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no1deepspacehater · 2 months

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You Get Into A Car Accident (Non Fatal)

Xavier

When he texted and you didn’t reply. He wasn’t worried.

When he went to your apartment, and you didn’t answer the door. He was mildly concerned.

When he saw on the news that a hunter was injured in a car crash. He grew worried.

And when he logged into the news feed of the UNICORN’s association, which shows direct information on all hunters, without proper pass, to see your status, he was frantic.

Nearly got into a car crash himself getting to the hospital, and when they wouldn’t let him in to see you, he flashed his high ranking badge, which got the message through.

You were unconscious when he got there, which suddenly reminded him how tired he was.

He prevailed through after checking with the nurses that you were okay, and with that, he pulled up a chair and blanket and fell asleep next to you.

You had to wake him up yourself after you had your breakfast (Saving some for him).

He rubbed his eyes tiredly as he blinked awake.

“You sure do know how to keep someone occupied (MC)… Try not to put yourself out of commission so often, or I’m going to have to find a new partner.” He mumbled absent mindedly as he consumed the rest of your fruit.

Zayne

If you’re not being taken care of at his hospital, he’s going to whichever one you’re at and taking over immediately. He’s THE Dr. Zayne so of course, he’s going to have his way.

For plots sake you’re at Akso Hospital for now.

If he’s in his office, whatever he’s doing is stopped immediately as his main priority is you.

If he’s dealing with another patient, or in a surgery, he’s still going to remain with his current patient, but his nerves are at an all-time high, which somehow makes him work better.

Says absolutely NOTHING as he tends to your wounds. You can’t tell if he’s seething with rage at you getting hurt or deeply disappointed that you got yourself hurt.

When you finally get the courage to say something, all you can say is his name.

“Doctor Zayne…”

He says nothing as he finishes applying a bandage. Afraid to say anything else, you wait until he’s done.

He takes off his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose, letting out a sigh. He looks in your eyes, his own reflecting a type of tiredness you’ve only seen a couple other times you’ve been injured, but with battles instead.

To him, although you put your life in danger being a hunter every day, he’s reminded that the casualties of life are another thing he has to worry about with you.

He caresses your face and just whispers. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

Rafayel

He’d called and texted, and you didn’t reply. Almost didn’t answer you when you called him the next morning.

When he saw you in the hospital bed, he got SO MAD.

Immediately hung up. You thought he was being a brat until he showed up to your hospital room exactly 10 minutes later.

“Some bodyguard you are…” He huffed, faux annoyed, as he pulled out fruit, water, a stuffed animal and balloons from his bag. How did he even get all this stuff in 10 minutes!?

Visits every day until you’re out. Argues with the nurses every time visiting hours come to a close. You have to tell him to shut up and go and apologize for him every time before they officially ban him from the hospital.

He brings his sketchbook in tow and draws scenes of you, you in the hospital, and car accidents tinged with red and dark blue. Even though they’re sketches, they still portray his feelings of anxious despair and sorrow of what could’ve been for the one he most cared about.

“Seriously, stop trying to get yourself killed all the time! … I don’t know what I’d do without you…”

#love and deepspace #lads x reader #xavier love and deepspace #zayne love and deepspace #love and deepspace xavier #rafayel love and deepspace #l&ds #l&ds x reader #love and deepspace zayne #love and deepspace rafayel #loveanddeepspace #l&ds rafayel #l&ds xavier #l&ds zayne #love and deepspace headcanons #Lauve And Deepspace

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batboyblog · 2 months

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Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week #7

Feb 23-March 1 2024

The White House announced $1.7 Billion in new commitments from local governments, health care systems, charities, business and non-profits as part of the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities. The Challenge was launched with 8 billion dollars in 2022 with the goal of ending hunger in America by 2030. The Challenge also seeks to drastically reduce diet-related diseases (like type 2 diabetes). As part of the new commitments 16 city pledged to make plans to end hunger by 2030, the largest insurance company in North Carolina made nutrition coaching and a healthy food delivery program a standard benefit for members, and since the challenge launched the USDA's Summer EBT program has allowed 37 states to feed children over the summer, its expected 21 million low income kids will use the program this summer.

The US House passed a bill on Nuclear energy representing the first update in US nuclear energy policy in decades, it expands the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and reduces reducing licensing fees. Nuclear power represents America's single largest source of clean energy, with almost half of carbon-free electricity coming from it. This bill will boost the industry and make it easier to build new plants

Vice President Harris announced key changes to the Child Care & Development Block Grant (CCDBG) program. The CCDBG supports the families of a million American children every month to help afford child care. The new changes include capping the co-pay families pay to no more than 7% of their income. Studies show that high income families pay 6-8% of their income in childcare while low income families pay 31%. The cap will reduce or eliminate fees for 100,000 families saving them an average of over $200 a month. The changes also strength payments to childcare providers insuring prompt payment.

The House passed a bill making changes to the Small Business Administration’s 8(a) program. The 8(a) is an intensive 9 year program that offers wide ranging training and support to small business owners who are socially and economically disadvantaged, predominantly native owned businesses. Under the current structure once a business reaches over 6.8 million in assets they're kicked off the program, even though the SBA counts anything under $10 million as a small business, many companies try to limit growth to stay on the program. The House also passed a bill to create an Office of Native American Affairs at the SBA, in order to support Native-owned small businesses.

The White House and HUD announced steps to boost the housing supply and lower costs plans include making permanent the Federal Financing Bank Risk Sharing program, the program has created 12,000 affordable housing units since 2021 with $2 billion and plans 38,000 additional units over ten years. As well as support for HUD's HOME program which has spent $4.35 billion since 2021 to build affordable rental homes and make home ownership a reality for Americans. For the first time an administration is making funds available specifically for investments in manufactured housing, $225 million. 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing, the largest form of unsubsidized affordable housing in the country, particularly the rural poor and people in tribal communities.

The Department of Energy announced $336 million in investments in rural and remote communities to lower energy costs and improve reliability. The projects represent communities in 20 states and across 30 Native tribes. 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, one of the projects hopes to bring that number to 0. Another project supports replacing a hydroelectric dam in Alaska replacing all the Chignik Bay Tribal Council's diesel power with clear hydro power. The DoE also announced $18 million for Transformative Energy projects lead by tribal or local governments and $25 million for Tribal clean energy projects, this comes on top of $75 million in Tribal clean energy projects in 2023

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg put forward new rules to ensure airline passengers who use wheelchairs can travel safely and with dignity. Under the planned rules mishandling a wheelchair would be a violation of the ACAA, airlines would be required to immediately notify the passenger of their rights. Airlines would be required to repair or replace the wheelchair at the preferred vendor of the passenger's choice as well as provide a loaner wheelchair that fits the passenger's needs/requirements

The EPA launched a $3 Billion dollar program to help ports become zero-emission. This investment in green tech and zero-emission will help important transportation hubs fight climate change and replace some of the largest concentrations of diesel powered heavy equipment in America.

the EPA announced $1 Billion dollars to help clean up toxic Superfund sites. This is the last of $3.5 billion the Biden administration has invested in cleaning up toxic waste sites known as Superfund sites. This investment will help finish clean up at 85 sites across the country as well as start clean up at 25 new sites. Many Superfund sites are contained and then left not cleaned for years even decades. Thanks to the Biden-Harris team's investment the EPA has been able to do more clean up of Superfund sites in the last 2 years than the 5 years before it. More than 25% of America's black and hispanic population live with-in 5 miles of a Superfund site.

