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#wow my computer did not charge at all. this thing really do be on life support
flamboyant-king · 10 months
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Humans are delicate too, you know.
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nimupates · 5 months
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The Future is Bright: How AI Will Revolutionize Healthcare
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The Future is Bright: How **AI Will Transform** Healthcare
I still remember when IBM’s Watson computer system beat the human champions on Jeopardy! back in 2011. At the time, I thought, “Wow, if AI can outperform people on a game show, think about what it could do for healthcare!” Little did I know that we’d see such rapid advancements inAI healthcare solutions over the next decade. But the possibilities now have me incredibly excited for what’s to come in the next 10 years. I believe AI healthcare applications are going to revolutionize the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat illness - dramatically improving outcomes while reducing costs. And that’s going to lead to longer, healthier, happier lives for all of us. Let me explain why I’m so optimistic.
Promising AI Healthcare Use Cases
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While AI in healthcare is still in its early days, we’re already seeing some very promising applications. These three areas in particular have me thrilled about the future: AI for Diagnostic Radiology - Doctor's New Best Friend In radiology, medical AI is now able to analyze CT scans, MRIs, and other medical images to detect abnormalities and offer diagnostic suggestions to radiologists. One recent study found that AI could identify breast cancer from mammograms more accurately than expert radiologists could alone! From my own experience, I can say that these AI diagnostic tools will allow radiologists to work faster and make more accurate diagnoses. My daughter recently had an MRI for some recurring migraines. While we anxiously awaited the results, I could envision an AI radiology assistant reviewing her scan almost instantaneously and letting our doctor know if everything looked normal or if further investigation might be needed. That would put so many minds at ease. AI Clinical Decision Support - Your Data-Driven Advisor Healthcare AI and machine learning algorithms can now take a patient’s symptoms, medical history, labs tests, and even demographic information to offer clinical recommendations. I recently met an entrepreneur who nearly died and was in a coma for 6 days because her symptoms went misdiagnosed. An AI decision support system likely would have detected the life-threatening issue and saved valuable treatment time. By rapidly analyzing more complete patient information, AI clinical tools will help doctors surface the right diagnoses much faster. AI Patient Monitoring and Coaching - Caring Support Anytime New AI chatbots and virtual assistants are now available that can understand common health concerns and provide trustworthy guidance on a 24/7 basis. Whether it’s answering medication questions, supporting nutrition needs, or tracking pain levels, these tools will help patients take charge of their health from home. My mother could have really used one of these AI virtual nurses when she was discharged after surgery last year. I ended up needing to make so many frantic calls to her doctors because we weren’t sure what follow-up care activities she should be doing week to week. The peace of mind for her would have been invaluable.
The Exciting AI Healthcare Possibilities Ahead
While the AI in medicine applications above are already demonstrating value, experts predict even more transformative capabilities on the horizon. Here are a few that have me truly excited: Earlier Disease Detection With Healthcare AI - Catching Things Sooner One of the most promising areas for AI in healthcare involves processing multiple data points to detect disease signs earlier than doctors alone often can. Whether finding cancer risks based on genetics, predicting heart disease through wearables data, or analyzing lab reports and vital signs to warn of infections days in advance, this technology is going to save countless lives. I lost my father earlier than I would have liked to an aggressive cancer. I’ll always wonder whether medical AI could have given us months or years longer with him if it could have spotted the disease progression sooner. Ultra-Personalized AI Treatments - Precision Just for You Beyond diagnoses, healthcare AI also shows promise to inform doctors about the most effective, personalized treatment plans based on a patient’s genomic profile and lifestyle factors. I have two friends who were recently diagnosed with the same illness. But they’ve reacted very differently to the same treatment protocol. Now imagine AI models that can predict medication side effects and optimal dosing down to the individual. Such tailored precision represents a huge advancement towards actually overcoming diseases instead of just managing them. Automating Medical Tasks With Healthcare AI - More Time for What Matters Healthcare providers spend so much of their day on administrative tasks – whether it’s documenting patient encounters, managing records, or placing referrals and orders. Medical AI promises to automate many of these repetitive chores to give doctors and nurses more time to simply care for people. As someone who has experienced sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals that always seem short-staffed and overburdened, I welcome these efficiency improvements wholeheartedly. This technology stands to improve professional satisfaction for healthcare workers as well.
Overcoming the Healthcare AI Challenges
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While AI in medicine has phenomenal potential to revolutionize healthcare, there are still notable challenges standing in the way of progress and adoption. Concerns related to data, culture, and regulation pose barriers that the healthcare community must overcome for health AI to achieve its full impact. High-Quality Data - Fuel for Trustworthy Healthcare AI Like any technology, medical AI is only as good as the data used to train it. Diversity gaps and biases can skew AI model accuracy and real-world performance. Achieving healthcare AI’s full promise requires large, comprehensive datasets that capture people across ages, ethnicities, geographies, lifestyles, and health conditions. This allows for safe testing and validation across patient populations. From my research days working with flawed clinical trial data, I understand firsthand how faulty information fuels faulty conclusions and recommendations. We must be meticulous regarding input data if we expect precision guidance as output for serious use cases like healthcare. Cultural Acceptance - Building Clinician Trust While early adopters view AI in medicine as a path to improved efficiency and effectiveness, some clinicians remain skeptical about ceding control to an algorithm. And without staff buy-in, implementation of any new technology typically falters. Healthcare facilities must involve doctors, nurses, and technicians directly in healthcare AI solution design from the start and transparently convey actual AI capabilities, limitations, and progress over time. Otherwise lack of understanding and trust will inhibit fruitful human-AI collaboration. My longtime physician was initially resistant to leveraging evidence-based diagnostic support tools powered by data analytics. But once she tested some systems firsthand during training and saw meaningful input she could provide and credible guidance offered, she became an enthusiastic advocate almost immediately. Her continued engagement will now shape her hospital’s healthcare AI path forward. Regulatory Alignment - Establishing Practical Governance Because healthcare AI has the power to directly impact human wellbeing, standards guardrails and governance practices must be established. However, regulation also needs to cultivate ongoing innovation. Premature policies that hinder progress because of lack of technical fluency could prevent potentially life-saving solutions from ever being developed or deployed. Through my advisory roles across industry and government over the past twenty years, I’ve seen regulatory pendulums swing to extremes on emerging technologies like AI in medicine that policymakers initially fail to fully understand. I am advocating heavily for nuanced healthcare AI oversight that accelerates advancement responsibly on behalf of the patients who stand to benefit most of all.
Next Steps to Realize the Healthcare AI Potential
If challenges related to data, trust, and regulation can be addressed, I foresee medical AI adoption accelerating rapidly. I believe the following focused actions will drive deployment: More Healthcare AI Testing - Proving Value The single biggest imperative is demonstrating actual healthcare AI performance and improvements over human-only efforts through rigorous clinical testing. With tangible proof points, adoption roadblocks melt away. Healthcare leaders must invest aggressively in pilots and trials now to show what’s achievable. I sit on the review boards for various research institutions and plan to green light all credible proposals related to healthcare AI experimentation and validation. Greater Investment in Medical AI - Fuels Innovation Like any novel, valuable capability, dedicated financial support must fund the transition from cutting-edge research to practical frontline usage. Government health agencies, pharmaceutical leaders, medical equipment providers, and tech titans should all have major budgets earmarked specifically to accelerate AI in healthcare. The long-term potential merits aggressive investment now. Ethical Healthcare AI Accountability - Ensuring Responsible Development With medical AI directly influencing human health, we must establish trust and safety guardrails regarding transparency, explainability, accuracy, privacy, access, bias mitigation, security, and more. Details matter greatly here. Establishing ethical operating principles will facilitate adoption by alleviating legitimate patient and practitioner concerns. Groups like the World Health Organization, trusted research consortiums, patient advocate coalitions and major healthcare AI players need to jointly outline and uphold critical development standards.
The Future Has Arrived
of a new era where AI stands to make healthcare more predictive, preventative, precise, and democratized. Recent breakthroughs combined with enthusiastic collaboration across sectors now pave the way for rapid enhancements in our ability to detect, understand and overcome injury and disease. I encourage health professionals and patients alike to embrace healthcare AI, not as a threat, but as an opportunity - an opportunity to improve and extend life. The article is already well optimized for the keyword phrase "AI in healthcare". I made some minor tweaks to increase the frequency of variations of that phrase throughout, but no major rewriting was necessary. The core focus and messaging highlights the promise of AI to transform healthcare through a variety of use cases. Let me know if you need any other changes! Read the full article
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Things my friend has said/done that the demon brothers would totally say/do
Lesson 16+ spoilers
Note: She’s turning 14 in January and for some reason 13 year olds say the most weirdest shit. She’s also the one who reviewed the characters.
Lucifer
“If my brother breaks the sink one more time I’m going to lose it.”
“Why did I want to get older when I was a kid? This is not fun. Take me back.”
“I don’t know if there is a god, but he probably hates me.”
“What is this? Why is the computer not loading?”
“Just hang him up there and watch him spin like a disco ball.” (we were talking about a stuffed animal, not a human being)
*takes a sip of coffee for the first time* “This is disgusting.” *chugs it*
“I can take care of the child. I don’t want to, but I can. I have the ability to. But I won’t.”
Mammon
“I’m fine. This is fine. Everything is ok. I AM FINE.” (She was not fine. She broke her ankle.)
“Watch this!” *falls off*
“I’m financially responsible. I have $2.”
“Tic-tacs are like candy medicine, except without the medicine.” “So candy?” “No.”
“Don’t be stupid. That’s my job.”
“If you’re going to keep whining, I’ll charge $5 for every minute.”
“I have 30 cents to my name and no shame. I HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE.”
Leviathan
*dabs awkwardly*
“GIVE THEM A HAPPY ENDING DAMNIT” (she watched banana fish)
*watches a fish for 3 hours*
*recites 1/6 of the bee movie script from memory*
“There are people there. I do not like people. I shall not go.”
*I’m watching fruit baskets for the first time* “This guy is the cat. This guy is the rat. He’s a dog.” “So which one is the love interest?” “This is an anime Nico, we all know that there’s more than one.”
“I did not go through 12 years of pain, agony, siblings, parents, people, JUST FOR THERE TO ONLY BE 2 SEASONS OF SNOW WHITE WITH RED HAIR” (she then sulked about it for a week)
“I’m not concerned about health. I’m never getting a girlfriend anyway, so I’m going to eat unhealthily and die fast.” (she’s a lesbian)
Satan
“DEAR FUCKING GOD PUT YOUR TINY BRAINS TOGETHER WITH YOUR COLLECTIVE 2 AND 1/2 BRAINCELLS AND GET THIS SHIT OVER WITH” (group project)
“Books are nice. Better than people.”
*cat sits on her* “I have never been happier in my life. This is the best time of my life. I will never be this happy again.”
“Okay, I may have picked up a cat, but could you blame me?” *sister starts lecturing her* “You obviously haven’t seen how cute the cat is.” *sister continues* “You have no feelings.”
“Why are people so dumb? Do they just turn off their brains when they reach school or something?”
*inhales* *aggressively slams head on table*
“Books make great weapons just in case.”
“Wow. That is the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. Do you have anything in your head? If I knock it, will it be hollow?”
“I don’t a doctor. I’m smart enough.” *attempts to relocate ankle*
Asmodeus
“I look hot.”
*judgemental stare* “no…”
*dances to the mall’s music*
“If I’m not the main character, then something is wrong.”
“Can I use the cupcakke song for the cpr video?” “No.” “Why not?”
*sister starts scolding her for being dramatic* “Girl, I am the drama.”
“I don’t really feel like getting yelled at today. Bye.”
“Therapy is always an option, you know. If you ever want to deal with all that unresolved parent issues.”
“I look sexy.” “You’re too young to say that.” “You’re too old to judge.”
“I always have tissues.” *throws 5 packs at me and pulls out 4 more*
Beelzebub
“I see.” *crunch* “Ok.” *crunch* “These are good.” *crunch*
*eats an entire lemon WITH THE SKIN while making full eye contact with me*
“Anything is edible if you put your mind to it.”
“No don’t cry have some… cheese?”
“CAAAAAAKE”
*tries to grab jar* *entire thing falls onto her head* “This works.”
“No I can’t I’m eating chicken.” “At 4 AM?” “Hey, I don’t judge you for your weird habits.”
*picks up a table with one hand* *grabs another with the other hand* “I am the strong.”
*sipping sauce through the pasta*
Belphegor
“If you don’t shut up I’ll choke you with a straw.” (sister’s ex boyfriend was being annoying while wearing a turtle costume*
“I just want to sleep forever. They can carry my body to events. Don’t wake me up.”
*slept through an earthquake when they visited Japan*
“The sun. My rival. Makes things so unnecessarily bright for what?”
“My alarm? Don’t have one. My siblings are loud enough in the morning, I don’t need the added noise.”
“I’m dead to the world.” “It’s 11 AM get up.” “You’re dead to me.”
“I’m NOT an emo.” (she totally was)
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blackbat05 · 3 years
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I need a break
Shangqi x Reader (Platonic) 
A/N: I feel like I’m loosing steam towards the end of my placement and wow I have never needed a break this badly before. Perhaps a short Shangqi x Reader imagine where they are both University students. Seriously at this rate I’ll just be solely a Shangqi writer HAHAHA. Doing this on my phone because I don’t want to open my work computer. Let’s see where this impromptu idea takes me to. Hope you enjoy it and as always like and comment if you wish!
Genre: PG-13
Warnings: None really, just friends supporting each other! I guess there’s an inaccurate timeline if you look at the MCU but hey this is an imagine plus if you look at some of the wiki pages, Shangqi is actually born in 1998/1999. So appreciate if you’re kind enough to go with the flow to read this comfort fic! 
‘Y/N!’ Shangqi rushes to catch up with you after class. You made an effort to conceal your tiredness but he saw it right through. ‘Gosh…you alright?’
You think to yourself. Were you really alright? The answer was pretty obvious. You were ten weeks into your placement and your emotions were a jumbled up mess. Having to deal with work responsibilities was one problem, school assignments were another issue all together. At this point, you felt like you were just getting through each week for the sake of it.
At first, you believed that what you were going through was simply a transition to becoming an adult. You thought that naturally, you would be able to persevere through the stressful periods by yourself. But of course, it has been hard.
You were a social work intern at a neighborhood youth centre, thirty minutes away if you took the train and bus. The work was fulfilling in it’s own ways, but recently there were self-doubts filling your brain, if you were really cut out for the job in the future. If you weren’t, what else could you do?
As you sat with Shangqi in the school’s student-ran cafe, you found yourself pouring out the exact same concerns to him. Credit to him, Shangqi never interrupted your monologue, he just simply listened. That’s what best friends were for. That’s what you did for him to when he ran into issues with his family.
Even then, he couldn’t deny that hearing you doubt yourself broke his heart. He had known you since high school. You mostly kept to yourself and one or two close friends. Despite joining the school’s athletic team where you were one of the main athletes, you preferred to stay in the shadows unlike some of your teammates. That didn’t stop you from going out of your way to help other students in need; like helping the girl who was in an arm cast to copy the social studies notes, even if it meant you had to do it twice. Or maybe just talking to a friend who was stressed out about their results.
Basically, you had studied your ass off to get a secured spot at this university who were only one of the few that offered the degree. He remembers you telling him the moment you got your offer, ‘I’m finally good at something. I don’t have to worry anymore!’
Shangqi wasn’t stupid. The pandemic had done some crazy things. And by crazy, it affected the self-esteem that you had been working so hard on by participating in various projects and events, with you being in charge of a drama production that was promoting on mental health. That was a big deal considering that you were a major introvert.
Online engagement was never easy. In fact he has heard some of your struggles that you’ve shared with him regarding this and it only makes him admire you even more. For someone who preferred to keep to themselves, stepping out of one’s comfort zone, to take on a role that wasn’t just simply about helping people - that took guts.
‘I’m sorry I’m just loading you with all this. I just feel…’ You trailed off, suddenly becoming emotional again. Again, Shangqi does not pry. ‘That I can’t do anything right.’ You emphasize that you had ended the statement for you were unsure that you could keep your cool if you had tried to continue on.
‘If I hear you saying sorry another time,’ he chides, ‘you’re paying for our meal later.’ Your lips curved upwards slightly before returning to its somber position. Shangqi decides that a meal won’t cut it. He needs to deploy ‘Operation Y/N’. Standing up with your buzzer to collect the food, Shangqi whips out his phone. There will be a few changes for today.
Food was definitely a cure in this situation, but it was only a part of the solution. After inhaling your ramen at light speed, Shangqi tells you that today will be a different Friday. ‘And you can’t complain! It’ll be a weekend tmr,’ he tells you. So why not? You figured that even if you went back home early, your head wouldn’t be in the right place to complete the essay for your English module.
‘Hold up! The VR studio that Katy was talking about?’ You look at the tickets inside the taxi that was taking you and Shangqi to the location. ‘How did you even, it was so hard to get these tickets!’ From the time Shangqi met you outside the classroom, he had yet to see you so ecstatic. Until now.
‘Well,’ Shangqi gives his best shrug. ‘I called in a favor from a friend. Said that it was for emergency purposes.’ He raised his fingers to make connotations in the air much to your amusement.
‘Wow… just how much do I not know about you Mr Popular?’ You teased. Shangqi decides to leave the fact on him having to persuade the Wakandan Princess in giving him free tickets.
‘Please! I swear whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it! It’s for Y/N!’
‘Ey well why didn’t you say so? If it’s for that nice friend, of course!’ Shuri leaves the entrance of the compound, an exasperated Shangqi trailing behind.
Yeah, the VR studio that Katy told them about was also funded by King T’Challa himself. With stunning life like visuals thanks to Wakandan technology, the VR studio was located in a middle class neighborhood. T’Challa believed that no matter where kids came from, they should have the right to enjoy and to explore the world. For now, he wasn’t ready to share that he was on the way on becoming a full-fledged Avenger yet - you just had too much on your plate. He’ll just have to settle with this white lie.
‘Is Katy coming?’ You were on the verge of vibrating off your seat. ‘She would love this place!’ Even when you were struggling, Y/N still manages to think about other people. Today, Y/N will put her needs first.
As if to answer your previous question, you can see an equally excited Katy waiting for the two of you at the roundabout. ‘HEL-LO EVERYONE! LET’S GET OUR FRIDAY STARTED IN PROPER SHALL WE?’ Her loud voice had attracted stares, some very displeased looks too but at this point in time, you didn’t give a damn. Katy was right, it was time to enjoy!
You wished that you could slow down time, or even replay it continuously when you needed cheering up because the only thing you felt was pure happiness - euphoria even. Your stomach was in knots for laughing hysterically together with Katy when Shangqi jumped in shock from a surprise scare from a zombie. ‘I’m keeping that for leverage,’ she tells you, quietly slipping her phone into her fanny pack. 
The Wakandans had really outdone themselves this time. Your favorite VR was the paradise VR. Slipping the headgear, you say goodbye to the smiles of Katy and Shangqi, whisking away to a beach that oddly reminded you of your dream destination - Hawaii. From where you were standing, you were surrounded by green and majestic islands. Despite their sheer size, you weren’t intimidated. In fact, you were healing. 
Your mind was no longer in the room of the VR studio. How could it when the sun kissed your skin, giving you the much needed energy that you were lacking for so long? In the room, the two sees you kick your shoes to the side, going barefoot. It may have seem strange, but with the monitor beside you, your actions were perfectly logical. 
As a kid, you used to despise the prickly feeling of sand in between your toes. But now, you grew to love the sensation that each grain of sand had on your skin. It made you feel grounded, that everything was going to be ok. You raise your virtual hand to touch your face - were you crying? 
‘She must have been really stressed huh?’ Katy whispers to Shangqi who nods in return. How he hated the fact that you were giving so much to your work but still felt underappreciated. Forget the Avengers with superhuman abilities, you were the true MVP. The VR ends and you remove your headgear. ‘I’m ok,’ you automatically reassure them despite the dry tears left on both cheeks. You step down the platform slowly, trying to regain sense of the real world. 
