#2 months until it's supposed to be out and still pretty much no info on anything

[clouds-of-wings]

An alternate version of one of my favourites from Leviathan 2

[peachiseas]

okay i am very new here, so i need a through introduction to your mcs! like eve for example, pls post his whole biography o(╥﹏╥)o

fr tho, tell me anything and everything :D

TOOK SO DAMN LONG SINCE I WANTED TO DRAW A STEP ONE REF OF EVE BUT ITS GONNA TAKE A MINUTE so here are the sketches,,, Anyways- gonna introduce the main two mcs/ocs you'll see here: Eve Cortez Williams and Aaliyah Dubious

(dont mind my ipad scribbles on the screenshot iofqiowogi) Lemme put this under a readmore actually so yall dont get slammed with a long ass post:

Starting with Eve:

He's my Tamarack MC, but I figured since uh. all my art that was a given

He has a strained relationship with Qiu in step 1 but they become besties by step 2 and by step 3, they are like family to each other. If no one got Eve, Eve knows Qiu got them, amen 🙏

He comes out as transmasc by step 2, and by step 3 he gets top surgery and starts taking testosterone and firmly identifies as a butch lesbian

He's from the southern part of Miami, Florida. He's Golden Grove's residential florida man

He practices martial arts religiously, he's a big fan of Goku and Dragonball in general so he wants to be like his idol

His story deviates a bit from the OL2 generic mc story, he did have a dad! Opal and his dad wanted a kid but they both didn't want to get married and since the two of them were best friends, they decided to have a kid together (or well two but we'll talk about that later)

What's important to note from above is that his dad isn't around anymore because his father passed away a few months ago due to a car accident and Eve was hospitalized as a result

So by the time he's at Golden Grove, he's in anger stages of his grief and he doesn't want to be bothered. Which sucks cause hes neighbors with the two loudest kids on the block

Doesn't help he's a ESL speaker (English as a Second Language) and Golden Grove's population is majorly white so he has even harder of a time adjusting to it

He gets into fights in step 1... a Lot. Someone will look at him funny and they'll get punched in the face

He does adjust but he still doesn't like Golden Grove by step 3 but funnily enough, he moves away at the end of step 3 for treatment but moves back in step 4, crazy how that shit works huh

He has two emotional support bunnies; Bulma and Chi-Chi! He gets them in step 2, Qiu and Eve bond over them LMFAO

As for Aaliyah:

She's my Qiu MC, to the shocker of no one. Tamarack is also her best friend <3

Aaliyah is from New Orleans, Louisiana! She's full blooded Haitian and she has family in Haiti

She's also transfem! She passes for cis in step 1 thanks to hormone blockers and some makeup and then starts taking estrogen in step 2 and onwards

Her being black and transfemme is integral to her character and how she navigates around Golden Grove, she doesn't tell anyone she's trans until near the end of step 1. By step 3, the girl gang and Qiu knows shes trans

^^ That's because she had a very negative experience coming out to her community who previously loved her but flipped on her just as fast

So moving to Golden Grove was supposed to be a fresh start for her as herself but by that point she feels like she has to keep up her "cis-sona" lest she gets bullied again

She still gets bullied for other reasons in step 2 though (being a pretty black girl and the one person who has a crush on her is the most popular kid in school... its rough! 😭)

By step 4 though she is proud to call herself trans and will let people know!

She lovessss animals! And the animals love her back! She feeds them all the time and keeps animal food on her for that purpose when she goes to the park to read by herself, she got a flock of crows and stray cats that like to follow her

She has a cat named Kiki!!! Kiki loves everyone except Qiu though, Aaliyah doesnt know that though-

I hope that was enough of a info-dump! If anyone has anymore questions please ask i have so much lore please-

[sweeter-innocence-fics]

My Sweetest Downfall - Chapter Four

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Work Summary:

Eddie’s back from the Upside Down, but things aren’t exactly how he left them. Hawkins is in pieces, his friends are scattered and the love of his life is… pregnant?

Eddie Munson x Harrington!Reader

Chapters: Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Epilogue

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 2842

Read on AO3.

Masterlists.

Taglist: @mrs-kai-anderson @ang3l1te @missryerye @eddiesgirlforever @harrys-tittie

Taglist info

Previous Chapter

Notes:

warnings for abusive parents, pregnancy, jealousy (reader doesn't know that Robin is a lesbian)

---

~ TWO MONTHS EARLIER ~

Day by day, things got a little easier. You still thought about Eddie all the time, but you didn’t shut those feelings down anymore, allowing yourself to feel them instead. You weren’t so numb anymore.

It had been awful at first, spending days crying until your eyes burned and head ached, but you were here now, stronger for it.

The curve of your stomach had swelled and hardened, seemingly overnight. It wasn’t too obvious to anyone that didn’t know you, but to you, it was a very clear bump.

Steve’s eyes had gotten very wide when you showed it to him. He was doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but you know, at heart, he was struggling almost as much as you were.

You weren’t letting yourself fall into a malaise again. If you hurt, then you hurt. Pain was good. It reminded you that you were alive.

Today, you found yourself craving chocolate chip cookies, so you’d decided to bake some. You were just in the process of laying them out on a baking tray when Steve skidded into the kitchen, an oversized hoody in his hands.

“Mom and dad just pulled up in the driveway,” he said, and you almost dropped the bowl of cookie dough.

“Did you know they were coming?”

“Of course not. Put this on.” He handed you the hoody. You didn’t have time to wash your hands, so you got some dough on the sleeves as you pulled it on. To your relief, it comfortably hid your baby bump.

You were in the process of washing your hands when the front door slammed. Your hands were trembling.

There was some shuffling around in the next room and then your mother appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“There you two are. You didn’t even come and greet us.” She sniffed.

“We didn’t know you were here,” you said, before Steve could say anything. “We were just making cookies for the homeless shelter.” You hoped that that wasn’t too obvious a lie.

“Is that right?” asked your father, stepping into the kitchen. You swallowed, and then nodded.

The silence stretched out between you, until Steve cleared his throat. “We didn’t know you’d be coming back,” he said.

“Well…” Your father fixed you with a cold-eyed stare. “We’d heard some concerning things about you. We wanted to verify if they were true.”

Your blood ran cold. You clenched your hands into fists, your fingernails biting into your palms. “Concerning things? Like what?”

“Marcie told me that the last time she saw you, you looked pregnant,” said your mother. Your lips pressed into a hard line. Marcie was your next-door neighbour, and you’d never liked her much. You supposed that your bump wasn’t as subtle as you thought.

“She must’ve seen me coming home from the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet,” you said. “I was pretty damn bloated that day.”

Steve shifted closer to you, placing himself between your parents and you. It was to no avail though, as your mother walked straight past him and grabbed the front of your hoody.

“Then what’s this about? You look a mess,” she said, tugging it up just enough to reveal the swell of your stomach. “I knew it.”

“Don’t touch me,” you snapped, pulling yourself out of her grip. Steve blocked her, not letting her follow you as you stormed from the kitchen.

Unfortunately, your dad was hot on your tail.

“Don’t you dare walk away from me and your mother, you little shit!” he yelled. You had almost reached the stairs when he grabbed your arm, pulling you back and forcing you to face him. “Who’s the father?”

“None of your business!” You yanked your arm out of his hold.

“It’s that Munson boy, isn’t it? You always were far too sweet on that freak.”

“Don’t you dare call him that!” you screamed back.

“So it is him? My only daughter has gone and got herself knocked up by that trailer trash punk-”

A loud SMACK resounded through the air, stopping him in his tracks. You were holding your hand out, staring at it like you couldn’t quite believe what you’d just done.

Your father brought one hand up to touch his cheek, which was reddening, from the slap or from anger, you couldn’t tell.

His expression turned murderous. Very quietly, and far too evenly, he said, “You ungrateful little brat. I ought to-”

“STOP!” Your dad had been raising his hand, but Steve shouldered his way in between you, protecting you with his body like he’d done so many times before. “Don’t you dare touch her.”

Your father’s nostrils flared. “She slapped me.”

“She’s grieving and pregnant. Don’t you dare even think about laying a hand on her.”

Slowly, your dad lowered his hand. Your body remained taut as a bowstring, and you felt ready to snap.

Steve let out a deep breath. “Alright. We can talk about this later, when-”

Your father’s fist collided with his face, knocking him off balance. He fell back onto his ass, and your dad loomed over you both.

“Don’t think that you can talk to me like that, boy,” he snarled. “While you’re in my house, you will show me respect.”

Steve stumbled back to his feet, looking dazed. “Yes, sir,” he said, almost automatically.

You cringed. “Steve,” you murmured, grabbing his hand. “Come on.”

At your urging, he followed you up the stairs. Thankfully, your parents didn’t seem interested in stopping you. You dragged him into your room and locked the door behind you.

“Sit down,” you said, ushering him towards the bed. He followed your instructions, still acting on autopilot. Feeling a sinking sense of dread, you went into your bathroom and grabbed the first aid kit you’d bought yourself to deal with Upside-Down-related injuries. Never in a million years did you think you’d be using it for this.

Steve was staring at the floor when you came back in. You grabbed your desk chair and sat down in front of him. His lip was split, and there was a nasty bruise forming on his cheek.

You poured some disinfectant on a cotton pad. “This is gonna sting a little,” you warned, and then you dabbed at the cut. Steve winced, but said nothing. When you were done cleaning it, you applied some lip salve to it.

“I don’t think there’s anything I can do for your bruise,” you said. “But you should ice the lip when you get the chance.”

“Thanks,” said Steve, the first words he’d spoken since you’d dragged him upstairs.

You cleared your throat awkwardly. “Thank you. For defending me.” He smiled a little at that, and gave a little shrug. You both knew that he would always defend you. “Has he ever hit you like that before?”

Steve’s lips drew closed suddenly. He seemed to have to force himself to look into your eyes. Taking a deep breath, he said, “he’s never punched me before, but he’s slapped me a few times.”