Bonus: Sweden cleared the final major barrier to become NATO's 32nd member. The Swedish Foreign Minster is expected to fly to Washington to deposit the articles of accession at the US State Department. NATO membership for Sweden and its neighbor Finland (joined last year) has been a major foreign policy goal of President Biden in the face of Russian aggressive against Ukraine. Former President Trump has repeatedly attacked NATO and declared he wants to leave the 75 year old Alliance, even going so far as to tell Russia to "do whatever the hell they want" with European NATO allies

#Thanks Biden #Joe Biden #Politics #US politics #Democrats #Climate change #end hunger #hunger #proverty #disability #native Americans #tribal rights #clean energy #child care #housing #housing crisis

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fatehbaz · 8 months

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The government of Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland has stunned rights experts by suspending its Human Rights Act for a second time this year to be able to lock up more children.

The ruling Labor Party last month [August 2023] pushed through a suite of legislation to allow under-18s – including children as young as 10 – to be detained indefinitely in police watch houses, because changes to youth justice laws – including jail for young people who breach bail conditions – mean there are no longer enough spaces in designated youth detention centres to house all those being put behind bars. The amended bail laws, introduced earlier this year [2023], also required the Human Rights Act to be suspended.

The moves have shocked Queensland Human Rights Commissioner Scott McDougall, who described human rights protections in Australia as “very fragile”, with no laws that apply nationwide.

“We don’t have a National Human Rights Act. Some of our states and territories have human rights protections [...]. But they’re not constitutionally entrenched so they can be overridden by the parliament,” he told Al Jazeera. The Queensland Human Rights Act – introduced in 2019 – protects children from being detained in adult prison so it had to be suspended for the government to be able to pass its legislation.

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Earlier this year, Australia’s Productivity Commission reported that Queensland had the highest number of children in detention of any Australian state. Between 2021-2022, the so-called “Sunshine State” recorded a daily average of 287 people in youth detention, compared with 190 in Australia’s most populous state New South Wales, the second highest. [...]

[M]ore than half the jailed Queensland children are resentenced for new offences within 12 months of their release.

Another report released by the Justice Reform Initiative in November 2022 showed that Queensland’s youth detention numbers had increased by more than 27 percent in seven years.

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The push to hold children in police watch houses is viewed by the Queensland government as a means to house these growing numbers. Attached to police stations and courts, a watch house contains small, concrete cells with no windows and is normally used only as a “last resort” for adults awaiting court appearances or required to be locked up by police overnight. [...]

However, McDougall said he has “real concerns about irreversible harm being caused to children” detained in police watch houses, which he described as a “concrete box”. “[A watch house] often has other children in it. There’ll be a toilet that is visible to pretty much anyone,” he said. “Children do not have access to fresh air or sunlight. And there’s been reported cases of a child who was held for 32 days in a watch house whose hair was falling out. [...]"

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He also pointed out that 90 percent of imprisoned children and young people were awaiting trial.

“Queensland has extremely high rates of children in detention being held on remand. So these are children who have not been convicted of an offence,” he told Al Jazeera.

Despite Indigenous people making up only 4.6 percent of Queensland’s population, Indigenous children make up nearly 63 percent of those in detention. The rate of incarceration for Indigenous children in Queensland is 33 times the rate of non-Indigenous children. Maggie Munn, a Gunggari person and National Director of First Nations justice advocacy group Change the Record, told Al Jazeera the move to hold children as young as 10 in adult watch houses was “fundamentally cruel and wrong”. [...]

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[Critics] also told Al Jazeera that the government needed to stop funding “cops and cages” and expressed concern over what [they] described as the “systemic racism, misogyny, and sexism” of the Queensland Police Service.

In 2019, police officers and other staff were recorded joking about beating and burying Black people and making racist comments about African and Muslim people. The recordings also captured sexist remarks [...]. The conversations were recorded in a police watch house, the same detention facilities where Indigenous children can now be held indefinitely.

Australia has repeatedly come under fire at an international level regarding its treatment of children and young people in the criminal justice system. The United Nations has called repeatedly for Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to the international standard of 14 years old [...].

[MR], Queensland’s minister for police and corrective services, [...] – who introduced the legislation, which is due to expire in 2026 – is unrepentant, defending his decision last month [August 2023].

“This government makes no apology for our tough stance on youth crime,” he was quoted as saying in a number of Australian media outlets.

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Text by: Ali MC. "Australian state suspends human rights law to lock up more children". Al Jazeera. 18 September 2023. At: aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/18/australian-state-suspends-human-rights-law-to-lock-up-more-children [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

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javen-tiger · 2 years

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wait. holdup. s4e21 The Drumhead theres a crewman first class with no rank pip. a non-commissioned officer. hello? what? hello?

#a day in the life #only non-commissioned officer in starfleet

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elumish · 5 months

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Things to keep in mind when writing stuff involving (U.S.) federal offices/federal employees/federal contractors:

You need a badge to get in. If you don't have a badge you will at minimum have to go through a metal detector and have your stuff be x-rayed and sign in and then have an escort. You might get a guest lanyard, a temporary ID badge, or a wristband. At maximum you just won't get in.

You can potentially get in with a badge for a different agency, but you will still likely need to sign in and be let in manually, because your badge won't have building access to swipe you in past security

It can take a long time to get a badge, and it's way worse for contractors. For contractors it can take anywhere from days to over a year to get badged.

Working for the federal government doesn't necessarily mean you have a security clearance. A lot of civilian agencies just require a public trust, which generally involves much lower requirements and a much less invasive background check but can involve the equivalent of a Secret clearance background check (namely if you have a law-enforcement sensitive public trust).

You need to get fingerprinted, which may happen at the actual badging office or at a random contracted fingerprinting place. Basically all fingerprinting is digital at this point.

You need to get fingerprinted even if you have already been fingerprinted/badged elsewhere. They generally don't talk to each other.

Having a clearance can make it a bit easier/faster to get a public trust elsewhere due to reciprocity, but it can still take a while.

Federal buildings are often set pretty far back from the road and/or they have barricades in front of them.

It's not uncommon in some agencies to see mix of people in uniform and people not in uniform. Not all uniformed services are military. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Officer Corps are both non-armed uniformed services.

Most federal employees operate under the General Service (GS) pay scale, and people will sometimes be referred to as a GS-X (e.g., GS-13, GS-14). This is an easy reference of relative position.

Some federal employees may operate under other pay scales, such as the Federal Wage System for blue-collar workers. High-ranking federal employees may be under the Senior Executive Service (SES) which is above the GS scale. Other agencies (e.g., the SEC) use their own pay scales.

