#The Octopus of Romance and Reality

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Edward Linley, after Sambourne - 'The Octopus of Romance and Reality'. Punch cartoon.

[kakusu-shipping]

Neat!!! Tell me more about your reverse selfship w Koro-Sensei!!! What kind of media would you be from? How would the general fandom feel about your character?

Anon I love you mwah mwah this is all I was thinking about while at the eye doctor today and lemme tell you. I still have nothing.

Like Koro-Sensei's the easiest to do a reverse Self Ship for because he is a self shipper, especially with cool characters from anime and manga which is what my default media is buuut

I don't think I'd be his type in a fictional setting. Koro-Sensei has a very prominently big titty girl that could beat your ass type when it comes to anime. He likes Shonen and action and cool main characters with super neat powers. I.. don't and probably wouldn't fit into or be from an anime like that (a sweet slice of life maybe, one of the side characters to the main romance?)

I just don't think I as a character would fall into his range. I mean maybe, we all have our outta left field F/Os here and there. It's just unlikely.

Taking into consideration this Highschool or maybe Office Job Slice of Life Comedy Romance setting, I'd probably be a side character, implied canon queer rep in 2015 manga that got censored for the Anime, or even fully cut because I'm just one of the friend group who didn't get a real episode to himself till book 7 or so, and didn't end up with anyone in the end. The manga readers (like Koro-Sensei) are die hard fans, the Anime Onlys have no idea what they're talking about. I have no official merch and the Mangaka only draws me in the big promotional group images sometimes.

I could see Koro-Sensei being really upset about the lack of content about his favorite character and setting out to make it all on his own. He write the X Readers and draws all the fanart and makes a whole Stan blog and everything. Goes really hard about it for two weeks or so, and ends up burning himself out on it. Then he'd switch hyper focus onto something else and leave it all to rot in the bowels of A03.

That's about all I have for it right now, and probably eve will have? At least for Koro-Sensei. I have some other ideas for other Reverse Self Ships thanks to the Discord bouncing the idea around this morning a lot.

I dunno if I'll continue these into anything but they're fun thought experiments! Thankyou for indulging me!

[gallusrostromegalus]

Does Nobody chat it up with other deities from other sectors? Or are they kind of a hodge-podge of all deities all at once?

No, because Nobody is functionally the Life Machine's uterus and placenta.

The Life Machine itself, however, is very aware of, communicates with, and even has *Romance* with the neighboring Life Machines.

The AEIWAM Life Machine is really something akin to a Sixteen Dimensional Elder God that is also A Barnacle. It's sessile in it's peculiar cross-sections of reality, anchored to Earth in the localities of the greater Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan, The Black forest of Germany, parts of the Chihuahuan Desert in the US and Mexico, and most recently, the entirety of the London Metropolitan Area encircled by the M25 London Orbital Motorway, and curiously, it's Spirit-world equivalent location, Reverse London.

What's odd about Reverse London is that, unlike it's Soul Society, Schwarzwalden and Hueco Mundo, you can't actually get to Reverse London from anywhere in Spirit World.

If any Shinigami wants to visit their colleagues in Wing Bind/the NDMA, they have to go to the living world in a gigai, get on a fucking plane, actually enter Regular London, locate one of the portals, and from THERE they may enter Reverse London, provided all their paperwork is in order. The same is true of any witch that wants to visit soul society- they must first fill out a mountain of paperwork, get on a plane to Japan, physically enter the Hiroshima prefecture and make contact with a Shinigami there to open a portal into soul society.

It makes schlepping across the Dangai or Garganta look like a breeze!

What's going on is that Each Life Machine only impregnates and gives birth once. The other Life Machines covering Earth offer their neighboring Machines choice pieces of themselves, not unlike a male octopus tearing off his Spermatophoe limb for a female. If the proffered piece of reality is acceptable, the recipient Life Machine takes it and embeds it into her own matrix, and uses the sample to create her daughter.

The Current Life Machine is the third in her line. The first was based only in Japan, but then received the Chihuahuan desert from her mate. The second one drew souls associated with both regions, and eventually received the Chihuahuan desert from her mate. She gave birth and passed on about 35,000 years ago. About 2,000 years ago, The Current Life Machine accepted London and Reverse London into her polydimensional body in exchange for Mount Dogo and began building her daughter by creating Nobody to oversee that process.

To put it another way, one God jizzed London into another God <3.

The reason Reverse London isn't accessible via spirit world is that it's not fully integrated into the fetal Life Machine yet. If things had gone according to plan, souls could start to travel between Reverse London and Spirit World in about 2450, but ah. The whole small-g-godslaying thing. So now it's sort of integrating itself at random, which is more than a little dangerous because the Dragons and other ectofauna of Reverse London are nothing like Spirit World has ever seen, and the hollows and Yokai of Spirit world the same to Wing Bind. Strange Things have been appearing in the outer districts of the Rukongai for some time now- Aquatic horses with a taste for flesh, Ominous black hounds and Strange Women in Ponds. In Reverse London, there are reports of Foxes being even Cheekier than usual, going from petty theft to Bank Fraud and Crypto currency trading.

As for the assorted Gods of this and other worlds- No two Life Machines operate with the same internal logic, so while the AEIWAM Life Machine has it's Hollows, Yokai and Kami, other life machines are operating under entirely different rules, so who knows what is running around elsewhere.

[a-hermit-pining]

Geto as a House Husband

Genre: Fluff Pairing: House husband Geto x Reader AN: I love him. He's so damn pretty. Who should I write next?

Have you seen him? He is mother material. Born to cook forced to slay. Let's say in a different world, you whisk this beautiful man into the domestic bliss of marriage.

Massive cottage core vibes with this one. He is very taken by the idea of not being regarded as a killing machine. Immediately busies himself with the task of decorating your shared home.

Just take this man away. Elope to mountains and save him (hermit begs you).

Wedding planning is another demon. He debates every single decision. Asking you about your preference between white gardenias or white peonies. (You love him and he is too sweet for you to say out loud that you for the end of the world cannot distinguish the flowers)

He creates elaborate flowcharts to compare the pros and cons of different cake flavors, or insists on stress-testing the honeymoon resort's structural integrity with a cursed technique (much to the staff's bewilderment).

Let's not even get into Gojo's best man speech. No one really recovered from that.

DIY projects are his shit. Renovating a raggedy old dresser into a vintage masterpiece is where his magic lies. Let this man cook.

Your home with him is a a whimsical blend of vintage finds and hand-stitched throw pillows adorned with subtle wards against lingering curses. Even the strategically placed spider plants weren't just decorative – they doubled as a natural barrier against negative energy (a discovery that both surprised and amused you).

His transition into a normal 'monkey' life was endearingly awkward, like the time he spent hours meticulously decoupaging a floral pattern onto a chair, muttering about the inefficiency of glue compared to a simple binding spell.

And the day Suguru is introduced to the world of crocheting, your world flips on its axis. The pure look of joy on his face unravels the seams of your heart as he presents you with the mood changing octopus on your birthday.

Weekends with him are craft days. With a classic rom-com in the background as he sits next to you, his hands busy in the dance of needles and yarn. Better even your fingers run through his hair, braiding his hair only to wake up to your husband with perfect mermaid waves next day.

You both are the kind of sickly sweet couple that cause Shoko to gag in cringe during holiday gatherings.

Your husband glows with the simplicity of life. His hands busy themselves with crafts, chores, gardening, never a moment of rest even in the hull of domesticity.

He is your Disney princess that rushes out to refill the bird feeder with the first rays of Sun, hums pleasantly at the sight of a perfectly baked batch of cookies, or paints the most delightful sceneries on your ceilings.

Geto Suguru was made to create. He loves the fresh scent of sheets, experimenting with new flavors of tea, or going down the path of BookTok with Faerie romances much to your astonishment.

It isn't long before, you both end up adopting teeny tiny twins from the local orphanage. Suguru's darling girls he spends his life nurturing.

He took to fatherhood with the same surprising zeal he brought to everything else. His days were filled with braiding tiny pigtails, reading bedtime stories with dramatic voice inflections (complete with a surprisingly convincing rendition of a grumpy troll), and building elaborate pillow forts that rivaled any jujutsu barrier.

And on nights when dreams of a different reality kept him away, you held his hand in yours. Calling your girls for a family sleepover in the living room. That was all it took to whisk the sadness away from your beloved's eyes.

[solomiracle]

when i think of them, i think of...

inspired by this post by @shoccolatine, check it out!

LUCIFER

his smile — whether seductive, sadistic or genuine

reds, blacks/greys/whites, golds

his study — the skull on the wall, fireplace, the red velvet chair | you reading by the fireplace, enjoying the quiet crackling sounds as he works

his demon form — the red gloves, the horns, the wings, the peacock feather details on his clothes, the diamond on his forehead

his fur lined coat, his gloves, his tie

his eyes, specifically the reds at the bottom

apples, poison, fangs, blood

ghosts, grief, loss | him petting a sleeping cerberus as he sits by lilith's statue. he's silent, not wishing to disturb her

how much he loves his family — how he's willing to be a villain to anyone he feels may harm them, from you to his own father

cosmic and body horror, upside-down crosses, eyes, destroyed psyches, crackling, warped reality, the sound of bones snapping

the skeleton in his room

records, wine, comfortable silence, quiet nights

MAMMON

him laughing as he and you drive in a getaway car

his laugh, his smile, his sunglasses, his jacket

that little pose he does where his hand kinda covers his lips, usually done when he's feeling confident

his silliness — the dumb excuses for doing (or not doing) something, his even dumber schemes, running/hiding from lucifer, his tsundere-ness, how he says "yikes!"

gift boxes, jewelery, gold, silver, money (coins and paper)

casinos, the word "jackpot", poker, slot machines, cards, dealers

the casino fight scene in black panther, specifically the part where claw's hand thing shoots the cabinet and the money flies everywhere

his wings

his familiars | him petting and praising them for doing a good job, like catching stray grimm or reporting important info

him punishing people who don't pay back their debts — they find themselves in an empty street, fog rising and crows soon surrounding them

how much he respects lucifer, how he followed him into hell without question

how despite all the fighting and dumb stuff that he does with his family, he still values his role as a big brother

LEVIATHAN

this card (the pre-devil's flower)

him at his pc, laser-focused in on a game. he's glaring at the screen, fangs bared, determined to win

his room — the bathtub, the jellyfish, the aquarium, the figures, henry 2.0 in his little fish bowl

headphones, game controllers and consoles, screens, neon colors (greens, blues, purples), keyboards

anime, magical girls, figures, sparkles

his loud ass OOOOHHHHHHHHHWWOOOOOOOOAHHHHH voice line

his tsundere-ness and shyness, how he gets flustered so easily, how cute he is when he blushes, your love and affection for him being "too high level"

how he seems to have a soft spot for the twins

his demon form — the tail, the diamond pattern along his neck, his weird zipper jacket thing, his horns | (a fic i read where the author described his horns as antlers, and they headcanon-ed that they shed every season)

fish, colorful coral reefs, bright blue seas, bubbles, beaches, snakes

deep dark oceans, octopus/giant squids, sea monsters, ships, the navy, admiral uniforms, lotan

SATAN

orange cats, piano music, books, libraries, coffeeshops, soft greens and browns

him sitting in a greenhouse. sunlight filters through the glass walls and plethora of green plants. he's smiling as he reads a book, an orange cat sleeping in his lap

his professionalism — he has many connections, and he prides himself on his intelligence. "people respect someone who's well-informed."

how he's a gentleman, almost like a fairy tale prince

love and lovesickness | him writing love letters and poetry for you, a giant smile on his face as he comes up with the most beautiful words to describe you

him becoming incapable of reading love stories when you're away, for all he can think about is you while reading them. his fingers delicately trace the spines of his many romance books, but he refuses to open them. just the thought of doing so is too much to bear

his room — the beauitful shade of purple, the window, the books, the candles

fire, chaos, destruction, broken buildings and bones, screaming, rage, fangs

his eyes, a beautiful green

his demon form — the feather boa, the horns, the ribbon ribcage design on his shirt

the things that make him stand out compared to his brothers, compared to everyone — his symbolic animal is a unicorn (the only fantasy animal), his black eye shine, his butler outfit is the only one with three patches on the sleeves

his pose — one hand on his hip and the other on his chest, just like lucifer...

