#Quarantine: Laundry Day

[aggressionbread]

can really see myself becoming an npc that just owns an entire closet of identical pairs of pants

[mousedetective]

Please Help A Homeless Family Pay Bills & Stay Housed?

PAYPAL | AMAZON WISHLIST | KOFI | GOFUNDME

VENMO: @penaltywaltz | CASHAPP: $afteriwake23 | ZELLE: DM me for email address

02/09/24 - New Post!

So good news! My glasses arrived, and they are amazing, and I am in love with both the regular glasses and the sunglasses. They didn't come with hard cases, but! Walmart Optometry was having a 75% off sale on hard cases so I picked up two for me, two for the glasses I plan on getting my daughter as soon as we get her an updated prescription and one for my mom's reading glasses for $14. I may go back and get the Pride cleaning cloths for Lena since she got rainbow and Pride cases. They're going to be, like, $2.

I also got denture supplies for my mom since she said it looks like she'll get her full and partial dentures when her teeth are pulled on the 26th, so she has the stuff on hand to clean them and to keep them secure so food particles don't get stuck underneath.

I would love to come up with $225 to get Lena an eye exam and the glasses she wants from Zeeolol (I have a 25% coupon to use with it...the exam will be $60 - $80 at Walmart, though). One is bisexual pride flag colors, the other is trans pride flag colors, and her current glasses are pre-quarantine, so she needs a new scrip badly. A friend may be able to help me with this later in the month, but if I can get the exam done this week that would be fantastic.

I also need $150 to pay a bill that is overdue and a bill that is due today. The $400 tied up with the loan company plus anything over the $350 I'm trying to get now will go towards keeping the room until March 2nd. Please help and/or reblog if you can. Thank you!

$1044/$1600

(I just got a donation through GoFundMe while I was waiting to get on my laptop...I'll get the money in a few days and it will go to paying off another sorely overdue bill, plus laundry if I get it by Monday)

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Day 7: sharing clothes

Masterlist flufftober 🎀

Reblog if you liked it!

That night Spencer arrived at his apartment quite tired, to the point of wanting to go straight to bed.

He had to admit that splitting the rent for an apartment hadn't convinced him at all at first, however, with each passing month he felt luckier to have someone to keep him company and help him with household chores. It's not that the girl he had as a roommate took care of everything, but because she was a university student, she had more free time and Spencer repaid him for all the favors by being her walking library or even helping him study the topics for the seasonal exams, as a kind of win-win.

“Spencer?” he heard from the common area, just as he was taking off his shoes. Still wearing his socks, he walked across the carpet until he reached the door and opened it, looking at you on the other side.

"Yeah?"

“Hey, can you lend me a tie for tomorrow?” you asked sadly. He was surprised to notice that you were wearing a formal suit, very different from the carefree outfits you usually wore, and for a moment he imagined you as a member of the BAU. “I have to attend a conference and I must follow the code of etiquette and stuff, but I don't want to wear a dress”

“Yeah, I must have some around here,” he laughed, turning to rummage through the closet. Spencer was very organized, in a strange way, so it didn't take him long to find what you needed “Do you like this one?”

“It's perfect, thank you,” you exclaimed, taking the purple tie he was offering you between your fingers. You couldn't know it, but the soft purple fabric was almost new and that was why he had chosen it, so that you would wear the best.

“Do you know how to tie it?” he mumbled and from the awkward smile you showed him he assumed the answer was no. He wrapped it around your neck and gently pulled you towards him, managing to cut your breath. With one hand on each end of it he began to tie it, frowning and lightly pursing his lips as a sign of his concentration, until a nice knot was ready “Keep it like this and tomorrow you just slide it on, okay?”

“You're my hero,” you exclaimed happily, carefully holding the tie he had so carefully prepared “I made macaroni for dinner, do you want to join me?”

“Yeah,” he responded with a shrug.

The two of you had dinner together and after that you went to sleep, lacking the energy to stay awake any longer. In the morning you got up earlier than usual to get ready and in the process you noticed that your partner was walking around the apartment, moving here and there as if he were looking for something.

"What are you doing?"

“I can't find my scarf,” he lamented. “I probably left it in the laundry bag. Or so I hope"

“Take mine,” you offered kindly. From one of the drawers in your closet you took out a bright red scarf and extended it to the man, who hesitated whether to accept it or not “Come on, it's the least I can do. I don’t want you to catch a cold or we’ll have to quarantine you” you joked and then he finally took it.

“Good luck with your conference, take a lot of notes and if something is not clear, you can tell me”

“Good luck with your work too. Are you coming to dinner today?”

"I don't know"

“Well, either way I’ll wait for you,” you said kindly. Spencer responded with a smile and waved goodbye to you, making sure to adjust her scarf before leaving the apartment.

And that exchange was only the beginning for two closets to become, after a long time, practically one.

taglist: @navs-bhat @reidwritings @tricia-shifting14 @spencerslove @vivian-555@r-3dlips @rhiannonhippiegirl

[coff-in]

HIIII I saw you were taking requests for TCOAAL!!! I would like to request Andrew x Ashley x Manic!Reader were reader used to be calm and kind but when they went into quarantine reader went insane due to lack of interaction!!!

Sorry if this is too much!

notes from coff-in: ah, these headcanons are a bit shorter than usual. sorry about that, i hope you still enjoy!

[gender neutral] reader-insert

I’m interpreting that [reader] was a friend of the Graves siblings. I don’t know if I feel too confident about writing a manic and/or insane person but I’ll try my best to be as respectful as possible.

It would be a big shock to Andrew and Ashley, seeing [reader] slowly lose themself due to the lack of interaction. They’d probably have [reader] sit on the balcony a lot and talk to them there so they could bask in the sun and watch the cars pass by. To give [reader] some sort of semblance of being free.

Of course, there will be days within the three months when they can’t or don’t feel like talking. It’s times like these that they have [reader] busy themself doing something, like cleaning the floors or doing the laundry or reading a book. 

[reader]  annoys them, too. That’s undeniable. Sometimes they just can’t bother to deal with their manic hysteria and they snap at them. After a nap or a day (or two), they’ll come back to apologize if [reader] doesn’t do it first. Being quarantined is something that everyone handles differently and it’s obvious that [reader] isn’t taking it as well as they were.

They’ll try their best to help [reader] calm down as much as possible. Once they get to the cultist though… I’m sure things will be much, much different :)

----

coff-in

[dwobbitfromtheshire]

The Fixed Cup

He thought for sure things had settled down between him and Eddie after Vecna. He thought maybe he and Eddie could finally be friends, but how could he be friends with someone so annoying? Steve hoped that once their bat bites healed, they would stop bitching at each other. . . Boy, was he wrong. It's like everything about Eddie set him on edge, and it didn't help that they were stuck in this quarantine that the government had set up for them. Luckily, it was in their own houses, and Eddie was lucky enough to get stuck in his.

"I swear to God, Robin, I'm going to kill him," Steve complained into the receiver. "I mean it this time, and it will be self-defense too because I think he's also trying to kill me. If I trip over his shoes one more time. . ."

"Hmm, well, like I said before, I'm not helping you bury the body," Robin said casually.

"Aw, come on, big boy, it's so much fun watching you clean up after me," Eddie taunted from the other line.