#u.s. government #executive branch

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darkficsyouneveraskedfor · 5 days

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The Man 5

Warnings: non/dubcon, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.

My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.

Character: mob!Lloyd Hansen

Summary: a demanding customer complicates more than your work life.

As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.

You double check the lock on your apartment door. Your paranoia buzzes like a broken radio. You pace around the cramped bachelor, thoughts strewn all around. One moment, you’re desperately trying to figure out what to do next; find a job, go home, call Bre and beg her to take you back. The next, you’re looking out the window, expecting a villain to be waiting outside. Every worry you have strings back to that man...

You manage to settle down enough to browse the scant offerings on Indeed. The work from home opportunities are questionable as you tap more information. Commission based... that’s not going to get you much. You send off a few applications for fast food joints, a quick solution just to you through, but you need something quick. Something today.

You give up and throw your phone. You stare at it as it lays screen down on the other end of the couch. You see it in that man’s hand as he flicks his thumb. Who does he think he is? The real question is, who is he?

You sigh and close your eyes, dragging your hands over your face. The more you think about it, the more it feels you were set up for failure. Why couldn’t Bre just warn you? Why couldn’t she tell you who he was? Why couldn’t he just leave you alone?

The stale smell of espresso urges you from the couch. You shuffle into the bathroom and start the shower. You strip off your clothes, slightly stiff from the dried coffee. Your skin is sticky too in places and there’s a particularly crusty patch on your chest somehow.

You wash away the caffeine-laced christening. You linger beneath the water and let it slake over you. You lean forward, hands flat on the tile as hot rivulets wash over your back. Your muscles are coiled tightly. The stress of the day and those to come have you tied up like a knot.

When you emerge, you yawn, too exhausted to keep up the existential despair. You stagger into the front room and over to your double bed. You trade the towel for a loose tee and sprawl across the futon. You melt into it and close your eyes.

You’ll figure it all out tomorrow. Maybe. Hopefully.

Or maybe tomorrow will be even worse.

☕

You wake up to the creak of your mail slot and the metallic clunk of it biting down on an paper. You gurgle and roll onto your side, coughing dryly as you rub your forehead. Your head is thick and foggy from sleep. A slightly thrum pulses in your temple.

You hover at the edge of the bed, staring at the door, weighing the distance. You yawn and roll onto your feet. You pad across the apartment and pull the paper free of the flap. You open the trifold letter and your vision clears as the font comes into view.

The building’s letterhead makes you think it’s another notice for the fire alarm test but the bold captials across the top send your heart into panic. NOTICE TO VACATE. What? How? Your rent for the month is paid, plus first and last. How can they evict you? You didn’t do anything.

You look through the peephole. The hallway is empty. Dang.

You rinse your face and brush your teeth hurriedly. You pull on a pair of sweatpants and your slip-on shoes. You check the mirror and shrug. Good enough. You don’t really care right now. You need to figure this out.

You stomp down the flight of stairs to the building office and knock frantically until the door opens. The squat woman inside gives you a death glare. You wave the letter at her.

“I think there’s a mistake,” you say.

She grunts and stares back at you.

“I paid my rent, but this says I have to leave.”

“Lease violation,” she shrugs.

“But what-- I’ve been here only a few weeks? What did I do?”

“Read the letter,” she sniffs.

You furrow your brow and unfold it again. You skim over the words; ‘landlord requires unit for personal use’. Huh? They can do that?

“Personal use? But—But you leased it to me. My deposit--”

“Take it up with a lawyer. All there,” she taps the top of the paper before she swings the door shut in your face.

What the hell? This can’t be real. You’re in a nightmare. You’re not really awake. This is just one of those really deep dreams where you can’t throw a punch. Too bad you can’t throw one in real life either. Hard to test the theory.

You frown and make your way back up to your apartment. You leave the paper on the counter and brew a coffee from the single-serve machine. You hold your head in your hands, elbows on the linoleum, as you try to sort through it all.

The machine grinds and you stand up straight. You take your cup and go to the fridge. You pull out the carton of milk and tip some into your coffee. The chunks that roll out of the spout make you gag. Frig, expired. You dump the whole mug and leave it empty in the sink. Nothing is going right.

You pour out the sour milk and rinse away the putrid scent. You need to get food. You’re out of eggs too. Just a few small things for now. You have to count your pennies.

You put a bra on and pull on a hoodie. You make yourself decent enough to face the public but keep your sweatpants on. You’re just running to the corner store. You grab your wallet, phone, and keys and head out.

Your stroll down to the store is distracted. You should ask a lawyer but you can’t really afford that. You’ll have to try the housing board, see if they offer public services. You don’t really know about all that stuff.

You grab your staples without much attention. Eggs, milk, a loaf of bread, and some sliced cheddar. Grilled cheese for life.

You go to the counter and wait for the cashier to scan the items. You try to tap your card but it declines. You insert instead and put in your pin. Pin accepted, transaction declined. You grimace, face burning with embarrassment.

“Sorry, one sec, I’m gonna just check my account.” You back out of the way of the next customer and pull out your phone.

You sign-in to your banking app. You see the balance you expected. More than enough for your lot but there’s a little red exclamation mark next to the account number. You tap it and a new page opens.

‘Account locked for security purposes. Contact Bank Services.’

Oh my god! What more can go wrong? You tap on the little chat icon in the corner. The automated responses lead you in a circle and tell you to call the toll-free or go into the local branch. Ugh! But you need milk now.

A message blips across the top of your screen. It fades before you can read it. You pull down the menu and stare dumbly at the text sent from a private number, ‘morning, sweet lips.’

#lloyd hansen #dark lloyd hansen #dark!lloyd hansen #lloyd hansen x reader #drabble #series #au #the gray man #the man

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the-last-dillpickle · 1 year

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DS9 trivia from IMDB - Part 1

- Colm Meaney was initially reluctant about signing onto the series. Meaney was comfortable playing O'Brien on an episode by episode basis for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and at the time, was unsure if he wanted to play a full time television role.

- Although we only rarely see it, there is an ATM in Quark's bar. It dispenses the various types of currency used by major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks, and Ferengi latinum.

- Constable Odo was originally envisioned as a young Clint Eastwood type. When Rene Auberjonois was called in for his audition, the casting director told him that none of the previous actors had been "grouchy enough". So Auberjonois improvised his lines using his most gravelly voice, and secured the role. Odo's scoff eventually became such a character trademark that the screenwriters would often script it into his lines (as "harrumph!"), much to Auberjonois' annoyance.

- Michael Dorn did not want to reprise his role as Worf, since the daily make-up application was exhausting, and he was relieved to be able to move on. Dorn said that the salary he was offered made him reconsider.

- The Dominion storyline was originally only meant to span two episodes. Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr lobbied to make the storyline on-going, but met with resistance from Executive Producer Rick Berman, who wanted to maintain an episodic format to the series. After Berman left production to oversee the launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Moore and Behr were given more creative control over this series, making the Dominion War the main plot of the show, and adopting a serialized format.

- Wolf 359, mentioned as the battle site between the Borg and the Federation where Sisko lost his wife, is a real star that is seven and a half light-years from Earth.

- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations (1996) when Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock, Dax has the hots for Spock. In August 2017, Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) got engaged to Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy (Spock).

- The jars of "pills" in Dr. Bashir's office were filled with M&Ms. In many instances during the early episodes, the level of the pills would change between shots because crew members kept stealing them. The problem was solved by epoxying the lids in place.

- When Colm Meaney was fitted for his Deep Space Nine uniform, he made two requests of the costume designers. He explained that unlike the officers, the non-commissioned Chief O'Brien was a working man. So he needed to be able to roll up his sleeves, and he needed pockets for his tools. The costume department altered his uniform accordingly.

- The character of Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the Lurian bar patron who is always seen sitting at Quark's bar, was written as a nod to the character of Norm Peterson, played by George Wendt on Cheers (1982). Morn is an anagram of Norm. The mask worn by Shepherd originally had no opening for the mouth, so make-up artist Michael Westmore gave him lips over the course of the series, in case the character needed to speak. Several lines for Morn were scripted over the years, but unfortunately for Shepherd, these were always written out at the last moment. So Morn never said one word during the entire run of the show, leading to a running gag where bar patrons, station crew members and civilian residents often mention that Morn is excessively talkative off-screen, and "never shuts up."

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mh073099 · 3 months

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Can I please give some advice for these tags?

Recruits don’t get to just work with highly specialized tasks forces okay? Recruits are people who are new to the military as a whole, in boot camp, they aren’t even considered to be in the military by other personnel until AFTER they graduate boot camp. And then there are special schools and more training for their specific jobs. A recruit is a baby in the military they know nothing! These men wouldn’t ever look twice at anyone lower than an E4 rank, let alone a recruit and E0… recruits are rats. Trash. Nothing. I mean yes they are people but recruits are stripped down to nothing and built back up into self disciplineed highly motivated people. That’s the process a recruit goes into. Then it’s onto schools and more training and experience before EVER getting picked for something like this. So when I constantly read X reader where reader is a recruit trying to get into a HIGHLY COMPETITIVE HIGHLY SPECIALIZED TASK FORCE THAT IS BASICALLY THE EQUIVALENT OF A BRITISH SEAL TEAM 6 ….well let’s just say I cringe and chuckle.

A task force like this would only have NCOs, non commissioned officers and ranks higher, that’s a minimum E4 (ranks start at E1- and E0 is a recruit) and even E4s are unlikely. Gaz and Soap are E5, seargents. A minimum 6 years already dedicated to the military before jointing the task force. also lieutenant and officer ranks star with O, like O1 which is a second lieutenant O2 which is a 1st lieutenant, John price himself is an O3, a captain.

A task force is looking for experience and special skills learned in special training schools. When the Reader in this fic is training to be in these task forces, they should be already in the military, and have experience at least a corporal or a specialist, or a petty officer(im from the US though) In the British royal army, it goes private then lance corporal then corporal then sergeant. I read somewhere it takes 6 to 8 years to make sergeant in the British royal army, is to keep these fics factual, the reader training to be in the task force should already have years of training, working in a special training school to join the task force and should be a higher rank then a recruit.

I love all the writing here, I honestly do. But I also like writing that is factually correct. And it’s small thinks like this that can improve our writing skills, just trying to understand and research more about what you’re writing. Honestly, if anyone has more questions on how the military works I can answer them.

And before y’all come for me about being pro military, I’m a military brat. I grew up on bases my whole life, my personal opinions on it are my own, but I was definitely exposed to this environment and have a unique perspective to an enlisted life as a child of a service member. I’m just trying to help and let y’all know…

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trickphotography2 · 4 months

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Santa's North Island Delivery Service

Stuck at work, Bradley is missing his daughter's first Christmas Eve. But when the squadron decides to turn the hanger into Santa's Workshop, the pilot is able to sneak away to spend a little time with his girls. (Inspired by a true story; Rooster x Reader Christmas fluff)

Word count: 2.4K

Ao3 | Masterlist

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Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw was officially having the worst Christmas Eve. Not only was he stuck at work doing absolutely nothing, he was missing his daughter’s first Christmas Eve.

With his boots kicked onto his desk, he leaned back in his chair and scrolled through the photos you’d sent him throughout the night. At eight months old, Bennett was too young to really know what was going on, but it didn’t make it suck any less. He wanted to see her lying under the tree, colored lights reflecting in her eyes. (He’d already set that picture as his home screen.)

“Hey, Lieutenant?” A knock on his door drew his attention, and he looked up to see Petty Officer Second Class Wagner, one of the head mechanics, standing there.

“Yeah?” Rooster said, sitting up. Even though he outranked the enlisted man, Wagner was one of the most respected non-commissioned officers in the squadron. To cheer up the men stuck working the night shift, he’d organized a movie night after doing a Christmas movie bracket throughout the week - National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation had barely edged out Die Hard.

“You got anything at home that needs to be assembled before going under the tree?”

“Huh?”

“Any gifts for the kiddo that need to be put together? We’re getting a list of stops together for the trucks.” Rooster gave him a confused look, which made the man chuckle. “We’re bored, so we figured we’d set up some presents for everyone’s kids in the hangar. The first group of guys are heading out now to get stuff, and then we’ll swap.”

“Oh, uh… yeah, I think there’s a couple things. Let me check with my girlfriend.” With a nod, Wagner left, leaving Rooster to stare at his phone. After a moment, he called you.

“Hey, babe,” you said, answering on the third ring. He could hear babbling in the background.

“Hey. Have you started getting things together to go under the tree?”

“Not yet. We’re just finishing up bath time, and then we’re gonna get cookies out for Santa and go to bed, aren’t we, Benny girl?”

“Any chance you can hold off for about an hour?” Bradley asked, unable to keep from smiling at the sound of his daughter giggling.

“Are you getting off work early?” It was hard to miss the sound of hope and excitement in your voice, and he hated to dash it.

“No, but I’m gonna run home and pick up some stuff.” You hummed.

“Okay. I’ll try and keep her up. I’ll see you in a bit.”

“Alright, love you.”

“Love you too.” Hanging up the call, Bradley dropped his head and tapped the phone against his forehead. It was only your second Christmas together and the first as parents, and he was already missing things. You’d assured him it was okay and that you understood that his job sometimes meant spending time apart, but he hated it.

“You’re a mean one, Benny Grinch,” you sang, gently bouncing your daughter as she howled. Letting your head fall back, you blew out a long breath. The crying fit couldn’t last forever.

Though overly tired, she was fighting against going to sleep. It was a nightly battle, but one that Bradley usually helped to fight. You’d learned early on that he had what you lovingly called the Sleeper Hold - the minute Benny was tucked into her father’s arms, her eyes would start to close. Shifting her onto your shoulder, you glanced at your watch and sighed. As much as you wanted to wait to finish the bedtime routine until Bradley got home, it was getting late. “Alright, sweetie,” you cooed, grabbing your water bottle and retreating to the nursery. “Let’s get settled in.”

