#EDIT THIS WAS MEANT TO BE QUEUED OH WELL

[mmonsters-vs-aliens]

okay i don't want to clutter this blog up *too* much with my own "not really mva ocs but their adjacent Enough to be considered mva ocs" and i know people have mixed opinions on kinsonas, but I've been thinking about these two guys again. with the context of this blog and some small things I've mentioned about myself it's probably hopefully *somewhat* obvious who these two are based on!

Étoile (she/??/it) - the taller pink alien gal, is a manifestation of the scientist guy's like. consciousness or subconscious. Said scientist i just call "Doc" (he/??)

They're the same entity, at their core; a pink, shapeshifting slime monster, that Mostly came from space. There's a human element, which is why they still have a human "host" body. Étoile is also basically just Doc's impulsive thoughts (not like. intrusive thoughts) and she does things he usually hates, and shows a side of himself he'd rather not have anyone know about. God Forbid Women Do Anything.

On the topic of gender, Doc presents masc but is afab coded, and Étoile is femme but amab-adjacent; she has a deeper voice, but doesn't have an assigned gender because.. yknow ,, creature. "why not just swap bodies" the problem would remain! it's like. even with everything they would want about themselves, they would naturally kinda just go back to being themselves again. There's really only one person in both bodies, it's not really like "split consciousness" or anything. They are the same Guy, just the personality changes with the body, due to how they feel in the respective forms.

Doc is also capable of kinda melting/turning into a flesh monster, but hates that a lot. He has to stretch every so often and kinda accidentally morphs a bit. I don't have a proper name for them separately, or together, actually! maybe someday lol.

Étoile is also selectively mute , and covers where a second eye *should* be, and her mouth. She's incapable of changing certain things about herself, including her size and her more complex features (basically important organs, which I'm debating if she has or not)

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Plan

So the poll is still running, but I think I'm safe in saying there's sufficient interest, so I'm going ahead and typing up a "how we're going to do this" thing, which I will schedule to post after the poll ends properly. As of the time I'm writing this, over 500 people have voted for the "yes I want to draw things" option, and I had been expecting to get maybe a dozen, so we definitely have enough participants. Let's get started then:

Our Source

I had originally planned to translate an Old or Middle English bestiary, but haven't been able to find a good one -- the best option I was able to dig up only has thirteen critters, which I feel like isn't enough to really have fun with. I was debating the idea of translating a Latin one -- this would have been far more time-consuming since my Latin is terrible, but also I do need to practice it, so I figured it evens out -- when I found a solution that doesn't involve me spending hours and hours on translating.

It seems that when Aberdeen University created their digitized version of the famous Aberdeen Bestiary, they released it under a Creative Commons license. (Assuming I'm reading their copyright policy correctly; I'm not a lawyer.) It does not seem to specify whether the transcriptions and translations they attach to the scanned images are also covered by Creative Commons, but since all of those are already freely available online through their website, I can't imagine they would have a problem with me posting them here as long as I provide attribution (which I am hereby doing right here on this post) and am not using it for commercial purposes (which I am not).

The Aberdeen Bestiary is missing a few pages, but there exists a very similar manuscript, the Ashmole Bestiary (they're sometimes called "sister" manuscripts), which is not missing those pages. And I happen to have a translation of the Ashmole Bestiary in hardcopy on my bookshelf, so I can just use it to fill in the gaps. Edit: whoops, the one I have is the Bodley Bestiary. They are in the same bestiary "family", though, so it still works well enough. (I think that should qualify as "fair use", since I'm only taking excerpts and not using them commercially.)

The upside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that it means when I round up all the art of each critter, I can include their very nice illustrations alongside the reveal of what animal was being described.

The downside of using the Aberdeen Bestiary is that since it already is free online, people might be tempted to "cheat" by looking up the entries and finding out what animal they describe. For that, please see the next section...

Guessing the Animal

Guessing what animal is being described is not the point of the exercise. (Feel free to have theories and whatnot, but please keep them to yourself so as not to influence the artists.) If you see an entry and think, e.g., "oh that's describing a raccoon"*, and then you create a picture of a raccoon... well, you could have done a perfectly good raccoon at any point and didn't need this framework to do it. So just don't worry about what animal is meant, and do your best to draw (or paint or stitch or whatever else) based on the description! You're not getting ranked on accuracy and there are no prizes forthcoming, so... just have fun with it.

*Example chosen as something that will, for obvious reasons, definitely not be in a 13th-century European bestiary.

Edit after starting to type these things up: some of these are going to be super easy to guess, though, to the point where I don't know how possible it'll be to block out prior knowledge. Sorry about that.

General Procedure

I'm going to schedule a post every Monday (I'm thinking of queuing them for 6pm Eastern Time) with a new entry. It will be the translation of an entry from the Aberdeen Bestiary with all references to the animal's name replaced by a randomly-generated nonsense word. (Henceforth to be referred to as "nonsense-names". I'm Googling* each one before using them so I don't accidentally generate one that actually means something.) These posts will all be tagged maniculum bestiaryposting, so you can follow that tag if you want to make sure you see them.'

*Later Note: Did you know that if you search dozens of nonsense words within a short span of time, Google makes you prove you're not a robot? Repeatedly?

Anyone who wants to draw the critter being described should do so. (You are encouraged to describe your thought process re: why you've depicted it the way you have.) You can put it in its own post, or reblog the description with an image, or however you want to do it. Then tag your art with the nonsense-name I've given to the animal.This will let me and others find it. (You should probably employ copy/paste there to make sure the spelling is the same, since nonsense words are hard to spellcheck.)

A week after posting the bestiary entry, I'll go through that tag and round up all of the art contributed. Then I'll put the images in a big post (or series thereof, considering how many people might participate), along with an @ and a link to your original post.

If you want...

to not have your work included in the round-up post

to have only a link to your post included and not an image

to have me include a link to your website / other social media / etsy shop in addition to or instead of your tumblr

to have other information included alongside your work

anything else along those lines

... then just say so in your post and I will follow your instructions to the best of my ability.

I will also include, at the end of the round-up post, an image of the creature as depicted in the Aberdeen Bestiary and what it is actually called.

All posts I make on this will be collected at https://maniculum.tumblr.com/bestiaryposting so that people can look at previous ones without scrolling through the tag.

Various Notes

I'm going to trim out any religious digressions in the original entries -- bestiary authors had a habit of adding stuff like "and the raccoon is symbolic of god in such-and-such fashion, which teaches us...", and I just don't think that's relevant here.

The entries will also be presented in a random order. This is because they're sorted into categories in the original text, so if I don't change the order we're going to get stuck with, e.g., a few months of All Birds All The Time.

You should all be aware that the animals described are not guaranteed to be, you know, real. There are several entries describing animals that straight up do not exist -- some of which are mythical creatures familiar to most people, others of which are extremely obscure.

Explanations of the animal's name within the entries will be redacted.

If other animals are mentioned within the entries, they will not get replaced with nonsense-names. Originally, I was going to make the switch globally, so that if, e.g., the entry for "raccoon" read "a raccoon is about the size of a possum", and the random generator had decided that a raccoon was a balzikhear and a possum was a flunggrish, the "raccoon" entry would now read "a balzikhear is about the size of a flunggrish". However, I decided that it will cause more problems than it solves to obscure any comparisons to other animals -- so the name-switch is now localized only to the specific entry. A possum is a flunggrish only in its own entry, and remains a possum everywhere else.

I was originally going to do one post for every single entry, but there are a lot of them and they vary wildly in length & quality. So I've cut it down to exactly 52 posts, meaning that if I queue them up for once a week, this will run for roughly a full year.

Most of that cutting-down mentioned above was done by combining a bunch of the really short entries into categories -- the last half-dozen posts in this series will be group entries. You can choose to make art of any of them that strike your fancy, or do a group portrait, or just ignore them --I dunno, I'm not a cop, do what you want.

I did also directly cut some, mostly domesticated animals because there's a somewhat different approach to them based on author and audience familiarity.

So yeah, that should cover everything.

[sigslefthand]

Daily blessed official artwork of Carbuncle day 

Kirbybuncle 

His pose gives Kirby vibes

Kirby x Puyo Puyo would be such a cool crossover

Edit: OH CRAP THIS WAS MEANT TO BE QUEUED. Oh well

[incorrectbo-boboquotes]

Despite everything, it's still you.

Bu-bubu to Bo-bobo after not seeing him for years

[maxismatchccworld]

Patch Notes

PC: 1.73.48.1030 / Mac: 1.73.48.1230 Console: Version 1.40 Heya Simmers! Today we bring you a small but neat update, we hope you all enjoy it! We also hope you are all well wherever you are in the World, and thanks again for all your continued support and feedback. Chaucitos - Dag Dag! -SimGuruRusskii What’s New? In Create A Sim, we have updated two hairstyles and have converted them to be used with Children and Toddler Sims as well.

First, we have the beautiful pfHair_EF30TightCurls, cfHair_EF30TightCurls, and yfHair_EF30TightCurls as pictured below, including how it would look like if worn on a Male Frame pictured as ymHair_EF30TightCurls.

Then we have pictured below, including how it would look like if worn on a Female Frame pictured as yfHair_ShortTextured.

This author would like to apologize for her terrible photoshop skills in putting these together side by side. Very sorry… much photoshop! Getting better!

Now onto the fixes...

Bug Fixes Sims 4

Fixed an issue in which in the Gallery Preview pop-ups, Build Mode objects will now appear properly under the “Show Used Items” panel. Accuracy is the best policy… in this case.

We made some edits to some Career and School-related tooltips so they are consistent and clearer for Simmers.

The book cradleObject_GENBook is no longer visible to Simmers, it wasn't meant to be... it wasn't a pretty book. We didn't like doing it!

Some DEBUG pie menu options including some from Discover University and Snowy Escape were translated. We didn’t translate these, well since ever… as they were DEBUG and only accessible with a specific cheat, but we are working on them as we go now. Thanks for your reports and patience!

We discovered that Sims were becoming uncomfortable when Gathering Water… we didn’t really understand why, so we decided to have them not be uncomfortable. Let them feel how they want to feel, I say.

Ghost Sims will now appear as Ghosts in CAS. There were moments that they made us take a second look there, but nope, they are Ghosts and Ghosts they shall display as. I think I saw this as a plot for a movie… Ghosts… a machine, a dance… ANYWAY.

As always this editor and the Localization team made some adjustments and perfected some of the text in-game across all packs and previous updates. #getit

Get Together

Social Panel will no longer default to the incorrect tab. What tab was I on? Now I will always know.

City Living

Vegetarian Sims will no longer mistakenly eat non-vegetarian leftovers from the refrigerator. Not funny guys!

Fixed an issue that didn’t let the DigiRAD Keyboard make a sound when choosing Keyboard Auto Play.

Cats and Dogs

Listen, I think every species - well everyone, has the right to find love. But we did have to fix an issue with Female Cats going into Heat despite being Spayed. Even so, I hope my lovely Spayed Female Felines will still find love out there.

Seasons

Oh the rain, such a poetic moment from nature. Sitting cozied up with a blanket and a cup of coffee watching the world go by with the melodious sound of the raindrops falling lightly on the ground… wait… is that a Sim showering outside? Yes indeed! Showering in the Rain is possible in Light Rain conditions.

Fish Dinner will now be counted for completing Grand Meal Holiday Events.

Similarly, Shower in the Rain has been fixed for Simmers who have installed Eco Lifestyle, making the most of every resource available!

All soaps used are biodegradable - we promise!

Snowy Escape

Create A Sim asset yfBody_EP10CoatDenim will no longer create an issue with all knee-high boots. Though those boots were made for walking, the dress needs to look fabulous too. My opinion, allegedly.

Child Sims will no longer get the Unblessed sentiment after getting Blessed at the Youth Festival. Children should only get the Unblessed sentiment if they ask Yamachan about a Voidcritter Hunt and also avoid getting the Blessing of Youth from an Adult Sim as well. #Blessed

Extreme Sports enthusiasts will now be able to complete High-Intensity Skiing or Snowboarding on Intermediate or Expert Slopes. Good luck!

Recipes from this pack will now appear when unlocking Gourmet Cooking Skill Levels. Particularly Levels 3 and 5. Yum.

Sims will no longer freeze when performing interactions from a computer in Mt. Komorebi, specifically 2-4-2 Wakabamori. I think I saw this in a movie once… but… had a less “happy ending.

Discover University

Fixed an issue in which the icon for the trait Mental Magister appeared to be a Placeholder icon. Or was it?

