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st4rg1rl-16 · 2 months

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━━ ✶✶˖° 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗜𝗫 | 𝗡𝟰𝗦.

𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴(𝘀) ━ 2019 to 2023!11 grid x driver!female oc

𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆 ━ mattia calls for a meeting to talk about the relationship between his drivers, after it nick becomes suspicious about his feelings towards arabella

𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲 ━ 2019, 10 april

𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ━ shanghai, china

𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 ━ anxiety, anxiety attack, sexism (there’s going to be a lot of this in this fic) mattia binotto slowly starting to show his true colors, kids being little shits to our babygirl

𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲 ━ i was going to post this yesterday for valentines but since I’m single af and I was tired and bored of seeing all those people in love I tried to do my own bangs and guess what? i fucked up HAHSHSH so I was sad (I still am, I hate my hair so much right now) btw the parts in cursive like this are flashbacks or little previews of the future, keep that in mind!!!

𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁 ━ @namgification @louvrepool @d3kstar @omgsuperstarg @whoselly @yl90 @wcnorris

• — need for speed’s masterlist

“OH, I also receive threats from tifosi. Things like "You are a traitor, you have left Ferrari for the enemy."

"Why did you leave Ferrari?" The interviewer, sitting in front of her but out of the eye of the camera, asked her.

The twenty-two-year-old Arabella let out a laugh in a snort raising her hips to get more comfortable in the armchair “Ferrari was not very... kind to me so I stopped being kind to Ferrari”.

Two, almost three, years earlier, an eighteen-year-old Arabella was sitting in an uncomfortable chair without being able to avoid comparing the beginning of her day to that moment. The cold office did not look anything like the warm room, the uncomfortable chair could not be compared to the comfortable and soft bed and, of course, the look that Mattia Binotto was giving her was the opposite of the affectionate and warm look that Charles had given her when she had woken up in his arms.

She looked up at her manager, who watched her standing behind Ferrari's boss, with his arms crossed over his chest and serious face. Next to him was Charles' manager.

She looked down at her hands where her fingers had begun to play with the rings that occupied the opposite fingers. She wanted to look at Charles to see a smile, a look or at least feel his hand against her giving hers a squeeze trying to say that everything was going to be fine but she preferred not to do it.

"I'm going to get straight to the point, I don't want to waste some time we need" The Italian's black curls peeked out under the red cap when he shook his head looking at his wrist where a watch was. He looked up to the front again to see his drivers “Are you dating, yes or no?”.

A deep silence crossed the room after the question while the three "adults" looked at them expectantly. The silence was clear but for Arabella there was a lot of noise in the room, she could hear her heart beating in her ears, Charles' breathing next to her, the annoying noise that Binotto's fingertips made when he hit the glass of his desk.

When he saw that they didn't answer, the Italian let out a sigh “I need you to tell me the truth. It's not that I care who you sleep with but the men above seem to care and they don't find it funny their drivers dating” He looked at them desperately “You can lose your seats in Ferrari because of this, guys”.

"It would be a breach of contract," Nicolas, the manager of the 16, said in a sigh. He looked at his client with severity “Not only would you lose your position in Ferrari but you could be sued”.

An alarm began to sound non-stop in the head of the youngest in the room, suddenly she felt a dizziness and her chest contracted. She thought of her parents, of her brother, of her eleven-year-old self. It would be a disappointment for them.

Everything she had fought for would go to hell in a second.

She dared to look at Charles sideways and when she did she had to take a breath, he was already looking at her. She separated her gaze from his and lowered it to the ground, her hands began to play with each other again before she squeezed her jaw and looked up: looking, for the first time since she had entered the room, at their boss.

"We're just friends, can't friends hold hands?" A crooked smile slipped down her lips while she shrugged "I'm sorry, I can't help it, I'm very affectionate. You can ask Carlos, Lando or anyone, I'm always holding hands with them or hugging them”.

The eldest of the room turned to her manager looking for confirmation and when he saw Nick nod he let out a sigh of relief that almost went unnoticed by the others present. He turned his gaze to the young duo in front of him and nodded to himself "Well, then there's not much to say. You are free to go”.

The first to get up from the chair was the girl, who began to go to the glass door wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible. She heard the chair in which Charles was sitting crawling on the floor and a short time later she felt his presence behind her. She placed her hand on the doorknob ready to leave but the voice of the team boss stopped her.

"Avoid expressions of affection in public, please. We can let it go once, but twice...”His tone was calm but it hid something behind his words, the girl didn't want to jump to conclusions but could swear that it was a threat. She knew that the words were for the both of them, but then, why did she feel his eyes only on her?.

She heard Charles' voice respond with a "Yes, sir" while she turned again to get out of there once and for all but then she heard her name with a slight Italian accent overflowing through the white walls causing her hand to freeze on the doorknob, she closed her eyes strongly waiting for the worst.

"I'm sorry for what has happened in Twitter, the advertizing team has already taken care of everything. I can't even imagine what you've been through” His words were nice and even somewhat kind but the tone with which he had said them made it clear that those were not the feelings he really felt towards the girl. She looked at him over her shoulder, ignoring the questioning expression on Charles' face and the frown of her manager, and nodded before running out of there.

She passed through the garage aware of the not at all disguised looks of the team on her, she accelerated the pace wanting to get out of there as quickly as possible.

She needed to be alone, get away from reality even if it was for ten minutes. She felt that at any moment she was going to faint.

She went to her driver’s room, she was mentally grateful that the area of the rooms was empty, she hurried to close the door but Charles' foot in the middle prevented her from doing so. She looked up slowly over the boy's leg until she reached his face, she snarled.

"Move”.

“No”.

"Charles, move” She pushed the door but with the boy's foot in the middle it didn't move too much. She looked at him angrily “Remove it or I'll destroy your foot”.

"We have to talk about what has happened, Bells" He looked at her pleadingly but she still didn't remove her expression from her face.

"There's nothing to talk about" She snarled, squeezing her grip on the doorknob "Everything has already become clear in there”.

The Monegasque bit his lower lip, this could not be happening. Only four hours ago they were lying in bed kissing until they were out of breath. He looked at her face, her precious face, and cursed himself for having fallen into her charms. Because of them, they were now on a thin line that threatened to break. He felt guilty, he was the one who had kissed her, he was the one who was looking for her, he had started everything.

On the other hand, he was angry, with Binotto, with him and right now with her. Why did she have such a hard time talking about things? Why did she run away at the first change? He thought that maybe it was because she was younger than him, after all, they were three years apart and she was only eighteen, she was a still a kid.

He sighed leaning his forehead on the door “Whether you like it or not, we have to talk”.

A silence formed between the two that was soon interrupted by the girl's sobs trying to escape through her throat, he heard her sip her nose.

"What do we have to talk about, Charles?" She no longer sounded angry but sad and hurt, her voice trembled "We can't be together, if we do we will lose our seats. Everything is against us”.

A puncture made a hole in the male driver’s chest “So that's it? Don't you want us to be together?”.

She opened the door and pushed him into the room, closed the door quickly. Unfortunately, now they couldn't risk anyone seeing them arguing or anything. Now they would have to think very carefully about what their interactions would be like both in public and in private, you never know because as her grandmother said "the walls have ears and eyes."

Charles dedicated himself to observing her, her green eyes were already injected with blood and her cheeks wet. Her nose was red. He felt even worse because he knew it was his fault.

"It's not that I don't want to be with you, it's that I can't!" She exclaimed frustrated. She was tired, she felt that all this was way big for her. Her anxiety didn't help the situation too much and that she had little experience in couple arguments wasn't very helpful either. She moved her hands in front of her showing her frustration, she didn't really know how to express her feelings or her thoughts “I can't risk everything I've achieved, everything I've suffered for”.

"And you think I haven't suffered?" He looked at her in disbelief "I have also suffered to get here. It took me a long time to get here, you know?”.

An ironic smile stuck on her lips as she snorted “You have grown up with money, with friends and a dick between your legs. I didn't. I hardly had any money to eat, the other children didn't want to be my friends and I was a girl. You don't know how difficult it is to be a girl in this world and much less in a sport in which there are only men. So yes, it may be that you have suffered, but I don't think you have suffered the same as I did”.

"I understand, but you can't run away just like that" He tried to touch her arm but she moved away, he licked his dry lips and frowned feeling rejected "What did Mattia mean by what happened in Twitter?".

He observed how the color went away from her skin and how her face deformed showing several emotions that he didn’t know how to decipher although he could differentiate the fear from the others before faking a look of indifference “I don't know”.

"Yes, you do" He raised his arm pointing to her face "You have it written all over your face, don't lie to me”.

"I'm not lying to you”.

"Then tell me!".

"There's nothing to tell".

Both began to raise their voices, one more fed up than the other of the conversation. It was clear that neither of them wanted to have that conversation but, unfortunately, you don't always have what you want.

Charles' face began to take the same color as the red that decorated some of the walls and objects of the room, a vein began to take shape on his forehead “Let me help you, Arabella! I'm here for you, it's not that hard, fuck!”.

"Maybe not for you, but for me it is!" She shouted back, her eyes getting redder and red as tears ran freely down her cheeks. She put a hand to her chest and pulled her shirt “I feel like I can't breathe every time I want to explain how I feel and you want me to let you help me because...don't you feel connected to me or something like that?! I'm sorry, okay?! I'm sorry I'm not like the other girls you've dated, I'm sorry I can't tell you at all times what I'm thinking or feeling!”.

Finally the silence was present between them, the only thing that could be heard was the girl's quick breathing and how the boy absorbed his nose from time to time. Both were with red eyes and soaked cheeks.

Finally she let out a sob breaking the silence, wiped her nose with the sleeve of her red sweatshirt and gave him a sad smile “I'm sorry, but I can't risk it”.

"Ma belle, I..." The angriness that ran through his body was still there but now Charles felt bad, bad because she was right.

She took a breath of air feeling an anxiety attack cover her body, squeezed her lips trying to swallow the sob that was on its way down her throat and looked at him with her eyes bathed in tears "Everything has gone very fast and look at us" She pointed between the two while shaking her head "Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. We should give ourselves some time”.

And with that she turned around and, again, she ran out of there, leaving Charles trying to pick up the pieces of his broken heart from the ground.

