#two christmas transcripts in one week?? who am i...

[martyrbat]

the silent night of the batman — batman #219

(ID in alt!)

#two christmas transcripts in one week?? who am i... #this actually is a lil late but he leaves the gcpd at 6 am on dec 25th and its 1 now so. its close enough. #and sorry i am a sap i love the idea of batman making things better. that his image and promise of him encourages people to do better #like its a comic book ofc gotham can never be saved and that's part of her doomed charm but in my heart??? #the billions he pours out for charities and the foundation and different benefit programs?? the life he dedicates to protecting others?? #i like to think it does make a change. especially as other heros join in and help too :) #just rattling my emotional support bat by the neck and demanding he sees his life has had a positive impact and that everyone around him #isnt doomed to die or be depressed and that he doesn't make more dangerous criminals and that people love him and are thankful for him and #c: batman | i: 219 #crypt's panels #batman #posts from the crypt #transcrypts #bruce wayne #jim gordon #also theres an updated version of this with Oracle and Supergirl where its revealed they handled every single call to the fire department or #to the police for 24 hours to give jim and bruce hope and like #might have to post that one as a late christmas present because im obsessed with it

[yumemiyas-wips]

All of you SHUT UP and read this.

FULL TRANSCRIPT OF POST BELOW.

Two “rival” Chinese lesbian fic writers submit anonymous posts about each other on Weibo (Chinese twitter).

**I AM NOT the OOPs.** Two authors in the same lesbian fic writing community anonymously submitted posts to a Venting for Writers account on Weibo (https://t.co/BBxcEnSiJ4) (Chinese twitter). Source of the screenshots (https://twitter.com/juexias/status/1615339261611610115) in Chinese from @juexias on Twitter.

Mood Spoilers: CUTE, SWEET, WHOLESOME

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Submission by first author to the Venting for Writers account (https://twitter.com/silencedhawks/status/1615417962693033990?s=20) *Translations done by @silencedhawks on twitter.* — 27 December 2022

Both myself and another writer are quite famous within the same circle. We write and produce content at around the same speed. We don’t interact much between each other, but we have a bit of a little rivalry going on. For example, if she published a piece, tomorrow I have to publish one too. I can’t let her take up the trending spot on her own. We take up half of the trending spots without giving into each other, so we compete quite passionately against each other in secret.

But these two weeks I scrolled, and she didn’t appear, so I checked her profile and realized she was down with a very high fever and had been uncontactable. For a moment the Christmas gift fic I had became bland and tasteless.

When I finished reading, I was really scared. I immediately used my reader QQ account to ask her what happened and found out that she didn’t manage to snatch medicine in time and had been sick in bed for four days straight. After hearing that, I sent half a box of ibuprofen and fever reducers to her overnight. Now I just hope she’ll get better faster so I can properly and fairly beat her up. **The victory of being on top feels hollow when she isn’t here.**

And when she was lying in bed, I seriously thought it over. I concluded that her prose has too many irrelevant words and complicated sentences. What can be said in ten words she says in more than a hundred, apart from the complicatedness, it isn’t that good.

But compared to the others in the fandom, if I had to pick one, her writing is still more acceptable. Amen.

Response post (https://twitter.com/silencedhawks/status/1615423341594308608) by the second author (https://twitter.com/silencedhawks/status/1615423358556045312?s=20) (the one who got sick). *Translations done by @silencedhawks on twitter.* — 15 January 2023

Hello Bot, have some ibuprofen a reader sent me.

This is what happened: A week before Christmas, a lot of people from my school returned to their hometowns. On my way back, I caught COVID and fell sick, and ended up spending the entire Christmas in bed. I was really miserable during that time. I didn’t stock medicine. Even the fever meds I had were from begging my maternal grandma’s neighboring village. My family is a little special, I was brought up by my grandma. She’s getting on in years now and I absolutely don’t dare to let her take care of me.

With no one to take care of me and no medicine, the side effects of COVID left me bedridden and half-dead. Even after the fever went down on the third day, my head still felt like it was exploding with pain, like someone was prying it open from my temples all the way to my forehead.

After I felt a bit better, I decided to bury myself in blankets and check my phone to see how popular the fic I posted was, how many comments there were, in order to cheer myself up. I write in a small circle. Even though I’m not as popular as another writer who writes drabbles in the same circle, I have more comments and a very stable fanbase. Sometimes I manage to get on the rankings too.

There’s a reader who will always leave me meaningful comments on the content of each chapter and is very good at directly pinpointing what I wanted to convey. So I have a very distinct impression of her and later exchanged QQs with her. After exchanging QQs, I found out that she’s very lively and cute, like one of the cats I used to raise. Even through the screen, I can feel the lightness between her words. But she doesn’t use QQ often and is only online late at night.

Her command of language is very good. I asked her before if she would be open to collabing with me, but she said that she may not have the standards and time to churn out fic, and that the most she can do is some shallow writing. It was this reader that sent me medicine after hearing I got COVID. When she sent me the parcel number, it had only been half an hour since we talked.

The medicine had a paper note on it with nice handwriting. Below the note, four tablets of fever medicine had been used and there was still more than half the box of ibuprofen. After I received it, I asked how she would cope without it, and she told me two hours later that she still has medicine at her house. And she said that she was too busy these few days and forgot to say happy Christmas, so was a bit embarrassed. And she sent a very cute sticker, carefully asking me if she could make up for it with a belated Christmas wish. Actually, when I received the medicine, I was already half recovered. But I still deeply remember her Christmas greeting.

She said happy Christmas, and remembered that after she herself had gotten COVID her throat hurt, so she also gave me a box of lozenges and told me not to forget to eat them. **After all, you have to eat sweets during Christmas.**

In that moment I really couldn’t reply because I was crying. I was crying so hard that I scared my grandma. Even though I’ve explained many times, she still believes that the “friend” who sent me medicine is definitely a boyfriend that I haven’t told her about.

The story I want to tell ends here. When I was writing this, she was shopping for CNY (across province) goods with me. After her holidays started, she came online more often but still occasionally lost contact sometimes.

During those times I kept looking at my phone and thinking, **“If heaven exists, I hope we can meet each other in the future.” If it doesn’t, I’m willing to write for her forever.**

(Reddit OP here. These were anonymous submissions and we are unlikely to get any updates from here so I consider it concluded. Side note: The author who got sick has some insane charisma. Get it girl.)

#lesbian #writers #lgbtq #slow burn #f/f romance #enemies to friends to lovers #rivals to lovers #i can't believe that happened #squeeeeee #posts that have 10k to me

[thessalian]

Thess vs Being the Pack Mule

I need to vent or I am going to punch a wall. I am tempted to punch a wall anyway. A few broken fingers might be a detriment to video games and such, but they'd get me out of typing for a few weeks.

I got us below 200 cases. Came back to about 215. Currently we're at 240. Why? Because I am stuck with the long complicated bullshit. Again. Actually, it's more because Temp is very obviously dawdling over the shorter shit, I assume specifically so that she doesn't have to make the choice between actually doing one of the long complicated bits of bullshit or being really obvious about leaving them for me.

As for New Girl? Well, I've found out why she doesn't do the long ones. Because she tried. I know this because the twelve-minute bit of stupidity by The Breast Guy went back into the queue as "Transcription Suspended", so I went in to find out why. She tried. And she failed miserably. I don't know what the fuck she was doing, but The Breast Guy's dictation isn't so bad as to have that amount of just plain stupid. So I guess I should just never expect her to do any of the long complicated bullshit ever again. Glorious. At least I wasn't called in to fix the fucking thing. As for anything else ... I don't know what New Girl does the rest of the time, but I really hope that she has a job beyond typing. She's done maybe a dozen today, and I think she's done for the day.

Looking at the typing queue is depressing, but looking at the archive is worse. All together, it paints a picture of why I'm stuck doing this much fucking overtime. New Girl either isn't a dedicated typist or just really sucks at the typing (probably both, honestly). Meanwhile, Temp very specifically arranges her day to ensure that she never has to do anything longer than a minute (except for maybe one or two just to prove she does, sometimes, and those never more than three minutes). This means she dawdles around the afternoon, while the doctors are settling into their late afternoon groove that doesn't end until at least 6pm. And I can't plough through it because I'm stuck with atrocities from guys who skip around between the report and the block key and insist on me transcribing information that is actually available on the system, no three-minute typing jobs required. Thus, that work piles up, and I end up having to do it as overtime.

We need either more help, or for the two other people doing any of the typing to get a slap upside the head and told to suck it the fuck up and do shit faster. I am so tired of being the one carrying the fucking department. I am being made into a typing-specific pack mule, and I don't like it.

It's going to be another overtime weekend. I can just tell. I can't make any more of a dent without pulling overtime. And I hurt. Dear gods I hurt. I've only had, like, a single day's break in the last two weeks - I have worked every single other day, and I am not supposed to do that. Plus having to use my breaks between 'normal workday' and 'overtime' running errands. Like getting more painkillers because, again, OW. I don't sleep well because pain and stress, and that piles on...

I swear, all I want for Christmas is a few decent nights' sleep and a fucking break.

#Thess has a day job

[recapcrew]

Week 36 Transcript

Video

Intro

Extra extra, read all about it! Welcome to the Empire’s Recap, and today we will be going over the chaos and drama of our (somewhat) respected rulers!

This week we have the long awaited video from Oli TheOrionSound, in which many things happen including meeting the hermits, saying goodbye to the hermits, and realizing parenthood is stressful!

Oli

Our story begins with a quick recap of Oli’s time on the Hermitcraft server, including but not limited to leaving sign graffiti and writing the Christmas song “the real jim sheriff”.

Eventually his travels lead him back to the Olipelago.

In the 4 months Oli has been gone, he gained a lute—

[OLI] –cheek for the journey, goodbye god! …Nooo! No! I’m in Sanctuary! God has pushed me off the stairs! The bloody nerve of these Gods!

[NARRATOR] —Hosted a festival—

[OLI] –pretty penny! We’re rich, boys, we’re rich! Woo! It’s thanks to you, it’s thanks to you, and most of all it’s thanks to me!

[NARRATOR] And dealt with some inter dimensional visitors.

[OLI] What's your sick goal you short charlatan!

[NARRATOR] Who of course couldn’t resist visiting the great Olipelago!

[OLI] Don't read that, don't read that, ey!

[GRIAN] Debt? You're in debt To Gobland? YOU NOW OWE 81 DIAMONDS??

[OLI] Yeah, I've only made two episodes!

[NARRATOR] Also, our sincere apologies to Katherine's tailoring shop for the brief period of “Hermitopia not being in a glass box”… not that it seems to stop anybody.

One of the Hermits, Pearl, who looks incredibly like God who pushed him off a cloud, visits the Olipelago and helps out a bit despite the allegations. Probably having a rough time of it on the road to el dorado.

The Olipelago has expanded tremendously with its incredible second tent solely for beetroot. It is somewhat appropriate that the bard is the only one who lives off beets.

But disaster strikes! The dragon egg is starting to hatch!

[SHELBY MUTTERING] Temperature looks normal…

[OLI] What’s the diagnosis, doc?

[SHELBY] Well, not only am I not a doctor but I have exactly 0 medical training--

[OLI] Mhm mhm

[SHELBY] --but as far as I can tell… it’s a boy!

Pix and Gem reject the idea of having a dragon on the surface and Many an attempt to destroy said egg occurs - because it keeps coming back - before an understanding bridges the gap between Oli and surprise adoption.

To be a good parent you must have somewhere safe for them - so of course Oli builds a tiny Sydney opera house for the child and then goes searching for parenting advice.

[OLI] You’re a pesky little man aren’t you!

[NARRATOR] Lizzie’s parenting advice pretty much amounts to severe paranoia - Oli takes notes.

Pix’s advice is child labour, but considering said child is a copper aging facility he can be forgiven.

Joel, being Hermes’ parent, should have some good advice, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about children despite having several. He recommends… dancing?

Brief interlude for flirting with Sausage's dad, and then we meet the other father of Hermes, who actually gives reasonable advice as they watch the sunset. Before suddenly the egg starts to hatch - too late to back out now!

Sausage and Oli drag the egg to Shelby as she's the only one on this server even vaguely knowledgeable and they take the egg to the sun temple in Sanctuary to keep it warm enough.

[SHELBY] Deep breaths! I don’t—I’ve never—I’m not ready to be a mom, I have student loans—

[OLI] You’re not having the child, no! I’m having the child!

[SHELBY] Oh!

[NARRATOR] They set a fire surrounding the egg, and Oli ends up sitting on it to keep it warm before it starts to float in the air.

Some severe magical stuff is happening on this server, and Oli slips off the egg and his new dragon child lands at his feet.

To be continued…

Jimmy

In other news, Tumble town has been given a very odd copper statue of a cod! The mesa feels like an odd place to put that…

Anyway, to finish the rails to the train station Jimmy needs some iron in bulk supply. Unfortunately he doesn’t have any iron, let alone diamonds to pay False to use her iron farm. That’s an easy fix though, just gotta go mining!

This mining adventure quickly goes wonky however when Jimmy finds a strange old man in a cave. Apparently he used to be the old sheriff before Jimmy rolled into town, and had gotten stuck down the mines while chasing a bandit.

[OLD SHERIFF, ACCUSATORY] Where did you get Wednesday?

[JIMMY] Who—uh, it’s Friday right now. I—I don’t think you—

[OLD SHERIFF] No, I’m not talking about the day, I’m talking about that hat on your head! Where did you get Wednesday?

[JIMMY] No—this is the Sheriffs hat. Take a look, this is the Sheriffs hat, what do you mean?

[OLD SHERIFF] You think I don’t know that, I am the Sheriff!

[JIMMY] …What?

[NARRATOR] This is a prime opportunity to learn how the old sheriff earned his respect - being very short doesn't exactly inspire his fellow rulers to respect him. The Old sheriff agrees on the condition he can see the town again.

Jimmy shows him the outside and learns that apparently before Jimmy got there the town was called Midweek, because of Wednesday the hat of course.

[OLD SHERIFF] I’d be like, “Good morning how you doin’”, I’d tip Wednesday, and they’d say, “Is it midweek?” and I’d say “Everyday is midweek, ‘specially in this town!”

[JIMMY STARTS TO LAUGH]

[OLD SHERIFF] And they would absolutely love it, they’d chant my name, I’d catch them criminals and I’d throw ‘em behind bars!

[NARRATOR] The tall Joel statue does scare the old sheriff but he’s a man of his word, so he takes Jimmy back to the mines and teaches him the meaning of Respect.

Jimmy takes the old sheriff to the saloon and gets a small pep talk before he goes to show his friends and fellow rulers what he’s learnt from the newest - oldest? - Tumble Town resident.

[JIMMY] Okay.

[OLD SHERIFF] And you tip Wednesday and you say, good morning ma’am, good morning sir, good morning they, good morning them, you say good morning to everythin’, you hear me?

[NARRATOR] Jimmy saddles up his horse and rides through the Golden empire to get to the Greatbridge where he meets Gem, Sausage and Fwhip.

The three of them start teasing him over his height - the old sheriff's lessons don’t seem to work no matter how he tries! It’s really hammered home when Gem, one of his only allies that truly respected him, is given Sausages sword and kills him…

He is fed up with this disrespect!

Lizzie

After some reflection, Lizzie and the Critter Council decide to ally with fWhip, after multiple months. But the transport connections between those two empires is quite unsatisfactory… But no worries! Mayor Lizzie will bless anyone departing or arriving Critter City with a much more beautiful tram station and see! There is already some traffic!

[LIZZIE] What is the meaning of this?

[LIZZIE, READING] Dear Mayor of Animalia, come to the Drip Tavern to continue the discussion we had in Tumble Town. Burn this note before you arrive. fWhip of Gobland.

[NARRATOR] After some problems involving 12 gunpowder, three people, and explosives, Lizzie and Fwhip decide to make their own gunpowder farm. They each have their own task, fWhip’s got the beacon and Lizzie’s got the cats.

[FWHIP] Oh no, Lizzie… What efficiency do you have on your tool?

[LIZZIE, OVERLAPPING] I don’t have efficiency 5.

[LIZZIE] Wait, don’t look at me, I’m embarrassed! I’ll be right back!

[NARRATOR] After digging, it’s building time, and the creeper farm is officially done; but creepers are not the only thing falling.

Deciding they’ll meet back in one hour, Lizzie takes advantage of the beacon to finally finish her ores bundle. She digs one massive hole underneath Stratos to find her diamond ores. After multiple bumps along the way, she finds it.

[LIZZIE] Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat, wouldn’t you say my collections complete?

[NARRATOR] Back to the creeper farm and it’s rewarding! Fwhip and Lizzie decide to expand the storage but there is something odd lurking around.

[FWHIP] Can you see that?

[LIZZIE] What is—What is that?

[FWHIP] What is… in there?

[LIZZIE] Oh! Oh my gosh I saw something in there!

Outro

And with that, join us next week for more chaos and shenanigans! Thank you for watching, liking, and subscribing, and thanks to everyone helping with the project, check them all out below!

#empires recap #empires season 2 recap #transcript

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

12/31/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Revelation 19-22

Today is the 31st day of December. I'm Jill. This is Daily Audio Bible Chronological and it's the final day- the end of a journey. Well worn, well traveled and well it's the final day. And that is very surreal- bitter and sweet. We hold the finality of that for those of us that have been here and shown up nearly every day or every day, or if you just got here, welcome to the final chapter- the final day before we get ready to turn the page and start a brand new journey. We will spend some time and reflect at the end. Right now let's finish this day and this year as we begin a brand new week today. We are reading Revelation chapters 19 through 22 and this week will begin a brand new translation and be in the New International version. Revelation chapter 19.

Announcements:

This concludes the reading of the word for Daily Audio Bible Chronological 2023. Over the last couple years my time here at chronological at this place in the year I like to look back over the year and sort of give reflections on my personal journey through the Bible and what the year has meant to me. And what it has meant for me to get to this moment. And by the way, if you're not so you haven't journaled at all, I would encourage you to do the same just even a piece of paper, a sentence or two or paragraph of how the Bible has transformed you this year- your takeaways, what overall theme you've learned, just anything that you can resort back to.

I don't know if I could do that personally this year as this has been the hardest here of my life bar none hands down. I have had to do the deepest inward look of my life. And Brian and I have spoke about this on the family Christmas, so it's not a secret. We have done this in our marriage- to go back to the very beginning of our story and I'm still going through my own personal story- pulling things apart and counseling, intense therapy, because isn't it just like God to pull absolutely everything apart when you think you might finally have it together?

