#all these things put on hold because of a pandemic !! theyre finally coming together

[amethystcove]

good vibes today :)

[mandoalorian]

hello! how would the characters comfort their s/o who was a frontline health worker (for my own sake im pretending the pandemic or sth similar exists in their universes, and theyre not distancing from each other because they live together) who was getting real tired of everything they have to deal with at work and were exhausted from their shifts

Hi darling -- are you a frontline heath worker? if you are, thank for doing all that you do. I have family who are frontline health workers and I know how exhausting and draining it can be, but you guys are true, REAL heroes. never ever forget that.

Headcanon masterlist

How the Pedro boys would comfort a frontline health worker during the pandemic:

Maxwell Lord

At first, he doesn’t want you to work. He doesn’t want you to go in or risk getting sick. He tells you that he’s more than financially stable enough that you don’t need to do this job and he can provide for you for as long as this pandemic lasts. But when you insist, he’s not going to push you. Because he also takes his job very seriously. When you come home he’ll let you lay your head in his lap and he’ll smooth out your hair. He’ll have the house chefs prepare a meal and he’s bought you the softest, silkiest pajamas money could buy.

Oberyn Martell

Gentle touches. Whispers and words of affirmation. So much praise. “You’re doing so well, I’m so proud of you.” -- and let’s be real, this is Oberyn. He’s gonna comfort you with a lot of kissing and a lot of sex, if that was something you wanted. Very passionate love making because, in his opinion, it’s the LEAST he can do for you.

Frankie Morales

When you leave for work, he gets a little nervous. He understands the dangers of you working with sick people, or how it can be incredibly difficult to socially distance in a healthcare work environment. He doesn’t want you to get sick. So every night when you come home, he’ll run a hot bubble bath for you, light some candles and encourage you to relax and wash the day away. He’ll take your laundry and make sure it’s all clean and dry for tomorrow, and he’ll have your favourite dinner cooked and prepared for when you get out the tub.

Din Djarin

Din flies you out to work every day on the Crest, and he’s always there to pick you up at the end of your shift. He’ll be waiting for you. He’s a man of a few words and I think he would struggle to offer verbal comfort, but, he will hold you for a long period of time. He insists a beskar helmet will help protect you from the virus. And he’ll do absolutely anything and everything in his power to ensure your safety.

Jack Daniels

Oh my goodness, Jack would literally come to work with you. Is it allowed? No. Does he care? Definitely not. And nobody is about to argue with Agent Whiskey. He needs to keep a constant eye on you to make sure people respect your boundaries. It's nice, in a way. You get to sit with him on your lunch breaks and show him how you do your job. He takes a real interest in it, too.

Marcus Pike

Dream boyfriend -- we already know he’s Mr. Perfect and has absolutely no faults. Comforting you comes naturally to him. It’s what he’s best at. Pandemic or not, he will always put your needs before anyone elses.

Javier Peña

Sex and smoking are the two things that help Javier Peña during work related anxiety. But... you struggle a little more. You’re not opposed to the sex because Javi happens to be a very generous lover but you need more than that. You need actual real affection and comfort. And at some point or another, Javier finally sees that. He struggles at first, letting himself get vulnerable, but for you, he does it. Soft cuddles in front of the fireplace with that crocheted blanket draped around your bodies. And his touch alone is enough to make you feel better. You know he’s trying his hardest and that means the world to you.

Marcus Moreno

You and Marcus are both literally superheroes, never failing to save the day. In that sense, you’re both like soulmates. He knows you need to go to work -- it’s what you do, and he would never stop you from doing that, but he’d take some time out from the Heroics so he can make sure both your mental health and physical health remain in good condition. He does everything around the house so you don’t need to, and when you come home from work, he’ll always be by your side to tell you how much he admires you.

Pero Tovar

Sickness is common during this kind of era. But pandemics and lockdowns aren’t really thought of. Upon hearing that there’s a new illness going around, Tovar will be very stern. He doesn’t want you to leave the house. Anything you need, he’s at your beck and call. He’ll ride out on his horse to buy healing gemstones, and potions and special wax melts that are supposed to protect you from the virus. He just absolutely cannot risk the love of his life falling sick. He’s always admired that you go out your way to help others. But he just can’t let you go out to work. He needs you more than he’d care to admit. He needs to know you’re safe and okay. Very protective and possessive, but it’s just his way of showing that he cares about you.

[penzyroamin]

Food and sharing food continues to be a recurring motif in “tied together”. What was your thought process around that? How do you see that connecting to some of the central themes and concepts in the story as a whole? (And, if you would like to go into this, how do you see food and sharing food playing out in the messy au where David will also be cooking but in a completely different context/power dynamic?)

