#From the long reach area in Australia

[maybenoone]

Is it too autistic of me to want to sleep with the fossil mum got me as a gift in my bed?

#It's a crab claw fossil #That's 102 million years old #From the long reach area in Australia

[i-turned-into-the-stone]

A Flying Fuck - Lily NMIXX × M!Reader

A/N: The original idea is by an Anon in my inbox who always shared a great idea. I'm afraid I might have butchered this one but hopefully, it is still enjoyable. On another note, this will be the last smut before I go MIA to finish the commission I received.

Tags: Non-con, Dub-con(?), Fingering, Throat Fuck, Cum In Mouth, Cum Swallowing, Pussy Fuck, Slight Spanking/Tits Slapping, Forced Anal, Anal Gaping, Anal Fingering, Creampie

Word Count: 2,493

You finally settled into your first-class seat, grateful that the long overnight flight from Australia to Korea was going to be a cozy one. And guess what? Right next to you was NMIXX Lily, the gorgeous idol known for her killer performances and angelic voice. You simply couldn't believe your luck.

After an hour in the air, you were unable to take your eyes off her. Lily had this blonde hair flowing down her shoulder and her lips were slightly parted as she dozed off. The urge to touch her built up, but you knew you had to wait until everyone was snoozing.

As the cabin lights dimmed and people got cozy in their seats, you saw your chance. Sneaking over to Lily's seat, you made sure nobody was watching. Heart pumping with adrenaline, you settled next to her.

You started things off by gently running your fingers over her thighs under the blanket, feeling the smoothness of her skin. Lily didn't budge, she was a heavy sleeper, making it easier for you to explore her body, giving her perky breast a squeeze and slipping your hand under her shirt to play with her nipple.

Feeling a little daring, you ventured further down to her pants and, surprise, she was already wet through her panties. Aroused as hell, you slipped two fingers into her slick pussy while teasing her clit, nestled beneath a thin patch of hair.

At first, she didn't stir much, lost in her deep sleep, but as you kept moving your fingers, feeling her warm, soft walls, she started moaning softly. Her moans only fueled your desire, so you kept up the rhythm, back and forth, back and forth.

Lily squirmed and was on the verge of cumming when she suddenly woke up, disoriented and sweaty. When she realized what happened, her eyes bulged in shock. She tried to scream, but you shut her up quickly by pulling out your fingers and stuffing them into her mouth, feeding the idol her own taste.

Lily fought to push you away, but she was weak from her interrupted orgasm. You took advantage, using your other hand to finger-fuck her roughly right there in her seat. Curling your fingers upward, you scratched her insides, causing tears to stream down her face. It was a mix of pleasure and horror for her.

Slowly, her walls clenched around you in response. She couldn't catch her breath as you picked up the pace, going slow and deep, driving her wild. With each stroke, her body trembled, and she let out muffled gasps of pleasure that grew more desperate.

As the plane continued its journey, Lily's moans blended with the hum of the engines, creating a naughty little soundtrack just for you two. You curled your finger, hitting her sweet spot and taking her pleasure to new heights.

Her hips lifted off the seat, meeting your every movement. The thrill of doing something so taboo overwhelmed her like crazy, ignoring the fact that you were a stranger. With a restrained cry, Lily reached her peak, her body convulsing in ecstasy as she came undone.

As Lily froze in her seat, her whole body still shaky from that mind-blowing orgasm, she was still trying to make sense of what the hell was happening. This whole thing was way beyond anything she'd ever imagined. And here she was, with you, a total stranger.

In a flash, you yanked off her sweatpants and ripped open her shirt, leaving her butt naked and vulnerable. Lily couldn't even muster the strength to fight back. It was like her body betrayed her and wanted this. After scanning the area real quick, nobody was watching.

You went straight for her boob, sucking on one and fondling the other. Lily let out these hot moans, weakly pushing your head while her body arched toward you, begging for more. But just as things were heating up, the plane started shaking.

The turbulence sign went off, signaling that some flight attendant might come through to check if everyone was buckled up. Panic set in, but you didn't let it mess with your game. You swiftly pulled Lily out of her seat and made her kneel right in front of you, between your legs.

Then, you whipped out your hard cock through the zipper of your pants. Lily's eyes went wide at the sight of it. Not giving her even a second to respond, you shoved that bad boy down her throat, making her gag and choke on it. You covered both of you with a blanket, trying to hide this illegal act from some approaching crews.

Some sleepy-ass flight attendant walked by, not even giving you a second glance. You couldn't help but marvel at your massive luck, doing your ultimate fantasy on a plane, and nobody had a clue. Pretending to sleep, you forced Lily to keep working your cock, her hands weakly clawing at your pants.

The poor girl couldn't breathe and was about to pass out but you didn't stop, taking control of her face, moving it up and down your throbbing dick, hitting the back of her throat, ruining her light makeup. Cock was thick, stretching her jaws wide, making her gag and spit on your crotch. The sound of her retching only turned you on even more, hissing in pleasure.

You picked up the pace, thrusting your hips and losing yourself in the pure bliss of the moment. Lily's hands were desperately gripping your thighs, her body trembling as she fought to take you all in. And with a few more strokes, you finally reached your climax, dumping your load down her throat.

Lily had no choice but to swallow it all. When you pulled her face off your cock, Lily was gasping for air, her face all flushed and her eyes dazed. The remaining of cum trickled to her chin. You gave her a moment to catch her breath, letting her recover from the intense throat fucking.

Before those flight attendants came around again, you quickly threw a blanket over Lily's body and dragged her, with just her soaked panties and socks on, into the bathroom. Once inside, you pinned her hands against the wall. Under that bright bathroom light, you finally got a good look at her body. Despite her quirky personality, she was built for sex.

"Why-Why are you doing this? Who are you...? Please... I can't..." Lily managed to say, her voice filled with fear.

"Shh, chill," you whispered, planting kisses on her ear and neck. "I'm actually a fan. I know being an idol can be one hell of a stressful job. I'm just here to help you feel good, babe."

Lily didn't know what to say, so she tried to reason with you using the lamest excuse her foggy mind could come up with. "This is... so inappropriate..."

You chuckled as you ripped off her panties and shoved them into her mouth, pressing her against the bathroom door. "Does that taste inappropriate to you?"

Obviously, she couldn't answer with her mouth full. You took a seat on the toilet, holding your throbbing cock in one hand, and pulled her towards you. With weak legs, she stumbled forward, losing her balance as she slowly lowered herself onto your hard shaft.

The sensation of her tightness wrapping around you sent shivers down your spine. As she took you in, her warmth and wetness grew, her tight wet pussy accommodating every inch of your sensitive nerves.

With a firm grip on her ass, you guided her movements, urging her to take more. Lily willingly followed your lead, her nails digging into your shoulders. She bounced on your length, her suppressed moans echoing through the bathroom. You reveled in the feeling of being completely engulfed by her.

The sheer pleasure of being stretched and filled to the brim consumed Lily, driving her movements to become more urgent, more desperate. With each bounce, she ground against you, the sound of your bodies slapping each other filling the cramped space.

"Fuck... See? You're into this. Way better than using your dildos, huh?" you whispered.

Her canal contracted around your cock, her muscles clenching as her pleasure built. Lily rode you with a devotion that matched your own. Her breasts bounced up and down, such a mesmerizing sight. You could feel her wetness soaking your pants, but that was the least of your worries.

You weren't ready for it to end just yet. You wanted to keep dominating this lubricious idol, so you pushed Lily away, making her stumble. In a flash, you maneuvered her, bending her sideways over the sink beside the toilet. With one of her legs hoisted onto your shoulder, you positioned yourself behind her and plunged deep into her eager heat.

As you entered her, your hands caressing her toned and soft tummy. Lily's grip on the sink edge tightened, her knuckles turning white as she held on for dear life. Her drool escaped through the panties jammed in her mouth, adding to the mess.

"Do you fucking like it when I take control, you dirty little slut?" you growled, your voice oozing dominance.

Pounding into the girl with unforgiving force, the sink rattled, reflecting the intensity of your wild romp. Each powerful thrust brought both of you closer to the edge, but it was Lily who couldn't hold on any longer, squirting all over your cock and the floor. Her body trembled with pleasure.

Thankfully, the turbulence of the plane masked the explicit sounds coming from the lavatory as you kept pounding into her. Lily, completely exhausted at this point, barely put up a fight and simply took it like a pro slut.

As you continued fucking Lily from behind, her juices splattered everywhere each time you went balls deep inside her.

Your hand came down with a firm smack on her ass, the sound of skin meeting skin exploding and mingling with her moans. Her ass cheeks jiggled with each spank, turning a rosy shade of pink.

Not wanting to neglect her luscious tits, you leaned forward, your free hand reaching up to deliver a sharp slap to each of her glistening, sweat-covered breasts. Her tits jiggled and bounced as your hand made contact, leaving a painful red sting.

Lily's leg on your shoulder got heavier, a clear sign that her other leg couldn't even support her weight anymore as her nectar kept dripping onto the floor like a leaking pipe. You were so close to reaching your peak, it was building up inside you.

"Your pussy feels too good. Fuck! I'm gonna cum. Do you want me to knock you up?"

Her moans grew louder in response as she shook her head but you pretended not to notice and added a bit of teasing, "Answer me, or I'll just unload inside you."

With a shaky hand, Lily removed the panties from her mouth and let out a mix of desperate pleas and pleasure-filled moans. "Ahh! Ahh! Ohh– please, please pull out! Nngh~"

"Then you better spread that ass wide," you ordered, dropping her leg from your shoulder while still pounding her hard. Adjusting her into a standing doggy position, you grabbed her ass, giving it a firm squeeze before pulling out from her sore pussy and pressing your cock into her tight asshole.

Lily's eyes widened in shock as she looked back and helplessly tried to push you away. “No! Stop, not there! Ahhh!!! It- it hurts!”

As you forcefully entered Lily's tight ass, your cock only managed to enter halfway due to the sheer tightness. The sensation is intense, and Lily's cries mix with the sounds of your raw growl. Overwhelmed by the pain insertion you were giving her, she had no choice but to spread her butt cheeks with her hands, trying to ease the discomfort.

You alternated between entering her pussy to get your cock lubed with her juices before plunging back into her gaping asshole. The mix of her wetness and the tightness of her ass creates a mind-blowing friction that sends waves of rapture throughout your veins.

Lily screamed without restraint, her legs shaking uncontrollably as she was pushed to her limits. The combination of pleasure and pain consumes her, driving her wild with a mix of agony and ecstasy. Her body trembled as her bowel got stretched little by little.

Your grip reached her hair, pulling her head back so she was forced to look into the mirror in front of her. With every harsh thrust, she caught glimpses of herself, her once pristine and idolized image now distorted.

Her reflection in the mirror showed the submission and pleasure etched across her face, the sweat-slicked strands of hair clinging to her skin. Lily's gaze met yours in the mirror, a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. The sight of her looking into her own eyes, witnessing the transformation of her image, adds an extra layer of degradation to her being.

Releasing her hair, you wrapped your hands around her waist, pulling her back against you, swinging your hips forward. Legs trembling, she was barely able to support her weight as she surrendered completely.

Your hands left her waist and grabbed hold of her hips, using them as leverage to pound into her ass with even more power. The slapping sounds of your bodies meeting grew louder, mixing with Lily's screams, a pleasure-pain mixture pushed her to the edge, her body quivering as she squirted once again.

The constant pounding had her once tight and virgin asshole stretched and gaping. The tightness and heat of her ass, combined with the sight of her stretched and twitching opening, just amped up your vigor.

You kicked her legs apart, spreading them wide open to expose her wet pussy once more. You dove back into that velvety canal. You then plunged two fingers deep inside her slick asshole, giving her a whole new level of sensation.

Moans of ecstasy mixed with the wet sounds of your fingers exploring her ass, taking her pleasure to new heights. Her inner walls tightened around your cock, gripping you tighter as she neared her climax.

A primal groan escaped your lips as you unleashed a hot load deep inside her womb, giving her the deepest creampie imaginable. The surge of your seed sent Lily over the edge, her orgasm crashing through her body, leaving her convulsing and gasping for breath.

Feeling satisfied, you didn't forget to capture the moment as a keepsake. You snapped some blackmail photos of her, covered in cum and showing off the handprints from the kinky slaps on her ass, tits, and pussy, leaving her completely exposed.

Once you were done, you calmly returned to your seat, taking the blanket with you. You patiently waited for Lily to leave the bathroom, phone at the ready, and managed to capture a video of her sneaking back to her seat, limping, no longer covered in cum but butt naked.

#kpop smut #kpop gg #kpop girls #male reader #non con smut #nmixx lily #nmixx smut #lily jin morrow #nmixx lily smut #lily smut #girl group smut

[thedovesaredying]

Monsters in the Dark | Nikto x Reader | Part 1

First "official" part of Nikto x Reader fic set in the cowboy AU originally created by @ghouljams once again staring our darling Sputnik. Makes a lot more sense if you read the prologue which can be found linked below.

A/N: Did I spend several hours watching Kevin Richardson videos with him hanging out with his hyenas while writing this? Yes. Do I regret it? Absolutely not. This also ended up a lot longer than I was expecting lmao.

Warnings: Depictions of Minor Medical Procedures.

Masterlist: CoD Masterlist

Prev Part | Next Part

When working as a rural vet there’s a surprising amount of driving involved. Travelling from the clinic to farms and huge properties miles and miles away for in-person appointments and consultations can understandably take several hours out of your day. Most of the time you don’t even have working cell service to help guide you to your destination and you’re forced to either memorise the route beforehand or turn to your old reliable map.  

You’re new to the area, having decided to spend some time travelling across the US for the potential experience it could offer you. You’ve done plenty of work on stations in the north of Australia, helping jackaroos to manage any illness within their herds, always moving from place to place, and so Texas seemed like the perfect place to start your travels.  

While training, however, you had been given an offer to travel to South Africa to work with the numerous wildlife there both on reserves and in zoos. It was the best year of your life and ignited a passion for working with exotic animals.  

Travelling the US for work was an exciting opportunity to help rural communities with their livestock and to work with the numerous native species you’ve never had the chance to encounter in your everyday life. This little town was just another step on your travels and, so far, hadn’t really stood out to you more than any other small town.  

So, it isn��t out of place for you to be driving down a lengthy driveway through the woods and pulling up to a rundown old house. What is strange, is the huge creature sitting at the top of the porch.  

The hyena is massive. It’s powerfully built with pure muscle, and no doubt would be able to tear you to pieces if it chose to. It’s so distracting that for a long time you don’t even notice the huge man standing beside your car. He looks just as strong as the hyena sitting behind him and you’re not sure how you missed his approach.  

When the lady at the front desk informed you that there was a gentleman asking for a veterinarian with experience handling exotics, you were thinking perhaps a rare lizard, or an uncommon species of parrot. What you weren’t expecting was to see an adult hyena staring you down.  

You’re more than a little reluctant to leave the safety of the vehicle, but upon receiving a jerk of the head from the man, you cautiously exit the car. Not once do you take your eyes off the predator while you quickly grab your bag from the backseat.  

Having dealt with hyenas before, you know better than to show any kind of fear, forcing your shoulders down from your ears and starting to take calm, deep breaths. You offer your name to who you presume is the animal’s owner and hold out a hand for him to shake.  

The man, “Nikto,” as he grunts to you, takes your hand after a moment and gives it a firm shake. You’re used to farmers having a strong grip, so you simply offer the man a bright grin. “I take it this is the patient?” you ask, nodding your head toward the hyena in question.  

The man is clad head to toe in all-black clothing. Typical cowboy hat, black denim jeans, and a shirt that has a high collar and sleeves that reach all the way down to his wrists where they meet with a pair of leather gloves. All regular clothing, albeit a little dark for such a hot climate, but what really sets him apart is the dark neck gaiter covering most of his features.  

You would think it odd for him to be hiding his face on his own property, but you’ve heard that there’s several other ex-military men in the town that also prefer bandanas or masks to showing their bare faces. It looks intimidating, especially given just how huge the guy is, but at the end of the day he’s your client and it isn’t your place to judge.  

“да,” Nikto nods, “this is Sputnik.” He looks you up and down, before asking, “you are comfortable with her, yes?”  

“Uh, yeah, I’ve worked with hyenas before,” you confirm. That, unfortunately, doesn’t make it any easier or less nerve-wracking to be so close to an unrestrained predator. Normally, there’s at least a fence between you and any of the wildlife you’re treating, but hopefully the animal is somewhat friendly given it’s allowed to roam free.  

At your confirmation, he lets out a sharp whistle and snaps out a harsh, “КО МНЕ!” Causing the animal to leap to her feet and sprint across the grass to her owner’s side.  

You try not to jump when Sputnik runs directly toward you but manage to keep a handle on your reactions. Much to your relief, however, rather than tackling you to the floor and tearing your throat out, the hyena starts laughing excitedly and running circles around you. She’s clearly very curious, stopping every few seconds to try and sniff at you from a distance.  

You can imagine it would be an intimidating sight for anyone who has never encountered a hyena before, but she’s clearly just excited to meet someone new. “Is she normally this excited to meet new people?” you ask, unable to resist the smile that grows on your face as Sputnik starts to playfully nip at Nikto’s legs.  

The man huffs, crossing his arms over his chest, “no.” 

You’re beginning to understand that Nikto is not one for making conversation.  

As Sputnik calms again, you watch her wander around the area. The issue becomes clear to you quite quickly in the form of a slight limp on one of her hind legs. She seems to otherwise be bright, alert and responsive, only the sore leg causing her problems.  

You run through the basic questions about the problem, how long it’s being going on, and how her behaviour has been recently. You quickly take notes on her previous medical history while keeping an eye on Sputnik. After taking down her information, you ask Nikto to bring her to one of the old sheds so you can begin the exam.  

She’s a beautiful hyena, and despite not having the behaviour of a domesticated dog, she can somewhat follow her owner’s commands. After seeing Nikto tapping the top of one of the tables, she hops up into a bench for you to more easily inspect her body.  

With Sputnik firmly restrained by her owner, you gently reach out for her hind paw. You softly palpate the area, taking note of the large amount of swelling, particularly in the area between two of her toes. After glancing up to ensure she isn’t getting too stressed, you pull apart the toes, spotting a nasty yellow lump of what is presumably infection.  

