#BESPOKE MEME! THANK YOU!

[baravaggio]

you dropped this!

he is thinking about you. watch out

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

kay folks it's another calligraphy-card writin' stream on youtube

I'll be going live at 4 on the dot this week (am tired, it's normally 3pm est on sundays) so I'll schedule a reblog for five after the hour.

if you've not been here for these before, welcome! Once a week I write out all 28 calligraphy requests from the backlogged list of requests live on air with some nice accompanying tunes so that I can preschedule all of 'em to go up throughout the week

normally I'm on twitch with a bunch of fun little things you can redeem, song requests, and a variety of ways to donate for me to write calligraphy live for ya, but unfortunately due to either twitch glitching or malicious reporting, my account was suspended for a week last week and I'll need to do a buncha re-setup to get that to work

so in the meantime, we're gonna be live on youtube.

I'm not monetized on youtube so if anyone wanted to get anything written live (in whatever ink colour you'd like) it's going to have to be through

paypal donation

or

kofi donation

thanks for the support folks, see you in a little under a half hour!

[homoquartz]

it's 3 am, and your art means the fucking world to me it is so fucking cute !!! i love your art style i love the way you draw the dead boy detectives and co. i love how adorable you make them look i love how funny your little comics are. literally never stop making art <33

aa i cannot believe!! my own bespoke meme!! 🙀 i love this, thank you!! 🥰

[cafecliche]

fic writer meme!

[RISES FROM THE DEPTHS] I'm here!! Thank you so much @uhuraisgay and @englishsub for the tags, and also for reminding me that I've missed Tumblr

1. how many works do you have on ao3? 50 even - which was more than I thought!

2. what's your total ao3 wordcount? 187,448

3. what fandoms do you write for?

My fic-writing impulses come along like cicada seasons, except without any regularity whatsoever: I do a lot of dabbling in a lot of fandoms, I can never really tell if something's going to light my brain on fire. Most of my fic output came from Yuletide for a long while (I loved the grab bag aspect and writing little treats for small fandoms, but then my holidays got busier), and then Yuri on Ice and MDZS were my biggest fandoms by far, especially MDZS. I've written Yuwu recently, and I'd love to write some Trigun, LoZ, or Mysterious Lotus Casebook one of these days.

4. what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

grow

the only way out

The Guests of Cloud Recesses

detente

bespoke

And the soft animal is our runner-up at #6!

5. do you respond to comments?

I usually don't unless it's a request or a question, but I read and treasure every one.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I am too tender for Bad Endings for the most part, but my canon-verse Nie Huaisang fic after me comes the flood does not end in a particularly good place for anyone involved. (But even then, we know it gets better for him eventually... albeit at the expense of several bystanders)

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I tend to write pretty gentle, occasionally LIGHTLY bittersweet happy endings (that's the cafecliche guarantee baby) but part of me wants to say 'the only way out' (and probably 'the yunmeng accords' series in general) here. I tend to write fic when I want to play around with the emotions or relationship dynamics that can already be found in canon, so 'the yunmeng accords' is probably as close to a fix-it as I'm going to get.

8. do you get hate on fics?

Not usually! I was part of the Great MDZS Anon Hate Train of 2021, but that was the worst I've ever gotten by several magnitudes - the vast majority of commenters are fabulous.

9. do you write smut?

Not yet! It's not off the table, though.

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you have written?

I actually don't think I've ever written a crossover! The closest I've ever gotten was when I look over my shoulder, but even that's 'Wangxian in a Conjuring-esque ghosthunters in love situation' and not really a formal Conjuring AU.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

I've had plagiarism brought to my attention a couple times, but truly just a handful. I still remember getting a message on FF.net that someone had ripped off a line from my Black Lagoon fic. The SCANDAL of it all.

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

MDZS is the first fandom where I've gotten translation requests, which is always so cool! To my knowledge, I've had fics translated into Russian, Spanish, and Ukranian.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but brainstorming fic concepts with my brilliant friends is one of my favorite thing in the world.

14. what's your all time favorite ship?

omg ever? Well Victuuri and Wangxian have been the ones that really lit my brain on fire (if I own the Nendos, it's serious) but let me also throw it back to Fakir and Ahiru in Princess Tutu. That is ROMANCE.