With the white noise machine and night light on, you settled into the rocking chair and lifted your shirt. Benny rooted for a moment before latching onto your nipple, making you inhale sharply at the pinch. Digging your toes into the carpet, you gently rocked back and forth, holding your daughter’s gaze as she ate. “Merry Christmas, Bennett,” you whispered, stroking her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed as she grunted. You closed your eyes, comforted by the warm weight of your daughter in your arms and the tugging at your breast.

“Hey.” The soft, raspy voice roused you from the trance you’d fallen into, and you lifted your head to see Bradley standing in the doorway.

“Hey,” you replied sleepily. His long legs ate up the space between you until he was beside you, leaning down to press his lips to your forehead. The familiar scratch of his mustache had your eyes fluttering closed again.

“She done?” Bradley asked, a large hand coming down to cup your daughter’s head.

“Should be soon.” At his touch, Benny startled from her doze, suckling hard and squirming.

“You need anything?”

“The sleeper hold in a minute to finish her off.” In the dim lighting, you saw Bradley grin before he leaned down again to brush his lips against yours.

“I can do that.” As if on cue, Bennett released your breast, her breath a soft pant against your tender skin. Without a word, Bradley took her and settled her on his shoulder, patting her back. “Hey, Benny, were you good for mommy tonight?” He paced the nursery as you reached for one of the breast pads and cleaned up. When a loud burp sounded, you heard him chuckle. “That’s my girl.”

You took a moment to appreciate the sight before you - your boyfriend in his tight khaki uniform cooing to your daughter as she rubbed her face into his shoulder to fight sleep. “How long do you have before you have to head back?”

“I’ve got about thirty minutes,” Bradley replied, turning on his heel to face you while pacing the room. “Benny girl, the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner Santa comes.”

“I’m not sure she’s old enough for that bribery to work yet.” His grin blinded as he kissed the back of her head, lightly bouncing her.

“Gonna be fun when she is. We’ll track him with NORAD and everything.” Shaking your head, you stood and kissed both of their cheeks.

“You get her down, and I’ll start pulling out the gifts.”

“Put aside anything that needs to be put together or wrapped, and I’ll take it to the hanger. Apparently, that’s what we’re gonna do for the rest of the shift.” With a mocking salute, you left the nursery to the sound of him humming a lullaby.

Ten minutes later, Bradley crept out of the nursery with the baby monitor in hand and joined you in grabbing the presents stashed around the house. The Daggers had dropped off their gifts throughout the week, and your family had mailed theirs. The craftsman that you’d helped Bradley purchase when he moved to North Island didn’t have the best hiding spots - it wasn’t exactly something he needed when you’d been his real estate agent - but with Benny so little, it was a problem for the future. “I think we may have overdone it,” you sighed, setting an unwrapped toy on the couch. The floor by the tree was already covered with wrapped presents.

“Nope, just enough,” Bradley chuckled, opening his arms. With a scoff, you stepped into his embrace, smiling as he swayed you. A dark spot decorated his shoulder, and you gently wiped away your daughter’s drool. “Gotta spoil my girls.”

“I really hope you kept to our budget for each other.” When he stayed silent, you pulled away and cocked an eyebrow. “Bradley Bradshaw, you stayed within the budget, right?”

“I stayed within our Christmas budget,” he answered, his hands gliding down your back to cup your ass as his mustache tickled your throat. “Love you, baby.”

“I love you too. Now, help me get all of this stuff under the tree. Did you want to do her stocking?”

There was a whoop, and Bradley turned to see three guys crouched on the hanger floor cheering as they played with a racetrack. Another corner had been designated as the bike assembly space, an array of tools spread on the ground. One of the card tables had been dragged out from the break room, and it was covered with popcorn and an assortment of cookies.

Unsure of where to go, Bradley walked towards a few other officers standing in the corner. “Hey, Rooster,” Captain “Taco” Bell said as he neared. “We were just talking about ordering pizza for everyone. Would you throw in?”

“Yeah. Does anyone know if there’s a system here, or does it just go wherever?”

“Wagner’s in charge,” Payback shrugged, nodding towards the NCO helping assemble a kitchen playset. “You got stuff for Benny?”

“Just a few things. Brought some of the smaller stuff to wrap, too.” The two men quickly went to the Bronco to unload the gifts. Setting them in a pile with a couple of rolls of wrapping paper, they quickly assembled the play sets. A few other guys drifted by, helping to slot the plastic pieces together or offering to help wrap. Boxes piled up on one end of the hanger, and a sign-up sheet for folks who had larger gifts at the house that needed to be assembled was passed around. It looked like at least six families were getting swingsets or trampolines. Bradley idly wondered about setting up a swing in the backyard in the summer. In the meantime, he assembled the small slide that would be perfect for the living room.

The pizza arrived around 10:00PM, and there was a quick break. As they sat around the hangar, the Santa letter exchange happened. Wagner supplied blank papers with a printed Christmas border, and the parents swapped letters for others to write the replies. “This saved my ass one year,” Wagner shared. “My middle daughter was starting to question Santa, and boom - different handwriting. Got her for at least another year.”

Around midnight, the squadron split into three sections - one to stay back and clean up the hanger, and two to deliver gifts and set up the presents. Bradley packed up his gifts and put them into the back of the Bronco. He was joined by three guys to set up a trampoline. Aided by headlamps, they were able to get it done in about an hour with only a few pinched fingers in the process, which was worth it to test it out.

A trampoline was added to the Christmas list when Benny was a bit older.

After touching base with Wagner, they headed to the second house to set up another trampoline before returning to the hangar. The third team left to assemble a swingset while they settled in to watch Die Hard for their last two hours on shift.

Tucked away in his office, Bradley set about wrapping his last present.

“Benny girl, look here!” you cooed, trying to get your daughter to look as you snapped pictures. Sitting in her father’s lap, she slapped the present in front of her and shrieked. Bradley laughed, quickly shifting his hold to wipe the drool from his wrist onto his sweatpants before retrieving his cup of coffee. Even with just two hours of sleep, he wasn’t willing to push back Christmas morning. After taking a sip, he set the mug down and took Benny’s hand, sliding it under the paper seam. Her hand flew up, ripping the paper.

“Good girl!” he chuckled, helping her tear the rest away to reveal stacking cups. It took about an hour to get through the presents, trading off the baby to get pictures.

A small stack of presents surrounded you as Bradley opened his new electric razor. “Thanks, baby,” he said, crawling across the living room floor to kiss you. With one hand on Benny’s stomach to keep her upright in your lap, you cupped his cheek and ran your thumb along his scars.

“You’re welcome, babe. Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas.” Pushing onto his feet, he quickly shoved the wrapping paper into the trash bag and ran a hand through his hair. “That looks like almost everything.”

“Unless Santa left something somewhere in the back of a closet, it looks like we got it all.”

“Hang on,” Bradley said, reaching around the back of the tree and retrieving a small box. “Looks like we missed one.” Holding it up, he glanced at the gift tag. “To Mommy, from Bennett.”