As you check over the area, you notice something black sticking out of the wound. With your trusty pair of tweezers you take hold of the object and begin to gently tease it out of the swollen mass. Sputnik’s leg twitches slightly, clearly not happy about someone touching her sore paw, but after a few soft words of encouragement she settles once again.  

Your grip on the object slips a few times, but eventually you’re able to pull it free. It’s a nasty thorn, a whole inch in length that was buried in the poor animal’s foot. Just removing it causes a flood of pus to begin squirting from the wound and you’re thankful for the medical gloves you’re wearing, because it is far from a pleasant smell.  

Sputnik whines, trying to pull her paw away again, but with your client still holding her head in place you can continue to express the rest of the fluid without causing her much more distress. With a small syringe of saline, you quickly flush out the remaining chunks of hardened infection until the liquid runs clear.  

It’s a small enough opening that she won’t need the wound packed or any stitches to keep it closed. Instead, you spray the area with a thick layer of Blu-Kote to prevent any further infection.  

“I'll need to give her a quick antibiotic injection to make sure it won’t come back, just make sure she’s restrained, okay?” You receive a grunt of acknowledgement, then provide the needed shot. Sputnik tries to turn and snap at you, but with Nikto in the way she ends up biting at thin air and growling in frustration.  

You gently rub at the hyena’s back with a loving coo, “what a brave girl, you did so well!” 

After being released she turns to regard you for a moment, before squealing happily and trying to lick at your face. It seems you’re already forgiven for your cruel transgressions against the poor girl. “Looks like this was the cause of the trouble,” you explain, briefly showing Nikto the old thorn you’d removed.  

Nikto turns his gaze to Sputnik, rolling his eyes before gently cuffing her around the back of the head. “Долбоеб,” he mutters, ignoring the way she starts to playfully bite at one of his gloved hands.  

You’re not entirely sure what he said, but no doubt it’s some sort of insult. Not that Sputnik seems to care, hopping down from the table and trotting around the barn as if the last ten minutes didn’t occur.  

“I gave her a strong antibiotic, but spotted hyenas are pretty notorious for their infections being resistant to treatment, so if she starts getting worse or isn’t improving then be sure to give me a call and we’ll look at if there’s anything we need to do,” you explain, keeping an eye on how Sputnik moves on her feet now. 

“Understood,” the man nods, standing ramrod straight with his arms crossed over his chest.  

Clearly this man still isn’t very interested in a conversation, given he has nothing further to add and almost seems to be pointedly ignoring you. It’s a little uncomfortable, but he’s certainly not the first... interesting character you’ve dealt with in your career and he won’t be the last. “Do you have any other questions about the treatment?” you ask.  

“нет,” he grunts, before quickly adding, “no.”  

You nod, offering the man a genuine smile, “well, I’m glad I could help out.” You remove your gloves and quickly start packing away the tools you’d been using, “the office will send through an invoice to your email, so you can pay online or head down to the clinic to pay in person.”  

He just nods, watching you silently as you finish up collecting your tools and placing them back away into your bag. His eyes seem to burn into you, his icy gaze piercing through your body and directly into your very soul. You’re not sure how comfortable you are having your innermost self so openly exposed to someone you’ve only just met, but quickly shake off the feeling.  

As soon as you’re finished packing, you pull out one of your personal cards, handing it to Nikto. He stares at the piece of cardboard for a long moment, and you quickly explain, “my card, it’s got my number on it in case you ever need help.” You can’t imagine how difficult it must be for him to find someone with genuine experience treating large predatory animals and you’re more than happy to offer as much of your expertise as he wants.  

Nikto awkwardly goes to reach for the card with one of his hands, only to pause midway and reach for it with the other one. He fleetingly glances over the card, then tucks it into one of his shirt pockets.  

While you make your way back to your car, Nikto calls Sputnik back over and ensures the animal walks at his heels. She doesn’t seem happy with this command, whining and laughing as she looks between her master and you. She very obviously wants to run after you and play but knows better than to ignore her owner.  

Sputnik sits next to Nikto as the man watches you quickly pack everything back into your car. She keeps looking between you and Nikto, as if silently begging him to allow her to go back to you for more attention, but he stands strong against her sad eyes. It’s cute, really, since it likely means that weaponized puppy dog eyes are an effective tool in getting the stoic man to crumble if she’s still attempting to use them against him.  

Before you hop into the car you give Sputnik a wave, laughing when she cries at you. “Bye, sweetheart!” you coo again, before offering her owner a wave and a smile.  

Looking into the rear-view mirror on your way back toward the main road, you can see both Nikto and Sputnik watching you leave. They’re an odd pair, but it’s been a while since you had the chance to work with such a beautiful animal and you can’t help looking forward to seeing both her and her strange human again sometime soon.  

#writing #call of duty modern warfare #reader insert #fanfic #call of duty nikto #nikto x reader #cowboy au

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The Southern Hemisphere, where it’s winter, has been really hot too

Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia had heat waves in the past few months. Now spring begins.

It’s been a hot, brutal, record-breaking summer across much of the world, and it’s not quite ready to let go as late-season heat waves bake parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, North Africa, and the Middle East.

The long goodbye is a fitting cap to a season of deadly heat that contributed to severe drought in some areas and torrential rainfall in others. High temperatures also set the stage for wildfires in Greece and Turkey, Canada, Hawaii, and Louisiana.

But at least people north of the equator can look forward to some relief as autumn and winter set in. The 850 million people in the Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, are emerging from some of their hottest winter temperatures on record and bracing for even more heat as the warmer seasons begin.

In fact, the weather was pretty much like summer in June, July, and August across parts of South America, Africa, and Australia. Peruvians went to the beach last month as temperatures reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Similarly balmy weather engulfed Paraguay and Chile. Buenos Aires, Argentina, reached 86°F, the hottest August temperature in at least 117 years. The heat was downright dangerous in Brazil as thermometers ticked above 100°F. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology confirmed this month that Australia experienced its hottest winter since record keeping began more than a century ago. Even down near the South Pole, warmer air and water have led to the lowest sea ice extent on record around Antarctica.

“Some of these set new records by a large margin, also known as ‘record shattering’ extremes,” explained Michael Grose, a senior research scientist at CSIRO, Australia’s government science agency, in an email.

Continue reading.

#brazil #politics #environmentalism #climate change #australia #argentina #south africa #brazilian politics #australian politics #argentine politics #south african politics #mod nise da silveira #image description in alt

[chelscait]

sleeping together & waking up with alessia for the first time in 2 months after the world cup and it's all very smitten and fluff and in love

obsessed. | Alessia Russo

Winning your home world cup was euphoric, after all of the ups and downs, Australia was finally making its way up the ranks they so desperately deserved.

You couldn’t ask for more, the masses of audience and noise ejecting from the seats was heart clenching, it was breathtaking.

Looking around in awe, you tried to make sense of the family area, seeing if you could spot your favourite blonde. You found her next to your parents, clad in your jersey as she kept her eye on you, giggling as she blew you a kiss.

You ushered her to come down to the barriers though she shook her head, pointing at your teammates to go join them instead before mouthing an ‘i love you.’

You bit your lip before you felt an arm around your shoulder, dragging you into the broad mess of excitement.

After the trophy lifting, you had managed to spot Alessia on the sidelines watching you with her chin rested on her palm, a wide smile on her face.

You rushed over to her, herself standing up straight to get ready for your impact before you dragged her as best as you could over the fence into a tight hug.

She whispered how proud she was into your hair as you kept her close, Lessi’s hand cradling the back of your head that was buried into her neck.

“How do you feel?” She asked as she pulled your face away from her, rounding her hands to your neck.

“I.. i don’t know? This is nuts.” You stumbled, still beyond words as you looked around again.

“You played so well, i’m so happy for you.” Alessia exclaimed as she pressed a kiss to your cheek, yourself moving your head so she’d peck your lips too.

“I cant wait for when it’s just us, i’ve missed you so much.” You bit your lip as you played with the ends of her hair.

“Yes.. but you could also celebrate with your team? This is a big thing, Y/N. I don’t want to spoil it.”

“You could never spoil anything. At least come with me to the afterparty?”

“Well, i suppose i have nothing else to do.” She shrugged as you pulled her into another kiss or two before saying a see you later whilst you were tugged away by a teammate.

All the dancing in the changing room didn’t last too long, seeming as there was not enough alcohol involved in the private room and everyone shouting for a proper party.

When you made it back to the hotel, you found that friends and family were already there as well as your favourite girl, buzzed with adrenaline and a tiny bit of champagne you kept your eye on her as you hugged your family, saving her for last.

“You look so hot in yellow, baby. Have i told you that?” You prodded at your home shirt she was wearing after you hugged your family, pulling her in slightly by tugging it.

You leaned in slightly but she pushed your shoulders back gently, “not yet.”

“But..”

“Go.. you made me when i won the euros, i’m making you now.”

“You’re coming with.” You told her sternly as you slung a secure arm around her shoulders, not letting her go the entire night.

The night didn’t last long for the both of you, the alcohol may have been a bit too much for you to keep your hands off her, ending up making out on a little sofa.

“Can we go now.. my room is just upstairs and we can come back down?” You whispered against her lips before you went back in, the little noise she let out being your answer.

Standing up as best as you could with her lips still connected to yours, you broke apart as you reached for her to pull her up, tugging her towards the lifts.

You didn’t care if anyone saw you.

The small space didn’t give you any excuse to not carry on as you continued to touch her up as you pushed her against the bar, tongues feverishly clashing.

Once the destined ding approached and the doors opened, you kept kissing her as you pushed her out with you all the way to your room where you struggled to unlock the door before banging it open with a small thud.

You picked her up, alessia wrapping her legs around your waist and carried her towards the bed, throwing her on the cover before you covered her with your body.

“No. Keep that on.” You told as she began to lift the aussie jersey from her head until you tugged it back down, fingers feeling under to unclip her bra and remove it from underneath.

The look of her made you melt, “You look so fucking good in yellow, baby.”

You were awoken by the glow from the sunlight fully blinding you, having forgotten to close the curtains last night as you were in a ‘rush.’

You stretched your arms above you, realising the muscular and tender ache that accumulated your body before you sat your focus on the light head of hair beside you.

She was laying on her front, head facing away from you, noticing your top had ridden up her back so only your name was shown before reaching a hand out to trace your fingers along the curve of her spine.

You heard her sigh in relaxation as she fidgeted under your soft touch, twisting her head to face you with a tired smile.

“Morning, gorgeous.” You whispered as you continued tracing her back, only stopping when she pulls herself towards you to press a kiss to your lips.

“I’ve missed this.”

“I’ve missed you.” You grinned as you admired her, not helping yourself but to smother kisses all of her face as you pushed yourself up with your hands, alessia wrapping her hands gently around your neck as she giggled.

Alessia moved a hand up to your cheek and you leant into it, her thumb caressing your skin. She smiled as she witnessed you soak up her affection, leaning forward to press a kiss to your other cheek.

“Never want to leave this bed from now on, never want to leave you anymore.” You mumbled as you laid your head on her chest, snuggling into her when her hand moved to your hair.

“We have all the time in the world now, baby… until the olympics.”

#caits little fics #alessia russo x reader #alessia russo #woso x reader #woso imagines #woso oneshots #woso ficlets

[macontheweb]

Today, Australia is voting in a referendum on the Voice to Parliament: an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory body, enshrined in our constitution, that will give our First Nations peoples a say on policy that affects them. A Voice would be the first step in Australia reckoning with its history: a history which has so far ignored and silenced — often violently — the voices of the oldest living culture on the planet.

It is not lost on me that I am a non-indigenous person being asked —again — to weigh in on the future of indigenous Australians. I don’t take that lightly, nor am I sure whether a referendum is right for this. I would have felt perfectly comfortable with a Voice being enshrined without my input. Maybe that would have spared my indigenous friends the emotional toll of begging for political recognition.

But it is the way it is, so I’m voting Yes. I’m voting Yes on Wurundjeri land. Stolen land. Land where I live the kind of comfortable life out of reach for many indigenous Australians.

I’m voting Yes because it’s time for real reconciliation.

And I’m voting Yes because here hasn’t been a single argument from the No camp that I could square with doing the right thing. They say the Voice will divide Australia, but Australia is already divided. They say it will give indigenous Australians an unfair advantage. It won’t, but it will hopefully start undoing the years of unfair privilege white Australians have had in deciding their fate. The No camp has told us, “If you don’t know, vote no,” as if that’s an acceptable thing for our country’s civic discourse. As if the answer to not knowing is not to find out, not to ask questions, not to make an informed decision weighed by evidence.

They say indigenous Australians don’t want it. The polls say eighty percent of them do.

In all areas related to quality of life, non-indigenous Australians are leaps and bounds ahead of the people that lived on this land first. Indigenous Australians aren’t living as long as non-indigenous Australians. They are being incarcerated in disproportionate numbers. They don’t have the same access to high quality education. Domestic violence and sexual abuse rates are disproportionately higher in indigenous communities. The economy, housing, employment…the list goes on and on and on and the stats remain dire.

We are already living in a No world. It isn’t working.

It’s time for a change. I don’t know if we’ll get it. I’m fearful that we are too conservative and too selfish a nation to take this one small step, but I hope desperately when I wake up tomorrow we will have said, “Yes. Have a seat at the table. It’s long overdue.”

#bear with me on this #I know there’s a lot going on in the world but I had to get this out #the voice to parliament #long post #auspol

[crinkled-emotions]

If you are taking prompts for buddie. Could you do one where Buck is sick maybe with food poisoning from the whumperil lists and Eddie ties care of him. If you don't like that prompt maye use the one "I think I need to sit down" for buck. Have eddie catch him and slowly lower him down.

If you arnet taking prompts that's ok! Thank.

Hehehehe anon I hope you're still here bc I'm BACK to be a menace to the 9-1-1 fandom (be completely ignored) and yet they can't get rid of me!)

I started a rewatch so I'd be ready for season 7 then I remembered it won't be (legally) available in Australia for ages... and kept watching anyway bc it's been so long since I did a complete rewatch from s1 e1. It's been SUCH a treat.

I've also got a friend watching for the first time and their excitement is reminding me so much of the first time I saw this bunch of adults in firefighter uniforms and went oh.

Anywho- on to the fic!

-

"Eddie, hold up!"

Eddie glanced over his shoulder, frowning when he spotted Bobby jogging down the stairs.

"What's up, Cap?"

"I know you're going home but I was hoping you could check on Buck. He just called out and I need to organise someone to cover him."

Eddie paused, brows furrowed.

"Did he say why?"

"I was hoping he'd told you."

That reminded Eddie- he hadn't heard from Buck all shift which was very unusual. He shifted his bag to his other shoulder and reached into his back pocket for his phone, checking his messages.

"I've got nothing, but I'll let you know what I find."

"Thanks Eddie."

Bobby squeezed his arm then headed back upstairs, calling out goodbye to Hen, Chim and Ravi who were also going home after a long 24 hours. Eddie also waved at them, sending a quick text to Buck to warn him he was stopping by. He was hoping Buck had a minor cold but something told him to stop by a pharmacy on his way over just in case.

-

One visit to CVS later and Eddie was letting himself into Buck's apartment, plastic bag in hand. The apartment was eerily quiet as he stepped inside, unusual because even if he was upstairs for a moment Buck usually had the TV in the living room playing for background noise. Eddie dumped the plastic bag and double checked the living area for signs of life, poked his head into the downstairs bathroom, and then took the steps to the mezzanine level. His eyebrows knit together in confusion as he took in the rumpled blankets, the empty water bottles strewn throughout the room, and Buck-

Buck.

"What happened to you?"

Eddie knelt by the Buck-shaped figure in bed, finding his shoulder and giving it a gentle shake.

"Ugh, Eddie no, don't. I'll puke again."

"Again?"

Buck groaned, turning his head. Blue eyes met brown and Eddie put the back of his hand to Buck's forehead.

"You're a little warm. How long have you been puking?"

"What time is it?"

"Nearly 1pm."

"Almost twelve hours."

Buck leaned into Eddie's touch, eyes fluttering shut into a grimace when Eddie pulled the blankets off.

"C'mon, sit up. Let me get a better look."

Unwillingly Buck did as asked, leaning against the headboard.

"Does anything else hurt?"

"My head and my stomach; I think I ate something bad."

"Wait here."

Eddie hefted himself back up, rounding the bed to go back downstairs. Buck huffed, swiping at his eyes.

"Not like I can go anywhere!"

He grumbled, playing with a loose thread on his boxers.

"Not without puking at least."

He glanced up when he heard footsteps on the stairs and Eddie reappeared, plastic CVS bag in hand.

"What are you doing?" Buck asked, watching Eddie dump it on the end of the bed and rifle through it for a moment.

"I got you something... aha!"

He produced a bottle of Pedialyte and a plastic cup he must have grabbed from downstairs, pouring a serving of the liquid and then handing it to Buck.

"Bottoms up."

"Eddie," Buck groaned, "I-"

"-I know, you're really nauseous. Just trust me."

Eddie's never led him astray before and he's not likely to start now. Not after everything. Not after last summer.

Eddie still gets a funny look on his face when Buck brings up that random Friday morning kiss. It's not regret, it's never regret, just... well. Buck's not really sure. He's never seen Eddie like that.

He downed the Pedialyte.

-

The nausea reached its peak a few minutes later and it was only Eddie's quick dad/medic responses that got the trash can under Buck's chin in time. He'd been sitting on the other side of the bed, flicking through the channels to find something to watch considering it was almost 2pm. The minute Buck scrambled to sit up again after being asleep for almost an hour Eddie had grabbed the trash can and handed it to him with lightning fast reflexes, instinctively rubbing Buck's back. When Buck resurfaced Eddie handed him a tissue, switching that for the soiled bin liner.

"Here. You- uh."

"Thanks."

Buck's voice was hoarse as he wiped himself off, cheeks flushed a gentle pink. Whether that was from the fever, the humiliation of throwing up in front of his crush or a combination of both he wasn't willing to think too hard about. Eddie hefted himself off the bed, taking the trash can from his hands.

"Back in a sec."

He headed for the ensuite and Buck listened to the toilet flush then the sink run, hand slapping out to reach for his water bottle Eddie had kindly refilled earlier. A couple sips settled without issue in his stomach and he adjusted when Eddie reappeared, placing the bin back down beside Buck before flopping on to the bed with him and reaching into his back pocket for his phone.

