#WHAT IS THE SINGLE POST THAT I DIDN'T TAG

[eicsferrari]

australian open - op81 smau

summary: oscar goes to the australian open

a/n: i had this in the drafts ready to post when i saw oscar was there and gave me pictures to add! so here it is, let's all say thank u oscar and lily

masterlist

જ ♡ જ

australianopen feels good to be back🎾

[ tagged carlitosalcarazz and yn ]

♡liked by arynasabalenka and others

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carlitosalcarazz 💪🏼

ynsgirl 2025 is gonna be yn's year mark my words

tennisfan5 i'm going tomorrow can't wait

yn let's gooo

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australianopen our favorite australian is here!

[ tagged oscarpiastri ]

♡liked by yn and others

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oscarpiastri thank you for having me❤️

danielriccardo i am offended, do i mean nothing to you?

andymurray lovely to see you again oscar

oscarpiastri you too!

oscpias81 picture with jannik sinner when?

જ ♡ જ

oscarpiastri posted a story

caption incredible💪🏼💪🏼 yn

replies

↪lando shooting your shot by posting her on your stories that's bold. have you heard of dms?

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yn first win of the tournament, let's keep going👊🏼

♡liked by cocogauff and others

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oscarpiastri you were amazing today ♡liked by author

yn glad i impressed you😉

piastri81 are they...flirting in the comments?

lilymhe my girl 🫶🏼

yn i love you🥺

yourbestfriend you are so hot🔥 ♡liked by author

yn the court was hot i was melting out there🥵

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oscarpiastri men's semifinals at the australian open. congratulations janniksin for another final and thank you yn for taking a picture with me, good luck on your final tomorrow💪🏼

♡liked by lando and others

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janniksin 💪🏼💪🏼

piastryy she mogged him so hard ily oscar but she ate you up

mclaren76 are they dating??

piastryy not that we know of

jannikpiastri forza!!

yn thank you osc

papayaa that's it i ship it

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yn i'm speechless...my first grand slam title, a lifelong dream🏆 thank you

♡liked by serenawilliams and others

lilymhe CONGRATULATIONSS i'm so proud!!

yn ily let's meet up when you can🫶🏼

yourbestfriend that's my best friend, that's the girl who used to braid my hair at school🥺❤️

yn ❤️

oscarpiastri 👏🏼👏🏼

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f1updates oscar piastri and yn yln at the australian open men's singles final

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piastri81 sinner is playing and he still prefers to look at her it's serious

ynlove second pic🥺🥺 im crying

yn81 there's no way that's platonic

cupidspiastri she won a grand slam and has oscar looking at her like that, god really has it's favorites huh

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yn i love you australia

♡liked by lilymhe and others

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lando 👀

papayaln call me crazy but that's oscar

norrscar no i think you are right

yourbestfriend enjoying the views?

yn and the people😊

જ ♡ જ

oscarpiastri posted a story

caption 1️⃣❤️

replies

↪piastriii one what????

↪lando mate everyone know who that is

↪yourbestfriend you two are the worst at soft launching

oscarpiastri we tried our best😔

yourbestfriend well sorry to be the bearer of bad news but your best sucks🤷🏼‍♀️

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yn won a grand slam and felt bold, is this what the young kids call a hard launch?

[ tagged oscarpiastri ]

♡liked by taylorswift and others

yourbestfriend let's all pretend we are surprised😯

yn mean😔😔

oscarpiastri i love you

yn 1️⃣❤️

piastrii what does that one mean???? one week? one grand slam?

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oscarpiastri happy anniversary to my grand slam winner girlfriend

♡liked by aussiegrit and others

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yn i love you my two times grand prix winner boyfriend <3

lando what.

mclaren76 even lando didn't know

ynsbaby they've been together for a whole year????

cupidspiastri how did we miss this😭

[ominous-faechild]

Hey how do you do the color gradient thing for your dialog tags?

Assuming you mean these things, I've actually been meaning to make a guide of my own for a while lol.

For one, you can only do this on computer/the website of Tumblr! There's no option to select this stuff on the app.

STEP 1: CREATE A NEW DOC / GO TO SETTINGS

It opens a dropdown menu/whole screen full of options!

From there, select the "text editor" dropdown, which starts as displaying "rich text".

Select "HTML"

And it should change how the entire post looks!

STEP TWO: CHEAT

Yeeeeeaaaaah, so I use a website for this lol

I inserted my colors for faeries (#30853C) and Cloud (#6DC1B4) for my example of "these things" earlier. To make this easier, I most often have two windows open at a time while working on uploading my scripts to Tumblr.

To get colours to insert into the Text Colorizer website, you can use any kind of hex color picker or even this one website I've used to yoink "thematic" colors from photos!

Personally, I've developed a massive library of colors over time for this exact purpose lol. Using my old colors as a "base", I can change it accordingly to the kind of "new color" that I want for a specific character or thing!

(I'll use the website to also make gradients for "in-between" colors lol)

STEP 3: INSERT TEXT / DESIRED COLORS

To make Nova's gradient, I start with #A600D9, my color for Magic, and end with #F56745—their individual color. However, being as it's short, I'll use a quote from them instead lol.

Once you've inserted your text and colors, you will click in the text box I highlighted in red, ctrl+a and ctrl+c to copy it all, and go back over to your new tumblr post tab!

From there, you'll ctrl+v to paste the entirety into the HTML area, which pastes the code into your post!

AND VOILA!

You have gorgeous gradient text!

However, I want to give a fair warning and a bit of advice! If you didn't notice wayyyyyyy back when...

Tumblr warns that this all can break your formatting!

It doesn't do it too often, but take it from someone who does an obscene amount of formatting... it's 100% true.

STEP 4: CHEAT SOME MORE!

For this reason, I personally have a whole separate draft post full of my characters' colors (and names lol) that I use to copy-paste them in from rather than using the "html" text editor on every post!

I mentioned earlier I often have multiple windows open while editing? Here's what that looks like!