"Get off the other line, Eddie! Goddamnit!" Steve cursed.

"Well, then, how else will I find out what you and Robbie say about me?" Eddie said.

"Well, I think you're a lovely person, Eddie," Robin said.

"Well, I'm glad someone thinks so," Eddie replied.

"Robin!" Steve whined.

"Just keeping you on your toes, Steve," Robin said. "Well, as much fun as this is. . .I'm going to call Vickie."

The line went dead, and Steve scowled before slamming the phone back on the hook. He ran down into the kitchen to find Eddie giggling at the island.

"Munson! You're such an asshole! You know I only have a certain amount of time to talk to her! Why the fuck do you have to do that?" Steve asked.

"The more you keep letting me know it bothers you. . .the more I'm going to do it," Eddie cackled. "It's fun riling you up."

Steve let out a holler and started chasing him around the kitchen. Eddie ran out laughing.

"Dick!"

Of course, it was mostly Eddie who enjoyed taunting him, but there were times that Eddie would get as annoyed with him as Steve did with Eddie himself.

"I told you I don't want to watch some dumb laundry basket game!" Eddie yelled as he grabbed for the remote.

"And I don't want to watch some stupid nerdy cartoon!" Steve yelled as he yanked back the remote.

"You're a douchebag!" He screamed.

"Oh, like you're one to talk!" Steve screamed back.

Eddie shrieked and dove on top of him. Of course, they would wrestle around with it for a while until their wounds gave them no choice but to collapse on the floor in exhaustion. They were mostly healed but still not healed enough. Steve’s not sure what it was. Maybe it was the fact that they were stuck here together with no one else. Maybe they missed their friends, Eddie missing his uncle, or maybe it was the fact that neither one of them could stop the nightmares that came every night. They were on edge all the time, whenever they were around each other. Sometimes, they just crossed the line.

"Eddie!" Steve exclaimed. "That's not a cup you drink out of! There's a sign!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, is the peasant living in King Steve’s house supposed to drink out of the poor cups?!" Eddie exclaimed as he slammed the cup down.

Of course, slamming it down on the table caused it to shatter.

"It's my grandmother's!" Steve said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sure your mommy and daddy can buy your granny another one," Eddie rolled his eyes.

"She hand-made that," Steve said, his eyes glittering with tears.

"And she can't make another one?" Eddie asked.

"It's kind of hard to do anything when you're dead," Steve snapped.

"Shit, man, I'm so - ," Eddie started to say but was startled when Steve slammed him against the wall like Eddie did that day in the boat house.

"I wish I never - " and Steve stopped himself.

"What? Saved my life?" Eddie asked, bristling.

Steve stared at him, gripping the collar of his shirt, and for once, he didn't know what to say. Eddie pushed him off of him and stormed upstairs. They didn't speak to each other for days after that. Steve thought it would be a blessing, but he found that he missed the sound of Eddie's voice. Steve had woken up in the middle of the night, after struggling to go to sleep, and walked into the kitchen to find Eddie gluing the cup back together.

"Almost as good as new," Eddie said, and Steve found himself smiling. "I mean, I wouldn't drink out of it. . ."

"Maybe I can use it as a pencil holder," Steve said and paused. "Thanks. . .and I'm sorry, I shouldn't have. . ."

"I know. I'm sorry, too, man," Eddie said softly.

"I know that it doesn't seem like it, but I'm glad I'm stuck here with you," Steve said.

"Yeah?" Eddie asked and he nodded. "Back at ya."

And for a little bit, it seemed like they were almost getting along until. . .

"I didn't ask you to clean my room, Harrington. You're not my goddamn mommy," Eddie snapped.

"It was driving me crazy!" Steve exclaimed. "Just like you do! I'm sorry if I didn't want you to trip in the middle of the night!"

"You don't have to worry about me, Harrington! I can look after myself, thanks!" Eddie growled.

"It's hard to tell! You couldn't even follow simple instructions! All you had to do was follow the plan. Instead, I find you almost dying in Dustin's goddamn arms!" Steve yelled.

Eddie screamed and pushed Steve up against the wall, pressing his body up against his. They were so close that their noses were almost touching. Eddie pinned Steve’s hand above his head.

"Shut up!"

"Fucking make me."

Eddie growled again before slamming his lips to Steve’s. His eyes widened before he melted into the kiss, moaning into Eddie's mouth. He nibbled on Eddie's lip before swiping his tongue over it and slipping into his mouth. Steve felt his body move on his own and freed himself from Eddie's grasp. He pushed Eddie back onto the bed before ripping off his shirt in a quick single motion, dropping it onto the floor. Eddie was propped up on his elbows, waiting for him. The realization hit him in that moment. . .Holy shit, he just made out with a guy! It wasn't long before Eddie made that same realization, and he looked just as startled as Steve felt. Leaving his shirt behind, Steve quickly ran out of the room. They quickly avoided each other, and not talking seemed to last longer than the cup incident.

"Robin - ," Steve croaked on the phone when he picked up.

"Jesus. You sound like shit," Robin said. "Did you and Eddie get into it?"

"Something like that," Steve said. "I wish I could tell you, but it's not just my place to say."

"I swear to God, I'm willing to risk breaking quarantine. Do I need to come over there?" Robin asked. "Did Eddie do something that requires me to kick his ass? Because as much as I like him, I'll kick his ass if he actually hurt you."

"Eddie didn't do anything wrong. I think I just realized something is all," Steve said and paused. "I kind of wished we were on the floor of the bathroom for this. . .Do you think that it's possible to like girls and also like guys?"

"Oh, dingus," Robin said softly, her voice full of love. "Anything is possible. Especially that. So, you don't actually hate Eddie?"

"Turns out. . . Not so much. . .not at all, actually. I don't think I ever hated him," Steve admitted. "What do I do?"

"I don't know. What do you want to do? Do you want to do something about it, or do you want to fill out the rest of your life full of regrets? You told me to go for Vickie, and you were right. Sometimes, things do work out for the best," Robin said.

"I want to do something about it," Steve said.

"Go get your man, Steve," Robin said with a grin.

Of course, actually doing something about it was harder than he thought. Steve had chickened out a couple of times. His house made it easy for them to avoid each other, and when they did come together, it was completely awkward silence. They didn't even fight over the remote anymore. Steve missed the sound of his voice even more now. What was it going to be like when the quarantine was over? Nothing happened until Steve woke up from a nightmare, went downstairs, and broke down crying in the kitchen. The kitchen light flickered on.

"Steve?" Eddie asked, and Steve jumped.

"I'm fine," Steve sniffled.

"You don't sound fine, man," Eddie said. "Nightmare?"

As soon as Eddie touched his shoulder, Steve burst into tears again and hugged Eddie around the waist.

"You were dead. You were dead and I was alone in this house again," Steve sobbed.

"Oh, sweetheart," Eddie said, running his hand through his hair. "You've got me no matter what. I'm here."

"Would you still be here if I told you that I'm starting to fall in love with you?" Steve asked and pulled back, his hands on Eddie's hips.

"Even more so, big boy," Eddie said, cupping his face.

He stepped in between Steve’s legs and leaned down to kiss him, falling into Steve’s lap. The kiss was short and sweet. . .getting its point across perfectly.