"Chris said they're starting Earth Sciences this week," he said absentmindedly as he replied to whatever was going on then tossed his phone on to the bedside table and glanced over at Buck.

"How are you doing?"

"I'm gonna sue them," Buck complained pitfully as he lay back down, burying his head into his pillow. Eddie snorted.

"Careful Buck, remember last time you did that?"

An eye opened, the blue a stark contrast against the dark sheets, but then Buck smiled.

"I'll sue you too Eddie Diaz."

Eddie rolled his eyes as he swatted at Buck's shoulder, grabbing the remote again.

"Sure you will, man. Now what do you want to watch?"

Buck hummed, scrubbing at his eyes.

"Mmmmm... nothing food related."

Eddie flicked past an old rerun of Martha Stewart, nodding.

"Of course."

-

The clock struck five and Eddie carefully extracted himself from where Buck had somehow managed to curl up with his head on Eddie's thigh and was having another sick nap. He checked his phone and saw the notification that the food was almost there so he went into the kitchen and grabbed bowls. He heard someone knock on the door and went over to take the food from the delivery guy, thanking him as he carried it back to the kitchen island. In a couple minutes he had Buck's broth in a bowl and warm, his own stir fry hot and begging to be eaten. Considering Eddie had just come off a 24 hour shift when he headed to "check" on Buck, the food was very welcome and he took a couple bites for himself before sneaking upstairs to check on Buck. He was still asleep and for the first time since Eddie had barged into his apartment, he didn't look like he was uncomfortable. A part of Eddie felt cruel for waking him but the other part of him, the medic part, knew Buck needed something in his stomach that wasn't Pedialyte or water.

"Hey, Buck, come eat something," he called up the stairs. Eddie heard Buck groan followed by the sound of him trying to get out of bed.

"Eddie I'm dying," he groaned. Eddie rolled his eyes.

"You're clearly feeling better if you're complaining about dying. C'mon, come down here."

Sure enough, Buck made his way downstairs in a pair of athletic shorts and a shirt just as Eddie tossed a spoon down on the table beside the bowl. He collapsed into the seat in front of the soup, one eye on the downstairs bathroom door.

"Try and keep that down then we can talk about something solid."

"Thanks, Eds."

Buck picked up the spoon and tentatively worked on getting the soup down; Eddie joined him after a minute and practically chewed through his stir fry without even thinking about it. Nothing could ever be as good as Bobby's-

Oh, that's what he forgot.

Bobby: is everything okay?

Bobby: Eddie?

Eddie: sorry Bobby I completely forgot

Eddie: he's got food poisoning but he's already coming out the other side

Bobby: I figured you'd call if there were issues. Thanks Eddie

Buck, sitting beside Eddie working on his soup, raised an eyebrow as Eddie put his phone down.

"What's Chris up to?"

"Hopefully not begging Carla for a second serving of ice cream. No; that was Bobby. He was worried when you called in."

Buck frowned; Eddie could see where his mind was going and touched his shoulder.

"I would have come to check on you if I'd known even if he didn't ask. You don't call out of work unless you're contagious or it's serious."

Buck pushed away the soup, elbow on the table so he could rest his head on his hand. Eddie reached over to check him for a fever again.

"How do you feel?" He asked. Buck made the so-so motion.

"My head hurts."

"Go lie on the couch; I'll change your sheets so you can go to bed."

"Eddie no, you don't have to-"

"-Buck, it's clean sheets; not a marriage proposal."

Buck's mouth twitched upward into a smile; Eddie squeezed his shoulder and left the table to go upstairs. Buck watched after him with a warm feeling in his stomach.

It wasn't nausea.

-

When Buck stirred the next morning he paused, grimacing to take stock of the situation. His head was down to a gentle (irritating) throb against his temples but his stomach was staying put for the time being. The sheets were still tucked over him and he yawned into his hand, rolling over and tossing an arm over his bed mate-

Wait.

Cracking his eyes open Buck took stock of the situation. He knew he'd been sick again sometime overnight, barely able to remember tossing cookies (soup) because it had come out of nowhere in his doze. Part of him remembered Eddie being there, a figure in the darkness and he'd-

He'd stayed.

"Eddie," Buck whispered. Eddie cracked an eye open and reached his arm out, brushing a thumb over Buck's cheek.

"You look better," he rasped. Buck hummed.

"You didn't have to stay."

"Hm, well, maybe I wanted to."

Buck's eyes fluttered shut as he revelled in the feeling of Eddie's thumb on his cheek. When Eddie was half asleep he could be incredibly tactile and Buck lived for when he got to see Eddie like that.

"No one needs to see-"

"-Buck. I want to know when you're sick, or you're hurting. Whatever it is."

Buck's cheeks flushed and he buried his face back against his pillow. Eddie's hand moved to the back of his neck, brushing through the ends of his hair like it was something he did all the time.

"Thanks for coming, Eddie."

"Sure."

Eddie gently squeezed Buck's shoulder.

It felt like coming home.

-

#9-1-1 #911 #911 on ABC #911onabc #Evan Buckley #Buck #Eddie Diaz #Buddie #Sickfic #Hurt/comfort #Fluff

[sageryuri]

BANDAID, NISHIMURA RIKI.

pairing nishimura riki + afab!reader.

genre fluff, minor angst.

summary when it reaches the warmth of summer in australia, you and your friends go through the effort of making it as fun as possible before going back to your normal lives. it doesn’t feel so enjoyable when your friendship with riki becomes more confusing than before he left.

word count 10.4k (unedited).

warnings cursing, reader may seem a little irritating on her judgements of riki but i think her feelings are valid, alcohol, slightly intense kiss scene. no idols represented in this writing are not based on their real self.

an finally here!! my favourite fanfic genre tbh…

Australia's strong heat beats down onto your skin, but it's been so long that you're simply used to the feeling. You had always hated the cold, the feeling of having heaps on clothing on your body to keep you warm only leaving you angered and overstimulated.

Sunghoon complains behind you to Jay, he rummages around his bag and pulls out a pair of sunglasses. Since he had only moved to Australia recently after only visiting every few months for a week or so, he wasn't as used to the beating sun as the rest of his friends were.

You smile at Sunoo as he comes jogging to the rest of you, the last person to arrive onto the beach. Heeseung lets out a loud 'woop!' knowing he promised he wouldn't go into the ocean until everyone had arrived, he greets Sunoo before he along with Jake run across the hot sand to the water.

"They're so dramatic. It's only one PM, they have all day to go in there. I don't see why they enjoy it so much, I feel like I end up drinking most of the water." Sunoo states, taking a seat next to you on your lilac blanket — you always opted for a blanket rather than a towel, it was comfortable and you would use your towel if you decided to swim.

"That's kind of disgusting, Sun. I don't know, I guess it's relaxing when the waves aren't hitting. Look at Hoon, that man is dying, he probably needs to go in the water." You and Sunoo turn to look at Sunghoon, who has spread himself to take over his shared towel with Jungwon, who has already fallen asleep and has 10% of the surface area.

"Can we stop bullying me! It's not my fault I've only lived here for two weeks, give me time and soon enough I'll be as tanned as Jay and I'll handle the heat better than any of you." Sunghoon lifts himself, almost hitting Jungwon in the face but narrowly missing him. He goes to lay back down afterwards, but gets angry for a second time,  "You know what, at least I'm not like Riki! He was- oh, oh- I'm sorry. Forgot I wasn't supposed to bring him up."

Oh, Riki.

"You're allowed to bring him up, he's still our friend. I just- I guess I'm just more sensitive about him than the rest of you were." Unconsciously, your arm goes to grab onto your necklace in discomfort at the mention of his name.

As a child, the size of the nursery could be compared to a sky-scraper in your eyes. Your tiny hands grabbed harshly onto your mother's blouse as her and your father take you towards the gate, "You'll be okay, baby. They're going to take care of you while daddy and I are working, they'll teach you lots of new things and you'll make lots of new friends!"

You let out a small whine as you are pulled forward slightly by your mother, and she takes you to a younger woman with chocolate brown eyes and dark curly hair.

"Hello! You must be YN, it's really nice to meet you. My name is Grace and I'll be taking care of you while you're here. Now, I know you're new here, and I have a friend for you who is new here too!" Behind the woman you noticed the boy that was trying his best to hide away from you, but after being mentioned he stepped out slightly, “This is Riki, he just started today too.”

When he offers you a small smile and wave, your friendship began to bloom.

The memory of your first meeting slowly dissipated, and your mind was back to the present, on the beach with all of your friends. Sunoo and Sunghoon appear to have been unaware of you spacing out as they argued with one another. Jungwon is still fast asleep and the other three boys have found themselves pushing each other around in the ocean.

Riki always felt like a missing piece of a puzzle.

You find yourself nestling into your blanket to sunbathe a little before the rowdier boys would come back and irritate you. When you close your eyes, Sunoo always begins to speak so that you don't fall asleep since it was so difficult to wake you up afterwards.

"Don't you have a shift later at Emma's Diner? You want me to pick you up so you aren't walking home by yourself?" You peel your eyes open to look at him, sunglasses now perched on his nose. You groan at the mention of the shift you would have to go to later.

You loved your job, being favoured amongst customers and having a lenient boss. It doesn't change that you would rather be on the beach with your friends rather than have them be irritating in a booth while you busied yourself making their meals and milkshakes.

"Yeah, I'm working the closing shift. So, please do come and pick me up. I know it's only a ten minute walk but it's so scary walking at twelve PM. Especially since they haven't fixed the broken street lights yet." Living in a small town meant that everyone knew each other, so it was unlikely anything would ever truly happen while you were out late. It didn't make you feel entirely safe though.

"Of course, I'll come a little earlier so you can make me one of those amazing mint chocolate milkshakes. Ugh, it feels like it's been so long since I've had one of those." Sunoo lets out a satisfied sound as he thinks about the diner milkshakes. At some point, you wondered if he was only friends with you for your milkshake-making skills (a joke, you had hoped).

"You had one two days ago!" You let out a loud laugh which causes Jungwon to stir in his sleep, not waking up but turning on his side — you put a spare towel over his so that he doesn't burn. You turn back to Sunoo who has diverted his attention to the boys in the ocean, who are carrying Jake by his arms and legs to throw him in.

"Yeah, but you weren't working two days ago. Don't tell anyone, but you make the best milkshakes out of everyone." Funnily enough, everyone already knew that you made the best milkshakes in town. You suppose that's why you still have the same job from when you were fourteen years old.

"I guess we're all lucky that I got that job."  You continue to smile, thinking of all the fond memories you had made just in the small space of the diner.

"Well, you had more of a chance than anyone."

The longer you waited for the call back from the diner, the longer Riki would groan as he watched you take big strides around your bedroom — a place not made to take big strides in.

There weren't many career opportunities going around for people your age, but ever since your father fell ill and was unable to work, you wanted to provide some help for your family. The act of attempting to actually get a job had turned out to be harder than you anticipated, already being rejected from other places due to a late application and lack of spaces.

"Can you stand still? Or you know, take a breather? I think you're taking this a lot more seriously than it actually is. You don't even have to get a job, I mean, you're still in school. I haven't even thought about getting a job yet." There was not a moment in Riki's life where he seemed to feel an ounce of worry. Even now while you trampled over heaps of clothing on the floor of your room, he scrolls through Twitter on his phone.

"You, my friend, don't have a sick father who can barely move from the bedroom- and I know you're going to try and bring up the fact he's getting sick pay, but it's basically nothing. I just want to help out and- oh my god my phone is ringing." You're interrupted by the sound of you phone, the caller ID being displayed as 'Emma (my maybe future boss)' and you end up prancing around your room even more intensely.

Riki wants to pick up the phone for you as he's so sure you got the job and he doesn't want you to risk losing it.

"Pick it up! What are you waiting for stupid?" Riki is very quick to grab your phone and force it into your shaking hands, so you take in a deep breath and answer the phone before the call would disconnect.

"Hello! Yes, that's me. Of course, yes. Oh- oh! Thank you so much! Yeah, yeah I can absolutely make it tomorrow. Bye!" Your voice becomes higher pitched when you answer, Riki smiles as he acknowledges the habit that he had picked up on a few years ago whenever you were on a phone call; and he couldn't miss the smile which had appeared on your face when you ended the call, "I got the fucking job!"

"-Is she dead? I'm starting to think she might be dead. Jay, will you please begin preparing for her funeral? I would like for it to be dramatic and elegant and everyone must wear suits and gowns." You feel yourself coming back into your consciousness from the sound of Heeseung's obnoxious voice, so you open your eyes and look through your sunglasses to see him with his left hand on his chest.

"Oh my god, shut the fuck up. She's probably just ignoring you because of how annoying you are!" Sunoo hits Heeseung's shoulder, grimacing at him before giving you a loving smile.

"Sorry... I got a little caught up in my daydreams." You rub your eyes lightly and allow yourself to adjust to the sun again through your sunglasses. It had become a little dimmer outside, but still too bright to walk around sunglasses-free.

"Daydreams? You've been lay there without a word for over half an hour. I'm fairly sure you fell asleep, thank you for covering me with the towel by the way." Jungwon is up and awake now, and your eyebrows shape to show shock on your face as you wonder what on earth you had dreamt about.

Surely you wouldn't have dreamt of just Riki for that long? You were sure you had been awake this whole time.

"Fuck, really? I should probably head home before I have to go to my shift. I'll see you all tomorrow I imagine?" You reply, pulling out your phone to check the time. It had now reached 3PM (somehow), which meant you had about two hours to prepare yourself to work.

It was always busiest when you began working, so the first two hours always drove you insane.

"Of course, see you around!" They all say goodbye, some giving hugs and some opting for waves, though Jake had almost popped a lung when he cuddled you so tightly against his chest.

You arrive home, still living with your mother and father in their little apartment which gives you a perfect view of the ocean. When the streetlights came on, you liked to look from yout window and watch the waves move with elegance.

It had been a few years since your father recovered from his illness and had gotten back into working, he had stated that it was fine if you had wanted to leave the diner and relax for a little while. The diner had become a large aspect of your life and leaving it would leave something missing — you had already lost something when Riki left for Japan, the diner being somewhat of a reminder of him.

"Oh, good afternoon! Are you going to work soon?" Your mother is pondering around the living room with cleaning products while your father is sat staring at the television. You find it strange that's she's cleaning since it's Saturday, and that was usually her resting day.

"Why are you cleaning? You never clean on a Saturday, the living room wasn't even a mess this morning." You respond, ignoring her question, since she did know the answer to it. Jumping on the sofa next to your father, he lets out an 'oof' as you practically land on his leg that had been perched up onto the sofa.

He generally spoke to you when you got home, yet he was being strangely quiet. You were sure they were both hiding something.

"I wish you weren't so observant sometimes, you should be like your father." She rolls her eyes with a smile, but her eyes reveal that she's nervous about something. It makes your stomach churn with anxiety as you wonder if you had done anything wrong recently.

You go through every moment in the last week in your mind.

"I'm actually quite observant, I just don't say anything about what I notice. It's all stored up here." He doesn't take his eyes from the screen when he knocks at his own head, watching a show he's likely watched on repeat since the 90s, you were sure he'd seen this episode over five times now.

"Okay... Do you have something to tell me? You're both being weird which means you're trying to hide something from me, and it's causing heavy worry to run through my body." You reply, your mother sighs and sits across from you on the smaller chair, "Has someone died? This feels... serious."

"No, no. No one's dead. We do have something to tell you, and we only found out after you left. I was just a little worried to tell you about who came knocking on our door this morning." She sounds almost excited, a soft smile replaces the one she had previously held, "Riki's mother came this morning. He's back- for good that is. She said he wants to see you and everyone else."

Half of you feels morbid, you're angry. The other half fills with excitement and wonder as to why he had come back after so many years.

After deciding not to question them on the situation so much considering you were hardly processing it yourself, you nodded your head in shock before walking into your room and closing the door slowly. You leave an ominous message to Sunoo, asking him to bring Sunghoon along with him later and to come a little earlier.

"What? You're joking! How long has he been back for? And why didn't he say anything to any of us?" Sunoo drops the fry back onto his plate, his jaw dropped as you reveal that Riki is back in town.

The three of you were in one of the booths in the diner, you had locked up and moved the 'open' side onto the 'closed' side, even though it was unlikely there would be any other customers at this time. As you had thought, the two of them also had no idea that Riki was back.

"Well, it's not like we really stayed in contact with after a couple of months. It's been three years." Sunghoon retorts, he continues to eat the food you had made him. He had always been so sure that Riki wouldn't stay in Japan forever, therefore having a weaker reaction compared to Sunoo.

"I still don't get it, I mean- he moved away for a reason and now he's back, and his mum is knocking on my front door and he isn't." You're now irritated, but under that irritation you're counting down the minutes until your old best friend would be standing in front of you — and he would be different from all those years ago.

"He'll be nervous. The town hasn't changed but I'm sure we have and so has he. Give him some time." Sunghoon continues to eat and you allow yourself to take in his words.

You didn't want to be mad at Riki, you didn't want to see him for the first time again in years and not know what to do with yourself. Sunghoon was right, you were sure of it, but you also couldn’t help the way that you felt.

As your mother always stated, you had been as observant as she had been with the body language and habits of others, knowing if someone was acting out of the ordinary compared to their usual act.

On this day, Riki had left you feeling confused when he hadn't complained about you stumbling around his room.

To other people, this may not have been unusual; but Riki had always told you to sit down and stop walking around his room because it made him feel anxious. He always felt like you were nervous about something and that you were about to drop a bomb on him, thought it was just because you found it difficult to stay still.

"Are you okay? You haven't really said anything in awhile- and you haven't told me to sit down either." You jump onto the bed next to him, the bed creaking as you landed and bounced up and down.

"Sorry, I'm just feeling a little sick I think." You pout at his words, knowing that he's lying to you. He looks just as he does usually and he hasn't done anything that would insinuate that he had been ill.

"You look perfectly fine to me, plus you wouldn't invite me over if you felt sick. You can talk to me, we tell each other everything don't we?" You comfort him, he furrows his eyebrows and throws his face into his hands with a rough groan, and you can feel your heart beat faster at his clear distress.

Finally, Riki turns to look at you and his bottom lip is pulled between his teeth as his eyes begin to brim with tears. You reach forward to brush them away, he finds solace in your warmth and leans into the touch as your hands hold his face softly.

