#computer programming courses for beginners

[shewritescode]

The Complete Python for Hacking and Cyber Security Bundle

Master Hacking and Cyber Security While Learning Python. Beginner to advanced.

Stationx - The Complete Python for Hacking and Cyber Security Bundle, 87% off ($26)

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[lilithrosexoxo]

Ch. 2 Tipping Point (SMUT)

Summary - The tension between you and Jabber reaches a tipping point. How will everyone react?

SMUT WARNING (18+ only): Vaginal Sex, Unprotected Sex, Recreational Drug Use

Pairing: Jabber x Reader

A/N: Tried writing for Enjin but the only thing that came out is Jabber. Yeah I’m a spiritual girl and that’s a real tarot deck. Fucking hate C #, used to spend 6 hours a night on homework in grad school. Also if the anonymous person that sent a message about dad Jabber reads this, your oneshot is next.

Playlist Inspiration made by me (higly recommend to listen while reading):

W/C: 4800

Jabber is checking his computer trying to figure out how to get you two in a class together. Sure he could see you on the weekends when he visits your grandparents but that wouldn’t be enough he needs to see you more. And he needs to isolate you from your friends a bit to prevent their influence on your relationship with him. He logs in as your school counselor and sends you an email stating that your current classes wouldn’t put you on the fastest track to graduation and the only class available would be one that Jabber is a TA for. He knows that this would be out of your area of expertise since it’s a programming class. Giving him the perfect chance to spend more time with you and another reason for you to rely on him. 

xoxo

You drag your feet to your next class already dreading it before you even take a seat. You had to switch some classes around and now you’re stuck in a programming class and of course none of your friends were in this class so you were going solo. 

You enter the class and sit in the back of the class next to someone who has their hood over their head and head down. Your professor enters shortly after and the person next to you lifts their head and takes off their hood. Wait, you know those locs.

“Jay!?”, you question. You feel your heart quicken in anticipation. He’s been on your mind since your time at the aquarium but you haven’t mustered the courage to visit him at his home and unfortunately for you he and your grandad went out last time he came over so he’s just been running laps in your mind for the past 2 weeks. 

He turns to you, “Sup Y/N whatchu doin here? I thought you were going for an English/Teaching degree?”.

“I had to switch some things around and got stuck in this class as an elective unfortunately. What are you doing here? I know you’re in software engineering but this is a beginner programming class, aren’t you a senior?”, you ask with a tilt of your head.

Jabber thinks you look cute confused. He’d never admit it to you how he hacked your counselors email and show that only this class had any spots left.

“I’m a TA for this class” he admits with a smirk.

“Oh my god really!? Please tell me you’ll tutor me! I know nothing about programming. Please I’ll do anything”, you beg with a pout of your lips.

Now how could he deny you when you beg for him so sweetly.

“Of course I’ll help you Y/N. Stop by my place after you’re done with classes and we can come up with a game plan. And I got something for you ma”, he says as he turns to focus on the professor who begins your lecture.

xoxo

After the lecture you feel like your brain is gonna explode. To say you didn’t understand anything would be an understatement. You look at Jabber, “Jay do you think we can have a study date tonight? I didn’t understand anything that nigga said”, you say with a pout.

“I already told you to come over ma. We can have a study date and you can stay over as long as you want”, he says with a wink.

Your face heats up at the gesture. It should be illegal to be that fine.

“I finish classes at 3PM today. Could I come over then?’.

“You’re welcome over to my house anytime Y/N. I’ll see you at 3”.

xoxo

You ring the doorbell and fidget with your skirt as you wait for Jabber to answer. You were nervous to come over with the crush you’ve been developing on him.

The door opens, “Hey Y/N come on in”, Jabber says as he moves to the side to let you in.

You take in his house, it was surprisingly clean and had modern decor. You’re not sure what you were expecting but you weren’t expecting this. Bachelor’s usually had messy homes but Jay’s was tidy.

“Just you here?”, you inquire as you look around.

“Yeah just me, mom kicked me out when I was 16 and I’ve been on my own since then. Well I do have Jinx”, he explains.

You feel bad but you don’t want to dig into his past any further. You want to keep the mood high and you doubt he has a pretty past so you focus on the other fact, “Jinx?”.

You hear a meow behind you and look down to see a small black cat with yellow eyes. 

“That’s Jinx, I found her on the streets when she was a kitten a few years back. We’ve been together ever since”, he says looking down shyly.

You would have never imagined Jabber to have a pet and for him to take in a stray? He keeps surprising you in the best way possible. He’s an animal lover, surely he can’t be as bad as your friends say. So far you’ve only seen a sweet side of him and his kindness.

“Hi Jinx, I hope you don’t mind me stealing your dad for a few hours”, you coo as you crouch and put out a hand towards her.

She sniffs you and immediately rubs against you earning her some chin scratches.

Jabber is elated at this, usually Jinx hates every person he brings over for taking his attention away from her but she seems to be smitten with you just as he is.

“Come on Y/N let’s go to my room”, he says as he picks up your bag and starts walking to the back of the house. You follow him and in no time you're in his room. He has a deep purple comforter and black curtains that block out the sun. He has a PC setup with 3 monitors and a mounted flat screen TV connected to a Playstation 5.

“You game?”, you ask excitedly running over to see his stash. 

“Yeah I game, you game? What are your favorites?”, he asks with a raise of his brow as he sets your bag down.

“I’m basic, Kingdom hearts, persona series, Bloodborne, Dead by Daylight”

“I wouldn’t consider you basic, you got taste. We should play some DBD together sometime. My faves are COD, GTA, Bloodborne, really any souls game. Guess you could say I’m a masochist”, he chuckles and you take in how close he is to you. The scent of sandalwood and weed was strong on him but it’s slowly becoming a scent you’re getting addicted to. You look him in the eye as he stares down at you and you notice the height difference between you two making your stomach do flips as your mind wanders.

Jabber looks down at your plump glossy lips and craves a taste. He slowly moves closer to you and lowers his head but right before your lips meet a phone ringer goes off and he curses internally.

You look down at your phone irritated as hell. You were pretty sure Jay was about to kiss you and this just ruined everything, “Shit it’s my grandparents let me take this”.

You answer the phone and hear your grandpa frantic about how Breasia got arrested for theft and is now being held in the county jail. You cuss internally of course when you finally get some alone time with Jay something is going on with her, “Don’t worry Pa she’ll be fine I say we leave her ass in there over the weekend to teach her a lesson. If we keep bailing her out every time she gets in trouble how will she ever learn? Either way I’m busy right now so she’ll have to wait”. You tell him you love him and hang up the phone.

“Everything okay?”, Jabber asks. He is pretty sure he knows it’s your sister getting into trouble yet again but feigns ignorance.

“Yeah it’s just my sister but she needs to learn a lesson”.

“Yeah you’re right I know she's been stressing your grandparents out. Sometimes people just gotta learn the hard way”.

“Exactly I say we leave her little ass in jail for the weekend, maybe that’ll teach her that life doesn’t care about your past or what you’ve been through. You can’t just do whatever you want and not expect to have any consequences”.

Jabber likes this feisty side of yours and agrees with you.

It’s then that you two turn your attention towards the programming class. Jabber is patient and attentive as you ask your questions. He carefully explains things to you in a way you can understand and you see why he’s a TA for the class. After you both decide to just chill and play some COD together.

“Fucking camping bitch!”, you scream as CuntDestroyer69 snipes you yet again.

“Don’t worry Ma I gotchu”, he replies as he takes out the camper and wins the match for your team.

You laugh maniacally and Jabber thinks it’s the cutest thing in the world.

“I really appreciate you for taking time out of your day to help me Jay”.

“Not a problem at all Y/N. And I mean it, you are welcome here anytime. Don’t be a stranger but before you go I have something for you”, he says as he gets up and grabs something from his desk. It’s a wolf plushie and it makes your heart soar.

“Oh my god, this is for me it’s so cute! Thank you Jay!”, you say as you hug him.

He wraps you in his arms and inhales your scent of hibiscus and coconut. You don’t know but in the plushies eyes are cameras for him to watch you.

“I have to head out, my grandparents are probably losing it but I’ll see you soon”.

He walks you to the door and watches you leave, you’d be seeing each other sooner than you imagined.

xoxo

Weeks pass and life is going good. After Breasia spent a weekend in jail her behavior has gotten immensely better. You and Jay grow closer together between the tutoring and gaming and thanks to him you are passing your programming class with flying colors. He’s also invited you to a frat party this weekend and of course you were able to talk your friends into coming with you. You didn’t tell them how you got the invite. They’ve made it clear that they do not like Jay at all. Anytime you mention him their faces scrunch up and they go on and on about how bad he is so at this point you haven’t told him that you’re neighbors let alone how much time you spend together.

You’re currently getting ready for the party and throw your braids into a half up half down style. You throw on your mini black dress and put the finishing touches on your makeup. You do a spin in the mirror and are happy with what you see. This will surely catch Jay’s eyes. You receive a text letting you know your friends are here to pick you up.

“Gran, Pa, Bre, I’m heading out, I'll be out late tonight!”, you shout as you rush out the door.

You enter the car to see Reigen, Chelsea, Lee, and Stacey all dressed up.

“So are you going to tell us how you got an invite to a party of one of the most exclusive fraternities?”, Stacey asks.

“Nah y’all don’t need to worry about it, just know I got connections”, you say with a wink.

In no time y’all pull up to the frat house and you can hear the bass booming from outside the house.

“Alright guys it’s time to party!”, Reigen shouts as you all rush towards the house.

xoxo

After a few blunts and drinks you and your friends are cross faded. You’re all having a good time but you haven’t seen Jabber yet. You’re feeling a little down until you hear someone yell Jay. You look and see he’s dressed in a purple tee, black ripped jeans, and a pair of black timbs. His grillz and chains are on making him look even sexier. Butterflies swarm in your stomach like usual when you see them and you two make eye contact. He raises his red cup to you in greeting. He knows about your friends' disdain of him so you two remain civil when they’re nearby.

Your friends see him enter the house and groan internally. They’re pretty sure you’re interested in him but they have no proof. They all look at each other and place the responsibility on Reigen to keep an eye on you and away from him. You’re too busy making heart eyes at Jabber to even notice the conversation they had.

You hear nobody by Keith Sweat start playing and decide to make your move. At this point fuck your friends opinion of Jabber. Man was fine, intelligent, and sweet. You’re not sure why he got such a bad rep at school but you feel like you’ve seen a side of them that they haven’t. 

🎶 And who can love you like me (nobody)

Who can sex you like me (nobody)

Who can treat you like me now, baby (nobody)

Nobody baby (nobody) 🎶 

You make your way through the crowd towards Jabber, making eye contact with him “What’s up Angel, what brings you to this part of the crib?”, he inquired, lifting a slitted brow with a smirk on his face.

“W-well”, God you’re already stammering but you’re not backing out now. Momma didn’t raise no bitch. You clear your throat, “Well Keith Sweat is playing and I need a dancing partner”, you say sweetly as you hold out a hand to him.

He gets whistles and shoves from his group to join you on the dance floor. He takes one last drag from his blunt and hands it to Jamar, taking your hand and joining you in the dancing crowd.

He spins you around and brings your ass to his crotch. You both move your hips to the rhythm of the beat. He feels you up hands exploring your body. You feel yourself getting wetter and wetter the longer you two dance together. He stops your hips and turns you around.

“You look a little warm Y/N how about we go sit down upstairs for a minute to cool off yeah?”he asks, extending an arm. 

You immediately latch on to him and he wraps his arm around your waist as you head upstairs passing the bouncer guarding the frat guys rooms that lets him through. He already had it in his plans to drag you away from the party and get you alone. Jamar offered his room and he made sure to let the bouncer know to let him through. He locked eyes with one of your friends, Rachel he thinks and he can see the panic wash over her face as he takes you upstairs. He looks down at her and smirks before gripping you tighter and heading to Jamar’s room.

Reigen is freaking out on the inside. She told you to stay away from that crazy nigga and here you are walking into a wolf's den like a pig sent to a slaughterhouse. She tries to make her way through the crowd to stop you before you go upstairs but there’s too many people in the way. All she can do is watch as he takes you away. Oh no how is she supposed to face the group and let them know that you slipped out of her hands and right into Jabber’s arms!?!? They’re going to be so mad at her. 

Jabber turns on the light and shuts the door and you hear the next song play.

🎶 Can't kill the voodoo runnin' in my blood

Cannot kill it man it's still in me

I can feel it, I can feel in me

And the spirit is the real in me

Black magic power

Cannot kill it man it's still in me

I can feel it, I can feel in me

And the spirit is the real in me

Black Magic Hour 🎶

“I love this song, I love that Jidenna explores his mystical side”, you sigh as you lay on the bed and ask the room to stop spinning.

“Nah ma can’t say I’m a believer of that psychic shit”.

You giggle sweetly as you lean against his shoulder, “Hmmmm I wonder if I can change that? How about a reading?”, you inquire as you pull out your travel sized Dust 2 Onyx tarot deck.

He’s not surprised in the slightest with the way he’s been watching you through the camera in the plushie he knows you have a spiritual side.

You shuffle the cards until 3 fly out.