“ELVIRA, Elvira...” The tall man's gaze moved non-stop throughout the red garage, trying to find the black and smooth hair between the sea of red shirts.

He clicked his tongue rolling his hand in the bicep of his little girl's engineer, Alexander raised his neck to look at him curiously.

"Have you seen Elvira?" He asked urgently to which the eldest smiled broadly, kneeling his index finger in the chest of the tall one, he looked at his finger frowning before turning his gaze to the man.

"I knew that there was something between you two" He also clicked his tongue shaking his head while the blond looked at him as if a second head had come out on his shoulder.

He began to question whether that man was in a good mental state to be a Formula One engineer but he ignored it, it was not the time.

"Have you seen her yes or no?"

"Ah, yes, yes" He took off his glasses and wiped them clean with the edge of his red polo shirt before pointing in the opposite direction "I think I saw her go around there”.

He sighed a thank you before starting to jog in that direction. He felt a bad feeling on his chest, he knew that something was not right as soon as he left the office of the head of the team. Had he heard wrong or had Binotto threatened Arabella? Well, technically he had threatened both of them but while he was doing it, he could see his gaze on the girl more than on the monegasque.

He moved in the direction of the cafeteria, he lightened his step when he saw the black, long and smooth hair move on one side on the fabric of the red polo shirt that covered Elvira's back. He approached her exclaiming her name, making her stand in her place and turn to look at her.

"What did Mattia say?" She asked him once he was close to her. The publicist observed him worried because although she knew Arabella for a short time, she had taken affection for her and was worried about her.

He took her by the elbow and started pulling her “Come, we have to talk somewhere where they don't hear us”.

The woman's frown furrowed as she looked at the back of the blond's head, beginning to feel anguish in her chest “It was that bad?”

He pulled her until he found a small space between garages, they both got into the small "alley" hoping that there was no one nearby to listen to them.

"Nick, can you tell me what happened?!" Elvira was already hysterical, her coworker was getting on her nerves with so much secrecy.

He raised his hands trying to calm her down "Well, okay, okay" He put both hands on his hips and took a breath “I have the slight suspicion that Binotto has threatened Arabella”.

"What?" She looked at him strangely "What do you mean, has he threatened her?".

"He was scolding them over the photo that has gone viral but his gaze was on her all the time, it was as if Charles was not present. And in the end he said something like "it can't be repeated again" and, seriously, Elvi, he just looked at her!”

"But, it doesn't have to. Arabella hasn't done anything wrong”.

"Not everyone likes a woman in Formula One, Elvira. Mattia may be one of them”

"But he has been treating her well so far”.

"Maybe he was trying to be professional until he saw the opportunity" He sighed running his hand over his face showing his frustration.

Maybe they were taking things out of context but when there was as much money involved as there was in Formula One, neither of them was surprised that the situation was true.

Both remained silent, weighing the situation and the consequences it would bring with it if it were true.

The woman with pale skin like milk bit her lower lip “Do you think she has noticed?”.

"I know she did. Arabella is an observer, of course she has noticed” He nodded, turning his head to look for something to sit on. There were a couple of boxes so he took a few steps back and sat on top of them, he really needed to sit down. He felt that his blood pressure was raising.

"And what are you going to do?".

"For the moment, try not to get her into some scandal that involves Leclerc, keep an eye on Mattia and pray that these two years will pass quickly and without any problems”.

"And when her contract with Ferrari ends?".

"Last month Toto Wolff made it very clear that he is interested in Arabella, Zak and Christian are also looking to sign her" He denied with a smile on his face, but it was not a smile of joy but one of incredibleness.

"Horner? I don't think it's a good idea for her to go to Red Bull, not when they have Verstappen”.

He nodded in agreement with her “Yes, they would belittle her as they do with Pierre but if she goes to Mercedes they would do the same, they have the five-time champion as the leading driver”.

"Valtteri doesn't seem very unhappy" She crossed her arms resting his back on the wall.

"This sucks" He let out a sigh, throwing his head back "When she was in Formula Two, everything was much easier. I miss that”.

She looked at him with empathy “But now she is in Formula One. She is going to be a star, Nick”.

"But the stars fall from the sky and I don't want her to be hurt. You've already seen what they say about her on the internet, she's just a little girl!” Unintentionally, his head revived yesterday when his was in his hotel room watching a chinese romantic comedy and suddenly his phone seemed to explode from all the notifications he was receiving. He almost started to cry when he read the things people said about Arabella.

"She is a little girl who drives a car at three hundred kilometers per hour defying death every weekend. She is a little girl who has entered in Fotmula One, something that no little girl has been able to achieve for many years” She approached him looking at him with sadness because she knew it hurt. I knew that the girl was the closest thing he had to a daughter “You know she's not just a little girl”.

"But it's been so recently that her race suit was bigger than her" An expression of melancholy crossed his face as he remembered a little Arabella fighting with her race suit so that it didn't fall off her waist.

"I know that you've known her for many years and that you see her as a daughter and that's why it hurts you that all this is happening because you know that it also hurts her, but it's her dream, isn't it?" She looked at him expectantly and after a few seconds he nodded.

He began to play with his hands, a bead bracelet, clearly made by a little girl, peeked out of the sleeve of his left arm attracting the woman's attention. It was seen that it was old because the beads were white but with pieces of colors staining them indicating that they had lost the color and the rope on which it held itself seemed to be struggling for every second of it’s life.

She was able to appreciate the letters forming a 'Nicky ♡'.

"I have shed sweat, blood and tears for that girl since I met her ten years ago" He began to play with the bracelet, an act he did every time he was nervous "And I have never asked for anything in return, only that nothing ever happened to her but now there are fifty thousand people saying dirty shit about her on twitter, her boss seems to hate her and I don't know what to do. I always know what to do but not now” The air got stuck in his chest and his voice trembled becoming hoarse “And I can't ask her because she has trouble letting people help her, now I never know what she's thinking and I know that her anxiety is not helping. And I'm afraid because I'm the one who must protect her, her parents gave me that honor and now I can't do it”.

She stroked her arm to tell him that she was there for him, she felt a tear running down her cheek "You're doing well, Nick. Just... talk to her and make it clear that you are there for her.”

The man let out a little laugh “I wish it was so easy”.

“AND Arabella Torres crosses the finish line two minutes apart from Marcos Gómez!

From ear to ear, the smile of the eleven-year-old girl couldn't be bigger. From the podium she looked at the audience and smiled even more –if it was possible– when some hands showed up in front of her and extended the trophy. Her small hands took it between tremors, she analyzed it for a few seconds before lifting it over her head. She looked at her podium teammates waiting to see their smiles but it wasn't like that, both children looked at her seriously before looking at each other sharing a look of displeasure.

Suddenly her smile no longer reached her ears.

She lowered the trophy and after the photos she got off the podium, trying to find her parents. She pulled the brilliant trophy without much desire going to where they decided that she would meet with her family after finishing the race.

"I'm sick of her" The voice of the second winner of the day filled her ears, she frowned and hid behind a wall of one of the trailers.

Listening to other people's conversations is wrong, Arabella. Her mother would have said but she couldn't help it.

"I don't understand what she is doing here" Another voice joined him "She's a girl! This is not for girls”.

"My father said that they let her win because her family is very poor”.

"In addition to the fact that she is very annoying, I hate her. She gives me a headache just for listening to her”.

"She's not even good at driving”.

"She thinks she is a big deal for being the only girl but she'll never get to anything”.

Maybe she should have thought more about what her mother told him and not let curiosity win her over. Because as they say, curiosity killed the cat but this time it killed the heart of little Arabella.

A pout began to threaten to be present on her small lips, she released the trophy and turned around ready to run away but her body crashing into a larger one prevented her from doing so.

"I'm sorry" She murmured, passing her small hand formed in a fist through her eyes, trying to wipe away the tears.

"Don't worry" The man bent down to see her better, he extended a tissue to her "You're today's champion, right?".

She frowned slightly when she heard him speak in english and let out the smallest of sighs, it's not that she was bad at english but she still didn't speak it fluently and it was a little tedious for her to have to be speaking in another language being sad.

She looked up a little, enough to see the tissue in his hands and accepted it murmuring a "Thank you" before wiping her face, once she did she looked at the man.

"Sebastian Vettel" A gasp came out of her little lips when she realized that he was the Formula One driver. She couldn't believe it, it was Sebastian Vettel!

The german laughed "Yes, that's me. What's your name?”.

"Arabella" She said and he extended his hand to her, she looked at him curiously.

"Nice too met you, Arabella” Between his gigantic hand he took hers and waved them up and down "Now, can you tell me why you were crying? Are you lost? I can help you find your parents”.

"No, no, I know where they are" The tissue moved with every gesture that the little girl made and Vettel smiled again, the girl seemed adorable with her big green eyes and dressed in her little race suit.

He had always wanted to have a daughter, he was still very young but he was sure of it and even more so after seeing little Arabella.

"Well, then?".

He regretted asking because he quickly noticed that she was uncomfortable, he squeezed his lips in a thin line waiting for the girl to say something. He opened his mouth to talk because it seemed like she wasn't going to tell him anything but he shut up when she suddenly answered.

"The other children hate me for being a girl" She shrugged, looking down at the tissue in her hands, began to play with it while a sad smile stuck in her lips "It’s okay, not always people have to like me”.

A puncture made a hole in the blond driver's chest. How is it that a little girl of nine, ten or eleven years old –he wasn’t very sure about her age– could speak like that? He grimaced by responding to himself, probably because she was already used to being rejected.

He looked at her with sympathy “That's true, not everyone will always like you and that's why you don't care. You have to ignore what they tell you or think, the only important thing here is you”.

Arabella looked at him with bright eyes and admiration coming out of every pore of her body because one of her favorite Formula One drivers was there in front of her giving her some advice. A piece of advice that she would take very serious.

"Seb, Seb!" A blond boy with blue eyes shouted the german's name as he ran towards them. Arabella looked at him cautiously, she didn't want another boy to make fun of her, much less in front of the next Formula One champion.

The older blond turned as soon as he heard the boy's voice and could swear that if he had looked in front of a mirror he could have seen a light bulb light up above his head. He smiled at the boy when he finally arrived next to them.