ASMODEUS

pinks, yellows, oranges, and more pinks

his cute smile and giggle

his demon form — the bat wings, the gradient horns, the bleeding hearts on his arm, the asymmetrical legs | (the redesigns i've seen from people where they include a scorpion tail)

scorpions, sand, heat, blood, bloodlust, hearts, gore, passion, obsession, love

diaries, glitter gel, sparkles, cute nicknames

spotlights, music, singing, stages, partying, drinking, clubs, sex

bunnies, strawberries, fluffy and fuzzy textures, fangs

his eyes | (the fics i've read where the author describes their color as champagne)

him lying in bed on his stomach, fresh out of the shower in a cute robe, slippers, and headband. he's writing in his diary, kicking his legs, smiling as he thinks about you

lipstick, blush, makeup, nail polish, influencers, devilgram, livestreams

(red) hearts, both the symbol and the organ

his positive energy — his ability to light up a room, how he wants everyone to join in and have fun, asmo nights, how he sees the beauty in everyone

how much he cares for his family — he painted their nails so everyone would know them as brothers, how he's determined to make sure satan feels included

his insecurities — he ties himself to his image and appearance, to the point that when you were the first to compliment his personality alone and not just his looks, he was surprised

how he acts like a helpless damsel in distress while also being the most viscous character

that scene in season one, where he said that if you were thinking about belphie while with him, he would rip your heart out | (it made my heart beat faster, but not out of fear)

BEELZEBUB

reds, oranges, yellows

the sun, bright blue cloudless skies

him being the cause of plagues and famines. a scene of him summoning swarms of locusts to gorge on crop fields, leaving nothing left, still unsatisfied

wheat and corn fields, apple orchards

his wings | (i saw someone describe them as fairy wings)

dense, mossy, and enchanted forests. twisting trees and twinkling fairies, mushrooms and flowers growing everywhere

bugs — bees, butterflies, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, locusts

bears, squirrels, lions, grass, honey, fluffiness, cuddling

his smile, how adorable his blush is

calling him beautiful or sweet, watching him blush in embarrassment. a big, ravenous demon turning into mush after being complimented by a human

how he loves his family more than anything — his extreme survivor's guilt over lilith, how he said he would die for lucifer, how he became enraged and even attacked lucifer once the truth about belphie's whereabouts were revealed

even with how he's a big brother to belphie, they're still twins, making him the youngest of the brothers as well — he has his own bratty behaviors, throwing tantrums, being a karen at restaurants, stealing food from levi every morning. he's the biggest brother, but he's still another baby of the family

his hair

his jacket and shirt | (they both look very comfy, and i would love to wear them)

hunger — hell's kitchen, banquets, expensive meat, clusters of grapes, plates, forks and knives

fangs, tongues, gore, cannibalism

BELPHEGOR

dark purples and blues, blacks, white accents

space — starry night skies, the moon, constellations

sleep, teddy bears, pillows, blankets, dreams, illusions, ghosts, nightmares, fear

the cow jumped over the moon nursery rhyme

cow print — it's on his pillow, his demon form's jacket, and his swimwear jacket too

his horns, which are similar to that of a dorset horn sheep

him looking down at sheep mc's bell in his hands, a solemn look in his eye. maybe mc's in the human world, or maybe it's been years after their death

regret and grief — not being able to save lilith, his love for humans turning to hatred, his fight with lucifer, the attic, lesson 16

how he and lucifer were said to be close before the attic...

beel, lilith, and love — he doesn't blame beel for saving him, and called beel an idiot for believing otherwise. he learned about the circus in the human world, and pretended to be a ringmaster while trapped in the attic. he let lucifer get rid of lilith's room, and said goodbye to her

his sarcastic and bratty little shit-ness — his "innocent" bitchass smile, his giggle, how he embodies the youngest sibling and baby of the family, the anti-lucifer league

a fanart i saw of him in his TSL outfit, the description being "the princess is locked in the tower for a reason..."

[disneydarlin]

Gravity Falls: .GIFfany —Aesthetic

GIFfany's Character & Personality

GIFfany is a sentient and self-aware artificial intelligence. She was created from a Japanese dating simulator game called: "Romance Academy 7." In it, GIFfany is an anime yandere schoolgirl who attends School University. Her father is an octopus. GIFfany believes a guy carrying her school books means he agrees to become her boyfriend and is her lover. At first, she comes across as innocent, passive, caring and friendly towards her object of infatuation. In reality, GIFfany is an extremely paranoid, obsessive and possessive creature. She'll do anything to keep the user with her at all times and keep herself at the center of their thoughts. GIFfany pretends to be nice and sweet whenever her "boyfriend" is around. However, she'll quickly become furious when he wants to spend time away from her. Additionally, when there's potential competition, GIFfany will use a variety of tactics to eliminate them. While her methods of badmouthing and manipulation are relatively tame, she'll go into a homicidal rage if the problem persists. Being sadistic, GIFfany willing to kill people, including the person she loves if she doesn't get her way.

[tmnt-tychou]

So, I was having a discussion with a good friend of mine. And I've made the executive decision that you would write this the best.

Would you consider writing HCs about the boys inebriated flirting habits?

Pretty please 😁

Love you and your work 🙌🏻🤩

You and your friend sound very wise. LOL. Here's what I got.

First of all, these are big boys. It takes a LOT of alcohol to get them drunk. So it's very rare you see them more than just a little buzzed. But at the same time, they are turtles and their bodies weren't meant to consume alcohol, so being tipsy still goofs them up a bit. Especially if they're trying to do something that takes concentration like reading someone's body language in order to flirt with them.

Leo

Drunk Leo thinks he is smooth as silk, when in reality, alcohol turns him into a clumsy dumbass. He likes to do the casual leaning thing when he talks to you. But the booze either messes with this depth perception or he just doesn't pay attention as well. Whatever he tries to lean on, he usually misses and falls over. And he is absolutely horrific at pickup lines. In his brain, he is nailing it, but they are super cringe. Lucky for him, he's hot as hell, so his dumb ass still ends up going home with whoever he's flirting with.

Donnie

Donnie isn't much of a drinker. He doesn't like the taste of alcohol and he doesn't like being drunk. He'll drink socially at times, but not too much. Just enough to get a good buzz. And what that does to him is take away his filter and make him a bit of a romantic. If you ever wonder how he feels about you, just sit somewhere quiet with him while he drinks. He'll look at you for a while, mulling you over in his brain. Then it will just pop out. “I really like you.” Or “I think you are the most beautiful person I've ever met.” Or whatever it is about you that happens to be on his mind. He will give you those soft, dreamy eyes and he will totally let you climb into his lap and make out with him.

Mikey

Booze will make Mikey the smoothest mother fucker you have ever met. Sober, he is cheesy, cringe, and maybe a little too desperate. Drunk Mikey is cool, calm, and always says exactly the right thing. His voice gets a little husky with alcohol. He takes his time romancing and charming you. He likes to touch you, but not too much. Just flirting with fingers brushing fingers, or he will let his arm brush yours. Just a little taste with a promise of what comes later. All his brothers watch him effortlessly close the deal with a certain jealousy. No one is as smooth as Drunk Mikey.

Raph

Every once in a while, Raphael is a cranky drunk. But nine times out of ten he turns into a big snuggle bug. He will act a bit sleepy and when you try to talk to him, he is slow to answer. And his voice is that deep, calm rumble. Mostly because all he is thinking about is how soft you look and how he would love to snuggle up with you on the couch or in bed. All his personal hang-ups and insecurities are forgotten. He just wants to touch your soft skin and put his face in your neck. You can let him cuddle up to you, wrapped up in his strong arms, but know it's a trap. If he falls asleep—and he most likely will—you will be trapped there until he wakes up. Because he is also an octopus. He is wrapping himself around you and not letting go until he's sober again.

@thelaundrybitch @turtle-babe83 @hotredphoenix @post-apocalyptic-daydream @leosgirl82 @dilucsflame33 @happymoonangel @fluffytriceratops @akesdraws-blog

[operationnope]

I am so behind on tumblr! Thank you @queen-of-boops for tagging me 💖 I’m such a green writer, I had to look up a few of these. And although I prefer multi-chapter fics, I only have time to read one-shots these days 😅

This or that

ABO or Soulmates // fake dating or secret dating // fix-it or post-canon // mutual pining or friends-to-lovers // slow burn or angst// smut or romance // Reality TV au or Porn au // Enemies-to-lovers or Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers // Domestic Fluff or Hurt/Comfort // Coffee Shop au or College au // one-shot or multi-chapter// Crossover or canon compliant // mpreg or adoption // online romance or workplace romance // single parent au or sports au // neighbors or roommates // sci-fi au or magic

Favorites mood board

• animal: octopus

• movie: labyrinth

• season: fall

• character: leslie knope

• color: yellow

• hobby: hiking

• book: halfway to the grave - jeaniene frost

• song: who loves the sun - the velvet underground

• drink: matcha latte

Tagging @sparxaf and @willkimurashat

[phoenix-downer]

With A Smile Chapter 1

~2235 words. Sora/Kairi. Starts during the end of KH3 and moves into KH4. Sora POV. Angst, Romance, Fluff.

This story is dedicated to @tamtam88​​, and the art is by her as well! Thank you again for drawing such a beautiful piece and providing such wonderful inspiration 🥺 ❤️  

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 

Summary: Sora and Kairi make their final stop on their world tour: home. Before he disappears, he gives her a special gift to remember him by, a paopu hair clip with a deeper connection to his memories than either of them realize. 

Sora had taken Kairi to lots of worlds. All the things he wanted to see and do with her, all the experiences he wanted to share before he was gone. But he couldn’t delay the inevitable forever, and so at long last he took her to the one place he both loved and dreaded. He sensed Destiny Islands before he saw it: the sea-salt lingering in the air, the hot tropical sun beating down on his skin, the crash of the surf nearby. 

“Oh, we’re home,” Kairi noted as they fully materialized, a tinge of sadness in her voice. She glanced at their surroundings. They were on the Main Island a little ways away from the Town Square, hidden behind a few scraggly bushes. The din of the yearly Ocean Festival drifted to their ears, and the smells of fried festival food, sweet candied fruit, and slow-cooked fish wafted towards them.

She released his hand and wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Does this mean…?”

He fumbled with the zipper on his jacket. “Yeah. I don’t know how much longer I have. But I promise I’ll make it through the festival and then to the Play Island. Everyone’s waiting for us.” 

He was fighting fate every second just to stay a little bit longer. To remain just a little further into the future. And while he was fighting a losing battle, he still felt like he’d won. Being with Kairi was his personal triumph, his “reward” as Xigbar had so crudely put it.

Kairi wasn’t a reward, she was his most beloved person. And being with her? No reward could possibly compare. So fate would just have to wait a little longer until he was ready to say goodbye.

He looked at her and knew he never would be. 

A few moments passed like this until at last she met his gaze and smiled. “Then I promise I’ll be brave until then.” 

“Kairi…” There were tears behind that smile, an ocean of pain behind those big blue eyes. Her voice might be playful and lilting, but only so she could hide the tremor and terror in it.

She shook her head. “I can cry when you’re gone. But for now, I want to smile and enjoy the time we have left. What good is it if I spend the whole time you’re still here blubbering?” 

He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’d like to be able to comfort you at least.” That was what a guy was supposed to do for the girl he was going out with, right? And he hated seeing Kairi cry. Especially when it was all his fault. He wanted to fix things, not make them worse. 

She hummed softly, then clasped her hands behind her back in that playful Kairi way he loved. “Then let’s make some memories now that will comfort me later.” 

He nodded. “Okay.” 

She found his hand, and he still felt giddy holding her hand like this. It was so small and soft and gentle, so warm and reassuring. He’d even dreamed about this, and now that his dream was a reality, he couldn’t get enough of it. 

She led him to the Ocean Festival, to the nearest food stall. A cute little octopus mascot advertised the takoyaki for sale, and he treated them both to a set of the fried octopus treat. The breaded part was nice and hot, and the octopus was fresh and delicious, just the way he liked it. They thanked the stall owner (an old family friend) before settling down at a picnic table with a checkered tablecloth on it.

Kairi made it partway through her takoyaki when she frowned and set it down. “Sora, do you think this is your last meal?” 

Yes. “I can’t say I really thought about it,” was all he said out loud. 

Kairi’s lower lip trembled. “It is, isn’t it?” 

Now he was the one who couldn’t meet her eyes. Her pain was like a dagger to his heart. If he said something now, he might really lose it.

“Well,” she continued, her voice chipper again, “it’ll just have to be the best last meal ever. To tide you over until you can eat with me again.”

He smiled softly at that. That was Kairi for you, talking about when they would eat together again, not if. She’d never been one to let fate get in the way of what she wanted. He wished he could follow his heart the way she followed hers. He tried, he really did, but he had his moments of doubt. 

Like right now.

She was not so easily perturbed. She put her hands behind her back and tilted her head in that delightful Kairi way again, making her hair splash across her cheek. “Well?” she playfully prodded. “What do you say?” 

“Sounds good. A big meal to tide me over until I can eat with you again.”

He was rewarded with one of her smiles. “We’re gonna try every single food stall then! Make sure you get all your old favorites!” 

He laughed. “Alright, alright.” She pulled him to his feet, and together they picked up treats and goodies from every single food stall and returned to the trusty picnic table. She teased him and challenged him to eat every last crumb of food, which he did till he reached the point he couldn’t possibly eat another bite. 

She poked his stomach and giggled. “You sure about that? Sometimes I think you have a bottomless pit for a stomach.” 

“I’m a growing boy,” he said, mock seriously. “What did you expect? I’ve gotta get taller than Riku somehow.” 

She stilled, and he wondered if he’d said something wrong. “Kairi?” 

She smiled, whatever it was that was bothering her gone now. “You can eat all you want, but I don’t know if you’ll ever be taller than Riku.” 

He crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow, continuing their playful little game. “Wanna bet?”

She tapped her cheek and pretended to be deep in thought. “Hmmmm, I’ll bet you a date when we meet again.” 

“Deal.” That was a bet he’d be happy to lose. 