“Ace of gourds,  the lovers, and temptation” you feel tears well in your eyes at the information flooding your mind. Jabber was interested in someone and they were interested in him too!? Who could this mystery girl be and what does she have that you don’t?

He notices your teary eyes and silence and gets a little nervous, “Damn ma the cards that bad”, he questions.

“Actually no it’s really good, there’s definitely new love in your future and you two will be harmonious and understand one another. I see they’ve been on your mind heavy to the point that some might say it’s obsessive but it’s clear they feelin you too” you say with a deep breath.

“Oh really that’s something I like to hear”, he says as he moves closer, “I’ve been feenin for her since I laid my eyes on her. Way she run through my mind would make me think she put something in her spaghetti but she hasn’t even cooked for me yet”, he chuckles moving close to you.

You hear the bass thrum through the house as your heart rate quickens more rapidly with each inch he scoots closer to you.

“So my reading says the one that’s been running through my mind ever since I laid eyes on her likes me back huh?”, he says centimeters away from you.

“They’d be a fool to not”, you whisper and his lips crash against yours. The kiss between you two is rough and desperate. He bites down on your lip hard enough to draw blood and it makes you moan. He uses that chance to thrust his tongue in gently and moans at the taste of you.

He tasted of peach Hennessy and weed, an intoxicating taste that you loved exploring. With every kiss you become more and more desperate for him. You push him down and straddle him. You grind against the hard length in his pants, your thong catching on your clit just right making you whine against him.

“So Angel I ain’t got no protection on me so now I wanna know. You swallow kids?”, he says as he grips himself through his pants.

Your eyes widen in shock. Whoever started that rumor that he was 10 inches well they weren’t lying or exaggerating.

“I’m on the pill Jay and I trust you, we don’t need protection”, your desperation for him having you throw all caution to the wind.

He lifts your dress up and you feel his slender fingers rub against your soaked thong and moan at the feeling.

“Mmmm you soakin baby, you been wanting this as badly as I have hmmm?”, he coos as he toys with you through your thong.

“I’ve been wanting it so bad Jay please touch me!”, you mewl.

“I am touching you baby girl”

“Jay please don’t tease me, I need you!”

He chuckles as he rips off your thong and touches you directly. His touch sent electricity zapping up your spine.

“Damn baby you’re so wet, I don’t think you need prep huh?”

“Fuck the prep Jay I need you I don’t care if it hurts. Just put it inside please”, you beg as you claw at his pants button and zipper.

He chuckles at your enthusiasm but this is perfect. You’re desperate for him just like he wanted. He gets up and takes his clothes off and you do the same. You lay on your back and spread your legs for him.

He hawks a glob of spit on your pulsing puffy clit before smearing it with his tip as he thrusts through your messy folds. He slowly pushes himself inside taking care to be gentle with you.

“How you feelin ma? You good? I know I’m bigger than most”, he groans as he sinks into you inch by inch. Your velvety walls feel so perfect fluttering around him he’s holding back this time but the next time you two go at it he’s not holding anything back. Finally feeling you after weeks of yearning has him close already but he stills himself. No way is he nuttin this fast.

Your cunt aches from the obscene stretch but you’d be lying if you were to say this isn’t exactly what you need.

“You feel perfect Jay”, you say with dazed eyes. He takes that as his cue to pick up the pace and you’re a blubbering mess. He just fills you up so perfectly it’s bringing you to tears.

He slows down and focuses on going as deep as he can go and you swear his tip is kissing your cervix with every thrust.

“That’s a good girl you’re takin me so well ma”, he whispers gently as he kisses your tears away feeling ecstatic that he’s bringing you to tears. He makes his way down and kisses and nibbles on your neck making sure to leave a mark. After this everyone will know who you belong to.

He grabs your chin and points it towards where you’re joined together, “Look baby you’re making a mess of me”, you look down and see a white ring around the base of his cock soaking his pubes and it makes you both groan.

Obscene squelches resound through the room, pussy wetter than the ocean from how good he’s dickin you down.

“Jay you feel so good”, you slur.

“Fuck baby so do you but I needa new position. How about you get on your hands and knees f’me?”, he says as he slides out of you.

You get into position and that’s when he decides to stop holding back. He’s giving you the meanest backshots of your life and you have to grab the pillow to muffle your screams as your legs shake.

He notices what you’re doing and grabs the pillow and smacks your ass, “Nah ma don’t hide those pretty noises from me. Let them hear how good I’m dickin you down! Come on ma scream my name, don’t run from this dick” he groans as he thrusts even faster.

You do exactly that as you cum all over him liquid coating your inner thighs and the sheets below straight ecstasy flooding through your veins.

“Good girl makin a mess f’me”, he groans as he fucks you harder, “Fuck baby I’m about to cum, where ya want it?”, he asks as his thrusts grow erratic.

“Inside Daddy please nut in your pussy”, you whine as you look back at him with teary eyes.

“Shit Y/N!”, he cums with a growl of your name filling up your womb with spurt after spurt of warm cum. Cumming so much that your pussy can’t even contain it all, some dribbling down your thighs to the soaked sheets below.

Jamar was going to try to kill him for ruining his bed but even if he wanted to fight him Jamar would lose. One punch with his brass knuckles would knock him out.

He slides out and lays on his back laying you on top of him as you both come down from your high.

“Jay that was amazing” you say as you stare into his fuschia eyes.

“Yeah that was somethin else Y/N. It was perfect”, he says in a soft voice as he rubs your lower back.

You’re both just staring at each other with dopey grins on your face until you hear your phone ringer go off. You both groan but you sit up and check to see who’s calling. You see Reigen’s name flash on your screen before you see that you have 14 missed calls from her.

“Awww shit, Jay I hate to do this but I gotta go, my friends are blowing up my phone”, and you get another call even as you tell him. 

Jabber feels irritation rise in him, why can’t your friends just fuck off. He just wants you all to himself. Is it really too much to ask? He watches you get dressed and reigns his emotions in. Everything in due time he repeats to himself.

“Don’t worry about it Y/N we’ll have more moments together. Stop by my place tomorrow, kay?”

“Of course Jay”, you say as you plant a kiss on his cheek which makes him grin.

xoxo

“Oh my god Y/N is that a hickey? Who’d you get a hickey from here!?!?!?? No way, did Lee finally make his move?”, Stacey squeals. To say you’re confused is an understatement. Lee felt that way about you? She runs over to Lee before you can stop her and explain that you were not rockin a hickey by him. 

She looks to Lee, “Bro I’m so proud of you for puttin yourself out there”.

Lee looks incredibly uncomfortable, “It wasn’t me I didn’t do that”, he says looking down. He’s trying to hold in his tears. He’s always been a bit on the sensitive side so knowing someone already had your attention was heartbreaking for him. He’s had a crush on you since you were kids on the playground. He's just never mustered up the courage to tell you how he feels. He thought he would have a chance when you moved back to town now that you both were older but now it looks like he’s waited too late. 

“From the looks of your smeared makeup and clumpy lashes it looks like more than a hickey happened. Y/N who were you with?”, Chelsea asks, also curious.

You looked down shyly, “C-Come on guys let’s just enjoy the party!”, you stammer already imagining how they would react if they found out you were with Jabber the one nigga they said to stay away from.

“No no no, she was with Jabber”, Reigen admits knowing she was about to face hell.

“What!?”, Stacey screeches and it’s then that she looks down and sees the mess leaking down your leg.

“You let him hit it raw?!? Awww nah we gotta get you away from him. Look he’s bad news Y/N”, Stacey grumbles as she grabs your arm to pull you outside. She ain’t trying to put all your business out there and if they continue talking in the house that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

Lee feels his heart shatter as he follows the group out. You liked Jabber to the point you’d let him hit it raw the first time?

“Reigen what the fuck you were supposed to be keeping her away from him!?”, Stacey shouts.

“I know I know I know I fucked up”, she admits looking down.

“Keep me away from him!?”, you shriek. They were intentionally trying to keep you away from Jabber? Is that why they’ve been trying to spend every waking second with you? “Look guys you don’t know Jay the way that I do. He’s smart and kind and between us I see why people get dickmatized by him. That was the best sex I’ve ever had in my life. The rumors are right his dick is magical”, you say with a dopey smile on your face, “Look after I moved back here one of the first things I did was go on a date with him. And you know what it was absolutely perfect and he was a complete gentleman”, you admit crossing your arms. You were sick of pretending that he was a bad guy and there was nothing going on between you two. 

“Look I don’t know why you guys have a problem with Jay but I don’t care anymore. He’s sweet and he visits and has been visiting my grandparents for months. He rescued a stray cat. He tutors me in that god awful programming class. I don’t care how you guys feel about him anymore!”, you shout as you walk away from your friends back into the house.

You hear shouts of your name but ignore them as you run back into the house to find Jabber.

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Tags: @misshoneysplayhouse @simpforlife134

[yansurnummu]

How to Switch to Linux (A Beginner's Guide)

Alternate title: Free Yourself From Microsoft's Chains and a Beautiful World is Possible

This is going to be less of a step-by-step guide, as there is already plenty of more adequate documentation I will link, and more of just a general overview of my experience getting into Linux and advice for beginners! (and for others with Linux experience, feel free to add on or correct anything here!)

So, the first thing to note is that "Linux" is a very broad umbrella that encompasses hundreds of distributions (distros) of the Linux kernel. There are many highly-specialized distros that will all serve different purposes depending on your computing needs. Think of it like different flavours of ice cream; they're all Linux at their core, but with different flavours and additives for different people's tastes. Linux and its distros are FOSS; Free and Open Source Software.

I'm going to be mostly talking about Linux Mint today. Why? Because it's very good at what it wants to be, which is a lightweight, versatile introduction to Linux aimed at Windows users. It's widely-used, and for good reason!

This also means that any issues you might come across will be better documented, and the official forums are quite active if you need to ask questions.

(ID: the default Linux Mint Cinnamon desktop environment)

Who should use Linux?

In years past, there's been this idea that Linux is only for the hyper tech-literate, which in recent years is mostly no longer the case! It's great for daily use, browsing the internet, art, content creation, gaming, and more. Especially since the release of the Steamdeck, gaming on Linux has never been easier.

If you run last gen or older hardware, or just notice your PC runs slower than you would like, I can almost guarantee Mint will make it run better overall. It's also much more efficient on disk space if you have a laptop with limited storage; the entirety of my Mint install is in the single digits for GB, while IIRC Windows 10 was around 40GB. If you have even lower-end specs, you can try Mint's XFCE edition, which is lighter on features, but can run on pretty old hardware.

That said, if you rely on certain proprietary software such as Adobe or Microsoft products, I don't recommend switching unless you're able to move your work to an open source alternative (of which there are many very good ones I encourage you to try out, even on Windows!). It's always a good idea to look online if there's a program you're not sure will be able to run, though aside from the above examples, compatibility is surprisingly good. It even has touchscreen support; I'm using it on my convertible laptop for art, and it's great! For gaming, proton has a database where the community has ranked compatibility for games: ProtonDB. (I will talk a bit more about Proton later)

(It's also worth mentioning that lack of compatibility is 100% the company in question's responsibility, as they're just not allowing their software to be available on Linux for whatever their reason. If all that's keeping you on Windows is certain software, I encourage you to politely bug them about it via feedback forms!)

Key Features

Timeshift: this is like if Windows' snapshot feature didn't spy on you and was actually good. This is an essential thing to set up, as if you do ever break something in your system, you can easily use this to roll it back to before the change occurred.

Software Manager: on Mint, all software you download should be through the built-in software manager. This functions kind of like an app store, but instead of being, well, a store, it pulls from official Mint and Ubuntu repositories. It's far more secure and streamlined than having to manually install software downloaded from the internet.

Customization: of course we have to talk about customization, this is the fun part! Linux Mint uses a desktop environment called Cinnamon, which IMO is a good balance of customizable while not being too overwhelming with options. There are also dozens of user-built themes you can download, from minimal and modern to something you'd see in a 2000s spy movie. Hell, there's even one that'll make it look exactly like Windows 10/11.

(ID 1: Desktop environment showcasing CBlue theme for Linux Mint. ID 2: Desktop environment showcasing Spider-Void theme for Linux Mint.)

Absolutely zero bloatware: like, none. There's no telemetry running in the background, no ads, no "AI", everything is stored on your hard drive by default, no unwanted apps you can't uninstall.

Pick and choose your updates, with no coercion: this is the part that really sold me when I was first considering Mint. Its update manager allows you to individually update and manage drivers, software updates, security updates, etc. and never pesters you or forces you to update anything. It is a good idea to always take security updates, of course! But your work will never be interrupted and you will never wake up to find the system has rebooted itself overnight after an automatic update.

And so much more.

This got long, so I'm putting the rest under a cut. Keep reading for more info on the installation process, and post-install advice and things you should know.

Installation

Ok, now that I've sold you on it, let's talk about what you'll need. I won't go into too much detail here as I feel like the documentation below is adequate. Take this more as me holding your hand for moral support. I believe in you!

A USB flash drive or blank CD

An external hard drive/spare drive/a way to back up your files (recommended but optional if you don't care about wiping your drive.)

Follow this guide from Mint's website

Please back up any data you care about before you begin.