"Seb, dad is looking for you" He said between accelerated breaths, swallowed saliva and looked up, colliding with that of the mysterious girl who was with her father's friend. He frowned.

"Yes, I'm coming" Even without erasing his smile, he placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and brought him closer to him "I want to introduce you to someone”.

"What are you doing?" He asked in german to what Sebastian looked at him badly.

"She's Arabella" He pointed to the girl, making him to look back at her. He observed her, she was a little taller than him and his green eyes attracted more attention than his blue ones. She was in a red and blue rice suit and a trophy was lying on the ground, not far from her, he deduced that she was the champion of the race. She sent him a smile to which he replied blushing, she was beautiful.

Sebastian's smile got bigger “He is Mick and I think you are going to be great friends”.

She hid her face between her arms and squeezed her grip on her knees more, bringing them even closer to her chest if that was possible. She let out several sobs, one stronger than the previous one, almost drowning with her own tears.

She cried for herself, for her family, for the boys and cried for Charles.

She had screwed up everything and she didn't know how she was going to fix it or if she could fix it.

She regretted everything and for a moment she wanted to go back to that moment when she decided to sit for the first time in that kart that was not for her and avoid it, if she had not touched it maybe now she would be in college and would be a normal girl with normal problems or maybe she would be unemployed struggling to find something to put in her mouth, she didn't know but at that moment anything seemed better than the present.

At what point had she stopped being in a hotel room living a honeymoon moment with Charles to have broke up with him, to have been threatened by her boss to fire her and be sexualized on twitter?.

"Oh, tyttö" Little girl. She heard someone's voice bringing her back to reality, she still didn't raise her head because her body had stopped working, she didn't feel anything. "What happened to you?".

She heard a few steps and then a presence near her, she felt like some hands made her raise her head, finding Kimi Räikönnen's cold blue eyes looking at her with some concern.

She couldn't answer, when she tried to speak her lips contracted in a pout and another sob ran away for them. The blond frowned, holding her head.

"You have to breathe, tyttö” He said but he didn't get an answer. The girl in front of him really looked like a corpse. He moved her head between his hands “Eh! Tyttö, are you listening to me? Breathe with me, c’mon”.

He began to do breathing exercises trying to get the girl to follow him, his heart jumped in his chest when she began to follow him. They stayed like that for about fifteen minutes until she stopped crying and was able to keep her head high on her own.

Once he separated from her, an uncomfortable silence embraced them. The eldest looked at her “Eh...Do you want to talk about it?”.

The girl shook her head and he felt a little relieved "How did you know what to do?".

"I'm a father, tyttö." He raised the bottle of water he had left on the floor as if he were toasting and drank from it "I know how to do everything”.

She let out a small smile at the finn's attitude and began to play shyly with the zipper of her jacket. The blond looked at her curiously.

"Is this for Binotto?" Arabella raised her head looking at him surprised.

"How...?"

"I'm friends with some of the engineers. I heard them talk about the twitter thing and Binotto scolding you and Leclerc”.

She let out a moan taking her gaze to her shoes “Great, so everyone knows”.

"You should not care, you shouldn’t give a fuck" Before the expression the girl laughed covering her knuckles with the sleeve of her jacket and passing the fabric over her cheeks to wipe the tears that silently continued to fall. The blond looked at her from above “You know what? I thought you were tough, I guess I was wrong”.

"Excuse me?" She looked at him somewhat offended.

"I thought you wouldn't care so much about what they'll say" Kimi was trying to get a reaction from her and Arabella, unconsciously, she knew it but still couldn't help but feel his words.

"Well, sometimes you can't take it anymore" She shrugged, looking away from him.

"I know you can do it, but you can't yet" He pointed out "The first day I saw you, I knew you were going to be big, you know? I knew you were going to change things, that you were going to make history" He drank from the bottle of water as if nothing had happened while Arabella looked up to him with her mouth open, was this really happening or had she become unconscious thanks to the anxiety attack?.

She wanted to laugh, the situation literally seemed surreal to her.

"You have a champion's face, so don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Don’t mind them, do whatever you want. Win races, get on the podium and show everyone who you are. If they are going to hate you okay, but give them a reason to hate you: be the best” The finn spoke with passion and knew that it was because he had experienced hatred first hand. He had been in that world for many years, he had seen many friends suffer from the hatred of the public eye but none of them were like her. He knew it was different because she was a woman and very young. She had achieved what many men hadn’t been able to but, right now, before him she was only a scared little girl.

Maybe he wasn't aware of what he was saying to the girl, much less about how her skin had bristled or how something had "clicked" on her head thanks to his words. But he still continued “Make them get bored of seeing you win, I know you can do it but remember that after all not always people like you”

That phrase reminded her of an old friend.

A phone rang, causing him to separate his gaze from her. He looked for the device in his pockets and when he found it he looked at the screen. He raised his head to look at the girl, who was looking at a fixed point in front of her “I have to go. Will you be okay?”

At his question, she raised her head and Kimi could swear that there was something different in her gaze. She gave him a small smile of gratitude “Yes. Thank you, Mr. Räikkönen”.

"Call me Kimi, tyttö”.

And with that he turned around and left, leaving the girl alone again.

She licked his lips observing how the figure of the Alfa Romeo’s driver disappeared in the distance. She tested the salt of her tears on her lips and sighed before moving her hand down her leg, looking for her own phone. She took it out of the pocket and after unlocking it she went to the contact app, her eyes moved all over the screen in unison with her finger, looking for the right name. Once she did it, she pressed the call button.

She put the device in her ear and waited for it to sound “Hey, uhm. I miss you, do you think you can come to the next race?".

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my-rose-tinted-glasses · 4 months

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Time the Series - Episode 1

Another time traveling show. This time by expectations are basically on the floor.

So before I say anything here's the official synopsis: Foam, a famous actor, saw Chris, the lover, killed in front of him by the police. But fate gives Foam a chance to go back and correct the past for what he did wrong, causing Chris's death. When a mysterious man gives a clock that can travel back in time to Foam, will Foam be able to fix the past and save a lover's life? Only time will prove it! MDL You can watch it on YT, Gaga. Uncut on WeTV.

I watch the cut version, if anyone watches the full version please let me know what I missed. Not that I'm all that invested but still. This is basically a "I watched it so you don't have to" type of review so obviously, all spoilers from here on. Skip to the end for my short review.

We begin with a police chase that ends with Chris being caught but then there's a sniper and he gets shot. Very exciting already.

Cut to Foam waking up in bed and promptly pouring himself red wine while he cries and reflects on his lost love. Warning for singing and guitar playing in flashback.

The next day he's passed out and won't answer his phone and everyone is very upset, cause he's an actor and there's a lot of people waiting for him to shoot a commercial. There's already a war of managers happening btw. The one in pink is Foam's manager, the other one wants to be his manager. I'll be calling her the bad manager from here on for reasons which will become obvious.

So eventually he arrives and they shoot a commercial for some skin product that is amazing for the skin if we believe the people that show up to help Foam with his lines, cause the boy is struggling.

And apparently it's his birthday and he makes the weirdest call to his mum to ask her to wish happy birthday and the subs have the mom saying "Hello, dear" but there's actually no sound from the other side of the conversation. Amazing.

After this the drama really begins. And I mean there's so much happening and none of it is good.

So really quickly: - Birthday party where Foam is the DJ and there is some really bad dance acting happening. - The bad manager drugs Foam and assaults him and is interrupted by the good manager. - The two managers insult each other in front of passed out Foam and a physical fight ensues. Slap, screaming, slap, insult, slap, begging, more slapping. This is all very dramatic btw, almost lakorn level dramatic. Glass on the floor, bad manager picks it up and stabs the good manager. - Bad manager's bodyguards take her and Foam wakes up with the bloody glass shard on his hand.

Panic sets in, everyone comes and for some reason some dude is filming this whole thing. And we get our second police chase of the episode. This time Foam is the one doing the running.

Foam hides in a dark ally where he meets a stranger with a shining pink necklace that invites him to his place and of course he goes, because why not?

Then he recognizes the necklace/watch because he gave his boyfriend one that looks exactly like it. And then this:

Guy in alley - gives Foam pink shiny watch - dead boyfriend appears.

They immediately jump each other, as you do when all of a sudden your dead boyfriend is in front of you again, and Foam wakes up thinking it was all a dream. But was it? I have no idea.

Foam wakes up, hits himself, hurts himself and wonders why he's in his old apartment. He goes outside and it's five years before Chris died. The end.

So... to recap. I don't even know what to say. This is from MFlow, the same company that brought us the mess that was Beyond The Star so my expectations were really low.

With that said, I can't in good conscience tell any of you to watch this. It's not good. From the previews it seems Foam is going to meet Chris all over again except he won't remember him. Fun times all over again. I'll be honest. I probably won't be watching this, but come next tuesday if I have nothing better to do I might check it out. Depends how much I remember the experience and how curious I get about how they will deal with the time traveling. I obviously have not learned my lesson.

If anyone watches it please let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.💜

#time the series #thai bl #bl drama #rose rambles

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highgroundanimations · 10 months

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Can we just know when is the final thing coming out??

Unfortunately you can't, cause I don't know either. 😄

Shortfilms like these are an insane amount of work & there is no budget or money being made, so it has to happen in my spare-time between my freelance client jobs, which is nearly impossible to plan ahead with.

Don't forget I'm just a single artist (at least on the visual side of things, I do have awesome people that help me out with everything sound ❤️) working on this thing for fun & to get as much 3D Generalist/Animation/Cinematography practice as I can.

Release definitely won't happen this year. Next year would be kinda optimistic too but we'll see.

BUT there will be lots more updates, previews & sneak peaks until the actual release! You won't run dry on Tukk content, I promise. 💙😁

(Btw after a bunch of rewrites the film will actually be longer than the previously stated 6 minutes! More like 10 minutes+. So more work than initially planned but it will be worth it!)

#captain tukk #high ground animations #star wars #tukk tales #tukk #the clone wars #241st #fan film #the bad batch #hill company

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electrozeistyking · 2 months

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So I've actually got two asks here for you because I felt bad not asking about the recap thing

So in regards to that: what inspired you to do this? Personally, from the vibe of the trailer/preview, it feels kinda like TFS' DBZ abridged.