"I'm moving to Japan next week- my parents bought some land there and are planning on building up their business. They found a really good school for me to attend to finish my studies, and they want me to go to college and university there." Riki sighs, he looks at you with sad eyes, "I don't know if I'll ever be coming back. At least not for a long while."

"Oh... Riki why didn't you tell me earlier? When did you find this out?" You finally pull your hand away, though you feel a mix of negative emotions building up inside of your body as you listen to your best friend, "You should have told me."

"It's been a few months. I'm sorry, I just didn't want to worry you or anything." Riki seems to become quieter and quieter as he speaks, and his fingers wrap around yours while they tremble.

"Well, you can visit can't you?" You had made an attempt to make light of the situation, "You can tell everyone all about Japan- we don't leave Australia very often. It would be nice to know."

"I'm not sure." In his response, his voice becomes even more timid somehow. You know that you're upset at him for not telling you, you know you're angry that your best friend may be leaving you forever — but hearing his voice sound so broken left you wanting to hold him for the next week you had left with him.

The atmosphere of the room weakens and you barely share anymore words with each other.

When you had gone to visit him a few days later, he was already gone.

"I know he'll be nervous. I'm just angry that he never gave me a real goodbye. Then he talked to you guys a lot more than he talked to me. I just thought that he was my best friend, but it really felt like he didn't see me that way." You start to

stab at your meal with a pout, thinking about all of those years spent together just to be thrown like grains of sand.

Sunghoon and Sunoo look at each other, but you're too busy poking your food to notice.

"You ever thought he might have had a crush on you?" Sunoo mutters and you look at him with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I never got that impression from him- but he never really talked about relationships or anything to me so I wouldn't know how he acts around someone he has feelings for." You lean onto your hand, looking up as you think, "Even then, why would he ignore me if he liked me? Surely he would be doing the opposite."

"You were his best friend and I intend to believe that you still are. If anything, he was probably scared because of it. Going to Japan would have helped him get over you. That's if he did have feelings for you." Sunghoon is nonchalant, as he usually would be in situations such as this.

In times like this, Sunoo and Sunghoon would always be your go-to for advice and comfort because they would always help to reassure you that it isn't the end of the world — and if it felt like it really was, they were always your biggest supporters no matter the situation.

"As interesting as your theory is, I'm not sure." You stare at one of the old, blinking lights of the diner, as if it were an idea attempting to spring to the front of your mind, "I just want to see him again. I need to understand why he never explained why he wouldn't talk to me."

"He'll come around, he has to. Don't worry." Sunghoon reaches over and rubs your head soothingly with a soft smile, Sunoo giving a much larger one which comforts you just as much. You finish up your meals, after heading home you lay in your bed for another hour thinking about Riki.

You feel relieved when you wake up in the morning knowing that you have the whole day to yourself; no work, no chores, nothing at all. Waking up at ten AM instead of six feels great, just as great as it feels knowing the night is free for you too.

The group chat between you and your friends is blowing up, you blink your eyes to get used to the bright light of your phone screen. Everyone appears to be active, thought you're too tired to take in every single message, just getting the gist everyone wanted to go to the arcade today.

After a few minutes of being awake, your mother wanders into your room holding a hamper basket of clean clothing, beginning to fold it in the corner of your room, "Rise and shine, honey. You got any plans today?"

"Arcade I think. I'm not sure when, but probably around the same time I usually leave. I want to lounge around a bit first though, I love my spare days when I'm not working." You roll over to lie onto your stomach and she lets out a scoff, though you know she's only joking with you.

She knows you work hard.

"You'll have fun. Try not to let Jake spend all of his money this time please, his mother sounded absolutely gob-smacked when he told her how much he'd spent in that place." She chuckles under her breath and you smile at the thought. Mrs. Sim loathed spending money, but Jake seemed to find it to be his favourite hobby.

"I'm not in control how how Jake likes to spend his money, he's addicted to the arcade. I don't think he'd listen to me of all people." Your eyes are still closed as you bask in your last few moments of peace before you would have to go through your simple routine, you can feel the heat radiating through your window onto your back when your mother opens the curtains.

"Who knows. I know it might seem a little too soon for you, maybe you should see if Riki would like to come along." Even just by saying his name, your heart beats faster and you feel as if you had broken out into a sweat. He shouldn't be making you feel so anxious.

"He hasn't spoken to me yet." You know this doesn't surprise her.

"I know. I know he hasn't. And I know it isn't fair that he came back out of nowhere and you're finding it difficult to adjust to it." She sits down next to you, stroking your hair lightly on the back of your head, "He is too. It'll all be fine once you finally see each other again, just like when you were younger."

"Thank you." Finally, you turn around to sit up and give her hug before she would leave the room to carry on her endeavours — you would go ahead and make a ham and cheese toastie and get ready for the day ahead of you.

The arcade is just as packed as it tends to be, children racing each other around and occasionally apologising to teenagers and adults they bumped into and continuing their adventure with their friends.

It's sweet knowing that this was what you used to do when you were a child.

"You're such a fucking cheat! You can't throw shit at me to block my view, then start hitting the puck! Heeseung, I'm never playing this game with you ever again. In fact, don't talk to me ever again." Jungwon throws the jacket harshly back towards Heeseung, who is laughing loudly with Sunghoon after he wins the game for the third time.

"I don't see any rules that tell me that I'm not allowed to throw jackets at people whenever I desire. Hate the game not the player." Heeseung and Sunghoon high five each other and Jungwon rolls his eyes, Jay comes over and gives him a soft slap on the shoulder for reassurance that at least one person in the room has his back.

"No- no- I'm hating the player very hard at this moment in time. Sunghoon stop laughing, he'll do the exact same thing to you." Jungwon's voice raises louder, two children are giggling at him from behind the claw machine and it's unclear if that had calmed him down or frustrated him even more.

You begin to ignore the argument, looking around for Jake who should have been here twenty minutes ago. If anyone was ever late, it wouldn't bother you so much, though you had a strange feeling in the pit of your stomach that was starting to make you feel nauseous.

"I don't mean to interrupt your squabbling but where's Jake? He'd be here by now, you think he's okay?" The rest of them shrug at your worry, knowing that it was unlikely Jake was doing nothing but being fashionable late — something was beginning to really bother you, but you couldn't work out what it was.

"Jake has arrived! And, I'm showing up with a big surprise." Jake's voice booms through the arcade and everyone greets him before they notice the larger figure standing behind him.

He's gotten taller- taller than Heeseung now. His body is more toned and defined and he's grown into his features. His hair is styled rather than flopping over his forehead like you had remembered.

Riki coming back would be a lot harder to accept than you had truly anticipated, and you knew it would be difficult.

The boys crowd around him, picking him and throwing him around in happiness, ecstatic laughs ringing through out the building. You're stuck in place, watching his face contort through emotions.

You smile.

When the others are done parading around Riki, almost all of their eyes turn to look at you, apart from Jake and Sunghoon who were ready to put all of his cash into the punching machine. When Riki finally makes eye contact with you, both of your worlds appear to stop.

It's as if you had both been dropped into an empty box. His face changes expression, practically monotone, but you can tell that he isn't disappointed to see you. Slowly, he examines you from head to toe; you've grown up too.

"Hi." It appears to be the only words that can slip past his lips, and as you had expected, his voice had deepened to. This was still the same Riki you had known ever since you were a child, all the resentment you had held towards him faded away from your memory immediately.

You aren't particularly thinking in the moment, before you realise it your hands are around Riki's back and tears are streaming down your face, you feel the vaguely familiar hands of your best friend enveloping your body.

"Fuck, I really really missed you Riki." Your voice is undeniably shaky, the grasp you had on the back of his shirt tightens as you let out tiny sobs. Tenderly, Riki brings his hand to land on-top of your head and moves back and forth, "I missed you so much."

"I missed you too... I'm sorry for ever leaving you behind." He murmurs into your ear so that you're the only one who hears his words, knowing that the only person he truly wants to know this is you.

The two of you remember where you both are, standing in an arcade surrounded by your friends and heaps of children. It felt embarrassing, but anyone else would react the same way after so long. You feel him pull away from you, shivering at the loss of warmth that had been radiating from his body against yours.

"Welcome back, dude! We've got so much to show you- we have a fair and everything now! I can't believe you're back now..." Jay's arms hold onto the younger boys once again as he gives you one last look, being pulled away to watch Jake and Sunghoon argue after their punching machine adventures.

When the day comes to an end, you notice that talking to Riki doesn't feel the same anymore. At least you had felt so, the others were chatting with him as if he had never left. There were longing stares and banter, but something felt uncomfortable between the two of you, which you couldn't explain.

Heeseung offers to drive you home when he sees you rubbing your arm in the corner.

"You gonna tell me what's wrong with you?"  The car ride had been practically silent up until this point, apart from the quiet music coming from Heeseung's radio, "You were moping in the corner for the last half an hour, that's not like you."

"I think I'm just a little lost right now, confused I guess." You answer, leaning your head against the window while you watch the houses passing by. Heeseung lets out a low chuckle, though not to make fun of you, just to show he understands how you're feeling from his own experiences.

"Is it because of Riki?" Heeseung had always been direct, you think it helps when trying to get people to talk about their feelings and give them advice. You sigh for maybe the twentieth time in the last two hours and let out how you feel to your close friend.

"I knew he was back, before today. His mum came to our house and talked to my family. I've been feeling nervous the last few days. Seeing him today made me feel better, but even after he hugged me it didn't feel like he missed me all that much." Your lips quiver slightly as you speak, just as your voice wavers, but you don't want to cry in front of Heeseung.

"He's probably just as scared as you are." It almost feels like people have been talking about your problems, everyone giving you the same answer you already had.

"Yeah, that's what everyone's been telling me, Hee. I know it won't go back to how it was straight away, but I would have liked if he'd talked to me more after our big, loving reunion." Hearing the same thing on repeat — Sunghoon, Sunoo, your mother and now Heeseung— only bothered you more.

"Do you want me to talk to him for you? I don't mind giving him a slap around the back of his head." He snickers, you turn your head away from the window to smile at him to show you appreciate his help.

Despite your feelings, you don't think Riki deserves a slap around the back of his head.

"It's okay, thank you. It'll be better if I talk to him myself." Though you value the help your friends and family try to provide for you in unfortunate times like this, it would be more effective to deal with it yourself. No one was better at explaining your feelings and morals than yourself.

Heeseung parks up in front of your house, the sun slowly beginning to hide behind the walls of your coral-coloured home. You bite your lip and give him one last meaningful smile, which he always returns.

"No worries- you know I'm always here when you need me." He responds, you leave his car and say goodbye before he drives off down the road back to his own apartment.

The diner is slow today. It's the same customers (as expected, it's a small town), except everyone seems unrealistically grumpy and a woman said you had put too much coffee in her coffee which was completely baffling.

You leaned on your palm on the counter, happy Emma wasn't in today so she wouldn't tell you to sit up because it drove away customers — it didn't, you doubted they cared that you were bored on the job as long as you actually did your job.

However, the universe would never allow you to have a boring, uneventful day; because the man who had been on your mind for years wanders through the doors of your safe place.

"Hey, sorry I don't mean to intrude. Sunghoon said this is where you worked." His deep voice rings through your ears and racks your brain, he looks almost too perfect to be real and you wouldn't be surprised if you were making this all up in your head.

"Yeah, it is." You try to quickly think of something to say before it manages to get awkward, "What brings you here? I make a pretty mean milkshake."

"Yeah, I remember pretty well." He grins at you, all too familiar to when he was younger and you had been practicing making the milkshakes for your new job.

Using a blender was not something that you had the pleasure of taking part in often. In fact, you were petrified that you were about to break your mother's very precious blender to practice making milkshakes.

"Did you press it in right? I'm not sure you pressed it in fully. It's gonna spew everywhere." Niki is sat on your kitchen counter and has given zero effort to try and help you use the blender — 'i'm not the one working' he says.

"You're annoying me! Yes, it's in right!" You angrily whisper-shout to Riki, trying your best not to wake up your sleeping father in his bedroom. Confused, you examine the blender, "Or at least I think it is..."

"I'm scared. I don't want to be covered is strawberry juice, milk and ice cream." Riki groans, a vibrant habit of his, though still not making any efforts to move if this were to go terribly wrong.

"Have some faith in me please." You whine, pouring the rest of the milk into the blender cup. After reassuring yourself you had done it successfully, you shut your eyes and clicked the button.

There is no feeling of cold liquid splatting onto your body, which feels like a positive sign. Cautiously, you opened your eyes at the sound of silence when it had finished, which Riki appears to have done too.

"Oh. You did it." The shocked sound residing in Riki's voice almost bothers you, he has no belief in your skills (he's your biggest supporter, he's just avoidant with his affection).

The milkshake looks perfect. It's a deep pink colour due to the grenadine you had decided to pour into it, in courtesy of the milkshakes your mother would provide for you that you were sure you had become addicted to since the day you took your first sip.

"Of course I did it." After pulling off the lid from the blender, you pour the liquid into the milkshake glass, passing it off to Riki to get another person's opinion, "Try it."

Riki is hesitant to take the glass from your hands, pulling his hand back and forth dramatically. You pout sadly at him with furrowed eyebrows, then he only laughs loudly before holding the glass in his hands and smelling the contents of it.

"This better not be disgusting..." You clasp your hands together in anticipation when Riki finally takes a sip through the straw, taking your bottom lip between your teeth when he pulls away and smacks his lips, "Oh- Oh wow."

That day, you found out that your hidden talent was making the most delicious milkshakes in town.

"You Okay? You're spacing out a little." Riki waves his hands in front of your face to get your attention back on his current self and away from his old self. Your face heats up in embarrassment and you focus your eyes back onto his face.

"Oh, sorry, I've been doing that a lot lately... So, want a milkshake?" You repeat your question, due to both being unsure as to what you could say and the need to relive apart of your past with Riki. Unsurprisingly, Riki had always been your favourite person to make milkshakes for, even after he had left.

"When do you get off work?" Riki asks, leaning himself onto the counter. You feel your heart drop, wondering if it was finally time for the both of you to spend time alone together as two grown adults.

"Uh... In about twenty minutes. What's up?" You're trying your best to keep eye contact with him, but his intense gaze makes it difficult, he has very pretty eyes and they're making you strangely anxious.

"I was wondering if you wanted to catch up, it's been a long while. Plus, I think I owe you an explanation." You both swallow a lump in your throat at the same time and Riki's hand gets closer to yours on the desk, "And I would love a milkshake by the way."

"Yeah, I think I could do with a catch up. You can wait in one of the booth's if you want." A small smile appears on your face which makes him grin at you also. He nods his head, taking a seat at the booth closest to where you were working.

With the feeling of his eyes on your for almost the whole twenty minutes, time moved slowly and you became much more cautious about your movements.

He takes you to the park that is a ten minute walk from the diner, the walk filled with small talk conversation and reminiscing of your past relationship as children and teenagers. Finally being able to speak with Riki is nice.

"How have you been?" You watch two children on the park push each other on the swing instead of sharing eye contact with Riki, though finally getting used to having him back in your presence again, "God, it still feels weird having you back. I'm glad you're staying."

"I've been pretty good, surviving. It was fun in Japan, but I always wanted to come back." He smiles but you don't notice, considering you have been avoiding looking at him ever since he had sat in that booth in the diner, "I wanted to apologise for how I was with you when we were at the arcade. I didn't mean to ignore you like that, but you know, you're different to the boys. You were- still are, my best friend. I'll admit that I felt a little awkward after so long, but I shouldn't have avoided you like that."

"I understand, I'll admit I knew you were back before we saw you at the arcade. I was kind of freaked out because it's been so long and I was really nervous, so I could have reached out to you beforehand but I just really couldn't bring myself to. So, I'm sorry for that too." Your palms become a little clammy and you begin to unconsciously twiddle your thumbs while spilling your feelings out,"Did Heeseung speak to you or anything?"

"You don't have to apologise for anything, I really think this is all on me. I really missed you." You decide that this was time to look at him. The light of the sun shines on him so perfectly, you feel as if you could get lost looking at him.

You finally had your best friend back.

"I really missed you too, I wish we could go back to how it was before you moved to Japan." Somehow, you still feel like you can be completely honest with the boy, the one you had dissipated away from so long ago. In your minds, you both knew that something between you was different and would never go back.

"How about we start over?" Riki suggests and you furrow your eyebrows in confusion.

"What do you mean?" The wind gets a little harsher with your words, forcing your hair to flow into your face — Riki reaches forward to move it away, then pushing his out in front of you chest as if he was waiting for a handshake.

"I'm Nishimura Riki, it's nice to meet you." He smiles brightly, like the way the sun had been shining into his deep brown eyes. Laughing, you take his hand into yours and shake it, introducing yourself to him as if this was your first meeting.

Riki feels a shiver down his spine as your smaller, warmer hands slip into his.

A smile had been plastered on your face ever since the previous day. Your mother had been adamant on you telling her what had got you so jumpy and ecstatic, but you would just say it was nothing and go skipping back to your room.

It has been repeating in your mind every moment, you could barely stay on your phone or read a book without closing your eyes and replaying the whole moment in your head that had your grin growing larger.

"Honey, Sunoo is here!" Your mother shouts from downstairs, her voice drags you out of your daydreams and you sit up from your bed. Sunoo comes bursting into your room, jumping onto your bed with a smile almost as huge as yours had been.

He looks at you expectingly, to which you give him a strange look.

"Well, go on then!" He pushed your shoulder and you only continue to look at him with the same baffled facial expression, nudging him back with your hand in return.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Sunoo's jaw drops at your response and you can only let out a loud laugh at this shocked expression — how could you have any idea what he was talking about when he gave you no information to stem from?

"You were with Riki yesterday! Tell me about it." He grabs your television remote and turns the TV off, interrupting your show that had been playing on and off since you had woken up. You scoff, taking the remote from him and placing it onto your rocky sidetable.

"How did you even know about that?" You laugh, turning your body to face him, crossing your legs on your bed. Looking up at the ceiling, you wonder what to tell Sunoo. All day, you've been daydreaming about it, but speaking it aloud didn't feel as exciting as your brain had been making if out to be.