Additionally, I'll use a separate tab off on the left (my "current wip post" side) with the "html editor" enabled for me to copy-paste stuff!

(Also here's yet another example of how many colors I have)

Once again, you can ctrl+c these things to paste them into another tumblr post with the correct colors!

And it's ONLY possible to do on the website!!!

EXTRA INFO!

WARNING:

Tumblr will only allow each "paragraph's html to be so many characters long, so you can't have too big of anything in a gradient!

And by "anything"... I mean you really can't have that big of a gradient in general. RIP lol.

It straight-up won't save the post so long as you have that "overflow" in the character block! MAKE SURE YOU'VE FIXED IT, OR YOU CAN AND WILL LOSE ALL PROGRESS ON YOUR POST!

SINGLE-COLOR TIP:

You don't need the website for a single color! If you'd like, you can just change the "color code" within the html editor to change specific colors!

MAKE SURE COLORS CAN WORK ON DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS!

On desktop, you can use shift+p while not on any sort of textbox to change the color pallet! I always do tests to see which colors work best before settling on any!

(Tho, the blue background SPECIFICALLY is nightmarish to work around. So if that's the ONLY thing I can't make work, I often ignore it and let you guys who use it suffer lmao)

(Hopefully this'll give you guys some respect for me and how much I do to make my posts aesthetic af lol)

Also hopefully this all helps???

divider by @cafekitsune

[sssammich]

collateral ch8

hello here's a surprise update from me as in i was surprised i updated

chapter 8 on ao3

samfic: collateral tag on tumblr

ok thx love u

--

By the mercy of some higher god or deity, Kara made it through the following week without absolutely failing Andrea's instructions. She responded to every text and phone call that came from Lena, but she did not initiate a single one.

Her hands itched to hold her phone, her fingers hovering over their text thread. She had so many thoughts throughout the day that she directly filtered into conversations with Lena that she hadn't realized how much of her life had revolved around her best friend. She brought up what food she wanted to eat that day, what research she was struggling to do at work, what social media posts and internet memes she wanted to immediately share upon learning about them, what writing ideas she wanted to delve into, what nonsense happened during her commute, what she'd felt on any given day. Her every day, distilled in snapshots of texts shared between them, each one a bid for attention.

What had been a bustling and overflowing thread of constant communication shrank bit by bit. If Lena noticed anything throughout the week, she hadn't said a word, hadn't brought up anything with her. She dreaded texts from Lena, wondering if the new notification that appeared on her screen would be the one that asked Is everything alright? Did something happen?

Are you mad at me?

Did I do something wrong?

Kara knew that it was only a matter of time.

—

She slumped down on the black velvet couch in Andrea's office with a huff. Andrea only looked up from her desk, her typing never once losing its speed on her computer.

Kara sat on that couch and stared out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked downtown National City. It was an unfamiliar view, one that overlooked a different part of town than what Kara was accustomed to. As the minutes ticked on and Andrea continued working, Kara could only compare the stark differences in her hangouts with Lena when she stopped by her best friend's office.

Lena would pause what she was doing, walk over to the couch, and greet Kara with a hug and a smile. Kara would bring her something to eat or a snack on her way from an interview or doing canvassing research. They would sit on the white leather sofa that overlooked National City with a view of the main city park amidst all the glass and steel buildings. They would spend as little as five minutes to hours on that couch depending on their schedules, focused on simply being present together.

So it was with a frown that she looked over her shoulder and glared at Andrea who remained steadfast in pretending she wasn't in the room. Until she eventually glanced Kara's way, but never once stopped what she was doing.

Glumly, this was why Kara thought that Lena was her favorite.

Ten long minutes passed by before Andrea's typing stopped and the faint roll of an office chair against hardwood floors could be heard. Kara didn't bother to look over her shoulder, instead waiting for Andrea to walk over to her.

When Andrea's frame shadowed over her, Kara finally turned her head to squint up at her friend slash fuck buddy slash current confidante.

"Do you make all of your visitors wait this long?"

Andrea simply raised a brow. "Do you have an appointment?"

Kara groaned and exhaled audibly, slumping even further into the sofa. Andrea leaned against the arm of the sofa, the fabric of her skirt grazing Kara's hand.

"I did what you told me," she said aloud.

"Be more specific."

"I only respond, I never initiate." When Andrea didn't say anything, Kara continued, her gaze returning to the view outside the window. "It's been hell."

Andrea laughed. "What did you expect?"

"I don't know. Not this."

"Really?" Andrea scoffed, giving Kara a pointed look. "Your smart brain didn't anticipate this?"

"I just…" she started, releasing a small huff. "Getting texts from her makes me antsy now because I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. Like one of these days, she's gonna confront me and say I've been a shitty friend and have been ignoring her."

"Well…"

"I know! You don't have to say it." She looked up at a pair of blue eyes scrutinizing her.

"So what do you want me to say?"

"God, I don't know. That I'm doing the right thing. That this will blow over and I'll be better for it in the long run. Literally anything would be nice right about now."

Andrea finally stood from her perched spot on the arm of the couch and took the free space beside Kara. She then rested her elbow on her thigh before turning to meet Kara's eyes. "You've dug a hole years in the making, querida. I don't think there's anything I can say that will help assuage your guilt enough to get through this. And frankly, I wouldn't want to do that anyway. Not really my style."

Kara's bottom lip jutted out into a petulant pout, but she didn't dare look at Andrea.

"What's the worst thing that can happen if you confessed?"

Kara looked aghast. Andrea simply rolled her eyes.

"Just answer the question."

"I lose her for good because she hates me, thinks I'm ruining her life. And then I proceed to ruin the best friendship I've ever had."

"So you're just, what? Masochistically edging yourself by losing her a little bit each time? You've been carrying this secret for so long, it's practically your identity. Doesn't that sound insane to you?"

Kara looked away. "It's pathetic."

"Very."

