#TGPThursdays

[fox-slightly]

I mean, this is heaven, right?

Meet me at the lake. - E

Chidi clutches the note tightly in his pocket as he makes his way across the neighborhood. E, she'd signed it. It felt intimate somehow, and he had quickly stowed the note out of Angelique's sight as soon as he spotted it pushed under their front door.

He'd made some excuse to slip away. Angelique never seems to question where he goes, even though he is constantly slipping away. She is so trusting. And why shouldn't she be? He is her soulmate. Her other half. He would never do anything to cause her harm. 

His stomach twists with guilt.

Chidi makes the final turn in the path and the lake comes into view. Eleanor is standing on the dock, her hands in her back pockets, smiling warmly at him. She looks radiant; it's hard to look directly at her. There's a rowboat knocking gently against the dock and, just next to it, a large picnic basket, full to bursting. He sees a bottle of wine poking out; he's sure there's a book of French poetry in there, too.

"Hi," she says cheerfully, as he reaches her.

"What's all this?" he asks, even though he knows.

"An apology. I just wanted to say I’m sorry for yesterday. It's not fair of me to demand so much of your time--"

He interrupts her, pushing up his glasses, which are smudged with stress grease, "Eleanor, I'm the one who should be apologizing. I was out of line. I wasn't even mad at you, I was just-- I was just frustrated with myself and lashing out at you."

"No, you were right! You should be out on a rowboat reading lame poetry," she gestures to the boat and basket behind her. "So, go get Angelique and you two can live it up nerd style. You deserve it." She fixes him with a bright smile he doesn’t deserve.

Chidi shakes his head, but he can't seem to formulate the words to tell her how wrong she's gotten it.

"It's cool, man. I totally get it,” Eleanor continues. “You shouldn't have to spend your days cooped up in my clown murder house trying to teach me how to be nice. I mean, this is heaven, right?"

Chidi shakes his head again and steels himself, "It's not that I don't like spending time with you, Eleanor. I do like spending time with you." He hesitates for a moment, then adds slowly, "I like spending time with you...more than I like spending time with Angelique."

"Oh." She looks puzzled for a moment. He watches the realization wash over her. "Oh," she repeats.

"Yeah," he sighs and sits down on a low wooden bench on the dock and stares out over the lake. Chidi doesn't think he's ever seen a vista more perfect. His jaw tightens in frustration. How is he so unhappy in this perfect place? Even with the universe presenting him with his absolute match, his soulmate, he's incapable of enjoying anything without second guessing it, ruining it. He's incapable of just being happy. He's defective, broken.

After a moment Eleanor sits down beside him. She stares out at the lake as she says carefully, "I don't know if this helps, but I like spending time with you, too."

Chidi lets out a tiny gasp of a laugh and shakes his head, "No, Eleanor, that definitely does not help."

"Right," she says, and she laughs, too.

Then they're both laughing, hard, because what else can they possibly do? Trapped in paradise for an eternity together, apart. A cosmic joke.

He was lying, of course. It does help that Eleanor feels it too. It doesn't change their situation or ease his perpetual stomach ache, but it makes him feel less broken somehow.

The laughter dies away and they finally look over at each other. She's smiling sadly, biting her lip slightly. He wants her to say something, but he's not sure what. Her eyes flicker to his mouth and for a moment, he thinks she might lean forward and kiss him. The thought terrifies and thrills him in equal measure because he knows without a doubt that if she does, he will kiss her back.

But she doesn't kiss him. She stands up and brushes imaginary dust off her pants. Chidi stands, too. He shoves his hands in his pockets, and grips her note tightly.

"I should go, I guess?" Eleanor says it like a question, like she wants him to tell her not to go. He wants to tell her not to go. But he nods, so she turns away and walks slowly up the path and out of sight.

Chidi stands alone on the dock, looking out over the pristine lake and thinks, This is heaven, right?

[serendipitouscontaminant]

@the-fic-place

Here’s some bitter name-related angst for all of you! 

I.

