#to be fair the whole thing was built around the idea that she should have strong eyebrows and green theme color

[canisalbus]

*carefully picks you up and peeks into your conch snail shell*

Ehm... Sorry to bother, but... Could we, maybe, possibly... see Vasco's wife and her lover pictured by your hand? Sorry again, thank you for listening. Take care.

*delicately lays you back into the water to prevent any stress or dehydration*

Unfortunately I don't have her lover figured out yet, but I think Ludovica looks something like this:

[loveinhawkins]

Part 1

Silently, they swap seats. It feels ridiculous, how perfectly the whole exchange goes, how no-one else stirs, how the RV glides smoothly with Eddie's hands on the wheel.

“What about, uh, the walkman?” he asks, tries to sound matter-of-fact. Time for a new plan, time to think.

“No,” Steve says. There's a finality to his tone. “Max should keep it.”

Eddie exhales. “Okay, okay. There's—here, there's a radio.” He doesn't mention the fact that he's closer; knows that his hand would shake if he tried to reach for it. “Be great if you'd develop an emotional attachment to, like, all of the Top 40 right now, Harrington.”

There's a soft sound that might almost be a laugh. Eddie listens to Steve quietly moving around then returning to his seat, hears the static of the radio being turned on—volume low, as if Steve doesn't want to wake anyone up. The thoughtfulness, even now, makes something in Eddie's chest hurt.

But there's nothing, not even a whisper of a song, and then even the static stops. Steve has turned the radio off.

One second.

“No signal,” Steve says, and even though he's not looking at him, Eddie knows he's shrugging again, like it is what it is.

The panic Eddie had briefly kept at bay while trying to strategize comes flooding back. “Jesus Christ, this—this can't be happening.” There's another long pause, and Eddie inhales shakily, remembers how he hadn't noticed when Chrissy fell silent. “Hey, man, you've gotta—keep talking to me, okay, or I'm gonna lose it.” Let me know you're still here. Please.

“Sorry,” Steve says. “Talking. Um.”

“Um,” Eddie parrots. “Wow. Didn't finishing school teach you conversation skills?”

Steve laughs again—hushed but real. “Fuck off.” He sighs, then says, “God, this might be a weird thing to say—”

“Colour me intrigued.”

“—but I'm so relieved, dude, you have no idea.”

“You're right. That's an extremely fucking weird thing to say.”

“I didn't want it to be Max,” Steve says, so heartfelt that Eddie tightens his grip on the wheel. “Didn't want it to be... anyone, you know? It's—yeah, it's better like this.”

“‘Better’ is a strong word for it.”

“Mm. Like, come on, what's the worst he could have in store for me? The summer our AC broke, that was pretty rough—”

“Don't,” Eddie says sharply, and all at once the joking tone they'd built up evaporates. “Don't do that.”

“Do what?”

“Don't...” Eddie swallows. Recalls when he'd cut through the gym to get to Drama Club, how he'd glance over at Cheer Practice and think, They've all got it made, haven't they? Shiny fucking picture-perfect lives. “Don't bullshit me, all right?”

“...Okay.”

Eddie scoffs weakly, tries to regain the banter they were sharing. “Hey, if you can't be honest now, when can you?”

“Sure, that's—that's fair.” Steve shifts in his seat. “I was talking to Max, about the... when it happened to her. And she said she thought of happy memories, so. Got an idea of what to expect, at least.”

“Cool,” Eddie says, the mild tone only barely covering his anxiety. “Know what you're thinking about, then?”

“Yeah,” Steve replies. He's smiling; Eddie can hear it. “Got a few things in mind.”

“Good, that's... that's good.”

The road is getting more familiar: it won't be long until they're nearing the Welcome to Hawkins sign.

“Kinda impressed with you, Munson. Was expecting you to drive like a bat out of hell.”

“Ha, ha. Special occasion, and all—”

A pained gasp cuts through the air, and Eddie's stomach lurches. “Shit, shit, Steve—”

“I'm fine,” Steve says quickly, “I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.”

“Tell me the fucking truth. Please.”

“It's just my head. Hurts a bit. Not a big deal, I've had worse.”

From the clipped way Steve is speaking, Eddie knows it's more painful than he's letting on.

He slows and brakes at a stop light before taking the chance to, finally, look over.

Steve is staring straight ahead, eyes in focus, and Eddie suppresses a sigh of relief at the sight. But then he sees how Steve's jaw is clenched.

“How's the clock?” he says cautiously. Prays for a miracle.

“Still there. It's closer. And, um...” Steve's mouth opens, closes, opens again. “I'm guessing the black widows on the dashboard aren’t actually...?”

God, he says it so easily. Eddie can't comprehend the bravery of it. “No, there’s nothing there,” he says.

“S'okay,” Steve says, “I'll just look at you.”

“I've been told I'm a sight for sore eyes,” Eddie says dryly.

“Oh, I’d believe that,” Steve returns, somehow both matching Eddie’s tone and sounding completely sincere. He turns to Eddie and smiles. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

“This bit really isn’t so bad, Eddie,” Steve says gently. “Just some spooky pictures, really. That’s kids’ stuff. And you’re—you’re good company.” The light changes. Eddie looks away with reluctance, starts up the engine again. “I try my best,” he says lightly, and wonders how someone can be so close to… to… (he can’t say it; he won’t say it). So close to that, and still smile about it.

You’re incredible, Steve Harrington.

“Home sweet home,” Eddie murmurs as they pass the Welcome sign. “Hey, we made pretty good time, too.”

“I didn’t mean to be late,” Steve says nonsensically.

“What the—?”

“I didn’t, Dad, I didn’t. I’m not lying.”

There’s ice in Eddie’s veins. “No, no, no, stop—stay with me Steve,” he says, which is so fucking stupid, what, did he think he could solve this through sheer force of will? No matter how many times he begged, Chrissy never woke up.

But then Steve gasps, and it sounds like he did at Lover’s Lake, just before he got dragged back under. “Sorry, sorry. I’m still here.”

“Jesus. We’re—we’re here.” “We’re…? Right, yeah.” A deep breath. “Okay. New plan. My place first,” Steve says firmly. “We'll drop the kids off.” There's an unshakable resolve in his voice.

Eddie takes the next turning, doesn’t even enjoy the double take that Steve does at that, the fact that Eddie already knows his address. When he glances over, he sees beads of sweat on Steve’s face. Eddie speeds up.

Please, please. Just hold on.

[joelsmorality]

EYES WIDE OPEN [1]

Pairing: Joel Miller x Fem!Reader, platonic bonding with Ellie.  Summary: Somehow, you managed to find Joel and Ellie ending their journey just as you were beginning your own. After being captured in David’s resort and witnessing the horrors within, Ellie manages to save your life as she escapes and you end up staying with them for the time being at Ellie’s offer. Yet, things aren’t as they seem, and you’re also not sure if her gruff guardian won’t murder you in your sleep.  Warnings: Gore, death, mentions of cannibalism, fire, angst. Please read at your own risk.  Note: I’ve had this idea kicking around in my head for a while, though I can’t say for certain it hasn’t been done before. Still, I thought I’d write it up and see if anybody is interested in it! If you want to be added to a tag list, please let me know!

Perhaps you should have been relieved that the attention had been shifted off you.

Yet, you just felt more dread.

Your whole world had shifted over the last day or so. Again. It had been bad enough when the initial outbreak began, yet you had foolishly assumed that the biggest threat out there was the infected. Humans could be just as cruel, if not moreso. You were paying for that oversight in the current moment, your stomach twisting each time when you would think deep enough to realize just how horrible of a situation you found yourself in. It had been enough to make you forget the exhaustion and hunger that had built up over the last day.

Hunger had been the issue that started all of this.

David–your deeply devout, fair, and kind leader–was a sick son of a bitch. You had seen his bad side a couple times over the years–asking too many questions, showing too much doubt, witnessing him laying a hand on people who spoke too far out of turn. Your opinion hadn’t always been the highest of him, but this was beyond anything you could have imagined him doing. Which was probably one of the many mistakes you had made.

You had come across his group as a loner–your family was either gone or missing, and you knew it was impossible to seek out anybody at this point. It had been nice in the beginning–you had shelter, food, people. You hadn’t been the most social, but it was better than trying to survive on your own. That was, until the hunger had set in. Tensions were high, you wanted to help and eventually you had found yourself digging into something you really shouldn’t have.

You were a loner, which made you easier to disappear.

The image of the bodies hanging in the dark with a nauseating similarity to a slaughterhouse sat at the edge of your mind, knowing that a similar fate awaited you.

Until Ellie.

At least, that was what you had heard her shout when she had broken David’s finger–she had a fight in her, which gave you some hope. Yet, you saw the spark in David, which was what had your stomach turning at his fascination toward her. You didn’t have any children of your own, nor any younger family that you had looked after, but witnessing the way he spoke to her made you wish you hadn’t been separated in two different cages so you could help her. Animals awaiting slaughter.

Yet, Ellie had that fight in her–something that had left you long before you found yourself in the situation you were. Yet, you knew patience would wear thin and there was only so much she could do until they got sick of her.

Given that you had been in there longer than her, you had only hoped that they’d take you out first. Give her the time and chance to escape. Her arrival had delayed your death, anyway.

Yet, you should have known that David would be playing by his own rules.

Sleep had escaped you since you had been captured, yet during the momentary quiet moments you had found yourself nodding off despite your efforts otherwise. You knew you wanted to be alert at all times, watching for ways to escape. Yet, you couldn’t focus. It felt like you had exhausted all your resources–you had kicked at the gate to your cage almost endlessly during the first day, hoping against hope that the lock would just break off and you’d be able to run. Yet, that went nowhere and just exhausted you further.

You refused to eat, too–knowing what they had been serving to the community, thinking it was deer or whatever meat they could hunt…despite your hunger, it only made you sick to think about.

Still, you knew, despite the lack of energy, that you would be up at any disturbance. At least, you had hoped.

In reality, your head had snapped up at Ellie’s yelling without knowing how long she had been doing so. You managed to sit up and crawl toward your own cell door as you watched David and James hoist her up onto the table. Given the blood you had seen on it, it didn’t take long for its use to click in your brain.

“Hey!” you shouted, finally finding your own voice, “She’s just a kid! Let her go! Let her go!”

It was useless, given Ellie’s own shouts and struggles. They carried on as if you weren’t in the room, as much as that realization didn’t really settle in you as you tried to throw your shoulder against the cage door in a feeble attempt to try to help her.