"I'm starting to fall for you too."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"You want to come to bed with me? Keep the nightmares away?" Steve asked.

"Absolutely."

Eddie took his hand, and together, they walked upstairs. When the quarantine finally ended, Robin was the first one through the door. Steve was at the stove, making breakfast.

"Please, tell me you settled things with Eddie," Robin said.

"Nope! Still hate the guy! Thought for a moment that there was something else, but I was wrong! The man is just so goddamn annoying - " Steve ranted.

"Steve! Are you fucking serious?" Robin asked.

Suddenly, Eddie pounced into the room wearing Steve’s yellow sweater and one sock.

"No, but he is fucking me. We worked things out, Robbie," Eddie said, kissing Steve.

Steve giggled against Eddie's lips as Robin yelled in frustration.

"Assholes!" Robin exclaimed and plopped down at the island. "So, tell me everything."

"Hm, everything? You want all the gory details of Steve railing me so hard into his mattress that he nearly breaks his back?" Eddie asked.

"Eddie, don't scar my best friend!"

"What can I tell her? Oooh! He likes holding hands during sex," Eddie said.

"Aww."

"Eddie!"

Steve rolled his before smiling fondly and kissing Eddie.

"Aww, what happened to your grandma's cup, Steve?" Robin asked.

"Don't worry about it, Robin, it's all fixed now. . ."

[c-rowlesdraws]

How do you think Quarian ship-life would be, besides crowded and busy lol? Do you think there's specialized rooms to desuit and such? There has to be for at least medical reasons, and/or change and clean that undersuit, even if it would be lacking with their dependence on recycled tech.

I think there must be dedicated whole medical floors on some ships, for things like surgeries and medical quarantine for people with communicable illnesses to having space for people to convalesce in as sterile and private an area as possible. For something like de-suiting for a shower and laundry, I think it would totally make sense for every ship to have a space that could be reliably sealed off to let people do that, like you suggest. I wonder if the population of a ship would get assigned staggered de-suiting/bath days, so that everyone could get their turn on an orderly schedule something like a couple times per month.

Laundering and sterilizing the different layers of a quarian suit (and I do think they must at least wear some sort of bodysleeve thing as a layer between the skin and the actual suit, because otherwise, like, gross) must be a complicated and high-stakes process-- I think there must be quarians who specialize in just that, who can also repair any damage and worn-out parts while the suit is separated from its owner. A skilled quarian suit-launderer would hold a really important position in their ship's community, I think. People would need to put a lot of trust in them.

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 (I love this one, if it isn’t obvious!)

216 SENTENCES GOOD LORD. I am SO HAPPY you're loving it. So as to not post an entire chapter here at once, I will be posting chunks.

ANYONE READING THIS BEWARE OF SPOILERS. I will post particularly spoiler heavy chunks under the cut.

23 sentences:

---

“Do you want to see her?” Bobby asks. “She… She could use a friend, too.”

Buck’s impulse is to open his mouth and say no. This house is under quarantine. No more in or out until Chris comes home. Prevent the spread of anything that could fuck up their chances, like information or awareness. But clearly you tell Eddie to stay put and he’s creeping up in doorways, anyway.

“What do you want, Eddie?” Buck asks. 

“I’d like to see her, yeah.” Eddie says. “If that’s okay.”

Bobby smiles. “I’ll arrange something with Athena, then. All safe. All confidential. I promise.”

Buck exhales. 

He trusts him. It’s Bobby. Of course he trusts him.

Maybe he can finally act on that again. 

---

90 sentences:

---

Eddie confronts Buck not long after Bobby leaves.

He’s feeling tired. Exceptionally tired. Digesting a larger meal than he’s had in ages, and talking more than he has in just as long, is taking its toll on him. That plus the sunlight filtering through the windows, and Eddie needs a nap.

But he needs to talk to Buck first more. 

Sophia has come and gone, dropping off the errands she grabbed, and heading to an afternoon shift at the library. Not before threatening to kill Eddie if he left while she was working, though. Eddie has assured her he will be here when she returns. He’s glad for her brief absence, however. He needs to do the rest of this alone. 

“Can we talk for a minute?” Eddie asks, while Buck empties a hamper into the laundry machine. 

“Sure,” Buck nods. “What’s up?” 

As if it’s any other day. Buck has to know what’s up.

“You destroyed your life looking for me,” Eddie says. 

Buck freezes for a second. Then, he finishes loading the laundry, puts in the detergent, and starts the cycle. 

“Not so much,” he eventually says. “Just… Temporarily.”

“Still,” Eddie protests.

Buck turns his body to look at him. “What do you want me to say, Eddie?”

“I don’t know.” Eddie admits. “I’m worried for you.”

Buck’s jaw drops. “You’re worried for me?” 

“Yes,” Eddie frowns.

“Eddie, you fucked off to god knows where for over half a year and won’t say a word about it,” Buck reminds him. “I’m worried about you.” 

Yeah, well that’s a fair shout.

“Are the two mutually exclusive?” Eddie challenges.

Buck thinks. His expression softens a bit.

“I guess not.”

“I don’t want to hide things from you but it’s hard to talk about and I can’t remember all of it,” Eddie says. “And also I’m exhausted. Really, truly exhausted, Buck. I’m sorry.”

“Hey, no… Eddie, I’m not mad.”

“You can be.” Eddie shakes his head. “You can be mad. I’d be mad.”

“I just missed you. I missed you and I was worried for you.” Buck says. “I didn’t know if you were dead.”

“I missed you, too, you know?” Eddie says. “You and Chris. I just kept thinking about getting myself back, and…”

And coming home to them.

“And what?” Buck whispers, hopeful.

“I wanted my family back,” Eddie says, just as quietly. “Before, I… I spent so much time thinking about what I lost, and what I was supposed to have. But I really lost everything, Buck. I died. I lost my whole life. My kid. My job. You. I had so much.”

“You still have me,” Buck says firmly. “And Chris will be home soon. We will figure out how to make it work so you don’t lose him over this again. I swear, Eddie.”

“Thank you,” Eddie says. “Thank you for all that you’ve done for me. And for Chris.”

“I’d do it all again, Eddie. I’d do it tenfold.” Buck’s eyes are glistening. “I’d do anything.”

Eddie remembers Buck’s lips a hair’s breadth away from his own. He remembers how it felt to be held by him. Touched by him. He craves it again. 

“Anything?” Eddie asks. 

“Yes.” 

“I have something,” Eddie blurts, feeling stupid. “Something else, on top of everything.”

“Name it,” Buck says. 

---

26 sentences:

---

“How much do we tell them?” Eddie asks on the drive. He’s in the passenger seat of the Jeep. Another missing home brought back to him.

“That’s up to you, Eddie.” Buck sighs. “Maybe we suss it out when we’re there?”

Eddie nods. “I want to trust people if I can. The people I trusted here, before.” 

Not his parents. Which means, they can’t tell Pepa either. Or Abuela. Or Adriana. That still weighs heavily on him. 

Lots of things weigh heavily on him. 

“I know you’re scared,” Eddie continues. 

“Yeah,” Buck admits. “I keep feeling like someone’s going to take you from me. Or I’ll wake up and have let something slip and suddenly Chris won’t be coming back.”