15. what is a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I would have really liked to have one more entry to 'the yunmeng accords!' I had a couple of ideas that I really liked, but nothing that caught fire quite enough to dive into it. That said, I am currently working on something short and Yunmeng Shuangjie-related, at the very least...

16. what are your writing strengths?

Emotional through-lines, pacing, and that sweet, sweet catharsis. I'm drawn to particular fandoms when they leave me with an emotion that I need to break down over the course of several thousand words, and I know that shows through in my writing.

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

Choreography! I'm not a very visual thinker, so sometimes it takes me a while just to figure out how to block the characters in a given scene. I also have a lot of trouble getting into a draft until I figure out the voice, which, when it comes to fanfic, will either come to me extremely easily or not at all.

18. thoughts of writing dialogue in another language in fics?

Yeah, absolutely! (But if you don't speak the language, do your research!)

19. first fandom you wrote for?

[rubs my temples] an X-Men crackfic.

20. favorite fic you have written?

Oh my god. WELL. 'grow' and 'the only way out' I think are the best fics I've written, and 'when I look over my shoulder' and 'the soft animal' are also extremely close to my heart. But 'detente' might be the favorite child. It just gushed out of me.

I think a great many of you have been tagged at this point, so sorry for any double-tags, but: @bluecrystalrainingdaggers @tigerjpg @floofyfluff @vinelark and anyone else who'd like to go for it!

[argyleheir]

Drabble - Glove

[Fandom: Dracula | Prompt: 🍽 - A special treat of their choice | For the lovely @0nelittlebirdtoldme and the Comfort My Characters! meme]

"Here. If you insist on covering yourself when we go out, at least do it with some style."

Dracula extends the parcel – long, narrow, embossed in gilt, and topped with a bow – but it's another moment before Jonathan takes it.

Inside: a pair of gloves.

Black kid, buttery soft, with perfect stitching, and as Jonathan slides them on he notes the extra space for his claws, bespoke.

Tentatively, he touches the bookshelf beside him, along the spines, amazed to feel every detail, the sensation almost as vivid as if he were bare.

"Thank you."

Dracula smiles. "Anything for you, Johnny."

[capybaraonabicycle]

wip prompt title meme

I was tagged by @jennyandvastraflint. Thank you so much, dear!

Prompt: Make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

I have too many wips and I often just call them by whatever characters are in them, sooo, Idk how evocative these are, but here you go:

Family Outing

Fugitive Mels

Holograms

Martha_and_ruth

My bespoke psychopath

Obergefell

Of flying and landing

Soulmates

WWYKD (not technically a wip but whatever)

5 times the Doctor Tried to Protect Mels and One Time They Didn

Bill&Jane

Christina and River

Dancing with the Doctor

Du&Martha/You&Martha

EYMB-Doctor

River&Clara

The Doctor & O

The Doctor

Thomas Thomas & the Paternoster Gang

Eigentlich albern

Rosenrot mit den Schwefelhölzern

Poesong

[empty title - aka exists only in the notes app on my phone]

23 people is a lot. Let's see: @marvellouspinecone, @frogsmulder, @spacewivesinspacetime, @pia-writes-things, @riversofmars, @spacebetweengalaxies, @expectiations, @helennorvilles, @none-ofthisnonsense, @thembosupreme, @sonickedtrowel

That's eleven now, 23/2 floored, that's close enough, right? Anyway no pressure at all friends <3

[teecupangel]

Tags from @blankerthought

#laskdj of course desmond pulls a kdj...#honestly iconic of him. he should keep doing it#is this going to devolve into the joongdok shenanigans of taking each others' name?#because that's even funnier#local time traveler accidentally ends up using his name WAY MORE in the most twisted way possible#at least it's not like kdj's usual shenanigans where yhk finds out about it after kdj dies horrifically#asscreed

From @artduringclasstime

Desmond keeps using Altair's name as he fumbles around, trying to figure out what to do with his new lease on life. Meanwhile, our favourite eagle is trying to remember when tf he saved that village. And those women. And when he killed that asshole these very kind people are thanking him for killing. Commence slapdash comedy of Altair trying to track Des down and having to deal with the mess he left behind all while Desmond unintentionally stays two steps ahead of him