I think that's exactly what has transpired in my life. I have been humbled to dirt. Humbled to eat dirt, to strip everything away so that I could stand before my own self and before God naked and unashamed when shame has been one of the most familiar voices in my life ever since I can remember. And I remember an intense moment in therapy where I had to pull something apart that was extremely painful and my body started to roll over the floor to hide my face. And my therapist said why don't you roll halfway and I said no, I am fighting, fighting to be here in all of my shame and not run and hide. And I did and I am still doing and I am still working. And I say all of that to say this- God will stop at nothing to reveal his truth to the hearts of those who truly seek him. If we submit to his ways we will find healing if we want healing. And I have had to learn this year the meaning and the definitions of words in my life that I have taken for granted and I have looked to the word of God for those definitions of truth according to what God says about it and applied it to my own personal beliefs, my own personal convictions and I'm grateful that as I pondered those things as I sat with the- meditated on those words, in the definitions, the word was hidden in my heart and I knew, I knew where to look. I knew where to find the things that would help me define values and definitions of unconditional love and acceptance and the things that God truly hates. Not the things that we hate and say God hates with us. And I'm grateful, I'm so grateful for the work that I have been doing this year and I am so grateful that in the work God has been with me every step of the way and what I have learned is a heart of gratitude- not a word of gratitude, not a day of gratitude, but the difference between being entitled to the things that we think we are owed and looking at the most pure things from a different lens and leading from a heart of gratitude. I value more than anything my relationship with God, my intimacy with Jesus, the love from my spouse- my husband Brian, my marriage. I value my children's love and acceptance, my children's spouses love and acceptance, my children's purest love and acceptance. I am grateful everyday from a new heart that sees a new perspective and grateful for the word of God that I've hidden in my heart so that I may not sin against him. I'm grateful that I hear music differently as if it's the first time I've heard a song and a Tennessee sunset painted against a winter sky can buckle my knees. I'm learning contentment and leading from a heart of gratitude- a mind focused on thanksgiving. I'm grateful for a community of believers that love each other and like anything I have ever witnessed before. I'm thankful for the rescue of my heart- for my husband Brian who has truly, truly loved me the way that Jesus said for a husband to lay down his life for his bride. I'm grateful for the message of endurance that is all throughout the Bible to keep persevering, keep going, keep enduring well and I am thankful, I am grateful for the unconditional love of God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit.

So as I close out the final chapter and the final day of this year and end I guess, I did have words after all as I close this year out I end one chapter ready to begin another knowing my core values, knowing my definition of God's love, knowing the mission at hand is to live an ordinary life filled with extraordinary moments showing extraordinary love to those in need. And when I take inventory of all that I have in life's most purest and natural states I'm grateful. Turning the page with you tomorrow as we begin another journey together. Until then love one another.

[dailyaudiobible]

12/18/2023 DAB Transcript

Habakkuk 1:1-3:19, Revelations 9:1-21, Psalm 137:1-9, Proverbs 30:10

Today is the 18th day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it’s great to be here with you as we continue forward. A week from today is Christmas day and two weeks from today is the 1st of January, when we will start on a brand-new journey. So, we have 14 more steps to go, right, before we reach the conclusion of our journey for this year. And our journey has led us to another one of the minor prophets as we reach the conclusion of the Old Testament.

Introduction to the Book of Habakkuk:

Today, we will read in its entirety the eighth of the minor prophets known as Habakkuk. And we know just about nothing about Habakkuk and his life, maybe less than any other biblical writer, we have fewer clues. There is a Hebrew tradition that speaks of Habakkuk as being the son of the Shunammite woman who was resurrected through Elisha. And we read about that in Second Kings. There is another tradition that's in the Apocrypha that depicts a Habakkuk ministering to David while he’s in the lions den. These are traditions and that last one especially, scholars find to be maybe legendary. But many verses in Habakkuk are very well known, may be the most, the most well-known is “but the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God” and that's often repeated in the writings of the Apostle Paul and in the book of Hebrews it's a core doctrine of the Christian faith. The righteous will live by faith. Maybe some clues that we have about Habakkuk is in the poetic or lyrical writing, especially there's, the book closes with hymn, and some have imagined Habakkuk may have been a temple musician. But what may make this poignant for us is that it's unique. It's a conversation between the prophet and God that moves from his doubt, and we share these things and moves toward worship. He’s just saying out loud what he's seeing, and he wants to understand why God would allow pretty much every evil that there could be imagined in the mind of mankind, almost like he wasn't paying attention. God responds that He's paying attention. He's going to use Babylon to punish His people for their sins, which left Habakkuk confused and then God tells Habakkuk that even though this is gonna happen, the Babylonians would be a punishment to His people, that they would also be punished. They would be completely destroyed in the end. And that reveals God is not indifferent. God is not unaware. He is true and just, which led Habakkuk to a Psalm of worship. And so, we begin and read completely the book of Habakkuk.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we appreciate the swiftness that we are moving now, as we are moving through these minor prophets in the book of Habakkuk today. You are sovereign over all the earth, there is no power but You. There is no hope outside of You and we are Your children. We put our hope in You, our trust in You, our loyalty and faithfulness to You. We give our hearts to You, we love You, we give our hearts in worship to You, we adore You. Come, Holy Spirit as we continue this journey, lead us to what we need to hear, show us what we need to see for the journey ahead, as You illuminate our path through the power of Your word. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com, that's home base, that’s the website. That’s where you find out what's going on. It’s Christmas, that’s what’s going on, like right, it’s a week from today. So, we’re in the final countdown for Christmas this year. We brought out the annual Christmas ornament with the word “expand” on it. And we brought out the music from the Daily Audio Bible and pressed them onto vinyl packages, just beautiful commemorative editions. And you can find those at dailyaudiobible.com or using the app, just navigate to the Shop and look in the Christmas Section and you can find them there. Everyone who orders one or more of these, we’ll send you the ornament but you’re sewing into what comes next around here in the new year. So, thank you for your partnership.

And if you just want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in the final days of this year, than thank you, humbly, profoundly and with all gratitude. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that's the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today, I'm Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Tammy calling from the Central Coast of California. I’m on my way to work and I am crying tears of joy for Eyes of a Dove. I’m just, was so excited to hear about your field trip with Jesus and just the good result of your healing. And because of that, I’m calling to ask for healing for myself. I have some ribs that have been out for a little over a week now. I’ve been to the chiropractor but it’s a little bit painful and I’m a massage therapist so, I’m headed back to work today, like I said. And I’m just hoping to be able to minister to the people that come in and see me today, that I could just do God’s work, being Jesus’ hands and feet and loving on His people. So, if you could just join me in praying for healing, I would greatly appreciate it. Blind Tony, I’m praying for you and your family and your loss and that God would just be with you and look after you in this time of distress. And that, that He will show Himself faithful, because He is. I love you community and they’re so many people that I have written down that I’m praying for. Know you are in my thoughts and in my prayers daily. God bless you.

Good morning, DAB family. I just wanna pray for Delta Alpha Foxtrot and Blind Tony with regard to their prayer request. Dear Lord, I lift up my brothers Delta Alpha Foxtrot, upon the loss of his dad. I pray Father, that You would keep them in the hollow of Your hands, that You would comfort those who are mourning, oh God. I thank You that they were able to surround their dad and to sing Your praises as he went on home. I pray Father, that You would provide for every need that they have during this time and that You would just hold them close to Your heart and comfort them in this time. In Jesus name, I lift up Blind Tony and his family, Lord. I pray Father, and thank You that they weren’t harmed in the fire. I thank You that You were able to, they were able to keep the flames at bay until the fire fighters came. But I just pray Father, that You would restore to them, everything that was lost. I thank You for saving their lives. And I pray Father God, that You would just again, provide everything that they would need. Keep them safe as they rebuild or find new housing. I just again, thank You for who they are and their love for You and their encouragement to this community. Be with them now in this time of need. And bless our family, our DAB family. I thank You so much for this family of believers that gather around the campfire each and every day and for, and for Brian who is able to feed us the word from on high. I pray Your blessing on all of us. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hi this message is for Greg, Greg in Illinois. Listening to Daily Audio Bible the other day and I like listening to the prayer requests and I heard you and your call touched my heart because I can relate to what you’re going through Greg. The hardships of a hard marriage, the anger in your heart, the feeling of just two strangers being in the same room, it’s a lonely, it’s a hard heavy feeling, Greg. But I do want to say that love conquers all. And I was in your boat as well, struggling with anger and about to lose a marriage and I knew I was ruining it. It was, it was, it was something that I was harboring that I needed to let go. And it wasn’t until I surrendered to Christ and to love that I totally changed. And Greg, I do hope and pray for you and your wife that you would find reconciliation. That both of you would surrender to each other. And maybe not if it’s to each other at first, but to Christ and to love. And I pray that you guys would find it in your heart to be sensitive and to be patient and to be bearing with one another. To be enduring with one another. And just remember the joy that you had 10 years ago when you to looked into your wife’s eyes and asked her to marry her. You know, Greg, I think of Proverbs, Proverbs 18:22. A fool should find a wife, findeth a good thing and stay’s in favor with the Lord. So, Greg, I just pray for you, that you would continue to have favor with the Lord, with the Father. That you and your wife would be loving and kind to one another. Alright Greg, I wish you the best of luck. I’ll be praying for you my friend. Bye Bye.

Hi beautiful family, this is Prisoner of Hope. Joanne from Texas, praying for your friend Aaron from China. Just you said that whatever he puts his hand on, that God would bless him and his family and his career. So, we are praying for him. Also, Dare Dreamer in Indianapolis, you’re blind, you’ve told us that before but you just found your first full time job in a warehouse. And you’re just so grateful. I just wanna pray a prayer of blessing over you, I don’t think you asked for prayer but I’m gonna do it all the same. And then Susan in Indiana, you want us to continue to pray for Liza’s family. Lord, we are asking for Your hand to be upon, that You would bless them and keep them. And make Your face shine upon them and be gracious to them and give them your peace. And we just ask all this in Jesus name. Also, In the Vine in Indiana, you said you lost your battle with sin yesterday, we do that all that time. Don’t be discouraged In the Vine. We’re gonna pray for you. Also, Lauri from Central Ohio, your friend Lonni’s husband, he had surgery for a new heart, and you’re still praying for that to be successful and that his body won’t reject it again. Drew from the Bay area, your dog Elssie, you think it’s the end of life, for poor little Elssie. And just that she won’t be in pain. And then you said you took a bad hit on your head, so we’re praying for you. Early Riser, your sister and husband have COVID and this has made them more isolated and fearful and you just want somebody to come alongside, some friends. And you said they’re very desperate for this. Dear Lord, we step into your presence today. We ask for healing and strength. We know that ___ so we humbly ask that You would work in their lives to bring about good health and body and in spirit. Please help them find hope, even during this difficult time, Lord. And may they also___ knowing it’s to you. We ask in Jesus powerful name. Amen.

[fortheloveofwonderland]

Lessons in Deviance | S.R (Part 1/2)

Not my gif

Part Two

Summary - you were more than smart enough to know that playing dumb to get more help from your incredibly attractive professor was a bad idea. And now you’ve found yourself caught up in an extremely sexy, yet dangerous game of cat and mouse with Doctor Spencer Reid, that neither of you are prepared to lose.

A/N - a two parter as it got away from me a little! Thank you as always to the wonderful @andiebeaword and @smurphyse for reading and brainstorming this with me!

Pairing - Professor! Spencer Reid / Fem! Reader

Category - absolute filth, seriously (minors DNI) angst in second part with a happy ending.

Content Warnings - age gap between consenting adults, professor x student relationship, very, very brief mentions of prison, Maeve and Hankel, lots of sexual tension, lots of flirtation, swearing, masturbation (male and female), drinking, use of “whore”, use of “good girl”, dirty talk, sexting (yes Doctor Reid sexting), lots of teasing, perv Spencer, slight exhibitionism.

Word Count - 9.4K

Masterlist

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“Right, who can give me an example of a psychological stressor?” Spencer looked around the room at the faces in his criminology class.

He already learnt that at least half the class was just here for auditing purposes. A classroom full of beautiful women who had nothing better to do than audit his class? Go figure.

There was one face in his class however that stuck out above the rest. He looked forward to this class more than most because you were in it. 

On the first day of the semester you had strolled into his classroom and taken the seat two in from the aisle on the third from last row where you had sat every week since. You’d caught his eye straight away with your skimpy summer dress and you’d kept his attention with your warm eyes and friendly smile. 

You always listened so intently to every word from his lips, nodding and chewing your lip as you took notes on your laptop, your fingers flying across the keys without even glancing down. 

He’d read your transcript, he had read everyone in his class’ but yours he took a little more interest in. 

Your name was Y/N Y/L/N, you were twenty three years old (much too young for the perverse thoughts he’d had about you) and you were incredibly smart. Your transcript lit up like a Christmas tree. Your grades were phenomenal. 

But that’s where the problem lies. Because thus far, you were failing his class terribly.

He didn’t understand it. He’d read your transcript again and again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything but of course he hadn’t. For all intents and purposes you should have been passing his class with flying colours. It just didn’t make any sense.

“Miss Y/L/N?” he pointed to you, catching you off guard.

“Uh,” you chewed your lip “Sorry I don’t know.” you shook your head with a small shrug.

He frowned a little trying to read your expression. You didn’t look all that sorry. Definitely embarrassed, not so sorry.

He glanced at his watch, seeing it was time to wrap up class for another week.

“Ok, looks like we’re out of time. See you all next week.” he dismissed the class. “Uh, Y/N, could you stay behind for a moment please?” 

You felt your cheeks burning and you tried to hide it by focusing on packing your laptop away. You waited until the rest of the class had emptied out before you slowly padded down the stairs to the front of the class.

You swallowed the lump in your throat as you approached your incredibly attractive professor. 

“Doctor Reid,” you tried to keep your voice level as you spoke. 

“Y/N, hi.” he gave you one of his awkward waves that you found adorable. “You seem to be...struggling a little with the material.” 

You chewed on your bottom lip with a small nod.

“I am.” You confessed. 

“Why do you think that is?” He sat on the edge of the desk and folded his arms across his chest. 

“I’m...I’m not sure.” You offered him a pathetic shrug. 

“I’ve read your transcript Y/N, it’s very impressive.” 

Your cheeks burned at his words. It was an impressive transcript. You knew that. But hearing your incredibly attractive professor tell you so made you shy.

“Which is why I find it so hard to understand why you’re failing the class. Clearly you’re exceptionally smart, so what is it that is causing you an issue?”

You were still gnawing your lip in embarrassment. 

“I really don’t know Doctor Reid. Something just isn’t clicking.”

“Is it me?” He unfolded his arms, a wave of insecurity washed over his features. “Am I not...maybe I’m not a good teacher.”

“What? No! You’re a great teacher!” You were quick to counter, too quick probably. 

“It must be something.”

“I’m not sure.” You shrugged again.

“Do you think you’d maybe benefit from one on one sessions?”

Oh god why did that sound so sexy?

You swallowed, trying to remind yourself he did not mean what you wanted him to mean. 

“Uh yeah, that could be really helpful actually.” 

“Ok great.” He smiled a little. “I have office hours tomorrow and Friday’s between five and seven PM. Maybe if we can dig down on the areas you’re struggling with I can help make sense of it for you.” 

“That sounds great, thank you Doctor Reid.” You nodded with a smile. “I’ll come by tomorrow.” 

“Good.”

“Can’t wait.” You muttered under your breath before you turned and walked away.

Spencer watched you leave, mesmerised by the way your backside moved as you walked, the graceful swing of your hips. 

He was determined to turn your grades around. He was going to help you pass his class. And if he got to be alone with you while he did it, all the better.

***

The following evening you had tried to look as though you hadn’t spent three hours getting ready for Doctor Reid’s office hours. 

You wanted to look nice but not as though you were trying to impress him even though you were most certainly were. 

You settled on your favourite pair of black jeans that accentuates your curves, hugging you in all the right places and paired them with a short sleeved lace blouse. 

Your bra was just visible beneath the fabric. Enough that Doctor Reid would surely see it but not enough to make it look deliberate. You’d added some subtle make-up and spent a long time on your hair before you left your apartment and headed to campus.

You tentatively knocked on his office door, feeling a wave of nerves crash over you as you thought about being alone with the beautiful doctor. It was unfair really how gorgeous he was, how could anyone be expected to learn when he was the one teaching?

“Come in!” his voice carried through the door and after taking a few deep breaths you entered. 

His office was much as you’d pictured it to be, dark wood furniture, bursting bookshelves and a desk littered with paper and yet more books. 

Spencer sat behind the desk. He was smiling at you as you entered.

“Y/N hi, come in.” he motioned you into the office. You closed the door behind you and stepped towards the desk.

“I brought coffee.” you set the takeaway cups down on the desk, sliding one closer to Doctor Reid. 

“Oh wow, thank you.” he smiled brightly, taking the cup. “I’ve been busy grading papers, I haven’t had a chance to get a fresh cup in hours.” 

His smile drew your eyes to his lips. It was such a wonderful smile and you loved that you could be the one to elicit it from him. 

You slid into the chair on the other side of the desk. 

“Thanks again for helping me Doctor Reid. I’m sure I’ll get it, I just need a little assistance.” 

“It’s not a problem really.” He smiled again, so genuinely that you believed he didn’t mind helping you. “Shall we start with what we were covering in yesterday’s class?”

He reached for a book on the corner of the desk and opened it at a pre-marked page. 

“Stressors,” he took a sip of coffee. “A stressor is…” he looked at you, hoping you’d field the rest.

A chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event causing stress on an organism, you spoke in your head.

“Uh…” you chewed your lip. “The event that makes someone a killer.” You shrugged.

“Well kind of. But I was looking for a little more.

A stressor is a chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event causing stress on an organism. So psychologically speaking, stressors can be events or environments that individuals might perceive to be demanding, challenging or threatening. Do you want to take notes?”

You tore your eyes away from him nodding. You grabbed your bag, sliding your laptop out and opening it on the desk. 

Your fingers danced across the keys. 

“Do you remember the two psychological stress tests we discussed in class?”

Perceived Stress Scale and the Social Readjustment Rating Scale.

“No sorry.” You chewed your lip shyly. “I think PSS was one but I can’t quite remember what it stands for.” You pretended as though you were looking through your notes. 

Spencer let out a small sigh. 

“We might have our work cut out for us.” He sipped his coffee. 

“I’m sorry Doctor Reid.” 

“It’s ok.” He smiled. “It’s fine really. I’m going to help you. Together we can do this ok?” 

You smiled at him with a nod. The look of determination in his eyes had you feeling a little guilty.

Maybe this hadn’t been the most ideal way to get close to your professor. Maybe given how smart you actually were you should have known playing dumb wasn’t a good idea. Surely it was only going to come back to bite you in the ass one day.

But for now having Doctor Reid think you were failing class and giving you extra help seemed like the only way to have an excuse to spend time with him outside of class.

So you smiled, nodded and said, “thank you Doctor Reid, I really appreciate it.”

***

“I’m so fucked.” Spencer muttered to himself as he stared down at the desk in his office the following morning. He couldn’t even bring himself to sit down because it had felt so real.

Last night the two of you had been here way past his office hours, in fact it was nearing ten PM by the time Spencer checked his watch the first time. 

You spent the first few hours going over class notes, leaning towards topics that would be covered on the final. You hung off his every word much like you did in class which was why he was failing to understand why you weren’t grasping the material.

After a while the conversation turned lighter. You’d started asking him about himself. At first he’d been cautious with his words, not wanting to give too much away about his personal self to one of his students. 

“What was it like working for the BAU? I can only imagine.” You smiled at him over your laptop, your eyes dancing with intrigue.

“It was fascinating.” 

“Oh come on, give me more than that Doctor.” You laughed, such a magnificent sound it sounded as though it had been crafted in heaven.

He’d been called Doctor his whole adult life by all variety of people, but hearing his honorific spoken from your lips had a completely different effect on him. He hoped you didn’t notice the shudder that passed up his spine.

