,, now because you deal with youngsters,,,,,,,,, that’s a lot of energy put towards you all at once. Tall blond dino dude will be there for you but in ways that make you feel special and the lack of energy he shows is almost calming to you. like like I just see on a day where zoom has been a bit too much and parents were DUMb- you slink over to your couch- after class is over- to find tsukki there, watching animal planet, and bam you plop down and curl up in his side- no words needed. His eyes don’t leave the screen but a long fingered hand lands on your thigh, his thumb doing that thing that makes butterflies flutter in your rib cage. It’s peaceful. Nice.

@kmorgzz ENERGY. POSITIVITY. COMPASSION. All things you and hinata share <3 OOOOOO KAR YOURE ALWAYS THE SWEETEST AND LET ME TELL YOU !!!! YOU DESERVE THAT SAME SWEETNESS. sorry I’m yelling but hear me out !!! You guys are always doing SOMETHING. he’s restless and you take on the energy he gives off. You guys tend to do stuff that you wanna do because whatever you want, he wants !! Normally, it’s outside (cause he’s the sun and he makes you feel like you’re on cloud nine !!) ; could be walks that lead into picnics or something super sweet!! Always wants to make sure you’re smiling !!!!!! ALWAYS. oh also he’s such a big himbo that he just—— yk what I’m gonna shut my trap just,, oh MAN he just loves you SO much and will never run out of ways to show you

@introloves Jax... FR fr I ship you and bokuto SO hard. like this man is and deserves sunshine— that is exactly what you are. TWO SUNSHINE BEINGS. I just SEE it. wholly. he’s just so open to everything and anything !!! Sometimes a bit.. daft... but you definitely talk him through things and he heavily appreciates that & everything you do for him. you know what,, y’all would soak in lavender baths together. Your back against his front, your eyes closed and body relaxed in the warm water; the sent of lavender following the steam that rises from the bath. He likes to play with your soft hair and whisper about how much he loves you and how you are one of the best people in his life. How did he ever get so lucky?

@novvabeam jackieeee,,, miss ma’am.. I ship you with daichi. lemme explain. This man is like a horse- not many can ride him but for those who do, it’s a lifelong partnership. Dude is so !! Into you it’s CRAZY. He is obsessed with how soft and kind you are one minute, and the next his head is spinning by how powerful and strong you can be. Mad respect™️. First date (idea suggested by you) was at this really cute local ice cream shop where you two bonded over how absolutely different your flavors were. I see it.

@pinkoushi ellen + Suga; clear as day. soft cuddles and every day fikas. very chaotic neutral energy but constant attention and praise is given. (Me trying not to make something based off my memories in Sweden but is gonna do it anyways) like I could see him being so excited to move to Sweden for the education system lowkey- but before he started the school year, you just wanted to take him around the country and visit all the “popular places” before settling down. Lots and lots of train rides. you would be sitting across from each other- you’re semi asleep, head pressed against the window and he’s just watching as the fleeting golden light hits you, making you all glowy. he feels so warm, so content.

@chaotickatts katts ;) I hear sakusa is calling your name. loud and clear. man puts up with NO bullshit and neither do you. Your communication skills are off the charts; calm cool, collected- that’s you two. But I also think that you add a lot more fun in his life- like he loves every second with you- he shows that he appreciates it in your guys’ shared love language, more often than not. And he adds this grounding element to your relationship that makes you feel capable of anything- and you make sure to tell him every day. I hc that people call you the parents of the group. Your guys’ bathroom is very clean, well organized, and used quite often. he loves seeing you in his jersey when you’re brushing your teeth, on your way to heading to bed, makes him feel all fuzzy,, a feeling that was quite foreign to him until you came along.

@spikesbimbo valentine... is that even a question- Aran. duh. Pretty lady, both of you are CRAZY for each other except he shows you in little ways (in public) that make your heart spin. You know those pictures of Vanessa hudgens and Austin butler?? the one where she’s twirling around and he’s just smiling? that’s the vibe I get in the relationship; you’re fun, loud, and outwardly fun while he’s just happy to be in your presence!! you make him laugh... a lot. It’s really refreshing to most of his friends. You and you’re cute goofy ass are just so important to him. I see it now- you guys are shopping at an outdoor mall, drinks in your hand and he’s carrying most of your guys’ purchases in one hand while the other is being swung by you. You’ve got big doe eyes as you look at every store, until you turn around, and flash him the biggest smile. “Want some? I’m almost out!” You’d say as you thrust him the drink. He’ll smile, a flash of pearly whites greeted you as he nodded and said a small “yeah,” before wrapping his lips around the straw.

@hajimeshon-ee menace, baby. it’s obviously gonna be iwa for you. big beefy to help you fight people who are being assholes. those same beefy arms that pull you in from behind- your back against his front. LOTS OF FUCKING FOREHEAD KISSES. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOURE POUTING TO HIM. sorry I don’t make the rules. He honestly thinks you’re the cutest thing, your fire matches his and sometimes actually stumps him to where he has no retorts. He likes to help you with your work sometimes, like when he sees it’s a bit too overwhelming for you, he’ll wordlessly sit down and take some of the papers that have been scattered across the table. Later you take the time to show him how grateful you are, wether it’s through a night where he gets to choose what both of you will watch or.. other things... he’ll appreciate every single second.

@kuroosusagichan meeeellll <3 business man kuroo is summoning you on his lap, he can’t focus unless you’re with him!! Oh GOD the dynamic Between you two makes me lightheaded!! Okay so idk is this is obvious but like dude has a size kink- not just sexually though. It’s like a cute AND sexy thing for him. Dude just loves how tiny and soft you are. But don’t get it twisted, he’s not completely fooled by your innocent act- you’re a clever little minx sometimes, but most of the time youre just the sweetest person. You’re like the angel that holds him back from being an asshole. He likes himself better when you’re around. Oh but he’ll also call you chibi-chan. Period. OH YEA! loves it when you show up to his place of work- no matter how swamped he is, he’ll always make time for his little sweetheart. You like to visit when you saw he was visibly stressed in the mornings, you bring him little things taht make him smile like his favorite iced tea or your a sweet lil cookie. He’ll make you stay with him for the rest of the day, doing your own separate things but also being in each other’s company relaxes the both of you.

@scorpiomoonslutt hey bitch, you needy lil whore <3 it’s gotta be Ushijima for me. Your size kink is just.................... thrown in his face and my god he’s living. You make him realize things he didn’t even think were possible- but anything is possible with you, apparently. The way his eyes go WIDE when he hears you SNAP at people. He had no idea that someone so small.. could shut someone up that fast... especially when it’s someone almost twice her size. He actually doesn’t even know how to react when the other person leaves, there’s wayyyy too many things going on in his head. He’s proud, impressed, turned on, curious, but most of all- speechless. He kinda... wants to see you do that again.

@dymphnasprose dymphna !! kyoutani!!! It just makes sense!! big angri boy needs parts on the head from a saint, such as yourself. He knows you’re not looking to fix him- which is why he allowed himself to open up to you. You love him just the way he is and it almost drove him a lil nuts. I could see the breaking point now- just before you two would get together. He would be yelling at you, screaming things like “how could you possibly like me ?” At first he wouldn’t let you get close to him but after several steps that never budged when he neared you, he gradually let you touch his heated skin. He was breathing heavy, trying to put together how someone so wonderful could be interested in someone who was so angry. I just feel that you would cup his face and whisper, “I like you because you’re you- it doesn’t matter who I am in comparison to you. I like you, taro.” There would be no need for gushy details, that alone opened a small part of his heart to love- throughout the years, the opening continued to grow and grow. He would be someone who just!! Loves you!!! And hates the rest of the world <3 idk I just love it jdbsjnd

#fawn talks <3 #moots: shipped !#fawn’s friend (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)#thank you anon♥︎

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humanperryfic · 4 years

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Nobody Needs to Know

Lord, show me how to say no to this...

Their relationship isn't exactly OWCA approved, but Perry doesn't want to stop.

Based on Say No to This from Hamilton

AO3/FF.Net

TW’s: None

Perry yawns. The cold, grey light of dawn seeps in around the edges of the curtains, yet he hasn't slept a wink all night.

And that's only partly the fault of the man sleeping peacefully next to him.

Actually, it's entirely the fault of this man. This glorious man, the one who drew him in with his sharp wits and marvelous inventions. Who took every punch and kick, then cursed him without malicious intent. The man that he fell for, head over heels. The man he just can't say no to.

So no, he hasn't slept. Instead, he's been mulling things over and over in his mind. How he's going to explain this one to Linda- swamped with work only works for so long. How he's going to lie about his whereabouts to Monogram.

How their relationship can't continue, not like this.

If this was a normal relationship, one where he met the other in a coffee shop or at a concert, he wouldn't have any qualms about breaking it off. (Actually, if this was a normal relationship, he wouldn't need to hide.)

But this is no ordinary relationship. They're nemeses. Friends. Lovers. He has feelings that refuse to go away, feelings he can't just ignore, despite the cloud of consequences hanging over his head.

All because he couldn't fucking push Heinz away. Couldn't just take one quick, messy kiss and call it good. No, he had to fall face first into what's both the best and worst decision of his life.

Best because, well, he's in a wonderful relationship with his nemesis. One that he hates to even consider breaking off.

Worst because if he gets caught, he's fucked. And not in the good way, the way he's enjoyed with his nemesis for the past month.

No, there will be consequences. Consequences that make him truly consider squandering their relationship.

Because there are always consequences. Something like this is beyond an easily explained-away one night stand. It went beyond that as soon as Perry kissed back.

Demotion and relocation is the lightest punishment he could possibly hope for. At it's worst, he'd be earning forty years of jail time in OWCA-traz, no parole, for aiding and abetting evil. Most likely, he'll be forced to relocate, strung along, then fired a few months later over something petty.

He's watched it happen. He's seen agents slip up and disappear. Agents more careful than he.

Of course, he wouldn't have to do this if Dennis (Agent Bunny, which makes Perry glad he got a mature codename) hadn't gone rogue. The reason? He fell in love with his nemesis and realized that Evil was better.

One agent gone rogue, working with his nemesis, inspired by a relationship not unlike the one he shares with Heinz. After that, OWCA clamped down on every single agent-nemesis relationship, romantic or no.

One agent ruined his chances to ever enjoy life.

Is it bad that he considers going rogue to get away from the consequences of this? The consequences of doing something completely unexpected of him. He's a dedicated agent, shot up through the ranks as soon as he graduated from the University Without a Cool Acronym. Something like this defies all expectations, and not in a good way.

He knows what he's expected to do. As the best agent in the Tri-State Area, he's expected to do certain things. Keep a nemesis, but still be able to go on other missions and save the world. Complete every shred of paperwork on time. Never question his loyalty, not like what he's doing right now.

He's also expected to marry another agent. A female agent. Have two point five prodigy agent kids and continue the legacy his parents left him.

The higher-ups aren't even subtle about it. They keep sending him on missions with the same woman, the best agent in the DC division. Agent Kaylee the Koala. They're both highly skilled agents, third or fourth generation OWCA. Born and raised to fight evil. (And their codenames are both Australian mammals. Major Monogram would get a kick out of that.) Honestly, it wouldn't be that bad. She's a good agent, he considers her a friend. He'd be able to get through it, if he could get over Heinz.

That's how he came into the Organization, anyway. His parents had met on a mission in Greece, married not much later. Then they died days before his third birthday. He went into OWCA's foster program for the agency's orphans, shuffled around from division to division. He'd lived in more countries by his fifteenth birthday than most people got to visit in a lifetime.

Once he graduated from the High School Without a Cool Acronym, he was shuffled into the host family program. Some attempt to give him people to come home to.

And it worked. He rents the attic space above the Flynn-Fletcher home. Their family accepted him into their arms. He practically considers Phineas, Ferb, and Candace his own niblings. They even call him Uncle Perry.

Even though he can't tell them anything about his work life, they're still family.

But some part of him still aches for his own family.

It's a choice he has to make. A family he could build from scratch, with a fellow agent. A family that he could be almost true with. Or a family he came into far too late. Even though part of him considers Vanessa and Norm his own children. Norm calls him Dad, for god's sake. A family he could tell the truth to, but not about.

There's a right answer for both sides of him. The side that follows rules longs to take the easy way out, to break everything off and never look back. To say no to this. To request a transfer to DC, keep in touch with Lawrence and Linda and the kids, marry Agent Koala and have children, even if he'll never be truly happy.

The side of him that craves adventure and adrenaline, the emotional side of him says no. It says to stay here, in this bed, in this division, in this town. To throw away everything else for his emotions. To break the chains, to love his nemesis with all his heart. Like he already does, if he's being honest.

He hates to be the one to break the cycle. To be the one surely disappointing his parents. (Although it's not like they would know...He feels horrible for even thinking that.) But he's in love with his nemesis. The feelings run far too deep. It's something that keeps him from ever having a normal life.

Normal for an OWCA agent, anyway. He gave up any semblance of normal life the instant he was born.

And he gave up on having a normal agent life the instant he decided to hang back after a scheme.