Progressing in the Law Career will now unlock Promotions appropriately. Keep up the good work!

Eco Lifestyle

Fixed an issue in which the icon for the Making with a Mentor Moodlet was not showing the correct icon.

Eco Lifestyle-specific Traits are now added to the Clubs choices if Simmers have Get Together installed.

Collecting Beetle Nuggets will now be possible when Beetles are ready. Bon Appetit.

Outdoor Retreat

Veggie Dogs and Hot Dogs will be able to be roasted in Campfires once again. Iconic.

Vampires

Is your Vampire Sim tired of drinking the same old regular Plasma? Are they drinking it to the point that they can no longer tell if it is Plasma anymore? Ugh, such a hard diet, right? I can relate…ahem... Vampire Sims will now enjoy a more varied diet of Fish, Frog, and yes… Regular Plasma when left to their own devices.

Tiny Living

Tiny Homes will no longer magically get clean and have Dust Bunnies disappear (if Simmers own Bust the Dust) when Sims travel or Simmers reload the game. Man, I wish my apartment would magically get clean like that though.

Nifty Knitting

Fixed an issue in which the expiration timer for items listed on Plopsy was not appearing.

Paranormal

Haunted House Residential Lots will now enjoy the presence of Dust Bunnies and Fiends if Simmers also have Bust the Dust. Dust Bunny goes Boooooo.

Bust the Dust

Your Sims had a lot of things to do today, but you know what they did instead? They Vacuumed the Lot. It was a really good clean. Cooking? Vacuumed the Lot. That Gig? Vacuumed the Lot. What about those push ups? Vacuumed the Lot. Reading? Vacuumed the Lot. Looking at this bug? We made time for that. The end of this bug? Released with this Patch. Sims will no longer randomly drop their queued tasks for Vacuuming.

[atsunflower]

Rated: SFW

Author notes: *sigh* for the third time the damned app ate up the tags. This one took me too long and I'm excited for write about my man suna again. This is also pretty different from what I'm used to write, but why not? Please enjoy your reading.

Warnings: cursing, substance usage/mentions, break-ups and me trynna be funny.

I – Cancel me.

Previous || Next

He looked at them with expectation as the beats smoothly faded, indicating the song's ending. 

If he were to be honest, the pair before him was a pain in the ass, but their opinion was that important because, when it came to music, they were the best at it. He felt no shame nor jealousy in admitting it.

"Dunno, the hook sounds like a Vice headline ta me." The bleach-haired male said, hearring the song's outro blaring through the studio speakers.

"Isn't it a Kid Milli reference, tho?" The other asked while munching a chip. He frowned at them, not understanding their point.

"Whatever. You two are no help anyways." Hearring their bullshit, the brunette already regretted this collab. He paused the queued song, turning to the other two with a blank stare.

The twins before him snickered, knowing they successfully hit a nerve. They couldn't help it, provoking Suna was one of their favorite hobbies.

"The song is good, but I gotta tell ya this butt hurt phase of yers is pretty lame." The faux-blond opened his mouth again, spinning around the studio with the desk chair. 

"Fuck you, Atsumu" He snapped, almost giving in to the desire of decking them both on the face.

"Tsumu's right, ya Lil Peep wannabe. Can't believe this break up ended up that bad." Osamu said in mockery, throwing the empty Lay's wrapper at him. He scoffed, disposing the wrapper on the bin before getting back at the screen to look at the FL studio interface.

"It's not that I have a broken heart. I just wanna know what's wrong with my life" He shrugged, blindly tacting over the desk in search of his Juul.

"Yeah Samu, he's just grieving over those fancy ass Dior Jordans. Sunarin is incapable of mundane things like a broken heart." His blond friend was partially right.

Suna Rintaro was many things: alt model, music producer, cloud artist and a decent volleyball player that almost went pro. But if there was something he could never be, it was a lucky man on love matters.

With his fair share of failed relationships, the artist could never pinpoint when things went wrong. It would always be the same: he would meet a girl, they would have a good time and then, the chick would turn out demanding as fuck.

In the end, every single one of them would slap him across the face and leave his life banging the front door shut like crazy — last week, it was Mika who broke things off, but not before setting his limited edition pair of jordans on fire. He would never get over those sneakers.

"Good for him, those kicks were kinda ugly." Osamu said in a bored manner. Suna felt his soul leaving his body.

"The hell, Osamu?" He was ready to fight, deeply offended by the attack at his taste in fashion.

"Yo, you two." Atsumu butted in, checking something on his phone "Y'all are drifting away from our problem."

"That is?" The other brother asked.

"Cheer up Sunarin before he fucks up with the Album." If Suna had the energy, he would kick both Miyas out of his studio "And I gotta the perfect thing. Let's hang out at Akagi's tonight, he just invited us." The already distressed musician felt the soul leaving his body for the second time that afternoon. He was sure both twins wished his death.

"Not a fucking chance. Last time I went there I almost died because of that weird stuff we smoked." 

"Aw, Sunarin, Kita'll be there too." The faux-blonde tried to persuade. The mention of their older, responsible and straight edge friend made Suna look at them with interest. But he needed more, though. Based on the last experience, he didn't have the will to risk his life going to Akagi's house once again. A shiver descended his spine as the male recalled how much he threw up that night.

"Suna, man, I gotta agree with Tsumu. Yer feelings are showing in your music." Osamu said as if he was some kind of genius.

"Isn't art about it, tho?" He deadpanned "Expressing feelings and shit?" He asked, staring them dead in the eye. The males before him shivered because of its intensity. Suna snickered.

"Man says art, but most of his songs are about the Nikes on his feet and the Tesla in his garage." Atsumu mocked "What the fuck?" The blonde barely dodged the moleskine thrown at him.

"Don't chew on me when you do the same, asshat. This is called character development." As unnerving the twins were, he felt a whole lot better in their company "Just lemme produce my sad stuff in peace."

"Cut us some slack, ya dumbfuck. We're just worried about ya." Osamu protested " 'Sides, no wonder no girl sticks by yer side. You know what the chicks find sexy? Seizing the means of production, not yer dumb car."

"You two are so la—" The musician was interrupted mid sentence, startled by the blond figure clutching his phone with enthusiasm.

"Oi Samu," Atsumu's loud voice startled the other two, as he excitedly fisted the air.

"What the fuck?" Suna asked, dropping the Juul on the floor.

"She'll be there tonight." The blond said, looking at his brother with a new wave of joy.

"The fuck? She who?" The brunette frowned.

"Ya gotta go and find out, man." The gray haired twin said with a knowing smile, matching his brother's excitement.

The night out felt somewhat draining. The booze, the music and the company were great, but his lack of energy was a mood killer.

Cheer me up my ass, Suna cursed internally as he observed everyone getting wasted all over the place. He grimaced at the sight, realizing the meeting with the twins was enough social interaction for the day.

He didn't know what's gotten into him. The male knew it wasn't necessarily caused by the break up, but he couldn't help the feeling down.

Right now, life just felt lowkey suffocating. 

Being a public figure meant being under the spotlights the most of time.

People talked.

People assumed.

Media was all over him, ready to catch a scandall.

And of fucking course his name was on gossip headlines. It even occupied a spot on twitter trending topics for a day or so.

"Fuck me." He said before the lukewarm beer went down his throat.

"Sunarin!" He heard Atsumu shouting from his right "I want you to meet someone!" And only now he noticed the blond had his left arm over a girl's shoulders.

Oh, that's the one they were talking about, maybe? the brunette realized. What's the hype, tho? He asked himself, eyeing your figure.

"[Name], this is Suna. Sunarin, this is [Name], best girl ever and the mastermind behind the visuals of mine and Samu's last album" The bleach-haired male said with a proud smirk, ruffling your hair. You were obviously shy.

How cute, the brunette thought.

"Dumbass, don't embarrass me in front of others!" You nudged the Miya with your elbow "Nice to meet you, I saw your name on TMZ last week—" You said beaming and he grunted.

I take it back. Not cute at all, the man internally screamed, not ready to talk about the recent events. He didn't even want to listen to the rest of your speech, your cheery voice went through his ears in a white noise.

"And this makes me really excited for your album. The interview about the collab with dumb and dumber was lit." You continued, the words were genuine and you seemed really interested "And I also relate on a spiritual level because I know working with them is hell."

Oh, she's talking about the album. He realized in relief.

"Yo, I heard good things about you too. The design of their album was hella sick, even though they two suck ass." Suna snickered when he heard Atsumu protesting. You only left out a giggle, joining him on the teasing.

The blond kept ranting about how bad of friends the two of you were.

"I didn't introduce y'all ta gang up on me. Bye, I'm finding another company. Ya two suck." The blonde Miya said, leaving only you and Suna in the sofa area.

"Uh, so…" He drifted off, trying to start some small talk

"Yeah..." You both giggled at the awkwardness "Not enjoying the night?"

"Too much happening right now. Lots of people talking shit 'bout me." He sipped the beer, grimacing at the stale taste of the drink "Hope they cancel me already. So all this shit dies down." Suna looked away, suddenly shy for opening up to a stranger.

"You're a famous guy and the break-up wasn't that scandalous. It'll be over eventually, just beware the sneaker cult." Your amusement was comfort enough. You didn't make intrusive questions about the events and merely joked it off. He felt so worn out by the situation but, at least, your presence wasn't overbearring.

"How is it everyone knows about the jordans?" You shrugged it off, laughing at the distressed face he mocked. Sighing in relief, Suna couldn't deny how refreshing your presence was. Not to be a jerk, but usually, the girls either were all over him or judged every single move he made. You were just that easygoing.

"Well, I don't think you came here to sulk on the sofa all night long. Why don't we join them by the pool and down some shots?" You hopped off of your seat, pointing to the glass doors. All the boys were waving at you two and suddenly, Suna felt a wave of joy run down his body.

Atsumu was right. Best girl ever.

At some point of the night, everything became about you.

All he could hear was the sound of your voice and all the time, his eyes were drawn to your figure. He couldn't figure out a reason for it, but the rapper wasn't complaining either.

A sharp pang at the side of Suna's head broke the trance he was in. Osamu had a shit eating grin on his face, eyeing the ravenette with amusement.

"We told ya so." The younger twin mused whilst he handed a long neck of vodka to the other.

"Stop. This is dumb."

"Yer dumb. But you ain't that dumb ta dare ta mess with her." The gray-haired Miya squinted at him, menacingly pointing the bottle in his hand at the brunette. The latter shrugged it off, opening his drink.

"Nah, I'm good." And he meant it.

But how could he explain the situation he was in?

Lips and hands wandered over the expanse of his skin. Everything was too hot and too good at the same time. Overwhelming, even.

He wanted more, more and more. There wasn't enough of you.

And if it wasn't unfair enough, his body felt lethargic. He was desperate, but couldn't keep up with the rhythm you imposed. Be it the alcohol or the stress, his body gave up and blacked out, even before you could undress each other.

In the morning after, a pounding headache woke him up. Suna didn't dare to open his eyes, but the morning breath fanning over his face was unbearable.

"I can't believe a cutie like you have a stinky breath like this." The complaint came out in a raspy voice, accompanied by an annoyed grunt.

Someone snickered on the other side of the room.

"Man, I didn't know you had the hots fer Samu." Atsumu was somewhere across the room, laughing at him.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Hearing the other, Suna's body jolted, dizziness made his head spin in the process. He felt sick in the stomach and the morning light made his eyes sting. "When did I get back here?" The male looked around, realizing he was sprawled over Akagi's floor, right beside Osamu, who didn't even squirm at the loud voices in the room.

"What do ya mean? We never left" Atsumu frowned, uncaping a water bottle he was holding "Ya puked on Kita and passed out. The boys were too wasted ta drag yer sorry ass back home so we all crashed here." The blonde was dumbfounded, trying to figure out how wasted Suna got last night.

Suna wanted to know too. After all, there was no way the events envolving you were a product of his drunk mind.

facts:

• Suna's artist name is yosemite.

• He has a Tesla Model S because of Frank Ocean.

• He takes his Nikes very seriously.

• No, not all of his songs are about the car and the kicks.

• He and the Miya twins got a sports scholarship because of volleyball, but they dropped out of school to make music.

• The three of them created Inarizaki, the label they're making music under. Kita and Aran manage it.

• Both Miya twins are beatmakers and music producers. They recently debuted as artists and now are making a collab EP with Suna, thus Atsumu's concern about the album.