“It was the best years of my life.” he confessed. “I got to work with some really remarkable profilers and help catch the most prolific serial killers.” keep it vague, don’t get sucked in by a pair of pretty eyes.

“Why did you leave?”

Now that was the million dollar question. Was it because he’d spent three months in a maximum security prison? Had that been the beginning of the end for his career at the BAU? It was safe to say he’d certainly never been the same since. 

Or was it Everett Lynch that had pushed him over the edge? Getting blown up and nearly dying? Cat Addams destroying his relationship with Max? It could have been any number of things or a combination of all of them.

“It was time for a change.” he said instead.

“You’re an enigma, has anyone ever told you that before Doctor Reid?” you smirked at him a little.

He knew what was happening. You were flirting with him. A few years ago Spencer wouldn’t have picked up on the signs. 

“I have a good poker face.” 

“Very.” you narrowed your eyes on him. “Did it have anything to do with The Chameleon? You left soon after that case did you not?”

Ah, so she’d Googled him. Well played he thought.

“He might have been a contributing factor.” he simply shrugged. “I was just ready for a change of pace.”

If you’d Googled him, what else did you know? Did you know about prison? Did you know about Hankel? Maeve? He’d never Googled himself so he didn’t know what was written about him on the internet. 

“Teaching is certainly that.” 

After that you’d dropped the personal questions. His walls had shot up and he pushed you back at arm's length. 

He’d gone home and crawled into bed and when he’d closed his eyes he’d seen you. Your large expressive eyes, warm and playful smile. He’d seen the bra peeking out from under your blouse. 

His dream last night had been a sordid one, one that had left him tentative to approach his own desk this morning. 

There was no way to sugarcoat it. Spencer had dreamt of fucking you over his desk. He’d dreamt of bending you over the wooden furniture and pounding you into oblivion. He’d imagined how tight and warm you would feel wrapped around his hard dick as he made you scream his name. 

“Doctor Reid, oh god that feels so good.” 

He’d woken up painfully hard and panting. He’d jumped straight into a cold shower but that had done very little to subside his arousal. Reluctantly he’d had to do something about it or he knew it would be in the back of his mind all day.

So standing under the heavy flow of water he had wrapped his hand around his shaft and pumped. His eyes had immediately fluttered closed and he couldn’t help but be transported back to his dream. He imagined your hand moving up and down his length instead of his own while he sucked on your sensitive nipples. 

It took almost no time at all for him to climax, spilling his load on his hand and the shower basin. He’d hoped that would be the end of it but now in his office all he could think of was that dream and his subsequent shower session with his hand.

He’d tried to tell himself it was ok, you were young sure, but you were in your twenties so it wasn’t completely inappropriate. But you were his student so really it didn’t matter that you were old enough because it was still so wrong. 

But the truth of the matter was, Spencer had never felt like this before about a woman. He’d never found himself so turned on by physical appearance. But you were otherworldly, ethereal, too good to be real. It was as though you’d been sent to test him. 

And test him you were. 

He’d thought leaving the BAU would remove the dangerous aspect from his life but this felt like the most dangerous situation he’d encountered yet. And a badge and a gun weren’t going to get him out of this one.

***

Friday evenings would not normally be a time you’d want to spend with your professor. Unless that is, said professor was Doctor Spencer Reid. 

Today you’d opted for a denim skirt, tights and chunky Doc Marten boots and a band t-shirt, having to explain to Doctor Reid who exactly the Arctic Monkeys were. 

You’d bought coffee again and dove straight into the class material. 

It was hard work, pretending to be dumb. You had an IQ of nearly a hundred and thirty, so trying to dumb yourself down in front of Doctor Reid was difficult to say the least.

You knew the material well enough you could probably teach the class. But this seemed like the only way you could find to keep up your one-on-one sessions.

“Tell me something that happened on one of your cases with the BAU.” You asked him out of the blue, sitting back in the chair and crossing one leg over the other. 

You weren’t a profiler by any stretch of the imagination and to his credit, Doctor Reid had an excellent poker face. But you could tell when you asked him questions outside of the curricular he faltered. 

You could tell he was hesitant about opening up to one of his students and he wanted desperately to keep things professional. But you were determined to break his walls down.

“Like what?” he took your bait, leaning forward on the desk.

“I don’t know.” you shrugged. “Have you ever been shot?”

He chuckled dryly.

“Yes twice.” 

“Twice?” you gasped making him chuckled again.

“Yes, once in the leg and once in the neck. I’ve been held hostage, I was involved in an explosion. Never a dull moment at the BAU.” 

“Wow.” your eyes were wide. “And you gave that all up for this boring life?” you laughed.

“Yes, yes I did.” he smiled softly at you, a look in his eye you couldn’t read. 

It felt like he was scrutinizing you.

“Are you profiling me?” you raised an eyebrow at him.

“Not deliberately.” he told you honestly. “It’s hard to turn it off.”

“So what do you profile about me then Doctor Reid?” you challenged him. Once again he took the bait.

“Honestly I’m struggling to read too much. You keep your cards very close to your chest. You’ve built up some big walls around yourself, mostly likely because you got hurt and you’re scared to let people in. You're outwardly flirtatious and confident but I think that’s a way of hiding your insecurities. 

You have a caring nature though, that much is evident in the way you bring me coffee. It’s such a small gesture but it gives away more than you’d think. I get the impression you’re a big sister and there’s a large age gap between you and your younger sibling. One or both of your parents weren’t around much when you were growing up so you had to care for them. You had to grow up while you were still a child.”

Damn, he was good.

“Wow, they must miss you at the BAU.” you laughed. “That was kind of scary. I have a fourteen year old sister. My mom left when she was three and I was twelve. Our dad worked two jobs just to keep up with the bills and it meant I was left to look after her.” 

He took a sip of coffee as if as a reward to himself. 

“I’ve very rarely wrong.” he smiled a little smugly.

“You might be good but I can do that too. See when I mentioned my mom leaving your expression wavered ever so slightly. I think you had a parent leave when you were young too.”

He chewed his lip, mulling over how much he was willing to confide in you. He tried to remind himself you were his student but for the life of him he wanted to talk to you about anything and everything.

“My dad. I was ten.” 

“And you didn’t have a reaction when I spoke about my sister so that tells me you’re an only child.”

“Well done Y/N. I am an only child. It baffles me how you are failing my class.” the look he was giving you told you he was onto you and you couldn’t help but swallow hard under his gaze.

Suddenly your phone went off in your pocket with an incoming message so you didn’t have to respond to him.

“Oh gosh, it’s nearly nine thirty. I was supposed to meet some friends.” 

“Oh,” Spencer stood up from his chair. “I am so sorry to have kept you this late Y/N.”

“Don’t be sorry.” You stood, slipping your laptop back in your bag. “It’s been a nice evening.” 

You tried not to blush as you spoke. 

“It has.” He sighed almost dreamily and suddenly you weren’t ready to part ways.

“Are you a poetry fan Doctor Reid?”

“Uh yeah?” He frowned, confused as to why you would suddenly ask such a thing.

“I’m going to a poetry slam. Do you want to come?” It might be wildly inappropriate to even ask but you really didn’t want to leave him.

“Uh…” he swallowed. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea. I don’t know that I should be out with people of your age.”

“I’m twenty three not sixteen.” You giggled and the sound sent shockwaves through Spencer. 

“Still a lot younger than me.”

“You don’t look a day over thirty five.” You winked at him and he felt his dick twitch in his pants.

“You’re my student.” 

“I’m just asking you to come to a poetry slam, Doctor Reid it’s not a date.” You rolled your eyes a little. “Have a good weekend Doctor.” 

You slung your bag over your shoulder and headed for the door.

“Wait,” he spoke as you reached for the door handle. 

You turned back to see him chewing his lip.

“Poetry slams are kind of cool.” He shrugged. 

You couldn’t stop the wide smile that spread to your features. 

“They are.” 

He sighed and picked up his messenger bag. 

“My cars out front, I’ll drive.” 

“Perfect.” 

You left his office together and headed outside to the parking lot. There were very few cars left at this time of night. 

He led you over to a cream coloured 1965 Volvo 122S Amazon and unlocked the door.

“Why am I not surprised this is your car?” You laughed a little sliding into the passenger seat. 

“I like the classics.” 

You both buckled yourselves in before Spencer started the engine and pulled out of the parking space. 

“It seems to run pretty well for an older model.” you observed as he drove.

“I try to take good care of her. I usually get the metro but every once in a while she needs her cobwebs blowing off.”

“She? Why do men always gender their cars?” you shuffled a little in your seat so you could look at him. 

He glanced at you out of the corner of his eye but kept his attention on the road.

“She’s a classic,” his lip turned up in a smile. “Sleek and beautiful. Of course it’s a she.” 

“Tell me Doctor,” you smirked to yourself. “Do you make her purr like a kitten for you?”

Your voice was dripping with seduction and you knew Spencer heard it because you saw his Adam's apple dip below his soft flesh as he swallowed.

“Uh…” he didn’t want to let you trip him up, so he tried to pull at his confidence to respond to you. “They always purr like a kitten for me.”

His words shot straight between your legs, making you instantly wet. God you’d like to see that.

“Doctor Reid,” you pressed your thighs together. “Are you flirting with me?”

He swallowed again, licking his bottom lip.

“Uh…” yes, yes he was. And he knew how wrong that was.

Thankfully he didn’t have to answer as suddenly your phone was ringing. 

“Hey,” you said once you put the device to your ear. “About ten minutes. Ok see you soon.” 

As quickly as you answered you hung up again. 

You thought about pushing Doctor Reid for an answer because you were sure he had been flirting with you and you loved it. 

Maybe you’d have to try and be more flirtatious in the hopes he would return the gesture. 

The rest of the journey was travelled in silence but it wasn’t too long before he pulled the car to a stop outside the bar you had told him to go to, a little place downtown called The Brighton. 

You let yourself out of the car and Spencer locked up before joining you on the sidewalk. 

“Just a thought,” you spoke before you headed inside. “It might be best we don’t say you’re my professor. You know how people talk.”

“Good idea.” He agreed although this was starting to feel a little sordid. 

“I’ll just say you're in my criminology class, that way it isn’t a lie.” 

“You should probably call me Spencer then.” He offered meekly. It was a slippery slope if you started calling him by his first name, he knew that. 

“Ok...Spencer.” You tried it out, liking the way it sounded on your tongue.

Spencer liked it too, probably a little too much. 

You headed into the bar, Spencer following behind you, trying but failing not to look at you ass as you walked.

You spotted your friends at a booth in the corner and made a beeline for them. 

“Y/N, you made it, finally.” Jen stood and embraced you. 

“Sorry, study session ran over.”

“Oh is this the study sessions with the ever so handsome Doctor Reid we keep hearing all about?” Steve raised his eyebrows suggestively at you.

You swallowed, feeling your cheeks burn with embarrassment. 

“Uh yeah,” you tried to shrug it off and hope Spencer hadn’t been listening. “Anyway, this is my friend Spencer. We have criminology together.” you motioned to him, catching a hint of a smirk from his lips. “Spencer, this is Jen, Steve, Nila and Martina.” you motioned to the faces around the table.

“Nice to meet you all.” Spencer gave them all one of his awkward waves. 

“Dude you look more like a professor than a student.” Steve laughed, pointing at Spencer’s tie and blazer combo.

“Uh...yeah.” Spencer rolled his bottom lip between his teeth. “Can I get anyone a drink?” 

“Ohh please!” Jen spoke up for the group. “A pitcher of margaritas!”

You rolled your eyes.

“They’ll have beers.” you told him.

“Coming right up.” he leant closer to you making sure only you could hear his next words. “They are all over twenty one right?” 

You chuckled.

“Yes Doctor.” you whispered. “Why, are you going to card them?” 

“I just wanted to make sure. I trust you. Would you also like a beer?”

“Please. I’ll come give you a hand.”

Why did that make his cock throb? 

“O-ok.” he stuttered a little, turning towards the bar. 

You followed him and watched as he caught the attention of the bartender quickly, probably because of his tall stature. 

“Five beers and a black coffee please.”

“Coffee?” you scoffed. 

“Yeah, is that ok?” he laughed.

“No! He’ll have a beer. Six beers.” you told the bartender and before Spencer had a chance to argue he was already gone.

“I don’t like beer.”

“Tough.” you smirked. 

“And in case you’ve forgotten how we got here, I have to drive home.” 

You waved a dismissive hand at him.

“You said you were a dab hand at the metro. Your car will still be here tomorrow.” 

“You’re a bad influence, do you know that?” 

“Heard it once or twice. It didn’t exactly take a lot of convincing.” Your eyes sparkled and his cock throbbed again. 

He was half way to standing at full attention just by the look you were giving him. You were surely going to be the death of him. 

Your drinks were brought over soon after and Spencer paid before you both carried them back over to your table. 

You slid in next to Jen and Spencer slid in next to you at the end. It was a tight squeeze and he found his thigh pressed up against yours and tried to ignore the forced proximity it put you in. 

“So, Y/N,” Nila leant forward on the table, eyes full of mischief. “How was your study session with the incredibly attractive professor you can’t shut up about?”

God fucking damn. 

Maybe you should have thought through bringing Spencer here. 

“Uh…good.” You sipped your beer, practically feeling the smirk on Spencer’s lips from beside you. 

“You’re in his class too?” Nila turned to Spencer. “Is the hype about this guy really all she cracks it up to be?” 

Spencer tried to hide the amusement from his face and swallowed before answering. 

“Well, he’s not my type.” He nudged your leg with his. “But I’d love to hear more about what Y/N thinks of him.” 

“Trust me,” you glared at him. “You don’t.” 

His eyes were full of playfulness and his lips tugged at the corner in a delighted smile. 

You didn’t know if you wanted to slap him or kiss him more. 

Thankfully the lights dimmed then and a scruffy looking college student took to the small stage and all your attention fell on him. 

But all night you felt Spencer’s gaze on the side of your face. As the night went on you were convinced his thigh was pressing up against yours with more and more force. 

There were even a couple of instances when his fingers ghosted over your knee, sending shockwaves through your entire body. 

Several more drinks flowed and during an interval you excused yourself to use the bathroom. 

Once you were gone, your friends turned to Spencer.

“Do you think Doctor Reid is buying it?” Martina smirked at him. 

“Buying what?” Spencer sipped his beer curiously. 

“Her playing dumb.” Steve chuckled. “Personally I don’t think she can pull it off. But their study sessions seem to contradict that.”

Spencer smirked around his beer.

He knew there was no possible way someone as smart as you was struggling as much as you claimed to be. 

He should be annoyed. You were lying to him, monopolising his time when it could be spent on students who really needed his time. 

But Spencer wasn’t annoyed. Far from it. He was actually incredibly turned on by your devious little scheme. 

“I uh…I guess he must be.” Spencer shrugged. “Excuse me for a moment.” 

He slid out of the booth, amusement written all over his face. Just as he was approaching the narrow corridor that led to the bathrooms, you stepped out of the womens. 

The slender corridor wasn’t wide enough for you to pass by each other without one of you moving aside. But as Spencer approached you, he showed no signs of moving out of the way. 

You tried to duck past him but he remained in the centre of the corridor, shoulders squared off so you couldn’t pass him.

“Is there a password I don’t know about?” You chuckled lightly, trying to ignore how dark his eyes were. 

You gasped a little when he took you by the shoulders and guided you against one of the walls. 

“You’re playing a dangerous game.” He whispered with a delicious smirk on his lips. 

“How so?” You cocked your eyebrow at him. 

Spencer could have told you he knew all about your ploy to spend time with him by acting dumb. He could have told you the game was up and he knew exactly what you were doing. 

But if you could play games, Spencer didn’t want to miss out on the fun. 

“I’m much too old for you.” His hands left your shoulders and he placed them flush against the wall either side of your face. 

“Oh please.” You scoffed. “I’m not a kid. And despite your love of classic cars, I know you like your women younger, Doctor Reid.” 

An involuntary hiss left his mouth at the way you said his name. 

“You’re my student.” He changed tacts, although his close proximity to you didn’t seem at all as though he cared. 

“So?” You huffed, ensuring the action caused your breasts to heave. 

Spencer’s eyes briefly flicked down your chest and you saw him mentally scold himself before he looked back at your face. 

“Once I pass your class at the end of the semester, I’m not your student anymore.” 

“Once you pass it?” He smirked at you. 

Fuck, you swallowed. 

“If. If I pass it.”

“I think you’re a lot smarter than you’re coming across, Y/N. And I won't be able to look you in the eyes in class if I were to do to you what I’ve been imagining doing to you.”

You whimpered a little, his words causing a heat to spread through your legs. 

“I don’t want you to look me in the eyes.” You dared bring your hands up and rest on his shoulders. 

“Maybe it will give you an incentive to pass my class.” He inched a little closer to you, voice low and breathy. 

He had the upper hand here and you didn’t like it at all. You needed to grasp back some of that power. 

“You’re a tease, Doctor.” Your eyes darkened. “But two can play that game.” 

You trailed one hand from his shoulder and down his chest. His breathing became heavier the lower your hand got. 

When you palmed his erection through his slacks he moaned deeply, biting down on his lip. 

“If you’re such a good teacher, it should be a piece of cake to help me pass your class.” You got up on your tiptoes and came close to his ear. “Maybe as a thank you I’ll get down on my knees and worship you with my mouth.”

His hips bucked against your hand and his face was turning red. 

“Or we could just get it over with and I could do it right here, right now.” You lapped your tongue over his ear lobe and he shuddered. 

“You’re sinful.” He panted a little, hips rolling back and forth against your hand. 

Suddenly you let go of him and let your hands fall back to your sides. 

“I’ll be anything you want me to be, Doctor.”

Out of nowhere his hand came to your neck and his long fingers wrapped around your throat. He thrust his hips against you, eyes dark as he glared at you.

“I’ve got half a mind to take you in that bathroom and fuck you over the sink like the whore you are.” 

A strangled moan escaped your mouth, his grip firm on your throat. 

“You certainly wouldn’t regret it.” You goaded him. 

Spencer laughed dryly, letting go of your neck and stepping back from you. 

“I most certainly wouldn’t.” He agreed. “But I want to watch you squirm. By the time you finally get to have me, I want you to be desperate for me. I have amazing willpower, Y/N and I’ve gotten used to the company of my own hand. I can wait. The question is, can you?” 

“Now who’s playing a dangerous game, Doctor Reid?” You folded your arms in frustration, trying hopelessly not to imagine the thought of him and his own hand he’d put in your head. 

“You don’t work for the FBI for fifteen years without growing a little accustomed to danger, angel.” He looked smug, too pleased with himself. 

You wanted to knock him down a peg or two. And you would. Not just yet, but you would. 

You didn’t say anymore, deciding to just leave him guessing. 

You turned on your heels and sauntered away, knowing full well he was watching you go. 

***

It was two days later on Sunday night when you decided to start having some fun.

You dug out the original syllabus Doctor Reid had handed out at the start of the semester, the one he’d included his email address and phone number on. 

You picked out your most sinful pair of lingerie, a deep purple coloured two piece which showcased your assets in the most sublime way and would surely turn Spencer into a fucking puddle. 