They had been cleaning up an exploded -inator. It had been slow going, but they finally finished cleaning up Doofenshmirtz's lab. They took a few steps to admire their handiwork when suddenly, Doofenshmirtz had pulled him in by his tie, sloppily pressing their lips together in a rough approximation of a kiss. Perry had been shocked at first (since when did Doofenshmirtz reciprocate his feelings?), but had quickly accepted the simple truth that Heinz spelled out.

He barely had his wits about him, but he still managed to push the other man away. If OWCA saw, he'd be done for.

But his instincts and desires overwhelmed him. He just couldn't say no, couldn't find it in him to go. It would have been so easy, just sign a fast apology, jump off the balcony, and glide away.

He's never been one to take the easy way out. Never has been. He turned away from the cameras, deactivated them in a way that would look accidental.

Making deliberate eye contact with a hurt Heinz, he tossed his hat away from him, not even bothering to watch where it flew. (Damn if that isn't the perfect metaphor for everything he's done since then, huh?) He pulled Heinz down by the lapels of his lab coat and crashed them together in a hungry kiss. It barely took a moment until Heinz had reciprocated in kind. Long fingers carded through his hair, a bite stung against his bottom lip, his own hands sneaking below the hem of Heinz's sweater.

Things only escalated from there. They spent the night in a whirlwind of guilt and pleasure. There were hundreds of opportunities to leave, to push Heinz away and go, but he didn't take a single one. And Heinz would understand. He would be hurt, but he would understand.

But he didn't say no.

Laying in Heinz's bed that night, breathing hard and barely able to process what happened, he promised himself never again.

It was only supposed to be once. One time. One night.

Shame burned in his gut as he had kissed Heinz goodbye (god, he just couldn't stop) and flew home. The shame only intensified when the Major demanded to know why Heinz had kissed him.

His stomach in knots, he signed that it was a misunderstanding, lying that of course he didn't want it. It took every part of his self control to keep his hands from shaking.

He's used to lying. Lying to Linda and Lawrence and the kids about his job. Lying to Heinz about his personal life. Lying to himself, telling himself that he's going to stop. But this feels different. Like he's lighting the fuse on dynamite beneath his feet.

To a certain extent, every lie feels like it's a house of cards just waiting to tumble down. Some do, ending in relocation at best. Some get rebuilt, like the mishaps with the second dimension.

This lie feels even more precarious, like the cards are made of glass. Glass that will cut him on the way down. Glass that will shatter and never be able to be repaired, not in the same way, not ever again.

Intellectually, he knows that every lie has a time limit. He's honestly floored at how his house of cards hasn't fallen, hasn't toppled and taken everything he knows with it. Every secret escapes, even the best-kept ones.

A part of him still loves it. Loves the thrill and the excitement. Craves the nerves that still bubble in his stomach every time he and Heinz fall into bed together.

It was only supposed to be once.

But it wasn't just once. He's practically become addicted to the way Heinz kisses him, soft yet still desperate. The way they understand each other, understand the constant internal conflict over good and evil. He can't get enough of the way they slot together, physically and emotionally. Stoic and emotional. Quiet and constantly talking.

How can something supposed to be so wrong feel so right? How can he say no to this? He can't stop, and part of him never wants to.

He shouldn't feel like this, but he does.

Perry lays back down in Doofenshmirtz's bed, burying his face in the shoulder of the man himself. He wraps his arm around Heinz's thin body, and holds him tight.

It's their secret. Some day, it will escape. But right now, nobody needs to know.

#sam's fic #perryshmirtz #human perry the platypus #perry the platypus #perry the human #human perry #doofenshmirtz #doctor doofenshmirtz #heinz doofenshmirtz #owca #pnf #phineas and ferb #fic #my fic #secret relationship

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deniscollins · 4 years

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Finland Is a Capitalist Paradise

Finland’s capitalist growth and dynamism have been helped, not hurt, by the nation’s commitment to providing generous and universal public services that support basic human well-being, which have buffered and absorbed the risks and dislocations caused by capitalist innovation. In Finland, paying higher taxes is a convenient way for capitalists to outsource to the government the work of keeping workers healthy and educated. This liberates businesses to focus on what they do best: business. It’s convenient for everyone else, too. All Finnish residents, including manual laborers, legal immigrants, well-paid managers and wealthy families, benefit hugely from the same Finnish single-payer health care system and world-class public schools. Should the U.S. adopt the Finland’s version of capitalism: (1) Yes, (2) No?

Two years ago we were living in a pleasant neighborhood in Brooklyn. We were experienced professionals, enjoying a privileged life. We’d just had a baby. She was our first, and much wanted. We were United States citizens and our future as a family should have seemed bright. But we felt deeply insecure and anxious.

Our income was trickling in unreliably from temporary gigs as independent contractors. Our access to health insurance was a constant source of anxiety, as we scrambled year after year among private employer plans, exorbitant plans for freelancers, and complicated and expensive Obamacare plans. With a child, we’d soon face overwhelming day-care costs. Never mind the bankruptcy-sized bills for education ahead, whether for housing in a good public-school district or for private-school tuition. And then there’d be college. In other words, we suffered from the same stressors that are swamping more and more of Americans, even the relatively privileged.

As we contemplated all this, one of us, Anu, was offered a job back in her hometown: Helsinki, Finland.

Finland, of course, is one of those Nordic countries that we hear some Americans, including President Trump, describe as unsustainable and oppressive — “socialist nanny states.” As we considered settling there, we canvassed Trevor’s family — he was raised in Arlington, Va. — and our American friends. They didn’t seem to think we’d be moving to a Soviet-style autocracy. In fact, many of them encouraged us to go. Even a venture capitalist we knew in Silicon Valley who has three children sounded envious: “I’d move to Finland in a heartbeat.”

So we went.

We’ve now been living in Finland for more than a year. The difference between our lives here and in the States has been tremendous, but perhaps not in the way many Americans might imagine. What we’ve experienced is an increase in personal freedom. Our lives are just much more manageable. To be sure, our days are still full of challenges — raising a child, helping elderly parents, juggling the demands of daily logistics and work.

But in Finland, we are automatically covered, no matter what, by taxpayer-funded universal health care that equals the United States’ in quality (despite the misleading claims you hear to the contrary), all without piles of confusing paperwork or haggling over huge bills. Our child attends a fabulous, highly professional and ethnically diverse public day-care center that amazes us with its enrichment activities and professionalism. The price? About $300 a month — the maximum for public day care, because in Finland day-care fees are subsidized for all families.

And if we stay here, our daughter will be able to attend one of the world’s best K-12 education systems at no cost to us, regardless of the neighborhood we live in. College would also be tuition free. If we have another child, we will automatically get paid parental leave, funded largely through taxes, for nearly a year, which can be shared between parents. Annual paid vacations here of four, five or even six weeks are also the norm.

Compared with our life in the United States, this is fantastic. Nevertheless, to many people in America, the Finnish system may still conjure impressions of dysfunction and authoritarianism. Yet Finnish citizens report extraordinarily high levels of life satisfaction; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranked them highest in the world, followed by Norwegians, Danes, Swiss and Icelanders. This year, the World Happiness Report also announced Finland to be the happiest country on earth, for the second year in a row.

But surely, many in the United States will conclude, Finnish citizens and businesses must be paying a steep price in lost freedoms, opportunity and wealth. Yes, Finland faces its own economic challenges, and Finns are notorious complainers whenever anything goes wrong. But under its current system, Finland has become one of the world’s wealthiest societies, and like the other Nordic countries, it is home to many hugely successful global companies.

In fact, a recent report by the chairman of market and investment strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset Management came to a surprising conclusion: The Nordic region is not only “just as business-friendly as the U.S.” but also better on key free-market indexes, including greater protection of private property, less impact on competition from government controls and more openness to trade and capital flows. According to the World Bank, doing business in Denmark and Norway is actually easier overall than it is in the United States.

Finland also has high levels of economic mobility across generations. A 2018 World Bank report revealed that children in Finland have a much better chance of escaping the economic class of their parents and pursuing their own success than do children in the United States.

Finally, and perhaps most shockingly, the nonpartisan watchdog group Freedom House has determined that citizens of Finland actually enjoy higher levels of personal and political freedom, and more secure political rights, than citizens of the United States.

What to make of all this? For starters, politicians in the United States might want to think twice about calling the Nordics “socialist.” From our perch, the term seems to have more currency on the other side of the Atlantic than it does here.

In the United States, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are often demonized as dangerous radicals. In Finland, many of their policy ideas would seem normal — and not particularly socialist.

When Mr. Sanders ran for president in 2016, what surprised our Finnish friends was that the United States, a country with so much wealth and successful capitalist enterprise, had not already set up some sort of universal public health care program and access to tuition-free college. Such programs tend to be seen by Nordic people as the bare basics required for any business-friendly nation to compete in the 21st century.

Even more peculiar is that in Finland, you don’t really see the kind of socialist movement that has been gaining popularity in some of the more radical fringes of the left in America, especially around goals such as curtailing free markets and even nationalizing the means of production. The irony is that if you championed socialism like this in Finland, you’d get few takers.

So what could explain this — the weird fact that actual socialism seems so much more popular in the capitalist United States than in supposedly socialist Finland?

A socialist revolution was attempted once in Finland. But that was more than a hundred years ago. Finland was in the process of industrializing when the Russian empire collapsed and Finland gained independence. Finnish urban and rural workers and tenant farmers, fed up with their miserable working conditions, rose up in rebellion. The response from Finland’s capitalists, conservative landowners and members of the middle and upper class was swift and violent. Civil war broke out and mass murder followed. After months of fighting, the capitalists and conservatives crushed the socialist uprising. More than 35,000 people lay dead. Traumatized and impoverished, Finns spent decades trying to recover and rebuild.

So what became of socialism in Finland after that? According to a prominent Finnish political historian, Pauli Kettunen of the University of Helsinki, after the civil war Finnish employers promoted the ideal of “an independent freeholder farmer and his individual will to work” and successfully used this idea of heroic individualism to weaken worker unions. Although socialists returned to playing a role in Finnish politics, during the first half of the 20th century, Finland prevented socialism from becoming a revolutionary force — and did so in a way that sounds downright American.

Finland fell into another bloody conflict as it fought off, at great cost, the Communist Soviet Union next door during World War II. After the war, worker unions gained strength, bringing back socialist sympathies as the country entered a more industrial and international era. This is when Finnish history took an unexpected turn.

Finnish employers had become painfully aware of the threats socialism continued to pose to capitalism. They also found themselves under increasing pressure from politicians representing the needs of workers. Wanting to avoid further conflicts, and to protect their private property and new industries, Finnish capitalists changed tactics. Instead of exploiting workers and trying to keep them down, after World War II, Finland’s capitalists cooperated with government to map out long-term strategies and discussed these plans with unions to get workers onboard.

More astonishingly, Finnish capitalists also realized that it would be in their own long-term interests to accept steep progressive tax hikes. The taxes would help pay for new government programs to keep workers healthy and productive — and this would build a more beneficial labor market. These programs became the universal taxpayer-funded services of Finland today, including public health care, public day care and education, paid parental leaves, unemployment insurance and the like.

If these moves by Finnish capitalists sound hard to imagine, it’s because people in the United States have been peddled a myth that universal government programs like these can’t coexist with profitable private-sector businesses and robust economic growth. As if to reinforce the impossibility of such synergies, last fall the Trump administration released a peculiar report arguing that “socialism” had negatively affected Nordic living standards.

However, a 2006 study by the Finnish researchers Markus Jantti, Juho Saari and Juhana Vartiainen demonstrates the opposite. First, throughout the 20th century Finland remained — and remains to this day — a country and an economy committed to markets, private businesses and capitalism.

Even more intriguing, these scholars demonstrate that Finland’s capitalist growth and dynamism have been helped, not hurt, by the nation’s commitment to providing generous and universal public services that support basic human well-being. These services have buffered and absorbed the risks and dislocations caused by capitalist innovation.

With Finland’s stable foundation for growth and disruption, its small but dynamic free-market economy has punched far above its weight. Some of the country’s most notable businesses have included the world’s largest mobile phone company, one of the world’s largest elevator manufacturers and two of the world’s most successful mobile gaming companies. Visit Finland today and it’s obvious that the much-heralded quality of life is taking place within a bustling economy of upscale shopping malls, fancy cars and internationally competitive private companies.

The other Nordic countries have been practicing this form of capitalism even longer than Finland, with even more success. As early as the 1930s, according to Pauli Kettunen, employers across the Nordic region watched the disaster of the Great Depression unfold. For enough of them the lesson was clear: The smart choice was to compromise and pursue the Nordic approach to capitalism.

The Nordic countries are all different from one another, and all have their faults, foibles, unique histories and civic disagreements. Contentious battles between strong unions and employers help keep the system in balance. Often it gets messy: Just this week, the Finnish prime minister resigned amid a labor dispute.

But the Nordic nations as a whole, including a majority of their business elites, have arrived at a simple formula: Capitalism works better if employees get paid decent wages and are supported by high-quality, democratically accountable public services that enable everyone to live healthy, dignified lives and to enjoy real equality of opportunity for themselves and their children. For us, that has meant an increase in our personal freedoms and our political rights — not the other way around.

Yes, this requires capitalists and corporations to pay fairer wages and more taxes than their American counterparts currently do. Nordic citizens generally pay more taxes, too. And yes, this might sound scandalous in the United States, where business leaders and economists perpetually warn that tax increases would slow growth and reduce incentives to invest.