[bqstqnbruin]

Teach Me Something

I am slowly but surely making my way through the requests that I have and I am sorry that I suck at writing them, but here this is. Also, ignore the fact that this can’t actually happen how I have it set up, but I started writing the beginning and really liked it and then looked up more information about the Stampede and didn’t want to change it (don’t judge me).

Thank you, thank you, thank you to @luvsherleafs​ for reading through this and helping me figure this out, you are an absolute angel human and I appreciate you.

Here is the original request! Hope you like this!

EDIT: Read the other parts: part 2 // part 3 // part 4

__________________

“Alright, I need you guys to start cleaning up, the bell is going to ring in five minutes! Beakers in the cabinets, lab goggles away, paper towels in the garbage. Lab calculations are due at the start of tomorrow’s class, and you have your nuclear quiz when?” you yell to your students as they finish up their lab.

“Wednesday,” some of your students answer.

“Cooper and Eugenie, when is the quiz?” you say louder, trying to get two of your students to stop distracting each other.

“Wednesday,” they chorus, the rest of their classmates running around the room trying to get everything away. 

“That’s right!” you say with a smile, trying to keep your teacher face on for the last few minutes. It was the end of the day, and you had to get home and change before you went over the Stampede for the show that night. What sucked, was that instead of doing just a July week of shows, they decided it would be fun to do a preview night for some groups in March in some tent instead of outdoors like normal, overlapping with your school year. 

The bell rings, your students scrambling to get out the door. “Bye, guys, see you tomorrow,” you say as they scurry out, saying things like ‘thank you, bye Ms. Y/L/I, see you tomorrow.’ You sit down at your desk, letting out a long sigh as the sound of students in the hallway gets louder from chatter, lockers, and overall high school chaos. Going through your lesson for tomorrow, you get lost in typing out your plan that the administration wanted to see, finishing the worksheets that you needed to print, and figuring out what other prep you needed to do before leaving for the day. 

You lean back in your desk chair, debating whether or not you should send the worksheets to the printer now and make the 100 or so copies you needed, or come in and do it during your prep that you had first period tomorrow. “Hey Ms. Y/L/N, any chance you could tell me about capillary action?” you heard a familiar voice say from the doorway. 

“Considering you learn about that in Biology and I teach Chemistry, I would say no,” you laugh, getting up to go greet your boyfriend, closing the door behind him as he steals your desk chair. “The US education system failed you, didn’t it?”

“Well, it’s not like I paid attention in science anyway,” he shrugs, “But what are you doing tonight?”

“I’m out tonight,” you say. You and Matthew had only been dating for about two months, and you still hadn’t brought up that you were one of the dancers with the Stampede. You didn’t know why; it just never came up. “Why, what did you have in mind?”

“The guys and I were going to go out for some Flames promotion thing, I wanted you to come.”

“If you guys go out after ten, I can try to catch up with you, but I also need sleep with school tomorrow,” you say as he pouts. You also needed more money, but that wasn’t something you were about to tell him. You ruffle his curly hair, him swatting your hands away as the pout turns to a smile. “You can come and make copies with me if you want. You have to wait to leave right now anyway, the buses are still outside,” you tell him, sending the documents to the printer down the hall. 

“Do I get to press the buttons?” he asks like a child, getting up to follow you down the hall.

You start walking, the sound of your heels echoing through the hallway as Matthew trails behind you, some of the students trying to figure out what he was doing in their school in the first place, him not knowing where he was going with you. “No, the thing is ancient and I don’t trust you not to break the one copier on this floor because then I’m the one who’s responsible for fixing it.” He starts to pout again, following you into the room with the copier. “Ok, then do you want to fix it when it stops working?” 

“That would end well for no one,” he says, looking down at his shoes. 

You can’t help but laugh as you go to start making the first set of copies that you needed. You sit down at the table in the center of the room, taking Matthews fidgeting hands in yours. “So, how did you even get into the school, to begin with? I didn’t know you were coming to tell the office.”

“You’d be amazed by what you can do when you’re a professional athlete. I just said I was visiting you and they told me I could go once the bell rang,” he shrugs. 

“That is an issue on so many levels,” you say, him just smiling and kissing the back of your hand. 

“Eh, well. Are you sure you can’t come out with us tonight? The guys love you and I think you’d have a really good time tonight.” 

You hear the copier stop, groaning as you get up to make the next batch. You could have just queued them all up at once, but that would make the copier angry. “What are you guys doing?” 

“It’s Flames night at the Stampede, so a bunch of us are going.” 

You stop what you’re entering into the copier, thankful that your back is facing Matthew. You should just tell him you were going to be there tonight, too. If you told him you were going to be there with other friends from work, that wouldn’t be a lie. Why weren’t you telling him in the first place? Maybe it was because you were slightly upset that you had to have two jobs just to make ends meet while he was living a life of luxury on one paycheck. But at least both jobs were ones that you loved, so that made things a little better. “Oh, cool. I’ve never seen one of the shows there, actually,” was all you could get out. That wasn’t totally a lie; you couldn’t see the show when you were in it.

“See, more of a reason why you should come out with us tonight!” 

“I said maybe. That’s not a no. Now come on, I need to get home,” you hand him the stacks of paper to bring back to your classroom.

“Can we at least do something tomorrow night?” he pleads, putting the papers down on your desk. 

“I need one copy of these in the yellow and orange folders and one copy of this one in the pink folders, and one copy of this in the blue folders,” you instruct him while you check to see if you have another rehearsal or anything that you need to be at tomorrow night. “But what do you want to do tomorrow night?” 

“Uh, well, I was planning on getting in an early workout with Noah and Johnny the next morning since we have a late flight to Colorado so nothing that involves anything late,” he says, trying to concentrate on putting one piece of paper into each folder. “Why do you do this again?”

“Nothing late is the best, so I’m down for whatever.” That also, hopefully, meant that it was something that involved little to no money being spent, “And it helps me know who is missing that day or just didn’t take their papers and it helps them make sure they get their papers. I put them out before each class and they take them when they walk in.” He just shrugs, not completely understanding the method to your madness, but it worked for you and your students, so who cared? “How much time do you have before you have to meet the guys?” You ask him, even though you really don’t have time yourself. 

“I gotta run; this was the only time I had to see you, so I wanted to come by,” he says, putting the folders in neat piles, handing them to you. 

“That’s so sweet. I feel like we haven’t gotten to see each other a lot lately, with the season picking up and all.” You put the folders on one of the counters in your room, dropping the two on the top.

As you bend down to pick them up, you hear Matthew exhale, “Is it bad that all I can think of is picking you up and doing some very bad things to you on that counter?”

You turn around, pretending to be disgusted. “Matthew! The students leave their water bottles here!” you squeal, thankful that your classroom door was closed since students were still roaming the halls. “That might be something we can do tomorrow night, just not on this counter.” You pack your computer in your bag, grabbing that, your keys, and Matthew’s hand to drag him out of the school before he says anything else that shouldn’t be said around children. 

“Can I at least kiss you in the parking lot?” he whines.

“Nope, my spot and therefore my car faces the track, some of my advanced kids are on the track team and I do not need them bringing up my romantic rendezvous with my boyfriend in class tomorrow and for the rest of the year. But where are you parked?”

“I ubered. Can I get a ride?” he says, giving you the puppy dog eyes that always made you say yes to him.

“Get in, pain in the ass.” You drive him home, the entire drive spent with him constantly begging you to go upstairs with him, but you really did have to get home and change. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Your place or mine?” 

“Your pick, just text me when you decide,” he says, leaning over to give you a kiss. “Wait, are we far enough away from the school for you to kiss me now?” he teases, ghosting your lips as a mischievous smile dancing across his face. 

“Shut up and kiss me,” you say, taking his face in your hands, kissing him instead. 

“Are you sure you can’t come upstairs for just a minute?” he begs once he pulls away, his forehead against yours.

You wanted to, but he did say he had to run and you definitely had to get home and change. Looking at the clock out of the corner of your eye, you had about an hour to get home, get ready, and get over to the grounds before the parking was so full that walking from your car to the grounds would be considered your warm-up. “I’ve really got to go,” you say.

“Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, though,” he says, giving you another quick kiss before getting out of your car. 

“Yeah, bye,” you call as he runs inside. You did have to tell him eventually that you had another job, but he was going to find out tonight anyway. Would he be mad that you kept something like this from him, especially when he told you that he was going to be there tonight and you stood there and didn’t say anything? 

You spend your entire drive home freaking out a little. This is a pretty big part of your life that you hid from him, especially since dancing has been part of your life for as long as you could remember, but you just couldn’t figure out how to tell him you needed a second job to live. What if he hates you because you’ve been keeping part of your life a secret from him? No, he couldn’t hate you, could he? Not for something like this. In all your freaking out, you completely mess up your makeup. Frustrated and in a hurry, you now had to completely redo your face in what would be record time, or be late enough that you risked walking a mile from your car.

You restart your makeup, deciding that you were going to do as little as possible, only to be distracted by your friend Rory's face popping up on your phone with an incoming call. “So is your hunky boyfriend going to be at this thing tonight?”

“Hello to you, too. And yeah he told me he was coming.”

“So he knows you’re going to be there?” 

You hear her drop something on her end, which is perfect since it gives you time to avoid her question, pretend not to hear it as your finish your face and try to run out the door. “Sorry, Ror, didn’t catch that, I’m running out the door to my car,” you tell her. 

“That translates to: no, I didn’t tell him.” 

“Well, he’s not stupid, he’ll be able to figure out it’s me when he sees my face. It’s not like I look that different when I have makeup on.” 

“You could call him and tell him right now.”

“Nope. He’ll find out when he gets there if he even notices.”

“Alright, love. Just make sure you find me after he freaks out,” she says, hanging up. He wouldn’t freak out, right? It’s not like you were lying per se, you were just not telling him the truth of things. He might be a little mad about not telling him exactly where you were going tonight, but none of what you told him was wrong: you were out with people you worked with. You just didn’t say you were going to actually be at work. 

You spend your entire ride trying to justify to yourself why you shouldn’t be freaking out over tonight, which then inadvertently caused you to freak out anyway. After parking what felt like a mile away and pretty much running to the room where you got ready, Rory is standing at the door, waiting for you. 

“Come here, I’m finishing your makeup.”

“I finished my makeup!” you protest as she takes you by the hand and drags you in front of a mirror.

“If your boyfriend is coming tonight, then you need to look better than that.” 

“He came to my classroom earlier and I almost never wear makeup to school. I look fine.” 

“Eyes closed,” she instructs. You do as she says. You can hear the crowd coming in to watch the show that you were about to put on for them. You were in the opening act, one in the middle, and then the end, so you had plenty of downtime to worry, pace, and freakout, while trying to remember your routine and get a headstart on your lessons for next week. “I don’t understand why you’ve spent this entire time dancing here with us and then dating him for what, two months now? And he still doesn’t know that much about you? Like I understand keeping mystery in the relationship to keep everything exciting, but this seems like basic information that should have been shared. It’s not like you’re doing something illegal.”

“If my eyes were open, I’d be rolling them at you,” you mutter. You didn’t need a lecture from her about this. You were already well aware of the fact that this was something you should have told him, but what could you do about it now?

“I’m just saying,” she starts again.

“Yes, I know, I know. You have been just saying since I first showed you his picture.” Thankfully, she stops talking, finishing your makeup in less time than you thought it would take. You can hear your phone buzzing in your bag, Matthew’s face lighting up your screen. “Hey, what’s up?” you ask, trying to change while also holding the phone to your ear. 

“Just wanted to say hi before the show started,” you hear him say, the guys screaming in his ear about him already being whipped. “Shut up,” he yells at them. “I thought I saw your car in the lot, though. Did you and your friends end up coming here or something?” 

Shit. You hear someone calling that it was almost time for the show, everyone needing to get ready to be in their place as you struggle to get your other shoe on. “Fuck, sorry, I have to go. I’ll talk to you later, bye!” you spit out, hanging up before he can say anything else. 

“Ready to be exposed?” Rory asks, getting next to you with the lights out.

“That’s what she said,” you slip in, the music and lights coming on, blinding you instantly as you went into the routine like it was something you were born to do. At one point in the routine, you’re off to the side, out of the spotlight and giving your vision enough time to see the audience, make out their faces and see who was paying attention and who was on their phone and trying to hide you. You glance to the left, seeing a sea of red, each man wearing the familiar C logo that you were suddenly mortified to see. You spotted Matthew’s curls instantly, thankful that you weren’t able to tell if he could see you or not since you had to go back under the light, erasing the outside world from you. 

The routine ends, you running back to where you get ready to see your phone lighting up with texts from Matthew.