“… I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry? It’s not like you made him hit me.”

You didn’t know how to answer that. You were sorry for a lot of things. That your dad had apparently hit him but not you, and that you hadn’t known about it, were just the latest two in the long line of offences.

“I don’t know,” you admitted. “But I do know one thing. If he tries that bullshit again, I’m gonna hit him with a baseball bat. We’ve faced demogorgons. Dad doesn’t scare me.”

Steve smiled, and then winced at the sting in his lip.

~ PRESENT DAY ~

You slept in later than you’d been planning to. When you blinked awake, the clock on your nightstand read 11:05. With a groan, you got to your feet and shuffled into the bathroom.

When you were clean and dressed, you made your way downstairs to find Steve and Eddie sitting at the dining table. Eddie’s face split into a grin when he saw you.

“Hey,” he said, rapping his fist against your arm gently. “How are you feeling?”

“Exhausted.” You slumped down into the seat beside him.

“You take your vitamins yet?” asked Steve. You shook your head, so he got busy rooting through the cabinet drawers to find the correct tablets. He served you the pills with a glance of orange juice and two slices of toast.

As you tucked in, he said, “We’re going over to see Hopper today. Everyone’s gonna be there.”

“Everyone?”

He nodded. “I called Dustin this morning. He wanted to bike right over here, but I managed to convince him to wait.”

You snorted. “How did you do that? You’ve never convinced that boy of anything.”

“Yeah, well.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Point is, we’re all meeting up at Hopper and Joyce’s place. Apparently, there’s news to share. We’ll pick up Robin on the way.”

You didn’t like the sound of ‘news’. Feeling an anxious twist in your stomach, you turned to Eddie.

“Did you call Wayne?”

He nodded. “It was pretty surreal. I don’t think he believed I was me at first. He told me he was gonna drive down here right away, but then he started coughing.” Eddie’s expression was tight. “I asked if he was sick, and he said nothing serious. He said it was just the flu, and I said people die of flu, especially old men like you, so he called me a little prick.” He smiled fondly. “I told him to stay home. I’m gonna go see him as soon as I can. He wasn’t happy about it, but…”

“…I can come with you, if you want,” you suggested. You hoped that it was true that it was just the flu. The possibility of something worse made you feel sick.

“I’d like that, yeah. I don’t know where my van is, though, so I’m not sure how we’ll get there.”

Your eyes fell on Steve. He sighed. “Fine. I’m already a chauffeur for a bunch of kids. Let’s make it a fun road trip,” he said, rolling his eyes.

“You’re the best, big bro,” you said sarcastically.

“Finish up,” he said, nudging your plate. “I don’t wanna be late, and we need to pick up Robin.”

*

As Steve pulled his car into Robin’s driveway, she burst out of the house, messenger bag bouncing against her leg as she did so. You slid out of the front passenger seat to make room for her, but her eyes were fixed on Eddie as he got out of the back.

“Holy shit, you’re real,” she breathed, and then barrelled into him, almost knocking him off-balance. “Holy shit.”

After a moment, he returned the hug. “I guess I’m gonna be getting a lot of this today, huh?”

“Shut up.”

As they held each other, your stomach twisted uncomfortably. An old feeling, something primal and bitter, was taking root in you. Something stupid, like jealousy.

You doubted that Eddie was Robin’s type – she’d never seemed that interested in him before – but pregnancy hormones were swirling and you were getting antsy.

“We need to get to Hop’s. Robs, you can sit up front,” you said, sliding past her to sit in the back. Finally, to the relief of the tension in your chest, the two of them let go of each other.

Robin sat in the front seat, while Eddie joined you in the back. Wordlessly, you grabbed his hand and held it up to your face. His mouth fell open, like he was about to say something, but you cut him off.

“Your nail polish is chipping,” you said, and then dropped his hand. For the rest of the drive, you stared resolutely out the window. Out of the corner of your eye, you could feel Eddie’s eyes on you, but ignored him.

The Hopper-Byers driveway was littered with bikes. Steve tssk’ed under his breath and parked on the street.

As the four of you walked up the drive, the door of the house slammed open. Dustin was standing in the doorway, eyes wide. Under normal circumstances, you were sure that Steve would’ve made some snarky comment about him and his friends parking their bikes better, but as it was, he stayed silent.

“Eddie?” Dustin’s voice rang out across the space between you, sounding so cautious yet so hopeful.

“Henderson!” Eddie called out. He opened his arms and Dustin practically flew into them. He ruffled the boy’s hair affectionately.

You could tell that Dustin was crying, so you averted your eyes. Steve was hovering, like he didn’t know if he should comfort Dustin as well. You continued up the driveway and into the house, and after a moment, Steve followed you.

Mike and Lucas were standing awkwardly by the door. They greeted you politely enough, but you could tell they were looking over your shoulder for a peek at Eddie.

“Give them space,” Steve said to the boys, “you’ll get your turn.”

“So will you,” you murmured, reaching across to give his hand a squeeze. He said nothing, but huffed out a mirthless laugh.

Erica was sitting with Max. This was the first time you’d seen Max since she’d left the hospital. She was in a wheelchair, but you knew that was only temporary. Her bones would heal. Her eyes never would.

“Hey Max,” you announced yourself as you walked in. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve had worse.” She smiled a little, and you couldn’t help but grimace.

“Max,” said your brother, sitting down beside her.

“Steve!” Her face broke into a radiant smile.

You left them talking. You always got the impression that she only tolerated you, whereas she genuinely seemed to care a lot about your brother. You tried not to let that bother you.

Nancy and Jonathan appeared from the kitchen, clutching cups of coffee.

“Hey…” She gave you a slightly forced smile. Your relationship with her had been pretty strained ever since she dumped Steve.

You’d liked her well enough when they were dating, and even before that, but you were the only person who had seen how devastated Steve was when she broke his heart. She had been unnecessarily cruel about it, and even if Steve forgave her for that, you were having a harder time doing so.

“Hey, how’s it going?” you asked.

“Oh, you know. Good. How are…” She glanced down at your baby bump. “… you? You must be relieved to have Eddie back.”

You nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” There didn’t seem to be words that would sufficiently describe how you felt. When Eddie was gone, it was like the world was ending, and you were slowly starting to put the pieces of your broken heart back together, but now he was back, you weren’t sure where he fit into your life. You couldn’t sum that up in a way that Nancy would understand.

“Must be good to know that you’re not doing this alone.” Case in point, Nancy didn’t understand you at all.

“I was never alone. Steve was always there for me.”

“Of course. Right.”

“I’m gonna go sit down. My feet are starting to hurt.”

There were two armchairs and a wide sofa. Mike had taken one of the armchairs, while Steve was helping Max into the other. Nancy poked her brother sharply in the back of the head.

“Ow! What?” he snapped at her.

“You can sit on the floor,” she said, “she needs this seat more than you do.”

You watched on, amused. Mike gave you a dirty look, but vacated the seat.

“Thanks, Nancy,” you said, sitting down heavily in the chair.

After a moment, Hopper walked in with Eddie and Dustin in tow. “Alright, everyone, grab a seat. Grab a seat.”

Wordlessly, Eddie sat himself down on the arm of your armchair. Lucas ousted Steve from the seat nearest Max, and everybody else squeezed themselves onto the couch, sat on the floor, or grabbed chairs from the dining room.

Dustin sat down next to Steve. He was trying to hide it, but you could tell your brother was feeling a little bit smug about that.

The chief cleared his throat. “Thank you all for coming here today. As I’m sure you all know by now, Eddie, who we all previously believed to be dead, is back. I wish that was all I had to tell you. Unfortunately, there’s more.”

It was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Eddie’s posture was rigid beside you. His hand was resting on his thigh, so you put your hand on top of it. He jumped, almost falling from his perch. You were about to pull your hand back when he flipped his over, interlacing his fingers with yours.

Hopper continued, “There have been reports over the past few days that I’ve been working hard to verify, but I can’t deny the truth of the situation. Demodogs have been sighted all over Hawkins. Vecna is back, and he’s planning something.”

Next Chapter

[phantaemon]

artfight this year was, in terms of VIBES, utter dogshit

But at the same time it was the best artfight I've ever had. I've never gotten as many attacks before, just like I've never attacked as many people. I got so much more confident in my art and I genuinely had fun, and since I had improved even before it started I was able to get so many ocs on the platform, ocs that lacked art and that I wasn't confident enough to post on the platform before otherwise. They didn't all get art (most of it went to my sona lmao) but it's nice. Even got in a pretty high effort mass attack last minute- which was relieving considering everyone went paranoid about those in the beginning (for fair reasons sometimes)

I think just randomly selecting OCs from the recent page, and attacking mutuals was the best choice here.

This year's social media coverage was insufferable too. Some of my mutuals refused to join at all due to this, not just the odd tiktok trends and the entitlement, but also the "OH YOU NEED TO PREPARE 30 REFS TWO MONTHS IN ADVANCE, AND MAKE YOUR PROFILE LIKE THIS OTHERWISE NO ONE WILL ATTACK YOU! AND LOOK AT THE ATTACK RATIOS! AND DON'T FORGET TO POST THE CARD IN EVERY SINGLE SERVER YOU'RE IN! AND YOU NEED TO DO THIS THIS AND THIS BECAUSE I DON'T EVEN LOOK AT PROFILES THAT DON'T DO THIS AND THIS"

Oh my god. Way to discourage beginners from an event that's supposed to be FUN. I wasn't affected by this due to having enough motivation to draw on a daily basis for a while now, but artfight is NOT supposed to be stressful like that. YOU ARE MAKING IT STRESSFUL. Sit back. Upload one fullbody of your character, heck even a halfbody works in some cases, my friend has a character like that and she still got attacks. If you have a big, detailled ref, good for you!