“What?” Grinning, he sat down across from you and offered you the box, holding out his arms for the baby. A quick glance confirmed it was Bradley’s handwriting on the tag. “What’d you get me, Benny?” you asked, smiling as your daughter laughed when her father tickled her. Lifting it to your ear, you shook it gently and heard it rattle. Tearing away the paper, you laughed at the kid’s jewelry box. The ballerina twirled when you opened it to reveal a bunch of plastic necklaces, rings, and bracelets. “Oooh, fancy! I know what I’m wearing today,” you laughed, quickly putting on a pair of clip-on earrings and a necklace.

“There’s a note,” Bradley said, leaning down to press his lips to Benny’s head. He looked a bit nervous.

And there was. Buried under the plastic was a folded-up piece of paper. Your mouth fell open when you read it.

I couldn’t get you jewelry this year, but Daddy could.

With wide eyes, you looked up to see Bradley grinning at you. “Open the drawer.”

Slowly, you pulled the handle to reveal a diamond ring. “Bradley?”

“Will you marry me?”

Later, when Bennett was asleep and the baby monitor was tossed onto the couch, Bradley watched the Christmas tree lights dance across your face as he took you apart slowly, savoring your taste. The ring sparkled on your finger when you pressed a hand to your mouth to muffle your moans as you shook apart under him, thighs bracketing his ears.

Kissing his way up your body, Bradley paused to suck on a tender nipple, groaning when your nails raked his scalp. The tree shook when he continued his ascent, knocking the lower branches as he tried to reach your lips. “Fuck.”

Laughing, you lifted your head to meet his gaze and wiped your thumb along his mustache, feeling your arousal coating the coarse hair. “Merry Christmas, Daddy.”

“Merry Christmas, Mama. Now get out from under the tree so I can unwrap my present in bed and fuck you properly.”

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

Author's Note: This was inspired by my dad and his squadron when we were stationed in Japan. He had to work overnight Christmas Eve and they ended up making a run to everyone's house on base to pick up gifts that needed to be set up. I definitely believed in Santa for another year when I didn't recognize the handwriting on the letter the Christmas morning.

The jewelry box and note are also pulled from real life. Dad went remote for a year (he was over in Korea and we were stateside) to ensure that we got orders to Florida, and came back just in time for Christmas. My sisters and I got mom the fake jewelry (we were all in high school/college) while Dad got Mom a new necklace.

Thank you for reading my (late) self-indulgent Christmas fic! I hope you enjoyed it, and my first foray into writing Rooster. And a major thank you to @mamachasesmayhem for encouraging me to write this, even if she's just dipping her toes into Bradley and would have preferred it to be Jake 😂

#bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #top gun #top gun fanfiction #top gun x female reader #bradley rooster bradshaw x reader #rooster fanfiction

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 7 days

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As of December 2023, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) has received 59 allegations that Donald Trump or his committees violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. In 29 of those cases, nonpartisan staff in the FEC’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) recommended the FEC investigate Trump. Yet not once has a Republican FEC commissioner voted to approve any such investigation or enforcement of the law against Trump.

Democratic Vice Chair Ellen Weintraub pointed this out in her December 5, 2023 statement of reasons after the FEC once again failed to garner the votes to enforce the law against Trump after he allegedly violated the law by illegally soliciting or directing money to a pro-Trump super PAC that spent millions on ads opposing Joe Biden in 2020.

Because at least four of the six FEC Commissioners need to approve any FEC investigation, and because only three of those seats can be filled by Democrats, Republicans hold a veto over the agency’s enforcement and have repeatedly used it to shoot down any recommended enforcement of campaign finance law against Trump—and thus successfully shielded him from accountability over and over. Instead of fostering bipartisanship, the split FEC has often become gridlocked and, in cases involving Trump, its ability to pursue action is constrained by the members of one party.

The FEC’s enabling statute, the Federal Election Campaign Act, specifically subjects the Commission’s non-enforcement to review to prevent it from blocking meritorious enforcement. In June 2018, however, two Republican-appointed judges of the D.C. Circuit—including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh—largely gutted that rule, giving commissioners the authority to block enforcement of the law without judicial review if the commissioners claimed that they did so as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion or under Heckler v. Chaney.

So, in 21 of the 29 cases where the FEC received recommendations to enforce the law against Trump, Republican commissioners justified non-enforcement by invoking prudential or discretionary factors in attempts to circumvent review.

When dismissing the recommendations to investigate Trump—and to kill further inquiries into his actions—the Republican commissioners have at times claimed that the FEC should not take any action because “proceeding further would not be an appropriate use of Commission resources” or that the resources would be “best spent elsewhere.” Trump has even falsely declared that the FEC “dropped” one of its investigations into him “because they found no evidence of problems.” As Commissioner Weintraub wrote in a statement of reasons in November 2023, “the data is clear: At the FEC, Mr. Trump is in a category by himself.”

Unless courts restore their check on partisan vetoes on enforcement, the commissioners will continue to fail to enforce federal campaign finance law against the powerful figures they are trying to protect.

#us politics #news #citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington #2024 #Federal Election Commission #Federal Election Campaign Act #donald trump #conservatives #republicans #gop #Office of General Counsel #campaign finance violations #campaign finance laws #Ellen Weintraub #super pacs #political action committee #Justice Brett Kavanaugh #Heckler v. Chaney

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fatehbaz · 2 years

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In September 2022, the Australian High Court upheld a law that effectively allows “preventative incarceration,” or the imprisonment of people even after their sentence has been served, based on whether or not a court thinks the prisoner might be at risk of committing a future crime.

Indigenous people make up 4% of the population of Western Australia, but 40% of the state’s prisoners are Indigenous.

At Western Australia’s Banksia youth prison, 75% of incarcerated youth are Indigenous.

Australia allows for the imprisonment of children as young as 10 years old.

---

Excerpt:

Casuarina prison is a sprawling, concrete jungle on the southern outskirts of Perth, Western Australia (WA). It is a maximum-security, adult facility, home to people who may never leave its confines. However, on July 20, the penitentiary “welcomed” a new cohort of prisoners: 17 kids under the age of 18, who had been moved from the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Center to Casuarina [...].

When current WA Premier Mark McGowan was elected in 2017, his Labor party promised to lower the rate of Indigenous incarceration in the state, which is the highest in the nation. First Nations people are 16 times more likely to be incarcerated in WA than non-Indigenous people, a number that has only risen despite the promise of the government.

Dr. Hannah McGlade, a Noongar academic and human rights lawyer, isn’t surprised by the state’s failure to uphold its promise. “Our government cares little for Aboriginal lives,” McGlade told The Diplomat. [...]

In the past month, the Australian High Court upheld a law designed to keep the worst offenders in prison indefinitely, even after their sentences have been complete.

Known as the High Risk Serious Offenders Act (HRSOA), the legislation was challenged in Australia’s apex court when Peter Garlett, a 23-year-old Noongar man, was imprisoned after stealing AU$20 and a necklace while pretending to be armed. Despite this being his first adult offense, when his sentence was up, the Western Australian government asked the High Court to keep Garlett, now 28, in prison.

The court agreed, effectively paving the way for preventative incarceration in Australia.