Hey, what the hell?

Anything you need to tell me?

I’m going to be by your car once this is over. 

Fuck, fuck, fuck. He was mad. He was breaking up with you. This was it; your best relationship was over before it really got started. You should have just told him. Why didn’t you tell him? “Did he see you?” Rory asks, breaking you out of the trance you forced yourself into. 

“Yep, and he’s mad. After tonight I’m going to be single again, so that’s fun.”

“Well, Ryan’s had a crush on you since you started here, so there’s always him.”

“Rory!” you yell, trying to tell her she’s not helping without actually saying so. 

“Are you going to be ok to go on?” she asks, sitting you down on the floor with her. 

“I don’t know. I just want to talk to Matthew,” you admit. You can feel yourself start to cry, the commotion of everything around you muted as she just looked at you.

“Hey,” she says, putting her hand on your knee, “Why didn’t you tell him?”

You take in a deep breath, shaking your head because of how dumb the real reason is. “Do you know what it’s like to date someone who makes so much money that he can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants financially? I’m not mad about it, it’s just difficult when I have to work two jobs to make ends meet and that’s just not something he has to worry about. He always wants to go out with the guys and begs me to come but then I’m sitting there with like, ten dollars to my name meanwhile all of he and all of his friends can buy the bar if they wanted to and still have enough money to jet off to Australia or somewhere.”

“If he really likes you, then that kind of stuff shouldn’t matter. His first clue that you didn’t have a lot of money should have been when he found out you were a teacher.” You shoot her a look, “Ok, ok, but you know I’m right. From what you’ve told me, he just wants you to be happy. Go talk to him.”

“But the show?” 

“I’ll find your partner and tell him not to go on unless he can find you first. Ok?” Rory says, picking you back up off the floor, “Go to your man.”

You send him a text to meet you out by your car as soon as he can. You beat him to the car, pacing back and forth in front of the hood. You see him walking towards you, your heart beating like crazy. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” you blurt out to him before he can even get a word in.

His eyes meet yours, his lips pressed into a thin line. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

You just shrug, trying to figure out the words to say. “It never came up? I don’t know. I should have. It’s not a big deal, I just have to work the two jobs to make ends meet, especially since this is normally during the summer when I don’t have school and I can get a paycheck and I told you that I’ve been dancing since I was like three, I just left out the part about me still dancing and I’m sorry are you mad?” you let out all in one breath. 

He shrugs back, his hand in his jean pockets as he kicks a pebble back and forth with his foot. “That’s not the real reason. I know you well enough, Y/N, you’re not a good liar.”

 “You have everything. I have to struggle to make ends meet, and even doing this, it’s still tough. I love both of my jobs; I was always worried that I would have to choose between teaching or dancing, and yes I have to do both in order to survive, but I would do both even if one was enough. I’m sorry,” you say again.

“This isn’t something that’s going to work if we keep things from each other. I mean, what if I had a secret family? I mean, the guys know who you are, too. What do you think it was like having them see my girlfriend dancing out there and me sitting there like an idiot not even knowing this was something you do?” he counters, his hands starting to wave around with frustration.

“Not telling you about a job is a lot different than you keeping a whole family from me. It’s not like this is some sort of scandal, this is something that I’m insecure about, I don’t know what else to tell you. Sorry I made you look slightly stupid in front of your friends.” you turn away from him, starting to go back inside when he grabs you by the arm, turning you towards him. 

He bites his bottom lip, face scrunched like he’s trying to figure out what he’s going to do next. “This is something that makes you happy?” 

“Yeah.”

“What about teaching?”

“Same feeling.”

“Then that’s all I care about. Come on, you think I would be angry that you had two jobs, or something? I would be angry if you had two jobs and you hated both of them. You’re doing what you love. Every time you talk about what you did at school that day, your eyes light up and I don’t even think you realize how much energy you get just thinking about your students and I feel so proud to be with someone who’s so passionate about what they do. If you’re like that about this, then oh my, god, I think the guys are going to kill me for talking about you so much.”

“Aw, you talk about me to the guys?” 

The line in his lips turns into a small smile as he moves towards you, pulling you closer to him. His hand finds the small of your back, lips close enough that you’re sure he’s about to kiss you. “Are you kidding? I don’t shut up about you.”

“I talk about you a lot here, but if I did that at school my Principal would get very angry at me for not teaching.”

“Damn, your kids would go wild if they knew you were sleeping with one of their favorite athletes.”

“Yeah, and I would be fired for telling them and also lying to them since their favorite player is Sean.” 

He pulls away, a shocked look on his face, “I’m better than Monny,” he says, acting like he’s hurt. You throw your head back laughing as he pulls you closer to him. “Is it bad that I’m still thinking about fucking you on the counter in your classroom but now you’re wearing this?” 

“How about somewhere that my students don’t have access to and I wear one of your jerseys instead?”

His eyes grow wide before he closes them, obviously thinking about it, “Fuck,” he lets out, his face going towards the sky. “Please do.”

“Calm down there, Tkachuk, you still have the rest of the show to get through first.” 

[everybodyscupoftea]

rockin around the christmas tree

pike jj x reader

you and jj decorate your first apartment together

this is in the future when you and jj are in nashville :)

(warnings: cursing, implied drinking, very very little editing)

At the words, “I’ve never really decorated a tree before,” you knew immediately that you were going to go all out for JJ. You knew his childhood wasn’t great and that he didn’t really experience it in college either with living in the dorm and then the frat house, but you didn’t consider that meant he’d never really done the tree and lights shebang.

Over the month of November you started gathering up random decorations, here and there, that you thought could fit in your apartment without being a nuisance. One afternoon you convinced your mom to drive over from your hometown with some of your favorite ornaments and decorations from childhood.

She loved JJ and was plenty happy to part with them for his sake. You made sure all the bags and boxes were put away in the second bedroom and made a promise with yourself to not tell him until after Thanksgiving.

Then you got slammed with paper after paper and quiz after quiz which led you to truly forget about everything until you went in there to make sure things were all clean for guests and tripped over a box full of lights.

“Ow, fuck!” you yelped, looking down to see what you’d hit, stomach dropping when you saw it all and heard JJ coming to see what was wrong. Before he could quite get to the door, you waved him away, “All good, just stubbed my toe.”

He backed away, hesitantly, toward the kitchen where he’d been cutting the turkey for dinner. Cody and Tyler were coming into town, and you were doubly excited that they were staying the night so that you could rope them into putting up the once forgotten decorations.

Just as you finished pushing everything out of the way and clearing off the bed, there was a knock at the door. JJ called from the kitchen, “Can you grab that, sweetheart, I’m almost done with the turkey?”

“Got it,” you yelled back, practically skipping to throw the door open for your friends you hadn’t seen outside of FaceTime in months. As soon as you threw the door open, Cody, who was closest, was pulling you into a tight hug, face pressed firmly into your hair. He sighed, “Damn, smell the same, kinda nice.”

You snorted, squeezing back, “That was soft.” 

“Forgive me,” he answered sarcastically, “I just missed you is all.”

“Move,” Tyler interrupted before you could respond, elbowing Cody out of the way to hug you. You hugged back just as tight before grabbing both of them by the arms to pull them inside.

“JJ is finishing up the food, so I’ll give you guys a tour real quick and you can drop your stuff in the guest bedroom.”

“Sweet,” Cody nodded, “though I’m not sure how I feel about JJ being in control of the food.”

“Let him have it, I need to tell you guys something.”

They followed you around the whole place and ended in the second bedroom where you shut the door, Tyler smirked, “Getting us alone to pitch a foursome?”

You blinked, not prepared at all, “I-” after a few seconds gathered your thoughts, “no, I just wanted to know if you guys needed to be anywhere early tomorrow or if you could help us decorate for Christmas. JJ never has before, so I thought it could be a fun family activity.”

Before you even finished, Cody, who loved Christmas and decorating for it was nodding eagerly, “Oh fuck yeah. I’m so down. Is that why this room is so messy? Christmas decorations.”

You snorted, “Please, I haven’t forgotten how messy y’all are, I spent so much time in that disaster of a dorm room.”

Tyler waved you off, “We’re much better now.”

“I’m sure,” you answered sarcastically.

“I am, my girlfriend whipped me into shape,” Cody told you, “our apartment looks so dope.”

“Yeah, because your girlfriend has her shit together and a Pinterest board.”

Tyler snorted, “True, you have no eye for interior design.”

Cody rolled his eyes as JJ yelled for everyone to come eat. The four of you sat around the small table you and JJ found on sale with plates heaped full of food. Before anyone could take a bite, you cleared your throat, “Okay, everyone share their lists.”

A tradition the four of you started in college was to share at least three things each person was thankful for before eating whatever you’d managed to put together for dinner, usually takeout because no one was thankful for cafeteria food and the shitty dorm kitchen.

“I’ll go first,” Tyler started, “I’m thankful for the Sixers finally playing well, my girlfriend for getting me a new job, and for you guys having a nice enough apartment to play host.”

“Wait wait wait,” JJ held his hand up, “your girlfriend got you a job?”

Tyler shrugged, “I figure if I play my cards right and don’t fuck anything up, when she finishes law school and has a nice job, I can become a trophy husband. I’ll be supportive as fuck and the  best arm candy on the planet.”

You snorted and said, “Okay, poor Emma first of all. It’s my turn though. I’m thankful for my therapist, she’s really done a lot of heavy lifting this fall, I’m thankful for JJ not burning the building down while cooking, and I’m thankful for you guys driving to see us because my separation anxiety was getting pretty bad and my poor therapist needs a break.”

Cody gave you a thumbs up, “Live to serve. My turn, I’m thankful for Liverpool sucking ass this season, I’m thankful that my girlfriend is good at everything I’m bad at because I’m pretty sure I’d have died by this point, and I’m thankful that you guys live somewhere interesting enough that I want to come visit.”

“Okay, me last,” JJ started, “I’m thankful for you guys being here even though it was kind of an inconvenient trip, I’m thankful for my boss for giving me a holiday bonus, and I’m thankful to finally get to spend a holiday in my own space. A safe space.”

Cody and Tyler, both great with emotion, held out fists for him to bump and then started eating.

-

“Okay,” you clapped your hands, startling JJ awake the next morning, “it’s noon, we’ve slept off most of the hangover, and now we have shit to do.”

“What?” he asked, voice cracking, as he rubbed his eyes.

“It’s Christmas season, we have to decorate.”

JJ groaned, “Shopping? While I feel like this? No.”

“No need to shop, I have it all. Now get up, get dressed, and let’s do this.”

Tyler was already up when you walked out of the bedroom, and he waved, “I ordered breakfast but couldn’t find your coffee pot. Cody is sorting through the decorations, did you have a tree?”

“Yeah, I have one in the closet, we always did a real tree at home, but I figured we should start small and see how it goes.”

“Good plan. I think Cody has a Christmas playlist ready. He’s so excited, could barely sleep.”

He followed you to the kitchen and leaned against the door frame while you made coffee. You chuckled, “Yeah, I know how much he loves Christmas. I’m honestly kind of surprised we never did a group decorating thing like this before.”

“Well,” Tyler crossed his arms, “we did the small trees in the dorm, but JJ didn’t want to buy one for himself so it didn’t really count. And then decorating the frat house was just not worth the effort.”

You passed him a mug and he took a sip while you answered, “JJ never really seemed super interested either. I mean I was going to keep it chill this year too but he brought it up.”

“Cody said you had a whole bunch of homemade stuff.”

“Yeah, my mom brought it to me. I was thinking of making JJ do some of the ornaments to make it even but I’m not sure he’d go for that.”

Tyler snorted, “Man’s a simp, he’d do it for you.”

“Who’s a simp?” Cody asked, walking into the kitchen to take the second mug.

“All three of you,” you told him, grabbing the creamer out of the fridge for him.

He took a sip and shrugged, “Yeah, true. But who are we discussing in particular now?”

“JJ. Whether he’d made homemade ornaments,” Tyler responded.

“He definitely would,” Cody nodded, “I would too. Is that on today’s agenda?”

“It is not. But I mean, if you guys want to make us some in the future and mail them, I’ll gladly hang them on the tree.”

“Deal.”

 “What’s the deal?” JJ asked, finally joining the rest of you.

“Nothing, drink some coffee and we’ll decorate.”

-

After the food arrived and everyone ate, Cody did in fact have a Christmas playlist queued, and he hooked it up to the speaker to blast in the living room. Tyler strung lights around, and JJ told you, “We should just keep these up after Christmas.”