"So, what? I should just tell her? Hey, been in love with you the whole time. Sorry I was too chicken shit to not say anything until now, when you're happily married to a man with an accent and a full head of hair."

Andrea chuckled before granting Kara a gentle squeeze of her shoulder. "Well, do you even want to tell her?"

"I did, once. When she got back from a conference, we were gonna have our regular hang out. But then she came back with her 'old friend' Jack who ended up staying in town. Lost my nerve. Never got it back again."

"Well, not like you've done anything to get it back, in fairness."

"You have a really shitty way of making me feel better."

The other woman simply shrugged. "My therapist and I agree that consoling others isn't one of my strengths."

"You go to therapy?"

Andrea tilted her head. "I think the fact that that's what you got out of all of that shows you aren't paying attention."

Kara focused her eyes on her fingers picking at the knee of her slacks.

"Alright," Andrea began. "So what's the best case scenario?"

"What?"

"The best case scenario. You tell her and then what?"

Kara shut her eyes for a second, the images of her dreams and fantasies clear as day in her mind, many that have ran through her thoughts for years that they play like old tapes, well-worn and well-loved. When she opened her eyes, Andrea was looking at her intently. "She feels the same way I do. She wants to be with me. We get married. We live happily ever after. We keep the apartment in the city but then buy a house on the coast. Adopt three dogs."

"You can have that with anybody else, you know."

"Yeah, I know." She opened her eyes. "But I want it with her."

Andrea stared at her before taking a deep breath, an audible exhale before she rose to her feet with a shake of her head. Yeah, definitely pathetic.

—

She huffed in calculated breaths, sweat soaking her sports bra and tank top while she shadowboxed her reflection in the mirror in front of her. Her fists curled tightly as she jabbed an invisible opponent, avoiding equally invisible punches her way. Her feet danced in place as she exhaled her counting: one-two, one-two.

Despite the precision of her external movements, her mind was in deep chaos—thoughts warring with each other and anxieties flaring up as she valiantly tried to make sense of her feelings. She hated herself for letting her feelings and emotions for Lena go this far for this long. She punched the air harder at each of her regrets, the tension in her muscles as she contracted and expanded them. She could have nipped her feelings in the bud, cut her losses and moved on with someone else. She even thought about how maybe it wasn't the worst thing in the world if she confessed, if things were truly out in the open. But she was also so deathly afraid of the look that Lena would give her if and when she found out. Kara simply was not ready to face that inevitability.

Pushing her body to failure, Kara dropped her arms to her sides and gasped for breath, her lungs and her muscles on fire at having exhausted herself to the limits. She caught sight of her reflection: her chest red and heaving, baby hairs plastered against her forehead, her body glistening with sweat.

Kara fell on one knee and then on all fours, her lungs burning as she tried to get her breathing under control. She plopped down onto the ground, turning at the last minute so she laid on her back and stared at the nondescript ceiling. She'd made a mess of things for herself, she knew, and if she didn't sort out herself soon, it was only going to get worse.

—

Kara missed Lena. After three weeks of the most restrained and tense conversations via texts that they have had in years, Kara broke. She realized that this whole charade had only made her antsy, jumpy, and altogether moody. This was one solution, but it wasn't the solution and she knew that she needed to rein everything back in and figure out a different way to get over her best friend.

So with shaking fingers and a heartbeat running a mile a minute, she opened the text thread with Lena and asked if Lena wanted burgers or sushi for their Friday lunch coming up the next day.

The fifteen minutes of waiting just about drove Kara crazy, but when she found the three dots appearing at the bottom of the screen, she could only hold her breath.

Lena: Surprise me

Kara: You got it! I'll order our usuals and even put in an order for Jess.

Lena: That's sweet, she'll appreciate that.

Kara: Alright, I'm gonna get some sleep now but I'll see you tomorrow!

Lena: Goodnight, Kara

Kara: Night

Kara carried the bags of takeout in hand and made her way with great ease to Lena's office before making herself at home. She knocked and peeked her head in with a small smile, holding out the bag for Lena to see. Lena who remained seated at her desk holding the phone by her ear, giving Kara a wide grin and pointing at the seating area.

Dutiful, Kara quietly made her way towards the familiar white leather sofa and slowly unpacked their lunches, careful of the parchment and paper bag from crinkling too much. She knew that the sound probably wouldn't have disturbed Lena, but Kara was nervous. She'd kept herself at bay from her best friend knowing she could never reveal her own issues to the very person it pertained to, but that had put her in such an uncomfortable place that she knew she had to do something different.

She'd just taken her burger out of her own bag when Lena approached.

"Hi, darling, so happy to see you." Kara smiled brightly even as guilt lurched inside.

"Hey," she said, beginning to stand, but Lena simply waved her off. "Got you your favorite."

Lena beamed as she sat beside Kara, a familiar close but not touching distance between them. Enough for Kara to feel the warmth emanating from Lena beside her. "Thank you. I would have taken the sushi, but with the morning I've had, I'm kind of glad that you got Big Belly today."

"Lucky thing, then," she said, her burger held up in mid-air as she watched her best friend unwrap her own burger, hands expertly holding the wrapper so as to avoid any of the mess dripping on her. When Lena returned her gaze, Kara smiled. "Bon appetit."

They quietly ate, remarking on their food and making small talk. Kara updated Lena of some projects she was working on and some gossip around her office, and Lena mentioned some initiatives L-Corp wanted to take on, updating her about Lillian and Lionel's upcoming trip overseas for vacation, and Jack's ongoing business deals.

"He's been going back and forth between here and London, courting backers for his company's launch. I think I've seen him a total of a week or so just this past month."

"Oh, I hadn't realized he'd been away so much."

"Yeah," Lena sighed, rubbing at her temples. "It's fine, though. I understand courting backers and investors all too well."

"Right. Well, that's cool. Sorry you've been missing him," she said, meaning it.

"Thank you, Kara. Like I said, I understand the hustle required to get investors. Even after inheriting an existing company, investors are a fickle, greedy bunch."