You laid on your bed and snapped a few photos, keeping your face out of frame in case any one found the photo in his phone. 

You pushed your breasts together with your arms, practically spilling over the top of your bra. 

You chose the best one, one where your nipples were ever so slightly peeking out of the sheer fabric and brought a new text conversation, sending the photo along with the message: thinking of you, Danny. 

Spencer would see right through you. He was too smart to fall for the implication you’d accidentally sent it to him. 

But you had to at least try and pretend you weren’t deliberately sending your professor lewd photographs. 

Your phone buzzed with a reply less than a minute later. 

📱Doctor Spencer Reid: I’m sorry I think you have the wrong number. 

You chewed your lip on contemplation. It was possible with your face out of frame he didn’t know it was you. But it was also possible he was trying to play you at your own game. 

📲 Oh, this isn’t Danny? This is Y/N, we met at the bar last night? 

That ought to do it. 

📱 Doctor Spencer Reid: oh I know who it is. Childish, of you really, Y/N.

And you thought that was the end of it. You huffed to yourself, maybe he had better willpower than you gave him credit for. 

Almost five minutes passed while you tried to think of your next move but then your phone buzzed again, this time a picture message. 

📲 Doctor Spencer Reid: thinking of you, “Delilah”. 

The photo accompanying it spread a heat between your legs instantly. 

The image displayed Spencer’s very hard cock sheathed in a pair of black boxers, his swollen head just peeking out of the top of the fabric. 

You moaned as a shudder wracked your body and your hand quickly found its way between your legs. 

You were drenched just from the sight of him and you started rubbing your clit as you stared at the photograph. 

When an incoming call displayed on your screen you smirked to yourself and quickly answered it with your free hand and put the device on speaker. 

“Hi Danny,” your breath hitched as you spoke. 

“You’re touching yourself aren’t you, Delilah?” 

“Aren’t you?” You moaned a little. 

“Fuck of course I am.” His voice was breathy. “I wish I could see your hand between your legs though.” 

Feeling completely brazen, you angled your camera towards where your fingers rubbed against your core and snapped a photo before sending it. 

You knew the exact moment Spencer received it as he moaned animalistically down the phone. 

“Jesus Christ.” He whined, gripping the base of his cock to stop himself from blowing his load over that photo.

“Tit for tat, Doctor.” You hummed, picturing his long slender fingers between your legs. 

You weren’t sure he was going to comply as for a few minutes all you heard was his heavy panting. 

And then a notification popped up on your screen. 

The noise that left your mouth could only be described as feral as you took in the sight of his large hand wrapped around the base of his even larger dick. 

He was so hard his vein looked like it was pulsing even in a still picture and his head was slicked with precome. 

“Oh my fuck.” You closed your eyes, keeping that image at the forefront of your mind. 

“Good god what I would do to you, angel. You have no idea the things I could do to you.” 

“Tell me.” You whined. 

Spencer laughed but it turned into a moan as he increased the speed of his strokes. 

“We wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise would we?” 

“I hate surprises.” You huffed a little. 

“Trust me when I say you wouldn’t hate mine.” 

“Are you looking at my picture, Doctor?”

“I don’t need to, it’s burned into my brain angel. Tell me how good you’re making yourself feel.” He moaned as he spoke, clearly working himself up well. 

“I’m pretty masterful with my own fingers.” Your toes curled. “But your fucking obscene hands would make me come so much faster, I’m sure.”

He chuckled a little. 

“Your beautiful dainty little hand wouldn’t know what to do with a cock as big as mine.”

“Oh I’m sure I’d be up for the challenge. And if not, my pussy would be more than willing to accommodate you.“

“Fuck.” He hissed, his stomach tightening. “I would rip your delicious cunt to shreds angel.” 

“Oh god.” You back arched as your orgasm started to ripple through you. “Rip me apart, Doctor. Fuck, I need you to…need you to…”

“Come for me angel.” He panted and you were dumb to do anything but. 

The sounds of you coming undone sent Spencer spiralling to his own release and he grunted loudly as his orgasm shook his whole body. 

You didn’t speak for a while, just laid in silence listening to the others heavy breathing as you both came down from your highs. 

His breathing was punctuated with muttered swears, the occasional fuck and shit leaving his lips. 

You imagined his fluffy hair sticking to his forehead, his face red as he nuzzled into your neck and you placed sleepy kisses in his hair. 

God how you wished he was in your bed and not his own. 

After a while his breathing started to level out and he whispered a simple “goodnight” before he hung up the phone. 

You picked up your phone and quickly renamed his contact, you couldn’t risk anyone seeing who really sent you those photos. 

Before you gave over to sleep, you snapped one last picture to send to him. 

You drew your fingers that had just been between your legs to your lips and cropped the photo so he could only see the way your digits nestled between your lips. 

📱Doctor Danny: Goodnight, Doctor.

As you’d hoped, a couple of minutes later a text came through, an image of his stomach and that little trail of hair leading down below his waistband. But it was the splattering of come covering his skin that caused your toes to curl again. 

📲 Doctor Danny: sleep well, angel. I know I will. 

Smiling a little dopily to yourself you fell asleep clutching your phone to your chest, wishing Spencer was there to hold you. 

***

Monday meant no Criminology class but thankfully Tuesday rolled round fast enough. 

Doctor Reid’s class was your first of the day and you set your alarm hours early to ensure you looked your best. 

You took a long time perfecting your make-up with swooping eyeliner and a dark red lip. Your hair got just as much attention, as did your outfit. 

You settled on a cute sundress, one that barely covered your ass and gave a great view of your cleavage spilling over the top. Your legs were sun kissed from the recent spate of good weather and you knew Spencer wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off them. 

A lot of heads turned when you entered the lecture hall that morning but there was only one you paid any attention to. 

Spencer had been unpacking his satchel on the desk and as though sensing your presence, glanced up as you sashayed in. 

You saw his hands grip the edge of the desk and his jaw clenched momentarily, so brief you barely noticed. 

You watched his eyes graze down from your perfectly painted face, linger on your chest and continue down your bare legs. 

You took your seat in your usual spot, two in from the aisle on the third from last row and kept your eyes on him while you fished your laptop out of your bag. 

You set the laptop slightly off to the side so it wouldn’t obscure Spencer’s view of your chest. 

He felt dizzy. The second you strolled in all the blood had flowed away from his brain and he was rendered completely dumb. 

While the rest of his class filtered in, he sat behind his desk to hide what would be an extremely noticeable erection. 

He focused on the wooden desk and just concentrated on breathing, getting his blood flowing to other parts of his body instead of his cock. 

You were being so unfair. Well, he could play that game too. 

He found his phone in his satchel and located one of the photographs he’d taken last night. He’d planned to send it to you but refrained and he was glad of that now.

He brought up your contact information, the one he’d changed the name of to Delilah to avoid anyone ever finding out who he was really texting. 

He hit send and glanced up at you and waited. 

He saw the exact moment you opened the text. Your face immediately flushed pink and your teeth dug into your bottom lip to stop from making a sound. 

He smiled to himself as he watched you adjust yourself in your seat, pressing your thighs together. 

You closed your eyes a few times feeling that familiar heat flow through you as you stared at the photo. 

You would assume it was taken in a shower but you could only see the lower half of his body. 

His hand was wrapped around his hard dick and his skin was covered in water droplets. Beneath his feet looked to be the porcelain of a shower tub. 

You had to lock your phone before you got too excited and glanced back at him only now he was standing with his back to you as he wrote something on the white board. 

How the fuck were you supposed to concentrate now? 

“Today we’re going to be discussing the four primary perspectives on the sociological theories of crime.” He turned back to face the class but he didn’t look at you again. 

Wise move, Doctor. 

“The four primary perspectives we’ll be covering are structural functionalism, social strain typology, conflict theory and labelling theory. I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but this will be on the final so if there was ever a time to take notes…” 

You let his voice caress you, melting into his dulcet tones. 

You knew all about the four perspectives so you didn’t focus on his words, instead on his changing tone and intonation as he spoke. 

You could still hear his moans and heavy breathing as he came down to the phone the other night. 

You mind wandered, dancing over fantasies of him pulling you up to the front of the class and fucking you over his desk in front of everyone. 

After class while he was occupied talking to a couple of other students, you snuck down to the front and left the brown paper bag on his desk, disappearing before he even had a chance to notice. 

***

The red lipstick mark on the bag was the first sign of who had left it and he stuffed it in his satchel until he was alone in his office at lunchtime. 

He locked his office door because he already knew whatever was inside the paper bag was going to be something for his eyes only. 

The first thing inside the bag was a simple sandwich wrapped in cellophane with a little post it stuck to the top. 

Make sure you remember to eat, Doctor ;) 

Another lipstick mark signed off the note. 

His hand was shaking a little as he reached inside the bag again, this time pulling out the pair of dark purple panties you’d been wearing during your phone escapades the other night. 

Without meaning to, Spencer brought the fabric to his nose and inhaled. He moaned when the smell of your arousal flooded his senses. 

He was hard in an instant, painfully throbbing inside his pants. 

He checked his watch, he had a half hour until his next class and nowhere else to be. 

So with your panties still under his nose, he freed his aching cock and started stroking himself. 

It was sordid, he knew that. You were dragging him into an extremely dangerous game and he felt like a pawn in your own amusement. 

He was going to get you back for this. He was going to regain his control and take back the upper hand. 

Just as soon as he was done masturbating over the smell of you. 

He came over his shirt, cursing himself for wearing black today as the stain was exceedingly noticeable. He’d have to button his jacket all day to hide it. 

He hid the panties away in his satchel and tidied himself up. He consumed the sandwich you’d made him and calmed himself down just in time for his next class. 

***

Spencer knew if the two of you were to have your study session in his office that evening, he would not be able to keep his hands to himself. 

There was no outcome where you’d flounce in here in your slutty little summer dress and he wouldn’t pound you over his desk. 

So he’d text you to meet him at a late night coffee house instead. At least if there were people around you’d both be forced to be on your best behaviours. 

Or so he thought anyway. 

Spencer knew that realistically, he’d already crossed the line. You photographs weren’t exactly innocent but he kept trying to tell himself it was another thing entirely if he actually fucked one of his students. 

He was determined to keep a level head around you, at least until the end of the semester. But once you weren’t his student anymore, the things he planned on doing to you were beyond sinful. 

You arrived late as he expected you to, deliberately keeping him waiting. He’d already ordered you a coffee which you smiled in thanks for as you slid in opposite him. 

“Can’t trust yourself to be alone with me, Doctor?” You leant forward on the table, giving him the perfect view right down the front of your dress. 

“You’re in over your head. I don’t think you can handle being alone with me.” He leant forward too, smirking at you. “I’m not some young, inexperienced college kid you’re used to spending your time with, Y/N. I know exactly how to pleasure a woman until she’s putty in my hands. I would ruin you for anyone else.” 

He watched as you sat back, a shudder passing down your spine. He could tell you would be pressing your thighs together under the table. 

“To be ruined by you, Doctor Reid, would be a fucking pleasure.” You quickly corrected yourself, not letting Spencer beat you at your own game. 

He narrowed his eyes on you before leaning further across the table. 

“Come here.” He curled his finger to motion you towards him. “Sit with me.”

You chewed your lip and took a few shaky breaths before pushing yourself up and rounding the table. 

You slid in next to him and his hand immediately clamped around your thigh. 

“What are the four primary perspectives we talked about in class?” He knew you knew the answer and now he knew you were just playing dumb, he was curious to see how far you would take it. 

His hand on your bare thigh was causing your brain to short circuit. At that moment you didn’t need to play dumb, you were dumb. 

“S-structural fun-functionalism.” You kept your eyes on his, his fingertips lightly grazing your inner thigh. 

“Good girl.” He praised you. 

“S-social strain t-typology.” 

“Very good.” His hand inched ever so slightly higher and you whimpered pathetically. 

You were already soaked and you wondered if it would be possible for him to make you come just touching your leg. 

“Con-conflict theory.” Your cheeks were turning pink.

“That’s it, good girl. One more.” He inched his hand higher still, so close to your core he must be able to feel the heat emanating from you. 

“Labelling t-theory.” 

“See, such a smart girl.” His fingers grazed the outside of your lace panties and it was absurd how close you felt to coming. 

His eyes were dark as he watched you squirm, trying desperately to keep your composure.

The idea of coming here was so he would keep his hands off of you, but clearly that had been a fruitless idea. 

He could feel how wet you were through your underwear and it caused him to grow hard. You were so warm and damp and he wanted nothing more than to dive his fingers beneath the fabric and finger you under the table. 

But he wouldn’t. He couldn’t. 

“Tell me about structural functionalism.” He whispered, fingers still grazing between your legs and you had never wanted someone to touch you more in your entire life. 

“S-structural functionalism argues that dev-deviant behaviour plays a constructive part in s-society as it brings together diff-different parts of the population within society.” 

“Hmmm. So smart. Tell me more.” 

“F-fuck.” You stuttered out a shaky breath. “It’s the t-theory that deviant behaviour can contribute to social stability in the l-long term because it challenges norms while promoting social co-cohesion.” 

“Why am I not surprised you know all about deviant behaviour?” He smirked, pressing his digits right against your clit. 

You had tears gathering in the corners of your eyes and it was killing you not to let your moan rip through you. 

“One would argue,” you swallowed. “You are the one with the pen-penchant for deviant behaviour, D-Doctor.” 

“You’re close aren’t you, angel?” He smirked, ignoring your comment. 

“Yes.” Embarrassingly so. 

“Don’t fight it, sweetheart.” He leant in close to your ear so you could feel his breath fanning across your face. “Why don’t you come for me? My little deviant.” 

You mewled, biting down hard on your lower lip to silence yourself. 

He pressed against your clit again, rubbing you through your panties. The friction from the lace fabric was adding to your arousal and when Spencer placed the softest kiss to your temple, it pushed you over the edge. 

You pressed your thighs together, clamping his hand between your legs and coming silently while he watched you. 

Your chest heaved with your heavy breaths and Spencer felt fucking dizzy. 

“Oh angel, you are so good.” He slowly dragged his fingers back down your thighs and brought his hand to rest on the table. 

You stared at him in complete awe as he sipped his coffee as though nothing had happened. 

Your heart was hammering hard against your rib cage, and your head felt like it was full of cotton wool.

“Everything ok?” He smirked at you around his mug. 

“You’re evil.” You panted a little. 

“You started this game, angel. If you can’t stand the heat…”

“Oh I can stand the heat.” You insisted. “I’m just wondering how many people would notice if I snuck under this table and sucked you off, Doctor.” 

Spencer moaned, louder than was appropriate in the current setting. 

He knew if you actually were to drop to your knees beneath the table he would be powerless to stop you. But he also knew you wouldn’t actually do it because teasing him was far more fun.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Y/N.” 

“It’s only fair of me, right, Doctor? You made me come after all.” 

“The noises you would make choking on my cock would give you away, sweetheart.” He ran his finger over your jaw. “And when you do suck my cock, I want to hear all your pretty little noises loud and clear.” 

You hissed and Spencer smiled to himself, sitting back in his chair.

“Now you’re going to get up and go and sit back opposite me. And we’re going to discuss social strain typology.”

You were dumb to deny him so you did as you were told and stood up, feeling your arousal soaking your panties as you made your way to the other side of the booth. 

“Got a good view there?” You leant on the table and pressed your breasts together. 

“Social strain theory.” He ignored you. “And now we know how smart you can be when there’s pleasure in it for you, don’t you dare sit there and pretend you don’t know.” 

He sipped his coffee, waiting for your response. 

“Social strain theory proposes that deviant behaviour can be classified by typology that’s based on a person's motivations or goals. For example, some people turn to crime for the socially accepted value of seeking to lead a wealthy life. 

Another example would be a straight laced professor using sexual deviance to advance his students learning.”

Spencer chuckled at you, shaking his head. 

“My dear, dear girl.” He placed his mug on the table. “If you think I’m straight laced, you don’t know me at all.” 

“But that’s how you like to come across. In your sweater vests and your sweet doe eyes like butter wouldn’t melt. But really, you’re the biggest deviant of all.” 

His smirk grew, stretching all the way across his face in amusement at your assessment of him. 

“You’d make a good profiler.” He mused. 

“I’d make a great profiler.” You scoffed. 

“Tell me about conflict theory.” He picked up his mug again, turning the conversation back to your learning. 

And you humoured him for a while, letting him think he was in control. 

But it was all a power play. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist -

All ships & genres -

@muffin-cup @/andiebeaword @measure-in-pain @takeyourleap-of-faith @sexy-dumpster-fire @thebloomingeagle

SR x reader -

@frickin-bats @dreatine @adoringanakin @dr-spencerr-reidd @sleepretreat @spenxerslut @sweetandsunny @bellaswanismysoulmate @mcumorningstar @dontcallmekittens @kuolonsyoja @radtwinkie @drayshadow @lytrc @nani-2305 @rainsong01 @this-is-doctor-and-its-calm @safespacespence @pastelbabygirl19 @matthew-gray-gubler-lover @people-whatabunchofbastards @justreadingficsdontmindme @/smurphyse

#spencer reid #spencer reid smut #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fanfiction #dr spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x you #spencer reid x y/n #criminal minds self insert #criminal minds

[stone-stars]

I edited together the clips of the NADDPod cast talking about fan reactions/backseat gaming from fans on the short rest this week because I feel like it’s something more people should hear.

Transcript:

Murph: So I don’t- I don’t venture into the comments very often-- Caldwell: Oooh, shit Murph: --because I try to, um, y’know, stay sane. [Emily laughs] But I thought-- I was like, you know what? The characters have joined the rebellion, there’s gonna be lots of fun discussion about, y’know, like-- oh, so cool that they’re about Mothership and all this stuff, like... things are picking up!

[The audio cuts forward-- Emily is in the middle of laughing as it picks back up, and continues to laugh in the background as Murph speaks] Murph: The top discussion of the episode, by far, is how bullshit the Callie Finale is. How unbalanced it is. That is the TOP thing. And-- Caldwell, quietly: What the fuck? Emily: Well, the funny thing is, I-- Callie Finale hadn’t come out yet, but I had seen how people were already complaining about Doom Blade, and I got rid of all my-- I got rid of my two homebrew spells. [All overlapping] Murph: Yeah, Emily threw out her christmas present Emily: No more fucking-- Murph: So you guys won. Caldwell: Are you fucking happy? Jake: You guys ruined fucking christmas. Murph: You ruined christmas. You ruined christmas. Emily: I mean Jake gets to-- Jake-- [The others stop talking, and it’s just Emily.] Jake still has access to them because I know that you will not hold him to the same fuckin standard that you hold me. Murph: It’s true. Yeah. 1,000 points of damage Hardwon is fine. Emily: And in fact, if there had been a Calder finale, you all would’ve been like-- Murph: It would’ve been fine. [Overlapping, sarcastically.] Emily: Aww, so much growth. Caldwell: Such growth. Murph: Such growth. So powerful. Emily: I’m so proud of this boy who has literally been playing as much [laughs] D&D as the girl. Murph: Lemme continue my beef of the week-- Emily: So it’s all gone. No more-- Caldwell: Oh we’re halfway through the fillet. Murph: They’re all gone. They’re all gone. The beef of the week will continue though. The beef continues. [Murph on his own, more seriously.] So I agree that getting 30 HP from it was too much. I would not have done that again. ‘Cause that’s what happens. You make judgement calls. Caldwell: Are you saying that a DM can... change rulings? After an episode? Murph: I’m saying that just ‘cause I said it the one time does not mean we’re going to cheese and fucking break the game fo-- like, I have a hundred and forty some odd episodes out there. And people somehow, still, I need to prove myself every week that I’m not a dumbass. Every week people are like “this is the end of the show I guess. I guess he just gave her something where she just gets 40 HP for free!” No. No. What are you talking about? [Caldwell, Emily, and Jake laugh in the background as Murph speaks.] Caldwell: I’m wondering if I could join the beef real quick?