Here’s the funny thing, though: Over the past 50 years, if you had invested in a basket of Nordic equities, you would have earned a higher annual real return than the American stock market during the same half-century, according to global equities data published by Credit Suisse.

Nordic capitalists are not dumb. They know that they will still earn very handsome financial returns even after paying their taxes. They keep enough of their profits to live in luxury, wield influence and acquire social status. There are several dozen Nordic billionaires. Nordic citizens are not dumb, either. If you’re a member of the robust middle class in Finland, you generally get a better overall deal for your combined taxes and personal expenditures, as well as higher-quality outcomes, than your American counterparts — and with far less hassle.

Why would the wealthy in Nordic countries go along with this? Some Nordic capitalists actually believe in equality of opportunity and recognize the value of a society that invests in all of its people. But there is a more prosaic reason, too: Paying taxes is a convenient way for capitalists to outsource to the government the work of keeping workers healthy and educated.

While companies in the United States struggle to administer health plans and to find workers who are sufficiently educated, Nordic societies have demanded that their governments provide high-quality public services for all citizens. This liberates businesses to focus on what they do best: business. It’s convenient for everyone else, too. All Finnish residents, including manual laborers, legal immigrants, well-paid managers and wealthy families, benefit hugely from the same Finnish single-payer health care system and world-class public schools.

There’s a big lesson here: When capitalists perceive government as a logistical ally rather than an ideological foe and when all citizens have a stake in high-quality public institutions, it’s amazing how well government can get things done.

Ultimately, when we mislabel what goes on in Nordic nations as socialism, we blind ourselves to what the Nordic region really is: a laboratory where capitalists invest in long-term stability and human flourishing while maintaining healthy profits.

Capitalists in the United States have taken a different path. They’ve slashed taxes, weakened government, crushed unions and privatized essential services in the pursuit of excess profits. All of this leaves workers painfully vulnerable to capitalism’s dynamic disruptions. Even well-positioned Americans now struggle under debilitating pressures, and a majority inhabit a treacherous Wild West where poverty, homelessness, medical bankruptcy, addiction and incarceration can be just a bit of bad luck away. Americans are told that this is freedom and that it is the most heroic way to live. It’s the same message Finns were fed a century ago.

But is this approach the most effective or even the most profitable way for capitalists in the United States to do business? It should come as no surprise that resentment and fear have become rampant in the United States, and that President Trump got elected on a promise to turn the clock backward on globalization. Nor is it surprising that American workers are fighting back; the number of workers involved in strikes last year in the United States was the highest since the 1980s, and this year’s General Motors strike was the company’s longest in nearly 50 years. Nor should it surprise anyone that fully half of the rising generation of Americans, aged 18 to 29, according to Gallup polling, have a positive view of socialism.

The prospect of a future full of socialists seems finally to be getting the attention of some American business leaders. For years the venture capitalist Nick Hanauer has been warning his “fellow zillionaires” that “the pitchforks are coming for us.” Warren Buffett has been calling for higher taxes on the rich, and this year the hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio admitted that “capitalism basically is not working for the majority of people.” Peter Georgescu, chairman emeritus of Young & Rubicam, has put it perhaps most succinctly: He sees capitalism “slowly committing suicide.”In recent months such concerns have spread throughout the capitalist establishment. The Financial Times rocked its business-friendly readership with a high-profile series admitting that capitalism has indeed become “rigged” and that it desperately needs a “reset,” to restore truly free markets and bring back real opportunity. Leading captains of finance and industry in the United States rocked the business world, too, with a joint declaration from the Business Roundtable that they will now prioritize not only profits but also “employees, customers, shareholders and the communities.” They are calling this “stakeholder capitalism.”

If these titans of industry are serious about finding a more sustainable approach, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. They can simply consult their Nordic counterparts. If they do, they might realize that the success of Nordic capitalism is not due to businesses doing more to help communities. In a way, it’s the opposite: Nordic capitalists do less. What Nordic businesses do is focus on business — including good-faith negotiations with their unions — while letting citizens vote for politicians who use government to deliver a set of robust universal public services.

This, in fact, may be closer to what a majority of people in the United States actually want, at least according to a poll released by the Pew Research Center this year. Respondents said that the American government should spend more on health care and education, for example, to improve the quality of life for future generations.

But the poll also revealed that Americans feel deeply pessimistic about the nation’s future and fear that worse political conflict is coming. Some military analysts and historians agree and put the odds of a civil war breaking out in the United States frighteningly high.

Right now might be an opportune moment for American capitalists to pause and ask themselves what kind of long-term cost-benefit calculation makes the most sense. Business leaders focused on the long game could do a lot worse than starting with a fact-finding trip to Finland.

Here in Helsinki, our family is facing our second Nordic winter and the notorious darkness it brings. Our Finnish friends keep asking how we handled the first one and whether we can survive another. Our answer is always the same. As we push our 2-year-old daughter in her stroller through the dismal, icy streets to her wonderful, affordable day-care center or to our friendly, professional and completely free pediatric health center, before heading to work in an innovative economy where a vast majority of people have a decent quality of life, the winter doesn’t matter one bit. It can actually make you happy.

#Finland

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hiyadarlingirl · 5 years

Text

EVERGREEN LOVE, part 8

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7

Summary; You have some free time from uni so you visit your parents who live in gloucestshire for a week and study for your upcoming finals. When you get back to London it has started to snow. After your last final, adventure with Rog awaits you!

I strongly suggest listening to the pride and prejudice soundtrack ‘The living sculptures of Pemberly “ as it matches the tone of this part perfectly.

wordcount; 1,9k

Warnings; fluff

Disclamer; I wanted to give reader a bit of a backstory, but if you want to keep reader neutral, I suggest skipping to the last part (under the -----line)! Thanks for reading y’all! Tell me what you think! Request are Always open! :)

‘Can you tell mom I’ll come home this Tuesday?’

You were on the phone with your younger sister Mia who still lived at home. It was Friday evening and you were sitting in the windowsill of the library with your knees pulled up, talking quietly to prevent people from getting angry.

‘Sure thing. Having dinner with us too?’

‘Yeah I think so, yes. Will Jane be home too?’ Jane was your older sister and studied English Literature at Cambridge.

‘Not sure, I’ll ask mom.’

‘Thanks.’

‘No prob. Glad you’re coming home Y/N, we missed you.’

‘Missed you too sis.’ You looked through the window over the courtyard of the library. It was minus 5 degrees outside and it would get even colder over the weekend. You looked forward to going home. You truthfully had missed them a whole lot, having seen your family far too little in the past couple of months.

Your parents lived in the Glaucestshire countryside, twenty minutes out of town and it was honestly the calmest place on earth, especially compared to crazy London. You could study undisturbed in your room overlooking the fields and help your mom making the garden ready for spring. You were yearning for some time away from the chaos and also some time away from Roger.

You had seen him at class earlier today. He was late for the lecture and stumbled in while muttering apologies to the teacher. He then sat next to you and gave you a tired smile.

‘So how was the date?’ You asked

‘Splendid. Great fun.’ He answered, then leaned over you to read your notes, face close to the paper. ‘What is it about?’ He tried switching to a different subject.

‘Photosynthetic electron transport.’ You answered, tagging along and dropping the Christina thing.

You wondered if they would start dating properly now or if it was just a one time thing. Either way you were glad you could spent some time away from it all. You had finals in a week and couldn’t use any distraction. Especially not from the worst distraction of all.

That Tuesday morning you packed your suitcase with some essentials and said goodbye to Ally and Sam.

‘If Rog calls, can you tell him I’m at my parents and I’ll be back for finals?’ You asked, just in case.

‘Sure thing babes.’ Ally answered and hugged you goodbye. You then took your suitcase and headed to the train station.

It was freezing cold and you were glad you were wearing a thick parka and knitted hat, but cursed at forgetting to take gloves as your hands were icy-cold. You blew little white clouds in the air while you waited for the train to arrive.

When it did you walked to second class and sat down in a small four-seat compartment next to the window. You put your bag next to you on the seat and made yourself comfortable for the three-hour trip. You loved train rides, always had. When you were little your dad would take you and your sisters out for little trips to villages across the country. Those were the days of building campfires from driftwood at the shore and camping out in the wild. But also the days of being stuck in swamps and wanting to go home. Days of excitement and days of tears.

When you arrived at Bibury your mom picked you up.

‘Hi sweatheart.’ She gave you a hug and helped you carry your suitcase to the car. Mia was in the backseat and wrapped her arms around you when you sat down in front.

‘Ahh you smell so good! What are you wearing? Is it new?’

‘Yes, it’s Yves-Saint-Laurent.’

‘Can I borrow it?’ She asked cheerful.

‘Steal it, you mean? Sure but I don’t have it with me so you’ll have to come to London.’ You said smiling.

Mia groaned and let you go form her grip. ‘Ugh, alright…’

‘Sorry Mia.’

‘No boys to impress here huh?’ She jokingly added, not knowing there was truth in her words. You rolled your eyes at her, just like when you were younger. Some things just never changed.

It was a short drive to the house and Mia chatted away from the backseat about a winter ball at school and her dress and how Jane was coming home tomorrow and how glad she was you’d all be together again.

When you arrived at the house and the car-engine was turned off the silence was almost overwhelming. There was no sound apart from that of nature and you had forgotten what it felt like.

You carried your suitcase to the porch and took a moment to look out over the fields. Everything was sober, from the white walls of the house to the fields and the empty garden. The white formed a big contrast with the forest behind it and you realized how much you had missed the place.

‘Your dad is in the back chopping wood, go say hi.’ Your mom said and pointed her chin to the side of the porch. ‘Oh and tell him dinner is ready in an hour.’

You nodded and walked around the house, indeed hearing the sound of an ax hitting wood in a controlled manner.

‘Hi dad.’ You said and waited for him to stop chopping before you came closer.

‘Hi sweetheart!’ His face lit up. You really had been away for far too long, you felt as if he looked older than you remembered.

‘Dinner is ready in an hour, need help?’

‘Help me carry in a bit?’ He said and gave you a smile.

That evening you spent catching up with your parents and sister. Your mom made soup and fresh baked bread and you talked about life in London and university. You also talked about your friends but chose your words carefully not in the mood to talk about Roger.

The rest of the week you spent working in the garden and studying in your room. Your sister had come home but you hadn’t talked to her properly yet when she knocked on your door one evening.

‘Hey, how’s studying going?’

You shrugged. ‘Can’t concentrate.’

‘Feel like having a sleepover in Mia’s room?’

‘Ah I could’ve predicted she wanted one of those.’ You said.

‘Not to get out of.’ Jane said and laughed. ‘Come I’ll help you carry your sleeping stuff to her room.’

That night you spent in Mia’s room braiding each-others hair and talking about boys.

‘How is Charlie?’ Mia asked Jane.

‘Ah, we broke up like three weeks ago.’

‘Why?’

‘He… cheated.’ She said quietly and shrugged.

‘Oh shit. That really sucks.’ You said, surprised they weren’t together anymore.

‘Yeah it does, but I’m okay really, I wasn’t that in love with him anymore anyway. He turned out to be pretty…’ She stopped to look for the right word. ‘…Boring.’

‘Yeah I never liked him, Jane.’ Mia said.

‘I know you didn’t sis.’ Jane said and threw her a meaningful look. ‘So we’re all single girls now then huh?’ She added with a melancholy smile. ‘Unless…. Our mysterious sister Y/N has a secret lover.’ She looked at you expectantly, eyes twinkling.

‘I don’t. Sorry to disappoint you.’

‘So where’s your mind then? You seem so distracted.’

You sighed. Jane had always been able to read through you.

You decided to just be honest. ‘You remember Roger right?’

‘Of course, the bambi boy?’

‘Bambi boy?’

‘Yes, because of his big eyes. Bamboy.’

‘Yeah right… that one.’ You said, then continued. ‘You know, I try really hard to not think of him and focus on my finals and understanding the processes in prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, but all I end up thinking about is how beautiful Rogers hands are.’

‘Well I can see why.’ Mia said. ‘That sounds bloody boring.’ You laughed but Jane’s face turned serious.

‘Roger is in that band right, smile?’

‘Yeah.’

‘You are not in love with him, are you?’

‘No I am not.’ You said. ‘But I could be. Oh Jane, I really could be.’ You noticed there was a longing in your voice.

‘So why don’t you let yourself fall in love with him?’

‘Because… he doesn’t love me back and he can be a really arrogant self-righteous prick sometimes.’

‘How do you know he doesn’t love you back.’

‘He doesn’t act like it, not in a romantic love kind-a-way anyway.’ You said. ‘And he’s dating a girl now. A really pretty one.’

‘Well you are very pretty too you know.’ Mia said. You smiled but shook your head a little. ‘I’m afraid that if I fall in love with him, and even if we end up dating, he will crush my heart by falling for a different girl in a heartbeat.’

‘You know,’ Jane started and shifted her weight so she was lying next to you. ‘I’ve only met him once at that garden party of yours last May, but he seems very, very fond of you.’

‘He does huh.’

‘Yes!’

‘Hm.’

‘I think you should consider telling him. It’s worth the risk don’t you think?’

‘The stakes are pretty high, I might lose my best friend.’

‘Yes, or you’ll gain a love of a lifetime.’