“It’s Eleanor. Not Ellie.” She always has to clarify this when she gets to a new school. Sixth grade is no different.

“Aw, but Ellie’s such a sweet name!” her teacher says, smiling.

She’s wearing a cashmere cardigan and reeks of old money, and some of her pink lipstick’s rubbed off onto her teeth, but Eleanor’s sure as hell not gonna tell her that.

Eleanor curls her lip and informs Little Miss Teach for America, “I’m not a piece of fucking candy.”

She gets sent to the principal’s office.

No one calls her Ellie.

Say my full name, she tells her boyfriends every time they think that just because she’s fucking them they’re entitled to call her that goddamn name.

“C’mon, Eleanor’s too big a name for someone as small as you,” some guy says one time, smirking.

Eleanor doesn’t feel bad at all when she kicks him out of her bed and then out of her apartment.

“For that? C’mon, it was just a joke!”

“It’s not a joke if it’s not funny.” The words are angry, but Eleanor says them in a disinterested monotone while she checks out her nails. She’s already forgotten his name.

He starts to say something. She slams the door in his face and figures he’ll take the hint.

She should get a manicure.

Eleanor never met another Eleanor Shellstrop when she was alive. She doesn’t even think she met another Eleanor, even though she met plenty of Ellies.

They didn’t count, though.

Eleanor has always been on her own, always been Eleanor Shellstrop, the one and only, and when the good Eleanor walks through the door, she feels her world crack like a mirror, because there she is.

Eleanor Shellstrop.

The good one.

The better one.

Here to take away what she has.

Just her luck.

II.

Chidi’s always liked his name. Always liked both his names.

They’re good, they’re his, and he never has to hesitate when he says them, because they’re true.

Sometimes it feels like all Chidi Anagonye can be sure of is that his name is, in fact, Chidi Anagonye.

But at least he always, always is, even when it seems like he’s the only one.

(Sometimes Chidi can’t help but think that the people who can’t seem to ever figure out how to say his name aren’t even trying.)

It’s Chidi’s second week working at the Sorbonne, and he’s at a nice restaurant with several colleagues, pretending he’s happy that he’s being interacted with and not stressed out of his mind.

Another professor asks him where his name is from, what it means.

Chidi doesn’t say anything like, “Well, where is your name from? What does François mean?”

It wouldn’t be polite.

It’s one of the Linguistics professors who answers the question, pulls her long blonde hair out of her face and informs the table that ‘Chidi’ means ‘God exists’. In the Igbo naming tradition, you see, names that begin with the element ‘Chi’ always have to do with God.

Chidi smiles and nods placidly, even though he’d been about to say the exact same thing.

Eleanor isn’t his soulmate, and the thought loops through his head over and over as he hears her try to say his name.

At least she knows his first one, he tries to tell himself, but she’s sure that he’s saying his own name wrong, and he feels his heart fraying, because his soulmate would say his name right the first time, if she were here, but she’s not. Instead, he has…Eleanor.

It’s not fair.

She trips her way through nonsense words that almost sound right, until she gets to, “Ariana Grande,” and gasps. “That’s a name!”

That’s a name.

Yes.

But it’s not his.

III.

Usually when Tahani tells people her name they say it’s so pretty, so lovely, so beautiful, just like she’s so pretty, so lovely, so beautiful, and she agrees, of course, and tells them what it means, revels in the fact that every time someone says her name, they’re complimenting her.

Congratulations, beautiful.

Congratulations.

Tahani really does love her name, just like she loves herself. Sometimes more.

Not that she ever doesn’t love herself, but—

Not the point.

Her name is a celebration.

It’s the best thing her parents ever gave her, even though she has the suspicion that they like the name Kamilah better.

It doesn’t matter.

The name Tahani stopped being theirs the moment they gave it to her.

And Tahani stops being theirs the moment she realizes they forgot it.

Tahani tells Eleanor what her name means and trails off so that Eleanor can fill in, “…Congratulations, beautiful.”