[The audio cuts again, once again picking up as Emily is in the middle of laughing. She continues to laugh as Caldwell speaks.] Caldwell: There were people like-- criticizing Callie for like-- sexualizing Sol? And like, speculating that I was uncomfortable with it?? [Everyone laughs.] Murph, incredulous: Speculating that you were uncomfortable?! [Overlapping; Murph’s following lines are said at a yell, distant from the microphone so it’s not overwhelmingly loud.] Murph: You got fucked through a bag?! You have had sex. On this show. Through a BAG. Caldwell: Dog, I-- Let me just say right now, I am 35. I have a mortgage. Murph: This is a FROG. Caldwell: I own a RAV-4. I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me. Murph, more quietly: Oh my god. Jake: Woah you own that RAV-4?

[The audio cuts forward again.] Jake: --The idea that like, we’re suffering at the table when we record, the four of us, and it’s up to the audience at the end of the week to be like-- Murph: --to decide if-- Emily: --to protect Jake and Caldwell? Jake: --”hey I noticed, actually”-- like, we’re totally good. Caldwell: We’re fine. Murph: Yeah, this is an edited-- Jake: I’m having the time of my life. The happiest I am is after-- is like-- either right after or during our recording sessions. Murph: Yeah, we’re just buds, guys. Emily: We are just really good friends having a lot of fun with like, a deep mutual respect. And that’s why the show is fun to make. And that’s why you don’t need to protect them. Murph: The beef-- Caldwell: I feel like all the comments should just be like-- “Wow, check out these buds!” Murph: Yeah: check out the buds!

End of Transcript.

#naddpod #ba2mia #short rest #not another dnd podcast #all i edited out were chunks of them goofing around #to hear the goofs you gotta subscribe to short rest lol #but this is stuff more people should hear #because my god #despite the fact that they're saying this lightheartedly this is bullshit #naddclips

[solarbird]

[Thread on Twitter] [Tom Winter tweet] [MSN story on AT&T] Transcript follows:

You know what this reminds me of?

Provisional IRA bombings in England in the 1970s.

Because of the warning.

It's a demonstration bombing. ProvIRA used to do that.

Tom Winter - @Tom_Winter NEW: Police in Nashville, TN say they arrived at a 'shots fired' call this morning to find an RV with a recording playing saying that the vehicle would explode. Police sought to immediately clear the area and call on bomb squad and then the RV exploded near an AT&T facility. 10:09 AM · Dec 25, 2020

Things to keep in mind:

1. Demonstration bombings are still bombings, still terrorism. It's a demonstration of capability and will to use it.

2. The Provisional IRA didn't always call in warnings. These guys won't either.

3. They know not to use phones; too easily traced.

4. Recordings (computer-generated voices, no tracing) and amplifiers are cheap. There will likely be imitators, both real and as pranks. Don't take a chance: if you hear it, leave.

5. Some of the "pranks" will be from people who also do real bombings. Those are still terrorism.

6. If this continues and evolves, some of the no-bomb versions may end up being used to herd people _towards_ explosions which haven't yet happened. Pick your exits carefully.

Finally, 7: don't trust countdown times. If it says you have five minutes, assume you have two.

(Possibly not even out of intent, but out of sloppiness. But if they get response teams used to accurate timers, shorting one would get awfully tempting.)

As to who: it's _much_ too early to make any solid guesses.

But I can't help but note that Nashville is a deep blue city in a deep red state.

Hopefully that's a coincidence.

Because it could be. Maybe somebody had a Big Angry at AT&T, or some other business on the block.

Maybe it was personal. Maybe somebody got fired the week before Christmas. It's happened before. Usually those guys pick guns, but maybe somebody built a bomb.

We don't know.

If it was personal, none of these tweets really apply.

Personally, I think we're going to have a little fascist insurgency now, and from their perspective this is as good a day to start it as any, with a warning, rather than a casualty event.

But just because that makes sense doesn't mean it's what happened.

Maybe it's personal. We'll almost certainly find out, and hopefully soon - before this gets even more out of hand.

Me?

I'm _really_ hoping it's personal.

But all cards on the table?

I'm really kind of doubting it is.

ETA: As @pisa_lisa pointed out, this was a major 911 and telecom infrastructure disruption event as well, and AT&T confirms the explosion is the cause.

The odds of it being personal just dropped a _lot_.

#nashville #bombing #nashville bombing #nashville explosion #nashville 2020 #like we needed this shit #politics #writings #2020 going out with a bang #fascism probably

[korasonata]

Joe and Cleo model stream highlights! (Part 8!)

I know I am like 3 weeks behind with this transcript, but here we are. Favourite moments of Joe and Cleo crafting streams part 8? I think this is 8?

Here is the link to the video: https://m.twitch.tv/videos/1162523707

As always, time stamps are above each quote.

Also, guess who finally learned how to use a cut!

00:00:00

Joe: I’m the livelier of the two of us. You know people told me “Joe, if you get 3 hours of sleep you’re going to be a zombie tomorrow.” And I’m like well I can’t let Cleo have all the glory.

—

00:02:41

Cleo’s cat: *meowing insistently*

Cleo: Hello baby! Hello!

Joe (very high pitched voice): Hello Cleo! I’m a kitten!

Cleo: You are a kitten, Joe. You are a kitten.

Joe (very high pitched voice): Yay! Meow! Purr!! Etc!!

—

00:09:48

Cleo: No ones gonna— no ones Gonna shout at you for being artistic.

Joe: I mean, I’ll shout at you. CLEO! YOU’RE FANTASTICALLY ARTISTIC! IT’S F— IT’S AMAZING!! I ALMOST SAID FANTASTIC TWICE!

Cleo: You did. I’m— I’m—

Joe: THATS UNACCEPTABLE

—

00:17:36

Cleo (about her cross stitch): And I do use my spit to, uh…If you get a Christmas card from me it— it’s got my spit in the thread. So.

Joe: Oh wow.

Cleo: I know.

Joe: Now I need to send you my address.

—

00:51:48

Cleo (reading chat): Cleo, I can now smack— why can I smack Joe? I don’t even wanna smack Joe. Joe’s not done anything to me today.

Joe: *light laughing* Not today.

Cleo: I was very clear about that. Today.

—

00:54:44

Joe: BadgerSpanner says, um, “Cleo can stroke Joe’s little head like a tiny pet now”

Cleo: Hang on hang on hang on *hands feeling blindly across the screen*

Joe: —and evesteroo says “please don’t encourage Joe cat again” yeah you, you missed me doing my, uh, cat impression. Which was very anime. And not very cat.

Cleo (patting Joe on the head): There there Joe. There there.

—

00:59:56

Joe: Ok, so I am now like completely blocking your camera—

Cleo: That’s fiiiiiine.

Joe: So now we have two problems. Um, I think what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna move your camera up just a little bit (singing) Just a little bit! (Moving Cleo’s window to the middle of his chest on screen) There we go. And now it’s like in my torso.

Cleo: It’s where I’ve always wanted to be, Joe. Not gonna lie.

Joe: O— of course. You know, I don’t blame you.

Cleo: Yeah no, it’s where your heart lives.

Joe: Yeah, it’s uh…in the…in the words of doctor horrible’s sing along blog “If home is where the heart is, then your real home’s in your chest”

—

01:23:08

Cleo: My hair doesn’t get much beyond the middle of my back. It just seems to stop growing then. So. I would like really long hair, but you know. We can’t have everything.

Joe: Uh uh. Where would we put it all?

Cleo: In my extra dimensional space portal. Which I would have because I have everything.

—

01:26:20

Joe (about Mohawks): If I got one Cleo—

Cleo: If you got one, I— I would be—

Joe: It would be a Joe-hawk.

Cleo (whispering): Oh god…(regular voice) You’re not wrong. You’re just obnoxious.

Joe: I’m rarely wrong, but frequently obnoxious.

—

01:29:37

Cleo (talking about Disney Princesses having long hair): Yeah I ha— I hated my hair being short. I hated it. So much that my mother never cut it off again! Apparently I was quite vocal about it.

Joe (reading chat): Oh! Mulan cut her hair! Good point Centuritron!

Cleo: That’s true! She did.

Joe: Oh, and Snow White doesn’t have super long hair.

Cleo: Yeah, I suppose.

Joe: See, y’all are coming in and making me feel better about my hair. Thank you.

Cleo: Your hair’s very pretty Joe.

Joe: Thank you Cleo!

—

02:31:59

Joe: And here we are in Tony Stark helmet cam mode. This is the most obnoxious face camera size. Lowering that now to 60% Joepacity. So Cleo, if you ever wanted to be Jarvis from, uh, Avengers you can do that now.

Cleo: …I…I— I…Di— uh…Could I be Vision instead? That sounds like way more fun.

Joe: That is way more fun. *excited gasp* I get to be Wanda!! Ok—!!

—

02:51:00

Cleo: Thanks to literally this stream. This s— well not this stream. But streaming—

Joe: This stream in particular. The highest revenue generating stream in Cleo’s life. The one that she can never stop doing with her friend Joe, who she thinks would be a terrible husband, who already has all sorts of neurosis about being a bad husband once apparently and worrying he’ll never be a good husband to anyone ever again, and that’s fine, it’s fINE! This is the most profitable stream though—

Cleo: No no no no no no no. My most profitable stream ever was Monday. After you left.

Joe: …THANKS! I feel better! I feel better now Cleo! *Cleo cackling in the background* I’m glad that me leaving really buoyed things for you!

Cleo (still laughing): Im very sorry! No no no no! I—

Joe: This is so reassuring!

—

03:16:26

Cleo: I’m definitely wanting to be in Scotland by that point. You know? Because…I wanna be able to stay there and then get in the EU. I mean, 5, 10 years is nothing. I can do that. I can wait.

Joe: Yeah, you’re going to have more than half your life ahead of you.

Cleo: Mn. I wouldn’t go that far.

Joe: Aww, Cleo you’ll live forever.

Cleo: Don’t you wish that evil on me.

#hermitcraft #hermitblr #zombie cleo #zombiecleo #joehills #joe hills

[freefallingup13]

Just Another Friday Night; Jaren’s Puppy AU

Who wants to see a superhero/villain universe AU of Jaren’s Puppy? Everybody, that is who, I am posting this finally-transcripted piece of work. I typed it up on my typewriter back in like July, and now it’s almost Christmas (?????) so like. It’s about time I get this down.

Very lightly whumpy piece, mostly just establishing their background in this universe.

