#I'm going to set a week time for this poll because i need to finish marinating in the will of the many before i move on to something else

[firstelevens]

june prompts! (they are sooo cute): "fruit stand" for whatever characters you choose

the poll results were a tie so here's something that's neither of the presented options: a highly specific f1 au entry that benefits from reading this prompt fill first

( now on AO3 )

Arguably, being a professional race car driver for twenty years doesn't leave a person with a whole lot of transferable skills, but as Sam watches Bucky take a tight corner and snag the very last parking spot in a packed out gravel lot, he has to admit that the job occasionally comes in handy.

When Sam comes around from the passenger side of the car, Bucky already has their respective shopping lists in his hand. "Are you sure you want to split up for this?" he asks. "If I learned anything watching rom-coms on the plane, it's that farmer's markets are inherently romantic places."

Sam laughs. "What, a week away in a secluded cottage with a hot tub isn't romantic enough for you?"

"Of course not; I've seen way too many horror movies that start that way," says Bucky. Then, as solemnly as he can, he adds, "In fact, just to be safe, we should probably just stay in the bedroom the entire time we're here."

"And that's purely a safety consideration, huh?" asks Sam.

Bucky nods, hooking his fingers in one of Sam's belt loops to pull him close. "Oh, yeah," he says, even as he leans in and steals a kiss. "Entirely a security concern. No ulterior motives at all."

Sam can't help but grin as he presses his lips to Bucky's, half because of Bucky's stupid bit and half because he almost never gets to kiss Bucky like this, out in the sunshine with people milling around and going about their lives. "If that's what we have to do, then that's what we have to do," he says. "Some of us just have to sacrifice like that, I guess."

He's rewarded for his trouble with a kiss on the nose. "Exactly," Bucky says. "Now, tell me, what does the winner of this race get?"

"What race?"

Bucky holds up his shopping list. "The race to finish our halves of the list first, obviously. What does the winner get?"

"We're on summer break, Barnes; it's the one time of year that we don't have to race," laughs Sam, but the look that he gets in response says Bucky doesn't believe him for a second. "Fine. Winner gets...I don't know, a massage from the loser?"

"Samuel, if you think I'm not going to drag out this shopping trip for two hours just to make sure I lose and have an excuse to get my hands all over you..."

"And the winner gets to choose what we watch tonight," adds Sam. "I know you've got a dozen fantasy movies that you've been dying to show me."

Instantly, Bucky's eyes light up with the challenge. "Done," he says. "And for what it's worth, I think you're really gonna love Highlander."

He takes off without waiting for a reply, bound for the stalls like a man on a mission. After taking a beat to admire the view, Sam sets off equally as fast, determined to make Bucky work for it.

As it turns out, Sam gets lucky and checks off more than half of his shopping list between two stalls, so he lets himself relax a little and stops at a fruit stand, weighing the benefits of cobbler versus shortcake as dessert. He's just decided on cobbler when the owner of the stand ducks under the awning, carrying a baby who is very determinedly grabbing at his hair, in spite of the fact that his locs have been swept up and out of reach.

"You find everything you need?" he asks, and Sam is a little surprised to hear that he has an English accent.

"I did," he says, pointing out the plums and the jar of local honey that he'd settled on. After a moment's debate, he asks for one of the hand-tied bouquets of wildflowers, too.

"Excellent choice," says the stall owner, and the baby in his arms coos happily, clapping his chubby hands.

Sam leans down to address the baby. "Do you approve of my choice, too? Am I shopping like a local?"

The baby looks at him with wide eyes for a moment before offering a smile and babbling at him. The stall owner gives the baby a little bounce and translates: "He says you're doing great, but to really be convincing, you have to stop at the bakery on the corner and get one of their raspberry cream pies. The tourists just stop and buy cookies at the stall."

"Thanks for the tip," laughs Sam, wiggling his fingers at the baby. "Who needs guidebooks when we've got this little guy?"

"There's talk of making him head of our tourism department," says the stall owner, "but what would the business do without him?"

Sam snorts. "He runs a tight ship, huh?"

"Keeps me and my husband on our toes, anyway," is the reply, and Sam feels a little bit of his anxiety about being in an unfamiliar town melt away.

"Well, do either of you have any suggestions for things that we should do while we're in town? My, uh- my partner and I are here for a week, so..."

"Oh, absolutely," he replies, but whatever it is that he's going to say after that, it's cut off by Bucky bounding over and brandishing his fully-checked-off list in Sam's face.

"Come on, Wilson; it's like you're not even trying to win," says Bucky, as he slings an arm around Sam and looks at his abandoned list. "All that fuss about bread and you haven't even made it to the bakery yet?"

"I was getting tips from some locals," says Sam. He turns to the stall owner. "This is my partner--"

"Jamie?" gasps the stall owner, looking at Bucky like he's just seen a ghost. "Is that you?"

Sam almost tells him he has the wrong guy, except then he glances at Bucky and sees him staring right back, his mouth open in shock.

"Hi, Ollie," Bucky says after a long, unbearably quiet moment. Even if Sam didn't vaguely remember talking to Bucky about an ex named Oliver, their history would be impossible to miss. Bucky's voice has gone soft, the way it tends to be with kids and old friends of his mom's, but Sam can feel the tension in his arm as he stiffens. He covers Bucky's hand with his own where it rests on his hip and feels Bucky lean into his side a little.

"It's really good to see you," says Oliver. “How have you been? How are Becca and your mum?”

Bucky’s hand shakes a little at the mention of his mother and Sam shifts his hand so he can interlace their fingers, giving Bucky’s hand a squeeze.

“Becca’s great,” says Sam, trying to give Bucky a moment to collect himself. “She’s a lawyer now, so she tends to be pretty busy, but we try to see her when there’s a break in the racing schedule.”

“A lawyer?” repeats Oliver. “That’s wonderful! The last time I saw her, she was still in high school.”

“Yeah,” Bucky says, a rasp to his voice now, “we’re very proud of her.” He does not, Sam notes, answer the question about his mother.

Oliver is still looking at Bucky with awe on his face. "I still can’t believe I ran into you here and never once in London. How long has it been now? Ten, twelve years?”

"Probably closer to twelve by now," says Bucky, and Sam knows that Bucky could give an exact number if he wanted to. “How have you been? You’re good?”

“I am,” says Oliver. “Fell in love with an American, followed him here to take over the family business, and now we’re training the next generation.”

“I can see that,” says Bucky. “Is this- uh, is he yours?”

"He is," says Oliver, smiling as he gives the baby another bounce. "This is Max. Max, say hi to Jamie and- I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name."

Baby Max is already babbling in Bucky's general direction when Sam introduces himself to Oliver, and if Oliver makes any connection about a Sam in relation to Bucky's career, he doesn't give any indication.

Sam decides not to worry about it. Instead, he watches how Bucky smiles at Max, responding intently to the rapid baby babble and making all the requisite interested noises. Max is delighted by Bucky's attention, clapping his hands and laughing delightedly. It's enough to bring about the same warmth that Sam feels in his chest when he sees Bucky with Ellie or with AJ and Cass, and part of him thinks he sees that same something in Oliver's eyes as he watches Max giggle at Bucky's antics.

"He's so cute," Bucky says, looking at Oliver again. There’s a little less tension in his shoulders now. "You must be so proud."

"We are," says Oliver, and while Sam isn't jealous, he is a little relieved to see that Oliver remembers that he has a husband. "He'll be two in January, and I don't know what we'll do once he's a toddler."

"Invest in baby gates and some good running shoes, to start," says Bucky. "And maybe start working on your cardio."

Oliver laughs. "That sounds like experience talking. Do you two have kids?"

Sam just shakes his head in response, but beside him, Bucky says, "Not yet, but Sam's got nephews, and Steve's daughter will be three soon."

It seems like Oliver remembers Steve, and as he starts asking Bucky about the different people in his life, all that Sam can think about is Bucky saying that he and Sam didn't have kids yet. They've both talked about wanting to be dads, and they've established that marriage is in the cards for them, but somehow that knowledge hadn’t quite crystallized until now: Sam and Bucky are going to be dads together one day.

They’re going to raise children with goofy dance moves and adorable scowls, and Sam realized it in the middle of polite small talk with an ex who'd broken up with Bucky—Sam is just now remembering—because there was no chance of having a normal life or family with him. Oliver has been nothing but nice, and he’s very clearly happy with his life, but a possessive, prickly part of Sam feels smug about being the one who gets to do this with Bucky.

He waits patiently as the conversation goes on, very aware of the fact that Bucky hasn’t let go of him, but unsure of how to pull off an extraction. It ends up not mattering: the sun and the noise are enough to make Max fussy after a while, and Oliver excuses himself to find his husband, but not before packing them off with some extra jam and fruit as a gift.

By unspoken agreement, Sam and Bucky leave the farmer’s market behind after that, and Bucky doesn’t protest when Sam takes the keys from him and drives the rest of the way to the cottage. It’s a quiet drive, and when they arrive, it’s enough of a flurry of activity that any conversation between them is purely practical.

Once all the groceries are unpacked, Sam busies himself making a pot of coffee in an unfamiliar machine, hoping to busy himself enough that he’s not straining to hear Bucky moving around in the bedroom upstairs. The distraction pays off a while later, when he hears Bucky’s near-silent footsteps crossing the kitchen floor before a strong arm loops around Sam’s waist from behind and pulls him close.

Sam tilts his head a little to the side and smiles as Bucky buries his face in Sam’s neck. “You good, baby?” he asks.

“Uh-huh,” comes Bucky’s voice, muffled against Sam’s shoulder. “Needed a minute.”

“To mourn that we didn’t end up getting baguettes?” asks Sam, and grins when he feels Bucky laugh.

“I already checked; the bakery delivers,” says Bucky, and Sam feels a rush of love for this nerd. They’re quiet for a moment, and then Bucky says, “Needed to think, that’s all.”

“About anything particular, or were the hamsters just spinning in their wheels up there?”

Bucky is quiet again. Sam brings up a hand to rub some of the tension out of his neck and he slumps against Sam’s back with a sigh.

The coffee machine finishes brewing and Sam snags two mugs from the stand beside it, filling both of them and adding cream and sugar one-handed.

“He said there wasn’t a future with me,” Bucky says, when their coffee is ready. Then he clarifies, like Sam would’ve thought he meant anyone else. “Ollie. He said I couldn���t give him that future, that he didn’t want to wait for something that wasn’t coming. He didn’t want to hide that he was in love.”

Sam has become an expert at waiting Bucky out, so he sips his coffee and lets him figure out what he wants to say.

“He was right to leave,” says Bucky eventually. “He shouldn’t have had to be a secret, and I’m glad he found what he wanted.”

“But…”

“But back then, I told him things would change, and he didn’t believe me,” Bucky says. “And now it’s thirteen years later, and things still haven’t changed. I’m stupid in love with you, Sam, and I want a life with you, and a family with you, and here we are sneaking around and keeping secrets. How is this different? How do I make this end differently?”

“Well, first of all, you remember that secrecy is a choice that we both made together,” says Sam. “I’m not saying Ollie didn’t have a choice, but there’s no way his decision was as informed as mine was. There’s no way he knew what it was like.”

“And that’s enough?” asks Bucky. “We drove two hours from home just so we could hold hands in public, and that doesn’t make you mad?”