What I will say is that while it may sound complicated if you've never done it before, creating the bootable media is actually pretty low stakes as far as this process goes. Definitely go through the whole process of verifying the ISO, as this is a good thing to learn how to do, but as long as you follow the guide you should be good. Once you have the bootable media, you can follow the guide to boot it from your BIOS screen, which will then boot into a live session. This is basically a live test area that you can play around in, and crucially, it is not permanent! If you decide you hate it (or if something goes wrong), you can restart your computer and go back to the OS you actually have installed. Some things to note is that because it's booting from a USB/CD it will run a bit slower in this environment, and some programs and features might not work correctly.

Note that overwriting your hard drive with Windows on it will erase Windows. If you ever need to use it again, you will have to reinstall it, or use a virtual machine which is a more advanced step.

I've read mixed things about installing Mint alongside Windows on the same hard drive, so if you're not confident you can troubleshoot, I would advise against it. If you want to dual boot, it might be a better idea to install Mint on a secondary hard drive (in which case, choose the "erase disk and install" option on that hard drive, which will leave your primary OS alone).

Let's talk about file systems.

Every form of data storage (SSDs, flash drives, everything) is formatted with a file system. On Windows, the default and most common file system is NTFS. This is not supported by Linux, meaning it can usually still read and write files from these drives, but might have issues. It is highly recommended to reformat an NTFS drive if you'll be using Linux on it. During installation, the "erase disk and install" option will do this automatically so you don't have to worry about it, but if you have additional hard drives you'll have to go reformat them manually. Luckily this isn't too complicated and there's plenty of step-by-step guides online, but it is an extra step you should know about.

The most common file system you'll likely be using on Linux is EXT4. Another one becoming increasingly more common is BTRFS, which is a bit faster and has some additional features, though you really only gain the full benefit of it on an SSD. When in doubt, just go for the reliable EXT4.

As for the file manager itself, you might notice that it's organized a little differently from Windows. Instead of having a "Program Files" directory, everything is sorted into libraries under File System. This is actually a really smart way of doing things, as multiple programs can share the same core libraries rather than having their own individual directories, which is more efficient on disk space in the long run. However, this is another reason you'll want to be using the Software Manager to install things, as it will automatically sort files into these libraries so you don't have to.

(ID1: File manager showing the file system directory. ID2: File manager showing the Home directory.)

The Terminal

On Windows, opening the command line can be a scary thing. Half the time, it means you done fucked up. However, on Linux systems, it's a super useful tool that's easily accessible and makes no effort to hide the inner workings of your system from you.

Mint makes it really easy to never have to open the terminal. For the vast majority of cases, everything you need will be in the GUI somewhere. That said, I encourage everyone to learn some basic commands! It's a good thing to familiarize yourself with if you ever do need to use it. A good easy thing to try is updating your system this way:

Open the terminal through the GUI, or with ctrl+alt+T. Type this command:

sudo apt update

"sudo" is short for "super user"; this is kind of like administrator in Windows. "apt" (Advanced Package Tool) is used when packages are concerned; this means installing, removing, and updating anything on your system. "update" is exactly what it says. What this command line is essentially saying is "retrieve updates"

It will then prompt you for your password. After you enter it, it will retrieve updates. After that, you can type this in to view what it will upgrade:

apt list --upgradable

"list" will do what it implies, which is list everything with the following flag, which is "--upgradable"

Then type this in:

sudo apt upgrade

"upgrade" will then start the installation. You'll be prompted once more for a simple "y/n" command, in which case just type "y" for "yes" and hit enter. It will then install all the updates it previously listed, which may take a minute, so just let it run.

Again, this is by no means something you need to do, as the update manager works just fine; but if you have a fear of the terminal, it's a good way to start to familiarize yourself with it.

Gaming

I do want to just take a second to talk about gaming on Linux, as I know that will affect the majority of my followers. While Mint is not a distro that focuses on gaming, in my experience, it works just fine. If you do decide you want to try a distro more optimized for gaming, there's a few such as Bazzite or CachyOS (which is what I personally use!).

I highly recommend using Steam for games. This is due to it having a built-in compatibility layer by way of Proton. If you have games that were not acquired via Steam, it's much easier to manually add them to your Steam library than to tinker with something like Wine or Bottles as a beginner.

Luckily, many games these days do have native Linux support. But for those that don't, 9/10 times you can still get them to run just fine with the compatibility tools. You can set the default tool in Steam settings>compatibility, but some games might require a little "proton roulette" of switching between different tools to get it working. You can force the use of a specific tool on a game-by-game basis by clicking on that game in your library and going to manage>properties>compatibility.

(ID: A screenshot of Steam's settings menu, showing where to find compatibility options)

Some games might have quirks; in the case of ESO, I have to always close the launcher after the game proper is running otherwise the framerate is really bad, but other than that it runs great.

Certain games that will not work on Linux are multiplayer games that have certain anti-cheat software. I don't really play those games so I don't know too much about that, but look online if you're not sure. I've heard that LOTRO and Fortnite are among a few that will not work.

Another thing to note is that Nvidia GPUs are known to occasionally cause problems. I have an older Nvidia GPU in my PC and haven't run into anything installing new drivers didn't fix, but there always seems to be someone on the forums with Nvidia-related issues so your mileage may vary.

My last caveat is about modding games; this can be a little more complicated than Windows due to the different file systems, but it depends on the game, so if that's something that's important to you maybe look into it first. Mods from the Steam workshop will work as they normally do.

In Conclusion

I want to finish this off with something a bit more philosophical. Early last year, if you had asked me what NTFS meant I would've looked at you and went "huh?" The first time I installed Mint, I had no idea what a file system was and had to search online to figure out how to reformat my spare hard drives. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing!

But it was an easy decision to install Linux on that machine with older hardware I was only really using for playing music and games. My Windows 10 copy was questionable at best, and it wouldn't be able to run Windows 11, so it was really the only way I could go. On the other hand, I held off on installing Mint on my main laptop for several months, knowing I wouldn't be able to run the software I had been using for almost 8 years (Clip Studio). At that point, it really became a question of, was I willing to make a change in how I worked? Or was I willing to put up with the constant barrage of bullshit from Microsoft? In the end, I decided that I was willing to make that sacrifice to align myself with what I valued more. That's not a sacrifice everyone is willing (or able, in the case of some jobs) to make, and that's perfectly fine. But I do encourage everyone to at least think about it.

Anyways, I did end up moving my laptop to Mint, and now I'm using Krita. I'm of a mindset where I really like learning new things, and I feel like Linux has really reignited my love for computers in a way I wasn't expecting. I think it's important to have that mindset when approaching Linux for the first time. There are things you're going to have to learn - and unlearn - but luckily you're not going to be doing it alone as there's lots of great documentation and forums and youtube channels if that's your thing.

If you've read this far, thank you! As always, I'm happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability. Best of luck on your journey. :)

Documentation & Resources

Download Linux Mint

Linux Mint Forums

Linux Mint Installation Guide

ProtonDB

r/LinuxMint

Videos

Youtube: Explaining Computers (this video is especially good if you'd like a visual guide of the flashing process. He highlights ZorinOS but the process is basically the same for Mint)

Youtube: Bread on Penguins (Honourable mention because this is what inspired me to get nerdier with it, lol. Doesn't talk about Mint specifically, but if you're interested in getting deeper into the more advanced/technical side of Linux and especially the terminal her channel is really good)

[nemisuki]

A Simple Click

Gamer AU | Finding an outlet to cure her boredom was desperately needed, so much so that she downloads a game full of magic and chibi characters. But what happens when she stumbles across a certain blonde spamming her to join his guild? She takes the offer of course! Gaining a new way to level up, make friends and perhaps even love. 

᧔o᧓ || katsuki bakugo x f!reader, no manga spoilers, no nsfw, online meeting, bakusquad involved, silly moments, slow-burn, 6.3k word count

The app ‘Wispy Guilds’ soon popped up on the computer's home screen with a ding! 

Y/N clicks on the icon and loads up the game, not aware of the future chaos she brought into her life. Perhaps it was fate that brought her and a certain blonde together. And it all started with a simple click. 

The program opens and Y/N is welcomed into the opening screen of the app. Faced with a pretty scenery of what looks to be a mythical oasis, different shades of greens and blue filling her screen. It looks to be a forest with a castle-like building in the middle of the area. Little chibi characters walk in and out of the place, majority dressed as wizards and others as knights. While others occasionally wear funny costumes or props. 

Y/N clicks on the bubble letters displayed in the bottom of the screen ‘Create Account’. She types in all her necessary information but pauses when she sees the username section. 

“Aw man you have to pay to get a custom username! This sucks..” she sighs with a hint of disappointment. Her eyes lock on the small dice icon and she mumbles a plea beneath her breath as she hovers the cursor over it. 

“Please nothing too bad” she says as she clicks the icon to generate a random username. Her eyes darted to look at the result…. ‘StarHae’. 

“Oh you've gotta be kidding me! But it could be worse I guess” she whines with a small pout on her face. With that now out of the way, she clicks continue and goes to the next page. The character customization page pops up and Y/N gets right on it. 

Unfortunately there's not much options since she's only level one but she tries picking the cutest options. With no access to the higher level equipment, she decides to put on a starter black cape accompanied with a common level sword. Due to the lack of unlocked accessories, she settles with that and then clicks ‘Finish & Join’. 

Her screen turns into a small loading scene that resembles a portal, almost like she's being transported into another world. Then a few seconds later she is in the game. Her small chibi character spawns in what seems to be in the center of a town. Other chibi players roaming around and visiting merchants or chatting with other people. 

Y/N clicks on the W key on her keyboard to move forward to explore. Her avatar shifts left and right as it explores the town square. This place seems to be the lobby where everyone is able to spawn in and purchase items or trade. She looks around at the other players and notices they're all higher levels from her, as to be expected of course. An occasional low level player here and there is seen roaming around as she walks around the shops, but few are seen.

A bright yellow arrow appears on top of her screen seemingly leading her to this npc character under ‘Quests’. She follows it, her small avatar running towards the yellow area that's lit up to grab her attention. A small tab appears in the middle of the screen once she steps close enough to the character. The npc is an older man with white hair and a beard, a small beginner cape on his avatar. Y/N clicks on the tab and a tutorial quest appears on her screen. 

“Lets see….. Kill five wolves in the hunting grounds” she mumbles out loud to herself. She doesn't have a choice to exit the tab, so this must be required. She accepts her first mission and a few seconds later, another yellow arrow appears to lead her to the different area. Her avatar runs to the yellow circle near the grand fountain in the middle of the town square. And soon a loading screen appears on her screen for a brief moment as her character gets teleported toward the hunting grounds, a forest more specifically. 

A health bar appears and a small tutorial plays to show her the mechanics of the game. She clicks to take out her sword and runs along the path of the forest. The game was surprisingly good quality, she was so engrossed in the beauty of the forest that she was caught off guard on the ambush. A gray wolf suddenly appears running towards her and the game pauses. Text boxes and pointers pop up to teach Y/N some attacks she can use against her first opponent. 

After a moment of reading, she follows the instructions and moves around to find a good angle, then charging at the wolf. It attempts to claw at her but she clicks the ‘block’ button as instructed and avoids taking damage. Then clicking ‘strike’ as the tutorial orders and continuing her attacks. 

Soon the wolf's health bar reaches zero and its injured body disappears with a poof! 

Y/N smiles and continues following the tutorial as follows, slowly learning and understanding how to attack these beasts. Eventually she strikes the last wolf in the area and confetti appears on her screen. She completed her first mission and she even leveled up! 

“Hm, this game isn't so bad! Maybe I should do a few more quests to level up” she says as she teleports herself back to the lobby and walks back to the quests section. Her eyes land on a castle button on the right side of her screen that's locked. Her cursor hovers over it and it states ‘Guild’. She's never heard of that term, but it unlocks at level 15 so she’ll see eventually. 

(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip a few hours⋆｡𖦹 °✩

“This game is addicting” she mumbles to herself as she stares at her new level above her avatar's head. 

Level 15!

She should be heading to bed right now… yeah she should call it a night. 

Just as she's about to click log out, she sees the server chat icon wiggle at each new message. Usually it does once in a while when some players request to trade but not this frequently. It's moving like crazy like it wants her to open it. The universe won so out of curiosity, she clicks to open it and sees some players spamming the chat.

A/N ||| I added the cuss words in between brackets so you all understand what Bakugo is originally typing. It's simply to help you know what the censored words are.  Ex : [curse words]  Anyways back to the story  ໒꒰ྀི ´๑  ̫๑`  ꒱ྀིა 

-Public Chat- 

Bakugo : someone join my guild.

Bakugo : cmon you extras I need one player.

Bakugo : oi you ##### [fucks]

Kirishima : bakugoooo don't be so rude and curse or you'll get banned again!

Bakugo : tch shush it, we just need one more extra to join so we can do the guild wars.

Kirishima : cmon man no one's gonna join if you ask like that! 

Bakugo : i shouldn't need 6 players max in my guild to do the war anyways

Bakugo : this is #### [shit]

Kirishima : hey bakubro come back! Don't be so mean!

-End of Public Chat- 

Y/N watches as the character with blonde hair and red eyes goes around to every high level person trying to force them to join his guild. He seems to be max level 100 and has the knight kit equipped, already giving her the impression that he is someone who prefers combat over healing or protecting. His chibi character runs around typing censored profanities to everyone who ignores or denies his request, it was a funny contrast.