TW; Forced hallucinations (only an environment), kidnapping, restraints, noncon touch (nonsexual), gun (pistol), tranquilizer dart use, and lady whump resembling a toxic relationship because Jaren is a sadistic asshole

~~~

“Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.”

“God, shut the hell up,” Ryan groaned, testing the ropes tied around him. Nope – still wouldn’t budge. “Don’t you do anything else on the weekend besides kidnapping people?”

Jaren snorted, waving his hand. “As if, kid.”

“Uhm- I don’t know,” muttered Toni from her chair. “Maybe you could try going to the movies someday? Or, ah, I don’t know… The library? There’s really nothing like a good boo–”

“Like a cute girl?” Jaren asked, pulling her to his side. “Exactly.”

“... Uh–”

“You are such a creep!” Ryan cried out.

Rolling his eyes, Jaren turned around in his seat. “I only let you stay so you wouldn’t get in my way, Ryan. I don’t have to keep you here.”

“Well, you also don’t have to kidnap my best friend every Friday!”

“Boys-” Toni sighed, leaning on the table as Jaren and Ryan got into yet another argument. If she thought hard – really hard – she could remember a time where she wasn’t involved in all this… superhero stuff.

Two years before, halfway through college, she met Jaren in a coffee shop. Or, at least, that’s where he met her.

“Hi! Welcome to Cafe Louise!” Toni let her retail smile pop up as the next customer was revealed behind the last one. “What can I get for you today?”

The man on the other side of the counter raised an eyebrow. He didn’t look half-bad – with his messy curls, and his leather jacket, he kind of reminded her of–

“Well, beautiful, how about your number?” asked the man as he sauntered up to the counter. “I’m sure I would really enjoy that.”

She… wasn’t sure how to respond. “Er – any coffee instead?” she tried to ask.

The man stared at her for a bit. She did her best not to squirm as she realized that his eyes were glancing over her, studying her face and body. “Sure,” he decided with a sly grin. “I’ll have a coffee with you. When do you get off work?”

Now she lost her composure, closing her eyes wearily. “Sir – please, you’re holding up the line. Please order, or step aside so I can serve the next customer.”

His eyes glanced behind him, and he tsked. “Alright,” he said, waving his hand. “Sweetest latte you’ve got, honey. Make it almost as sweet as you.”

Happy to move on, Toni didn’t even bother with an answer. She also didn’t notice when he stayed for hours, sipping his coffee in the corner and watching her work.

“-- and on her date night!” Ryan was shouting now. “Seriously, she has a boyfriend, what is wrong with you!?”

“Oh, nothing,” Jaren laughed, working an arm around Toni’s waist. When did they stand up? “I just enjoy her company, that’s all.”

“Enjoy it without kidnapping her, then!” Ryan shouted down. Jaren had caught him snooping around, and Ryan had promptly been strung up from the rafters.

“How come?” laughed Jaren as he turned on a radio. Slow music began to waft through the old warehouse, and he took her hand in his. “It’s the best part of my week.”

“See– that is a problem!” Ryan said, twirling around as the rope twisted. “Nobody does things like that! Nobody has a kidnapping schedule, and for some reason, you DO!”

Jaren ignored him, turning his attention back to Toni.. “Now, this isn’t a bad date night, is it, Puppy?” he asked, flashing that same sly grin that had been haunting her for years. “A dance is far more intimate than a movie, wouldn’t you say?”

Toni hesitated to reply. Sure, it was, but she would rather spend the night with–

Colors flickered at the corners of her eyes, and she shut them quickly, burying her face in his chest. “J… Jaren…” she mumbled into his coat. “I… I thought I told you, no more hallucinations…”

She felt him sigh as he pushed her off of him, only to twirl her around. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t like them,” he replied. “With these, I could take you anywhere you wanted. Anywhere you could dream of.

“Open your eyes, Puppy. Won’t you look, just for tonight?”

Only a groan escaped her lips as she let her eyelids drift open. There was never any use in arguing with him, and the least she could do was make the night more bearable for herself. He could always make it worse. So, so much worse.

She squeaked in surprise, though, shutting her eyes and hiding in his coat again. “N-No people!” she whimpered. “Please, take away the people!”

Jaren chuckled, cradling her head against his chest with one hand. “Your wish is my command, Puppy.”

An audible snap told her she could open her eyes again. There – the hallucinatory ballroom was empty.

As Deimos, Jaren’s powers were more concentrated. He let loose, didn’t cut corners. When his attention was only on making a single person hallucinate, well… It was even more realistic.

He danced with her, blissfully ignoring the discomfort on her face. In his mind, and her eyes, they were alone together in a majestic, gold ballroom, fitted with red curtains and swirling designs on the walls.

“Why won’t you run away with me, Puppy?” Jaren cooed, stepping gingerly around her. “We could be together. We could do whatever you wanted.”

Toni pouted, her eyebrow twitching in annoyance. She had to keep her cool, but… “More like whatever you wanted to do,” she grumbled. “I don’t want to be here. I don’t even like you.”

Another squeak escaped her as he dipped her backwards, her hair brushing the floor. He chuckled as she clutched onto his arms for dear life, leaning closer to whisper in her ear. “Well, you won’t give me a chance, Puppy,” he crooned with mock sadness and a touch of true disappointment. “I never even got to try.”

“You-!” Toni risked taking one hand off of his sleeve to smack his arm. “You kidnapped me two days after we met! You didn’t even introduce yourself, you just picked me up and walked off!”

He snorted. “More of that little attitude,” he snickered as he pulled her back up straight. Her face was on his shoulder now, and he turned his head to watch her glaring up at him. “Well, whatever I did,” he noted, “it surely got your attention. Didn’t it?”

“U- I-” Toni lifted her head, using both of her hands to hit his chest. “You mean you don’t even remember doing that!? You awful, no-good-”

Before she knew it, he had caught both of her hands in his, kissing her knuckles softly. “Of course I remember, Puppy,” he murmured. “How could I forget? The look on your face when you realized what was happening…”

She was pushing away from him, but he pulled her closer, ran his fingers through her hair. The gentle touch quickly turned painful as he yanked her head back by her hair, smiling at her squeal. 

“Kind of like this, actually…” he whispered as he used his free hand to brush her cheek. The agony, the pain, the confusion… “You looked a little like you do right now. How could I forget such a pretty look?”

He held her that way for what seemed like forever, tugging every once in a while to watch her tear up. She couldn’t tell anymore whether she cried at the way he hurt her, or at the truly pleased smile on his face every time he did.

By the time he released her hair, she had a headache. Shutting her eyes again, she could do nothing as he began to stroke her hair.

“Such a sweet Puppy,” he cooed, pressing a kiss so gently onto her head that she could almost forget who was holding her. “You should fall in love with me. It would be worth it.”

She doubted it.

Above them, Ryan continued to struggle. He wrinkled his nose as he looked down at the ‘happy’ couple below. Jaren was already starting to hurt Toni. It wouldn’t be long before he started using knives, or worse.

“Gotta remember… Gotta ask Cora for help again,” he muttered to himself. Once more, he tried to move his arms behind him, trying to reach the knot, but to no avail. Growling, he kicked at the air. “Fucking Oliver!” he grumbled. “Stupid power-dampening–”

Jaren jumped, bringing a hand to his neck. Toni’s hallucination fell away as he was distracted, rubbing at his neck. “A dart?” he called out, pinning Toni close to his side. “We’re resorting to tranquilizers now?”

No answer.

Scoffing, Jaren grabbed Toni by the waist and threw her over his shoulder. He ignored her hitting his back (even though he thought it was adorable). He didn’t waste time making quips, not at this point. Not when he was here.

He didn’t even make it to the door. The weight of Toni disappeared from his shoulders as he fell. Too tired to catch his fall, he barely heard her feet meet the floor again.

Drowsy eyes looked up at the two standing in front of him. Toni, with that delicious expression of fear, and that damn, black-suited, silent killer.

A slow chuckle was all he could manage. “Well, hey, there, Hero Killer. What’s up?”

No answer. He never answered when he was in that damn armored suit. 

The Killer’s black helmet turned to Toni, though he still kept an eye on Jaren.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, holding onto his arm. “He didn’t hurt me.”

Jaren hugged. Of course he hadn’t. He was always interrupted just before the good part, these days.

The Killer caught his disappointment. The helmet’s gaze snapped back to him as the Killer pulled a pistol from his belt, cocking the hammer back.

“Hey!” Toni swiftly moved between them, holding her hands up. “Hey– I said I’m fine! I thought I said no more shooting him!”

The three of them sat in a tense silence, the Killer not daring to lift his gun against her. Nothing was said, and nothing happened, until Ryan called out from the ceiling. “Can you get me down so we can go!?” he cried out. “Please? I hate being up here!”

Toni watched the rise and fall of the Killer’s chest as he took a deep breath. No doubt Jaren was already asleep, so there was no need for any further action.

It was half an hour later before Toni was allowed to go home, her boyfriend holding her close as he set up a movie. They’d decided to skip the theater and watch a movie on the couch instead, snuggled together underneath a warm, fuzzy blanket.

“Why did you even have the gun, anyways?” she asked him as he turned on the subtitles. “You know you can’t shoot him.”

“Habit,” William said flatly, setting down the remote. “It’s part of the suit. I have to have it.”

“You don’t have to pull it out, though,” she noted. “You’ve shot him, what – fifteen times?”

“Probably,” he replied, putting an arm around her. “And it should be more.”

She looked up, beginning to scold him, but she stopped. He had that smile again, for the first time since he’d taken the helmet off. It always took him so long to relax after taking off that suit. And the tension from her getting kidnapped again was starting to calm down…

Taking a deep breath, Toni nuzzled her cheek into his chest, resting in his arms. “You’re lucky I love you.”

William looked down at her, ignoring the movie entirely. It felt far more important to look at her, to see her. See the way the lights made her face glow, how her curious eyes followed the screen. Her hair flowed freely over them both, soft as ever.

He could never tell her. He could never tell her the way his heart dropped every time he couldn’t find her. He’d never tell her the pain in his chest whenever he came upon her in Jaren’s arms, held not like a lover, but like a loved toy. The way that she pretended, the way she had started just… going along with what that asshole did to her. William knew that she did it for her safety, so he would hurt her less. That was always known.

But he could never prevent that awful thought, each time, that she would actually fall for it this time. That she would fall to him.

“I love you, Toni,” he whispered, kissing her gently on the top of her head. “I love you more than anything.”

Toni smiled softly, bringing his hand to her lips to kiss it softly. “I love you, too, Will,” she whispered, running her thumb over the back of his hand. “More than anything.”

#Superhero AU #villain x civilian #henchman x civilian #superhero assassin #whump #lady whump #whump writing #writing drabble #my writing #Jaren's Puppy #Jaren's Puppy AU #This is actually Jaren's most pathetic AU really #it all goes downhill for him from here lmao

[fruitycasket]

Droppin like Flies

Summary: The following text is a transcript from a journal found in a deserted house.

Word Count: 2,856

Notes: As I post this I am suffering from what I like to call “oh god this fic looked okay two days ago and now I hate it,” syndrome. This is kind of why I didn’t edit it twice and also why I didn’t post it for two days even though I finished it. Hope you find it decently spooky anyway. (Link to Ao3 version here!)

[The following text is a transcript from a journal found in a deserted house. It was found with one smashed window, a broken door, and several boards and nails lying around the house. Small holes in the wall indicate that the house’s windows and doors were boarded up at some point. There are also blood trails and footprints throughout the house indicating human-sized creatures entered the residence, and possibly dragged something into the forest surrounding the property. The house in question is about a mile away from two houses on either side of it. When the neighbors were questioned, they recalled not hearing from the inhabitants of the empty house for “a while.” They decided to call us when the household did not show up to a party they planned on attending. After calling and texting, a man went to check on them, saw the state of their house, and called the police. Shortly after, it was discovered that an individual named Stacy Brody and her two children were also missing.]

[All journal entries have been transcripted starting with the first page.]

Estimated Date, December 25th

[In cursive handwriting] Merry Christmas, JJ! [A small heart is drawn next to the text]

Unknown Date

[A pencil sketch of a bird sitting on a branch.]

Unknown Date

[A colored-pencil drawing of a ladybug sitting on what appears to be a white windowsill.]

Unknown Date

[An unfinished picture of someone flexing both arms.]

January 7th

I keep forgetting to use this book. It’s such a shame because it's nice and handmade and everything. I’m going to use it as a journal so it gets some good use. I hope I don’t forget to do this either.

January 8th

We all got invited to a big party! I know Henrik isn’t really big about parties but I hope I can convince him to come with us. Hopefully a few weeks is enough time. Next to Henrik, Chase looks like a social butterfly. (Sometimes.)

January 10th

I don’t think Henrik will listen to reason, so I’m going to use the tried and true method of annoying him for a day until he says yes or locks himself in his room. I know that second part seems counterproductive but Jackie knows how to pick locks so he can’t hide!

January 11th

It worked! I think. Henrik said he would consider it, but who knows what that means. I think he just wanted to make me go away. At least it wasn’t an outright “no”. I can work with it.

January 13th

Had a weird dream last night. Someone was talking to me, whispering in my ear, almost. Something along the lines of "I'm coming back," I think? I don't know what to make of it, but it’s been on my mind all day. Maybe I’m overreacting but I'm worried it could be [something beginning with the letter A has been erased here, then written over] him. But that would make no sense.

I think I'll ask Marvin about it later, he probably knows a lot about dreams

January 14th

I asked Marvin about the dream. He said he couldn't detect anything particularly malevolent. He told me to talk to him again if the dream (or another like it) came back again anyway. Other than that, today went okay.

January 15th

I haven’t had another dream, was the first one a regular dream?

January 16th

I went to bed and had a nightmare like the dream I had a little while ago.

This one was creepy. I was stuck in the dark, and I could feel something staring at me. It has to be him, but he's been dead for months now! Maybe it's another demon?

I went to talk to Marvin again. He seemed concerned, said I wasn't the only one having funny dreams. Everyone has had one at least once in the past week, apparently, Marvin thought they were just weird dreams since he couldn’t feel anything evil causing them. They were all kind of the same as mine.

I was right. It has to be him, I can’t think of anything else that could be undetectable by Marvin of all people. [Another “A” word has been erased and written over.] He's back! I don't know how but it has to be the truth, unless we're so unlucky that we attracted an entirely new one?

January 17th

Everyone had a nightmare tonight. Mine was the same as last night, but I swore I could see something looking at me. It looked sort of like a person. All in all, it was more unnerving than anything. I was actually really lucky. Chase seemed really shaken up by whatever he dreamed about, and so did Jackie. I kept asking what they saw in their dreams, but they wouldn’t say.

Marvin said he didn’t have any dreams at all. Henrik was kind of in the middle, I think? It’s hard to tell, because he wasn’t acting all that different today. I asked him what he dreamt about and he was really vague about it. I want to say it was something bad, but I figured he would be more afraid if that were the case?

January 18th

Nothing’s gotten better for me, but nothing’s gotten worse. Chase has started to sleep less, I think. His eyes are all red and he keeps nodding off when he tries to sit down. I’m afraid Jackie isn’t even sleeping at all. He’s gone a day or two without sleeping before, so if he is staying up all night he’s handling it better than Chase. Marvin is still doing fine. Henrik is still Henrik.

January 19th

Jackie and Marvin started arguing today. It's probably because Jackie hasn't been sleeping lately. 

Anyway, Jackie accused Marvin of being a traitor because he was the only one not suffering from the weird dreams. I guess it is weird that he's the only one getting a good night's rest around here, but I don't think it's solid evidence or anything. Henrik separated them both to keep them from fighting, I haven't seen either of them leave their rooms since. I think he’s the last level-headed one in this house, or at least really good at pretending to be.

Speaking of which, my dreams have more or less been the same. Sometimes I hear a voice whispering but I can’t make out any words.

Chase is looking worse for wear. He’s started trying to get some rest, but I think he’s afraid to. Sometimes he keeps me up at night because his walls are thin enough that I can hear him tossing and turning in bed, or crying, sometimes. When he’s awake he acts weird, too. He’s twitchy and nervous, and he spends a lot of time on his phone, texting someone. He never lets us see who it is. I think Jackie is getting suspicious of him.

[Chase’s phone was never recovered from the house, nor was Stacy’s or her childrens’.]

January 20th

[This page has two small water stains on it.]

We can't find Marvin, and Henrik and Jackie won't talk to each other. We thought it was weird that he hadn't come out of his room for a while, and he wasn't responding when we knocked on the door so Jackie picked the lock and he was gone. His mask was on the floor, but other than that his room was normal. The window wasn't even open or unlocked. I think Henrik thinks Jackie did something to Marvin while we were asleep, but I was up almost all night last night. I would have heard if something happened. [Something was written here, then thoroughly erased.]

Henrik says he's going to try and feed the mask some blood to wake it up. Marvin taught all of us how to do it in case something happened to him and we needed to use its magic for something. I can't believe I thought we'd never need to know how a while ago.

I thought maybe I could talk to Chase so I could keep myself calm, but he's been getting worse. Chase keeps staring out the windows like he sees something out there. I tried to ask him what he’s looking at, but it makes no sense. “They’re getting closer” was all he said. I told him it was probably just some animals and he told me the animals left a long time ago. He wouldn’t say who “them” was, either, but he did say something about the vultures not wanting to eat. It's getting late now and I'm trying to get him to bed like Henrik asked me to, but he's refusing. He told me he doesn’t need sleep anymore. I tried to give him some sleep medicine but it's not working! I think I'm going to sit him by the window and go to bed, I’m too tired to bother.

January 21st

I had a dream last night. The voice I heard from my first dream is back, but now Marvin's is there, too. Marvin was telling me not to fight. He was saying the pain wasn't worth it. I wish I could've asked him what he meant.

January 22nd

Chase ran into the woods this morning. Jackie followed him, somehow, even though he was long gone by the time he woke up. When they came back Chase was cradling this gross bloody thing in his arms. He seemed really upset. He gave it to Henrik, and he told us it definitely belonged to a human, but he couldn’t tell what part it was. There wasn't enough evidence to say who it belonged to but I think we all had a good idea anyway.

When we tried to call the police, there was no reception. When we tried to leave, we couldn’t. Something was on the path to the road, waiting for us. [Another “A” word has been erased and written over. The page has been torn as if someone applied too much pressure to the eraser] I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to believe it was him. None of us do.

Jackie couldn’t make him leave and when we tried to sneak around him… None of us really saw what it was, but it almost looked like [a few things were written here, then erased] Chase didn’t seem as scared as the rest of us. Speaking of him, I’m really worried about him. Has he even slept at all? His eyes are so red. It looks like his tears would be bloody.

[At the bottom of the page, in different handwriting, this was written.]

I have to protect my family. I'm sorry, I hope you can understand. I hope you make the right choice. It’s not as scary as it looks. You know where to find me.

January 23rd

[Note for this page: During shows, Marvin’s mask has been known to have grown spider-ish legs and a whip-like, barbed tail in order to move. This page also has three small water stains.]

Marvin's mask woke up, but it was really agitated. I don’t think it’ll be any help right now, but maybe more blood will help. Henrik’s offering up his own, so it’ll be nice and fresh.

After we let the mask rest, Henrik and I went to check on Chase and he was gone. I went to get my journal to write about it and I found his note. At least, I assume it’s his.

I showed it to Jackie and he freaked out. He spent all morning trying to call Chase, or Stacy, or any of his kids but, well, you can guess how that went.

I had a sneaking suspicion Chase would be gone before I woke up, though. I had the dream (nightmare?) again, and I could hear his voice. He sounded happy. 

I hope his voice isn’t lying to me. I hope wherever they are, they aren't hurt.

[At this point, the author’s handwriting begins to deteriorate somewhat.]

January 24th

The voices aren't restricted to my dreams anymore. I can hear them all the time. Anti’s voice, Marvin's voice, Chase's voice... I've been trying to ignore them, but I'm getting so desperate for someone to talk to I might start answering them.

The mask ran away today. It didn’t want the blood, it just wanted to leave. It smashed through a window and disappeared into the forest. It only scuttles like that when Marvin is close, since it likes him so much (that or it was really, really afraid). Jackie hoped that meant Marvin was close by, so he went out to follow the mask. He said he wouldn’t go far but [this sentence has no ending or punctuation]

He’s been gone for a while now.

As for Henrik? Henrik is just. I don't know. He’s really quiet, but he’s sort of going through his daily routine? Did he give up? I know he’s been through this kind of thing on his own before, so maybe this is just his defense mechanism kicking in. I don’t want to talk to him despite my situation. He’s a realist, he’ll tell me something I don’t want to hear, and it’ll terrify me.

I'm afraid to go to sleep. I don't want to start hearing his voice in my head, too.

[At the bottom of the page, written in cursive with dark brown ink is this message.]

You know what to do, if you want this to stop.

January 25th

Jackie never came back.

Henrik isn't really trying to fight anymore, I can tell now. I don't feel inclined to either. Did Jackie abandon us? Anti didn't get him because I didn't hear his voice in my dream. Maybe Anti just didn’t want him. Maybe he was just… torn apart. If that was the case I hope it was quick.

I'm not sure anything is going to stop what's about to happen, but we tried our best anyway. We boarded up the doors, the windows, locked everything up.

[At the bottom of the page, written in large letters, sloppy with an unknown, brown-ish red substance is this message.]

If it's pointless, why bother?

January 26th

Nothing happened today. Henrik is still going through the motions.

He made us a huge breakfast. It was nice. We sat by the window until the sun went down. By the time it started to get dark and we saw them moving through the treeline. I think I understand what Chase was talking about now. If I were a fox or a bear or something I wouldn’t want to be in the same forest as those things, either.

I wonder if it hurts? [In the margins, written in pen with neat handwriting are the words “It doesn’t.”]

I tried to look for Jackie in the group but he wasn’t there.

Henrik wants me to get some sleep now. We’re sleeping in the same bed tonight. I don’t know if I’ll be able to go to bed, but at the same time I’m hoping I don’t have to look at those things up close.

[From this point onwards, the author’s handwriting begins to get difficult to read. It is very scratchy, and the spaces between the letters and words are inconsistent.]

January 27th

Henrik is gone. Anti must have showed up while I was asleep and gotten him. How did I not notice? Why didn't he take me? If Anti wants me to surrender, I'm surrendering. I'll pull every board off those damn windows.

In other news, I've started talking to the voices. They're friendly. They’ve told me they’re coming tomorrow night. I think it’s best I stay here and wait like they want me to, I don’t know what they’ll do to me if they find out I tried to run away.