They were going to cut her up, and you would have to sit there and watch it. You were useless to help, as much as you didn’t want to believe that at the moment. Still, that was as clear as day as David finally raised his cleaver up. Yet, Ellie’s voice cut through the momentary silence in that action, her words making everybody in the room pause. Including you.

It took you a few moments to process that–infected? You had plenty of run-ins with infected on the road before you wound up where you were, and she certainly didn’t look and act like someone about to turn. From what you could see on the faces of David and James, you could see that same line of thought.

“Roll up my sleeve–look at it. Look at it!” Ellie insisted, you watching on with wide eyes.

After a few moments, David swung the knife down quickly. You heard it hit the table, the action and sound making you flinch as a sound caught in your throat. Yet, from Ellie still moving on the table, you could tell that he hadn’t killed her. Or hit her, given the silence. David pulled her sleeve up, pausing at what he saw that you couldn’t see from where you were on the floor across the room.

From the look on both his and James’ faces, you could tell whatever was on her arm was pretty convincing.

“What did you say?” Ellie said after a moment, you almost being unable to hear her. “Everything happens for a reason, right?”

“David…” James started, equally as quiet and disbelieving.

“No…” David said after another pause, shaking his head in denial. “No, she would’ve turned by now. This isn’t real.”

“That looks pretty fuckin’ real to me…”

The next several seconds seemed to pass in a blur for you. In their confusion and disbelief, Ellie took advantage of their hesitation to pull the knife by her head out of the table and swung it into the side of James’ neck. Ellie took off with David pulling out a pistol and shooting at her, firing off shots until you could hear the click, click of an empty chamber. He paused for a moment, looking around the room for a moment before he met your gaze.

He almost seemed to look through you, but you could see the darkness in his expression. You weren’t surprised when he pulled the knife from James’ neck and followed her out into the main area of the building.

And you were still in the damn cage.

With a grunt, you threw yourself against the door again–a sense of panic and urgency driving you to ignore the aches and bruises the force of that was going to give you. You did so over and over again, letting out short yells and what may have been sobs. As much as you were definitely hitting it with some force, the door still wouldn’t open. You had to break the lock, and as you were unarmed, you knew it wasn’t possible in your current situation.

Still, you didn’t want to give up. You continued to slam against the bars, not exactly knowing what was happening outside the room as you couldn’t really hear anything. You were focused on your attempts to escape, yet you could feel your legs starting to give out as that familiar exhaustion started to make itself known. After a few more slams with your shoulder, your knees buckled that had you grasping onto the bars to keep yourself from falling to the floor.

At that moment, you were suddenly aware of the smell of smoke. It had been lingering in your nostrils, yet at the moment you could really smell it. You could almost taste it. Whatever had happened outside that room, someone had set the building on fire.

And you were still locked in the damn cage.

You continued your struggles, pulling yourself upright again and started to shake and slam yourself against the door. Your eyes were starting to burn–from the smoke or unshed tears, you weren’t sure. Yet, you had to stop again after a short while as you coughed, the smoke significant enough to shake reality into you for a few moments.

Gripping the bars on the cage door, you shook it hard with a yell that burned your throat. Fear, anger, and disbelief swirling in your gut as you continue to yell.

“Help me!” you screamed, “Please! I–I don’t…I don’t want to die like this…”

Your voice had faltered at the end, realizing how smoking the room had gotten. It was…unsettlingly quiet, aside from your shaky breathing and the coughs that would force their way out of your lungs as you struggled against the smoke that burned at the back of your throat. The fight was starting to leave you, ripping an angry sob from you as you kicked uselessly against the door before backing against the wall.

Another cough hit you, mixing with the sobs that you were already letting out. If you didn’t burn to death first, the smoke would suffocate you. You didn’t know which was worse.

Seconds seemed to drag by, the hopelessness of the situation almost making you collapse onto the floor. Yet, you heard the door to the room open. You glanced up to see someone step in, making their way toward your cage. You stilled, recognition taking a moment to settle before you realized the person in front of you was Ellie.

She looked rough–hair a mess, a haunted look on her face, and she was covered in blood. You had no idea what happened when she left the room, and you didn’t really have the words to say anything. The fact that she was still standing told enough of a story at the moment. She set about releasing the lock from the door to your cage, knowing where she got the keys from but you didn’t want to say anything. Didn’t need to.

Considering the look Ellie gave you before giving you a wordless nod, it seemed you both were in agreement to just get the hell out.

You followed after her, realizing that the building really was on fire as the smoke in the main area nearly choked you. Letting out a heavy cough, you covered your mouth with your arm as you weaved through the booths and tables toward the doors. Your eyes stung, the smoke you had already inhaled making it a struggle to breathe in the thicker air. Still, you were almost out.

You noticed a flash of white, daylight through the haze of smoke ahead of you. Mindlessly, you followed that, even after the door shut behind Ellie. Finally, you reached it and pushed it open.

The cold, winter air hit you as you stepped out. You stumbled a few steps in the snow before a series of coughs hit you, making you double over as your lungs struggled to get in fresh air. Dizziness wrapped around you for a few moments, though Ellie’s shouting pulled you out of it after a few moments.

Someone was holding onto her as she screamed for them to let her go, which made you stagger forward a couple steps until she stopped. Ellie let the man pull her into an embrace, which made your steps slow before you stopped a safe distance from them.

If you weren’t still struggling to wrap your head around the last hour, you would have probably felt awkward lingering in the background of a private moment.

The resort was oddly quiet, outside of the wind and the faint creaking of the building that was currently burning down. The group wasn’t huge, but you figured there would be people rushing about to stop that. Something had happened, something you weren’t around to witness, but you realized that your time there was done. In that moment, you let out another dry cough, finally starting to feel like you could breathe a little easier.

The sound pulled Ellie and the man out of their moment, however, the look on the man’s face gave you pause. Clearing your throat, you raised your free hand up in a quiet show of peace. For some reason, you hadn’t found your voice again after the shouting you had done.

Everything was happening so quickly…

“It’s–It’s okay, Joel. She was with me when…” Ellie said after a few moments, still holding onto the arm of the man–Joel–as he stared you down. From the look on his face, you had a feeling that if you made a wrong move, he’d charge.

Given everything that happened, you couldn’t blame him. Still, you remained where you were, watching him carefully.

Finally, your gaze shifted toward Ellie as you cleared your throat.

“Thank you…” you said slowly, voice rough, “For saving me. I have…nothing to repay you, but…”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ellie said, sounding almost as reluctant to speak as you were.

You knew you should just nod and move on. Gather some supplies and head out again–yet, you were exhausted and had nowhere to go. Had no idea where to even start. Still, you said your thanks and you knew you should just leave before you press your luck. You had more than enough.

You remained, however, Ellie and Joel watching you in silence for a few moments as you did the same. Your legs were rooted to the spot, a heavy feeling in your gut. You were scared–more so than you had been in years. Just turn around and…

“You have nowhere else to go, do you?” Ellie asked, pulling you out of your head.

“...I definitely can’t stay here,” you replied–she was right, though, even if you didn’t want to admit it. This had been your group. Until…well.

“Come with us,” Ellie offered, making your brow furrow somewhat.

“Ellie,” Joel hissed, the warning clear in his tone. 

You had an idea on what Ellie could do, but you didn’t know what to make of him. For now, you wanted to avoid pissing him off. You had enough abuse over the last couple of days.

“Just until you can find a place,” Ellie continued, meeting your gaze despite Joel’s protest. “Right?”

“I…I won’t overstay my welcome, if I can,” you said, finally relenting to the silent plea of help that you weren’t even aware you were making, “Until I find people. I would…be really grateful for that. You’ve done more than enough already.”

Ellie and Joel shared a quiet moment, something silent there but it seemed like he relented. With much reluctance, given his body language. Still, he wrapped an arm around Ellie to help lead her forward, the girl casting you a look over her shoulder with a tight grin. There was a pain in her eyes that you could easily read. It pulled at the feeling in you over this whole situation, but you had no idea what happened between her and David. Outside from the fact that he was dead.

Still, you supposed that was your queue to follow. It took a few moments before you managed to follow after them with unsteady steps.

You didn’t know how this would play out, but at the moment you were just relieved to leave.

[jesncin]

Honestly, you are like the most based person ever. A Martian Manhunter fan and a MAWS critic? F YEAH!

I'm so disappointed with MAWS' Lois :( Her romance with Clark could've been so good. SO GOOD. But they decided to go for fan service instead. She just gives off Lena (from cwsg) vibes and that's never a good thing.

Speaking of Supergirl, what's your opinion on the show? And on the show's portrait of J'onn. It baffles me how much hate the show got for the same things fans are willing to overlook now on MAWS. Aren't those some double standards, geez...

Aw shucks thank you! 2 incredibly niche but based things to be...

Sob! Call it the ace in me but whenever people think MAWS!Clois have chemistry because they're easily amused by seeing hot characters undress I lose life force. I didn't witness a couple that grew mutual respect and affection, I saw an insta-crush that led to Lois becoming so entitled to a guy she'd known for less than a week to the point of demanding full transparency of his private life before they even started dating. And then the narrative says it's Clark's fault for having reasonable boundaries, and then they're a couple. What is this.

I've briefly talked about CW Supergirl before, but my takeaway is: if people think MAWS is genuinely good writing then they should absolutely watch CW Supergirl because it must look like high art in comparison to MAWS. Maybe people are less judgy when something's animated and that's not fair. If we want to take animation as a serious medium we should hold it to the same standard and not coddle it. As someone who watched a few eps when CW Supergirl aired and then revisited and watched the whole thing years after the show concluded, I feel that the misogyny surrounding people's discourse around the show has led to people judging the show based on a fanon idea of it rather than its own merits.

more under the cut!

CW Supergirl is a show with great highs and lows. This results in things being hit or miss. But when something hits- CW Supergirl is not given nearly enough credit as it deserves. As a Martian Manhunter fan, I believe that their take on J'onn is the most competent and well adapted in not just adapted media, but all of comics canon. That doesn't mean I like everything they did with his lore and character, but I can acknowledge that they actually bothered developing him outside of the comics/cartoon's fixation with making him mope about his Origin Story all the time. He gets to find love, have adopted daughters through Kara and Alex, reckon with what it's like to preserve aspects of a culture he doesn't fully identify with, deal with his dad going through Martian Alzheimer's disease, and most importantly MAKE PEACE WITH HIS BROTHER. CW Supergirl has hands down, the best take on Ma'alefa'ak in all of canon.