Tahani beams. “Thanks, Eleanor, you big flirt!”

Congratulations, beautiful.

That’s always such a good little icebreaker, she thinks happily as she considers the fact that if she counts every time someone referred to her by name, she probably got more compliments during her life than her sister, Kamilah.

IV.

When Jason’s little, everyone calls him Jamie. They keep calling him Jamie when he tells them to stop, when he tells them he doesn’t like it.

It makes it sound like he’s a little kid.

After a while he stops telling them to stop and pretends it was his choice all along.

That’s something he does a lot.

If people know his name before they see him, they think he’s Mexican.

If they see him before they know his name, they think he’s Chinese. Then Japanese. Then, okay, uh, if you’re not Japanese you’re…Korean?

No one outside the trailer park he lives in knows he’s Filipino, not until he tells them.

Now everyone thinks he’s Taiwanese, and it’s probably the most familiar thing about whatever this place is.

Eleanor asks, and he's finally able to say the truth, say that no, Jianyu isn't his name.

It's Jason Mendoza.

It feels good to clear that up.

Now he gets called Jason again, sometimes, but not even always.

Even when everyone knows the secret of who he is, they still sometimes say Jianyu instead of Jason, like just because that’s who he has to pretend to be, that’s who he is, and Jason doesn’t like hating things, but he totally hates it.

He hates keeping secrets.

He hates how everyone tells him who he is and what to do.

He hates being quiet.

He hates that he doesn’t have anything to say.

And, he thinks every single time he looks in the mirror, he really hates Jianyu.

AO3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12747276

[ninavanhorndog]

Eleanor downed the glass of champagne, tossing the glass behind her. “Come here, you beautiful giant.” She reached up with both hands, pulling Tahani down for a bruising kiss. Tahani’s eyes sprang open in surprise but once her arms encircled Eleanor’s waist, she relaxed into the embrace.

They separated breathlessly. “I have never been so sure someone could pick me up and dunk me and so turned on at the same time.” Eleanor panted.

“I could definitely dunk you. Like a little biscotti.” Tahani grinned.

“No, not…” Eleanor sighed. “Like a basketball.”

Tahani shook her head. “No, I don’t follow.”

[eleanorandtahani]

Can someone please write a Christmas Good Place AU where Tahani dies and because she was not quite good on Earth she has to help a human by Christmas to earn her place in heaven? And that human is an Arizona dirtbag who hates Christmas and wants exactly none of her help? And the only rule is that they can’t fall in love but (spoiler alert) obviously they do?

With the fate of her soul hanging in the balance, Tahani Al-Jamil is given an assignment: transform Eleanor Shellstrop into a better person by Christmas.

Check out my new Eleanor x Tahani fic, inspired by a prompt from @freewillandphysics! 

A special thanks to @freewillandphysics, @diana-prince-s, and @i-am-diana for being amazing betas!

[lisbonsteresa]

Tea for Three

(a variation of @oir-39‘s fantastic headcannon)

Eleanor sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time as she surveyed her companions over the top of her mug. Chidi and Tahani were standing on opposite sides of her tiny kitchen table, glaring daggers at each other while she sat between them, growing increasingly bored with this entire debate.

“Tahani,” Chidi began in an exasperated voice, reaching up behind his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration, “it’s unquestionably rosemary”.

Tahani tossed her long hair over her shoulder and let out a very loud and very un-ladylike snort. “Perhaps if you’re eighty-seven years old and attempting to stave off dementia. But for the rest of the world, the answer is obviously English breakfast. It is a timeless classic and besides,” she crossed her arms and gave Chidi a satisfied smirk, “it’s not as if anyone would trust your judgement on the matter over mine”.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” he shot back as he leaned closer to Tahani, eyes narrowed and voice low. 

“Only that as a Englishwoman, I am much more familiar with the subject than you.” Tahani looked like she was very much enjoying this, if the wide smile and glint in her eye was anything to go by. “We Brits practically invented tea, after all. You’ll just have to admit it Chidi; when it comes to this, I just know more than you”.