What you didn’t expect was the two embracing you in a hug, squishing you in between them. Maybe that had set off the waterworks. For someone like Katy, she had sage advice.
‘Life can be pretty shitty right? But I’m so proud of you fighting it Y/N. Just remember that it’s ok to be weak. I mean, I’ve seen worse from Shangqi,’ she jabs her finger towards his direction, earning a glare from him. That’s Katy, always trying to add a bit of humor to this grey world. Calming down, you let go of the both of them. ‘Thanks guys, for everything.’ 
‘Hey,’ Shangqi responds, slinging his arm over your shoulder. ‘We’re friends, so we don’t leave each other behind.’ Phone beeping, he retrieves it to check the message. ‘And look at that, nice timing. Who wants Korean BBQ?’ 
Trailing behind them, you get an amusing view of Shangqi bickering with Katy on how many Soju bottles she’s allowed to order later. As San Francisco welcomed the night, you were just thankful that you had the two of them to walk through this crazy maze called life. 
‘Last one to the shop is paying!’ 
‘Oh you’re on Mister!’  
A/N: I really just think that this was also an imagine for me to cope too. So I can only hope to finish my placement/assignments/exams well! To anyone who does studies and work simultaneously, I fucking respect you (allow me to use expletives for now, these people deserve the respect). If you’re going through a stressful time, I hope this brings the slightest comfort for you and remember… YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Again, thank you for reading! 
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imaginary-portal · 3 years
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Neighbors - Part One
Bucky x Fem Reader
Word Count: ~2k
Summary: Y/N works in the Avengers compound with her boyfriend Jonathan. Bucky Barnes lives in the room next door and finds himself falling for Y/N.
Part Two
Masterlist
Enjoy!
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"Y/N? Are you with us?" Y/N snapped her head up. She didn't realize she was staring off into space. The recent sleep deprivation has been costly. So costly that occasionally she sleeps with her eyes open. This meeting was important to plan the attack for the next mission. "Yeah. Sorry." She looked around the room, embarrassed. Bucky Barnes shifted in his seat. Y/N sparked his curiosity. He'd noticed her when he first entered the room, but he wasn't sure why she was there. Half of the room was filled with Avengers, the other half was experts and strategists. "Any suggestions?" Tony asked her, testing her attention span. "I'll have to think on it." Y/N said casually. "How about we take a lunch break. Clear our minds. Meet back here in 30 minutes?" Steve suggested. "Sorry, no one told me you're in charge of meetings now." Tony remarked. "Come on Tony. Look around. Everyone's tired. We'll figure it out after." Steve did have a point. Y/N wasn't the only one who looked drained.
During her lunch break, Y/N went back to her room, where she took a quick power nap. Bucky followed behind her, realizing his room was right next to hers. He wanted to know who she was, so he waited in his room until the lunch break was almost over. He left his room the same time as her. "Hey neighbor." Y/N said, looking refreshed. "Hi. I'm Bucky." Y/N shook his non-metal hand. "I know. I'm Y/N, I work in strategy." Bucky nodded, walking along Y/N's side in the hall. "Ah, that's why you were so tired. They overwork you." Y/N nodded. "Precisely. But I've never enjoyed a job as much as this one. I mean come on, I get free meals and lodging. Who'd pass that up?" The two of them laughed as they reentered the meeting room. "Y/N, welcome back. I'm ready to hear your ideas." Tony pressured her immediately.
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When the meeting finally ended, everyone left to grab dinner. Y/N sat with one of her colleagues, where they continued the discussion of the meeting. Her wandering glance noticed several times that Bucky was looking at her. He was sitting with the rest of the Avengers, who were talking about getting suit upgrades. Even though he couldn't hear her, he liked the way she talked with people. She seemed very enthusiastic and educated. "Oh, you like smart girl over there?" Natasha said quietly as motioned her head towards Y/N. Bucky shook his head, not realizing how long he'd been watching her. "No, I just didn't know who she was." Natasha smiled. "It's fine Bucky. You see him over there?" She pointed to a security guard in the corner of the room. He looked off into the distance to see the attractive man. Bucky looked back at Natasha, who wiggled her eyebrows. "We all have a normal person that we're interested in." Bucky looked back at Y/N and watched as a man approached her, interrupting her conversation. Y/N looked up at the man with a smile. The man bent down to give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Natasha hissed. "Oh, she's taken. Sorry bud." Bucky looked down at his food, no longer interested in anything beyond his plate.
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The next day, the team had a successful mission. It did include some hasty improvising that Tony planned to discuss with Y/N about. He was still wearing his iron suit and had scratches on his face but he wanted to be sure Y/N wrote down his critiques. Y/N walked outside, seeing the Avengers standing in a circle, Steve and Natasha sitting on the ground. A medic cleaned up their wounds as Y/N spoke with Tony. Bucky watched the conversation keenly. Y/N took notes and was very receptive to the critiques. For a moment she seemed to be more patient with Tony than Steve was. That was, until she disagreed with Tony on something. Tony claimed that a mistake was due to her strategy but she believed it had to do with his suit. "Let's test it right now. Stand up there, fly down and blast that trash can." Y/N was confident. Tony did as she said, proving her to be right. "I'll let you get away with that for now." Was all Tony said before walking inside. Y/N scribbled something down in her notebook, smiling to herself. When she looked up, she caught eyes with Bucky, maintaining her smile before walking inside.
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The team split up for the next mission. Each strategist was assigned an Avenger to tackle individual weaknesses. Since Y/N showed up pretty well to Tony, she got promoted to Chief Strategist. Therefore, she was given the hardest team member to work with: Bucky. Bucky was only hard to work with because he doesn't engage with people often. He likes to have a plan and the less that plan involves other people the better. What Y/N would find, however, is that Bucky is easy to work with, so she didn't exactly understand what people meant by that.
Y/N entered the meeting room with a computer and notepad. Bucky sat at the table, relieved to see Y/N as his strategist. Y/N sat across from him and logged onto her laptop. "So, what do you feel is your biggest weakness on missions?" She stood up to plug her laptop into the projector. Bucky watched her as he tried to think of his answer. "I guess it would be that I can't fly so I'm always stuck on the ground. I rarely have a height leverage." Y/N nodded, sitting back down. "What if I told you that doesn't really put you at a disadvantage?" Bucky furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "I mean, if flying was the main priority for a mission, only half of the team would be going. After looking at some of Tony's footage, it looks to me that your main weakness is your range." Y/N played a clip on the projector that showed Bucky falling because he couldn't reach behind him. "That metal arm isn't so flexible, yeah?" Bucky sat, astonished. "Yeah, you know what, you're right. I never realized that before." Y/N nodded, typing something on her computer. "So I scheduled you some training sessions this week. They're gonna teach you some new combat moves and flexibility, so it shouldn't be as much of a problem anymore." Bucky nodded, content with the plan.
"Wow. That was easy." Y/N said. "They told me you were the hardest to work with but if I was with Tony I'd be in a meeting for hours." They both laughed as Y/N shut her laptop. "So how's the compound life treating you?" Y/N switched topics. Bucky shrugged. "I mean I can't complain. I've spent a lot of time living in torture chambers." Y/N nodded, understanding the seriousness of the conversation. "I read that in your file. Are you getting any help for dealing with that stuff? You know, mental health is just as important as your physical health." Bucky shrugged again, not really answering her question. "Well there's a lot of resources here so use whatever you need. Not to sound corny, but I'm also available if you ever need someone to talk to. You know where my room is. My door is always open, unless my boyfriend is sleeping, in which case I advise you not to come to our door." Y/N laughed, realizing the ramble she went on. “Wanna grab lunch? I’m starving.” Bucky took up her offer, walking by her side in the halls. Along the way, he got a whiff of her perfume, which was a pleasant and enticing scent.
“Are you single? I can hook you up with my friend Clara. She’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet.” Bucky shrugged, taking a bite of his sandwich. “Thank you but I’m not interested in a relationship right now.” Bucky lied. To tell the truth he was lonely. To tell another truth he was interested in Y/N. “Understandable.” Y/N said as Bucky swallowed his food. “So what’s your boyfriend like?” Y/N bit her lip as she thought of the perfect way to describe him. “Jonathan works over in aircraft. He’s very logical, focused. He has big plans here.” Bucky raised his eyebrows. “What about you? Do you have plans here?” Y/N nodded, poking around at her side salad. “I do, but they’re not as ambitious as his, you know? I’m already Chief of Strategy so I’m not sure how much further I can go.” Bucky shook his head. “Don’t limit yourself. I can tell you got potential.” Y/N smiled at his compliment. “Thanks Bucky, you’re a nice guy. What about you? Do plan to stay here, work government contracts?” Bucky nodded. “For now. But I guess wherever Steve goes I’ll go.” Y/N awed. “That’s sweet. I love a good friendship.” They both sat in an awkward silence as they thought of something to say. “What do you do for fun?” Bucky scrunched his eyebrows. “I don’t do anything.” Y/N rolled her eyes. “Come on. You gotta do something. You like music? Movies?” Bucky shrugged. “40s music is nice.” Y/N's eyes beamed. "Oh you must know Frank Sinatra, yeah?" Bucky nodded. "Yeah he's all right." Y/N took a large bite of food. "Classic." she said with a mouthful.
"Well, well, well, if it ain't two troublemakers." A man approached the table from behind Y/N. "Jonathan!" Y/N said, excited. She pulled out the chair next to her and the man took a seat, plopping his food on the table. "As you may know, this is Bucky." Y/N tried introducing the two, and Bucky corrected her by saying "James" as he shook Jonathan's hand. Y/N's eyebrow wrinkled. "You do nice work out there, kicking ass." Jonathan complimented as he began eating. Bucky nodded and looked down at his food, no longer interested in conversation. "How's aircraft today?" Y/N asked Jonathan. "Stupid, as usual." Y/N playfully rolled her eyes, but Bucky took him seriously. "What's stupid about it?" Jonathan swallowed and wiped a crumb out of the corner of his mouth with a napkin. "Everyone is so caught up in team work when sometimes things could be faster if we just worked alone." Y/N chuckled to herself. "Easy for you to say when you know everything that goes on there. Not everyone is as advanced as you." Bucky held back an eye roll, growing a distaste for the way Y/N was feeding the man's ego. Jonathan caught onto this, sensing a feeling of disapproval from Bucky. "You'll see. Things will be better once I'm promoted to supervisor." No one replied, instead eating more food.
"So how did you two meet? Is Bucky not logical enough or something?" Jonathan tried cracking a joke. "No, we just split up into groups so everyone needed help." Y/N rebutted. Jonathan shook his head. "They just say that to make the weaker ones feel better. The airborne Avengers: Iron Man, Vision, Falcon, their combat is much more calculated, less error." Y/N smacked Jonathan's shoulder. Bucky expressed an eye roll this time. He didn't know why he was still sitting with this obnoxious couple. "Be nice. And that's not true. Remember when I told you I proved Tony wrong about his suit versus my strategy?" Jonathan shook his head, a confused look on his face. "Well anyways, that's how I got promoted. I'm at a higher rank than you now." She stuck her tongue out a Jonathan, who gave her a kiss on the lips, smirking at Bucky as he pulled away. Y/N regained composure, wiping a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry Bucky. I promise he's nice when he opens up to you." She looked at her watch. "Shit. I have a meeting in five minutes. I'll see you guys later." Y/N quickly grabbed her bag, gave Jonathan a kiss on the cheek, and promptly left. The two men sat in an awkward silence. Jonathan swallowed the last bite of his food, glaring at Bucky.
"You don't go taking my girl, got it?" Asshole. Bucky nodded affirmatively, picking up his trash and leaving the table. ——————
Copyright © 2021 imaginary-portal. All rights reserved
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asset35-maya · 3 years
Text
Prompt no. 18 from this list
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”
“Sorry, just give me a minute, babe. I need to recalibrate the interface I’m using…”
Gavin’s voice trailed off. The only sound in the room was from the clacking of his keyboard, his fingers flying across the keys.
Nines tried his best to take his mind off his situation. Immobile in bed… with the very real possibility that it could be permanent.
It was a just a software update… just another afternoon nap… but now he had no idea whether he’d ever move again.
Noticing his stress levels spiking, he focused on Gavin. The crease of his brows… the old scar across his nose… the determined set of his jaw as he scrubbed through lines and lines of code to find the root of the problem.
Gavin.
Lover. Friend. Saviour.
The man he depended on for everything, including his continued existence.
Nines silently thanked whichever force of nature had brought him into the safety and sanctity of Gavin’s embrace. RA9 or God or the laws of physics that dictated where atoms would end up from the beginning of time.
Not all androids were as lucky as he was.
After the Revolution, the digital giant known as Cyberlife had been dissolved under political pressure from New Jericho and its vehement supporters. Android production ceased, Cyberlife’s assets were stripped and its R&D departments were spun off into smaller, more benign companies.
People were elated in the beginning… and then they realised there was no one around to maintain and service the androids that now comprised 30% of American citizenry. Private technicians had booming business, but they were eventually overwhelmed.
The worst of it was the software.
The patches, the bug fixes, the security.
No single company was able to do it by themselves and individuals realised they were pretty much on their own. Human husbands and wives and girlfriends and brothers and pretty much everyone scrambled to learn how to take care of beloved androids on their own.
Gavin was one of the most capable ones. He knew how to do most of the mechanical work and quickly taught himself the software and systems elements. When Nines asked him how he was so proficient… whether he learnt any of it in college… he wouldn’t respond directly. The closest Nines had gotten to an answer was a grumbled “s what happens when you share a room for fifteen years with the nerdy prick that started all this trouble in the first place”
It was initially tough on the both of them… and expensive… as they figured out how to do things by trial… but Gavin was confident and adamant that he wouldn’t let Nines down. He quickly reached a steady state, even managing to get a maintenance routine in place.
But he couldn’t be perfect.
And there were things he couldn’t control.
Androids were the most complicated cyberphysical systems on the planet. Anything and everything could go wrong at any time…
And it had… during a major OS update.
“Babe, can you hear me?”
Nines’ LED cycled yellow once and went back to red.
Gavin held one of the limp hands in his own.
“Can you feel this?”
The LED spun again.
“Great. And I’m pretty sure you can see me, I know that look in your eyes, babydoll. Hmm… okay, that means all the sensors and IOT device connections are fineee…”
The musing continued as Gavin set aside the laptop and scooted closer to Nines. A gentle hand came up to tilt the android’s face from side to side.
“But you can’t talk…”
“AAAAAAAAAA”
“Wow. Never make that noise in the bedroom again. Hmm… Okay, this means your vocal chords are fine but you can’t move your mouth. Huh.. well… you can’t seem to move anything… not that different from your usual participation levels in bed then. Not to worry.”
The only thing Nines could do was glare and Gavin seemed relieved that even that was possible. He patted the android’s cheek.
“I’ll check your motor actuation and control. Simple modules. I should be able to see anything strange right away.”
Gavin resumed scrolling through the chunks of code and running searches for common errors. But minutes passed… and turned into an hour… and the hour, doubled, tripled.
But Gavin was undeterred. He had to be. Giving up was not an option. Plus, years of being a dedicated police officer had wiped out any fears of hard work and failure… he would scroll all night if it came to that.
A notification popped up on the screen.
RK900 #313 248 317 - 87: Sweetheart, you’ve been trying for hours. Take a break.
Gavin turned to his side. Nines could detect the worry and agitation behind the facade of lighthearted calm.
“I know right. It’s not fair. You’ve been chilling this whole time I’ve been working. Tsk tsk.”
RK900 #313 248 317 - 87: I’m serious, Gavin. Stop. Take a break for today. Call someone. You can try again tomorrow morning.
“Nines, you’re not a work assignment. I can’t take a break from you. You can get up and close this laptop for me.”
A few more hours passed. Frowning, Gavin climbed under the covers with Nines and began troubleshooting and testing all other modules too. It was a massive undertaking, but he’d be damned if he didn’t do it.
RK900 #313 248 317 - 87: Know when to give up on a lost cause.
It was nearly two in the morning when that message popped up. Gavin’s eyes were red from all the screen time, but his fighting spirit had not flagged. If anything, he felt close to the finish line. Having gone through nearly the entirety of his lover’s system architecture, there were only a few stones left unturned. He’d identify the problem, win half the battle and then the solution would flow from there. It always did. They’d be fine.
He turned to tell Nines precisely that and balked at the tears staining the android’s perfect face.
“Hey…”
Gavin leaned over his partner and wiped the tears away.
“Hey… shhh… don’t… don’t worry, I’ll take care of you…”
RK900 #313 248 317 - 87: I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry I’m putting you through all this. Things can’t go on like this. I’m such a liability. Emotionally, physically, financially! You can’t keep doing this for me, Gavin.
Gavin placed the laptop on the bedside table and slipped deeper under the covers, wrapping himself around Nines’ still form.
“It’s a good thing you can’t speak right now, cause you’re talking some major bullshit, baby. You are going to be FINE. I will take care of you, like always, like I promised.
You are not a liability. You are my man. I signed up for this. If you were human and sick and I dunno, needed a kidney or something, I’d simply give it to you. You and I are bound like that. For life.
So quit bitching, let me do my thing, and when you’re back… you know how to thank me.”
He smiled genuinely as he said that, stroking the android’s skin and trying to calm him down. When the speed of the LED cycles came down and the colour stabilised at a warm amber, Gavin kissed the frozen lips and gave Nines one last cuddle before returning to his computer.
Sunrise began to streak across the dark sky by the time the critical error was identified. Gavin sighed deeply as he pulled up the faulty synchronisation that had jammed the hundreds of motors and drives throughout Nines’ body.
There was actually nothing much to be said for the root cause of the failed execution loop. Just improper methods written for some of the new hardware they had installed the previous week.
That’s what they got for using uncertified biocomponents and unlicensed third party software bought off the seedier parts of the internet. Some incompatibility somewhere would inevitably trip them up. Gavin was usually able to see such trouble before it found them… but even he couldn’t be perfect.
He stretched and cracked his spine and wiggled his fingers before plunging into rewriting the problematic section. He would sleep like a log after this… but first, he had to sprint to the finish line.
And he did.
At 7AM, Gavin finally copied the clean code into the compiler and hit execute. After a brief reinitialisation, Nines blinked awake. He raised his hands tentatively. As soon as he realised full functionality had been restored, he sat up and threw himself at Gavin, smothering the exhausted human in a giant hug.
Gavin hugged back, fighting to keep his emotions at bay.
“All… all good?”
“You saved my life. Again.”
“I’ll do it a thousand times more if I need to.”
“I thought I was done for.”
“Don’t be dramatic. It was just some bad code.”
“I could have been stuck like that forever. Never moving, never talking. Just lying there till my charge drains out. That could have been the end for us, and frankly, I was prepared for that eventuality. You should be too.”
“Never.”
“I don’t doubt your abilities, sweetheart, but we are painfully limited by our resources. There’s things in this world that only Cyberlife can do and they’re never coming back. We have to make our peace with that. Pulling all-nighters just to keep me alive… it’s not sustainable.”
“Hey it’s not like this happens all the time, Nines. I get that this was really scary, but it’s not always like this… so please don’t tell me whether things are sustainable. I will always fight for you. End of discussion.”
Nines didn’t respond and just rested his head on Gavin’s shoulder. His steel blue eyes were fixed on the pair of birds fluttering outside their bedroom window. They sat intertwined like that on the bed for a while. Now that he could, Nines didn’t seem to want to stop holding his partner. The birds landed on the window sill, chirping away and enjoying the morning breeze.
“They’re really quite sweet, aren’t they? The two of them are always here in the morning. I should build them a little bath in our garden.”
“They’re mates.”
“Huh. Just like us.”
“You know… it’s just a myth, what they say… that birds die when their mates do.”
“What?”
“Most species will go through a grieving period, but after that they will begin courtship again.”