I think Lena is a great character on the show. She's dealing with the trauma of being constantly manipulated by her own family, the legacy her name carries and who she is in all that. But because the supercorp ship permeates the way people perceive the show, she's reduced to that by discourse. When Lena has drama over Kara's secret Superhero identity, it's something that's built up to and informed by trauma, trust-issues, and TIME. We are shown that she has these problems. It gets melodramatic at times, but it's still something that was built up to. Meanwhile in MAWS Lois just tells us she has daddy issues and that it's why she really needs the cute guy at work to spill all his personal info to her even though she gets to lie to him for her own personal gain multiple times. I appreciate what CW Supergirl did to bring more attention to what was an obscure character. Whenever I bump into Lena in the comics, it hasn't stacked up to the character I met on the show.

I've called this out before but while CW Supergirl isn't perfect by any means especially with their treatment of Jimmy Olsen as a love interest to Kara and a generally sidelined Black supporting character, they still discussed and acknowledged Jimmy's identity as a Black American man! Sure it was heavy handed many times, but that's way better than MAWS straight up ignoring Jimmy's Blackness and even making an unintentional jab at it!! Like cw Supergirl Jimmy knows bigotry and has experienced it. MAWS Jimmy thinks bigotry is being ghosted for a camping trip. I have seen the exact same critics call out cw Supergirl for Jimmy's treatment while gleefully thinking Jimmy's treatment in MAWS is so uwu perfect. It makes me sick! Am I going insane?? It's the double standards for me.

[mariaofdoranelle]

Congrats Maria!!!!here's some fun prompts. Hm, this is a terrible idea // that’s not going to stop us right? // oh absolutely not. /. Don’t worry, with enough glitter no one should notice. Sorry for the weird formatting but the ask box does not let me go to a new line below. <3

The Glitter Project

For my Drabblefest

That prompt was so hard!! I had no idea what to write for it, then I started writing for another idea and stopped everything when this one came to me. I hope you like it!! I had so much fun with this.

No warnings, 900 words

⨯ ⁺ ✦ ･ ｡ﾟ⨯ ﾟ♡ ✧* ･｡* ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

“This is a terrible idea,” Rowan whispered despite the loud background noise of the science fair.

Aelin ignored him and hid that fateful envelope on her jacket. “But that’s not going to stop us, right?

Rowan smirked at her, the devil on his shoulder taking over this time. “Absolutely not.” Then he frowned. “But don’t you think the letter is too bold? Who did you put as the winners?”

She winked. “Don't worry, with enough glitter no one should notice.”

That wasn’t exactly an answer, but Aelin sauntered away, ready to swap envelopes and “make history”, as she had been saying for weeks.

Dorian and Chaol were presenting their project in front of them, looking smug as ever as they explained people how they proved dogs are colorblind. In the meanwhile, Rowan was on the other side of the makeshift hall, showing how he and Aelin built different models of wind turbines and test their efficiency in generating electricity under various wind conditions. It was a fruitless effort, though.

Every year, they’d go through this science fair.

Every year, Principal Havilliard, Dorian’s father, picked his son’s project to be the winner.

The students were so sick and tired of it, but Aelin was the first one to take matters into her own hands. Like usual, the thought of her brought something warm and fuzzy to his chest. Rowan was glad he was her best friend and partner in crime, but sometimes he really wished they were something else as well.

Rowan’s thoughts and automatic explanations of his project stopped when he saw Chaol Westfall coming his way, with the sole purpose of ruining his day.

“Whitethorn.” Chaol gave him a strained smile. “I was looking for Aelin.”

Lies. He had been within eyesight the whole time, Chaol knew damn well Aelin wasn’t here.

“What do you want, Westfall?”

He shrugged. “Just the usual. Say hi, ask her out.”

Rowan spun a turbine with his finger, putting a little too much force into it. His muscles were tight, his chest burning as he remembered Nehemia’s birthday party two weeks ago, when Aelin and Chaol made out.

“If I were you, I’d be protecting my ego,” Rowan sneered.

“That’s bullshit.” Chaol narrowed his eyes. “She doesn’t tell you about that stuff.”

Rowan clicked his tongue. “She does when they’re a bad kisser,” he lied. Aelin definitely didn’t tell him about the boys she kissed, but he always could tell when they made her giddy—which hadn’t happened lately, he wasn’t sure why.

Chaol’s mouth fell open, his eyes full of annoyance, but Aelin came before his retort.

She gave Rowan a grave nod, signaling that their plans were successful so far, then greeted Westfall.

“Did Rowan show you our wind turbines yet?”

The brunette sent him a smug look, then tossed his hair back and grinned at Aelin. “Actually, I came here to see if you want to hang out tonight.”

“Sounds nice.” Aelin smiled back. “Are Dorian and Nehemia coming?”

Chaol leaned closer to her, a gleam in his eyes flirtatious enough to make Rowan’s fists clench. “No, just us.”

“Oh.” Aelin did that thing where her face stopped halfway into a nose scrunch to force it back into neutrality. “No, thanks.”

His face fell. “What.”

Aelin gave him an apologetic grimace. “Rowan and I already have plans,” she lied.

When Chaol turned around and stomped away from them, Rowan leaned closer and asked, “Which plans?”

“We’re celebrating victory.” Her smile was large and had a dark edge to it, making her look borderline manic.

Right on cue, Principal Havilliard took the microphone and began an endless ramble about this year’s science fair and how he and a board of teachers evaluated every project and were proud of the students.

“And this year’s winner is…”

Principal Havilliard opened the envelope to meet a huge blast of rainbow glitter, exploding all over his face and clothes.

The second part of their science fair project. A big, fat glitter bomb to blow on the principal’s face before he announced his son to be the winner once again.

Rowan’s heartbeat skyrocketed, but he couldn’t move, eyes widened as he took in everyone’s surprised gasps.

Aelin grabbed his hand and took one, two steps back.

Then the frozen, slack-jawed, principal regained his movements, swiping off the remaining glitter to read the snarky message Aelin spent days writing. Seconds later, Principal Havilliard barked, “GALATHYNIUS!”

The whole room clapped, assuming their project was the winner, but Aelin took another step back and pulled his hand.

“Run!” she screamed, making Rowan regain his movements after that show.

Following her lead, they ran out of the school, their legs burning while they didn’t even check how far the school staff was from them.

Gods, she was going to be the death of him. Aelin was the main reason he was always in trouble, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Earth to Rowan!” She screamed. “What are you thinking?”

“I love you,” he blurted, that flush of adrenaline much more intense in his body after the realization of what he’d just said.

Aelin looked breathless as her eyes roamed over him, looking uncertain before she grabbed his face and pressed her lips against his.

“Now go!”

It took him a few seconds and another yell from Aelin to hit the gas and speed away.

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[dash-n-step]

I feel like I've probably typed this thought out before, but every time I'm reminded of the fionna and cake "discourse" (because people bring these two being so stylistically different so much, it's really nothing new) and how some people act towards towards genderbends in general (which, fair, I can get where you're coming from and all, sometimes it's just straight up ridiculous) it always seemed at least a little silly to me in this case specifically because, like, it all stems from

Nat just having a very curvy/flowy style and a whole world being built from said style, after the fact

Fionna and a lot of the characters in her world being similar but still somewhat distinctly different take on Finn's (no, I'm not talking about how the show justifies exploring the idea by making it Ice King fanfiction, that's an in-universe excuse for a real world concept being adapted for the show) like how in the comics Ice Queen was a frozen water nymph with a history with Cake, or in general how Cake isn't just "female Jake the dog" but is a cat dating weird black hole producing unicorn not *just* a male lady rainicorn.

4chan's old AT community being a mishmash of AUs and random OC, admittedly some more "problematic" than others

and just what happens when random people working on the show pop up here and there (I don't know about now, but people who work on shows stopping by 4chan's cartoon board because it was easily accessible and anonymous wasn't too uncommon)

But years after and due to an EXTREME lack of context (or just people who had their issues finding other people who had the same issues and then those posts blowing up to a point of people who didn't have said issues seeing it), some people just say "why does the young tube boy now have curves. Having curves is so fucked up because don't worry about it, by the way."

which on a surface level I understand but is incredibly ironic because at the same time, there were and still are people who liked her because she's largely just a regular looking girl in a similar situation to Finn, with her body type being seen as unconventional because that's kind of just what Nat goes for and why a lot of people like Bee and Puppycat

which very much goes against the "rules" usually used for Adventure Time characters and Finn specifically, and in any other show would probably have been heavily limited if not for how fast and loose the show played around with the concepts it was willingly to explore

Like, for as much as I understand (and how funny it is) making a "Genderbent" Finn be the same design but with a venus sign pointing to her in response to the preexisting Fionna, I don't think this same line of thought (alone) would have lead to anything else that marks just how wildly different the world of "Fionna and Cake" is, because it sort of misses the forest for the trees.

I don't know, I think it's sort of funny how these kinds of general thoughts can change, and how something that can be so wild at one point can end up being mundane and seen as "tropey" later on, especially with something on a mundane level as this. Because the idea that "people were fine with it then, so people should be fine with it now" is dangerous, but "people can voice their complaints now, so it was always kind of messed up" I wouldn't really agree with wholesale, either.

At the end of the day, it's kind of just differing opinions with different understandings of the contexts leading to them, especially since this just started as a silly little drawing that blew up into an AU that then got into the show it was made for, and etc.

It'll be very interesting to see how things change up in the actual Fionna and Cake special.

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

43 for the fanfic asks, is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet? 💙

In the interests of narrowing down the answer to this one, I'm going to answer it as though "haven't yet" means "haven't even made any notes on or started to write at all" because there's many I've got snippets, or starts, or notes, or partial drafts of, and to detail them all would be more than one post anyway. But yes, the answer to your question is yes. And the reason it doesn't have anything concrete started yet is that it's a very nebulous idea and requires a bit of a mindset shift and I am wanting to complete other things first.

Beyond Light happened during the pandemic, and I've been told by people who claim to know people at Bungie that there was supposed to be more Drifter & Eris content in it but that this was impacted by the lockdowns. I was told this when I was engaging in my frequent whining about how at one point in the questline you go to the camp and both Eris and the Drifter are just gone and no longer snarking back and forth over the fire. And we never find out what happens to them. And we never find out where they went or why.

External to the narrative, I now know why, but of course the whole thing with the Dark Vanguard was built up deliciously, and the interactions between them were clearly going somewhere and it just… never happened in-game for out-of-game reasons. Which feels so unfair. I love the shit out of Beyond Light and Europa, but I do mourn the Beyond Light that could have been.

So I do want to write oodles of "Eris & the Drifter have adventures on Europa" but that requires me getting into a mindset of them not-yet-together (which is not clearly stated in canon but in my head they weren't as close, emotionally, when they were on Europa as they are now) and my brain is still overflowing with all the other ideas and stories so I just haven't gotten around to that yet.