‘I don’t know.’ You said, your heart racing at the thought of having to tell him. You were too afraid to lose him.

After the weekend you had to get back to London to take your exams and hugged your sisters and parents goodbye.

---------------------------------------------

Sitting in the train you looked out of the window, lost in thought. It was still incredibly early, the golden morning sun barely giving off any warmth. Your warm breath made a white haze on the window and without thinking you bended forward and pressed your lips to the cold glass. You wondered what Rogers lips would feel like and felt rosy by the thought of kissing him.

When you arrived in London you rushed to university to take your first exam.

The following days were filled with late night studying and more finals and you were glad when it was Friday and the last one had arrived. It had started snowing that morning. Thick snowflakes came falling from the sky and wrapped London in a thin white blanket, getting thicker by the second.

It muted every sound and it was completely silent in the exam hall apart from the sound of turning paper and sniffling and coughing.

You hadn’t talked to Roger over two weeks now, having only seen him once that week at an exam on a subject that you shared. He followed a different major which gave you partly different courses so it wasn’t strange you hadn’t seen that much of him. You had missed talking to him though.

You looked at the clock. Two hours left. You turned back to your paper, focusing on the questions.

When you were finally done you handed it in, a feeling of relieve came washing over you.

You walked out and went looking for your jacket when you suddenly saw him.

Roger.

He was leaning to the opposite wall, wearing a huge jacket and a red knitted hat, completely covered in snow. He smiled brightly.

‘Hi love. Up for an adventure?’

‘Hi Rog. Always.’

‘Good. We’re waiting outside with the van. It’s time you met Freddie.’

He slung his arm around you and pulled you in for a side-hug.

‘We’re going on a roadtrip babe.’

TO BE CONTINUED

previous part, next part

taglist; @fics-for-my-heart, @midnightloversville, @killerqueenbucky, @fallinginlovewithwhereyouare, @about-aphrodite, @juliet-taylor, @rogerrrinaaa, @mercuriangel, @daarkdreamy, @fanficsupporter, @rogahtaylahthedrumah, @fortuneboldlyfavors, @int0-you, @sleeping-bobcat, @bensroger, @katexxr, @whitequeenwalks, @bulsaratheopera

#roger taylor imagine #roger talor x reader #roger taylor fanfiction #ben hardy x reader #ben hardy imagine

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catleha · 5 years

Text

𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑹𝑨𝑪𝑻𝑬𝑹 𝑺𝑯𝑬𝑬𝑻

repost, don’t reblog !

𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

full name. Y’shtola Rhul. pronunciation. yash-toe-lah R -uh-l nicknames. Cultured Conjurer (ARR), Lady White Mage (HW), Master Matoya, Sorceress (SHB), ‘shtola (Matoya & Y'mhitra only). height. 5′1″-ish age. varies; early twenties during ARR - HW, late twenties during SHB zodiac. aquarius languages. Eorzean (English), various other languages (predominately ancient). Language as such later on loses most of its merit for Yshtola learns to read scriptures & tomes based on the aether one can find in the very ink. it does not matter in which language they originally are.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

hair colour. white. eye colour. formally teal, milky white / scorched silver post lifestream retrieval. After evoking the forbidden spell “flow”, Y’shtola lost her sight. skin tone. rather dark fur / tan when measured under human standards. body type. slender built, quite lean. Certainly feline. accent. British according to modern standards dominant hand. right handed. posture. rather elegant & upright, can be considered crooked now & then whenever exhaustion overwhelms her. tattoos. circle of knowing tattoo on both sides of her neck. most noticeable features. scorched eyes, cat-esque fur, tail & ears alongside a rather peculiar, feline built. Other than that she can be considered beautiful according to human standards, even tho she wants to hear none of it. -- flattery will not bring you any sympathy.

CHILDHOOD.

place of birth. close to Sharlayan. hometown. due to y (jaguar) tribe's nomadic nature, Y'shtola never had an actual hometown; she used to spend of her childhood in Matoya's Cave, close to Sharlayan, however.. birth weight / height. unknown. first words. unknown siblings. she has several half-sisters & certainly just as many brothers given her tribes’ mating customs (seeker of the suns are generally described as polyamorous); she knows little of their existence. The only half-sister she keeps close is Y'mhitra Rhul, a summoner resident in Gridania. parents. Rhul Nunh (father) & Y'lyhia Rhul (mother). parental involvement. barely any. Post her mother’s demise, her father concluded on sending both, Y’mhitra & Y’shtola to respective mentors to let them carter to their arcane inclinations (mostly due to them being so close in age & likewisely gifted). While Y’shtola was sent to Master Matoya at the age of nine, Y’mhitra & her mother left to start a life in Gridania. The jaguar (y) tribe on the other hand continued to travel South. -- Y’shtola has no contact to them whatsoever.

ADULT LIFE

occupation. aetherologist, archon (member of the circle of knowing & the scions of the seventh dawn), sage of the Night’s Blessed. current residence. Rak’tika Greatwood (SHB). close friends. Urianger Augurelt, Lyse Hext, Thancred Waters, Minfilia Warde, Papalymo Totolymo, Alisaie & Alphinaud Leveilleur. relationship status. single, read: married to her work. financial status. well financed driver’s license. n / a criminal record. unknown

SEX & ROMANCE.

sexual orientation. uncertain, presumably homosexual romantic orientation. uncertain, presumably homoromantic preferred emotional role. submissive | dominant | switch | unsure preferred sexual role. submissive | dominant | switch | sex repulsed libido. it exists & Y’shtola has certainly acted on impulses before but she is not one to pay that much heed to it. She has other priorities over all. turn on’s. n / a turn off’s. n / a love language. She expresses affection in her very own, special ways. Y’shtola is not one to openly shower you with love, compliments or other, similar signs of affection. Her love is a tough one shaped & formed by her patron Matoya. -- a pat on the shoulder, a compliment disguised as a piece of advice, a genuine smile or the attempt to open up in someone’s proximity are signs of her trust & love -- If she considers someone close enough she will allow herself to be weak, show fatigue or sadness & even become physical (embraces, actively searching closeness, etc). In the most dire case (aka a high level of trust) she will willingly sacrifice herself for a person’s very well-being or ask them unthinkable things like “would you describe the sky for me”. -- most of her “love” however remains strictly platonic. relationship tendencies. Y’shtola is prone to not only seclusion but also long periods of total solitude, in which she studies, practices & meditates. -- she prefers a reclusive lifestyle & does not openly look for friendships. In fact, Y’shtola prioritizes work & the sake of the many above her own social / love life. Needless to say, her negative self-perception & all that jazz come into play too.

MISCELLANEOUS.

character’s theme song. Torn from the Heavens; a theme that plays whenever she participates in battles / appears in Dissidia; for Shadowbringers & the change it heralds, I envisioned something like Wardruna’s Solringen (it unites Rak’tika’s general flair with a tad more edge). hobbies to pass the time. studies, reading, research, practice. Sometimes she simply likes to indulge in sitting somewhere in quiet reflection, drinking tea & eating cake. mental illnesses. insomnia (post HW), ptsd. physical illnesses. chronic blindness on both eyes (irreversible) . left or right brained . left fears. powerlessness, loss (especially in regards to the scions), being helpless / unable to protect those she loves, the dark. self confidence level. she seems & acts quite confident & self-assured, yet is plagued by doubts, fears & constant worry (due to overthinking certain situations). Her self-perception in itself is first & foremost extremely negative up to the point where she considers those close to her as more deserving. -- Y’shtola also has a knack for considering herself as absolutely unlovable due to having been devoid of affection whilst growing up (loss of her mother, being sent away at the age of 9 + Matoya’s rather gruff parenting style). vulnerabilities. limited eye sight (can access the lifestream / aether at a cost); the aether allows her to see rough shapes & forms, but details, colors, expression, etc are lost on her. To conclude, she has learned to sort certain coloring of aether or its particular behavior to i.e her friends / scions. Other than that Y’shtola is completely blind.

If subjected to another world, her aether-based eye sight may either get better or worse. -- a good, contrasting example is her travel to the First (shb) versus her time spent in the World of Spiritus & Materia (dissidia). The exposure to the aether-supersaturated world of the First, on the one hand, dimmed her eye sight but increased her general capabilities (while being in Rak’tika, she can see the entire swamp / Greatwood through connecting with the soil & / or trees around her). Spiritus & Materia’s realm improved her general eye sight but slimmed down her sight’s overall capabilities (she has been depowered in one way or another, unable to properly connect with the merged lifestream of multiple worlds).

Albeit being able to draw strength from the lifestream & thus become more powerful & able to see, her ‘gift’ comes with a massive cost; every time Y’shtola accesses the lifestream she suffers from headaches, nausea & sometimes vast bouts of fatigue. While she adapted over time, it is quite certain that the stream itself is consuming her. At one point, Y’shtola will burn out -- every use of aether & the power that comes with it drains her off her lifeforce.

tagged by: @noxerro tagging: @sparkblood, @murios, @garuvusu, @gaidna, @martyrcrowned, @hyethla, @hisburden, @scionsect, @regalvus, @onlyliberty, @ofvesper, @lightsprotect, @leveilleurisms, @thuashdore & @gunslingir.

#[[ wow this got long #I am 1000% that there are some spelling mistakes in here & weird grammar but #shrug emoji #wjhfeufw gosh I can talk about her for hours #that and I genuinely wanna elude on some details (such as her borth her tribe etc)#*birth.#soon!! I promise. I will write some big hcs in regard to her childhood etc anyway I love memes like these ]]#pending hc tag.#✦ › 𝐒𝐂𝐈𝐎𝐍'𝐒 𝐁𝐔𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍. :: tagged in.

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vinylfromthevault · 6 years

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Jack White “Boarding House Reach” 2018. Third Man Records. I received this about 6 months ago as part of my Third Man Records Vault subscription and honestly I’ve been super-reluctant to write about it because I’d have to sit down and listen to the record and I’ve heard, um, not such great things. Let’s start with the good stuff! It's a beefy subscription package which included not only a really deluxe issue of the LP but also a 7″ of the demo version of “Infected by Love” b/w the demo of “Why Walk a Dog?” and a hefty Third Man 45 adaptor. Also tucked in to the record sleeve were three special edition prints, taken by David Swanson during Boarding House Reach’s recording session, and three foil-stamped broadsides with the lyrics from “Abulia and Akrasia,” “Ezmerelda Steals the Show” and “Get in the Mind Shaft.”

Now for the actual music. It’s...different. Eclectic. An album Rolling Stone called (generously - it was for their Jack White cover story) “bracingly bonkers.” Funk, gospel, classic rock, electronica, disco, country, some blues (of course), spoken word rants of questionable poetry all kinda tossed into a high-powered blender, weird for weird’s sake. I do like a couple of things: the funk of “Corporation” is totally ass-shaking and the groove and fuzzed guitar on “Over and Over and Over” is pretty great but the (maybe) autotuned gospel backup singers don’t do it for me, at all. But honestly the rest of the record is pretty insufferable.

Pitchfork has a lot to say: “What does he think he’s doing? What does he want us to think he’s doing? All is mystery, except your overwhelming desire to turn away. Boarding House Reach is a long, bewildering slog studded with these moments, which seem to be directly antagonizing you. Deep in the eccentric-hermit stage of his career, with his own successful label and a devoted clutch of fans who will come to see his concerts until their children are in college, White is now free to record and release whatever he pleases. And judging by Boarding House Reach, he wants to noodle to himself in the studio, record spoken-word reminiscences about the first time he played piano in a song titled “Get in the Mind Shaft,” and make the kind of Cheeto-dusted funk instrumentals that the Beastie Boys would have left off of The In Sound From Way Out! What he doesn’t want to do: write any songs at all. The worst part is that he doesn’t even sound like he’s having fun. The few rock songs here, like the lead-off “Connected by Love,” are blowsy, water-logged things, devoid of wit or snap or fire. Usually a good guitar solo will rouse White’s blood, but he doesn’t have many of those up his sleeve here either. Instead, he swamps himself with gospel choirs and organ and even more bongos, and boy, does he ever sound miserable. “Why Walk a Dog” would be a hilarious parody of a mawkish blues ballad—“Are you their master?/Did you buy them at the store?/Did they know they were a cure for you to stop being bored?”—if the sob in White’s voice didn’t convince me he believes every word. What I wouldn’t give for a flash of bright red, something with the verve or conviction of even his slightest Stripes material. On the last two tracks, White finally tips his hand. “What’s Done Is Done” is a goofy country tune that he sings with the right amount of hambone. And “Humoresque” sets to words a scrappy old tune by the 19th-century Czech composer Dvořák, one that generations of little children studying Suzuki violin have scratched out in front of the forced grins of their parents. It’s the only hint of White’s lively mind at work. Sadly, the years have steadily whittled the playfulness from White’s material. His work is now too lumbering and unmoored for anyone to take much pleasure in it.”