HAHAHAHA! I CAN FINALLY TALK ABT THIS WITHOUT SEEMING LIKE F SCOTT FITZGERALD BEGGING PEOPLE TO KNOW WHAT THE GREAT GATSBY WAS!!!!!

okay. im calm now.

so for a couple years now i have deeply and secretly loved the concept of food as a symbol for community. i didnt use it in fic for a long time for a variety of reasons. one, it just never really felt right. two, my love of this symbol is very much connected to my southern-ness, and while im sure many people have just as strong, if not stronger connections between food and community, i didnt really know if people reading my stuff would Get It or connect w it.

i finally decided to use it for tied together for two reasons. first, this is my most definitively southern fic. ive written other fics with Humid Small Town Energy but this is my first that i really let myself go “fuck it. crawfish boils. hurricanes. middle aged women with crushes on jim cantore.” as such, it felt like if i was going to go for this symbol at any point, it needed to be with this fic. the second is that due to Pandemic and also living across the country from the majority of the family i grew up with, i have been kind of starved of community experiences as of late. i wrote tied together entirely during a period when i havent spent time with anyone besides my immediate family, so i was really thinking about community and the nature of it and how fucking badly i wanna have a massive meal with people and hence... this symbol

with the background of my decision to include it covered, let’s get into how it appears in tied together!!

in chapter one, the majority of food’s appearances are... impersonal, if that makes sense? its all premade, whether its drive-through stuff, tv dinners, etc etc, and he doesnt know the person who made it. its also worth pointing out that around the time jack and his mom stop sharing meals is the point they become disconnected from each other. essentially, that’s the disconnect from community throughout jack’s early life

davey comes around and it. is pretty obvious from the start that, through this symbol, he is the Literal Embodiment Of Connection To The People Around Him. food was a really key way for me to show just how connected he is to his community-- he’s constantly cooking for other people, working for battalion, helping people get good food, contributing recipes to little cookbooks. the end chapter also nods to this in the scene w his family where esther mentions he made her teach him to cook for a group, and the conversation afterwards where he mentions that he wouldn’t be comfortable with people paying him to make them food or making food for strangers. cooking for other people is essentially davey’s way of nurturing the community around him and becoming closer with people, so to make food in an impersonal way goes against everything he knows about food and sharing it. the interactions he has through food represent the larger relationships and interactions he has within his community. juxtaposed to jack, he’s built this little world around him filled with people that he loves and cares for, even if that does lay a heavy burden on him at points. if i ever write something delving deeper into davey in this au, i’ll elaborate further-- but, essentially, davey’s role as The Provider of food for the people around him was a real stand-in for the way that he feels both within his family and his larger community.

think of it this way-- in all the scenes we see with davey cooking at a large event-- i.e., the crawfish boil-- he’s always pushed off to the side by that. there’s usually someone talking to him or checking in on the food, but he’s not able to be engaged in the larger hubbub and discussion of the party because he’s busy. it’s in providing food for people and sharing that with him that he gets fulfillment out of the experience. in his family, we see that davey is a little bit isolated. he was growing up at the exact time when mayer’s alcoholism was getting worse and hitting its peak, and he left before mayer ever really managed to get very far into recovery. his time in their house, essentially, was a lot of heavy lifting and few moments of solidarity and joy. he loves his family, of course, it’s just a very labor-intensive process. and then, of course, he has a similar experience to what a lot of southern marginalized people feel-- this intense need to care for and better your community when your community very frequently doesn’t care for you. davey has absolutely zero capacity for apathy in this au, and it definitely shines through with this whole dynamic. he works SO HARD to care for people, even if he isnt always able to fully enjoy being around them and being loved by them

and then, of course, you have the way davey and jack interact through this motif-- davey teaches jack how to cook, gives him a cookbook, invites him over for meals, etc etc. sharing that with him essentially represents welcoming jack into his community as a whole, and giving him a place there. jack mentions davey “clearing a spot at the table” for him, and that’s both literal and figurative.