There's a couple of ways I might do it (or all of them - writing says I am god when I write and I can rewrite plot points I've already taken one way and send them in another and there's nothing anyone can do to stop me). One is to have the writing set in Beyond Light and do that "straight" (as if anything about those two is "straight" - heh). Another is to have them go there in a more current context and either experience memories or talk about what each one of them was thinking at different spots on Europa (this one is especially appealing to me since then they're the ones telling their own stories to each other, and I love having narratives come from their mouths and perspectives). It's also possible to have more found-object style delivery (recordings from Aunor, letters, log notes, voicemails, etc.) which is something else I really like to do.

Yet another thing I would really like to write and haven't yet, which could be combined with the Beyond Light bits or be its own thing is that in all the Moonrat Radio tagged stories I've written, they're largely recorded by Aunor who, if I start including Ikora in my Drifteris (another one I haven't gotten to yet - I want her to fight along side them and go on adventures with them - I think that'd be great - she's the Skinner to their Mulder & Scully and I want them to go be heroes together) will definitely no longer be wanting Aunor to be recording them on behalf of the Hidden. But Aunor is still likely doing so in spite of being told not to because she has some issues with obsession.

I imagine Aunor as driven, angry, upset, and unable to stop stalking them (and playing recordings of them over and over for 'reasearch' reasons), hating them for using Darkness and for getting to be so damn in love with each other because how it is fair that Darkness wielders should find love, never mind genuinely healthy and healing love? There's a scene in my mind that's only partially formed where both Eris and the Drifter are about to die quite permanently and Aunor shows up and saves them, screams at them how much she hates them, and then leaves sobbing. In my mind, Aunor, despite her extreme obession, is still a good person, just super bigoted and filled with cognitive dissonance as she tries to justify the existence of their love (something she is experiencing vicariously due to spying on them all the time) with her Praxic zealotry that condems anyone for using the Darkness. Something's gotta give and I think, when it comes down to it, Aunor will make the right choice, but it'll be super painful for her.

Ok I'm going to stop now. I could, of course, keep going but I should just write that and post it on Ao3 instead. :)

[churro-lord]

so what are your gripes with erivris?

Oh buddy what isn't there to have gripes with?

For starters, there's the elephant in the room that 1. Their ancestors were in a relationship and at least to ME that makes me prefer them in a sibling context [esp in humanstuck] and 2. In canon, they are exes so there's already a basis to them not being together. BUT that doesn't automatically mean that they aren't viable to get together, it's just something I felt is important to mention.

For the sake of everything though, I'll be shelving the first elephant simply because of how technically incest isn't a thing or whatever in troll society [even though this just feels like an excuse to make things weird in some respects due to Hussie having a tendency to focus on incest stuff BUT I DIGRESS, this isn't the time or place for that it's just something to be mentioned] and how not everyone sees this stuff as the same as me. We're going to be looking at this from a purely "these two have no relation to each other" type of way

My first and biggest argument is just....how Vriska is to people. ESPECIALLY in terms of the pitched quadrant. Look at how she treats Tavros, she bullied and abused the hell out of him to the point she PARALYZED him and continued to berate him for not being able bodied all just to "toughen him up" [I put this in quotes as this is what she believes she's doing, when this is just making shit worse.]

Vriska picks and prods at someone's weak points, berating them under the impression this would make them stronger. She's a horrible pitched partner in general if the person she's trying to help were to have self esteem issues. Which, we clearly see Eridan DOES as we see him going to Feferi and fretting about how he worries he's not a good enough partner for Vriska because she got BORED OF HIM.

This brings me to my next point: Vriska stops talking to Eridan WHEN THEY ALREADY HAD PLANS out of BOREDOM. Now this could be seen as Eridan's nerves, which is fair, but the fact still stands that she ignored and didn't tell him anything and just blocked him while they still had plans going.

Another point of contention: the fact that the whole thing they had going on was a business arrangement, and a way to emulate their ancestors. We know their flarp characters were EXPLICITLY named after their ancestors as well, Mindfang and Dualscar. Their ancestors were in a pitched arrangement, which the duo learned from Vriska's ancestor's journal, so it was more so they were emulating their ancestors instead of well...actually being in a stable relationship.

Of course, that doesn't mean they didn't get emotionally invested, clearly Eridan still cared a lot about it since he would later try and prod Sollux and Rose to be his new rivals to piss her off. Also the self esteem stuff mentioned above.

But the point still stand that it's built off the idea that they have to be like their ancestors, which we can clearly see is unhealthy for BOTH of them, and I mean in general not just with their relationship.

And again, the fact that it was also specifically an arrangement that was meant to feed Feferi's lusus and Vriska's lusus.

There's also confirmation in the author's commentary as well. Although I should say that author commentary should always be taken with a grain of salt given the fact that Hussie's author commentary can be inconsistent, blatantly false or just downright awful and unnecessary. So take it as you will:

I think though that this does line up enough with what we're seeing in canon.

Now, there is a case to be made that they could be in a different quad. Which I mean, fair enough you do you. There's canon evidence that Vriska did at least care about Eridan or DID like being around him on some level.

Firstly, when pre-retcon Vriska on the pirate ship says she wishes that Eridan wasn't prototyped as Erisolsprite bc he would have loved being on the expedition. Along with how she defended Eridan's worthiness of living to Terezi in post-retcon.

Although, we never actually get a chance to hear what Eridan would potentially feel about her like...post dead and stuff. So it's hard to exactly say if he'd feel the same.

So at the very least to me, I feel they could at least be friends, but just because Vriska still seems to be ok with the idea of being around Eridan, doesn't automatically mean I'd wanna throw them in a quad.

But yeah, those are kinda my bigger reasons as to why I don't like Erivris. I can tolerate it at least I suppose, as it's not one that I consider to be the 3 ships I will internally go hater mode at haha. I'd just side eye it and go =.= ok I suppose haha. Again, at the very least I like them as friends[or siblings in humanstuck], albeit with some distance.

[two-reflections]

[Stuck this in my queue a few months ago, shortly after I made this blog. I keep putting off posting this because it's just a bunch of random enthusiastic screaming, but whatever, if I haven't stuck it in drafts, it might as well live on my blog instead.]

Rebirth lives rent-free in my head. I just need. Like. ONE friend who has read it who I can enthuse with about it IRL. The Tome of Fire was a bit of a slog at first, but I swear that the series which Rebirth was meant to start had legs. LEGS!!

Tried to keep these notes spoiler-medium in case anyone wants to read the book, but be warned. There are spoilers below.

Black Legion VS Salamanders and Sisters of Battle, except that both sides also have their fair share of drama and betrayal? Also, there's a manhunt through a decrepid underhive for a fugitive? Come on, that's some good shit.

Tsu'gan's presence in the plot is at a distance and Da'kir's seems to be over. Zartath and Agatone are the characters who benefit the most from context from previous books, but I think most of their backstory is made pretty clear.

I liked how Val'in built respect with Sister Seraphina without any romantic tension. The Sisters somehow manage to come off as even more nonsexual yet homoromantic than Astartes, and I am here for that.

I also appreciate how the Sisters' extreme zealotry makes them come off as more inhuman than the Salamanders, even as they condemn the Salamanders for being... Uh, bad at seeming like good Imperial zealots. Are some of the Sisters written as too unreasonable? No, I think how unreasonable they seem is a reflection of Canonness Angerer's issues rather than the Sisters as a whole. Plus, Seraphina is not like that! I wish she had been more present in the finale, but oh well.

There are some great human characters in this book. Makato and Issak are so cool. They are excellent examples of how versatile standard humans are and how they can stand out in a story that focuses on Astartes.

Chaplain Elysius is always great, but I really love him in this one. He probably has the best lines in the book. I appreciate his sense of duty, his pragmatism and the fortitude his faith gives him. I also found it interesting how he seems to respect Drakgaard more the more he sees his flaws.

Comparing Elysius and Drakgaard, and Agatone and Drakgaard is interesting. Drakgaard tends to comes off worse in both cases, but his massive flaws make him interesting to me. The parallels between Drakgaard and Angerer are interesting too. I enjoy the idea of these two old warriors being so blinded by their desire to make up for the failings of their pasts that they completely and unequivocally fuck up.

Continuing on Drakgaard, I love how he's described by many as being stubborn, unfeeling and uncultured, but then he's constantly swayed by emotion and makes it very clear that he's not actually averse to artistic pursuits, he just doesn't prioritise them. Part of why those around him see him in such a harsh light is that he can't move his face much and doesn't move with elegance. (For example, his sword is described as a beautiful piece of artistry... Which he swings around like a goddamn cricket bat.) Idk, he seems like a guy with secret depths.

Agatone really grew on me in this one. He's so good to his guys. I think that he gets to shine because the focus of his sections is on a very small group? Anyway, if anyone questions why this guy has a dedicated mini, they should read Rebirth.

I love that guy Agatone picks up. Issak is a 10/10 bro, top tier little guy, and I'm sad we may never get to know the rest of his story.

I don't usually care for techmarines, but Exor is a poor little meow meow whom I want good things for. HE'S JUST DOING HIS BEST, HE'S BRAND NEW, PLEASE BE NICE TO EXOR PLEASE -

He's a mess, but I can't fault Zartath for struggling. Dude needs a therapist, and he tries so hard to make up for his fuckups. Because he started as a Black Dragon, he's stuck between a rock and a hard place - expected to both conform to the new Chapter whom he looks nothing like and to lean into his beastly nature to perform the way his Chapter requires him to. It's a hard line to walk, and I like how that went for him in the end. Also, despite his massive PTSD and mutations, he has genuine respect for Agatone and the Salamanders, and it's great to see that respect rewarded.

I liked his relationship with Exor. Two semi-outsiders in a hard but privileged position alongside their Captain, so different yet so similar... I enjoyed how their respect for each other fluctuated from grudging, to complete distrust, to something two steps from friendship. And it all felt deserved.

I do have some issues with the book, of course.

Some say it feels a bit unfocused. I think that might be because some of the different threads tie up very quickly, to the point where a reader could actually miss how a particular story line tied in with the others. I wish it was about 30 pages longer so the endings could have had a little more space to breathe.

My main issue is that it doesn't seem like this book will ever get a sequel, so we'll never know what happened to some of the characters. This particularly bothers me with Exor, Zartath, Issak and Drakgaard. I have so many questions about them.