She laughed along as Lena steered the conversation to other topics, Kara getting the impression that Lena most likely hadn't wanted to talk about her husband. Eventually, their lunch hour neared its end and Kara began making her way towards the door when Lena placed a hand on her forearm—the touch as if burning her skin.

"I'm so glad we were able to make lunch happen," Lena said.

"Yeah, I—me too. I know I had to bail on the last couple ones." She ducked, not quite meeting her best friend's eyes.

"I had wondered what was going on."

Kara's lips tugged down into a frown, her brows scrunching in concern. "What do you mean?"

Lena bit her lip and shook her head. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I've missed you, Kara. I know our schedules can get hectic, so I wanted to give you your space these last few weeks. I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. That we're okay."

Kara's heart wanted to escape her chest, and she hoped that the hand still on her forearm couldn't detect the speed of her beating heart. She ached inside at putting Lena through this whole ordeal, now a charade she must perform just to keep up appearances.

"I'm sorry, Lena. I didn't mean to worry you. We're okay. More than."

"Promise?"

She nodded, using her free hand to gesture a cross over her heart before she gave Lena her best smile. "Cross my heart. I'm sorry that I've made you doubt that. I've just kinda been busy with work and some personal stuff."

"Personal stuff?"

"Yeah, but I'm dealing with it."

That response didn't seem adequate for Lena whose brows remained scrunched up. "Anything I can help with?"

Kara opted for some honesty, this time, and shook her head. "No, I'm afraid not. It's just something from my past I should've dealt with a long time ago. But thank you for offering. This is just…this is something I have to handle on my own. All I need from you is to keep being the best friend I know and love. Cool?"

Lena didn't say anything at first, her teeth digging into her bottom lip as if she wanted to say something more, though the relief in her eyes were apparent. Instead, she nodded her head and gave Kara a shy smile. "Alright. If you're sure."

"I am."

The smile on Lena's face was brighter and more assured, so Kara mirrored it as best as she could. It was the least she could do.

—

She'd agreed to go antiquing with Lena later that same weekend, a call from Lena inviting her on Sunday morning. The 'no' was on the tip of her tongue, but with how Friday had gone, she hadn't wanted to disappoint Lena or make her friend worry further. Naturally, Lena had noticed that she had become distant and even went so far as to consider owning up to blame she didn't deserve. Kara knew that she had fix that immediately because this was her problem to contend with.

So here she stood in another antique store, trailing after Lena whose eyes critically scanned the room for furniture items that she may have wanted to furnish the apartment she shared with her husband. It should be him there with Lena, but he'd been called to a meeting last minute that he apparently couldn't get out of.

Kara hadn't wanted to think of his loss as her gain, but she couldn't deny that she loved all of the one-on-one time that she and Lena spent together. She liked Jack, he was the best kind of guy that Kara would have chosen for Lena herself if her own foolish heart hadn't gotten in the way. So she knew that Lena would be well taken care of. But it made her giddy to spend the time with Lena that she hadn't been able to due to her own dumb decisions.

It did make her wonder though that he'd been absent more and more, no doubt trying to build a business from the ground up—a sacrifice that she understood he had to make to help ensure a future with Lena. Still, an itching worry scratched at the back of her mind that she couldn't shake off. She didn't even know what her worry was about or where it stemmed from, simply chalking up her anxieties at her own treacherous heart for having abandoned Lena over the passing weeks.

When Kara texted Andrea about what she was doing that Sunday after getting a brunch invite just after Lena asked her to hang out, she picked up the call from Andrea after the first ring.

"You really think this is a good idea?"

"She's my best friend. Lena was looking forward to going antiquing or whatever and Jack bailed because of some, I don't know, work stuff. I can't leave her hanging."

Kara could only imagine the eyeroll that she knew Andrea was giving her from the other end of the line.

"You know, for someone so cowardly in their risk-taking, you sure lack a sense of self-preservation."  Then Andrea hung up and left Kara staring at her phone.

"What do you think about this?" Lena's voice broke through her reverie from across a dining showroom. She was pointing at a rattan buffet sideboard beside her.

Kara scrunched her face and gave Lena two thumbs down. Lena simply laughed and shook her head before walking away, the sound and image of Lena's happiness lingering in Kara's eyes as she rushed to follow after her.

She found a low and wide bright orange sofa and plopped down onto it, her body practically melting as she laid on the comfortable cushions.

"Huh? Whaddaya think?" she asked, her head lolling against the sofa's back.

Lena rolled her eyes. "Kara, that's atrocious."

"Okay, so it looks like I fell into a massive vat of orange soda, but come lay on it. It's softer than it looks."

When her best friend didn't budge, Kara simply patted the seat beside her. "Come on. It's even in your price range." For good measure, she waggled her eyebrows as if to prove a point despite knowing that purchasing every single item in this store would barely make a dent in her best friend's fortunes.

Lena giggled then and slowly made her way to the empty spot beside Kara. She mirrored Kara, her head resting on the back and the two of them staring at one another amidst giggles.

"I think my eyes hurt even more when it's so up close."

Kara giggled and stared at Lena's eyes, the two of them sitting cozily beside one another.

"Just use this for all your naps. Your eyes don't have to be open for that."

"You're ridiculous. I'm not getting this couch."

"I am ridiculous, but I at least need you to accept the fact that it's very comfortable."

"Fine, I will concede that it's nice to sit on."

"It'll go great in that study of yours. Perfect for those naps you pretend to not take."

"Kara…this couch is ugly as sin."

"And sinfully comfortable."

The laughter that poured out of Lena was one of the many things she loved about the other woman, and she would do anything to be the cause of that, to keep making sure that Lena had joy and happiness in her life. Even if Kara couldn't express herself in the way that she wanted.

"I'm not getting this couch."

She hummed, getting up and extending a hand that Lena took with a gentle smile. "The day is young, Lena Luthor."

