#Then runs to another country to restock

[chocolateteapotsvis]

Happy Halloween!

#halbarry #angle/demon AU #demon finds angle acute #angle asks demon to cosine his lease #candy corny: the sexiest of candies #Barry eats all the candy #Then runs to another country to restock #They'll be finding glitter in their apartment for the next decade #trying to figure out a sketchier style #my doodles

[punkshort]

Chapter warnings: graphic depictions of violence, death, language

Chapter Twelve

Pairing: Joel x F!Reader, pre-outbreak and post outbreak

AU (the only thing I kept was the outbreak, Joel, and Tommy's characters. Joel's backstory is different, and the way he finds Jackson is different. I may include Ellie one day, I just haven't planned that far)

Fic Summary: You worked for Joel and Tommy a few months before the outbreak. The outbreak happens, and you and Joel get stuck traveling the country and keeping each other safe. Neither of you spoke about the feelings you had for one another pre-outbreak, and in a post-apocalyptic world, it seems like survival should be your only focus. But feelings can't be ignored forever.

Fic tags: Explicit Smut (18+ MDNI), Smut, Language, Canon-Typical Violence, Alcohol Use, Age Difference (Reader is 10 years younger than Joel), slow burn, mutual pining, angst, trauma, SA referencing later but I will put a big warning on those chapters

February 2004

Des Moines, IA

You gripped your knife tightly in your fist, the blade pointed towards the ground as you crouched silently forward, choosing your steps very carefully. About 5 feet away from the runner, you stupidly stepped on a piece of glass you didn't notice embedded on the thin carpet. The runner whipped around with a scream, lunging towards you snapping its teeth in the air. You sidestepped it at the last minute, kicking and making it fall face first onto the ground. You jumped on its back and jammed your knife deep into its skull, blood dripping down to absorb into the floor as you panted heavily.

"What the hell was that?!" Joel yelled, whipping the back door open. You felt the cold blast of air hit you, even from all the way across the restaurant. You tugged on your knife, removing it from the runner's head and wiped it on the back of its shirt before putting the knife back on your hip.

"There was one left, must've missed it," you called back to him, brushing yourself off and walking towards the back of the room.

"Shit, I swore I got 'em all. You good?" He said, looking you over with his flashlight as you approached. You held up your hand to your eyes to block the beam of light.

"Yeah, I'm fine, I fucked up," you said, lowering your hand when he aimed his light down, satisfied you were not harmed. "I stepped on some glass, had to get creative. You think we can stay here the night? I think these cushions come off the booths. Not sure we can find any extra blankets here, though."

"We can put on layers, we've been through worse," Joel said, already yanking on some of the booth cushions, pulling a few out on the floor to sleep on.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom, then check the kitchen. I'll be right back," you dropped your pack on the ground and strolled off towards the women’s room in the corner. Once you were done, you stared at yourself in the mirror over the bathroom sink, shocked to see how different you looked. You hadn't seen a mirror in several weeks. Your face looked more hollow, you definitely had lost some weight. You pulled your hair out of the ponytail you typically kept, realizing that it was the longest you’ve seen it since you were little. You tried running your fingers through it to manage it a bit, but it seemed hopeless. You gathered your hair back behind your head and slid the hair-tie over it once again.

You didn't find much left in the restaurant kitchen, which was a huge disappointment. You were running low on food, having walked through thick forests and then open prairies for the past two weeks, not coming across any shelters to raid. Joel had purposely redirected you to this city in the hopes of restocking your food supplies and taking a short break from sleeping in the freezing cold wilderness. Luckily, your bow and arrows proved very useful, and kept the two of you fed when you had barely anything else to survive. Joel had never used a bow before yours, so you had taught him the basics from what you could remember. He seemed to have a knack for survival. He caught on very quickly and soon became better with it than you.

You sighed as you opened the last cupboard door, finding it just as empty as the rest. You were about to close it when a colorful wrapper caught your eye, shoved all the way in the back behind some pots. You reached your arm in as far as it could go, your fingertips barely grazing the item before you managed to pull it forward a smidge and grab it. You could have cried you were so happy with what you found.

“Joel!” you called out as you walked back into the dining room, heading towards the small lit up area he made for the two of you and your sleeping bag already rolled out on your cushion. “You’ll never believe what I found!”

He turned around from adjusting his own sleeping bag. He immediately spotted the jar in your hand and groaned. “Peanut butter!” he exclaimed with relief, “Fuck yes.” He sat down on his cushion to dig out the spoons from your packs. You both ate in silence, enjoying eating something other than rabbit or squirrel for the first time in weeks. You still had some provisions in your packs that lasted you about a week after you left Chicago, but as you traveled more out west, the options became limited, and the weather slowed you down significantly, causing you to eat through a lot of your food. You had become dependent on the wildlife for sustenance, and you got lucky, but it was getting old.

Joel had been kind enough to bury your parents before you moved on. He didn’t want you to have to help carry their bodies, so he had to make do with burying them where they were killed. He found a broken shovel about half a mile down the road in an abandoned mechanic’s shop, and it took him the rest of the day, but he made sure they were taken care of. He even found some large rocks to mark their graves. He was worried about you for a long time after that. You were distant and didn’t speak much. He didn't know what to do, other than giving you space and time to process your grief, while taking on as many of the responsibilities he could to keep you both alive. He insisted on being the one to hunt as often as possible. He sought out as many safe places indoors to set up camp as he could, even if it meant wasting half the day’s sunlight, he would sacrifice it so you would be more comfortable. He stayed in those places a day or two longer than he wanted, just so you could possibly sleep a little more soundly. It hardly mattered anyway: he wasn’t convinced he would ever find Tommy, or even if he was still alive. There didn’t seem to be much rush to your journey anymore, but it gave you something to fight for, so he kept pushing forward.

Then, one day, he did something to make you laugh. He couldn't even remember what it was, but hearing the sound made him desperate to make you do it again. So, the next day, he tried telling you a shitty joke, and you laughed again. Every time he heard it, he felt his chest loosen and his breathing eased. You seemed like yourself again, but he could tell the deaths of your parents changed you. You became more hardened, more focused, and angrier at the world around you. He noticed the way you took down infected with such ferocity, such disdain. It used to bother you, but now you could kill one without blinking an eye. He knew it was foolish to expect your innocence to remain intact, but every night he still wished he could somehow shield you from it all.

Somewhat full, you laid down on your cushion and wrapped yourself in your sleeping bag, exhaling softly and closing your eyes. Joel gazed at you a little longer than he should have before he leaned over to turn the lanterns off. Tomorrow, he knew you would have to venture back out into the cold and find some more food. He had hoped this restaurant would have had more than enough, but someone before him must have thought the same thing. He turned his head to glance over at you again in the darkness, listening to your steady breathing. He still ached for you, desperately. He hoped he didn't read the signals wrong that morning in your bedroom - there was no way he could have - but the more time that passed, the more unsure of himself he became. He was so close. So close to tasting you again, holding you in his arms, protecting you from the evil surrounding you.

He stared up at the ceiling and focused on falling asleep. He needed to be alert and well rested so you could finally find some food and get back on the road.

The two of you were walking down the street the next morning after having eaten the rest of the peanut butter and not much else. This part of town seemed to be abandoned by people, but you did come across a few infected. Most of the time, you heard them clamoring about in a closed up building you passed, but a few did cross your path that you had to take down. Joel had a theory that the infected slowed down in the colder months, that maybe they went dormant, or it was just harder for them to move. Whatever the reason, he seemed to be right. Even when you did come across one, they seemed a lot slower, making your job much easier.

As you made your way towards the end of the road, the houses and trees cleared and you could see further ahead, smiling when you saw a familiar logo. You turned to Joel, who seemed to notice it, too.

"I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a Walmart before," you said, smiling in his direction. He chuckled, shaking his head.

"It's a big store, we gotta be real careful. Ain't no way we can clear the whole place by ourselves," he told you as you entered the parking lot. "Gotta stay close together and be silent. No guns. Let's just stick to the grocery section, take what we need, and get the hell out." You nodded, looking at the building as you approached it from the outside, trying to listen for any noise coming from within. Joel put his hand out on your arm to stop you, making you twist around and giving him a confused look.

"I mean it," he said, looking serious. "Could be a whole hoard in there. And it'll be dark. It's risky."

"I know, I'll be careful, I promise," you gave him a look just as serious to prove you were paying attention. His eyes shifted back and forth between yours before nodding his head in the direction of the store.

You both stepped quietly inside the store through the broken sliding door, clicking on your flashlights and looking at your surroundings before making a move. Your attention went up to the signs hanging above the aisles, spotting the grocery section was straight ahead past the cash registers. The two of you crept forward, careful not to step on anything that would give away your position. You walked through the bakery, surrounded by moldy bread. So far, the place seemed quiet, but that didn't necessarily mean it was empty.

The store was reasonably picked over but there were a few things left on the shelves you could use. You packed your bag with rice, chicken broth, a few cans of dented soup, and a jar of pasta sauce. For the sake of being extra quiet, you motioned with your finger for Joel to step forward, and you stretched to whisper in his ear.

"We should check out the stock room," you said quietly, your breath tickling his neck. It wasn't the sexiest thing anyone had ever said to him, but that didn't matter. He nodded and suppressed the urge to shudder. He picked up his bag and led you to the end of the aisle, looking both ways before leading you to the swinging doors on the wall. Joel held out a hand for you to stay put while he pushed the door open a crack, sweeping his flashlight across the room. It had aisles, just like the store, but it wasn't as neatly organized. Once he confirmed it was safe, you both entered, scanning the shelves to pinpoint where the groceries were stocked. Your flashlight landed on a corner of the room where you recognized boxes of crackers and cans of vegetables. You nudged him with your elbow, and you both made your way over, checking down every aisle before advancing.

Your jaw dropped at the amount of food that was left. Someone had the same idea as you, it wasn't fully stocked, but it was much more well stocked than the shelves out front. You hurriedly packed your bags with as many useful items as you could carry. You were so hungry, but you had to resist the urge to rip into anything right then and there, afraid the noise of a wrapper would possibly draw attention.

You were just finishing up when Joel wandered towards the end of the aisle, his flashlight settling on something shiny the next aisle over. He squinted and bent down to get a closer look through the shelves. By the time he realized he was looking at blood pooling around a dead clicker, it was too late. A pair of arms reached out behind him, yanking him backwards. A hand covered his mouth and an arm squeezed around his neck, making his vision go fuzzy. His eyes shot over to you in a panic. You were still crouching over your backpacks, facing away from him, and zipping them closed. He brought his hands up and laced them together before driving his elbow behind him, hitting the man right in the diaphragm. The grip on his throat instantly loosened and the man doubled over coughing. You whipped around now, your knife already in your hand. You watched as Joel brought his knee up to the man's face twice, blood bursting from his mouth and nose, staining Joel's pants. Joel drove his knife into the man's eye, his body twitching before slumping on the floor at his feet.