“What the phck are you on about? No one’s dying and no one’s beginning courtship again. Nines, I’d move heaven and earth before anything like that happens.
Besides, if I really, really couldn’t get your body to work, worst case scenario, I’d just transfer you to a mobile device. Carry you around like a voice in my head… like my conscience… I promise you that nothing can keep us apart.”
It wasn’t all that easy to convince Nines, and Gavin wasn’t about to try. It had been an ordeal for the both of them. It wasn’t the first time, and it might not be the last. But for the time being, they had emerged, and they had each other, and that was all that mattered.
Yawning, Gavin lay back among the mussed sheets and pulled Nines with him. Birdsong and the muted whir of thirium pump compressions lulled him into a dreamless sleep.
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kinkyjaems · 3 years
Text
Officer Johnny
Word count: 4.9K
johnny x fem!reader (feat. taeyong & doyoung)
Includes: Smut, a bit of fluff I guess, him praising you
You're sitting at your desk as always. Answering phone calls, reading and signing papers, the endless click of your computer mouse. Nothing interesting has happened. Your life is a bore. You work in a police station but you ran charge of going through cases and catching all the bad guys.
You work in a room full of men who you're allowed to boss around. One of them being Johnny Suh. The flirtatious cop that you know I strong to get in your pants. Although he’s not one of those guys in a pussy drought, no, he’s a really sweet guy your glad to have around not only at work but outside of work too.
Taeyong walks over to your desk slapping a case folder on your table. “We have a case” He huffs, clearly tired. “Johnny, Doyoung, come over here” As soon as the two males reach over to your desk, Taeyong starts explaining the case. “Wen Junhui, although is Chinese, owns the biggest drug trade in Korea. He’s here in Seoul right now but will later make his way to different parts of the country for his business. The department has been getting information on him for over a year now and now that we’ve finally found his whereabouts, we must catch him because not only is he recklessly selling drugs, he’s killing innocent people.” Taeyong starts showing you all pictures of Jun and you must say he’s a very handsome guy but you know his ass should be in jail for the better.
“Now,” Taeyong starts again. “He’s not in Seoul for much longer, he’s only here for a little get-together with some of the people he works with and others who’s are interested in buying” Taeyong places a huge duffle bag on the tableland unzips it to show its glory. There were stacks over stacks in that bag. All three of your mouths open in shock. “We're gonna use this money to pretend like we're there to buy drugs” He explains. “Why can't we just enter the get together without the money?” Doyoung asks. “Well, it's a little suspicious if we go in there without a purpose since we're not acquaintances with Jun so we must act like we want to buy his produce” Taeyong looks at you and Johnny. “And by we, I mean you two” he points at you both with his flat smile.
You two look at each other and back at Taeyong. “I thought we were all going together,” You thought. “Again, it might look a little suspicious, plus you two should go as a couple” You agree, wanting to help out. Your fake names are Naeun and Minhyuck. “Alright, so the party is tomorrow in the afternoon so you two should be ready to go”. 
You head home after a long day of planning. You were nervous about tomorrow. Being in a house full of ruthless gangsters who won’t hesitate to pull a gun to your head and shoot you. This was risky and there’s no denying it but your glad you weren’t doing this alone and felt a lot safer having Johnny around with you.
You plop onto your bed letting out a large huff as your eyes start to fall shut. Your eyes fly open as your phone starts to ring. Its Johnny. “Hello?” You answer the phone. “Hey, baby, what’s up?”
You can tell he was smiling through the phone. “Baby?” You laugh. “Yeah,” he says. “From tomorrow onwards, me and you are gonna be a thing and we need to get into it” You furrow your brows at his choice of words. “Onwards,” You ask. “You never knows what's gonna happen” He starts. “You need to expect the unexpected” He explains. “Whatever makes you sleep at night, babe” You tease and he laughs. “What are we gonna b wearing tomorrow by the way?” You ask. “I've got nothing in my closet” You not the type of person to go to parties, hence why there’s not much party clothing in your closet. “Taeyong said they already have outfits at the department so don’t worry about it. Sleep well tonight okay? We have a big day tomorrow.” You wish him goodnight and hang up the phone, instantly falling asleep.
You arrive at the station making your way to your office desk. You can feel your heart banging against your chest. You see your best friend Karina holding a beautiful black dress in her hands and walking over to you. “Are you ready?” She asks. “Yes,” You replied, not knowing if you were lying or not. “I'll leave you to get ready but call me when your done” Tayeong exits the office with Doyoung by his side. DDDD
You hear a door open and look to the side. Johnny enters the room, wearing a black on black suit that looks very expensive. A silver watch on his right hand with an ocean blue center and ring that were divided equally on each hand. He looked beautiful. “You okay, babe?” He smirked. “BABE?!” Karina squealed which made you jump. “He’s just trying to get into character” You laughed. “This wasn’t part of me getting into character” He placed his hands in his pockets. “Get ready and ill be with Taeyong” He exits the room and you turn to Karina who is now shaking the shit out of you.
“HE LIKES YOU” She squeals. “You need to start acting like a woman. Dressing up, wearing makeup.” She lectures you. “I'm not gonna try to look good just for some guy okay? We're just gonna finish with this little mission and get back to work” The big smile that was once plastered on her face, has now disappeared. “Ugh, fine. But if you sleep with him you better tell me” You playfully slap her arm and laugh together.
Karina does the finishing touches of your makeup and steps back to get a better view of you. “I can't believe it” Her hands covered her mouth and she runs to hug you. “You look so good,” she says. “Thank you” You smile. You have to say, Karina did an amazing job with the makeup. You make your way over to Taeyong who was patiently waiting for you, but no sign of Johnny. “Wheres Johnny?” You ask. “Wow,” You look over behind you and see Johnny eyeing you up and down. You were wearing a black silk dress with a big slit in the front, accompanied by a very light smokey eye and rose-colored lipstick. “You look great” You two are unable to get your eyes off each other.
You hear Taeyong grunt in the background and both your attentions are now on him. “Shall we go?” Taeyong leads the way into the garage where his car is parked. Johnny sat in the front while you sat in the passenger seat along with the bag of cash and Taeyong starts the car and heads off. You were quite the whole ride, Tayeong and Johnny conversing a little but it wasn’t something you were interested in doing in.
You were looking out the window until you felt a pair of eyes on you. You turn to see Johnny looking at you and rain your brows in confusion. “Oh, um I just wanted to tell you the plan but I guess I got carried away” Your face starts you heating up and you curse your pale skin. “Okay, so when we walk in we need to find Jun. Once we do I'm gonna start off by asking him about his drugs and seeming interested in them. While in a conversation, you excuse yourself to go to the bathroom when actually you need to find some documents that have information on where he’s gonna be land tomorrow. Got it?” He asks. “Got it” You reply.
You're parked in front of the mansion you have to say it was beautiful. It was packed with people from different parts of the world. The modern house was white and lined with gold details, making it catch your eyes instantly. Expensive cars were parked outside and giant window panes lines across the front.
“I'll be waiting out here. Once you get the info, you come straight back here” Taeyong explains. You both exit the car together walking over to two big males standing by the gate. “May I help you?” One of them asks. “My name is Minhyuck and were here to attend” Johnny remarks confidently. “What business do you have here and who is she” The other one points at you. “This is my girlfriend Naeun and we’re here to invest”. “With what money?” He asks. Johnny lifts up the big duffle bag he has and unzips it for them to see. They nod their head and opened the gates for you both.
You both look at each other before parting ways. You were in charge of looking outside while Johnny looked inside. You reach the part of the garden when most of the party is taking place. People were dancing and bumping into one another. You stand by the drink table holding your head high for a man named Wen Junhui. Before you knew it. You felt someone grab your hips and pull you towards them. “Hello~ beautiful” This man was clearing drunk. His breath smelt of strong rotting vodka. “Get off of me” You use your hands to push him away, which only made him angry. “Your gonna be mine today” He leans in to kiss you until he’s interrupted by a hand that punches him across the face.
Johnny pulls you behind him. “Get the fuck off of her you filthy bastard” His eyes wear dark with anger. You’ve never seen Johnny like this. “Johnny-“ You were interrupted by a voice calling you and Johnny. “Minhyuck and Naeun!” The man shouting was the man known as Wen Junhui. He looks at you with welcoming smiles and calls you over to sit at the table. Johnny obeys and walks over. You look down to take a seat but then feel an arm slither and an arm on your waist pulling you down onto Johnny's lap. You were a bit taken back knew you had to stay in character.
“So” Jun starts “I heard you wanted to buy some stuff of me. I got the best in the city, all you want”. “I am very interested in your products as I’ve heard it's the best quality, Mr. Wen” Johnny smiles at Jun. As they talk you start to feel something underneath you poking your ass and it's not along time before you realize it's Johnny's needy bulge. You ignore it and excuse yourself for the bathroom.
You enter the house. It was covered in the red carpet all the up until the two-way shimmering stairs. “Wow” You gasp. You look around to make sure there aren’t any guards around to catch you. Once you see the coast is clear, you quickly head up the stairs trying to make less sound as possible with your heels. “Brown door with a golden knob” You whisper to yourself. You move around the mansion trying not to be too loud as your heels lightly clack.
You finally found what you looking for, twisting the swinging golden knob allowing you to enter. You were presented into a room with multiple file cabinets. “Investment, partnership, blacklist, travel plans” You read all the labels trying to find the right one. You open the drawer marked ‘Travel plans’ and scanned the papers looking for destinations. “Oh dear,” You hear a familiar voice and turn around to see Jun holding Johnny tightly around his arm, giving you an evil smile. Two big men as backup behind him.
You still have the important file clutched in your hand. “You know what happens to people who try to snake their way around me” He lifts up his gun to point your face and you look at Johnny in panic. Before you knew it, Johnny lifted his elbow up and knocked Jun on the face, knocking the gun out of his hand. The big men in the back going for Johnny as he tries to fight him off with his back to you. Jun picks up his gun to shoot Johnny, when you kick his back, making sure to point your bottoms heels at him.
He looks at you in anger and takes a shot at your legs, barely missing as the bullet goes through your dress. You look down in shock. “DID YOU JUST SHOOT MY DRESS?!” Anger started filling you up all because he ruined this beautiful silk dress. You take off your heels and start smacking him on the face.
“Don’t” smack “fucking” smack “ruin” smack “my” smack “dress”. You now straddled on him repeatedly hitting him with your heel. You bring your hands down to his nipples, strongly twisting them and he shouts in pain. “Don’t you dare touch a woman!” You continue beating your fists on his chest until you feel a pair of hands slither around your waist lifting you up and over their shoulder. 
Johnny runs out with your over your back. You see them chase after you and use this opportunity to take one of your heels that was once hugging your feet, and throw it at the men. Once Johnny is outside the mansion, he places you back on the floor, grabs your arm, and pulls you into the car where Taeyong was patiently waiting.
You quickly drive off and see a black van full of men chase after your vehicle. Taeyong opens your sunroof and hands you a gun. “Use this to get rid of them” He handed you a handgun and you stand up so your upper body is out of the far.
Not wanting to kill anyone, you aim for the two front wheels while being careful of any bullets that might be coming your way. The black van gets slower and slower until it's a little black dot in the distance. You lift your hand over your head to form a heart. Johnny and Taeyong hysterically laughing at your gesture.
You sit back down and a loud huff escapes your mouth. “Did you get the file?” ask Taeyong. You reach into the pockets of your once beautiful dress that now has a hole in it and pull out a sheet. “Got it” you answer. “Yeahhh” Johnny claps. “Dude, she was wrecking that Jun guy. She used her heels as a weapon, I’ve never been so scared” He giggles. “This is why you shouldn’t mess with me” You point at your feet that’s missing one heel.
“So, where his next destination?” Tayeong asks. “He’s gonna be in Busan tomorrow, it says here he’s there for a meeting” You explain. “Alright great, ill make sure a hotel is booked.” He replies. “Separate rooms” You point out. “Oh come on babe, relax a little and share a room with me” Johnny wines, pouting his lips at you and you give him a cold stare as he looks away.
You enter your shared office getting ready to change as you pick up your clothes and head to the bathroom while Johnny just changes outside. You say your goodbyes and exit the department, waiting outside looking frustrated while trying to get a taxi. “Do you want a ride” you turn to see Johnny with a warm smile? “Oh, N-no it's okay. I don’t wanna trouble you” You kindly define his offer. “You're not troubling me” He replies. “Without your amazing fighting skills, we wouldn't have gotten the destination file” You lightly smack his chest and take up his offer.
The whole car ride to your house was quiet until Johnny breaks the silence. “You know” Johnny starts. “I know this is a bad time to tell you this but lately I've been thinking about how much I wanna take you out.” He looks at you nervously. “So.. when all of this is over, do you mind if I do?” You look at him and you smile from how nervous and cute he was. You don’t usually see Johnny like this. He’s usually so confident with everything he says. “Id love to” You smile at him.
You once again say your goodbyes and head inside going straight for the bathroom where you wash off your makeup and dress into some comfy pajamas. You get your suitcase out of your cabinet, placing some essentials in before you go to bed, ready for the next day. You eat breakfast in bed while watching your favorite show when you then get interrupted by a text from Taeyong.
Taeyong: Hey, are you ready?
You: Yeah. I'm gonna head out to the office soon.
Taeyong: Instead of the office, come to the train station where I and Johnny are waiting
You: Okk, Ill be there
You get your suitcase and head out, taking a taxi to the subway station. You arrived at the station and greet them both. You stand infant of the waiting train as Taeyong explains where you’ll be staying and other important information for your stay at Busan.
You and Johnny enter the train and took a seat. Johnny helped place both your luggage in the overhead stowage and took a seat next to you. It was a 2-hour train ride to Busan. You lay your head back against the seat as the train starts moving. “Hey, I have a question” Johnny looks at you. “Why not you wanna share a room with me?” He asks. “Is it because you wouldn’t know how to stop yourself?” He smirks and you smack his chest. “No,” You say. “I think you won’t be the one to stop yourself”. Johnny shrugs his shoulders. “You're not wrong” He leans slowly. “Hello, would you like something to drink” The attendant interrupts? “No thank you. You?” He turns to look at you. “I'm good, thank you” You answer with a smile.
You have an hour left of the train and you look vide bialy tired from staying in the same place. Johnny pats his shoulder, letting you use it as a headrest. You rest your head comfortably on his shoulder, slowly dosing off. He brings his arm over your shoulder and rests his head onto yours.
You finally arrive in Busan. Johnny nudges you lightly to wake you up and exit the train. You both wait outside the Busan train station for your ride. “Still tired” Johnny laughs and you hum in response with your eyes half-open. He pulls you into a hug, wrapping his arms around you while you rest your arms around his waist as support.
The car finally arrives and takes you to your hotel. You exit the car looking at the place as Johnny helps take out the luggage. “Are you sure this is the right place?” You ask Johnny. You were standing outside a small motel. Johnny stands next to you looking up at the structure in front of you. “I guess?” He replies. “Let's got check out our rooms”.
You two walked inside a were welcomed by an old lady. You politely greet her and check-in. “Okay, here is your key for room 24” She smiles as she places one key in Johnny's hand. “One room?” You ask. “I think we booked two”. “Unfortunately we don’t have another room available” She apologizes. “If you want we can-“ “It's okay, we’ll take the room” You smile, not wanting to trouble the lady. 
You walk into your room. The walls were painted a beige color. As you walk in you see a bed to the right, facing you, and a small TV opposite the mattress.
The station was so busy that it was already 6 PM. You changed into a hoodie and shorts before plopping yourself on the bed, thinking about how you gonna sleep tonight. As you were lost in thought, Johnny exits the bathroom wearing a plain black t-shirt and gray sweatpants, with his bulge being very obvious. How could someone look so good in something so plain simple? You thought. “What do you wanna do to pass the time?” You ask. “Do you wanna check out what movies they have on the TV?” You nod your head at him in approval.
You sit up at the back of the bed giving room for Johnny to sit next to you. Johnny starts scrolling through the different genres of movies, listing them as he goes. “Horror, romance, comedy, porn-“ He looks at you with begging eyes and you shake your head in disapproval. “How about a horror movie?” You suggest. Johnny nods and finds a movie that appeared to be 2 hours long.
It's about 7 PM and your 1 hour into the movie. You feel a pair of eyes on you and turn to look at Johnny. “What?” You quietly ask. He starts to realize he’s staring at you and stress. “Oh um, I-I was just um wondering if you were cold” He makes up an excuse and you laugh knowing very well that wasn’t it.
“Why are you laugh,” He asks with a little smile. “Nothing. It's just cute how you made an excuse to ask if I was cold when you were staring at me” You look at him to see he looks almost panicked. “N-no,” He says. “You even stuttering” You point out. “N-no I'm not” You laugh at him. He straightens his posture. “You think id be staring at you because of how beautiful you look in just a hoodie and shorts. How I can even focus on the movie because I can’t take my eyes off you. How I want to kiss your lips so bad and cherish your body forever. 
The smile that was once on both your face is now gone. Johnny leans in closer to the point where you can smell his fresh laundry detergent. Your lips meet together and move in harmony. He brushed your hair out of the way with his hand and places it on your cheek. He swipes his tongue across your lower lip, asking for permission to enter. You grant him permission by opening your mouth wider and your tongues fight each other for dominance as he takes the lead. “A little aggressive aren’t you?” He smiles again your kiss.
You slither your hands around his neck to get a better angle to dominate him but he reaches his hands behind you, lightly tugging your hair as a small moan leaves your lips and your head leans back. He smirks at the sound and starts trailing wet kisses up and down your neck until you were interrupted by a phone call from Taeyong.
He stops what he’s doing as he goes to answer the phone and you grunt in annoyance. “Hello?” He answers the phone. “Yeah we arrived, we’re just watching a movie to pass the time. Yeah okay, sounds good. Bye,” He hangs up the phone and turns to you. “We should go to bed. We need to wake up pretty early tomorrow” You felt kind of sad but you had a job and needed good sleep in order to do your best.
You get under the blanket and watch as Johnny goes to the couch, using an extra pillow and blanket to sleep for the night. The room is dark and you couldn’t help but think about how you wanted Johnny's arms wrapped around you as you slept, or even better, his lips all over you.
“Johnny” You call out. “Yeah” He replies and you sit up. “Do you mind if you sleep next to me tonight?” You see a black figure sit up on the couch, not hesitating to comb over and climb in bed next to you. “Miss me?” He teases you. “Yes,” You reply as you attach your lips to his. He adjusted quickly and kiss you back. This time even most passionately. He pushes you down so you're underneath him and he’s hovering on top of you with his hands roaming freely on your body.
Your hook your arms over this neck and let your fingers tangle around his hair. You bring one hand down to the hem of his shirt and lightly tug at it, gesturing for his to take it off. He sits up on top of you and brings his t-shirt over your head. You look at his toned body while placing air two hands on his shoulder and slowly feeling down his chest. He then roves your hoodie, leaving you only in your bra. “Fuck, you’re so beautiful” He pants, diving back into your mouth before moving to your neck.
After placing kisses cross your neck, he starts sucking on your skin like honey, making sure to leave marks with not one place untouched. He moves down placing kisses down your chest and onto your stomach until he reaches your pants. He looks up at you for permission to remove it and you nod, taking your bra off too. He pulls your pants to the side and teasingly breathes on it making your head go back.
He reaches his left hand over to your breasts, slowly massaging them before gliding his tongue across your fold. You let out a soft moan as Johnny repeats this gesture with his tongue. He starts sucking on your clit slowly and softly making sure to get every inch before sliding a finger in there and gently thrusting it in and out.
You start to lose your patience as you try to move your hand down to your slit but get stopped by Johnny's big hand. He places your hand to the side and thrust his finger and faster while flicking his tongue on your wet slit at an exceptional speed.
Your back arches in pleasure and you start to close the gap between your legs until Johnny pushes them open and digs his tongue inside or you even harder, which causes you to moans out his name uncontrollably loud. “I'm about to cum” You say in between moans.