"Because you're my best friend... I was with Sunghoon when Riki asked where you worked. I just assumed he was wanting to hang out with you. So, quick, tell me everything that happened." Sunoo's eyes are set on your face, he doesn't take a second to look away.

In your mind, you think about the conversation that you and Riki had. Sure, you told Sunoo everything. Other people's business was also your business when it came to gossiping with him; but the redevelopment of your relationship seemed a whole lot more personal, and you were going to be a hypocrite.

"We just apologised to each other, then he asked if we wanted to start over. It was quite nice actually." You shrug, wanting to keep the peaceful moment you had between you and Riki. Unsurprisingly, the boy sitting in front of you pulls a face of disgust at your response.

"Wow, you aren't even going to tell me all the details." His eyes roll, which you had expected from him — you know he understands thought, since he smirks at you when he thinks you aren't paying attention to him.

"I'm tired! I'll tell you another time. It isn't as exciting as you're anticipating it to be." You lie back onto your bed and Sunoo joins you on the left side closest to the window which brought in a cold breeze; he doesn't believe you'll ever tell him what happened that day, "Is that all you came here for?"

"Actually, I have something to tell you. Since Riki is finally back and Jay's parents are out of town, we're going to host a surprise welcoming party for Riki. Do not mention it to him! I've already had to calm Jake down about five times." Your pink-haired friends claps his hands in excitement.

It would be nice to have everyone around to join and have a good time to welcome Riki back. Half the town likely had no idea Riki was home and they would have missed him too, so a house party would be the perfect opportunity for the community to come back together.

"Well, I'm not Jake! I'm very good at keep secret. My lips are sealed." You pull your fingers across your lips to imitate a zip, turning your head when an idea pops into your head, "Do you want to watch Gone Girl?"

"Of course I want to watch Gone girl."

This would be the first time you and Riki were hanging out after deciding to 'start over'. When you were younger, you all would go to the summer fair in January to welcome the New Year.

"Get- get the fuck off! What is it with you and fucking jumping people? There's kids here! What if you knocked one over?" Jay tries his best to push Riki from his back, his angry furrowed brows making you giggle.

"I think that would be kind of funny." Sunghoon says under his breath, though it's loud enough for you and Jungwon to hear, which results in you both pulling a strange face in his direction.

"You're awful, man." Jungwon shakes his had at Sunghoon, but the way he's trying to hide his laugh contradicts his disappointment. Jay joins the three of you walking after he finally gets Riki off his back, now going over to bother Jake who lets out upset whines.

"I'm joking. Sorry for admitting kids falling over is a funny concept." Sunghoon's honest never fails to prevail in conversation, you've seen him laugh at children falling over with tears dripping down his face.

"You do realise admitting it's funny insinuates you aren't joking?" Jungwon raises his left eyebrow at Sunghoon, who shrugs and moves on to go and talk to Heeseung instead, who was more inclined to agree with his take.

Riki moves on next to you and drags you over to the punching machine which was enveloped by prizes of different prizes, all won through punch strength.

"Want me to win you a prize?" He asks and you miss the fact he was being completely serious, so you chuckle at him. You turn to look at the others who have taken to the water gun game and are loudly screaming as they shove each other away from their stations.

"What, on the punching machine? You can try but I'm not sure your muscles are big enough to even get that pack of candy." Feeling bold, your hand goes to wrap around his bicep through his jacket. A light blush litters over your face when he disproves your point without uttering a single syllable.

"Oh yeah? Maybe you should have more faith in me, I've been a gym rat for the last few years." He takes hold of one of his jacket sleeves and removes the jacket from his shoulders to reveal the vest he had been wearing underneath.

Yeah, he'd absolutely proved you wrong.

Riki pays the guy the price for the machine, then punches it as hard as he possible can. Unexpectedly, Riki pretty much matches the high score which directs his eyes to the ginormous teddy bear that he could afford free of charge.

Just for you.

For the first time in years, you remember that feeling you had been pushing back all those years ago.

This was the first time you had ever experienced a fake friendship with someone, a few weeks before Riki would be telling you that he was leaving.

Yuna was always a good friend of yours, she was slightly older than you, but she never treated you like you weren't as mature as she had been. She wasn't necessarily excluded from your friend group, but she had her own friends and really only hung out with you rather than your friends.

"It's honestly so weird. All of her friends are boys, don't you all think that's a little strange?" Yuna's voice is heard by you from around the corner and you decide to hide behind the brick wall and listen in before you say hello.

"I mean- not really? She's friends with you and I think she's really lovely. I don't think it's all that weird, Yu. You shouldn't talk about her like that." Her friend Chaeryeong replies, seemingly concerned with her friend's comment.

Weirdly, you have a strong feeling you know exactly who she is talking about.

"I think she's just a little, I don't want to sound mean but, desperate? I mean come on, there's seven of them. She must think at least one of them is going to have a crush on her. Easy." Her voice is filled with venom and you hear a few giggles come out of others that were around her.

Not wanting to hear what anyone else had to say, you find yourself hiding away in one of the isolated blocks in the school. Tears stream down your face and you shake as you question what you could have possibly done wrong for her to judge you so awfully.

If you had known she was simply jealous, maybe you would have felt less insecure. A squeak comes from the rusty door and you rapidly try to wipe away your tears before whoever walks in would see you in such a weak state.

"What are you doing in here? Why are your eyes so red?" Riki's face drops when he sees you, his dark hair falls in front of his eyes and bounces as he jogs over to lean down next to you.

Your first fall-out is Riki's first time seeing you so distraught, it tugs at his heart and he isn't sure how to deal with it. Sure, he's seen you mad and upset, but he's never seen you cry. If he realises anything while looking at you, it's that he never wants to see you cry again.

"It's- it's nothing. I don't want you to worry yourself." More tears fall down your soft cheeks and Riki moves his hand forward to wipe them off your face. He doesn't think someone like you should be crying like this and selfishly he doesn't think he deserves to see his best friend crying either.

"Of course I'm worrying. Are you okay?" He watches as you pull your knees up to your chest and you lean into your own touch.

"Do you think it's weird that I'm only friends with boys?" The way your eyes had become so wide when you looked at him broke him, you were taking all of him in, waiting for an honest answer. Riki couldn't believe that you were questioning your friendships over something so small.

"What? No. What kind of question is that? Did someone say something?" A crease appears between his eyebrows as they furrow, so lost in why this had become an issue for you. He can't help but to pick at the pout of your lips with the tips of his fingers to make you put it away.

When you don't reply, Riki doesn't speak either. He holds you in his arms like his life depended on it. That was the first moment you knew you felt differently to Riki than your other friends, that you wouldn't mind spending your life in his arms.

When you come back to the present, Riki is holding out this teddy bear to you with the most beautiful smile you have ever seen. You’re taking him again, you’re thinking about what it’s like go be in his arms forever.

It truly is your fault this time. You're the one taking everything back to square one and you've never seen Park Sunghoon so irritated with you before. He forgets ever having a soft spot for you when he looks at you with the angriest expression.

You hated to admit it, but after coming to the conclusion that you had romantic feelings for Riki, you had been avoiding him for the last three days. It wasn't your best decision in life though you had no idea what to do.

So, you turned to your straight-forward friend Sunghoon.

"You're an idiot, genuinely. What the hell is wrong with you? You're going to put him through hell, didn't you want to become friends with him again? What happened to starting over?" His feet take him around your living room aggressively and you sit staring at the ceiling, feeling too nervous to look him in the eyes.

"Instead of calling me names, can you help me out here? I don't know what to do, what if he doesn't feel the same and I mess it all up again?" Your hands fall onto your face with a loud slapping noise.

Finally, you look up at Sunghoon and his face tells you everything you needed to know. If you carried on ignoring Riki's existence, he wouldn't be your friend or a romantic interest. Either one is better than none.

"Look, I love you, you're amazing- but this is the stupidest thing you've ever done. The party is tonight and he's probably too busy wondering why you're suddenly paying more attention to Jungwon's ice cream rather than him." Once again, the man is correct.

After Riki had got you the teddy bear (which you were cuddling in your arms in that exact moment) you had become a blushing mess and could barely bring yourself to look him in the eyes. It wasn't hard for Sunghoon and Sunoo to catch onto, Sunghoon nudging your arm when you had started questioning Jungwon about unnecessary things while Riki was right next to you.

You were so, so scared. What better way to avoid your feelings by avoiding the one that had caused them to blossom?

"You are getting this sorted tonight. I don't care how it ends, you're both getting closure on whatever this is because I can't stand this weird tension going on between you both and I don't know how long it will be until you both crack." Sunghoon’s words simultaneously break your heart and make it beat 10x faster.

You had no idea Riki was sat in his room staring at his phone wondering what he had done wrong this time.

Jay's house is filled to the brim with party decorations, alcohol and people. You wonder how his parents would even allow this, then you question wether they even know about it. Honestly, you're sure you don't know some of the people here and you have no idea where they've spawned from.

You haven't seen Riki yet.

Sunghoon's words had been playing in your mind since he had spoke. In fact, you had been looking for Riki the whole time so you could sort it as soon as possible, tell him the truth, allowing him to enjoy the rest of the night even if his possible rejection could ruin yours.

You've downed a few drinks to release your nerves, soon finding the boys and a few others playing beer pong. They all don't seem too drunk,

on their feet successfully, until your eyes land on Riki who is stumbling all over the place.

Deep breath. You walk over to him.

"Riks, I'm sorry- talk to me." You pull him into a more isolated corner to avoid people listening into your conversation, though Riki pushes you away lightly and glares at you.

"Fuck off." He slurs and you step back in shock which causes you to bump into the wall. It's not like you had ever seen the boy drunk, for all you know something else could have bothered him, "I said- I think I'm gonna throw up.”

He turns around and makes his way upstairs and you follow closely behind him both to finish the conversation and take care of him. He leaves the door unlocked, so you walk in and see him leaned up against a porcelain bathtub.

Jay's parents liked their cute, but strange, antiques.

"Riki, please stand up. I need to get you home, you're too drunk." You're trying your hardest to pull the boy up out of the bathroom, but he only falls back down onto the side of the tub. You resort to giving up, sitting on the floor in front of him.

"You know I came back for you right? I- fuck I'm actually gonna be sick." He stands up, mostly stumbling, then sits down in front of the toilet instead with his back pressed against the wall. Turning around to face him, you've barely processed what he had said.

His eyes are beginning to fill with tears, he brings his arms up to rub them away.

"What do you mean you came back for me?" When you lean forward to rub the tears from his eyes, which he surprisingly allows you to do, you almost get deja vu.

"I could have stayed in Japan, I had everything I needed there." Like he had sobered up, he no longer needs to throw up anymore and theres no slurring in his tone, "But I didn't have what I wanted- you. I don't think you understand how much I think about you, every single day you were there in my head. It was torture knowing I couldn't have you and that's why I stopped talking to you. I put myself through so fucking much just because I fell in love with you and couldn't do anything about it."

"You can't do this to me."

"What? You've been ignoring me for the last three days and I can't tell you that I love you? I had to get it off my chest." He scoffs, going to stand when you try to drag him back down, "You know what-"

"I'm in love with you too. I was scared. That's why I was ignoring you. I thought pushing you away would stop it, but it just made me feel worse."

You let it all out.

Riki hesitates, but soon moves forward so that his face is only inches from yours. He looks at you in the eyes, both filled with love, desire and fear. The amount of alcohol you had both consumed only reduced the anxiety slightly, but it doesn't stop him from leaning forward to close the gap.

it's merely a small peck for a second and you both pull away from each other. The separation doesn't last long when Riki pulls you to stand up with him, his hand reaching for the back of your neck to connect your lips again.

Your back is pressed against the bathroom door, hands wrapping around the back of his neck and his falling to grip onto your hips. When you close your eyes, the mixture of alcohol and Riki makes you dizzy and your legs shake, though his hold manages to keep you standing up-right.

"I'm sorry for telling you to fuck off. I didn't mean it." He mumbles against your lips, pecking them one last time before pulling away from you. Though it doesn't make the warmth he gave you part from your body.

"It's okay. I think I deserved it."

The next morning, you wake up in his arms — where you had always wanted to be. This turned out to be one of your favourite things to wake up to.

"I can't believe I moved all the way to Japan when I could have just been in your arms the whole time." Riki's hand rakes through your hair softly, stopping every so often to move the hairs out of your face.

"You're so cheesy. Why were you never this cheesy usually?" You both laugh, you’ve been messing with the necklace he had been wearing for a few minutes, trying to fixate on something other than the nerves that had been building.

"I wasn't dating you back then. I'm not going to show the world that I have a weakness." He says, manoeuvring his body to face you, he was blushing just as much as you were.

"And suddenly you want to?" You smile, he smiles back happily.

He doesn’t respond, continuing to soothe his hand through your hair. For once, the two of you don’t need to communicate with words, something you both seemed to struggled with your whole life.

Like a scraped knee, you had always placed a bandaid over it instead of tending to it properly like you should — when you finally decide to, it heals a lot faster.

#enhypen x reader #enha x reader #ni-ki x reader #nishimura riki x reader #enhypen fanfic #enha fanfic #ni-ki fanfic #nishimura riki fanfic #enhypen oneshot #enha oneshot #ni-ki oneshot #nishimura riki oneshot

[hezzabeth]

The description of the space station is based on my own experiences during a ten hour layover in Singapore.

"Are you alright? Do you have a bout of telesickness?" Brigadeiro Bun asked as Revati stared off into space.

"Telewhat?" Revati asked, her brain snapping back into place.

When Amma and Nanni heard that Revati was about to go off-world, they tried to prepare her.

"It's not like your other wasteland adventures where you wandered into a city on foot! You'll need to buy tickets; then apply for a tourism visa," Amma explained.

"My what?" Revati asked, completely confused.

"The actual teleporting takes less than a second, but you will have to spend at least an hour in customs and immigration and four hours in the teleport waiting your turn," Nanni added.

It was all incredibly exhausting and confusing.

The teleport hub they were waiting in was deliberately designed to make people forget they were waiting. Bright, expensive shops with intricate displays created pathways to different teleportation gates. Massive, giant flowering bushes surrounded by clouds of butterflies brushed against the glass ceiling. In the center of everything, there was a crystal pond. Robotic bronze mermaids swam up and down underneath the lily pads.

"Telesickness! It's okay, a lot of people not used to teleporting end up with upset stomachs," Brigadeiro reassured her, handing her something small and pink from his shirt pocket.

"This should help, their stomach stabilizers! I bought them in the bathroom," Brigadeiro smiled helpfully, and Revati took one, popping it into her mouth before promptly spitting it out.

"It tastes like gasoline," Revati grimaced.

"You're not supposed to eat it! You rub it on your temples," Brigadeiro explained gently before picking the stomach stabilizer up off her lap.

"Please don't rub that all over my temples; it has my spit on it," Revati pointed out, shutting her eyes.

"Are you sure you're not sick?" Brigadeiro asked.

"I'm just exhausted; we've teleported so many times I have no idea where we are," Revati sighed, closing her gritty eyes.

"We're at the Anh Do memorial teleport hub; he was a figure from southwest Sydney legends! When he was a baby, he was on a boat attacked by pirates. Then he grew up to become a famous children's writer and artist," Brigadeiro rattled on.

Revati felt herself slump to one side with exhaustion, her head landing on something soft.

Brigadeiro's home wasn't even technically a planet. Rather, it was a series of six space stations, each representing different areas of a land once known as "Australia." The Southwest Sydney Station was so big it had its own weather patterns, ecosystem, and geography. Most of it consisted of expensive tourist resorts, beachside towns, and theme parks. Brigadeiro had explained many times before that his family was part of the 15 million-strong workforce that lived in the secret employee-only towns and cities. Someone, hopefully Brigadeiro, was gently massaging her scalp, and Revati felt herself fall into a drowsy, dark state.

Revati wasn't sure how long she had been snoozing when the screaming sirens suddenly filled the air. Revati's self-preservation instincts kicked in, and her eyes snapped open. Within seconds, she was back on her feet, reaching for her mace.

"You had to leave the weapon at security back on Mars," Brigadeiro reminded her as hundreds of people suddenly started flowing out of the teleport gates. The air was thick with sirens and flashing blue lights as the crowd swelled around her. Brigadeiro snatched her hand, and together they were swept forward in the tidal wave of chaos.

People were everywhere, their faces blurred by the rapidity of the moment, their shouts and cries a blurry nonsense of at least a dozen different languages. In a second of terror, Revati found herself thrown down. Feet pounded on her back as she curled herself up into a ball. There was a sudden break in people, and Revati saw a glimpse of the mermaid pool. Revati forced herself forward and grabbed the pool's safety fence, hauling herself over the edge. She landed with a splash into the shallow water. For a few moments, all Revati could hear was the pounding of the mob and sirens.

All Revati could feel was her body as the robot mermaids bumped into her before swimming away. The glass ceiling above had clouded over, turning an eerie white. There was a sudden buzzing on Revati's wrist, indicating her bangle had an incoming call. It was the android. Of course, it was.

"Ignore," Revati groaned, sitting up, and a tiny mermaid bounced off her cleavage. Somehow, half her shirt had managed to get ripped off. The crowd wasn't as thick, but people were still charging past the shops heading to some unknown destination. The sirens suddenly stopped.

"All interstellar teleport gates have been switched off temporarily! We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused," a lady's voice chimed over the speakers. People slowly stopped running and instead began to shuffle around.

Tiny first aid drones began to zoom out of the shops, attending to the fallen. Through it all, Revati scanned and searched. Spotting Brigadeiro was far harder than usual since many people in the hub had pink, curly hair. Finally, she saw him across the crowd in the doorway of a chocolate shop. A woman was lying at his feet. Revati slowly stood, her legs wobbling, before climbing out of the pond. By the time she managed to push her way through to the storefront, she had heard several whispers. There had been an attack on another Space Station known as “Cairnes”. The crowd consisted of tourists and travelers who fled when an employee opened up a teleportation gate during the attack. Brigadeiro was attending to the woman who was bleeding all over the shop floor from a gash on her temples.

"Oh, thank Goup!" Brigadeiro cried, wrapping Revati in a smothering hug. Brigadeiro was, of course, a little shorter than her, and he nuzzled his face into her shoulder, sobbing.

"It's alright, I'm fine," Revati assured him, petting his back, and Brigadeiro sobbed.

"It's not that; Cairnes has been destroyed! Millions are dead," Brigadeiro's voice choked.