Joel looked up just in time to see you dodging the knife of a second man, kicking him in the groin before shoving your knife between his ribs. He ran down the aisle to you, hearing the man's raspy breaths as blood filled his lungs. You pulled your knife out and stabbed him again, this time closer to the heart. The raspy breathing stopped, and his body relaxed against the linoleum floor. Joel sighed in relief, slowing his pace, his heart pounding.

Then he felt something hard hit the back of his head, causing him to fall forward, his vision narrowing as he fought the urge to pass out. Joel felt the heavy boot of his attacker sticking to his back as he tried to push himself up, but his head was swimming, and he couldn't find the strength. He collapsed back on the floor with a grunt, blinking his eyes frantically trying to clear his vision. He was struggling to breathe with the weight of the man's foot pressed on his back, and once again raised himself up to try and roll over when the pressure on his back was suddenly gone. He gasped for breath, pulling himself into a seated position and shaking his head wildly, his vision finally clearing.

You had tackled and pinned Joel's attacker on the ground, sitting on his chest as you struggled with his knife between the two of you, the blade pointed downwards towards his throat as you gritted your teeth and pushed down with everything you had. His feet kicked wildly underneath you, trying to roll you off, but you weren't budging, your eyes burning into his as the blade scratched at his throat. Joel stumbled to his feet, still dizzy, as he struggled to make his way towards you. With a loud grunt, you put all your weight onto the hilt of the knife, lifting off his chest and finally piercing through his skin until you could feel the tip of the knife make contact with the linoleum. He laid underneath you gurgling as blood poured from his neck, his eyes wild with fear. You panted heavily, letting your muscles relax after the strenuous fight. With your weight off his chest, the man was able to grab a second knife you hadn't noticed from his belt and stabbed frantically at your side, which you tried to swat away before his arm grew weak and he stopped breathing.

Joel's arms wrapped around you and lifted you off the dead man, turning you around to look at you closer with his flashlight. Your face was splattered with blood, your hair wild, covered with sweat and still gasping for air. He aimed his flashlight lower and noticed a big red circle of blood staining the side of your t-shirt. His breath caught in his throat and the adrenaline sharpened his vision as he lifted your shirt up gingerly. You winced when the fabric peeled away from your skin, not realizing you had been hurt until that moment.

"Oh, fuck," Joel whispered and his breathing picked up as he glanced around for something to stop the bleeding. You had been stabbed along your ribs and down your side. He couldn't tell how deep the wound was in the dark, but it was enough to cause you to bleed heavily. He grabbed a used rag from his jeans pocket, pressing on your wound firmly, making you cry out in pain. He wrapped your hands over the rag and instructed you to press as hard as you could. He ran back to grab your packs, slinging both backpacks, the rifle and the bow over his shoulder. When you saw him trying to pull everything onto his back, you held your hand out to him.

"Give me my pack," you rasped. He shook his head, still trying to find a way to carry it all. "Give it to me!" you raised your voice in a harsh whisper now, giving him a look that meant were serious. He relented, gently putting the straps over your shoulders, then pulling out a new rag to wedge between your side wound and the strap of your backpack.

You leaned on Joel as he led you out of the back room, pausing briefly to make sure there weren’t any others, then headed back towards the front door. It began snowing while you were inside, and the wind was picking up, making it difficult to see. He looked around, desperately trying to find a safe place to take you.

Across the street he could make out a strip mall, and one of the buildings looked like it was a dentist's office. It was a long walk across the big parking lot, but he moved as fast as he could while you leaned on him for support. He propped you up against the building to catch your breath as he used his knife to work the lock of the office open.

"Stay here," he instructed. You nodded weakly; your eyes half closed. He pushed the door open and checked to make sure the small office was empty of threats before taking you inside. He helped you sit down in one of the exam chairs, pushing it back so it reclined. You stared up at the ceiling and at the lamp dangling over your face. Joel pushed the curtains open in the room and looked down at the wound on your ribs, noticing the amount of blood increased due to the walk across the street: it was now trailing down past your hips and nearly touching your mid-thigh. He took the soiled rag from your hand and replaced it with a fresh one while he went to work ripping open drawers and cabinets. He finally found a needle and thread and a stack of stainless-steel bowls. He set the needle aside and picked up some of the bowls.

"You keep pressin' as hard as you can, you hear me?" he said, and you nodded as you draped your other arm across your eyes. "I gotta go out and get some snow, I'll be back in a minute. You holler if you need anythin'."

Joel stepped out the door with the bowls in his hand, glancing around to make sure no one had followed you. He scooped up snow into the bowls, grateful it had begun to storm since it would hide your tracks and keep any raiders away.

He came back into the room and saw you had nearly bled through another rag. He set a couple bowls aside to melt into drinkable water and took a handful from another, pressing it against your wound. You hissed at the contact, but after a minute the numbness from the cold made your muscles relax.

Joel dug around in his pack to find some rubbing alcohol he had taken from your apartment months ago. He found another clean rag to drench the alcohol in and removed the snow from your side.

“I ain’t gonna lie to you, this is gonna hurt. You need to hold onto somethin’?” he asked you, trying to hide the tremor in his hand. You shook your head, turning your face away from him and gripped the arm of the chair anyway. He pressed the alcohol-soaked rag onto the stab wound, finally cleaning some of the blood away to get a better look at what he was dealing with. You groaned and your body tensed, but you remained as still as possible while he cleaned you up. He could see a stab wound between two of your ribs. It didn’t look very deep, but it was wide. He made his way down your side, cleaning the blood up as he went with the snow and then the rag, refreshing it with alcohol when he needed to. There was a longer gash down the length of your side, maybe about five inches long. It was wide, but it was shallow. There were a few other scratches as well, but those would be fine to heal on their own. He gauged the main problem would be the wound between your ribs, and the long gash.

He turned around to prep the needle, filling a bowl with some rubbing alcohol and pulled out more rags. Turning back to you, he was startled to find you looking at him. He swallowed, bringing the needle and black thread towards you.

“Are you ready?” he asked you, and you nodded steadily, but he could see the fear in your eyes. He laid a hand on top of one of yours reassuringly. “I got this, I got you,” he said. You turned away from him then, staring at the wall opposite you as you braced for the pain. The first few times he pierced you with the needle hurt the most, then as you got used to the pain and knew what to expect, it got a little easier to handle. He took his time with the stab wound, he wanted to make sure he didn’t have to redo that later, then let you have a break before starting on the long gash. He told you it would only need a few stitches, just where the wound was the widest so it wouldn’t scar too badly. That part ended up hurting the most since it was closer to the bones of your ribs and there was less fat to cushion the pain.

Once the stitches were done, he rinsed everything with the rubbing alcohol from the bowl, his hands and needle included. He made a mental note to keep that needle in his pack in case one of you got hurt again.

“You hungry?” Joel asked you, and you nodded eagerly but then winced at the pain the movement caused. He dug around in his pack for some of the food you had grabbed from Walmart and set you up with a few things to eat, then went to explore the rest of the office in hopes of finding some medicine. He got lucky in the dentist’s actual office, finding a few bottles of antibiotics and some pain killers in his desk drawer. He made sure you took two antibiotics with your food before finding something to eat for himself. He sat hunched over against the wall in the room, looking down at his food and avoiding eye contact. You adjusted yourself in the chair so you could look at him and let out a whimper when the movement was too much. He shot up to help you, but you waved him off.

“What’s going on?” you asked him directly, staring him down. He looked up at you, his eyes filled with grief and anger.

“This was my fault,” he said bluntly, a clipped tone to his voice.  “I wasn’t payin’ attention, I should’ve seen that guy comin’, and it got you hurt. If somethin’ worse woulda happened, I never would’ve forgiven myself,” his voice broke at the end of his sentence, looking away from you so you couldn’t see the emotion in his eyes.

"It wasn't your fault. We got jumped, don't beat yourself up about it. Please," you told him, trying to catch his eye again but failing. "Joel?" you said, but he turned away, rubbing his hands up and down his face like he always does when he's frustrated. "Joel!" you called out again, this time more firmly. He stilled, and slowly turned to face you, dropping his hands to his sides.

"Us or them," you said, staring intently at him, desperately trying to communicate the words you couldn't say.

He let out a shaky sigh, and nodded, breaking eye contact with you and gazed out the window at the snow fall. "Shoulda been me," he said quietly.

"Yeah, well," you grunted as you struggled to sit up in the chair, "I'm glad it wasn't because I couldn't carry all our stuff and you out of there," he turned his head to look back at you, then giving him a smirk, added, "I would've left you for dead."

His lips twitched as he tried to hold back his grin at your joke, not ready to forgive himself yet. He cleared his throat and leaned over to sling your backpacks over his shoulders.

"The dentist had a couch in his office. C'mon, grab my shoulder, lean on me," he said, bending forward so you could get yourself into a standing position. It took a few tries; the pain was worse than you had expected now that you were moving. You slowly ambled down the hall with Joel, and he got you stretched out on the couch before he unzipped your sleeping bag and rested it on top of you like a blanket.

He rolled his own sleeping bag out on the floor next to you, grateful the couch came with two pillows. It had been a long time since either of you slept on one. It was still daylight out, but the blizzard made it darker outside. Joel let you rest while he went around the office to see if there was anything else of use now that he wasn't so frantic. He had completely missed the small break room towards the back of the building. He found some unopened bottles of water, snacks, a couple cans of soup and crackers. He spread all the usable food out on the table but brought the crackers back with him to check on you. You were still laying stiffly on the couch and staring at a stock photo of a beach on the wall, looking uncomfortable.

"Are you in pain? I got some pills from the drawer," Joel dug out the bottle and read the warning label. "They sound pretty strong." You shook your head, not wanting to dull your senses in case of another attack, but now that the stiffness was setting in, the pain was getting worse. You glanced out the window, seeing the storm outside. Deciding it was unlikely anyone would be out in the snow and find you, you changed your mind and stuck your hand out to him. He dropped two pills into your hand and gave you a water bottle.

"Here, have a little somethin’ more to eat with those, don't need you gettin' sick," he said, offering the crackers in your direction. You took the sleeve from him and munched on one slowly as you waited for the pills to kick in. Joel walked around to the desk and collapsed into the leather chair, kicking his feet up on the desktop and mindlessly flipped through open patient charts left on the desk. You shoved another cracker in your mouth and watched the snow coming down outside. You sat up a little more on the couch. The movement made you feel dizzy from the pills, but you hardly felt a thing at your side when you moved. Your eyes drifted lazily to Joel’s broad figure sitting behind the wooden desk. It brought back memories you hadn’t thought about in months. Memories of a different time, when you would sit on the other side of his desk all flustered and nervous.