Though five of the seven High Court judges upheld the constitutional validity of the HRSOA, many academics, lawyers, and activists who deal with the lives of First Nations people inside the legal system on a regular basis, note that this will only further trap Indigenous Australians in the carceral system. Garlett had been in near-continuous detention since he was 12, and this became the rationale for keeping him in prison beyond his criminal sentence.

One of the judges even hypothesized that the law could “potentially lead to the imprisonment of one seventh of the entire prison population of Western Australia for offenses that they have not committed.” [...]

“This is a crystal-clear example of an indirectly discriminatory law: one that is not discriminatory in its express terms but is discriminatory in its practical effect.” [...]

Though Indigenous people make up less than 4 percent of the state population, nearly 40 percent of Western Australia’s prison population is Indigenous. That is particularly troubling given the horrific record of Australian prisons. Since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, over 500 First Nations people have died while imprisoned in Australia. In 2020-2021 alone, 13 prisoners died in custody in WA – five of them Aboriginal.

No custodial or police officer has ever been found criminally responsible for any of these deaths.

The structural forces pushing Indigenous people into Australia’s prisons start early. In the Banksia Hill Juvenile Detention Center, three-quarters of the inmates are Indigenous. Despite its mandate to rehabilitate people for their eventual release, reports show some of the prisoners receiving as little as five hours of education a month. In April, the state’s prison watchdog outlined a series of “cruel, inhumane, and degrading” treatments in the facility’s Intensive Support Unit. Children have reportedly made suicide pacts due to their treatment, with some being kept in isolation for 23 hours a day. [...]

Penglis and McGlade point to the age of imprisonment in Australia being only 10 years old as devastating. [...]

---

Text by: Dechlan Brennan. “How Western Australia Criminalizes Indigenous Children.” The Diplomat. 7 October 2022. [Italicized first lines/heading in this post added by me.]

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yrbladie · 5 months

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♡ ﾟ˖ ॱ ▎HOW DO THEY MEET AND FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU .ㅤPT 2ㅤ𝅄 🌿 ꒱

˖ ࣪ neuvillette, thoma

warnings ：slight angst at the end with neuvillette with implied body and death (yours), hurt no comfort at the end with thoma, childhood friends to lovers with thoma, got carried away in thoma's piece srry, contains some hc about when he left mond too, gn!reader, reader has hair(?), reader really loves mondstadt lol, spoiler free (kinda), non fluent writer

ㅤYou were a delivery person, meaning you always had to be the one to receive weird requests from all over Teyvat. Varying from bringing a single tomato all the way over to Snezhnaya, to this new request.

ㅤA container with water from the highest peak of Dragonspine. You didn't even know there was water in the highest places there.

ㅤBut work was work, and no matter how weird the request was, it was your job to attend to it being the adventurer you were.

ㅤAnd as you finally carried back the water container to Fontaine again, your eyelashes almost gluing themselves onto your cheeks and your trembling jaw, you swore you would have so many things to say to whoever was the idiot that asked for it.

ㅤBut as you entered the huge office after having to convince the Melusine outside that the policies of your company made you have to see the person who commissioned you directly receive the item so that she would finally let you inside, you regretted even having these thoughts in your head.

ㅤOf course you had imagined that it would be someone rich for being able to afford such a distant trip and an adventurer just for water. But the Judge of Fontaine himself? You would’ve never expected that.

ㅤNow all your insides felt exactly like your skin, ice and frigid cold.

ㅤYou were trembling — not just from the cold— as you gave him the package he had asked for. And no words came out of your mouth to complain about anything.

ㅤYou were ready to promptly leave before you heard a baritone tone of voice call for you.

ㅤ“I thank you for your trouble. And… excuse me if this may sound rude on my part, but I noticed you seem cold, allow me to fetch you a warm drink as an apology for inconveniencing you.”

ㅤYou turned around completely dumbfounded as you stared at Monsieur Neuvillette's stoic face. He seemed pretty serious and looking closely into his eyes, he also almost seemed guilty. He had seen your trembling hands and assumed it was his fault. And it was, just not for the exact reasons he was thinking.

ㅤAt that you finally smiled. Maybe, just maybe you could forgive this man for making you almost freeze to death.

ㅤYou both ended up becoming friends quickly thanks to that encounter, you were always amused with Neuvillette's curiosity towards your adventures around the world and of course, with his weirdly endearing hobby of tasting water.

ㅤYou could even swear that after tasting for a few weeks with him, Mondstadt's water seemed to get a tad bit sweeter than the others.

ㅤAs for Neuvillette, he found your strength so impressive and worth admiring that he couldn't help but want to get closer, despite his position. He had a front to maintain but seeing you acting always so carefree and true to yourself had him wanting to become more like you.

ㅤOf course, he couldn't exactly just throw everything to the air and go live with you in an isolated cottage in the middle of nowhere—although he wished he could.

ㅤBut instead, he could love you, he figured one day. When he looked at your smile and how you paid attention to every small little detail about those around you, and how you always asked what he liked first, how you were always just right there somewhere when he felt like needing you the most, or how you cradled his heart with care on rainy days every time you whispered to the skies, "Hydro dragon, hydro dragon, don't cry".

ㅤHe loved you. And that was the best thing he could've ever done in his long life.

ㅤAnd one day, Neuvillette promised you, as he carefully held your hand, "I promise, my love, I won't ever hurt you.", and you could feel how your heart melted around his warm embrace.

ㅤHe loved your mortal soul and human heart, he loved the hands that gently clasped his and that held his cheeks with care, and he adored the places that you walked upon and the people you cared about.

ㅤOne day, he'll envy even the earth that'll wrap your body and the wind that'll carry your last breath.

ㅤEven then, don't you worry about his love for you, for his love is for your soul, not the body or the heart that exists only at the present time. The soul is enduring, and his soul calls for yours. And he knows, one day you'll be back in his arms or he will go meet you himself, wherever may you be.

ㅤFor all eternity, just as you both promised to each other. In this life, and all others. He'll find you and love you all over again.

ㅤYou both used to be the closest of best friends, in Mondstadt there was no one who didn't know the two kids who were always running around together. You, being the one that always caused trouble, and Thoma, being the one that always took you out of said trouble.

ㅤMany would ask, how did such a pair meet?

ㅤAnd the answer was a silly secret only the both of you were to know.

ㅤYou had received a cute small plush puppy as a birthday gift, given to you by your parents. You were so happy with it that you decided to take your new friend for a stroll around the city.

ㅤYou had cherished the plushie so much that you clutched it tightly in your small hands. Then the vibrant threads of your favorite toy met an unexpected fate when a pair of overenthusiastic dogs that were running around the street collided with you in a whirlwind of fur and excitement.

ㅤAll that was left after the dogs went their ways was the audible sound of a kid crying while their plushie laid torn and forlorn on the ground.

ㅤYou didn't even remember how much you had cried, under a tree while holding to your chest the shreds of what was left of the plushie. All the filling leaking out of its body and all the small you could do was try to hold on to its pieces.