There’s a brutal honesty in his words that makes Eddie shudder. He’s glad though. Glad Buck is opening up more. They seemed to have crossed some sort of barrier with each other. 

“It’s not all on you,” Eddie says. 

He’s not sure Buck hears him.  

---

36 sentences:

---

“It’s stupid,” Eddie tells him. 

“Name it,” Buck repeats. 

“I’m tired,” Eddie says again. “And… And I don’t want to be alone anymore. I was alone for so long.” 

Buck’s eyes widen with understanding. He nods quickly. 

“I can do that. I can help.”

Eddie swallows thickly. 

“I’d get it… If you weren’t comfortable. With what I am. If you don’t want to-”

Buck steps forward, shaking his head, and raises a hand to cup Eddie’s cheek. The gesture is so strangely intimate that it takes Eddie’s breath away. 

“It’s just you.” He says. “I’ve always wanted to be close to you, Eddie.”

Eddie’s entire body feels so insubstantial, that if Buck took his hand away, he might just crumble to dust. He leans his cheek into Buck’s touch. He imagines if he were braver, and less tired, and more sure of himself, he would close the distance between them. That small sliver of distance that parted their lips last night. 

I love you, he wants to say. Strip away my whole life, everything that I am, and that love still burnt like a flame. 

Buck must notice Eddie’s hesitation. He steps forward and loops an arm around Eddie’s back, then guides him towards the bedroom. 

“Let’s go to sleep,” he says. “I didn’t really get much last night.”

“Careful. Next you’ll be accused of vampirism,” Eddie mumbles. 

Buck exhales a breath of laughter and squeezes Eddie a little.

“Eh, well. I’ve been accused of worse in the past twenty-four hours.”

There’s something regretful in his tone, but Eddie is too sleepy to latch onto it. Instead, he allows himself the comfort of being led into his bedroom, and collapsing onto the bed, and falling asleep with the sound of Buck’s heartbeat directly under his ear.

---

15 sentences:

---

Eddie feels more at ease than he’s felt in a long time driving with Buck to May’s apartment. Not that there’s a particular reason for it. Things aren’t good. He’s still facing all the same shit he was facing before. He still doesn’t have his kid. He still is facing being a social pariah and more or less a fugitive. He can’t exist, or they lose Chris. That’s all still a huge fucking problem. 

But he is well rested and well fed and he has Buck. Buck who slept next to him all yesterday afternoon. And then again overnight. Buck who has continued to hold him softly when he needs to be held. Buck, who still hasn’t kissed him the way he almost did, but who Eddie feels might. Eventually. If he’s honest about not caring about what Eddie is.

---

26 sentences:

---

Eddie actually helped Bobby and Athena move May’s stuff into her apartment when she first moved out of the house. As had Buck. So he’s a little surprised when the address Bobby sends them takes them somewhere else. Somewhere quieter, more out of the way. A little rough looking, but not too bad. 

“This doesn’t seem like the kind of place that would meet Athena’s stamp of approval,” Eddie observes. He remembers Bobby saying she’d driven May crazy with how picky she was about location and safety.

“Hmm,” Buck muses. “Some of these places have landlords that won’t ask questions. Neighbors going through the same shit. Plus, everywhere is dangerous for her these days.”

The, and for you, goes without saying. 

They park and climb a flight of stairs, knocking on the door to apartment 2E. 

He hears some shuffling on the other side of the door. Someone looking through a peephole. Fair enough. Then, the latch slides, the door opens, and none other than Sergeant Athena Grant is ushering them inside quickly. She’s dressed in plain street clothes; nondescript, like she’d hope not to be noticed if she stepped outside. Unfortunately, Eddie doesn’t really think Athena is the sort of woman you don’t notice. 

She doesn’t even really acknowledge them until the door is shut behind them again. Once it is, she exhales, and turns to Eddie. 

“God, it is good to see you,” she mutters, stepping forward to hug him. 

Eddie squeezes her gratefully. Every new person who doesn’t think he’s a monster comes as an immense relief.

[viking-raider]

Hi 🥰

I've been rereading Southern Generation for a while now, and I realised that Lily Ana is literally her birth name "Liliana", I don't know that made me chuckle a bit 😂❤️

It is a very sweet story, hopefully, you will also write similar stories like this in the future 🥹

One question, because I got confused about her age, is she 25/26 or older? From my understanding of Sy's description and her college story, she seems mid to late twenties, idk.

Lol yeah. I've written numerous stories like Southern Generation.

Swipe

Immortal Sky

Hill Manor

Quarantine Bliss

Quarantine: Laundry Day

Quarantine: Warm Water

Quarantine: Rub

Quarantine: Trees and Antlers

Quarantine: Between the Pages

Quarantine: Early Bird

Quarantine: The Walk

Quarantine: Ink

Prince and I

As for Lily's age, I never in-story labeled her age, but from a personal, just for myself point of view, her birthday is June 19th 1989.

[lskisms]

THE FEAR AND THE FIRE (OF THE END OF THE WORLD), J. MILLER

synopsis — or you have seen the end of the world once and you feel you’re going through it a second time.

genres &&. warnings — apocalypse, (minimal) romance, (potentially mutual) pining, (un)requited love &&. canon typical violence (gore, weapons, wounds, etc.), canon compliant, illness.

word count — 2.4k.

note from r — the last of us has had a hold on my heart since 2013. i have vivid memories of watching youtubers play it, of discovering one of my favorite video game voice actors of all time through it, of falling so deeply in love with joel miller (who was, at the time, old enough to be my father and still is, honestly). it was a game i thought about every so often, but still felt deeply impacted by and connected to, and when i heard that it was getting a television adaptation, i truly could not have been more excited.

i’m no longer the sixth grader i was when i discovered the last of us for the first time and i’ve changed so much in so many ways, but that initial devotion to the series still holds true in my heart. seeing the game that made me love storytelling get the love i feel it deserves on a much grander scale is a beautiful thing. i’ve been meaning to use this account to write fic that isn’t related to my main interests and what better way than to christen it with a tlou fic with the title taken from my favorite song by one of my favorite musicians (��wasteland, baby” by hozier, for those who don’t know).

honestly, i’m more of a pedro!joel girlie, but this can be read as either game or show joel. i tried to keep the descriptions very general and vague so that your favorite version of joel fits in just perfectly. enjoy to your heart’s content. reblogs are appreciated, comments encouraged. ask box is open if you feel you need to yell at me directly anonymously.

in the hours after the last real day of the world, everything went quiet. the soldiers had been bussed out, survivors having either been lucky enough to go to the emergency quarantine zones with the military or having been turned on by their own government, left dead or dying on street corners, on front lawns, in fields. there was crying, screaming in the streets, fires blazing and glass crashing out of frames, shattering on abandoned sidewalks.

but the world was silent to you as you sat comatose underneath your bedroom window, aching knees pulled tight against chest, arms cradling head, gun sitting askew on the floor. flames across the street cast burnt orange shadows across the floor, both comforting and petrifying. your roommate lay dead in the doorway to your room, her eyes cold and empty and forever staring intently, blood pooling and staining your carpet, the rug, the stray dirty clothes you’d told yourself you were going to pick up after you got back from classes but hadn’t, in the end. the glock 19 your father had insisted upon getting you for college, finally finding use only to be cast aside once more.