Allmusic is slightly kinder, giving White props for being willing to experiment and tear off the garage-blues label saying, “Boarding House Reach is where he expands his horizons and that discipline begins to fracture, and quite intentionally so. "Connected by Love" -- the album's opening track and first single -- is a rousing bit of arena rock and the only cut that could truly have appeared on either Blunderbuss or Lazaretto. Once that song draws to a close, White dives into a moody electronic meditation called "Why Walk a Dog?" -- an oddity that's quickly eclipsed by the hard funk of "Corporation," a song that marks the third different sound in as many tracks. Things get progressively stranger from this point forward. Recitations commingle with raps, gurgling synthesizers tangle with blues piano, operatic overdubs are paired with fuzz guitars, sci-fi send-ups meet their match with short stories. Every moment suggests that White is kicking against the pricks, desperate to be seen as a modern rock artist, not a fusty throwback. While his attempt at redefinition is a success -- there's no question that this is the work of an artist willing to take risks -- it's an open question whether Boarding House Reach succeeds as an album.”

#jack white #boarding house reach #third man records #third man records vault #vinyl #indie rock

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himbowelsh · 6 years

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Bob ships in single dad AU. Who's the single dad? How old is their kiddo? Is it a boy or a girl? How do they meet? How the other gets along with the kiddo?

WINNIX

lew doesn’t quite know what he’s going to do when his ex-wife ships their daughter, madeline, off to live with him for an entire summer.

she’s going to tahiti, because of course she is. with her new beau. and lew’s money.

his only consolation is that maddie seems just as disgruntled about the whole thing as he does. he knows what to do with her about as much as she knows what to do with him. they’re both at a loss… so they come to a mutual agreement of tolerance.

lew goes out in the daytime; maddie is left to amuse herself in lew’s penthouse however she likes. lew comes home; they have dinner together, and don’t talk about anything. then, they go to bed, and the day repeats.

it’s not a life for an eight year old, but lew… just doesn’t know what else to do.

this goes on for about a week before something happens that really shakes lew up – his father hires a new company manager.

richard winters is the polar opposite of lew in every way. maybe there’s some truth to the saying “opposites attract”, because lew finds himself inexplicably drawn to the serious man who he can’t quite understand.

at first he’s convinced dick has a stick up his ass larger than new york state – but then he actually talks to him.

lew, who’s made himself comfortable in his father’s office (while his father’s not there) is spinning around in the chair like a little kid and musing to himself how this whole set up wouldn’t be so bad, were it not for the whole work aspect of the gig, when –

“i don’t think you’re the mr. nixon i’m looking for.’

lew looks up at his father’s newest employee and smirks. “what, you’ve never seen the old man do this?”

“not this early in the afternoon,” dick replies. nix’s eyes drift to the empty brandy glass on his father’s desk (by the end of the day, he’s usually put away a bottle) and grins.

it turns out dick winter does have a sense of humor after all.

that’s the start of an unconventional and kind of beautiful friendship. lew hangs around dick any chance he gets. rather than being annoyed, dick tolerates his presence gladly. he isn’t just grateful to have the company – he finds lew wicked smart, and a companion who understands him better than anyone else he’s ever met.

lew finds himself coming home in a great mood every night. he brings maddie back gifts, takes her out on surprise trips to the movies and amusement parks, teaches her how to dance. dick makes him happier than he’s been in a long time. for the first time, maddie gets a chance to know her dad.

he and dick hit it off so well that it’s only natural that dick meets maddie too. lew is nervous about introducing them at first, but maddie approaches dick with her usual fearlessness. dick, in classic dick style, is a perfect gentleman.

“madeline nixon. nice to meet you.”

dick takes her proffered handshake and smiles into that dark-eyed face, such a perfect echo of lew’s own. “richard winters,” he says. “it’s lovely to meet you too.”

SPEIRTON

losing his wife came as an incredible blow to lipton. this was the woman he expected to spend his entire life with. now, he’s suddenly left alone, a mourning father with a five year old son.

cliff doesn’t understand what’s happened to his mommy. he keeps asking and asking. lip doesn’t know how he’s going to make him understand.every time he sees his baby boy’s big, sad brown eyes, his heart breaks a little more.

lip does his best to be both father and mother for cliff, but it’s hard. he still has to keep up with work, and he’s grieving too, so sometimes he gets overwhelmed. he’s good at dealing with it – but on the days where everything seems a little too much, he takes cliff to the park.

there’s something so calming about watching his kid play. he gets to see cliff smile and be happy, be everything a little boy should be, and it reminds him why he’s still here. it reminds him that he needs to give this precious little boy the best life he can.

on a particularly rough day, lip takes cliff to the park, and enjoys the sight of him playing as always. he swears that he looks away for one second – just long enough to blink – and suddenly cliff is no longer on top of the jungle gym, but pinwheeling to the ground.

lip is on his feet and running in a split second – but he doesn’t get there first.

he almost has a heart attack when a strange pair of arms snatch cliff out of the air. he is settled safely on the ground a second later, but the little boy is wide eyed and breathing hard. lip recognizes signs of a breakdown when he sees them, because he knows his son.

“it’s okay, baby,” he coaches, kneeling by his boy’s side. “it’s alright. i’m right here. you’re okay. i’ve got you.”

it takes him a good few minutes to talk cliff down. by the time he finally looks up, small child clutched to his chest, he only sees a dark-clad back retreating across the playground.

that won’t do. he’s got to thank his savior, at least. if he hadn’t been in the right place at the right time, cliff could have gotten really hurt. lip picks up his boy and sprints after the stranger.

he looks surprised to be caught up to, but lip doesn’t give himself a chance to overthink what he’s doing. “thank you. for catching my kid. you’re pretty quick.”

a beat passes, and then the man smiles – and carwood feels like he’s seeing the sun for the first time since his wife died. “i was just close by, that’s all.”

ron speirs, as it turns out, was only at the playground looking for his neighbor’s runaway dog. lip has never been more grateful for a missing animal, because it gave him the chance to meet someone who quickly becomes one of his closest friends.

ron is a good listener. he doesn’t get scared off by the whole “my wife is dead” thing, and is able to advise lip soundly when he confides about the anxiety issues cliff has been having since his mother’s death.

what’s more, ron is great with cliff. he gets the soft-spoken little boy to open up to him; though he’s very frank, and doesn’t act the way you’d expect an adult to around a child (he doesn’t baby cliff at all, and seems confused by the idea) it’s clear he adores him, and cliff loves ron right back.

ron integrates seamlessly into their lives. it would be very easy, lip thinks, to fall in love with ron speirs.

he’s not there yet – he’s still mourning his wife. but someday, maybe… the thought gives him a bit of hope for things to come. anytime he’s with ron, the future seems a whole lot brighter.

BABEROE

it takes a village to raise a child, and bayou chene is an extremely close-knit community. gene may have been left to raise his two twins after their mother ran off when they were just babies, but emeric and violette have never been starved for love.

they’re close with their grandmother, aunts, and uncles; their entire family adores them. the neighbors all know the roe twins, and love them like their own kids.

still, as the years pass, gene cannot ignore the building sensation of being trapped. the past weighs on his shoulders. staying in one place your entire life might suit some people, but gene cannot stand it. the swamp is no longer home to him; now he feels as if it’s drowning him.

his family may not understand, but no one blames him when he takes the twins and moves across the country – to the big city of philadelphia.

philly is a big city, and for a little while all three of them feel sort of lost. gene buys a nice little house, starts his residency at the local hospital, and enrolls the twins in the nearby school. he’s very hopeful that everything will work out -- but things don’t go as smoothly as he thought they’d be.

they come home with stories about getting picked on for their accents. gene’s neighbor keeps cutting the bushes between their yards smaller and smaller, there’s a stray cat that loves hanging out in their driveway (emeric has “adopted” her and named her missy), and sometimes he can’t understand half of what the locals are saying. what’s more, he’s stretched so thin with his residency that often he’s too tired to spend time with his kids.

he’s just starting to wonder if he made a mistake coming here. maybe they all would have been better off staying in louisiana after all.

that’s when he meets babe.

babe heffron rides into the hospital on an ambulance with a sprained ankle, a broken nose, a fractured wrist, and a large gash on his head. his friends aren’t in much better states, but babe winds up gene’s problem.

the most incredible thing is that babe doesn’t seem too fazed, even when he needs four stitches and a cast on his wrist. “ahh. this is nothing, doc. the way i fall down, i’ve had a lot worse.”

“how did this happen?” gene asks, not sure he really wants to know the answer.

“we were tryna see if we could roller skate in an empty swimming pool. we thought it’d work a lot better than it did.”

if he’s being honest, babe reminds him of his kids. he’s all enthusiasm, energy, fire, and puppy-dog determination that makes him impossible to ignore. perhaps that’s why gene can’t help saying yes when babe asks if he’d be willing to catch dinner sometime -- “after i’m all healed up, of course.”

it’s not long before babe becomes gene’s favorite person -- and, by extension, the twins’ favorite person as well. babe is a HIT with the kids. he’s great with children, because he’s essentially a big kid himself. he’s not afraid to get rowdy with them, wrestling and playing tag -- but he also knows fantastic stories, and can croon an enthralling lullaby when the need arises. most importantly, he understands the necessity of stuffed animals and finger paint -- he’s never afraid to buy the twins more of both when they tell him they’re running low.

babe doesn’t see himself as their father (”i’m too young to be a dad, gene!” he exclaims, even though he’s just three years younger than gene) but he loves the kids like they’re his own family. as he and gene grow more serious, it doesn’t take babe long to decide he’d do anything for emeric and violette.

he’s not sure how he stumbled into this little family, but he wouldn’t give them up for the world -- and they’re more than grateful to have him there.

WEBGOTT

web has no intention of ending up with a daughter – but an unfortunate one night stand leaves him in over his head. after his baby’s mother makes it clear that she wants no part of her kid’s life, web is left to raise a little girl all on his own.

it’s not a disaster. somehow.

jane ends up well-adjusted, all things considered. sure, they’ve had some nights of cereal for dinner, or having to help her dad look up hair braiding tutorials because they were both clueless, but everything worked out well.

by the time she’s ten, jane is happy, scary smart, and knows more about sharks than any little kid ought to.

when she hits fifth grade, her teacher retires two weeks into the school year. jane is dismayed at first, but quickly perks up again when she meets her new substitute teacher.

mr. liebgott is young, firey, and... not what you’d expect from an elementary school teacher. nevertheless, jane really likes him; he really likes jane; and two minutes into their first parent-teacher conference, web decides he HATES mr. liebgott.

liebgott seems to get a thrill out of teasing him, and argues about everything. there’s just something about him that rubs web the wrong way immediately, and the feeling is mutual. they both leave the meeting fuming.

unfortunately there’s no way to escape him, because jane is stuck with him for the rest of the year. she’s THRILLED about this, of course. as the school year progresses, she only grows more delighted with her teacher.

(web will give him this: mr. liebgott encourages jane’s love of learning at every opportunity. he tolerates all her many questions, and answers as best as he can. he praises her love of reading and writing. he does all he can to help her excel in school, and that’s something web has to appreciate.)

they have numerous parent-teacher conferences throughout the year, and clash every time; but eventually, web has to admit that he doesn’t hate liebgott at all. he respects him -- almost likes him, in a weird way. not that he’ll admit that to liebgott, or, god forbid, himself.

by the end of the year, he’s both nervous and proud of his baby girl. she’s going off to middle school. how on earth is he going to cope? is jane ready?

at fifth grade graduation, mr. liebgott comes up to him. web is convinced he wants to talk about jane, and wheels around with wide eyes, ready for bad news. he’s surprised to find liebgott smirking at him.

“relax. you look like you’re gonna pass out. breathe, web, jesus,” he mutters, and shakes his head. the way his hair falls into his eyes is not fair, and he should really slick that back if he’s going to be working in an educational environment --

instead of bringing up anything about jane, liebgott says the last thing he expects. “so, since i’m no longer a teacher and your daughter’s no longer my student... what do you say if we go for drinks sometime?”

web just gapes at him. he can’t believe what he’s hearing.

jane is in the background cheering them on, of course -- she caught on to her father and teacher’s mutual crush on each other midway through the school year, and has been encouraging mr. liebgott to make his move ever since. she’s THRILLED.

web just exhales, and shakes his head in amazement at the whole situation. he’s got to be crazy for saying --

“yeah. i’d like that a lot.”

(jane winds up having to put up with TWO nerd dads, which makes middle and high school way more complicated -- and fun -- than she could have predicted.)

LUZTOYE

everything was really chaotic after george’s sister died. she was already seperated from her husband, who didn’t want anything to do with the kids. as a result, a six year old and a two year old were essentially orphans. the luz family is about as supportive as you can get, but they’re also huge, so there was a lot of confusion over what’s going to happen to these two kids.

luz’s parents were more than willing to take them in, but mama luz was recovering from surgery. it just wasn’t the right time; so luz volunteered to look after the kids until his parents were able.

it was a weird arrangement at first. he was a single guy living in an apartment, definitely not ready to look after two kids. but layla and jackson were already crazy about their uncle george, so they made it work.