“No you don’t!” he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air before pausing and seeming to register the rest of her words, “And no you didn’t!” His arms swung back down and he began to gesture furiously as he recited (as he had multiple times before): “Tea originated in China, during the Tang dynasty, where it was used as a medicinal drink before spreading to-”

Tahani reached her hand out in a dismissive wave and cut him off “Yes, but no one cares about all that, dear. It was the British who really brought tea into prominence-”

“No one cares?!” Chidi cried, stopping his wild gesturing to point an accusing finger at her. “How can you say that, how can you just ignore…”

The two continued, growing louder and more heated as they shouted over each other, waving fingers in the other’s face and glowering over the table until finally Eleanor had had enough. “Who cares about any of this?!” she bellowed, slamming her mug down and rising out of her chair. “You two have spent the last hour fighting over your janky leaf water!”

The other two paused in their argument, turning towards Eleanor in shocked silence. “When you burst in here going on about needing my help with an ‘urgent matter’,” she huffed, “I thought you meant we would be making out at least. And if you did, then this is the weirdest foreplay I’ve ever seen”.

Her comments seemed to break the tension in the room. Tahani grinned and rolled her eyes as Chidi let out a soft chuckle and ducked his head to try and hide his smile. “We came here, darling,” Tahani began bemusedly,  “because we were hoping you could act as an impartial judge and help us settle this matter once and for all”.

“Dunno how impartial I can be,” Eleanor snorted, “I am forking the both of you”.

Chidi shot her a look. “We took that into consideration actually. We figured that since you’re in a relationship with both of us, you wouldn’t take one side over the other.” Eleanor narrowed her eyes at him, as if questioning the ethical truth of that statement. “And we really just want an answer. Jason told us we should both just try Monster, and Michael’s favorite tea is apparently ‘not comprehensible to the human mind’”.

“Yes, and Janet of course doesn’t eat or drink anything,” Tahani chimed in, “so you are basically our last resort.”

“A phrase I have heard many times in my life” Eleanor smirked, before realizing that the others were staring expectantly at her. “What?”

“Well,” Chidi began, “what’s your decision? Which is the better tea; rosemary or English breakfast?”

Eleanor snorted “Neither, obviously.” Ignoring their stunned faces, she reached down to grab hold of her mug again, taking a long sip and savoring the flavor before eyeing them over the rim. “Coffee is a thousand times better than either of your nasty teabags. It keeps you awake and it actually tastes good”.

Disregarding Tahani’s insulted sputtering, she tilted the mug back up to take another sip when suddenly Chidi’s voice stopped her: “Wait….is that my mug?”

Eleanor froze mid-sip. “No….” she muttered softly, slowly setting the mug back onto the table, “It’s….mine. I asked Janet for it”.

“Really.” Chidi replied, his tone beginning to sound accusatory again. “You asked Janet for a mug with a cartoon of Immanuel Kant and the phrase ‘Kant stop, won’t stop’ printed on it?” He picked up the mug and examined it. “And a chip in the handle in the exact same place as mine?”

“……Yes.” Eleanor lied, taking a small step back and feeling for the handle of the glass sliding door behind her. “Because I like yours so much”.

“Then why is it you’re backing towards the door like Nicholas Cage’s octopus backed towards the edge of its tank after it was caught trying to steal my sapphire necklace?“ Tahani asked, a wide grin growing on her face.

“Especially because,” Chidi began, taking a step towards Eleanor even as she took another step back, “I expressly told you that that was my favorite mug, and asked you to never use it?”

Eleanor’s hand finally found the door handle, and she slowly pushed down on it and began easing the door open as she answered: “I am shocked at the two of you, just shocked. Bursting into my house, fighting about twig water, and accusing me of stealing Chidi’s mug without any sort of reasonable proof… I have to say, if there’s not going to be any making out happening here, I think I'llhave to leave out of protest” the door finally opened wide enough to let her through as she continued, and she spun on her heel and raced out of the house, ignoring Chidi’s shout of “this is my mug!” and Tahani’s laughter as she made her escape.