I went to sit by the window and saw something moving in the treeline all by itself. Was it Jackie?

Estimated Date, January 28th

They’re here, I can hear them getting closer. I know I shouldn’t have, but I left the door locked. I hope that doesn’t make them mad. I don’t even want to think about what it would look like if they were mad at me.

I’ve been looking over the notes the others wrote in my book while I slept, I know they say it's nothing to be afraid of but

[The entry stops here, and there are no further entries in the journal.]

[All individuals mentioned in the entries above remain missing. All residents of this stretch of woods have been moved temporarily, and the forest sectioned off with heavily armed guards stationed around the entire perimeter. Brief sightings of “mutants” have become semi-common. Most are not aggressive until approached, however two have been reported to actively seek out and kill or abduct trespassers. No individuals abducted have ever been retrieved, alive or dead. All attempts to capture the mutants as of February 2nd have failed. Observation of the mutants has proven mostly unsuccessful. There has been no sign of regular wildlife in the forest as of February 3rd.]

[Report End]

#writersofjack #antisepticeye #chase brody #jackieboy man #marvin the magnificent #henrik von schneeplestein #jameson jackson #horror tw

[astrovian]

Richard Armitage interviews Harlan Coben for the Win audiobook (released 18/03/21)

Full transcript under cut

RA: Hi, I’m Richard Armitage. I played Adam Price in the Netflix series The Stranger, which was adapted from Harlan Coben’s novel of the same name. With me is the man himself, Harlan Coben, number one New York Times bestseller, the author of over thirty novels, including the one you’ve just listened to. I’m delighted to be talking to Harlan about his book, Win.

Okay Harlan, thanks for taking the time to chat about your audiobook and thanks for sending me a copy of the book. Um, it was so nice I ended up wrapping it up and giving it to my brother for Christmas.

HC: *laugh* You’re supposed to read it first, but okay, thanks Richard.

RA: No, I got the electronic version so uh, so I’ve had a good read. Congratulations, a great story. Brilliant, brilliant central character. I mean the first question I’m gonna ask is – because people listening to this have just been listening to the audiobook – are you, um, a big audiobook listener yourself?

HC: I – I go through stages, um, because my mind wanders, I sometimes have trouble focusing. But when I’m in a car, um, that’s most of the time that I’m- that I really love to use the audiobooks because it does make the ride just fly by. However, I’ve set up my life that I don’t have to commute to work every day, so I don’t have it steadily – it’s usually when I’m doing a nice long ride, I get a really good audiobook and time just flies by.

RA: And have you- have you got any favourite audiobooks that you’ve listened to recently, or any podcasts or what is it that floats your boat?

HC: You know, it’s funny. I still remember when I was a working man, way back when, when audiobooks were really first starting out and we had them on cassette tapes, I listened to the entire Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, um, it was about thirty hours long, going back and forth to work for almost a month. And I still have memories of that experience, and it’s probably, well god, it’s probably 1990 I did that, 1989, something like that.

RA: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean I’ve got a- I’ve got a few journeys up and back from Manchester this year, we’re about to start working on Stay Close, so I’ll happily – I’m happy to take any recommendations of any good books, so maybe I’ll listen to Bonfire of the Vanitites.

HC: Well I tell ya, a lot of people – first of all, it’s a brilliant book, it’s maybe a bit dated, but I doubt that, um. I think Richard, I get more people telling me to listen to any book that you read.

RA: *laugh*

HC: I said, “Hey, I spend a lot of time with this guy, I’m about to do my second television show that stars Richard Armitage. No one I think has starred in two shows that I’ve done ever, so I get a lot of him anyway.” *laugh*

RA: You don’t need my voice in your head when you’re driving, that’s – that’s torture.

HC: That’s right, I’ll be hearing notes on, on scripts in my head if I hear you going. For those who don’t know who are listening, y’know, Richard starred in The Stranger, um, and now is going to be starring in Stay Close, uh, based off two of my novels which I’m sure you can get on audiobook.

RA: And on that note, what um, you’ve had so many adaptations now that have moved from page to screen – what is it like when you go through that process? When you’re – ‘cause you’re very hands on in the way that you kind of collaborate with not just the actors, but with the producers and y’know, the writers. I mean, you’re – you’re writing it yourself. Um, what is it like through, through that whole process, from starting to developing to seeing it kind of realised on screen?

HC: I think the key for me is not to be slavishly devoted to the novel. I think that’s a mistake that a lot of people who are trying to make an adaptation make. So, I go into it, ‘what is the best TV series we can make?’, if it’s true to the book, great. If it’s not true to the book, also great. Um, so I move my stories to various countries, we’ve changed characters around, we’ve changed motivations. Because they’re two very different mediums – a book is a book, and a TV series is a TV series. They should not be the same. One is a visual medium, one is not. Even, even um, audiobooks are slightly different um, than what you read. And they should be. Um, y’know, there’s a performance involved. 

Also, because I’ve spent most of my life alone in a room coming up with writing a book, um, where I am just everything – I’m writer, director, actor, key grip. I don’t even know what a key grip is, but I’m that. Um, it’s really nice to collaborate. So um, you’ve worked with me, I hope you agree – I like to collaborate, I like to hear the opinions of other people and um, I really enjoy that aspect of it. I look at it like I’m – like I get to be captain of a World Cup football team, rather than being a tennis player where I’m standing there on my own, which is what happens with a novel.

RA: Yeah, and actually it’s the same when I get to narrate an audiobook, like you say – you get to be director, you get to be the cinematographer to an extent ‘cause you’re setting the scene, but one thing that I’ve – I really appreciated about working with you was having read your, your books and sometimes you’ll pass by a character that is useful to the, to the narrative that you’re telling, but when that comes to developed for TV or film you’ll take a bit more time to investigate that character, and you’re very open to treading those paths, which makes for a very kind of dense narrative with the screenwriter.

HC: Well that’s what I think we’re trying to do. If you think about The Stranger, um, y’know in the book the Stranger is a sort of nerdy teenage male.

RA: Mm-hmm.

HC: And that just – we even tried out some people, and that just didn’t work. And it was really my idea – and I don’t say it in a bragging way, I say it as a way to show how open we all are – to change the character from being male to being female. And once I saw Hannah John-Kamen do it, then I pictured her in a room with you in that first great scene in the bar, um, or at the club when she tells you the big secret, it just worked. Um, you have to be willing to, to sort of stretch your imagination all over again and re-think your story. Which is also fun.

RA: Yeah, and also I suppose because y’know, as much as we love a faithful adaptation of a novel, um what you don’t wanna do is just deliver the novel in screenplay. You want to, for everyone that has read it it’s a new and exciting surprise, and for everyone that hasn’t it’s, y’know, it’s gonna be the same. So, um, it’s nice to kind of have a, to have your audience ready for people who have read a lot of your work, and there were, y’know, a guaranteed audience of people that had, had looked at The Stranger but what you gave them was something really surprising.

HC: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. And Stay Close, there’s a change in the ending to that which will hopefully shock everybody but especially the people who have already read the book, who will smugly think they know exactly what’s going on.

RA: *laugh* And me, probably. I haven’t read it yet. Um, so when you’re writing – I’m gonna double up on this question now, so when you’re writing, do you write in silence? Do you have any music playing in the background or are you – do you have like a, a kind of sacred writing space?

HC: Um, my routine is not to have a routine. Uh I, I do whatever works until it stops working and then I change up. It’s like I’m riding a horse really fast, and then the horse dies so I gotta find a new horse. So most writers will tell you ‘yes, I use this space, I do it at this time’. Um in the days before Covid, I would go to different coffee shops all the time, I would try out different… any place. Y’know, my favourite example is the end of – when I was writing The Stranger, um with about three weeks left to finish it, I had to take an Uber for the first time. This was a number of years ago. I had to take an Uber in New York City, and I felt really guilty about spending the money on an Uber and trying to justify it, so I was sitting in the back of the Uber and I was writing down notes, and I start writing really well. So for three weeks, I took Ubers wherever I went just so I could finish the book *laugh*

RA: ‘Cause that was the magic formula.

HC: Yeah, that worked! Then that stops working and then I have to find the new, a new place. So my routine is not to have a routine. If you’re trying to write out there, the key to anything is ‘does it make me write more?’ – if the answer is yes, it’s good. If the answer is no, it’s bad. It really is that simple.

RA: I’m gonna make a note of that for when I start writing myself. Um, do you – do you speak any of your characters out loud, your dialogue or your prose passages, do you say it out loud?

HC: The very last stage um, of editing. Okay first of all, no writer gets it right the first time. I know a million writers, I don’t know any writer who doesn’t re-write and re-write a lot. Well, I know one but he’s the guy none of us wanna hang out with, you know what I mean?

RA: *laugh*

HC: So um, the last stage that I do, and it’s usually after I’ve done all the editing with my editor and everything like that, we’re ready to go. I will sit in a room and I read the entire novel out loud to myself. Um, because what happens is, it’s a little bit like a musical score. Where you can – if you read it out loud, I can detect false notes that I may have missed along the way. Um, I can hear them. So the last step is that. I rarely y’know, I’m not – I’m not crazy, I’m not sitting there maybe talking out loud to myself, I’m maybe testing out lines by doing that, and I do that a lot when I’m helping with the screenplays on our shows. But um, for the most part that’s how I do it.

RA: So, in that case, would you ever narrate one of your own audiobooks?

HC: I did narrate one, uh, many years ago called Promise Me. What had happened is we had -  my Myron Bolitar series we did seven with the same reader and he retired. I hadn’t written um, I didn’t write Myron for about five or six years it was. And so they said, ‘hey, why don’t you do it?’ which was a huge mistake in many ways. One, I’m not a professional. But two, the people who were fans of Myron Bolitar liked the first guy, and it felt to them liked they had tuned into their favourite TV show and every actor had changed.

RA: *laugh*

HC: It’s really difficult to re-do or start a series, uh, when people know the- the old reader. So um, I also figure- it was also, Richard you know this of course, so for people who don’t know, it’s a lot of work. I’m a guy from New Jersey. I speak very quickly, which does not go over well in audio. I don’t do voices. I would have to sit with a pillow on my stomach because uh, my stomach would sometimes grumble and that would be picked up- *laugh*

RA: Oh, yeah!

HC: By the microphone. And it took me um, a week to record it because – and I don’t know if this is still the case – but back then, the abridged version wasn’t just a cut up version of the unabridged, I had to do a whole different reading for it. So um, it was – it was a lot of work. Um, and it’s a skill that I’m not sure I’m best to do.

RA: Yeah, it does take a lot of stamina. I mean what’s interesting is, having gotten to know you, and when I, when I now read your work, I can hear your delivery, I can hear your voice. And there’s humour in the dialogue, and there’s humour in the as well, and I – it’s an instant ‘in’ for me, so I – ‘cause, ‘cause often I read and I speak aloud when I’m reading alone in the dark, I say things out loud but I think people approach it differently. But I definitely hear your voice in, in these characters. And I think particularly in Windsor Horne Lockwood.

HC: That’s so interesting because Win, I think of my heroes that I’ve had, Win is probably the least like me. I mean um, when you think about Adam-

RA: *laughing* You have to say that! You have to say that because he’s such a badly behaved person, isn’t he?

HC: *laughing* Yeah! ‘Cause I usually like to think of myself as more of like Adam in The Stranger, who you played, or some of the other characters that – the ‘I’m a father or four’ or those kind of guys. What I love about getting into Win of course is that Win is something of an anti-hero. Um, he sort of says and does things that are not necessarily prudent or appropriate, and he can get away with that. Um, so I really loved – I loved getting in his head, it was really an interesting experience. But on the surface anyway, he’s probably the least like me of any uh, main character that I’ve ever written.

RA: Yeah, I mean I- I relate to that totally. It’s a little bit like- it’s probably a side of you, you daren’t investigate, but- but when you get the chance to do it in a fiction um, you can tap into those things that we’re not allowed to do or say in your, in your regular day. But um, where did that character spring from? What was the seed that germinated into his story do you think?

HC: Rarely is this the case, but um, Win is actually – y’know, he’s the sidekick in my Myron Bolitar series but um, when I first created him I based him off my best friend in college roommate, who has a name equally obnoxious as Windsor Horne Lockwood the Third-

RA: *laugh*

HC: Very good looking, blonde guy who used to say before he would go out to parties when we were in college, he would look in the mirror and say, “It must suck to be ugly”. And so I took him and I tweaked him and made him more dangerous, uh and that’s how I, I kind of came up with Win.

RA: And does this person know that you’ve based this character on him?

HC: Oh yes! In fact, some people know who he is, he uses it. He’s still a-

RA: Oh, really?

HC: Owner of all these fancy golf clubs, he’s president of one of the most famous golf clubs, um, in the world right now. He looks the part. In fact, he one time came to one of my books signings years ago and um, he’s sitting in the back, and I tell people the story of how I created Win, and I say, “I’m not gonna tell you who, but Win is actually in this room right now”. It took the crowd about four seconds to figure out who he was, and he had a longer line to sign books that I did *laugh*

RA: Amazing. I mean I have to say, it’s- you, you start reading the story and thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m gonna like this guy’ but he really grows on you, warts and all. I wonder how many people are gonna go into Saks on Fifth Avenue and go looking for the vault.

HC: *laugh* Yeah, no, I made that up. But there is place in Saks-

RA: I know, so brilliant!

HC: -but the rest of it is completely made up, this involves an app that you’ll read about when you- hopefully when you, when you read book. But yeah, it was fun to do an anti-hero where he makes decisions and does things that you don’t like, and yet you still wanna hang around with him. I always think the key to a fascinating character is not um, that he’s likeable necessarily, but that you wanna spend time with him. Not that he’s a nice guy, but if you were at a bar and you could sit with somebody and have a conversation with them and learn about their life, would this be a person you’d wanna do that with? And that’s sort of the test whenever I do a character. And Win, I think, passes that with flying colours. There are people who love Win and wanna be just like him and there are people who loathe him! But everybody, or I hope many people, are fascinated by him and his life.

RA: Well, also you’ve given him such an incredible kind of tool kit, like a skill set. I mean, I think everybody would look at that character and wish they could do the things he does, maybe not in the way that he does them, but I mean he’s- he’s exactly the kind of character that you’d hone in on, certainly from an acting point of view. I look at that and if I was, y’know, like fifteen years younger, I’d be leaping on that character to play. Which is, it means – it means he’s sort of relatable or aspirational in a kind of anti-hero way.

HC: I’ve heard this a lot, and I think it’s one of the most flattering things that I hear from my actor friends – I think everybody would want to play Win. I mean, I think the- it’s an interesting challenge, um, for a lot of actors. More so than even Myron Bolitar who is my lead series character. Um, everybody kind of wants to play win and kind of wonders who would play Win. Uh, and I take that as a – as a compliment.

RA: Are we gonna see more of him? Is he ge- are you writing more stories for him?

HC: My guess is the answer’s yes. I plan each book as it comes, so I never know until I’ve started. Is it gonna be a stand alone? Is it going to be a Myron Bolitar? Is it gonna be a young adult? Mickey Bolitar is now going to be a Win, and I don’t know until I – each book, y’know when I finish a book, I’m like a boxer who’s just gone fifteen rounds and can’t even lift my, my arms anymore, I gave it everything I had, I can’t even imagine fighting again or writing another novel. So I don’t know is the answer. Probably? I do wanna see Win again, separately or at least back with Myron, so I do think we will see Win again. But the book I’m writing right now is a sequel to The Boy From the Woods, which is the book that came out in 2020, so that’s what I’m writing now. Will I return to Win? Maybe. Maybe. We’ll see how- we’ll also see how people react. Not that I would work necessarily off of commercial interest, but it people really love this book, y’know, we don’t live in vacuum, that would probably somewhat influence what I do.

RA: Right. I mean, because so many of your- your books are being developed and being snapped up to be turned into film or television – I mean, Myron Bolitar is, is a recurring series waiting to happen, and then you’ve got your spin off of Win – I, I- I wonder if, y’know when your first ever, uh novel, did you write with kind of cinema television in your head? Is that something that as modern storytellers we can even avoid? Um, did you ever dream that these would ever turn into sort of film and TV?

HC: Well, everybody dreams, but there’s sort of two answers to it. The first answer is when I’m writing a book, I never ever, ever, not for one second do I think ‘Ooh, this would make a really good movie’ or ‘Ooh, this would make a really good TV series’ because that’s the kiss of death for a book. It really is. It’s, it’s- it’s just a disastrous thought, and if you’re out there writing really don’t try it, because it’s, it’s a big mistake. At the same time, to be realistic and honest, I grew up watching TV. Who didn’t? That’s my – I mean this is what we grew up with. To pretend you’re only influences – y’know you ask a writer ‘What’s your influences?’ “Oh, Shakespeare and Proust and Yeats” – come on. You watched TV growing up. And so that’s an influence on how you tell a story. To deny that is silly. So writers today do think in terms of cinema more just because they grew up with it. Where writers of a different generation did not, so they wouldn’t have that influence.

RA: Yeah, I mean I- I think this all the time – it’s impossible to even de-program your brain not to imagine scenarios in terms of cinema. I mean I- I often think about sort of Victorian novelists that didn’t have y’know TV, and their trying to describe something that they’ve never seen or experienced. And we have references for so many things – I mean it’s almost impossible not to, we’re- we are and will always be influenced by one or the other, especially in the written word. But I- I find that it means that you can kind of uh, put aside the investigation and just get on with the storytelling. And maybe go even a little bit further. It’s like instant access. Y’know, I know exactly the world that you’re talking about when you’re y’know at the beginning of Win, but- but y’know at the same time I felt there was something very Agatha Christie like about the um, the backstory of uh, of this book, I really liked the fact that there was a historic event that was really informing what was happening right now.

HC: Well, y’know when I start a book, there’s- I’m always- I have a bunch of ideas and I’m trying to think which ones are going to go in the story, and it ends up being several. So for example, in this book, I wanted – I’ve always wanted to do an art heist. Y’know, like the Gardner Museum Heist, where they still haven’t found the paintings that were stolen, the Vermeers and the Picassos that were stolen in that particular – I can’t remember if it’s Picasso now, I know it was a Vermeer – um, stolen in that- that, heist in Boston years ago, I wanted to write a book about 60’s radicals – the Weather Underground and what would happen to people who were involved in that so many years later. I also wanted to write something about a kind of Patty Hearst-type character who was a famous kidnapping here in the 70s. So those were like three of the things that I wanted to like – to delve into. And I ended up delving into all three *laugh* which sometimes happens. 

Oh, and the last one I wanted to do – I always wanted to do um, a hoarder that was actually someone famous. There was actually um, something of a case of this in New York City where somebody died who was living in a top floor of an Upper West Side building, and it ended up being the missing son – not really missing, but had just kind of gone off the rails – of a very famous American war hero. And so, I took all of these aspects, which would seem to make three or four different novels, and I make it into one novel if I can. It’s not that different from – again, I’m referencing um, um – The Stranger y’know, because you’re here and provably a number of the people listening to us have seen The Stranger on Netflix, but it’s the same thing with The Stranger a little bit, where I had a lot of ideas for secrets that could be revealed by the Stranger, and each one could have been a separate novel. And instead, the challenge is put them all in one story and find a way to hook them together.

RA: Yeah. I mean, it’s rich in a way that when I- I’m reading it and the producer head in me is saying ‘gosh, this is gonna be a great TV show’ ‘cause you know, you’ve got the present day, you’ve got the near-past and the um, the heist story, which uh, is kind of crying out for – you just want more of it, which is brilliant in a book. When you’re – you’re leaving the reader wanting to know more and wanting to, to know more about that family and what happens to them. It’s – it’s the perfect recipe, really.

HC: And so much of it does come from your life in ways that you don’t expect – right now, maybe a lot of people are watching this uh, the Aaron Sorkin movie about the Chicago Trials from the 70s, Abbie Hoffman, who is played by uh, I think Sacha Baron Cohen played him in, in the movie. When I was in college at Amherst, Abbie Hoffman was on the run, um, but he still showed up one day at our college and gave a speech, then disappeared again. And boy, that stuck in my head always. Man, I’d love to write a character that’s kind of like Abbie Hoffman. ‘Cause he had that charisma even then, y’know on stage he was funny as heck, I must have been eighteen or nineteen um, when I – when I heard him speak. And so that – I never consciously back then, I didn’t think that, but every once in a while those experiences come to head and you wanna write about it.

RA: Mm-hmm. You’ve been writing for quite a few years now-

HC: *Laugh*

RA: -you’re – I don’t know if you can even remember what it was like when you first stated your very first book. Um, and some people have said that books are like children in a way, you sort of rear them and then the more you do, the more familiar you are with that process. But would you – I mean, it’s difficult for you to answer this, but would you say you have a favourite book that you’ve written?

HC: I don’t have a favourite book that I’ve written. Um, this – this sounds self-serving, but it’s usually the book, the most recent book, that I like the best. Um, it’s a little bit like – and the way I try to explain this is – maybe you wrote a paper, an essay when you were in college which you thought was brilliant. You remember that moment in school and you wrote a paper and you thought it was brilliant and you find it now and you re-read it and you go, ‘wow, this wasn’t good after all’. It’s not that it’s not very good, it’s just that you have sort of moved on and you’re not that sort of person and so you see all the flaws. So in the older books, which I don’t re-read, I see all of the flaws. I always think, y’know even if you think of yourself, what you thought ten or fifteen years ago – you sort of go ‘ugh, what did I know back then, I’m so much smarter now’. So the same thing a little bit with books, where I think I’m learning more and the current book is better. One of the interesting experiences of working on these adaptation is having to go back and read a book – in some cases we’re doing one, the next one I think uh comes out in France for example, is Gone for Good, which I think was released in 2002! Or 2003. So I wrote it twenty years ago. And to have to go back and read it now, I’m always kind of cringing at some of the stuff-