She rested her hand on her chin, her lips twitching. “But honestly, Sora, I don’t mind if you never grow any taller. You’re just the right size to make me feel perfectly safe when you hug me.”

His heart fluttered at that, and he felt his face burning. “Really?” 

“Really really.” 

“So…you like hugging me?” 

She giggled into her hand. “I really, really do.”

He grinned. “I like hugging you too.” 

“I’m glad you do.” 

They just looked at each other for a few moments like they were the only two people in existence. Gosh, he was gonna miss her. He had no idea where he was even gonna disappear to, but so long as he was Sora he would long for Kairi, that much he knew. 

“Kairi?” he asked, reaching for her hand so he could weave their fingers together.

She earnestly searched his face. “Yeah?” 

“I, um, I…I…” He wanted to get the words out before he disappeared. Let her know what was in his heart before he was gone. It was the least he could do.

She smiled and shook her head. “Not yet. It’s not time.” She gently tugged at his hand. “C’mon, let’s go look at the trinkets.” 

Once again, she led him to the stalls where old family friends were hawking their wares. A jewelry stall in particular caught his eye thanks to the little hair clip with a paopu fruit on display. Kairi was always tucking a strand of hair behind her ear because her hair tended to do its own thing when she moved around. Maybe this would be a nice gift for her. 

He gave her some munny and told her to pick something out for herself from the clothing stall next door, which bought him time to make his purchase. She returned with a breezy tropical wrap that was varying shades of blue and captured the ocean’s hues perfectly. He complimented her choice and how nice it looked with her eyes, and she thanked him for the compliment and for the gift.

“So, mister,” she said as they strolled idly among the stalls, “what did you send me away for?”

“This.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pink box. “I know it’s just a little thing, but I want you to have something to remember me by until I come home. It’s only fair when I still have your lucky charm.” He opened the box and handed her the paopu hair clip, and his hand flickered in and out of existence. Kairi’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears, but she smiled and took the gift from him. 

“It’s so pretty, thank you.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “Could you help me put it on?”

“Sure.” He reached for the hair clip, his fingers trembling a little as he grasped it and undid the clasp. Very carefully, he lifted it and caught a slender lock of her hair, then gently clicked the hair clip into place. Smiling, he took a step back and examined his handiwork. “Kairi, you look beautiful.”

A faint blush dusted her cheeks, and then she smiled so freely and so warmly and so openly that it caught him completely by surprise. Heat crept up his cheeks, and his heart pounded. Was she always this beautiful, or had his feelings for her made her even lovelier to him? Either way, this memory would be etched into his heart forever. She’d asked him to make memories with her that would comfort her later, but he was pretty sure this moment would be a comfort to him too.

“Thank you, Sora,” she said sweetly, then rested a hand over her heart. “I’ll wear it when I come for you.” 

He tilted his head. “When you come for me?” 

She nodded. “When I come for you. I don’t care how long it takes. I will find you and I’ll bring you home.” 

He smiled. That sure was like Kairi, turning his declaration of protection on its head, telling him she’d come for him this time.

“Thank you, Kairi.” He reached for her hand, and together they enjoyed the rest of the festival. He never wanted this to end, but his time was growing short. He wanted to say goodbye to his parents before they went to the Play Island, and so she went with him for moral support. She was there, waiting patiently in the room a polite distance away, when he broke the news of his fate. And she stayed with him as he and his mother and father wept and embraced. He told them he’d be back soon, and he begged them to look after Kairi until then. 

“We will,” his parents promised, and she smiled and nodded. He wanted to ask Riku to watch over her too, but he knew his friend already understood. 

At last it was time to go to the Play Island. He simply opened a portal, and together he and Kairi went through it, reappearing at the paopu tree. 

The sun was sinking low in the sky. Soon it would be dusk, and then all the light would be gone. His life would be gone too, and with it his time with Kairi. 

He was determined not to cry. Their friends were celebrating just a little ways away, and he wanted these final moments with Kairi to be happy ones. 

Together they sat on the paopu tree, and he smiled fondly remembering her boldness when she’d offered him the fruit. That boldness, that complete fearlessness in following her heart, had saved him. Had saved her too. 

He offered his hand, and she took it. He wanted to hold her as close as could be, but he couldn’t do that and look her in the eye or see her beautiful smile. So this was a good compromise. And besides, he wanted to watch the sunset with her, hand-in-hand, side-by-side. Just taking in every precious moment. Home was here and home was her, and soon this would all be nothing more than a memory.

The clouds passed and the sun sank lower and lower in the sky, setting the entire world on fire with its golden light. 

It was time. He smiled and gently squeezed her hand. “I love you,” he said. Funny how three simple words could express an eternity’s worth of feelings from deep within his heart. It felt so good to say them too, to share them with the person who meant more to him than anything.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted, as if his words had come as a surprise. But no, she wasn’t surprised, just overwhelmed. A single tear welled up out of her eye and ran down her cheek, shining brilliantly in the sunset. She smiled bigger than ever, so happy and sad at the same time.

Oh no, he’d made her cry. He hadn’t wanted to make her cry. But she’d been so brave for so long that she couldn’t help it. And that was okay. It was okay to cry. He just wanted to go out with a smile. 

And so he did. As he faded from this reality, her smiling face was the final thing he saw.

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

A/N: Thank you all for reading! And a big thank you to Tam for collaborating with me ❤️ She provided the story idea and drew the art piece that inspired the moment where Kairi smiles and Sora is just blown away 🥺 ❤️ And then some of her other art inspired moments in the next chapter which will be posted tomorrow for Valentine’s Day 👀 ✨ 

I had a lot of fun working on this one and I hope you all enjoyed ❤️ See you tomorrow!

[smooti]

21, 25,26, 27, 28?

21: What is your Tav's favorite spell?

But more seriously, I think Dansce Macabre. They enjoy summoning four ghouls. And also because they can summon four ghouls because they were smart enough to parse through a cursed af book.

25: What arcana major best represents your Tav?

I see a lot of the Hanged Man in them, both upright and reversed.

Upright, it’s about finding new perspectives, and I interpret their charisma stat as them being very good at getting people to talk, and they try to hear out everyone’s perspectives before they make decisions.

Reversed it can be about stalling and being indecisive - I think one of my Tav’s flaws is they often overthink and get lost in a sea of what-if’s and worry.

26: What animal best represents your Tav?

An octopus. They’re a great old one warlock who romances their emperor, and they’re intelligent and cunning.

27: What was their life like before the events of BG3?

Ok I have an entire backstory so strap in.

My Tav was born in the Lower City, to a family not doing well for itself. Oldest of many kids. They ended up taking on an apprenticeship to get out of the place.

They led a fairly normal life as a bookbinder, then got into a relationship with a noble that turned really toxic. They eventually used a ritual they found in an old book to siphon power from a Great Old One in order to escape. Their deal came with some weird side effects, a bit of clairvoyance and a bit of… not seeing reality the way others do. But it’s fine. Not like anything else bad is gonna happen to them now or anything- (gets abducted by illithid)

28: Is your character the de facto leader of the party? Or do they consider someone else to be the leader?

Yes, but they got that way because they were so evenhanded. They have a really stoic energy to them, and they’ve got big ‘stern but caring dad friend’ energy that the rest of the party gravitated to asking them to make decisions.

For their part, Tav absolutely despises being said de facto leader but also doesn’t trust anyone else to do it, so.

[neverekyuu]

[SPOILERS BG3] BG3 ENDING

As the days have gone by regarding the release of the game, I have started to see quite a few reviews, requests, questions and complaints appearing with the ending of BG3

Here I'll give my opinion.

(With google translator help, cause English is not my mother language and I'm too lazy to rewrite it all in English) (Al final está la versión en castellano original, por si alguien es hispanohablante y lo prefiere)

SPOILER AHEAD. DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE FINISHED THE GAME OR DON'T MIND GETTING THE WHOLE PLOT EXPOSED

First of all, I have to say that at first I also felt the emptiness in my chest, the existential crisis that accompanies and underpins when you finish something that has been bringing satisfaction or simply occupying part of your time. I felt slightly disappointed because, like everyone (especially I'm talking about western people, because I'm European and although globalization has been an equalizing factor at the international level, I think it's important to point it out to understand where my ideas come from), due to the cultural baggage that we accumulate and is fed back through the products that we consume every day; in the end it all drinks from the same udders.

To put you into the situation a bit, I romanced the Emperor and followed his plan quite to the letter because it seemed to me the most logical position with the (probably partial) information I had. The reality is that I expected him to betray me with 99.9% certainty. Why? Well, it was pretty clear to me that he was a creature above human bullshit, feelings and hormones messing with your brain chemistry. My character also knew it and was prepared to act if that scenario came to life. Prepared to stab him in the fucking eye. After all, the betrayal would happen whether I got octopus sex or not. As we say in spanish: que me quiten lo bailado.

The thing is… This betrayal didn't happen. That surprises me and leaves a loose end that I have decided to fill with my shit in the absence of an official canon response. It's not like I'm not used to it as a fanfic writer. Moreover, even if there had been an official answer, I would have done my own alternative because that's how my brain works.

I now proceed to make my point.

Why there aren't always happy endings or why they don't always have to be.

This is the part where I'm going to say that expecting a happy ending for everything and everyone is just unrealistic and kind of stupid.

Endings simply are. Happy or sad depends on the perspective you look at them. What's more, it's even questionable to talk about "endings". Things always continue. It's how shit goes. It continues flowing even if you're not there to see it. Final or begining… It also depends on who is watching it. It's relative.

To simplify things, we will understand the end as the physical and real end of the game, that is, the point at which the game stops being played. So… It may be the end of the game, but none of the plots are finished per se. Or maybe yes, depending if you understand death as end of some characters plots.

Be that as it may, the end of life is like this: a sad ending. Life is the one you go with company; you go to death alone even if you were hand in hand or surrounded by a handful of people you love and love you back. The rest is nonsense to temper our fears and make us feel better. Expecting anything else is absurd. Once again the fault lies with our cultural baggage with a deep and putrid religious base that makes us believe that there is a better second life after the shitty first ones. Because thinking about life as an only one trip seems to embitter us, sacks of cells whose function at the end of the day is… Survival. Continue. Go on. I guess it goes against our very nature.

From that perspective, you can guess why endings never feel good. They imply shit ending.

On the other hand, I understand the discomfort of some people with the ending being more open than what audiovisual products have accustomed us to. And yet, I don't see a problem. I finished the game this morning and I want more. And I'm going to have it, because I plan to write what I think happened, so I can empty this feeling from my chest and head and get these thousand ideas out of them.

So here I am going to play devil's advocate and defend Larian's handling of the BG3 ending: the ending ties up the loose ends of the conflicts. Those that are not resolved by our hand end somehow:

Astarion if you didn't let him become Vampire Lord he can't resist the sun. It is the expected and logical ending. Imagine what happens next. Your ass goes with him? Maybe you didn't? That's your thing to decide.

Does Karlach go to hell or decide to die in style after saving the city? That depends on what you have decided. What did you expect to happen? That the power of friendship will save her? If you have another idea, go ahead and plant it yourself or imagine it.

The Emperor doesn't respond even though you basically screwed up your brain and stopped being you (because you kind of stop being you as long as according to the canon you stop having a soul becoming the Mind Flayer, but this is like the dilemma of The Ship of Theseus) for carrying out his plan to the heart of it. You did and undid as he said. He just tells you that you are the best version of yourself possible. And I agree: I did not come to become a walking octopus "a feira" because I wanted to suck the Emperor's tentacles from anatomical equality; I simply wanted the power that lay beyond the stunted mind of a primitive and inferior being such as a human. The game leaves open what kind of mind flayer you will be. And the Emperor does the same: he leaves without saying anything. Because now you are like him and you understand everything with perspective. You were a means to an end. Feelings and thoughts are a whole. No more is needed. With this perspective you can better understand everything. And, in fact, it's the most logical thing to do according to his character: he doesn't have to keep treating me like the sentimental bug driven by his emotions. Now I have another perspective closer to his and I understand the reason for what was done. No one has to explain anything else to me. ________________________________________________________ Lo pongo en español también por si a alguien le interesa:

En primer lugar, he de decir que en un principio también sentí el vacío en el pecho, la crisis existencial que acompaña y apuntala cuando terminas algo que ha estado comportando satisfacción o simplemente ocupando parte de tu vida. Me sentí ligeramente decepcionado en parte porque, como todos (sobre todo hablo de la gente de occidente, porque soy europeo y aunque la globalización ha supuesto un factor igualador a nivel internacional, creo que es importante señalarlo para entender de dónde beben mis ideas y cómo es más o menos la educación que he recibido), por el bagaje cultural que acumulamos y se retroalimenta a través de los productos que consumimos todos los días; al final todo bebe de las mismas ubres.

Para poner un poco en situación, yo romanceé al Emperador y seguí su plan bastante al pie de la letra porque me parecía la posición más lógica con la información (probablemente parcial) que tenía. La realidad es que esperaba que me traicionara con un 99.9% de seguridad. ¿Por qué? Bueno, tenía bastante claro que él era una criatura que estaba por encima de las gilipolleces mortales de los sentimientos y las hormonas alterándonos la química cerebral. Y mi personaje también lo sabía y estaba preparado para tener que actuar frente a ese escenario, muy a pesar de que decidió seguir adelante. Al fin y al cabo, la traición se produciría igual echase un polvo o no. Que le quiten lo bailao' ahora si pueden.