you’ve never quite remembered standing and throwing together a backpack stuffed as full as possible with clothes and food. or stepping out over the body of your roommate, the beginnings of light gray fungus creeping out of the wounds you’d caused to take her down. the halls and stairways of your apartment building littered with the bodies of people you’d asked for laundry detergent and tutoring and rides to work when it was too cold or rainy or you just didn’t feel like walking or catching the bus.

an entire life uprooted in one singular moment.

from the blood-soaked streets of an austonian suburb, fire lapping buildings and shattering glass, you’d eventually found a group of survivors on the outskirts, people who had managed to hide from or stave off military men. a dead person can’t be infected, someone had reasoned to you upon your protest, but we weren’t going down without a fight. and here we are.

the willingness to not only kill, but to openly admit to doing it without holding an ounce of shame had scared you. it made you wonder if you could trust them, if they were safe to be around, but then you had killed, too, in an effort to protect yourself. and it hadn’t been a nameless, faceless individual, someone following orders, no matter how immoral; it had been your best friend. in reality, you were the one who shouldn’t have been trusted, the one unsafe and unstable.

but they had trusted you anyway, some semblance of a found family. sneaking through texas as it slowly went silent, scouting for food in grocery stores not yet scavenged, finding nooks and crannies to camp out in at night. and you came to trust them and yourself the way they trusted you. they protected you, expected you to protect them in return, helped you feel steady in a world that was falling apart in a way that was wildly different from life-changing events that had come before.

they had helped you through the end of the world.

twenty years later, the composition of your group has changed quite a bit through death and family reunions and simply separating. by the time you made it to the boston quarantine zone years into the apocalypse, only a few of the original group members remained, including yourself.

life has a strange way of making time feel simultaneously fast and slow. with none of the amenities of your life previous, you’d felt that the world trudged on at a snail’s pace. in the early years, you had none of your old books, no journals, no hobbies that you had been able to pack up in your backpack when you walked out of one life and into the next. every waking moment, every shred of brain power was relegated to staying alive and nothing more.

but then, life couldn’t move fast enough for the simple fact that you didn’t want to live in this world anymore, either through the invention of a cure that would miraculously fix the world or what could only be the sweet release of death. it wasn’t that you wanted to die necessarily, but the idea of of living through the apocalypse, never knowing when you’d eat next or get murdered by a raider or, undeniably the worst of all, when (or if, though that has always been stupid at the very least) you’d get infected, stuck in your own body and unable to ask for the mercy of a bullet in the head.

boston had been good for you, still is. you’d arrived about five years ago, fresh off the road and an exhausting separation with a few of your group members you’d been with for a couple years. they’d decided to take off in favor of other settlements, tired of trekking fruitlessly towards a fedra qz that wasn’t guaranteed to still be standing. but it was there, teeming with so many lives, and after the obligatory infection check and a further interview, you and the remaining scraps of your group finally had a home. a permanent one, at least for the foreseeable future.

a few months following your arrival, joel miller rolled into town, tall and stocky and going gray at the temples and across his jaw. he was quiet but opinionated, hardworking but standoffish. the younger people in the qz went out of their way to avoid him, the older people too, because he was so unapproachable. your friend, tiy, who had joined your trekking group a few years prior, mentioned once that they liked him well enough, but “found him aloof and too stubborn.” nobody liked that he’d made it clear he wasn’t looking to make friends.

but you had been intrigued by joel’s stiffness or maybe it had been that he reminded you of yourself in those early days when you’d found it difficult to connect with people. sure, it had been years since then and you’d adjusted as well as you could, but there was still a learning curve to find the right balance of trusting but skeptical, getting close without investing too much, what with death waiting around every corner.

so you’d made it a point of trying to get under his skin, at least a little. you trailed alongside him as he walked laps around town, insisted on hanging out in his apartment when you were bored and couldn’t stand the silence of your own lodging, even followed him and tess when they slipped outside the fence to go scavenge for better supplies than fedra could (or would) offer.

of course he’d been resistant at first, but tess found it funny. she liked having you around; a breath of fresh air, she called you, someone she could talk to and actually expect responses from. in those early days, she said that joel was a brick wall and he’d never truly given it up. he might let you around more often, but to anticipate anything more than a glance or a glare was asking too much. it had all been said in jest, lighthearted in tone but there was still a truth to it.

and almost five years into your weird friendship with joel miller, he really hasn’t ever given it up. it’s doesn’t feel like the cold shoulder it had at first, but he’s never stopped fixing you to the spot with those icy stares and keeping his responses clipped. it’s grown on you a lot over the time you’ve known him because he doesn’t sugarcoat his words, never beats around the bush. you can always trust him to tell it like it is, even if it hurts your feelings.

which is why you don’t say anything about the thoughts about him that have been popping up unannounced as you lay in bed at night and mourn a life that has been out of reach for twenty years. this whole thing started when you were fresh into your twenties, college and parties and looking for love to get your parents off your back about when they were going to have grandchildren in their future. when the world had ended, you swore off anything more than tentative friendship because what use was a best friend or a lover when you never knew what could happen.

but then you’d gotten older and older and suddenly you were closing in on an age that had seemed so out of reach in that carefree, college student life of yours. and you’d started to realize that you’d missed out on so much. you began to grieve the loss of romance and happiness and comfort, but without an end result of consolation, you couldn’t write the elegy you wanted.

one day a few months ago, you’d been walking with joel at dusk, the sun casting the sky in that burnt orange hue and the complementary pinks. you were doing all the talking and joel wasn’t offering much in the way of response, but it didn’t matter. and then when you’d broken past the city into the more remote parts of boston, the two of you had come to a stop, admiring the sunset in silence. and you’d looked over at your companion and god, the sight of his profile against that pink velveteen and orange creamsicle sky, he looked like the most beautiful person you’d ever seen.

and everything had changed for you in that moment. in recent weeks, as you’ve lain in bed, staring at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to come, you’ve been waylaid by thoughts about what it could be like if you let it happen. if you and joel let it happen.

when you look at him now, you see possibilities, a chance to not spend the rest of your life completely alone, isolated from human touch. someone to share your bed at night, to wake up to in the morning, kissed by dawn. if you close your eyes, it feels warm, you can feel that dawn sun on your skin, joel’s arm draped haphazardly over your waist, his breath stirring the wispy hairs at the nape of your neck. it’s a weird sort of comfort to have as you close your eyes at night, willing yourself to succumb to rest.

but at the same time, it feels wholly terrifying, dauntless, completely impossible. because truthfully, after so long without a connection that extends past that surface level acquaintanceship, anything deeper feels crushing. it is a weight that rests upon your shoulders like the rock upon sisyphus’s, something you are bound to bore for the rest of your life and eternally thereafter.

it feels like a second coming, the second apocalypse. when you ponder the idea for longer than a few seconds, it feels like you’re going through the end of the world all over again and you sit there, paralyzed. when you were younger, romance was easy to think about, to fantasize about; you spent many a night slumped in bed, stuck between drunk and sleep, thinking about the boy you’d been iming for the last three weeks. then, it had made you giddy, reduced to giggles and blushing as your friend yelled responses from the kitchen.