"Destroyed?" Revati gasped. The bleeding lady on the ground twitched, and Revati let go of Brigadeiro in order to check her. The lady was a bit older than Revati, probably in her late twenties. She had the pale, sickly skin and brighter blue hair of those who came from the northern parts of Mars. Her haircut, however, was similar to the trendy “mushroom cap” style she had seen on the space station – short with a blunt fringe. Revati reached into one of her pants pockets, pulling out a trusty medibandage, and stuck it onto the woman’s temple. Even while unconscious, she had the expression of someone fully capable of starting a riot in a coffee shop. It clashed violently with her bright purple tropical print shirt and neon pink watch. The watch. Revati grabbed the unconscious lady's hand to examine the watch.

"SOS Emergency Medical Information," she said to the watch. Its screen flickered, and a tiny 3D hologram of the lady appeared.

"My name is Pauletta Chuchotor, I am twenty-nine years old! My blood type is B- and I'm allergic to Venusian swamp gas," the hologram said cheerfully, and suddenly the hologram switched off as tight fingers wrapped themselves around Revati's wrist.

Revati glanced at the lady who was now staring at her with bloodshot green eyes.

"My personal information isn't for you," she said in a deep, raspy voice.

"Good to know," Revati said. Pauletta Chuchotor was staring at her curiously.

"I don't forget faces easily," she said, her fingernails still digging into Revati's wrist.

"Ok," Revati replied uneasily, wondering if the lady had a brain injury.

"You look a little like someone I met a long time ago," Pauletta said, as if accusing Revati of something terrible.

"I got a message from Dad; the news says all the teleporting hubs have been shut down! He says we should leave the hub and take the workers' bullet train back to Paprika Station before they stop running," Brigadeiro said, gesturing to his grey bracelet.

"A bullet train? Like the one in Olde Landon? I thought this space station was supposed to be super advanced?" Revati asked, completely confused.

"It is, but teleportation has a weight limit of six hundred kilograms; the trains are used when we need to transport bulk goods and supplies to different resorts," Brigadeiro explained.

"I also need to go to this Paprika Station; I will follow you," Pauletta Chuchotor remarked, and Revati exchanged a look with Brigadeiro.

"I mean, it's not like we can stop her," Brigadeiro pointed out.

The train ride to Paprika Station turned out to be far more exhausting, bewildering, and strangely smelly than teleporting. Everyone seemed to know Brigadeiro Bun, and by extension, everyone seemed to know Revati.

"Bridgadeiro! Your mama said you would be back for Applefestus! And is this the famous Revati from Mars?" An old lady with orange hair said to them as they waited for the train.

"I may have mentioned you in my messages home; this is my mother's friend Mrs. Jambalaya from church," Brigadeiro said as the old lady descended onto Revati in a cloud of vanilla perfume.

"Oh, she's so pretty! Such big amber eyes! And who's that?" She asked, nodding at Pauletta, who was standing several feet away from them, staring into the distance.

"No idea, we think she's an injured tourist," Brigadeiro admitted as Revati quietly blushed. No one in Olde Landon had ever called her pretty.

"Bridge! Did you hear about the terrorist attack? My dad said appliances from Mars did it," someone yelled when they finally got onto the cramped train. A teenage boy with dark skin and fuchsia braids was waving at them from a row of seats.

"We were at the capital telehub when it happened! Revati, this is my cousin Pecan," Brigadeiro explained as they sat down.

Pecan gasped with horror. "Oh, Goup! You're the girl Bridge is bringing home for Applefestus! You probably don't want us talking about the war," Pecan remarked.

"It's fine; I'm too tired and freaked out to care," Revati assured him.

"Why don't you take a nap? The ride to Paprika Station takes around four hours," Brigadeiro said, tapping his shoulder. Revati sighed gratefully, her head dropping onto his shoulder. Before her eyes shut, she spotted Pauletta standing on the other side of the carriage, staring at her with dried blood still in her hair.

#lifewithlola #nanowrimo2023 #nanowrimo #science fiction #speculative worldbuilding #speculative fiction #saying farewell to armageddon #ya scifi #ya fiction #ya dystopia #writing science fiction

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Wonder Common Wasps

The common wasp, Vespula vulgaris is a species of wasp that is native throughout Europe and Asia, and has been introduced in New Zealand, Australia, and South America. These wasps thrive in a variety of environments, from deciduous forests to meadows to urban parks and gardens; the primary requirements are an abundant source of food and at least several months where the temperature is above 2 °C (36 °F) which allows them to forage. Nests can be found in tree hollows, crevices, wall cavities, or any other enclosed space.

Vespula vulgaris has a highly varied diet. As larvae, they are fed pre-chewed caterpillars, flies, spiders, and bees. Adults consume more sugary foods like nectar, fruits, and honey. They find these foods through their extremely sensitive sense of smell; the common wasp is capable of detecting minute particles of food via their antennae, and once a source of food is found the individual will return to the hive to recruit others by drumming their abdomen against the side of the nest.

Like other hymenoptrids, the common wasp is a eusocial species; each nests consists of workers under the direction of a single queen. When a queen first begins her colony, she does most of the work building the nest from chewed wood fibre and laying eggs that produce sterile female workers. As the colony grows, reaching up to 5,000 individuals, the queen begins to produce both female and male workers, each of which performs a specific task for the hive; foraging, caring for the eggs and larvae, feeding the queen, or repairing the nest. These workers are directed by pheromones released by the queen, which is delivered both by air and when workers lick the queen to clean her.

The queen begins laying eggs at the start of summer, in May. Larvae emerge about 5 days later, and spend the next 20-25 days being fed by the queen until they reach full size, at which time they spin a mucus-based cover over their cell and emerge as a mature worker. This cycle continues throughout the summer and early fall, with larger individuals emerging later in the season. A larva's place in the hive also determines its size; the largest larvae, which becomes the queen, is located at the bottom of the nest closest to the entrance. Multiple queens typically hatch in a season, but most leave the nest to start their own colonies. Towards the end of the summer, the queen mates with multiple males and then enters a state of hibernation until the following spring thaw; meanwhile, the workers either starve or are killed by the cold.

Workers and queens are fairly similar in appearance; both sport yellow and black markings across their thorax and abdomen to warn away potential predators. The primary difference is that queens are larger, at 20 mm (0.8 in) long, while workers are only 12–17 mm (0.5–0.7 in). Only female workers have stingers. The species is commonly confused with the European wasp, Vespula germanica, as the two look remarkably similar; the best identifier is that V. vulgaris has only one black mark on its head, while V. germanica has three.

Conservation status: This species has a large, stable population and is considered Least Concern by the IUCN. However, in areas where it has been introduced, it is considered invasive due to predation and competition with native species.

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Photos

Andy Sands

Mike Snell

Dennis Maraisis via iNaturalist

#common wasp #Hymenoptera #Vespidae #social wasps #paper wasps #wasps #hymenoptrids #insects #arthropods #deciduous forests #deciduous forest arthropods #grasslands #grassland arthropods #urban fauna #urban arthropods #europe #asia #animal facts #biology #zoology

[harlowsbby]

this is so random but i thought it was cute and funny. a fluff fic where y/n brings home a teacup pig and tries to hide it from jack😭

Undecided

“You have to help me hide her Urban I don’t want Jack seeing her just yet.” Urban looked at you in complete shock I mean sure he’s helped you hide packages you’ve gotten from Amazon from Jack or things you never really needed but wanted from Jack but never in his life did he think he’d have to help you hide a pig.

“Y/N you do realize we’re in Australia and have to eventually go back home to America how are we suppose to get a pig on the plane without anybody noticing.” You shrugged your shoulders and handed Urban the pig carrier before brining your new little tea cup pig you named Indigo to your chest and coo’d at her while she oinked and cuddled into you.

“My man is Jack Harlow they can’t say anything.” Urban couldn’t believe this shit you actually bought a pet pig he knew Jack was going to chew him out when the two of you got back to the hotel.

Once the two of you got back at the hotel you quickly opened the door to your shared hotel room with Jack you mentally cursed hearing Jack’s voice and Neelam’s voice coming from the kitchen area.

“Baby? Is that you what took you two so long.” Jack’s voice came from the kitchen and that’s when Indigo decided to start squirming in your arms she started squealing and you started panicking you placed her down behind the couch and she calmed down now occupied by the pillow that was on the floor.

“Babe? What was that I thought I heard a pig unless I’m just tired.” Jack came into view and smiled seeing you.

“I think you’re just tired Jack I mean you have been doing a lot of shows back to back you gotta get some rest.” You reached up on your tippy toes and connected your lips with Jack he smiled and kissed you back his hands now resting on waist he pulled back and smiled at you, God you loved this man so much.

“I don’t have a show tomorrow so I’m definitely getting some rest tonight.. but what did you get ma give me a little haul.” You snorted at him using the word haul but gave him a little show at all the things you bought, you completely forgot about indigo till your little haul was interrupted by Neelam’s scream. Jack and you quickly dashed into the kitchen once you saw the reason to her scream you knew you were fucked.

“How did a pig get in here?! When did a pig get in here.” Neelam screamed as you rushed to pick up the now scared pig who was a squealing mess but relaxed once in your arms.

“I’m guessing it was because of you baby.. you got some explaining to do.” You smiled innocently at Jack but he wasn’t buying it.

“Okay when I went out with Urban we went to this market and this guy there was selling tea cup pigs and she was the last one left and I wanted her and I didn’t want her to be alone so I obviously took her.”

“Right so how are we going to get this pig back to America ma?” Urban appeared from behind Jack and you deadpanned knowing exactly what he was going to say.

“Well I asked Y/N that question earlier and her response was that Jack Harlow was my man.” Neelam couldn’t help but to laugh as you pouted and brought Indigo closer to Jack.

“Please can we keep her Jack I promise I’ll make sure she’s safe and has food everyday please Jack I love her so much already I even named her indigo.” You pouted and have Jack your best puppy dog eyes you even managed to get your lip to quiver.

Jack groaned and rubbed his forehead he couldn’t believe you got a pet pig and even named it.

“Fine alright ma you can keep the damn pig but it’s your responsibility to make sure it’s taken care of ma not mine.” You squealed and hugged him tightly and pecked his lips.

“Thank you Jack I promise little indigo over here will be a good addition to our little family isn’t that right indigo?” Indigo snorted in approval making Neelam and You awww while Jack simply shook his head at you, the things this man did for love.

#jack harlow #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x y/n

[landinrris]

Photographer!Lando WIP Snippet

Inadvertently came across an F1 challenge on ao3 that included a prompt about paddock photographer Lando and Ferrari driver Carlos and now I am running wild with it. It's almost 20k help Since I'm horrible at making short, consistent things, here I am sharing a snippet of them meeting for the first time

Lando had just been starting in the F3 paddock the last time Ferrari had seriously challenged for the title. It hadn’t ultimately gone well— a masterclass in disaster if Lando’s being honest. The way hope had slowly petered out, all but gone by July. Lando doesn’t know Carlos personally, but he’s followed his career through the years— had posters of him up on his bedroom wall and everything. He’s not too proud to admit that it’d be pretty cool to watch Carlos take Ferrari to their first championship in eighteen years. What a story that would make.

The Red Bulls aren’t too far behind him on Friday practice, his teammate back in third to his second after Saturday’s qualifying is all said and done.

It’s not like Charles doesn’t also deserve to be champion, Lando thinks, watching from the castle as he’s practically on top of Carlos through the tricky corners. But there’s a part of Carlos that screams he’s done waiting, and compared to the two DNFs Charles has already had with another fifth place in Australia, he’s further back in the points already.

Carlos has been walking around with careful confidence every time Lando sees him, like he can’t quite believe it’s been going so well.

And Lando’s not a stranger as to the other reason he’d love for Carlos to win.

It starts with a cr and ends with an ush. Seeing Carlos know he’s leading even early on in the season has been doing wonders for Lando’s infatuation. While he’s not one of the photographers who wait around for the drivers arriving at the paddock each day, he’s half tempted to hang around to get some of Carlos.

Lando’s sitting with his camera in the old city complex around halfway through the race when one of the nearby marshals reaches for their yellow flag. A second later, he sees a distinctly red Ferrari come around the corner going much slower than it should be even given the area it’s in. The distinct 55 becomes clearer not too long after.

One of the marshals rushes up to Lando, ushering him away from the escape road that Carlos is trying to direct his car towards. Lando moves, numb and disappointed as the broadcast feed in his ears finally acknowledges Carlos’ impending DNF.

He’s supposed to be neutral, and he is for the most part. It’s just that Carlos had been comfortably in the lead after jumping Checo at the start and now he’ll walk away from the weekend without any points.

This is how it starts.

Carlos jumps from the car once it’s safely off track and marches behind the barriers. They’ve never spoken, but Lando can read the tension in his shoulders from ten feet away. He’s stuck standing still as some of the nearby photographers turn to capture Carlos’ annoyance. Lando can’t bring himself to raise his lens in Carlos’ direction and instead turns back to the track. Carlos is undoubtedly not in the mood.

The old city usually provides good vantage points to capture the cars as they come through, but bunched up behind the safety car while the tractor pulls Carlos’ car behind the barriers is even better. A nineteen-car squirming snake.

The other photographers wander off after a handful of shots leaving Lando to believe that Carlos has mounted whatever scooter of shame they have for him back to the paddock. He’ll probably want to go punch something.

When Lando turns around after all the cars have cycled past though, a shock of red sitting with his back against the barrier without a helmet on, greets him. Lando only feels slightly guilty for thinking Carlos looks hot when he’s sad. The sight of Carlos sitting there, legs bent and hands dangling atop his knees, takes Lando’s breath away.

He should focus on the race, maybe move to a new location as the safety car comes in and the race goes green again. Instead, all Lando does is open his big mouth in the most embarrassing way.

“So, come here often?” It’s not overly loud, but with the lull in noise and Carlos close by, of course he hears it.

Carlos cracks open an eye and shifts his head level with Lando. “That is the best you could come up with?” It’s not overly nasty, but the element of unimpressed is definitely there that has Lando cringing internally.

“I mean, unless you’d rather me ask if you’re okay? And clearly you are, physically. Mentally, you’re probably kicking yourself. Points opportunity gone and everything when you know you need every one you can get.” Carlos is staring at Lando dead-eyed when Lando’s brain finally cooperates and slots its filter back in place.

“Are you finished?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

The tell-tale roar of engines making their way down the straight pulls Lando’s attention back to the track.

God, he’s such a moron. Out of all times for his filter to up and disappear, of course it happens while meeting one of the hottest people he’s ever seen. All while clad in the billowy white and purple mesh photographer vest he’s made to wear. Carlos probably thinks he’s some piece of shit who thinks he’s right about everything.

Checo’s leading when the cars snake past them but the only noise that lingers once they pass is his own self screaming wanker inside his head over and over.

“I haven’t seen you before, I think.” Carlos unexpectedly speaks nearly in conjunction with Lando’s finger lifting from the shutter.

Lando carefully holds himself still, trying to evoke an air of uncaring rather than one of eagerness to please. “Uh, no. This is my first season in the F1 paddock. Been with F2 and F3 since 2019 though. I’m Lando— Norris. Lando Norris.” He would hold his hand out for Carlos to shake if they weren’t awkwardly far apart and Lando was sure Carlos wouldn’t punch him for speaking out of his ass.

Carlos doesn’t punch him though. He nods and turns his head to look over at the marshal standing at their post fifteen feet away. “Tell me, Lando Norris, do you think this will cost me in a few months?”

Lando should say no, especially after shoving his foot in his mouth earlier. “It’s not gonna make it easier,” he says. God. “I mean— it’s not like I don’t think you can’t. I think if anyone could come back, it’s you. With like, consistency and all that. But the field is like, so close, you know? I should really stop talking.”

But Carlos is at least smiling at him this time like he’s enjoying watching Lando struggle to stop digging himself an ever deeper hole. He probably just needs to run and find a new photo spot where he won’t be at risk of talking to drivers who DNF.

“You think I’m consistent?” Carlos teases. Because that’s 100% what he’s doing, Lando can see it now. Proper smile and everything.

He points his camera at Carlos and takes a burst of shots in retaliation. They don’t deter Carlos’ grin.

“I mean, you beat your veteran teammate twice over the seasons since you’ve been at Ferrari, and then before when you were at McLaren even though you had shit luck. You know how to keep it in one piece.” Lando can feel how hot his face is and wonders if his blush is visible.

Carlos sighs. “I guess we will see, no? Where is Charles right now?”

The cars come roaring back up the hill and Lando counts fifth. Carlos seems mildly okay with that. Lando can only imagine how quickly Ferrari would switch allegiances if Carlos’ performance fell off. At least Lando can offer some reassurance.

One of the Haases clips a corner and gets some spectacular front axle damage a few laps later. Carlos takes that as his cue to push himself up and make his way back down to the paddock. Part of Lando is morose to see him go even though he definitely needs to move as well to get some variety in what he sends off later.

“I will see you around?” Carlos asks as he picks his helmet off the ground.

Lando flashes him a smile. “I’ll be here as long as they let me. Hopefully next time you’ll be back up on that podium.” And then Carlos is trudging back in the direction of the pits. Lando gives Carlos a few minutes before setting off in the same direction. Better to be closer to the podium at this stage in the race than farther away.

Lando doesn’t see Carlos again for the remainder of the afternoon. When he’s editing his photos later as the paddock begins to clear and the champagne has dried, he comes across the ones he quickly took of Carlos. They stop him in his tracks.

The photographers who had swarmed him after getting out of the car and sitting down on the ground all got photos of Carlos at his most vulnerable. Lando’s sure they look like he’s about to cry or scream or maybe both. They’ll use them to paint pictures of defeat and concern over Carlos’ championship chances— the likelihood of continuing with a DNF under his belt.

Lando’s photo shows the opposite. There’s a hint of a smile on his face as he sits on the ground looking in Lando’s direction. It doesn’t speak of dashed championship hopes, but rather fortified determination. That a DNF isn’t the end of the world, nor does Carlos think so.

He spends a few minutes correcting the balances and then opens Instagram. Carlos is one of those longstanding drivers Lando’s followed practically since he signed up for an account. He’s sure Carlos gets overwhelming numbers of DMs on a regular basis, but Lando has no other way of contacting him and he wants Carlos to have the photos.