[scoffingatgravity]

Title: Ugly, Yellow Toddler

Characters: Michael, Eleanor Shellstrop, and Chidi Anagonye

Relationship(s): Michael & Eleanor friendship, brief Eleanor & Chidi that can be seen as romantic or platonic. Reader’s choice.

Summary: After Shawn's surprise visit, everyone's rattled, but soon eases back into normalcy. Everyone except Michael. Eleanor wants to know what's going on.

Written for @the-fic-place‘s BrOTP prompt and inspired by my headcanon that Michael kept the Minion plushie from 1x06

[feckyeswriting]

A Mediocre Place

Eleanor Shellstrop is dead. That's fine. The issue is that she's not in a Good Place or a Bad Place after her whole forking life. She's still got more time to wait as the architects figure out what to do with her. Until they do, she's in Limbo along with all the other schmucks who aren't getting rewarded or punished yet.

Read on Ao3 or FF

[dreamsofspike-blog]

The Good Place Drabble (Eleanor/Michael)

Soooooo totally new to this whole Tumblr thing and really confused by it all so far but figured I’d try this? Since my newest fandom has no presence anywhere else, apparently! :P LOL 

Hope you all enjoy this little bit - because there should be more Michael-centric fic, and there should be more wing!fic. Demons are fallen ANGELS, after all. ;) 

Title: Wings

Pairing: Eleanor/Michael

Rating: G

She's really too smart for his own good; it was only a matter of time before her mind made the journey from "Michael's a demon (ish)" to "demons are fallen angels, right?" to "Wait... don't angels have wings?"

He hedged and evaded, but she pressed and coaxed and tempted in a way that put any of his own efforts to shame, distracting him with soft touches and whispering dark promises into his ear until he finally agreed to show them to her - and so here he is, eyes closed, face flaming as he kneels at her feet so that she can reach, because they're twice as tall as she is in their physical form.

Her fingers run gently through silken black feathers, and he shivers, closing his eyes and turning his head away; until he feels her warm, small hand against his cheek, reluctantly looks into her awestruck eyes as she whispers, "They're beautiful, Michael... you're beautiful."

[eleanorshellstr0p]

i actually did it, i actually wrote a tgp fic, what am i doing

[serendipitouscontaminant]

@the-fic-place Here’s some unapologetically sappy as-good-as-it’s-ever-gonna-get Uzo & Chidi fic for BROTP week. 

DAKAR, SENEGAL

1989

Uzo is five years old and it’s his first day of school and he’s not nervous at all because that would be silly. He likes people and he’s going to make lots of friends and it’s going to be great. He’s new, but that’s fine, it’s only been a month, it’s not like all the other kids are friends and don’t want to talk to him, except all the other kids are friends and don’t seem to want to talk to him.

He knows his French and Wolof aren’t that good yet, but it’s not really his fault that his parents decided to up and leave Nigeria, and he thinks he’s doing alright.

He still ends up sitting on a bench during recess, feeling very alone.

That’s when a little shadow falls over him, and he looks up to see one of the kids in class who hadn’t really been talking to anyone, now that Uzo thinks of it. The boy is staring at him with big owl eyes behind even bigger glasses.

“Hi,” Uzo tries.

The boy says, “I usually sit here. During recess.”

Uzo frowns. “Don’t you play with the other kids?”

“Not really. I just read.”

“Oh.” Uzo and the other boy stare at each other for a while before Uzo has a very smart idea.“Want to play with me?”

The other boy stares. His eyes get even wider, which seems like it should be impossible, but obviously isn’t. He says, “…I don’t know.”

It’s kind of a weird response, but Uzo breezes past it and says, “I like playing marbles, do you?”

“I guess?”

“Great! What’s your name? I’m Uzo.”

“My name’s Chidi.” It’s the first thing the other boy has said that doesn’t sound like a question. He pauses. “Hi.”