They perused the rest of the store and spent another forty-five minutes trying out different couches and chairs, but in the end, the ugly bright orange couch won out. With a triumphant smile, she beamed when Lena relented and told the employee that she'd be taking the abysmal couch before filling out delivery information.

When they walked out, Lena was still shaking her head even as Kara laughed and laughed.

"Oh, don't be so smug."

"I can and I will. You just bought the ugliest couch in there."

Lena gasped and pinched Kara's side, but Kara was more than happy to accept her punishment if it meant that she could see Lena happy and carefree like this. No matter what emotions spurred inside of her, she knew she couldn't give up seeing Lena at her happiest.

—

When they got back into the city, they stopped by Noonan's for a quick coffee pickup, the two of them sitting outside on the patio. After they got situated in their seats and passively watched the people passing by, Lena invited her to the apartment, but Kara simply declined.

"Oh? Hot date?" Lena asked.

"Uh, definitely not. It's just Andrea. We're, uh, hanging out later."

Lena donned a contemplative frown. "Kara, forgive me for prying, but are you sure that you two aren't, you know, dating?"

She scoffed. "No, no. We're definitely not dating."

"I just feel like you've been spending an awful lot of time with her. Which is great, Andrea is a friend, but I'll understand if that's why you haven't been around as much. You know you can tell me anything." Lena leaned forward, elbows on the table.

"We hook up sometimes," she mumbled, the words coming out of their own volition.

"Oh."

"Yeah, is that—sorry, is that weird? I know she's your friend and there's some vague history she never expanded on back in the day…"

"That's not weird, Kara. Whatever youthful experimentations she and I had are long behind us."

"Right."

"Since when?" Lena asked, her fingers tapping the side of her cup.

Kara made a face. "Uh, the wedding."

"The wedding. My wedding? You two had sex at my wedding?"

"Um, kinda?"

Lena offered her a smile, but Kara noticed how tight-lipped it appeared. "And you two—since then?"

She nodded after sipping her coffee just to wet the dryness of her mouth.

"That's been months, Kara."

She scratched the side of her head. "Yeah, it just kinda happened."

With pursed lips, Lena studied her for a second before taking a sip of her own coffee, her fingers never once stopping against the side of her cup. "I didn't think you were one for casual hookups like that."

"I'm not. But…" What could Kara say here without revealing her hand, without confessing her feelings that she'd only done it to fill the void of what that wedding had done to her heart, to her psyche. That she sought the solace of a woman who knew her innermost secret and flayed it open on display and offered her a distraction. That she made a woman cum with the strength and skill of her hands and tongue and wished it had been the woman sitting in front of her now instead.

She trailed off and Lena chuckled, erroneously filling in Kara's silence with her own assumptions. "I get it, Kara. It's fine. You two are very attractive and very single people. It's understandable."

"You think I'm attractive?"

Lena gave her a playful glare. "Don't push your luck. She's clearly the better looking of the two of you."

"What?! You're ranking me second behind that meanie?"

"Did you just call her a…meanie?"

"Yeah, she's kind of a bully, actually. She teases me a lot." Teases me about you, she thought. "Calls me Pulitzer and stuff. She's actually a brat. But the sex is good, at least."

Lena observed her for a second before taking another sip of her drink. "At least."

Just then, her phone chimed again.

"Sorry, Lena. I gotta get going. She wants to go to this swanky bar downtown and I should probably get ready."

Despite how the last few weeks had gone between them with Kara never initiating their conversations, it was she who initiated the hug between them, her arms wrapping around Lena's waist as Lena's arms locked around her neck.

"I'll talk to you soon?" she asked when they parted, Lena's hands sliding down her arms and giving her biceps a gentle squeeze.

Lena nodded. "Of course."

She walked away and offered her best friend the most genuine smile as they parted by their table. She brought the phone to her ear when the phone chimed a text from Andrea.

"You're such a freakin' bitch," she muttered on the phone only to hear Andrea's amused laughter on the other end of the line.

Consumed in her phone call with Andrea, she hadn't seen Lena's scrutinizing gaze linger on her from where she sat.

[invertedspoon]

maybe we could talk about it

[aai-simon-blackquill]

Hi this is me and @/1071png I am so sorry I commandeered your rlly rlly cute art <3 But! Since people seem interested, I'll be posting project updates here once I really get the ball rolling :) so stay tuned!!

Here are all of the sprites I have finished (of Simon--I have a few of his weirdgirl too but I'm nervous abt sharing that). I want to do his angry one next :]

[wikiangela]

wip wednesday 🎄

it's wednesday here already so starting today off with a new wip lol sooo, i said a few days ago that I'm not gonna write a christmas fic bc im focusing on my wips, but... today at work i made myself sad by randomly thinking about buckley christmas (no idea what prompted that lol) and buck talking to eddie about his childhood christmas and a new idea was born hah it's gonna be mostly cute and fluffy tho i promise haha so here's a lil snippet I literally just wrote so ofc it's gonna get edited and polished later lol

___

There’s maybe twenty minutes of the movie left, and Eddie feels like he’s starting to doze off as well, when he hears Buck sigh, and it sounds almost sad. Eddie turns his head to look at his best friend.

“What’s up?” he whispers, glancing down between them to make sure his kid is still asleep.

“Nothing.” Buck shakes his head softly, continuing to look at the screen with this longing expression. Eddie frowns and looks at the TV, too. (...) “I just-” Buck starts before Eddie’s tired brain can start connecting the dots. “Nevermind, it’s stupid.”

“Hey.” Eddie moves his foot to shove lightly at Buck’s. “I’m sure whatever it is, it’s not stupid. You know you can tell me anything, right?” he adds quietly, and Buck looks at him with a small awed smile and shiny eyes.

“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” he clears his throat, then looks down to make sure he didn’t wake Christopher. Eddie can’t help a smile. “Okay. Uh, it’s gonna be so silly, so don’t laugh.” he averts his eyes back to the screen, and if it was any lighter, Eddie’s sure he’d see a slight blush on his cheeks.