He looked up and caught you staring at him. “What?” he asked, a bemused expression on his face. You shook your head but couldn’t stop the stupid smile from spreading across your face. Goddamn pills.

“Nothing, it’s just funny…” you started, trailing off and then giggled, causing Joel to raise his eyebrows and grin.

“Those pills must be workin’, huh?” he asked, his grin widening. You nodded, stifling your giggles and took a deep breath.

“I was just thinking, everyone used to be so scared of you in the office, they would warn me to steer clear of you, that you had a horrible temper. And look at us now,” you let out another giggle before continuing. “What the hell happened?”

He smiled at you again and tipped his head back on the top of the leather chair to look up towards the ceiling, remembering life the way it was before.

“Yeah, I was an asshole, wasn’t I?” he said, making you laugh harder now, then you clutched your side with a small wince. “Hey, take it easy, you might not feel anythin’ but you can still pop a stitch.” You quieted your laughter now, knowing he was right, and chewed the inside of your cheek thoughtfully, reminiscing about those days just 6 short months ago. Joel rolled his head to the side to look at you. “I didn’t scare you, though,” he said quietly, not sure why he was encouraging you while you were in this state.

You glanced back at him and shook your head, then held up one finger. “Only once,” you said definitively.

He stared at you and held his breath. He knew exactly what you were referring to: the argument the two of you had that was never brought up again. The day he called you a whore and ruined everything. He was the first to look away, casting his gaze back down on the desk before him. He should have apologized by now, he should have explained himself, but he always found an excuse to avoid it. Today’s excuse was you were too loopy on the pain pills and that conversation needed to happen when you both had a clear head. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers as you waited for him to say something. Anything to take back what he said. 

“I think you should get some sleep,” he finally told you, dropping his hand and looking up at you. You knew he was going to avoid talking about it, but you were still disappointed. The pills had really taken effect now as you felt your eyelids grow heavy. You sighed, scooting down to lay flat on the couch and pulling your sleeping bag over you. You closed your eyes but couldn’t resist saying one more thing.

“I would do anything for you,” you whispered before nodding off. Joel’s breath caught in his throat and his eyes fluttered shut as he tried to hold back the tears that unexpectedly sprung to his eyes.

“Me too, sweetheart,” he whispered back, but you were already asleep.

The storm let up after another day, which was just as well since it allowed you more time to heal. Joel didn’t want to stay long at this place, worried that the attackers had a larger group and would come looking for you. Once the snow stopped and you had replenished your backpacks with more rags, first aid, and the food from the break room, you were off at first light. You both realized quickly that you were making terrible time since the snow was knee deep and you were already struggling to stay balanced due to your injury. After a very slow mile, Joel had found a sturdy fallen branch for you that he broke down into a more manageable size, allowing you to use it like a cane in the snow. You had to admit that it made traveling a lot easier, but you were still fighting to hide the throbbing pain at your side. After another hour, Joel agreed to let you rest. He made sure you took your antibiotic and ate some more crackers. Your feet felt numb, even though you had 3 pairs of socks and thick hiking boots.

"Joel," you whined, looking up at him standing guard as he surveyed the thick forest around you. "How much longer are we going to walk? This snow is so deep, and my side is killing me."

"I gotta find us somewhere safe, then we can stay there til you're all healed up and we'll wait out the rest of winter, I promise," he said, looking down at you now and meeting your gaze, "I'm gonna take care of you."

You sighed and regretted complaining almost immediately. You could tell he was still beating himself up over how you got injured and you didn't want to keep reminding him of it. He was shouldering too many responsibilities and you could see the worry and anxiety behind his eyes.

"Alright, let's get moving, I'm good," you said, using your stick to pull yourself back up into a standing position. Joel glanced over you once more to make sure you were, in fact, 'good' like you claimed. Satisfied, he turned and led you through the woods. The trees were thick, mostly pine trees that kept all their needles in the winter. It was good to keep you hidden but it was also bad because it could keep someone else hidden, too.

After another few miles, Joel paused a moment to examine his map. He had a general idea where you were, but he didn’t exactly have a destination in mind. He just figured he would know it when he saw it, and it turned out, he was right.

His head was down examining the map in his hands as he walked through the forest and approaching a clearing. Now he wasn’t sure he knew where you were, since the location on the map still showed greenery up ahead. He was mumbling to himself about getting turned around when you gasped, and his head shot up.

You had stumbled across a small neighborhood of about ten or twelve houses, all surrounded by the lush forest you had just hiked through. He had to blink a few times, feeling like he was looking at an oasis in the desert. As you approached the neighborhood, you passed a sign that read 'Hidden Springs - lots starting at $200,000'.

"Man, they really knew what they were doing when they named this place," you joked as you walked side by side down the abandoned street. The houses were all finished except for three which were partially constructed, forever frozen in time.

"This must be a new neighborhood, that's why it ain't showing up on the map," Joel said excitedly as he spun around to make sure you were still alone. "I haven't seen any tracks or smoke or nothin', this place is off the grid," he turned to smile at you. "We can work with this."

You grinned happily, so relieved to finally have found a place where you could rest for more than a couple nights.

"Well, which house d'you want?" Joel asked, looking at all the houses up and down. They were mostly two-story houses, but there were a couple of small ranch homes interspersed. You spotted one in the middle of the neighborhood on your right-hand side and pointed to it. it was a white two-story house with blue shutters and a red door.

"I've always wanted a wraparound porch," you said. "What do you think?" He couldn't keep the smile off his face, the whole place seemed too good to be true and best of all, you would be happy and safe.

He made his way up the front porch to peer inside the windows. He didn't see any movement, and fortunately it looked like the previous owners had a chance to move in, spotting the fully furnished living room. He had insisted on making you wait outside until he could be certain the place was abandoned before letting you in. The house was beautiful and practically brand new. You drifted from room to room to get a feel for the layout: the stairs and a hallway leading to the kitchen faced you right as you walked in the front door, a living room to your right and a den to your left, and a half bath attached to the hallway. The kitchen had a small mudroom attached, which led to the backyard. Upstairs there were three bedrooms and a bathroom. The master bedroom was the only room that had windows facing the front of the house, so you chose to stay in that room, both of you slipping into the king size bed without even questioning if you should sleep apart.

Chapter Thirteen

Taglist: @chiogarza, @sparklejumpropequeen-777

#joel miller fanfiction #joel miller #joel miller smut #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel miller fic #joel the last of us #tlou hbo #the last of us hbo #joel miller x f!reader #joel miller x female reader #joel miller series #joel x reader #joel x reader smut #joel miller angst #joel miller fluff #the last of us fanfiction #the last of us game #the way we were joel miller fic

[alicenpai]

🌟 hi hi ive put up leftovers from da con ! i have a lot of new stuff so please do take a gander ^^ it'll be open from now until june 13 at 10 PM EST. orders will start shipping after it's closed 🌹 preorder & FAQ below!

🌠 SHOP LINK HERE !!!✨

starting on june 4 at 10 AM EST im celebrating my birthday with a discount in my shop!! :3c you can grab 10% off orders $50 or more w code "BIRTHDAY2023" 🎉🎈 it will be up for only 24 hours, until june 5 at 10 AM EST !! 🎂

~

a lil note on leftovers & preorders:

JUST REMEMBER THAT THIS SHOP UPDATE IS PRIMARILY FOR LEFTOVERS I HAD FROM ANIME NORTH THIS PAST WEEKEND. if an item you wanted is sold out dont fret, it will come back!!! this is referring to new artwork i made this summer, NOT about old things from 2022 and before. however, there will be a bit of a wait until i know my con schedule this summer, so that i can order everything in bulk (since shipping costs have gone up.....)

only the bocchi charm will not be restocked, due to the high cost of production. everything else that is sold out will make a comeback, or if it is still in stock, will be sold until it sells out.

as of right now, the only item for preorder is the layton wooden pin since i order them from a separate manufacturer (from the usual ones i make stickers, buttons, charms with). the wait time for this item is 3 MONTHS (NOT including shipping time). if you cannot wait, i would strongly urge you to reconsider buying. thank you for understanding!

someone asked about the witch hat atelier bottle charms i made a while back - like the layton wooden pins, i order them separately from another manu, supplied by my friend who runs the group orders. these products rotate once in a while, and i am currently waiting for my friend to have the bottle charms back in production! it will probably take a while to do so + the production time for this item is 3 months due to its specialty.

~

btw if youre ordering outside of canada/usa i strongly recommend reading the below page to find out if i can ship to your country or not! send me an ask if you want me to check your country! -> LINK HERE

and if anyone wishes to set up a group order lmk, just send me an ask! ✌

thank you guys so much for all the support over the years! 🥹🫶

#shop update #hell yeah #how am i still this fucking tired it's been a week since the con?!????? #please tumblr dont fuck up the formatting on this post again

[zvaigzdelasas]

Weapons, ammunition and equipment are in strong demand as Western countries continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, while growing instability in the Middle East and tensions with China are also boosting orders. Many governments are issuing major contracts to begin rebuilding ammunition stockpiles after sending huge amounts of hardware to Kyiv, at a time when the Israel-Gaza conflict and attacks by Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea are creating more uncertainty. Meanwhile, Britain has partnered with Japan and Italy to develop a next-generation fighter jet, and with the US and Australia to develop a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact.

BAE, which is the UK’s biggest manufacturer and largest defence contractor, revealed in November that it had booked £10bn of orders since June alone, including £3.9bn related to AUKUS. The company has also secured ammo-restocking contracts worth around £410m in Britain and another $8.8bn (£6.9bn) contract to continue running an ammunition plant on behalf of the US Army.

Babcock has been awarded contracts to support the Ukrainian navy, maintaining two minehunter ships that were previously part of British forces. The rally of defence and aerospace companies has also been boosted by a burgeoning turnaround at engineering giant Rolls-Royce, which maintains fighter jet and boat engines for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, including the reactor cores for Britain’s Vanguard nuclear deterrent submarines.