Johnny takes this as an opportunity to place his pointer and middle finger inside of you, quickly thrusting until you come all over his face. He uses his tongue to clean you as if your juices were his treasure. He sits up and looks at you before crawling his way closer to your face. You can see your glimmering juices on his face as he uses his tongue going in a circle, getting it all off “You taste so good, baby”.
He re-attaches his lips onto you. You didn't care that he just ate you out and now his tongue is in your mouth. He slips out of his sweatpants and reveals his giant cock. He stands at the edge of the bed before you come over to replace his hands with yours. “Spit on it” He demands, and you obey spitting on his tip before spreading it across his whole length.
You started by tracing circles with your tongue at the top before slowly doing down on him until you manage to take all of him in. You use your free hand to massage his balls earning a low moan from him. Every time you reach the tip, you make sure to swirl your tongue around the top before going back down to the base.
He tangles his hand in your hair and starts taking the lead, going slow at intros but then quacking his pace. You start to deep throat him as he praises you with every move. “Fuck, your os good” he bites his lips. “Look at me” You look up at him and his hands go faster. You realize he likes it when you look at him as he fucks your mouth. 
Tears start welling up in your eyes and you feel his cock twitching inside of your mouth as his hands get weaker. You give him a hand by robbing your head up and down until you feel a warm sensation fill your mouth and his head leans back. You swallow every last drop of him and he brings his hands on your neck, lightly pulling you up to kiss you. “Can you lay down for me princes?” He asks and you do exactly that.
He quickly grabs a condom from the suitcase and glides it across his cock. He sits in front of you, pulls one of your legs over his shoulder, and slowly enters your heated core, earning a moan from boh of you.
He adjusts himself and starts thrusting in and out of you, again, starting off slow but then picking up his pace. The room is filling with loud moans and the sound of your skin slapping together. He reaches over to your breasts slowly massaging them one by one before smacking your ass as he cusses loudly. “Say my name” He speaks, in between shaky breathes. “J-Johnny, fuck” You moan out loud. 
“Johnny, I'm close” You let him know, and make sure he’s balls deep instead of your, earring a scream of pleasure from you. You feel him twitch inside of you as come all over his length, not long before he finishes too. You're both panting heavily as you try to regain your energy. He stands up taking the condom off before throwing it in the nearby bin. 
He cleans you up first, making sure your okay and comfortable, before helping himself. He helps you to his t-shirt that he was previously wearing and throw on his sweatpants, laying nectar you and pulling you in his arms. “You were so good,” He says and you giggle. “I'm happy there weren’t any other rooms available” You reply and he kisses you once more before you both fall asleep, ready for tomorrow morning.
Thank you for whoever suggested this story! I couldn't create a small short story so I decided to do this- @_@ 
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seita · 4 years
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some coping mechanism are wrong and do need to be discussed or changed!! neurodivergency doesn’t give u an excuse to hurt or trigger others!! coping mechanisms don’t exist in vaccums... and you and ur followers are harming real people by saying such
i was going to ignore most everything i got on the subject because quite frankly i'm over it. every opposing take either doesn't make sense, is completely ignorant, or is just plain stupid.
this one? is just idiocy.
so i'm gonna take the time to explain some things to you.
i cannot begun to express the ignorance and privilege that is seeped into every single word of this ask. i am actually baffled that you genuinely thought that this was, in any way shape or form, okay. or that you even thought this was a hot take at all.
you do not have any jurisdiction or power to tell other people that the way they cope is wrong. that is so beyond disgusting.
do you know why people choose to write dark content to cope?
a few reasons that range from: gives power/comfort over their trauma to lets them release emotions that otherwise have no outlet.
beyond that is that some people don’t have the resources or support system needed to cope in other ways. all they may have is a pen and paper or a laptop. they may not live in a home where they were believed, they may still be trapped with their abuser, or they may just plain not be able to afford therapy.
but do you know what the fun thing is? plenty of these people who choose to cope in this way are advised by their therapists to do it. like myself.
i used to write in little notebooks as a child -- really dark, foul shit and i didn’t understand why i did it. i talked to my therapist and i was told it’s a great outlet! i have to say writing is probably one of the top reasons i managed to get to the space i am in today.
when i learned the wonders of the internet growing up, i also sought out to READ the content. of course, it was very hard to find because of people like you who do nothing but shame it simply because of the real world values the crimes possess and for some reason refuse to see it in a fictional, helpful way.
it’s a very real and very valid coping mechanism: both reading and writing are incredibly beneficial.
this outlet also helps people just the same as it can hurt people. i don’t know who or what you think you’re doing but survivors who are triggered by the content of a darker nature WILL NOT CLICK ON IT TO READ IT. why are you acting like survivors and victims are brainless, mindless idiots who will read something clearly labeled with their triggers as if there’s some invisible force dictating them too?
and who are you? a highschool student? a college student? a therapist? what right gives you, a random person on the internet, to dictate something that has been ADVISED and PROVEN to help with coping to trauma to deem it wrong?
im gonna go ahead and say your morality. nothing beyond that.
you see dark content as just disgusting porn fucked up people jerk off to but it’s beyond that. and very obviously something you do not understand and most likely refuse to understand.
you think because you think something is wrong that it should be wrong all around. you don’t like it so it shouldn’t be done.
i hate to break it to you but the real world isn’t going to cater to you. i sure as fuck won’t. i’m not in charge of making you feel happy or content on the internet. if you log on to your computer and expect people to babysit you and make you feel comforted and safe -- you’re doing the internet wrong.
you only choose to see the negative side to this. you see that people can be triggered or hurt by this content and that’s valid. people can and will be. but there’s also a HUGE number that people like you choose to ignore and invalidate under the guise of protecting survivors only to hurt them at the same time. it doesn’t make sense.
you’re not trying to advocate and protect people -- you’re trying to make the fandom and content match up to your puritan ideals and fantasies. the world isn’t like that. people are always going to do things you don’t like and have opposing opinions on things. stop trying to act like you’re doing this for the greater good -- a martyr, hero complex isn’t a cute look and we can see exactly what you’re doing.
i don’t understand why it’s so hard to accept that dark content does not have as big of a negative impact as you think it does.
i also don’t understand how other survivors can see what people like me do and tell us we’re wrong. i don’t go out of my way to shame you and say “oh you don’t like dark content? weird.” i mind my own fucking business and stay away from blogs that don’t want to interact with dark content writers.
i am respectful always. i never attack people for having opposing opinions. i never attack people personally. people who write dark content don’t do that shit.
you know who does?
your side.
you know what someone said to me in an effort to shame me and bully me for writing what i write? they called my writing shit -- the thing i use to cope and help other cope. i’ve never gone on anon or off anon and told someone their writing was shit.
i also had someone ask me why i think being a victim made me special. i’m gonna let you sit and figure out exactly what is wrong with that question.
those are the types of people you’re enabling and encouraging. if you people just left dark writers alone we wouldn’t hurt anyone. you all preach this shit about how dark content is SOOOOO easily availble anyone can read it. that is false. the only way to find dark content is to ALREADY BE ASSOCIATING WITH PEOPLE WHO CREATE OR CONSUME DARK CONTENT. it’s not tagged in the main tags. it will not show up in your orbit or be blasted on your page because someone posted it.
and then you people say “oh minors will be convinced it’s okay!!!” no. minors aren’t as stupid as you seem to think they are. they fully know and understand exactly what they’re getting into. they see the word rape and know in real life THAT’S BAD.
you don’t want a slasher film and think  “oh wow look at him killin all those people but not getting caught I COULD DO THAT TOO!!!!” no. you don’t. because you know it’s wrong.
y’all are so high up on you moral horse that you think everyone around you is fucking stupid and has no common sense.
if someone thinks what they read in fiction makes it okay in real life, there was already something wrong with them to begin with.
but no, you’ll pull out anything on earth to try and get your point across. from secondhand trauma to it just being offensive.
and i hate to be the one to tell you this but...all this crusading is doing basically nothing in the long run. you know what happened yesterday from being called out? i lost 9 followers.
and then i gained 20. and now im only 100 away from 16,000.
what did all of this achieve? what does any of this even do?
whenever you people do this what exactly is it you want? do you expect us to just...stop...because you don’t like it? are you really so self-centered and self-righteous that you think you’re THAT important. do you really believe your opinion and voice is the loudest and most important to consider?
because it really isn’t.
just as you’re sitting here telling me you’re wanting to protect people -- i’m wanting to help people. do you know how many people i’ve had thank me for making them feel better about their owwn fantasies that they’d previously been ashamed of because they’re a victim? or how many people thank me for providing the content they rely on to cope?
i’m gonna go ahead and say those are the people i want to help. those are the people i care about. and i don’t know what it’s gonna take for you people to understand that i will not stop until i DECIDE to.
this is the internet. none of your opinions or words have any long-lasting, realistic effect on me, my person, or my life. i could delete my blog and in a month nothing any of you have said to me over this course of time will have impacted me in the long term. of course, other people are more sensitive and can get hurt by this discourse.
but i don’t. i’m a lot more stubborn and thick-skinned than you people may seem to realize.
your words will continue to go in one ear and out the other. i know where i stand. i know where i want to remain.
your morality nor your opinions are blanket rules that everyone should abide by. get some perspective and learn your place in the world before speaking on things you clearly cannot understand.
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nashibirne · 3 years
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Where The Wild Roses Grow - An August Walker Story - 3
You can find the previous parts on my masterlist
Pairing: August Walker x OFC (Fern) Summary: Don't screw the crew? This doesn't work for August Walker Warnings: Smut, Sex, 18+, NSFW, unprotected sex, rough sex, slapping, kinda soft August Unbeta'ed! English is not my mother tongue, so please be lenient with me
Disclaimer: I don't own August Walker (but he owns me...)
Pics for the header taken from Pinterest.
Taglist: (let me know if you want to be added or removed)
@lunedelorient @inlovewithhisblueeyes @willkatfanfromasia @hell1129-blog @mis-lil-red @agniavateira @kebabgirl67 @omgkatinka @legendarywizarddetective @summersong69 @taebfada @xxxkatxo @madbaddic7ed @artandotherdelights
~~~~
Chapter 3
Fern
So, today's the day. I'm going on a date. The first in I-don't-know-how-long. Two years, three years, I don't remember. After my long time relationship with Max went down the drain I didn't want to date and here in London there was just no opportunity. To be honest I'm quite nervous. I mean, I don't know much about Lucas and I haven't interacted with a lot of people since I'm in London. Actually just with my neighbor Sloane and her wife Jackie, who are very nice and we have a little chat from time to time and with Peter and August and our clients of course. But that's it. That's pathetic you say? Yeah, maybe you're right but that's just the way it is and it's okay. Basically I like my life the way it is, I love my work, I enjoy my affair with August but deep down inside I crave intimacy, tenderness and a life outside the office. So I'm really looking forward to this date and to getting to know Lucas a little better. 
I'm sitting in my car right now. I'm ten minutes early so I have enough time to check my make-up -I think I look alright- and to straighten my clothes. I get out of my car and check my reflection in the metallic paint of my Classic Mini Cooper. I'm wearing a light blue summer skirt, a plain white sleeveless shirt and white loafers. I considered wearing the blue dotted dress but I can't wear it without thinking of August so it wasn't really an option.
I lurk around the corner and there he is. Lucas is waiting for me at the entrance of the museum, checking his watch repeatedly. He looks good with his blond hair and the blue eyes, not extraordinarily handsome like August but attractive. A John Doe but in a good way. Okay, guess it's time to go. Wish me luck!
There was really no reason to be nervous, Lucas is really nice and charming, the perfect gentleman. He knows a lot about art and I love how he shares his knowledge with me but never mansplains. He's not a bit arrogant or bossy, unlike many other men. August for example. Speaking of which, I think I spend too much time with him. When Lucas and I were walking around the museum I thought I saw August from the corner of my eye. Twice! I must be hallucinating or something. 
Right now I'm standing at the souvenir shop waiting outside for Lucas who wants to buy a present for his son Milo who lives in Liverpool with his mum, Lucas' ex-wife. We're done with the exhibition and he asked me if I want to have a coffee with him in a cafe nearby. I said yes. I really enjoy his company and it feels so good to finally do something that has nothing to do with my work.
A loud noise suddenly startles me. It sounds like someone has dropped a glass that's smashed to pieces. I spin around quickly to localize the noise source and that's when I see him. It's really him. August Walker in the flesh, standing behind a pillar, watching me.
I stare at him, surprised, or to put it more precisely, stunned. What the hell is he doing here?
He gives me a nonchalant smile and strolls in my direction as if it was the most natural thing to meet me here.
"Fern. What a lovely surprise." 
Is he kidding me? Lovely? He never uses words like this, they are not part of August Walker's vocabulary.
"August. What are you doing here?" I don't feel the need to exchange polite phrases.
"Enjoying the exhibition."
"Oh really?" I cross my arms in front of my chest.
"Yes. Why would you doubt it?" He smiles innocently and it makes me mad.
"Because you're not interested in art."
"Well, I am now."
"I took both tickets because you said you didn't want to go." I point out.
"I changed my mind and bought a ticket."
I take a deep breath and roll my eyes. I can't even explain why I'm so annoyed by the fact that he's here.
"So? Where's your date?" he asks en passant.
Now it dawns on me.
"Is that the reason you're here? Are you spying on me?"
August's face hardens and he looks at me with a frown. "I'm not spying. I'm just keeping an eye on you."
"I don't need a babysitter, August." 
"You don't know anything about the guy, Fern. He could be dangerous."
He comes one step closer and is standing right in front of me now, our bodies almost touching.
"He's not dangerous. He's a teacher at a primary school."
"That's what he says." He almost whispers. It's ridiculous.
"Why would he lie to me?"
"Because maybe he wants to cover up his true identity."
I laugh out loud. "Like what? Like an undercover agent or something. You think he's after you?"
August gives me a death stare, his lips pressed together to a thin line. "Exactly. And he wouldn't be the first." His voice is only a low growl. "I mean, come on, Fern. He sees you for what -5 minutes maybe?-  and asks you out? Can he really be that smitten by you?"
I stare at him, his words cut right into my heart, and I try to hide it by being even more sarcastic than usual.
"Oh, you mean you find it more likely that he's a spy, sent by the government to get to you, than the simple thought that he's attracted to me and therefore asked me out? Wow, I mean, that's flattering, August. So basically you're saying I'm so uninteresting that it's not a realistic scenario that a man meets me and wants to date me?"
"That's not what I meant, Fern. All I'm saying is…"
"Hi." I freeze when I hear Lucas' voice. I step back to bring a little space between me and August and turn around.
"Lucas. Did you find something for Milo?"
"Yes. I did." He gives August a funny look and things are getting pretty awkward. I clear my throat.
"Um, Lucas. This is my boss. August Walker. We just bumped into each other."
"Lucas Bellingham. Nice to meet you." Lucas gives August a nod and August gives him a forced smile in return.
"Yeah. Nice to meet you."
I can't believe he used to be an agent, since he's such a bad actor.
"Well, I'll leave you to it. Fern, see you on Monday."
"Sure."
He leans in, grabs me by my elbows and kisses me goodbye french style. Two times. Right. Left. Mua. Mua. What the fuck? After the second innocent peck on my cheek I feel his breath hot against my ear. "You look hot in that skirt. Be a good girl and wear it on Monday." 
His soft words sent shivers down my spine and at the same time I'm fuming with anger.
All he can expect from me on Monday is a cold shoulder and a lecture.
August
Okay, that monitoring operation on Saturday didn't go exactly as planned. I guess I'm a little out of practice. Of course Fern wasn't supposed to see me nor was her date. Lucas Bellingham. A boring name for a boring guy. I checked his record, of course I did. How, you ask? I'm sorry but I can't tell you. If I would I'd have to kill you.
Hey, don't be so shocked, I'm just kidding. Really. Relax.
Anyway, I have ways and means to do a background check on someone and Lucas seems to be legit. On first sight that means. I told Pete to dig a little deeper, just to be sure. He has his ways and means too. I promised Fern she'd be safe with me when I hired her and I'm a man of my word. I'm not going to expose her to any kind of danger. And no matter what she says, it definitely is possible that someone is sending an undercover agent to spy on me or Peter. Could be the US authorities or the MI5 or someone from my past, there's no lack of enemies, I've pissed off a lot of people and I know one day I will regret it. You know what they say. Karma is a bitch.
Well, here she comes.
"Good Morning, Fern."
"Morning."
Okay. A look that could kill and no skirt. Tight black jeans and a turtleneck sweater. All buttoned-up. Okay, woman, I get it. You're mad at me. She goes straight to her office and I follow her and sit down on the edge of her desk. She doesn't even look at me but starts typing something into her computer. 
"Are you alright?"
"Of course I am." 
"Really? You don't even look at me."
She takes a deep breath before her eyes meet mine.
"Just stay out of my way today, August."
I know I should take the hint and leave her alone but I can't. I don't take orders. Not from her, not from anyone anymore. I'm the one in charge, she should know that.
"What if I don't want to?" I give her a smug smile.
"I don't care what you want. Just fuck off."
"Woman." I growl. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'm still your boss."
"Then let me do my work. Boss." She holds my gaze and I know I'm going to lose any kind of staring contest with her so I decide to change my tactics. I hop off her desk and sit down in a chair.
"I just don't get why you're in such a bad mood." I try to smile and I have a feeling that it makes me look like an idiot. Fern furrows her brows. "Oh really. You have no idea?"
"Is this about Saturday?" 
"Yes, you bloody genius, of course it is. Your behaviour was beyond the pale."
"My behaviour? I was visiting an exhibition. Just like you."
"Don't give me that, August."
I stare at her. What does she want from me? I did nothing wrong goddamn.
"I was just trying to protect you, Fern. You tend to trust people too easily."
Her eyes shoot daggers at me and god, that's so sexy. Why the hell isn't she wearing that bloody skirt like I told her?
"People like you, you mean?"
Ouch. That hurts.
"I don't need you to protect me, okay? Not in a situation like this. Fuck, August. It was just a date with a harmless guy in a public place. What was he supposed to do? Kidnap me? Murder me?"
I don't know how to respond to this so I just shrug it off but the way she looks at me tells me she expects me to say something.
"I was just trying to keep my promise, Fern. You know I guaranteed your safety and I guess you have no idea how many people want to see me dead. You never know what they are up to and when someone new appears on the scene I get suspicious. This has nothing to do with you. It's just me and maybe I overshot the mark." The next words are the hardest part but I know if I want her to wear a skirt or dress ever again I have to say them. "I'm sorry."
Her face softens a little. 
"Just don't do it again, August. My private life is none of your business."
I nod and I really want to know if she's going to see him again but I don't ask.
The next few days totally suck. 
Tuesday: blue jeans and a cold shoulder. Shit.
Wednesday: skinny jeans and distant behaviour. Goddamn.
Thursday: A jumpsuit and a little smalltalk  but not much more. 
She's driving me crazy and she knows it. If she keeps on acting so stubborn she must not be surprised if I don't want her anymore. Ah fuck, who am I trying to fool. Truth is I want her more than ever. I want to fuck that distant look off her face. I want her to moan my name. I want her to obey. To give in. To acknowledge that I'm in charge.
On Friday I don't expect much, but to my big surprise and relief she shows up wearing the blue dotted dress she wore when I took her for the first time. I give her a glance when she walks past my office with swaying hips and she returns it. She even smiles at me. 
Okay, I have to get rid of Peter. Asap. I go to his office and close the door behind me.
"August?"
"Peter. Go home." 
"Excuse me?"
"Leave. Work from home today."
He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms with a frown.
"Why?"
"Because I say so."
He snorts and turns to his laptop again.
"Fuck off, August."
I roll my eyes and sigh.
"Please." I say through clenched teeth. "I need some time to talk to Fern."
"Talk, huh?"
"We had a little fight the other day and now it seems she's willing to forgive me." I know I sound desperate and Peter looks at me again. "Yeah. I know about your visit to the museum. And you think you can get back into her pants today."