now, though, your heart stops, your mind stutters, you feel nervous and excited all at the same time. it’s like being on the precipice of something and waiting for the tip over the edge, to plummet head first into the darkness, anticipation and fear mixing into something wholly indistinguishable. you look at joel and you fantasize about flashes of a domestic life. you stand in the kitchen together and you think about resting your cheek against the broad expanse of his back, that welcoming place right between his shoulder blades. your knees brush as you sit on the couch and you freeze like a deer caught in headlights.

you want it and reject it all in the same breath, fingernails biting into the flesh of your palm as you will the ideas and the fantasies away. he, in all his gruff salt and pepper glory, always looks at you in these slivers of time together, the worry lines deep between his eyebrows, his way of asking whether you’re alright. and you look back and shake your head and offer a smile because you can’t bring yourself to tell the truth, the thoughts that plague your late night reveries, brought on by the silence and the darkness coalescing. you can’t do that to him or to yourself because you’ve known joel for too long to ever think it’s something that could ever happen.

but at two in the morning as you lay sick in bed, weeks after your realization, joel sleeps on the ratty couch in your living room, just feet away. you are hyper aware of the fact that on the other side of the wall, he slumbers after having insisted earlier in the day that he stay with you for at least the night so that if you needed help, you had someone there with you. it had surprised you then, but with the silence and the knowledge of him sleeping in your apartment, it starts to mean something more.

you’ve come to learn that joel shows his appreciation in nontraditional ways, methods that aren’t as confrontational and obvious. he’ll walk you home at night, straight to your door, even though he complains about his knees aching afterwards. he’ll ask, rather gruffly, if you’ve eaten. he chiefly looks out for himself, but he makes sure he takes the highest paying jobs and what he doesn’t need, he passes on to you in return for you checking the radio when he’s away.

and you realize that this is just a new iteration of that, the fact that he sleeps in your crumbling apartment while you’re ill with the flu just so you aren’t alone. maybe it’s a remnant of that instinct he had as a father or maybe it speaks to something more, an evolution in your relationship that isn’t as unrequited as you so thought. it fills your heart with a warmth unlike any you’ve felt in a long time and it makes you feel human again, capable and deserving of that love that you haven’t let yourself approach in so many years.

you’ll let yourself hope, at least for now, in the heat of your illness. it feels like the end of the world, the idea of it all, but it feels less daunting when it’s joel you’re thinking about.

(c) lskisms, 2023. do not repost, translate, or otherwise plagiarize my work. the only official versions of my work are available on tumblr and ao3 under the name lskisms.

[exsequar]

August 18 is my birthday. I feel like I need to say something about this year of my life... and this is the closest I have to a blog. Pull up a chair.

Tonight I stood on the roof of my beautiful modern apartment building, in the most vivacious neighborhood of Seattle, gazing at the panoramic view of the downtown skyline, Space Needle, mountains and water and the rolling hills, all backlit by a softly electric sunset, listening to my gorgeous and sweet neighbor working shirtless on his bike behind me, and reflected on what a fucking year it's been.

Tomorrow I turn 36. One year ago, I thought I would never be happy again.

This 36th year of life, a perfect square as I am fond of pointing out, has been anything but perfect and certainly nothing so predictable as a square. But as I sprint across the finish line, proudly taking the trophy that declares I Survived Thirty-Six, I am deeply grateful for how this year has shaped me and set me on course for the life I want... for the first time ever.

One year ago, I was at the nadir of a monthslong spiral of anxiety and depression. The night of August 18, 2022, I did not sleep one wink, despite attempting many substance interventions, because my soul was so wrought with torment and guilt and fear. And this was a new experience for me; I had had low points before, but absolutely nothing even resembling this black hole that felt impossible to escape. I won't go into why, but suffice to say there was one new toxic ingredient in my life that had slowly devoured my happiness, my confidence, and my hope. I couldn't see a path out.

Then... slowly, then abruptly, things began to change.

In September, I decided to look for a new job, to change at least one variable and cut out some toxicity. With what felt like shocking speed, interview offers started coming in after just four taster applications. After a brief interview process, I was astonished to find myself in a new job much closer to home, joining a team that included one of my favorite past coworkers.

In October, I took a couple weeks off to try to gain my footing before starting my new job, and traveled home to see family. During these two weeks, I suddenly learned that my landlords were renovating my building and I was being kicked out from my apartment of four years (with 6 months to move out). I quickly recovered from my shock, went on one round of apartment visits in the coolest area in town right near my new office, fell in love with the third building I saw, and signed a lease within a week. Importantly, around the same time, a huge element of the toxic drain on my life became suddenly much, much better, which started to free me from that suffocating weight. Additionally, the relentless, deeply kind support of some close friends finally started to lift me out of the darkness. (You know who you are, I love you.)

On Halloween, 2022, I started my new job. I instantly hit it off with the other two women on my team. The third day, I tested positive for COVID - IN the office! No longer a COVID virgin, I slunk home to do my various new hire trainings in quarantine.

In November, I bought an e-bike to use for my new 1.5 mile commute. I immediately loved being back on two wheels and frequently commuted by bike even in the grey Seattle winter.

Two days before Christmas, 2022, I moved into my new apartment. I shed most of my furniture, many belongings, and started from a beautiful almost blank slate. My new place has the aforementioned roof with panoramic views, huge windows, and all kinds of amenities I didn't have before (a dishwasher!!!!!! laundry!!!!! being mid-thirties is losing your shit over in-unit laundry).

I traveled home for the holidays and had a wonderful break.

January 2023, I began preparing for the biggest fucking trip of my whole entire life. To ANTARCTICA. Yes, you heard that right. I began preparing for an EXPEDITION to ANTARCTICA. For FUN. I still can hardly believe it myself. My friend had invited me in Dec 2021 to join a trip to Antarctica in March 2022, but omicron kiboshed that, and I think the universe knew I needed this to happen in 2023. That I would be just emerging from The Great Dark, and what a better place to beckon me forward than the White Continent?

January, February, and March all felt like a frenzy of preparation. I continued to learn and grow more happy and confident at my new job, growing ever closer to mhy awesome little team, but all the while my mind was floating among the icebergs and penguins.

March. Two days before I was supposed to leave for Chile, the first part of my trip, I tested positive for COVID. IN MY OFFICE. AGAIN!!!

After a brief bout of despair, I ended up getting paxlovid, moving my flight back a week (for $1000 extra ;_;), and joining my friend and her mom in Argentina instead.

March 20, 2023, I set sail aboard the m/v Plancius for Antarctica. What followed was the most deeply spectacular, yet also the most deeply healing, two weeks of my life. I don't know how to summarize it. I felt true peace for the first time... certainly in a year, but in what felt like decades. Possibly forever. I was soul-happy. It's the only way I can describe it.

I landed back home on April 5.

On April 6, my company was hit by a massive cyber attack. Yay!!!!?

The next few months were a chaotic scramble of new experiences and creativity. But through it all, my team only grew closer, and the uncharted territory was in some ways an exciting challenge that only enhanced my sense of feeling alive.