From @thedragonqueen1998

It would be kinda funny/interesting if the reason he blurted out Altaïr's name is because in the confusion and the bleeding effect, made him forget his name. He has so many names up there and he blurts out a new one every so often, so when Altaïr finally finds this man of many names, he doesn't believe Desmond when he says that's his name. XD

From @thinkingwildthoughts

Wonder how Altaïr would explain this to people- “It wasn’t me, it was someone with the same name, who apparently looks very similar to me- and sounds kinda like me, and has the same scar… But it wasnt me!”, and better yet, how long would it take for “It wasnt me, it was someone who looked just like me” to become his go to excuse when doing something dumb or nice he doesn’t want anyone criticizing him about.

From @artduringclasstime

@thinkingwildthoughts This has me HOLLERING. "Altair! What in God's name were you thinking, killing those men without orders?!" Altair, visibly bloody: "I have No Memory of this. Must've been my lookalike. Bet he had a good reason, though." Meanwhile, Desmond sneezes from three cities over.

From @thinkingwildthoughts

@artduringclasstime Altair falls inelegantly from rooftop across form Malik like a flightless bird, 3 minutes later returns around the corner of another building covered in hay. “There was someone falling? Maybe I should investigate.”

From @adhdavinci

woke: desmond was actually altair all along bespoke: they are both around and run into each other like the spiderman meme every so often. neither knows who is the real altair at this point and theyre too afraid to ask

Altaïr had impeccable memory.

He had to. Al Mualim had told him again and again that it was vital to remember as much as possible. Whether it was to memorize the guards’ patrol route or to be able to recreate the target document word by word, it was sure to help him in his missions.

So Altaïr knew for a fact that he did not save a village from a crusader trying to ransack it.

He also knew that he did not kill a dreadful man preying on widows.

He also was not the ‘kind man’ that killed those ruffians that had been taking orphans and making them steal and beg money for them.

And, yes, he would remember if he helped an informant get to his target by pretending to be a Christian noble of all things.

That was not him.

Malik seemed to believe him.

But he also seemed to also not believe that the things done by this impostor was not Altaïr’s work. Because, according to him, ‘there were too many similarities, both in skill and stupidity’.

So Altaïr hunted his impostor down.

Desmond Miles.

That was the name the impostor swore was his real name.

Altaïr still doubted it though. The first time they met, he had called himself Ezio.

The second time they met, he had said his name was Ratonhnhaké:ton.

The third time they met, he said his name was Haytham then immediately corrected himself and said his name was Desmond.

After that, he always told him that his name was Desmond. Desmond Miles.

Desmond Miles was the only name he had that included a last name.

So Altaïr used it to his advantage.

Whenever he did something that was outside the scope of his mission, he told people he was Desmond Miles.

Whenever he had to deal with something annoying that may come and try to grab him from behind later on, he made sure to leave evidence that would point to a man named Desmond Miles.

Whenever people try to shower him with gratitude for things he did on a whim, he told them his name was Desmond Miles.

That impostor was making it harder for him to remain in the shadows so he would do the same.

Perhaps it was not his real name.

But it was the name that would be associated with him the most.

The first time he wanted to wrap his hand around the impostor’s neck and squeeze hard enough for him to gasp for breath and tears to fall from his eyes, it was because of what Malik had said with such casualness.

“I see you are still alive then.”

Altaïr tilted his head, wondering if this was a new tactic of his to annoy Altaïr.

It wasn’t working because he could hear less of a bite from Malik’s tone.

If anything, Malik sounded… sad.

Then again, maybe Altaïr being alive was something that Malik would find unfortunate.

“One of our informants swore they saw you die two days ago. I suppose that would be your im- Altaïr?! Altaïr! Where are you going!?”

“Desmond Miles.”

The way his shoulders tensed made it clear that his impostor knew why Altaïr had been hunting him all day.

“Heeeeyy, Altaïr…” He greeted as he turned to face him, holding a basket of warm bread in one hand.