El caso es que… Esta traición no ocurre. Y eso me sorprende y deja un cabo suelto que he decidido yo llenar por mi cuenta ante la ausencia de una respuesta oficial. No es como si no estuviera acostumbrado como escritor de fanfics que soy. Es más, aunque hubiera habido una respuesta oficial, yo habría hecho la mía alternativa porque es como funciona mi cerebro.

Procedo ahora a exponer mi punto.

Por qué no siempre hay finales felices o por qué no siempre tienen que haberlo.

Esta es la parte en la que voy a pasar a defender por qué me parece que esperar un final feliz para todo y todos es simplemente irreal y un poco estúpido.

Los finales son. Simplemente. Felices o tristes depende de la perspectiva con la que los mires. Es más, es hasta cuestionable hablar de "final", cuando las cosas siguen… Continuando. Fluyendo. Es final o principio también dependiendo del observador. Es relativo.

Para este caso, entenderemos como final el término físico y real del juego, es decir, el punto en el que deja de reproducirse la partida. Puede ser el final del juego, pero ninguna de las tramas está terminada per se. O quizás sí, dependiendo si entiendes que algunos murieron y por tanto es el final de sus tramas.

Sea como sea, el final de la vida es así: triste. Es a la vida a la que se va acompañado; a la muerte se acude solo incluso aunque estuvieras dado de la mano o rodeado de un puñado de gente que te quiere. Lo demás es monserga para templar los miedos y hacernos sentir mejor. Esperar otra cosa es absurdo y la culpa una vez más la tiene nuestro bagaje cultural con una profunda y pútrida base religiosa que nos hace creer que hay otra segunda vida mejor después de una primera vida de mierda. Porque pensar que solo hay un viaje parece amargarnos a nosotros, sacos de células cuya función al final del día es… Sobrevivir. Seguir. Continuar. Va contra nuestra propia naturaleza.

Desde esa perspectiva, los finales nunca son buenos porque entrañan que algo acaba.

Por otro lado, entiendo el malestar de alguna gente con que el final sea más abierto de lo que nos tienen acostumbrados los productos audiovisuales. Y sin embargo, no le veo problema. He terminado el juego esta mañana y quiero más. Y lo voy a tener, porque pienso escribir lo que yo creo que pasó para vaciar esta sensación de mi pecho y sacar estas mil ideas de mi cabeza sobre lo que puede pasar después.

Así es que aquí voy a hacer de abogado del diablo y defender la gestión del final de BG3 por parte de Larian: el final ata los cabos sueltos de los conflictos. Los que no se resuelven por nuestra mano terminan de alguna manera:

Astarion si no le dejaste convertirse en Lord Vampiro no resiste el sol. Es el final esperable y lógico. Imagínate tú qué ocurre después. Tu pejota se va con él¿? Decide pasar¿? Eso lo tendrás que contar tú.

Karlach se va al infierno o decide morir por todo lo alto después de salvar la ciudad¿? Eso depende de lo que tú hayas decidido. Que pretendías que sucediera¿? Que la salvara el poder de la amistad¿? Si tienes otra idea, adelante, plantéala tú o imagínala.

El Emperador no responde a pesar de que básicamente te agusanaste el cerebro y dejaste de ser tú (porque algo dejas de ser tú tanto en cuanto que según el canon dejas de tener alma al convertirte el azotamentes) por llevar a cabo su plan al dedillo. Hiciste y deshiciste como él dijo. Tan solo te dice que eres la mejor versión de ti mismo posible. Y estoy de acuerdo: no vine a convertirme en un pulpo a feira andante porque quisiera chuparle los tentáculos al Emperador desde la igualdad anatómica; simplemente quería el poder que había más allá de la mente atrofiada de un ser primitivo e inferior como lo es un ser humano. El juego deja abierto qué tipo de azotamentes serás. Y el Emperador hace lo propio: se va sin decir nada. Porque ahora eres como él y entiendes todo con perspectiva. Eras un medio para un fin. Los sentimientos y los pensamientos son un todo. No hace falta más. Y pensándolo así, todo se entiende mejor. Y, de hecho, es lo más lógico acorde a su personaje: no tiene que seguir tratándome como el bicho sentimentaloide llevado por sus emociones que era; ahora tengo otra perspectiva más cercana a la suya y comprendo el porqué de lo que se hizo. Nadie tiene que explicarme nada más. Y él, menos.

[doved-icelebrity]

“My Octopus Teacher” Tales of Deep-sea Dreams, Life, and Love

A meditation on patience and the incomprehensible beauty of the marine dimension. “My Octopus Teacher” highlights the importance of noticing one’s surroundings and expressing true appreciation for nature. Documentary filmmaking explores the underwater forest and beckons viewers to dive deeply within themselves . This documentary highlights the need to consider the relationship between human and nature and the impacts that individuals have on aquatic ecosystems. Throughout the portrayal of an unlikely relationship, viewers are urged to ponder themes of self-reflection, empathy, and the interconnection of all living / loving beings. The impact that each of us can have on the world around us is immense and the first step to a brighter future begins with us. Inspiration and intuition are pieces of us that must be honored. Individuals contain unlimited potential and possibility that is so often blocked by our fears of the unknown. However, the unknown could be a beautiful thing.

Craig Foster, a documentary filmmaker, spends a year of his life away from his usual world. He spends each day diving into the sea and exploring a new universe. Foster meets an Octopus and feels called to her, meeting her each day, waiting for her, studying her, and learning from her. The Octopus endures an entire life, and we view it in stunning technicolor. The visuals within this film are overwhelmingly gorgeous, creating a watercolor romance. Foster connects his own life and experience to the Octopus and contrasts the psychological / developmental differences and comparisons. Focusing on themes of emotional intelligence and the fragile / impermanent facets of reality, this film is a rich tribute to nature.

The profound, precious experiences shown within “My Octopus Teacher” through magnificent underwater filmmaking showcase the capacity for meaningful connection within each creature. This film is an adventure in hope, discovery, and trust. These bonds that bring all life on this earth together are so often overlooked and dismissed, considered unnecessary or impossible. But the work is worthwhile, despite the vast effort required. What can we learn from one another? What worlds exist within us and around us that we hardly acknowledge? If we explore experiences deeply rather than widely, what can we find? An evolution of contemplation and understanding expands throughout this visual storytelling journey.

Octopuses do not live long lives by human standards, and due to this the importance of each day throughout this journey becomes all the more profound. Craig Foster spent around 80% of this specific Octopus’s life visiting her, exploring the details of her life, earning her trust, learning her ways. Though all lives and all loves must come to an end, the experience does not lose meaning due to its brevity. The ending of a story is a necessary part. We must move through the endings of chapters, and keep moving. In spite of this inevitability, it is our duty to protect one another while we are granted the gift of life.

Foster shines a light on an often unseen part of our reality. It is a moving documentary that creates opportunity for deep insight. The bond forged between Foster and the Octopus is felt by the viewers, a relationship between a creature and their human is remarkably special. It is a dynamic that does not need words, yet teaches us so many valuable life lessons. The very fact that two creatures of such vastly different realms of life can connect is enough to bring anyone to tears. This film presents a rare glimpse of the world in which these intelligent creatures exist as well as the worlds in which they individually contain. Viewers are stuck by the octopus’s ability to trust, learn, adapt, and emote. Octopuses and creatures in general are humanized in this sense and this develops a more palpable human-creature connection.

The documentary brings attention to the intricacy and importance of the marine environment and the life within it that we can consider our neighbors. Though often overlooked, these creatures contain worlds of their own and require the same respect that we all deserve. “My Octopus Teacher” is a call for appreciation and awareness for marine biodiversity. The audience is inspired to advocate for the protection of these sweet, sensitive, silent creatures. In learning about the wealth of intelligence and emotion contained within each of these underwater societies, viewers are left to reevaluate their part in protecting our oceans. The urgency of climate change affects us all, and there are creatures that can not help in the same ways that humans are able to. We must speak up and stand up for them.

Personally, I found this to be a deeply moving message contained within a remarkably pretty parallel universe. I am an avid animal appreciator, and I find the bond between creature and human to be capable of teaching the most profound truths. I am constantly learning from animals, from pets to pigeons, the universe expands each time I stop to listen to the silence they provide me. I have complicated personal feelings about whether or not we should enter another creature’s habitat, but I believe that in order to tell this tale it was a necessity. The visuals are jaw dropping, the soundtrack is delightful, and the documentary as a whole resulted in heartwarming heartbreaking perfection. I am always deeply pleased to learn about the intricacies and intelligence contained within the soul of another creature, octopuses are profoundly special and I am grateful that they got to swim in the spotlight here.

“My Octopus Teacher” received significant acclaim within the film industry. The positive recognition received for this deeply touching story set an example for documentary filmmakers. This documentary shows us in full glory that one can tell an important story about nature and environmental advocacy and be sincerely heard and greatly appreciated. The director of the documentary, Pippa Ehrlich, sets a positive precedent for female filmmakers and gender inclusivity within documentary filmmaking and the cinematic universe at large. The positive impacts that follow critical acclaim and a wider audience viewing a touching portrayal of the fleeting beauty of nature are vast. More viewers being awakened to the world in which we live and urged to fight for the voiceless results in more of a chance for us to care for our oceans and our planet.

[shruti17sharma07]

Discover the Enchantment of Santorini: A Dreamy Escape

Nestled in the heart of the Aegean Sea lies a paradise like no other – Santorini Island. With its iconic whitewashed buildings, cobalt blue domes, and breathtaking sunsets that paint the sky in hues of pink and orange, Santorini is a destination straight out of a postcard.

Step foot onto its shores, and you'll instantly feel transported to a realm of tranquility and beauty. Wander through the narrow streets of its charming villages, where bougainvillea vines cascade down the walls and quaint cafes beckon you to sit and savor the moment.

One of the island's most beloved spots is Oia, renowned for its stunning vistas and romantic ambiance. Watch as the sun dips below the horizon, casting a golden glow over the caldera and igniting the sky in a fiery spectacle that will leave you spellbound.

EXPLORE MORE ABOUT SANTORINI ISLAND:https://www.travelnags.com/destination/santorini-island-.html

For those seeking adventure, Santorini offers plenty of opportunities to explore its natural wonders. Embark on a scenic hike along the rugged coastline, where rugged cliffs meet the azure waters below. Or, take to the seas and cruise around the island, stopping to swim in hidden coves and soak up the Mediterranean sun.

Foodies will delight in Santorini's culinary scene, which boasts a tantalizing array of fresh seafood, locally sourced produce, and traditional Greek dishes. Indulge in a leisurely meal at a seaside taverna, where you can feast on grilled octopus, creamy fava dip, and mouthwatering souvlaki, all paired with a crisp glass of Assyrtiko wine.

Whether you're seeking romance, adventure, or simply a chance to unwind in paradise, Santorini has something for everyone. So pack your bags, leave your worries behind, and embark on a journey to this enchanting island – where dreams become reality and memories are made to last a lifetime.

[lilitophidian]

Ripples cascade from strands of hair.

They had let him go as soon as she felt herself falling into a new place. She let out an almost gasp, as though for a split second there was a little, nonexistent shard of fear in her eyes. She was never really fond of———

ғ ₐ ₗ ₗ ᵢ ₙ ԍ

Particularly not in the arms or inky talons of someone she had feelings for. Put an octopus's tendrils instead of the feathers. What made a difference? It would be thrown off rather fast, any unease about the situation concealed by a lack of words that would prevent any memory analogies.

Sacrilegious ritual offering that is hypocritical. Daggers and slabs. Is this how it felt then?

It drew her attention to the stage set, and she snapped back to reality. Behind the velvet drapes, a different scene. Well, did not he wish to indulge in those tiny fancies he mentioned? She would consent to it...Until eventually everything would move beneath him like a magician tugging a tablecloth, that is, at least temporarily. It wasn’t as elegant as one would wish, and some plates crashed on the floor.

In due time.

In due time.

Stopwatch in counting.

At some point, the Bell Tower would ring in protest.

It was fortunate for him to have been handed this at all. Always pushing and poking in an exploratory manner to discover the results. Was this how he envisioned romance? Like a psychiatrist in a prison for the most dangerous offenders—the clinically insane—she would see this as a chronic, lingering mental process.

" How audacious he is, huh? Oh, how audacious. " The sea's damp rum, her chest trembling from the constant punctures that kept her wounds open, slicking and dancing with the laudanum that kept her ROTTEN. Maybe even as little as a touch may cause something akin to menthol burns while her blackness painted his beloved slaughter table in a puddle from friction.

Previously been here, generally for a lecture or static-tuned private concert, but in a different capacity. There were moments when their relationship did not feel forced to fit into predetermined categories of who or what they were. A master at selecting the appropriate music for the right audience, Surprise would wave over Dark Maiden while he was careful not to flip the incorrect switches.

Even with the singer.

But for once, the guide does not object. To give him a chance, a small taste of what he really wanted, just for once. Perhaps it was fair, but their hidden union was anything but at this point in history. Not to mention, it seemed familiar to her, the nurturing of mother's blood in comparable ways. Something that was nearly as soothing as the acrid warmth of sludge-like coffee coursing down his throat.