Sam turns so he can face Bucky, immediately resettling Bucky’s hand on his waist. “Of course it makes me mad, Buck,” he says softly. He brings up his hands to hold cradle Bucky’s face, thumb swiping at a stray eyelash. “But I’m not mad at you; I’m mad with you. We’re in this together, baby.”

“I don’t want you to have to wait forever,” says Bucky. “And I don’t want to keep you a secret forever either. I want people to know how happy we are.”

“They will,” says Sam. “I promise. We can even tell them all now if you want to; that’s one way to kick off silly season.”

“And distract from the fact that you’re about to win a World Championship?” scoffs Bucky, looking offended on Sam’s behalf. “I think the fuck not.”

“You don’t know that I’m going to win, Buck.”

“Yeah, I do,” says Bucky, and Sam feels his body flush with pleasure at how certain Bucky is.

“I could always just lay one on you when they announce my win, then,” offers Sam. “I assume you’ll swoon with delight when it happens.”

“Nah,” says Bucky, shaking his head, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smile. “I can’t. I promised your mom I’d take a video of your reaction.”

Sam’s face goes warm and he hides against Bucky’s shoulder to cover the pleased grin on his face. “I should never have let you two exchange numbers.”

“Too late,” says Bucky. “We’re best friends now.”

“I’m starting to think she’s been dropping all those hints about proposing just so you two can hang out more.”

“You said it, not me.”

“Well, that’s too bad for her,” says Sam, pulling back to look at Bucky, “because I have very definite plans for proposing to you, and they have nothing to do with you two getting to have brunch together more often.”

Bucky’s cheeks go pink. “Already planning your proposal?” he teases. “And it hasn’t even been a year?”

“Some of us know what we want the minute we see it,” says Sam. “And I, for one, have no plans to fumble it.”

“Okay,” Bucky says, smiling down at Sam. “Just…whatever it is, make sure it’s a good story so we can tell our kids about it one day.”

“They’re going to get bored of us talking about each other, you know.”

Bucky waves a hand. “They’ll live,” he says, and the smitten grin on his face matches Sam’s own. “Now, someone talked big about a massage and a movie before he went and lost a bet today, and I’m noticing that topic hasn’t come up since.”

“I want a do-over,” says Sam, even as he lets Bucky pull him towards the couch. “Running into someone’s ex has to invalidate any prior bets. I’m pretty sure that’s a rule.”

“That’s not a rule, Sam.”

“You literally made me wait an hour for breakfast once because Leila was in the restaurant, minding her own business.”

“It was Valentine’s Day! I wanted to cozy up to my man!”

“It was Groundhog Day, and I don’t know what cozying you thought you were going to do in a booth at a family restaurant.”

“It was the principle of the thing, Samuel,” argues Bucky, and Sam lets himself slip into their familiar, silly back and forth, massage and bet entirely forgotten.

He thinks of Bucky’s question and hopes that the answer is always this obvious.

Of course this is enough. How could being loved this completely be anything less?

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippets: Free Day Thursday

Per the poll, we're going with "half of Spargus casually parents the boys and Jak doesn't know what to do with that"

Some context: this is set within a half-WIP where I was exploring ways to interpret Ashelin's manipulative little "or did the hero I know die in the desert?"

In this universe, Jak was technically clinically dead for almost 90 seconds because heatstroke is no joke and adding eco imbalance probably makes it worse. He was resuscitated inside the city walls, so the Wastelanders shrug and invoke a law as old as the city: "a "corpse" just took his first breath in our city, that makes him one of us by birth." And then he and Daxter got sent to live in the Arena barracks wing meant for younger Wastelanders (he's not loving it)

Jak was in a bad mood. He'd been up most of the night, dealing with flashbacks, and he was tired. He hadn't finished any of the work he'd been handed so far, and he was supposed to report to Damas in two hours for gods only knew what reason. In the three-odd weeks he and Daxter had been here, he'd spoken to the man all of twice. What had he done? They hadn't even let him go past the gate!

"Jak, you done with the-"

"No," Jak snapped. Immediately, he felt a little bad. Running a hand over his hair he sighed. "...sorry, Daxter."

Daxter narrowed his eyes. "You need a nap."

Jak looked away. It wasn't like he didn't know that. He bit down on a sharp retort.

He hated not finishing a task. It made him feel useless. Like a failure. But he was having so much trouble just. Focusing!

Sitting and tying nets back together was as repetitive as scrubbing the floors back in Sandover -- or the prison, occasionally, when the Baron was coming and the guards had to pretend they actually took care of the facility sometimes. It let Jak's mind wander. In the prison, that was a welcome escape. But after his escape, he didn't like letting his thoughts loose. They tipped into bad memories too often, and trying to remember the good ones was hard.

Right now, all Jak could really think about was the nightmare the morning dorm headcount had woken him from.

The image of Samos glaring down at him, hand on the controls of the Chair, was going to haunt him for a while.

The crews of the Looper, Half-Shark, and Black Eel moved along the beach, monitoring the kids from Dorm Five who had been assigned to help them. They were mostly in their late teens, like Jak, but there were a few unusually small ones -- a thirteen year old, a twelve year old boy and his eight year old brother -- given that they had nowhere else to go. There was a reason the other dorms called Five the Orphanage when they thought the matron couldn't hear them.

Most of the other ten kids were already done, or close to done. And Jak couldn't even do something he used to do all the time as a little kid.

"Y'alright there, sprout?" asked a gruff voice.

The captain of the Half-Shark stopped at the end of the pier with his hands on his hips. When Jak scowled and tangled his fingers in the cords, he made a knowing sound.

"One of those days, huh?"

"What days?" Jak growled.

The grizzled man winked and tapped a finger to his nose.

"Got a visit from the night hag, didn't ya? I won't tell. All sorts of dreams'll put shadows like that under a man's eyes in the night. You can take a break if you need."

"I'm fine."

Jak wove another two rows and knotted them in place. Silently, he willed the man to just go away. The last thing he needed was for any of the others to notice that he wasn't pulling his weight.

He'd never been around this many young people in his life. Ten was bad enough, but there were some hundred or more teenagers all told rotating through the barracks. The noise, the way they all knew each other already, it locked Jak's voice down eight times out of ten. They all stressed him out too much to even consider conversation.

Daxter claimed that he had two rivals and an archnemesis already. Jak didn't want to talk to any of them.

They were normal. Most of them had never been forced labor for a sage or a gangster or a resistance. They'd never been imprisoned, or tortured, or consistently told that if they weren't carrying everyone's burdens, they were worthless.

The only ones who had remotely similar experiences were the three who were rumored to have escaped Marauder slave camps. They didn't speak to anyone but each other, but as soon as he'd arrived they'd seemed to recognize the shadows hanging over Jak. During allotted mealtimes or when they were thrown out into the common area during the chaotically unstructured "free time", the two girls and the younger kid had started sitting silently with their backs to him: keeping watch so he and Daxter could eat. And Jak was not about to ask them what they'd gone through after that kindness.

Matron Pax reassigned Jak from room four to room eight within the week, putting him next door to the pale trio. All the "quiet kids" went on the same end of the hall. He appreciated that the woman paid attention to her charges' personalities, but he could've done without some of her rules.

"It ain't gonna do you no good to run yourself into the ground, son," the captain remarked. He folded his arms. "What's your hurry, anyhow? Ain't like you've got to earn amulets yet."

Jak looked up with incredulous annoyance.

"Yeah we do? We're "newcomers", remember?"

Daxter grimaced. "We don't even know how to drive!"

Captain Oaken raised his hairy eyebrows in surprise. Then understanding settled in.

"Ah don't mind them younger warriors. They're just bein' snots because they gotta earn their citizenship, while you're a born citizen."

Jak recoiled. "I think you've been out in the sun too long. I wasn't born here."

"We think," Daxter added helpfully, "We dunno where they snatched you from. Samos is a lying liar who lies, remember?"

Jak elbowed him and shook his head.

"Your king dragged us here half-dead."

"A good ways more dead than just half, remember?" Oaken corrected.

Suddenly, the midmorning sun felt cold. Slowly, he set the net down and stood up to look the captain in the eyes.

"What?"

"They didn't tell you?"

The captain sounded surprised. He scratched his nose and glanced back at the other teenagers. None of the others were close enough to overhear. Oaken lowered his voice anyway.

"Boy, you was dead dead a quarter of a minute before they got you in the gate. No pulse, not breathing. There was gawkers all over the place while his lordship got your pulse going again. Word got around."

Jak felt sick. Dead? He couldn't have been dead! He wasn't sure if fifteen seconds even counted. His brain would've still been active, right? His brain was still active, and he didn't remember any hypoxia.

Of course, he didn't remember much of anything else, either.

Technicality. It was only a technicality.

Calm down. Calm down, you didn't actually die. He's a fisherman. They tell tall tales. Probably thinks that's supposed to impress me.

"You alright, boy?" Oaken gestured to the pier. "Maybe you oughta sit, huh? You're looking pale."

When Jak only stared at him blankly, he patted the boy's shoulder gingerly.

"Don't let it get to you, eh? They brought you back, and it was inside the city walls. That's the part that matters."

Insane. These people were insane.

But...

If it meant he didn't have to fight to be allowed to stay, if it meant he maybe, hopefully, might actually have rights, maybe he could ignore some of the bizarre tendencies of this city that had...rescued? Captured? Conscripted them?

He never did finish the net. He was completely distracted for the remainder of the morning, wrestling with the implications. Eventually, the warrior on rotation as Dorm Five's resident advisor just excused him to report to the tower.

"What?! He's not even done!"

Luka glared at Jak and Daxter.

"Why does he get to leave early?"

The RA rolled his eyes at Luka.

"Because he got summoned. You could've left by now if you weren't goofing around with the fishhooks instead of cleaning the traps."

Luka sulked, but didn't say anything more about it. Jak fully expected the burly teenager to say something snide about it later that he'd probably have to smack him for. Luka, as he had been assured by the little kid, Koda, didn't like new people in the "orphan hall", and always gave newcomers a hard time. So what else was new.

"Ooooo, he's in trouble," one of the girls snorted in a sing-song voice.

Why were teenagers in Spargus so...childish?

____________________________________

Jak ignored them all. He had to follow a map to get to the citadel, avoiding people as much as possible. He tended to stay away from people anyway, but today especially he just wasn't in the mood for hu'men interaction. The one plus side of getting called up to talk to -- or be talked at by -- the king of this place was that it would probably be quiet.

Anything his dorm...neighbors...or whatever they were...said had to be taken with a heavy grain of salt. But Daxter had heard that the king didn't like more than a few people in a room with him at a time. Either he was paranoid about getting ganged up on, or he just didn't tolerate loitering like Torn.

"Hey, hold up!"

Oh now what?

Jak turned slightly to find a woman with a gunstaff approaching quickly. He tensed, ready for a fight, but she had a fairly casual expression.

In three steps she'd reached them, all while patting her pockets for something.

"Geez, I know the Youth Barracks had a population boom, but you'd think Pax would notice the naked kid."

"Excuse me?!" Jak sputtered, leaning away from her.

With an exclamation of triumph, the warrior produced a somewhat grease-stained rag. Without so much as a by-your-leave, she plucked the cap and goggles from Daxter's head and wrapped the rag around his brow and the back of his neck, just like Jak's scarf. When she deemed the result satisfactory, the warrior slapped the goggles back on him.