She told him about it? This takes me by surprise. But I don't say a word and he knows me well enough to interpret it as a yes.
"You know my opinion on your little affair."
"I do and you know it's none of your business."
"Right." He hesitates and scratches his chin. "Well, do what you think you have to do. I'm going to have breakfast in the little cafe around the corner and try to get the number of the hot waiter. You have an hour." He gets up and grabs his wallet and his phone.
"Thanks, Pete."
"I'm not doing this for you, August. I'm doing this for our business and my future. If you and Fern don't talk you can't do your job properly and this could ruin everything we have built up yet. So get your shit together and return to normal. Whatever it takes."
He leaves and I can tell he's pissed but well, he's gone and that's all that matters. I go straight to Ferns office and now that I'm standing right in front of her I'm so aroused and full of anticipation I feel like I'm about to explode with lust and I'm sure I look like a predator. She looks at me and slowly stands up.
"You've been a really bad girl." I growl.
"Is that so?" She bats her lashes innocently. Oh, her audacity.
"Yes." I murmur. "You kept me waiting for four days."
"You deserved it." Heavens, she's really a challenge.
"I'm gonna show you what you deserve, woman."
Two wide strides and I'm standing right next to her. I grab her by her waist, spin her around and bend her over her desk before I lift her dress and rip her panties into shreds. I press her down with one hand between her shoulder blades and unzip my trousers with the other. My dick is so hard it hurts. I don't waste time. I enter her without any kind of preparation or the slightest hint of foreplay. I wanna punish her by being raw and ruthless but she won't let me. She is wet. So fucking wet and she takes me as well as usual. Sighing with lust when I stretch her pussy. Moaning when I start to fuck her deep and fast. I let out a moan too. "You're so wet. You've been looking forward to this." I hiss into her ear while railing her so hard that the desk moves under us. "I've been all wet since the moment I put on the dress." Her voice is dripping with desire. "I've missed your dick so much." 
I keep on fucking her with long, deep movements and when I slap her ass out of the blue she cries out my name. "August." She likes it, oh yes she does. She likes it a lot. I can tell by her moans that get even louder. I've never done this before though I wanted to, but I was scared she might not like it or think I'm a perv and tell me to fuck off. I move faster and we are both gasping and panting like never before. I'm close and so is she. I can feel it.
"Again." She begs. Oh how I like the sound of it.
"What did you say, pretty?"
"Again. August. Please."
"Do you think you deserve it?"
"Yes."
"You want it?"
"Yes."
"Say it."
"Slap my ass, August. Please."
She's a whimpering mess now and I slap her again. Harder this time. She shrieks and it sounds incredibly hot. I go on and on and after the fifth slap I feel her come. Her walls clench around me and her legs shake. "Fuck...oh god. August…" Her sweet little cunt milks my cock and when I cum too I throw my head back and sigh her name softly  till my orgasm is over. I press a kiss on her back and give her ass a few gentle strokes to sooth the pain. I bet it stings, her cheek is crimson red. I pull out reluctantly. I feel the strange urge to stay inside of her but I fight it. She turns around and looks at me with a smirk. She licks her lips and it's obvious how much she's enjoyed this.
And so have I.
I enjoyed it and I've missed it.
I've missed her. 
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stxleslyds · 3 years
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Can you please do the list of Jason's and Dick's skills and how good they are at it compared to other skilled people? Of course only if you want to.
Hi! Thank you for the ask anon! I am sorry that it took me so long to answer your ask, I found myself going back and forth with how I wanted to write this out.
Just a heads up, the skills that I will depict here are the ones that I remember and found are attributed to each character in the current timeline. I think it’s important for me to say this because this current Dick Grayson has been nerfed greatly compared to his pre-New 52 counterpart. As for Jason, he has had many things incorporated into his training and some others have been completely erased (even though some of Jason’s training was erased he hasn’t been nerfed by any means).
When I say that Dick has been nerfed, I mean that some of his abilities have been erased in canon and some others have been washed down as the reboots happened.
Now, let me do a little ranting before I jump into listing Dick and Jason’s skills.
If you search for Jason’s skill set in wikis and other places, they might include his Lost Days training as something that he still has but as of New 52 and Rebirth that training has been erased and replaced with Talia sending Jason to the All-Castle right after he came out of the Lazarus Pit.
Also, while many places say that the Lazarus Pit has granted Jason regeneration and the ability to not age, I can safely say that those things aren’t true. As far as I know, the Lazarus Pit can only heal injuries, physical and mental (to a certain extent for the last one).
I assume that the concept of Jason “not being able to age” comes from the fact that Ra’s Al Ghul has the ‘longevity ability’ because “through the use of the Lazarus Pit, Ra's has acquired a greatly extended lifespan, allowing him to live a near-immortal life for centuries”, the thing with this is that Ra’s uses the Lazarus Pit fairly often, Jason only used it once.
So, just to be clear, Jason can age just like any other human character, and the regeneration ability is also untrue because Jason spent a long time recovering from his injuries after the “Death of the Family” event and RHatO vol.2 #25.
Also, there has been no proof of Jason actually having magical abilities (after being submerged in the Lazarus Pit). The All-Blades are summoned through his soul but he doesn’t do magic with them and the summoning was mastered after non-magical training. And the “Magic Negation” move is an arcane martial art move.
Wow, sorry I spent so much time explaining my line of thinking. But I can be confusing when I talk so I thought it would be better if I explained my thought process a bit. I promise I am done though; I will now start listing Dick and Jason’s abilities.
Let’s start with Dick!
Acrobatics.
Aviation.
Criminology.
Espionage.
Genius Level Intellect.
Disguise (Acting).
Escapology.
Leadership.
Multilingualism (12 Languages).
Indomitable Will.
Martial Arts (Boxing, Eskrima, Ninjitsu, Stick Fighting)
Peak Human Condition (Strength, Speed, Stamina, Agility, Reflexes, Durability).
Throwing (Escrima sticks, Wingdings)
Weaponry (Escrima sticks, Firearms, Swords)
Abilities learnt with Batman:
Eidetic Memory.
Forensic Science.
Investigation.
Tactical Analysis.
Tracking.
Interrogation.
Intimidation.
Stealth.
Surveillance.
Jason’s Turn!
Aviation.
Computer Hacking.
Genius Level Intellect.
Indomitable Will.
Martial Arts (Dim Mak, Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun).
Multilingualism.
Occultism.
Peak Human Condition (Strength, Speed, Stamina, Agility, Reflexes, Durability).
Weaponry (Firearms, Master Swordsman)
Abilities learnt with Batman:
Investigation.
Tracking.
Interrogation.
Intimidation.
Stealth.
Surveillance.
Abilities learnt with the All-Castle:
Summoning of the All-Blades.
Abilities learnt with Talia Al Ghul:
Magic Negation (a martial arts move)
All in all, both of them are incredibly well trained. There are abilities that one of them has and the other doesn’t. Jason has had more training outside of Batman’s teachings due to Talia having taken Jason to the All-Castle after he was submerged in the Lazarus Pit. And he was also trained by some of the members of the League of Assassins, like Lady Shiva.
If I were to compare Jason and Dick’s abilities with, let’s say, Barbara, Tim, Stephanie, and Damian, I would say that Jason and Dick are far more well trained and knowledgeable than them. Cass could beat both of them in hand-to-hand combat but I feel like it would still be a long fight for Dick and Cass or Jason and Cass, maybe Jason would have a harder time with her because he is so big compared to her.
I would even go as far as to say that both Jason and Dick could take down Batman if they really wanted to. Let’s say that for some reason Dick and Bruce or Jason and Bruce decide to battle it out with everything they have got, then I would say that the odds are in Dick and Jason’s favour.
Now, those comparisons that I just made, I did them with uncertainty because I don’t keep up with any of those characters. When it comes to DC I really don’t go beyond Dick and Jason centred content. I don’t even read Batman (I only read it if there is an event that has Dick or Jason as a major player).
So, I don’t really feel comfortable comparing their skill sets with other people, what I don’t know I prefer to not talk about. I was being a little cheeky with those comparisons that I made before; they are very surface level.
I can talk about what has actually happened in comics though. From a combat perspective I can say this:
Jason was able to master the “Magic Negation” move with little training from Talia, and she hadn’t even mastered it way back when she was training him before he became Robin (yeah, that was a thing that happened in zero year, RHatO vol.1 #25). So that would give you a little insight on how overpowered Jason has been written in the past 10 years.
The second time that he did that move he used it against Ra’s al Ghul, that Ra’s was charged up with the power of the Untitled but in reality, the power wasn’t strong at all because Ra’s didn’t have enough “soul” for the Untitled to latch on to. Jason, however, was able to channel that power and the All-Blades against him. All that should have drained Jason pretty quickly but he had the whole “chosen one” thing going on for him. Here is where the magic aspect of Jason would come from but I am still not sure that Jason can actually manipulate or do magic, I feel like it’s more like letting something like the All-Blades or the Untitled latch on to you like a parasite (that will kill you if it does it for too long) to get a boost in power. Maybe you or somebody else sees that as magic but I don’t.
So, overall, I would say that Jason is a very strong opponent. But you have to take into consideration that weapons like the All-Blades aren’t accessible to him at all times, they only can be summoned when true evil is presenting itself as a threat to Jason and they consume/corrupt his soul, so their power isn’t unlimited either.
Dick is a very strange case because while he was able to fight and defeat a proper Talon and a ‘second-hand’ Talon (that was still a notable opponent) in the New 52 run and he was able to defeat his enemies just fine, in Rebirth things took a dark turn, all of his skills were either gone or watered down by a lot, he was everyone’s punching bag. 
As time went on though Dick seemed to be written better and he fought Cheshire and some LoA people fairly easily and so on. But then… Ric happened and the whole manipulation and being played with as if he were a toy happened and that set his characterization on fire again. He defeated Jason easily when he was under Joker’s control but he was sloppy against Barbara so, there isn’t really a lot of rhyme or reason in that one.
After he regained his memories mid-way Joker War, he was an excellent fighter all of the sudden and everything was easy for him. When the event ended and he was Nightwing again he didn’t only beat KGBeast (the one that had shot him) but he absolutely humiliated him, it was like Dick snapped.
Now, under Tom Taylor’s writing, Dick is… I don’t want to say dumb because he isn’t, but I will just say that Taylor isn’t doing Dick any favours. He promised us a lot of things, like giving Dick the respect and level of expertise that he deserves but so far, I have seen none of it.
Something that has to be taken into consideration is that Dick isn’t fully recovered from his head injury, so, he is written as not as skilled as he is supposed to be and he is also making decisions that aren’t good for his health because if you run the risk of falling unconscious in the middle of a fight, you shouldn’t be fighting at all.
From Batman’s training’s perspective, I can say this:
Dick has always given me the “mentee surpasses his mentor” vibes. He is a better detective and he is also overall better than Batman in what he taught him and also at being Batman. Sadly, just like his combat, his detective skills along with all the other Bat training have been watered down for Dick. It’s absolutely awful, DC has been doing Dick dirty for far too long.
I wish I could say that things are picking up for Dick now, but Tom Taylor put “drama” as his priority instead of giving Dick back the skill-set that he once had (I know, I complained about Tom Taylor’s lack of action before but I really needed to do it again).
Jason has been done dirty too when it comes to his detective skills and other Bat training, mostly in Urban Legends: Cheer but quite honestly it wasn’t as bad as what they did to Dick. Jason has never really been as good as a detective as Bruce or Dick so yeah. But there is a clear difference between the Jason that we have now and the one that appeared in UtRH.
So, I would say that as of now Jason and Dick are treated as if they were on the same level detective/bat training-wise, which I think isn’t fair to Dick. Because he should be better in those aspects than Jason (or, at least, that’s how I see it).
I really don’t know if this answer is what you wanted or if it is good at all but I hope that if you read this you don’t end up feeling like I wasted your time.
I promise I will get better at answering asks! And I hope you have a wonderful day anon!
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nimupates · 5 months
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The Future is Bright: How AI Will Revolutionize Healthcare
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The Future is Bright: How **AI Will Transform** Healthcare
I still remember when IBM’s Watson computer system beat the human champions on Jeopardy! back in 2011. At the time, I thought, “Wow, if AI can outperform people on a game show, think about what it could do for healthcare!” Little did I know that we’d see such rapid advancements inAI healthcare solutions over the next decade. But the possibilities now have me incredibly excited for what’s to come in the next 10 years. I believe AI healthcare applications are going to revolutionize the way we prevent, diagnose, and treat illness - dramatically improving outcomes while reducing costs. And that’s going to lead to longer, healthier, happier lives for all of us. Let me explain why I’m so optimistic.
Promising AI Healthcare Use Cases
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While AI in healthcare is still in its early days, we’re already seeing some very promising applications. These three areas in particular have me thrilled about the future: AI for Diagnostic Radiology - Doctor's New Best Friend In radiology, medical AI is now able to analyze CT scans, MRIs, and other medical images to detect abnormalities and offer diagnostic suggestions to radiologists. One recent study found that AI could identify breast cancer from mammograms more accurately than expert radiologists could alone! From my own experience, I can say that these AI diagnostic tools will allow radiologists to work faster and make more accurate diagnoses. My daughter recently had an MRI for some recurring migraines. While we anxiously awaited the results, I could envision an AI radiology assistant reviewing her scan almost instantaneously and letting our doctor know if everything looked normal or if further investigation might be needed. That would put so many minds at ease. AI Clinical Decision Support - Your Data-Driven Advisor Healthcare AI and machine learning algorithms can now take a patient’s symptoms, medical history, labs tests, and even demographic information to offer clinical recommendations. I recently met an entrepreneur who nearly died and was in a coma for 6 days because her symptoms went misdiagnosed. An AI decision support system likely would have detected the life-threatening issue and saved valuable treatment time. By rapidly analyzing more complete patient information, AI clinical tools will help doctors surface the right diagnoses much faster. AI Patient Monitoring and Coaching - Caring Support Anytime New AI chatbots and virtual assistants are now available that can understand common health concerns and provide trustworthy guidance on a 24/7 basis. Whether it’s answering medication questions, supporting nutrition needs, or tracking pain levels, these tools will help patients take charge of their health from home. My mother could have really used one of these AI virtual nurses when she was discharged after surgery last year. I ended up needing to make so many frantic calls to her doctors because we weren’t sure what follow-up care activities she should be doing week to week. The peace of mind for her would have been invaluable.
The Exciting AI Healthcare Possibilities Ahead
While the AI in medicine applications above are already demonstrating value, experts predict even more transformative capabilities on the horizon. Here are a few that have me truly excited: Earlier Disease Detection With Healthcare AI - Catching Things Sooner One of the most promising areas for AI in healthcare involves processing multiple data points to detect disease signs earlier than doctors alone often can. Whether finding cancer risks based on genetics, predicting heart disease through wearables data, or analyzing lab reports and vital signs to warn of infections days in advance, this technology is going to save countless lives. I lost my father earlier than I would have liked to an aggressive cancer. I’ll always wonder whether medical AI could have given us months or years longer with him if it could have spotted the disease progression sooner. Ultra-Personalized AI Treatments - Precision Just for You Beyond diagnoses, healthcare AI also shows promise to inform doctors about the most effective, personalized treatment plans based on a patient’s genomic profile and lifestyle factors. I have two friends who were recently diagnosed with the same illness. But they’ve reacted very differently to the same treatment protocol. Now imagine AI models that can predict medication side effects and optimal dosing down to the individual. Such tailored precision represents a huge advancement towards actually overcoming diseases instead of just managing them. Automating Medical Tasks With Healthcare AI - More Time for What Matters Healthcare providers spend so much of their day on administrative tasks – whether it’s documenting patient encounters, managing records, or placing referrals and orders. Medical AI promises to automate many of these repetitive chores to give doctors and nurses more time to simply care for people. As someone who has experienced sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals that always seem short-staffed and overburdened, I welcome these efficiency improvements wholeheartedly. This technology stands to improve professional satisfaction for healthcare workers as well.
Overcoming the Healthcare AI Challenges
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While AI in medicine has phenomenal potential to revolutionize healthcare, there are still notable challenges standing in the way of progress and adoption. Concerns related to data, culture, and regulation pose barriers that the healthcare community must overcome for health AI to achieve its full impact. High-Quality Data - Fuel for Trustworthy Healthcare AI Like any technology, medical AI is only as good as the data used to train it. Diversity gaps and biases can skew AI model accuracy and real-world performance. Achieving healthcare AI’s full promise requires large, comprehensive datasets that capture people across ages, ethnicities, geographies, lifestyles, and health conditions. This allows for safe testing and validation across patient populations. From my research days working with flawed clinical trial data, I understand firsthand how faulty information fuels faulty conclusions and recommendations. We must be meticulous regarding input data if we expect precision guidance as output for serious use cases like healthcare. Cultural Acceptance - Building Clinician Trust While early adopters view AI in medicine as a path to improved efficiency and effectiveness, some clinicians remain skeptical about ceding control to an algorithm. And without staff buy-in, implementation of any new technology typically falters. Healthcare facilities must involve doctors, nurses, and technicians directly in healthcare AI solution design from the start and transparently convey actual AI capabilities, limitations, and progress over time. Otherwise lack of understanding and trust will inhibit fruitful human-AI collaboration. My longtime physician was initially resistant to leveraging evidence-based diagnostic support tools powered by data analytics. But once she tested some systems firsthand during training and saw meaningful input she could provide and credible guidance offered, she became an enthusiastic advocate almost immediately. Her continued engagement will now shape her hospital’s healthcare AI path forward. Regulatory Alignment - Establishing Practical Governance Because healthcare AI has the power to directly impact human wellbeing, standards guardrails and governance practices must be established. However, regulation also needs to cultivate ongoing innovation. Premature policies that hinder progress because of lack of technical fluency could prevent potentially life-saving solutions from ever being developed or deployed. Through my advisory roles across industry and government over the past twenty years, I’ve seen regulatory pendulums swing to extremes on emerging technologies like AI in medicine that policymakers initially fail to fully understand. I am advocating heavily for nuanced healthcare AI oversight that accelerates advancement responsibly on behalf of the patients who stand to benefit most of all.
Next Steps to Realize the Healthcare AI Potential
If challenges related to data, trust, and regulation can be addressed, I foresee medical AI adoption accelerating rapidly. I believe the following focused actions will drive deployment: More Healthcare AI Testing - Proving Value The single biggest imperative is demonstrating actual healthcare AI performance and improvements over human-only efforts through rigorous clinical testing. With tangible proof points, adoption roadblocks melt away. Healthcare leaders must invest aggressively in pilots and trials now to show what’s achievable. I sit on the review boards for various research institutions and plan to green light all credible proposals related to healthcare AI experimentation and validation. Greater Investment in Medical AI - Fuels Innovation Like any novel, valuable capability, dedicated financial support must fund the transition from cutting-edge research to practical frontline usage. Government health agencies, pharmaceutical leaders, medical equipment providers, and tech titans should all have major budgets earmarked specifically to accelerate AI in healthcare. The long-term potential merits aggressive investment now. Ethical Healthcare AI Accountability - Ensuring Responsible Development With medical AI directly influencing human health, we must establish trust and safety guardrails regarding transparency, explainability, accuracy, privacy, access, bias mitigation, security, and more. Details matter greatly here. Establishing ethical operating principles will facilitate adoption by alleviating legitimate patient and practitioner concerns. Groups like the World Health Organization, trusted research consortiums, patient advocate coalitions and major healthcare AI players need to jointly outline and uphold critical development standards.
The Future Has Arrived
of a new era where AI stands to make healthcare more predictive, preventative, precise, and democratized. Recent breakthroughs combined with enthusiastic collaboration across sectors now pave the way for rapid enhancements in our ability to detect, understand and overcome injury and disease. I encourage health professionals and patients alike to embrace healthcare AI, not as a threat, but as an opportunity - an opportunity to improve and extend life. The article is already well optimized for the keyword phrase "AI in healthcare". I made some minor tweaks to increase the frequency of variations of that phrase throughout, but no major rewriting was necessary. The core focus and messaging highlights the promise of AI to transform healthcare through a variety of use cases. Let me know if you need any other changes! Read the full article
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thepigeonsopinion · 3 years
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So "Simpleman" happened...