2 Jan 24

[k-dokja]

summary: it is a pain in the ass to have a working relationship with your girlfriend.

settings: established relationship + pre-apocalypse + reader is sooyoung's editor and partner + smoking

you yawn.

your jaw stretches uncomfortably, but the fatigue won't stop. the deadline will come in less than a day, which means you won't have a chance to take it easy until then. because sooyoung has chosen to give you the script only last night, you are now stuck at your office, surrounded by old coffee cups and the essence of a dying person.

you yawn again.

leaning back in your chair, you begin to stretch out your fatigued limbs. your neck feels stiff before you crack it. this at least gives you some brevity, you can't do anything about your eyes, however. your eyedropper has run out yesterday and you have yet to get a chance to restock.

if you aren't tired beyond imagination, you'd have cursed han sooyoung's name. never mind that she has been given an earful from you the day before when she handed you the script. although her subsequent pouting does nothing to soothe your ire, the bags under her eyes gained some sympathy from you.

she has been suffering a little writer's block lately. you received an update on that for an entire month before she handed the writing to you. between her complaining and her attempts to regain her inspiration, you had a busy month tailing her every place in seoul. the two of you even made a trip out of the country to help her with it, but what helped, in the end, was stupidly simple.

a night in with you, watching movies to relax instead of researching for once. if it was not for the relief, you'd have cursed the situation.

and now you're stuck here at the office, two in the morning, working on this new chapter six hours before the deadline. the two of you wouldn't have had any leeway once the date is crossed. sooyoung always wrote at least a few chapters ahead of publication, giving her at least a month of legroom if something like the aforementioned case happened.

you had urged her to take a break, it'd have been fine. she has been writing continuously for long enough that a hiatus would've been okay. but she never listened, it'd have been exasperated if not for her ability to pull a last-minute miracle.

sooyoung is indefinitely lucky that your patience for her never runs too thin. well, except for the times when some of the scenes in her writing make no sense.

your eyes twitch at the sentence you're reading, "what the hell..." you mutter out loud, "is this serious?"

grumpily, you pull out your phone and type a quick message, [ hey, did you mean to write joonhyun killing jinhee? ]

before you can put the phone down, an incoming message bubble pops up, [ yuuuuuuup, make a good twist, isn't it? ]

you groan, [ what the hell is good about this? it comes out of nowhere. ]

the bubble of her message pops up, then deflates, and pops up once more, [ lolol is your brain too tired that you can't even comprehend the foreshadowing? ]

[ i read your notes already, it still doesn't make sense thematic sense. wouldn't it be smarter for her to repent for her betrayal? ] you huff. though the incoming message shows again, nothing comes by. you frown and wait for a few more minutes before putting the phone down with a sigh.

maybe it would make sense with a re-reading. it's two in the morning, anyway, you've been awake for too long. with another sigh, you push up from your seat and decide to go for a smoke break. staying here isn't giving you any help, sooyoung surely isn't helping either.

you step out of your office. most of your co-workers have already returned home for the day. you're the only unfortunate soul whose writer did not cooperate with for today. everyone else has met their deadline and presumably out there partying or wrapping up under a warm blanket. then there is you, miserable, lonesome you.

not even nicotine makes you less morose.

the hallway is colder at this hour of the night. with only a thin shirt on you, the wind blows and makes you shiver. while it wakes you up, the chill also discomforts you. several tries pass before you can light up your cigarette, but your success comes with momentary warmth.

you inhale. warm smokes tickle your throat. you half-contemplate swallowing it, but think better and exhale. it's already killing you, no reason to quicken the process.

"what did i tell you about smoking?!"

suddenly, a weight pulls you down from the neck. "ack!" you yell out at the sudden attack. "what the fuck!"

somebody bears down on you. you thrash wildly in instinct, dropping the cigarette in the process. you grab the perpetrator's arm and throw them down from you. however, sensing your reaction, they hop down from you before you get the chance. you grimace, ready to attack again, but stop once you see their face.

the hammering inside your chest lessens while a deadpan begins to crawl up your face. you roll your eyes backwards and walk away, not even bothering to humour this childish antic again. no matter how cute sooyoung looks when she grins.

"aww, are you mad?" she sidles up to you without even acknowledging the heart attack she almost gave you. "i just wanted to surprise you~"

"you jumped me in the middle of the night in an empty building," you grumble, "what do you think?"

"i think you need to lighten up," she suggests, "i even brought you your favourite food as compensation."

she lifts up the bag which you've overlooked in your anger, it's the same packaging as your favourite gopchang place. immediately, your heart softens. but you continue to glare at her through narrowed eyes, "...why are you out of the house at this hour?"

"i came to visit you, what do you think?" she snorts. "shouldn't you be grateful? not everyone has their girlfriend taking the time out of the day to come by and cheer them up at this dreadful hour of the night~"

you mutter sourly, "yeah, most sane fuckers prefer their girlfriend safe and warm at home this late," then, you glance at the bag, "did you really come here just for that?"

sooyoung pouts, "i'm doing you a favour and you're acting like i'm a nuisance. i just thought you might be tired of working alone so i came by to help, but seeing that you don't need me here—"

she makes the move to turn around and walk away, but even with her calculated delay, you don't do anything until sooyoung begins to take a step. you roll your eyes again, the theatric of your girlfriend can get annoying at times, but you can't say it isn't entertaining.

in one swift move, you take hold of her arm and pull her back. she suppresses her smile, but you can see the glimpse of mischief in her eyes. easily you towards sooyoung and meet your lips with hers, to which she helps by shortening the distance. you can feel her smile on your lips.

and when she takes hold of your collar to pull you closer, you comply.

the kiss is short and sweet, a better greeting than the bickering the two of you have the moment before. you part from her with a weight from your chest lifted, but sooyoung is never one from sentimentality. you'd be foolish to think otherwise.

"your breath stinks of cigarette and coffee, by the way."

"shut up," despite the demand, you laugh. sooyoung raises the bag once more and you snatch it from her, taking her hand into your free one. "did you get any sleep?"

"yeah, slept all day actually, it was already late when i woke up," she rolls her shoulder and squeezes your hand, "i spent the entire evening loafing around until i decided to get you some pick-me-ups. you texted right when i was on my way here, actually."

you lead her back to your office, where the light is off except for the one at your desk. you flip on the switch, brightening the whole room and revealing the kingdom built from messes you and your co-workers have created.

sooyoung knows where you sit. she untangles her hand from you and skips towards your tiny domain. upon her arrival, she plops down on your seat like she owns the thing. you have to tense every nerve on your face to stop your eyes from rolling again. in its place, a wry smile grows. sooyoung wastes no time scuttering towards your computer, browsing the progress of your current work.

editors in your office work with their writers using google doc, which means sooyoung should've had a view of the progress. however, you reckon she has yet to see the thing, with how her day has been.

"ack, why did you edit the potion out?" she begins to scroll in earnest, her mutters of complaints begin even before you reach her. "that part was so good, it's going to set up a twist in thirty chapters."

"because it's out of place," you knock the side of her head with your knuckles, "and i didn't remove it, i only changed the mention of purifying potion to the next chapter. you'd know if you read the note."

"ack, you didn't have to hit me for that," she grumbles, rubbing her head, "wait, wait, what is this comment... 'stop putting shit from hellraiser into the book'? excuse you! that series was a masterpiece."

you nudge her aside, putting the bag down on your desk, "and irrelevant to all the places you referenced it," you say, "just because clive barker was a literary genius doesn't mean you can be one by copying."

she lifts up her nose at you, but crosses her arm and turns away, "you just don't know how to appreciate good art."

"i'm your editor," you drawl, "i'm the one dictating what's good here." although that is not far from the truth, you and sooyoung have debated more than enough about what to keep in the novel and what to remove. it is a never-ending process long as the two of you work together, but it is what it is.

if you don't work well with her, you wouldn't have stayed.

"as if," she sticks out your tongue at you, "i'm the great author here, i'm the one who decides what goes into the story."

"and i'm the one who decides what stays," you ignore her making a face at you in favour of pulling a nearby chair over.

once the food is out, sooyoung is less inclined to bicker with you and more inclined to focus on it. the fervour of which she devours them makes you wonder if she bought these for her or for you. however, after your stomach is full, you cannot care less.

somewhere along the way, sooyoung has thrown her legs over you, perching like a queen in the seat she has stolen from you.

"man, we should go on another vacation after this," she says, patting her full stomach, "maybe somewhere sunny, like bali."

you swat at her leg and chase the dreams away, "we still have work to do for at least another week," you say, "if you want to go on a vacation, then you better finish at least three weeks' worth in advance. or listen to me for once, and announce a hiatus."

"fine," she huffs, "you'll get your manuscript ahead of time and i will go on a hiatus for once. is that better?"

you smile slightly. it's not easy to hide your elation when sooyoung finally listens to you for once, but you conceal it behind the back of your hand. "sure, but we need to overcome the current obstacle before anything else. i need to finish this chapter and you need to start thinking about a proper destination so i can plan beforehand."

to your surprise or lack thereof really, sooyoung launches from her seat and plops down on you with a kiss smack on the cheek. "you better keep your word! i already have an idea in mind for what to do~"

"yes, yes," you sigh, pulling her to sit down on your lap and kissing her jaw, "and as much as i appreciate your company, this is needed in," you raise your hand and your smartwatch comes to life, "roughly less than five hours."

"i'll help!"

"please, no."

#han sooyoung #han sooyoung x reader #omniscient reader's viewpoint #orv x reader #fics #and then the apocalypse begins the afternoon before her official hiatus

[loopspoop]

We got the second chapter finished and ready to read!! I’m excited for the next one, things will definitely be taking a turn ;)

TW: medical grossness to a mild degree!!

Two hours later, the stolen car pulled up to an old farmhouse hidden in the French countryside. Thank goodness for Lupin’s stash of ever expanding safe houses in his home country, this was by far the most inconspicuous and the most hidden. Despite the calm of the countryside, Jigen and Fujiko wasted no time in scrambling out of the front seat to help Goemon get Lupin from the back.

“We need to go slowly and we need to move carefully. He freaked out the last time we tried to touch him.” Jigen warned, glancing at Fujiko. He didn’t need a repeat of the panicked screaming from before…

Fujiko nodded, biting her lip hard as she looked her lover over. She had seen Lupin in basically any situation you could think of but..this was a new territory for all of them. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had gone through in the last two weeks…

“He’s been stable…but his breathing and his wounds worry me. It could be infection..but I do not know if we has been treated properly during his…procedures…” Goemon mumbled, cringing at his own choice of words.

Jigen nodded, carefully hoisting Lupin out of the back seat with some effort and twisting of his own body. The thief jerked, his breathing picking up in pace as he grimaced and groaned. Goemon climbed out of the backseat, quickly helping Jigen get Lupin into the house while Fujiko worked on getting the lights and water on.

“Lay him down.” Goemon instructed, going to the kitchen to go through the cabinets. “Someone check the bathroom for alcohol or another disinfectant.”

Fujiko quickly went to the bathroom, frowning as she huffed and double checked every cabinet. “The bottle’s basically empty!”

Jigen groaned. “Of all the times to have you not restock the damn hideout, Lupin..” he frowned, looking down at the trembling thief.

Goemon frowned, wetting a rag from the kitchen as he returned to the main room. He carefully laid the rag across Lupin’s forehead, taking a moment to fully look him over and check his injuries. They all had their work cut out for them…and it would be a lot of work with little rest..

Fujiko frowned, gently stroking Lupin’s hair as she looked at Goemon and Jigen. “What’s our plan here? We can’t treat him with basically nothing..”

Goemon nodded. “I have some things I can try for short term treatment, but we need to go to town and get disinfectants and antibiotics if he is to pull through.”