You don't even need a profile besides your boundaries because unless you 1) subscribed to someone 2) attacked someone and they want to revenge you or 3) go out of your way to link your profile everywhere, people will NOT see it, they'll just see your character through tag search or recent and EVEN IF PEOPLE SEE YOUR PROFILE you only need simple boundaries which can be put in your character warnings ANYWAYS!

Same thing for OC profiles you can have literally the least amount of lore for your OC people will still draw them, you can even just link an external profile (with proper warnings) if you don't wanna copy and paste the bio and layout or something

Don't get me started about the ratio, caring too much about them is overly punitive and utter bullshit, you cannot keep up a 50+ ratio without burning out in most cases since you cannot control when people revenge you unless you're doing a chain or attacking 100% revenge profiles. Holding people to higher standards or refusing to attack people because of their ratio defends the entire purpose of artfight, and is, quite frankly, an asshole move.

To enjoy AF you literally just need to upload some random ocs and draw some random ocs. Now I know that not getting attacks feels like shit. But artfight is about giving first and foremost. It's the first thing you see in the beginner's guide. You give free art to people who MAY give you free art in return. It is free art. You are not entitled to it, though I wish everyone could receive something at the end of the day no matter what.

Do not look at social media. Don't join the discord unless you need server uptime/downtime info. And it will seem way more calm.

Artfight has not gone to shit this year. It's a loud part of the community that has. I may not be posting this with any # as to not start discource but anyone seeing this I urge you to take the positives and take a step back from everything else. First week was stressful as hell for me, until I decided to just draw as if no one was telling me to make my account and ratio perfect. As we may say "Artfight is fun when you don't have a bitch in your ear telling you to fix your ratio".

[miasiegert]

Suncoast Broadway CATS update 2/17

There was a great comment by @lie-in-a-bureau-drawer , so I hope it's okay that I post it here since I've got some info and comments! (I still don't get tumblr and I keep forgetting how it works/etiquette but I'm trying!)

I never would want anyone to ever strain to put themselves in a financial situation ever for any project I do, or anything in general, but especially me. This is something very personal as in 2016, I was about to live in my car until two amazing friends took me into their home. What was meant to be two weeks turned into six months, which I can never financially repay but I promised to repay it forward however I can. Since we don't have money to pay it forward, that's where on other social media platforms I signal boost, and also where I'm absolutely happy to share info and help when I can. I totally can understand the disappointment of wanting to go somewhere, and it's incredibly touching and means a ton to me (you have no idea) for that sort of support. So thank you, from the bottom of my (supposed to be) frigid heart.

For anyone thinking of or planning to attend, David and I will be there for the shows on Feb 1st and both shows on the 2nd--our flight home is the 3rd (missing that show and the rest of the run). This is pretty standard for costume designers, sometimes we don't get to go at all (aka Wichita with their full department already!). I'd feel bad if someone only came to try to meet us and we weren't there so I wanted to give those dates but the show will run until, I believe, April 7th. There is accessible seating and accommodation.

I'd call the theatre to double-check (as a courtesy) but already in many production meetings I brought up superfans in costume and said there's a good chance that'll happen. They seemed really excited by the idea. So if you like going to shows in costume, this one should be very friendly to it and there will be more interaction than usual due to dinner theatre. I can't say much more than that but there was a very specific reason why we were hired (well, several... but something really stood out).

Let's be honest, this is the one y'all care about: YES, there WILL be pictures and (hopefully) video! And I'm pretty sure people who come to the show will be able to take pics/vid on their phones and probably with performers but I'm not 100% positive there--I will get confirmation. Once opening happens, I will share at least one special costume design I made. There will be one special performer who will greet every table in a very special costume as the host/ess. Who will it be? Who... will it be..? (Spoiler: It's not Macavity. WHEN WILL PEOPLE LEARN HE JUST WANTS TO DO SOMETHING AND IS SUFFERING THE WORST MIDDLE CHILD SYNDROME EVER?)

Additional fun info: On Tuesday (maybe Wed) we'll be teaching the make up classes. We had to improvise with some different products, still Mehron base but also some snazzaroo for detailing and some powder and eyeshadow. I don't believe I'll be allowed to share video of these classes (there will be video) because make up classes usually are emotional the first two days, then by day three everything's fine. It's a very emotional process and I'd love to share how I teach but I also need to respect the privacy of the cast in case there are tears.

Kind Suggestion: If you do go to the show, please tip kindly. As this is nonequity, the actors are responsible for providing their own shoes (they will need to be replaced during the run), undergarments, make up (first initial batch on the theatre), other things. We did everything we could to help them, but I know with undergarments and shoes, especially shoes, some actors are really struggling, and if they dance but also tap, and it seems like one actor will cover three tracks... it's very hard. Just a very kind thing to do/consider. We had to talk with a few about whether they could do just one dancebelt and basically the, "well, yes, you CAN... but for twodoshays, you probably don't want to. If not an option, these are things you can do to help keep yourself dry, prevent bacterial infection and odor, and prevent chafing." Also added like a 4-page skincare routine that I stressed was optional but what I personally do/like in case anyone wants to take care of their skin--if anyone wants the routine, I can share it here but it's seriously excessive.

I'm irrationally terrified of flying, so here's hoping that Monday is very smooth with no sudden squalls or anything. I'm really going to miss my floofs but my mom and her BF will take excellent care of them! Currently I'm resting although I should be packing because my immune system gave out and I'm taking as much stuff as I can to knock whatever this is out of my system.

[lindwyrmrelinquished]

asks you about your aus. any of them. all of them

OH BRILLIANT I CAN SUM UP MY ZOROAKARI AU. BASICALLY IT'S JUST. YKNOW THE POKEMON LEGENDS ARCEUS FEMALE PROTAGONIST. YEAH I MADE HER A ZOROARK

I have fics about her actually!! They come out on my Ao3 every Wednesday!!

(info under the cut bc LONG)

She's technically meant to be a changeling! She was supposed to replace Dawn by possessing her body(courtesy of Zoroark mother) until Dawn's soul collapsed under the weight of Akari's Zorua soul, but that didn't end up happening because Akari ended up being aware of the nature of her existence way too early(woke up while Zoroark mother was putting her in Dawn's body), started hopping out of Dawn's body and letting her take the reigns again, and then shapeshifting into a copy of her, and they ended up living as twins! Johanna was surprisingly chill about this because I like when characters are nice to each other

So Dawn took the champion title at the age of 12, Akari(named after the Hero of Hisui, which she then ironically became) never was much of a battler so she mostly hung out on the sidelines and cheered her sister on

Then when the two of them were 15, Akari gets eeby deebied to Hisui and Dawn has an entire breakdown in every possible way, does everything she can to try and get her back(and fails) and eventually gives up the Champion title back to Cynthia so she doesn't just completely lose her mind

She goes out across the Highlands to look for someone or something to help, mistakenly believing that because she is now baby, wild Pokemon will not try to attack her

We all know the story of PLA(i think), Akari still gets amnesia but she's still in her human disguise which becomes her default, so she doesn't remember that she's a Zorua until the Red Sky, when a Hisuian Zoroark confronts her about her still being alive when the rest of them had to die first to even get a chance, and she doesn't know what it's talking about for a while. Then she decides "if i can't become something else, it means i'm human and they were wrong"

But then she becomes a Zorua. And can't figure out how to turn back because she hasn't shapeshifted or known she could shapeshift for months

She gets beat up three different times and almost swept off the side of a cliff by a Gligar

Eventually Ingo finds her! And that's how he learns she's a Zorua, and subsequently helps her figure out her shapeshifting again! While they were practicing, she takes a form that mimics Ingo, then reverses it to look like "the man in white" which triggers Emmemories!!! Hooray!!! But then they have to go fight Dialga and Palkia at the Temple of Sinnoh so the joy is short-lived

Only a few people personally learn that Akari is a Zorua! Those people are Ingo, Rei, Mai, Lian, and Melli(I'm not counting Volo because it's in the middle of the Giratina fight and it's during his religious insanity so he's not paying that much attention)

The whole of Jubilife sort of vaguely knows Akari is a Fox due to an incident where she forgot to put her human disguise back up after sleeping in her quarters for once and answered the door for someone, complete Zoroark(she evolved sometime during or immediately after the Red Sky), but they've all kind of agreed not to tell Kamado due to the exile incident

Cyllene knows though! She's pretty chill with it as long as Akari doesn't suddenly go feral, which, she doesn't think she will. So it's sort of an open secret in Jubilife

Now from here on out, there are technically four ways the Zoroakari AU can go:

1.) Akari gets sent home by Arceus as normal, eventually reunites with her twin and her old friends, and with Ingo(and subsequently meets Emmet and Elesa in the process)

3.) Akari is not sent home, ends up wandering the Alabaster Icelands and runs into a pack of wild Zoroark. She ends up becoming their Noble Lady Zoroark(and she is motherfucking H U G E), and that's a whole nother story that I've actually written a fanfic about

2.) Akari is not sent home, whether by malice on Arceus's part for her being a Zoroark instead of human, or because she still has a role to fill. Either way, Ingo is sent home at her request, but she has to stay in Hisui. Three ways go from here. The first is that Akari goes back to the life she wasn't expecting to continue living, and exists in Hisui-and-then-Sinnoh for around 50 years. Then she fakes her death and starts region-hopping to hide her immortality(which she has due to ✨️divine intervention✨️) and brings her Hisuian team with her(mainly a Typhlosion and an alpha H-Zoroark, since both are ghosts and therefore don't die to age)

4.) Akari is not sent home, doesn't leave Hisui, and doesn't become a Noble. Instead, after a while, she notices Hisuian variants are starting to die out, and becomes a specialized breeder for them. She hides away in a forest near a coast at the very edge of the region, and sets up some pastures of her own to make a sanctuary where Hisuian variants still live to this day

One more thing before I'm done here: I subscribe to the Uncle Ingo headcanon <<<<<3

Okay that's all from me tonight probably

Unless I decide I want to talk about a bunch of scenarios

[tamarakkoarchive]