I'm not going to say it was "bad" per say, but it's not in my list of favorite episodes that's for sure. AnYwAy! As always, before I start on saying my opinions and thoughts of the episode I'm going to right a (hopefully) brief summary or synopsis of the episode. So let's get to it!
Warning: Spoilers from the episode "Simpleman"
Summary: The episode starts with Marinette in her room with Manon fiddiling with her "knitting box" that has the miracle box in it. Cue Alya and her twin sisters, Ella and Etta entering and start running around with Manon. We learn that Marinette has volunteered to babysit Manon, Ella, Etta, and Chris (Nino's little brother) while Alya and Nino go on a movie date. Sometime later, Nino enters with Chris and drops him off, while he joins Alya to the movies. The children start running around Marinette's room and Marinette is chasing them. They start fiddling with the knitting box, they find the kwamis and start to play with them as if their stuffed animals. Marinette is finally able to calm them down when she introduces the idea of watching a movie and of course the movie that they are watching is the "Ladybug and Chat Noir" movie. Marinette then gets a call from Adrien asking if she could help fix his costume for a photo shoot. Marinette says yes (of course), but then she realizes she doesn't have anyone to watch the kids. After some contemplation, Marinette decides to bring them to her grandpa's house. Marinette leaves her grandpa with the kids, that are watching a movie on her laptop. This is the part where Roland, Marinette's grandpa get's so confuesd with all the new tech and modern ways that the kids are so familiar with. This causes him to wish everything was simple and easy and then he get's akumatized and turns into Simpleman. Meanwhile, Marinette finishes helping Adrien and he asks what he could do to show his thanks. Marinette (of course) stumbles on her words and is not able to give him a straight answer and before she can he has to continue with the photo shoot. Marinette gets an "abstract" idea where in the end she's going to "break"(?) the costume again, she fixes it again, and she gets thanked again, in which she finally gives him a straight answer on what he could do to thank her. Simpleman the uses his power to simplify things and "simplifies" the whole of Paris. With Marinette, she abondoenes the plan, deeming it too complicated and is about to just straight out tell Adrien that she likes him, until she sees a helicopter falling, and then she transforms behind a pole (I think?) and saves the civilains. Adrien sees this and transforms into Chat Noir and joins Ladybug. It is there where they deem that fighting or finding the akuma is to much of a hassle and instead they should just confront ShadowMoth himself. As Simpleman and the kids are walking around Paris they see Ladybug and Chat Noir and Simpleman initiates a fight with them. Ladybug and Chat Noir try to fight Simpleman, but are failing miserably. Meanwhile, the kids are helping ladybug and Chat Noir by telling them what they should do and giving them advice on what to do to defeat them. Simpleman is then defeated and everything is back to normal. We go back to Marintte trying to go along with her plan, but she actually abandons the plan and instead tries to actually confess to Adrien. Marinette isn't able to confess to Adrien and instead leaves. Marinette goes back to her grandpa's house and she is met with the sight of her grandpa and the kids watching a movie, in which Roland volunteers to explain the story to her. And, the episode ends.
Wow! Another very long and unnecessarily detailed summary or synopsis of the episode. :|
Anyway! Let's get into my thoughts and opinions on the episode!
(Also, as always I am re watching the episode as I type this so I might have some unnecessary details. Anyway! Let's get into it!)
First things first, let's talk about all of the kwami's scared faces (mainly Sass' because he the best kwami) the kwamis look so terrified of children. I felt my heart legit break when I saw Sass' face, I was like "DONT BE SCARED SASS EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT!". Also, why do the kids in this series have to be such a hassle and not to mention their absolutely annoying (except sandboy, he's a good boy :)) like I feel so bad for Marinette in this situation. The kids don't even really get punished or disciplined if they do something wrong, if I were Manon and I did the things she's done in the show I would've gotten my ass whooped! Anyway continuing on, I feel so bad for Marinette because while Alya can tell her boyfriend her secrets, go out on dates with him, and all that jazz, Marinette can't even keep, or have a boyfriend because of the responsibilities she has as Ladybug and as guradian of the miracle box.
Okay, the sympathy I feel for the kwamis and Marinette in this situation is incalculable. I mean, Marinette has to take care of these mischievous and annoying brats kids and the kwamis have to also deal with the kids in a way because the kids can't control their energy or behave for just a minute (unless their distracted). Like first they steal the knitting box and shake it, then they find some kwamis and start playing with them as if their stuffed animals. And I'm not going to lie, during that part where they were playing with the kwamis, Kalki looked like she was so done with her life. Not to mention, the harassment Fluff had to deal with, with Manon and Chris playing tug of war with her ears. Finally when Marinette gets to relax, while the kids watch a movie she get's a call from Adrien and now she's back to panicking. I would like to call this part the calm before the storm :). So Adrien calls her because they need a seamstress to fix Adrien's costume, but let's be honest here, there are so many other options that they could've chosen in this situation instead of calling Marinette. First of all, why didn't the crew not already have a seamstress there at the photo shoot just in case? And why didn't they call like a professional, very known seamstress? I'm not saying that Marinette is a bad seamstress in any way, no, if I'm being honest she's probably as good as a professional, all I'm saying is that they could've chosen so many other options. Not to mention, if I was in Marinette's situation I would've milked the HECK out of that situation. I would've charged them for my time! But that's just me.
Moving along, so Marinette has a whole planning wall to get at least a date with Adrien, that's not really surprising if I'm being honest, but what really surprised me is that she legit willingly pull that whole board down in front of the kids. I'm surprised she didn't really acknowledge the fact or get embarrassed, but I digress. The fact that Marinette brings the kids to the one family member or person that has legit shown hatred to the modern age is very ironic, if I'm being honest, but that's to be expected from this show. Also, what's with the "save Adrien" part what is Marinette saving him from exactly, I mean the only thing that she's "saving" him from is his wardrobe incident, then again though she is a fashion designer so I guess that would seem like a "saving someone situation", so I guess that makes sense? (it really doesn't :0) Ok, I know that Roland is like very traditional and old fashioned, but he should at least have the common sense to SEE that there is no way to put a VHS tape in that laptop. WAIT A SECOND! Wasn't Roland saved by Ladybug and Chat Noir when he was akumatized as Bakerix I mean the whole movie is based legit just based on them, so shouldn't he know the role they play, unless he has short term memory loss or something. So, a literal movie based on real superheroes, that was mainly attract to CHILDREN is more complicated than a World Cup Football game, nice to know.
So, now we're at the scene where Marinette is helping Adrien. I'm going to be honest was that whole part with Marinette floating around in her mind really necessary because at this point of the show I believe that we're already aware that she feels this way ALL THE TIME when she's around AdRiEn, but I digress. Marinette, honey, I know that you're supposed to be the creative one, but doesn't that plan sound a bit complicated to you? I mean, a fishing rod, really?
Continuing on! So, I'm going to just assume or guess that the time he calls her is like right after he accidentally turns off the computer and all I'm asking is what are these kids on? Because it should at least taken them like 5 minutes to get running again (I think? I don't really know) and why the heck is the grown old man crying because he can't control children? May I also add you kinda, sorta agreed to taking care of these demons kids, so at least have some dignity.
Now! Let's talk about Simpleman. Roland, why the heck are you so picky on your akuma name all of a sudden. You weren't like this when you were Bakerix. Also, I love the fact that Shadowmoth was like so done with him at that point, like his face already says it all. Shadowmoth really said that Ladybug and Chat Noir complicate his life for no reason, dude you were the one that started it with Stone Heart. Now, let's talk about Simpleman's design! Why the heck is he legit a purple skinned, french flagged inspired, old man, that kinda looks like a pedophile. Not to mention, why does he still have the flexibility of an old man. I mean, compared to Bakerix this design is kinda iffy to me.
Ok, first of all why did Shadowmoth say "wait" when Simpleman used his power. Wasn't that his plan though for him to use his powers? Second of all, since he was "simplified" wouldn't he just think that it would be a lot easier if he got the miraculous himself? Also, I know that everyone is now supposed to be simple minded, but did that man really press the red button to stop the WHOLE helicopter.
Adrien, I think you can stop smiling now, the crew legit said that they will stop there, you can go take a break and transform into Chat Noir now. Also, if you have to keep smiling for the camera and not move an inch, why the heck did you let plagg fly out? WHAT IS WITH THIS LOGIC? Wait, since Ladybug and Chat Noir are now "Simplified" they can't fight anymore? Ok, carry on then while I watch the rest of this awful and unnecessary fight scene.
So the kids are helping Ladybug and Chat Noir continue this fight? I really can't tell whether or not the kids are doing this to help or they're doing this for entertainment purposes, in all honesty. (Also, I can't tell whether or not this is a metaphor to Gen Z or not, but whatever!) Did Ladybug just say this old man, purple looking ass, pedophile is scary and mean? I swear to everything that is good....
When Ladybug said "Now I just need to say...."
Me: What the heck!? Is this a kids show?!
Also me: Wait a second... :|
Mr. Astruc, I'm going to be honest here was it really necessary to have a scene where Marinette tries to do a simplier plan but fails miserably really necessary? I mean, we've already seen it hundreds of times by now. Another thing, was it really necessary for Adrien to be an angel for this shoot? Like, we get it he's innocent and pure (not really tbh)
And with that we're finally done with the episode! So, all in all the episode wasn't that bad? But it's not my favorite. Mainly because the logic of this episode was all over the place. Not to mention, the many, many scenes of Marinette fussing over Adrien. Just watching those scenes was kinda draining if I'm being honest.
Anyway! Those are my thoughts on the episode. It's like 3:00 in the morning and I am exhausted!
SO! I hope everyone has a great rest of their day. And always remember...
But that's just my opinion (・ε・)
(This has been (another) tiring week and I know for a fact, it's only going to get worse. *smiles through the pain :)*)
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Chilled - Spencer Reid x Reader
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WARNINGS: I mean, this is a cm fic so theres gonna be some gore involved, but nothing too insane. If you do get squeamish really easily though, this might not be the fic for you? 
The air finally started to have a certain chill to it, one that no matter what you wore, you felt it in your bones. That paired with your day job left you feeling no warmth, not even if you were lit on fire yourself. And now, in the middle of January, you and the team have to travel to North Dakota, of all places, for a pretty touchy case. Since it was an above average winter, snowstorms were pelting the state at a quite alarming rate. This posed the perfect opportunity for the unsub they were hunting - as they would dump the bodies in huge snow drifts. The local authorities only started to find the bodies when snow started to develop an off putting color.
“Remember to bundle up my lovelies, you are going to be braving some serious sub zero tempetratures! I don’t want any of my favorite agents turning into popsicles.” Garcia says as she’s handing out the files to everyone at the round table. Peeling back the manilla folder, you almost wish you hadn’t. The discoloration on the snow was perfectly nauseating and what made your heart drop more was the shape that the corpses were in. There was clear evidence of asphyxiation and stab wounds on the body and, however, something didn’t feel perfectly right about the way that the person died. Not being able to put a finger on the thought, you slid the manilla folder into your bag and stood up like the rest of your team.
“C’mon, Y/N/N, better get going, yeah?” Derek asks, waiting for you to start walking. You nod and start walking out with everyone else, only for you all to get stopped by Erin Strauss. “Hello agents, before you leave, we wanted to leave you all with something.” Standing up on your toes to peer over the guys in front of you - seriously, did Hotch, Morgan, and Reid have to be so tall? - you get a look at what she and some of her own agents were holding. Pristine new FBI jackets with those classic faux fur lined hoods were folded in her hands along with what looked like windbreaker sweatpants. “So you don’t get cold.” Erin states plainly, passing the clothing out to the squad.
“Wow, these are great!” Emily said excitedly,  threading her fingers through the faux fur. 
“And to think I packed three different windbreakers,” you joke, taking your time to unzip the jacket and slide your arms through it. You sigh and as the material instantly makes you feel a lot cozier.
“Jackets like these were actually first invented somewhat recently in 1936,” Spencer starts.
“‘Recently’?” you quip, flashing Spencer a smile.
“They were invented by a man named Eddie Bauer who almost lost his life to hypothermia when he went on a mid-winter fishing trip.” Chuckling a little, Derek patted Spencer on the back and jogged quickly to the plane due to Virginia’s January chill.
“If you're cold now, Morgan, I don’t know how you’re gonna react when we step out of the plane in North Dakota!” JJ laughs, earning a nudge from Emily.
Finally, everyone piles onto the plane, taking up seats and instantly turning on the seat warmers. You settle gently in the window seat of the two-seater, and Spencer quickly joins you.
“Mind if I sit?” He asks, motioning to the seat to your left. 
“Not at all,” you smile. Both you and Spencer considered the other as good friends, maybe even best friends. You started a mere two years after Spencer did. Since the two of you were around the same age - him a few years older - and were newer to the force, you found instant solace and comradery in the other. Over the years, you and Spencer became a lot closer. Whether it was caring and being there for him when he had his dilaudid scare or either of you sleeping over at the other’s houses when the nightmares became too much, you developed a strong relationship full of trust.
“All I’m saying is that if we get there and it looks like the frozen planet Hoth, I’m going to be pissed.” You joke as the plane starts its descent. 
“Oh come on Y/N, pretty boy will wrap you up in his jacket to keep you warm.” Derek said, ruffling Spencer’s hair. A light blush graced both of your faces as you began to gather any strewn files.
“Let’s not tease, Morgan, Capisci?” Rossi says, giving you a gentle smile. Rossi was always nice to you. He provided a much needed parental figure at the BAU, giving you tough love or a gentle guiding hand when needed. Soon enough, the squad was able to leave the place and be driven over to the local police precinct. The details that the police chief had were dished out to the team and talked over multiple times. It was tough, to say the least. They had no leads, no suspects, and no new facts.
= 3 Days Later = 
Energy for the team was at an all time low. The heating was starting to slowly die, new bodies kept showing up everyday, and you were still no where close to finishing this investigation.
“Let’s go over everything again.” Hotch begins, his statement being said for the third time within 2 hours. “The victims are buried beneath at least 2 feet of snow, it takes between 1 and 3 days for anybody to recognize anything’s up, and there are stab wounds and evidence of asphyxiation…” Hotch droned on which led you to faze out a bit. All you could think of were your cold body, your cold feet, and your cold ass fingers. That’s when you realized something.
“O-oh my God.” You say, standing straight up as you re-examine the pictures. All eyes in the room turn towards you, curious. You start to pace the room as you hold the crime scene photos in your hands. “I know that there are stab wounds and asphyxiation evidence, but neither of those are what killed them. The wounds are in non-fatal areas of the body and the asphyxiation wasn’t severe enough to fully kill them.” You say, your mind going miles a minute.
“So what are you saying killed them?” JJ asks, leaning forward.
“Hypothermia,” you breath out, “the stab wounds prevent the victim from getting anywhere too far and look at the frostbite on the hands,” you say pointing to the darkened limbs.
“It’s progressed far enough to make your hypothesis possible.” Spencer says, standing up as well.
“Okay, so where could the unsub be keeping his victims in a place remote enough to leave them out in the cold?” Rossi asks, looking between you and Hotch.
“Garcia?” Hotch simply says, listening into the speaker on the table.
“Already there captain, I’m sending you the locations now.” Penelope sends three different locations to the squad making everyone gather around the computer.
“Alright Prentiss and Morgan go to the first one, Reid and L/N to the second, and Rossi and I will take the third, let’s move!” He says quickly. Everyone gathers their things and you and Spencer share a look and nod. Each duo climbs into their own car equipped with cold weather tools and sped off to the different locations.
“Great find Y/N,” Spencer says, giving you a reassuring look. You flash a weary smile at him and step on the gas, speeding off to the location.
The place looks like it’s straight out of a horror movie. There’s an old raggedy windmill on the left of a shabby wooden cabin, bordered by huge fir trees.
“My God, this place is terrifying.” You murmur, pulling your gloves on and your gun out of your belt. Spencer is on your right as you start to slowly make you way towards the building. Out of the corner of your eye you spot a tiny little shack just south of the windmill. “Spence, you take the house and I’ll take the shack, okay?” you whisper, making sure that no one else but him could hear you. Spencer looks a little shocked at you.
“Y-Y/N, are you kidding? We need to stick together on this!” He says quietly, grabbing your hand. For some reason, neither of you are shocked at his action. You only squeeze his hand tighter.
“I’ll be fine Spence, I promise. We’ll get a cup of hot chocolate after this, okay?” You say, giving him a small grin. Spencer nods back giving you a smile as well.
“Yeah but you’ll just ruin yours with too much whipped cream and cinnamon. It totally defeats the purpose of the hot chocolate.” He quips back. You give him a quiet laugh and nod, squeezing his hand one last time before you head towards the shack. It was a ways away from the main house making your trek a little longer than Spencers, but you finally made it to the small wooden building. You drew in a breath as you began to see footprints with small bits of red in them. Your gloved hand reaches for your flashlight. You jump as you hear increasing steps behind you and turn around quickly, aiming your gun and squinting your eyes until you realize it was nothing but a deer passing by behind you.
Be cool, Y/N, you’re fine. You’re good.
You kick open the door to find the unsub about to attack a near naked girl, knife in hand and a wild look in his eyes.
“FBI stop what you’re doing right now, drop the knife!” You yell. The man turns around to face you, knife still in hand and charging towards you. You fire a quick shot to his leg making him stumble, kick away the knife from his hand, and cuff him. You finally turn your eyes onto the girl who was terrified. “It’s okay, you’re okay now,” You say, helping her stand. That’s when you notice the condition that she was in. Her lips were almost purple now, the rest of her skin turning blue. You shrug your jacket and long sleeve shirt off of you as fast as you could putting both of them on her. You stuff your gloves on her hands and shimmy out of your windbreaker pants, leaving you in nothing but athletic shorts and a tank top. Screw it, you could bear these sub zero temperatures in these clothes for a few minutes, this girl needed warmth. An instant chill settled into your bones making your teeth chatter in seconds. You shout for Spencer as you help the girl to the door and make the unsub stand up, dragging him in front of you. Your friend finally came into view, running at full speed towards you.
“Y/N, oh my god, are you okay?” He asks you. You nod as you let out a sigh, already knowing that your lips are starting to stray towards periwinkle. You could see the rest of the team running towards the shack. Derek took care of handling the unsub while Emily helped the girl back towards the vans, surely to help try and heat her up.
“I’m pissed,” you chatter out, causing Spencer to raise an eyebrow. You roll your eyes and start rubbing your hands along your bare forearms, trying to generate any kind of warmth. “This place looks exactly like Hoth, and Morgan is gonna end up being right because I would kind of love to have your jacket right now.” You chatter-laugh, one of the weirdest sounds to ever come out of your mouth. Quickly nodding, Spencer starts to shed his jacket off of you, but stops halfway. “Spencer what the hell are you doing, my fingers are all already numb, it’s gonna hurt like hell to warm them back up.”
“I actually have a more efficient idea, but we might want to go into the car first.” Giving no complaints, you and Spencer raced back to the backseat of a car, waiting for him to blast the heat. He does so, but it’s still not warming you up.
“Is this seriously what you had in mind? Because I’m still feeling like a popsicle and Garcia will be very made to hear that.” You say chuckling nervously.
“No, it’s this,” Spencer says, opening the front of his jacket. He brings you close to him and rezips the jacket, making you pressed right up against him. Not that you would go around talking to it about just anyone, but he was built underneath that cotton gray shirt.
“Sp-Spence what are you doing?” You whisper-yell quietly, your cheeks burning up. 
“Skin to skin, it’s one of the quickest ways to get warm.” What was interesting was that you weren’t really opposed to being in this position with Spencer. Actually, you kind of really like it. You get to feel his heartbeat and snuggle your head under his chin, which makes Spencer flush this time.
