#adam would definitely try to adopt any cold animal outside of his apartment

[littlesapphicraccoonguy]

Short Chainshipping comic(?) with a little raccoon :3 did i make this as an excuse to draw a raccoon? My lawyers have strongly advised that i don’t answer that

[rant4hsmtmts]

Caswell cousins

I thought of writing this ages ago but forgot to finish it- so here is a small story about Ej and Ashlyns childhood.

Sorry this is kinda a mess and jumps all over the place lol. Anyway enjoy!

@uglyballerina @beese-is-cheese-for-bees

“I’m proud to call you my sister”

“-close enough”

Both being the only child in their families, the Caswell cousins were quite close. Ej’s parents worked a lot. They were people of high profile jobs, taking any opportunity to just drop their son around the corner to Dennis and Debbie’s house. Ashlyn was happy to see her cousin, but she could see it was kinda hard on him that he never got to spend time with his parents. He spent a lot of time at her house as a child, to the point he could walk around blindfolded (which he did do once to prove a point).

She was always there for him, and he was always there for her. He would always wait for her clubs to be finished to walk home from school together and they always shared what happened that day. You’d expect such a popular guy to complete disown his cousin, but it was more the other way around... Ej was terrified that he would eventually do something so stupid that Ashlyn would disown him. Even after some of the things he had already done, it as a wonder to him that she still hung out with him.

Growing up Ej was the first person she went to for advice. He was an intense people pleaser, but once he got comfortable he had no problems being very blunt. It meant she could always rely on him for truthful advice, of which her shy jazz musician and quiet writer parents usually were too nice to give.

So when she wrote her first song- he was the first to hear it. His loud thunderous applause made Ashlyn feel like she had written the greatest song in the world. Along with his encouragement, he suggested it needed an instrumental solo, his idea was to add a harmonica solo (something that was joked about for years to come). In the end, she added a beautiful piano solo in the middle, all jokes aside Ej knew that Ashlyn really had a gift for songwriting.

Something that was really a great way for her to express herself. Ej never really found his own expression til much later.

They grew up on the edge of new technology, seeing the ipod and ipad come through but they were nothing compared to the very first gadget they both owned, the Nintendo DS. As their parents worked through the day, leaving the two to their own devices, the Caswell cousins would often play pictochat hide and seek. Though they could only draw and type to each other they would spend hours trying to find the best spot that would leave the seeker scrambling.

The overall winner was Ej (or so he claims) because he once had the ‘genius’ idea of hiding in his parents car. It was the only time that Ashlyn had to actually accept defeat as the sun had set and their dinner was ice cold on the table.

His competitive spirit was clear from childhood. Ash knew when he said he played to win he wasn’t kidding.

Ashlyn had just finished fourth grade when they officially banned Caswell game nights in the house, after a night that went down in history as the 2013 Monopoly disaster. Ej wouldn’t speak to Ashlyn for over a week due his bruised pride (and that was even after flipping the table just before landing on Parklane). After that Debbie, Dennis, Carolyn and Adam all decided that it was probably better (and safer) to just have family dinners on Thursday nights.

As they grew older Ej and Ashlyn’s hobbies started to grow apart. Ashlyn had her clubs, her songs and Ej had his team but musical theatre was something they still shared.

2014 just starting year 7, Ej started to play waterpolo, he was always quite a strong swimmer- never fast enough for the big leagues but had the perfect upper body strength from basketball. He loved it, although his competitive nature definitely got the better of him a lot.

Waterpolo has one major risk of injury, well whether you can call it injury is subjective, but one major risk of the water sport....sunburn. Ej’s play to win attitude always court him out in one way or another, Ashlyn knew this quite well.

However it had never been so evident until he rocked up for Friday night family dinner with every visible area of skin a rich red lobster colour that could made him hiss every time he had to move. After finishing dinner the two went to the living room, as their parents started an in depth discussion about whatever drama or crisis they were facing. Both Caswell kids were quite oblivious to this at the time, but EJ knew the looks that his parents would give each other meant there was something going on. Anyway, the two went on the night playing some version of ‘New Super Mario Bros’ on the Wii. They had done this for years- it was a constant they could always count on. As Ej got older and stopped openly talking about what he was going through, Ashlyn knew a couple rounds of the Mario/ Luigi power team would help him settle down and let it out.