As for the other ask which was the original reason I did this: I've seen you draw Tessa before and obviously you had to draw her next to other characters, so have you ever thought about how short she is?

like, she's only a little taller than Uzi who is like 4'2" or 4'5" and I'm like

what

Anyways, hope you're having a good time and I'm really excited for the recap video! I'll try to think of more questions to ask about it but I am HORRIBLE at coming up with questions for stuff so...yeah...

also if you're wondering why it says I'm a new follower (if it does say that idk how that works exactly) it's because I accidentally unfollowed you briefly when try to open this ask 💀

The first part of this ask regarding to Murder Recap will be answered in the announcement video on it! :D

Also yes, I have thought about Tessa’s height! My buddy @1-800-hellyeah technically helped me with figuring out their heights, so N’s 5’02” (which is how tall I am, btw) and Tessa’s around there. Probably 5’03”?? 5’04”??? I wouldn’t quote me on that, though.

However, I can give you the heights I use for the drones in the Ghost Drone AU because why not? It's relevant, I think.

On that note, my boy Quill was initially supposed to be a couple inches taller than N, but at the time I was under the impression N was like... 5’09” or something. I decided to keep Quill as being 5’11” because it’s funny to me.

(Scott doesn’t realize that murder drones are actually much shorter because the ones in his sector are weirdly tall-)

#Zeisty's Askbox #ghost drone au #beanie doorman #scott halley (oc)#serial designation ''quill'' (oc)#murder drones au #murder drones n #murder drones v #murder drones j #feels good to have a height pinned down for scott btw #he's as tall as the average worker drone soo #tessa james elliott #by the way: i figured you accidentally unfollowed me. that was my first thought #i was like ''ah. accidentally unfollowed me did you''

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herotome · 8 months

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Finally-official-devlog #112

Also known as FOD112 hi-ho, Wudge here.

Gosh there's just. So much. I'm actually drafting this devlog a few days early so that I'm not suddenly overwhelmed on devlog Tuesday again. But without further ado-

This is the big cheese right here -- each character has their own layer, each character's clothes and expressions have their own layers, and there's a separate layer for the soft orange lighting on top of it all. 😭

On that note, here's most of the individual image files that create the CG with their powers (and my code) combined:

And since this is a cropped version of a BIGGER CG (featuring ALL the love interests sitting together), I had to tinker with the position code a great deal to properly feature these three goons Of course it was worth it of course twas merely at the cost of all my energy and sanity at the prospect of eventually possibly also adding in blinks and expression changes--

Mad props as usual to the sweetwonderfulamazing Remnantation who first completed this CG -checks watch- sometime last year! With some additional edits by me since then~

And, did you happen to notice something new in the lower right?

Tadah... a brand new click-to-continue icon animation! I made (mostly) all by myself! The lil sparkle burst is free from production crate, but I drew the star and added the rotation code... ... Honestly, the hardest and most time-consuming part of this was finalizing the design. Originally I was gonna make it rotate 45 degrees, flip, rotate 45 more degrees, flip, etc-- and messed with that concept for several hours before scrapping it for a simpler, more graceful idea. :| Part of the process, I gots to tell myself, part of the process...

Next up is Jade's powers, as you may have seen in the preview last week. Much like the CTC animation, I did a lot of research on other ideas - various glowing VFX like vertical veins across the cheeks and smoky rising from the eyes, as well as a bigger low opacity character zoom effect - before settling on something simple. Jade's power usage here is... pretty mild in context, and I figure I can always store the more dramatic animations for later in the story.

Here's a still of the effect btw:

Her eyes look like headlights lmaooo. Honk honk!

Do I have more to update with? Believe it or not, yes.

I made some icons, which took a fair amount of trial and error: on the left you'll see an earlier draft, on the right are my more final redesigns from the same day(...night. midnight. I worked on these until midnight).

I had to look up some guidelines because most of my previous icons did NOT look good or legible when sized down to 50x50 pixels. What I learned was, tadah, I had to draw with an unprecedented line width of 200 pixels! (For non-artists: I typically draw with a pen width of 12 pixels at most).

I also studied the icon styles of Persona 5, which saved me a lot of time - they had a cool stylistic choice of diagonally tilted color blocks and thick black outlines.

Here's yet another gif of icons in action...

Did you see them? Did you?? For a split second, in the upper right.... Still gotta adjust some of the text overlap, don't look at that.

Oh and the "How to play" page is brand new. I coded it from scratch... That also took all night...

... Oh. Oh. And remember your MC's phone?

This old thing? Yeah. Visual upgrade:

Also rendered and colored in by Rem <3 Where would I be without them...!

The text, though, can be updated in code!!!! I spliced the phone into layers, with the screen on top and code-generated text just below it, so I can update the caller ID at any point in-game without making any new images.

Took a little while to get it to work... honestly it doesn't look 100% centered... but it's fine. This is fine...

And then... more code. After much tears, blood and strife, I got a musical crossfade to work. It shouldn't have been challenging but it was a nightmare -- when calling the crossfade the second track would either not play at all or its volume wouldn't change and I was starting to develop a preference for eating gravel. But I persisted, found a much simpler code that actually works. After the tearsbloodstrife.

And...... lastly... I simplified this big block of code:

vbox: pos (269, 76) add "sprites/MC/mc[mc_number].png" hbox: if mc_number ==1: text "DEFAULT" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==2: text "LAVENDER" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==3: text "PETUNIA" style "MC_label_text" elif mc_number ==4: text "SUNFLOWER" style "MC_label_text" else: text "TBD" style "MC_label_text"

...(not properly indented bc tumblr is mean 2 me)...

down to these lines, to make my future life easier:

default PrintMC = ["Default", "Lavender", "Petunia", "Sunflower", ""]

text PrintMC[mc_number] style "MC_label_text"

Two!!! lines!!!!!

🎊

Instead of typing out additional if/else lines, I only need to add new names to the PrintMC list. Won't really affect the player at all, but it's a HUGE quality of life update for me!

...Anyway that's it, thank you for checking in. <3

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

PS screw it I'm gonna queue post this early.

PPS have you listened to our composer's new single yet? No?!?!?!

youtube

Every click, every listen helps, and every song of his is a BOP that deserves recognition!

ok that's all for real now xoxoxo,

wudge (again)

#herotome update #interactive fiction #oelvn #visual novel #otome game #english otome #otome #amare game #amare #amareteabreak #indie otome #indie dev #indie game #Youtube

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hymnism · 10 months

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well here is sunny's scuffed gif tutorial for anyone who wants to learn how to gif 🎉🎉

so first of all you're obviously going to need a clip of whatever you want to gif. you can either download full videos or use a screen recorder (like obs for example) to record the specific scene you want to gif

once you have your clip you go into photoshop and look for "file -> import -> video frames to layers" then choose your clip and you'll get a screen like this

you can use the two small arrows to trim the clip to just what you need then click ok and it will open the clip up into frames

(btw if you don't already have it on make sure to go to "window" and turn on timeline. that's where you will see the frames)

now personally my first step is cropping and resizing. cropping is kind of self explanatory but to resize the gif make sure you go to "image -> image size" (NOT canvas size. just wanted to say that since the options are kind of similar) (although you can still use canvas size for cropping) and here is a handy little chart that is helpful if you want to know what to resize gifs to (width is what's important here height can be whatever you want it to be)

now personally my next step is sharpening although you can probably also do this at the end. i use maizekeen's gif sharpening actions (if you don't know how to use actions in photoshop there are many tutorials online but very basically you download the actions then go into the actions menu (windows -> action if you don't have it open) and click on load actions) and then from there you just choose your action and click the play button

then after that is usually when i delete any extra unwanted frames in the timeline (it's not necessary to delete the frames from the layers panel)

NOW is the fun part and also where a lot of this becomes up to taste and personal style ✨

make sure you have your adjustment panel open (window -> adjustments)

the ones underlined are the main ones i use. i recommend playing around and seeing what does what and seeing what ends up looking cool to you

oh and when you use adjustment layers make sure they are above all the layers of the gif like this

i made some different edits of the same gif to show some of the different things you can do. like i said it's up to personal taste and style

here is the original unedited for comparison

and here are some different edits i did real quick to hopefully give you some ideas for what you can do

and if you want to change the speed of a gif make sure to select all frames and then use this little arrow

i tend to use either 0.05 or 0.04 since anything faster or slower tends to start looking wonky but you can try it out yourself and see what looks good to you

btw here is the difference between 0.05 (left) and 0.04 (right)

NOW FOR SAVING

when you feel like you're done you wanna go to "export -> save for web" (it might say legacy next to yours it still works the same) and you will get a window like this

the most important things here are the two options i circled. most of the time i just leave these at adaptive and pattern. perceptual and selective can be used in place of adaptive but i've found that adaptive tends to look best. diffusion instead of pattern can help lower the size of a file in some situations but it doesn't always work but for the love of god please don't set it to "no dither". also make sure the looping option is set to forever (unless you specifically wanna make a non looping gif)

and from this menu you can preview your gif (lower left corner). slightly above the preview button is where you can see your file size (in this case this gif is 7.8mb) tumblr says their gif limit is 10mb but in reality it's slightly less than that so if your gif is 9.7~9.8mb it's probably too big

now if everything looks good then just click on save and name your gif and you're done 👍

now i'm sure there are a lot of things i didn't explain well so if there are any question feel free to send me an ask or a dm and i'll try to explain things more in depth :)

#my posts #gif tutorial

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nhsflickerx · 3 months

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i've soon so much discourse since yesterday, it's making me feel overwhelmed and kinda bad for liking the new episode 😭😭

i genuinely understand why the lotus hotel scene could be upsetting: the kids already know everything, and yes, they did explain a lot instead of showing, this time. that little spark from the casino wasn't there really, since they weren't given the opportunity to explore and lose track of time. i would have loved to see percy actually figure out everything by himself.

but idk i want to believe there are good reasons behind these choices. i think we just have to wait for the next two episodes to properly understand why, especially with the pearls. you can clearly hear grover asking percy "what about you?" in a scared tone in the preview, so my guess is he'll probably lose one of them somehow so that we'll get the same result as the book after.

then again, the deadline. the deadline passing already to me adds more urgency to the quest since until now they've been more focused on rescuing sally than retrieving the bolt. after all in the book it was all luck that they'd gotten out of the casino right before the deadline passed, so i don't see the problem there tbh.

we really have to remember this is just a new take on the story, things don't have to be exactly the same at all times!! rick wouldn't let percy's story get destroyed again, if he likes the changes and the final product, then i'm sure there's a reason for it.