FE3H livetweet thread (2/3)

dorothea gets to have the actual good dynamic w him while byleth is stuck in the boring serious mentor role and yet the one w romance path is you like 😭

~

hm the summer uniform looks cute on the girls, let's see the b-

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

~

~

post-nut clarity

~

i knew most of the game from my tl spoiling it left and right alongside watching the supports on youtube back when it got released so pretty much the biggest opinion difference i'm having from actually playing is the realization that the fan annoyance w edelgard was justified lol.

what makes her weird to digest has a lot to do w the batshit inefficient way they narrate the story fbdbfn essential worldbuilding and character info being behind optional features that dump a walltext of exposure instead of smth you learn gradually is atrocious bad design

~

woah the first edel x rhea fight is what finally made me see the hard in the difficulty i picked, the main missions so far were 40min in average but this one is requiring several tries of over one hour each glad i got my horsey girls before or i’d be fucked

~

i didnt put the death feature but i’m still prioritizing keeping my units unhurt until the very end…. the presence of my bitches matters

~

i don't care much for whatever is going down in the war-over-magical-racism plot so i'm basically just siding w rhea so i don't have to hurt my boy cyril since he thinks of rhea as his mommy so i gotta join the family for him

~

only the students get to have a glow up after the timeskip???????? what is this ageism bullshit

~

byleth getting five years of smegma in her unwashed pussy is one thing since she was dormant for all this time but what is the excuse of every other mf here. make seteth bald and give a biker beard to him

~

byleth running in snotty tears to the marketplace begging for bigger high heels "please sir. Please. my manlets outgrew me."

~

this just in: yes you can get fucked out of supports and yes if you stopped leveling students of your house YOU WILL have to fight w them again w no chance of them catching up

~

the difficulty went up like crazy after the timeskip lmao altho a big part of it is bc i insist in using units that only became available way later... 😭 mixing a strict calendar system w no way to freely grind ends up making it awfully easy to get yourself locked underleveled

~

only downside of not following edel is that i can't have this ugly vampire on my team anymore. his timeskip look is so good

~

bitch absolutely sufferable to fight against

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main team dunno if i wanna play other route after i'm done bc i'm satisfied w what i got here... lesbians, shotas and sasuke uchiha

~

ferdinand should be so glad i don't have permadeath on otherwise i'd have pulled the trigger on him on the very first month

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this bl manhwa anatomy lmao

~

~

ferdinand x hubert shippers in absolute shambles

~

oh my god she looks so bald

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how am i supposed to take catherine's cool armored stance seriously after realizing from waist below girl is flashing off her knickers

~

hello?????? kurahana what's going on here?????

[thatrandombatgurl]

Venting after the read below

Tw: depression & negative selftalk & suicidal ideation

To lay the background, I live with my mom in a house that has a separate apartment that is connected to the rest of the house & my dad passed away in October.

I’m not currently paying rent on the apartment, but I pay some of the bills, get the groceries for us(started buying them a month ago), pay for the dog poop to get picked up (I have a dog & she has a dog), do the dishes, cook or pay for most of our meals, drive her everywhere, etc. while working a full time job and doing online schooling full time.

Now I’ve always had a weird relationship with my mom bc she is definitely undiagnosed with something. I have anxiety and major depression. & she definitely gave me body image issues as a kid, by making me do weight watchers when i was a preteen. She’s always swapped her emotions on a dime & she always denies saying mean/bad things.

Anyways to the present. For about a month she has been in the anger stage of grief and I am most commonly the victim. For example, I went to a concert a few weeks ago and she kept guilting me about me going starting that morning even though she had encouraged me to go for about a month leading up to it. this ultimately led to me being upset and worried the whole time & having a panic attack, thus ruining this once in a life time thing, which she then talked down to me about how I need to just learn to have fun. I didn’t tell her the full reason for not enjoying it, just that I had a panic attack.

Currently she is out of town for the weekend and I am at the house with the dogs. The issue at where she is at is the wifi isn’t working so she can’t watch tv and I tried to facetime her to help & it didn’t work. Then my brother went over today to fix it and it didn’t work. While my brother was with her, my sister came over for a bit & we ended up cleaning the spice cabinet & pantry bc there was an insane amount of expired stuff. We found stuff that expired in 2010! We have moved 3 times since then. Anyways, we sent her a picture of how nice it looks and she was pretty angry but I figured that she would have gotten over it by now after we explained that it was all expired & it’s been about 6 hours.

Anyways she just texted me about something that I already tried to help with over the phone on Friday, Saturday, & this morning. Then as I’m calling her, she texts saying not to call her. Then when I text saying that I have looked everywhere and cannot find the info that she needs, she resent the thing she needs in all caps. And I know that it was probably just the fact that she is older and her texts almost always come off passive aggressive, but it just hit me really hard & I’ve been crying the past 30 minutes and am just really upset & want to run away or do something bad to myself. Luckily knowing that she won’t be back until late tomorrow so the dogs wouldn’t get taken care of is stopping me from doing bad stuff to myself, but I’m just so done. It just makes me so upset and feel like a failure. Which I already know that I am, I fucking dropped out of college and moved home and barely have any irl friends my age who haven’t moved and I still haven’t gotten my degree and i’m an anxious idiot and I’m messy and I’m overweight and I just can’t do anything right.

She acts like she is the only one allowed to grieve my father. Yes, they were married for 26 years, but I knew him my whole life & we were really close. I miss him so much…it’s his birthday on Friday and we are supposed to go to one of his favorite lakes and spread some ashes and spend a few days there just the 2 of us and I really don’t wanna go now, with her pulling this shit.

Anyways sorry i just needed to get this out there…

[fashion-runways]

okay, i promised an explanation and i won’t go into too many details because honestly i’m still kind of a mess and there’s a lot we don’t know yet and everything but-- 2 weeks ago out of nowhere, in the middle of the night at 6am cops showed up at our home and raided our apartment and stuck around up until 2pm just making a mess of the whole place and taking photos and whatever, they broke the downstairs front door (which we now have to pay to replace off our own money), made an absolute mess of every room in the apartment, took every electronic device except our phones (and that’s only because i started crying about having all my healthcare info on an app and how i was going to lose all my appointments, and i think they felt bad for us?) and detained my father. they have barely given us information on what he’s accused of, they’re still nowhere near investigating those devices they took so they won’t give them back to us, and we have no freaking idea if or when my dad is coming back, because again, they’re not giving us a lot of information. on top of that my dad is pretty old, he's 65, he was supposed to have surgery this month because he can’t see very well from one eye (his workplace was paying for it) and he kinda can’t hear very well from one ear too, even though he refuses to accept it, and he’s been on anxiety medication for a while, so i’m kind of scared of what will happen to him without actual medical care or a nice place to sleep every night?? i don’t know. i truly don't.

now, this as you can imagine is traumatizing enough as it was, and it continues to be, but on top of that my dad was pretty much the only person with a stable job and a concistent income in this family, so now that he’s detained and we literally have no idea when he’ll come back, me and my mom got basically left in the dark. and even if he comes back, like, i don’t know, next week? i’m pretty sure he’ll get fired because he’s been missing work for 2 weeks now. i have some money that i saved from the stuff you guys send me, my mom has some money she makes, but it’s... obviously not enough, and this is a really stressful situation to be in, obviously, i wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies tbh.

so... i don’t know. i can’t promise i’ll post anything new because i’m limited to mobile for god knows how long, that’s why i’ve been reposting stuff. and if you want to help, if you enjoy the blog, if you have anything to spare, that would really be helpful. i know this sounds insane what happened, and trust me it still doesn’t feel real sometimes?? like i’m going to wake up and it'll be a bad dream? i don’t know. as always, since i’m from latin america, anything helps. literally even the smallest amount of money helps. sorry this post is so long and so trauma dump-y, but i said i’d explain and i need help more than ever, this blog is basically the only semi-stable thing i have income wise. if anyone wants me to tag this with any trigger warning specifically, let me know, i wouldn’t know what to tag this myself.

anyway, i have my kofi account that i link in every post i make here: https://ko-fi.com/fashionrunways and my redbubble account: https://www.redbubble.com/people/dinah-lance/shop if you’d want to buy something instead. and as always thanks for loving this blog and for always helping us, i know it doesn't seem like it matters sometimes, but it does to me 💖

[zoeykallus]

Rex – In Love And War 12 - Moving On

_________

The journey in the Marauder is a little tense. Away from Rex and Hunter facing off tense, Tech has some other troubling news to share.

_________

What Happened Before:

In Love And War

Part 2 -Noises In The Dark

Part 3 - Sinful Dreams

Part 4 - Mesh'la

Part 5 - Old Friends

Part 6 - Unspoken Things

Part 7 - Lies And Other Things About Love

Part 8 - Guilt And Forgiveness

Part 9 – Love At First Sight

Part 10 – Mine At Last

Part 11 - Unpleasant Surprises

Part 12 - Moving On

Rex was anything but happy about traveling in the Marauder. At least not under the given circumstances. His brow furrowed critically, he looked again and again at Hunter, who again and again looked critically at you.

The tension was palpable and the silence in the room much too loud. For a while, you concentrated on the low hum of the hyperdrive, blanking out your surroundings. Until Wrecker's loud snoring interrupted the silence.

You thought about what Hunter had said, you were still surprised that he thought you had broken his heart. Things between you had drifted, at one point you had hardly seen each other because of your work, you hadn't been close for months. Hunter hadn't contacted you and hadn't responded to your last two messages, so you felt he had no right to blame you. Finally, Order 66 came, and you hadn't thought about him for a while.

You were with Rex now, you were in love with him, and you weren't going to let him take that away from you. And you weren't willing to let Hunter make you feel guilty.

Echo, sitting across from you, smiled tentatively at you as you looked up. You returned the smile softly and asked, "How are you, Echo?"

"Pretty good. We're still alive, we've got jobs, and I've still got my squad. Order 66 was a shock, but I feel like I got off relatively unscathed."