Jigen frowned. “We need to clean those burns..fuck, can we even get these bits wet?” They had so much to consider. “And we have to put the pieces that came off back on…”

Fujiko frowned. “You two do whatever you need to do, okay? I’ll run to town and grab what we need and be back here by nightfall at the latest.” She knew they were stressed and it was a lot easier for her to swindle drugs out of some high strung pharmacists than it was for Jigen or Goemon.

“Thank you, Fujiko.” Jigen looked at her genuinely. They had dealt with some serious shit before but this was…new.

Fujiko smiled softly. “Just take care of him, alright? I’ll be back soon.” She kissed both of their cheeks before doing the same to Lupin’s forehead, exiting soon after.

Jigen sighed softly, regarding Lupin for a moment. They certainly didn’t know everything about the cybernetics..if they could handle any water at all or not. This would be slow, and probably extremely painful for Lupin. This wasn’t something he wanted to even be thinking about, let alone doing. Burns hurt like a bitch, especially infected burns that needed cleaning. Would water even cut it with this? They didn’t know how long he had been dealing with it, it could be advanced and need immediate disinfecting with something stronger…

“Jigen.” Goemon’s hand gently clasped his shoulder. “Breathe.” He could tell he was getting stressed.

Jigen frowned, rubbing his face before he nodded. “It’s fine. What do we need to do until Fuji gets back?” They needed to focus on getting Lupin stabilized.

Goemon glanced back at Lupin, frowning. They would have to deal with their stress at a later time. “Go get a cloth and a bowl of water from the kitchen. I will go to the basement to look for natural remedies.”

Jigen nodded. “Gotcha.” He made his way to the kitchen, parting ways with Goemon at the basement door.

Jigen grabbed a bowl and filled it with warm water, finding a rag and some Dawn dish soap below the sink just in case they needed it. Goemon looked around the basement, searching the shelves of canned food before he reached to the back and found a bag of sugar. Grabbing the first aid kit from the wall by the stairs, he went back to the living room, crouching beside Lupin.

“Okay..why the hell do you have sugar-?” Jigen raised an eyebrow, looking at the jar as he put the bowl down beside Goemon. This was no time for snacks?

“Sugar has been used for centuries to treat wounds and prevent infections. It absorbs moisture in wounds that create bacteria and infections and prevents them. Once we clean his wounds we can put the sugar in them and hopefully fight his infections that way for the time being.” Goemon put the sugar down, reaching for the bowl and rag.

“Huh..” Jigen nodded, eyeing the sugar. “You learn something new everyday.” He shook his head.

“Mhm.” Goemon nodded, wringing the rag out as he dabbed some soap on it. “I will need you to hold Lupin down. Cleaning his wounds will not be pleasant.” He frowned, looking to Jigen seriously.

Jigen sighed softly, nodding as he rolled up his sleeves. “Alright. Just try to avoid the metal bits. We don’t know how much water they can handle.” Zapping Lupin on top of everything wouldn’t be ideal…

Goemon nodded. “Alright. Hold him down. I will try to be quick.”

Jigen nodded, carefully getting a grip on Lupin’s arms. If he needed to he would be able to cover his torso and legs to hold him down..hopefully it wouldn’t have to come to that though…. He glanced at Lupin, setting his jaw as he took a breath.

“Go.”

Goemon began to clean the wounds around Lupin’s eye, one hand against his forehead to keep his head still. Lupin cried out, jerking as he gasped. Goemon moved quickly, getting the rag deep into the burns to clean them out completely. Puss and blood ran from the wounds, infection rampant and draining. Goemon cringed, doing his best to clean it all away. Jigen grunted, holding down Lupin as best he could as he jerked and thrashed. The thief screamed and thrashed, legs kicking and arms punching. Goemon bit the inside of his cheek, moving down to Lupin’s torso as he tried to clean around his injuries. He could tell this was far more painful that he could’ve expected it to be for Lupin…he wanted to get it done right but he didn’t want to put him through too much like this…it was already too much to see him in such a state…

Jigen frowned deeply, taking Lupin’s hand as he squeezed it. They just had to hold out until Goemon cleaned the infection away..burns and cuts with puss running from them..had that fucker even medicated Lupin for the infections? Had he medicated him for anything? The thought of him being butchered without anesthetic made him nauseous as hell…and they had been right down the hall the entire time…

“Let- let me-e-!” Lupin cried, fighting against Jigen to get away. He had to get away..

“Goemon-“ Jigen glanced at him, his hands shaking. He could blame the strain…Goemon might not believe it but he could blame the strain.

“Almost finished. Flip him over, I need to check his backside.” Goemon glanced at Jigen, his own hands shaking faintly.

Jigen grunted, struggling to flip over the thrashing thief. He tensed, his grip on Lupin tightening slightly as he frowned. They had even replaced his spine…God…what had Lupin faced in that hell..

Goemon frowned, cleaning around the wounds on Lupin’s back. Lupin screamed, his back arching in an attempt to get away from the hot pain in his back. Tears streamed from his organic eye as he trembled and thrashed against Goemon and Jigen, gasping and panting through pain and exhaustion. Goemon quickly finished, cleaning away the dirt and dried blood before he readied the bandages. He packed the sugar into the wounds, bandaging them quickly before laying Lupin on his back. Goemon stroked his hair carefully, frowning. They had to calm him down before he hurt himself more or exhausted himself too much.

Lupin whined, trembling and shivering as his eyes opened and closed. “Ji’..” he panted, hands fumbling clumsily around the sofa. “Goem’n..”

“We’re right here.” Jigen took his hand, squeezing it. “Take it easy.” He glanced over at Goemon.

Goemon frowned, continuing to pack Lupin’s wounds with sugar and bandage them carefully. “We are in your safe house, Lupin. You can rest.”

Lupin mumbled incoherently, trying to keep his eyes open as they focused and unfocused with his waning consciousness. He wasn’t ready to let his guard down yet…he needed to know that this was real and that they were actually out and safe. He couldn’t just believe a hallucination..and if they were out were they actually safe? He couldn’t tell and he couldn’t do anything to protect anyone like this either.

“You’re alright to close your eyes. We’ll be right here.” Jigen eased his hold on him, fixing the cool cloth on Lupin’s forehead. “Get some rest.”

Goemon nodded, finishing his bandaging as he sat back and checked his work over. “We should be alright until Fujiko comes back with what we need.” He packed the supplies away, patting Lupin’s shoulder. “Things will be alright.”

Lupin looked between them, closing his eyes as he laid back. It seemed like this was believable…they were safe and he could try to relax.. even if for a little while. He had no energy to try to stay awake anymore anyways. If it was really Jigen and Goemon there with him…he could trust them to handle things.

Jigen sighed softly, sitting with his head between his knees. At least Lupin was resting and they had been able to clean his wounds out.. he hoped it would get easier but..experience told him that wasn’t really going to be the case. Unless luck was on their side, it would get worse before it got better. Hopefully Fujiko was quick and it would be something they could get a grip on before it actually got bad. He raised his head, looking at Goemon.

“Things will be alright.” Goemon looked at him, smiling faintly. He would do his best to reassure Jigen of that..

Jigen nodded slightly, sitting up. “Yeah. This is just…”

“Fucked up.” Goemon supplied, nodding sagely. It was very fucked up.

Jigen snorted, laughing softly. “Better watch your mouth, samurai.” He teased gently.

“Oh, please.” Goemon rolled his eyes, sitting beside Jigen as he looked back at Lupin. “Lupin would completely agree with the statement if he was conscious enough.”

“If he was conscious enough he would be laughing at your foul language.” Jigen snickered, smacking Goemon’s shoulder gently.

Goemon laughed softly. “That too.” He look down at the bowl of dirty water, falling silent for a moment. “I took notebooks from that lab. It seems he was keeping notes on what he was doing to Lupin.”

Jigen frowned, sitting quietly for a moment. “We’ll have to read them..figure out how to attach those little pieces and if we can do something better to hold him together.” He looked down at Lupin, studying the cybernetics.

“Hopefully it will make it easier to repair him in the future as well..waterproofing him will making things much easier.” Goemon nodded, watching Lupin breathe. Hopefully it would become less fast and shallow soon…

Jigen nodded, sighing before he stood. “I’ll go and clean up and see if I can put together something for us to eat. You alright watching him for now?” He would give Goemon a break if he needed it, it had been hell trying to clean those wounds with Lupin like that…

Goemon nodded, patting Lupin’s hand gently. “We will be fine. I will yell if we need you.” He assured gently.

Jigen smiled a little, nodding. “Right.” He grabbed the supplies, walking back into the kitchen.

Hopefully Jigen could scrounge up some food for them to eat. If they didn’t have anything he could use to make something for Goemon he was going to be pissed. Hopefully Fujiko would find some things for him while she was out. Hopefully she would come back soon and Lupin would heal and they could all just move past this. He hoped they could actually move past this..though, he really doubted it. If they could, it wouldn’t be easy.

#goemon ishikawa xiii #lupin iii #lupin the 3rd #goemon #jigen daisuke #lupin the third #fujiko mine #zenigata #jigen #jigen lupin the third #Midnight Jacket AU #Cyborg!Lupin #tw medical grossness #tw medical

[calypsonightingale]

A Complied List of My Stardew Valley Mods

I’ve recently gotten back into playing Stardew on both my switch and my laptop and it’s so fun! So I thought I’d give a complete list of all the current mods I use in my gameplay <3

Note: These are PC mods. It’s not possible to mod on the switch port and only a few are compatible with android, but none are apple compatible.

Smapi is not included in this list, but is 100% required! These mods will not work without it!