By the time the two of you had struggled to get the tree put together and in a good spot, you added, “Maybe we don’t take the tree down either. We can just decorate it for every holiday.”

Tyler laughed, “Don’t be those guys.”

“We will,” JJ vowed, “we will absolutely be those guys. I just broke a sweat.”

“I will come back for New Years and start a riot if the tree is still up. You laugh like I’m joking, but I will,” Tyler told the two of you.

Cody was barely paying attention, reaching up to put an ornament on the tree when you stopped him, “JJ has to put the first one up.”

JJ gave you a weird look, “What? Why?”

“Bro,” Tyler told you, “lowkey this is a foursome.”

“No, it’s so not.”

“But, it kinda is. We’re taking JJ’s Christmas tree decorating virginity.”

“That’s so-” JJ paused, “okay the logic works a little but I don’t like it.”

“I hate you all,” you groaned, handing JJ an ornament and gently shoving him toward the tree.

“You don’t,” Cody singsonged from his spot across the room.

When everything  was done, Cody turned all the lights off in the room and JJ plugged the tree in. Tyler flipped all the lights he’d put out on and the four of you stood in the doorway to take it all in. 

JJ sighed, “Kinda love it. It’s going to be such a pain to take down, but it feels good.”

“A good family decorating day,” Cody added, “next year we’ll make ornaments.”

You laughed, “Sure.”

Wrapping his arms around your waist from behind, JJ hummed, “Gonna miss our Christmas this year.”

Tyler looked a little teary eyed, “Yeah, we can FaceTime though.”

“Are you crying?” Cody asked incredulously.

“It’s the hangover,” Tyler denied, wiping his eyes.

Cody rolled his eyes, “Sure it is. I’m gonna miss you guys too.”

“Group hug,” you said, holding your arms out. For the first time in a while and the last time for an even longer while, you hugged your boys close. You sniffled, pulling back, “Bring your girlfriends next time. They’re always welcome too.”

They nodded and left after one more hug. JJ and you sat on the couch, soaking in the sudden silence. You leaned into his side and he wrapped an arm around your shoulder, “Movie, sweetheart?”

“Please,” you answered, “Home Alone.”

~

day four of @obxmermaid​‘s holiday challenge: decorating the tree

[fixing-bad-comic-art]

New Tag List

if youd like something added or if i mistag something please dont be afraid to let me know

Fixes- all the edits

Not My Fix- all the edits done by other people i get tagged in/sent.

Not a fix- me just clownin around, ie asks, misc posts, and joke edits,

anon/[url]- how i tag asks

rimshots- fixes that have had a joke edited in along side the actual edit.

regularly scheduled programming- the queued/scheduled post tag

progress log- reblogs of wips i need advice on from my art blog, they get deleted from this blog about an hour after they get posted, but they do get archived on my art blog, (@bitchfitch (read the pinned post on that blog b4 following or scrolling too far, 18+ only)) under the #reblogin-for-archivin tag

booster shot- finished drawings/paintings boosted from my art blog,

reruns- rbs of edits i have already posted, as well as occasional housekeeping posts I need to boost a lil

petfuntimes- sometimes people send me pictures of their pets and i love it every time, currently all petfuntimes are queued to avoid spam

dilferapy- i just think dilfs are neat and talk about them too much sometimes,

FAQ under the cut

are you bad-comic-art? Nope, i just picked a bad url.

Why do you know so little about comics? Its bc the only pieces of superhero media i have ever consumed were wolverine and the xmen when i was like 10 and both deadpool movies.

what's your name/ pronouns/ where are you from? I'm Zachariah/Zach/Zaz, he/him preferably but tbh i dont care and you'll see me refer to myself with whatever im feeling that day. and im from texas.

what program do you use? Infinite painter on my phone

how do i submit something? You can @ me, message me, or send it as a submission, but please do not attach it to an ask bc i can't save it to my phone from an ask.

whats accepted? any professionally produced narrative illustration. so comics and manga from any publisher are in, fan art is out. having said that i dont tend to change outfits bc i just dont know enough about any of these characters.

Can i submit my own art for critique? of course! just let me know in the ask you want a critique,

whats your art blog? @bitchfitch i dont post very often but when i do its usually gay nonsense. edit: i now post more often on bitchfitch than i do this blog el oh el.

why haven't you answered/edited something i sent? 1. tumblr might have eaten it, 2. it got buried under a bunch of other stuff, 3. i meant to answer it but i wanted to give it more thought and promptly forgot about it, 4. i already answered a very similar ask. 5.the edit would require completely redrawing the og image, im just too lazy to do that, but ill usually still post it with commentary

if i dont answer something just send it again like 3 days later.

Got a PayPal/ cashapp? i only accept pictures of Nightcrawler aka Kurt Wagner as repayment for what i do here.

why do you do this? funsies.

[wexhappyxfew]

Shannon! I have a question for today, it might be a little broad, but how did you come up with Natia’s character? :)

AMY!!! hello! sorry that i have *just* gotten to this as my weeks have increasingly gotten insanely busy between my job starting back up, school, college stuff, and ap exam chaos as well haha! i did this at about 11pm(?) and i'll be queuing it up for the morning for you, but outside of tumblr, i've thought a lot about this question and what i really wanted to include in this question. having almost spent 10 months spent writing and developing natia to who she is today makes a whole lot of stuff move through my brain when i go back to my developing stages for her! thank you for the question (and the broadness, never fear, i absolutely love it!)

Natia's character really came from the idea of just wanting to really push myself out of the box and *out there* to see what I could do. And I will say Landslide is one of my most *out-there* projects in terms of content - I mean we have Death as a personified character, crazy Agent Mortem, all these past connections to Natia? It's chaos haha! But, I had experimented previously with a partly Polish-OC, Hazel Parker of "The Soldier of Stars", and from that, I went, well there's no centrally focused Polish OC yet that I have seen (this was back in like June-July 2020 mind you, so there probably has been Polish OCs created since this time!!) and I had always felt that the Warsaw Uprising was inherently important! I also read up on the Polish Resistance and how they were the most effective resistance group of continental Europe during the war, with ultimately the Warsaw Uprising being their last final push that did sort of end that.

Something I've really enjoyed about creating Natia's character was putting a great focus on her flaws. Now, her strengths are just as important - she is a great soldier in the field, she's highly intelligent and can make quick decisions on the fly, she withholds a lot of strength when it comes to situations where she needs to focus, she's observant, and she keeps herself fairly humble when not bursting at the seems. She doesn't let herself get stepped over very often (unless it's Mortem) and if anything she will insert herself, and show what skills she has, but she won't go overboard. She's also passionate about her country and her people and she always has something to fight for and even when she feels all hope is lost, she withholds a tiny little sliver no matter what, even if she doesn't feel it. But her flaws I feel are a massive part of her character. She's stubborn, she won't let people help her, she has trouble expressing emotion, she numbs herself more often than not to not feel the pain that she is supposed to feel, she blames everything on herself, she gets hot-headed quite easily, and grows to the point of nearly irrational at some moments in time and even will let her emotions get the best of her in times like this. But that makes up who Natia is as a character and who she is as a person in general.

But even with the strengths and flaws of her character, it makes her very much still a human being. And that was one of my main goals when creating Natia - make her human enough to make that angst HURT, but make her human enough that when you see her succeed or even the little wins here and there, you want to cheer. Because those are human moments. And I know this sort of character creation is not for everyone, but for me over the past near-year, this has been one of my favorite things about creating Natia because I've found myself able to relate to her even though I'm so vastly different from her.

I did some research on a British-Polish SOE Agent, Krystyna Skarbek otherwise known as her alias Christine Granville and I took a few liberties from this amazing woman and used it on Natia. But things such as Agent Mortem, Death/War connection and the eventual introduction of another character Solomon Campbell (who will be in Part 3), as well as the Resistance group of Part 1 and her siblings and parents, are all more of my own ideas and connections!

Something I have had a LOT of fun doing is showing that even though on the exterior Natia seems cold-hearted and dark and numb, and whatever other *cold+dark* ideas can be thought up, she is very much underneath -- not that. We can see how much evidently she cares for someone like George Luz; I mean even Joe Liebgott has pointed it out to her. She always is just trying to do her best and do what is best in the situation - no longer it is about what is good or bad anymore to her, it's about doing what's best in the situation for the time being, and I really love that aspect of her character a lot! We can see that when the war ends, she wants to live on the English coast, far away from war all alone with a dog and even a little goat in a seaside cottage. She grew so attached to the word AWOL after Joe Toye came and sat with her that night in Holland and they talked for once about something other than war. She even withheld her name, her nationality and just about everything else to keep the idea of the cold-face agent she thought she was up so the men of Easy Company don't have to know the real her. But -- was it to protect her...or to protect Easy? All these little ideas I threw in there to show that she is actually, very, compassionate in many ways, and caring and attentive and observant of the men and women she works with.

I really try to show that Natia listens when she listens to someone speak and she observes and she pays attention more than anything. And she ends up, holding information like that close to her and finding comfort in it.

My goal with Natia was to show that there can be a balance to "the bad-ass fighter" idea who fights for what she believes, but also remain human as well. We can see how much things affect her, especially the loss of friends. Of course, she doesn't show this to other people, but to use as readers, we see this and we see her occasional breakdown - and in a way, she continues living on their legacies because she listened to what they had to say. For example, Zdzich told her to not let the war overtake her, and throughout the story so far, we've see her sort of repeat this to herself in various ways. Because Zdzich meant that much to her. She's lost so much by this point in war that almost it's so sad to see that she, from what we all know of BoB, still has to go through so much, but at that point, she's fought so much, that all she can do it keep pushing on with it.

I think one of the most interesting moments from writing Natia was when the first few chapters were actually uploaded on platforms and there was someone really coming after Natia for her decisions and for this, that and the other thing (amy if i vaguely remember i think you remember who this person is as well because you clapped back at them once, and man your response was GOLD!!!). One of those things was Natia's approach with food (TW: mentions of struggling to eat with food, references of depression and struggling to eat, mental health issues relating...) and the person who commented would always be saying something about how she needs to eat, and she needs to remain strong and she needs to snap out of it with her depression and all this other stuff and to be honest, I sort of sat there for a moment like??? But there's reasons WHY she's not eating? Why she's holding back? (And of course ones I had mentioned so...) But let's move on.

Mental health was a prevalent thing in World War 2, though it was not looked upon fondly and Natia essentially does have depression as well as a border-line eating disorder. And so when the comment said that she had to snap out of it, I don't know it sort of off-put me because I have family with both those disorders and they've had treatment for it for years and you can't just snap out of it. I really tried to stress that 'the snapping-out-of-it" does not work, and the person kept firing back a bit at it, so I just moved on from it and ignored it. Natia's struggle with eating, as one can see, also comes from the heavy guilt and grief that is slowly uncovered throughout the story of what Natia has done and what has happened throughout the course of the war to her. Natia's number one thing she constantly does and has now become the focus of many character relationships with her (ie Doc Gene Roe) is the clenched fists, that she squeezes until they bleed and eventually need wrapped up by the Doc. Something she also refuses to accept she has a problem with. As we can see, acceptance is a concept she struggles with more than anything and something she will essentially have to learn to simply, accept.

That's just sort of one of the many bits of information about her character that I added, especially in society today as mental health is so important and so I just wanted to share a bit of the backlash I got from someone for it. But I guess that's life, but I'll continue to write Natia Filipska as an OC who does struggle with depression because of her life in war.

Natia's character and her story is probably one of the most complex characters and stories I've written and crafted and created and I'm just extremely happy with how she ended up coming out in the end! I'm about to go and do some writing and editing for her and it's just so exciting writing her because of all these various levels she withholds and she slowly lets uncover as the story unfolds! I just love it! OH - and we can't forget about the infamous mentions of the piano....yep that'll be coming up soon haha!! <3

THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION AMY!!! IT MEANT SO MUCH!!!! just getting to talk about Natia a little bit and her character and what my mind set was creating her - it means so much. my mindset with her is somehow always changing and shifting as she goes through her character arc throughout the story and how her developmental shifts and it's just something i really love and enjoy more than anything!!! <3 so thank you for letting me just talk about it for a little while as well as my thoughts and opinions, it means a lot :)

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: New Game Patch (April 27th, 2021)

There’s a new Sims 4 update available for PC/Mac and Consoles.

 PC: 1.73.48.1030 / Mac: 1.73.48.1230 / Console: Version: Console: Version 1.40.

Remove all MODS and Custom Content before updating your game

Heya Simmers!