Uzo grins, and Chidi smiles back, and in that moment Uzo, in a strange way that feels like magic but is actually just the reality of genuine connection, knows that he and Chidi are going to be very good friends for a very long time.

NEIGHBORHOOD E798F23, EST. 2059, THE GOOD PLACE

IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER WHAT YEAR IT IS

Uzo still can’t help but be startled every time Janet suddenly pops up next to him, even though he’s been around Janets for–damn, closer to four hundred than three hundred years, now.

At least these days it doesn’t take long for him to shrug it off, but he still jumps when Janet pops up next to him, cheerfully informing him, “Someone’s looking for you!”

“What?”

“Someone’s looking for you in the park next to the town square!”

Uzo frowns. “I thought Chisimdi wasn’t visiting until next month?” Not that he wouldn’t be pleased to see his daughter, she’s just not the sort of person who arrives early. Or late. Or anything but on time, really.

“She’s not,” Janet agrees. “It’s someone else. One Chidi Anagonye.”

The name makes Uzo’s fingers turn numb, and he drops his book. “Chidi?” Uzo’s voice comes out hushed, hopeful. “I mean, I knew he got here, I was planning to visit him soon, surprise him…”

“Looks like he decided to surprise you first,” Janet says before she disappears.

Uzo feels like he’s dreaming as he heads to the park, but Chidi is unmistakable.

He’s pacing under one of the oak trees, looking a little wound up, talking to a small blonde woman who rolls her eyes and scoffs at something he says. She puts her hands on his shoulders and leans in close to say something that must be reassuring, because Chidi relaxes and nods.

The other woman in the group, a tall, elegant lady wearing a flowered dress, says something else, and Chidi relaxes further.

It seems it’s easier for him to do that now.

There’s another man too, vibrating with badly-contained excitement, dressed in clashing colors, and it’s that other man who notices Uzo, who is still frozen a ways away, staring, reeling. “Hey, Chidi,” he says, gesturing at Uzo. “Is that him?”

From the tone of voice and the mildly exasperated reactions of the others, Uzo can tell that whoever this man is has been asking that question for a while, possibly about everyone who’s been walking by.

Chidi sighs heavily and starts, “I think not-our-Janet would probably tell me, Jason…”

He still turns around to see who Jason is pointing at, and then he stops cold.

Chidi looks at Uzo wide-eyed, dumbfounded, as though he wasn’t the one to seek him out, and then he walks towards Uzo slowly but surely, right up until he pauses an arms length away.

Then, after a beat, he smiles.

Uzo loves watching the sun rise over the hills. There is no such thing as an imperfect sunrise here, each as beautiful as the last.

Now, he thinks:

There is no heavenly sunrise that can compare to Chidi Anagonye’s smile.

“Hello, Uzo,” Chidi responds, taking a step closer. He laughs nervously. “It’s been too long.”

“And yet you look like you haven’t aged a day,” Uzo says, and his voice comes out rough.

Chidi’s big eyes start to glisten as they take in Uzo’s gray hair, his lined face, and he says, “I missed you.”

The tears that have been pricking at Uzo’s eyes spill over, seep into the edges of his growing smile. “I missed you too, brother. I was waiting for you.”

Chidi lets slip a choked-up laugh and says, “Just like me to keep you waiting, huh?”

Uzo shakes his head. “I didn’t mind. I knew you’d get here eventually.”

When Chidi embraces him, he does so suddenly and with abandon. Uzo hugs him back just as fiercely, because as perfect as the Good Place is, as many wonderful friends as Uzo has made in the town he and his wife finally settled in, no one could ever quite compare to his dearly departed best friend. Uzo had been so devastated when he heard that Chidi hadn’t gotten into the Good Place, a misery that was only slightly ameliorated by the reassurance that Chidi was marked for the Good Place in less than five centuries.

But he hadn’t had a choice in the matter, so he’d waited, and he’d hoped.

Hoped that Chidi would be rehabilitated like Uzo was told he would be, that he’d get better.