A friend of his, a character with both red hair and eyes, follows him around apologizing to everyone for his friend's rudeness. He seems to be the nicer one of the two and clearly trying to calm the situation down. She could tell he equipped the animal shifter kit due to the red scales on his avatar, and like his friend he is a high level but of 95. Her curious mind wonders what animal he could turn into. Animal shifters are a rare kit and can transform into one animal with a lucky roll of the dice for it to be randomized. 

She doesn't have much more time to think as the blonde avatar starts moving over in the direction she is, near the quest station. His red haired friend trailing behind him like a puppy. Quickly she hides in the crowd of other players at the quests station, not wanting to be the blonde's next target. 

-Public Chat- 

Bakugo : one of you extras better join my guild

Kirishima : pretty please? We just need one member! 

Bakugo : all of these ####### [fuckers] are low level

Kirishima : Bakugo!

Kirishima : They are all new! Be nice! 

Bakugo : tch none can even join a clan anyways 

Bakugo : they are too low level

Kirishima : lets try a different server then?

Bakugo : tch we've been at this for a hour 

Bakugo : Oi someones high enough there

Bakugo : hey level 15 

Bakugo : join my guild. 

Kirishima : which one? 

Bakugo : that girl with the cape

Bakugo : hey you.

-End of Chat- 

Y/N reads the chat and whines under her breath, “I'm the highest level out of this small group of newbies… just my luck”. She tries to ignore them and moves her character to the side and walks to the fountain. Only to be followed by the chibi characters of the blonde and the red hair. 

“Damn they won't leave me alone…. But I don't even know what a guild is. I only just unlocked that feature” she mutters with a sigh as she runs around the map. The two characters follow her wherever she runs to. She could just leave but she IS curious about this whole guilds thing. So after much pestering by these two, specifically the blonde, she reluctantly types in chat. 

StarHae : no thank you..

Bakugo : so you do speak 

Bakugo : join my guild noob. 

Kirishima : Bakugo cmon! 

Kirishima : hi can i call u star :3

Y/N couldn't help but giggle at the dynamic between the two, finding it humorous that they're so different. They seem to be in the same guild, a symbol of an explosion above both of their heads confirms her thought. She reads the message from the red haired person and smiles, typing a response. 

StarHae : sure! hello kirishima :3

Kirishima : Just call me kiri! 

Bakugo : so you gonna join my guild or what 

StarHae : what is a guild? 

Bakugo : ugh just join and find out.

Kirishima : a guild is a team basically! 

Kirishima : we go on missions together and earn more prizes 

Kirishima : its better than playing solo and you level up faster!

Bakugo : just join my guild.

StarHae : um…

Kirishima : bakugo is the guild master and i'm his vice captain! 

Kirishima : please join us!

Kirishima : we need one more player so we can do the clan war 

StarHae : um…. whats a clan war? 

Bakugo : you have got to be kidding me.

Kirishima : ah basically all the guilds compete in challenges 

Kirishima : its sometimes quests but we fight with other guilds in matches sometimes

Kirishima : whoever wins gets 10k gold and rare items!!! 

Bakugo : tch this is taking forever 

Kirishima : bakugooo cmon have patience

Kirishima : if we get first then the guild gets popular and more people will join! 

Bakugo : tch we WILL win stupid. 

Kirishima : so will you join us star? 

Kirishima : you'll level up super quick with us! 

As Kirishima explains this all to her, Y/N thinks about this offer. It's not bad at all, and there seems to be advantages to being in a clan. Her level is so low compared to theirs, is it okay for her to just join them so easily? 

StarHae : are you sure you guys want me? 

StarHae : my level is only 15…

Bakugo : tch we know idiot just join or else

Kirishima : our clan has only 5 members 

Kirishima : and you need 6 minimum to participate! 

Kirishima : your level doesn't matter 

Kirishima : dont worry we will protect you!

Bakugo : speak for yourself shitty hair 

Bakugo : just click accept.

Kirishima : pretty please? 

Kirishima : we need a sixth member by today or registration closes!

Kirishima : star dont worry

Kirishima : we can teach you as we play :3 

Bakugo : -_-

After that explanation, a small tab opens on her screen, an invitation to join the guild ‘The Bakusquad’. Y/N looks as Kirishima runs around her avatar in circles trying to convince her, while Bakugo is busy spamming her mailbox with many invitations. She sighs in defeat, this was supposed to be just a calm game for her to play once a while but….. Click! 

Accepted Invitation : The Bakusquad

Y/N watches as the explosion guild emblem appears on her head, the three of them now having matching symbols. Kirishima's chibi avatar now jumping up and down in front of her, clearly happy. The guild button suddenly starts blinking in gold obviously wanting her to click on it. She does and sees she now has the option to teleport into the guilds HQ and have access to the guild chat room and quests. 

Bakugo : tch finally

Bakugo : ill sign us up for the guild war now

Kirishima : thank you star!

Kirishima : you totally saved us!!!!

Adam : can you guys leave now?!

Adam : your spamming the chat!!!! 

Elis : Yeah shush it!!!

Bakugo : HAHH 

Bakugo : FIGHT ME YOU EXTRAS

Kirishima : ah sorry guys ;( 

Y/N couldn't help but burst out laughing at the random messages and the way Kirishima's avatar was bowing in apologies to the random players. While Bakugo was spouting more profanities to the people who were typing in chat. At least this was entertaining, yet what has she gotten herself into….

✦ ⎯⎯ㅤִㅤ୭ ୨♡୧ ৎㅤִ  ⎯⎯ ✦

It's been around 2 weeks since Y/N has joined the guild and to her surprise she is having a blast. Unlike solo quests she can level up much quicker now, to prove it she’s currently level 40! Now she has the option to equip a kit which is very useful for the upcoming event, it unlocks new attacks and weapons available to use. 

“Hm… I think I want to be a mage. I'm not very good at close combat and no one in our guild is one yet. So I'll choose this! Plus I can help give my guild mates some boosts and protection spells!” she says happily with a smile as she makes her selection. She clicks on the mage option and squeals with excitement as she receives her new gear. An enchanted cloak with an adorable dress and boots. She even got a wizard hat and a wooden staff for her spells! 

Y/N didn't waste her money on outfits before, wanting to save it for the future. So this new look was certainly needed! Especially for this week.

It's gonna be the first time since the guild wars started that they'll be fighting another clan. Up til now they've just been completing clan quests like raiding dungeons. Soon it's gonna be her first fight against other players so she's more nervous than she expected. She doesn't want to let her new team down. 

Since she joined she has met all the other members of the guild. Kaminari, Sero and Mina! All of them are nice and often talk in the guild chat whenever they're online. Apparently they go to the same school and forced Bakugo to play with them. Hence why Bakugo is never online whenever clan stuff happens, only joining if 6 players are needed for a specific task. Then leaving right after whenever it finishes. He never turned on his mic either. He's a  complete mystery to her. 

The game offered voice chat for clan members so Y/N and the others often talk on there instead. At first she was hesitant, inserting herself into a new group that already knows each other. Yet she found herself enjoying her time in the presence of these people. She never thought this game would lead to new friends yet here they are. 

Soon the day of the first guild vs guild match came. 

Y/N starts up her computer and logs into the game, feeling a bit uneasy about the outcome of this match. If they lose then they won't be able to qualify for the next round. Thankfully she practiced with the rest of the guild beforehand to strengthen their teamwork skills. However not once has Bakugo joined them on their practice matches. She can only hope this won't cause a problem later on. 

She sees the other members already at HQ and chatting happily through the proximity voice chat they have activated. No nervousness at all detected in their tone. 

 “Ah Star you're here!” Kirishima says as his avatar runs over to her excitedly.

“Heyoooo, we're just waiting for Blasty to join in” Kaminari adds on with his usual hyper tone as he chases Sero around the table who shouts out a quick “Hey Star!” 

“There's my fellow gal! Was worried you wouldn't show up, girl! Thank you for not leaving me with these dummies” Mina says happily as she walks over to the group. 

“Sorry sorry but i'm here now” Y/N says softly with a smile to everyone as her eyes scan the guild room. And a few seconds later, Bakugos avatar teleports inside the room with fresh new battle gear. It looks both enchanted and incredibly rare. 

“Wow man! So this is what you've been doing while you were alone huh?” Sero says as everyone starts crowding around Bakugo to admire his armor. Bakugo says nothing back in voice chat as usual and simply types.

Bakugo : get away from me you damn extras

Bakugo : be ready

Bakugo : we start in 1 minute

Bakugo : don't die.

Everyone scrambles to equip their best armor and gear, it's complete chaos as everyone asks for extra supplies and potions. Y/N already was prepared beforehand so she calmly stands to the side and waits. She watches as Bakugos avatar approaches her and stands there almost observingly. Ah he hasn't joined in a while so he must've just now seen the new kit she equipped for the first time. 

Bakugo : You're a mage? 

Y/N reads the chat box and nervously types back, now seemingly too shy to speak through her mic. She hasn't spoken much to Bakugo in general but she wants to earn his approval. He's the guild master after all. But she can't help but to feel a bit intimidated by him.

StarHae : Yes I can offer support and do long distance attacks :3 

She watches as his avatar stares at her for a while, silently analyzing her new look and skills she presumes. It takes a while, so long that she wonders if he's gone AFK right in front of her after the message. Until she sees a short chat bubble appear in the corner. 

Bakugo : Good. 

A bright smile forms on her face at his message. Sure, it was short and blunt. But from Bakugo? She'll take this as a massive compliment. She watches as he quickly leaves her side to start the battle. From his message alone, she feels motivated to do her best. Hopefully they will. 

It was now time for the guild battle to start. Once Bakugo made sure everyone was prepared, all 6 of them got teleported in front of their castle HQ. The building seemingly teleported onto the battlefield in the middle of a forest. 

“Let's do this!” “Yeah, let's go!” “Just follow bakubro!” “On it!’ 

The group of 6 slowly walk through the woods, cautious of any potential traps or ambushes from the other guild. It's 3 rounds in total without a chance to respawn til a new round starts. 1 life each round. The other guild must be doing the same thing, sneaking around the forest trying to find us. 

“A forest huh” a deeper voice echoed through her headphones, so rough yet smooth that it made her jump a little. Huh? 

“Finally using voice chat huh Bakubro?” Kirishima responds eagerly as he chuckles at the end. You can basically hear the smile on his face from just his voice. 

“Tch shut it shitty hair. Can't type while we're fucking fighting against another guild” Bakugo responds with a small scoff. The others snicker through the mic making Bakugo grunt in response.

“Oi Star, get over here to the front” he says in a somewhat commanding tone. 

His voice…. It's the first time she's ever heard it. She didn't expect that at all. Its deep but nice to hear-

“Oi! Mage! You have ears don't you?” he huffs out seeming to already be annoyed. Ah so he DOES talk in the same way he types. Guess that answers the question she's had for weeks. 

“O-Oh! Yes yes! Sorry i'm going” she says quickly as her head shakes to stop her daydreaming. Her cheeks feel warm to the touch from embarrassment and she's forever thankful this game doesn't have a webcam feature. Or she might really die from shame. 

Her small character quickly runs to get behind Bakugo who's currently leading the group. His avatar looks back at her for a moment then forward again. Clearing leaves and making a path for the group. 

“So that's how you sound like huh” he mumbles almost incoherently through the mic. It makes her heart skip a beat oddly. God what's wrong with her. Getting flustered over a voice when she doesn't even know what he looks like. And what does he mean by that? 

“Oh yeah! You're rarely online so you've never properly had a conversation with Star huh?” Kaminari says as he skips along following the group. 

Bakugo simply grunts in acknowledgement, “Hey Mage. I don't know what training you've done with these extras but just stay out of my way okay? And get ready to use buff enhancement spells on me” he orders out to her.  

Sero sighs at his friend's snappy remark, “Don't mind him Star, he's always like that. Just do your best, we got your back”.  

“Mhm… I know… I'll try-” she says but quickly gets cut off when shots are fired towards the group from the other side of the forest. 

The rounds have begun. 

It didn't take a genius to predict the Bakusquad would easily take the first round. When Y/N watched Bakugo run into the open battlefield attacking with no mercy, she knew he was a force to be reckoned with. She was in a trance as he sent out orders to the rest of them, giving them better positioning to win this. He was amazing, too good. 

So much as when the second round approached, the other guild changed tactics and decided to focus solely on Bakugo. Sending all their attacks at him at once, to which Bakugo must've predicted as he yelled out to Y/N, “Defence spell!” 

“On it!” she says as the spell charges up and envelopes Bakugos character in a green force shield. Healing some minor damage taken as well, a nice bonus she learned a few days ago while training. 

With that everyone except Y/N runs out to take the enemies down at closer ranger. A full fledged group attack and an array of magic blending in the air, metal clashing against each other as well. She tries her best to heal her guildmates while hiding behind the rock, occasionally sending out spells to slow the other guilds movements down. 

Unfortunately she wasn't quick enough to cast a protective spell on Kirishima and Kaminari. Both of them disappearing with a poof as they were cut down by the enemies. Though they didn't die in vain as they took 2 down with them. Mina and Sero successfully took out their foes, winning their individual battles. 