"Okay, carry on."

Both boys stared at her.

"What was that?!" Daxter squawked, "Did you just put a grease rag on my head?!"

"Didn't have a handkerchief." The warrior shrugged. "Listen, pipsqueaks, Foothills clan learned a long time ago: fur don't save you from sunburn. You'll thank me later."

Jak exchanged a glance with Daxter. It was true that Daxter's skin had been extra sensitive lately. They'd just assumed it was the heat and sweating. Neither had considered that he could get sunburned.

A little chagrined, Jak looked up at the woman and muttered a quick thanks. He waited, assuming she wanted something in trade. Everyone seemed to barter here, rather than pay in paper orbs.

"Alright, scram," the lady said, waving them off nonchalantly. "You look like you got chores or something. Don't ever say Mel didn't do nothin' for ya, huh?"

Jak didn't speak for the next two turns in the neighborhood. Daxter was more than happy to fill the silence for him.

"Is this what it's like bein' you?" the ottsel asked, hanging over his shoulder, "The eyes all the time? Peeps just comin' up and decidin' stuff about ya? Not that I blame em for lookin, but it does start to wig an ottsel out."

He'd once assumed that being the center of attention was all he really wanted. Even negative attention was still attention, and Daxter had learned every way to provoke people, just so they would have to acknowledge his existence. But now he wondered if there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. Because if he and Jak got into trouble, Jak wasn't the one getting all the consequences anymore. They didn't just tack Daxter on as an accompanying afterthought to "help", no, it was much worse. Matron Pax had proved adept at finding ottsel-sized chores to make him do!

On the one hand, he was being acknowledged as his own person, being nagged at to eat at the same time as everyone else, to stay in his room after lights-out, to go to school (or what passed for school here).

But on the other hand, he couldn't get away with rot anymore!

"I never know what these people want," Jak grumbled as the tower finally came into view. "Are we here to work, or are we being patronized? They're watching us, Dax. I know we're being monitored. There's no way people would randomly stop a stranger to make him fix his scarf."

"Or scold us for carrying three ammo crates at once," Daxter added.

"Or drag us off the street at noon to make us sort beads until noon rest was over," Jak agreed. "Nobody just...does that for strangers. Especially not a city where you're either useful or deadweight."

One more person tried to stop them when they got to the tower. Jak actually remembered this guy's name. Watchman Chayne guarded the elevator up to the throne room. He was a pretty easygoing guy, compared to most Wastelanders. Jak didn't mind him so much.

"Hold it," Chayne signed, raising a brow, "What are you two up to?"

"I dunno, ask Damas," Jak retorted.

"Whatever it was, we didn't do it!" Daxter added quickly, "And I have character witnesses!"

Chayne let out a soft, hissing laugh and waved them into the elevator.

"Oh, your turn for newbie check-in, huh? Just don't mouth off and you'll be fine."

"Define mouthing off," Daxter said, steepling his fingers.

Chayne blinked at him slowly, then looked at Jak, then at Daxter again.

"Godspeed, kid."

Great.

[runnning-outof-time]

Beach Day | Modern!Tommy Shelby x Reader

Request: no - but encouraged by @holacia3 with this ask

Pairing: Modern!Tommy Shelby x reader

Summary: (Y/N) manages to pull Tommy out of the office so that they can go on a trip. Once at their destination, they waste no time and have a much needed beach day. Or: Tommy forgets everything the second he sees (Y/N) wearing his shirt.

Warnings: language, some suggestive sentences

Word Count: 3332

A/N: this one’s probably going to flop, but I’m happy that I managed to finish it amidst the bout of writer’s block I’ve been experiencing. It was the other option on the poll I ran a few weeks ago. I haven’t got to take a trip to the beach this summer, so I decided to write about it instead. Enjoy! :)

A/N 2: this will be the last story posted in July … I’m going on a trip with my family next week and most likely won’t have any major time to write the other requests. I’m hoping that maybe I’ll be able to write and share some of the blurbs that I’ve got in my asks, but big stories have been halted until August.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

Comment/Message me if you’d like to be tagged in future stories like this one!

"...and you can't argue with me because I've already packed your bags," (Y/N) ended her pitch in an assured tone, setting her confident gaze on her fiancé, who was sitting across from her...at his desk, of course.

Tommy opened his mouth to speak, but the door to the office opening stopped him. Both he and (Y/N) looked over to it to find Polly entering the room. "I'm going to need you to hand over your diary," she said, walking right over to the desk, extending her hand towards her nephew when she stopped in front of it.

"I'm guessing you got her in on this?" Tommy asked (Y/N), his eyebrows raised as he looked between both women.

"I did," (Y/N) nodded in an assured manner, a tight-lipped grin present on her face, "and you're not getting out of it."

"Everything's been handled. Go take a break, Thomas," Polly added, moving her fingers then to remind him that she was going to need his diary.

"So it's been settled then, eh?" he looked at (Y/N) again.

"It has been," she answered him, a victorious smile present on her face, "give her the diary, Tommy."

"If I must," he sighed dramatically as he picked it up from his desk and handed it over to his aunt, making a big deal over it. Inside he was glad that (Y/N) had planned this out...he'd been working tirelessly on the business' latest expansion and hardly had a moment to breathe, but yet he wasn't going to stop and take one for himself. (Y/N) realized that and took it upon herself to plan the forced holiday.

"You must," (Y/N) stayed stern on her point, although the smile she was wearing was full on her face now. Tommy took one more look at his fiancée and couldn't stop the smile from forming on his face. There was not a doubt in his mind that he was ready to relax with her.

——

By that time the next day, Tommy and (Y/N) found themselves checked into a private resort that sat right off of a beautiful beach.

After unpacking their luggage, Tommy made his way out to the living area of the suite they were staying in with the intention of checking in on how things were back at home. He was thankful that this resort had high-speed internet, because he couldn't stand to be disconnected for too long. The flight to the resort was already pushing the limits...nothing would connect in that damned airport.

It seemed as though (Y/N) had other ideas of what they should be doing next. She exited the bedroom the second he'd gotten comfortable on one of the couches. Taking one look at Tommy made her audibly sigh and drop her hand to hit against her thigh, the sound of it making him look up from the screen.

He immediately noted that she had changed. Her comfortable airport attire had been switched for a swimsuit and a loose, practically see through dress that she was using as a cover-up. A pair of sunglasses rested atop her head and flip-flops covered her feet. How she managed to get changed so fast completely perplexed him.

"You're back to thinking of work already?" she commented, a bit of an exasperated look filling her features.

"You know how I like to check on things," he stated, defending himself as he shrugged his shoulders slightly.

"I do know, but we're on holiday, Tommy," she pointed out.

"Yeah, but we just got here."

"Yeah...and I'm already ready to go down to the beach."

"I noticed that."

"Tommy..." (Y/N) sighed, a frown forming on her lips. She held her gaze on him for a moment, watching and waiting for him to say something, before continuing to speak when silence persisted. "I'm going to throw your bloody phone in the ocean if this is how this week's going to play out," she threatened him, her voice holding a more serious tone than it had before.

"Just let me do it now," he bargained with her, "I didn't know we were going to get into things so soon."

(Y/N) pursed her lips as she thought about his suggestion. She finally responded after letting silence hang in the air for a few moments, "fine. You can do it now, but please don't let it become a habit, ok? This was meant to take you away from work," she laid out her stipulations.

"Fair enough. I'll curb it for the rest of the week," he agreed to her counter-offer, nodding his head to seal the deal.

"Good," she nodded in response to his statement. A few beats of silence passed before she spoke again, "I'm going to go down to the pool and wait for you, ok?" she told him her plan.

"Ok," he agreed, watching her as she walked over to where he was sitting. "Look beautiful, baby," he couldn't resist giving her a compliment, his eyes running over her body.

"Thanks, Tommy," she smiled at him, her stomach filling with butterflies as she leaned down to press a kiss to his lips. "Don't be up here too long, hmm?" she mumbled against his lips after pulling away.

"I won't," he promised her, feeling her smile against his lips before they shared one more kiss. (Y/N) stood upright again, smiling and nodding at him once more before she moved back over the island that broke up the kitchen and living space.

"You know where to find me," she told him while making sure that her tote bag was filled with the essentials: beach towel, sun tan lotion, hotel room key, and, of course, her latest book. She looked over to him, watching as he nodded one last time, before she made her way to the door of the suite.

There weren't many people sitting by the pool, so (Y/N) was able to find an open lounge pretty quickly. She set her bag down next to the chair and then relaxed back against it. The ocean's waves could be heard from where she was, and the calming sound of them made her shut her eyes and take a deep breath. It was good to finally be able to take some time and actually relax.

As a senior member of the Shelby Company Ltd.'s marketing team, she was working just as much as Tommy was. Always coming up with new ways of advertising; always keeping up with the different avenues Tommy was taking the company down. It was tedious and time consuming, sure, but she wouldn't have it any other way...the job was how she met her fiancé, three years ago.

With both of their busy schedules, neither really had the time to take a moment and relax...until (Y/N) made a point to now. She was thankful for this trip, and she was sure that Tommy was, too.

Some time passed as she sat, relaxing on the pool lounge. She wasn't sure how long she'd been out there; she wasn't really keeping time as she switched between laying with her eyes closed and watching the other people meander about the pool area.

Luckily she was doing some people watching when Tommy came walking down the stairs and into the pool area of the resort. She spotted him as he was descending the steps, and immediately noticed that he'd changed into his beachwear. The white t-shirt and jeans he'd worn while traveling was now swapped for a pair of gray board shorts and a baby blue linen button down shirt. She couldn't help but stare at him as he walked across the area to get to where she was lounging.

"Ready to go down to the water?" he asked as he stopped in front of her lounge.

"I see you're finally finished with your work," (Y/N) commented, pulling her sunglasses down slightly to peer up at him.

He chuckled at her statement, shaking his head slightly as he looked out to the ocean, "yeah, and it's finished for the rest of the trip."

"If you say so," she brushed off the topic as she sat up on the lounge, collecting her bag and making sure that she had everything she'd come down with. "Let's go down to the beach," she said with a smile as she stood next to him. Tommy nodded his head before allowing her to lead the way to the gate that separated the pool area from the private beach that the resort offered.

The beach was beautiful. The sand was soft, and the breeze coming off of the waves made the hot rays of the sun not burn so bad. One of the perks of the resort having a private beach was the fact that there weren't many people inhabiting it.

(Y/N) and Tommy quickly found a spot to set their things down. (Y/N) made sure that the beach blanket Tommy had brought with him (because she'd forgotten it in the room) was laid out underneath one of the umbrellas the resort had set up. She set the bag down on it before kicking off her flip-flops and lifting the cover-up from her body.

"Let's go down to the water," she excitedly said, flashing a look in Tommy's direction before she took off towards the waves.

"You're not even gonna wait for me," he responded, moreso to himself than anyone, a smile forming on his face as he shook his head. He could easily tell how much she was already enjoying this holiday, and he was so thankful that she'd planned it for them. It took him a few moments to undo his button down and set it into the bag before he too kicked off his flip-flops and began walking down to the water.

He approached (Y/N), who was standing facing the waves, and wasted no time wrapping his arms around her midsection. His actions made her shriek at first, but she sunk into his embrace in seconds. "Isn't it beautiful?" she asked him, swaying slightly along with him.