The peace I felt in Antarctica came home with me and spread through my life in waves. I began doing things for joy, and getting my body out moving in the world. I had quickly fallen back in love with biking, so I started looking for groups to ride with and began joining free bike rides all over the county as often as I could. I met delightful people on every ride. I bought a second bike that would be zippier and easier to tote around. I bought a new car that would let me carry around this second bike more easily. I joined a summer rec soccer league, biking to a local field to play under the setting summer sun every Friday, and met some of the fabulous queer folks in my new neighborhood. I watched halftime drag shows on artificial turf. I started feeling physically healthier to match my sense of my soul healing. I laughed all the time.

August 18, 2023 starts in less than an hour. Today, the penultimate day of my 36th year, I worked and laughed with my team for the morning. I flirted with a darling guy in my building, who I have been lightly flirting with for months, for over an hour. I went to the farmers market outside our office and bought beautiful berries from the handsome farmer who loves his bees so much. I picked up an order of fantastic cookies, an early self-gift. I took my new car for a fun new type of car wash (the car sits still and the washing robot arms move around us??). I called my dad. My best friend of nearly 2 decades asked if she could call and we talked for over an hour. I went home to my kitties. I played Stardew Valley and listened to my favorite music. I finished a spectacular audiobook (Strong Female Character by Fern Brady, a memoir of growing up an autistic girl with no diagnosis, and getting diagnosed in middle age). I went to the store to pick up ingredients for my favorite birthday cake that my dad always made for me when I was a kid.

I climbed up to the roof, where my handsome neighbor was quietly and shirtlessly fixing his bike, and gazed out over the gorgeous deep red horizon.

I didn't quite cry. My eyes stung softly as I bit my lip and smiled. Yes. This is where I want to be.

And I can't wait to see what 37 - a prime number, harder to come by as we age - has in store.

[coff-in]

hello hello!! ヽ(^○^)ノcould i possibly req smut of ashley x the fem reader? maybe reader is trying to get ready for a job but ashley wants to spend more time with her and reader, of course, can't resist her best friend-girlfriend-confusing relationship!! (＞∀＜)

- 🕊

notes from coff-in: welcome back, 🕊 anon! i'm so happy to see you again, i hope you're doing well! this is written in second person just like my last answered request. i noticed that it's a little easier for me to write like this... idk why ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ i also couldn't do my bullet points or proper format writing for this either, so i did my little ramblefic writing instead. apologies about that 🕊, my dear :/ i hope you enjoy this nonetheless!! (edit: i'm sorry this took long, i feel so bad whenever i don't answer an ask the day it comes to me... i tried my best though!!)

[fem] reader-insert, [afab] reader-insert, NSFW

hm... i wonder when this would take place. probably before the quarantine happened, yeah? they've graduated from high school a couple of months ago and [reader] got a simple job working as a general manager somewhere-- like a store or something. maybe an office job? something that requires [reader] to change into professional/work friendly attire. her and ashley found a cheap apartment to move into together (ashley constantly complained about her parents and, um, "suggested" to [reader] that they find a place to move out to)

its normal for ashley to stay at home. i think she could get a job but chooses not to, you know? [reader] isn't mind being the breadwinner, and i think gives ashley money to get her own stuff if she wants to. i saw a post somewhere (i think i reblogged it, abt how andrew is hornier than ashley) that ashley usually shows her love via words of affirmation and acts of service so she does most of the cleaning and laundry around the house n such.

two bedroom apartments are expensive though right? and andrew has a college dorm, so he doesn't need a room in their new apartment. ashley and [reader] could just share a room, like she and andy did. in fact, they could even share a bed! (they compromised on sharing a room since sharing a bed is... very intimate in [reader]'s head). this doesn't stop ashley from coming over to [reader]'s bed some nights because "me and andy did it when we were younger, so it's fine if we do it! we're friends right? it's alright."

and of course they also share a closet and get changed in the same space because they're both girls. whatever [reader] has is nothing that ashley hasn't seen before... and she's certainly not judging either :) they even wear each other's clothes sometimes since they're such best friends! (if [reader] has friends outside of ashley (or maybe coworkers, i guess) they always wonder whether she and ashley are dating or not because they're so close to each other)

this ultimately leads to... sex? i mean, is it really sex if it's with your best friend who you may or may not be attracted to? this is [reader] coping btw. sex doesn't happen often, i think. ashley initiated it first to keep [reader] at home. [reader] doesn't need to go to work today, one break wouldn't hurt her, right? ashley hugs [reader] while she's changing her shirt, coaxing her back to bed with her voice

she can just call in sick right? it's no big deal.

this is both of their first times, so it's very awkward at first. ashley takes the reins and acts as the domme in the situation. kissing [reader] and cupping her cheeks, smiling at her and UUUGH I LOVE HER!! idk if they'd have a strap or a dildo (maybe [reader] would have a dildo now that i think about it). ashley slowly stripping her down, reassuring her that she doesn't need to hide anything "you're so pretty! why would you need to hide away? i'm not going to judge you, and honestly it's nothing new to me ;)"

all the teasing and kissing has made it so that [reader] is all slick, making it so easy for ashley to slip her fingers inside of her. [reader] has to tell ashley to do one at a time slowly since as to not hurt her. while she fingers [reader], ashley whispers teases in her hair "see? isn't this so much better than going to work today? way better getting fingerbanged by your best friend that sitting in that fucking office all day, huh? you like it, too, i can tell. you're so loud and whiny. i bet nothing and no one else has made you feel this good before, huh? and nothing ever will."

ashley brings [reader]'s hands to her boobs while they scissor each other, telling [reader] to squeeze them and rub her nipples. omg... omg omg omg ashley would definitely force [reader] to keep eye contact with her whenever they have sex. she tells [reader] to keep her eyes on her or else she'll stop thrusting the dildo in and out of her. UUUGGGHH!!! LOVE HER LOVE HER!!!

let's go lesbians

----

coff-in

[rosiesdiner]

@farew3lls : two days after arrival ( for quarantine purposes! )

Rosie had never been more thrilled to see a third floor neighbor in her life as she let Madeline into the building. She certainly wasn't ecstatic to see Jeremiah and JP return to their own third floor apartment recently, but she was happy for Charlie's sake. Maddie had lived here five years longer than Rosie. She was mostly quiet, but Rosie could tell she was listening as the diner owner chatted along while they did laundry together or stood in the hallway. They had optimism in common, even if both had their shares ground down by sad events over the years. They persisted, they cared, they did their best to succeed in a world that commonly allowed women to fail. Maddie had a good eye for decorating too; sometimes she helped Rosie put up her various decorations for holidays throughout the years and they always looked great when the art teacher was involved.

It was shocking to see Maddie was pregnant. Rosie's first thought was oh no, we don't have a Tobias anymore. Granted he'd been a surgeon, which wasn't the exact type of doctor she needed, but he'd have been a better resource as a doctor than Ash's Ph.D in physics. Hopefully one of the newcomers had experience delivering a baby? Or someone else already in the building these past several months -- not everything about a person's past was revealed until the moment arose.

"Are you cold at all?" She asked the expectant mother as they occupied the roof together. There were some blankets in a chest in the greenhouse in case Rosie or anyone else wanted one while they were up here. More of a necessity during the late fall and winter, but they weren't far enough into spring to escape the chill.

Like most, she was extra worrying over Maddie due to the baby. Not that she wouldn't care about Maddie's well being to begin with; Rosie was always fussy over soon-to-be mothers. Was their tea too hot? Did they want anything else to eat? Did they want a booth closer to the door in case they had to leave for morning sickness or delivering the baby?!