2 PLAYERS REMAINING

Quickly her eyes roamed across the battlefield, the other enemy was currently fighting against Bakugo in a heated clash of swords. Sero and Mina were both low on HP but nonetheless started running towards him to help him out. The Bakusquad had the advantage of 2 extra players, this could be a clean sweep. However her confidence was short-lived as Y/N spotted someone in the air hovering above them. A wizard casting a spell as a large fireball started to form in the sky. This was no low level wizard, bad news. 

“Guys look out!” she says as she emerges from her spot and starts running towards them. Y/N is low on energy and she has no more berries to replenish her magic. Thinking about her options she makes a beeline to Bakugo, “Sorry you two just trust me on this!!!” 

She quickly clicks on her limited spell options, there's enough energy to cast one final spell. This might be a risky move but it's the best one in her opinion. Sero and Mina are both extremely low on HP while Bakugo has more. She quickly approaches Bakugo who got  knocked back by the other player. 

“Bakugo!” Y/N calls out as she runs behind him and holds onto his avatar with one arm while the other rests on his back.

“Oi! What are you doing?! I told you to not get in my way!” Bakugo yells out as the enemy he was fighting starts charging at the two. Y/N ignores him as she quickly puts a protective bubble around Bakugo, the attacker falling back as his sword hits the barrier. She focuses hard and gives any last bit of her energy to him knowing what's coming next, he'll need it. 

“You got this Bakugo! I believe in you!”

Before he could respond, the wizard from earlier shoots the fireball down onto the ground, with a large blast. As predicted Sero and Mina were eliminated by that large blast due to their previous low health. Y/N knew she didn't have enough magic left to protect more than one person, so she decided to put her trust in Bakugo. He was their guildmaster after all, and she knows that the others would have agreed with this decision instead. Her avatar in one swoop, dissolves into thin air from that explosion. 

The green shield she casted on him earlier dissolves immediately but leaves Bakugo unharmed from the attack. Without a second thought he rushed his previous opponent and cut him down. Easily making this a 1v1 with the wizard floating in the sky. 

He curses under his breath as he looks up at the wizard and then back at the spot where Y/N sacrificed herself. He ponders for a moment just frozen on the battlefield as the other guy starts zooming down on his broom.

“Now I'm pissed off” he mumbles to himself as he glares up at the last remaining enemy. 

It was an intense battle but he knew he needed to win. Bakugo doesn't take anything else but a perfect victory, and he refuses having to go to round 3. With this new motivation, he sends attack after attack towards the foe. Taking advantage of the energy Y/N gave to him before she was eliminated. Somehow, he managed to break the wizards broom with his moves, leaving the enemy completely defenseless. After losing his main way to escape, it was a solid victory for the blonde. 

Was anyone really shocked? 

After the victory was granted, the guild was teleported back into HQ. Everyone celebrated and cheered through their mics. But it seems like another person had a different thing in mind. Almost immediately, Bakugo walked straight to her once they respawned at base, not saying a single word to anyone else. 

“Don't pull that self sacrificing crap ever again ya got that?” he spats out as he approaches and stands in front of her. Kirishima quickly tries to deescalate the situation, “Hey man relax! Because of her we won-” 

“We would have won either way shitty hair so shut it” he huffs out pushing Kirishima's avatar out of the way. His avatar grabs her hand and pulls her to the side, away from everyone else. The others watch nervously and attempt to approach but Bakugos avatar turns back around causing them to stay. It was funny to see his chibi character look so scary, he might be the only person in the world that can do that. He looks back at her and sighs seemingly calmer than before. 

“Oi if you pull a stunt like that again i'll kill you myself. I don't enjoy watching my teammates die because of me ya hear me? I dont give a damn if it's just a game” he huffs out as he drops her arm. 

“Got it… sorry” she says shyly through the mic as she tries processing his words. A moment of silence passes between them until he speaks.

“....what's your name anyways?” he says with a softer tone almost as if he's aware of her nervousness. 

“Huh? It’s Star-” 

“Tch. No you idiot. I mean your real name.” 

“Oh…..” she can already feel her face grow hotter the more he speaks to her. Seriously, what's up with this? I guess she should tell him, she hasn't told the others yet either. She doesn't understand why she feels a bit self conscious now but she knows it's because of him, “...Y/N. It's Y/N.” 

“Y/N” he repeats back to her. Her name sounds oddly better whenever he says it. She likes it. She wants him to say it again. 

“Log onto the game at the same time tomorrow” he says as he takes off his expensive armor. 

“Huh? Why? Is there some sort of mission? 

“Because I said so. And don't tell the other extras. So you're gonna join or what?”

“Wait, why can't I tell anyone?” she says confused as she tilts her head. 

“Cause me and you are gonna train alone! You need to practice, don't need you to pull another stunt like you did today. So we're training tomorrow before the next battle” he groans at her slowness. 

“Just… me and you?” Y/N responds a little happier than normal, the idea makes her feel… special to just receive training from him. 

“Hah? Yeah didn't you just hear me! Now don't go blabbering to the other extras, it's a secret.” 

“Okay! I promise I'll join!” she quickly says with a smile. 

“Good. Now i'm logging off, wasted too much time today” he huffs and clicks some buttons about to disconnect. 

“Ah bye-” but before she could finish her sentence his character disappeared. 

Bakugo has disconnected. 

“That jerk! He totally left without saying bye!” Mina says as Y/N walks back over to the group. 

“Hey Star! What were you and Blasty talking about? We couldn't hear from all the way over here” Kaminari chimes in with a hint of curiosity. 

Y/N remembers her conversation with Bakugo and keeps her lips sealed, she was looking forward to tomorrow after all, “Um nothing! He was just telling me to not get in his way haha..” 

“Sheesh! Seriously, that guy is a hot head to the bone. Don't mind him Star, he was just embarrassed being saved by you of all people. Since you're new and all” Sero says while he snickers with Kirishima. 

“Well that should be it for today you guys! It's getting late, so we should log off. Good work today!” Kirishima says happily as they all say goodnight and eventually logging off. 

Y/N clicks the button on her computer, shutting it off as she stretches. She sighs and leans back in her chair. Smiling to herself about tonight. Maybe tomorrow she'll finally get to impress a certain blonde in the game.

(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip⋆｡𖦹 °✩

“That's 10 losses for you and none for me. You're worse at close combat then I thought” Bakugo huffs out as they have a break from training. Eating some berries to gain some of their energy back. Bakugo surprisingly has been using his mic lately which is something she's certainly not complaining about. They have been secretly training together for about a whole week now. Practicing together for hours each day. Yet she hasn't won to him once yet.

Way to go on impressing him y/n…. 

“I can't do it! I'm a mage, close attacks aren't my specialities” she says with a sigh at her failed attempts from earlier. 

“I've seen plenty of mages be good at close attacks. You just gotta try harder idiot” he says as he stands back up ready for another round of training. 

“I don’t know…” Y/N says not wanting to get up and add another inevitable loss to her name. She was embarrassed at him seeing her struggle so much, she just wants to crawl in a hole and never come out. 

“Y/N” he says through the mic in a rough yet soft tone. 

 ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ

Her heart quickens at the sound once again. It's been like this ever since that day he first said her name.

“Y-Yeah Bakugo?” 

“Stand up and fight. No one in my guild is weak, ya got that? Tch cmon dumbass” Bakugo scoffs out as he walks over and picks her character up like a sack of potatoes. He leads them both towards the training grounds again, “If you lose then you try again. If you win you keep training. There's always room for improvement, so get that into your skull. No one is perfect.” 

“Even you Bakugo?” she says with a smile at his kind words hidden under his blunt way of speaking. Over time she's gotten used to him by now and knows he means no harm.

“Eh i'm almost there though” he huffs as he speaks in a serious yet cocky tone.

Something about the way he said that compared to his earlier words was amusing to her. He was cocky of course, yet he knew that even he had limits. She couldn't help but to burst out in laughter through her mic. Her stomach felt heavy from the laughs escaping her mouth

“Hahhhhhh?! What's so funny?! You picking a fight?!” 

“Sorry sorry! It's just that you're cute” she says in between giggles while putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. She didn't even realize what she said at the time, that her inner thoughts slipped out for a split moment. 

Silence was on his end of the mic while she was busy laughing. She calms down eventually when his character completely froze mid walk.

“Hm? Bakugo?”

“What did you…. Erm, actually I'm logging off for today!”

“Huh?! Why?” 

“Because I'm tired, you idiot! Now log off and get some rest!” 

A split of a second later his avatar disappeared, her character falling on the ground, no longer being held up by him. She blinks a few times at her screen confused then logs off as a result. Guess Bakugo got tired of training I suppose. 

After that incident, she noticed that Bakugo hadn't logged into the game for a whole week. Y/N asked around yet the Bakusquad didn't know why either. Apparently he was just busy and didn't have the time to join. She felt a bit disappointed whenever she joined and he wasn't around. Her eyes always scanned the room in hopes of seeing him. 

Until one day she logged in and there he was alone, fixing and adjusting his gear. Quickly she waddles her avatar over, “Bakugo there you are!” she says with a bright smile clearly happy. She sees the way he pauses then turns to look at her, just staring at her for a moment before…

Bakugo : Yeah im here. 

Huh? Why is he not talking… 

“Why… are you not talking with your mic?” she decides to ask hesitantly, the smile slowly dropping from her face. 

Bakugo : Cause

Bakugo : Don't wanna. 

Y/N nervously fidgets with her fingers as she reads the chat. He always used his mic now whenever they were alone. Did she perhaps do something wrong? So he's back to how he used to be? She doesn't like that…. 

“U-Um…..” she speaks before she can think. Her eyes shut as she says her next words, forever thankful no one is around. 

“....I wanna hear your voice… please” 

Silence. 

After no response she says it again in case he didn't hear her. 

“I missed your voice” 

It's quiet for a moment and she's too scared to open her eyes and see in case he responded in chat. That came out weird didn't it? God she's embarrassed. Maybe she should just log out-

“You're an odd one ya know that?” 

His voice echoes through her ears causing her eyes to snap open. Her whole body felt incredibly hot to the touch. He actually turned on his mic for her? He sounds…. less hostile than normal too. Softer. 

“I'm not the nicest guy. Why would you want me to talk in the first place” he scoffs out loud but she can hear the hesitance in his words. Like he wants her to answer him. 

“Because… I like the sound of your voice and talking to you makes me happy!” she says a bit too eager to please him. She mentally facepalms at her cheesy words. 

“Y-You….” he stumbles over his words like he's caught off guard at her boldness. He huffs and continues, “C'mon your level is still too low! Have you not been training while I was gone?! We have to train more!” 

His avatar starts walking to the training grounds with purpose expecting her to follow. 

“Oh okay!” she says as the smile returns to her face, excited to spend more time with him. As they exit HQ and walk together towards the forest, he speaks once more almost as soft as a whisper. 

“....I like it too” 

“Hm? Like what?” 

“Your voice.” 

He speeds up his walking pace so he's far ahead of her, leaving her behind in a complete daze. Was he embarrassed? 

Her hands rise up from the keyboard and cover her warm face as she processes what just happened. But her smile only grew wider. If she only knew how red faced the blonde was behind his monitor. Maybe joining this guild wasn't so bad after all.

✦ ⎯⎯⋆ ˚｡⋆ ୨ masterlist || taglist || intro || socials ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆⎯⎯ ✦

[canadianfangirl-95]

A Daisy through Concrete 

Modern AU no outbreak 36 y/o Joel Miller x f!reader 

Summary: You’re elated when you finally have a house to lease with your two children after a grueling year in your parents guest bedroom, post-divorce. Excited for a new chapter to your story, you’re even more excited when the Adlers introduce you to their neighbour, Joel.  

Series Warnings and Information: 18 + minors DNI, eventual smut, some rough sex, divorce, swearing, drinking, drug addiction, car-crash death, absentee mother/father, emergency c-section due to babies heart-rate falling discussed, if you can handle a show like How I met Your Mother or similar, you can handle this. You are responsible for the content you interact with.  

Masterlist

Chapter 3- WC 5800+

Something Great 

Joels words ring through your head again as you finish putting together the kids backpacks for school and daycare on Monday. Honestly, you can’t remember more than five minutes where you didn’t think about the way he looked at you, the way he talked to you, the way he called you Daisy. It felt so personal for someone who seemed so distant, and yet here he was. Making a map of your mind. Finding a place to call home between your trauma and your aspirations. A possibility. Exciting yes but also terrifying. You know you flirted, of course you did. How could you not with him? With his kind Southern charm and sweethearts. You can’t help but love the way he interacts with his kid and yours. It seems silly though. Is the attraction between you both out of boredom and pure geographical location? If you lived across the street rather than right next door, would he had even batted an eye in your direction? Or yours at him?  

His truck is already gone by the time you are loading the kids into the van on this drizzly Spring morning. Your raincoat doing its best to cover your freshly cared for hair. “Come on Jay!” You lament as he pats along in his green dinosaur rain boots, splashing in every puddle he can find along the way.  