"It is," he mused, resting the side of his head against hers as they looked out at the waves. "The water's not too cold either."

"It's not," she agreed, her hands coming up to sit on his forearms, "let's go in," she said then, tapping his arms to let him know she wanted to be released. He obliged, and she took his hand to lead him out deeper in the water.

They made their way out to where the water reached their waists, stopping there even though Tommy thought that they could go out a little bit further. (Y/N) protested his suggestion, telling him that 'things might eat us if we go any further'. Tommy listened to his fianceé's statement and stayed where they were. They spent a good amount of time in the water, switching from swimming around, to floating with the waves, to (Y/N)'s personal favorite: hanging onto Tommy like he was a tree and she was a koala.

At least an hour of them spending time in the water had to have passed before Tommy finally decided to start heading towards the shore. His movement, of course, didn't go unnoticed. "You're leaving me?" (Y/N) questioned after she saw him take a few steps backwards. She was enjoying herself in the water and had had no plans of leaving it any time soon.

"I think I'm ready to get out of the water," he answered with the obvious.

"We've not been in here long though," she pouted.

"I need to go sit for a minute, love. I'll be just up there," he told her, motioning to where their things were. (Y/N)'s pout didn't subside, but she nodded and allowed him to leave the waves.

She watched him walk up the beach and sit down on the blanket they'd laid out. Her eyes lingered for a few moments before she went back to floating on the waves.

It wasn't long before (Y/N) was exiting the water and walking up to where Tommy had made himself comfortable. It just wasn't the same wading in the waves alone. She wanted to spend as much time with Tommy as she possibly could. A sight - that she honestly wished she'd be surprised to see - was waiting for her at the blanket though.

"I thought you said you'd ditch the work while we're here?" she commented as she stopped in front of Tommy, who had his face buried in his smartphone as he tapped away at the screen.

Her voice made him quickly look up, a surprised expression forming on his face as he noticed she was right in front of him. "I was just checking a few things," he told her, holding his hands up in surrender, his now locked phone present in one of them.

"Mm-hmm," (Y/N) shook her head as she moved over to where the bag was sitting so that she could grab a towel and dry off, "you do know the ocean's right there, right? I could honestly take that phone and give it a good chuck," she stated, making sure her body was dry.

"You wouldn't," Tommy responded, a slight tone present in his voice, showing that he was testing the waters.

"I just might," she quipped back, a grin on her face as she dropped the towel back into the bag.

Before she could move to sit next to him, light blue fabric caught her eye. She instantly recognized it as the linen button down Tommy was previously wearing. She picked it up without a second thought, draping it over her shoulders and slipping her arms through the holes. It covered her swimsuit clad body immediately and she was grateful for the soft, cool fabric on her otherwise warm skin. She'd just finished rolling the sleeves up to her elbows when she finally felt Tommy's eyes on her.

Tommy had been watching her from the second she came back to the blanket. His phone was quickly forgotten as he watched her dry off and then grab the shirt from the bag. Sure, she had her own cover-up, but he was so damn happy that she'd chosen to slip his shirt on over her body. Something about her wearing his clothes just got him going. Just when he thought she couldn't get any more beautiful, she went ahead and did something like this. He couldn't help but let his eyes travel up and down her frame.

(Y/N)'s eyes finally found his when he found her face once more, and she couldn't stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach as she noticed the look he was giving her. She wanted to make a comment, but it died in her throat as she just about melted under his stare.

"C'mere," Tommy finally spoke, nodding his head to the side as a non-verbal addition to his statement. She grinned at him and happily followed his direction, moving over to where he was sitting.

He brought his knees up and opened his legs slightly, offering her the perfect spot to sit down in; one that she quickly fell into. She easily got comfortable sitting between his legs; her back rested against his chest. Tommy wasted no time in wrapping his arms around her, pulling her even closer to his body as he leant over and began pressing kisses to the side of her neck.

"Tommy, stop!" she exclaimed through her giggles, finally trying to squirm away from his lips as his actions quickly became ticklish. He listened to her and stopped his kisses, but he didn't dare loosen up the grip that he had on her.

It was easy for his hands to find their way onto her body, being that she'd left the shirt open, and he couldn't help but let them roam her figure. He took his time, feeling every curve as he nestled his face into her neck; breathing in the sweet smell of her skin mixed with the sunshine that had been kissing it since they exited the hotel room. (Y/N) had practically melted into his body, absolutely loving the feeling of his hands as they traced her skin.

She waited until his hands found their resting spot on the sides of her waist, his arms crossed over her stomach, to finally speak again: "I see that I've got your mind off of work now," she said with a grin, turning her head so that she could see his face out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh you most certainly have," he answered, a grin laced into his words, "look so fuckin' beautiful in my things...always, baby," he mumbled against the skin of her cheek before he kissed it.

The butterflies returned as she heard what he had to say, and she couldn't stop herself from turning in his arms even more so that she could press her lips to his in a much needed kiss. "Love you, Tommy," she mumbled against them, smiling as he kissed her again, this kiss holding more emotion than the last. "I can't wait for the rest of this week with you," she said once they'd finally pulled away from each other. She was now sitting with her body turned more towards him, so she was able to look at him head on. She couldn't stop her cheeks from heating up as she caught the look of total adoration in his eyes.

"If this is a preview of what's to come..." he trailed off, a grin forming on his face as his eyes danced over her figure once more, "I already know that this trip is going to be one that's hard to top."

His cheeky comment that was accompanied by a rather suggestive glance, made (Y/N) gasp, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes and shake her head as she tried to distract herself from how his words actually made her feel. Why did there have to be other people present on this beach?! She had to look towards the ocean for a few moments to re-center herself from the look that was making her wonder what they could get away with out here.

A few moments had passed before she felt the sharp snap of her swimsuit's strap against her skin. "Tommy!" she shrieked at the sensation, her eyes snapping back onto him to see that a smug grin was now present on his face. He tried, and failed, to feign innocence before his expression dissolved into a grin and chuckles. "I can't believe you," she shook her head, gently pressing on his shoulders for him to get the hint to lay back on the blanket.

She wasted no time in pressing her lips to his when he did lay down, and he made a mental note to do things such as that more often if this was going to be how she responded to it.

After sharing a flurry of kisses, (Y/N) rested her head against his chest, not caring about the shine of sweat that was present due to the heat of the sun that was engulfing them. She was thankful for the shade that their umbrella was providing.

Tommy wrapped his arms around the small of her back underneath the shirt of his that she was still wearing, effectively holding her close to him...like she was going to be moving any time soon. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the serenity that was surrounding them; not thinking about anything but the beautiful woman laying with him.

Like he'd said before: if this was a preview of how the week was going to go, this was most definitely going to be a tough trip to top.

Tagged: @mystcldydrms @the-anxious-youth @cloudofdisney @look-at-the-soul @elenavampire21 @mrsalwayswrite @julkaamazing @evita-shelby @lilyrachelcassidy @notyour-valentine @shelbydelrey @onlydeadcells @peakyswritings @just-a-blackhole @watercolorskyy @strayrockette @peakyduchesss @alexxavicry @captivatedbycillianmurphy @yummycastiel @dark-academia-slut @tommystargirl @stevie75 @lyarr24 @signorellisantichrist @zablife @anotherblinder @midnightmagpiemama @cillmequick @rangerelik @dandelionprints @letal-y-poetica @itscheybaby @gypsy-girl-08 @insanitybyanothername @depxiety @raincoffeeandfandoms @dragons-are-my-favorite @acewritesfics @forgottenpeakywriter @cljordan-imperium @areyenotfondofmelobster @little-diable @thomashelbyswife @iambored24601 @shaddixlife

MASTERLIST

[haletostilinski]

I asked, you guys voted! The next poll? A friendship battle, so here we go!

Now that we finished the Episode Battle, it's time to move onto a new set of polls. A best friendship/family friendship poll. What do you feel is the best Teen Wolf friendship ever? So, a few things first:

I believe I got all the friendships on the show and then some. Like with the ship battle, I got to 128 friendships. A few are completely fanon friendships, but the majority had some form a friendship in the show - or some form of a platonic bond in one way or another. Even so, I might have missed a pair (or more) that you feel is a friendship and deserved to be included, and I apologize if your own favorite friendship/family friendship did not make it onto the list, but I was stretching it to make it to 128 friendships as it is, so..

Yes, Family Relationships are included in this! There aren't enough friendships or families that I could think of that would warrant either type of relationship having its own ship battle, so I just combined them. They're both a type of platonic relationship anyway, so I figured they could just be smushed together into one poll battle.

And remember, this is a best friendship poll, so even if you ship them romantically or hate the pairing, do NOT vote for a friendship based on how you feel about it romantically or not, vote on if they HAVE THE BEST FRIENDSHIP, not if you love them together romantically. So think PLATONICALLY, and no other way when voting (So yeah, even pairs like Sterek or Steter or what have you!)

The matching up for this was basically entirely random, except maybe trying to keep the bigger friendships further apart from each other. So a match up might be kinda 'meh' for the first few rounds for a few of them.

WARNING: Obviously, NO PAIR/FRIENDSHIP HATE IN THESE POLES. Keep it civil! You can disagree with the winners if you're bummed yours didn't get through to the next round/didn't win, of course, but don't go hating/fighting with others over the friendship that wins a round. That will not be tolerated and if I see that I will either delete the comment if I can/give a warning/block the user/or if it's too many people going too far I will shut this WHOLE thing down. This is meant to be fun and not serious. Remember that, please. Also it seems silly to say this over a friendship poll but you NEVER know, so I'm being cautious here.

HATE WHILE LINKING TO AND ASSOCIATING WITH MY POLLS which could mean quoting or replying to someone linking to my poll! - WILL NOT BE TOLERATED

Also, given what happened in the shipper polls, this has to be warned for just incase: If there is ANY significant spike in the votes in a very short period of time - like say jumping 10% points or something in like an hour of time or something - outside of the initial votes being given at first, of course - I will assume botting has taken place. If someone is making more than 1 account on tumblr to vote, i.e. fake accounts, that is also cheating and THAT FRIENDSHIP WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED. Again, with what happened with the ship battle, this needs to be said. NO making multiple accounts or there will be consequences.

Because this is a friendship/family friendship battle, there will be two friendships per poll. So you're about to see quite a bit of of poll posts from me…just a warning if you're wondering why there's going to be continued episode poll posts from me 😭

Also there aren't just two people per friendship for every friendship included in this poll. I included pairs of 3, 4, or even more for like a pack as well.

As always, every poll will have a 1 week duration. I will show the brackets as they stand below. And after every round, I will show the updated version, pinned to my blog if you're curious to see every winner of every round.

Lastly, have fun! Let's see what episode lands on top 😎

Here are the brackets - ignore the numbers on them, the site I used just did that🤷‍♀️ (and you'll have a pretty good idea who the winners will be up against next round as well). I will start posting the polls momentarily (but might not get all of them up right away, that might be staggered.)

[cleolinda]

Weekend links, March 23, 2025

My posts

I had a spinal procedure on Wednesday (minor; except for seeing all time at once for a couple days, it's fine) and I'm half-resting for a few days after that. But I managed to get the next set of Silent Hill 2 commentary posts up—here's the masterpost for those. I'm currently finishing up the posts for the third video, and (knock on wood) I'll be recording Blue Creek, aka "I have to fight Pyramid Head again," sometime this week. 