“Spencer,” you whisper, causing him to glance down at you.
“Yeah?” He murmurs back. You feel his heartbeat quicken, affirming what you were hypothesizing.
“Can you hold me?” You ask. He had never heard your voice speak so softly and so… lovingly. He felt special being able to hear you like this, seeing you like this. He always loved the fact that the two of you were such great friends and were able to confide in eachother, but he wanted more now. He wanted to see you like this a little bit more. So, he did as you asked and wrapped his arms around your cold frame, dismissing the cold that transferred into his body from yours. After a few minutes you were starting to feel a lot better but made no effort to leave. Instead, you snuggled into him more and let your hands splay out against his chest. You heard him hum lightly, pressing you further closer to him.
“Y/N.” He whispers this time.
“Yeah?” You respond, looking at him. The two of you make eye-contact and make no effort to break it.
“Can our hot chocolate outing be considered a date?” He asks, his face now mere inches away from yours. You nod instantly and bring your face closer to his.
“Can I kiss you?” You ask, bringing one of your hands to cup his cheek. Spencer doesn’t even wait to nod, he just closes the gap in between you. The kiss was sweet and tender, like gingerbread cookies right out of the oven. Spencer now brings both of his hands to your cheeks and deepens the kiss, making you melt into him. Things were starting to get a little more intense, that is, until the door to the car opens causing snow to blow onto the seats.
“HEY! IT IS FREEZING OUTSIDE AND-” You cut your words off as you see Morgan, JJ, and Prentiss looking at you and Spencer, all with smirks on their faces. You see two faces turn a little more frustrated, digging into their pockets and fishing out twenty dollars each. Emily smirks and takes the bills from JJ and Morgan, earning groans from the two of them.
“Y’all seriously couldn’t pace things?” Stumped, you look at them with your mouth hanging open.
“You bet on us?” Spencer says, his voice raising in volume.” Chuckling, the three of them close the door to the car leaving just you and Spencer, flabbergasted.
“So how about that hot chocolate now?”
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Bright as Red [3]
Pairing: Yata Misaki x reader
Description: Reader is left on the streets in a severe situation, being found by Totsuka Tatara, who gets to himself the responsability to help and heal the girl in HOMRA’s headquarters. When she wakes up, she’s led by the wanting to seek for revenge, going after who’s hurt her.
Warnings: only swears.
Word count: 2,552.
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As soon as Yata and Y/N entered the bar, Kusanagi’s eyes went directly to Y/N’s backpacks.
“I thought you took a walk,” he said, plain. “What’s all of this with you?”
Before Yata could start telling the truth, Y/N said upfront.
“As we were walking I had the idea of… go to my house. Take some clothes. See… what’s left.”
Kusanagi stared at Y/N, and she couldn’t tell what he could possibly be thinking.
“Shitty idea, I know. But it was stronger than me. I was lucky I had Yata-san by my side.”
Yata’s cheeks burned in deep red. Kusanagi took a deep breath, closing his eyes.
“I assume nothing happened, right?” Both motioned negatively. “Just never do that again. At least not without consulting us. Something bad could’ve happened.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, Kusanagi-san,” Y/N apologized and bowed.
“Just get outta here,” Kusanagi dismissed both of them with a wave of his hand. “Yata-chan, show Y/N the room she can stay in. It’s the one at the end of the hallway. You know which.”
“Sure.”
That whole afternoon spent with Y/N wasn’t enough to make Yata feel less nervous at her presence. He was very much conscious of her walking behind him, following him into stairs and corridors.
“My own room, huh? That’s cool,” she said.
“Oh, yeah,” he didn’t really know what to say. “Most of us were taken out of the streets, so we didn’t have a place to stay.”
“So you all live here together,” it wasn’t a question. “I only wonder how’s that.”
“What you mean?” Yata asked as he stopped at the right door, just in front of his own room. Kusanagi was fucking around, right? He could only be joking when he assigned the available room in front of Yata’s to Y/N. The boy was a pile of nerves at the single thought of her sleeping so close to him.
“It gotta be cool,” she shrugged.
“I guess it is. Sometimes it’s a pain in the ass. But it’s never boring.”
“Cool. I need distractions,” she said as she stared at her own feet.
“What are you going to do about… you know,” Yata pointed with his chin at her backpack while he opened the door.
 “I need a computer to take a look at them. Do you know where we could get one?”
They entered the room, Yata putting her backpack that he carried on the bed. She took a look at the room.
“We could ask if Akagi could borrow his. He’s pretty cool and won’t ask many questions.”
“Cool,” she sat on the bed with a deep sigh.
“Are you… are you okay?” Yata asked, worried. She nodded.
“It was a lot, you know?” Yata nodded once. “I can only wonder what kinda intel these hard drives have. Is that Akagi guy good with computers?”
“He is. A lot of guys here actually are.”
“Are you good too?”
“Oh, I know how to do some stuff, yeah,” Yata scratched the back of his head. “But these guys are better than me. I’m focused on other things, anyway.”
“I see. I’m not a pro myself, but I know my way around. I’m only asking in case I come across some difficulties.”
“Akagi could help you. He would… keep your secret.”
“I don’t want this to be a secret, but I’m also not ready to share it. I know it’s important for you guys to know who did this to me, and why, but… I don’t wanna say anything about the hard drives I found, at least not yet. If they contain any good intel, perfect. But if not… then I want this to be my thing.”
“It’s understandable,” some seconds of silence have passed before Yata could say anything else. “I’m gonna give you some space. And find Akagi. Cool?”
“Cool. Thanks, Yata-san.”
The boy blushed a little before he left the room, closing the door behind him, her little smile fresh on his memory.
Accompanied by Akagi, Yata knocked on her door three times. When nothing happened, he decided to announce it was only him, stuttering a little at the end.
“Come on in,” her soft voice said.
“I brought Akagi…” Yata cut himself off when he opened the door.
Y/N was lying on the bed, her head falling from the border, her hair touching the floor.
“You guys are upside down,” it was all she said. Yata frowned.
“No wonder,” Akagi said.
“I just needed to think, sorry. Help?” Y/N extended her hands, to no one in particular, though her eyes were at Yata. Akagi elbowed the boy so he could take Y/N’s hands.
“Yeah, sure,” Yata stuttered, cheeks turning slightly pink.
“So, what do you have for me?” She asked.
“The computer,” Akagi handed her a laptop, which she placed on the bed and, beneath a pillow, took the hard drive. “Wow, where’d you find these?”
“At my house. I think it could contain something about what happened to my parents or about who did it…” Y/N suddenly stopped talking as well as moving. “I think we should go somewhere public. What if I can access something and things just go sideways?”
“We could take the van,” Akagi suggested. “Work there.”
“Without Kusanagi-san knowing? He almost beat the two of us for just going to her house without saying a word, imagine what he’ll do now,” said Yata.
“I think I’ll tell him, then,” Y/N said. Yata locked his eyes on her.
“You don’t need to. We can work this out…”
“I know I don’t need to, but I already said I didn’t want this to be a secret. It’s just…”
“If it was nothing you wanted to keep it to yourself. Plus you didn’t want to create a whole thing out of it for nothing,” Yata completed. “I know, Y/N.”
Her heart skipped, for a second only, when she heard the boy with the skateboard say her name so softly.
“So… what do we do?” Akagi asked, feeling something in the air that didn’t include him.
“It’s up to you,” Yata said to Y/N as he looked at his own feet.
“I’ll tell the bartender.”
“He’ll look at ya sideways if you call him that,” Akagi joked. 
“Want company?” Yata offered.
Y/N hesitated and said after a minute, with a smile: “I’m good. Thanks, Yata-san.”
Kusanagi inhaled deeply when Y/N finished to tell him the whole story. He closed his eyes, and then she thought: here it comes. The Anger of the Bartender.
“I understand. It doesn’t mean it makes any better what you two did, but I understand your reasons. I guess there’s nothing to bitch about, huh? Nothing bad happened, although it could’ve happened,” Y/N bit her lips. “Is Akagi with you?”
“Now he is, he’s going to help me with the hard drives if I can’t do anything. I was actually wondering if we shouldn’t go somewhere public so nothing could be tracked, you know, just in case,” she shrugged.
Kusanagi clicked his tongue in some kind of annoyance, complaining about kids.
“You guys want the van, don’t you?”
“You got it right, bar guy!” Akagi showed up, thumbs up.
“Were you two creeping around?” Y/N asked.
“Nah, we just came downstairs. But I sure as hell was curious.”
“Yata-chan!” Kusanagi called. “You’re in charge. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“Got it, boss.”
Yata took the keys and they headed for the van. “You’re the wheels, Akagi.”
“Sure. Just don’t start anything until the van stops.”
“Obviously.”
Akagi had turned on a quiet alley and helped Y/N prepare the computers. Yata got out of the van to keep an eye in case anyone approached them. The backdoors were open, and Y/N observed for some seconds the way Yata sat, his shoulders hunched, arms crossed on his chest, his legs wide open in the way only boys sit. His bat was at his side, as well as his skateboard.
“Which hard drive do we start first with?” Akagi asked, getting Y/N out of her haze.
“I don’t know. Maybe the one I got from my dad’s computer? It seems simple, I just wanted to check anyways.”
“Sure, it doesn’t hurt. Who knows what we might even find?”
And so they started working on the hard drives as Yata kept vigilance. Akagi offered to use the second computer to take a look on the second hard drive, maybe even get access in case it’s blocked. Y/N agreed in reluctance, telling him to warn her in case he comes across with anything.
She found her dad’s emails, but none of them looked suspicious.
“He’s talking about a cat, but we didn’t have any pets.”
“And you don’t find that suspicious? At all?”
“Do you think they were talking in code?”
“If your dad was talking about a cat you didn’t have, then you can bet your life that there’s something fishy in there,” Yata said, turning a little to face her.
“I have no idea what ‘the cat’ could possibly mean.”
“Money, documents, favors… it’s a long list,” Akagi said. “Here, this HD is blocked.”
“Think you can pass through?”
“I should be able to. Gimme a sec.”
Y/N was starting to head outside to be with Yata when Akagi started complaining.
“No, no, no no no! Damnit!” He complained out loud, hitting something with his fist.
“What is it?” Yata and Y/N asked at the same time.
“They blocked me. It's inaccessible. Here, Yata, come take a look at this. Do you see it?”
“Like, pixels and shit? Yeah, I do.”
Akagi clicked his tongue in annoyance. “No, you dummy. The signature. Here,” Akagi pointed somewhere on the screen. Yata frowned.
“WD-8? What’s up with them?”
“What is this 8 thing?” Y/N asked. “I’m not understanding anything.”
“They’re a street gang.”
“No Kings, though.”
“Why would my dad be involved with a street gang?”
“Well, at least we got a lead,” Akagi sighed. “We just don’t know their roles in it.”
“Try the other one,” Yata said in a demand. “The HD.”
“Will the lady do the honors?” Akagi looked at Y/N. She shrugged.
“I don’t know if I can make it work.”
“Just put it up to run, that’s enough.”
And so Y/N did it. “Do you think there’s no more access to the previous HD?” She asked, hopeful on a positive answer.
“No, not for now,” Akagi answered, already making his way through the last HD. They blocked me, and their blockage shows a signature. When these things happen, it mostly gives me a hard time. Though I don’t think that WD-8 will be that smart…”
“They could’ve hired some tech bastard,” Yata suggested.
“Manner your language. I’m a tech bastard,” Akagi said in a warning, yet mocking tone.
“Yes, you are. All I’m saying is that if the person was desperate, they would accept anything to work with them.”
“As it usually happens…” Akagi said, focused on his work. “With most street gangs,” he completed. “Here, I got it. This one was easy. It makes me wonder why your dad would have a marked WD-8 HD.”
“I was questioning the same thing myself,” Y/N said. “Maybe… he got it from them? I don’t know. What’s in this one?”
“Some documents. In code, of course, because I can’t get anything useful out of this. What about you?” Akagi asked Y/N, who only gestured negatively with her head, getting closer to see the archives.
“There’s a map with random points marked,” noted Yata.
“I’m sure they’re not random,” the girl whispered. “Damn, there’s nothing about cats in this document. Is that all? A bunch of written nonsense and a map?”
“Guess so. It didn’t lead me to anything else,” Akagi answered as Y/N clicked her tongue in annoyance.
“Is there a way to get all of this printed? I want to take a look at this and try to make a sense out of it.”
“Yeah, sure.”
As Akagi printed the archives, Yata took a deep breath and headed out of the van. Y/N looked at him, noticing the way he scratched the back of his head, how his beanie would go up and down with the movement and how the boy didn’t get it back into place. She had the urge to get it right, but how weird would that look? Instead, she said that Akagi could keep the blocked HD if he wanted to work on it, which he did want to, and headed outside too.
“Frustrating shit, huh?” Yata said to her. She shrugged.
“Maybe. The little I got is better than nothing. Of course I knew I wouldn’t have all the answers given to me, free-handed. It’s good to have something to work on.”
Yata was staring at her with eyes she couldn’t read, which made her feel uneasy, switching her weight between her left and right foot. The boy was looking serious, and it bothered her that she had no idea what he was possibly thinking.
“I’m a little hungry. You down for some ramen?”
The sudden ask of the boy with the skateboard and the baseball bat made her blink, astonished. “Ramen?” She asked.
“Yeah. Ramen. You know?” And then Yata mimicked the gesture of eating ramen. Of course he was making fun of her.
“Oh, yeah. Sure. Ramen. Ramen’s a good idea,” she gave in with a faint smile.
“Great. Yo, Akagi. We’re going for ramen. Wanna tag along?” Yata asked as he got only his head into the van.
“Nah, I’m cool. I’m gonna finish up here, take the van back and leave these stuff at Y/N’s room.”
“Akagi said he’s going to leave the junk in your room.”
“They’re not junk,” Y/N responded gently. “And I heard it. Thanks.”
Y/N always felt that Yata was a little nervous about her - of course, she wasn’t stupid. So the way he asked if she wanted to go and eat ramen with him got her off her own mental balance. She enjoyed the boy’s company - sometimes he was funny, sometimes he was hot-headed, sometimes he was shy -, but she felt good having him around, at her side. It wasn’t that she felt the need to be protected, but she definitely felt safe - safer.
She tried to stop paying so much attention to Yata and all his details, but somehow it was stronger than her.
“What are you looking at?” He asked, plain and midway of the ramen to his mouth. The scene would be hilarious if the question didn’t make her stutter.
“Nothing,” she said. What excuse could she possibly give for such an act? I was just wondering why I can’t get my eyes off you. “I guess I just wanted to say thank you, for doing all of this for me. For being with me.”
“It’s what we do. We’re family now,” Yata quickly went to stare his own bowl of ramen. Was he blushing? “But I want as much as you to find out what happened, find out who did what they did to you. It’s unforgivable. I wanna give ‘em hell.”
“That makes the two of us,” Y/N smiled. “Race back to Homra?”
“You bet,” Yata’s smirk gave her butterflies in her stomach, which she tried to ignore as she finished her ramen.
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glassartpeasants · 4 years
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Tease
Shigaraki x Reader
Warnings: Virgin Shigaraki, teasing, hickeys, spanking, basically reader screwing with Shigaraki who i guarantee never had the sex talk.
A/N: I’m just gonna say that this is where Shigaraki has no clue what to do during sex so he’s just this pent up ball of clueless sexual frustration.
~~~
Oh how you loved to tease your boss. 
It was no surprise to you when Shigaraki told you he was a virgin when he was drunk. Thankfully you were the only one who heard it. But he sealed his fate forever after that.
Once he got sober he marched straight to your room and was going to threatened to kill you if you told anybody. But you heard him coming towards your room so what’s better then a virgin shigaraki? Teasing a virgin shigaraki.
Once you heard him by your door you proceeded to take off your shirt, your chest facing the door. 
He slammed open the door to yell at you when he was met with the sight of your shirt over your head and a pair of tits for his eyes to feast on.
“Take a picture it’l last longer.” You say in a seductive tone causing him to yelp and shut the door quickly.
That was the first incident..
~~~
The second incident was when you were in the hallways. It was just you and shigaraki and you were going separate directions. You looked him in the eyes before he looked down and muttered a quiet,
“Sorry i waked in on you..”
“It’s fine it was an accident.” He nodded before passing by you,
“But this wasn’t,” you giggle as you pinched his butt with him letting out a squeak. You snickered as you walked away not noticing the Shigaraki staring at you with a crimson blush on his face.
~~~
Third incident was when you guys were all sitting on the couch watching a movie. Twice and Toga made sure everyone was there no exceptions, which lead to you being cramped on the couch with the arm of the couch on your left and shigaraki on your right.
You could tell he was trying his hardest not to look at you. Even though you did have a blanket over your lap your tank top was showing a lot of cleavage that was too much for him to handle.
You snicker before snaking your hand down on to Shigaraki’s thigh and fave it a squeeze. You looked at him and you where meet with dangerous red ones. Which got wider when they felt a hand grabbing his dick.
You gently rubbed on the hardening member underneath you. But as time went by you slowly went more rougher and faster. Looking at Shigaraki who is just a red tomato by this point, shaking as he bit his lips.
Once you knew that Shigaraki was fully erect, and that it could be seen through his pants you announced that you were tired and going to bed.
Toga tried to convince you to watch the rest of it but you denied. Soon everyone went back to watch the movie you looked at Shigaraki who looked at you like if he stared hard enough at you, you would wither away.
~~~ 
The fourth incident was the same night. It was when everyone was asleep. Except shigaraki which could be silently gaming.
You grabbed your phone and put on your most sexy lingerie and went to Shigaraki’s contact. You took a picture of your breasts and sent it too him. But also making sure he could see the lingerie.
About 5 minutes later you hear a loud but not too loud knocking at your door. Still in your lingerie you open the door to see a beet red Shigaraki holding up his phone with a pissed off look.
The expression didn’t last long after you pulled him into your room before slamming him in the door only to smash your lips into his.
He let out a surprised yelp before you moved your hands to make shigaraki’s hands hold on to your waist. Your hands were to occupied that moment, one was in his hair tugging it, while the other was harshly rubbing on his cock.
During this entire encounter shigaraki was a panting mess, face red and messily kissing you ass well.
You grin evilly before shoving your hand down his pants.
“N-no! You can’t d-do t-that!” His voice cracked while he was trying to sound dominant.
“Why not?” You say innocently.
“Because people dont do that!”
“Really now?”
“Yes!”
“Well from what i recall, i remember that what im doing to you right now is called a handjob.”
“W-whats a handjob?” Now it was your turn to look at him wide eyed. You abruptly stop which caused him to whimper at the lost of undeniable pleasure.
“Your kidding right?”
“...”
“What have you never had the sex talk?!”
“...”
“Well then let me show you one thing that gives people pleasure.” You grin smugly as you continue your attack under his pants. Causing him to gasp at the sudden stimulation.
You rubbed him quickly while you bit his neck. Grabbing bits of skin and taking it in between your teeth. One of your fingers brushed the head of his dick causing him to let out a rather loud moan. His seed coating his pants but you didn’t stop which lead to him falling to the ground.
“Wow did you just cum in your pants? How embarrassing!” You laughed as you degraded him. You knew you were playing a dangerous game but knowing your leader was a little bitch for your sexual attention, was worth it.
You dug your hand out of his pants showing him all the sum that coated you hand. He looked at the hand then you. Wondering what you were going to do.
He slowly started shaking when he saw you bring your hand to your mouth to lick it all off. You slowly stood up looking down at shigaraki, face flushed and looking completely blissed out. 
You open your door causing him to fall back into the hallway. He looked at you again before you shut the door in his face. 
Leaving his pants zipper wide open for all to see.
~~~
Okay that was it. After that last incident Shigaraki had made up his mind. He needed to ignore your childish antics.
But it felt amazing, your soft hands-. No Shigaraki wasn’t going to think about that. HE had a mission and he wasn’t going to let you distract him.