[waltwhitmansbeard]

And a platonic Pike and Scanlan for "I'm not going anywhere"?

I'm not going anywhere.

When illness spreads through Whitestone like wildfire, Pike is on the front lines of the effort to staunch the worst of things. She's powerful, to be sure, but even her magic has its limits, and even with the combined efforts of all of the clerics from the temples and the healers from town, every day, more people fall sick than can be cured by magical or medicinal means.

She gets home on a night, exhausted and spent and scared that they're going to lose more people than they can save, and all she wants to do is crawl into bed and cry herself to sleep. Except tonight, there's someone waiting for her in the living room, snoring and conspicuous on her lumpy couch. "Scanlan?"

He startles awake, toppling to the floor with a shriek and a grunt. Then he grins up at her upside-down. "You're home!"

"You're in my home." Pike presses the heels of her palms into her eyes. "Scanlan...why are you here?"

He picks himself up. "Heard things were bad here. Thought I'd come check on you, since I'm sure no one else is."

She drops her hands and narrows her eyes. "So let me get this straight. You came into an town riddled by a highly contagious disease, meaning you now can no longer leave until you have quarantined for at least a month, and decided to take up on my probably infected couch, meaning I have to keep you here so you don't spread anything to anyone else. Is that about the long and short of it?"

Scanlan head shrinks down into his shoulders. "...Yeah, that's about it."

"And all because you assumed that none of our other friends cared at all about me or how I'm dealing with things."

He's practically melted into a puddle on the floor at this point. "I...am starting to think I may have made some miscalculations." She huffs out a sigh, and he snaps straighter. "But hey, at least you're not coming home to a house you have no time to clean!"

She frowns, confused. The house is a pigsty. "What do you..."

Scanlan snaps his fingers, and a familiar spectral door appears in the middle of the living room. "How would you like to come home to an all-inclusive spa and resort featuring invisible masseuses and all of the best vegan cuisine magic can buy?"

She bites her lip. That...actually sounds incredible. She barely eats most nights, too tired to cook for herself, and if she doesn't do laundry soon, she'll have a real shot at dispelling this disease by sheer force of stink. Her eyes dart between the door and Scanlan's too-hopeful face. "...Do you promise to stay in there the entire time? No coming out until all of this is over?"

He salutes dramatically. "Yes, ma'am!"

She walks over, puts her hand on the purple doorknob, and pauses. "You're really gonna stay?"

He smiles, and oh, it really is nice to see beneath the veneer, sometimes. "As long as you'll have me, I'm not going anywhere."

And it's a terrible idea, for so many reasons, but that doesn't stop her from pushing the door open, eager to get a foot massage and her first proper night's rest in over a week.

[sap-woods]

I feel so, so defeated. My partner is on vacation, so I've been alone for about a week now. Work has really been a series of annoying problems for the past couple weeks — and I've had to involve my supervisor, which I have rarely had to do at all this year. Nothing I could have prevented, but I just really wish it wasn't this week that my name keeps popping up in her email due to problems, because we're about to get our placement assignments for next year, and I will honestly be really devastated if I get moved to a new site at work.

So I worked all through the weekend to try and get through some of the mess. Then I had a 3 hour dentist appointment on Monday. The only things I've been looking forward to have been going to my choir, should have been tonight, getting a haircut, which was scheduled for tomorrow, the weekend, which is supposed to be properly warm, and my partner coming home, on Monday.

But no. I just got my first ever positive covid test (from that wretched dentist appointment, perhaps...). I'm extremely grateful not to infect my partner, because she had a terrible time with covid... and I'm glad not to need to quarantine in a 1-bedroom apartment. But I feel so tired and I really wish someone else could clean the cat litter tonight. And make dinner. And do the laundry. And I feel so, so, miserable thinking about not seeing her for even longer than I thought. With shaggy overgrown hair. And if my autoimmune disease flares up (which the specialist I see told me it likely would with covid, or any cold/flu) perhaps some pain, too.

Work isn't even in a state where I can take a sick day right now... So I'm just going to work for free, but from home for once, for my last two remaining sick days. Then take a weekend that should have been fun and warm outside with a fresh haircut, awaiting my partner's return, and spend it completely indoors. Then, come Monday, not see my partner when she gets home, and decide whether I'd like to take an unpaid sick day and keep falling further behind, or risk infecting everyone at work.

Bleh. I probably should take some time for some gratitudes... like I have two legs that work for the most part, I have good doctor if I do have a flare up who will help me, summer is coming, my cat is really good, I have a whole house to quarantine in, I've had three offers already from friends/family to drop stuff off if I need it, I will see my partner again pretty soon, I will be fine, this will all pass...

...but man, this stinks!

[bl-bam-beyond]

My 2 POND'S

A SPECIAL BAM- BEAUTIFUL ASIAN MEN

NARAVIT PONLAWIT

LERTRATKOSUM KETPRAPAKORN

aka NONG POND 1 aka PHI POND 2

Fish Upon The Sky Bangkok Love Story 2

Never Let Me Go Quarantine Stories

Dirty Laundry 180 Degrees Longitude

Passes Through Us

Loneliness Society The Interns

We Are: The Series Century of Love

Leap Day (Upcoming) Fourever You

Project (Upcoming)

POND 1 born February 1, 2001 Pond 2 born March 25,

Is 23 years old 1999 is 25 years old

@pose4photoml

[kinglazrus]

Wip Game

Tagged by @dekalko-mania and @bibliophilea! Check out Dekal's answers here, and Bib's answers here.

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

So... I have a lot of wips for a lot of fandoms. To make things easier, I'm only putting the DP ones, otherwise this list would have like 100 fics, maybe more. Also not doing wips that I've posted chapters for.

First date redo

Behind enemy lines

The Hunter

Multitudes

Laundry Day

Alike in Immortality original

Treat

Trick

GUTS

LAIR

Empty Grave

Love Yourself

Ph is for Failure

Lost in Time

Mind of Our Own

Afternoon Snack

Body

Death of my Enemy

Field Trip Gone Wrong

Ghost ptsd

Kingly Woes

No Place Like Home

Paulina v Dash

The Other Side

Therapy for the Recently Deceased

Came Back Wrong (Again)

GIW Perspective

Human Again

Tarot & Stalker

The Games We Play

The Hunted

Time Loop

Crush My Lungs

What They Made You

Ice in His Veins

Sand for His Heart

why the fuck am i starting a new story

Written Destiny

Sandman

Dan's Return

Dani afraid of danny

Everyone knows

Fog-splatter

Ghost Child

Green-Eye Boy

Hanahaki's disease

In Time

Interrogation

It Never Happened

Just a Little Different

Keeping Curfew

Kwan

Light Sensitivity

Maddie.exe

Outsider pov

Portal Danny

Quarantine

residual powers

Sam

Shiptember 9.30

Sidney Poindexter

Stuck

(redacted)

The Funeral

Unbecoming

Unfinished Business

week fic

Welcome to the Neighbourhood

I will not be tagging as many people as wips because that's just way too many, but if anyone sees this and wants to do it, feel free! I love seeing these.

@q-gorgeous @nickelodeonstudios @ghostgothgeek @lexosaurus @wastefulreverie @underforeversgrace