Meanwhile, Ian's third stream is also up: "Last night we had our first Pyramid Head encounter, talked about the Schumanns, dove into the wild world of sample manipulation, got a crash course in diatonic vs. nondiatonic chords, and discussed possible interpretations for the coin puzzle." He's already seen my third video (the same level) and tells you exactly where I got my ass kicked.

Reblogs of interest

Some interesting indie games!

Kun'tewiktuk: A Mi'kmaw Adventure: "A fantasy adventure game inspired by Mi’kmaw legend and folklore. It chronicles the adventures of siblings Wasuek ('Flower') and her brother U'n ('Fog'). They get separated one summer morning and they go on an adventure through the spirit world to reunite."

Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori: "Bond with your horse and tame the open wilds of 13th century Mongolia." ("The developers obviously put a lot of love into finally repping my people as Not Just Generic Bad Guys To Be Slaughtered in QuickTime Events, but the unabashed horse girls we truly are.")

Happy Miette Tweet Anniversary to all who celebrate

happy 10 years to wagon age oregons

Puffy is enough.

"hey gamers I’ve started watching star trek does anyone else see the romantic tension between captain kirk and mr. spock"

A Brazilian opossum being presented to Queen Isabella of Spain in the year 1500 from The Zoogoer v.15:no.1 (1986).

Poll: what font do you like to use most when writing?

"asking you about rothko . just ramble for a bit please"

"You’re just a mammal. Let yourself act like it. Your brain needs enrichment. Your body needs rest."

“you little fucker, I’m going to make a statement and then I’m going to take you out to the parking lot and beat your ass. What good does your pessimism do?”

When language transcends language

As I get back into perfume, I can't tell if I want to try Fairyland Bloop or not. I do not want to try Sécrétions Magnifiques.

"My mom accidentally joined a grieving support group (long story, she’s not grieving tho)" [and] "she says citrus tarts aren’t 'griefy' enough"

"I approve of powerscaling discourse only in utterly senseless contexts" ("Gordon Ramsay can breathe underwater. Can he fix The Chum Bucket")

Video

Wet Beast Wednesday: "sometimes you just gotta gghghghgh. mibph. breh. [sneezes] fibsh."

"Trio for Harmonica, Rubber Duck, and Belt in D Minor." "This is how clowns do BDSM"

Words of wisdom from Lil Nas X: "Stop trying to shit on your haters! Do it for you! Do it because you deserve it! Do it for YOU!"

"disability? more like check out dis ability"

Please enjoy the adventures of Dexter, Squidward, and Chicken Elizabeth Nugget at Carcass Acres

"it is once again… binturong appreciation hour"

For those of you who dont get to see fireflies. Yes they are real and yes they are gentle

The sacred texts

I'm not sure how an argument about kettles and tea turns into iambic pentameter, but

Personal tag of the week

Let's say jewelry, because I love the chocolate box pendant AND the Greek earrings AND the moonstone ring AND the garnet owl ring AND...

[thinkolicity]

the night agent thoughts. sutherkin thoughts.

i've just finished properly rewatching season 2 (bc i showed it to my mother, she was finally ready to suffer) and not only that...i also read the book.

yes, after two years i caved and bought it and, girlies, i read romance & romantasy but i enjoyed this political thriller so much? so not my genre, i was shocked. i couldn't put it down. anyway.

--- SPOILERS AHEAD if u want to read the book and/or watch the series ---

so...now i'm filled with hopes & dreams.

it's gonna be a long post. and all over the place because it's 3 am.

i know other people probably already said what i'm about to say but i've been stewing on this for like three weeks. i need to vent and share.

since TNA is my current obsession, i'll live in a constant state of anxiety for sutherkin's fate in the series for the forseeable future until i distract myself with something else. every show i follow i watch for the plot, but i need my couples. "the world's gone to shit, the plot too, but my fictional couples are strong" is the mentality.

how the heck are they going to bring rose back, involve her with peter again after all we've seen in season 2? will her character have justice and will rose be represented and given the screen-time and agenda she deserves? after finishing s2 i was feeling hopeless. i was mad. dejected. i felt betrayed because the sutherkin i hoped to see wasn't delivered. then i read a very long post on here that filled me with positive thoughts. the questions remained, but i wanted more. so i bought the book and the book made me think "maybe there's light at the end of this bleak tv!sutherkin tunnel".

SPOILERS AHEAD

so i was thinking: the main political plot of TNA BOOK is basically foreign (russian ofc) interference in the USA elections (extremely actual btw), and what seemingly is a compromised president who got the presidency because the other candidate got drowned in a scandal that tanked polls and consensus…and it just so happens that s2 ends in the midst of a presidential election, where coincidentally one of the candidates drops off the race after a scandal and the remaining candidate is involved with monroe, who has "global connections", he buys and sells information to privates and politicians…

to me it sounds like we are headed back to the mothership. we started from the book, took a (fucked-up) trip into trippy outer space, and now we're circling back to the book again to use crumbs of the election plot that wasn’t used for s1. ending the series with season 3 and make season 3 end like the book would be a dream. it's perfect. full circle. obviously they're gonna have to implement their own twist to the whole thing...and i want to convince myself that sutherkin is "endgame", to use a classic shipping term, so they gotta find a way to fix that mess because the whole “you’re in danger as long as i am a night agent so forget about me” thing is bullcrap.

we actually have a perfect endgame set up - in season 1 ep 9 rose said she wanted to go back to california "new name, new start". peter wanted to "buy a cabin, disappear for a bit". rose asked him where and he told her "no idea...but i hear california's great". this is the goal.

in the book the story takes place in january and they live together in a rented cottage until april when they're done with the interviews, and testimony, and stuff.

from chapter 96

"He and Rose did a lot of cooking and listening to music, and they would go upstairs and wear each other out in that delirious way of new love, or in the living room, or on the upstairs deck if they caught a warm day, hidden from view behind a white-planked railing. It reminded Rose, she told him, of what her aunt and uncle had together, how they managed to keep it burning for decades, even on that last night. Some part of it was simply the pleasure of reveling in life, of a new chapter, after so much had been lost. It felt easy and natural, the same way each one of them could pick up when the other wanted time to be alone, to think through the gravity of what they had survived and what lay ahead".

UGH I WANT THISSSSS come onnnn. two rabid bunnies. and it would be even better on the show because they are way more deeply connected than their book counterparts. gimme.

book!peter leaves his WH job and he and rose stay together - the ending made me tear-up, actually. when they go back to rose's aunt and uncle's house to say goodbye. the last words of the novel belong to rose which i think is important in the optics of the tv series. she's important, it's unthinkable to me that they would demote her to guest role or worse. fuck that.

i really hope rose will be given a role of substance in season 3, we saw in s1 and even more so in s2 that she can kick ass and is valuable to the fbi (and life in general tbh). how she's a natural at lying. how she and peter coordinated to take down markus? *chef's kiss*. she can be trained, she's not a damsel in distress, that's why she's so loved.

there's this interesting bit in chapter 77

He watched her for a long moment, taken again by her calm through all this. Maybe that looked like suspicion. “What?” He wouldn’t lie to her. “This seems so natural to you.” “What are you saying, Peter?” “You’ve never done anything like this before?” “I’ve been through some awful shit. I learned to put my head down and get through it. You think I’m hiding something?” She shook her head and looked out the window. “Are you?” Peter asked. “What? A spy? Working with Greg somehow? You asshole.” She grimaced, as if holding back the anger. That was fine. He could take it. If they were about to go against the sitting US president with the help of a foreign agent, he wanted all the cards on the table. “No,” she said. “I’m terrified and doing my best to keep it together and find a way out. This is how I work. I get cold. I get through it".

i mean, even book!peter thought rose was some kind of agent/spy when he reached peak level of distrust in humans. he was fed-up. she’s born for this.

sigh, with all of this material they need to find a plausible way to bring her fully back into the fold, give me some sutherkin action, and then let them live together happy and in peace like they deserve.

"And now, he had done his part. He had stood his watch. He was free. He and Rose were going to get in that old Benz and get out of DC. They didn’t know what came next, but they would figure it out. They had time. They had each other".

i won't accept any other ending however they choose to get there 🙃

thank you for reading, let’s suffer together.

< ————— —————>

bonus silly little sutherkin scene i loved from the book under the cut:

chapter 94 where peter and rose are staying at blair house and

Rose muttered something. Her eyes were already closed. “What was that?” “I’m stealing that mug.” She’d brought it in and left it on the nightstand. It was a standard White House guest mug, blue with a satisfying heft and the presidential seal. “Go for it.” She didn’t respond. She was already out. Peter pulled the sheets and blankets up to her chin. He lay down, and she rolled closer and draped her arm over him. Peter closed his eyes, and sleep came in an instant.

this made me cackle, i can see the scene in my brain.

[afanofmanyth1ngs]

Yellowjackets/IWTV Fanfic

So, about a week ago I put out a poll about doing a weird IWTV fanfic that's basically set in the Yellowjackets verse... And now I'm doing it... YAY!! but I do just want to come on here to basically throw around some things I'm going to do :P So this is going to be where I update people and just basically talk about how I'm going to do this, what my schedule is going to look like, things I need opinions on. This is more so a motivation thing so IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, please please please comment and follow along. I lose motivation quickly, but this is something I'm pretty dedicated to. but either way THIS IS HAPPENING.

______________________________________________________________

First things first. YES I have started working on it. Im not even close to finished with the first chapter because each chapter is going to be LONG. This is not going to be everything that happens in Yellowjackets happens in here, and not even close. Even as I started it... I will sometimes use direct quotes, but thats only if im stuck and cant figure out what im doing.

NEXT as I said this is not going to be yellowjackets word for word, but I will be using each episode as a starting point. scenes might mirror each other, and I will cut between scenes as they do in the show.

Some things that are automatically going to be different from Yellowjackets:

They will not be on a Sports team of any sorts. The one thing each character has in common, is that they all are passionate about one or more forms of art (ex: Louis: Photography - Lestat: Acting - Madeleine - Sewing and dress making and altering (not the right words sorry lol)) SO im having them go to an art school :P little bit of a long shot but not only is it just convinent for me because of all the art forms they like, but also I think it would be kind of cool for just normal (LMAO) IWTV kids who have never touched a sport in their lives to now have to like hunt and stuff... kind of Lord of the Flies with half of the kids being CHOIR KIDS core.

Theyre all gonna be in High school. i was like well im not aging them up cause what fun would that be, so lets just age them down and keep a whole bunch of that trauma and see what happens... and im not super far into the writing process but its working rn!!