After dropping Jay off at daycare and Mel at her before and after school program, you finally pull into your parking lot at work. Taking the same spot you always do, to go sit in the same chair that you always do. You think about how as a child, a seating plan or direction of anything like that felt like chains. It always seemed so agonizing to have to sit in one assigned spot, but now, if you were to have to park somewhere else, or sit somewhere else, well, it’d probably be the tipping point to throw you into a spiral. Life seemed so easy and simple, and now, you feel like you’re adrift on a small raft in the ocean. Bobbing up and down, just hoping, that the same parking spot will be available everyday, so you don’t have to make another choice. Hoping that just one thing would stay the same. 

Pulling out the wheely chair at your desk, you plop your computer bag next to the framed photo of you and the kids. You know, the one you had to precariously cut your ex out of. Rubbing your temple with your left hand as you scroll through the collection of emails you received throughout the weekend. Your coffee slowly cooling on the desk beside you.  

The sound of rolling wheels sounds behind you as someone clears their throat.  

“So,” your friend Ashley begins behind you. You turn in your chair and nod at her to continue. “How was the dinner with the neighbourhood DILF?” She says sarcastically with a batting of her lashes.  

You shake your head, “Never, ever should’ve let you look him up on Facebook.”  

“No, you should not have.” She confirms with a wink.  

Letting out a sigh, you turn to grab your coffee before returning your attention back to her. “It was very nice. He barbequed, it was simple, kids had fun.” You say nonchalantly.  

She eyes you with suspicion, “That’s it? Just hot dogs and kids’ entertainment? Nothing else happened?”  

Shrugging, you take a sip from your coffee, “Nothing else happened.” You confirm.  

Ashley squints one more time before beginning to shuffle her chair backwards, “I’m watching you.” She says with a humorously devious tone, “And your little DILF too.”  

You can’t help but let out a chuckle at her humor. She was definitely one of your biggest rocks through your divorce and she is desperate to get you back into the dating world.  

Later that week, you’ve been able to wave and smile at Joel a few more times, and his smile seems to get brighter each and every time you see him. The sun has set, and the kids are safe asleep in their beds as you’re cleaning the ensuite washroom. Turning the tap to add water to your cleaning rag, but no water comes out. You hear a chugging noise coming from below the sink. Opening up the cupboards, you take a look at the plumping and curse. “Shit. Okay, ensuite sink, ensuite sink.” You chant to yourself as you try to remember the Adlers instructions. “When the ensuite sink acts up, I have to call…..” The thought suddenly comes to you, and you look through the door towards the bedroom window. “Joel.” You whisper. The thought of him in your space seems so intimate and sudden. You look in the mirror. Hair is normal, makeup is whatever, a hoodie and leggings. It’ll do. You quickly head downstairs to grab the list of phone numbers the Adlers left you. Finding Joels, you hold your breath as it begins to ring.  

His deep voice comes through the receiver, “Miller Construction, Joel speaking.” 

You stutter, “H-hi, um, Joel. It’s me, your neighbour.” You rub your forehead with the heel of your palm with embarrassment at your half-ass introduction.  

His voice sounds surprised, “Oh hey, what’s up?” 

“Um, I hope it’s not too late, but the ensuite sink is doing that thing that the Adlers were talking about. It’s not a matter of life or death anything and it can totally wait till tomorrow, or even the weekend, or next week-,” your rambling is cut by a soft chuckle on the other end of the line.  

“I’ll be right there, Daisy. Just give me a couple minutes to grab my toolbox.”  

“Okay, uh, thanks.” You hang up and wince at your nervousness, yet warmth blooms in your chest at his use of the nickname again.  

Standing shyly by the door, you finally hear his knock. Opening it up, a little quicker than you’d prefer, you’re met with Joel Miller. Grey t-shirt, tan work pants, work boots and a heavy toolbox clutched between his fingers. His smile stretches as soon as you open the door. “Hey.” You say, leaning against the door like 2000s rom-com college girl talking to her crush from the lacrosse team.   

“Hey, how’s your evening?” He asks politely, the sun wrinkles by his eyes showing as he smiles.  

Shrugging, you reply. “Not so bad, this little mishap did interrupt my bathroom deep clean, so can’t complain too much.”  

“Nope, can’t complain about that. I’ll take pretty much anything to get out of cleaning the bathroom.” He says before grunting as he passes the toolbox to his other hand.  

You come to the realization that he is probably uncomfortable just standing there with that heavy toolbox in his hands. “Um, so right this way.” You say, standing aside and gesturing him to enter.  

He nods and then passes you. The scent of his oaky cologne still clinging to him from his workday, or perhaps he reapplied after you called. You follow him up the stairs, his ass filling out the pants in a way that makes your eyes bulge and want to look away, yet you can’t quite bring yourself to.  

When he gets to the door of your room, he stands to the side awkwardly with a tight-lipped smile to allow you to pass him and follows you through to the bathroom. Joel groans as he kneels down in front of the sink and places the toolbox onto the tile floor. It makes a thud sound as it hits the floor, he leans forward to begin inspecting the pipes.  

“Yeah, same thing as always. Doesn’t take long for me to fix and I’ve done it so many times I’d say I’m a professional at it.” He says with a joking smile, his eyes gleaming as he looks up at you.  

You fold your arms across your chest and lean against the counter. “So, this will be a regular occurrence then?”  

He takes out a few tools from his box and begins to work on the plumping under the sink. The way he grunts when he turns the wrench makes you want to whimper, and seeing his biceps flex in his shirt sleeve dries your mouth. “Eh, it’s not so bad. But I could slot you in for a weekly check up if you’d like.” He says with a smirk.  

You chuckle, “Yeah sure, I’ll throw it on the calendar. Thursday night, standing invitation for Joel to come clean my pipes.”  

His eyebrows pop up in surprise and he grins, “Sure would make us the talk of the neighbourhood if anyone else were to see that calendar huh?” 

“I’d say so.” You place your hands on the counter and gently shuffle yourself up to perch yourself on the edge, your feet dangling beneath you. “So, how was your week?” 

As he works, he shrugs. “Not bad, got a big job done which is nice. We’re gonna take tomorrow off, give the guys a break considering all the long days we’ve had at that place.” He shifts to roll over and lay flat on his back, his head inside the cabinets. His arms reach up to begin working from the new angle and the hem of his shirt raises, revealing a soft but solid stomach with a slight treasure trail.  

Your lashes flutter and you quickly look away before your body and mind betray you. “Oh, that’s nice of you.” You say hurriedly before looking back at his body. You can’t help but imagine what it’d feel like underneath you. How sturdy and solid he’d feel between your thighs; damn it’s been a long time since you had sex. 

“How about you?”  

“Um, it was fine. My job is pretty routine work, not a lot of surprises.” You say casually, a flat tone so as to not arouse suspicion of the incredibly horny state that you’re in.  

Joel gives one last grunt as he pushes a wrench tight on a bolt and then his hands fall, “There, that should do it.” He scoots back to raise off the floor and slowly rises to his feet. Placing his tools back in the toolbox, he stands up straight and reaches for the faucet. Turning the handle to one side, a smirk stretches on his face as water begins to flow from it. “Ta-da.” He says with a wink, and you grin.  

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” You say with a bright smile, still sitting comfortably on the counter. “What do I owe you?” 

He shrugs and shakes his head, “Have a glass of wine with me again and then we’ll be even.”  

Making a fake shocked face, you slide off the counter and point at him. “You drive a hard bargain Miller, but I think I can make that happen.” 

He grins as he grabs his toolbox, you follow him through the door and into the bedroom. You still and click your fingers together as you remember something you wanted to ask him. He hears the sound and stops, turning to face you, and your bed. “Before you go, I was wondering if Sarah would be interested in babysitting Mel for a summer job. I imagine she’s too young for somewhere like McDonalds, but I’d be happy to pay her to watch Mel while I’m at work. Her summer care from last year is all the way across town now that we’ve moved. It’s doable but adds about 30 minutes to my commute both ways now.” 

Joel nods and smiles, “That would actually be great. She uh-,” his voice trails off as his eyes seem to un-focus from you and onto something behind you. You look at him confused as you see the way he takes a deep breath to regain himself. Finally looking back at you he nods again, “Yeah I’ll definitely talk to her for you.” He slowly begins to walk backwards and gestures towards the door. “I’ll uh, see myself out.” 

“Joel.” You say confused, taken aback by his sudden retreat. “Is everything okay? Is that too much to ask of her? I’m sorry I didn’t realize-,” 

“No, no, not too much. Just, like I was saying I can uh-,” and his eyes betray him as they dart past you again.  

Your eyebrows pull together as you catch his eyeline and follow it. Turning your head, you say, “What are you-,” and then you see it. On the nightstand, clear as day. Your hot pink vibrator. It might as well have a sign on it that says “Hey look at me! She hasn’t gotten laid in over a year!” You didn’t even think about tidying up the bedroom before he came over, you were so nervous, you had run straight downstairs to collect his phone number. Your hands immediately fly up to cover your eyes and you groan, “Oh my God.”  

“,-see myself out.” He finally finishes. “See ya later.” With that he quickly ushers himself out the door.  

You stand in agony as you hear his boots hit the stairs hard as he makes his descent. Walking over to the nightstand, you grab the toy and toss it in the drawer, slamming it shut. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, you hear the front door closing behind him. Rolling your eyes at your own stupidity, and any chance of ever having a normal relationship with Joel ever again, your body falls into your bed. Hoping that the blankets simply swallow you whole.  

Joel didn’t sleep much last night. He tossed and turned, split between two faces of yours. The one he saw when you realized what happened and how embarrassed you were. That one made his eyes squeeze shut tighter to will the image away, and the other. The one he imagines you might make when you use the toy that he saw. He couldn’t sleep, being able to imagine the way your face may contort, the way your hands may grasp the blanket he saw laid on the bed.  

As he stomps down the steps, his shoulders slump low from exhaustion, he enters the kitchen to find Sarah and Tommy seated at his table eating eggs and toast. He groans when he passes. “Don’t you have food at home?” 

Tommy chuckles, “Don’t got anyone to make it there.” And he winks at his niece who simply shakes her head with a smirk before taking a bite of eggs.  

Joel fills an owl mug with coffee and turns to lean against the counter. “Thought we weren’t goin’ out today.”  

Nodding, Tommy says with a mouth full of toast. “We ain’t, I like my routine. So here I am.”  

Shaking his head, Joel takes the plate of eggs and toast Sarah has placed in the oven to keep warm and then turns it off. Taking a seat at the table, he grunts as his knees crack, and he places his dish on the table.  

Sarah and Tommy eye each other, given Joels gruff appearance and puffy eyes. “What’s got you so moody?” Tommy asks.  

He lets out a huff of breath and says flatly, “Nothing. ‘M fine.”  

With a careful tone, Sarah leans forward on the table. “Are you still okay with me sleeping over at Jessicas tonight? If you uh, want me to stay home I can.”  

Joel looks up and sees his daughters’ hopeful eyes and checks himself. Shaking his head, he confirms. “No, no, you can still go sweetheart. Don’t worry about me, like I said, I’m fine. Just a little tired.”  

She nods and collects her plate and cup to place back in the kitchen. Coming back around, she places a kiss to her dad’s forehead and rubs his shoulder. “Okay, well I’ll be going there straight after school so her dad will drop me off in the morning, okay?” 

“Okay.” He says, offering a polite smile. “Wait, uh her dad’s Ken, right?”  

“Yep. Alright, well enjoy your day off. Whatever, two guys in their 50s do on a day off.” She says jokingly before grabbing her backpack and overnight bag to head out the door to school.  

Joel and Tommy yell their goodbyes between bites of food. “50s she says.” Tommy snarks, shaking his head.  

Leaning back in his chair to stretch, Joel groans. “Feels like it some days. Can’t believe I’m, 36 years old and my knees already crack when I move.”  

Taking another look at Joel, Tommy nods at him. “So, what’s really got your knickers in a twist?”  

Rolling his eyes, Joel laments. “Just tired, didn’t sleep well.”  

“Okay, then what’s making you not sleep well?” He asks further and Joel gives him a look. Tommys tongue darts out to wet his lip, “Oh, who’s making you not sleep well?”  

Letting out a deep breath from his nose, his hand settles on his hip, and he shrugs. Quietly, he confirms. “Neighbour.” 

Tommy’s eyebrows pop up and down, “Oh, the pretty single mom Sarah was telling me about? Something uh, goin’ on between you two?” 

Shaking his head, Joel takes another sip of coffee. “No, I don’t know.” Leaning back in his chair, he rubs his tired eyes. “The thing is, I do like ‘er. I would be,” he thinks for a second before remembering the words of his too wise for her age daughter. “open. Okay? To seeing if there’s something there. But, well something did happen and now it’s kind of awkward.” He says nervously. 

Tommy looks at him curiously, “What’d ya try to kiss ‘er and she said no?”  

“Nah, I don’t know if I should talk about it with you. I don’t wanna embarrass her.” 

“Oh, come on, I won’t tell. Maybe I can help.” Tommy pleads. 

Joel eyes his brother, but his shoulders slump down, and his guard falls as he figures it’s his only shot at figuring this out. “Fine, but don’t say a damn word and I ain’t telling you everything.” He says pointing a stern finger at his younger brother. Tommy nods and continues drinking his coffee. Letting out a huff of breath, he continues. “So, last night, she called me cuz the Adlers ensuite sink was doing that clogging thing again-,” 

“Ou, did she ask you to come clean her pipes?” Tommy cuts in with a devious grin.  