It didn’t sound like he would in somewhere called the Bad Place, but Uzo allowed himself to dream.

Dream that Chidi would somehow be less miserable than he’d been in life, that things would get easier for him, and Uzo knows now that his wishes came true, can sense it even from the little time he and Chidi have been reunited, because he’s seen Chidi unhappy and unsatisfied so often that now, even after all these years, it is incredibly easy to see that he is not.

Uzo holds his oldest friend close and whispers, to himself and to Chidi and to the universe, “Finally, finally.”

On AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/12783966

[feckyeswriting]

TGP 105 - Basic Catering for the Hopeless

Apparently I’ve decided to go with a theme of fake class names for my fic titles recently. Not sure how well it goes for this one but OH WELL! Too late to change it now. For @the-fic-place‘s TGPThursdays event. This week’s theme was AU. 

Eleanor Shellstrop stared at the steering wheel of her car. Just five more seconds. Four. Three. Two.

Slam! She dragged her eyes to glare at her far-too-peppy coworker. Jason bounced on his heels, his bow tie dangling around his neck. “Yo Ellie! Team Leader wants us inside stat,” he boomed. Twisting her head forward again, she nodded. It was enough to get him to leave her alone.

Attempt number two at leaving the car. She had to start over again. List all the reasons why she had given up on her past hopes of making it as anything other than a caterer. Remind herself that there was no way she could make rent without taking this stupid Saturday night gig. Count down from five.

Ugh, what a drag. Eleanor slumped out from her car and grabbed her dress shirt from the back. Technically it was her backup shirt. The washing machines in her building had decided to only function half of the time. Having clean underwear had won out over her work clothes when it would have involved walking up and down the stairs an extra time to get more change.

Tonight’s event was in a literal mansion. As in columns by the front door, caterers enter through the separate back driveway for staff only mansion.The company van was parked as close to the kitchen door as possible. Kicking it in the tires was Eleanor’s only retribution that she could exact and even that felt like too much effort. Slinking into the kitchen, she idly hoped that her boss was busy upselling the client on their level of professionalism to expect.

“Eleanor, you’re five minutes late. That’s a TDN,” Tahani quipped. She appeared out of nowhere, her ever-present clipboard under one arm.

Hooking her shirt hanger on one of the metal shelves, Eleanor rounded on her boss. “Wait, I know this one. Totally Dope No-big-deal,” she retorted. “That sounds about right.”

Watching Tahani’s perfectly made up lips drop into an aghast expression was always worthwhile. “I told everyone to read over the materials and memorize the TDs and TDNs: Tahani Dos and Do Nots,” she insisted.

Everyone was spared from the wry comment that Eleanor was winding up to deliver by Chidi staggering into the kitchen. Overburdened with one box too many of wine, Tahani waved frantically for Eleanor to help him. After stacking the boxes on the shelf, the moment was gone to keep riffing on Tahani’s over-the-top management techniques.

Janet and Jason made doe-eyes at one another as they prepared the hors d'oeuvre plates. Well, Janet at least prepared the plates. Jason’s attempted lead to a great many uneven or crooked vegetables and cheeses that had to be trimmed before Tahani would ever allow them to be seen by a guest. Eleanor could have helped them out, but, well, that would have required her to care about appetizer symmetry. Moving back and forth between the company van and the kitchen door bringing one box or bottle of liquor at a time was a far better use of her time.

Read it here on AO3 or FF.net

[feckyeswriting]

TGP 104 - Introduction to Promposals

Several weeks into their "ethnics" lessons, Jason brings up his thoughts about exactly how involved they should be as a school. After all, he never had his own prom on Earth, why miss out on one in the Good Place, too?

"Yo so we've been in school for like, a whole quarter, right dudes?" Jason's question caught Chidi off guard. Mostly because it wasn't relating stealing casino chips to their most recent ethical study, but Chidi still hadn't been anticipating a question about how long they'd been studying that wasn't then followed up with a request for a frozen yogurt break.