Today we bring you a small but neat update, we hope you all enjoy it!

We also hope you are all well wherever you are in the World, and thanks again for all your continued support and feedback.

Chaucitos – Dag Dag!

-SimGuruRusskii

What’s New? In Create A Sim, we have updated two hairstyles and have converted them to be used with Children and Toddler Sims as well.

First, we have the beautiful pfHair_EF30TightCurls, cfHair_EF30TightCurls, and yfHair_EF30TightCurls as pictured below, including how it would look like if worn on a Male Frame pictured as ymHair_EF30TightCurls.

Then we have pictured below, including how it would look like if worn on a Female Frame pictured as yfHair_ShortTextured.

This author would like to apologize for her terrible photoshop skills in putting these together side by side. Very sorry… much photoshop! Getting better!

Now onto the fixes…

Bug Fixes

Sims 4

Fixed an issue in which in the Gallery Preview pop-ups, Build Mode objects will now appear properly under the “Show Used Items” panel. Accuracy is the best policy… in this case.

We made some edits to some Career and School-related tooltips so they are consistent and clearer for Simmers.

The book cradleObject_GENBook is no longer visible to Simmers, it wasn’t meant to be… it wasn’t a pretty book. We didn’t like doing it!

Some DEBUG pie menu options including some from Discover University and Snowy Escape were translated. We didn’t translate these, well since ever… as they were DEBUG and only accessible with a specific cheat, but we are working on them as we go now. Thanks for your reports and patience!

We discovered that Sims were becoming uncomfortable when Gathering Water… we didn’t really understand why, so we decided to have them not be uncomfortable. Let them feel how they want to feel, I say.

Ghost Sims will now appear as Ghosts in CAS. There were moments that they made us take a second look there, but nope, they are Ghosts and Ghosts they shall display as. I think I saw this as a plot for a movie… Ghosts… a machine, a dance… ANYWAY.

As always this editor and the Localization team made some adjustments and perfected some of the text in-game across all packs and previous updates. #getit

Get Together

Social Panel will no longer default to the incorrect tab. What tab was I on? Now I will always know.

City Living

Vegetarian Sims will no longer mistakenly eat non-vegetarian leftovers from the refrigerator. Not funny guys!

Fixed an issue that didn’t let the DigiRAD Keyboard make a sound when choosing Keyboard Auto Play.

Cats and Dogs

Listen, I think every species – well everyone, has the right to find love. But we did have to fix an issue with Female Cats going into Heat despite being Spayed. Even so, I hope my lovely Spayed Female Felines will still find love out there.

Seasons

Oh the rain, such a poetic moment from nature. Sitting cozied up with a blanket and a cup of coffee watching the world go by with the melodious sound of the raindrops falling lightly on the ground… wait… is that a Sim showering outside? Yes indeed! Showering in the Rain is possible in Light Rain conditions.

Fish Dinner will now be counted for completing Grand Meal Holiday Events.

Similarly, Shower in the Rain has been fixed for Simmers who have installed Eco Lifestyle, making the most of every resource available!

All soaps used are biodegradable – we promise!

Snowy Escape

Create A Sim asset yfBody_EP10CoatDenim will no longer create an issue with all knee-high boots. Though those boots were made for walking, the dress needs to look fabulous too. My opinion, allegedly.

Child Sims will no longer get the Unblessed sentiment after getting Blessed at the Youth Festival. Children should only get the Unblessed sentiment if they ask Yamachan about a Voidcritter Hunt and also avoid getting the Blessing of Youth from an Adult Sim as well. #Blessed

Extreme Sports enthusiasts will now be able to complete High-Intensity Skiing or Snowboarding on Intermediate or Expert Slopes. Good luck!

Recipes from this pack will now appear when unlocking Gourmet Cooking Skill Levels. Particularly Levels 3 and 5. Yum.

Sims will no longer freeze when performing interactions from a computer in Mt. Komorebi, specifically 2-4-2 Wakabamori. I think I saw this in a movie once… but… had a less “happy ending.

Discover University

Fixed an issue in which the icon for the trait Mental Magister appeared to be a Placeholder icon. Or was it?

Progressing in the Law Career will now unlock Promotions appropriately. Keep up the good work!

Eco Lifestyle

Fixed an issue in which the icon for the Making with a Mentor Moodlet was not showing the correct icon.

Eco Lifestyle-specific Traits are now added to the Clubs choices if Simmers have Get Together installed.

Collecting Beetle Nuggets will now be possible when Beetles are ready. Bon Appetit.

Outdoor Retreat

Veggie Dogs and Hot Dogs will be able to be roasted in Campfires once again. Iconic.

Vampires

Is your Vampire Sim tired of drinking the same old regular Plasma? Are they drinking it to the point that they can no longer tell if it is Plasma anymore? Ugh, such a hard diet, right? I can relate…ahem… Vampire Sims will now enjoy a more varied diet of Fish, Frog, and yes… Regular Plasma when left to their own devices.

Tiny Living

Tiny Homes will no longer magically get clean and have Dust Bunnies disappear (if Simmers own Bust the Dust) when Sims travel or Simmers reload the game. Man, I wish my apartment would magically get clean like that though.

Nifty Knitting

Fixed an issue in which the expiration timer for items listed on Plopsy was not appearing.

Paranormal

Haunted House Residential Lots will now enjoy the presence of Dust Bunnies and Fiends if Simmers also have Bust the Dust. Dust Bunny goes Boooooo.

Bust the Dust

Your Sims had a lot of things to do today, but you know what they did instead? They Vacuumed the Lot. It was a really good clean. Cooking? Vacuumed the Lot. That Gig? Vacuumed the Lot. What about those push ups? Vacuumed the Lot. Reading? Vacuumed the Lot. Looking at this bug? We made time for that. The end of this bug? Released with this Patch. Sims will no longer randomly drop their queued tasks for Vacuuming.

[sometimesiwritebadly]

Traffic Jam (Harry Styles x Reader)

Summary: You’re listening to 1d while stuck in a traffic jam. The next car over, Harry Styles is entertained by the girl singing along to his songs. (featuring the real star of the show, Mitch)

Warnings: some language. just kinda hints at romance

Part 2 is up now!

Word Count: 1.3k

Masterlist

You love LA. You love driving. You love music. You especially love driving in LA while listening to music. Loudly. As loud as your radio will let you. And you sing even louder than that. You’ve never been embarrassed of this, in fact you take stride in your impeccable mini car-concerts. Sure, sometimes people will give you weird looks at red lights, but who cares? You’re just living your life, and you’re not hurting anybody. Today your car concert is getting an extended edition, as you’re stuck in typical LA traffic on your way home from work. Your windows are rolled down, and since you were feeling a little nostalgic, you decided to put your favorite band from your teenage years on shuffle: One Direction. You were 30 minutes deep into what you expected to be another hour or so of traffic, but not even incessant honking and barely moving cars could bring down your mood while One Direction music is playing. Right now the last chorus of Girl Almighty is playing through your speakers, and your focus is solely on nailing it. 

I get down, 

I get down, 

I get down on my knees

 I get down on my knees for you!

As you began very enthusiastically playing your air guitar, the lane next you inched forward, and you didn’t notice the two very entertained men who now had front row seats to the show you were putting on.

Mitch was driving the car, laughing at Harry as he stared through the window. It was clear to Mitch that it wasn’t just the girl’s music choice that had Harry so focused, though he decided not to point it out. As the beginning notes of Temporary Fix began playing through your car’s stereo, you let out an excited “Hell yeah!” before reaching to turn the music up even higher. Harry laughed loudly at this, even moving to take his phone out and film your enthusiastic performance. He and the other One Direction boys didn’t always talk, but he knew they would appreciate this in their group chat. He stopped filming just as you reached his verse, though he immediately regretted his choice when you started dancing even harder. Clearly this was a favorite line of yours. 

“Is that what I look like when I dance on stage?” He asked Mitch, taking his eyes off you for only a second before turning his head back to the window.

“Absolutely not. You look way stupider than that.” Harry laughed at Mitch’s response, though he still couldn’t rip his eyes from you. Harry and Mitch continued watching you, even singing along a little as you danced. When the song came to a close, Harry erupted into applause and Mitch honked the horn once or twice, causing you to turn and notice the car that had been sitting next to you.

You were confused for a second, and didn’t even notice the next song, Over Again, come on as your eyes widened in recognition. Sure, you’ve never been embarrassed by random strangers seeing you dance like an idiot, but having Harry Styles watch? As you danced to his music? 

You turned the music down slightly, and slouched in your seat to hide your face. Normally you didn’t mind the long drives home, but now you willed the car in front of you to move. This was not how you wanted to meet your idol. Eventually you leaned back up, only because you knew it wasn’t safe to not be able to see the road, despite the lack of movement from any of the cars around you. Despite how much you loved the song playing, you kept your hands on the wheel and faced forward, only slightly mouthing along to the words instead of the full out dancing you would usually be doing.

Harry felt bad about your sudden change in attitude. He hadn’t meant to embarrass you, and he certainly didn’t want you to stop. Without your energetic dancing, the rest of this traffic jam would be pretty boring. Then Harry had an idea. It’s definitely not the smartest idea he’s ever had, and is very risky, but fuck he wanted you to keep dancing and, well, he never hated talking to a pretty fan. “Try and stay near her car.” Harry quickly unbuckled his seatbelt and, before checking that traffic was still unmoving, he opened the door and jogged over to her passenger seat. Mitch was yelling after him, but he paid no attention as he approached her car. You noticed him walking over, and stared confusedly as he knocked on the window, and pulled on the car handle. Quickly, you unlocked the car, and watched as your idol jumped in, buckling the seatbelt.

“What the fuck are you doing?” You asked. You love him and all, but this was next level stupid. For all he knew, you could be a crazy fan. You could kidnap him! Why would he risk this?

“You’re not the only one who loves dancing to One Direction music, love. Didn’t want ya to stop, so I figured I’d join ya.” He smiled at you, before reaching his hand over. “I’m Harry.” This made you laugh lightly, your confused face slowly being replaced with a smile. 

“Yeah, uh, I know… I’m Y/N.” You placed your hand in his - fuck, those hands - and happily shook. After a beat of silence, you grab your phone and unlock it, handing it to him. “Y’wanna be the DJ?”

“Oh, absolutely.” He answered, taking the phone and queuing up some of his favorite songs from back in the day, plus sneaking in some of his own music. As he did this, the car in front of you began to move, so you focused on the road instead of the international superstar sitting in your passenger seat. The beginning notes of Kiss You began playing, putting a smile on your face. 

“Is this your favorite song?” 

“Oh, no, I don’t think I could ever choose a favorite One Direction song. I always loved performing this one though.” He looked up from the phone back to you as you stopped the car again. For once he was thankful for the traffic; as long as the car wasn’t moving, he could really look at you. “D’ya have a favorite?” You began rattling off a few of your personal favorites, but it was clear that you couldn’t really choose either. But once he heard some of the songs you liked, he added them to the queue he had created as well, before putting the phone down in one of your cupholders and putting his full attention into singing and dancing with you. To anyone driving around you two, you probably looked like crazy people. At first you had been a little restrained, not wanting to embarrass yourself again, but Harry eventually coaxed you out of your shell until you were both dancing like idiots. This went on for four or five songs. You danced, sang, and occasionally talked to each other.

“So do you normally jump into your fan’s cars as they drive home or is this a first for you?” You ask as Through The Dark came to a close. Surely he had seen people listening to his music in public before, but you were curious what made him trust you.

“Oh this is a first for sure. Sometimes I’ll see people listening to my music, but usually I’m busy or can’t make my way towards ‘em. I saw an opportunity with ya, so I took it.” He shrugged as he said this, no longer paying attention to the music and focusing only on you. “You don’t look like the type to try and’ harm me, plus Mitch is right behind us so I figured I’m safe enough.” At his words, you turned your head to see the Mitch was in fact in the car behind you, lightly nodding his head to whatever song was on his radio.

“Well, I’m glad you did. It’s not exactly how I would have imagined I’d meet you, but I’m glad you decided to join.” You smiled at him, and he smiled back. The two of you stared at each other for a minute before you were distracted by a new song. Harry groaned slightly as your eyes widened in recognition to the song you had downloaded from a youtube video. “Medicine! Do you see what I have to listen to because you won’t release a studio version, Styles?”

[sunflowerhazzavol6]

Love on Tour

Y/N is on tour with Harry and is starting to feel the exhaustion that comes with being on the road for a long time. Mainly fluff, not edited yet.

The touring life was not for Y/N.