Joel looks at him frustrated, “Are ya gonna let me get through it or are you gonna be a little shit?” 

Chuckling, Tommy nods. “Sorry, yeah yeah continue.”  

“Okay.” He stills for a moment as a smile creeps up his face, remembering how surprised he was when you made the very same joke. “So, I go over, all’s fine, we chat while I work. She asks me what she owes me; I told her to just have another glass of wine with me like we did when she came over. Cuz, I don’t know, that night was really nice.” His mind drifts off to your conversation back in his backyard. “There was definitely some flirting. I know I’ve been out of the game for a while, but she was definitely flirting. So anyway, we go out to her bedroom to head out once I’m done and she stops me to ask about Sarah babysitting for the summer and then-,” Joel winces and rocks his head on his shoulders. 

“And then what?” Tommy asks, curious.  

Shaking his head, Joel says, “I don’t wanna say the whole thing, but let’s just say, I saw something that she left out, something private, that I shouldn’t had seen and I acted like an idiot and now she’s all embarrassed.” He rubs the back of his tan neck with his hand as he recalls the events of last night.  

His eyes narrow, “What’d she leave some panties out or somethin’?” 

“I’m not, I don’t wanna say alright? Just what should I do? I want her to know everything’s normal between us.” Joel continues, adamant to get back on track.  

Tommy smirks, “Well, damn you really have been outta the game a long time. Shit brother, the answer is right in front of you.” 

Joel looks at him confused, unclear on how he missed the truth all along.  

His brother rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “Idiot, I swear. The wine.” He says clearly. “You told her you wanted to have a glass of wine with her again. Bring over a bottle to sit and chat, show her everything’s normal. Just pick up where you left off.”  

Joel clicks his tongue as he takes in his brother’s suggestion before grinning, “I knew there was a reason I kept you around.” He says with a chuckle.  

Tommy matches his expression, “And because I’m so damn good at my job, right?” 

“Right.” Joel says with a smirk as he brings his coffee up to his mouth. 

Unfortunately for you, your blankets did not swallow you whole and instead you had to spend your workday dealing with the agonizing fact that Joel Miller saw your vibrator. Never mind the fact that you definitely thought about him while you used it the night before. His name slipping from your lips as you climaxed. Now, the kids are in bed, it’s finally the weekend, you are hoping to just melt into the couch and distract yourself from your utter embarrassment with a rewatch of one of your favourite rom coms. You’re half-way through a bowl of chips when there’s a sudden knock at the door. Pulling your eyebrows tight, you look at your phone to see the time. It’s not particularly late, but a little late for a visitor. Standing, you dust off the crumbs of chips from your lap and pull the bottom of your shirt down from it’s raised position at your waist. Your bare feet pat to the front door, opening it, your eyes blow wide as you take in who’s on the other side.  

“Hey, Daisy.” Joel says with a lop-sided smile. He raises his right hand and nods towards it. You look down and see a bottle of red wine clasped between his large fingers. “Was wonderin’ if you wanted to make good on that glass of wine we agreed on?”  

You take in his sweet offer and let out a deep breath. Nodding, you step aside and usher him into the living room. He smiles as he walks past you and takes a seat on the couch, pushing over the blanket that had covered you just seconds before. You head to the kitchen for the wine glasses. Once concealed by the wall, your hands clasp onto the edge of the counter and your head falls. What if he wants to talk about last night? What if he doesn’t talk about it at all? What’s worse? Getting it all out in the open, or pretending there isn’t a huge elephant in the room? Collecting yourself and the wine glasses, you slip back into the living room and place them down on the coffee table. Taking the blanket, you roll it up in your arms and place it back in the basket near the corner. Joel watches you the whole time. The way your hands move, the way he can see your mind racing behind your eyes. He hopes he's not making you too uncomfortable and is silently damning Tommy for his idea already.  

You pour he and yourself each a glass of wine, taking yours, you sit on the couch and pull your leg up and under you. Joel smiles, “Cheers.” He says, raising his glass up.  

“What are we cheersing to?” You ask, bringing yours up and clinking it with his. 

He takes a sip from his drink and shrugs, “I don’t know yet, hopefully something good.” His words die on his lips, and you stare at each other. That undeniable sense of something that isn’t being said but is instead lingering. A hair that keeps tickling your arm, but you can’t quite find. You feel the way his deep brown eyes make your chest flutter with anticipation. “How is your sink? Workin’ alright?” He finally asks, breaking the undeniable tension.  

Your shoulders fall in relaxation, and you nod, “Yeah, thank you for that again. Saved my dad from driving across town.”  

“’Course, what I’m here for.” He says with a smile.  

“What did you get up to on your day off?” You ask politely, enjoying that the conversation seems to be flowing normally.  

Joel leans back against the couch, his arm raising to sit along the edge of the top. His fingers just inches away from your shoulder. “Eh, nothing crazy. My brother Tommy was sitting at my table with a plate full o’ food before I even got outta bed so that was a nice surprise.” He says jokingly and you laugh. “I finally got him rid of him mid-afternoon, and uh, actually I took a nap.” He says with raised eyebrows.  

Yours raise as well and you look at him impressed, “Wow. A real nap? As a parent?” You ask sarcastically and he nods with a smirk. “Fuck, I can’t remember the last time I had an honest to goodness nap.”  

He smiles, “No kidding. It’s been a long time for me too.” 

“Were you just seizing the opportunity or actually tired?” You ask casually, taking a sip of your wine.  

Looking down at his hand holding his wine glass, his cheeks begin to warm, and he says quietly. “Just tired was all.” Looking up at you slowly, “Didn’t sleep well.” 

Embarrassment begins to crawl up your neck like a squirrel up a tree and you look across the room at the tv. Sandra Bullocks frustrated face from The Proposal filling the space. Clearing your throat, you try to push the words out. “Look, Joel I-,” 

“I like you, Daisy.” Joels deep voice cuts through yours quickly. Not allowing any kind of self-deprecation that you were trying to spill out. Your eyes snap up to him, and you see no discomfort, only yearning. The way his eyebrows pull together to soften his eyes. The creases on his face displaying his worry on how you may react.  

Letting out a deep breath, you repeat. “You like me?” 

He grins, “What I said wasn’t it?”  

“I mean, yes but uh-,” you adjust on the couch cushion to look more directly at him. “Do you like me as your new neighbour, or a friend, or something else?” Your voice trails off as you look at him intently.  

His tongue darts out to wet his lips and he shrugs, “Yeah, I like ya as a neighbour. You keep the yard and gardens tidy, quiet.” You watch as he trails on. “And, yeah, I definitely like you as a friend. You’re fun to talk to, really open which I like. The cupcakes are a plus as well.” He says, pointing a finger at you and a small smile stretches on your face. 

“And, what about the something else?” You ask quietly. 

Joels eyes rake you up and down and says softly. “Well, maybe that something else could be that something good we cheersed to.” Your breath hitches in your chest and your eyes fall to his lips, so plush and inviting. He continues, “Maybe that something else could be something new.” You’re so captivated by his words; you miss how he leans forward to place his wine glass safely on the coffee table. “Maybe that something else could be scary.” His hand wraps around yours that’s clutching the wine glass tightly, you look down wordless and release your grip. He takes it gently from your hand and places it on the coffee table next to his. Joels eyes return to yours, he’s somehow closer now, his arm still resting above the couch, so close but not close enough. Your heartbeat pounds in your ears as you watch every twitch of his lips.  

“Maybe that something else could be, the most beautiful and sexy woman I have ever met.” He whispers with a breathy voice, barely able to contain himself another minute longer. You both lean forward instinctively. Your noses meeting in the middle, just grazing, teasing. Your eyes flutter open and see that he’s staring at you. So close, you can smell the wine on his breath. His cheek twitches, “Sorry, just wanted to look at you a little longer.”  

A smile tugs at your cheek and then you finally close the distance. Your mouths locking into one another like they were meant to be there. His lips are as soft as you imagined and the way his scruffy beard rubs against your skin drives you wild. It starts off so sweet and gentle, moving with each other smoothly and slowly. His hand that is settled above the couch falls to rest on the back of your head, his fingers intertwining in your hair. Your hand raises to hold the side of his face, feeling his beard and pushing back to scratch the hair at the nape of his neck.  

He lets out a low moan at the feeling and his tongue prods at your lips. You open and lick into his tongue with your own. Tasting him might be more intoxicating than alcohol. The making out turns more aggressive. Pushing your noses into each others faces. Hands flying to pull each other just a little bit closer than you were a second ago. You pull away just enough to raise onto your knees. He watches you in awe and pulls his thighs together as you reach one leg over them to straddle him.  

Looking down at him, his eyes flick to your mouth briefly before you launch at each other again. Teeth and tongues thrashing about against one another. Your hands run up and down his strong neck and shoulders, feeling every bit of his sturdiness. Joel moans and grips your ass through your leggings, pulling you close to him in his lap.  

Through the kisses, he lets out a heavy breath. “Fuck.” You begin to trail kisses down his neck, sucking the veins that are bulging beneath the skin. “You know, only reason I didn’t sleep last night, was ‘cause I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And what I saw.” You still for a second before his hand raises to hold the back of your head. “Was so jealous of that damn toy.” Your panties begin to wet and stick to your skin as you raise your head back up to kiss him again. Moaning into his mouth.   

Pulling back slightly, he begins his trail of kisses down your throat. Your pussy clenching with every nip and suck. With closed eyes you whisper, “Only reason it was out, ‘cause I couldn’t stop thinking about you the night before.”  

He growls. One of those primal, claimant growls. The kind that only comes from a man as touch starved as Joel. His hands and arms squeeze you tighter and you grind your hips down on his cock as it strains against his tough jeans. Joels mouth quickly returns to yours to lick into you deeply, his calloused hands scraping beneath the hem of your shirt. Teasing, wanting, just like everything else the two of you have done since you met in the Adlers backyard.  

Your skin burns with need and your hands quickly grab the bottom of your shirt to start pulling it up. He feels your movement and suddenly his hands grab yours and you still. Your lips break apart and you stare at each other intensely. His breath heavy and mind racing; his hands pull yours to bring your shirt back down and you look at him confused. “Daisy, fuck I just, I don’t wanna go to fast. I wanna take my time with you, get to know you a little better.”  

Your breath begins to slow and the want in your core makes you whimper. Nodding, you place your forehead against his as you both let your breath settle. “Right, you’re right.” Begrudgingly, you peel your body off of his and sit back down on the couch, pulling your shirt flat. Joel rests his head on the back of the couch as he rubs his eyes with his hands.  

Looking at each other, you take in the others messed up hair and swollen lips and can’t help but laugh. “Well, then.” You say, unsure of where to go from there.  

“Yeah.” Is all he can muster up at this point.  

Turning on the couch, you place your hand on his shoulder, “Obviously there is some um, tension, here.” You say and he bites his lip. “So, let’s just say right now. No falling into bed together until it’s the right time.”  

Nodding, he looks at you earnestly, “How do we know when the right time is?” 

“Well, since we’re both pretty out of practice when it comes to dating. I guess let’s just get to know each other more, and work up that kind of physicality slowly. Start at first base, and work our way up from there.”  

Joels eyebrows raise, “So, like high school?” He says with a chuckle. 

Letting out a laugh, you nod. “Yeah, just like high school. But without the guilt of getting caught.” You say and you both still for a moment. “Um, actually, I don’t think I want the kids or my parents knowing just yet. It’s been a hard year and I just, I feel like it needs to be a little more solid before we tell them.” Your face contorts nervously.  

He lets out a huff of breath from his nose, “Yeah, and Sarah hasn’t seen me date, since you know who.” He gives you a nervous look, “Probably shouldn’t get her too excited just yet.”  

“So,” You begin, “it will be just like high school. Except instead of sneaking around behind our parents back, it’ll be our children’s?” You say amusingly and he chuckles.  

“I guess so. Could make it a little sexier, you know?” He says seductively before leaning in and capturing your mouth in another devastating kiss.  

You lose yourself in his scent before snapping out of it and pushing him away, “Hey now. Remember the rules, slow.” You say, pointing a finger at him. He rolls back onto the back of the couch cushions and groans.  

“Fine.” He says with a wink. “Since I gotta keep my hands to myself for the remainder of the night, what do you wanna do?” 

Looking over at the tv, you shrug. “Finish the rest of this movie and our glasses?” 

He squints his eyes at the tv, “This The Proposal?” 

Your mouth drops in surprise, “Joel Miller, are you a rom-com fan?” 

Smirking, he shakes his head. “Nah, more of a Sandra Bullock fan. Tommy and I have seen Speed more times that I can count.”  

“Sandy B, always a good choice.” You grab the remote and un-pause the movie, taking your wine glass back from the coffee table to take another sip.  

Before it reaches your lips, Joel holds his out to you with bright and stary eyes and you smile. Biting your lip, you softly clink your glass with his. “Cheers.” You whisper. 

“Cheers, to something good.” He says with a smile.  