“I would never.” Eddie answers, and Buck just raises an eyebrow with one more glance towards him. They both know they love making fun of and teasing each other, that’s true. However, Eddie has a feeling this is going to be more sad than funny. 

___

no pressure tags: @elvensorceress @gaydiaz @diazass @thebravebitch @silentxxsoul @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @arthursdent @diazblunt @911onabc @spagheddiediaz @housewifebuck @gayhoediaz @rogerzsteven @watchyourbuck @monsterrae1 @honestlydarkprincess @underwater-ninja-13 @eowon @weewootruck @loserdiaz @evanbegins @steadfastsaturnsrings @ladydorian05 @malewifediaz @pirrusstuff @theotherbuckley @911-on-abc @hoodie-buck @wildlife4life @fortheloveofbuddie @nmcggg @diazpatcher @jeeyuns @jesuisici33 @thewolvesof1998 @lover-of-mine @jamespearce9-1-1 @giddyupbuck @spotsandsocks @daffi-990 @exhuastedpigeon @disasterbuckdiaz @buckaroosheart @hippolotamus @thewolvesof1998 @king-buckley

[determunition]

Hi so I’ve curious, (Been nervous about starting my own AU) When you first started posting OFH (on twitter/ao3) how did you get the courage to post it? Were you ever afraid of getting called ‘cringe’ or ‘weird’ or anything else negative? If so how were you able to get over it? (Btw I do love this AU with all my heart!) Sorry if any of these questions are too sensitive!

hi!! thanks for the questions, i'm flattered to be considered a source of wisdom about this x3

OFH/retyrement, like most fandom things i do, started as kind of a silly shitpost thing; i love human AUs, and when my buddy squid_hug made that original text post about the retirement home it tickled me too much to ignore. objectively the scrybes being human old people bickering in a retirement home is a goofy, silly idea, and that's how it started as an AU, down to the written fic. i think that in itself made it a bit easier to post about

however! even with that, when i started posting the first pieces of art it was definitely a "do it scared" situation lmao; i don't remember where i heard this, but in some cases it takes even more courage to do something new when you're already known for something than it does to start something new with no presence at all, and that was definitely true with the retyrement AU. it was my first contribution to the fandom too! i was definitely worried it wouldn't go over well with anyone bc it was so damn niche lolol

my main piece of advice for getting over this fear (besides just doing it scared until you're not scared anymore) is to get yourself a hype squad lmao; though maybe the more accurate term would be a mutual AU ecosystem. i had squid to develop a lot of the AU with me at the start and we bounced a lot of silly ideas off of each other, and now i have a lot more folks around to crack jokes and hype each other up about our art and fics! also at the beginning i had a point where i was feeling a little self-conscious about continuing to post (the AU had a painfully small amount of engagement at the beginning lol), but as soon as i got one (1) ask saying "i wanna see more of this" i took that as my green light to get as silly with it as possible lmao

so ig my TL;DR advice is: don't take shit too seriously, remember it's all in good fun, and surround yourself with folks who enjoy funny lil AUs as much as you do! the second thing can be hard, as it involves uh, putting yourself out there in the first place, but embracing that discomfort is a necessary evil for having a good-ass time! if you can successfully kill the part of yourself that cringes then you'll never be cringe again

godspeed on your own AU endeavors, the digital world is always better for having another crazy creative alternate universe in it <3

[numbuh424]

was debating on whether I should post this or not but I spent so much time on it...🍎 I've been studying the death note art style, and for me studying an art style just means drawing myself as practice 💀

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)

[pocketramblr]

Dash simulator

Blog 1: lol anyone else seeing a lot of strawberries in new recipes now? sometimes its fun but i really dont get the appeal of adding it to everything. why did you make strawberry garlic bread

Blog 2: u kno im not a fan of strawberries, i really like the rich sweet and sour notes from oranges, oranges and chocolate is such a good combo. i altered a recipe for a smoothie with oranges last week and it was soooo good ill give you my notes if you want Reblogged by: Blog 1: ahaha yesss i love chocolate and oranges

Blog 3: I canNOT believe the hate im seeing to strawberries right now, like, you know guys know the rule don't like don't bake right?? you know you can hit the back button right?? honestly what's wrong with yall

Open draft- wait guys you know there's a difference between leaving a comment on a recipe saying you hate strawberries and the recipe writer should never use them, and going to your own blog to say you don't really like strawberries, without naming any specific people or recipes right? you know there's a difference right?? - Save - Post - Discard

Draft discarded

Blog 4: why is everyone jumping on the strawberry hate train right now. what is wrong with you. Reblogged by: Blog 5: I knowwww like guys some people stop baking because of reading things like that, please stop it, if you don't like strawberries you can be quiet about it

Open draft- im so sorry if anyone's getting sent mean messages or comments about what they're writing and baking, but i'm literally not seeing any of that and if you are, please use the block button. but someone making a post on their own blog is not that, and if you can't see the irony in you being allowed to complain on personal blogs but not them i can't help you... - save- post- discard

Draft discarded

Blog 2: are strawberries even in season?

Blog 6: woo cherry pie!