The way his gut jumps when Carlos not only opens the message but replies with a short message of gratitude, should be embarrassing. Like a fucking teenager. And then Carlos honest to God posts them, crediting Lando’s page.

Lando tries not to feel guilty when he goes back to the hotel later and pulls up Pornhub on his phone. Dark-haired and dark-eyed guys aren’t solely reminiscent of Carlos. He’s totally normal and within his rights.

Nothing to worry about.

#is it almost 2k? maybe so but I'm lowkey having fun writing it and excited to share more #writing tag #carlando #husbands™ #photographer lando fic

[fatehbaz]

For those who know how to read them, the signs have long been there. Like the towering mound of 20 million oyster shells all but obscured by the lush greenery of central Florida’s Gulf Coast. Or the arcing lines of wave-weathered stone walls strung along British Columbia’s shores like a necklace. Such features, hidden in the landscape, tell a rich and varied story of Indigenous stewardship. They reveal how humans carefully transformed the world’s coasts into gardens of the sea -- gardens that produced vibrant, varied communities of marine life [...]. And in certain places, like on the west coast of North America in what is now Washington state and where the Swinomish are building a new sea garden, these ancient practices are poised to sustain them once again.

“I see it as a way for our people to be reconnected to our place, to be reconnected to each other, and to have a purpose, to have a responsibility that goes beyond us,” says Alana Quintasket (siwəlcəʔ) of the Swinomish Tribal Senate.

---

Across the planet, Indigenous communities, from the Heiltsuk in British Columbia, to the Powhatan on the Chesapeake Bay on the United States’ Atlantic Coast, to the Māori in New Zealand, have successfully stewarded the sea [...]. These communities avoided diminishing their productive sea gardens despite, in some cases, seeing harvests that rival modern commercial fisheries.

The scale of historical Indigenous oyster gardening, for instance, cannot be overstated. On America’s southeastern Atlantic coast, in the modern states of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, Indigenous peoples whose descendants include the Muscogee built gargantuan monuments out of oyster shells. These structures could reach 30 meters high or more. [...]

In 2004, scientists studying historical overfishing published a study showing how, starting around the 19th century, oyster stocks suffered a “moving wave of exploitation” that traveled down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North America and the eastern coast of Australia. The capitalist commercial fisheries that arrived with European colonization and settlement, Rick says, undid thousands of years of sustainable prosperity. “Within 50 years, 100 years, maybe even less in some areas, they’ve depleted that stock.” But to Rick, that modern narrative of rampant decline is only part of the story. [...] To fill in the rest of the story, Rick assembled a diverse, multidisciplinary team of researchers to revisit the history of oyster fishing in the same places [...].

---

The work adds to scientists’ growing understanding of the diversity and value of Indigenous approaches to marine stewardship. Like the oyster gardens, similar systems show up again and again around the world, from Native Hawaiian loko i‘a (fishponds) and Haida Gwaii naw náaGalang (octopus houses) to the shi hu (stone fish traps) of Taiwan and corrales de pesca (fish traps) of Patagonia. These and other examples are being cataloged by a broad collaboration, known as the Pacific Sea Garden Collective, that is working to map this diversity of Indigenous sea gardening innovations across the Pacific Ocean.

In her own work studying historical Indigenous clam gardens on the North American west coast, which date back at least 3,500 years, Anne Salomon, an applied marine ecologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, has noted some of the key techniques that led to these bountiful yet restrained returns. People would till the sediment, replenish shells in the water, and construct low intertidal rock terraces that flatten the shoreline and expand the farmable area. [...]

---

To Salomon, who is involved in the Pacific Sea Garden Collective, the intensive nature of some Indigenous sea gardens is fundamentally different from the maximum sustained yield mindset of today’s capitalist commercial fisheries. Archaeological evidence, paired with Indigenous oral histories, Salomon says, shows how by focusing on common reciprocal, relationship-based principles and governance practices — ones that sustain individuals, communities and their environments — Indigenous communities often made decisions that led to huge harvests while also putting some limits on the scale at which that intensification was happening.

These gardening efforts included a continuum of features, such as seasonal or size limits on harvest, that may be invisible to the eye, Salomon says. And as Marco Hatch, a member of the Samish Indian Nation and a marine ecologist at Western Washington University who was involved in Rick’s study of oyster gardens points out, “These features aren’t just physical features, they’re cultural features and spiritual features.” [...]

---

Inspired by sea garden restorations led by Indigenous communities in British Columbia, the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community has just received permits to start raking sediment and rolling rocks at a site on its traditional tidelands on Kiket Island, roughly 125 kilometers north of Seattle. For years, tribal members were chased away with guns and dogs and prevented from harvesting in the area, says Swinomish tribal member and shellfish community liaison Joe Williams (Squi qui). “It’s a very special time for us to be able to reacquaint with this particular location,” he says.

This sea garden should help address recent declines of butter clams, littleneck clams and Olympia oysters, and help those populations adapt to climate change. Historically, Indigenous peoples would shift the locations of clam garden rock walls as sea levels changed. Gardens also protect clams against ocean acidification and potentially against extreme temperatures.

---

Text by Ashley Braun. This story was originally produced for Hakai Magazine. Braun’s text here appears as published/re-published by Crosscut with the title “Indigenous sea gardens fed communities, preserved ecosystems.” 3 August 2022. [Bold emphasis added by me.]

[suspicious-whumping-egg]

Hey blue, could you tell me about whale sharks? :]

-LT

WHALE SHARKKSSSSSSS

Whale sharks (scientific name Rhincodon Typus) are the largest fish in the sea (specifically females)! The longest whale shark recorded is 61.5 feet long, and the heaviest about 47,000 pounds, or 23.5 tons! Their mouths can be around 4-5 feet wide. They also have the thickest skin of any animal, with various sources estimating it to be anywhere between 4-11 inches thick! Their spot patterns are unique like fingerprints and can be used for identification.

Whale sharks are gentle, slow swimming (up to 3 mph) filter feeders that swim around, open their mouth, suction in water like a vacuum, and eat the little organisms that end up inside! These include plankton, krill, and squid! They have tiny little teeth on the inside of their mouth so when the water floods in, the organisms are trapped in the mouth, and then the water goes back out their gills. They have very small throats so they can only eat small organisms, and as such, they pose no threat to humans.

Like many types of sharks, whale sharks are covered in teeth-like scales called dermal denticles that reduce drag while swimming. However, unlike most sharks, whale sharks have these denticles ON THEIR EYES! It is thought to be that this is a method of protecting the eye, and whale sharks can also retract their eyes between 1/2 inch and 1 inch into their skulls to protect them.

Another fun fact is that no one has ever seen a whale shark give birth!! However, it is known that whale sharks are ovivipariois, meaning the pups (baby whale sharks) hatch from eggs while still inside the mother and then the mother gives birth to live young. A pregnant whale shark was caught and the number of embryos inside her were counted at around 300, so it’s estimated they give birth to about 300 pups at a time. Unfortunately, whale shark pups do have predators including other shark species and orcas, even though adult whale sharks are mainly only threatened by humans, and the survival rate of a whale shark pup to adulthood about one in ten.

Human threat is of high concern to whale sharks, as they are an endangered species. Habitat loss due to overfishing and pollution, illegal poaching and selling of whale shark fins, oil, and meat, entanglement in nets and other debris, boat strikes, and unsustainable tourism all pose threats to these remarkable creatures. However, sustainable ecotourism provides a valuable incentive to keep these animals thriving and their environments intact.

Whale sharks are highly migratory animals that prefer deep trenches of water next to a shallower shelf, as nutrients rise into the shallow water and then they can dive to feed on plankton, krill, squid, etc before coming up to warm back up in the shallow area. Prime coastal feeding spots (at certain times in the season) include Ningaloo Reef in Australia, Cancun, Isla Mujeres, and Isla Holbox in Mexico, Mafia Island in Tanzania, Utila in Honduras, Donsol Bay in the Philippines, the Galápagos Islands, Tofo Beach in Mozambique, and the South Ari Atoll in the Maldives.

For many of these places, ecotourism involving whale shark snorkeling excursions has boosted the area’s economy while providing a powerful incentive for the natural environment to be preserved. However, overcrowding can prove a danger to these beautiful fish, so an ethical whale shark snorkeling trip must: forbid “chumming the waters” or feeding the whale sharks to attract them, limit the number of tourists and boats in the area at a time, only allow snorkeling so the whale shark can safely and quickly swim out of a tourists’ reach if frightened or distressed, and prohibit tourists from touching the whale sharks because touching a whale shark can disrupt the delicate mucous membranes over their skin that help protect them from parasites and bacteria.

I fell in love with whale sharks after seeing them at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, the only aquarium in the West to house whale sharks. These whale sharks came from Taiwan, in the mid/late 2000s, and were transported by a UPS plane in specially built tanks!

Links for if you want to learn more, assist conservation, or just for fun!

World Wildlife Fund: Facts and Conservation (article)

WWF: Adopt a Whale Shark (and receive whale shark stuffie!)

Britannica: Whale Sharks

Georgia Aquarium: Whale Shark Facts (article)

How the Whale Sharks got from Taiwan to Atlanta (video)

One Minute Whale Shark Informational Video

Watch a livestream of the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium!!

One of my whale shark stuffies

Yellow lab kisses a whale shark (my favorite video on the Internet)

Whale Shark Octonauts (it’s literally so cute) and creature report song. (both videos)

#whale sharks #whale shark #whalesharkposting #whale shark posting #rhincodon #rhincodon typus

[notsuch]

Reading Junker lore as an Australian is like, hilarious because it's a wild ride of being so clearly not knowing what the frick it was saying THAT MADE IT CYCLE ALL THE WAY BACK INTO MAKING SENSE AGAIN. But also, that literally, whether it's Overwatch or Other Global Forces, is to blame for the Junkers being what they are, because wow.

But to start with, the problem is essentially this: Blizzard just don't know what the frick the Outback is.

SO BUCKLE UP KIDS THIS IS A LONG-ASS POST, I GOT SOME SHIT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT HOW THE JUNKERS CAME ABOUT. But there are pictures I promise. I also wanna say that I am not here to say that the Omnic war, the discussions of human-omnic relationships is like X real-world thing, I'm here to look at how the world is and how they've said it develops in Overwatch, and what that implies for the world development, that's all. I was just real excited at how averagely aussie Leah is in her portrayal of Junker Queen is and it made me want to ground it more in my home okok and I thought other people might want to understand that too.

CW: for talking about war tactics, statistics and wide-scale loss of life.

TL;DR for my post on Aussie Shit: the Outback is not a defined location. You will never be able to stick it into a GPS and find it. It is a conceptual area that can be defined as 'semi-rural to rural'. But also it's an almost folklorish concept of the Australian 'heart' that can extend over what can be seen in the below map. I will advise this is actually a map of bushland types, which is why it doesn't include Tasmania, but just to be clear, Tasmania AS WELL has Outback regions, and also, this can extend further East fairly comfortably depending on who you talk to. For instance, this map doesn't reach Tamworth OR Dubbo, buuuuuut most people would consider it as being on the edge of the Outback, for instance.

Oh, you might now be saying, that's most of the country, isn't it?

YEAH.

And as you'd expect for a piece of land THE SIZE OF FUCKING EUROPE, it's hugely broad in its landscape, too. You will find everything in the concept of the "Outback" depending, again, on who you talk to. From the Daintree Rainforest (left pic) (around Cairns to Cooktown) to the Great Australian Bite (middle pic) (the bottom C curve between Adelaide to Perth) to the central Australian town with a population of 26,000+ people, Alice Springs (right pic).

Yet the wiki lists it as "The Outback omnium and its Omnics were given the Australian omnium and its surrounding land after the Omnic Crisis."

UHM. BLIZZARD. 1) WHERE IS IT, AGAIN??? MEEKATHARRA IS A PRETTY DIFFERENT PLACE TO THE MOUNT ISA and 2) THAT'S A LOT OF "SURROUNDING LAND". THAT'S IN FACT, MOST OF THE COUNTRY, IF I WAS TO COUNT IT AS BROADLY AS YOU SEEM TO BE THROWING IT AROUND? IT'S A LOT OF LAND.

It takes 4 days of STRAIGHT DRIVING, NO BREAKS, to cross from Sydney to Perth. The entirety of Europe fits inside of Australia, the main block of the united states, bar Alaska, is basically comparable in scale from Washington to San Fransico. Or the furthest East Coast of Brazil to the West Coast of Peru. YOU GET IT.

This then leads to the second problem, Blizzard keeps saying that the only people out there were "a few solar farmers and people who wanted to be left alone".

WITH A POPULATION TOTAL OF 600,000 - 700,000 THOUSAND PEOPLE IN JUST REGIONAL TOWNS, NO, THE OUTBACK REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION IS NOT "JUST A FEW PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE ALONE AND A COUPLE OF FARMERS IG".

NOT TO MENTION DARWIN. It's the little dot at the top of the Northern Territory and is a Capital City of the region. Sometimes called Australia's "Outback City", HAS A POPULATION OF 130,000 ALONE. Across it all, this map barely scratches the surface, there are over 60 Outback Towns or Settlements in total. We only have a total net population of 27 million. THAT'S ACTUALLY A WHOLE ASS 2-3% OF OUR WHOLE POPULATION.

This comes to the second point and often the hardest for people to get their heads around: whilst our population is not as high, THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE AREN'T USING THAT LAND AND IT'S NOT CULTURALLY AND ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TO US. No, we don't have massive inland lakes and rivers the way other places do, to have huge cities out there, but WE STILL HAVE TO SUPPORT OUR AGRICULTURAL AND MINING SECTOR THAT DOES USE THAT LAND. AND IT'S ACTUALLY. VERY. EXTENSIVE.

How extensive? Man, our largest by-land Cattle Station is Anna Creek Station, coming in at a cool 2 million acres (which is as big as the whole of Israel apparently???), or the most densely populated-by-cow one currently, Brunette Downs, which at present has 110,000 head of cattle. Don't care about cows? are you a monster cows are just slow puppos who want love omfrg WELL I BET YOU CARE ABOUT IRON, AND GUESS WHAT, WHATEVER IRON YOU HAVE IN YOUR HOUSE RN PROBABLY CAME FROM AUSTRALIA, GIVEN WE PROVIDE 90% OF THE WORLD'S IRON. Oh, also we have a shitton of uranium as well, btw. just. putting that out there.

Here is JUST PASTORAL STATIONS, you'll notice HOW MANY ARE ACTUALLY IN THE SAME AREA I JUST SHOWED:

AND HERE ARE OUR MINES, this is not just iron, we also dig many other minerals, and including the world's largest opal mine:

These cattle stations and mines stretch across the inland regions for miles upon miles, fuelling our jobs and our place in the world economy. Which I ask you this: If you're Cattle Hand Tinny Rogers from central Queensland who's gotta take care of Jenny the Cow whose due to give birth soon, you aren't driving 13 fucking hours to Brisbane City to get a pack of smokes, are you? No. Tinny Rogers just goes to the Longreach general store only 1-2 hours away, doesn't he? Then goes back to his property and tells Jenny it's going to be ok, sits his ass down with his smokes for the night, relieved he only had to go a little while.

And all those people were actually the first wiped out.

This is where this gets real freaking awful. AGAIN, CW: for talking about war tactics, statistics and wide-scale loss of life.

Now the only battle in Australia we are shown, is Sydney and that initially also made me go 'huh?' Because if the Omnic Core is in the Outback, wherever that might be, this is an overland invasion, internal to external, as opposed to an external invasion aka coming from the sea, why would you attack Sydney?

Don't get me wrong, Sydney is important. To our international position most especially. It's a financial centre, like New York is to America, it controls a great deal of our actual "economy" in the like, perception of 'if it falls, our economy tanks' kinda sense. It's also a manufacturing centre, meaning that raw goods from the rest of the country are turned into other goods there, and then shipping it out, Tactically, if you are trying to park ships, Darling Habour is ideal, as it's one of two 'natural' harbours in the world (the other being in Hong Kong), meaning its VERY DEEP even close to the land which makes it ideal for ships to come close. So someone attacking from the sea wants it. Lastly - probs why Blizzard picked it, is it is the identifiably 'Australian City'.

But it's not our capital city, that's Canberra, which is where our House of Parliament is. It's not where our military is, no, 40% of the Australian Army is based in Brisbane, and the largest naval base is in Perth. Darwin and Cairns are actually the biggest ports that are more directly connected to Asia in trade given it's a hop, skip and a jump from there to Papa New Guinea, which are actually our closest neighbour and with it, connects us to the whole of South East Asia. The very tip of QLD, to the bottom of PNG is more like the space of the English Channel, btw, for how close they are.

In the Omnic Crisis, the economy has ALREADY collapsed. It did the minute the Omnics attack, basically lmao. Then secondly, this ISN'T EXTERNAL, this is internal. Whether the Outback Omnium is in Kalgoorlie or Birdsville, it is in the middle of the country, and it is sending its forces from a regional location. They aren't attacking by sea, so they don't have to care about a landing bay.

AND HERE IS THE LAST IMPORTANT PART, OUR ARMY IS SMALL. It's only like 80,000 armed personnel, compared to the US and it's insanity of 1mill+, but we're bigger than uh,,, New Zealand I guess? Uh,,, yeah our numbers don't even rank in the big three armies of the world, or like, beyond our little bubble of Oceania. We also do have a pretty good navy but if you've been following along so far, uh, yeah, THAT'S going to do fuck all for Alice Springs, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, our forces are all well trained and highly specialised because of it but like, we don't have the numbers to be splitting up over many fronts, lmao.

By virtue of it all, they are in the middle of the country and will have STEAM ROLLED across these regional areas because some are big, sure but they are just towns with no defences against a rampaging robot army, are you kidding? Let alone if Anubis is suddenly using every robot, I can't imagine how many different kinds are incorporated in all the different mining regions and digging sights?! Some of them were clearly as big as the Titan Bots we see, judging by this shit still being left around years later -

Rolling into somewhere like poor fucking Meekatharra?!

also, seriously: what is the ever loving fuck is that thing on the left why are its arms made out of the BODIES OF OTHER OMNICS JFC WHO LET THE OMNICS PLAY BLOODBORNE OR SOMETHING, I S2G.