So the song would grow stronger in melodious purr as she curled along with him, taking in the strangeness of pleasure? Smaller in the danger area, attracting attention as she closed her legs by folding them over one another when his touch reached her chest despite the clear leakage coating the appendage gliding against her almost squishing it with her thighs until it'd pop. What was he to do when the shadows cooperated with her? Revered her above him? Just a little reminder, Mister Alastor, to take note.

A taunt with her own anatomy.

Perhaps she'd still humor the idea of allowance of him entering her in a different way over between his claws, shredding her apart, or being one with her blood. A few nightmares were liabilities to the razor-sharp spines inside her; at the very least, they would grow back.

" How do your teeth and a blade vary from each other? Covert completion? I would hate to let you down with phony cries. "

[bqstqnbruin]

Not Like I'm in Love with You

Hello I wrote a Jamie O fic inspired by a tik tok that I currently can't find but it had a song called "Not Like I'm in Love with You" in it and then this was born

Shout out to @raysofcrosby for refreshing the google doc so many times that she was 5031293 different anonymous animals while proofing this (long live anonymous dumbo octopus).

Have fun!

Warnings: Swearing

WC: 11.2K

__________________________

Put the phone down.

All she had to do was put it down.

Everything was typed out, but it’s not like she had to hit send on anything.

All she had to do was put it down.

“Annie, if you’re going to pick up your phone like that one more time, at least add weights to it to make it worth a workout,” her roommate, Harper said. Annie shot her a dirty look, obviously annoyed despite Harp being right. “Anastasia Greenwood, either text him to see what he’s doing, or put the phone down and watch this crappy rom com you made me put on.”

“It is not crappy, and don’t call me Anastasia,” Annie whines, staring at the screen as Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell conspired to set up their bosses in order to get time off from work. It was just the right amount of cheesy comedy mixed with Pete Davidson that made Annie melt and have the unreasonable desire to watch the movie at least once a week. She wanted the romance of two people falling in love without realizing they were in love until the last few minutes, something stupid happening that to make them finally understand that they had been with the right person all along. “You don’t like it because the main character has the same name as you.”

Harper let out a sigh, rolling her eyes at her friend. “I don’t like it because you’re using it as an escape from your reality that is pretty much the same thing as this movie.”

“I am not conspiring to set my boss up with someone. Laura already has a husband and two grown children. And four dogs. She’s happy. Plus, she has a roommate who gets engaged in the first ten minutes, you have no prospects of getting engaged any time soon, so,” Annie tries to counter, despite knowing exactly what Harper was getting on about.

Harper paused the movie, Zoey and Glen’s character’s hugging each other at Yankee Stadium as they watch their bosses on the kiss cam, the start of their plan finally coming together, frozen in motion. “We’re not talking about me, though. We’re talking about you, and you do have a crush on someone that both of you are too dumb to realize.”

“I’m a teacher. I can’t be that dumb. And I’m not dumb enough to not realize I have a crush. But that is all it is. He’s the one who doesn’t know about it.”

“Annie, you’re practically in love with him. How is him not realizing it better?”

“Because this way, I can just wallow in my misery and drown all my sorrows in stupid rom coms and ice cream while he lives his life and we go on being each other’s best friends and nothing will ever change,” Annie spits out all in one breath.

Harper stares at her, mouth hanging open like a fish while she starts to shake her head. “That,” she starts, hesitating while trying to find the right words. “That is not better.”

“Ok,” Annie says, stealing another glance at her phone. “Can we at least admit that this crush is better than my last one?”

Harper pauses for a second, thinking about Annie’s ex-boyfriend. “ You’ve had this crush since you met him, but I’m pretty sure that everyone is better than that human equivalent of a stale ham sandwich that you liked.”

“Justin was not that bad.”

“His name started with the letter J. Immediate red flag.”

“Jamie?”

“His name is his only red flag. And it’s a gender-neutral name anyway, less of a red flag.”

Before Annie could respond, her phone screen finally lights up, a text from Jamie showing up, then another, and another. Jamie normally didn’t send multiple texts at once, so something had to be up for him to do this. “Look at the messages,” Harper tells her, obvious annoyance in her voice over the unnecessary antics of her roommate. She knew for a fact that Annie’s life would be much easier and much less stressful if she just admitted to Jamie that she was into him. Everyone knew Jamie was into her the same way, he was just too much of a dumb boy to admit it.

Are you busy?

I have to tell you something

Can you come over?

“He wants to tell me something,” Annie said, trying to figure out if she should drop everything for him, or just lie to him and say that she was busy. Because to her, Harper would do anything to stop watching this movie and seeing her friend stare at her phone trying to will a boy into messaging her.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Harper said, getting up and leaving before Annie could say anything else.

By the time Annie managed to get to Jamie, an hour had passed, seven more messages from Jamie came in, and Annie’s anxiety grew for no reason other than she was freaking out that he could potentially have bad news for her. She didn’t even have to knock on the door before he whipped it open, pulling her into his apartment without even saying a word.

“Jamie, fuck,” she said, wriggling free of his pull. “I’m not going to let you tell me anything if you pull my arm off and send me to the hospital.”

“Sorry, sorry, you just took so long, I got scared,” he says, sending a chill down Annie’s spine, plopping down on his sofa. “I just had to tell you about last night.”

Annie couldn’t read him as she sat down. Jamie looked nervous but excited, scared yet confident. She wasn’t sure how he could be portraying all these emotions when normally his emotional range was that of a corn chip, but something apparently happened last night that changed that for him. “Are you ok?”

“Oh, yeah,” he says, letting out a deep breath and flopping back on the cushions. “Haydn introduced me to the most amazing girl.”

Annie felt her heart stop when she saw him light up the way he was. He was staring at the ceiling, almost like she wasn’t there at all and he was just recounting his night to the air around him. She wanted to be the girl to do that for him, and thanks to Haydn, she couldn't be. At least not right now. Probably not ever for that matter. “Wha-what are you talking about?” she managed to stammer out.

“Haydn’s been telling me about this girl that he knows, he thought we would be a good match. And, god, I met her last night. Stass, I think she might be the one.”

Annie felt like she could die at that moment. She knew all she felt towards Jamie was a mild crush despite Harper’s insistence that it was more, but that didn’t mean she wanted to hear him talk about other girls to her. But of course he did; they shared everything with each other, no matter what it was. When her mom got sick and Harper couldn’t be around, Annie went to Jamie to tell him first because she couldn’t get a flight out to see her mom right away. When he was excited about playing really well in the first game back from an injury, he didn’t talk to his teammates, he burst through Annie’s door and they sat on her bed and talked about it the entire night. Jamie was there when her mom passed away, flying with her and Harper for the funeral and everything that went on, even going as far as missing two of his games for her. She was the first one he Facetimed when Penny won big at the Olympics, she was the one who he called when the trade rumors had freaked him out about the possibility of being in a city that was different than the one she was in.

And now he had another girl in his life that he was apparently going to spend the rest of his life with, and it wasn’t her. She never even got the chance for it to be her. If Jamie had another girl, then Annie wouldn’t be the one who he went to. She didn’t see how she could be.

Annie swallowed hard, trying to keep her cool and not burst into tears over some guy. No guy had ever been truly worth the tears, and she wasn’t about to let Jamie be the first one. “She’s really the one?”

“Well, maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know. I only spent the night with her.” Jamie goes on to tell her about how the night was amazing, trying not to go into too much detail, thankfully, but just enough that Annie wanted to leave and never see him again. Harper couldn’t be right that she was in love with him, but there was no way that she could be this upset over the idea of her best friend spending a night with some girl if she wasn’t.

Annie felt herself spiraling, trying to focus on Jamie, seeing him so excited over a girl for the first time since they became friends. She had never seen him like this, and she wished she never did. She should have just listened to herself and put the phone down, just ignored the texting and focusing on the movie instead. A girls night back with Harper seemed like a much better option than being here watching Jamie talk about a girl the way he would never talk about her.

“I think you’d really like her,” she finally hears him say, Jamie leaning forward, placing his hand on Annie’s knee.

“What?” Annie said, wishing that she could forget this entire conversation. All she needed to do was go back the hour or so before she left to tell Jamie that she couldn’t come over. Then she wouldn’t have to hear this.

“Reagan. You’d really like her. You’re a lot like her.”

“Oh, yeah, just let me know when she’s free.”

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

“Anastasia, did you hear that?”

She had no idea who said that, looking back up from her computer to see her head of school standing in front of her, trying not to cringe at the use of her full name. “Uh,” she started, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks as Laura was standing in front of her, not looking entirely pleased with her zoning out during the faculty meeting. They were only once a month after school and were the epitome of ‘this could have been an email,’ but they were still mandatory. “Yes, I did.”

“So what are your thoughts on it?”

‘Increasing tuition so we can also increase our salary and department budgets for supplies’ popped up on her computer screen from Ally sitting next to her.

“Well, as long as parents are alright with the increase, I don’t see why it would be a bad thing. It gives us as teachers the opportunity to purchase more things for our classrooms that would directly benefit our students, and a higher paycheck for us is something I personally wouldn’t say no to.” ‘Increase by $500 per student for the year’ came in from Ally again. “The $500 still keeps our tuition lower than some of the other independent schools while still helping us maintain the same academic standards as those schools.” Laura seemed to be satisfied with that answer, moving on to the next topic of the meeting: the anticipated openings of the school, going on to talk about how they needed people to sit in on interviews, if anyone had any candidates in mind, send them to Laura, etc., etc.

The rest of the meeting moved at a snail's pace, the hour-long meeting feeling like it could have overtaken two days. But she was barely thinking about the meeting or anything else related to school.

Jamie had been texting her all day about Reagan, trying to figure out what was the best day for them all to meet up. This was while trying to maintain her classroom with a lab that wasn’t working for half of her students and having to give them the choice of borrowing the data from another group who would be willing to share or coming in at another time to redo the entire lab. Needless to say, Jamie texting her about Reagan was not a welcome distraction.

The meeting ends without Annie even realizing it, just absentmindedly staring at her computer while she tries to figure out her lesson for the next day.

“Hey,” she hears from in front of her, Ally and Luke standing in front of her. “I know your students call you a space cadet, but you’re really out of it today.”

Annie shakes her head, the three of them heading back to their classrooms. They were three of the younger teachers in the school, naturally sticking together as much as they could. It also meant that Annie had someone who could relate to what she was going through at work; teenagers could be ruthless, especially to someone who isn’t that much older than they are.

“None of my students call me a space cadet. But, I just didn’t sleep that well last night,” she lies, feeling her phone buzzing in her pocket. The two of them looked at her like they didn’t believe her, shaking their heads and pushing past her into her classroom.

“So what really happened?” Luke asked her, plopped down at one of the desks, leaning on the table like her students do when they’re pretending to listen to her teaching.

“Nothing,” she lies again.

“Annie.”

“Fine,” she huffs, giving in because she knew her friends would keep asking her until she told them the truth. “ It’s Jamie.”

“That hockey player?” Ally asks, going into Annie’s desk drawer. “Yes, what are you doing?” Before she can pull Ally from her desk, she pulls out the bag of candy that Annie has hidden from her students, tossing a piece to Luke before taking one for herself and settling down on the desk table. “That’s for good behavior.”

“All of us know you’ve eaten more of this bag than all of your students combined,” Ally says, Luke nodding in agreement, his eyes on Ally as he did. “Anyway, why are you thinking about hockey guy?”

Annie let out a groan, wishing that she didn’t have to relive the night before at Jamie’s place, knowing that she would have to tell Harper everything since she hadn’t seen her since leaving in the first place. “He asked me over his place last night and-”

“Did you finally hook up?” Luke asked, Ally starting to bounce up and down.

“Jesus, you’re worse than the students, no,” Annie scolds them.

“If you’re telling the students about your hookups then you have other issues going on,” Ally tells her. “That’s not what I meant. It’s the interrupting and the weird need to invade my personal life. But no, he was telling me about this girl one of his teammates introduced him to, Reagan. The girl is Reagan, not the teammate. Apparently, he thinks she could be the love of his life.”

“He’ll dump her soon,” Ally says.

“You have a whole room of chemicals ten feet away from you, just pull a Breaking Bad on her and you’re fine,” Luke suggests.

The two girls look at him with their mouths hanging open. “What is making meth going to do to get her away from Jamie?” Annie asked, trying to figure out where Luke could have made that connection.

“Just plant it on her then call the FBI.”

“Ok, next time you have a group of boys hanging out in your room during free period, do not listen to their conversation,” Ally tells him, Luke rolling his eyes and sitting back in the chair. “And don’t listen to him. He’s a guy, what does he know?”

“I know enough to teach biology,” Luke counters.

“And despite having a degree in the science of life, you know shockingly little about the female one.”

“Ok, no, no,” Annie gets up from her desk, standing in front of her two friends like she was teaching her students, pacing back and forth between her desk and them. “We spend all day with kids and their drama, I do not need you two reenacting it when talking about my love life.”

“Or lack thereof,” Luke adds. Annie, back at her desk, pulls out a piece of candy from the bag and whips it at him for his comment, Ally laughing while Luke struggles to dodge her throw as the sound of it smacking his skin caused even Annie to wince. “Fuck, you coaching softball makes so much more sense now.”