(luz set up a tent in the middle of the living room, and the kids “camped out” for a week until he could move into a two bedroom apartment. they made s’mores, told ghost stories, and sat out on the balcony looking at the stars until the kids fell asleep and luz carried them inside.)

in the end, everything worked out pretty well – so well, in fact, that the family agreed the kids would be better off staying with luz for a while, just to have that stability. all three of them were, of course, fine with it.

living with two kids is an experience, and luz is discovering more every day. grocery shopping is a special sort of adventure – jackson wants fruit, all of the fruit, while layla has six boxes of the sugariest cereal luz has ever seen.

she’s so determined to get them all in the cart at once that luz has to keep her from overbalancing with the weight of them. he’s distracted by layla, so he doesn’t notice when jackson picks up an apple and lobs it clean across the store – into the head of some poor dude just looking for hummus.

that’s how george meets joe toye – a near concussion in the middle of stop&shop. toye is captivating, and grabs luz’s attention immediately. he’s a fitness instructor, veteran, smoking hot, and proud owner of a prosthetic leg.

you can guess what gets the kids most excited.

after the whole “sorry my kid almost killed you with an apple” incident, he and joe get along pretty well. luz invites him out to dinner as an apology, and that’s where he explains how he took his niece and nephew in. as much as he finds him kind of… overwhelming, toye can’t help but admire loyalty like that.

he and luz hang around each other more often, which of course leads to joe bonding with the kiddos. he’s a little amazed – how are luz’s kids both as annoying as he is?? layla is a ball of energy, jackson never stops blabbering, and somehow they’re experts at sucking joe into their games. it only takes joe an hour around the luz kids before he’s covered in marker drawings and is wearing glitter lip gloss, playing zombie barbies with layla’s dolls.

(luz walks in, takes one look, and throws himself into the fray. zombie barbies is his FAVORITE game.)

the kids love joe’s leg. he takes off his prostethic to let them look at it, and even gives them permission to touch his stump. layla eagerly declares that when she grows up, she wants TWO prosthetic legs. luz has to tell her that this is not a good idea.

overall, the kids get pretty close with joe. considering he’s never been much of a “dad” person, joe is surprised by how much he bonds with them as well.

#Anonymous #headcanons #baberoe #winnix #webgott #luztoye #speirton

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marvelsviking · 6 years

Text

Ain’t It Fun

Steve x Reader (Fluff) College AU Word Count: 1,536 A/N: This fic is for @caplansteverogers Song Fic Challenge. I fucking love this song and the minute I saw this on her list, I thought of Steve. I thought it was appropriate to set this in college because this is loosely based on a personal experience with someone in one of my classes. Hope you guys enjoy this!

College has been an absolute nightmare to Steve since he first arrived. He had gotten in on a full scholarship due to his outstanding grades. He had thought that high school had prepared him for college, for the real word. Everything would go smoothly for him and he would give his fellow students a run for their money.

But man, was he wrong. Currently, he was swamped with homework and was to his surprise, failing all 8 of his classes. He thought he could do it, it hadn't been too hard to balance 8 classes in high school, but college was a whole different ballpark and he wasn't sure how he would survive the rest of the semester.

You're not the big fish in the pond no more You are what they're feeding on

Steve found out that he wasn't the only person that had this dilemma. The college was filled with smartasses like him who thought that they were going to be the hot shit students. But there was one person who fascinated and irritated him to no end.

His roommate.

Steve had managed to snag a role as a Residence Assistant in his co-ed dorm and shared a room with his one of his RA's that lived on the same floor as him. Since they were RAs, their dorm room was massive and their rooms were separated by a living room and kitchenette so neither felt like their privacy was ever invaded on, but they still saw each other enough to pick up on the temperament of the other.

At first, Steve thought she was just a lazy, irresponsible, know-it-all. Both of their schedules started at 7am, as their first class started around 8am, Steve's classes ended at 4pm and by time he got back to the dorm, ready to do homework, she was already there on the couch, dressed in her hoodie and shorts, eating ice cream and watching the latest Netflix show. Steve assumed that she skipped the rest of her classes and due to her being home so early and to the fact that he never saw her do a single piece of homework or do an ounce of studying. Every now and then when Steve would stress over homework in the living room, she would pop up behind him and begin to correct his work by leaning over his shoulder. Like she was doing now.

"Conjunction word. Right there" Her chest pressed against his shoulder as she leaned down and pointed at the 'won't' typed on his screen as he was constructing his 10-page essay. "Your professor is going to take off points for that."

"How do you know?" Steve snapped his head towards her with a scowl sported on his face. "What the fuck would you know about writing an English paper, huh?"

"I'm an English Major, I think I know how to write a paper." Her brow furrowed and that only angered Steve. He stood up and looked down at her, the couch creating a space between them.

He crossed his arms over his chest and stood his ground. "Oh, so you think that just because you’re an English Major that you can skip class and not do any work?!"

"Okay! What the hell are you talking about?! I do my work! Don't get mad at me because you thought taking 8 classes was a good idea! And in your freshman year no less!" She yelled back, her fist clenched at her sides.

"I thought I could handle it okay?! I-"

"You thought you were prepared? You thought that you could walk in here and easily get the spot as Top Student because you were in high school?"

"W-well, yeah. You're right." His anger was short-lived when his arms slowly fell to his sides and a deep breath fell from his nose.

"And now you're all stressed out because you're alone in the real world. Right, Stevie?" She spoke mockingly and Steve didn’t have anything to come back at her with. She was right, he thought that he could run things here like he did before in high school. But he was wrong.

Silence stood between them for a while as Steve's focus was on the ground below him, avoiding her gaze. Then finally, she broke it.

"And for your information, I do my homework. I'm just more comfortable doing it in my room. And I only have 4 classes. So, when you don't see me for hours on the weekend, I'm in there, busting my ass off." She pointed to her room and Steve felt overwhelmed with guilt.

"Sorry. I shouldn't have judged you like that." "Apology accepted, I guess. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm making ramen. You want some? You look like you could deserve a break." She turned on her heels and started toward the kitchenette.

"Thanks, but I really gotta finish this paper. It's-" "Steve. If you don’t get your ass in here, I'm dragging you in by your ears." "Yes, ma'am." He gave in and followed her, helping her make the ramen. When the ramen was done, they sat down at the dining table and mostly ate in silence. But Steve had so many questions boiling inside him that they just had to burst out.

"Four classes?" She was in mid-slurp when he spoke. She looked up at him with a raised brow and noodles hanging from her mouth. Steve had to stop himself from laughing at how cute she looked in that moment.

She slurped the remaining noodles and covered her mouth as she spoke and chewed.

"Yeah, didn’t wanna overwork myself. You know, between school and work."

Steve slightly choked on his ramen in surprise, and she quickly leaned over and hit his back as he coughed up noodles.

"Shit, are you okay?" She giggled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you? You have a fucking job while you're in college?!" He finally said when his coughs calmed down.

"Yeah? I gotta make money somehow. A lot of things are fun, but being broke isn't." She sat down close to him and brought her bowl with her. "What about your parents? Don’t they send you money?" Steve couldn't believe how busy the woman in front of him was. He thought he was the busy one, but she brought a whole new meaning to the term.

"Oh. My. God, are you a trust fund kid?!" She leaned forward, her face struck with amusement.

"No! My mom just takes good care of me is all." He leaned back a bit as her closeness took him by surprise. "Oh, you’re a mama's boy then?" She smirked.

"No! She just helps me out when I need it." Steve turned away from her and continued eating. You had continued eating as well, and Steve thought that was the end. But once again, he was wrong. "So, what? Does she also come here and do your laundry for you too?" "...Sometimes." He murmured into his bowl as he had finished his noodles and started to drink the broth.

"Hey, I'm not shaming you or your mother's love. It’s just that, college is, well for me at least, supposed to be about doing your own thing and getting a taste of freedom, ya know?" She finished the last of her noodles and pushed her bowl away from her.

"I get what you're saying." He set his bowl down and directed his body to face her again. "But that doesn't mean that you're on your own, Y/N."

"You are on your own in the real world, Stevie. I mean, sure, I could call up my mom right now and cry to her about how stressed I feel. Hell, you can too. Doesn't change anything, cause the stress is still there." She shrugged.

"Then what do you do? What do you do when you’re so stressed out that you feel like your life is over?" Steve leaned in closer to her subconsciously.

"I remind myself that it's not. I mean, think about it" She moved her hands on the table as she spoke. For some reason, Steve thought it was fucking adorable how animated she was with her hands as she talked. He wondered how he didn’t notice it sooner.

"After college, you're free to do what you want. You can either go straight into a job if you're lucky, take a break and do your passion, whatever. If I hang on to that freedom, the stress doesn't get to me as much." She laid her hands flat on the table and stood up, taking her bowls with her to the sink, washing them.

Steve followed her and gently pushed her aside so he could take over for her. She muttered 'thanks' and he smiled at her.

"Well, maybe you could help me function in the real world?" Steve joked and she let out a slight chuckle.

"Maybe. Goodnight, Steve. It's been fun." She leaned up on her tiptoes, kissed him on the cheek, and walked out the kitchenette towards her room. She smiled at him as she closed her door and Steve brought his hand up to his cheek. He could feel his face burning up and his stomach flipping.

"Goodnight."

Tags: @caplansteverogers @blackcaptainrogers @avengersandlovers @erisjade @a-splash-of-stucky

#Steve Rogers #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #captain america #captain america x reader #captain america x you #steve rogers fluff #captain amercia fluff

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del-fi · 7 years

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Eulogy for my father

I wrote this two months ago, as my dad died on January 29. but attending yesterday’s climate march pushed me to post it publicly (dad was a co-laureate on the IPCC Nobel for his work on climate adaptation). This one’s for you, Dad.

Dad told me, a long time ago, that he didn’t want a funeral. That if he had anything, he wanted to have a party - that a good party was much cheaper than even a cheap casket. And that it better have good music, good food, and good drink, and it shouldn’t have any speeches.

Now, we’re violating that last request. Because he also told me, the same day, that these kinds of events are for the living. That what we hope to achieve at an event like this is to help us, not to help the deceased. To help us process the loss, to help us integrate the incredibly sudden, and completely final, absence of someone we loved into our new lives.

That was the day of his mom’s – my grandmother’s – funeral. I was in my mid twenties. I’d missed my maternal grandmother’s funeral, living in France at the time, and I never met any of my male grandparents, so that was the first time I had to confront a close death. He was trying to help me, even as he suffered. And those words have stuck with me to this day, and I’m going to try to honor him in this eulogy, but I’m also trying to pass along that gift of assistance. To help all of us through that process.

This was very hard to write. In the end, we realized that for a lot of people, Dad was a certain type of person. A work colleague, a husband, a parent, a friend. But not that many people knew all the sides of Dad. For a lot of reasons, he often kept those pieces separate from one another. But the thing about Dad is that the more you knew of him, the better it got. So I’m going to tell some stories about Dad, so that we can all walk out of here tonight with a more complete picture of him. So that we can integrate the fullness of him into our memories, and keep him there as we process his absence here on earth.

Uncle Dana just gave you a sense of what Dad was like as a big brother. And I have some sense of that time in his life as well. I loved to pester him with questions about where he came from, what shaped him. And he was usually elliptical – he’d answer personal questions with philosophy, most of the time. But I got enough out of him over the years, especially after I became a father as well, to tell you a few things.

First, he loved greenery. I mean, he loved it. He loved the mountains, and the woods. Hated the damn beach, but would do anything to spend summer weeks in Colorado in the high alpine forests, and he loved the green drive to the lab from west Knoxville. It bugged him that Middelbrook Pike got built up, because it took away from the absolutely all-surrounding green. I got him a little lit up on wine one night in Boston, early in my relationship with Carolina, and pushed him on it a little.

He told me that he lived for a long time in dry, dusty places, in a dry and dusty time after the Depression. He talked about being a night worker at the Ace Motel, a disreputable place on the south side of Oklahoma City, and the dust blowing constantly in the wind, he talked about Canyon Texas, he talked about building a cabin high on a mountaintop in Taos (the one thing he loved out of the dry, it seemed), and more. And then he said when he came to Tennessee for the first time, it was almost overwhelming how green it was. That it reminded him of Mason OH, which was the closest thing he had in his mind to “home” as a child, even though he never lived there. That it reminded him of spending a summer in a work camp in Switzerland, which had been an escape from other summers working as an elevator repairman, or at a Sears warehouse. That the simple pleasure of green was actually a piece of his decision to join the Lab back in the late 70s.

He wasn’t as purely rational as he liked to seem, you see. He was just good at hiding his emotions.

Another thing is that Dad was tough as hell. Physically and mentally. I’m guessing that a lot of his work colleagues saw the mental toughness, in his ability to produce work at a rate that seems almost impossible for one person. But it wasn’t just mental.

Dad went through college on an ROTC scholarship, which meant he had to muster into the regular Army on graduation to pay it back with service. He was not a typist, it’s safe to say – he joined the infantry as an officer, he went through Airborne school successfully, and then through Ranger school successfully. Five people died in the Ranger course he took – mostly through drowning while carrying heavy loads and dangerously deprived of sleep.

Dad didn’t like to talk about that experience much. I did get a great story out of him once though: each Ranger candidate was going to be assigned leadership of a commando unit once over the course of seven days, and if you made any mistakes when you were leading the unit, you washed out. Thanks to other candidates making mistakes, Dad got taken prisoner at one point, hogtied and his mouth filled with mud – this was in a swamp, and the regular army guys holding the high ground would get a week’s leave if they kept the Ranger candidates away. When he got his shot, he hadn’t slept in four days. But he was able to keep it together and they took the high ground.