With his other arm was bent close to his chest, wrapped around some kind of cloth that was tied around his neck. He could see the bandages peeking out of the cloth and his impostor’s sleeves. Seeing where Altaïr was focused on, the impostor opened his mouth but Altaïr was faster, grabbing him by the neck and lifting him up an inch above the ground.

He choked, most probably surprised by Altaïr’s sudden attack, but surprisingly relaxed after that. Altaïr could feel the way his throat moved against his hand.

He was controlling his breathing.

It was a stupid thing to do.

Anyone would tell him that the correct action was to find a way out of his current situation, not stay relax and wait.

For some reason, this infuriates Altaïr more.

“You are not allowed to die.” Altaïr growled.

His impostor blinked at him, his expression going from confusion before grinning as he said, “Wasn’t planning to.”

Altaïr squeezed him briefly.

A warning.

His mouth opened to let out a gasp. His cheeks reddened and he squirmed a bit before forcing himself to relax.

A part of Altaïr wanted to squeeze his neck once more.

He wanted to see more.

But he refrained himself.

He was not here to ‘harm’ his impostor.

He was here to remind him.

“As long as you use my name, you are not allowed to die.”

“Does that mean if I don’t use your name, you’ll let me die?” His impostor asked cheekily.

Altaïr pulled him close before he said calmly, “I will decide when you die.”

He let go of his neck and his impostor fell on the ground on his knees. He grabbed his chin and forced him to look up before he continued, “Your life is mine the moment my name left your lips.”

He pushed him lightly before walking away, “Heal that arm of yours before you do anything stupid.”

“You suck at this, Altaïr!” His impostor shouted behind him, “Just say you were worried, you asshole!”

Altaïr simply ignored him.

Worried?

What foolishness.

[Desmond Miles has successfully saved a Levantine village during the Third Crusaders after waking up in the past.]

Grateful civilian: Thank you, stranger! You have saved our village from the cruelty of war. May we ask who you are so we may know the name of our savior?

[Desmond Miles believes he cannot say ‘Desmond Miles’ because that might accidentally create a ripple effect in the future.]

[Desmond Miles believes he cannot use any of the names of the ancestors who haven’t been born yet especially the Kenways because of how important they are to his history.]

[Desmond Miles has not yet processed the shock of dying a painful death and waking up in the past and his brain is blanking.]

Desmond: Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.

[The people Desmond Miles have saved now believed their savior’s name is Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad.]

[Desmond Miles has committed identity fraud.]

[… and he will continue to commit identity fraud.]

[afroplatypus]

C7 for Regis, please :>

Dettlaff’s pack got in the greenhouse again.

From the expressions meme

[doctapuella]

HOWDY I AM HERE TO MURDER YOU AND @shelickedthebeater ENJOY 😁

MORGAN WHWRE ARE YOU LOOK AT THEMNNNNN

[thnxforknowingme]

Thank you to @forabeatofadrum for the tag (and for the bespoke memes, always)!

Progress is being made on my latest fic. Does it have a title? No. Is it littered with half-written scenes that will need to be heavily edited? Yes. Do I know what the plot is going to be? Mostly. (Have I already hit the minimum word count for the second wave of the bang despite being nowhere near done? Yes, but that's because of who I am as a person.)

Anyway here's a snippet from a scene that takes place in an orchard:

Rachel unzipped her saddlebag and pulled out a blanket for them to sit on, along with the lunch they’d packed, and they wandered through the trees to pick fresh apricots and plums to supplement their meal. They talked and laughed as they ate - Kurt and Rachel told stories about McKinley and the New Directions, and Blaine shared anecdotes about his own school choir, which seemed absurd and overdramatic in its own ways. Eventually Rachel wandered away to get some photos of the trees. Kurt reclined back on the blanket, looking up at the way the dappled afternoon light shone against Blaine’s face. He looked like…well, he looked like Prince Charming.

If anyone who isn't regularly tagged by @forabeatofadrum wants to get in on this action, please let me know! It's been so cool to see more people participating and I'd love to tag anyone else who's interested in sharing their WIPs!

[silentdescant]

A meme!

Fic authors fanworks creators self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you’ve written fanworks you’ve made, then pass on to at least five other writers creators.