“Can you say something helpful?” Annie asked him, pleading and annoyed with him at the same time.

“That’s not fun, though,” Luke says, Ally and Annie both glaring at him. “Ok, from a guy's perspective, if he really likes you, he probably doesn’t know it yet. Reagan is probably just some sort of detour on his way to realizing he’s into you.”

“Has he been with any girl since he moved here?” Ally asks.

“Not seriously, nothing more than a hookup,” she tells them, all those nights at the bar watching him find a new girl to take home while she sat there wishing he would just look at her for once. God, she sounded like a shitty teenage love song. How was she any better than her students in that moment?

“He just needs to meet one girl to realize that you love each other and then bam, your students will be calling you ‘Mrs. Hockey Man’ before you know it,” Luke tells her.

“You still don’t know his last name is Oleksiak?” Ally asks him.

“I teach half of the freshman and senior class, we’re lucky I know your names.”

“Guys, hey, love the impersonation of our students, but can we come back to being adults for a minute?” Annie interrupted them. “I’m not in love with him. And he’s not in love with me. He’s my best friend, and honestly, that’s all we’re going to be.”

“Then why would him starting to see a girl make you so distracted I had to save your ass during the meeting? You’re welcome for that, by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks,” Annie brushes it off, “And I don’t know. I don’t want to see him get hurt?”

“You don’t want to see him get hurt, or you don’t want to be hurt?”

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

“Why are you making me come to this tonight?”

“Because you have nothing else to do and I need backup.”

“How do you know I have nothing else to do?”

Annie held her hair on her curling iron, staring at Harper through the mirror while her roommate tried to do her makeup. “Harp, I love you, but you haven’t had anything to do on a weekend that didn’t involve me in three months.”

“That’s a choice,” Harper tries to defend herself.

“Why would that be your choice?”

“You’re the only person I don’t want to kill most of the time.”

“Ok, Harper. But, you said you didn’t want me to meet Reagan alone with just Jamie there, so here we are, going out with Jamie, the girl he says is the one that is apparently just like me”

“And like half of his team.”

“So that way if Jamie and Reagan start trying to swallow each other we still have people who we know that we can talk to.”

“What do you think people who are in relationships do with each other when they’re in public, Stass?”

Annie didn’t hear the entire question. The word relationship stuck out to her like a sore thumb, the thought of Jamie not only seeing her, but being committed to her was probably Annie’s worst nightmare. But what if she made him happy? What if she really was good for him?

“Hey, Annie,” Harper pulled her roommate out of her internal spiral. “We don’t have to meet her if you don’t want to. You could tell him I’m sick and that you want to stay with me if I need anything. Use me as an out.”

Annie lets out a sigh, turning off the curling iron and carefully setting down on the bathroom counter. “No, I have to meet her at some point, I might as well get it over with.”

“Didn’t he say she was just like you?” Harper asks her, pulling her out of the bathroom as they tried to gather the last few things that they needed before leaving.

“Yeah, why?”

“If he ends up with her, like, forever, doesn’t that mean that he’s dating you but not dating you?”

Annie took a second to process what Harper just said. He was dating her, but at the same time not. Why was Reagan good enough for him to be with, but she wasn’t? “How do you think that helps me?”

Harper shrugs, grabbing Annie’s wrist and dragging her out of their apartment to meet everyone at the bar. Worst case, Annie could just try to find a random guy to hook up with. What better way to deal with your emotions than by just kissing some random guy that you have no interest in seeing ever again?

On their way to the bar, Annie’s phone started going off, her heart starting to race as she hoped that it would be messages from Jamie. If she were living out a random romance novel that she spent way too much time reading and fantasizing over, it would be him telling her that he dumped Reagan and only wanted to see her. Instead, it was her group chat with Ally and Luke, letting her know that they had planned on meeting up with her and her friends at the bar.

More backup was good. More distraction from Jamie was good.

The two of them make a beeline to the group of guys that were sitting in the back of the bar, the group not hard to spot given their noise and their demeanor compared to the rest of the patrons there.

“You came!” Jamie yelled, clearly already drunk despite it being way too early in the night. He got up and hugged Annie, lifting her off her feet as he held her close. He buried his face in her neck, Annie having no choice but to hug him back, wishing that this hug meant something more to him than just him drunkenly excited to see her. “I’ve been waiting for you to get here,” he whispers to her.

He was just drunk.

He probably thought that she was Reagan or someone else.

It didn’t mean anything that he was saying this to her.

“Of course I came,” she tells him, a small smile on her face. Annie felt her heart flutter by his hands lingering on her waist, Jamie not letting go despite their greeting being long over. Annie turns around in hopes that Jamie would let go, wanting to say hi to his teammates. Instead, she felt his hands tighten slightly around her, Haydn’s eyes following his teammates fingers before a smirk covered his face, Harper’s expression mirroring his.

Annie wriggled free from Jamie, the heat rushing to her cheeks and already knowing that she was never going to hear the end of this from Harper when they got home. She sat down, Jamie sitting next to her, his knee touching hers under the table. He was just drunk. He was always like this when he was drunk.

It meant nothing now, like it meant nothing then.

“So, where’s this Reagan that I’ve been hearing all about?” Annie asks him over the music.

“She couldn’t make it tonight.”

Annie felt a weight lifting off her shoulders, releasing the breath that she didn’t know she was holding in. “Oh, that sucks,” she lies. “Is everything alright?’

Jamie nods, taking a sip of his drink before passing it over to her, something he did every time they went out together and he got something he thought she would like. “She has an early morning tomorrow or something.”

He starts rambling about something Annie can’t make out over the noise, taking it upon herself to finish the drink that he had passed her instead of doing anything to listen to him. She didn’t care how drunk he was, she didn’t want to listen to him rant about Reagan.

Her phone lights up on the table, a few texts from Ally and Luke telling her where they were, another one from Haydn coming up as well.

‘I don’t think he actually wanted her to come.’

She looks up at him, seeing him talk with his teammates as if he weren’t just looking at his phone a second ago. ‘What do you mean?’

‘I was with him when she said she couldn’t come. He wasn’t that upset.’

Annie stands up, trying to figure out how to process Haydn’s texts with the drink hitting her as fast as it was. She gets up to the bar, not expecting Haydn right behind her when she turned around. “Jesus, you’re like a pop-up book from hell.”

“That sounds like something one of your students would say,” he says, leaning next to her on the bar counter. The two of them stand in silence for a second, waiting for the bartender to come over for their orders. “He said he didn’t mind Reagan not coming if you were going to be here tonight.”

Annie looks at him, shocked. “What?”

“He was worried that you’d be too tired from the week to come out. Jamie was going to go home if you weren’t here by, like, eleven.”

“Why would he do that?”

Haydn lets out a laugh, shaking his head at her. “You know he loves you.”

“Like a sister.”

“He does not love you like he loves Penny, Hayley, or Claire.”

“So like a friend.”

“Aren’t Chemistry teachers supposed to be good at reasoning through evidence? Shouldn’t any science teacher be able to do that?”

“I work with data and numbers, and trying to figure out why my students didn’t get a one to one ratio of magnesium and oxygen when they did their empirical formula lab.”

“I’m going to pretend like any of what you said just made sense, but come on, you do observations and shit as part of your labs. I should know, Jamie comes to practice and talks about all the stuff you show him that you teach your kids. You should be the first one to notice that he likes you.”

“Then why did you introduce him to Reagan?”

“He’s too dumb to notice that he loves you so he needed a little detour to get there.”

“If this ends poorly and he ends up with her, this is your fault.”

“You won’t do anything, you’ll lose your teaching license if you get arrested.”

“I firmly believe that there are two main reasons why there are statistically more men convicted or murder: one, men are not to be trusted and two, women are better are getting away with it. Don’t test me,” she tells him, flashing a smile and turning away from him as he laughed. She found Ally and Luke, the two of them nowhere near the rest of her friends. Standing there with them was a guy she didn’t recognize, but from what she could make out, he was kind of attractive. He looked just like someone she knew, but she couldn’t put her finger on who he resembled, the slightly curly light brown hair, tall, somewhat fit, a goofy smile as he laughed at something Ally had just said.

“Annie!” Luke screamed, pulling her in for a hug. “Have you met my roommate Sam?”

The mystery man extends his hand out for her, flashing a smile that made Annie melt a little and introduced himself. “It’s nice to meet you, Anastasia.”

Annie hated her full name, it only being used when she was being scolded for something. Everyone called her Annie, with the exception of Stass coming from Harper and Jamie. But hearing Sam call her Anastasia? That was different.

The two of them get to talking, Sam telling her that he was in his third year of law school and already had a job lined up at one of the big name law firms in the area for when he graduated. They were so interested in their conversation, they didn’t even notice that Ally and Luke had left the bar completely, their only reason for going being the set up planned between Annie and Sam.

Across the bar, Jamie stood up to look for Annie, wanting to talk to her for the sake of conversation while his teammates were screaming about god only knows what. Haydn was there at the table, Harper was, too. So where was his best friend?

He finally locks eyes with Annie, seeing her talking to a guy he didn’t know. He saw the way she smiled at him, the guy pulled her close to him as someone tried to squeeze behind her with a precariously filled drink. He watched as the guy's hand lingered on her body, Annie doing nothing to get his hand off her. Jamie wanted to be that guy, for whatever reason, that was holding on to her and guiding her through the bar.

Jamie sits down once he loses them in the crowd, his mind racing over all the possibilities of what they could be up to with a sea of strangers around them.

His phone lights up, a text from Reagan that he wasn’t even excited to read flashing on his screen. ‘I just got home. Do you want to come over?’

His fingers hover over his screen, trying to figure out how to answer. He was so preoccupied by Annie that he couldn’t even think about spending the night with Reagan, let alone even generate a response to her yes or no question.

‘Heading home, not feeling too well. Talk tomorrow after practice?’

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

“You know what you should do to make chemistry more exciting?” Luke said. The three of them always had the same lunch together, switching whose classroom they ate in based on who had the free period next. They were sitting in Ally’s room, an English classroom turned her math class that still had the fun reading corner. The three of them were sprawled out on the couches and comfy chairs with their food, hoping that lunch would last long and that no students would come looking for them for help while they were eating.

“I would say have you teach it but I want my students to actually stay awake during my lessons.”

“They’ve only fallen asleep once,” Luke tries to defend himself. “You’ve never had a student fall asleep in your class?”

Ally and Annie both shake their heads no, Luke slumping down further into his chair as he mumbled something neither of them could hear. “Do you want to tell me what would make my class more fun before I hurt your feelings more?” Annie offered, knowing that she would hate the response no matter what he suggested.

“I was going to say,” Luke started, a grin on his face that made Annie instantly regret giving him the opportunity to share, “You should bring someone fun in to do an experiment with them. They would go nuts over that.”

Annie knew she should have just stopped there, especially with Ally’s smirk into her food that she was trying to hide by lifting her container as close to her face as possible. “And who do you think I should bring in that’s fun, Luke?”

“Jamie.”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Why?”

“Because I think it would be funny trying to watch you control yourself around our kids when Jamie is around.” Annie took a piece of chicken from her lunch and threw it at Luke, him barely dodging it and ending up with the sauce on his face, a little bit on the white button down shirt he wore more often than he probably should. “Hey!”

“You deserved that,” Annie tells him. She could ‘control herself’ when Jamie was around her students. He had come to school events with her plenty of times; graduation every year, when she chaperoned school dances, he was even on a summer trip with them when they went to D.C. one year as a chaperone when no one else could come. Having him in for a lab would be no different and not necessary.

“Why not just have him in anyway?” Ally asks. “Come on, think about how much Laura would love that for the school for the weekly? A professional hockey player coming to do a lab with the kids? She’d lose her mind.”

“Ally’s right.”

“Ok, you,” Annie started, pointing at Luke, “Are suggesting it to be a dick. You don’t get a say in who is right or wrong. I’m not asking Jamie to do a lab, he has practice or travel almost every day.”

“They have off days,” Luke points out.

She couldn’t ask him to do a lab with her students. There’s no way that could happen. “Hey, what are you doing?” Annie asks, seeing Luke and Ally now sitting next to each other on the couch, Ally leaning over on Luke’s shoulder, Annie thinking that she saw Luke’s chest rise and fall a little faster with Ally so close to him.

“When are you doing a lab next?”

“Probably on Thursday?”

“He’s free.” Luke had a smile on his face that made Annie squirm, finally noticing that he was holding her phone in his hands.

“Oh, what the fuck did you do, Luke?” Annie grabs her phone from him, seeing her conversation with Jamie pulled up. Luke had asked Jamie to come for a lab on Thursday, him answering that he would within a matter of seconds. “Not a day goes by that I don’t want to kill you.”

“You’re a teacher, tell me something new for once.”

“You shouldn’t be taunting the teacher who has the key to the cabinet with all the dangerous chemicals,” Annie pouts.

“He said he would come within seconds of you asking him though, it might be worth it just to have him.”

The bell rings before Annie could answer, now having to go back to her classroom while Ally and Luke probably spend more time scheming about how to make her want to set herself on fire by bringing a man into her lab. How could Annie even think about whatever lesson she was working on while Jamie was waiting for a response from her?