What he talked about was how you could force your mind to override your body, to a certain extent. How that ability was something that distinguished success from failure all across life – to show up when others didn’t, to perform when others were tired, to perform under pressure when others cracked. How that ability came from practice, from willpower, and to a certain extent, from good luck – the luck to be physically and mentally stable. How if you had that luck, it was your job to use it.

We saw that throughout life with Dad, for things as simple as driving through the night to get to the beach. But it was very evident after he got sick. He fought through three surgeries, atrial fibrillation, multiple bouts with pneumonia, a stomach tube that constantly fell out and leaked gastric juices onto his skin, hospital-induced dementia, and indignities that I won’t go into in public. He lost his ability to speak, to eat, to drink – all things he loved desperately. And yet he fought on. He spent the last year of his life writing a new book, called Living With Climate Change, which will be published soon – the beginning of the prologue is in your programs. He finished it just a few weeks before his death.

A lot of people pretend to be tough. Dad taught us that really tough people don’t need to advertise. That you can figure out who they are just by watching and seeing – do they show up? Do they crack? Are they reliable?

Dad always showed up, and Dad didn’t crack. He was tough as nails. The old paratrooper fought and worked til the very damn end.

A third thing about Dad was that he could contain in his head an incredible number of ways to see. He could look at a problem and not be boxed in by one way of seeing it – he was the opposite of a lot of what we have in politics today, in that way, on either side.

When he wanted to learn about something, he would read everything he could get his hands on. He’d read the stuff that everyone read, but he’d also go to extremes to find other points of view, including ones he disagreed with. When I was young I learned my way around a library by helping him chase down books, papers, chapters, cartoons, you name it – and I learned at the same time that being able to hold several positions in my head at once meant I could see way more dimensions than people who got trained to hold one position.

This is the skill that let him see the long game, which let him marry complex theoretical work to real world implications. That’s what let him look at the Green Revolution in India – a revolution about food crops – and see a future world full of crises for energy and land and sustainability. That’s what let him look at climate change and immediately jump to thinking about what it meant for humans to adapt to that change. That’s what led him to think about how geography impacts terrorism, and a full decade of deep work with the Defense Department.

Because he didn’t want to just think about a single position and write a paper about it. He wanted to use his understanding to improve people’s lives. To anticipate problems and have solutions sitting, ready, when they were needed.

He would have cackled at the news in the past two weeks of the infrastructure failures at the Oroville Dam in California. That’s precisely the kind of thing he anticipated, the way that climate change meant normal things like droughts would get more extreme, and that the end of the drought would mean even more extreme rains, and that infrastructure built for non-extreme events would therefore fail in predictable ways that could be planned for. And he loved being right – it meant that he had stared through the problem and seen its bones.

Dad was also a deeply artistic guy. He channeled a lot of that into work – you can see it in his writing, especially his writing for broad audiences. But there was a deeper artistic sense in there, one that not everyone maybe knew about. He consumed more music and more books than anyone I’ve ever met – across a dizzying array of genres and styles. He read high literature and low literature, fancy books and dimestore mysteries. He loved latin jazz, bluegrass, new Orleans music, rock and roll, classical music, anything you could imagine.

I think if he’d been a little more willing to risk himself he’d have been a lot more of an artist. He had perfect pitch (if he hadn’t gotten stuck playing trombone he might have stuck with performing). And he was an incredible writer. He wrote a small history of his family tree for Lisa and me nearly twenty years ago and it’s full of just incredible sentences, like this one about a small town called Pikeville KY, where they lived when he was young:

“I remember Saturday movies, (with suspenseful serials, sort of young-male-oriented-soap-operas), sledding in wintertime, coal fires in the fireplace in the winter, Christmas time in the local Presbyterian church (the minister’s daughter was my fourth-grade girlfriend!), Kentucky basketball on the radio, and the taste of honeysuckle.”

That’s the way a writer remembers a place. I wish he’d written more about non work things. He told me once that he wanted to write novels but was afraid of being as honest as he’d need to be for them to be good.

He loved fine dining – for the past 25 years, he reveled in taking me and Lisa out to dinner in DC and elsewhere, always showing up with detailed ideas and research on restaurants, dishes, even routes for the taxicabs. He loved to eat. Losing that ability was one of the great insults of the past three years. And boy did he love wine. He’d be glad we have it tonight. Some of my best memories with dad involve food and wine, and I’m deeply sad that Noah won’t get to know him that way as he grows up. It’s weird to think I’ll play that role for him, because Dad played it so well.

He was incredible with kids. He was a very physical grand-dad – down on the floor, rolling around, playing the fool, doing anything for a laugh. One of his favorite yearly traditions was to spend November collecting details about what everyone was into that year, and assembling incredibly personal stockings for each of us on the couch, full of personal touches. He spent a hundred hours a year on it, easily.

Now, he wasn’t perfect. He was human, and no human is perfect. I won’t dwell on his flaws, but I will say that God help you if you got in the way of his trips to WalMart. He’d start snorting – he always did that when he was good and mad – sounding like a congested dragon. And his very toughness and emotions could sometimes blind him a little bit to the struggles that characterize our own lived experiences – he told me that himself once.

But that toughness was on the balance something that was a good trait for Dad. It carried him through the fight with cancer. He was always grateful to his care team – Dr Carlson, Dr Stephenson, Dr Locasio, Dr Mancini, just to name a few – and the entire universe of everyone who supported him as he tried to find his way back from the abyss of summer 2014. Even in the hospital, stripped of his ability to speak or eat or drink, he would grab the white board to ask a nurse how he or she was doing in writing.

OK, I’m pretty sure that if he’s somewhere watching, he’s making the dragon breathing. He didn’t want long speeches, or a funeral. He wanted a party with live music and I’m now officially in the way. So I’ll wrap up.

I don’t know how Dad would have felt about this. I hope he would have liked it. But, as I said at the start, he also told me these events are about the living. We retell the story of the one we have lost, and fit our own stories into that story, as part of how we process and integrate their loss into our ongoing lives. And in that memory, we can keep a piece of them alive, in us, by connecting our stories to their stories. By telling those stories over time, looking at those photographs, watching those videos, eating those foods, reliving the memories.

So thanks to all of you for coming. Don’t stop telling stories about Dad. Don’t stop looking at photos, or watching videos, or eating those foods. Because as long as you keep him alive in your mind and your heart, he’s not gone. And that’s the best possible way for us to honor him – to say his name, and to live like he lived.

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foxcroft-rpg-blog · 7 years

Photo

Congratulations, Angie! Your application was so well thought out. I had a lot of fears when it came to Val applications, because it’s so easy to make her too rebellious, or too devoted to her religion, but I really think you struck a nice balance. I’m so excited to see where you take our cult leader babe.

Thanks again for applying! Please create your account and send in the link, track the right tags, and follow everyone on the masterlist as soon as you can. Welcome to Foxcroft!

OUT OF CHARACTER

Name: Angie

Age: 20

Preferred pronouns: She/her

Time zone:EST

Activity:On a scale from 1-10 I’d place myself at a 7. I’m a full-time college student, but my schedule’s been pretty light this semester and finals are still a little over a month away, so there’s not many impediments at the moment that could affect my activity.

Anything else?:Nope! I do want to apologize though for having been such a hassle about fc choices. Why are you like this @me.

IN CHARACTER

Full name:Valerie Pineda

Date of birth:October 25th, 1989 / / S c o r p i o

How long have they been in Foxcroft:Valerie’s lived in Foxcroft all her life. It’s where she’s conducted God’s work under the banner of Deathless and its twisted belief system, and it’s where she’ll continue to strive for salvation for its other members, no matter the cost.

Sexuality: Am I allowed to say questioning? I imagine that given her strict conservative upbringing, Val would’ve had heteronormativity beaten into her on the regular. That said, she was always one to push boundaries and skirt around rules when it suited her, so I feel like she might’ve experimented with the opposite gender in her shameless pursuit for that ultimate adrenaline high. Nowadays, with her being even more committed to her religion, I think that she’d be more inclined towards playing it safe with her sexuality to kind of build on this otherworldly image she’s built for herself, even though there’s a lot of misplaced confusion and guilt wrapped in there.

FC Change: Eiza Gonzalez, Camila Mendes, Emeraude Toubia

How do you interpret this character’s personality? How will you portray them? Include two weaknesses and two strengths. (2+ paragraphs)

+ charismatic, dedicated, crafty

- manipulative, obsessive, self-serving

She was always a spirited little thing. With a pistol for a mouth and a smile that seemed to beget trouble for the mere sake of it, Valerie’s inherent grit was the one thing neither her parents nor the nuns at school could ever really beat out of her, for hers was a particular brand of recklessness that bypassed the traditionalism of her upbringing; a bold addiction to life that couldn’t be reined in. She was cigarette smoke seeping from beneath the door of the girl’s lavatory; she was the burn of whiskey at the back of one’s throat; she was loud, rambunctious laughter and legs flailing from atop the water tower; she was invincible.

And no one could convince her otherwise.

It’s her religion that grounds her. Never one to limit herself to the restrictions of convention, Valerie is nevertheless a staunch believer in her God. To those who don’t know her very well, it can be hard to reconcile the image of the wild child from her early years with the devoted Catholic that routinely attends church service. But for the select few in her inner circle, it’s not quite as difficult to understand how it is she does it, funneling that same frenzied energy, a trademark of Foxcroft’s finest delinquent, into the religious zeal that’s now come to define her character. It’s her faith that defines her and it’s her faith that brings out the very best and the very worst of Valerie Pineda.

There’s the charismatic side that resembles your typical cult leaders’. At first glance there’s something magnetic to her spirited ways. Val projects a confidence and plucky sort of charm that’s been known to draw people in; she knows how to make them feel special. Whether it’s in convincing the other children at church to join her cause, or reaching out to lost souls and lending them a purpose in life, she knows how to foster feelings of belonging among others and inspire loyalty. Her silver-tongued charisma and apparent kindness don’t always stem from a place of cold calculation, though, and this is underscored by her real sense of devotion to Deathless. They’re in many ways the closest thing she’s got to a family and though self-preservation will typically have her prioritizing her own safety and well-being over theirs, they’re not simply a means to an end for her anymore as they too deserve to know the grace of God’s salvation.

Then there’s the uglier, more merciless side. In essence, Valerie is a taker, not a giver. She takes from those she calls friends, like Jonah and Jack; their choices, their independence, their sanity – she takes it all and bends them to her own will because she thinks she knows what’s best for them, and with Val what’s best for others tends to coincide a lot with what’s best for her. She takes from Marcus Murphy, dragging him into her convoluted web, knowing full well that he can’t afford to go against her word. And, ultimately, though not by her own hand, she took Hazel Abram’s life the minute she decided salvation demanded a sacrifice.

Religious devotion and an almost narcissistic fixation to rise above her own mortality has warped the finer elements of Val’s personality. She’s become a more intense and possessive version of herself in her quest for immortality, twisted by her ambitions and ego into a frightfully selfish creature not entirely of sound mind. But when all is said and done, no matter how hard and how long she’s aspired to heights of otherworldliness, Val remains inherently human at her core. She doesn’t want to go at it alone and, in truth, the reality of an immortal life spent entirely on her own scares her as much as the prospect of death.

How did this character react to the death of Hazel Abrams? Adam Foxcroft? (1+ paragraphs)

Her engineering of Hazel Abram’s death wasn’t so much a necessary evil as it was the most pivotal moment in Valerie Pineda’s life. It was a game changer for her in more ways than one, simultaneously earning her the immortality she’d so long craved while cementing the cruel lengths she’ll go to, to get what she wants. From that point on, there was no going back. While she’d publicly feign regret over the loss of life in the days to follow, Val privately felt not a shred of remorse for her actions. Sacrifices, after all, were always made in service of something bigger than all of them and the rest of Deathless would come to thank her one day when they too knew glory of salvation. Her one and only concern came in covering for Jonah, something she continues to do to this day both out of pragmatism and loyalty.

Adam Foxcroft’s death complicated matters. The recent tragedy has once again shined the spotlight on the Hazel Abram case and Val worries about how this could affect Jonah and Deathless. The execution of Adam’s death, so similar to that of Hazel’s, has also raised her suspicions. She wonders to herself if a member of Deathless was behind the murder, having chosen to go rogue and ignore her instructions in what she could only construe as a damning act of betrayal.

How do they see the town and its people? Think about the different groups of people and prejudices the town holds about them. (1+ paragraphs)

Val has never been particularly prejudiced in her view of the fellow townspeople. Hailing from a devout Catholic family that’s lived in relative modesty all their lives, she belonged neither to the affluent heights of the Foxcroft family, nor the poverty of the swamps. Instead, her free-spiritedness led her to befriend town residents from all walks of life, especially those with similarly troubled backgrounds as her own. It’s because of this open-mindedness that she’s been able to build Deathless up from scratch, inviting into the fold people that she knows have little to lose and everything to gain from a newfound sense of purpose.

For non-human characters: What does this character know about what they’ve become? Have they had any experiences that made them aware that weren’t exactly human? Elaborate. (2+ paragraphs)

Countless nights were spent by Valerie burning the midnight oil at both ends as she poured over every religious text she could get her hands on. She’s known in her heart of hearts for ages now that she’s meant for something greater. All those times she defied death had her fully convinced that she’d been made in God’s image, that she was truly untouchable, and as such all that remained to seal the deal was the assurance of a godly life: an immortal life. And so, she delved into her research, desperate to reach what she believed to be her fullest potential.