[buttercupshands]

I just managed to get off mha hyperfixation

And now it's happening again... Oh no

Helps with upcoming MHUI LoV event tho, it was a long time since last one happened I wonder what would happen in a new filler story part

Basically this and couple of pages of mid-final arc chapters + recent episode and next one being The Dabi episode was just too much not to get excited again

But! Important thing - I need to reread the last arc before I make anything new, if possible without finishing it to the 419 chapter and everything after, it took 2 months to really recover from the damage that chapter did

Anyway am I ready for the new event? Kinda! Do I have enough gems to get new Tomura? No! I'm not sure he'll even show up this time, because other ones were and still are really stubborn

Also Steampunk recruit took like 120 pulls in a step-up recruit and in the usual one combined

Not the best time to get LoV involved, it's cruel even

Also that one part of the page I added at the beginning was so interesting to look at and them I joked about 236 being similar. The only good thing with final arc being over is that I can say that Izuku didn't draw the parallel of seeing everyone hurt and seeing Tenko react on Mon's death

Understandable why, but it's funny to just look at them and be like, "wow Horikoshi traumatized them both"

[lillywhitefield]

I am once again begging some people to think about where they get their info on the internet

a random twitter* user is not a valid source of information

any idiot can say they know things, and if you believe them with no proof that's on you

*also reddit, discord, and now tumblr user too lmao

[ofmd-archive]

Great just end it with fucking genocide, make that seem fine to write. Totally not like living poc have trauma surrounding that. Fuck you to every fucking writer who saw a show that finally had a poc queer cast and decide "you know what this needs? the blood of asian women" and then to fucking gloat that brits will never be fucking slaves as if- you know what if you don't know history and about the trans atlantic slavery and the issues we currently have with human trafficking at this point and you're a fucking adult, that's on you and fuck you if you don't give a shit about this

once again to every single fucking person who greenlit this or heard this idea and went "yes, good."

fuck you

[captainderyn]

Dear mentor my cp2077 cravings are way beyond my compression and I need v being completely Injured/hurt and relying on judy / or judy humming pyramid song to v till she sleeps

Or if you wish for oc content it would be

> magic studying together or symbolism with flowers :D

_ no forcing here o7 If you don't wanna write em you can do as you wish

> GLITTER ANON

Glitter Anon!! You bring me so much joy every time you appear in my inbox <3 Always happy to provide some angsty V with Judy saving the day. Hope you enjoy!

TW for canon typical injury and canon typical swearing

--

Dakota had been out of her goddamn mind sending V that gig and listing it as solo. Or maybe she'd misplaced her confidence in V as a merc, and V was just losing her edge.

Not that it mattered now, the data was sent to Dakota and the eddies were transferring into her account as far as V could tell from the static spiking across her vision and each beat of her heart sending shooting pain into her head.

Stupid netrunners with their stupid hidey-holes that were better than her netrunner hidey-holes. Despite throwing every hack she knew, straining her cyberdeck to the max while she dealt with the swarm of Raffen that had poured from the dark crevices of the 'abandoned' building like ants, she still hadn't managed to drop the 'runner before being hit by two or three hacks powerful enough to down a cyberpsycho.

Johnny's voice was ragged and tinny, like he was coming from a transmission with bad connection, as he pulled himself from whatever recess of his mind he hung out in.

"V, pull over."

She grunted as she hit another pothole, pain shooting through her entire body. It radiated enough that she couldn't even pinpoint where it was coming from anymore. She pulled one hand to clutch at her side as a jolt went through her.

"Gotta get back to Night City." She insisted.

Her emergency bag with stims was drained dry, her mind swimming from what was probably a higher than recommended dose of MaxDocs.

The gig had been too far to make it to the Aldacados' camp without needing to stop at one of the dodgy, gang ridden gas stations on the way. Too far out in the middle of nowhere to make it to Dakota's shop but just too shy of the borders of the city to make it easy for her.

Only option was the push through til she made it home and patched herself up. Anything else was too risky. Who knew who would sell her their help just to turn around and screw her over.

"V just pull over for a sec!" Johnny pushed again and she was about to snap at him again, turning her head like he'd be riding on a motorcycle alongside her, when she hit another bump.

Whatever injuries were hiding beneath raged in unison and her vision went dark around the edges, her body rebelling against consciousness and desperately trying to give into the innate urge to curl around itself.

Her already tenuous grip on her bike's handlebars faltered and within seconds the pavement was becoming acquainted with her body as she hit it hard, skidding to a stop as her bike charged into the barely-standing bus stop shelter at the edge of road.

V choked out a cough, spitting out red-tinged spit as she waited for the world to stop spinning and shaking.

"Get outta the road." Johnny snapped, scuffed black leather of his shoes stomping in front of her face as he materialized into a crouch, glaring at her from behind his aviators. "Gonna get turned to roadkill."

Pulling each breath in felt like hauling sandpaper down her throat into her lungs as V tried to catch the air that had been knocked out of her lungs. But she rolled over onto her side, then pushed herself into a seated position.

That alone felt like an accomplishment, especially with Johnny's nagging kick at the bottom of her boots until she'd shimmied all the way off the road. When her ass hit gravel she stopped, wrapping her arms around her knees and glaring at Johnny as heat that she really hoped was sweat slid down her face.

"Christ on a stick, you're pitiful." Johnny drawled, standing at her feet with his arms crossed over his chest, "Call your slam piece to come haul your sorry ass of the side of the road."

V scowled, fixing her eyes on her bike, smoking alongside the twisted metal that had been the rusted shelter. She hadn't been going that fast...had she? Everything was blurry.

"Even if you got that bike started, you won't make it a hundred feet." Johnny intercepted her plan, snapping his fingers. "What is her name, the one you make the hopeless puppy eyes at? I'm sure she'd take you in like the lost stray you are."

Feeling her glare on him, he tilted his aviators down to meet her look with raised brows. "You do it or I do it. I'm not dying again because the bitch-ass merc that I was unlucky enough to get stuck with let Raffen and pride kill her out in the Badlands."

Without breaking her glaring eye contact, V rang Judy. As the comm-line rang she stuck her tongue out at Johnny. He rolled his eyes and flipped her off. He flickered out of existence in front of her, just to re materialize leaning against the guardrail next to her.

"Someone has to look out for you." He groused. "You sure as shit won't."

Judy picked up on the third ring, her visual popping up in the corner of V's UI. Or what she could make out of it from the way her UI was glitching out.

"Hey V I was just thinking 'bout..." Judy's voice faltered, "V? The hell are you, what happened?"

V picked at the gravel in her palms, jammed between her skin and implants, wincing.