Thanks @greedydancer for the tag!

I have too many very short and meaningless porn fics to think about this too deeply, so here's some that have made an impact on me.

Pride (Captive Prince - Damen/Laurent, 21k)

This is definitely something I'm proud of, partly for how easily it came together for me. I struggled toward the end as I always do with long fics (not literally the end, just the scenes I skipped and put off writing until the end), but for the most part, once I started writing, It just flowed! It felt amazing! And I really like Laurent in this fic.

Three Cheers for Tyranny (Bandom - Frank/Gerard, 57k)

A lot of people hate this fic, and I do get it. There's a main character death and it's incredibly sad. I have not actually looked through this fic in years, and I'm kind of scared to, but I just remember the process of writing it being really fun, and I had my first in person meeting with an online fandom friend during it and we walked all over the small town I was living in and she listened to me ramble on and on about my outline and she looked at my many pages of notes of my ideas and she helped me put my thoughts in order, and it just felt magical. And I stand by killing that character. I had her blessing. lol

Happenstance (Adam Lambert - Adam/Tommy, Adam/Tommy/Brad, 8k)

I feel like this one might be the fic that's most heavily influenced by my favorite fic of all time (the convergence series by shaenie), but that's just because I love the idea of kinky threesomes where they all relate to each other kind of differently and have to figure out how their kinks all fit together. It's super fun to think about and to plan out, and I think some of the sex in here is pretty great.

Bespoke (Teen Wolf - Stiles/Chris, 5k)

I just think the sexual tension in this one worked really well! It's another one that flowed surprisingly easily. I don't think they actually have sex in this? (sorry.) It's all about the UST. *ben wyatt meme*

Bright Star (Captive Prince - unrequited Laurent/Auguste, Laurent/Regent, 5k)

This is the very first Capri fic I wrote... literally the day after finishing reading the trilogy (I don't think I'd even read the short stories yet). It was one of those things that I just HAD to do IMMEDIATELY. Laurent was utterly fascinating to me and I just absolutely needed to explore his backstory. It's canon compliant-ish, about Laurent from childhood and through his various canon traumas, and I felt like the books just gave me so many ideas and this is just one of them. I like how this conceptualizes his backstory, it's uhhhhh angsty as hell. lol

Tagging some people whose tumblr names I can remember, and I left in the edited instructions for all fanworks, doesn't have to be fic! @deripmaver @alittledizzy @marrieddorks @jorzuela @ancelegance @thickenmyblood @heartsopenminds @sevensforasecret

[escriveine]

Good Day to you! For the ask meme, Her Imperial Serenity, Empress Teyla Emmagan, Leader Of The Athosians and Holder Of The Briancell please!

Ah, Teyla, my beloved! Thanks so much for the ask @sparrowsarus! ♥

Headcanon A:  realistic Teyla is an optimist. Not your garden variety willfully-blind-to-reality, magical-thinking-will-make-it-better optimist, but the bespoke kind who knows realistic optimism is a discipline, a moral and ethical position that refuses despair even in the face of tremendous odds, or daunting setbacks. Or even the appalling human tendencies to casual cruelty and unconsidered selfishness.

Headcanon B: while it may not be realistic it is hilarious When Teyla was young, the traditional Athosian martial arts weapon was a bantos staff. But Teyla was a small child who insisted on training with the older children because she wanted to learn everything, all at once, as soon as possible. The adults found it impossible to keep her away, even though she struggled to use a staff that was half again as tall as she was. One night, sawing noises were heard in the woods behind the training hut, but no one paid them much heed. The next morning, Teyla showed up to practice bleary-eyed, carrying a pair of neatly finished bantos rods which she then used to thwack 6 kinds of crap out of the meanest staff-wielding teen in the class.

Headcanon C: heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends Teyla was with her father (Tagan) when he was taken by the Wraith. In fact, she tried to tackle him out of the way of their culling beam, the way she did many years later with Ford, but Tagan sidestepped so they wouldn't both be taken. Bonus heart-crushing: the Wraith detected Tagan's altered DNA and killed him while the Hive was still in orbit, rather than preserving him for later feeding like the other Athosians. The Hive was still within Teyla's as-yet-unsuspected sensing range, so her nightmare that night wasn't a dream, but a real-time vision.