That fateful night at Sweetwater Church changed everything. Valerie can still remember hearing the loud bang of a single gunshot echoing around the altar; she can remember the rosary around her neck bursting to pieces, cracked beads rolling about on the floor as Marcus Murphy blew a hole through her chest. Above all else, she can remember that feeling of overwhelming triumph as she lifted her head up to meet his eyes, teeth spread in a wide grin while the gaping hole in her chest began to stitch itself back together. That was when she knew it’d all been worth it.

Please include 1-2 possible plots your see for this character (1 paragraph brief explanation for each)

i. From what I could tell Valerie doesn’t seem to be aware of the other forces at work in Foxcroft, namely the rest of the non-human species lurking around town. I definitely think that a realization on her end later on in the rp’s story could bring with it a lot of interesting repercussions that would be hella fun to explore. As someone who’s suffered so much for her faith and sacrificed so much of herself in service of it, I would imagine she wouldn’t be too pleased to know that there are others out there that have been similarly gifted with abilities beyond the realm of human imagination. I figure she’d still be deluded and egotistic enough to view immortality as the only real form of salvation, but it’d be cool to see how she’d deal with that turn of events and if it’d be enough to drive her over the edge.

ii. Literally anything and everything to do with Deathless. What I find most fascinating about Valerie is how she’s managed to cultivate this cult of hers by collecting people like a serial killer would trophies (that’s not a weird example at all angie) and commanding their attentions and allegiance. The lost causes, the broken hearts, the wounded ones that live on the fringes of Foxcroft’s society – she’s found ways to connect with them and bring them into the sphere of her fanaticism, and while not all of them are as devoted to her as they initially were, I still think it’d be cool to build on those dynamics and test just how far some members might go to stay in her good books, or how much they can put up with before choosing to actively go against her.

WRITING SAMPLE

There are two options here, and you only need to complete one.

( I hope it’s okay that I linked you to two of my past rp blogs – I just didn’t want to overcrowd this section. )

( para sample #1 ): (x) ( para sample #2 ): (x)

EXTRA [THIS SECTION WILL NOT INFLUENCE ACCEPTANCE]

How would you feel about this character dying?: I don’t know enough about the lore surrounding the town to know if an immortal can really die, but if it is a possibility or ends up becoming one later down the line, I’d be okay with it. Valerie’s story is so tightly wound with death and immortality, and her motives so fixed upon her determination to cheat death, that I think it’d be an interesting route to explore.

Why did you choose this character?:While I was initially toying around with the idea of applying for either Nina or Summer, it was Valerie’s bio that I kept being drawn back to. I think what struck me the most about Valerie is that hers is a character that could so easily be cast in the same mold as your typical religious zealot, yet there’s nothing one note about her. She’s defiant but committed; ruthlessly calculating but intensely passionate; self-serving to a fault but still willing to go above and beyond to protect her Deathless family. There’s so many layers there to work with, so much depth to uncover, that I feel she’d be a blast to play.

Extras: Here’s a playlist I made for Valerie (x)

How did you find us?: I was poking around the lsrpg tag and came across your promos there.

#rp #rpg #roleplay #accepted #valerie pineda

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mrsteveecook · 5 years

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my boss shakes men’s hands but fist-bumps women, streaming movies at work, and more

It’s five answers to five questions. Here we go…

1. My boss shakes hands with men, but fist-bumps with women

My manager does this thing that annoys me but I don’t know if I should address it or just let it go. Whenever he says goodbye to my male colleagues, he shakes their hand. Whenever he says goodbye to me (or any of my female colleagues), he opts for a fist bump. There are more men than women on our team so oftentimes there’s a whole bunch of handshakes and then I get an awkward fist bump. It’s frustrating because it makes me feel singled out and separate from the rest of the team. I’ve even tried sticking my hand out and forcing a handshake, but the next time I see him we’re back to the fist bump. (He did shake it when I essentially forced him to, but he looked a bit uncomfortable and there was definite awkward laughter.)

I have a decent relationship with him, but he doesn’t seem very aware of how women are treated differently in our very male-dominated workplace. I think I could address it with him, but it will be awkward and I don’t know if it’s worth the effort. Should I just let this go? Any advice?

Yes, address it. This is a workplace, and he shouldn’t be treating men and women differently, even with something like handshakes vs. fist bumps.

I’d simply raise it with him in private and say, “I’ve noticed you frequently shake the hands of the men here, but seem to avoid doing it with women. Any reason?”

There are some people who doesn’t shake hands with the opposite sex for religious reasons. If that’s the situation, it would have been better for him to explain that up-front rather than leaving you to wonder why he was treating you differently, but it’s also possible he thought he could avoid calling attention to it that way and thus lessen people’s discomfort, not realizing that the mystery was actually adding to it. (And really, if that’s the situation, he might be better off stopping the frequent hand-shaking altogether.)

But if that’s not the case, and it’s just some weird issue of his about Shaking the Delicate Hands of Ladies, then you can say, “When I’m at work, I’d like to be treated like everyone else and not seen as a woman first and a colleague second. So going forward, if hand-shaking is happening, can I ask that you not distinguish by gender?”

2. Streaming Netflix at work

I have a relatively low stakes sort of question I’d love to get your take on. What’s your position on streaming (Netflix, YouTube, and the like) at work? I work in an editorial position for a digital media company. More or less, I spend eight hours in front of my computer, editing articles, emailing writers, and dealing with our freelancer budget. Sometimes I’ll stream clips from Last Week Tonight or other late-night interview shows on my phone. I never use the company wifi (I’ve been blessed with a large unlimited data plan) and the content is safe for work. I walked past a coworker’s desk a few times the other day, and she was also watching a show on her phone. In my mind, I equate this to listening to music or a podcast, but I can see how some higher-ups might not love the idea of people catching up on TV while working.

I know everyone hates the word “optics,” but … this is a situation where optics matter. The reality is, if someone can see that you have a TV show playing while you work, to a lot of people it’s going to read as “not fully engaged in her work” — especially to people who don’t interact with you much or realize that the nature of your work lets you do this without impact. And the opinions of some of those people will matter, if they’re higher up than you and have influence over you directly or indirectly.

This is silly, because most people wouldn’t have the same reaction if you were listening to a podcast via headphones. (Actually, some people even feel uneasy about that — just not nearly as many of them.) But it’s a real reaction people have, and you need to factor it in.

When something is just about how something looks and doesn’t have any real work impact, there’s a temptation to say, “Well, screw it. People shouldn’t think that, and therefore I’m not going to cater to that.” And sometimes that makes sense. But when it’s about something like your ability to watch TV while you work — i.e., not hugely important or something with high stakes — sometimes you’re better off accepting the optics won’t be good and choosing a different option.

If lots of people in your office do it, then it’s fine in your culture. But if hardly anyone does, I’d stick with audio content instead.

3. My colleague is taking months off while his parent is ill, and I need him at work

I began a new job in February and am one of two people working full-time to start up a large, international project. My counterpart, Fergus, has been at the company for over 10 years, and is a wealth of knowledge at this critical time in the project inception.

My first two weeks, Fergus was on vacation, and on his last day of vacation he contacted our manager to say that his mother was very ill and he would be taking additional time off. Fergus’ mother is dying — it could be a matter of weeks or it could be many months. Fergus understandably wants to spend as much time with her as possible. Fergus is 50, so I assume his mother is in her 70s or 80s.

During my two months on the job, Fergus has been in the office three days, and is scheduled to be in the office for a couple of days in early April. Beyond that, it seems we’re operating on a “wait and see” basis when he will come back to work. I’m coordinating an international workshop to kick off our project in May (normally it would be both of us coordinating this workshop, with him taking the lead), but he has said that is his participation at the workshop is not guaranteed. We might not know until the very last minute whether he will be leading sessions, etc.

I’ve talked with my manager about having her take on some of Fergus’ tasks, which she has been willing to do and I’m very grateful. But I’m curious as to what the norm is in this type of situation. At what point do I insist on getting additional support to cover Fergus’ work? I’m trying to balance my compassion for Fergus (knowing that I, too, would ideally want to spend as much time as possible with my parent) with my own feelings of being swamped every day at work and not knowing when support may come. I feel like I can’t mention my work frustrations without coming across as an insensitive jerk. My company has a *very* generous leave policy, so this could conceivably go on for months. And if/when his mother does pass away, I expect Fergus will take bereavement leave as well. I just had my first performance review for my probation period, and I’m meeting expectations — but I had been hoping to excel in my new role, instead of just scraping by, overwhelmed. Any advice?

Talk to your boss. Your message here isn’t about Fergus at all; it’s not “he needs to come back” or “he’s shirking his work.” It’s “I’m still fairly new, and I’m overwhelmed covering this work while trying to excel at my own — what other resources can we bring in?”

It’s great that your company has such a generous leave policy. But the implementation of it can’t be “you take off all the time you want while your coworkers are under major strain.” Your company and your manager have an obligation to step in and help you figure out how to make things work while Fergus is out, which might mean hiring temp help, bringing in help from another part of the organization, pushing some work back or eliminating it altogether, or even just making it clear to you that your team is going to get by as best as it can right now but no one is expected to excel under this kind of strain. It sounds like the latter would be frustrating to you — you want to excel! — but it just might not be realistic right now. Or rather, you and your manager might both need to redefine what excelling looks like right now.

But lay out for your manager what you’re worried about and what you need. You can do that without saying “I’m frustrated Fergus is taking so much time off.” You can say something more like, “I had been counting on Fergus’s wealth of institutional knowledge around X and Y. With him gone and me still being new, I’m really concerned about projects like A and B. Can we talk about what other support I can pull in while he’s gone, since he was going to be taking the lead on those? Is it possible to bring in additional help?”

And you can also ask about redefining your goals for this period, saying something like, “Can we talk about what I should be aiming for in my own work over the next few months? I want to make sure we’re aligned on what I should be accomplishing, and what might not be realistic while we’re down our most senior person.”

4. My staff member assumes she’s invited to meetings when she isn’t

I supervise someone fabulous and wonderful, and I very much support her professional development. I go to great lengths to bring her into as many conversations and decision-making moments as possible. But sometimes it is not appropriate for her to be in certain meetings, especially ones organized or requested by external partners. Two recent examples have been with important funders (we are a nonprofit) who requested a meeting with me and weren’t responsive when I asked if they wanted her there, too. When I tell my staff member about the upcoming meeting as an FYI, she responds in a way that reads as though she assumes she is also invited.

I’m looking for an easy script to use when she assumes she is invited to these, and for some reason i am struggling with it.

Be straightforward and matter-of-fact! If you treat it as something delicate that you need to break to her gently, it’s more likely to be weird.

Ideally, you’d be as clear as you can when you first mention the meeting — saying “I am going to meet with X” rather than “we (meaning “our team”) are going to meet with X” and so forth. But if she responds in a way that sounds like she thinks she’s attending too, you can say something like, “This one will just be me and X, but I’ll update you when I get back about how it went.” Or, “Because we’re going to be mainly talking about Z, I’m going to go to this one on my own.”

If you notice she’s regularly bristling at that or seeming put out by it, you can address that head-on by explaining whatever context will help her understand — like that it’s normal for external partners to want to talk directly with a senior counterpart, but that you’ll bring her on later for X and Y elements (if that’s the case; you don’t have to find a way to make that be true if it otherwise wouldn’t be), or that you’re keeping a certain meeting small because the partner prefers that/it’s more efficient for this topic/you need her focused on Z right now/etc. Or you might frame it as a general “let’s talk through the times when I’ll ask you to attend and times when I may not, so that we’re both on the same page and you’re not wondering each individual time.”

5. Can I ask why I didn’t get an interview?

A couple months ago, I applied for a job that I thought I would be a very strong candidate for. I received an automated response saying that theh has received my application, but I didn’t receive an interview, nor am I expecting one anymore. But I feel thrown off! I didn’t think I was a shoe-in exactly, but I felt like I was much more qualified than many other candidates would be, and qualified for a first round interview at least.

How annoying would it be if I wrote to the hiring manager and gently requested information about why I wasn’t selected for an interview? If I made a grievous spelling error in my cover letter, or if she perceived that I was lacking experience in some field that I didn’t anticipate — no matter what the reason, it would be really useful for me to know why I wasn’t considered to be in the running.

You can try and it’s not terribly annoying to do that, but it’s rare to get a substantive response when you weren’t ever interviewed. (Even if you were interviewed, you won’t always get useful feedback, but you have a higher chance of it after they’ve actually spoken with you.)

But the thing is, it doesn’t really work the way you’ve laid it out here. For most jobs, you don’t automatically get an interview just because you are highly qualified. You get an interview if you’re one of the most qualified candidates. And if there are 30 highly qualified candidates, probably only four or five of them are getting interviews. If those four or five people were just stronger matches for some reason, then you’re getting rejected — and that doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with you as a candidate, just that others were better.

So it’s very likely that any feedback you get will be some version of “we went with candidates who were a better match.” That doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t try asking anyone, because occasionally there’s something else to be learned. But if you’re really just asking because you’re surprised a seemingly qualified candidate didn’t get interviewed … well, this is almost always the answer.