For example, Drakgaard is not Captain of the 6th in the current era... What happened? Did he die? Did he take the Burning Walk after losing his men's respect at Heletine? Was he so hurt that he was interred into a Dreadnought, perhaps to replace one lost on Heletine? (That would be so tragic... The other Salamanders would assume being interred would suit him, but it might turn out to be his worst nightmare.) I may never know, and it breaks my heart because I think it would have been interesting.

Will Exor and Zartath actually become friends? Probably not, but my god, I want that for them. I have this picture in my mind where Zartath ends up leaving to refound the Black Dragons and Exor goes too, becoming the one Salamander in the Black Dragons like how Zartath was the one Black Dragon in the Salamanders... Kinda falls down as I think he's not a Magos Biologis, but shhh.

Agatone took Issak back with him. What's going to happen to Issak now he's with the Salamanders? It seemed like he was set up to be present in subsequent books... And he was so likeable.

The weird, not specifically related to Rebirth:

What went down with the real Pyriel and Argos who inspired the characters? Seems there was some major beef between them. It all went down on various forums, possibly had something to do with Pyriel having a 3d printing business? Idk, I did a bit of googling about it a while ago but I can't remember what I found right now. The actual drama isn't very important to me, I just find it interesting that those characters are based on real people who seriously did not get along.

[shoujoboy-restart]

Didn't Israel attack a celebrity for speaking out against the atrocities? Response to that post I just saw about them claiming the crisis actor thing.

Also about Israel, is everybody that still supports Israel are bad people like the people in that protest from days ago in Washington showing support towards them? Cuz I kind of do feel a little conflicted because one of those reasons involved the October 7th massacre, which is kind of rarely brought up and the focus is more on the Palestinians, which I'm not saying shouldn't be focused on but it looks like most people are making it seem like what Israel is doing is proof that every Jewish people are bad and that the Nazis had a point, which is something I feel like is alluded to somehow with the rise of anti-Semitic hate crimes around the world.

Like I mean come on a fucking man just killed a young boy to death because of this fucking conflict and this idea that Jewish people are the bad guys and the conflict shows that which I don't feel is fair at all to condone everybody because their government is following Hitler's steps with their own touch.

Yeah they tried to drag Bella Hadid(a model with Palestinian heritage) on their fucking Instagram stories, it was so patethic lmao.

I wouldn't say everyone who supports Israel is a bad person, that's a very pointless generalization, many of them are people that since babies believed this was some sort of birthright of them to have this land and all Palestinians were evil people who seeked to kill them, before the current conflict there was some random girl on TikTok who made storytime/vent about how she had these neighbors that were nice and lovely and sweet, but after she discoverwd they were Palestinian she immediately started to believe they would hate her, kill her hark and therefore want then harmed as well, again, completely unprovoked without any aggression from the neighbors, Zionist Jew are under some crazy powerful propaganda and cult like beliefs.

And it is absolutely disgusting to think every single Jew is somehow at fault for israel's actions, Netanyahu had a absolutely abysmall approval ratings before the conflict, and he will absolutely not be elected democratically again or still be in power if there any actual democracy in that place and the support for him is extremely isolated, Jews in and out of Israel have always protested and fought against the occupation.

Both Islamophobic and Antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise, and if you are talking talking about 6 year old Wadea Al-Fayoume that killed by his landlord it is absolutely a case of how the media was at first reporting completely favourably of the Israel government:

“The father said [the landlord] had built a tree house for the boy and allowed him to swim in a makeshift pool and brought him toys. But it wasn’t until he started watching the news and hearing the statements [about the war] that something changed,”

Obviously there was probably some sort on mental illness at fault too(still not enough for a insanity please as of now it seems), but divise politics got a whole generation of people saying and protesting wanting a little black girl hanged and lynched for just wanting to go school as well.

Although I don't agree with the Hitler comparison(even thought the Israel got caught saying the whole "children of children's, children of darkness" shit that was found to be a mindset within the SS army) yeah Jews shouldn't be penalized for what Israel is doing, not Israel citizens should, we can complain about collective punishemwnt for Gazans and Palestinian and then make excuse for the same thing with Jews and Israelis

[demons2003]

My Boys (Chapter 36)

Series List

Y/n's pov

After walking for so long I was starting to get so bored. There was nothing to do at all or look at and it still didn't look like we were getting any closer to the end of the hall. "I mean, you have to admit, as a feat of engineering alone, this is impressive," Dustin says. "What are you talking about? It's a total fire hazard. There's no stairs, there's no exit, there's just an elevator that drops you halfway to hell," Steve explains to him. "They're Commies. You don't pay people, they cut corners," Erica says. "To be fair to our Russian comrades, I don't think this tunnel was designed for walking," Robin adds. I agree and say, "Yeah. Those guys that came in earlier were on a vehicle." "And think about it, they developed the perfect system for transporting cargo." Robin continues. "It all comes into the mall like any old delivery," Dustin says. "And then they load it up onto those trucks and nobody's the wiser," I also say, wanting to join all of this. "You think they built this whole mall so they could transport that green poison?" Steve asks us.

"I very seriously doubt it's something as boring as poison. It's gotta be much more valuable, like promethium or something," Dustin says. "What the hell is promethium?" I ask, not really remembering much from anything science related. "It's what Victor Stone's dad used to make Cyborg's bionic and cybernetic components," Robin explains to me. "Oh, ok yeah I remember that," I say, smiling at her. "You're all so nerdy, it makes me physically ill," Erica complains. Steve looks offended by the comment and says, "No, no, no. No, don't lump me in with them I'm not a nerd, all right?" "Why so sensitive Harrington? Afraid of losing cool points to a ten-year-old child?" I tease him. Steve slightly glares at me and says, "No, I'm just saying I don't know jack shit about Prometheus." "Promethium. Prometheus is a Greek mythological figure, but whatever. All I'm saying is, it's probably being used to make something," Dustin corrects. "Or power something," Robin adds. "Like a nuclear weapon?" Dustin asks. "Totally," Robin agrees. I really love my two nerds and my jock.

"Walking towards a nuclear weapon. That's great. That'd be great," Steve sarcastically says. I softly smile and grab onto Steve's hand. "Hopefully they're wrong," I whisper to him. He sighs but nods with me. "But if they're building something, why here? I mean, Hawkins. Seriously. Of all places." Robin asks. "Fuck," I whisper, an idea popping into my head. What if this was all because of the Upside Down? It was the only thing that made Hawkins special in any way. And it would be a really good weapon to try and control. "You ok?" Steve asks, turning around which causes the rest of the group to stop and turn as well. I look at everyone, wondering if I should worry them with my thoughts or keep them to myself. "Um, yeah, sorry just a thought. Let's keep moving," I blurt out, pushing past everyone and trying to work down the hallway faster. Robin continues talking, saying, "At the very best, we're a toilet stop on your way to Disneyland, but maybe that's it. Maybe it's our very..." Steve grabs onto my arm and pulls Dustin and I behind Robin, her continuing to talk but I focus on the boys instead.

"You think the Russians know?" Dustin asks us. I look down as Steve starts to ask, "About..." "They could," I interrupt. "So it's connected?" Steve asks. "Maybe," Dustin asks. "How?" Steve wonders. If the Russians were able to get a gate open, we were fucked, but maybe we were just overthinking all of it. Maybe they know nothing about the Upside Down. Maybe they were just building normal weapons to attack normal countries. "I don't know but it's..." Dustin answers Steve. "Possible," All three of us say at the same time. "I'm sorry, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Robin asks us as she turns around, clearly annoyed with the whispering. We look at Robin and then at each other.

Before we can tell Robin and Erica anything, the walkie starts to go off, someone speaking in Russian through it. "Walkie," Steve and Dustin say at the same time, all of us walking over to Robin and Erica again. We all kneel on the ground as Erica grabs out the walkie-talkie. Robin takes it from her and pulls the antenna out as we continue to try to listen to the man speaking through the walkie. In Russian says, 'A trip to China sounds nice. If you tread lightly.' "It's the code," Robin tells us. "Wherever that broadcast is coming from..." Dustin starts to explain but I butt in and say, "It's close." "And if there's one thing we know about that signal..." Robin continues the rambles as Dustin finishes with, "It can reach the surface." We all smile and Robin says, "Let's go," getting up with Erica. I look over to Steve and Dustin to find them looking a little worried with each other. "We'll work it out if it comes to it," I whisper, putting my hands out to help them both up. They nod and grab my hands, standing up and walking with Robin and Erica down the hallway again.

A few Minutes Later

We slowly peek around the corner, noticing that there are people walking everywhere in front of us. "Okay, clear, come on, let's go," Steve whispers, waving for us to follow behind him as he leaves the safety of the wall. We all follow behind him and hide again so we are no longer in sight of anyone that could kill or capture us. "Okay, that was close," Robin says when we are safe again... "Too close," Dustin snaps a little too loudly. "Relax. All right? Relax. Nobody saw..." Steve snaps back at him, slowing down as he turns the next corner. We follow after him and see a bunch of Russians moving around a central point. We look surprised by what we are looking at. Steve is the first to snap out of it, whispering, "Shit," and pulling us into a crouching spot behind a create at the side of the hallway. "Jesus!" Steve whispers again. "Red Dawn," Dustin reminds us. "I saw it. First floor, northwest," Erica tells us. "Saw what?" Steve questions her. "The comms room," Erica whisper/yells at him. "You saw the comms room?" Steve asks in disbelief. "Correct," Erica slightly snaps. "Are you sure?" I ask her, also not able to see where she's looking. "Positive. The door was open for a second, and I saw a bunch of lights and machines and shit in there," Erica explains to us. "That could be a hundred different things," Dustin says. Robin, Steve and I all move close together and Robin says, "I'll take those odds." Steve looks to me for confirmation and I nod. Not like we can get into less trouble.

Steve stares at us both for a second and sighs, shaking his head in slight disbelief. We all slowly look out from behind the create and look towards where we think the comms room may be located. Steve hides back behind it and we all follow. "All right. We're gonna move fast, we're gonna stay low. Okay?" Steve whispers to us all. We all say okay to him and he starts to move out from our hiding stop. I follow quickly after, everyone else also following me. We stay crouched and hide behind another create. Steve continues to look out and moves when he believes it to be safe, the rest of us following close behind him. "Shh! Move it," Steve whisper shouts to us as we hide behind something again. He watches a door and as a guy opens it and walks away, Steve turns to us and whispers, "Let's go," quickly moving to the closing door and entering. "Sh, sh. Come on," Steve whispers to us all as we enter the room.