You nodded with a sigh.

"You were on the cruiser with the 501st, you were transporting Maul, weren't you?" he asked.

You didn't remember it with any pleasure, but you couldn't blame him for being curious.

"That's right"

"Did any others make it?" he wanted to know.

Rex stirred beside you and said, "Not to our knowledge. Other than Y/N, myself, and Maul, no one has escaped the cruiser alive"

Echo raised his eyebrows and asked, "Maul is still alive?"

You nodded and avoided his gaze, you weren't going to tell him you released him because you and Rex needed a distraction to escape from the cruiser.

"He let you live?"

Rex said, "Our brothers tried to kill us, we were all in the same boat."

Echo blinked, then finally said, "I see."

"Where are we even going?" you wanted to know.

Hunter answered you, "Ord Mantell, for now. From there you can move on to wherever you want. The main thing is to get away from Batuu. The Empire has gotten wind that many refugees are retreating or stopping over there. They want to build up an outpost there to put a stop to it".

"You know all this from the radio transmissions Tech intercepted?" asked Rex.

Hunter nodded.

"A happy coincidence."

Tech, who had just come out of the cockpit, cleared his throat and said with his finger raised, "It was no coincidence. I was specifically looking for radio transmissions from the Empire."

Hunter rolled his eyes, finally nodded and said with a small smile, "Okay, it wasn't a coincidence. Tech has been purposefully intercepting these radio transmissions for a while now, without my knowledge."

You looked at Tech and asked, "Picked up any more interesting info?"

Tech nodded and sat down next to Echo, across from you in his bunk.

"One or two things," he said, pleased to share his knowledge, "Some of it I have yet to decipher, but some I already know. For example, that a new prototype T-Fighter is being worked on, the station to be built on Batuu and the planning of a station on the moon Endor. There are also new troopers to be trained, special commandos, they call them Inquisitors, Force-sensitive individuals who are supposed to track down surviving Jedi, among other things."

This was incredibly sinister news that Tech was revealing.

"That doesn't sound good at all," you said worriedly, "Force users working for the Empire are a straight-up nightmare"

Rex beside you gently grasped your hand.

"We'll deal with that, we won't let it get us down that easily".

Crosshair growled, "That's easy to say, but now imagine someone with Skywalker's abilities on the Empire's side"

Rex gulped.

"I'd rather not"

Echo played around with his scomp link, nervous and lost in thought, his gaze crossed Rex's, and he finally said, "The Jedi were a strange bunch sometimes, but I kind of miss them"

Rex sighed softly and nodded, "Me too brother, I miss our Commander"

"Ahsoka?" asked Echo.

"Yes. As far as I know, she's still alive, probably. But I'm not sure. She wasn't with the other Jedi when Order 66 went down. Ahsoka was with the Mandalorians, with Bo Katan to be exact," Rex explained.

Echo said, "That's good, so the chances of her being alive aren't bad at all."

You nodded and smiled encouragingly at Rex, "Ahsoka isn't so easy to get down. She's gone toe-to-toe with Maul, after all, and he's killed seasoned Jedi Masters. Skywalker trained her very well, if anyone can survive, it's her."

Rex smiled and nodded as well, he knew Ahsoka was capable and strong.

Tech stood up and walked back to the cockpit, saying as he walked, "We'll be exiting hyperspace in orbit around Ord Mantell any moment now"

"So this is where you live now?" you asked Hunter.

He looked at you, shook his head and said, "No not really. We live in the Marauder, this is just a stopover"

"And your employer," Cid murmured.

Hunter rolled his eyes but finally said, "Let me introduce you. This is Cid, Cid this is an old...friend"

" Friend, huh? Interesting to see someone in your midst who isn't a clone."

You raise your eyebrows and ask, "Old?"

Hunter shrugs and smirks.

"You're older than me."

Cid grumbles, "Everyone is older than you, clone."

He rolls his eyes and is about to introduce Rex when Cid says, "Never mind, I don't need to know names. Here is the payment for your last mission, the customer was satisfied"

Hunter accepts the small case.

"What kind of work are you doing here?" you want to know.

"Various things," Hunter says evasively.

Echo says bluntly, "You could call it mercenary work."

Hunter adds, "We do what we can and must to survive."

You raise your hands placatingly, "No blame from me, I was just curious"

Tech joined in and said, "I found a shuttle you could use to leave Ord Mantell shortly and move on"

Rex said, " Probably for the best. The more of us in a bunch the more likely we are to stand out and maybe attract unwanted attention"

Hunter and Tech escorted you to the shuttle, Hunter handed Rex and you some contact information and said, "Just in case you guys ever get into trouble"

"Thanks," you and Rex said almost simultaneously.

Hunter sighed and said, "I'm sorry for the way I acted. I had no right."

"It's forgotten," you said with a grin.

Tech stayed quietly in the background and nodded goodbye to you.

Hunter called after you, "Rex! Watch out for her, she has a knack for getting into trouble."

Rex smiled and replied, "I will."

Ko-Fi (If you feel like giving me some coffee)

@ttzamara

@chxpsi

@andyoufollowyourheart

@the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond

@brynhildrmimi

@nunanuggets

@clone-whore-99

@misogirl828

@tech-deck @rexandechosandwich

@flyingkangaroo

@stardusthuntress

@ladykatakuri

@graciexmarvel

@arctrooper69

@agenteliix

@puppetswithteeth

@punkpirate82

@greaser-wolf

[queen-haq]

Fic: A Woman Scorned - Part 13

Fic: A Woman Scorned - Part 13

Pairing: Billy Russo x Reader

Rating: R for language and smut.

Words: ~3000 words.

Summary: You’ve been sleeping with Billy Russo for a few months now. Knowing his aversion to emotional commitments, you’re satisfied with your clandestine arrangement until you catch him having dinner with Dinah Madani one night. Then it finally dawns on you. It’s not that he doesn’t want to commit, he just doesn’t want to commit to *you*.

Billy may think he knows you, but he has no idea what he’s just lost...

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5   Part 6   Part 7   Part 8   Part 9  

Part 10   Part 11   Part 12

gif credit: @bilyrusso

Part 13

It was 8 in the evening and you were still in the office. You hadn’t accomplished much work today, your mind mostly focused on Billy. You were surprised by how quickly he’d been able to make the funeral arrangements for his mother. Yesterday you had driven over to the nursing home and by the time you reached there, Carla Russo’s body had already been picked up. You’d signed a few papers for Billy and picked up the remainder of Carla’s things before you returned home. Everything of hers was packed into a small suitcase and sitting in your living room. You wanted to call him, ask him how he was and offer your support, but he seemed determined to do everything on his own when you’d talked to him last and you didn’t want to intrude.

You gave yourself a mental shake, reminding yourself to concentrate. This workday had been a wash. When you weren’t distracted by thoughts of Billy, you were putting out fires in your team. At least the personnel conflicts have been temporarily resolved, but now you needed to work on a slide deck that you’d been tasked with presenting to the executive leadership committee later in the week.

An hour later you were halfway done with your presentation when your phone rang. You glanced down at your screen to find Billy’s name on the screen. “Hi.”

“Hey.” He sounded exhausted. “You still at work?”

“Yeah. How did you know?”

There was a pause. “You give off the workaholic vibe.”

You smiled to yourself; at least he was okay enough to crack jokes. “How are you?”

“You mean am I grieving over a goddamn dead woman who preferred meth to her own fucking son?” He sighed. “No big loss. I’m fine.”

Anger and hurt saturated his voice despite his attempts to sound unaffected. Your heart hurt for him, you wished there was something you could do. “Do you need anything?”

“The funeral service is tomorrow.” A beat of silence followed. “Do you want to come?”

“Sure. What time?”

“2pm.”

“I’ll take the day off. Do you need my help with anything? Maybe I can call some of her friends?”

“When I found her she was living on the streets, barely alive but still hooked on meth. I doubt she’s got any friends.”

“What about the people in the nursing home? Maybe they want to come?”

“No, I don’t want anyone else there. Just you.”

Not liking the warmth that spread through you upon hearing his words, you reminded yourself he was probably feeling unusually vulnerable. This wasn’t typical of him.

“Do you want to come over?” he asked.

You exhaled a heavy sigh. “I would but I have so much work to do. I’ll be here for another hour at least.”

“Come over after you’re done.”

“It’ll be really late.”

“That’s fine. I can wait.”

“I can stop by my place to pick up your mom’s-.”

“No, it’s okay.”

You realized he wasn’t quite ready to go through Carla’s belongings yet.

“Bring your stuff with you.”

“Stuff?”

“Overnight bag, clothes for tomorrow, whatever.”

“Oh. You want me to stay over?”

“Yeah, might as well. We can drive over together for the service tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Despite the conversation coming to a natural end, he wasn’t hanging up. It seemed as if he was reluctant to be alone, probably because that meant dealing with the complicated emotions for his mother. You knew exactly how that felt. “If you want, I can leave now. I can work from your apartment instead of the office.”

“You’re not worried I’ll be tempted to spy on Valiant stuff?” he teased.

You smiled. “As if I’d let you see what I’m working on.”

“Guess no corporate espionage for me tonight.”

“Still going to keep you away from my laptop.”

He chuckled. “Just get here. I promise not to bug you while you work.”

“Okay. I’m leaving now.”

“See you soon.”

After you hung up, you started gathering your things together.

***

An hour later, you were at his place. When he opened the door, you immediately grew concerned at how tired he looked. Traveling back and forth from Vegas plus dealing with the news about Carla’s death within the last few hours meant he was absolutely exhausted.

“Hey,” he greeted you, smiling as he took the overnight bag from your hands.

You removed your heels while he took your bag inside his room and then made your way to his living room. While his penthouse suite was much bigger than yours, you actually didn’t like it very much. Despite the high-end finishes and the beautiful interiors - Billy had obviously hired a designer to make the place look good - it always felt very cool and inhospitable to you. It was too perfect and you always felt out of place inside the suite.