(btw the episodes having such a short lenght IS a crime and i think it's disney's fault, i really hope next season - if we get one - will have longer runtimes 😞)

#pjo #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo tv show

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berrygoji · 2 months

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hi jay!

what do you want to see in the next chapter?

do you want fyodor to actually be alive or to stay dead?

thank u and have a good day xoxo

nopressureask btw 💚

DEAD. GOD PLEASE LET HIM STAY DEAD I'M SICK OF HIS ASS!

Okay I'm over exaggerating a bit, but I truly do wish for that bastard to stay dead. He can quote Jesus all he wants, it won't resurrect him.

If Asagiri were to revive him ─ in my very humble opinion─ it would be bad writing. We already got death baited with so many characters, it's tiring after a while. This won't be the last we'll see of Fyodor though, there's still his backstory and how he'll affect the plot moving forward. He'll be that lingering stench one can't get rid of even after removing the source of the smell, if that makes sense.

What I want to see, in future chapters not just 113, is the importance Sigma will have as a character. I'll really be paying attention to him. He just got sent into a coma after absorbing mass amounts of information, and not just anyone's information, Fyodors information.

From the looks of the preview, Sigma is most definitely alive. Which brings in suspicion, why would Fyodor do that? Why give all of this knowledge to Sigma instead of killing him? Fyodor is no idiot, he obviously knew what he was doing. He wouldn't make a mistake like that. Perhaps Fyodor knew something bad would happen to him and did that as a precaution.

My guess is that he was hoping to corrupt Sigma. Let Sigma witness his horrors and his ideology, his plans and the reasons for it, and maybe that'll be enough to get him to turn and join his plans, continue them even.

Knowledge is a dangerous thing, and for someone like Sigma, how will he be able to handle it.

#this isn't even half of my thoughts they're just the most coherent atm #it's 3am and I did not read over this so excuse me if I sound stupid #a little bit of brainstorming and theorizing before the chapter comes out in a couple hours I love it #AND HI!! How have you been??#come by again I really like answering your asks :)#have a nice day!! and happy reading too #bungou stray dogs #chapter 113 #bsd sigma #fyodor dostoevsky #buffoonery #bsd.txt

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brimbrimbrimbrim · 5 days

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I just read the first chapters of Seed of Human Kindness and its already bookmarked, subscribed, kudoed, loved and protected by me. JDOSXIOWIXIWSIS I AM LITERALLY IN CRUMBLES BC AT THE SAME TIME I READ SOMETHING SO GOOD BUT I NEED MORE TO BE SATISFIED – call me the cook because im eating this fic up like its some man yumyum –

If its annoying, just ignore, but do you have a estimate of when the next chapter will be out?

Btw. Loved ur writing so much, u got the vaultie and the ghoul personality down to a T!!

You bless me with this ask. My heart is all a flutter and my insides all a bother. Thank you. I’m really happy that you’re enjoying the first two chapters so much. I’ve been having a blast writing (my muse is back, baby!) and I’m, once again, so humbled to find fellow weirdos that like what I like.

Chapter 3 will be out this Friday at the latest. Here’s a lil preview. Pardon any spelling or grammatical issues. It’s still a rough draft. :)

“The sun is setting… right? Maybe we should make camp? Find us some shelter, and I’ll make dinner. The salted Fiend is still good, and we got those canned beans from last night. Unless you’ve got any other ideas, Gunslinger?”

She’s asked for his name no less than two dozen times before turning the nickname into an insult for not offering up anythin’ else. The cook’s told him her name just about as often, but it does shit to him her cookin’ can’t satiate, and he’d instead get butt fucked in a dirt grave than admit he’s been thinkin’ ‘bout taking her stupid vault suit in his hands… of ridding her of it… breaking her in like a mare in the middle of no man’s land, chanting that fuckin’ name as he fills her with that sticky sap she’s after.

‘Foul fuckin’ thoughts of wanton violence and devious lust, indeed.”

Thankfully, he likes her an’ the grub enough not to fuck up a good thing. Minus the chatter, she’s been painless company so far…

The Ghoul glances down at her as she scans the horizon: a ritual when she began noticing the position of the sun and his corresponding decision to make camp. She’s spied many forgotten ingredients on their path east, of which she’s found uses for plenty. In the several days he’s been saddled with her, The Ghoul’s eaten well: eggs ‘n tato hash, chili with hard tac, pan-cooked peaches topped in gingersnap crumble, not to mention all the well-cooked steak and shikabobs of whatever root vegetable she’s been able to spot.

On cue, his stomach starts to rumble and cramp, eager for another well-cooked meal.

“Not much but radroaches out this way…” he states, matter o’ fact and intently uncaring until he feels like bein’ mean just for the fuck of it and bites out, “Unless you wanna bait us a Fiend or two, hm?” The Ghoul takes in the openness around ‘em, wondering how long it’d take for her to attract some curious cowpoke if he dangled her over the highway…

“Betcha we’d have us some fresh meat in half an hour with your luck.”

No answer.

The silence stretches a half-second too long, leaving him spooked enough The Ghoul turns on his heel, leather brim cutting out the sun, and finds himself alone.

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” he curses, “Where’d that bitch run off to…”

#ask #anon #the ghoul #fallout #monster boyfriend #fanfiction #writing

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nokingsonlyfooles · 23 days

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"At Some Point the Words Become Empty"

I am glad the moderates are finally getting on board. The above quote is from one of them. I am horrified by the details.

I am fistfighting my autism right now, trying to understand why these "normal" people are doing a negotiation with no terms for either side. This is the official statement on what the US wants, and what it will do if it doesn't happen:

For example, Kirby sidestepped the question of whether the U.S. would halt weapons transfers. He simply said the U.S. will adjust its policies, based on what Israel does next.

"What we want to see are some real changes on the Israeli side. And if we don't see changes from their side, there'll have to be changes from our side," he said. "But I won't preview what that could look like."

I... You are not my passive-aggressive mom with the borderline personality disorder trying to make me guess what I did wrong. You're in international politics and lives are at stake here. People need you to stop killing them! Opening the aid routes is not the end, it is only a potential means, and can easily be thwarted. The US government demanded more accountability than this to let me teach preschool. EVERY activity had to have a defined goal that you could assess - and that's a terrible way to teach, BTW, but you can't negotiate to save people without saying, "The goal here is to save people, and if the people are not saved, these are the consequences." What are we DOING?

And, ah, we're having the first AI-generated war while we do it. That's new. That's a thing now.

Israeli and British outlets this week reported on an artificial intelligence program, called Lavender, that the Israeli military has used to identify suspected Hamas operatives.

The list purportedly grew to 37,000 at one point — but was eventually scaled back — and those people were targeted for bombing, even if they were surrounded by civilians.

Military personnel rarely questioned the AI before approving strikes, according to the reports.

I... Jesus. What? WHAT?? And the US has no comment on that. I have a comment! FUCKING STOP IT.

#us news #canadian news #free gaza #free palestine #anti ai #why the fuck does this need the anti ai tag why is that a thing #jfc

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squishyteri · 2 months

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My thoughts after episode 9

So, I had a little break and didn't post anything after episode 8 (she forgot). I was really busy (definitely forgot) and then I felt it was too late because everyone had already posted (she was lazy at that point).

But I'm posting on time for this one.

First, quick summary of my thoughts for the episode 8, since I didn't make a post about it. (regarding things we still don't know obviously).

First and foremost, that cut after Non was taken away by Top and Tee right onto the police questioning ... so sus. I'm sure something more happened there, but we will learn later, because it would spoil the fun for us.

Then Keng. Even his last scene felt ... suspicious. It's clear we should believe he's dead, but in situations like this, the good old rule of "he's not dead until I'm seeing his corpse" definitely applies. It's so suspicous that we don't see the end of both Keng and Non. Why that might be? (some thoughts about this will be later because it's regarding the 9th episode plot).

Now moving on to today's episode, that being episode 9.

(This whole post is now turning into one giant "I told you so" because most of the theories I had turned out to be correct in this episode, so please bear with me).

First of all, the big reveal, Tan is New. I've been onto this thought since we learned that New exists, so I can't say I was shocked, I was just excited that my theory was right.

Along with that comes the confirmation, that Tan (I'll be calling him Tan to not make it confusing) really wanted to get some little revenge there. And what more, Phee is on board with him (another win for me there btw).

Next thing, PheeJin. That was wild, I feel like I've seen something I shouldn't, I'm forever tainted by that view, thank you very much (not that I'm complaining about it). But what is important is the fact, that falling for Jin wasn't really on Phee's bucket list of this plan (I was right again, hehe!) and it definitely angers Tan (because he views it as cheating on Non). Which also explains Tan's angry gazes at Phee and Jin in the first ep. (wonder why Phee just didn't tell him that he and Non broke up after the situation with Keng, tho)

Also, not gonna lie, I loved how Tan told Phee, "You go and be best friend with him" and the next thing Phee does is fuck the guy raw and rough, as if that was part of process of becoming friends (or is it and I was doing the whole friendship thing the wrong way the whole time?) But it's also clear that Phee does like Jin and only cut him off to not upset Tan.

From the preview it seems that PheeJin will be cool the next ep, which makes me wonder what exactly is the truth Phee will tell Jin. If he really tells him everything, how can Jin accept it and be good with him? I think it's possible that Phee really says the truth, as well as telling him that he loves him, but was scared to date him because of Tan. It's still hard to believe Jin would accept that, so I'm thinking if our boy Phee won't change some details there. (I personally hope he won't, he's the only good person out there).

Also just a personal side note here... I love Phee, but did he really trust the randomly found water bottle? After all the shit that happened to them? Like I know he smelled it, but like ... there are things that are poisonous and don't have any smell. (I think coolant is one of those). I get that he wanted to help Jin, but I would rather tell him there is no water and that our best option is to go back to the house (they don't know about the shitstorm that's happening there).