He closes the door when Dustin finally comes in and Robin and I make sure the kids are all in. Robin freezes a little and I look in that direction to find a guy already sitting in the chair at the controls. He slowly spins around to face us and takes his headphones off when he notices us in the room. Shit, shit, shit, shit. We all just stand there looking at each other, Steve still bent over, closing the door. The Russian reaches for his gun and Robin steps forward and yells, "Tread lightly!" in Russian. "Tread lightly," Robin says in Russian again but softer than before. The guy asks us a question but Robin just replies with, "Silver car... Silver cat," in Russian, pointing to herself. He says another thing but we still don't understand. Robin turns to look at Steve and I but I don't have any idea what to do. "China?" Robin asks, stepping forward. The man scoff and grabs his gun. I step protectively in front of the kids while Steve yells and runs at the guy. Steve tackles him over the controls and continues to yell at the guy. The guy gets his strength and throws Steve into another table, Steve groaning on impact. The guy takes a swing at Steve but he leans back and misses it. Steve loses his balance a little and the guy grabs onto his collar. He throws Steve face-first into a table and then pulls him back up by the back of the collar.

Steve throws his elbow back, causing the guy to step away from him. Steve serges forward and grabs onto a metal thing and turns around and hits the guy across the face, knocking him out. Steve pants a bit from the fight and pushes his hair back into place but it falls a little anyway. "Dude!" Dustin yells at him. Steve looks over to us and Dustin yells while pointing at Steve, "You did it. You won a fight!" "Jeez," I hear Steve whisper, looking down at the guy he just beat. He softly laughs at the realisation and steps away from the guy. My brain kicks back in and I run over to Steve, cupping his face. "Are you ok?" I ask, looking over his face and body. He laughs at me and puts his hands on mine, "I'm ok. Calm down cutie." I laugh a little bit but in the corner of my eye, I notice Dustin moving over to the guy. "What are you doing?" Erica asks him. I fully turn to Dustin as he says, "Getting us our ticket out of here." "You want to walk all the way back?" Erica asks him in disbelief. She walks over to him, Dustin doing the same, and stand toe to toe. "Well, we can hang out for a little bit, relax, have a picnic maybe," Dustin sarcastically says. "Have a picnic? We came here for a radio," Erica yells at him. "This plan is way better. If I knew Steve could knock out a Russian, that would've been our plan in the first place," Dustin yells back. I roll my eyes and grab onto Steve's hand to try and ground myself.

I look to where Robin was standing only to find her missing. I start to panic a little and run over to a hallway to find her already running back to us. "Guy," She interrupts Dustin and Erica's fighting. Steve, Dustin and Erica look at her and she says in a panicked voice, "There's something up there." Without another word, everyone moves into action and quickly walks down the hallway Robin just came from. We make it to a door and Robin opens it to let everyone in. "Let's go," Steve whispers to everyone as we enter the room. Erica and Dustin move in front of us three and move over to the next door and looks through a window each. Steve and I look through the one Dustin is at while Robin looks through the one Erica is standing at. "Holy shit," Dustin whispers. Inside the next room, we notice another type of control room. This one, however, has glass windows from floor to ceiling and looks down at a spinning electrical machine that is shooting a laser into the wall. I hear a loud familiar shriek coming from around the area and I shiver.

Steve, Dustin and I look at each other, knowing exactly what all of this means. "The gate," We all say at the same time. "No, no, no, no," I whisper, Steve placing his hand on my back to calm me a little. Robin and Erica look confused at everything but Steve says, "We need to go. Now." He pushes on my back to get me moving and makes sure everyone is in front of him. "I don't understand. You've seen this before?" Robin asks us all. "Not exactly," Steve answers for us. "Then what, exactly?" Robin asks, slightly pissed. "All you need to know is it's bad," Dustin says. "It's really bad," Steve helps. "Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad," Dustin continues. "And you know about this how?" Robin asks, looking between the three of us but stopping on me and giving me a slightly heartbreaking look. I look down as Erica asks, "Um, Steve? Where's your Russian friend?" We all look to the floor where the Russian guy was but no one is there. An alarm starts to go off and Steve runs over to the door, me following close behind him. "Shit," Steve and I say at the same time. He opens the door and a bunch of yelling is heard from the outside. Steve slams the door shut and whispers, "Shit." "Go, go, go, go, go!" Steve yells at us and we all run the way we just came from. We start opening different doors as Steve yells, "Move! Let's move!" Dustin randomly stops and everyone in the room notices us enter. Dustin runs off to the side and we all quickly follow after him. "Go! Shit, shit, shit, shit! Go, go, go!" Steve continues to yell at us all. A guy stands in our way and Dustin pushes him to the side and lets out a stream.

We make it to the front of the laser when Dustin stops moving. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!" Dustin yells. "Steve?" I ask, tears filling my eyes. He looks at me bewildered, with no ideas coming to him. "Guards!" Erica yells. Steve moves his eyesight and yells, "This way!" He grabs my arm and pulls me down the flight of stairs. "Come on!" I yell back to everyone. Another guard moves into our way and Steve shoulders him out of the way, continuing to run. "Oh shit! Oh shit!" Steve yells as more guards move in our path. He knocks over some barrels in their way and moves in a different direction. "Come on! Go, go, go, go, go!" Steve yells, ushering everyone in front of him again. "Come on!" Robin yells as well. We run into more doors and Robin runs past and yells, "This way!" I push the kids in front of me and continue to run after Robin. "Come on, quick!" Robin yells as she opens a door. "Hold the door!" Steve yells behind me, causing me to hold it until he comes in after me.

He runs past and slams the door on all of the guards that are following closely behind us. They continue to pound on the door but Steve pushes himself against it. "Y/n! Robin!" He calls to us. We look around the room to try to find a way out but can't find anything. "Shit!" Dustin yells when he notices the same thing. "Fuck!" I whisper/yell, running around the room to find somewhere the kids could hide or a way for us to get out. "Help me, come on!" Steve yells out. Robin runs over to him and they hold on to the door to prevent the guards from coming in. "Here! Come on, let's go!" Erica yells out, opening a vent cover. Dustin and I run over to her and help her lift it up. "Come on!" Dustin yells over to Steve and Robin after Erica jumps in. "Go! Just get out of here!" Steve yells at us. I looked shocked up at him and shake my head. "No, come on, now!" Dustin yells at them, jumping down the vent. "No! Just go, get some help, okay?" Steve yells at us. Dustin looks over at Steve while I try to push him down. "What are you doing?" Steve yells, noticing us both still there. "Go!" Robin, Steve and I yell. Dustin looks up at me and I use the opportunity to push him down and close the vent behind him. "Y/n!" Dustin yells when I shut it. I push my weight onto the vent to close it more while Dustin tries to push up. Steve looks up at us but I ignore his stare and down at Dustin. "Go! We'll be ok!" I yell down at him. Dustin looks up concerned and grabs my hand through the vent. "Don't do this, come with us," He whispers to me, tears slowly filling his eyes. I smile softly at him and shake my head. "Get out of here Dusty, go get us some help," I say and move over to Robin and Steve. "I won't forget you! I'll always love you Y/n!" Dustin yells from the vent. "Go!" Robin, Steve and I yell at him again. I move over to Steve and Robin but they're knocked away from the door before I can help.

I quickly move in front of them both as guards swarm into the room. We all hold our hands up and look into the barrel of their guns. A guy in front of me grabs harshly onto my arms and starts to drag me out of the room. "Y/n!" Robin and Steve yell. I turn to watch them both shuffling to get up but the guards all move closer and yell at them. I try to fight my way back to them but the guard holding me throws me against the wall and starts yelling at me. I notice Steve ball up his fists but doesn't move. What the hell did I just get myself into? The guy pulls me off of the wall and drags me away from Robin and Steve. Away from my family.

[anakinskywalkerog]

omgieeees ive been waiting and checking tumblr at literally regular intervals waiting to hear back from you <3

i feel like youre starting to get a bit sick of him... 😂 if the definition of crush is wanting to kiss sumun, i wouldnt say i was crushing on him, i just kind of liked him? it was really weird, this whole thing made no sense from the start, sis.

NO i disagree, it would be super weird to date sumun who looks like you, that feels like something straight out of narcissism. i could never, but im also indian and ive never liked any indian guys (i dont live in india to be fair tho) although maybe there's something slightly resembling me in the guys ive liked if we look too hard? idk. idts tho.

she has pretty eyes! she has his eyes, but they're different somehow. more detailed? LMAO i just really love eyes in general; i could recognize all of my friends from their eyes rather than their face 💀

yeahhh i dont like him anymore, its something weird between friends and not. distance would be great, and im getting that in a way because were off school for half term, although i have his snao and we do streaks so im technically seeing him every day.

any thoughts on the buzz cut tho? (in general)

high time for a new crush indeed 🙌 im looking but no one else has caught my eye :/ any ideas how???

sorry sorry for the rant omg 😭 somehow i enjoy telling this story because of how complex it is but i like telling it to you as well ❤ idk something about you makes me wana tell you the whole tea lol.

i get what you mean, i think its great that they have good communication and all because all healthy relationships are built on that, but idk we're teenagers so the thought of telling my bf "hey by the way this guy ive been having that weird spat with told me he didnt like me today, what about you?" is just... off. the fact she evens knows i exist because of that (or if he told her even before which is sus because he did the doing before innit) seems... awkward. it just feels really cringey, man. most things, not all things tho.

maybe tell someone but not ur gf, that feels disrespectful to both of us in some weird way.

damn right. he actually had a bit of a stutter around me when we first met! its gone now, but weve also spent a while around each other. hmm, i get that; obviously there's definitely a lot of people he would find attractive at our school (we have some genuine REALLY pretty gils here, like, super hot) (as you can tell, i am bi ❤) but hes not staring at all of THEM in a sus way. like, this was a whole thing. hes not gt a thign with all of them.

yeah, well, i dont want to DATE him if that makes any sense so its good he doesnt, but like, idk man. i hope he wants to stay with her because if they break up because of me its not going to end well in a lot of ways because im sure that me and C.S.M.B wouldnt last, even if we did date, his gf would hate me forever and rightfully so, and her bestie, my bitchy friend, would not mind her own fucking bsuiness and ruin things in the friendship group for me so lets hope whatever it is no beef goes down 🙏 also i dont like him because i know him better this year, so it would be a whole problem so its good the way it is 👍

all i need him to do is start talking to me regularly and then we can be friends and i can focus on my future crush 👌

its deffo fun and I NEED TO GET A NEW CRUSH BUT IDK HOW MAN ANYONE CAN YOU HELP ME OUT easier said than done ofcccccc

yayyy i really hope you like that playlist, i live breathe eat those songs, so lets give C.S.M.B a round of applause for helping me come up with it 👏

hmm, maybe. its a bad law :/

oh, hes definitely scared of me. he listens to me when im talking to other people and im a BEAST in class (and outside) so hes rightfully scared of me 👍 its absolutely hilarious but i think he was more confused

well, we were on the bus, and i said "guys we should come up with a nickname so other people dotn know who we mean" and my friend was like... "...what about toothpaste?" i think she saw an ad for toothpaste somehwere lmaooo any other explanation would be... ...questionable.