𝓯𝓻𝓪𝓶𝓮𝔀𝓸𝓻𝓴 𝓶𝓸𝓭𝓼 💻

Content Patcher

Content Patcher Animations

Custom NPC Exclusions

Expanded Preconditions Utility

Extra Map Layers

Farm Type Manager (FTM)

Json Assets

SAAT - Audio API and Toolkit

Shop Tile Framework

SpaceCore

NPC Adventures

Event Repeater

Generic Mod Config Menu

Joja Cola Restock

AtraCore

Alternative Textures

DaisyNiko’s TileSheets

Lumisteria Tilesheets (Indoor and Outdoor)

Artisanal Soda Makers

The Grampleton Maker’s Market

Anti-Social NPCs

Better Artisan Good Icons

BugNet

Bush Bloom Mod

PyTK Lite

Champagne Wishes

Child to NPC

Custom Companions

Custom Fixed Dialogue

Custom Furniture

Custom Gift Dialogue

Custom Kissing Mod

Custom Music

Custom NPC Exclusions

Custom NPC Fixes

Destroyable Bushes

Fizzy Drinks

Ginger Island Mainland Adjustments

GNM Tokens

Help For Hire

Happy Birthday Content Pack

Huckleberry Season

Mail Framework Mod

More Mead

More Grass

Multi Yield Crops

Producer Framework Mod

Quest Framework Mod

Shop Tile Framework

Show Birthdays

Sprites in Detail

Stardew Hack

Stardust Core

TMX Loader

Dwarf Expansion

Boarding House

𝓔𝔁𝓹𝓪𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🪴

Stardew Valley Expanded

Ridgeside Village

East Scarp

Love Festival

Emyn’s Pride March

Emyn’s Queer Dialogue Expansion

Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion

Emyn’s Diverse Ginger Island

Immersive Festival Dialogue

𝓟𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓻𝓪𝓲𝓽 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 ☀️

Seasonal Diverse Stardew Valley

Diverse Stardew Valley Expanded

Ridgeside Village Seasonal Outfits

East Scarp Seasonal Outfits

𝓐𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓽𝓲𝓬 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🩷

Stardew Foliage Redone

DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolor

Way Back Pelican Town

Mushroom Mailbox

Idalda’s Gothic Buildings

Idalda’s Furniture Recolor

Idalda’s Craftables

Idalda’s Flooring and Paths

Idalda’s Wallpapers and Floors

Idalda’s Witchy Scarecrows

Aesthetic Garbage

Seasonal Bouquets

Cute / Seasonal Crab Pots

Seasonal Fences

Custom Menu Background

Elle’s Cat Replacements

Elle’s Dog Replacements

Elle’s New Barn Animals

Elle’s New Coop Animals

Elle’s New Horses

Elle’s Town Animals

Hot Spring Farm Cave

Industrial Furniture Set

Industrial Kitchen and Interior

Kelly’s Flower Dance Attire

Lavender Dreams UI Recolor

Rustic Country Town Interior

Seasonal Floral Bus

Seasonal Garden Farmhouse V2

Skell’s Flowery Tools

Skell’s Flowery Weapons

Replacements for Artifacts

Wildflower Grass Field

Calendar Anniversary

Mi and Magimatica Country Furniture

Warm Cozy Fireplace

Winter Grass

𝓝𝓟𝓒 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🌙

Always Raining in the Valley

Shiko

Juna

Leilani

Jade

Juliet & Jessie

Nonbinary They/Them Maddie

Aspen

Isla

Professor Jasper Thomas

Riley

𝓖𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓹𝓵𝓪𝔂 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🌈

UI Info Suite 2

NPC Map Locations

Look Up Anything

Gift Taste Helper

Chests Anywhere

Tractor Mod

Better Ranching

Birthday Mod

Ellie’s Ideal Greenhouse

The Love of Cooking

Robin Sells Hardwood

More Rings

Immersive Spouses

Immersive Family

Mail Services Mod

Part of the Community

Yet Another Harvest With Scythe Mod

Capstone Professions

Please Remember My Birthday

Please Remember My Marriage

Babies Take After Spouse

Colored Seeds

Customizable Baby and Children

Don’t Enable Pam

Gender Neutrality Mod

Gender-Neutral Ridgeside Village

Lumisteria Letters from Parents

Lumisteria Villagers React to Marriage

Shane’s New Job

Bigger Backpack

Child Age Up

Community Center Helper

Family Planning

Helpful Spouses

Personal Anvil

Running Late

Social Page Order Button

Town School Mod

Willy Has a Room

𝓡𝓸𝓶𝓪𝓷𝓬𝓮 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 💙

Ridgeside Rival Hearts — Sam and Alissa

Ridgeside Rival Hearts — Jeric and Alex

Date Night

Free Love

Romanceable Rasmodius / Rasmodia

Bolier’s Sam and Sebastian Rival Heart Events

Expanded Proposal Options

MissCoriel’s NPC Unique Courtship Response

Custom Spouse Nicknames

Hugs and Kisses

Platonic Partners and Friendships

Platonic Relationships

Pregnancy Role

𝓞𝓫𝓳𝓮𝓬𝓽𝓼 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🍒

Farmer to Florist

Kawaii Valley

Witchy Valley

Fresh Meat

Fantasy Crops

Artisan Valley

Even More Recipes

Mizu’s Flowers

Alex’s Frozen Treats

Pride Pastries

Chocolatier

Shaved Ice and Frozen Treats

Christmas Sweets

Fruits and Veggies

More Recipes

More Trees

Starbrew Valley

Khadija’s Recipe Shop

Animal Husbandry Mod

Bonster’s Fruit & Veggies

Bonster’s Trees

Winter Crops

Wildflour’s Faerie Garden

𝓒𝓾𝓼𝓽𝓸𝓶𝓲𝔃𝓪𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓜𝓸𝓭𝓼 🫶

Fashion Sense

Rural Outfitters

Asta Cute Rainy Season Outfit

Asta Slumber Party

Starkissed Skin Tones

Coii’s Hair Sets Pack

Coii’s Hats Pack

Hats Won’t Mess Up Hair

Idalda’s Shirts

Cozy Scarves

The Coquette Collection

Wabi’s Wardrobe

Witchy Rustic Looks

Seasonal Hats

Customize Wedding Attire

Paisley’s Bridal Boutique

#stardew valley #stardew valley mods

[solarwynd]

Why you think Jk was more marketable than Jimin? I mean Jimin was always the most popular in the USA overall plus UK, France Korea and Japan.

Also another question is should we be worried about Jimin future career in Hybe? What do you think is gonna go from here? Because they clearly see him as a competition and just want JK to be the most successful.

oh no I definitely agree with you on jimin being more popular in those countries especially in the us, but I meant in terms of image. scooter found jb 2.0 in jk and since jb was super successful, rehashing that for an already popular boy band member should be a walk in the park in theory. jimin, on the other hand, does not fit that at all. he’s not a “bad boy”, has his own artistic vision and identity and he’s not malleable. he’s not the type to sit back and let someone dictate what to do with his music.

regarding jimin’s future in hybe, I don’t think we should be worried necessarily? I respect his decision to renew and staying in bts. I’ve never had an issue with that but I’m not gonna act like I wish he didn’t have another option to go to. realistically though, there’s no other company that’s gonna allow him artistic autonomy or for him to get paid fairly so it is what it is.

hybe is trying to show investors that hybe america is worth it and considering that jk is their first real venture into proving that, they’re gonna have to upkeep on what they managed to pull for his debut or it’s gonna seem like a fluke. it’ll be just as expensive probably even more so, but in the long run it’s gonna end up really crippling them. with their goal to keep jk the most “successful” in the group, Im not gonna bet on them improving his label aid tbh. but even with the negligence, jimin still pulled impressive numbers and he has gained a lot more dedicated fans since face era. that lc cd they restocked yesterday without notice managed to sell out in in just 5 minutes while the other restocks are still available. so the demand is clearly there. we’re just gonna have to work hard for him when pjm2 drops.

[greypetrel]

Extra cheesy with a side of doggo.

Bisexual idiots gifts each other matchy clothes because they’re THAT cheesy. Sera pukes in the background.

So, I’m head to heels into a moving, my stupid country had elections last Sunday and the results were horrible. So the idiots were summoned for doodles. Something random I wrote waiting for my turn at IKEA to follow, post Trespasser.

As the Inquisition got disbandled, the traces of Inquisitor Lavellan got scarcer and duller. She headed to Ferelden and that was the last thing that circulated widely about her: that she established somewhere in the countryside, married a dog lord and disappeared from the public scene almost as abruptly as she had barged in three years prior.

Soon, the Orlesian court forgot about her.

Coming closer to Ferelden, tho, the voices kept on: some months after the Exalted Council, voices started to run of a safe haven in South Reach, that helped Templars who wanted to quit or were kicked out of the Order quit the lyrium. For some, it was run by a former Templar who had made it, and a Dalish healer who lost an arm for a thousand and one reasons (one traveller said she lost it fighting a high dragon. Another said it was in the Blight. A child was sure it was because she didn’t eat all her veggies). For people who knew better, those were none others that the Inquisitor and her Commander.

The Dalish never saw Aisling again, save for having her hospitality and support whenever they passed her way. Her home was widely known among clans travelling between the Amaranthine Ocean and the Brecilian forest as a safe space to stop and rest and restock supplies. But the voices between the Dalish held something darker. They said Lavellan was touched by the Dread Wolf itself, and that was why she never made it back to her clan or any other. Fen’Harel had her scent, and elves who confronted her about it reported that she just smiled and shrugged at it, and just replied that she also married a Shem and her best friend was a Tevinter Magister, so maybe it was that that was enough to spread such voices around. She always seemed sad about it, tho, and some mistook that sadness for discontent about where her life had brought her, ignoring the bubbly and cheerful exterior.

Once, a group of Dalish hunters found her in the stables, at night, and tried to drag her back with them to their clan. Their clan wouldn’t have mind, they said, their Second had recently died in a bear attack, and she didn’t have to be alone and sad. She got very offended and angry at it, evoked lightning enough to zap their butt and attract the attention of the other elf living in the farm -a tall, weird city elf who shot arrows at them with breath-taking precision- and the next day she really came to the camp, but just to have a long and heated talk with the Keeper. She explained what the hunters had done and how preposterous it had been, that she was plenty happy where she was and that she has CHOSEN to be there, thank you very much, if you lots don’t accept it you can go your merry way and leave the field to my horses. The Keeper all but apologised to her and scolded the hunters with a serious face. The hunters did went back to apologise, and Lavellan all but had them go talk and say they were sorry to her husband, citing him as the hurt part. They did. It never happened again.

And so they lived, the clinic gained quite some fame as a safe haven for all, offering rest and a hot meal granted to everyone that needed it and was respectful of the mixed band of owners – a human, two elves and a dwarf. Even if, in time, the owners started to travel, leaving the patients to the cheerful upsider dwarf who had a smithy in the old barn -they built a new stable for horses- and to the Commander's siblings. Where they went was never clear, if questioned, they just exchanged a knowing look, smiled secretively and just said they have been helping some Friends. It always sounded like it had a capital F, but no one knew better.

What was sure, beside sudden and unexpected visits from distinguished guests -was that Divine Victoria?-, was that they were happy and not foreign to cheesy shows of love and affection that could have been more secret. One year, for example, they both came out with the idea of gifting clothings that matched to the other. The Commander had a cape tailored, in the ring velvet his wife seemed to favour, the neck lined with fur as his own, and she didn't take it off for the whole day, proudly parading it around while brewing medicines and potions and forcing a particularly grumpy old Templar who treated her poorly because she was a mage to just suck it and drink this, you're just envious I have a pretty fluffy cape, I get it, if you drink this and behave and get better maybe we’ll commission one for you as well.