Theyre crashing in the Alps. I have zero knowlege of the Alps whatso ever BUT i know i went over them when i flew to Italy so Im having them go to the Uffizi Galleries!!! and then BAM Alps. so get ready for some major inaccuratcies about that cause im gonna make them how they are in Yellowjackets... just in like Italy. Maybe I'll reasearch a bit more... dw about it its ok :D

As I said before each chapter is going to be LONG. so rn I have around 4ish scenes (ones not finished yet) and by the time I'm finished with those and edit it's going to be close to around 4,000 words I'm estimating... that's 4,000 words for not even a quarter of THE KIDS STORY LINE. on that topic, because each chapter is going to be so incredibly long, I've decided to split each chapter in about half. I was originally planning to do one chapter = one episode of yellowjackets but again it's going to be WAY too long, so kids' storyline, adult story line. I like that a lot too because a big pet peeve of mine is in stories where it keeps switching through times and then i get so lost and have to reread like 10 times to understand... LIKE PLEASE JUST SPLIT IT INTO A FEW CHAPTERS SO IM NOT CONFUSED

Last thing! Most of each character's backstory IS WORKED IN... so for example (A HUGE example) is for at least the first few chapters Armand will be called and referred to as Amadeo. Marius is his adoptive father who rescued him from some sex trafficking scandal or something and renamed him, before he eventually changes his name to Armand while out in the mountains. So, like obviously he's not going to get the name Armand from Santino, but you know... working in what I can :P

OK ACTUALLY LAST LAST THING: I don't know when this will come out... I have a deadline for myself and I'm certain I will get to it, HOWEVER I do not have access to the other Yellowjackets episodes, which is pretty crucial if I want to get into a schedule of posting each week regularly. As of right now I am hoping to get the first chapter out on October 3rd... Yellowjackets will be accessible to me AND then I'll be able to post a chapter on Halloween... YAY!! if that does not work out because the following chapters are taking too long and I release before I can make sure the Schedule is set, it will most likely be one of the Thursdays in October because I REALLY want to get one out on Halloween!!

OK!! hope you guys liked my little rant!! I'll keep everyone who's interested updated on here so if you want to be in the loop follow me (or don't! if you don't you can just check my page!) and again comments motivate me, so if you have any questions or just think it's a cool idea let me know!

[meganx]

Light Traces in His Hair // Charles Leclerc x Reader

Summary: Charles gets small moments of comfort during a really difficult weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix.

Word Count: 1.4K

TW: Mentions of anxiety, feelings of sadness and disappointment. Double disqualification for Ferrari.

AN: Sorry this is short, but I needed to work through my feelings after this weekend. Also, after this week I have some time off from university so if you have any requests, please send them.

The second race of the season was simultaneously underwhelming and overwhelming.

A week ago, while on a call with Charles, he admitted that he had been feeling insecure going into the Chinese Grand Prix and would feel better if I was there to support him. An hour later I received an email with my ticket and all my flight information.

I landed on Thursday night and Charles picked me up from the airport with a taxi. His face was drained of it's usual pink color and I could tell he wasn't himself. Our drive back to the hotel was silent and Charles kept his handed planted firmly on my thigh for the entire ride.

At the hotel he silently took my bags and led us to his hotel room. Charles was the social butterfly between the two of us, so for him to be this silent for so long was disconcerting.

"What's going on baby?" I asked.

Charles just shook his head and stayed silent which only left me feeling more concerned. Once in our hotel room he set my bags down next to the bed and sat on it. He took a deep breath and looked up at me. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the desperation in his eyes.

I shuffled towards him and stood between his legs. Instantly his arms came up to wrap around my waist and he rested his head on my stomach. I raised my hands up to run them gently through his hair.

Finally, Charles spoke.

"I've got this heavy feeling in my heart. Like this weekend is going to go badly and I'll disappoint the fans and the team again," he said.

"Charles, no. You can't think so negatively the night before a sprint qualifying. I know the weight you carry is heavy, my love, but let me take some of the load."

"I don't want to disappoint you either," he whispered.

"You will never disappoint me, Charles. You are everything to me. Not because you win, but because of who you are in the deepest parts of your heart."

Charles nodded his head against my stomach.

"Why don't we go to bed? Some rest might make you feel better."

He nodded again and pulled me down to sleep next to him. As soon as we were under the covers he tangled his legs with mine and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist.

----------------

Charles had slept restlessly the entire night. He tossed and turned and woke me up every so often with his frustrated sighs.

He gripped my hand tightly the entire drive to the track. He continued with his grip as we walked through the paddock and only let go when we were in the garage and it was time for him to get into driving mode.

The whole way through the sprint qualifying I anxiously shook my leg, hoping against hope that Charles would take poll. But when he finished in fourth, I knew that his mental state would be even worse now than when I arrived.

As the Ferrari garage celebrated the first place that Hamilton managed to secure, Charles sat in his driver's room with his head hung in his hands. My heart broke and I was so angry at myself for not being able to comfort him enough.

I slung my arm over his shoulders in hopes that my presence might grant him some comfort. We sat quietly, me trying to give Charles every ounce of strength that I possessed until an assistant came in and called Charles for a team debrief.

"Go back to the hotel," he said. "I'm going to stay a bit later to figure out how we can improve for tomorrow."

"Okay."

I leaned up and kissed Charles on his cheek before he made his way out of the room.

I tried to stay up and wait for him at the hotel. I scrolled through Instagram and TikTok where thousands of people were showing support, but an equal amount were spewing vile hurtful comments about the man I loved. I prayed that Charles would be to busy to pay attention to what people were saying.

Charles arrived back long after I was asleep, though I felt him press a kiss to my forehead just before he climbed into the bed beside me.

----------------

Saturday brought with it more disaster. Not only did the sprint not give Charles the result he wanted, but his qualifying for the actual race was a disaster.

That night he was back in the hotel room early. He lay on the bed staring at the ceiling, seemingly zoned out. I lay next to him with our fingers interlaced but I wasn't even sure he entirely noticed my presence.

"You know Charles, this single weekend does not define you as a driver."

Charles huffed out a breath, obviously frustrated by my words. He pulled his hand free from mine and laid both of his hands behind his head as he continued his glaring at the ceiling.

I took a deep breath, trying to remind myself that Charles wasn't actually upset with me. The entire situation was enveloping him in anxiety that he couldn't quite shake. I knew it was my job to make him feel better and that getting angry with him right now was unfair. So, I ignored the pang in my chest from his somewhat cold treatment and instead focused on him.

My hand found its way into his hair once more as I traced soft lines onto his scalp, something he had mentioned before always managed to ground him. He was asleep in a few minutes but it was my turn to anxiously stay awake all night.

----------------

Finally, Sunday morning had rolled around and Charles seemed to be in a better mood. He was determined to make lemonade out of the lemons he had been dealt and I admired him for it.

I watched from the garage as he raced around the track, lap after lap. Despite the damage to his car and the all-around difficult drive he had, he had finished the race. I was so proud of him for what he had achieved.

Only to be told a few hours later that both Ferraris had been disqualified and I watched in real-time as Charles' face crumpled.

That night we found ourselves in the hotel once again. Only this time Charles seemed to need my presence. His hands traced skin anywhere he could find it, almost mindlessly.

"I just want to forget this weekend ever happened," he said.

I nodded my head and was reminded of a scene from Ted Lasso, a show that Charles and I loved to watch together.

"I think it's a great idea for you to be a goldfish right now. Feel this loss, this anger, this pain, as deeply as you need to. But then, I think you should be a goldfish and go into the next race with a fresh mind and a positive mindset."

Charles smiled at the reference I made and nodded his head in agreement. He moved his head over to rest it on my lap as we lay in bed and he pulled my hand up and into his hair. I softly moved my fingers through his hair the way that he liked and he wrapped one arm tightly around my legs.

"I love you," he muttered.

"I love you, Charles. Not the racing driver. Just you."

He pressed a kiss to my thigh where his head rested and closed his eyes. I could see that the weight of the events this weekend still rested heavily on his shoulders and knowing Charles, he would carry that with him whether he wanted to or not. But I couldn't help but feel that weight rest heavily on my chest as well.

I concentrated on what I was feeling and what Charles must be feeling. I allowed myself to feel the anger that came with seeing my favorite team have both their cars disqualified after the race. I allowed myself to feel the pain of Charles suffering from disappointing himself. And I allowed myself to feel the anxious weight on my chest from not knowing what future races would hold.

But then, as I slept, I became a goldfish and forgot about that anger and pain. I allowed it to move through me and out of me and looked to the next race with nothing but hope in my heart and love for my favorite Monegasque.

[kpopsexstories]

hey, I am a big fan of NCT Dream dating ban series and I can't wait for 127 version. I think you mentioned that you don't have any ideas for stories about nct 127 which worried me:). Can you give us some update about 127 dating ban series. How is the work going? When can we expect this series?

Hey 😁👋

Certainly, happy to provide an update! And let's get straight to the good news you're hoping for: I have now set preliminary dates for the first three stories (thanks to your question)! 🥳

For those who don't know, the NCT Dream Dating Ban was a gay x male reader smut series. The NCT 127 Dating Ban series is a follow-up to that, one I have been teasing for a while.

Now let me give you a more detailed update...

What the hell is taking so long? 😅

Well, like you said I initially didn't have enough ideas for this series. But then I did. Only to make it way too complex and confuse myself. Which, when I did a poll recently about which storylines and series to prioritize and the 127 Dating Ban got a lot of the votes, led me to completely scrap everything.

That's right, since I was stuck in a loop of writer's block I decided to simply start over.

And guess what? It did the trick! That's why I can now comfortably give you (preliminary) dates for the first three stories.

Dates? What dates? Just tell us already! 🤩

Okay, okay 😏 The first thee stories will be:

Haechan, March 13, 2025

Jungwoo, March 20, 2025

Doyoung, March 27, 2025

You can now see their cover images on the Up-coming Stories page on Story Finder (my external website for all k-pop smut on this blog) and further down this post.

Oh come one, that's soooo long from now!

Not really 🤣 February is almost over. But even though I have written the first draft of all three of the above they still need some editing.

Writing a single story – any story – takes a lot of time, because I care about details and want to give you good stuff 😊

And the rest of the members...?

Well, this is another reason why I initially got stuck. When I did the NCT Dream Dating Ban I wrote and published stories continuously. In fact it was never planned as a series which I think is evident if you were to re-read the stories in order today. It just became one organically, because you kept requesting more.

And once I did realize it was turning into a series and started planting seeds and connecting plots, I was super worried I'd run into a block and end up never finishing it – disappointing you all 😕

Luckily that never happened, but with the 127 Dating Ban I wanted to be sure. So I planned on writing all stories before publishing anything.

But your question made me think. And I realized the reason I enjoyed writing the original dating ban so much was because you guys gave me encouragement and ideas between stories.

I wrote when I felt like it. Sometimes you had to wait weeks between stories because I was uninspired. But ultimately everything was better for it, because it helped me finish the series at all.

So, long story short and the honest answer: I have not written the remaining stories and I don't know when I will.

Does that mean the series might never finish?

Probably not. Hopefully not! I mean there's always a risk 😅 But I can tell you this:

I now have rough ideas for all remaining members.

I know you'll send requests and encouragement between stories, which I've learned by now always motivates me a lot.

Since this series is in demand, I am making it a priority – even if that's a long-term priority and there might be weeks or even months of waiting between some stories.

Some more good news if you like the Dating Ban Series... 😏

Take a look at the Up-coming Stories page again. Scroll down to the Planned Stories section.

Notice the "Big Brother, Little Brother" stories (there's six of them), featuring members of BTS and TXT? If you like the Dating Ban I'm pretty sure you'll like those, at least if you're a BTS and/or TXT fan.

These stories are very short and will be released as part of the Quick Fix Gay series. They aren't a series in themselves or anything, but they share a similar setup and style to each other – most importantly the fact that they're gay crossover stories featuring an older and younger member from two different groups.

(Obviously, the Big Brother, Little Brother title comes from the fact that TXT is the little brother group of BTS.)