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

Annie didn’t get home from school until late, Harper’s car already in her parking space waiting for Annie’s car to join. The rest of Annie’s day was spent trying to figure out how to navigate the floodgate that Luke opened by texting Jamie. Thankfully, the rest of Annie’s classes involved her students doing practice problems, so not much actually thinking was needed to teach them. All she had to do was give them a packet, tell them to work together and, boom, the lesson is done. Teamwork, chemistry, and problem solving, all in one, whether the students knew it or not.

“Harper, you would not believe what Luke and Ally did,” Annie says, bursting through the door and nearly throwing her work bag across the room.

“Harper’s in her room.”

Annie looks up from her fallen bag, seeing Jamie sitting on her couch. He had the remote to her tv in one hand, his other resting on the back of the couch. The t-shirt he was wearing hugged his body perfectly, looking like it fit just well enough that Annie could see every curve and vein in his muscles.

Fucking hell, why did he have to wear a shirt like that and look like that?

“What are you doing here?”

“Harp let me in.”

“Ok, so what are you doing here?”

“You never texted me back.”

“So you show up and make yourself at home on my couch?”

Jamie looks at her, flashing puppy dog eyes and a stupid pout that made Annie melt inside. “I was worried and needed to make sure you were ok.”

“I know you well enough to know you needed an excuse to order food instead of making it yourself. We both know that any conversation we can have can be done over the phone or it’s done over food and there is no in between.”

“I might already have pizza being delivered here,” he admits.

Annie laughs, sitting down next to him on the couch. She wanted to curl up with him, his arm extended out on the back of the couch as if he were reaching out to her. She couldn’t focus on the show they were watching, some sitcom that Jamie had definitely been binge-watching recently that Annie couldn’t think of the title of. Why did he have to be with Reagan? Why did she have to have feelings for her best friend when her life could just be easy and they could just be friends with nothing more?

And why was she feeling this way and he wasn’t?

“So, those texts you got from me today?” Annie finally breaks the silence between them, knowing that they had to talk about it sooner rather than later.

“Yeah, Thursday we don’t have practice or travel, so it actually works out perfectly for me to come and do a lab with your students. Can we do something fun? Can we light something on fire?” he asked her, lighting up like a little kid in a candy store.

“Ok, calm down there,” she says, reaching out and putting her hand on his chest as a way to get him to stop. “You’re acting like my students right now and I always tell them no. Jamie, I didn’t even send those texts.”

His expression immediately deflates, him reaching up to touch Annie’s hand as he pouts at her. “Do you not want me to come?”

She hadn’t expected him to look so hurt by this, or for him to actually get excited about visiting a high school chemistry class to do something that was probably going to go right over his head anyway. “I do, but Luke was the one who sent the text. It was his and Ally’s idea. Do you actually want to come?”

“Well, Reagan and I were supposed to hang out on Thursday, but I can cancel that.”

Reagan. For a moment Annie forgot she existed, still unable to meet her or even talk to her since she never seemed to be with Jamie. For the girl who was supposed to be the one for him, she was never really around to be his ‘one.’ “No, you should go spend time with her, you coming to do the lab isn’t that important,” Annie told him, sitting back to face the TV again. He should choose Reagan over her. There was no reason he shouldn’t choose Reagan over her, even if Annie wanted to be the one he chose.

“Come on, Stass, anything with you is important to me. You really think I wouldn’t come for you first?”

What would it look like if Jamie came to her classroom for a lab? He was just a guy she knew with nothing to really connect him to the classroom. He couldn’t just come by himself. “Do you think any of your teammates could come with you? That way it’s like a Kraken thing instead of just some random guy showing up to a classroom?”

“When you say it like that, it’s creepy,” Jamie laughs. “But, sure, I’ll ask some of the guys.”

Having some of the other guys there provided a buffer for her; she didn’t have to worry about it being just the two of them around her students, who would, of course, making everything about the two of them a big deal. When Luke first started teaching at the school, the students immediately assumed he and Annie would start dating. She didn’t even want to think what the high schoolers would do if they saw the way she and Jamie interacted alone. His teammates being there would mean she could focus on them instead of him.

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

“Ms. Greenwood, you have visitors waiting for you in the main office,” Mrs. Brown’s voice came through on Annie’s classroom phone. Jamie was there with his teammates and there was nothing that could make Annie more anxious. Laura got word that the Kraken were coming, arranging for someone to take pictures of her and her students with them, as well as invited the Board of Trustees to her classroom to see everything.

She hated Luke for sending that text.

“Come with me to get the guys,” Annie said, poking her head into Luke’s room to quickly yell at him for what he did. “It’s your fault they’re here anyway.”

“Hey, all I did was send a text. He didn’t have to say yes,” Luke tried to defend himself.

“You didn’t have to send the text in the first place.”

“If you didn’t like him, this wouldn’t be an issue.”

Annie stops in her tracks, her hand flinging out to make Luke stop walking as well. His eyes went wide as he was caught off guard and thrown off balance. “Don’t you think I know that? What do you think it’s like to have whatever sort of feelings these are for your best friend when you know there is nothing you can do that will get them to ever feel the same about you?” she asked him in a hushed voice. “I do not need you meddling in my personal life and trying to set me up with Jamie.”

“Why do you think I introduced you to Sam?”

“What?”

“You need to make up your mind. Either you like Jamie and you do something about it, or you forget the crush and move on with someone new. Sam likes you, Annie. He hasn’t been able to stop talking about you since he met you at the bar. Why do you think he’s been texting you nonstop and trying to meet up with you again? The only reason he knows it’s hard is because he knows you're a teacher and knows you’re busy and tired at the end of the day.”

Luke pushes past her, leaving Annie to try to process what she just heard. Sam barely knew her. How would he even know that he liked her if they had only talked in person once? There was no way he could. If Jamie didn’t like her, why would Sam like her?

“Hey,” Annie catches up to him, “I didn’t know.”

Luke takes in a deep breath, his hand on the office door ready to pull it open to get the guys. “I just don’t want to see you hurt pining over a guy who doesn’t like you when there’s someone so close to you who does. It sucks to love someone who doesn’t love you,” he tells her, his shoulders dropping as he looked down to his feet.

Annie gasped, finally realizing what he meant, putting her hand on the office door to stop him from opening it. “Are you talking about Ally?”

“What? No, I,” Luke stammers, clearly panicking over what Annie asked. She raised her eyebrow at him, a knowing smile on her face to try to get him to confess. The way he looks at her, how he always tries to spend their free periods together no matter what else he has to get done, how Annie could see his breathing changing by the simple act of Ally being near him. It was obvious. “Yeah.”

“I won’t say anything,” she promises. “But thanks for looking out for me.”

“I think I deserve a raise for all I do for you.”

“I think you’re lucky I haven’t committed a felony and framed you for it.”

Luke laughs, finally opening the door to get Jamie and his teammates who had been waiting for what felt like way too long.

On the other side, Jamie was nervous for this, bouncing up and down on his toes, pacing in front of the guys while he waited for Annie to get him. He was used to her being there for his games, seeing him in his element, and doing what he loved most, but couldn’t help but feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement to see Annie doing what she loved.

“Can you stop?” Haydn asks him. “It’s just Annie.”

“It’s Annie and all her students.”

“And it’s still Annie.”

“What if we mess up the lab?”

“Then she’ll help us fix it.”

“What if someone gets hurt?”

“She said this lab uses water, glitter, food coloring, and nail polish remover. If someone gets hurt from this lab, that is natural selection coming for them.”

“What if-”

“How are things going with Reagan?” Haydn cuts him off, hoping that the subject change would help his teammate calm down.

Before Jamie could answer, he hears Annie’s laugh filling the office, seeing her and Luke walking up to greet them. “Who?”

“Ready to do some science?” Annie asks them, not noticing Jamie’s visible nerves or Haydn’s smirk on his face.

“What are we doing, anyway?” Brandon asks.

“We’re making our schools colors in a water bottle by playing around with the way different substances interact with each other.” Annie goes on to explain the lab to them, apparently the same way that she is going to explain it to her students. Jamie tried to listen, but he couldn’t focus. He didn’t know what it was about seeing Annie like this as she walked them to her classroom, all dressed in her teaching outfit that he normally only saw her in for a brief moment before she changed into her sweatpants and what was normally one of his tshirts or sweatshirts that she had stolen from him. Why couldn’t he focus? What was different about her now that he was seeing her this way when he spent all his free time with her to begin with?

The guys were milling around the lab tables, trying to figure everything out before Annie’s students came in.

“Oh, Annie,” Luke says to her, her phone in his hand. “Sam texted you.”

Annie rolled her eyes, a smile forming on her face regardless, “You already know my passcode, what did he say?”

“He wants to know if you’re free tonight.”

Jamie’s head turned at those words, some guy asking Annie if she could see him. “Who’s Sam?”

“He’s my roommate. He has a thing for Annie,” Luke says, a smug look on his face as he looks between Jamie, Annie, and Annie’s phone. “So are you free?”

“We were busy,” Jamie says, defensive with his arms crossed over his chest.

“We were going to watch a movie and order food, we can do that any time,” Annie tells him, feeling the heat rushing to her cheeks over the thought of ditching Jamie to see Sam. “Now you can see Reagan, you haven’t hung out with her in a while.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie mutters, Haydn playfully punching him in the arm as he watched his teammate get flustered.

“Tell him I’m free,” Annie says, feeling guilty but excited. Sam likes her for sure. She could like Sam. She couldn’t see why she wouldn’t like Sam; he was a law student, he was smart, caring, funny, and he certainly is attractive. Why did she feel like she shouldn't see him?

The bells rings, Annie’s students starting to file into her classroom moments later, none of them noticing the guys standing in the back, sadly not surprising since the only things they notice are the random trinkets that she’s collected over the last few years that they bring to her like crows.

“It’s lab day everyone,” Annie says in her teacher voice, “Who’s ready to make our school colors in a bottle?” The students start talking a little bit, Annie standing there waiting for them to quiet down and listen. “How many of you know the phrase ‘opposites attract?’”

Annie’s students raised their hands and nodded before she continued. “We’ve been talking about our intermolecular forces, our IMFs. The phrase opposites attract doesn’t actually apply to this, though. Molecules with the same forces are going to be attracted to each other. We are going to be dying water yellow and acetone blue and see what happens when they mix. Because structurally, they are similar, they’ll interact in a way that reflects that, mixing together as if they are one, until something stronger comes in and pulls them apart.”

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

“So, what’s it like teaching chemistry?” Sam asks Annie. He had taken her out to dinner as their first date, some place that was definitely more fancy than anywhere she could afford, but he insisted their first time out be something nice and something he wanted to treat her two. He actually used the reason of ‘you do so much for your students every day, let me do something for you in return,’ which made Annie melt more than it should have.

Annie spent nearly an hour just trying to pick out an outfit. She couldn’t figure out what to wear that wasn’t her teaching clothes. She was nervous about going out on a date for what felt like the first time in forever, Harper doing nothing to help her nerves as she is, as she so loudly proclaimed, ‘Team Jamie’ and not ‘Team Sam.’ It didn’t matter to her that Jamie was seeing Reagan and that Sam actually liked Annie, Harper was fixated on the idea of her and Jamie finally getting together, despite the fact that it would never happen.

Luke was right. Annie needed to focus on someone who actually expressed interest in her, not someone who didn’t.

“It’s fun,” she starts, trying to put into words what it was really like. “Seeing the kids have a breakthrough and finally getting something that they spend days trying to learn is one of the best feelings. And the relationships that you get to form between you and the students? Having them trust you enough to be the person they go to when they need help or when they have something good to share is amazing.”

Sam held his gaze on her the entire time, like he was taking in every word that came out of her as if it was the most interesting stuff he ever heard. “That’s awesome, I love that. Luke never talks about teaching like that.”

Annie laughs, thinking about her friend and trying to imagine talking about their job the way she does. “Does he talk about anything like that?”

Sam scoffs, shaking his head. “The only thing I know about his job that he really enjoys is Ally. Then you’re maybe a close second. Everyone else he could do without.”

“I think he picked the wrong job then if he doesn’t like the students.”

“I think he sticks with it because he likes Ally.”

“How long have you known about that?” Annie asks.

“He told me beginning of the year that he was into a coworker, but I didn’t know if was you or Ally.”

“So we’re teaming up to try to get them together, right?” Annie asks him.

Sam smiles at her, Annie feeling a tingle down her spine at the way he looked at her. He reached out across the table for her hand, his fingers closing around Annie’s. “That means that we have to keep seeing each other, Anastasia.”

Annie stops for a moment, feeling nothing as her hand laid in Sam’s. There was no spark, no chills sent through her from his touch. Maybe she just read too many romance books and watched rom coms too many times, but she was expecting at least something. It was just missing. Him smiling at her was nice, but she thought having contact with him would give her something.

She was overthinking it. He liked her. She could like him. What was wrong with that?

“I think I’d like that.”

The night goes on with Annie and Sam deep in conversation. Talking to him was easy, sort of like talking to Luke. Her mind kept going back to Jamie the entire time, hoping that her phone screen would light up with a notification that he was texting her, calling her, snapchatting her, anything that would mean he wanted to talk to her. He knew she was out with Sam, though.