She, on the other hand, had custom shirts made, with matching embroideries on the top. She told a friend in Kirkwall helped her find the place that made them, and that her gift was to be worn in their upcoming visit to Val Royeaux, as always helping one of their Friends. One of the scullery maids they hired for help saw the shirts, and she swore to all the curious that they said "Fuck Orlais", and that the Commander -a Fereldan through and through- was all but elated when he saw them. And Orlais, after years of silence on the Inquisitor, had something to say about her anew, talking of how happy she looked whilst strolling down the market parading offensive clothing with her husband on her side, husband who has clearly ruined her and made her a Dog Lady. Whilst they caught attention, no one noticed a Red Jenny slipping into the house of a particularly nasty noble.

The Dread Wolf never came.

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #da fanarts #cullavellan #cullen x lavellan #inquisitor lavellan #dragon age oc #cullen rutherford #pencil drawing #doodle #cheesy cheese #fanarts #greypetrel

[morgansmornings]

If I Gave You My Hand...

Closed Starter for @thebiggestlies

~~~*~~~

It was a new year. One that held infinite possibilities. So many choices that could rewrite the path a person could take. Often, most fell through. Some stuck by it and followed the trail they chose to walk. Yet if effort was taken then that was what mattered.

For Jayden she found herself wrapping up on the last of the major things she was packing. Cloth had been draped over most of the furniture. The piano she kept for her mother moved into the guest bedroom. She had scheduled a technician to come once a week to keep it tuned and maintained. Her library nook was backed and left barren. The pool table was covered and stored. Bills would continue to be paid as she was leaving the shop open. Left in the capable hands of manager’s she had trained and worked with since she opened. 

The kitchen was cleaned out for the most part. Matters had been settled for Jenna after a very long draining argument. One that Jayden was the victor. Her closet was mostly packed up, her bathroom would be left for last. She would need to talk to Beth and make sure that her older sister knew that this was what she wanted. Her truck would be staying behind, her bike was still parked at Eric’s place as she had decided to fly back rather than drive. 

She thought up of all the ways this could go wrong. But that was part of the thrill of moving. Though this wasn’t from one part of New York to another. This was a move that would take her halfway across the country. Away from the place she had made for herself. A new beginning. 

If it didn’t work out in the long run, then she could finish out her lease and move back. Could turn a trip to being closer to her boyfriend into a trip to reconnect with her family. Of helping out Jessica with her new firm. Spending time with her cousin John now that he was back from his tour of Doctors without Borders. 

Yes, even if this wasn’t meant to be with Eric, she was content that this was a needed step. 

All of that was thought as she placed the most recent box of nick nacks that would be living in storage with the rest of her belongings that she wasn’t taking with her. The space felt empty as it had been when she bought the building. Though restored it was almost as if the brickwork was whispering their goodbyes everytime she took another book or picture down. Yes she would miss her home. But she had faith that it would work out as it was meant to. 

Setting the box by the spare bedroom, she made for the fireplace, stoking the logs to keep the loft warm in the early evening winter of the city. Making for the kitchen next she set up a cup of tea to steep for a bit on the coffee table. Shuffling over to the couch she picked up her laptop and busied herself with double checking her restock order until she knew that Eric would be off work, home and fed. Video calls made things a bit easier for them, but it wasn’t the same as when they could be face to face.

When it was time, she started the call, pulling her sweater around her shoulders with a time smile on her face.

“Hey there handsome.” She said after seeing his face light up her screen.

#thebiggestlies #v: WoD ~ TBD #All Eyes on Me in the Center of the Ring | Eric Myers #There were Drums in the Air as We Started to Dance | Eric x Jay

[doubleddenden]

I'm still not over just how fucking blatant my state is when it comes to trying to keep people from voting.

In the most populous county in my state, they kept running out of ballots multiple times at a particular voting district. They'd restock on ballots and keep running out. People were waiting in line for hours to vote, and a judge ordered the polling area closed at 9 that night and would only allow you to vote if you were in line by 7, despite people asking for more time.

In an interview on tv you could see a guy give an excellent take on the situation: everyone deserves to vote, but unfortunately not everyone has TIME to vote due to work, childcare, or other things.

Another person guessed that maybe they weren't expecting that big of a turnout and only kept stocking ballots by the hundreds instead of the few thousand.

But imo the governor just HATES that area, you can just tell he hates it from the way he talks about it in the past on tv. It still ended up blue despite their best efforts to keep the people there from voting. Still, there was this overwhelming red wave- the status quo here of course because most people here just plain don't like change and old folks are too god damn stupid to try something different- and it's just plain to see that multiple efforts were illegally taken to ensure that they stay in power and nothing changes just from this one instance alone. And there won't be accountability because nobody gives a fuck about this bumfuck nowhere redneck state because we're a lost cause in way too many regards in the rest of the country's eyes, and the powers that be run a good ol boy network that actively seeks to chase out competitors to their seats or silence them.

Imo, at bare fucking minimum, I would have taken a note of the number of people registered to vote in the area and ensured at least 1 ballot for each person and about 30% extra in case of miscalculation, provisions, a coffee stain, or otherwise, and round up in both cases after that. When I voted, I had a standard paper ballot- so to me, that should be something that can and should be taken into account and preparations properly made. Expecting low turnout is no excuse for this kind of thing, if there's extra leftover then store them and use those for the next vote, or recycle the paper for next time. If not, then the old digital voting machines should be kept as backup. If nothing else, there at least should have been efforts made to get them somewhere they CAN vote.

That's what confuses me- there's so many ways you could prevent this kind of thing, but instead you make it harder? How is that to be read as anything other than intentional- especially considering our very "proud" state history of keeping people from voting? Especially with video a few years back of a touch screen voting machine refusing to vote for anyone other than the moldy potato man from the right? That's why I say blatant. They don't care if they get caught anymore. Nobody that CAN do anything will do anything. That one judge is getting sued but he'll get a slap on the wrist at most and the damage will have been done. Even with that fiasco that really should have made people curious and pause to account for errors, the red moldy tater still proudly claimed victory. They'll bitch about voter fraud when they lose but actively ignore very obvious signs when it's in their favor.

This state sucks. There's little to be proud of and there's plenty to be ashamed of- this government is part of the very shameful end.

[bikepackinguk]

Day Nineteen

And we're back! Hope you had a good weekend!

Spent a couple of nights camped up by the banks if the Eye Water in some idyllic forest, not another soul to be seen whilst there except the birds, bugs, and some red deer roaming the opposite bank.

A very needed rest day yesterday, and one I'd been looking forward to. The muscles have been suffering a bit the past week and giving them some downtime is important to keep the going smooth.

Last night was also the first proper rain of the journey, ehich I've been very lucky with so far. thankfully it was well into the night and the tent was battened down well, so the only inconvenience was being woken a couple of times simply from the sheer noise of the downpour.

Breaking camp and getting back to the road took a little time as I had to get my feet wet carrying my gear back over the river, as well as trekking back to the road, which combined with the luxury if a later start today meant it was nearly noon by the time the road was hit once more, and a stop off in Eyemouth for some supplies meant not being fully underway until around lunchtime.

Given that Edinburgh is coming up and I don't want to be caught inside a big city in the evening, this was absolutely fine by me.

With that done, the route out of Eyemouth is back into another big long climb uphill, which made me very glad for the day's rest! The legs have a bit more go in them now, and the sharper pains have subsided, meaning the ascents were a lot more manageable and good time made across the hills, to be rewarded with a beautiful view of the Forth Estuary and the coastline beyond, ehich I'll be reaching in another day or two!

The hills give way on the other side to a glorious descent over the fields above the coastline, with some sweeping zooming sections that are impossible not to grin loke a loon flying down.

All the way downwards the road runs to Pease Bay, before we head up some more climbs for the path to carry on westwards.

Sole not-so-scenic stretches along here as we pass by a big quarry, landfill, incinerator, and a nuclear power plant, with the noise of the busy A1 in the background, but can't have beauty every step of the way.

After that the route follows into Dunbar where I could restock on water and have a short break, and check how the map looks.

The route around to North Berwick is essentially A roads and the cycle route bypasses it, so I decided to do the same and carry on.

Tracking west, the cycle path again follows the A1 but is a fully segregated path, so was able to make some good time despite riding alongside busy traffic, and past East Linton the route swings to the left of the busy road to climb high back up into the hills once more to take in some lovely country lanes and views past Hailes Castle.

Down again the path runs into the town of Haddington, which I reached bang on 6pm, and had a good dither and bite to eat.

The route sweeps back up to the coast towards Longniddry from here, but with the sun getting low I don't want to get too much closer to Edinburgh this evening, and feel in a pretty good position to be able to get through and across the Forth tomorrow, so it feels like time to find a place to rest the head once more.

Tike for a good cup of tea and to set the tent back up. Catch you all tomorrow!

#bikepacking #bicycle touring #wild camping

[autumngracy]

From CNN: House passes $40 billion Ukraine aid bill

(CNN) - The Democratic-led House of Representatives voted 368-57 on Tuesday evening to pass a roughly $40 billion bill to deliver aid to Ukraine as it continues to face Russia's brutal assault.

All 57 votes in opposition were from Republicans.

The measure will next need to be passed by the Senate before it can go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in the day on Tuesday that after the House approved the package, the Senate "will move swiftly" to get the measure passed and sent to Biden's desk.

Aid to Ukraine has been a rare bright spot of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill with Democrats and Republicans largely rallying around a call to help the nation as it faces Russian attack.

Lawmakers unveiled bill text earlier in the day ahead of the House vote. The legislation the House approved provides funding for a long list of priorities, including military and humanitarian assistance.

The bill includes an increase in presidential drawdown authority funding from the $5 billion the Biden administration originally requested to $11 billion. Presidential drawdown authority funding allows the administration to send military equipment and weapons from US stocks. This has been one of the main ways the administration has provided Ukrainians with military equipment quickly over the past 75 days of the conflict in Ukraine.

In the Ukraine aid supplemental that was signed into law in mid-March, $3 billion in this kind of funding was included. The Biden administration has been using that funding to provide military assistance to Ukraine in a series of presidential drawdown authority packages. The latest package of $150 million was authorized on May 6.

The bill also provides $6 billion in Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funding, another way the Biden administration has been providing Ukraine with military assistance. USAI funding allows the administration to buy weapons from contractors and then provide those weapons to Ukraine, so this method does not draw directly from US stocks.

According to a fact sheet from House Democrats, the funding will be used to assist Ukrainian military and national security forces and will go toward weapons, equipment, training, logistics and intelligence support as well as other needs.

There will also be roughly $9 billion to help restock US equipment that has been sent to Ukraine. That comes as many lawmakers have raised concerns about replacing US stocks of weapons the US is giving to Ukraine, especially stingers and javelin missiles.

To address humanitarian needs, the bill will include $900 million to bolster refugee assistance, including housing, trauma support, and English language instruction for Ukrainians fleeing the country.