It was definitely bearable, and the travel was amazing, but Y/N had never been to so many places in so little time in her life. For the most part she had been stationary, moving once to New York for university and then again to Los Angelos after graduation. This whole “new day, new city” agenda was absolutely exhausting, and she wasn’t entirely sure how Harry could have done this so many times before.

When he had invited her to come with him on tour, she thought he was nuts. The two of them had been dating secretly for about six months, and her traveling with him like that definitely put her more on the public radar. It wasn’t that she was scared of his fans and how they would react, she herself had been a fan before and knew she would just have to take things as they came. She was more scared for them. She liked this little bubble she and Harry had created, and all the important people in their lives knew about them. That was enough for her, for the time being at least. But Harry was quick to assure her that if any questions arose he would just say that she was a part of his entourage. 

And a part of the entourage she was. There was rarely any space in the schedule for anything not tour-related, so while her relationship with Harry was still intact, her role with him was more that of an intern than anything else. She would fetch things as he needed them, like a coffee or a different guitar pick. He apologized repeatedly about it, promising to set aside time to be with her. As much as she knew he meant it, she also knew that he secretly liked all the doting, and she liked being needed.

By now the North American leg of the tour was in full swing, and the sweltering heat of the Atlanta summer was getting to her and the rest of the team. Harry was on stage now, singing Canyon Moon. He was sweaty but grinning ear to ear, seemingly oblivious to the humid conditions. She admired that, his constant ability to be a performer and give his fans the best show possible. He was never really performing either. It was always purely him, dancing around and interacting with the audience. Y/N felt herself sigh, smiling at her boyfriend. 

After the show, Harry jogged up to her with his guitar still around his neck, grinning. “Hey, love, what did you think?”

She smiles, shaking her head. “I don’t know why you’re seeking my approval. You know I loved the show.” She adjusts his collar, looking up at him. “So whats your plan now?”

“Well I do want to go out and surprise the fans that haven't left yet.” He eases his guitar from his shoulders when an attendant comes to help him. “Then I’ll probably get onto the bus to relax. Does that work for you?” 

“Mhmm.” Y/N hums, leaning up to peck his lips. She rests her hand on his bum, giving it a gentle squeeze. “I’ll see you on the bus then.” 

Harry chuckles as she walks away. 

The tour bus is empty when she gets on, aside from an aide or two. She glances around before deciding to shower, grabbing a towel from the linen closet and going into the bathroom. Hanging the towel up on the door, she stepped into the shower, sighing when the hot water started running down her body. Showers on tour were a different type of renewal. She felt the sweat and dirt rinse off from her body with the soaps as she scrubbed the grime from her hair, her skin going from a industrial arena smell to that of lavender and shea butter. Another happy sigh.

After drying off from her shower and getting changed into sweats and one of Harry’s t-shirts, she grabs her laptop and crawls into Harry’s bunk. There were a handful of them lining the walls for Harry and the band, and there was technically one for her as well, but she preferred hogging up her boyfriends space to her own. She groans at the feeling of the memory-foam mattress, putting on her glasses and queuing up a TV show to watch while she waits for him, sipping on her tea that she had made earlier.

After about an hour Y/N is half asleep, the curtain separating her from the rest of the bus being tugged open. “Hey, love.” Harry says softly, starting to crawl into the bed. He’s stopped by a hand on his chest.

“Nope. I just changed these sheets today and you have arena all over you, Styles.”

Harry pouts.

“I’m dead serious, dude. I even did laundry this morning, so you’ve got clean clothes and everything.” 

He groans. “So not only are you telling me that my very sexy rocker sweat is not allowed in this bed, you’re also guilting me into showering by doing my laundry for me?” Y/N bites her lip with a smile and nods. “Well what a load of bullocks. Am I allowed a kiss?”

“Not even a little one. Go clean up.” Harry groans again but obliges, stomping away like a small child. Y/N laughs to herself and unpauses her show, settling back in under the sheets. 

Within half an hour Harry is crawling into bed next to her, his hair already starting to get fluffy as it dries. “Nice shirt.” He remarks as she sets the laptop aside, smiling.

“Isn’t it? I thought I would exercise my power as laundry-doer and do a little shopping for myself.”

“Mm. Quite right, silly me for assuming that would remain my shirt.”

“How were the fans?” She settles herself into his side, looking up at him.

“Good. Surprised. Very excited. Took loads of pictures with them and then sent them on their merry way.” He wraps his arm around her. “Hey, you fancy scratching my back?” He looks down at her expectantly. 

“Oh, alright.” She sits up. Harry tugs his shirt over his head and moves to lay on his stomach with his head in his arms, yawning. Y/N reaches down to rub his back, looking down at him. “You shouldn’t have looked at me during Golden, someone’s going to make the connection.” 

“M’sorry. Up a little more, please.” 

She moves her hand up. “And you especially should not be looking at me during Medicine, Harry.”

He chuckles. “Now that I won’t be apologizing for.”

Y/N laughs a bit. “So North Carolina next?”

“I don’t wanna talk about the tour, Y/N. All we do is talk about the tour.” Y/N laughs a bit. He had a tendency to get curt when he was really tired.

“Then what is it you want to talk about?” She murmurs, moving her hand down to his lower back.

“I dunno.” He eases his head into her lap, yawning. “What do you want to do when we take a break in September?” 

She moves her hand into his hair, running her fingers through it. “See our families probably. I’ll need to go back to LA at some point to see friends. We definitely need to relax and recharge.”

Harry nods, but Y/N isn't sure if its because of what she said or because of her hand massaging his head. “I might take a week to go see my family if you want to come with.”

“I’d like that.” She returns her hand to his back. He nuzzles his nose into her hip, his own hand moving to her thigh. 

“I love you so much, Y/N.” He whispers after a pause. “I know how exhausting being on the road is, but I’m really glad you’re here.”

Y/N smiles, looking down at him. “Really?”

“Y/N...” He sits up only to pull her to him, laying her down on her back and kissing her. This. This was why she was here. This nodding and pushing and pulling that he did when he was really kissing her. Any time she spent feeling like just another part of his entourage was made up for with this. She felt like she was flying.

He pulls away after a bit to kiss her nose, maneuvering himself around her so they’re spooning, his chest pressed to her back and his face buried in her neck. “This makes up for the exhausted part, right?”

It was like he could read her mind. “This.” She repeats.

[aquillpen]

a stranger emerges from the mist

Chances are you don't remember me (heck, I may not remember you!), only about four mutuals on here are irl friends or acquaintances. Allow me to re-introduce myself. I'm the fiction-writer/Nancy Drew/Doctor Who/Mass Effect/(kpop but I'm not neurotic about it)/languages/cinematography/nerd woman.

You can call me Jess, Quillie, Mango. Yeah-you-there. Make one up. I'll probably answer to it.

Looking for lots of painting and art prompts, Gallifrey/eu content (my audio drama bills were embarrassing last year), and with the remastered edition of Mass Effect re-igniting the fandom it's been a delight to come back to the amazing worlds that showed me just how magnificent and enormous scifi writing can be. Fair warning, I may be queuing an obnoxious amount ME content. It'll be spaced out to a reasonable amount per day. Most of it will be about Space Hamsters probably.

I've been missing wholesome content... writing, art, fictional character dissertations (maybe wholesome is not the right word... fulfilling? thoughtful?).