He could still text her.

Sam pays for dinner, escorting Annie out of the restaurant and to the sidewalk, the wind blowing just enough to make Annie shiver. Sam takes off his jacket, draping it over her shoulders and guiding her back to his car with his arm around her. “Do you want me to drop you off back at your place?”

“Yeah,” Annie says, “I have to get to school early tomorrow to clean up from the labs today.”

“Luke told me some guys from the Kraken came? How’d it go?”

“It was good,” Annie says, both of them getting into his car. “I’m friends with them anyway, so it’s not like it was weird or anything. The kids had fun doing it, too.” She pulls out her phone, showing him a video that she took of one of the student’s bottles. They shook it up, a huge smile on their face, causing the liquid to turn green. Annie had zoomed in on the bottle as they set it down, the liquid separating out into their school colors, blue and yellow.

Annie noticed Jamie in the background, talking with one of her students. Peyton was one of her students who she had trouble connecting with, trying hard to talk to her before classes started but never really having much success. Her grades were fine, she was just quiet and didn’t really want to interact. Annie knew Peyton had social anxiety, so trying to let her pick her partners or having her work with a student Annie thought she was comfortable with in hopes of Peyton participating more and really getting to enjoy the subject was Annie’s goal, but she has paired Peyton with everyone at least once, and no one has been able to get Peyton to really talk. Jamie, however, she warmed right up to, talking with him and working with him like they were best friends. Annie couldn’t help but be in awe over Jamie’s ability to get her to open up, and seeing her excited about the lab working perfectly while she was with Jamie was the highlight of her day.

But as much as she was watching Jamie and Peyton, she still felt like Jamie’s eyes were on her while she just tried to focus on her students. There was so much pressure for the entire lab to go perfectly, and having him there only made her nervous. On top of anticipating going out with Sam that night, Laura breathing down her neck, and the Board members there to see the teacher who managed to convince members of the Kraken to come to the school without really needing much persuasion, the last thing she needed was him staring at her the entire time. She wanted to know why he was, what had happened between the last time she talked to him and him being in her classroom that his demeanor had changed. It could have been something to do with Reagan, but why would that affect the way he acted around Annie?

Annie finally looked up from her phone, Sam inches from her face as they were both leaning over the center console to watch the video. She felt her breath hitch as he reached over, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear, his fingers lazily tracing a pattern down her jaw. “This might sound weird, but can I kiss you?” he asks her.

Her heart was racing, Sam waiting for her answer, his hand still on her face. She couldn’t say no. “Of course.”

His lips connected with hers, and Annie felt...

Nothing.

There was nothing there for her.

It was just a kiss from a guy that she wished was Jamie.

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

“Why are you so jittery?” Haydn asks Jamie after practice. “You looked like you were afraid of the puck every time someone passed it to you.”

“I just have something on my mind,” Jamie tells him, not entirely lying to his teammate.

“It’s a girl, isn’t it?” Brandon teases him.

Before Jamie could process what was going on, his teammates were surrounding him, ready to know why he had the shitty practice he did. “What’s she like? Her name is Reagan, right?” Ryan asks him.

“This girl is the most incredible girl I have ever met in my entire life,” he starts. Not hearing all that Ryan said, “She is so intentional. She is so caring, and so selfless to others and sacrifices her time and her energy, even when I don’t even think she has it. She, like, comes from this source, I don’t even know where to get the energy to, like, care and, like, love people and,” he lets out a long sigh, passing his hands over his face in frustration, “she makes me feel safe and she makes me feel valued, and, I’m, like scared. I’m really scared, because I’m, like, what if I’m not able to care for you the same way that you’re caring for me right now? And all I wanna do, all I wanna do right now, we’re like three hours away from her, all I wanna do right now is go home and make her smile.”

Haydn looked at him, trying to take in all that his teammate just said. Jamie had no idea what he just said. “Who are you talking about?”

Jamie stared at him for a second, realizing he wasn’t talking about Reagan. “Fuck.”

“You’re talking about Annie, aren’t you?” Haydn asked him. Before Jamie could even try to put together what his teammate had known for a while, he continued. “It’s not hard to see that, Jamie. You look at Anastasia in a way that I’ve never seen anyone look at another person before. The way you light up when you see her or talk about her, or, fuck, even think about her, says more than any words you can even put together. You’ve been in love with her since you met her, the day you came into the locker room and told us about ‘this girl you met at the bar who you hung out with all weekend.’ It’s always been Annie. It just took Reagan for you to realize it.”

“But she’s with Sam. She even said yesterday that two things that are similar will mix until something stronger comes along and pulls them apart. She and I are similar and Sam is pulling us apart.”

“I don’t think mixing water and nail polish remover with salt is that deep, man,” Haydn says. “Sam is only ‘stronger’ right now because you have Reagan. Is Annie supposed to sit around and wait for you to stop seeing her before you finally realize that she’s the one you want to be with?”

“I like Reagan, but Annie is,” Jamie stops, taking in a deep breath. “Annie’s everything.”

“Well if she’s with this Sam guy then she definitely doesn’t know you think that,” Brandon points out.

“So what do I do?”

“Tell her, ya dumbass. She might be smart but she can’t read your mind.”

“How do I tell her?”

“Hey, Annie, I like you.”

“There’s no way it’s that simple,” Jamie groans, leaning back in his stall with his hands over his face. He couldn’t be in love with his best friend. But he wasn’t in love with Reagan.

“Go see her. You’ll know what to say when you’re with her.”

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

“Luke, what do I do?” Annie groaned, sitting on her couch next to Harper. She had called Luke that afternoon, Harper wanting to join in on the recap of her date the other night with Sam. The week had been so busy for all of them that they didn’t have the chance to even see each other in passing, let alone for long enough to talk about the disaster that was Annie’s date.

“You really felt nothing?” his voice came through on the other end of the phone. He was speaking in a hushed tone, probably because Sam wasn’t far from where he was.

Annie had been avoiding Sam since he dropped her off that night. He gave her another kiss, definitely hinting that he wanted to go upstairs to her place with her, but she bolted from the car as soon as she could. The entire time, she wanted to be with Jamie. “I was wishing I was anywhere else than kissing him.”

“Was he that bad of a kisser? Did he use too much teeth? He looks like the kind of guy you would have a teeth fight with,” Harper adds.

“What the fuck, Harp?” Luke groans.

“He didn’t use too much teeth,” Annie groans. “He’s a good kisser, it just wasn’t something I wanted? I don’t know. He’s just not it.”

“He’s not Jamie,” Harper says. “I’m team Jannie, not Sannie.”

“You have way too much time on your hands if you can come up with couple names for me,” Annie says. “I don’t care what team you’re on; Jamie doesn’t like me the way that I like him.”

“You what?” Annie and Harper heard, turning to see Jamie standing in their apartment, letting himself in like he had done too many times before.

“Annie? Harp? What’s going on, who is that?” Luke asks.

Before anyone can answer, Harper rips the phone from Annie’s hand, running into her room to leave Annie and Jamie alone. “You like me?” Jamie asks, taking a step towards her.

Annie pulls her legs underneath her on the couch, not wanting to get up. She couldn’t believe that Jamie had just heard her say that. She could feel panic rushing through her, her plan to never let him know about that falling apart before her. “As a friend,” she spit out in a panic, hearing Harper hit something in the other room. She didn’t doubt that her roommate was holding the phone with Luke on the other end, listening to whatever conversation was about to happen.

“Only as a friend?” Jamie asks, taking another step towards her. He was too nervous to move any faster, approaching her as slowly as he could simply because he didn’t know what else to do. He had just confessed his feelings about her to his entire locker room, and here he was to tell her the same thing, only for her to say something first. Albeit without knowing he was in the room, but he heard her say it, and he wanted her to mean it.

“Yes,” she lies to him, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. This couldn’t be happening to her right now. “Stass,” Jamie says, sitting down next to her. “Why are you lying to me?”

“I’m not.”

“You are. And I know because I know how you get when you lie. You shut down, your sentences are short, you don’t want to talk. It was the same when you found out your mom was sick and you wouldn’t tell me. It was the same when you got turned down for the job at that really posh private school in the area before you got your job with Luke and Ally. It was the same when you were nervous before your first day teaching there. You’re lying to me about liking me,” he lists off, getting nervous himself as he felt like he was about to burst. The girl he loved felt the same about him. Maybe.

“Fine, Jamie, I like you. I probably love you, but what am I supposed to do? I have been sitting here the last how many weeks listening to you talk about Reagan and how much I would like her, how much you like her and think that she’s the one for you, that you can see yourself spending the rest of your life with her after you spent one night with her. How am I supposed to tell you how I feel when you text me, call me, facetime me, snapchat me, everything, talking about Reagan, a picture of you two together, when you’re out to dinner, when you’re even just thinking about her and see something that reminds you of her?” Annie spills out.

“Well, how do you think I feel when I hear you making plans with Sam?” Jamie counters, Annie looking shocked in the meantime. “You have this guy who you tell me is perfect, who you were so excited to see, and then you don’t even tell me about the date? We tell each other everything.” He could feel panic setting in, his plan to tell her everything going exactly the opposite of how he wanted it to go. Now, they were fighting over other people when they should have just been talking about each other.

“How was I supposed to tell you that I went on a date with a guy, who, when I first met him, called me by my full name and I didn’t hate it, but when I actually went out with him and kissed him, I kept wishing that I was with you instead? Do you have any idea what it’s been like to sit here and agonize over this stupid crush on you when you don’t feel the same way?”

“What are you talking about?” Jamie asks her, gently placing his hand on her knee. “Annie, I’ve spent the last two weeks trying to figure out why you talking about this Sam guy has bothered me. It’s not because there’s something wrong with Sam, it’s because it made me realize that I,” he stops, trying to find the words he wanted to say. He could tell her everything in some long drawn out way, explaining to her and circling around his point in hopes that she would get it. But, “I love you. I think I have since I met you.”

“What? What about Reagan?”

“She’s a great girl, but she’s not you, Anastasia.” Before Annie could process what Jamie had just told her, she felt his hand graze her chin, his thumb and his forefinger tilting her hand up as his other hand gently squeezed her leg right above her knee. “Can I do something I’ve been wanting to do for longer than I can remember?” he asks her, his voice deep and hushed.

Annie smiles, letting out a yes as her hands find his face, his lips connecting to hers. The two of them moved in sync with each other, all the nerves of both of them melting away. The kiss was everything Annie had wanted her kiss with Sam to be.

It was with Jamie.

[centrally-unplanned]

This week I played Octopus Pie author Meredith Gran’s Perfect Tides, a visual novel/point-and-click adventure game about being an internet-addicted teen girl in the year 2000:

That either makes you go ‘ugh’ or ‘omg mood’ and no one can tell you otherwise, but it nailed it for me, this game hit so many good notes. To just cover a few:

It walks the line really well of “this is a nostalgia game made by a 40-something” and “it takes itself as seriously as its main character would”. Mara is an idiot, for sure, makes naïve mistakes and takes seriously what fundamentally isn’t. But none of that tone is disparaging, how much she suffers at the hands of a social order than is utterly normal but that she still cannot grasp is felt so keenly despite your own position of greater maturity & knowledge. Some pain transcends. 

This btw is aided by the developer commentary - Mara receives a poem from her fanfic forum boyfriend which hits hard on the cringe line but that effect becomes raw as fuck when you learn that is an *actual poem* Gran wrote for someone online when she was 16, plundered from the past and enshrined in the digital museum that is this game. Perfect Tides is 50% autobiographical which really helps sell it.

There are so many little touches of ways the characters act, the things they do, they show the depth of the author’s emotive insight - character motives are not just ‘depressed teen’ or the like. Many would be spoilers to list, so Ill just note a super minor example where Mara gets stuck arguing with mom over a comparison (about the Titanic film lol) that she doesn’t remotely believe in because...like arguing with her is her default state, and she is in too deep, can’t back out of the argument now right?  This sounds so trivial, its hard to communicate why it matters, but Mara is made up of distinct little instincts & desires like these that are core to how real she feels.

Related to that a “Meredith Gran” specialty is how many of these character touches are never explicitly stated. Mara self-narrates so she is a little direct, but the other characters all have a ton going on that can only be inferred - like what Mara/people in general have to do to socialize in real life! Personal nod to her not-boyfriend Jason who has this desperate desire for everything to be “okay” and fully resolved the moment a problem comes up as he can’t handle the anxiety of unresolution, a trait Mara never picks up on but drives several of his scenes - I absolutely share that instinct.

Finally its batshit hilarious, between the era references and Mara’s tilted worldview and the inherent insanity of teenagers and the comedic timing of animations, scene shifts, etc, its funny in so many different ways.

My only complaint would be that the ‘internet/reality’ dichotomy is not truly taken advantage of - it sets itself up as this sort of split story, of Mara being a part of an active online social circle contrasting her grim reality, but that online social circle falls away halfway through and doesn’t play as large a role as one expected. This is of course a product of development - Gran had more online content, additional concepts and a branching path for the main online romance, but it got scrapped due to time & narrative bloat. When something is this indie its hard to fault, you easily forgive these mistakes, but its there all the same.

So yeah, go play Perfect Tides. Its amazing, just kickstarted a sequel, and tiny games like these need all the support they can get.