The measure provides an additional $54 million that will be used for public health and medical support for Ukrainian refugees.

"This package, which builds on the robust support already secured by Congress, will be pivotal in helping Ukraine defend not only its nation but democracy for the world," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a letter to House Democrats on Tuesday after the bill text was released.

The House vote comes after Biden called on Congress to "immediately" pass a new Ukrainian aid bill as he warned that existing aid would soon run out.

"Get it to my desk in the next few days," Biden said in a statement on Monday.

Biden had previously urged Congress to pass additional pandemic relief funding and the new assistance to Ukraine in the same bill.

But he said on Monday that congressional leaders told him to decouple the effort in order to more quickly get the aid to Ukraine. Congressional Republicans had insisted on the two issues moving on separate legislative tracks.

Biden initially requested $33 billion to help Ukraine as it fights Russia, but Congress has proposed billions more for food aid and military equipment.

"We cannot afford delay in this vital war effort," Biden said in the statement. "Hence, I am prepared to accept that these two measures move separately, so that the Ukrainian aid bill can get to my desk right away."

#us politics #ukraine #russia #Biden #House of Representatives #us news #cnn #war in ukraine #Russian invasion

[literaticat]

On Edelweiss, there's a tab of wholesaler info that says how many cartons are on order or in the warehouse. Is this an early indicator of the planned print run of a book? (Number of cartons x number of books per carton= print run?)

Wow that's a DEEP CUT lmaooooo -- I had to very much hunt around to find that tab. (If you are on Edelweiss, and you pull up a title, and you look at NONE of the masses of info on that first page but rather press the little arrow-burst looking thing next to the title, a pop-up window comes up, and at the bottom of the list of links in that window, there's one that says "wholesaler info".) Is THAT what you are talking about?

If so, I do appreciate your sleuthing, but sadly for you, Nancy Drew, you've got the wrong end of the stick.

Wholesaler info has nothing to do with print run, and the number of books on order at a given warehouse has nothing to do with cartons. I've pulled up the wholesaler info for a book (which is not out yet) so you can see what I mean:

First of all: What is a wholesaler? Wholesalers/Distributors such as Ingram, Baker+Taylor, Bookazine, etc, are kinda "middlemen" -- they warehouse a ton of books (like, literal airplane-hangars full of millions of titles), and bookstores and other accounts can buy basically any in-print book through them.

However! Most bookstores get their initial front list orders (like, all the books they are getting for the upcoming season from, say, PRH or Harper or whatever) through the publisher, because the discounts are better than through the wholesaler. Additionally, most regular restocks of backlist from publishers go through the publisher for the same reason.

Ingram and other wholesalers are important for what you might call "mixed orders" -- the store has special orders to fulfill or just needs some random backup copies of books and wants, say, three copies of a Harper book and two copies of a Chronicle book and one copy of a PRH book, and they need them sooner rather than later. So instead of waiting until they have enough to fill a single publisher order, they'll do an order from Ingram (or another wholesaler) for those books, because Ingram stocks ALL of them in one place. The discount is a little less optimal, but the books will get their faster and without having to wait to fill a minimum order. (This is also how a tiny store or a gift shop who doesn't regularly order enough from individual publishers may get their books, or how a school or library will get orders of mixed books from many publishers, etc etc. Additionally, bookstores like Amazon who DO have warehouses still use Ingram to fulfill orders for books they don't have in stock and may not be able to get in a timely manner.)

So now you know what this even IS, I will tell you that this graphic shows how many books (BOOKS, not cartons of books) are on order at Ingram warehouses across the country. There are four main Ingram warehouses -- Chambersburg is east coast, Ft Wayne is midwest, Roseburg is West Coast. LaVerne TN is the main one, and covers the south and anything the other regional ones can't get to.

But Ingram -- though a very large distributor/wholesaler -- is NOT the ONLY distributor/wholesaler. How many books they have on hand or on order does NOT show you how many copies of the book the PUBLISHER has on hand in their warehouses, or how many copies any OTHER warehouse might have on hand or on order.

So... no, is the answer. (Unless you were actually looking at some other piece of info I couldn't see on Edelweiss that was NOT the "wholesaler info" tab!)

#wholesalers #book distribution #edelweiss

[davidbrigstock]

Nov 14

Day 42: Julian CA to Brawley CA

Miles today : 76 miles

Feet of Ascent today : 650

Total cross country miles : 2975

Total cross country feet of ascent : 80957

Last night’s rest was just what the Dr (dokta) ordered and I was glad I could actually move my legs when I woke up! We had breakfast at 7am at a cute cafe down the street, expecting that we would soon be well on our way despite the 39 degree temperature. Not so. We experienced a “wardrobe malfunction” that delayed us by an hour: the overnight hotel laundry service failed to materialize (no I’m not lazy; there were no machines for guests to use themselves which was very annoying) but they did it for free first thing in the morning and gave us a discount on the room which was nice of them. So we were finally on our way just after 9am - a late start for most cyclists but the day’s ride was not pegged as being particularly arduous so we were ok and it was a tad warmer to boot.

What goes up must go down and omg the downhill run out of Julian was truly unbelievable, with incredible winding roads, steep gradients, and awesome views. Since we had to descend more than 4000 ft, the vistas just kept coming, one bend after another. I thoroughly recommend this ride to anyone who has the grit to pedal up to Julian first.

As we descended, it became much warmer and the land leveled out so the pedaling started and the cold weather gear was shed in stages. Soon we were in desert - think sand, dune buggies, RV parks, and possibly even Walter White wanna be’s.

I knew in advance that there were very few stores (for drinks and snacks) for at least 50 miles across the desert and I’d done my homework so I confidently led Matt down a turn-off to THE store about 1/2 mile down the road . We arrived and … it was closed. Google’s fault, not mine as I’d checked the hours carefully. Problem - Matt was out of liquids and I was running low and there were no open stores for at least 30 miles ahead of us.

We wandered over to a seemingly deserted bar so I walked around the back and miraculously found the owner in the yard. He immediately befriended us, wanted to know how he could help, and guided us into the empty building where he invited us to restock our water bottles. He even had Gatorade ! Evidently this is a well known destination for miles around and I’m sure it’s a hive of activity at other times but at that precise time, he literally saved us from a crisis. Shad at the Iron Door Bar in Ocotillo Wells. Remember that. He may help you too one day. You’ll surely find him if you are dune buggying in the Ocotillo Wells State Vehicular Recreation Area.

Now rehydrated and nourished from the energy snacks that we always carry with us, it was a straight shot across the desert heading east and then turning to the south and soon passing by Salton Sea on our left (Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea) Also by this time we were 200 feet below sea level - amazing to think we were at a lower elevation than we’d been at in San Diego just yesterday.

About 12 miles from the end of the ride, my front wheel hit a small rock which immediately caused the tube to burst but without damaging the wheel or tire. I’m a pro at dealing with flats (lol) and, conveniently, this happened on a bridge so the concrete walls made a convenient work station and lean-to for both bikes. We were back on the road in about 10 mins.

The area became very green and agricultural as we neared our destination of Brawley; it’s pretty amazing to think of the diversity of landscapes that we experienced today. We stopped at a Subway to get some food in us and then checked in at the Best Western, all in the fine “Crossroads tradition” that I became very much accustomed to earlier this year. Dinner was at Inferno’s, one of very few restaurants in Brawley but it was very good and helped us fuel up for tomorrows 80-mile ride to Blythe for which we will have headwinds in the 15+ mph range. Not too happy about that.

Todays Relive is a “good un” !!

https://www.relive.cc/view/vmqXB3Zx5oO

[shivlabs]

Comprehensive Guide on The Benefits of Grocery App Development Services

As technology evolves, users are discovering that things are becoming more accessible. A simple tap is all it takes to get what they want. As more people buy online, their changing buying patterns impact the food business. 

Traditional grocery stores were the go-to for everyone's daily needs, but now more than ever, people order their food online and have it delivered whenever they want with the help of shopping apps. As the pandemic spreads throughout several countries, developing food delivery apps is becoming increasingly complicated. The market value of online grocery across India was over 669 billion Indian rupees in 2023.

The future of grocery app development services is bright, with plenty of room for expansion. The advantages of a cloning strategy outweigh the costs.

Among the several advantages of developing the grocery delivery app are:

1. Seamless implementation

Computer programs are impervious to human error, according to a well-known figure. Consequently, a company may be certain that their app for grocery delivery will be devoid of errors. With only one click, customers may browse the whole collection and buy everything they see.

2. Methods of receiving financial transactions

Using the online grocery app, a company may provide customers more payment alternatives that are both easy and versatile. They may choose the pay-on-delivery option, and the majority of online payments are secure.

Managing the whole inventory and processing orders is made simpler with the help of the admin panel. These days, it doesn't take much effort or time to develop an app that delivers groceries.

3. Work from anywhere at any time

The idea behind creating a grocery shop app is to make it easier for customers to place orders from any store. A time-slot booking feature that simplifies the pickup and delivery operations in real time is available to both customers and businesses.

4. Compensation plans

A company's success is heavily dependent on client loyalty. It has shown to be rather long-lasting over the last several years. Connecting with consumers is an arduous process.

Using the supermarket app to promote sales and loyalty programs can be a smart move for companies looking to expand their customer base. Customers may use them to redeem points when they make an online purchase in the future.

5. Rise in monetary profit

The grocery delivery app can't function without this feature, as it allows all businesses to increase their profits. It isn't very noteworthy when compared to other grocery shopping applications. If the grocery delivery system runs well with the aid of thebest grocery app development company, it may be good for the bottom line.

Businesses may be able to increase their profit margin by attracting more users and investing more money on apps with tailored designs and features. A company's financial line may benefit from developing an app, and skilled programmers might help them achieve this goal.

6. Improving inventory management

Sometimes people either don't notice the merchandise or just neglect to restock it. This allows us to look at potential technology answers to these difficulties. Because of its unique features, an on-demand grocery delivery app is a boon to the company in this regard.

Businesses often integrate third-party applications into their inventory management systems; one example is grocery delivery apps. This means the app may automatically replenish the things that run low. An organization should designate a certain person to handle such a task.

With the help of a grocery delivery app, businesses can easily share all the essential details with clients via picture galleries and virtual stores. Customers couldn' care less where things come from when they make a buy.

7. Enhanced the standard for mobile advertisements

Another advantage of making a shopping app is that you may enhance future mobile ads. While many people currently use their smartphones to access the internet, the number of people using them to search for local companies is growing rapidly.

Contact a seasoned app development company to develop a grocery shopping app if you want to attract a large user base. Companies that provide grocery shopping apps, for instance, can work to improve their products' usability by adding features that customers find interesting and practical. The app would also be updated and advertised differently via push notifications.

Conclusion 

Due to the reliability of grocery delivery apps, users expect their orders to be at their doorsteps promptly. With its help, users may achieve their goals, including reaching the largest potential audience and making more transactions.

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