Eleanor counted up the weeks on her fingers and nodded along with Jason. "He's right, prof," she chimed in. "It's nearly been three months."

"If you're looking for an exam, I would need a bit more time to compose something to cover all the topics we've discussed," Chidi replied. It didn't seem to be Jason's style to seek out additional testing, but a professor never questioned the opportunity to more thoroughly examine a student's understanding. Assessment was, after all, the only way to verify and correct inadequacies in current lesson plans.

Jason's face scrunched up and he looked to Tahani for reassurance. "No, we never did exams in school; they're way too much writing without enough time to look any answers up in the bathroom," he said. "Dude, I just meant isn't it time for us to have like… prom? It's summery and nice out so it'd be dope to do cause I don't want to have prom when it gets snowy."

The socialite next to him was far more offended by the prospect of snow than Chidi was of one of his students trying to cheat. Eleanor's bathroom was a bit away from the living room; he'd have to make a note to tell Janet not to pop in there unless Jason needed more toilet paper.

"I'm going to have to wear snow boots?" Tahani gasped. "But no one looks good in boots that aren't form fitting!"

Eleanor looked about ready to launch into a tirade about Tahani's legs, so Chidi stepped in with a clap of his hands. "Jason does bring up a good point. I know this isn't a real school-" it hurt to think about after his hard-won tenure at La Sorbonne "-but we can still have some fun bonding events between the four of us," he said.

It was worth the next four days of Eleanor complaining over Tahani's inevitable dress one-up to see Jason's eyes light up with glee. "That's dope!" he cried. "I'm gonna get to go to prom!"

Read the rest here

[serendipitouscontaminant]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Good Place (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Jianyu Li | Jason Mendoza, Original Monster Character(s) Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Insomnia, Unreliable Narrator, Child Neglect, Supernatural Elements, ToT: Monster Mash, Trick or Treat: Trick, Extra Treat, Character Study, Dark Summary:

Twelve year old Jason Mendoza can't sleep, so he goes out and makes an imaginary friend instead.

A/N: This was actually written for Trick or Treat, as evidenced by the tags, but it’s been confirmed that you can use already posted fic for the first week of the #TGPThursdays challenge. Soooo, since I really want to try to post a fic every Thursday but didn’t have enough time this time, I’m using this guy (my first fic in the fandom!) for the first week and tagging @the-fic-place .

[feckyeswriting]

12 hours later, I’m already waiting for @the-fic-place‘s theme for week 3. I am ready to have my heart be broken again. Pleaaaase. 

[feckyeswriting]

I’m me, who are Queue?

1- Ash and Torment ch 4

2- Drabble catch-up

3- Prove It ch 21

4- Descent ch 6

5- Sharpest Lives ch 4

6- A Mediocre Place ch 2

- Safe House ch 5

- Sentry ch 2

- Dance for Me ch 2

- Locky for Us

- Aftershock ch 5

- Untitled Reysma

- A Permanent Misunderstanding ch 5

- Bloodthirsty ch 3

Recent Postings

A Mediocre Place - (The Good Place) Eleanor’s stuck in Limbo. How swell. In progress, slow build Eleanor x Trevor.

TGP 104 - Introduction to Promposals -  (The Good Place) Jason thinks it’s about time they do something more school-like. Prompt-fill for BROTP week of TGPThursdays.

Ripples Against a Tidal Wave - (A:TLA) Katara is trapped in a nightmare scene reliving the day the Southern Raiders attacked her tribe.

Bitter - (A:TLA) Iroh tries to change the past and stop his son from leaving the Fire Nation.

NaNoWriMo Update

I know pretty much no one is paying attention to my NaNo progress, but the month has 5 days left. And I’m halfway through. So! The challenge will be to see if I can write 4-6 more chapters of content aka 25,000 words in the next 120 hours. Wish me luck!!!!

[serendipitouscontaminant]

My TGPThursdays winning streak is done :( You would not believe how many ideas I have for everyone’s alive AUs!!! But none for today. And I also generally have no fics for today anyway, so.

Ugh