"Shit went sideways, wrecked my bike." She muttered, lifting her eyes to Johnny who gave an exaggerated 'yes and' gesture. She lowered her brows and he proceeded to make an even more exaggerated gesture.

He was impossible.

She cleared her throat, mouth like cotton, "Can you uh...actually, nevermind."

"Uh-huh, nevermind, what's your location I'm already on my way." There was a jangling like car keys.

But it was getting dark, and who knew what started to crawl around these parts when it was dark. She'd gotten herself into this mess and she could get herself out of it.

A force like a booted foot slammed into her side and V buckled, the sound that slipped from her choking out between a shriek and a sob. She heard Judy trying to ask her what was wrong, but her ears were ringing and the words were stuck in her mouth.

"Rancho Coronado, exit to the Badlands." Johnny supplied to V, standing over her with his arms crossed. Arrogant bastard. "Still think you can drag yourself back to H10?"

"Hnng, fuck, Rancho Coronado, by the old bus stop in the canyon." V choked out.

The minutes dragged as V hunched over herself, the world fading in and out around her. She was aware of Judy staying on the line with her, catching very little of the intense volley of what she could only imagine were heated curse words and the road noise of the van.

Then there it was, Judy's beat up blue van bouncing up the road in a cloud of dust. It groaned in protest as Judy threw it into park and was out before it had rocked backwards to a stop.

"V?" Judy's hands were blissfully warm against the chill that the temperate drop had leeched into V's skin. Judy tilted V's chin up and she forced her eyes open, "You still with me?"

God, she'd never been so happy to see someone, even if the thought of dragging Judy into her shit made her want to scream.

"Still here." V confirmed with a groan, a shudder wracking her, "Unfortunately."

Judy brushed her thumbs across V's cheekbones, lips pursing together, before she moved to slip an arm under V's arms.

"Let's get you to the van."

Moving felt like a monumental task, far too much of an undertaking. But if she didn't even try, then Judy would have to bear the brunt of her cyberware-heightened weight. And she'd already made Judy haul her dead weight from beneath the waters of the dam.

So V forced her legs beneath her and helped to stand with Judy's help, letting out a breath in a hoarse wheeze. Whatever edge the MaxDocs had taken off was wearing away, leaving sharp, ragged edges of pain spiking from various places on her body to mix with the general ache that was her existence right now.

Slopping into the passenger seat of Judy's car was a mercy on her body and she slouched, leaning her head back against the headrest with a whimper.

God, she was so tired of hurting. Hurting today, hurting whenever the Relic flared; her world had been one whole incessant hurt since taking that stupid heist with Jackie.

Then Judy was in the drivers seat, the van rumbling to life beneath them, and her hand was a gentle press on V's thigh.

"Do you need me to find a ripper?" And there was such matter-of-fact concern in Judy's voice, such a simplicity in the question, that V had to squeeze her eyes closed against the burn of tears and shake her head to work around the lump in her throat.

When was the last time she'd had someone care, somewhere there to haul her ass off the floor when shit hit the fan?

"Don't need a ripper." V rasped, "Nothing that can't be patched up at home."

Maybe she should get her cyberdeck checked out after the other netrunners' hits, but the static was starting to fade from her head to be replaced by bone deep exhaustion and hurt. If more issues popped up, she'd go bother Vik tomorrow.

If only to avoid landing on his doorstep in a pitiful state.

Again.

Judy put the van in drive, doing her best to avoid the potholes, her hand staying on V's leg. It was nice, comforting.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd had that either.

V leaned her head back against the headrest, eyes drifting closed, and let the ride pass by in a blur.

--

By the time V made it up the stairs to Judy's apartment, even with her help, she was spent. The floor looked like a fantastic space to just let herself collapse and sleep off all of today.

But that would mean bleeding all over Judy's floor and Judy's grip on her was unwavering.

Instead she found herself in the dim light of the bathroom, gingerly peeling herself out of her clothes. Her jacket and pants rained gravel down in a pitter-patter on the tile and her tank top clung to her skin with a sticky solution of blood and wound.

Judy helped her peel that off too, giving a soft curse at the angry welts and road rash across her torso, back, and sides.

"At least you were wearing leather." Judy said with a shake of her head, "Otherwise I'd be scraping you off the road back there."

There was enough admonishment in her tone that V snorted out a laugh, then winced as her body punished her for it. Already a massive bruise mottled her skin from hip up her rib cage from where one of the netrunner's attacks had hit her hard enough that she fell from what she'd thought had been a hidden vantage point.

Which had led to her fighting her way out of the swarm.

She explained it all the Judy to fill the silence aside from the hiss of the shower, to keep herself from cussing and wincing as between the two of them they cleaned the gravel and blood from her skin.

V let herself drift in the feeling of safety, let herself disengage from the high alert she always seemed to be on. Judy's hands were gentle as she helped V smear a sharp-scented ointment on her road burn and bruises and helped wrap gauze around the worst of it.

Sitting on Judy's couch in a t-shirt two sizes too small and sweatpants that were a couple inches too short, V let her head drop down onto Judy's shoulder. Judy carded her fingers through V's hair without enough tenderness that V could've cried.

"Thank you for saving my ass back there." she murmured, the emotion she'd walled back seeping through a crack in her voice.

Judy leaned back on the couch, tugging V with her so that she was laying half on top of Judy. V relaxed into it, angling herself so that she wasn't laying on her worst side, and nestled her head into the crook between Judy's neck and shoulder.

This was far better than crawling back to her own apartment, nursing her wounds alone, and passing out in the bed cubby with the help of whatever would numb the pain enough to help her sleep. Judy's hand continuing to card through her hair was like a siren's song for sleep.

"I'm always going to come get you mi calabacita." Judy whispered against her hair, "You're not facing Night City on your own anymore."

[worldofgoo]

also i already said this elsewhere but i got him mop psycho pilled which ill consider a win. better than watching popular shonen slop constantly

[beesonjupiter]

saw a tiktok about 1000stars...

guess i have plans for the next 2 days