Headcanon D: unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own. At Torren's first birthday/public naming ceremony, his name officially becomes Torren Johrodnon Emmagan, so his middle name can be a portmanteau constructed from the names of all 3 of his 'godfathers'.

[theshitpostcalligrapher]

Doin one more callig stream on youtube before getting back to twitch

right so my account's been unsuspended for a week but just for safety's sake I'll do one more of the weekly callig streams on youtube

As on schedule, I'll be live on sundays (today) at 3pm EST.

if you’ve not been here for these before, welcome! Once a week I write out all 28 calligraphy requests from the backlogged list of requests live on air with some nice accompanying tunes so that I can preschedule all of ‘em to go up throughout the week

normally I’m on twitch with a bunch of fun little things you can redeem, song requests, and a variety of ways to donate for me to write calligraphy live for ya, but unfortunately due to either twitch glitching or malicious reporting, my account was suspended for a week the other week and I'm just staying off twitch for a little while.

so in the meantime, we’re gonna be live on youtube.

I’m not monetized on youtube so if anyone wanted to get anything written live (in whatever ink colour you’d like) it’s going to have to be through

paypal donation

or

kofi donation

thanks for the support folks, see you in 2 hours!

[skold]

i wanna thank @custer-mp3 for making me this bespoke meme for when i make you all view justin content you didn’t ask for

[rustyskateblade]

do you have thoughts on what the red wings "players favorite things basket auction" is telling us? including but not limited to... tyler bertuzzi's favorite things include bespoke ice cubes?

hi, i actually exclusively have thoughts about this topic ONLY now, thanks. (dis)honorable mentions include:

-jonathan bernier only having 3 things in his basket (but one of them is an autographed goalie stick so i’ll let it slide)

-don’t know how you could mention tyler bertuzzi’s ice balls and not the inexplicable item titled simply “What Do You Meme?”

-adam erne’s fortnite currency

-robby fabbri is a starbucks heaux pass it on

-thomas greiss’ was a wild ride from start to finish honestly but the one that i cannot get over is the book “never feed a yeti spaghetti” like?

-sam gagner with like 15 bottles of wine?? sir??

-filip hronek really said “i’m gonna put beer, wine, coca cola, nutella, m&m’s, and sour gummi bears but also some organic green tea to balance it all out”

-larkin’s was cute aw it’s all dog stuff but i especially loved that it also includes a little stuffed bernedoodle

-i somehow already knew anthony mantha’s candy preferences but being confronted with the words “sour melon bites” was really alarming. also he should go to jail for trying to auction off used gloves like i kno that’s not uncommon but it’s also so gross

-jon merrill?? that motherfucker who looks like joe dirt? has books? in his?? and ok this is actually an honorable mention because 2 of the books are “just ask!” by sonia sotomayor (hello?) and “between the world and me” by ta-nehisi coates (holy shit hello??) we love a woke well-read king

-vladdy namestnikov likes basic bitch scented candles spread the word

-all of the star wars stuff in troy stecher’s basket

-filip zadina man that bitch really loves dark chocolate

-HANDS DOWN FAVORITE OF ALL OF THIS is frans nielsen’s item “Large Glass Jar” PLWJEHSJ? i literally laughed so hard at this that i cried

[lambourngb]

7 sentence meme

I was tagged by @andrea-lyn a few days ago! Thank you. I was recently bullied back into working on cowboy!Michael - the lost decade prequel to LYW by @aewriting, @foramomentonly, @arielana, @haloud and @adiwriting - like they ganged up on me. Anyway.

This is more than 7 sentences.

from “prettier and younger but not any better off”

After dinner was served, to both staff and equines alike, the most peaceful place on the Foster Ranch was in the stable.

Michael’s alien metabolism meant he only needed a couple of hours to sleep. It was still too risky to head out in the cover of night to search the range for more pieces of the ship, so he was left with entirely too many idle hours to fill. There was ‘no such thing as a finished chore list’ according to Joe on a working farm and so, wide awake, Michael found himself in the tack room with a heavy saddle across his thighs trying to slow his thoughts down and fall into the tiring nature of work as he carefully cleaned the sweat and dirt from the well-worn leather.