Well, now back to our boy Tan. If someone has the perfect motive, it's him now. He has nothing to lose. BUT he mainly wants information. He wants to know what happened to Non. And obviously, we know that he prepared the drug (from now I'll be calling it absynth, because that's what we call it with some of my friends and honestly it's better than calling it green drug so-), but acording to Tan's own words, it was supposed to make them see their biggest fears in order for them to confess/say what they know. With that it's clear that for some time, Tan definitely NEEDS them alive. (also hallucinations, another win for me and my theories, yay!)

Which is why I think that at least Por's injury (and later the death) wasn't on his list of events. Especially since Por got injured so quickly, even before anyone had any hallucinations caused by the absynth. It would be stupid of Tan to plan to literally kill someone BEFORE they can tell him what he wants to know (we can assume that Por somehow surviving that long wasn't part of the plan, it literally only happened because of Fluke and that's something you can't plan) (and even if you could plan it, it would be so stupid to rely on to be doctor to keep the guy alive until you can interrogate him). And obviously there's the thing of all of them having alibi for Por's injury, including Tan. And if Fluke was right, Por had cuts on his arms caused by a knife and I doubt Por cut himself while chilling on the branch, waiting to be saved.

Which brings me to my theory of there being someone else with them. Someone who really wants to harm them. (and before we get any further, since Top was obviously drugged, I think that part was Tan's doing). I don't know if that's possible or even a thing, but there are hints of it. Por's injury, us seeing the ghost hand without any character being present for it to be just hallucinations, multiple different masks/killers being seen. The question is, who could it be. The first obvious answer is Non. But I sure hope it's not him. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I want him to be dead, but it would inevitably lead for Phee being forced to make an impossible choice: going back to Non or staying with Jin? And I honestly don't want that drama to happen.

Other option is understandably Keng. But not that I want to defend him, but I don't think he would go that far, even for Non. When he wanted to help him, he did so as legally as possible (he tried to expose the business). And I just do not think he would suddenly switch to killing a bunch of kids.

And for those two, if I'm being honest, I just think they're both dead. Not that I wish for it, but it would fit the narrative more than suddenly revealing they are alive.

I think the character of Perth is interesting though. We know nothing about him now (I mean except his lucrative job for Tee's uncle), but there might be something that could make him want to kill the boys. But hard to say until we have some backstory.

I would rather if it all was just the hallucinations, but personally, as you just read, there are some things that don't add up to that option.

The thing that left me thinking a lot after this ep, was how suddenly White just ... spawned there. No explanation, he was just there suddenly. The way this show is going, I refuse to believe that he's the only innocent person there. And honestly, seeing him suddenly switch from helpless cutiepie to evil grinning while ending someone would be so cool. But even if not that, I think there is something important about him. No one in that house is there just by pure coincidence and I don't think White is an exception.

Lastly, something I noticed in the preview that left me thinking. Before the episode cut the end, we saw Tan giving us his evil grin. In the preview we see him shielding Fluke from Top. Which I find interesting. I guess it means he won't reveal his identity that fast, but even so, him going all the way to shield Fluke seems ... out of his character. In that situation, I think it wouldn't be weird if he just stood afar, protecting himself (especially since Fluke literally pointed gun at them all shortly before). I wonder what made him shield that guy. Was it automatic reaction to immediate danger? Or was it that something was not going as he planned to and he knew that at least for the sake of information, he needed Fluke alive?

I guess that's question for the next episode.

Thank you for reading all the way here. Have a lovely day!

See you after the next episode (hopefully).

#dff #dead friend forever #dff spoilers #thai drama #thai bl #dff the series

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muriellelibrary · 1 year

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Here is a print I will be debuting this weekend at ANIME CENTRAL. I haven't had time to watch all the episodes yet, but the handful I have seen have been so gosh darn delightful. I love the colors, the vibrancy, the design, the music. I was rolling on the floor with glee over Beyonder. Laurence Fishburne, I swear! What FUN! It's a cute show that I totally recommend to anyone and everyone. And the theme song is the catchiest thing. I have been singing it constantly.

Now, I have to admit that the colors that you see here will not come out as vibrantly in the print version. If you know anything about RGB vs CMYK, you will understand (and if anyone is interested, I can give a crash course about it but I know there are much more learned folks than myself). I tried to correct as much as possible for the print version, but then when I uploaded it here, it came out with the original bold RGB. Personally I think it matches the show more, but lord if I could only get it to print like that. (I spoke with my usual printer.) Here's what I'm talking about btw. Look at how the exact same file looks on my screen (and more how the prints look) next to what is showing up in the preview. I don't know. I just don't diddly-dang know.

#fanart #art #moon girl and devil dinosaur #RGB and CMYK are both uncooperative idiots

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demetriandelibinaryboyfriends · 8 months

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@ckfemslashnetwork

COBRA KAI SAPPHIC SUMMER WEEK 1 HEATWAVE

***

I don’t want no drama But I know you’re looking at me Got the body of Madonna Like a virgin, make it sticky, sticky

Take me to nirvana Get me up out of this city And I know you got a woman So the situation’s sticky

Know you like what you see You look so damn good on me Like you’re good enough to eat Now you’re stuck in my teeth Got me picking out a ring Baby, I got an idea

Hey, I should be your next girlfriend And she should be your ex girlfriend Hey, you should be my next girlfriend La-la-la, ooh, mmm, la-la-la

California summer Like a popsicle, it’s dripping You’re an Arizona stunner Like a tea, I wanna sip it, sip it

Let me give you sugar You’re my spicy tuna, sticky, sticky Spicy like a rumor You’re my hallelujah, sticky

If you like what you see You look so damn good on me Like you’re good enough to eat, ah-ah

Now you’re stuck in my teeth Got me picking out a ring Baby, I got an idea

Hey, I should be your next girlfriend And she should be your ex girlfriend Hey, you should be my next girlfriend La-la-la, ooh, mmm, la-la-la

Hey, I should be your next girlfriend And she should be your ex girlfriend Hey, you should be my next girlfriend

***

AKSDJNHKUYFGDRKY YES ONE LAST MINUTE SUBMISSION BEFORE THE EVENT IS OVER I KNOW I'M CUTTING IT CLOSE

So this was actually the first fic I started writing specifically for this event, and then I didn't get anywhere near how much I wanted of the preview done by the end of the first week D: So I'm submitting what I have now! Still didn't get to what I was really hyped about (i.e. the spicy bits lmao), but oh well! Can't have time for everything, I guess. At least this post probably won't get filtered now?

So since this was the first fic I wrote for YasMoon in a while, it was absolutely the clunkiest when I went back to edit ^^; I had to spend way more time than I thought just cleaning the damn thing up and getting it on par with my later (and comparatively much better) fic snippets for the femslash event XD With that said, forgive me if it's still a little rough--I was kinda rushing to finish by the event ending D:

For anyone wondering about the ship tags--I know this is YasMoon-centric right now, but I promise MoonPiper will play a bigger role in the finished fic! Moon is dating Piper at the time this fic takes place, which is, ah...definitely going to complicate things. And also make Yasmine really salty. This girl is not one bit happy that she missed her chance like an idiot XD

BTW that top left pic of Yasmine giving Moon a once-over is the Screenshot of All Time. Girl is so ready to take her on the floor that instant. Like!!! Get it together, Yas!!! You are in public, babe!!!

Yasmine's older influencer sister Rosalie who lives in Big Bear makes an appearance here!!! I really love writing about her for some reason. Like I genuinely can't remember the last time I've been this jazzed about fleshing out a fandom OC, aside from some ship lovechildren I made ages ago XD But idk idk I just think she's neat!!! And I wanted to give Yas a family member she has a quasi-good relationship with, since I HC she has difficulties with homophobic parents.

CW for open-ish discussions of teen sexuality and some dirty innuendos.

***

“Thanks for coming out with me today.”

Yasmine watches Moon climb in the new Porche. Hair tied back, smile relaxed, patterned orange dress sweeping in a delicate cloud around tanned legs.

So much of her’s just the same. Impressive that a whole summer full of karate drama bullshit didn’t even bruise that carefree, easygoing spirit.

If anything, it strengthened. Perhaps out of spite, whether or not Moon was consciously aware of it.

Some parts have definitely shifted, though. There’s an iron resolve that’s grown under those thin shawls and short skirts. An extra coat of armor she’s sprouted, thanks to Hawk. Thanks to Yasmine.

Her stomach twists guiltily. It’s the kind of protection someone like Moon should never have to develop.

The world is a cruel place. Unfair, cutthroat, brutal to anyone who doesn’t fit the proper “mold.” Yasmine’s always known that.

She just never thought she’d be the one to teach it to Moon, with her friend’s wide-eyed naiveté and innocent hope that no one was that shitty a person—only misguided.

Yasmine knows she’s the exception to that rule.

“Are you okay?”

She blinks. Reclined in the passenger’s seat, Moon’s fixing her with the kind of concerned gaze she almost never deserves.

“Yeah.” It comes out sharper than she means. A habit she should probably work on. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You…were staring at me and idling the car. You’re kind of out of it. Should we stop for iced coffee?”

“Right.” Yasmine forces a smile. “Was just, ah…thinking about how I’m relieved we can hang out again. Don’t make fun of me for being a sappy bitch, but I missed you.”

Moon laughs—and oh god, she missed that too.

Not that she’ll ever admit it aloud, but it was horrendously stupid to think she could cut Moon off. To think she wouldn’t come crawling back, mesmerized like some idiot in a spy movie falling into the world’s most obvious honey trap.

Not that Moon would ever intentionally honeypot anyone. But she has a way of making you care too much, and not realizing it until it’s too late to save yourself.

“Same,” Moon says. “Actually really glad you’re not still mad at me.”

“Oh, no, I am. Incredibly lame of you to ditch me for a guy who looks like the main character of a budget Sonic the Hedgehog live action remake. But I guess I’ll let it slide this once.”

Moon bursts out snickering—the same way she always has when Yasmine’s bluntness catches her off-guard. There’s something comforting about the familiarity.

“Appreciated,” Moon says.