“You hungry?” he asked, coming up behind you. “I ordered dinner for you.” Arms encircling your waist, he dropped a kiss on the back of your head as he maneuvered you to the kitchen. He’d laid out the food for you on the dining table, and from the take-out containers you knew it was from one of your favourite Indian restaurants. The thoughtful gesture surprised you, you weren’t used to that from him. Noting that he’d only set the table for one, you turned around to look at him. “You’re not going to eat with me?”

“I ate already. I was starving. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” You cradled his face with one hand, your eyes roving over his beautiful face as he placed a kiss on the fleshy part of your palm. “You look exhausted. Did you even sleep?”

“No” He leaned back against the kitchen counter, weary. For a moment he closed his eyes, simply holding still, and you found yourself wrapping your arms around him in a hug. You didn’t understand why you’d even initiated the embrace – hugs were never your thing – but seeing him so beaten-down you were desperate to comfort him. He leaned into you, his body flushed against yours, and you held him tight. Stroking the nape of his neck, you placed a soft kiss on the center of his forehead. “Why don’t you take a nap while I work?”

“You don’t mind?”

You smiled up at him, running your fingers through his hair. “At least I don’t have to worry about you stealing my company secrets while you sleep.”

He smirked. “You’ll be here when I wake up?”

“Yup. Probably still working away.”

Billy grazed your temple softly before dropping a tender kiss on the tip of your nose. “Okay, but eat first.”

You nodded your head, watching after him as he sauntered out of the kitchen and disappeared down the hallway.

Sighing, you went to the sink to wash your hands before eating.

***

It was after midnight and you were still working on your slide deck when you heard Billy puttering around in the bathroom. Soon he slowly made his way towards you, dressed in a t-shirt and black boxers, his hair all messy. He yawned lazily, falling onto the other end of the couch.

“I thought you’d sleep through the night,” you remarked.

“Are you still working?” he asked.

“Almost done.” You saved the file and shut off the laptop before slipping it back inside your bag.

Suddenly he pulled you closer and you found yourself tucked underneath him on the couch as he glanced down at you from above. “You work too hard.”

You smiled up at him. “They don’t pay me the big bucks to sit there and look pretty.”

A slow, incandescent smile curved his lips. “I would. If I ran Valiant, you’d be my personal stress relief. You’d be in my office the entire time and do nothing but look pretty and service me.”

“That’s sexual harassment.”

Billy shrugged his shoulders. “Whatever. I’d make it worth your while.”

You laughed, angling up to kiss him. “Your breath is all minty fresh.”

“I brushed my teeth for you.”

“Wow. Be still my heart.”

A warm grin covered his face as he shifted down your body to nuzzle your neck. His weight was heavy as he rested atop you, but you liked the solid feel of him on you, the way you felt all safe and warm. You stroked his hair while he drew lazy circles on your chest, the silence between you two comforting.

“No one knows about her. Not Frank, not Curtis, no one.”

Those names were familiar to you because Billy had mentioned them in passing a few times. Of course he’d never shared any other info, but you being you, you’d dug around and found out more about them. You knew they’d served with Billy and he considered them his closest friends.

“When I found her three years ago, I put her in that home and forgot all about her.”

“You visited her every week,” you reminded him.

“Because I wanted her to regret abandoning me. I wanted her to see how far I’d come, I wanted to throw her mistakes in her face. But I don’t think she regretted safe-havening me, not even a bit.”

The bitter pain in his voice made your heart hurt for him.

“Maybe I should be happy she’s finally dead, or maybe I’m supposed to be sad or something.”

“How do you actually feel?”

“Nothing. I feel nothing.”

“Billy, I think that’s normal. There’s no right or wrong in this. All of your feelings are valid.”

“Even if her dying made me absolutely ecstatic? You wouldn’t think I was a fucking psychopath?”

“You are a psychopath but not because you have conflicting emotions about your terrible mother dying. You have the right to feel how you feel about her, whatever that might be.”

Eyes blazing with emotion, he hovered about you to meet your gaze. “Then what makes me a psychopath?”

You quirked your eyebrow. “The fact you want to torture my dates.”

“Not just torture, I want to kill them.” Eyes darkened, voice velvety-smooth, he covered your mouth with his and ravaged you with a kiss that left you thrumming and breathless.

“Only you’re allowed to touch me?” you asked through labored breaths.

“Yes.” His voice was a lustful rasp, his mouth leaving a heated trail as he sucked on the oh-so-sensitive corner of where your neck and shoulder intersected. Sparks of electricity ran down your spine. “Only me.”

You took his hand and guided it down your body, parting your thighs for him.

Like always, you were soon completely lost in the erotic pleasure of his mouth on you. Your legs hooked over his shoulders, your hands grabbed the back of the couch for support as he fucked you with his hands and mouth, sucking you, licking you, his tongue flicking over your clit until you were keening under him. Body arching off the couch, you moaned his name louder and louder until he drove you completely over the edge.

Then you felt a light slap on your cunt which immediately brought you back to reality. Opening your eyes, you found Billy perched between your legs, gracing you with the most wicked smile. “That’s one.” He slapped your pussy again, this time his long, lean fingers ever so slightly grazing your clit and your hips bucked, wanting more. “As promised.” His eyebrow quirked up. “Punishment.”

“Not fair,” you protested. “I’ll date who I want.”

He slapped you again, a little harder this time, but then he leaned down to place comforting kisses on the very spots he assaulted and you moaned with pleasure.

“All of you.” His tongue lapped over your clit, eyes locked with yours. “Belongs to me. I own you.”

“You don’t!” You squealed when he flipped you over unexpectedly, grabbing you by the hips so your ass was lifted of the couch. And then he squeezed your butt cheeks, biting them lightly before he started rimming you.

***

After sharing a shower the two of you were laying in his bed, your back pressed against his chest as you both stared up at the ceiling. His one hand was intertwined with yours, the other arm circled around your hips. The two of you didn’t have sex but you didn’t mind. You were both fatigued.

“I smell like you now,” you murmured, realizing the soap in his shower had left its scent on you.

“I know. I like it.” He squeezed your fingers. “I have a present for you.”

“I hope it’s not earrings again.”

He chuckled. “No, not earrings.”

“What is it then?”

“Jewelry.”

You turned back to look at him. “What? Like a necklace?”

“Something like that. Except I’m the only one who’ll see you wearing it.”

“Ah. And where is this gift?”

He kissed the top of your head. “Not here yet.”

You smiled to yourself. “People usually wait until they have the gift in hand before telling others about it.”

“I couldn’t wait. I’m excited to see you wear it.”

He stroked your hair, and your eyes grew heavy. Soon you started falling into deep slumber, feeling calm, comforted by Billy’s arms around you.

“What happened with your family?”

Your eyes flew open. Like always, any mention of your family unfurled anxiety within you. You didn’t like thinking about them letting alone discussing them. “They passed away.”

“They’re dead?”

“Yes.”

“Both of them?”

“Yes.”

He pulled you up so you were facing him now, his intoxicating gaze completely focused on you. “That day when I asked you about the pictures, you said you weren’t close to your family.”

“I meant my extended family. I don’t keep in touch with them,” you replied smoothly.

“What were your parents like?”

Irritation surged through you at his obtrusive questions but you had to remind yourself he just lost his mother. He was feeling out-of-sorts, working through his grief – even if he didn’t think so – and he was reaching out to the only person in his life that knew about his mother. “Normal.”

He simply stared at you for a long time, studying you, saying nothing. “Normal,” he repeated, finally breaking the strained silence.

You shrugged your shoulders, dropping your gaze to the base of his throat so you didn’t have to hold his piercing stare. “Yup.”

“How did they die?”

“Car accident.”

“You miss them?”

“Of course,” you lied.

He reached out to cup your face, his thumb stroking your cheek. “So you grew up with great parents, white picket fence and all that bullshit? Sounds like you had a fairytale childhood.”

“Can we talk about this tomorrow? I’m really tired.”

“Sure. I’ll add this to the list of all the other shit we’ll talk about someday.”

He sounded almost angry with you and you weren’t sure why. Before you could question him, however, he pulled you close so you were snuggled against his chest and the warmth of his body was enough to silence your brain and lull you to sleep.

***

It was a cold, crisp autumn day in New York. The outdoor service, attended by only you and Billy, was short and quick. Throughout it, he’d gripped your hand even though he’d been outwardly calm and collected. Even now as he stood a few feet away from you, impeccably dressed in a black suit, his dark eyes hidden behind a pair of aviator sunglasses as he stared out at the pond, you sensed he was a complete mess inside. You didn’t know what to say to him so you simply sat on the bench, both of you in an isolated corner of the garden. Eventually he came to sit beside you, taking your hand in his.

“I’d have given her the whole world.” His voice was filled with pain and longing as he removed his sunglasses and tucked them in the upper pocket of his suit. “I would have given her anything she ever wanted.” Billy’s eyes met yours. “If she’d just wanted me.”

You scooted closer to wrap your arms around him, breathing him in as he sunk into you. His hands caressed your back, his grip on you so tight you almost couldn’t breathe. After a while he rested his forehead against yours, his eyes holding you prisoner in front of him.

“Swear to me you’ll never leave.”

“Billy-”

“Promise me!”

“I can’t.”

“It wasn’t a fucking request, Y/N.”

You tried to pull away from him but he fisted the back of your hair, holding you in place.

The raw urgency in his voice played havoc with your emotions. If you closed your eyes, just for a moment, you could shut out all the doubts in your head and simply believe him - but you could only live the fantasy for a short moment before reality forced its way back in. “You don’t mean those words, Billy.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you don’t feel that strongly about me.”

His eyes narrowed, glaring at you with hostility. “You’re gonna tell me how I feel?”

“I’m not what you want.”

“And what do you think I want?”

You gave him a sad smile. “The best of everything. Best car, best clothes, the most beautiful women in your arms. You want all that because you need others to want what you have.”