additionally, while davey uses food as a way to bring jack into his community, jack also makes davey a little less isolated. in a lot of the scenes in chapter 5, theyre cooking together, in a very domestic, symbiotic sort of way. i wanted this to demonstrate how jack relieves some of the burden davey puts on himself and exists sort of Within davey’s bubble rather than just reaping the benefits

i also wanted to illustrate with this how jack repairing his relationship w food keys into this. obviously we have the disconnect that he has early on where his unfamiliarity w what he eats and who makes it represents a larger disconnect between him and the people around him, but jack does also absolutely use food as a coping mechanism and a crutch. not to get, again, TOTALLY gatsby here, but he’s chasing that sense of community and belonging and understanding in the wrong places. it’s once he begins to actually make food for himself and understand the process of it and be able to carry something through to completion that he’s able to actually Enjoy food, yknow? i wanted that to mirror the way throughout the earlier parts of his life that he tried to kind of slap up temporary relationships and make do with that. 

side note about jack and food: jack has undiagnosed adhd (and some vague comorbidities rip) in this au, and his experiences with it i preeeetttty heavily lifted from my life and my special brand of fucked in the head. (for those of you who don’t know, carb and sugar cravings are a symptom of adhd, hence why food is often a coping mechanism for us fhskdhs). cooking and baking are processes that have REALLY helped me get a handle on myself-- it gives me an outlet for movement and stimulation, and its something that i can carry through till the end and get an actual end product that i can recognize and benefit from. plus, real time consequences if i let something do whatever for ten more minutes! so thats another element i added to the way that jack builds healthier coping mechanisms over time-- he moves away from food as a crutch and instead develops a new form of CREATING that gives him an outlet and a feeling of productivity

those are some Vague thoughts. i will probably elaborate in the future!

now, for the messy au, rather than food symbolizing community, i chose to have it represent vulnerability.

a quick review: jack married rich, and davey is jack’s new wife’s cook. on his wife, dorothy’s part, i wanted this to shine through in this squeaky clean, pristine image that a lot of rich people try to craft. she never cooks for herself, never pays much attention to davey, never draws attention to him. in essence, she is creating as few weak spots as possible-- she refuses to be vulnerable to the people and the society around her.

with davey, however, his and his family’s livelihood depends on him cooking for this woman, and later for her and her husband. he’s forced into this position of extreme vulnerability and weakness by his financial situation, and cant really regain his sense of privacy or self because of that. its also a point in this story that he has very little time or wherewithal to cook for his FAMILY. so, his job forces him into a vulnerable situation with complete strangers who hold an upper hand over him but denies him the opportunity to be vulnerable with his own family, only reinforcing this idea that he is the protector and the provider and as such cannot have weak spots and cannot, under any circumstances, break

it also really highlights the difference between jack’s relationship with his wife vs with davey and smalls-- all the scenes of he and dorothy eating together are in grand, fancy rooms, with a certain amount of pomp and circumstance and dignity attached. with davey and smalls, though, he’s usually in the kitchen, having conversation, enjoying their company, helping them with menial things. that’s an environment that he’s used to and comfortable with, the kind of relationships and interactions he grew up with, while the stuffiness of his life and interactions with dorothy are entirely less vulnerable and close

that’s just a brief overview, but its something to look for when i finally finish the fic! it definitely started as a very soapy sort of thing, but my damn instincts pushed me to delve deeper into the characters and their relationships and the fucked-up-ness of it all. so, here we are

i really hope this helped!!!! this is not organized AT ALL so please tell me if there’s anything else you wanted to know or any details you noticed

[thesugarace]

Alright

I finished HLITF season 1 for Kaga and I SWEAR TO ALL 12 ZODIAC GODS

VOLTAGE. PEAKED!!!! AT KAGA’S SEQUEL

THIS STORY IS AN ABSOLUTE 

(Early warning: minor/major spoilers and a lot of rants/fangirling/thirst etc etc all bec I just absolutely love this story and I feel the need to share this love with everyone. Also, I keep seeing everyone hating on MC in this but I actually really liked her here and so I MUST defend her)

Okay

First of all look. loOK. LOOK AT THESE CGS!!!!

CAN YOU BELIEVE WE GET A HOT AND SEXY KAGA CG, A LITERALLY STEAMY ROMANTIC CG AND A BOMB AF STORY ALL FOR $3 EYE-

And oh my huedhaut dont even get me started on the story. It was absolutely on point. It has everything a HLITF story promises to have:

justice in the eyes of our straightlaced MC vs the PSD ✔️

Conflict btwn Kaga and MC precisely because of that ✔️

Our girl pulling a vanishing act bec she refused to compromise her values ✔️

the refusal of each side to back down and their love for each other TEARING THEM APART INSIDE ✔️

OUR GIRL SHOWING OFF HOW INSIGHTFUL SHE REALLY IS AND FINDING A SOLID AF LEAD ✔️

MC’S GROWTH in finding a somewhat compromise between her principles and what is required of her as a PSD detective ✔️