I quietly left tumblr for a few years just for the sake of having less distractions. Then contradicted that by entered the hell that is fandom twitter for a year. That was not good for me, especially my emotional well being. While I love my hobbies, I'm just not willing to get to the point where I'd draw blood over them.

~~~

I'll try to be careful about tagging content. I'm an adult, so if you're still a minor I suggest blacklisting Mass Effect/#gamer girl or unfollowing me. T+ fanfic recs will be tagged. Not going to tag swearing.

Sooo... eh, meant to keep that a paragraph. Ha. Oh well. Glad to see this corner of the internet is still alive. I may be up in everyone's ask boxes more than I should, hope I don't annoy anyone.

[yavannah]

Part 4, The Journey

The days passed surprisingly quickly and things were taken care of. In addition, he had planned to send Alejandro to relatives for the duration of the trip, but this had said he preferred to be homesitting, which Cale accepted. He wanted to trust his son not to destroy the house while they were away and of course it would always be good if someone kept an eye on the house for possible burglars as they were quite a nuisance.

Eventually they were ready, the goods packed, and after a long queuing and waiting, they sat on a plane, en route to Manaus, from where the journey would continue on a river boat. Cale experienced a slight bit of Deja Vu, as memories of the past came to his mind clearly, including those he preferred to forget.

After many hours and another long queuing, they finally got out of the airport and into the hotel for one night.

The next morning they got up early, ate breakfast, paid for their hotel nights, and headed for the ferry terminal where the actual trip was supposed to begin. In fact, everyone was very tired as they had not slept very well.

There was quite a hustle and bustle at the riverboat when the trio got there. The goods were packed and here and there flashed very new technology, quite different from during their first trip. The technology had indeed changed from those days.

Danny was happy with some of the changes, as it meant he no longer had to carry heavy equipment when shooting could be done with a small, but good-quality, lightweight digital camera. In addition, editing would be easier because of the digital camera era. No need to fumble with tapes and think about takeovers all the time.

Cale had memorized the contents of the memory stick carefully and the memory stick itself was included just in case, although he had wisely copied the files elsewhere in case they were needed. Now he looked at the people moving on the riverboat and pier next to it, trying to look with his gaze at the people who also needed to be on the way. There had been pictures of them on a memory stick. He hadn’t seen any yet, so presumably these people only helped with loading, as there seemed to be a lot of stuff, some of that grocery, of course.

Eventually, he saw a cold-eyed man standing outside the guide bar, leaning against the railing, watching the people underneath below.

“He must be Carl”, Cale muttered, and after taking his way to the cabin assigned to him, he headed for the ladder, climbed up and greeted the man.

Sure enough, cold was the word he used to describe this long, slender man with cold colorless eyes, bumps, albeit narrow faces, and road-colored short but neatly cut hair.

“You must be Carl Smith,” Cale said, holding out his hand to greet the man.

“You’re right,” the man said with a smile, though the smile didn’t reach his eyes, and grabbed Cale’s outstretched hand, “and I assume you’re Dr. Cale,” he added lightly.

“Yes, you’re right,” Cale admitted, squeezing the man’s hand lightly but surely. They exchanged a few more words, after which Cale faded back down to the others. He had just gotten to Terri when suddenly a very familiar person stepped out of one of the cabins.

“Alejandro!” Terri howled and looked at the young man very sharply.

“Oh, hey mom,” Alejandro said a little embarrassed.

"What are you doing here? You had to be the janitor, ”Cale asked.

"Uh, uh, I'm working here," Alejandro muttered, and does not see his parents.

“At work?” Cale asked, confused.

“Yeah,” Alejandro replied, “well, when we’ve been tight and I thought I’d make my own money for college,” he explained, “and I asked a friend of mine to watch over the house”, he said, before Terri and Cale had time to point it out.

Alejandro had heard his parents' conversations so many times, but had never told them anything about it. He had decided to do something himself, now that he was old enough to do it. The university could graduate a little later.

“But, you shouldn’t have,” Cale said, and couldn’t be angry with his son. That's what this meant.

“Yes I needed to,” Alejandro said, looking at the parent stubbornly.

“Ah, you seem to have found my assistant,” said the satisfied Carl walking next to them.

“This your assistant is my son,” Cale remarked coolly.

“Oh, right,” Carl said, looking at both calmly, as if accepting the matter.

“Yes,” Cale said briefly, but decided to let it be.

Eventually, everything needed was finally obtained on the river vessel and it was able to escape from the harbor. The direction was the same as on the previous trip and since it was already familiar to Calle, Terri and Danny, the trip went smoothly this time without any problems.

They even got close to the place where the riverboat was stuck, but because they knew how to be careful, they avoided it that time.

The tree was still fallen where it had collapsed from the weight of the snake and Westridge. Slightly other vegetation had grown on top of it, and the thinnest parts had come off a long time ago and the rest of the trunk had become a vague color.

The waterfall still flowed, as it had flowed even then. Evenly like a beating heart, with light refracting from drops into rainbows of different sizes. It was still just as beautiful, Cale thought and sighed quietly.

They continued their journey, now passing a sawmill completely covered with wild vegetation, of which there was little left but the lucrative parts of the building. The pier had suffered during all these years, and there was little left of it except a few planks and sun-bleached ribs on top of them.

“Anaconda,” Terri said quietly, still remembering what the giant snake had looked like. How it had looked at its victims with yellow eyes and felt the air with its tongue. She even remembered how its scaly leather had felt when it was wrapped around her and Danny. She didn't want to experience it again. Do some big anaconds still exist, for they had had to kill those two giant anacondas they have seen as self-defense.

"That big?" Carl asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Terri replied, “about big and you really don’t want to face one, I can say that from my experience,” she added.

“Oh,” Carl shouted and fell silent.

In the power of silence, they continued their journey and finally, after a few days, ended up at the place where they had last encountered that lost tribe.

The riverboat was anchored ashore and they decided to spend the night there and explore the surrounding areas only in bright weather. The evening and night were calm, only the animals seemed to be on the move, as well as the annoying mosquitoes that would roam around the travelers, hoping for a warm blood meal.

They didn’t care about those teasers, but as night fell into the night, they moved into their cabins, to rest. Cale was not yet asleep, but leaned against the railing in front of the cab. He watched quietly, the landscape resting under the night starry sky. Or well rest was not the right word as the rainforest was full of night animal sounds. Very suddenly he saw movement on the beach and directed the light from his flashlight there. Something slender and dark just slipped into the caches of the jungle, out of the reach of the flashlight beam.

“What was that?” Cale muttered quietly, but decided not to figure it out, as running in the dark jungle was not a good idea. It became clear the last time when Denise and Gary had gone to an jungle at an anchorage with the intention of doing something quite different than recording the sounds of the night jungle.

Cale smiled a little at that memory, even though it had had ingredients for something much worse, but that time luck had been on the way and personal injuries had been avoided. The only one who suffered was the wild boar, which ended up on the menu.

In the end, Cale just thought he had seen the visions and concluded that it was time for him to go to rest too. So he stepped down the stairs and headed for his cabin, which he shared with Terri. The night went smoothly and the expedition woke up early the next morning. A fine mist swirled near the beach and smelled of a damp jungle. Daytime animals began to wake up and make noise in the twigs.

****

Huge thanks again to cc-makers. And sorry about that snake skeleton, I know that picture is not good at all, but I didn’t have any better, so that it will be.

And still thanks to my favourite actor. :)

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 14x13 “Lebanon” (300th episode)

in which i compare this episode to pumpkin soup, because I’m craving more Cas

03:30pm

all righty, thing is still downloading, and there’s a 720p version queued up so that’ll be downloaded by the time i’ve watched half. i have snacks, i’m gonna half close my blinds so i can see, but I DON’T HAVE HEADPHONES AGAIN which is the worst. why do headphones break so easily, that’s what i want to know. (just gotta pray there’s a good sound quality i guess. my laptop speakers suck)

...2 minutes left on the download c’moooooon

-

03:35

OKAY DONE!!!!

-

03:36

“dad’s on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days”

i don’t know if it’s dean’s little baby voice (HE’S MY AGE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?? I CAN’T) or the laptop speakers or the video sound quality, but dean sounds like a kid in a 1980s disney cartoon, with that vintage prickle in my ears and i love it

-

03:38

okay look it’s super hot 'cause it’s summer, and my fan is on, and there’s cicadas... i think i gotta shut the window and turn the fan off aND SLOWLY ROAST IN HERE BECAUSE I CAN’T HEAR THIS PROPERLY

i’m 9 seconds into the recap u_u

it’s gonna be one of those days i guess

-

03:41

is that the monkey again?

yeah it’s the monkey again

-

03:45

dead black guy already????????????????????

really?????

-

03:46

are those kids meant to look like the kids from stranger things? because they kind of do. and the movie theatre as well

-

03:47

cas is in this episode, right??

if he isn’t i’m gonna scream

misha had a tv guide cover so maybe

-

03:39

every single one of these kids is cute and i’m offended

“weird sidekick with the trenchcoat” i am further offended, but also smiling

-

03:50

SHE GAY

SHE VERY GAY

-

the plaid though. she’s a dean mirror 100%

edit: i did doubt this for a second but nope, i was completely right

i mean, she drives the car as well

-

03:52

tHE IMPALA JUST SCOOTED OFF THE SCREEN AND I ALMOST CHOKED OH MY GOD that was hilarious

-

03:54

dean doing the puppy eyes is 

a) cute

b) FUCKING TERRIFYING BECAUSE THIS POOR WOMAN’S TRYING TO PROTECT AN UNDERAGE GIRL AND IT SHOULD NOT BE THAT EASY

-

03:57

the hand that popped out of the smoky cigar box

SUPER COOL AND SUPER CREEPY EW

-

03:59

dean: “this is like the best/worst thing that’s ever happened to you. ‘cause you love serial killers but you hate clowns”

ahahhahaha

-

04:02

sam: “are you sure you don’t wanna call mom, or wait for cas”

YES PLEASE DO BOTH OF THOSE THINGS ;A;

-

“michael out of my head”

HAVE YOU NEVER PAID ATTENTION TO ALL THE WISHES THAT GO WRONG??? YOU GOTTA BE MORE SPECIFIC DUDE. TAKING MICHAEL OUT YOUR HEAD JUST TAKES HIM OUT, YOU GOTTA KILL HIM TOO DAMMIT

-

04:05

john: “now you live in a secret bunker with an angel and lucifer’s kid”

he took that surprisingly well

 a little too well

probably part of dean’s wish that he takes it well

-

04:08

OH BOY

the face he made when he saw mary sdjgfd

-

04:09

ahahah dean and sam awkwardly leaving while their parents make out

dean kinda looked like he was gonna stay, lil bean

-

04:11

the fact dean was so adamant that he said he wanted michael out of his head, but then is now defending the fact he wished for his dad back instead

says a lot about what dean says he wants =/= what dean actually wants

-

04:13

john is much sweeter and more understanding than anyone remembers him (at least than i remember him, or could infer from all the stories about him)

i really do think dean brought him back nicer

-

04:15

i love seeing sam have emotions, it’s so refreshing

-

sam kinda looked like he panicked when john touched him aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

-

04:17

there’s a sign for “castle storage” in the background and i think about that sometimes. hill of a forty dogs or something??? i forget, it was so long ago

-

ALSO WHERE’S CAS

also switching to 720p now

never mind switching back, the sound was better on the lower quality video u_u

-

04:22

oh no, nobody knows them

IS CAS NOT GONNA KNOW THEM

OH NO

-

04:23

this universe-sam: *kinda smug* “god bless kale, am i right?”

I CRINGED SO HARD

-

04:25

OH BOY IT’S HAPPENING

(well SOMETHING IS HAPPENING)

-

04:26

zachariah: “c’mon, constantine”

cas: “i don’t understand that reference”

zach: “you wouldn’t”

i kinda missed this cas though. like. i’m not even mad

ONE PROBLEM: HE’S PROBABLY NOT HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE WITH DEAN

-

04:28

life goal of mine: have a sign like that in my house as decor

-

04:29

THE BACKWARDS TIE

-

04:35

okay first off i got so involved watching cas beat dean up (again) and dean being unable to stop him (D: D: D:) (kind of expected dean to croak “i love you” but um no....... that didn’t happen)

and then mary’s egg timer went off 

and it reminded me i’m hungry again so brb

well actually i’m not hungry..... but my body is shutting down because i need fat and magnesium to function which means i need to eat or else i can’t see, but same difference

-

04:43pm

okay i’m back

-

04:45

DEAN FINALLY HEARING HIS DADDY SAY HE’S PROUD OF HIM

-

04:46

john: “i thought you’d get yourself a normal life, a peaceful life, a family”

dean: “i have a family”

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

]]]]]] I REALLY FUCKING WANT JOHN TO MEET CAS [[[[[[[

-

04:48

THERE’S SALAD ON THE PLATES HALLELUJAH

-

04:49

sam: “did you see them, at dinner, the way they looked at each other, they seemed happy”

and then there’s the way max looked at the girl she was crushing on

AND THEN THERE’S THE WAY DEAN LOOKS AT CAS LET’S GET SOME OF THAT IN HERE PLEEEEEASE

-

04:51

it stresses me out when people wash dishes but only rinse using the dirty water not fresh tap water

-

04:53

they’re about to send john back, he’s holding mary’s hand

all the rainbows behind dean’s head

betcha he’s thinkin about cas

-

04:56

john: “i love you both, so much”

dean...................

-

“i love you too”

OH MY HEART

he says it ......he never used to say it to anyone

-

04:59

YEEEEE

BUT ALSO THIS ONLY LASTED 0.5 SECONDS WHY

but also???????

TALL GUY = SAM

PLAID GIRL = DEAN

COAT GIRL = CAS

IS ANYONE ELSE GETTING THIS

WHY DIDN’T THIS SHOT LAST LONGER SO PEOPLE WOULD BE ABLE TO SEE WITHOUT PAUSING

CURSE YOU EDITORS

-

05:02

so....... that end scene where john’s like “i’m on my way back, i’ll see you soon”

was that meant to be in the past, 2003 era? the flip phone would say so, but his visible age kind of confuses matters

i mean i get that it’s hard to make someone look 16 years younger

but still

unsure about that

-

05:04

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm it’s over

i dunno

that was definitely a special and important episode, and i appreciated seeing this side of john, this is gonna make it way easier to write fanfic of him without the story ending up as a trauma survival fic

but

i was kind of underwhelmed

things i rEALLY REALLY WANTED that didn’t happen:

john actually reacting to dean saying they made friends with an angel (and a werewolf, a vampire, demons, etc etc)

john meeting cas

cas being part of that family meal (i get that the point was he was 2003!cas and not there, but still)

jack being in this even a little bit??

and as the story went on and reached the end, what it really lacked, for me, was a comparison where we can then see how john/mary & max/her crush = dean/cas...........and that just didn’t happen

i think it just ended too soon, really

and there was a lot more they could’ve done with the altered timeline, could’ve brought a whooooooooole lot back from past seasons and just made it a smorgasbord of nostalgia

i get that it was focused solely on john, which gave it an emotional core, so there’s not actually a problem there, i loved that

but it felt kind of dull and slow and....... soupy..........?

(i just mean. the emotional feeling in my brain as i think about it. feels like soup. specifically pumpkin soup. warm and spicy and goopy and nutritious but ultimately not very filling)

then again, if the pacing had been sped up, i would’ve complained it was too rushed. so there’s no winning, it was probably fine ?

i think my favourite part was the kids. i loved the kids. i love the lil gay romance going there. i loved the fact it was a destiel/team free will parallel (even if that part of it was OVER SO DAMN QUICKLY MOST PEOPLE MISSED IT). i loved the kid in the hat, he reminded me a lot of the actor thomas brodie-sangster, and also johnathan byers from “stranger things”

also enjoyed sam vs. the serial killer clown, and that whole aspect of hunting that we haven’t seen in a while, felt very nostalgic

also enjoyed 2003!cas, but was both distressed and frustrated by him fighting dean and then NOT GETTING ANY CLOSURE ON THAT WHATSOEVER. the point was to make dean and sam realise they really needed to send john back, so essentially, in some respect, they did choose cas being their friend over john being around, but that part of the overall problem was never mentioned at all, cas wasn’t mentioned at all after the fight

i’m just looking forward to coda fics that start where this episode leaves off, and dean talks to cas, because i am craving that SO FUCKING BADLY i can’t even express. like. it’s becoming maddening. i just. want. them. to have. a conversation

and the black guy dying at the start?? and the other black kid running away from the ghost and never being seen again? and besides the unnamed diner guy offering info on skip day, being the ONLY PEOPLE OF COLOUR IN THE ENTIRE STORY??? NOT COOL, not a fan >:{ (still better than it used to be, but soooooooooo many white people. so many. so. many)

anyway. um

so that wasn’t my favourite episode, but not because it was bad, but because it didn’t live up to expectations. i tried not to have any expectations (i really tried) but there were just... basic things this episode needed that i felt it was lacking (*cough* cas *cough*), and i can’t really shake that feeling

HOWEVER, having seen 2003!cas be the thoughtless drone that he was, i can appreciate just HOW MUCH character development has happened while he’s been around, which.... i suppose, is a sort of nod to his entire existence ???

anyway, 9/10, and a big ol shrug

but yeah. seeing john be kind and understanding was amazing (and completely changes how i’m gonna write him in my fics in the future, since he’s probably gonna be in the fic instead of just mentioned) and having him say he’s proud of dean and he loves him was just a super nice treat c:

sam being emotional is the best, too. sam confronting his feelings 10/10

i just. i want aaaaaall of this. but with cas. i really want that. so goddamn much. ;~;