As they weave out of the hilly Encino neighborhood, Yasmine’s grip on the steering wheel loosens. She didn’t even realize she was squeezing.

“Although I’d be an idiot to turn down iced coffee,” she adds. “Maybe if we wait ‘til we get there, we can Instagram it.”

“Damn. If I knew you were in the mood, I would’ve made you some for the cooler.”

Yasmine winces.

It was a habit they’d fallen into their freshman year. Moon fiddled around with her parents’ coffee machine, using Yasmine as her guinea pig to test out various experimental lattes. Yasmine had tried just about every plant-based creamer under the sun now—and shockingly, even found a handful that didn’t taste like shit. It never failed to make her feel pampered and cared for, even if some of Moon’s combinations were a little…unconventional. (She’s pretty sure Moon spiked her oat milk hazelnut latte with hemp once.)

Something about Moon being so ready to pick the kind gesture back up—after everything—makes Yasmine feel like a horrible person all over again.

“It’s fine.” Her voice is tight. “My mom doesn’t give a shit if we get some food on the credit card. And those kinda covert promo posts get more likes, anyway.”

They turn onto the 405 entrance ramp, where 11 a.m. traffic is already moving as if the entire freeway is stuck in a swamp. Apparently they aren’t the only teenagers trying to get in one last beach trip before the school year.

Speaking of. Moon’s end-of-summer party is in a few days. Which Yasmine will have to miss because…reasons.

Or one reason, mainly. One sharp-eyed, curly-haired, leather-jacket-wearing, much-hotter-than-Yasmine reason.

Ugh.

Her concern isn’t her and Piper getting catty with each other—although she certainly wouldn’t rule it out. She’s much more worried about what’ll happen if she actually likes Piper.

Because Moon deserves someone kind and considerate who treats her well. And the past year or so, she’s had pretty shit luck with that.

And yet. Yasmine has a feeling Piper could be the best girlfriend to ever grace the planet, and the sight of her would still feel like a knife to the gut.

I’m sorry, I wish I could. Ros is having this influencer mixer thing in Big Bear and my parents will kill me if I don’t go.

She’s ironed out the excuse a thousand times, and it sounds plausible enough. Moon knows Yasmine’s parents are crazy, and obsessed with everything their precious Rosalie does.

Hopefully it’ll suffice to not further strain an already-frayed thread. A thread Yasmine’s trying to duct tape back together.

“It’s a shame Sam couldn’t make it,” Moon pipes up suddenly.

Yasmine freezes.

She’s not sure where she and Sam stand. If Yasmine had her way, they’d be done. She seriously doubts there wasn’t any truth to what Kyler told her and Moon.

Besides, Yasmine would bet good money Sam’ll throw her lot in with Aisha next year, now that Aisha’s everyone’s favorite fucking wedgie-giving bitch, apparently.

But Moon’s fond of Sam. Apparently, they rekindled their friendship while she was in France.

While Moon still didn’t know if she and Yasmine were going to patch things up. While she believed it was best to let Yasmine go and make things right with all the people her ex best friend hurt.

And Yasmine doesn’t think trying to get her way in the Sam matter will do much to help her hold onto the friend that, against all odds, she managed to get back.

“Yeah,” Yasmine lies. “A shame.”

“Guess she’s too busy with her new dojo boyfriend.”

Moon snickers again. Yasmine glances over, eyebrows raised.

“Her what now?”

“Didn’t you see her Instagram story? She and this guy she met through karate, they’re totally—wait.” Moon’s eyes widen as Yasmine frowns in confusion. “Did you unfollow her?!”

Yasmine’s eyes flick back to the road, chest turning in embarrassment. Before she can think of an excuse, Moon gasps in smug delight.

“Oh, you petty bitch.”

Yasmine huffs. “Look, her stupid ex-bestie embarrassed me in front of the entire school! Forgive me for thinking we weren’t really on following terms.”

Her friend only laughs, seemingly content not to rib any further. Another thing Yasmine’ll have to add to the list of neverending things she’s grateful to Moon for.

How annoying. She already owes Moon so much, and it’s only getting worse.

“Then I guess I’ll have to catch you up myself,” Moon says. “So when Sam started doing karate again, her dad was training this other guy, too. They hit it off, apparently. But she hasn’t told her dad they’re together yet because this kid’s also living with them because his home life is really bad so the LaRussos invited him to stay in their spare room so he could actually get regular meals—”

“Wait, wait.” Despite herself, Yasmine’s overcome with morbid curiosity. “Miyagi Do or whatever, right? Please tell me Sam’s new boytoy isn’t the same freakshow who tried to hit on me on my birthday. Donatello, or whatever the fuck you said his name was.”

Moon chuckles. “What, Demetri?”

“Yeah, that’s the one.” Yasmine makes a face. “The I-promise-I’m-not-a-stalker-I-just-watch-you-across-the-cafeteria guy. I’d honestly be shocked if he ever landed a girl.”

“Well, he does karate, too. Not like Miguel and Robby, though.” She lets out a dreamy sigh, gazing out the window. “I’ve gotta take you to the next AVT. So many hotties there.”

Yasmine might be sick.

“Right, yeah. Totally my dream to land some shrieking, possessive, testosterone-loaded freak who tattoos my name on him without me asking and then tries to use it to guilt me to stay with him after he beats people up over Yelp reviews. Husband material right there.”

Moon winces. Yasmine doesn’t hold back a smug grin.

The hopeful naiveté can be endearing, but Moon really should have known better than that one.

“They’re not all like that,” she mumbles.

“Come on.” Yasmine scoffs. “In what world would I want some gross, sweaty braindead maniac rubbing himself all over me and acting like I’m his pretty little bitch on a leash? Hard fucking pass.”

She’s thrown off by Moon’s dubious look.

“Didn’t you used to get Kyler to beat up anyone who got in your way?”

“Well, yeah, but that was different. It was a convenience thing—I didn’t get some disgusting girl hard-on because of it.”

The very thought makes her shudder. Boys are good for intimidation purposes, but their uses end there.

Yasmine shuffles her legs, stomach tightening. If…well, that was the rent she might have to eventually pay for guys like Kyler to do her bidding, then to hell with it—she’d do her dirty work herself.

***

“So Rosalie really got lost at the Cannes film festival.”

Moon’s body bends gracefully as she flaps the beach towel out behind her. The wind catches it perfectly, straightening it as she guides it to the ground.

Yasmine tracks her movements, insides aching. Gleaming, sun-kissed skin, perfectly curved body, silky chestnut hair…

She’s such a fucking tease. And from the way she’s deliberately taking her time squatting to put down the towel and stretching up again…

She damn well knows it.

Well, two can play at this game.

“Oh, yeah.” Yasmine sets their cooler down and strides over to her friend. “She knows some actor who was supposed to get us into this premier, but he got sidetracked schmoozing on the main walkway. Apparently Christopher Nolan was there, and—”

Moon begins to open their umbrella. Yasmine gently but firmly takes it away. “Here, let me.”

“Are you sure?” Moon looks worried. Cute. “It’s big, Yas. It’ll crush you.”

“Oh, please. I’m taller than you! Besides.” She fixes Moon with a conniving smirk. “You and Sam aren’t the only ones who get to feel up long, hard rods.”

As she slides her fingers across the umbrella handle, Moon giggles, scandalized. “I…didn’t know you liked that sort of thing.”

“See, umbrellas aren’t whiny, boring little shits who never shut up about how great their handle is, or cry when you tell them a different umbrella has a better handle.”

“Anyhow.” Yasmine slung the umbrella over one shoulder. “Ros’s actor friend vanishes, so she runs off to find him, right? In, y’know, that one slutty green gala gown she wears in all the party makeup tutorial livestreams. She got yanked into some side tent because they actually thought she was co-starring in the new JLo movie! Was like an hour before we found her.”

She saunters across the towel and plants the umbrella in the sand as she recounts the story. Moon’s eyes wander across her, as palpable a sensation as heat rays tracing her back in a tanning salon.

Yasmine smirks. Moon likes strong people? Girls in leather jackets and boys who dive into punching showdowns?

Hell, she can be strong, too. Just because she prefers others to do the work for her doesn’t mean she’s not capable.

She stands on her toes as she cranks the umbrella open, making a point to flex long, thin legs as she does it. She takes her time adjusting the thing, letting the sun catch a blinding gleam in her summery cyan manicure.

A breeze ruffles the skirt of Yasmine’s sundress, cool air brushing against her back legs. She makes no effort to stop this.

Maybe Moon will enjoy the view. Would do her some good to remember what she’s missing.

“You, um…you doing okay with that?”

Moon’s completely flustered. Yasmine’s so self-satisfied it could eat her up.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine,” she says airily. “Just a bit awkward. But if Kyler’s not gonna be around to lift shit for me, then I’m not about to wait around for someone else who will.”

“I mean, I could go bat my eyelashes at one of those surfer guys and get them to help us. Not like it would be hard.”

Yasmine shudders.

“What, and have to deal with him trying to menage-a-trois us all day? It’d cause more problems than it’d solve.”

She loosens her fingers—strategically enough that the umbrella tie toppling to the sand looks like an accident. As it hits the beach, she groans.

“Ugh. Damn thing.”

Yasmine slowly inches her feet apart, bending at the waist and making sure her…well, her back end is as noticeable as it will go without looking ridiculous.

Maybe it’s her imagination, but she swears Moon sucks in her breath.

Yasmine spends several seconds plodding through the sand, umbrella tie in full sight the entire time. When the search is convincing enough, she grabs the tie and quickly stands back up.

“Did you just use the Legally Blonde Bend-and-Snap on me?”

It’s Yasmine’s turn to blush.

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, come on. The thing where you pretend to drop something so you can lean down and get it and show off your ass. I know you’re not that openly slutty unless you want someone to see.”

Yasmine stares at the umbrella, face probably making her look like she ditched the sunscreen today. She’s not about to let Moon see.

“Oh, don’t be so enamored with yourself! Not everything is about you.”

Moon snickers. “Yeah, but that sure was.”

“Ugh. You can’t prove that.”

“I may as well be able to. Your aura’s all full of it.”

Yasmine fingers the hem of her dress, growing more and more flustered.

Moon didn’t used to be this cheeky. Or this…bold. Learning to stand up for herself sure gave the girl a self-made remodel.