ㅤ"Hey... hey, excuse me. Is this yours?" And when you looked up to see, you found yourself staring right into the empty eyes of a ripped plushie dog's head that was without its body.

ㅤYou ended up crying even harder at the sight, as the boy, who seemed to be just a few years older than you, helplessly waved his hands in front of you, quickly deciding to hide the poor looking piece of your plushie.

ㅤInstead of immediately leaving at the sight of you crying, he sat by your side, while silently helping you to pick the scattered pieces around that kept falling down from your arms. He didn't say anything but you had never felt more comforted before.

ㅤHe waited and waited, right there, never leaving your side, until the loud sobs turned to sniffles.

ㅤ"Sorry to have scared you! I'm Thoma, by the way." And smiled. His smile, it was like a ray of sunshine in the middle of your storm.

ㅤYou couldn't help but smile along with him.

ㅤAs he gathered the pieces of your toy in his arms, he kept a gentle smile on his lips while saying, "It's going to be fine! Mama taught me how to take good care of stuffed animals." and you felt like you could believe his words.

ㅤHe was your knight in shining armor, although armed with not a sword and a shield, but with a needle and thread. And so he began a journey of intricate repair.

ㅤSoon, it was as good as new before you even noticed. The only thing being the red colored thread that now mended the little dog plushie.

ㅤ"Are you afraid of dogs now?" You remembered he asked, your answer being only a meek nod, "Hm, it's okay! But I'm sure they didn't mean to destroy your plushie, they must have also liked it so much that they couldn't help but go after it."

ㅤYou understood what he had meant, but it was still hard not to tremble and clutch your stuffed animal closer to your chest at the sight of a dog wandering the streets close to where you were.

ㅤ"So... why don't you come with me and we can make some toys for them? This way, they'll never even need to go after yours! Here, I'll hold your hand if you're scared." And you happily followed him at that, your fear completely forgotten.

ㅤThe days that followed were filled with adventures and shared secrets, your friendship blossoming like the wildflowers in the meadow where you both often played.

ㅤMondstadt now seemed to be filled with much more laughter in the breeze, the melody of kids' bright happiness surrounding the city freely.

ㅤAs the years unfolded, so did your affection for each other. Unspoken glances lingered a little longer, and the laughter between you held a melody only the heart could comprehend. The stitches that once mended a torn plushie now seemed to mend the very fabric of your emotions, drawing the both of you closer with each passing day.

ㅤEven after a long time, the plushie that had been stitched up was still holding on, placed upon the desk by your bed. A forever reminder of the day you met Thoma, the boy with a shining smile and sun colored hair.

ㅤAnd only time, with its subtle hands, could reveal whether this story would unfold into a timeless tale of love or remain as a fond memory.

ㅤThe answer to that question arrived quicker than the both of you had expected. With the parting of Thoma's father back to his homeland, Inazuma. Such a faraway land that you had barely known it existed.

ㅤYou thought nothing of it, of the way your friend's eyes would sometimes wander off to the ocean, seeking a kind of solace not even you could give him.

ㅤUntil one day, the boy you had known the longest came looking for you, a guilty look on his face and you knew then that all was over.

ㅤ"Sorry, but tomorrow I'm going to Inazuma to look for my father."

ㅤHis excuse was Dandelion wine, saying that his father would miss it too much. And you wondered if that was truly all.

ㅤThoma's hands had always been warm, but now they were cold as he held yours tightly as you paid your goodbyes to each other. You saw how they trembled as he turned around to join the boat that would take him to far away. Far away from his home, and from you.

ㅤThe town that witnessed your love story seemed to stay frozen in time, a silent witness to the fleeting nature of youthful promises. The cedar trees, though rooted firmly in the earth, could only watch as the love that once flourished beneath their branches transformed into a bittersweet goodbye. With words left unsaid.

ㅤSo many things happened that you would never know, and Thoma was left completely lost in an unknown nation and without his father. Before he got to know the Kamisato family and make colleagues over the land.

ㅤThoma also used to write letters addressed to you, even though he knew none of them would ever reach your hands as the decree started, and some, he never even had the courage to send.

ㅤIn them, he would let his quiet longing show, wondering if you were happy and healthy, if you weren't moping around too much after him leaving. He missed just being by your side while you told him about your day.

ㅤIn some, he expressed his regret. He regretted leaving behind those days of laughter between the breeze, leaving behind the chance of breathing in the smell of flowers in your hair. In those, he apologized more than once, he felt like he should somehow. Maybe he was the only one to blame, in the end.

ㅤIn the letters, he wondered if you had found someone you liked already. If you had found your place after all. If you had made friends. If you were eating well or if you still had your bad habits of taking off anything green from your food to give it to him.

ㅤAfter all, he wasn't there anymore to eat those, so you should eat them in his stead.

ㅤThoma wondered if you were disappointed with him, maybe even angry. He wondered if you knew how he forced himself to stare at your saddened face the last time you both saw each other. To look at your eyes that were getting redder by the second and wishing with his everything that you wouldn't cry, because he knew that if you did, his resolve to leave would wither in an instant.

ㅤStill, he kept his eyes on you, until he couldn't see the shore of Mondstadt anymore. Until all he could see was the endless ocean that seemed to mock the stream of tears that ran across his cheeks. Maybe deep down, he knew that was the last time he would see you. Somehow he knew, and he blamed the gut-feeling you always praised him for, the one that always took the both of you off any trouble.

ㅤAnd the one that above all times, the one time he should've listened to it, he ignored.

ㅤAnd above all the things Thoma wondered about, the one he wondered the most is if he would ever see you again.

ㅤBecause perhaps he still loved you.

ㅤFor you, you never wished for him to leave but you also knew that your presence would never be enough to make him stay. To forsake his worry for his father.

ㅤThere, at the Mondstadt port where you saw Thoma last, you wished you could have held his hand and never had let go. But instead, all you did was gently smile, tell him to write often, and wish him the best.

ㅤAfter months of waiting that eventually turned to an entire year, one day it dawned on you. Thoma would probably never come back.

ㅤAnd you wished, more than anything, that you could say that your life was empty and bleak without his sunlight smile there, but it wasn't. Life had kept going without him. You had made new friends and even found a job with your parents in the nation you loved the most.

ㅤYour life was still happy, and maybe that was what hurt the most. Knowing that it was probably the same with him. And you would be left wondering if he felt as much guilt as you did at that.

ㅤYou did still miss his green eyes that would look at you like you were his entire world. But above all, you wanted Thoma to be happy, wherever he was, whoever he was with.

ㅤYour story with each other was destined to tragedy. And one that would forever remain a cherished chapter in your favorite book.

ㅤThe only thing you regretted the most, was not being able to tell him how much you had loved him too.

ㅤAnd maybe someday you both would meet again, in some corner of the world. But for now, all you both had were dreams and what-ifs. For all the eternity and the freedom the gods had wished upon their nations.

💙 I'm finally done help. Loved to write Thoma's part and that was the first time ever writing something for him, my baby. I pity him for being the only one with an angsty ending in this small series lmao.

ㅤ ⏤ ty for reading 💗

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