i would love for that too. shes probs hot so i wouldnt say no to that 🤣🥴😏😈

i wonder what your followers think about this series lol, The Very Deep and Complicated Love Life of Sythe ? someone give this sitcom a name 💀 i hope they're not too sick of it lmaoo i know this has nothing to do with him :/

but thank you so much for listening to me ranting about C.S.M.B, i appreciate it so much!!! <3

here is an anakin for you:

this is my favourite anakin ever, hayden looks very hawt and sexc in this <3

i alos possess a rare coloured edition of this photo 😈

anywaysss bye oli love u!

i also really like eyes 🤭 and i get it, i just think you should fixate on someone else bc there are plenty of cuties and this one seems like a dead end. take the trash out 😂🗑 i have no idea how to find a new crush…maybe start trying to intentionally pay attention to other people in your school/your life? see if anyone seems interesting or cute hehe

it’s funny cause when i was in high school i was listened to T Swift You Belong With Me and hyper focusing on small interactions with my crush and i haven’t been in high school for years but ppl are still doing that same exact thing 😂 i guess high school never changes. now that i have an *adult brain* though, i can tell you that you should be focusing on people who are nice to you and if he can be a good friend great, but if not, boy bye

thank you for my Anakin. this concludes this episode of the sad beautiful tragic love life of sythe 😂

[savofid]

Been working on a fanfic for over a year now. Not actively the whole time, really more "a lot to start, big lull, back at it again at Krispy Kreme." Anyways, in all that time, I've rewritten the intro chapter some 4 or 5 times. Still needs to be edited but I'll do that after I at least finish the first real chapter.

But I've got these big, grand ideas for it, along with a spinoff in the concept phase: an alternate timeline. However, while planning this out, cause I wanna be able to write with functional plot points and not make it up as I go, I'm looking at the CYOA system I'm using and I'm just confused. Not by the system or anything regarding the rules, but by my reaction to certain things.

People that know me personally would not describe me as prudish. When given the proper audience and a fitting segue, I have plenty of stories about some fairly unorthodox things I've done with my exes and by myself. However, when it comes time to write a scene that even tries to express love, let alone sex, I never want to.

Most people would assume that means that I'm bad at it or something because who wants to do the things they're bad at? Fair point, but I'm quite capable of writing erotica. I can go into full detail about how you should structure your sentence and which words fit best for a certain mood or how to make a sentence feel sexy, how to influence the breathing of the reader themselves and get them into it, too. Believe me, I can do that. Plenty of experience with long distance relationships and gently building anticipation over days or weeks, and that was just the foreplay to the foreplay.

It's using third person limited as a perspective in those scenes that I don't like. Maybe it's the vulnerability that the characters are sharing with each other and using the moment to keep our eyes fixed behind theirs, knowing their thoughts and feelings, that makes it feel wrong in some way. To watch, to listen, to experience it through them feels like a betrayal of their trust, this rapport we've established with them as we've journeyed together since the beginning. Who are we to invade their most intimate of moments?

I know most people would likely say, "Savo, they're not real. It doesn't matter." They might not be real but I still care about em. I want to see them happy and healthy and where they needed to be, and I'm the author that can make that happen but they're working for it just as much as I'm working to get them there. Some moments write themselves, a natural conclusion built out of what's long been established, not some Superman power of the week, but writing a character that would both draw him in and keep ahold of him long enough to stick in his life is gonna be extremely difficult and hard to justify. I can "make" them do whatever, yeah, but that's not a good story. Why is she there? Why him? What drew you in to want to spend time with this guy? What motivation would one have that would make them want to actively spend time with a guy who can't do basic math, travels around with a bunch of strange animals, and openly admits that his goal in life is to "fight (God)." He's clearly deranged, likely on some intense drugs, and possibly homicidal. This is not a safe person and alarm bells should be sounding to get away.

Without context, sounds insane. It's a Waifu Catalog-ish SIOC CYOA jumpchain that starts in Pokemon with its second stop being in Star Trek. Both similarly utopian, but much different in size, scope, and intent. Also no Pokemon in Star Trek, so gonna be tough trying to explain away one, especially if it's actively on fire, made of magma, or a sentient pile of garbage or slime. He wants to have a fistfight with Arceus because he thinks that it was Him who interfered in his Isekai and sent him to the manga version of the universe instead of the game version, resulting in him almost getting mauled to death by a group of angry Rattata. He's sworn an oath of vengeance.

Anyways, moves on to some federation colony and starts learning some math and science because what would be basic education there is guaranteed beyond college level stuff in today's day and age. It's at the school that I want him to meet his first true friend of the journey, someone hell be in and out of a relationship with for a number of years to come, failing every time until they decide to just be friends, moving on with their lives, and time passes. There's a quiet in their conversations, the knowing that that might be failing, too. They've become different people than they were before, and worry sinks like a stone into their stomachs. In some instinctive urge to put your all in just before it looks like death, they crash together one more time and it works. They've both grown and matured and become the one that the other needed, which led that sputtering ember to finally ignite a roaring blaze within their hearts.

The scene I'm worried about writing isn't gonna even happen for the next few real life YEARS at this rate, somewhere around the midway point of Arc 10 or 11 with another 7 or 8 beyond that, so the ⅔rds mark in the story, which is where it happens best because it often leads into the story's climax. Two people fall in love, bad guy learns about it, innocent partner is now a hostage and hero but fight to save their love. Those sorts of tropes.

But, again, what draws her in? What motivates her? Why does she want to be his friend? Why does he want her as a friend? Does he want friends this time around? Does he even want to try again with another potential ex? What's the point? He'll be moving on in time, so why bother putting down any roots at all?

Then again, he did just spend a year wandering the first two regions and suffered some pretty rough injuries throughout. Probably wants to take it easy and that's always best with friends. I've made really close friends over less, like a girl who worked in my office and at my old desk from before my mental break. Came in for two days straight and she was just gone. No one asked about it. Third day, she was back for only a few hours and just spent that whole time crying. Last day of the work week and she's back and still just crying at her desk. After about an hour of it, I decided that I was done hearing her cry and was gonna drag her out of this slump if I had to. I miss you, Jess.

But, again, why is she drawn to him? What is her motivator, the very thing that drives her to try him of all people? Maybe she's smart and is tutoring him? Nah, that's tired. Big dumb jock is failing a class and he gets the average looking nerdy girl as a tutor, but he's actually got a sensitive side and she falls for him but the popular girls don't like it so they bully her by pretending to be friends with her just to learn her secrets and publicly embarrass her, but she's too worried that BDJ will see her differently now and he actually still cares. Very tired formula.

I think I've got it: it's initially for selfish reasons. Not only is she smart and a bit of a geek, but she's an astrobiologist. He has living, breathing Pokemon. Also, Star Trek is just set in the future, so it's possible that maybe some Pokemon cards or games survived, especially digital copies, and she just so happens to be a fan. Basically, she's a weeb and a dude just showed up one day with a group of very real Pokemon. Dude just walked out of a literal manga and into her life.

Cool. Thanks, void. You're a good listener.

[lostacelonnie]

Gotta keep that hope around for sure i will keep my fingers crossed for you. Oh that is a win win i gotta remember that, i say as if adhd wont make me forget. I usually just look for em to see like. What kinds are around. Whole ones. Broken ones. Weird shapes. Its interesting. Dont take any with me though. That. Makes me wonder how they teach english over there. Honestly yeah i look for a name in the bio or just. Shorthand the username somehow because i gotta have some way to refer to people. I havent used a bio in years so people use my username all the time. Oooh norway i have always wanted to go there. I dont camp as much as id like to but i should more tbh. I have seen her stacks & i gotta say. Clara is wild cant believe i let her sit unused. I dunno how much ill get but im gonna for sure be savin as i can. I think that one is last yeah. I am always interested at the start but fade by the end because the new stuff always slows down. Same ive been playing indies more like gris & obra dinn. To try & branch out. Good story annoying exploration is chasm in a nutshell yeah. True big cities be like that. I live in a smaller one now so very little happens. Mine hold dye decently well which i appreciate. Just wish we had true permanent dye. Maybe one day. Thats how i am with nail polish i always get it on the sides & mess up but ive gotta just. Be patient & let myself learn. Happy 1.2 star rail update

sorry for the late reply shfjglk i truly have no excuse other than "i was holed up in my room in an attempt to avoid interaction with my grandma but i accidentally also avoided interaction with Everyone Else" so im. So sorry ab that. COMING BACK hehe thankies!! if things go wrong i guess ill just move out for a while and then come back Suspiciously A Different Gender. nobodys gonna know. but yeah good luck on remembering that shdjfk!! and ahh thats fair i just usually visit pretty big beaches so theres not many around by the time i get there. english is taught just so you know the language but following the education system without external classes will get you a2 knowledge At Best and its getting worse with each year so. lol. and yeah frfr i use usernames as names alllll the time...... norway is very fun i recommend it!! esp if you prefer colder climates like i do. ahhh understandable!! i dont actually. own a tent but as i said, maybe one day. id rather go with friends tho which is a problem in on itself cos i dont have that many friends that actually know each other. unless i go with my photo camp friends. thats an Idea actually. YEAH CLARA IS GREAT.... i unfortunately dont have her quite built [terrible relic luck...... plus ive been more focused on trying to prepare for kafka recently] but seeing as shes my main [despite having jing yuan] i Will get her better stuff someday. i have 140 pulls rn so im equally nervous as i am excited. yeah it really Is like that bc im always paranoid ab spoilers so i always do at least the new story as fast as i can. except for right now as i still havent played the new honkai chapter [but tbf my game only managed to download the update yesterday, 3 days after the launch of 6.8] and i honestly dont have the energy to do it today so maybe tomorrow. ah that sounds fun!! i came back to minecraft recently idk why but ive been having a Great time. after 130 in-game days i am finally no longer homeless. and oh when i get older id like to move to a smaller city [since i like having things close but dont like having drama all the time] but im still thinking ab where. ah thats cool...... i tried looking for the dye that i used on camp but couldnt find it. rip. and yeah same tbh thats why i never paint my nails. and yeah happy star rail 1.2 o)-( i like the double planar ornament event since thats the only thing im missing for kafkas things......