RA: Mm-hmm.

HC: -some of the stuff I’m kind of thrilled with, like ‘wow, that’s an interesting twist. You don’t have that kind of ending anymore’ and some of it I’m like, ‘wow, why’d you go there?’ so it’s an interesting experience.

RA: Yeah, I feel the same. I very – I, uh, very early on in my career I would watch my work back in quite a lot of detail, thinking ‘I’m gonna learn something’ and then as I got older it was – it was almost unbearable to just do that. And I actually haven’t been able to do that, but it’s because when you’re – when you’re first starting out you throw everything you’ve got into that first breakout role that you do, and then your realise that you’re always in danger of repeating yourself and you think – ‘gosh, people are gonna suss me out that I’m only capable of doing one or two things’, but you live in hope that you can, y’know, find that one thing that you can completely reinvent. Y’know I still hope for that.

HC: I still think that everyone who I’ve ever met who is successful at what they do has imposter syndrome. If you don’t um, you’re prob- you have a false bravado and you’re in trouble. I always say, “only bad writers think they’re good”. The rest of us really suffer with that, and really questioning and always think we’re gonna be sussed out. And I can tell you, um, Stephen King sent me a book not that long ago because he’d nicely put my name in it and wanted my reaction. But even Steve, after all his success and whatever else, he still worries about the reaction, that he’s as good as he used to be, that people will still like it, he’s – I know him. He still worries about it. And when you stop, that’s when you’re in trouble I think as an artist, when you’re starting to doubt what it- when you don’t have the doubts, you start having an overconfidence that you sort of got this. It’s a little bit like my golf game, frankly.

RA: *laugh*

HC: There’s moment’s when I’m about to swing, y’know, I’m gonna be okay and then you get out there and you stink all over again. So-

RA: Yep

HC: -you’re constantly trying to get better and so I imagine it must be difficult to look at your old roles and you – you’re kinda cringing, right? You see all the mistakes you’re making. You see through you so to speak, right?

RA: Yep. Absolutely.

HC: And then someone will come up to you, right, and they’ll say, “Oh, my favourite thing you ever did was-“ and then they’ll list something you did twenty years ago, and you want them to pay attention to what you’re doing now *laugh*

RA: Yep. Yep. Seeing through you is, is one of the things that is quite haunting because I do, I see through me. I can’t shake myself off, if you know what I mean.

HC: Well, you are very cool, you don’t watch any of it until it’s all over. Uh, that’s correct right? You never watched any of our rushes or I remember trying to tell you that you’re doing great and all that-

RA: No, I watched, I watched the first shot-

HC: -and you had not seen any of it and I watch you every day when you’re on set working on our shows and I’ll comment if I see something or whatever, to either you directly or the director, uh, and most of the time I’m – I’m complimenting you, but you don’t – you don’t know either, because you’re not watching, you’re not getting lost in that.

RA: Yeah, I don’t like to watch or be somebody that studies myself to much, I don’t think that’s my job. I think my job is to be inside the character looking out, rather than the other way around. I leave that to the experts like you and the director.

HC: Also, I think it’s- I think if you start worrying about what – you’re right – and also you don’t have the distance. This is always an issue when I – I first start watching the cuts of the first episodes, and I read the book while I’m editing it, while I try to take time between my writing it and then seeing it, I have to sort of put myself in the position of being somebody who knows nothing about this, and doesn’t come in knowing the story already that I’ve already read or seen a thousand time. How do I keep it fresh in my head when I’m trying to be objective and watching it so we can make edits. Uh, both on the screen or on the page.

RA: Mm-hmm. What draws you to crime/thriller? What – I mean is that – I, I can’t often imagine you writing a romantic novel, but what is it that draws you to this particular genre?

HC: Well, y’know to me it’s uh, not really a genre. It’s more like – it’s a form. It’s more like saying it’s a haiku or a sonata.

RA: Mm-hmm.

HC: And within that form I can, and hopefully have, done everything. Um, I think The Stranger for example is more a story about family, uh, and the secrets we try to hide, rather than it is about who killed who – y’know, the mystery angle of it.

RA: Yeah.

HC: One of my most, uh well-known books, my first bestseller, was a book called Tell No One which was made into a French film starring François Cluze, and that’s really a love story, it’s about a man who’s madly in love with his wife and eight years earlier, she was murdered. And then eight years passed, he gets an email, he clicks the hyperlink, he sees a webcam and his dead wife walks by, still alive., And the pursuit, the wanting to get back, the hope for full redemption is really what drives the story more than ‘who killed who’.

RA: Mmm-hmm.

HC: So different stories do different things. But the great thing about the form of crime fiction is that it compels me to tell a story. I’m not getting lost in the beauty of my own genius, my own kind of navel-gazing. I have to continue to tell a story and entertain you. So any of the themes that I wanna tell, any of the things I wanna discuss, has to be slave to that story. And I think that’s probably a rich tradition. If you think about Dumas really, wasn’t that all crime fiction? Even Shakespeare is mostly crime fiction.

RA: Yeah.

HC: Most great stories, if I ask you to name a favourite novel that’s over a hundred years old, Dostoevsky, whoever, you will find that there’s almost always a crime in it. There’s almost always a crime story.

RA: I mean it’s one of the things that I get very excited about, um, I mean obviously I haven’t read your entire canon but I – there’s a signature, or a theme that you love to play on which is this idea that – that um, the people you know aren’t telling you everything about themselves, or that there’s something to hide and that in our modern world, with technology, we have this sort of ability to – to sort of lead multiple lives of truths or lies. And it’s something which I think we immediately recognise. ‘Cause I think we – we’re living that, that reality, and it’s a theme that I really enjoy about your writing.

HC: Well, first of all, thanks. Second, um, there’s a lot of things we’ve heard about the human condition. One of my favourites about the human condition that I used to write, is that we all believe that we are uniquely complex and no one knows the inside of us. And yet we think we read everybody else pretty well. We all think we are uniquely complex and the person across from us, we can kind of figure out. They’re not quite like us. Um, and that’s something I love to play with when I write. Because you’ve gotta remember that everybody is uniquely complex and on a humanity level, and on an empathy level, I raise my kids and I’m always teaching them that every person you see, the richest, the poorest, the happiest, the saddest – everybody has hopes and dreams. Just think that, when you see a stranger on the street, when you’re going to interact with somebody, when you’re getting angry at somebody, whatever it is – just remember, they have hope and dreams. Um, small little thought, but it helps me create a character as well.

RA: There’s also a- a kind of very strong level of self-deception involved, which I think can be quite surprising. Because you always read a character and go, ‘I’m not like that’ or ‘I would never do that’ and then if you really think about it, we – there’s a truth we tell ourselves about ourselves which isn’t always honest.

HC: Well, exactly. It’s really come to fruition in the world the last few years, where I kind of joked that I’ve been working too hard on making my villains sympathetic, the villains in today’s world don’t seem to be very – very complex at all.

RA: *laugh*

HC: But for the most part, people don’t think they’re bad guys. Even the bad guys don’t think they’re bad guys.

RA: Yeah.

HC: They have some way of, of justifying. It’s one of the great things about human beings, or one of the most prevailing thing about a human being, is we all have the ability to self-rationalise, to self-justify. Um, and so I’ve always tried with my villains, and I hope that I did it in everything that we’ve done together, to try to make even the villain – you may not like the villain, but you get them. I don’t really write books – I don’t write books where the serial killer is hacking up people for no reason, that doesn’t really interest me. I prefer the crimes where you can say, ‘Yeah, I wouldn’t have done it maybe, but I can see why that happened. I can see if I was put in that position, um, where I may have done something similar’. That to me is a much more interesting villain than somebody who’s just cruel and evil.

RA: Yeah. Um, final question actually, is – I mean, as a listener/reader yourself – are there any other authors whose books you love and just go back – I mean, you’ve mentioned Stephen King, um I’m with you on that one – but are there any other authors who really kind of inspire you and, and y’know, like a little guilty pleasure reading for yourself and not for work?

HC: Yeah, well the problem always is that I start listing authors, and then someone will say, ‘well, what about so-and-so who’s a friend of mine’, and then I say ‘oh shoot, I forgot – I forgot that one’.

RA: *laugh*

HC: Y’know I saw recently that it’s the eleventh anniversary of the death of Robert B. Parker, who wrote the Spencer novels, if by any chance you haven’t found the Spencer novels, and I don’t know how popular they are overseas – they’re fantastic, wonderful detective series. Um, so that’s one guy I would go back in time and try to find for audio. But I actually like Philip Roth a lot on audio, even though he doesn’t do crime fiction. I’m a big Michael Connelly fan and I like Lee Child, um and Laura Lippman. Y’know, I could sit here just naming um, people all day. I’m always curious also – who is reading – who does it because of the reader and who does it because of the writer. I know there’s a number of people who will listen to anything you read, Richard, because it’s you. Um, which is really quite nice, but it’s interesting the combination of the audio reader. I have Steven Weber, he’s been reading most of my novels, though I’ve had a female lead – a woman named January LaVoy who’s fantastic – and I think Weber captures my voice. He sounds a little bit like me, we both have a similar background, similar sense of humour, so part of it with the audio is also the match you end up making.

RA: Yeah. It’s interesting, isn’t it? Because I certainly find I don’t often get to read something which is purely my choice, I have a stack of things that are work-related, or that I’m about to record. So I don’t think I’ve – I’ve chosen a book recently which is just been- I don’t know how I would pick something, it’s usually a recommendation, so I’ll certainly have a look at the Spencer novels, they sound – they sound brilliant.

HC: Yeah, and they’re fun – there was a TV series in America for a while called ‘Spencer for Hire’ – this is s or going back to the, I guess the 70s or 80s I think. Um, those were not great, but the novels themselves were sort of – Raymond Chandler to Robert B. Parker to the guys who are working now. So he’s a huge – he was a tremendous influence on most of your favourite crime writers. I said in his obituary eleven years ago, I said, “90% of writers admit that Robert B. Parker was an influence and 10% lie about it”. So um, if you can find Robert B. Parker Spencer novels that would be a good clue for everybody out there.

RA: Brilliant. Well, that just about wraps it up. And uh, thanks for talking to me. I really enjoyed the book and no doubt it will be another best-seller and fingers crossed it ends up as a TV series.

HC: Well, thanks Richard, and I look forward to seeing you work on uh, Stay Close. I know that uh, Armitage Army out there *laugh* that – your, your loud uh supporters and fans who just adore you are going to go gaga cause you get to play somebody quite different from Adam in The Stranger. Um, it’s-

RA: Yeah. Looking forward to it.

HC: Yeah, it’ll be a lot of fun. Thanks very much.

#this was actually more interesting that I thought it would be #sorry the audio ain't great I had to compress it a lot #it is longgg #richard armitage #harlan coben #win

[jamespotterthefirst]

Pathfinder

Open Heart, Book 1, Chapter 8

Video surveillance footage

Edenbrook Hospital

East Wing [Under Construction] Thursday, November 16 10:21:02 AM Access Credentials: Ramsey, E. 

Ethan: [exhale] He’s dying. Dr. Banerji is dying.

[long, tense pause]

Lilac: What does he have?

Ethan: [defeated] I’ve been trying to figure that out for the last month.

Lilac: Dr. Ramsey…I’m so sorry. I know how close you two are. This must be incredibly difficult.

[another long silence. On the screen, Ethan gives Lilac a silent, grateful nod.]

Lilac: There must be a reason you’re hiding him here…

Ethan: I…

[beeping of a pager]

Ethan: I’m sorry, I have to go. Please, say nothing of this.

Lilac: Dr. Ramsey! You can’t just tell me one of the greatest doctors this country’s ever seen is dying and then...walk away. You want me to keep this a secret, but you won’t even tell me what ‘this’ is.

Ethan: Come by my house after work tonight. I’ll explain everything, I promise. 

Lilac: I’ll be there.

Ethan: And I mean it, Lilac. Not a word of this to anyone.

[On the screen, Ethan touches Lilac’s arm for a long moment.]

Ethan: Not even Harper Emery. Promise me.

[Lilac looks down at where Ethan touches her, looking pale and anxious]

Lilac: [slightly out of breath] I promise. You can count on me.

Ethan: Thank you.

[end of transcript]

Deleted by: Ramsey, E.

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Searched for at 9:05 PM

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Searched for at 9:06 PM

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Searched for at 9:10 PM

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Received  at 10:21 PM

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Posted at 11:19 PM

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Recorded at 9:31 AM [the following week]

Thursday, November 23. Patient X. 

 [Voice recording transcript]

[weak coughing in the distance , monitor beeping faintly] 

Ethan: Patient has developed new symptoms. Among those are—

Naveen: Don't sound so serious. I haven't died yet. 

Ethan: [heavy sigh] You're awake. 

Naveen: Have been for a while. I close my eyes since there is little else to do confined in here. 

Ethan: Hrm. 

Naveen: [chuckling interrupted by another fit of coughs] 

Ethan: [rustling] 

Naveen: I'm… [more coughing] I'm fine. 

Ethan: Not quite. 

Naveen: [coughing slowly subsides] Be useful, Ethan, and hand me my tablet. 

Ethan: I don't know why you waste your time on that thing. 

[silence] 

Naveen: You're less prickly than usual, like your heart's not in it. Something's happened… [coughing] Aside from the obvious.

[long pause] 

Ethan: … Dr. Allende knows about you. 

[another pause] 

Naveen: I see. 

Ethan: She found us here a week ago. I am positive she won’t say anything to anyone. I felt—

Naveen: —like you could trust her. I agree with that sentiment. [small pause] I'm glad you have a friend throughout all this, Ethan. 

Naveen: Besides, if anyone had to find out, I'm glad it was Dr. Allende. Based on what I hear, she's already establishing herself as a brilliant young doctor. 

Ethan: Who did you hear that from? Certainly not from me. 

Naveen: [laughs] No. All I hear from you are blatant lies about what a pain she is. 

Ethan: [mumbles something unintelligible] 

Naveen: Besides, if her social media is anything to go by, she's incredibly passionate about patient care. Maybe she can help you solve this thing. 

Ethan: And how on Earth would you know about her social media? 

Naveen: She tagged the hospital in a post last week. Since you refuse to bring a television into my room, this is my only form of entertainment. 

[long silence] 

Naveen: Just today, she posted a very wise quote. “When there isn't a path, you make your own.”

Ethan: [heaving pause] ...Interesting. 

Naveen: [laughs] What's also interesting is the wine opener in the picture. It looks just like the one I gifted you last Christmas.

Ethan: Alright. That’s enough inane scrolling for you today. 

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Posted at 6:01 PM

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Posted at 6:27 PM

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Posted at 7:32 PM

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Posted at 9:43 PM

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Sent at 11:51 PM

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Sent at 11:23 AM [the next morning]

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Posted at 3:13 PM

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Received at 9:24 PM

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Previous Posts

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Author’s note: oh my god. This one almost killed me. I was so stuck. Hope you enjoy it!

Also, does anyone have any good pictures of MC’s dress for chapter ten? If you do, help a girl out pleaseeeee <3

Thank you for reading this!

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Tags:  @paulfwesley , @ethandaddyramsey , @hatescapsicum , @eramsey28 , @aestheticartsx , @lucy-268 , @junehiratas , @openheart12 , @thegreentwin , @myusualnerdyself, @casey-v, @oofchoices, @kaavyaethanramsey, @professorkingslay, @skylarklyon, @tsrookie, @scorpiochick8 , @canigetanawwjunk, @aarisa-frost @livelife-laughloud, @interobanginyourmom, @perriewinklenerdie, @nikki-2406, @cinnamonspongecake​

#open heart #ethan ramsey #ethan x mc #playchoices #Pictagram #My writing

[dailyaudiobiblechronological]

12/26/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

1st John 1 - 5

Welcome to Daily Audio Bible Chronological, I'm Jill. Today is the day after, December 26th. welcome everyone. it is indeed the day after Christmas, where some of you are done with it, and the stuff is coming down. and I can appreciate that, so glad that you're here. Let's take a deep breath. Yesterday was probably a big day for a lot of us, so we'll just take a breath and we'll just say, Well done to ourselves for being here, showing up, and diving into the word of God. Today we're going to read first John and we're going to read one through five, and we're reading this week in the Evangelical Heritage Version, 1st John chapter 1. 

Prayer

Jesus, we thank you for your word today. We thank you for this message, that we get over and over today. What is clear is how we are to love one another, how we are not to sin, and how we are to go out and do and be. the love that you are to us, there are no words to mince here. It is Crystal Clear knowing that this message was for a specific Place, specific time, specific people, it is applicable to our lives that the message that is the love of God, can only be taught if we exemplify the love of God. help us not to miss these words today. and I pray that we would not just be yours of the word, that we would be doers of the word, especially this word today. We thank you for your love, love that we do not deserve, love that we cannot fathom love, that is so difficult to reciprocate. But let us try to imitate that which Jesus exemplified for us, that which God gives to us so freely, let us strive for righteousness. Thank you for the help of the comforter, our guide, or help in times of trouble. Thank you for your spirit. in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Announcements

Daily Audio Bible, That's home base. check it out if you have not, take a look around. We are winding down the year so if you're walking through the Bible and it's been transformational tell a friend about it and get them excited about being in the word. share with them what you have gained and gleaned from being in the word. and also just what a great thing to have a friend to be accountable for. to throw things off of, and share perspective and to pray for one another. The beauty of this community is that no one walks alone. If they don't want to, we thank you for your participation this year in the Christmas album project initiative. all advancements going towards technology to improve the app to make it as readily available to as many people as possible. If you would like to partner with us, still here at the daily audio Bible this year, you can do so Daily Audio Bible PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174. If you need prayer, if you'd like to pray for someone previously called in, several different ways for you to do so 800-583-2164, and lastly look for the red circle icon up at the top right hand corner of that app. again you have two minutes on the prayer line, hit submit, turn the wheel over to chronological, and it will get to the right place. that is going to do it for me today, we will turn the page together tomorrow, love one another.

Community Prayer Line

Today is December 21st 2023, and just a few hours from now it'll be Christmas day. in just a few hours in the grand scheme of things it will be January 1st 2045. Feelings around I'm sorry if I'm a little bit Spacey I'm driving at the moment and I'm trying to pay attention to my best but may I just give a quick shout out to the prayer Warrior. The warrior who is Heather from Santa Barbara. I am just lifting up Heather who is going through some Financial woes and other turmoil with her with some mental illnesses and I am just praying for you dear sister. Dear Heather, you may look to God to be your provider that may be out of this season. You don't run away from God you don't run away from what you know now today you turn around tomorrow and you look to God as your provider Jesus name. I'm praying I asked well I love you bye amen. 

hi this is Paul from Wales or why you follow Jesus 365 so back at the end of August I was facing a couple of challenges my best friend is dying and I decided the best way was to dig in and go deep and double tap it's the 21st of December and I've just caught you all up so thank you for your company and your encouragement in the word of God since the end of August and may the Lord bless you may the Lord keep you may make his face to shine upon you and I heard all of the sad prayers today may be gracious to you in your very own private situation in Jesus have new name amen and I'll see you next year because I'm going to keep good afternoon Museum Wanted to make sure you know that I'll take you all my classes that I needed and it turns out they were offered so that way I didn't run into any issues so anyways I start you know looking at stuff and I take a prereq which term and it turns out the class that comes after it winter term is also the only time that it's offered online after that it's all going to be in person and I don't want to go on campus or downtown you know Because I already work at a hospital you know I'm taking the prereq winter term but the class I have to take after that as a core class and if only also offered winter term is there any way I can take the prereq and the classical operate both went to terms they're both online and I work at the hospital and I can't come on campus she weighs that too so now I am able to take a class so I mean God is just so amazing how he works in her life like I literally changed my life like 8 years ago got back into school and got my first degree working on my second going to my masters afterwards and he has just literally provided completely along the way has you know weighed things I needed to take away even with my other degree picture of guys 

[patchworkstudies]

hello lads, nerds, and others! guess who is pulling an all nighter on christmas?? it’s me! my life is a bit of a mess right now and i got some organizational presents so i have decided that instead of sleeping i am going to work on

[ urgent tasks ]

finish email about being on campus and accommodations for first year seminar, and schedule email to send at a reasonable time tomorrow

text back kid from high school about reduced courseload and apologize profusely for having accidentally ignored them for three days

put away clean laundry so hamper is empty

put dirty laundry in hamper

gather belongings from the living room and put them away, if my sister isn’t asleep by then

figure out how to get a transcript of my grades from the courses i took the past two semesters so i can send it to the registrar at my actual college and get credit for those courses

tidy room and clean up the bird poop on the floor

switch out old water dishes for new, clean ones

feed bird again? he’s been very good today

[ non urgent tasks ]

go through the blank notebooks i got and, in order, label each page with a date until i have pages for all 365 days of the next year. yes this is literally how i do my assignment and to do lists. i handwrite every day and then when i get a task i copy it down on the day its due. time consuming but the only thing that has worked for me so far.

finish rough draft of daily/weekly routines for when i am on campus and add to new binder

make daily schedule for next week, fill in events and habits, and add to my new binder

find blank graph paper to fill my new binder

start brainstorming habits for the new year

go through and organize my entire email inbox

go through closet and decide which clothes to bring with me to campus

start knitting again???

make foraging boxes for the pigeon

finish transferring videos from old computer

help... the only thing i actually want to do is to play more stardew valley

#studyblr #studying #to do list #studyblrgetsreal #kaz here #kaz posts