“Is that so wrong?”

You shook your head. “No, there’s nothing wrong with that – except I don’t fit into any of those categories. You want a woman like Dinah Madani. I’m not her. So eventually this thing between us will end.”

His jaw was set in a grim line, eyes burning bright with rage. “So you have me all figured out, huh?”

“Don’t get mad. You know it’s the truth.”

He yanked you closer, crushing you against him. “It’s been me against the world for as long as I can remember. But when I look at you.” His eyes softened, mouth parting as his dark gaze roamed over your face. “I don’t feel alone anymore.”

Your heart melted. The tenuous handle you had on your self-control disintegrated completely. You closed your mouth over his, kissing him frantically as he picked you up and straddled you across his lap.

He pulled back to look at you. “You’re my home. You’re all I need.”

Part 14

A/N - As always, all of your feedback, comments, asks, likes and reblogs are deeply appreciated. They truly inspire me to keep writing, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to be added/removed from the tag list, please let me know.

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[mazuwii]

Getting Lost with the AOT characters!

Levi:

-I think it's fairly obvious he's going to stay silent and tell you to shut up everytime you try saying something because he knows you're clueless

-he's just flipping the map upside down, right side up, to the left to the right

-you will get back and it won't be because of the map, you two agree to stalk a bird out of the forest😭😭😭

Eren:

-he gets so frustrated. He has no idea how he got it wrong, he's retracing his steps and can't remember crap

-even though you're panicking yourself you have to remain calm because of how this boy sounds. He sounds like he's on the verge of getting electrocuted

-The whole time he's demanding you follow him because his memory is good and you just threaten to knock him out and carry him.

Bertholdt:

-he's somehow good at it, like he's been in the forest so many times that he knows it like the back of his hand

-since it's getting dark he smiles reassuringly and holds your hand so you don't lose him

-Okay but you two heard russling in the bushes and found two squirrels having seggs 💀that scared you more than the monster you were expecting

-sorry that headcannon was out of NOWHERE

Reiner:

-he's brave and shit until it's dark and gloomy and you two are in the middle of nowhere

-He BAWLS the moment he realises his phone has no signal so calling anyone is not possible

-is clinging onto your hand and denies it when you ask if he's still crying.

-at one point he thought he saw a ghost so he threw you over his shoulder and DARTED aimlessly while you wailed at the top of your lungs

Jean:

-he carries a compass around with him 100%, is jokingly trying to scare you with myths

-I personally think you guys would get lost for the day and since it's night time you can't see anything so at that point he starts a fire and you both continue your journey in the morning

-turns out the exit was right in front of you but you know our baby horse💀 always a dunce

Armin:

-he wouldn't cry or panic he would probably stand still and try to come up with a logical plan

-he most likely would help you climb up a tree to see how far away from the entrance of the forest you guys are

-I mean if it begins to get dark he can get very pale and paranoid, like the man kept walking into trees

-reminds you every 2 seconds that he's got you

Erwin:

-He's been keeping track of everything there's no way you could get lost

-he remembers things the old way, like a child. Something like:a red musbroom, then a tree stump, bridge, etc.

-NOTHING scares him, there could be a tiger inside that shit ass forest and he'd just 👁👁 hello

Zeke:

-he insists on climbing somewhere high to see everything beneath him, like you can't climb so you waited for him on the ground

-monkey man- He just needs his hands to climb, nothing else

-you did trip and hurt your knee so you got a piggyback ride on the monke man.

-you get back home faster than expected

Porco:

-Not good to get lost with him, he gets so frustrated. He's so mad that he crumples the map and you just deadpan because it's the last piece of info that can save you

-Get a load of shit with you if you go hiking with him because there's a 90% chance you'll get lost and he'll either blame it on himself or rage like an animal

-at some point your friends find you because it had been too long and Porco just goes "Fucking finally" with his arms raised completely💀

Hange:

-She doesn't give a fuck LMAO

-"Hey um, honey... we're lost..." you say, staring at the map as if it were an alien language. She stops her staring contest with the wood pecker and turns to you with an amused look. "Are we now?" She hums, returning her gaze back to the animal hidden within the shadow of the towering trees.

-Like I said, she can survive up to 3 months in the wild by herself

-Let's just say sometimes it's quick, other times you get Erwin and Levi to try and find you

Pieck:

-She sounds like a middle school teacher 💀 "Oh deary me... we're lost." She taps her chin and looks around in thought.

-I imagine you'd be the calmer person in the relationship but you'd lose your shit in this scenario

-She's just stroking your head while you have a full on panic attack, chuckling about how much you're overreacting and how the both of you will find your way back

Mikasa:

-She's 100% the best person to get lost with

-Like Hange, strong and intelligent enough to survive in the wild but she'd rather not live like that and find a way out

-Tells you to stay behind her incase anything creeps up

-her words are so reassuring and true. Like if she says 'we'll make it out of here' she ain't playin

-Miss gurl here wouldnt sit her ass still SHES SEARCHIN THE WHOLE DAY

Mike:

-Is rambling on how he's an expert on hikes and how he would never ever get lost.

-Chill we get it just find a way out😩

-He did make notes on what he saw on the way so that slightly helps but Mike seems like the type of person to move away from the exit by accident without even realising💀

-you could be telling him how the both of you are going to a different location and he just tells you to 'trust the process'

Sasha:

-you're terrified, she'd eat anything she deems edible tbh

-because you don't want that happening you both try to find your way back using the map yet you still fail

-However when she takes control of it, she begins to pull out knowledge that you never knew she had

-she's pretty fast at navigating her way back and protects both you and her surprisingly well

Annie:

-curses under her breath and begins to try and remember her steps, will probably tell you to shut up even if you aren't saying anything

-like she's even scaring feral animals away from you guys💀

-eventually it's almost night time and she lets it out by wailing 'DAMN IT' at the top of her lungs with birds flying out of trees💀

-her last resort is to just keep walking even if it's almost nightime and thankfully you somehow make it out together

Kenny:

-He's making weird noises as supposed to groaning, realising you're both stuck in this shit ass forest

-I can tell you, he runs so that he can find the way out before night and worst part is he grabs your hand so you're just dying from the amount of sprinting he does

-He assumes everything is there to attack you both, a cat popping out of a bush? He wrapped his arms around you and squealed.

[angelrider13]

Are you still working on your SI!Leviathan verse? Asking, cause recently I have wondered - you wrote a seaborne!Regis au but what about a seaborne!Noctis?

Like, my initial idea was that maybe it was during the Marilith Incident when he was 8. I don't recall any canon info about the precise location (besides between Insomnia and Galdin Quay), but there could be a river or maybe it was near a seashore.

Either way, bb Noctis is thrown into the water during the attack, too injured to swim, maybe even doesn't know how to yet. And Thalassa, well, she's not heartless, she's not gonna leave a little kid dead. (And maybe there's a small voice at the back of her head that points out that it could help her derail the prophecy, if the newest Chosen King was her sea-child.) She turns him into one of her seaborne.

Noctis stays with his Tidemother only long enough to get hang on his transformation (so 1-2 weeks, tops) because Thalassa doesn't want to draw attention to this. Not yet. And then she puts on a vaguely human shape, kinda like Shiva's Messanger form, and takes Noctis back to Insomnia, to his father.

(Regis was Panicking and Raging the entire time Noctis was missing, and thinking that Nilfheim grabbed his baby boy. He Refuses to contemplate the other option.)

No idea what would happen next, exactly, but it would involve a major bsod on Regis and Co's part when they realise Leviathan helped a Lucis Caelum and Much Research into both prophecy and the Astrals, and merfolk legends.

Also, Ignis and Gladio Despairing because Noctis no longer hides from his lessons under the bed, oh no. Now he hides at the bottom of a pond in Citadel's gardens.

While this is a fabulous idea, it doesn't work with the lore I've built for the verse.

Don't get me wrong, Thalassa would 100% be ready and willing to adopt Noctis (especially after she decides that Regis is Her Person), Bahamut already laid claim to Noctis the moment he was born and once and Astral has done so, they've pretty much declared them off limits to their siblings. And while Bahamut has already bent and broken quite a few Laws, Leviathan will not cross that line.

BUT! FOR FUNSIES!

It is absolutely in character for Thalassa to fuck with the prophecy at every available opportunity so, of course, when smol, baby, heavily injured Chosen King crashes into her waters, she's going to snatch him up. (Bahamut: YOU DARE - Thalassa: Well I didn't see you stepping in. What was I supposed to do let him die???)

It'd be longer than 2 weeks, more like 6-12 months. Thalassa isn't gonna rush her new baby's induction just because he's a prince. That title doesn't mean anything to her anyway - he's not her prince. He's her newest son.

So please imagine, Regis absolutely losing his mind over his missing boy. Refusing to believe the worst even though there is no evidence Noctis survived. Nilfheim could have taken him, could have spirited him away into some laboratory - no. No. He will not stop looking until he finds his son or he finds a body. And if he finds a body, Nilfheim will be reminded what happens when a Lucis Caelum takes the field.

As it is, Regis takes a far more active role in the actual warfare - in a way he hasn't ever. In way his father hadn't either. He runs missions himself, draws up plans, and starts pushing Nilfheim back in a way Lucis hasn't managed in years.

AND THEN.

Even with the positive turn of the war, months have passed. Regis is a widowed king with a missing heir. His counsel is making noises about him remarrying, about securing the line of succession. Regis won't hear of it. Despite being no closer to finding his son, he refuses to consider the alternative, refuses to even contemplate replacing him.

And it is in the middle of such an argument with the counsel when there is the sudden crystal fracture sound of a warp mixed with the crashing of a wave as a small whirlwind of water condenses in the room.

The woman that emerges from it is ethereal and inhuman and dangerous. Long sea green hair done up in braids with sea glass and shells and driftwood. She's dressed in sheer layers of cloth that shimmer in the light like rippling water. Her golden eyes flicker over his counsel dismissively before landing on Regis, a grin tugging on her lips revealing pointed teeth.