Chapter 2 - Chapter 4

[grumblesaur]

Things to Know About Your Computer

I recently was skimming through the comments of a post about free and open source software (FOSS), and I saw a few people arguing back and forth about Linux. The ends of the rope in this tug of war were as follows:

Installing Linux in the first place requires so much knowledge about computers that it's out of reach of the average computer user to do it themselves.

The average computer user can just look this information up (from a variety of sources) and learn, which would be good for them.

I'm not here to pick sides. Asking my mom to install Xubuntu on her computer by herself would probably be too much, but with some guidance it would be doable. What this debate doesn't cover is how hard it can be to search for something when you don't even have the vocabulary to describe your problem. Once you get to the stage where your computer boots from the install disc or flash drive, it's no different from following the installation wizard of a new program. Getting to that point has some prerequisites.

In the interest of helping people start the reclamation of their computing experience, I'm gonna touch on some of those prerequisites here, to serve as an aid to beginners in search of instruction.

Specifications

If you're a PC gamer, you might already have these memorized, but for anyone else, knowing what parts your computer is built from is useful. The most important things to know are CPU (central processing unit); GPU (graphics processing unit), which may be discrete (a separate piece of hardware) or integrated (built into the CPU); motherboard (make and model, as this determines your BIOS—we'll get to that); and how much RAM (random access memory) you have.

If you don't know these things about your computer, put the screwdriver down. There's very likely some software already on your computer that can show these things to you.

Windows users: search "dxdiag" in the start menu or type it into the dialogue box opened by Win-R and press Enter. If it prompts you with a little dialogue box, just press OK.

Macintosh users: click on the Apple icon and select About This Mac.

This is useful information because it means you can search "Linux distros for NVIDIA GPUs" if you're running a GTX 1050 Ti or "lightweight Linux distros" if you only have 6 GB RAM. GPU compatibility is becoming less of an issue, but it's worth keeping in mind. As far as RAM is concerned, basically every Linux distro (short for "distribution"—we'll get to that later) is lightweight in comparison to Windows 10 or 11, but some may intentionally give up some aesthetic qualities in their desktop environment (the graphical interface installed with that distribution) in order to run on less capable machines.

Most of the other parts in your computer aren't going to be an issue from a compatibility standpoint. I can't rule those things out, of course, but whatever storage drives and Wi-Fi cards you have will probably fine. Anything connected externally (mice, keyboards, speakers) will also likely have common enough drivers that you don't need to worry about them.

(I'm happy to say that getting Linux to talk to a printer is a hell of a lot easier now than it was when I first started tinkering with it.)

Drivers

You are going to hear about drivers more when you use Linux than when you use MacOS or Windows. A driver is a piece of software that allows other pieces of software to talk with your hardware. They generally run inside the kernel, which is the part of your operating system that handles files, hardware connections, and dividing up CPU time and RAM for different programs on your computer to run.

Different kinds of devices have different drivers. Human Interface Devices (HIDs) like mice and keyboards have their own drivers. Webcams and microphones have their own drivers. Your GPU has a driver. When a program on your computer has a GUI, it'll call a piece of code named something like draw(). Your kernel sees this and passes that along to the graphics driver, which then translates draw() into instructions that the GPU understands.

Drivers, like any other software, can have bugs. They can also be outdated, when compared to some piece of hardware. A new driver may have been written with your hardware in mind, and having an old driver may mostly work, but fail in certain circumstances.

The Linux kernel is steadily being updated with drivers for all sorts of hardware, particularly game controllers (support was recently added for Rock Band 4 guitar controllers of all things), but just be warned that it's possible something you use may not work out of the box, and you may need to visit your chosen distro's help page.

BIOS

The basic input/output system is a program included on your motherboard, meaning it's always available even if your hard drive fails. Its job is to configure certain CPU and RAM behaviors, implement certain security features, and locate operating system files it can use to bootstrap (commonly abbreviated to "boot") the OS. If you plan on switching to Linux, you will have to go into your BIOS at least once.

Your computer as purchased was configured to boot from its main storage drive. In order to install Linux, you will need a live CD (assuming you have an optical drive) or a live USB flash drive. "Live" means that the disc or drive has a copy of your distro on it such that your BIOS can boot from it.

Getting into your system's BIOS varies by motherboard. There will usually be a button you need to press as your computer is first turning on (I recommend tapping it repeatedly). This could be one of the function keys (usually F2 or F12, in my experience), Delete, Home, or some other common feature of a keyboard.

It's common now for the Fast Boot option to be enabled in the BIOS by default, which skips the motherboard splash screen intended to catch these keyboard inputs to drop into the BIOS settings menu. There are ways around this, but they may be different for your machine. Fast Boot is not actually that much faster; it's really more to keep people from doing stuff like this.

Once you have access to your BIOS, you have to change your boot priorities, usually by moving USB and/or optical drives to be higher than the normal boot drive. This means that if you have a disc in the optical drive or a USB stick plugged in, the computer will try to boot from them before the hard drive. Anything not bootable gets skipped.

Even if you don't ultimately install Linux on your computer, knowing how to get into your BIOS may be useful later if you want to overclock your CPU or boot into your live CD/drive to rescue files from a corrupted OS. Also, using a live CD/drive means you can try the OS out a little bit before you commit to installing it.

What Is a Linux Distro Anyway?

The whole Linux ecosystem centers around a common kernel (occasionally with special or optional features applied). Relitigating the mythology of Linus Torvalds is out of scope for this document, but the kernel he started (and which myriad other developers united to contribute to) is the core of an operating system. It's a lot of hard work to make a kernel, and the kernel itself does a lot of hard work for the computer, but a computer is still useless if all it has installed is a kernel.

The distribution is a collection of software to accompany the kernel, typically including as a minimum* an init system (don't worry about this), a package manager, a web browser, a desktop environment, a terminal emulator and a shell, a text editor, and a media player. All of these things on essentially all distros are changeable, with varying degrees of difficulty. Swapping to a new web browser is no different on Linux from Windows or MacOS, and you're perfectly well able to have more than one installed at a time. Swapping to a new desktop environment for a new look and feel? This can be annoying and sometimes fail in hard-to-fix ways.

When choosing your distro as a beginner, these are the questions you should prioritize:

Do I like the way this looks? (Save yourself the trouble of installing a new desktop environment later.)

Is this distro optimized for an activity I do commonly? (You don't have to get a gaming distro to play games, but it can be helpful for reducing setup time.)

Are my PC's specs sufficient for running this distro? (The answer is probably "yes" unless your computer is a toaster.)

There are lots of Linux Nerds out there who will try to convince you that systemd is the devil or that Canonical has fucked with Ubuntu so bad you might as well use Windows instead. They aren't necessarily wrong, but the difficulty of going from a non-Linux system to a Linux system is much greater than merely swapping distros. Your first choice doesn't have to be perfect; you're never locked into one particular Linux distro. Any software that works on one should work on the others.

Wait, What's a Package Manager?

If you've used an app store on any platform, you've essentially used a package manager. From the user's perspective, this is a program that you use to install, update, and uninstall other programs. It also handles software dependencies gracefully. Sometimes, two (or more) programs on your computer use the same software library, which is some code written by a programmer for other programmers to use in their software. Part of a package manager's job is to ensure that only one copy of such a library is installed, rather than installing one for every program that uses it. Another part of a package manager's job is to remove this library if everything that uses it is also removed.

Package managers are typically invoked in a command line interface (that is, in a shell running in a terminal emulator), but many of them have newbie-friendly graphical interfaces now.

Installing a program from your package manager on the command line is actually one of the easier things to do without a GUI, though, so it's worth trying out.

Not all programs can be installed through a package manager. The downside of package management is that it requires a distro's community to maintain repositories, which are collections of code and installation instructions for programs users might want to install. Not everything will be in the repositories, but you can build and run any software for which you have the source code (and the appropriate compiler), and that's any FOSS.

Before You Switch

Make a backup of anything you'd like to keep on an external hard drive. Installing Linux on its own generally entails reformatting your hard drive, which will make any data on it inaccessible. If you've heard of dual booting, it requires you to shrink your first OS's partition to make room for another OS elsewhere on the drive (or even having a second drive to boot from). Shrinking drive partitions may require you to remove data if you've used a lot of space, so you'll have to offload it to storage anyway.

Take some time to search things like "linux distros for gaming" or "linux distros for video production" or "linux distros for old PCs" (or whatever your specific needs are) and see what folks recommend.

Get your hands on a USB stick (or some CD-Rs if you have an optical drive) and a tool like Rufus.

Be ready to read and possibly ask for help on the internet.

There's a bit more work involved in setting up a Linux system, but the alternative is to keep using an OS that decides what's right for you while it harvests your activity for data.

* Some distros, like Arch, will give you almost nothing at all, with the expectation that you know 1) know exactly what you want to install and 2) how to install these things from a command line interface. Maybe don't start with plain old Arch, but a derivative like CachyOS (which I use) that comes out of the box with useful default software is probably fine for a beginner.

[skc-official]

FUCK OVER MICROSOFT AND USE LINUX FOR FREE HERE'S HOW IT TAKES 20 MINUTES

Hey you, do YOU hate your stupid fucking windows install? Do you want a free open source alternative? Wanna become more tech literate? Don't want AI baked into your OS? Oh boy do I have the thing for you. YOU CAN DO THIS IN 20 MINUTES WITH NO COMMITMENT OR RISK TO YOUR FILES. Links are marked in pleasant blue. You'll need: one (1) USB flash drive with at least 10-15GB capacity

a working computer with at LEAST: 2gb RAM (4gb recommended) 20gb hard drive space total (100gb recommended) Honestly if it runs windows it will run linux better A working internet connection (5MB/s or above recommended) the understanding that you WILL have to use the terminal (it's not that complex I swear) Step 1: Choose your distro! Unlike Windows or MacOS, Linux is only a kernel, the most basic part of an operating system. Therefore, there are over thirty configurations, known as distros or distributions, to pick from. You should research some distros that you might enjoy, there's no shame in trying a few to see what fits. I personally fully recommend Linux Mint for beginners, because it has an easy to understand installer and handles most of the things for you, it's a great step up from Windows. There is no singular "best distro". All of them have specific use cases. As stated before, for first time users, Linux Mint is my recommendation. As such, this guide will presume you have chosen Linux Mint. If you ask a community full of experienced Linux users what the best distro is, you will either start a flame war or they will tell you that there isn't one. Step 2: Grab your distro's .iso file. You can typically find it on the distro's website. If you want to use Linux Mint, find it here. The file will likely be a couple gigabytes big. I recommend the Cinnamon edition. Step 3: Once you have the .iso, download Rufus. The source code is here. Select your USB drive and previously downloaded .iso file. Leave everything else to the default. Don't use Balena Etcher, it's got telemetry and it's arguably worse. Step 4: Click "start" and wait for it to complete. Step 5: Reboot your computer and enter BIOS. The instructions on entering BIOS vary between motherboards, but you can likely google it if you know what brand of motherboard you have. Step 6: Go to the "boot" section and boot from the USB drive. Step 7: You should now be in what's known as the "live USB" environment. Play around with it if you want. Step 8: If Linux Mint detects a copy of Windows on your hard drive, it will give you the option to install alongside Windows. If you want to use Windows along with Linux, do this. Otherwise, select "Erase disk and install Linux Mint." Step 9: Follow the instructions on the installer. Once it shows "please remove the installation media and press Enter", remove your USB stick and press Enter to restart. Step 10: You now have installed Linux Mint! Everything past this is optional and basically just a crash course. Step 11: Log in and open the terminal, time to learn commands. For example, sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

This command is actually two in one - it will prompt you for your password, and then update your system. It may require additional confirmations but that's typically as simple as pressing enter. Once it finishes, your system is now up to date. There aren't automatic updates to my knowledge so do this every once in a while. Hell, a fun project would be making a program to automate it. sudo apt install (package name) I didn't have the space in the paragraph to mention this before, but "sudo" is a command that elevates the following command to administrator privileges, and apt is the package manager (handles all your software for you. you will be using this a lot) for Linux Mint. In fact, here's a very detailed document on how to use apt. You don't have to understand this right away, but read it anyway. Anyways, sudo apt install, well, installs things. Typically once you install it successfully you can just type the name of the software into the command line to launch it, or view it from the start menu if it's a GUI application. Some fun packages to install to test this out are: sudo apt install cmatrix (makes a cool matrix effect!) sudo apt install fastfetch (Gives you a bunch of info about your system) sudo apt install libreoffice (Alternative to Microsoft Office. Free!) Firefox should come pre-loaded with Linux Mint.

The cool thing about Linux is the free-open-source philosophy. apt will never ask you to pay for your software, and chances are the source code is hanging around if you want to check Github. Do you wanna game on Linux? You can. For steam games, run sudo apt install steam to get Steam. Log in. Now, there is a software known as "Proton." Proton is Valve's fork of WINE, which stands for Wine is Not an Emulator. Proton is good at one thing, which is running Windows programs by pretending to be Windows. It's very complicated but it works so we don't have to worry about it. It comes installed by default with Steam. Want Discord? Discord ships what is known as a .deb package. Just double click it to install software basically. You can get it at the typical discord.com/download link. You will have to redownload it every time discord pushes an update. Or just learn how to use Flatpak, which I do not feel like writing right now because it is kind of complex. Want a good mail client? Try Thunderbird! Anyways that's all. Comment if you have questions.