I haven't scheduled these stories yet, but they have been written in full. I have other Quick Fix Gay stories to publish first. But the fact that the Big Brother, Little Brother stories have already been written means you will get them, probably sometime this spring. I just have other content to share too, and am holding on to these for later.

Sorry to tease another thing you're likely to wait a long time for 😉 But the Dating Ban made me think of them, as they will appeal to the same audience.

Anyway, thanks for appreciating the Dating Ban series, and for reading this far. While you wait for March 13, check out the NCT Dream Dating Ban series if you haven't already.

(External link, but click on the Tumblr link under each story thumbnail on that website to open the story on Tumblr.)

Now let's end this post with a poll:

[partyanimal167]

The New Guy- Shanks x F!Reader

Okay! So I finally finished my Crocodile fic that took me forever to write. SO~ my drafts are empty, and I'm writing this as a result of my dilf poll. I haven't written for Shanks so I'm interested to see how this is going to go... (EDIT: now posting months later lol)

CW: modern au, black fem reader in mind, mdni

That's a grown-ass man, me. Leave him alone. You're making up shit in your head.

You were just minding your business at work. You had been there for a little over a year and getting comfortable in your assistant manager position. You were a bit young for the role, but you were confident in most of your abilities.

It was a Monday morning , and everyone seemed to be on their toes. For weeks, there was talk of a corporate level director that was going to be helping out for a while. It wasn't for your department, but one that you worked with often. You didn't stress it really.

But that Monday tiredness hit you hard because you really shouldn't have slipped on that small puddle in the lobby. Your life flashed before you, and you tensed in anticipation for the hot coffee cup in your hand to soak your blouse and burn your skin.

However, that never occurred.

The man gave you a warm smile and wink before setting you back on your feet. You thanked him and walked away quickly to run from the embarrassment.

You fell back into gentle strong arms and a face that reminded you of the men who bought your friends drinks and never asked for anything in return. The ones who you would giggle and whisper about.

You were typing away at your desk when you heard the commotion approaching and saw a small group of people walking around and chatting. You joined your manager by their desk and asked about it.

"The corporate guy is here." The group arrived, and you saw the handsome man from earlier.

The group stopped by and introduced him. You exchanged introductions and figured that would be all.

That was not all.

In your mind, corporate meant uptight and strictly professional.

Shanks was silly, a flirt, and somehow found a way to be in your department every day, multiple times a day.

Soon enough, you loosened up enough to the point where you dished out sly remarks about Shank's age and shitty game when he was making another comment about the boyfriend you kept telling him you didn't have.

You didn't think that much of him until one day he rushed out of the office, and no one knew why. Until you heard that he bought a last-minute ticket to check in on his daughter who was sick in the hospital. You realized that Shanks had his own priorities and responsibilities so of course he wasn't just an old flirt. It was...attractive--you guessed.

You brought him a coffee when he came back and asked how he and his daughter was doing. It was a simple gesture. You left it at that.

He didn't.

Soon, you were starting to get some more recognition for your efforts at work and were invited to an appreciation dinner with some other people--including Shanks.

He praised you for your work, and maybe it was the alcohol but the words made you melt and softened.

So the two of you got drinks afterwards.

And maybe your hands weren't to yourself, but Shanks didn't say anything.

Work went on like normal...kind of. You couldn't stop yourself from getting flustered when that old man stopped by and flirted with you. You couldn't stop the impure thoughts of how Shanks was so unserious but could handle business--professional and personal.

And it was oh so hard to keep quiet when you were getting showered in praises and kissed everywhere in the supplies closet because it was hard for Shanks too. He needed to show how good he could make you feel and how he couldn't resist you.

But don't worry. Even if you struggle at work with him, Shanks will bring you over and let you make as much noise as possible.

The new guy was really trouble.

[bilightningwhumper]

Re-evaluating and thinking things over, I'm not going to do Year of Whump Tropes' Living Weapon January event. At least, not during January. I just don't have enough fleshed out ideas right now and I'm really hooked in on Minna and Kyrie. Besides, New Year's Eve and the days leading up to it at work overstimulate me to the point I'm deregulated (dis-regulated?) for at least a week and a half following. Then I've got a big trip planned for the end of January, so I planned on getting ahead so I wouldn't be worrying about that. But with all that other stuff, on top of "life happens" things that are possible.

I'm still doing Feveruary 2025. That's been planned and thought out. So I'm going with my old plan of not posting once a week for January until I get all of those prompts written and done. Flufftember 2024 still needs to be finished and the Angstober 2024 masterlist still needs to be polished up and finished. I don't know when I'll have all that done with, but I hate leaving loose ends and things undone. Maybe during the slower part during my January trip I can get them done? It's a play it by ear kind of deal.

Basically, I'm trying not to overwork myself. My migraines may or may not have been effected by my cocktail of meds I've been on and/or just my body hating me with new imbalances. Either way, I've been having a hard time at work because of it. So voluntarily adding additional stress on myself to do a "nearly every day of the month event" on top of getting ready for another "every day of the month event" would probably be a bad idea.

Apologies to anyone who would have been looking forward to it. I'll do the prompts following the prequel eventually, just when I'm not overwhelmed. Might be a while since I still really don't know who'd be the MCs for it. Like, the parallel story for Cyrus and Sydney is already set there, plus their plotline is alongside Minna and Kyrie's, so like, honestly, you'll probably see more for them than you'll see anything for the prequel.

Btw, little tidbit, Cyrus is trans and Sydney is bi/pan (though she is demi-romantic). [for who I'm talking about, this semi-ish spoiler post explains more]

Done with the ramble. Now to bed because this weekend, though nice to spend it with family for the holidays, was tiring. Looking forward to giving you all your Christmas present featuring Minna and Kyrie! "100% pure fluff" did win both polls but "nsfw/smut" addition did get close on each so I'll be making separate posts, so y'all will be getting 4 drabbles out of this, lol. (Can't guarantee the latter will be out Christmas Day, but gonna try to make it at least by the next day).

[caxycreations]

Another Tylvinian Tale update

The coding for the second scene of Day One is complete! That's the intro, plus Kaleb's introduction, done!

Starting scene three now, we're close to the first day being done, story and code-wise!

I don't want this to be just a short little update, so I'm reiterating a poll from before as well:

I'm still not sure what to price the game, but I'm thinking $10-$20, somewhere in that ballpark.

I'm also thinking, if I keep working the way I have been, if I can knock out ~7 hours of work per day like I have the last few days...Let's see...

It'll take me ~90 days worth of working hours, but to account for slow days, days off, re-writes, day-or-week-long breaks, etc, I'm setting the ESTIMATED project completion date as April 25th, 2025.

I'll keep you guys in the loop and adjust the release date as needed!

That's the short version, but long below the cut for those interested in my thought process.

Long Version:

7 hours of work a day, for 3 days, got me 3.5 scenes of Day 1 written out, and 2 scenes of Day 1 coded.

If we break every Day after that into 3 scenes (Morning, Noon, Night)...

I'm working at a rate of 0.78 scenes per hour. We'll round that to 0.75. So 3/4 of a scene per hour of work.

And at 60 days of in-game time, that's 180 scenes.

But there are 18 characters with routes (I'm adding Moss as a befriendable route; NOT a romance route, friends only, because it's going to be VERY important to be close with Moss for one of the secret routes with another character)

And each route gives a completely different timeline of events, so a different version of every scene for each route.

18 different versions of 180 scenes, that's 3,240 scenes.

And there are 2 variants of 16 of the routes, romance and friendship, with 3 variants of 1 route, for a technical total of 36 routes (17 romance routes, 17 friendship routes, 1 enemy route, 1 friend route)

So that's actually 36 versions of 180 scenes, for a total of 6,480 scenes.

If I'm working at a rate of 0.75 scenes per hour, I finish 3 full scenes every 4 hours. That's ~5 scenes every 7 work hours.

At this rate, it would take me...2,160 hours of work to 100% complete the game. Which means

That's 90 days, or 12.85 weeks, or 3.21 months.

So, to account for slow days, bad days, and days where the code just WILL NOT cooperate, plus accounting for hours NOT spent working on days where I do work the full 7...

I'm setting an ESTIMATED 100% completion date of April 20th, 2025.

I will keep you guys in the loop, obviously, and adjust the release date as needed.

[baby-sissy-roxanne]

Hey folks this is my first ever post on Tumblr. I'd like to thank my Master, Master Bradley for setting this up for me as he wanted me to have my own personal Tumblr page. So thankyou again Master Bradley. If you been following Master Bradleys other page on Tumblr I think you'll find it at slapper-sw-h-13 I think. There you will find my transformations from growing up as a Skinhead all my life, until I met my 1st Master, Master Clive Who hated my Skinhead look and transformed me into his dirty greasy biker and made me grow a long beard,as he wanted me to look abit like himself for which I did. Then due to ill health he couldn't carry on anymore and in early 2023 he sold me to his very best friend Bradley. Bradley hated the fact that I was a Skinhead because he had a very bad run in with a gang of skinheads who beat him up quite badly and left him in hospital for about 3 weeks over 20 years ago. So what with me being a lifelong Skinhead before Master Clive owned me, once he had full 100% ownership he wanted ti teach me and all other Skinheads out there by changing my gender to female and then to feminize me into what I Am today and put me on the streets as a sex worker. All This abd more is told in Madter Bradleys Blog on me on Tumblr just type in slapper-sw-h-13 to find my transformation.

So to bring you upto date right now Master Bradley thought it would be good to get a Poll going on weather I should have lip filler. This All came about from a friend of a friend where they spoke about me and Madter Bradleys transformation of me going from male to female. Dr Mo can't remember his actual full name wanted to give me lip filler to greatly enhance my male lips. Master Bradley wasn't to keen, but put a Poll out there for people to vote yes or no and promised Dr Mo whatever the result that will be final. Madter Bradley Wasn't expecting the outcome to be for me having lip filler. So to cut long story short because he had a cancellation late Wednesday afternoon Master only ran the Poll till Wednesday midday, despite the original finishing time still had 3 days to run. I to was shocked at the result and I certainly didn't want any lip filler as I think this look, looks ridiculous on women I've seen. So unknown to me I don't know what Master Brad and Dr Mo spoke about after my consultation but it was decided I would get full on maximum massive lips via the strongest injector stuff they put in your lips. I was not happy one bit when I saw myself in the mirror, infact I didn't need to look in the mirror I could see my top lip through my eyes. There was alot of Swelling which made things alot worse than it did , but even now some 60 hours after the last injection my lips are massive still, and being told that what I see now is what size your lips will be now. I'm still in shock at the whole thing and told Master Bradley Exactly what I thought as I'm very upset still.I find my look embarrassing and can't stop thinking that I now look like a duck. So once I come to terms with my new look then no doubt you will see how very different I now look with massive lips.

The picture I posted above was my last one taken with my normal lips a week ago when Master Bradley took me for breakfast to discuss plans going forward.

[lilghostiequinni]

I will finish the driver x grid series photos over the weekend and get them to you all on Tuesday-Wednesday, I have a way that I do them that takes longer to make them than is ideal for quick uploads.

It's also gotten to the point that it has gotten to an overwhelming amount of photos that I have had to do, I think that unless I plan to upload the photo the same day, I will not be posting more collections or series until the photo is ready.

On a side note, there is a series also coming on Wednesday, a x grid one, that I am doing the photo on Monday and not over the weekend, so....