Due to his parents lack of attention, Ashlyn knew that her cousin had always craved positive praise and interest from other people. He used his insta ‘fame’ to try and fill the void but she knew empty likes and followers would never fix something like that. After a disappointing Waterpolo game, he lost the game, his parents didn’t come and the team had a go at him, the cousins started their trek back home down Pakington Road. Ash suggested that they have a look at the Pet Shelter and she knew cuddling all the animals could get anyone out of a bad, self deprecating mood.

After spending a little while playing with all the tiny kittens Ashlyn looked up to see Ej in the corner slumped against the wall patting a small Labrador puppy. The lop sided grin Ej made as the puppy wagged his tail, Ashlyn knew that the little dog had captured his heart already. Preceding a long argument with his parents, he finally convinced them to let him adopt the puppy.

Practically prancing down to the shelter, Ej adopted Remy, and made sure that the little puppy would never feel rejected again.

Having Remy around had confirmed one thing for Ash, although she loved the dog, she was definitely a cat person.

Since Ej got Remy, and managed to look after him by himself, it was a lot easier to convince her parents that she could have a pet. If Ej could do it… she could definitely do it.

Ash knew the moment she saw her curled up in the shelter that she couldn’t leave without her. Soft spoken meows, cautious, it was such a contrast to the brash energy that Remy had. Scarlett was the smallest of the litter, she was a gorgeous little Burmese cat.

Scarlett was always there for Ash, listening to her practice lines, watching her bake cakes, looking unimpressed when Ej would tell Ashlyn all the dumb things he managed to get up to, and being the very first fan of all her songs (as she would always make a little meow at the end).

Unfortunately, Ashlyn is the only person Ej trusts to look after Remy when he’s not home. Safe to say, Scarlett is not impressed. Remy and Scarlett tried, well at least Remy did, bouncing around the small cat wanting to play a game. Scarlett was very displeased with the notion of having to entertain the dog, so she found a loving sunny spot near the windowsill and decided to have a siesta for the arvo.

They have been there for each other through thick and thin, including discovering and having a rough lesson in heartbreak.

The very first girl Ej Caswell ever really liked was Anna Madden. It was freshman year and Ashlyn had seen the way his eyes would light up every time she was mentioned or how whenever she would call he couldn’t help but smile. But the problem with Ejs love life is he would fall hard, and fast. Saying ‘I love you’ way too early or something just as scary to a freshman who doesn’t understand commitment. After Anna dumped him for Justin, the captain of the Basketball team, Ej shut down for a while. He didn’t express his emotions as openly as his former self, he felt the rejection of his childhood once again.

Ej didn’t know why he was such an a**hole after that. He always tried to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, his lack of regard for the consequences of his actions would always come back to bite him. He really did want to have a relationship, be a good boyfriend but he was terrified of reliving the rejection, so he just had causal flings. Winked at all the girls, hanging out but at a far enough distance so that he didn't get too involved.

So when Ashlyn heard that he told Nini that he loved her- Ashlyn knew that she was different. She knew her cousin had messed up, and so did he, but she tried to plead with Nini... knowing that the girl had unlocked a part of Ej that Ashlyn thought was long gone.

Their personalities were really quite different.

Although somewhat quiet at school, Ashlyn was quite a loud person a home. She was a chatterbox that would spend every dinner retelling the details of her day with great dramatic hand gestures. Like the time she was in fifth grade, and people started a riot outside the canteen because raised the price of cookies from 50 cents to a dollar. She never really had this confidence at school but Ej knew the bright dramatic personality that hid in the shy school girl.

Ej however was rather the opposite. It was almost like his outside life he was constantly trying to entertain everyone and make them happy, while painting himself as a cool, smart and all around good guy. His constant façade was rather tiring for a guy that liked to go home and spend an hour reading the works of William Shakespeare every night.

But through all their differences (and all of Ejs stupid choices) the Caswell cousins were always there for each other. Advice, a laugh, a dangerously competitive game- they would always have each other’s backs.