And it’s driving Yasmine absolutely insane.

She wants to scream. Wail. Pull her hair. Beat her fists in the sand.

Anything to fight off the effect this New Moon is having on her.

But to hell with it. She hasn’t pulled her last ace yet.

“So are we ready to hit the waves or what?” She takes a deep breath, finally turning back to Moon and gesturing toward the lapping ocean. “It’s hot as shit out, and I didn’t come here just to tan.”

“Sure. But let me grab a drink first.”

As Moon reaches into the cooler, Yasmine starts to peel off her hot pink sundress. She makes a point not to rush, wanting to savor her friend’s reaction.

Oh, she’ll love this.

When Moon turns around, she nearly chokes on her Arizona iced tea.

“You didn’t.”

Yasmine smirks. “I did.”

The other girl shakes her head, mouth tightening. “You really just—ugh.”

“What?” Yasmine bats her lashes, feigning innocence. “It’s a perfectly good bathing suit! What’s the problem?”

Moon groans, yanking off her own sundress in one frustrated motion. “Well, one of us is going to have to change!”

And for a moment all Yasmine can do is stare, taking in the tie-dyed blue, black, and white bikini identical to the one she’s sporting. Matched not for some giggly best friends stunt, but out of a sort of mutual pettiness that still lingered from that fateful night by the bonfire.

The next moment, she’s howling with laughter.

“Oh, you catty bitch. And here I was thinking you didn’t have a mean bone left in your body.”

Moon crosses her arms, glaring. “It was my bathing suit to begin with,” she says, tone snippy. “You were the one who copied my style!”

“Yeah, because I thought it’d be cute if we matched. And you thought so, too, until you went drooling after Spikehair McRage Issues. And now I’m ripping you off? Convenient.”

Her smirk widens as Moon splutters incoherently, arriving at some kind of logical dead end.

“Come on now.” Yasmine pushes her bottom lip out in a fake pout. “All our drama’s water under the bridge, isn’t it? It can be a quirky bestie thing again, you know.”

She knows damn well Moon’s annoyance goes deeper than having her outfit plagiarized. And she also knows that playing dumb as Moon gets more and more quietly exasperated is one of the funniest things she’s ever seen.

Yasmine’s willing to let bygones be bygones. But the Old Yasmine—the one with her heart still torn out from the only person who mattered to her abandoning her at a moment’s notice—can’t resist a few jabs here and there.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know why I’m upset.”

Yasmine blinks, taken aback.

So Moon’s directly voicing gripes regularly now. That wasn’t just a one-time thing.

It’s a little intimidating.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” She keeps up the act, wondering how far she can get.

Moon takes a long swig of tea before speaking, as if to gather strength.

“When you posted those social media pics over the summer…you wore it as a dig at me, didn’t you?”

She opens her mouth, trying to think of a justification and coming up short.

“Not about to believe you ‘just felt like it’ or ‘just forgot.’” Moon snorts derisively. “I know blue tie-dye’s not your style. You only ever got one of those because I did, and you thought it’d be funny if we looked the same.”

Yasmine hesitates, a stone forming in her stomach.

Perhaps if Moon’s ditching her filter, then Yasmine doesn’t need one either. Perhaps brazenly voicing the unsaid with 0 reservations is their new normal.

Strange as that would be.

“I wanted to remind you what we were,” Yasmine admits quietly. “What we had, that you…decided you didn’t want anymore. And I guess also remind you that you could like…turn your back on me and do the ‘reform’ thing all you wanted, but that wouldn’t ever change the fact that you were my best friend. That there’s a lot about us that’s exactly the same, and you can’t pretend you didn’t go along with all the shitty stuff I did for a long-ass time.”

“But I stopped. I apologized to people. I tried to change.” Moon frowns. “Isn’t that what matters?”

“I’m not saying you’re not like…a way better person than me.” Yasmine smiles sadly. “I’ll admit that now. But you’re not some flawless saint. And you can’t just erase the person you were when you were with me.”

“I guess not. But I was never that happy when I felt like…like I was your obedient little pet or something.”

The words cut deeper than Yasmine expects.

“Is that—is that really how you think I saw you?”

Moon realizes she’s hit a nerve.

“I—I don’t know.” Some of the steel is gone from her voice, guilt poking through. “It felt like that sometimes. I know you cared about me, and you were working through a bunch of shit and couldn’t be super open about it. But you always made everything about you.”

And fuck—Yasmine can’t argue with that. She stares at the beach towel, shuffling her feet.

“And why did you wear it today?” Moon’s voice hardens. “To needle me again?”

Yasmine crosses her arms, finally looking up. “And why did you wear yours?”

Moon stops, caught at an impasse. Yasmine’s smirk returns.

“See? We’ve still got a thing or two in common.”

She saunters over, swaying her hips and shifting the tie-dye bikini back and forth.

“I knew there was some mean bitch left in you. Otherwise you’d never have agreed to hang out with me again, hmmmm?”

She smiles, and it’s every bit as smug and conniving as the mask Old Yasmine always hid behind. Moon inhales sharply, leaning back as Yasmine sweeps through more and more of her personal space. By the time her friend gets within inches of Moon’s face, she’s a tensed-up, flustered mess.

Interesting how her feet stay planted when it’d be easy to back up. Maybe that new assertiveness of hers is pressuring her to stand her ground. Or maybe…

“I think we’ve both been feeling a little petty about that whole mess on my birthday, haven’t we?” Yasmine murmurs the words against Moon’s lips, tantalizingly close. Their bodies are brushing now, electricity fizzing under Yasmine’s skin at every point of contact.

She’s burning to know if Moon will close the distance. Give into temptation and finish the job, like Yasmine knows she wants to.

Moon’s eyes start to shut, lips pursing. Yasmine’s smile widens, reaching out manicured cat claws and devouring the metaphorical canary.

In one quick motion she turns, sweeping one arm around Moon and using her other to pull out her phone and snap a selfie. Then she’s gone, stepping away to drop the photo on Instagram and type a caption.

“Twinsiessss!” she hums, reading it aloud. “Missed beach days with this girl. X x x x.”

Moon shakes her head, scoffing. You tease, her glare says.

Well. It’s only payback, isn’t it?

“We’re ridiculous,” she says, sighing. “This is one step away from those annoying ‘his’ and ‘hers’ t-shirts.”

The implication isn’t lost on Yasmine—and it’s all the proof she needs that Moon was one bad decision away from breaking Piper Elswith’s heart.

Is it wrong that she takes a fucked up sort of pride in it?

Shoving the quandary from her mind, Yasmine claps her hands. “Okay, enough of all that. Let’s go for a fucking swim.”

She crams her phone in their swim bag, haphazardly throwing a spare beach blanket over their belongings. Grabbing Moon’s wrist, she tugs them toward the sea.

It’s nice to hold her again. That tanned, lotioned-up skin never fails to feel perfect under Yasmine’s.

Moon laughs, expression coy. “Feels strange to be running around in our bikinis again. Brings back memories, doesn’t it?”

Yasmine’s face grows hot. It’s Moon’s turn to get her blushing, apparently.

“You remember the last time we did that?” Moon prompts. As though one rubbing around the sensitive spots of her memory wasn’t enough to trigger them.

“Oh, yeah.” She chuckles, and it’s a little bittersweet. “How could I forget?”

***

Random author's notes, in no particular order:

I realized that I put not one but two spy movie mentions in my recent YasMoon fics...so now I have a headcanon that her dad is super into James Bond and spy/thriller movies and that's how she's familiar with all the tropes! I like to think it's one of the few things they can still bond over and enjoy together, since I HC that Yasmine's relationship with her dad has gotten more and more strained over the years as she feels like she has to hide the fact she's a lesbian (and he's probably also out of the country a fair bit, if S4 is anything to go off of).

I actually find Yasmine and Sam's relationship so interesting??? Like Yasmine showed 0 guilt when she dropped her in S1 and readily sided with Kyler over her (in contrast to Moon, who looks guilty about cutting Sam off and seems upset by Kyler's public slut-shaming stunts). But then come S3, they're friends again??? I'm left to think they only really made nice because they both care about Moon and want to make her happy, because otherwise I don't think they'd have any reason to forgive each other. (Which kinda further proves my point about Yas being gay for Moon--"ugh I can't stand this shit-talking blowjob-giving bitch, but I'll be nice to her for you and you ONLY, babe!" Like Moon is really the only person who can keep Yasmine's bitchiness at all under control lmao. Even Demetri does a shit job of calling her out XD) And then by the time S5 rolls around, she and Sam seemed to have developed some genuine friendly affection for each other--which I think is kind of neat! The power of Moon's influence, amirite???

Yasmine's hapless lesbian ass really can't think of any better way of flirting than being like "oh nooooo!!! Kyaaaa!!! The wind went under my skirt!!! KYAAAA!!! I bent over to pick something up and you saw under my dress!!!" like a cringey anime girl. I would attest in a court of law that she is just THAT much of a disaster when it comes to openly and publicly flirting with girls. Like she hasn't the faintest idea what she's doing!!! She wants to get the point across but god forbid anyone notice she's gay!!! It needs to look accidental for plausible denial reasons, okay!!! Oh, the joys of writing a deeply closeted sapphic flailing her way through life <3

I just KNOW that Yasmine and Moon know Legally Blonde. Like how could they not??? The main character is a California valley girl XD Yasmine claims she watches it over and over because she loves Elle's aesthetic, but she secretly envies how smart Elle is and kind of wishes she could get a high-end kick-ass businessy job she could show up to in a bright pink suit. She also aspires to have a little purse dog, although she's partial to pomeranians and Japanese spitzes a little more than chihuahuas.

It's our lord's year 2023 and I am still saying the matching bikini bit from S2 was gay as fuck. Like Yasmine definitely knew what she was doing and she definitely wore that shit on purpose. And girl has enough basic fashion sense to not get an identical garment as her bestie unless she wants them to be matchy matchy. Y'know. Like a couples costume. Pretty damn fruity innit

Writing Yasmine as the most unapologetic lesbian tease is so funny. Like by god this girl WILL seduce women with everything she's got while wanting every dick on earth at least 400000000 feet away from her at all times. Iconic!

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