Let's hope things go how I want them to this weekend (they didn't).

I would just like to also say that I haven't had the time to work on any one-shots for this coming weekend again, so again no one-shots as of now, but that's not saying it's completely off the table because I still have time tomorrow and also at night over the weekend.

Friday I won't have time though, so if I can't work on them tomorrow it will only be one or two, possibly, otherwise none, but being able to work on them tomorrow would guarantee at least one.

Those polls I had you do about the series and P2s should start in the week I have blue in December, it's here if you need to look.

I am also starting to do January to April, but there are some last minute things that are still unknown on my end where I can't not fully make that schedule, which is fine, it wouldn't have come out until January 1st or December 31st.

I would also like to note that I do have more series I'm planning of posting from like December 28th to December 31st.

Also just to let you know, Request are OPEN and they will be even if the Navigation says their closed.

And there are some collections and series that TS or TC, it means "The Series" or "The Collection."

Some collections don't have that and it's because it is not getting a series. Same goes for series because I did go through them before I posted any collection just to make sure none of them were getting a collection, but there are 4 series that will be getting a collection on Wednesday, only because I like the pairings and don't necessarily want to follow the timeline that I have set, but I want to write for that couple.

Also, on Wednesday, I will be linking the collection and series together. Actually, I might do that tomorrow if I get the time.

Also, Follower Cele polls come out tomorrow, some, the rest on Monday.

[haletostilinski]

So, I said my next poll(s) would a character battle, so...here we go!

Now that we finished a wild Ship Battle, it's time to move onto a new set of polls. A character battle. Who do you feel is the best Teen Wolf character? So, a few things first:

I believe I got all the important players. There are 64 Teen Wolf characters I was able to come up with. A few are a bit like "wait, who?" but once again, getting it to 64 characters keeps it nice and even, so a few characters who are lesser known or somewhat forgotten on the whole slipped in there. Quite a bit of the smaller characters *didn't* make it in, though, so I'm sorry if one of the smaller characters that you like didn't make it into this poll. 64 is a lot of Teen Wolf characters, though.

The matching up for this was perhaps a bit more intentional by me than with the ship battle. Mostly to keep it a bit interesting. Although a match up might be kinda 'meh' for the first few rounds for a few of them. But bigger characters might be matched up earlier because there's many of them and they couldn't all be spaced out like I was able to do with the bigger ships in the ship battle polls.

WARNING: Obviously, NO CHARACTER HATE IN THESE POLLS. Keep it civil! You can disagree with the winners if you're bummed yours didn't get through to the next round/didn't win, of course, but don't go hating on the other character or its stans. Also no fighting amongst each other, either. That will not be tolerated and if I see that I will either delete the comment if I can/give a warning/block the user/or if it's too many people going too far I will shut this WHOLE thing down. This is meant to be fun and not serious. Remember that, please.

No character and character stan hate ANYWHERE, on ANY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM. Not on twitter, tiktok, freaking youtube or instagram, wherever.

HATE WHILE LINKING TO AND ASSOCIATING WITH MY POLLS which could mean quoting or replying to someone linking to my poll! - WILL NOT BE TOLERATED

Also, given what happened in the shipper polls, this has to be warned for just incase: If there is ANY significant spike in the votes in a very short period of time - like say jumping 10% points or something in like an hour of time or something (outside of the initial votes being given at first, of course - I will assume botting has taken place. If someone is making more than 1 account on tumblr to vote, i.e. fake accounts, that is also cheating and THAT CHARACTER WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED. Again, with what happened with the ship battle, this needs to be said. NO making multiple accounts or there will be consequences.

Comments/laughing at/hating on a character that's included will not be tolerated. If you're bewildered by a character winning, just keep comments to a very nice and polite "huh?" As I said above, I will shut this whole thing down if there is too much judgement/hate/etc...

Because this is a character battle, there will be two characters per poll. So you're about to see a LOT of poll posts from me...just a warning if you're wondering why there's going to be continued character poll posts from me 😭

As always, every poll will have a 1 week duration. I will show the brackets as they stand below. And after every round, I will show the updated version, pinned to my blog if you're curious to see every winner of every round.

Lastly, have fun! Let's see what character lands on top 😎

Here are the brackets - ignore the numbers on them, the site I used just did that🤷‍♀️ (and you'll have a pretty good idea who the winners will be up against next round as well). I will start posting the polls momentarily (but might not get all of them up right away, that might be staggered.)

[t1meslayer]

Busy with important family events over the next couple of days, and so I thought it would be good to get a day-and-date release for this Debrief on the latest entry in my Sapphic Valley series, "How You Get The Girl." Be sure to read the story before jumping in!

Did you do it? Did you read the story?

Alright, I'm trusting you. Go ahead and hit that 'Keep Reading' button you scamp.

It only seems appropriate to start this Debrief off by addressing the elephant in the room. I haven't posted anything in over a month, and "By Moonlight" came about a month after its predecessor, the conclusion to "Stone-Cold Lovers."

Work, naturally, has been a major factor.

You can see me talk about that almost two weeks ago in this Tumblr post I made about writing in a coffee shop, which came weeks after I actually started writing during a trip to a friend's house.

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Side note:

Just wanted to take a moment and acknowledge my beautiful Haley and Emily keychains. My friend who's responsible for the affairs of one ghostly farmer named Jizzabelle (Gisabelle to the laymen) got them for me! Only appropriate after I commissioned some art of her and Abigail.

Emily was my first Stardew wife, and Haley currently holds the biggest place in my heart. They make a lovely duo!

And I'll avoid any sister-wife jokes

===

While I've had some other projects like Zine writing to take care of, work and life can't explain the full absence.

The best way I can think to explain things is that:

I had the general writer's block, and

Despite the best intentions and advice of my irl friends and online pals like @alchemicallymoon and @duelbraids, I couldn't force myself to "break" that block by just... Writing something else.

This is entirely the result of my own psychosis. I have a tendency to carefully plot things out and impose a timetable that really doesn't need to exist. When I feel the cause is righteous enough, it's hard to get around that. In this case, I knew I needed to get my poll-winning idea out after dawdling for holidays like Valentine's Day, and then I knew I only wanted to post one more story before jumping on a very special event for my upcoming 30th AO3 post.

Thus, here we are: arbitrarily forcing myself into a spiral of writer's block misery because of a silly promise on Tumblr and my own sense of ordered chaos.

At the very least, this meant it's coming out not long after my AO3 pal InsertACatchyPennameHere also emerged from the woodwork to tell me they're working on something INSPIRED by my four-person friend group farm adaptations.

Much love to them, wherever they may be.

I'll probably start writing more eclectically now that my shoulders are unweighed, but don't expect my next publication to hit until I'm finished working on teasing the big event. All you Pokemon fans better get hype!

And oh how sweet this publication feels. Between my great set of recent ceramics, the figure drawing class I've been attending, and creative writing, I've felt more fulfilled than ever.

You're here to talk about Stardew, though. So let us talk.

This idea began less with any one event as it did a desire to advance the Alexis/Haley relationship, and Haley's characterization in particular. It was always going to end with watercolor painting reference, but 2 Willow Lane was what I really wanted to dig into.

As I see it, a lot of what keeps people invested in Stardew when its comfy vibes becoming routine is the air of mystery in Eric Barone's worldbuilding. Haley and Emily's parents being some world-traveling duo who left their home in the siblings' care for who knows how long (and who knows how many times over their lifetime) really piqued my interest. So much so that the new writing challenge I set for myself in "How You Get The Girl" was crafting a particularly long set of descriptions that emphasize how overwhelming the parents' influence feels — without creating an impenetrable wall of text.

Hopefully I succeeded in that. Let me know!

I tried to include some vaguely real world-adjacent references into that description of the house, as happens with the magical-realism world of Stardew Valley. For example:

The computer sitting next to their bonsai tree is an iMac G3, the kind of old 'futuristic' tech that my dad loves!

A Speedwell refrigerator is based on even more vintage tech, the Mayflower fridge, but named after a different ship ridden by Pilgrims coming to America.

That city that the family visited in an old photograph with a "monument of arching, interlocking steel" is, of course, Paris — with the statue bookends referencing any number of statues in the Louvre.

Haley's FAD magazine could be referencing any number of publications, but Vogue is probably the closest analogue to what I imagine her reading.

Furthermore, I took some notes on describing the home's layout off of my sister's apartment building, and I asked my bestie @trybard for input on what kind of hanging plant should be used in the transitional hallway. Hanging pothos, philodendron, and spider plants were the three options provided, and my response was appropriate:

They know so much about plants.

Go bug them about it.

I drew on other friends' knowledge to help decorate the house. Specifically, I asked one of my witchiest friends what kinds of protective wards someone like Emily would leave around doorways and windows. She had... A lot of reference material.

I picked Hazel given it purportedly "protects against evil; encourages abundance and inspiration." I also picked Amethyst as one of Emily's loved gifts, one that purportedly "absorbs negative energy, promotes harmony."

My witchy friend is the same one who provided the TikTok that I referenced in my advertisement post:

Perhaps the most important thing about 2 Willow Lane was the recurring motif of Barbie's Dream House.

As a surface-level reference, I think the groundwork is clear. Blondie's love of fashion and general queen bee demeanor fits comparisons to Barbie well, and she lives in a big ol' house full of stuff. We all saw Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie last year. It's still in the cultural zeitgeist.

I'm hip with the kids.

Yet, early on I also tried to make it clear that if this is a "dream" house, it's neither Haley's nor Emily's dream. Haley is a Barbie in that stereotypical sense, but also there's much to be mined from the analogy of a sort of powerless doll in an immutable house, constrained by social obligation to her family rather than literal plastic and stickers.

The cold open of Jodi and Sam was meant to stand alone, but in execution I also think drawing Kent's absence into the conversation makes for a more thematically rich comparison to these sisters who appear to have themselves more put together.

My beta reader said this wound up being one of my stronger stories because of how all of that intertwined, which I appreciated given how down on myself I was following the whole writer's block thing.

But also.

Also.

Alexis gets to be horny. She's hitting on lonely MILFs and watching girls shake their asses to the tune of bad reality TV.

We love a buff dommy mommy farm girl in this house.

Haley is probably horny too, she just doesn't realize it yet. For now I think it's fun enough to play into her being coy about building excuses for Alexis to come over, and then getting incensed when Emily barges in on their private time meant to learn more about this farm girl she just can't get out of her head.

===

Fun fact:

Every story in this series is named after a Taylor Swift song, but I know next-to nothing about her discography. All of them are suggestions by my friend whose house I was at when starting this story — the same one who controls Gardenia on the farm.

While I went with "How You Get The Girl," her alternative suggestion was "The Man."

===

All that w|w talk aside, I also want to give Sam the loveable idiot a shoutout. Had to do a fair bit of research into how skateboards are constructed for his failed ollie, and I slipped in a reference to shitty old technology that's exclusively for my beta reader to enjoy.

I also tried doing some agricultural research to figure out how the folks at Kevin Farm could have grown cucumbers so there'd be a jar of legitimate pickles... But that was getting too in the weeds.

Insert laugh track here

Decided to just go with pickled artichoke hearts to save everyone a lot of trouble.

And where does "Kevin Farm" come from, you may be asking yourself. Or the fabulous "Kevin's Special" with its definitely not innuendo tagline.

That story will have to wait for another day, my friends.