[amore-fics]

G - Gratitude

Letter: G

Word: Gratitude

"My wife does all the cooking and cleaning. She spoils me. I never have to lift a finger when I get home from work. It's bliss."

There were days when Alhaitham would get home and things were not clean or put away, food wasn't cooked, and he was in his room doing nothing. Alhaitham would have to put things away in annoyance, but he never said a word. Over time, that annoyance built up every single time he had to do it. And he always made dinner for Kaveh on those nights, even though he didn't have to. These were things that Kaveh said he would do, and sometimes he didn't.

And it didn't help hearing his coworker mention that his wife did everything all the time. He had gotten into his head now about it. If Kaveh did everything, Alhaitham could just relax at home and not worry. He worked all day and he was always tired when he got home. There was no reason why he should ever have to pick up the slack.

When he arrived home that day, it was later than usual. He had had so much work that he had to get done before he could leave. This was the same man who would leave early given the chance, or absolutely clock out the second the clock hit 5. But today, he didn't get that luxury.

When he walked in through the door, he set his keys down and leaned down to pull his boots off of his feet and set them down alongside Kaveh's shoes. It was then that he heard Kaveh's voice coming from the kitchen, "Alhaitham?" but he kept taking his shoes off. Then Kaveh emerged and crossed his arms over his chest, looking at him, "You could've warned me you'd be working late today."

Standing up straight after taking off his second boot, he stared at him, "For what? Did you actually make dinner today? Surprising, considering how many times I've had to in the last week alone."

"Oh, so that's what you're doing today? Starting a fight the minute you walk through the door. Great, that's just great."

"Am I wrong, Kaveh? I work all day, and you do what? Sit around and do nothing all day? That's hardly fair."

A humorless guffaw left Kaveh's mouth at that statement and the man shook his head, "Are you fucking kidding me? If I stopped cleaning and cooking, you would have no idea what to do with yourself. You know what? You can find the fuck out," he pulled the apron off over his head and threw it at Alhaitham, "I'm not hungry anymore," he walked off and went into his bedroom and shut the door.

Please. With how little Kaveh did, Alhaitham was sure that he could easily cook and clean without worrying that much. It wasn't like those were hard to do. Kaveh was just lazy. Fine, whatever, if Kaveh needed a reality check, he'd give him one.

Alhaitham would quickly realize that he was wrong. Very wrong. The first few days, he noticed things left around. Cups, books, plates, random articles of clothing. None of them Kaveh's. All Alhaitham's. Oh. He was not in the custom of picking up after himself, as much as he should be. Another few days passed and Alhaitham was struggling to clean and cook while having to work every single day.

And then he discovered that Kaveh had a system to his cleaning. A huge system and there was no way that Alhaitham was going to learn what this… system was without asking. And he refused. No, he was not wrong. Cooking and cleaning was not hard, he was determined to believe that he was right. But as time moved on, it was getting harder and harder for him to do these and work all day. The house was getting dirtier and dirtier.

A whole month of this passed and he realized he had to relent. He couldn't keep this up. He couldn't keep up with the cleaning and the cooking. Kaveh was right, and he had to apologize. He didn't want to, but he had not realized just how much Kaveh helped him in his day-to-day life.

Standing at his bedroom door, he hesitated, unsure of how to even say it. With a sigh, he knocked on the door and waited. When the door opened, Kaveh's hair was a bit of a mess, and his fingers were stained black, likely from the charcoal he'd been working with. Alhaitham shifted his weight, "I'm sorry."

"For what? I was in the middle of working. What do you need?"

"I'm sorry for saying that you do nothing. I can't cook and clean the way that you do. I didn't realize how much you did… Or how much of the mess is mine and you've never said a word. Well… Thank you," he sighed, running a hand through his hair, "For cleaning."

"Sorry, what was that?" Kaveh asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I said… thank you."

"One more time," he smirked, "They say that earnest thanks should be given thrice, so… One more time, please."

Alhaitham groaned, knowing full well that Kaveh got that from him, back after the Interdarshan Championship. He couldn't stop the laugh that left his lips, "Thank you, Kaveh. Now, please, go back to cooking and cleaning. I promise I'll do better about being grateful for all that you do. You work hard, and I forget that."

The blonde smirked and leaned forward, "Well, I'm glad that you've discovered how useful I am. But--" he stepped back, "I don't know that I'm ready to go back to cleaning. I've gotten used to you doing it," he shrugged and shut the door.

"Kaveh!" Alhaitham groaned and rested his head against his bedroom door, "God dammit."

[ducknotinarow]

[2k3 Raph and Yvonne]

"Don's your twin, isn't he?" Yvonne asks, knowing the answer, "I must say, he's rather cute; guess he got all the looks alongside the brains."

She smirks his way, snorting slightly as she laughs. It was too easy to prick at the Terrapin's skin,

"Oh stop it, we all have our moments of being a little shameless," Yvonne smirks his way, "Besides, it's not like you're above it after all; I've seen the way you look at that human - Jones is it? The one with the Hockey Stick?"

It's hard not to see it; she pinned Raph as thinking he was slicker than he actually was,

"Hush, it's sweet you so obviously like him," Keep pushing his buttons that's such a great idea, "Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Jones isn't exactly subtle around you either - clearly you're both not willing to make that first move."

Dad taught her one thing, and that was how to read people and learn motivations. Find what they want, and offer the help they so desired, even if they don't realise they need it.

"You know, I was human once, perhaps I could help you out, you know, with impressing him and all that?" Yvonne offers, "Let me help you with Jones, and, perhaps, in turn, you give me a little advice on how to get your Twins attention - sound fair babe?"

| Muse interaction

Ya know, it's hard not to notice Casey. He took up the whole room. And not because the man was built like a house, and over six feet. It was that personality of his that loud booming voice. Casey was the opposite of a ninja. Raphael guessed was the best way to put it. hand lifted to wave back, the rare smile graced his face as Casey was heading out of the lair, something about work needing him. Raph wasn't listening much at the time. He knew he'd been making his way to Casey's later that night anyway, the excuse of wanting to knock in some skulls together. Raphael had done it almost all that week, and if he wasn't out on the rooftops with Casey, then Casey was here messing around with Raphael. Maybe the turtle should put more thought into just how much time he has been spending with his friend? before it started to look suspicious? Not that Raph was sure anyone of his brothers had started to put things together. They maybe knew Raph had a crush on Casey at some point, but Raph got crushes easy, and they never lasted long. He kind of hopped that would be enough for no questions to be pressed his way. Assuming himself, this would just end. But..it was becoming so clear this was more than a crush.

"Don's your twin, isn't he?"

So, lost in thought, Raph hadn't noticed Casey had long left, and he was just standing there waving still. Less so noticed Yvoone make her way over to talk to him now. "Wha?"

"I must say, he's rather cute; guess he got all the looks alongside the brains."

It took quite a lot to warm up to Yvonne, but eventually, the two of them had found some common ground for this teasing to become a regular occurrence between them. Even if the remark had the red banded turtle growl a little. Arms folded over the front of his plastron as he narrowed his eyes her way. To which she snorted and laughed, making it clear she was just picking on him in the moment. Well, also making it clear, she seemed to take a liking to his brother Donatello.

"Oh stop it, we all have our moments of being a little shameless,"

"Yeah startin' ta think you should take a dive into the wata' with how blunt ya 're." HD says eyes rolling from behind his mask.

"Besides, it's not like you're above it after all; I've seen the way you look at that human - Jones is it? The one with the Hockey Stick?"

Normally, he snapped back with his own remark, but she kind of caught him by surpise just now needing a moment before he let his arms unfold so they could throw up into the air. Brow knotting up, and he rose his voice suddenly. "Ya might 'ave four eyes, but clearly, they don' work, babe!" Was his response, being aware enough to look and see if anyone else attetion was on them before he lowered the volume but kept the snap to his voice. "Casey an' I were jus' friends and that's it got it." She did not buy his 'just friends' remark, however. Seemed Yvonne had him pegged, and worse, he wasn't letting him get away with it either.

"Hush, it's sweet you so obviously like him,"

Another growl emitted from the back of his throat as Raohael bit back on his teeth, letting them snap as he did. He wouldn't bite her, of course. It was more a warning, so to say that she was pushing it.

"Perhaps you haven't noticed, but Jones isn't exactly subtle around you either - clearly you're both not willing to make that first move."

Raph clicked his tongue against his teeth at that. " 'm tellin' ya Babe, you ar' readin' too much into all this. Casey and I are just pals. I ain't eyeing him, and he ain't for sure eyeing me back." Actually turning away from her now as arm went back to flooding across his front, eyes darting off from away from her. Another low growl working out from the back of his thaort to express his annoyance her way. That was rude, it was one thing to point out he did clearly like Casey in that way. Fuck he was positive everyone may have an inkling for that being the case. But to try and convince Raph that Casey may like him back? No way. There was just no way Casey could ever feel the same towards Raph he was certain of this fact. He was mutant for one, and well, Raph wasn't even sure of Casey had attraction towards guys, let alone a mutan turtle. Would it be nice if he did? Sure, but there was just no way. Raph was positive all Casey saw Raph as was his friend. Casey was a bit of a freak in his own way. Not many put up either him, it's why he hung out with mutantated turtles.

Sure it was clear Raph was his favorite calling him.his best friend and all but..no there was no way. The way Raoh stared and longed for Casey was all one-sided. Those pools of deep blue wouldn't hold that same look when aimed at Raphael.

"You know, I was human once, perhaps I could help you out, you know, with impressing him and all that?"

Raphael was chewing thar over yeah sure she was human at some point...so? So, could she maybe not be completely out of her mind here? Raph tried thinking if there was any sign Casey ever gave to show he may like Raph in the same way. Mostly he came up empty when he tried.

"Let me help you with Jones, and, perhaps, in turn, you give me a little advice on how to get your Twins attention - sound fair babe?"

"So that's ya goal here?" Raph asked if he sounded tricked or ticked off he wasn't either he was just annoyed in general. It's hard liking someone who you are sure could never like you back after all. Double so when that person is someone you're so close with. "Look ya still git a screw lose for thinkin' there anything between bub and I so let me say this one last time there ain't." Raph set down his so-called final say on the matter. But as for the other half of her deal? "As for the stuff with Don? Eh, yeah, sure." Donnie seemed to have taken a shine to her, and well Raph might be up the creek without a paddle didn't mean Donnie had to be just as outta luck her right? Right. And yet turning his head to look over his shoulder at her.

"An' nit sayin' ya right or nothin' but...how would you suggest I go about getting Casey's attetion."