"King of Lucis," she greets with a nod of her head, "I believe you are missing something."

"Dad!"

His eyes jerk down and that's his son. His Noctis, whole and hale and alive, holding this strange woman's hand and he's here -

Regis doesn't even realized he's warped across the room until he and Noctis are crashing into each other, clinging desperately to any part of each other they can reach.

"How-?" he gasps out around his tears.

Noctis pulls back and Regis can't help the way his grips tightens. His son doesn't let go though, just looks up at him with eyes that are the wrong color and says, "Mother rescued me!"

Regis blinks. "...Mother?"

The woman hums, startling him. "And now he has been returned home, safe and sound," she says, smoothing a hand over his son's hair. "Different than before, but no less loved for it, hmm?"

It sounds almost like a threat but Regis isn't given any time to reply to that before Noctis is blinking up at her.

"You're leaving?" he asks.

The woman nods, leaning down to place a tender kiss on his son's forehead. "This place is not for me. But I will visit from time to time should you wish."

"Yes!" Noctis demands instantly.

She chuckles. "Very well, Sweet Prince. Until next time."

And between one blink and the next, she is gone. She is gone and Regis has no answers and no explanation, but his son is in his arms, safe and alive, and that is all he ever wanted.

[destroyhorse]

(8/23) hi folks. the past few months have been kind of rough financially, so of course babycat has blood in his urine again like a week before rent is due! if i sound like im being flippant i promise im like trying very hard to keep myself together right now 🤪 his normal clinic is at capacity & referred me out. the referral clinic has an exam fee of $155, and the xray will be anywhere from $240-440. they weren’t able to give me an estimate for a possible urinalysis/urine culture. so i know it’s going to be at least $600. 

i already had to spend $360 on friday (8/20) for an exam + medications. i’m taking him to the vet later today (they have a 6-8 hour wait rn & i dont want to keep him in his carrier in the sun for that long since i dont have a car). if you can please help out or boost it would mean a lot. any amount helps.

https://www.paypal.me/finnpg

edit: forgot to mention bc i was flustered but if you would like an IOU sketch commission or something in exchange for donating please DM me with the receipt!

more info/screencaps below cut

on 8/9 i was supposed to get a delivery of babycat’s prescription food for his urinary problems. unfortunately, someone swiped it off my fucking porch while i was home! :-) second time someone stole a chewy box from my porch, so cool. i contacted the delivery company and had to wait a week for them to just shrug at me. 

i contacted chewy and they were able to send me a new box free of charge. that didnt get here until 8/19. in the meantime, i fed him exclusively wet food mixed with water & cranberry powder for pets. and still by the time his food got here, he started having urinary issues again. YES, i wish my stupid fucking ass just spent $50 to get a new shipment but i didn’t think it’d take almost 2 weeks to sort out. he’s unfortunately had gaps between his prescription food before, but usually he’s been fine with wet food/cranberry powder. 

he was squatting + not peeing much the morning of 8/20, so i took him to the vet. he didnt have any blockage, so the vet is pretty sure he developed bladder stones again. i did not have enough money for an xray/urinalysis/urine culture at the time bc it was $800 up front. so we settled on expressing his bladder, giving him medication + keeping him on the prescription food to dissolve any possible stones. invoice from that visit: 

[wonwoonlight]

📣: idol!Mingyu // idol!yn // fluff // mingyu is flirty lol // 700~ words

A/N: thank you for the request, anon! admittedly, this went down differently than what i had in mind when i started typing this but i liked this better sooo hahah enjoy!!

find the rest of requested drabble here

You stretch a little after the makeup artist is finally done with your face, shaking you awake after your very short nap while she was working on your make-up.

Preparing for a full album has always been extra exhausting, even if you do enjoy the process of it. You’ve slept for roughly 2 hours last night (morning?), because you had a sudden struck of inspiration and you were on a roll so you pushed yourself until your manager reminded you about today’s stage and special MC gig. Being the MC means you need to arrive earlier than when you’re simply performing and that totally went pass your mind.

You’ve just sat down on the sofa when someone knocks on the door, Mingyu’s head peeking in not long after as he greets your group before waving at you and then signaling you to come with him for ‘MC-ing stuffs’.

Your members give you that annoying knowing glance, and you just roll your eyes as you quickly make your way to Mingyu, hoping the guy doesn’t notice your group’s antics. They’re convinced you and Mingyu have something going on despite your constant denial, because there’s no way someone like him would be interested in you romantically.

“Didn’t get enough sleep?” he asks when you let out a soft yawn.

“Yeah. Too much fun in the studio,” you answer flatly.

Mingyu laughs at your words, and you notice you’re blatantly staring at him before you clear your throat and look to the front once again. “Jihoon does that a lot. Are you preparing for a comeback? Or just piling songs?”

“Hmm, that’s confidential,” you shrug jokingly, which makes him laugh again.

“You think I’m going to leak that info to the world?” he grins in amusement.

Mingyu has always liked talking to you; you were an MC for a whole year with him before, the contract ending just a few months ago. It’s a little pretentious, he admits, but he’s always thought you’re cute and he thinks it’s safe to say you probably have a little something for him, too.

That said, you still talk to him from time to time because you no longer meet every week in the broadcasting station, but Mingyu thinks they’re not enough and he wants to talk to you as much time as possible.

“Who knows?” you grin up at him. “Someone tells me you’ve got a pretty big mouth.”

Mingyu groans, frowning a little. “I shouldn’t have introduced you to Seokmin.”

“Why!” you laugh gleefully. “We click pretty well, you know? Plus, we already made a plan to go karaoke-ing next week.”

At this, Mingyu stops walking and the frown in his face deepens.

“What?”

“You make plans with Seokmin?”

“Uhh, am I not supposed to?”

“And you didn’t think to invite me?”

Mingyu regrets his words almost immediately when he sees the way you’re grinning as you let out an ‘awww’ as if he’s a baby. “Ohhh, is someone jealous?”

It’s now or never, he quickly decides.

“And if I am?”

Unexpectedly, you pout at this, which both startles Mingyu and forces him to hold himself back form squishing your face. “That’s not a fun answer,” you say.

“Is it fun if I’m not jealous?” he asks again, confused, but he notices the way you’re suddenly avoiding his eyes and the tip of your ears getting red from his gaze.

“I don’t know,” you turn around instead, not believing your own self just in case you blurt something stupid out of embarrassment. “Let’s talk about something else. Seokmin says—hey! Why are you pulling my arm!”

“Ohhh, is someone flustered?” he grins as you turn your face to the side, refusing to meet his eyes even when he’s leaned down to meet your face.

You’re about to say something when Mingyu quickly stands straight and lets go of your arm. A staff coming into your view when you turn around, telling you and Mingyu you’re called to do rehearsal and then signals you both to follow her.

You try to walk faster than Mingyu, maybe if you’re close enough with the staff Mingyu wouldn’t dare say anything again; but his legs are clearly made for catching up with people and he never leaves your side no matter how much you try to outwalk him.

“We’re going to talk about it again after we’re done with rehearsal, got it?” he quickly whispers to your ear before standing straight again. “You look cute, by the way.”

You don’t say anything back to him, but the way you’re trying to hide your face with your hair as you bite down your lip is enough for Mingyu. You do have a little something for him, alright.

©wonwoonlight – all rights reserved.

[salt-volk]

re "tbh pretty sure anji just lied about the whole "monthlies and customs only take 10% of my workload" bit because there is no way that is true with absolute NOTHING to show for that supposed other 90% like....." 

idk i actually do genuienly believe her (moslty bc 4-6 custom items taking an entire month or even more than 2 days for a 10yr+ professional mostly full time artist just seems impossible to me esp seeing how quickly she does shit on stream & knowing other artists myself haha. no comment on the monthlies since even if they did hold up site progress they cant just be paused as thats the sole revenue for dv so moot to talk abt as an option but id ALSO guess those dont take an entire month or even over a week, esp w how theres always small boring items included w only a few complicated each batch) but like i think was brought up before, i agree the main problem is that all that stuff is one time scheduled release but other content is nearly ALWAYS larger bundles together.

its easier + quicker to do a few art than an entire event. customs are published once their done. but general site content is made dependent on a bunch of other shit ("X item is complete but will have to sit here for month until the other 15 items are done" "Y item is finished but we have to get ahold of our barley functional coder & wait 2 mo. on writing before it can come out"). so stuff like custom queue stays chugging along doing a lil bit here & there while main site content releases are always MASSIVE drops w a bunch of shit all at once to the point that its overwhelming. 

there is plenty to show for the other 90% of time they just dont show it at the right times or in the right way bc they put all the stuff together (OR also could be all their time gose into shit that isnt easily visible like background management work or now that anjis trying to learn code to pick up slack she could be spending more time w that which has no visible site progress). fr we spend all our time waiting around for shit to drop not bc progress isnt actually getting done or bc one thing is takign up all the resources but just bc staff just does not know how to do little teasers or small events or small content resleases.

again this all comes down to management issue & site direction. probaly also a community advisor of sorts. which they lack. but could tell them "you dont have to put these items together or drop them w an update. the users do not care". or "you do not have to waste months coming up w grand vision of new event types multiple times a yr i promise you can just do the same thing & nobody will care" haha

which to be clear this is totally their fault & i dont understand the compulsion to always have to have like 85 new items come out simultaneosly as part of one update instead of just slowly drip feeding to at least help w the illusion & create more of feeling of constant content stream -_- i still dont have all the shit from those last two big updates w the stupid circlets & just gave up bc its to hard to keep track of...

oh worm they releasde new event info while iasw writing this. how much do you wanna bet some of the event content will be stuff that could have been seperated & dropped on its own but was just grouped together? even having the first custom auction w the event... that could have been its own thing tbh. released sooner since is not being held back waiting on a bunch of other shit to complete. have a feeling the mini town could have been out on its own too. lord