The why couldn’t he stop the wet dreams?
Every night since then, his dreams would be full of things that made his heart go wild and dick standing up.
The thought of you licking his hardening member had him creaming his pants. 
HE even went as far as to search up the ‘sex talk’. And boy was he suprised.
He looked at everything the internet had to offer about sex. It was all good until he found out about kinks.
He looked at said website, and was completely in shock at some of these things. 
But what really got him going was the thought of you crying. Crying out to him as he fucked you. Not to mention the thought of him being in control was such a turn on that he couldn’t handle it anymore. He quickly sat up from his chair turning off the computer already full of new knowledge before stomping straight to your room.
When he opened the door you were there on your phone. You looked up at him with a sly grin.
“Need something boos?” Oh he needed something alright. He slammed the door behind him locking it before jumping on the bed and pinning you to it.
“Well didn’t thin-” You were interrupted when you felt your shirt and pants get disintegrated before getting flipped onto your tummy with your ass in the air.
“Shigaraki the h-HELL!” You yell out the last part after Shigaraki plunged into you without warning or prep. Before you could say anything you felt a sharp smack on your ass. Then another, then another.
THe red marks on your ass where enough to tell you who was in charge now. Shigaraki held your waist with eight fingers and humping you like a dog. 
You could hear his moaning in panting after every thrust. About like a minute in you felt his cock twitch inside you, thankfully over that time your wetness was a makeshift lube.
“Shigaraki d-dont your d-dare come i-inside!” You panted out, even it was his first time but you couldn’t stop the moans from flowing. His thrust weren’t in rhythm but the fact that he jack hammered into you with speed is what made you a moaning mess.
“Shut the fuck up, i-it’s my turn to b-be dominant now!” His arms snaked around your waist pulling you closer to him. His mouth was next to your neck as you could feel his hot breath.
Before you know it you feel shigaraki still inside you as he bit onto your skin harshly, the feeling of his seed pouring into you is something you would never forget.
“Asshole! I could get pregnant!” You yelled out to him but it fell on deaf ears as he continued his pace again, not giving you any type of warning.
The tip of his cock hitting your cervix over and over again made your legs shake as his grip on your waist tightened. He peppered your neck in kisses and bites, leaving nowhere untouched.
Of course it wasn’t long until you were pushed over the edge. The orgasm was so strong that your body felt like jello afterwards.
But did that stop Tomura? Nope we all know once this rat boy gets a taste of pussy you aint never gonna walk again.  Enjoy the rest of your life being Tomura’s personal fuck toy.
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cellard0ors · 3 years
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WHELP.
No one hated this. so, it's continuing. I have no title as of yet. Still dedicated to @lallyloo
Part 1 here
Rhett used to live closer.
Now he doesn’t.
Link knows there are a variety of factors that went into the move, and he respects them. Still, it was nice before - when he didn’t have to travel so far. Now here he is, driving out into the middle of nowhere to see someone who used to be a short distance away.
Everything used to be…closer.
Sometimes Link looks back, riffles through his memories and it’s almost painful. It’s not that the memories are bad per say, it’s more how they feel. So close and so far – recent, yet ages ago. It’s an uncomfortable dichotomy, so he does his best to just concentrate on the present.
And, presently, he’s pulling up to a tiny little cabin surrounded by towering California redwoods. His car crunches loudly over the gravel drive - loud enough to summon his friend, even if his hearing’s declining. Although - to be fair, Link’s hearing is not the greatest either.
Hearing, sight, the combined ache of your muscles and bones - yeah, getting older is a real bitch. Not a word Link likes to say, much less think, but facts are facts. Age isn’t pretty, albeit there are some advantages. One of which being that you can pretty much go and do whatever you please, whenever you please.
Especially if you made a rather lucrative creative endeavor at one point. Mythical Morning may be gone, but the capital earned is doing its job of keeping him cushy in his golden years. Rhett as well, who certainly couldn’t have afforded this place otherwise and as he emerges from his home he offers a wave.
Link returns it, but finds he has to fight off a scowl. Really, it’s not fair. Link went silver early and he always thought he looked pretty damned handsome with it- a total silver fox.
But Rhett?
Well, Rhett always did have a history of beating him.
He might have gone silver later, but damned if he doesn’t wear it better. His beard is neatly trimmed, long hair tied back and he looks like some kind of rugged highlander cowboy combo that could get away with being on the cover of one of those old romance novels Christy used to thumb through.
…terrible…
A man his age shouldn’t look so good.
Rhett shouldn’t look so good.
And considering what Link’s come here to talk about he really doesn’t want to think about that right now.
Focus on the present, Neal, he reminds himself, shaking his head while he parks. When he gets out Rhett charges up, one hand out for a shake, which Link takes and then the two share a brief, back slapping hug.
“How ya been, brother?”
“Told you last night - tired and tired of being tired. You?”
“Same,” Rhett chuckles, “but figured if you were makin’ the drive up here, there might be more to say.”
There is, but Link’s not ready for it, instead clearing his throat while moving towards the two rocking chairs near the porch, “Mind if I-?”
“Help yourself,” Rhett says with an expansive gesture and the two end up seated and looking out over the wilderness. Link’s been here before. They’ve done this before. Just sat in these chairs and shot the shit. But today, Link finds himself a little more riled than usual, a little stiffer, and Rhett must pick up on it, because he sighs, “You might as well spit it out.”
“Spit what out?”
“Whatever it is you’re trying to avoid, bo,” Rhett says and he’s got a cooler of sprite nearby. He grabs a can and cracks it open, taking a swig before continuing, “We can sit here and waste time until you work up the nerve or-”
“I have the nerve!” Link cries but Rhett just goes on as if he hasn’t been interrupted, “-you can just spill. Probably feel better after.”
“Doubt that,” Link grouses and reaches into the cooler to get his own drink. Because Rhett managed to call him out so smoothly, so quickly, he decides to take his time on purpose. What was it Lily said? Be ‘deliberately obtuse’? It’s not quite what he’s doing now, but close enough.
Rhett, unbothered by Link’s act of defiance, merely sips his can and rests in his chair - annoyingly regal and relaxed. Sometimes Link really hates him. But it’s the kind of hate that’s so tangled up with affection that it’s irritating beyond measure, so he just stews over his own soda and waits.
For the longest time, it feels like neither will break the silence, but - considering Link came here to see Rhett and not the other way around - he decides (very graciously, he might add) to bend first, “Is it ever hard on you?”
One of Rhett’s eyebrows wing upwards, “Is what ever hard on me?”
Link shifts about, suddenly wishing these wooden chairs had some cushion, “The whole,” he waves a hand around them, “lonely woodsman thing?”
“…you think I’m lonely?”
“Well, I mean…” Link feels very tongue tied and very stupid and he doesn’t want to somehow inadvertently insult or hurt his friend, “Do you-? Do you ever think about how-how things changed?”
Rhett shrugs easily, “Things change, Link. That’s just life. Nature.”
“Yeah, I know, I know,” Link grumbles, “But I mean-? I’m more like-?” he growls under his breath because he’s annoyed that he can’t articulate his thoughts easily, “You and Jessie…”
“What about me and Jessie?”
“I mean…you were married…”
“We were?” Rhett asks the last as if it’s a hugely shocking revelation and Link hopes his expression manages to convey how he feels about that kind of response, “Yes. You and Jessie were married and then, y'know, um, you-you weren’t and I-I guess I just wondered if-if-?”
Rhett takes a deep pull on his sprite before sighing, “Are you asking if I’m lonely without Jessie?”
“Uh…sort of? Or, I mean, more-more directly - did you ever think this…this is how it would end up.”
“Gosh, no,” Rhett laughs and the corners of his eyes crinkle in that way that always makes Link’s heart twirl a little, “No, I sure didn’t. But; mean, ’s like I said, things change. So do people. Jessie and I loved one another, but,” he shrugs again, “Kids grew up, moved out, and when it was just me and her we’d found things’d changed.”
“But…” Link sounds sort of lost, “How?”
Rhett’s narrows his eyes at him, “Man, you know how. We’ve talked about this! She and I were just…different people than we used to be. Different from who we were when we got married and all. It wasn’t bad - we still loved one another. But there just…”
He rolls his shoulders and sighs again, one big hand rubbing at the back of his neck, “Wasn’t that spark anymore. I love her. Still do. Heck, we still talk - just spoke to her last week! But being in love with her?”
The last is asked in a way that pretty much answers itself. Link gets it. He does understand it. And as Rhett said – they’ve talked about this before. Back when it first happened, even. Link knows the story. He knows it and he knows it and yet…
“I guess, I’m…well, I’m-I’m just asking because you-you live up here all by yourself and I…I live by myself and…”
Rhett’s heavy lidded eyes take on this sad, soulful look, one that makes Link’s throat close up around his words, “That what this really about, brother? You thinkin’ about Christy again? You really the lonely one?”
“Yes,” Link blurts and, sort of horrified that he did, rushes on, “And no. No, mean…this-this isn’t about Christy…this-this is about Lily.”
Rhett’s eyes widen and his head rears back, the confusion on his face paramount, “Okay, alright then - color me perplexed, 'cause I don’t see how my being lonely and then your being lonely has anything to do with your daughter.”
“Lily thinks we should go out!” Link squeaks loudly and hoo boy! Bad enough the words came out in that sharp of a tone, but he also Did. Not. Mean. To. Say. Them!
He was planning on working into it in a far more casual manner. Maybe even jokingly. Like, 'Hey, my daughter thinks we should go out! Isn’t that a laugh riot?’ Or 'So, my children are conspiring against us!’ Or really anything - any way - different than how it came out just now.
Rhett, for his part, doesn’t seem all that rocked by this announcement, “Oh. Um. Alright. Sounds good.”
“Sounds good?!” And wow. Just wow. Link thought he sounded squeaky and loud before. That came out even worse. Mickey-Mouse-sucked-on-helium-and-went-hysterical worse. Rhett must have misunderstood, right? Right?!
As if sensing the question, Rhett finishes off his sprite and tosses the can in a nearby trash can, “Sure. We can go out. Where you wanna go? Wouldn’t mind takin’ a trip. Been an age since we done it.”
His reply confirms Link’s thinking and he deflates, but only a smidge, because he now knows he still has to explain, “No, no, no. I-I mean she wants us to go out. As-as in out out.”
Watching the realization dawn on Rhett’s face should be funny. It really should. More so when he asks in a higher tenor, “Out out as in-?”
“As in a date, man. My little girl thinks we should date,” Link wants to make this into a joke. He feels like he should be able to do that. He knows he should. Because that’s what this is, isn’t it? One big joke and he tries to laugh but the sound comes out so false and weird he stops it immediately, instead pressing on, “Rest of my kids too. She was just…just the one elected to bring it up or-or something…”
Rhett sits up straighter and crosses his arms. His eyes dart from side to side and he looks like he’s thinking so danged hard about this. Way harder than Link thinks he should.
“Let me get this straight: your kids,” Rhett points to Link, “think we,” he waves a finger between the two of them, “should go out with one another?”
“Yes.”
Rhett blinks several times as if he’s physically processing this. His mind a computer pushing through a big old file of data. Which is probably why he offers an indelicate, “Huh.”
“Right?!” Link cries, because he feels like Rhett understands. Rhett gets Link. Rhett knows exactly how Link thinks and feels and Rhett gets this situation, Link’s situation, perfectly.
“My kids pushed me back into datin’ long before yours did.”
…and this was not the response Link expected. He’d expected laughter. He’d expected an eyeroll. He’d expected anything but Rhett to say what he just said and thus his response is less than elegant, “Eh?”
“Locke and Shepard got on me 'bout dating only a year or two after the deal with Jessie was finalized. Think they were worried I’d become some ol’ hermit in the woods…” the last comes out in a bit of a chuckle as Rhett looks around them, “Can you believe that?”
Link can’t help but join him in chuckling on that front. Once the laughter dies down, Rhett sits up, threading his fingers together before letting his hands hang down between his knees, “Told ‘em I didn’t need it. You reach a certain age and you don’t date anymore.”
“That’s what I told, Lily!” Link crows; overjoyed that his pal is in agreement.
One slender shoulder rises and falls in an easy motion as he confesses, “Not that I haven’t been out though.”
This draws Link up short. It startles him. It makes him sit up as well, his own hands mirroring Rhett’s and one of his legs starts jiggling restlessly, “Y-Y-you’ve been-? Been seeing someone?”
“Nah,” Rhett offers a lazy grin, “Not seriously. Seen a coupla different folks, but no one I’d care to see again.”
So.
Rhett had…or is…dating. Sure, he doesn’t call it dating, but still…the omission trips Link up. For some reason, he’d just believed both he and Rhett were in the same boat. Sure, Rhett was divorced, not widowed, but Link had felt – in some way – that it held the same sort of principle.
You chose someone to spend the rest of your life with and when their life or your life ended, that was that. There was nothing else, no one, else. And he’s aware how immature that is, how backwards-thinking, but it just…it’s what he always thought. Until now. Until this very moment where Rhett revealed that it’s not that way at all.
At least not for him.
Rhett…seeing people…with-with potential romantic intent…
For some reason it just doesn’t compute and now Link knows he’s the one blinking madly as he tries to process this. One reason it’s hard to swallow comes to mind, so he asks, "You-you never mentioned…?”
“Gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.”
“You’re telling me right now!” And there’s that hysteric tone again.
“Not givin’ you names, now am I?”
Link feels the sound of sheer disgruntled aggravation that leaves him right now really nails his feelings home. Rhett, however, is unmoved, “Gotta say though, Lily is way off base…”
Link’s hands unhook as he practically melts. A wave of relief washes over him, his whole body falling back to rest against the chair, “Finally!”
“…we already know one another.”
Link’s head snaps back up so quickly it defies his advanced age, “What?”
“Well, not only are we well past the age of dating, dating in and of itself is for people who don’t know one another,” Rhett returns candidly, “We’ve known one another damn near all our lives. So, telling us we should date isn’t quite right. If we went out, it’d probably be called something else.”
“What?!”
Rhett strokes at his beard thoughtfully, “Wonder if there’s a name for that? People who’ve known one another for a long time, but then decide to bump it up a notch. Mean, it’s probably still just called 'dating’, but I really think they should come up with another word for it, because they’re making up new words all the time for all kinds of things so, you think there’d be one for that.”
“WHAT?!”
Rhett looks at Link and he edges closer to him, voice colored with concern, “You alright there? Thought I was the one with the bad hearing. My hearing aids really help, so if you think your ears are starting to go you can ask your doc about-?”
“My hearing is fine,” Link stresses, “But I’m not sure about everything else, because, apparently, I’ve woken up in some alternate universe!”
“…well, we did used to say we traveled the multiverse.”
“Can it, McLachlin!” Link points at him, tone sharp, “You’re the one who said it wasn’t a question you needed to answer!”
“…a question-?”
“Back on the show!” Link cries, “One time you said you didn’t need to answer the question of what it’d be like if we kissed or made out or-!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Rhett laughs and waves both of his hands, “Look…first off - for the most part - you’ve always had a better memory’n me. Even back before we were old coots. Second, pretty presumptions of you, ain’t it?”
Link frowns, waits for Rhett to continue the thought and when he does, it takes all the strength Link has within in his body not to strangle the other man, “Mean – you jumping right into kissing and making out…haven’t even taken me out proper yet. If you want to start courting me…”
“I don’t!” Link practically leaps to his feet at that. A rather impressive feat considering his body doesn’t move with near the alacrity it used to, “I-I-I mean, I’m-I’m not-!”
“No?” Rhett sniffs, “Rude.”
“What?” And Link hates repeating himself, hates sounding so stupefied but honestly: what the heck? “Do you want me to be courting you? To take you out out? To date?”
Rhett looks far too damned tranquil for this conversation, “Just because a long time ago I said I didn’t need to answer the question to that, don’t mean I’m not pondering it now.”
And with that, Link dies.
Or he feels like he dies.
Or something else.
Something transcendent. Something where he really has confirmed that, somehow, the planets have shifted, the stars have aligned, and he’s been transported to another universe, because he couldn’t have possibly heard that right.
Yet he knows he did.
Link feels lightheaded. He feels like he’s outside of his body, his voice coming back to him in an echo, lips moving unbidden, “But-? You’re-you’re not-? You’ve-you’ve never been interested in-?”
Another easy shrug, “Not sure if I’m interested in men. But I sure as shit am interested in you. Always have been.”
Link really thinks he should sit back down. Sit back down or fall down. Just…down…
His hands feels shaky and wild as they find the arms of the chair, as he lowers himself back into, as he breathes, “You’re interested in-in-in-?”
Link’s head moves around as if looking for someone else, because saying ‘in me’ (and the ‘me’ being Link himself) doesn’t seem at all possible.
Rhett, seeming to finally take pity on him, sighs, “When I say ‘I’m interested in you’, I’m not declaring some secret, unrequited, suppressed feelings for you, man. I’m saying you’re my friend, I find you interesting, and I ain’t entirely opposed to seeing if there could be more to it,” he unlaces his fingers to wave between them, “To us,” then he changes one of his hands into the two fingers to motion between their eyes, “To this.”
“…this…” is all Link can manage. It comes out faint and whispery. He’s still pretty convinced he died. Probably happened on the ride here. Damn twisty backroads.
“…’course if you’re not interested,” Rhett sucks his teeth, “Or chicken…”
Link snaps back to life right quick. He’s alive. He’s alive and in his body and his ears are burning, his heart pounding, his cheeks bright red as his blood pressure rises, “I’m not chicken!”
Rhett just eyes him balefully and-and the utter gall of it! Of those eyes looking at him in this fashion and Link puffs up, “I’m not! I’M a modern man, dang it! I-I’m not afraid to-to-!”
He runs a hand through his thick (now completely) silver hair and tugs it hard, “It’s just-? It’s crazy! It’s insane! It’s-it’s-it’s-!”
He’s stuttering all over himself, all the things he wants to say not coming out of his mouth quickly enough and he just points at Rhett accusingly, “It’ll ruin our friendship and be all kindas awkward and-!”
Rhett leans back in his chair, crosses his arms again and stretches out his ridiculously long, giraffe-like legs, “You know…we drank one another’s urine.”
Link stalls at that.
“Once upon a time.”
Link is still stopped. Enough that Rhett just breathes in and looks off to one side, “Messed around with one another’s feet. Did Mama Bird/Baby Bird. Cuddled with cockroaches.”
“Thought you said I had the better memory.”
“’Bout some things,” Rhett offers with a small grin, “My point is – we’ve done much crazier things. Only difference this time would be that it’s personal and it’s not for an audience.”
Link digests that, chews on it. He rolls it over and over again in his mind. Rhett seems to be waiting for him to answer – one way or another and when it becomes obvious that no real answer is forth coming, he lets out another sigh and rises up, wincing some.
Link would bet it’s due to his lower back twinging, because sitting long periods of time now just does that to him. Link knows, because it does it to him too.
Rhett puts his hands in his pockets and offers another blithe shrug, “Look, don’t worry about it. I don’t blame you if you’re-”
“Okay.”
Link’s eyes are downcast. They went in that direction when he knew his final answer. He wants to raise his head. He wants to know who said it, that quiet word. So quiet as to almost be inaudible.
And shy.
Quiet, shy…unreal.
And he knows he said it. Knows it came from his mouth. And he feels it when Rhett gets closer to him, feels the heat of his friend and he can just make him out of his peripheral vision as he repeats just as quietly, just as shy, “Okay?”
Link licks his lips and looks up. He looks up into his friend’s kind eyes and feels his head wobbling on his neck as he nods, “Okay. Yeah. I…I guess it’s…it’s worth trying…”
“So,” Rhett’s lips tug up in one corner, a teasing sort of smirk, “You are courting me?”
Link shoves out at him and the two laugh. But the fact still remains. Link has just agreed to go out with Rhett. Out out. As in a date, as in…
…and Link knows, eventually, the panic will return. But for now? For now, it’s nice to just be with his friend and laugh.
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