 Joe. Michael closed his eyes in the darkened tack room, his hands coming to a halt on the saddle’s cantle. He still didn’t know what to make of the head rider. Every time those dark eyes were on Michael, he felt his spine go straighter, his stomach drew tight inside, and he just prayed that this time he would be able to see a hint of approval from the other man. Never in his life had Michael cared so much about earning a nod from someone. It was strange to feel envy for a horse, but Rocky always received a rub on his neck and a quiet word of thanks by Joe at the end of the day’s chores.

“Never seen someone clean tack with their brain before,” a voice broke in startling Michael. For one long terrifying moment he wondered if his telekinesis had slipped out of his control, but no, it was just Joe making a joke. It was as if his thoughts had summoned Joe, a worrying prospect considering his sister was the psychic alien of them and Michael couldn’t be sure if the ability was unique to her.

“Sorry, Joe, I’ll um, didn’t mean to--” Michael stuttered, his face heating up in response and returned to rubbing the tack with a soft sponge. He dipped it into the small bucket of water to dampen the sponge before wiping up a new dab of glycerin soap from the old battered yellow tin of Fieblings to apply against the saddle.

“Nothing to be sorry about, you’re basically off the clock.” Joe moved away from the doorway to step into the tack room and sat next to Michael on the narrow wooden bench. He frowned at the saddle that was in Michael’s lap, confusion adding to the deep lines that sun and weather had carved on his face. “That’s not even your gear you’re cleaning. That’s Paulie’s, did he put you up to this-”

The named ranch worker was one that frequently tried to find shortcuts or off-load his chores on the other men with wheedling or half-baked bets. Most of the bunkhouse crew knew to turn the other way when Paulie came sidling up to them at the end of the day for a ‘favor’, including Michael. Last year though, Michael had picked up a few of the half-done chores in hopes of making a good impression and earning a better paying promotion off of the grunt work line. It had worked, and now the extra work filled a different need.

There were only so many times Michael could refresh his email in the evening in the hopes of finding something from Alex. The last bounced email stayed on top of his inbox as he deleted spam around it and sent short responses back to Isobel carefully void of any mention of Max meant to keep her from worrying about him. Picking up incomplete tasks assuaged the loneliness that had moved into his heart at 17 like a heavy-footed upstairs stranger walking all hours of the night inside his head, or at least kept him so busy he didn’t dwell on it. 

“Nah, but the work needs to be done, and I was bored,” Michael replied vaguely to Joe. His skin prickled in awareness of the other man, seated close enough on the bench that his knee brushed Michael’s. He was reminded of his earlier thoughts about Joe, how confusing he found his responses to him and now as he kept his eyes carefully on the saddle, he couldn’t help but feel his heart start to beat faster under the man’s close regard of him. 

The hope of lulling his racing thoughts into quiet with the repetitive task was gone now, as he paused briefly to flex the tightness out of his left hand. Cleaning tack did not come close to playing music when it came to calming his entropy, even if it did come with its own satisfaction to see clean, restored leather bloom in rich brown tones as the dirt faded away.

Joe made a soft considering noise with his tongue at Michael’s non-answer, before reaching for the tack sponge. “All right, well let me show you a better way of doing that.” 

His hands were broad and tanned, with scattered knicks on his skin that bespoke of a man used to biting off the thumb of his protective work gloves to use his bare fingers in narrow but rough places. Michael swallowed hard, his mouth strangely dry, as he passed Joe the saddle soap and shifted the apron of the saddle to spread across their laps. 

“You gotta clean the sweat off with the grain of the leather, like this…” Joe demonstrated, using a slow circling method. “Work the soap up, until it’s got this creamy lather, then we wipe it clean with your dry cloth, okay? Like so,” he pressed the now-soapy sponge back into Michael’s left hand, carefully closing those crooked fingers around it, and then he guided Michael’s hand in the rhythm.

Fuck. It suddenly clicked inside Michael’s thoughts. He didn’t just want Joe’s respect.