THESE POOR BASTARDS ALREADY HAVE TO LIVE IN MEEKATHARRA, THAT'S HARD ENOUGH, LET ALONE WHEN SKYSCRAPER-BOT THE MIGHTY ROLLED IN FROM THE DESERT.

This means that they now control all regional supplies anyway to go and target those places because they say one consistent thing about Anubis' attacks: they were efficient and direct.

"The Omnics Advance" is what they call this so from the wiki as to the state of places the Omnics leave behind, uh, yeah, BYE MEEKATHARRA, MY MUM'S STORIES ABOUT YOU WERE NICE IG?

o ok,,,,, sure, what does all this have to do with Sydney then? Where does it fit in?

I don't want you to think Sydney wouldn't be attacked. Of course it would be, eventually.

Because it's the last populated place in Australia. They can just leave Sydney because it is somewhat tactically the hardest to attack, overall, if it has support from the others, so you leave it till last where you've cut off the support, wiped out supply lines and it is now flooded with refugees from the rest of the country.

They call it the Battle of Sydney but that's not actually what you do to cities?? You siege them, because they take time, and they're certainly implying that yes, it would have taken time. Yeah no, I am not making that up, the Battle of Stalingrad for instance took five months. I make the distinction because sieges aren't about individual aspects in conflict, it's a game of chicken between the two sides of who can hold out longest. Who can sustain the constant chipping away? Sometimes it's a matter of just starving each other out, but in others, it's a constant bombardment.

With everything I just laid out, you can probably have worked it out: Australia can't sustain itself, at this point. We are cut off from our supplies, and we are unable to get actual international support because they're all, ALSO, dealing with this, and now are flooded with escaping refugees. Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, and Brisbane are gone. Which Australia's population of 27 million, is now down to, if I'm being kind, to 10-11 million (5 million in Sydney + then escapees from Melbourne, Canberra, and maybe some from Tasmania too if they could manage it, I can't say I would have much hope for those poor buggers in Perth). Sydney could not feed all the refugees because again, it does not produce raw supplies itself, and it now no longer has the numbers to keep up the fight.

It'd be incredible if they could keep it going for a month because by then, we're not facing 'this is war and people will die', Australia is now at 'we will be annihilated and there will BE no Australian people'. 60-70% of our population is dead to the war, and the rest are getting killed every day from THE TITANS LITERALLY JUST STOMPING THEIR WAY THROUGH, starving or getting sick from bad food and water.

And Australia never had a very big population, to begin with, our army isn't big if it even really exists anymore. We cannot sustain those losses. What the Omnics were hanging over Sydney at this moment is so much worse than just 'we screwed your economy for the foreseeable future'.

They are leveraging 'there will be no Australians left.' Whether the slow eradication from disease and hunger that a siege does, or in immediate and sudden violence?

So I have no doubt, even though Blizzard had no idea what they said, that it's actually entirely possible the Omnics said "idk we want the outback" and the Australian Government went YEAH, SURE, ANYTHING NOT TO GET OBLITERATED, IG?

And what's more, afterwards, whatever chance there might have been to take some of those places back - no one, NO ONE, was going to do more than rebuild the Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne strip on the outside to allow for better distribution. But who knows Anubis might have been a dick and said YOU ONLY GET SYDNEY. For one thing, taking back even something like Adelaide requires re-engaging, and on the other.......... they have this, now, that's alright, isn't it? It's the most modern part of Australia, it certainly seems like plenty, right? Other COUNTRIES exist with LESS and THRIVE!

I can't say I necessarily blame them, at that point it has to be a pure numbers game: Mexico City, which has also been destroyed, and it has almost as many people in JUST Mexico City as we have in total population. Sydney must have seemed, well, close enough. We're rebuilding this bit which will roughly sustain you (it won't, actually), but then we gotta take the resources to other devastated places that don't need FOUR CAPITAL CITIES, 10 OTHER IMPORTANT CITIES, A MINIMUM OF 30 REGIONAL TOWNS AND A FULL RECONSTRUCTION OF A INLAND NETWORK SPANNING THE ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES IN SHEER SCALE. Things as they were, at the time, it must have seemed.... well yeah. Not worth it.

Which now - hey that's pretty intense, actually that's horrific for the sheer loss of life, how can you be sure the devastation is that severe? And that in turn everyone just did what SEEMED enough with little to no consideration of its long term impact and if it had any sustainability to us? That's extreme to insinuate?

Well if not the direct implication of '30 million orphans worldwide' that means for every orphan, there are two dead parents, and then the two families next door that DIDN'T survive, to tell you the average statistics of the war casualties......

The other is simple: Junkertown exists.

Junkertown cannot exist, if there was anything left of those cities or those 60+ regional towns, pre or post-explosion of the core. Because here is the thing, if there was a chance, a single chance, we could take back that important space of the Outback, we would. In a heartbeat. I think that's why the Australian Government allowed the ALF to exist in the first place and did not stop them when they most definitely could have.

I can explain the economics of what being an island nation at the ass end of the world means as to how we are so completely fucked economically at this point, but this part is more important, even if it's often the hardest for non-Australians to wrap their heads around because they squeal about 'how scary' it is all the time is this:

We love that land. That land is our home. Yes, even with its spiders and snakes, not in spite of, but all of it, good and bad. In one sense that yes, that literally hundreds of thousands of people lived dispersed across it, but culturally it goes beyond just that direct 'my house is there'. One of our most successful ad campaigns by a freaking flight company exists on a simple premise: 'no matter how far, and how wide I go, I still call Australia home'. (The first version of it aired in the 90s, for reference, also yes, Junkrat actually has a line that echos the sentiments of this song 'I've been all around the world, but there's nowhere that compares to home' Not sure if it was on purpose but I smiled a little to myself when I first heard it). Yeah. That's it. Not fighting or glory or power. The rest of the world is beautiful, but this one is ours, and we love it for what it is. Something that is personified in that image of red sand dunes and scrub, in the arid flatness, the wattle and the gum, even to the kid that grew up in the middle of the Sydney suburbs, as his childhood home, that tugs in his heart as much as his childhood toys.

Even though I know a bunch of Aussies just read this and were like GROAN, SHUT UP, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, QUOTE BANJO PATTERSON, CAN'T CATCH ME WITH THAT SHIT,,,,

I fucking see you, I fucking know you. I only gotta say one fucking thing to you pretending you're above it:

RED DOG JUST WANTS TO KNOW, HAVE YOU SEEN JOHN? HE'S LOOKING YOU IN THE EYES, HAVE YOU SEEN JOHN?

Yeah, that's what I goddamn thought.

That we'd lose all reason to do some stupid shit like the ALF attempted to recover it? Uh, yeah. We just lost most of our population, we can't bury them, and how quickly would that landscape of our home carry that memory of them, and yet, we are cut from even that.

But to reclaim all that land you need supply chains, rebuilding as you go, AN ARMY ABLE TO HOLDING THAT SPACE AGAINST WHATEVER THE FUCK A "FERAL OMNIC" IS??? SERIOUSLY, AGAIN, DID THEY DOWNLOAD THE 'FROM SOFTWARE CREATIVE SUITE' ON THAT OMNIC??? And with that in mind, and how everyone and everything is gone for us, that would require HUGE international backing.

And if they had all of that, with all that effort, like HELL are they letting a SEPERATE SOVERIGN NATION JUST SPRING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, BEING A BUNCH OF VIOLENT ASSHOLES, MAKING IT HARDER by STEALING SHIT ALL THE TIME on top of BLOCKING ACCESS TOO SOME OF OUR MOST RESOURCE RICH LAND. I know this might be a struggle, but on top of loving that space, we also enjoy idk, stability? Not dying? Junkertown would compromise that, completely. Especially the dying bit, I feel. Speaking as an Aussie, I, like many Australians, do appreciate that they will in fact die one day, and hopefully, doing so by driving a ride-on mower around hills hoist chasing a goon sack as god intended for this beautiful country, but overall, just randomly dying in a Wolf Creek-like situation because you were trying to build a fuckin road, isn't how most of wanted it to go down. Some might, I will not shame my fantasy countrymen in the post-apocalypse world of Overwatch-Australia, times seem tough for Tinny Rogers and Jenny out there, and they have a right to pick how they get by.

SO YEAH, THE FUCK NOT, MY GUYS. THEY'D SQUISH THAT SHIT LIKE A BUG.

But if they are recovering from near annihilation, unsupported, told to just deal with it because they got what they got - Junkertown can do what we see, and in its strange way: flourish.

Then it comes to how it's being handled by the rest of the in-game world as to how it's just been allowed to let slide by everyone fucking else even if clearly every time one of these desert-fuckers gets out, it's a DAMN NIGHTMARE FOR WORLDWIDE SECURITY.

You hear Zarya call it "the mistakes of this country", which given how people treat the Junkers as a whole in game, seems to be a commonly held sentiment. A mistake. There is little to no comprehension of them, or what they have been victim to. Again probably because Blizzard itself has no idea what it just accidentally implied. We don't have enough lore to really say how many countries share this fate of losing 80% of their entire nation and people, and with it, almost their whole selves? Of them, how many got complete reconstruction? Given their common theme of corporate greed, developments in post-war society and their subsequent inequality, I'd say some people get reconstruction support and others don't (the interactions of Lucio and Symmetra for instance) based on convenience, and the sentiment from many powers in history has often been 'Australia is very far away, and I don't care'.

To call it 'a mistake' then, redirects blame from those inequalities and the present-day situation having beyond anyone's possible conception.

If it's 'a mistake', it's not a self-destructive spiral of suffering people who have been pushed beyond even common sense anymore. That lash out in desperation over a loss that cannot be quantified to any sum, yet were told that a price had actually been put on it, and no one was interested in paying it, and they had to live with what they got now. Then with no other output for the misery, in some desperate bid to reclaim even a SHRED of a memory, just vent their pain for a damn second, damned themselves and their home. Everyone who was in power and authority to have stepped in at any time to give the support needed and direct it more meaningfully before this, but never did, everyone who made those choices, is now complicit in the rise of Junkertown and the Junkers due to their basic lack or inability to understand what had been lost and have empathy, has led to a situation where now there is an entirely separate type of threat in 'feral omnics' and a bunch of insane radioactive people.

Or just say it was 'a mistake'. Then it's just their fault, isn't it? It's just a small, negligible little choice that WE won't make. We can all pat ourselves on the back and say that at least because Australia is so far away, whatever is happening there, is now just isolated to them, and you can't expect help NOW that the desert is irradiated, it was ALREADY unfeasible, it's SO expensive, WHOSE going to fund that, for what gain, especially now you made this silly little 'choice'.

Acknowledging, even to stop the Junkers, means bringing their own failings to the spotlight when rightfully it comes back to 'why the fuck did these bastards exist in the first place? What made them so fucking stupidly, mindlessly, suicidally angry as to lash out like this? Why weren't they thinking, then, and why do they stay, even now? .... and why do all of them appear to be goddamn giants?'

So easier to just... let the Junkers do their thing, out in the desert. Make them the scapegoat for the tensions, a fixing point for even the Omnics (rightfully, obviously in their case) to hate, blame and fear, over more active, influential systems that have far more ability to affect the world. Especially when compared too: the bunch of crazy people in the fucking desert, who probably all die at 50 from that ambient radiation everywhere, getting new types of diseases that no one has ever HEARD of before and are apparently are like barely connected on networks to the rest of the world. WHAT KIND OF POWER TO AFFECT WORLD CHANGE DO YOU THINK THEY ACTUALLY HAVE?

Rather than acknowledge that people like Odessa Stone got their hatred probably from watching half her under 12 siblings die to omnics, and the other half to the situation in the Wasteland created by others' indifference. (And the reminder that, Odessa's mum in the first shot, is holding an infant, and the second moment of her flashback, Odessa is still roughly the same but all the kids left are too big for a 1 to 2-year-old, and Mama Stone isn't holding an infant anymore.) They do what often happens and put all the responsibility of moving on, ON the people who are literally in the middle of dying in a now 30-year war, that everyone ELSE keeps trying to desperately pretend it's over and stick their head in the sand. Thus just invalidating their pain and making them even MORE resistant. Especially when you contrast the rest of the world is getting influential people like Mondatta and Zen making changes, real strides forward, and they get......... lbr, just more graves while they're just being called crazy.

Akande says 'the world is designed to be this way', and I think part of the reason Odessa doesn't mind him, is that yeah, yeah she probably knows after she's seen other parts of the world now and its reconstruction efforts, compared to theirs, found them pretty wanting, and it's nice to hear someone else say it for once.

No WONDER Roadie says 'this isn't a city' about Junkertown, when he remembers when Australia had more than three cities total, it must seem like a mockery. But why people like Junker Queen and Junkrat have pride in it, inversely. They were children when the apocalypse came to Australia or were born in Junkertown itself, they live in the memory that must now only feel dead and impossible to recapture the life of. In many ways, their bookends to Ramattra, their first moments were taken into a life of roaring violence the world wants to pretend isn't happening, but this is all they ARE now. So they have done their best with it, even if no one wants to be reminded of what their sheer existence represents.

Yeah. 'Mistake' is much easier to swallow, isn't it?

So yeah, given ODESSA STONE IS OUT THERE IN THE WASTELAND BECOMING FUCKING GENGHIS KHAN OR SOMETHING, UNITING ALL THE WASTELAND FACTIONS, AND NO ONE IS NOTICING OR EVEN SLIGHTLY TAKING IT SERIOUSLY, whenever that blows up in their face and they cry HOW DID THIS GET SO BAD, WHAT HAPPENED, AUSTRALIA?!

Yeah. Ain't that the fucking question.

Or maybe all of this is complete nonsense and everything I just said will one day be shown to be entirely wrong as often happens because ultimately again, I don't think they MEANT MOST OF THIS LMAO, BECAUSE ONE MORE TIME: STOP SAYING 'OUTBACK'.

#junkertown #overwatch #junker queen #junkrat #roadhog #junkers #overwatch 2 #talon

[ningauinerd]

While most of the stuff I post in this blog is going to be Australia oriented given that's what I'm most knowledgeable on (and have the most resources for), I also want to occasionally branch out to talk about wildlife from surrounding landmasses every so often - wider Oceania, Wallacea, and generally anything east of the Wallace Line (where the animals become funni). Today, I wanted to start off by briefly introducing one set of islands I find to be particularly overlooked, the Solomon Archipelago, better known as the Solomon Islands.

(Image credit: Wikimedia)

Isolated ever since they first rose above the waves 40 million years ago, the Solomon Islands has been dubbed the ""the Galapagos of the Western Pacific" by renowned mammalogist Tim Flannery for the sheer uniqueness of its fauna. Sitting to the east of New Guinea, the archipelago consists of seven main islands and thousands of smaller islands that vary greatly in size, from impressive volcanic islands like Kolombangara to countless tiny coral cays. Naturally, the islands are clothed almost entirely in tropical rainforests, from lush lowland jungles to misty cloud forests over 2,000 metres above sea level, with some areas of seasonal dry forest and grassland on the on the northern slopes of Guadalcanal being the main exception.

Despite its close proximity to New Guinea (and therefore continental Australia), the Solomon Islands possess no native marsupials - instead it is a world of giant skinks, coconut-eating bats and mysterious rodents.

(Image credit: Tourism Solomons)

Easily the most famous animal from the Solomon Islands is the prehensile-tailed skink (Corucia zebrata), also known as the monkey-tailed skink or simply as the Solomon Islands skink. These are the largest of all living skinks, measuring up to 81 centimetres in length, and they are adapted to an arboreal way of life, feeding on leaves, fruit, flowers and fresh shoots. Like many skinks in the subfamily Egerniinae, the prehensile-tailed skink also has a pretty highly developed social life, more like that of a mammal than a typical reptile. They live a social group known as a circulus, in which different individuals band together to protect each other's offspring, and some pairs have even been known to practice long-term monogamy (practically "mating for life").

(Image credit: Johnathan Richmond)

After big skink, the fauna of the Solomon Islands instantly drops into the territory of "obscure creature even most animal nerds don't know about", but they are no less remarkable or unique. Take the monkey-faced bats (Pteroplex) for example. As their name suggests, this endemic genus is notable for their highly unusual thick head shape, which gives them a vaguely monkey-like appearance. The resemblance to primates is no coincidence, for the lack of competing mammals on the islands aside from a few rats has led them to take up a lifestyle unlike that of any other bat. Their canine teeth are enormous, and what's more, possess a double cusp - something completely unique among mammals. Their boxy, powerful jaws and complex teeth are designed for tackling particularly tough fruits and nuts, and they are well known for their ability to crack into green coconuts. There are five species of monkey-faced bat scattered across the Solomon Islands, with the largest being the greater monkey-faced bat (P. flanneryi), which can have a wingspan of over 1.5 metres and weighs in at about 800 grams.

Guadalcanal monkey-faced bat (Pteralopex atrata), juvenile (Image credit: Johnathan Richmond again, legend)

(also kinda irrelevant here but I really gotta talk about the Fijian monkey-faced bat sometime. what a knee slapper)

However, bats aren't the only coconut crackers on the Solomon Islands, for they are also home to several genera of rats that reach pretty gargantuan sizes. The largest species is Poncelet's giant rat (Solomys ponceleti), which reaches over a kilogram in weight and has quite an unusual appearance, with long but sparse dark brown hair, pinkish-white skin and a crest or mane down the back - unfortunately I cannot find any photographs or even illustrations of this species online. The impressively named emperor rat (Uromys imperator) was almost as large, but it is only known from 3 specimens collected in the 1880s and is now considered to likely be extinct. In a demonstration of how much of the Solomons remain under-surveyed however, a new species of giant Uromys, the vika or Vangunu giant rat (U. vika) was discovered by westerners only in 2015, although it had been known to the locals for far longer. This orange-haired coconut-chewer is unfortunately only known from a single specimen for now, but it weighed in at 0.5-1 kg and now represents the largest known member of its genus on the islands.

The only photograph of a living vika (Image credit: O. Revon)

Also just to keep with the pattern of everything being giant (and therefore cool), this huge frog, the giant webbed frog (Cornufer guppyi), also calls the Solomons home. I don't know much about them but they seem like cool guys.

Remember this is only meant to be a brief overview! Would love to talk more about the Solomons sometime, as well as more in-depth about the species featured here.

#oceania #solomon islands #islands #wildlife #animal facts #skinks #bats #rodents #frogs #natural history #infodumps #my stuff