And of course, my absolute favourite: ANGSTY ANGSTY MY-WORLD-IS-ENDING-BECAUSE-MY-MC-IS-IN-DANGER-ANGSTY KAGA ✔️

Okay, I need to address the one thing that everyone just hates about this story en masse and it’s MC. Personally, I dont agree with her about the some parts, especially the interrogation because she did hinder an investigation and in law enforcement that is one big No-No but I do see where she’s coming from, especially with the surveillance thing and the whole copping out and literally running away to the countryside. I saw reviews abt her being completely naive but seriously, put yourself in the position of the one being spied. She’s so against it because to the suspect, what they’re doing could be harmful to him, especially so if he was innocent. I think as a person, she believes in the more publically-accepted justice - the kind of justice that everyone wants but is really very difficult to obtain.

And this is where we get to the beauty of this story. As per their MO, the PSD is ready to do whatever it takes to get the culprit even it means breaking the law. They’re desperate to get the culprit because people are actually getting hurt and the longer this guy gives them the slip, the more people are going to get hurt. Even in MSB, its been established that to the PSD, the end ALWAYS justify the means and they dont give a shit if they look like criminals for it. So this is where the conflict arises between MC and the PSD guys. For the PSD, there’s an opportunity where they might get the culprit but its illegal and for MC, what the PSD wants to do is too risky for something only based on suspicion; she wants to stay on the legal path but she has no lead whatsoever and time is not on either side. People dont seem to realise the weight of MC’s viewpoint and have a tendency to think of ‘officers doing something illegal’ as something as light as jaywalking or smt. No, these institutions have a wide reach and one misstep could bring harmful repercussions onto countless innocent people not to mention the implications of their actions on their integrity as an institution of the law and the integrity of the entire justice system. However, the PSD’s side is a lot more true to reality albeit in more complex situations: their duty beyond all else is to prevent crime and there are times when there really seems to be no way. I’ve been working in law for the past few years and this is a classic dilemma that has been simplified but quite well executed in this context. Justice is not as clear cut as the right way, the right end. The law may simply be black words on white paper but different circumstances dye it with their own colours. This is where MC is lacking. She’s like a freshman at law school - someone who truly believes in the importance of justice but actually has little idea what that actually entails. She is not entirely naive but more in a sense that she’s never been confronted with these kind of complex high-stakes situations (she worked in a police box before this for Ichthys’s sake) and that inexperience disables her from seeing and evaluating the entire situation from the PSD’s pov. For her, its like playing poker for the first time and she’s already betting with the million dollar chips.

The second thing I REALLY must defend her in is the whole quitting from the academy. For the love of Zyglavis, she did NOT run away just because Kaga told her she’s not suited for PSD, it was just the trigger. Lemme put it in a different scenario (btw this scenario is not meant to mirror the situation, its only meant to evoke how MC felt in the story) Imagine you live in a city and you and your significant other are living together. A pandemic has struck your city but everyone refuses to wear a mask and the government is even encouraging people not to wear a mask. You know that wearing a mask slows down the spread of the virus and you are trying to convince people to wear one but they just ignore you. The number of cases is dropping and people think its because they dont wear masks unlike other cities but you know that people should still wear masks or the numbers might spike. So you try to convince everyone to wear a mask and people start berating you for being so stupid as to believe that masks will slow down the spread of the virus when the numbers are dropping without the city wearing them. You go home and your significant other berates you for forcing other people to wear a mask and says ‘since you wanna wear a mask so badly, get out of my house and move out of town’ That’s what it felt like for MC: the absolute frustration + sadness from the rejection of what she truly believes in by the people she’s surrounded by. Time and time again in the story, she’s confronted with the fact that the justice she believes in is not the justice PSD serves. For someone who is working towards joining the PSD, that has to be killing her inside every time. It just serves as a reminder that she is not suited for PSD nor is she what PSD wants in a detective, something she has been struggling with since MS1 but she perseveres perhaps because of her dream to become a detective or because of her aspirations to someday be Kaga’s equal or at least be someone he considers he can rely on. I really believe it’s the second one, after all, it was his rejection of her that really broke her inside and finally convinced her to quit. That’s why if you buy the ending set, you’ll see in the extra stories that Kaga gets extremely angry AT HIMSELF that MC quit the academy. He knows that our persistent Kappa doesnt give up so easily, not even when he scolded her for ruining his interrogation. Its because all these factors built up and he was the one to push her over her limit. So yes, our girl is not fragile yall. She’s just been through so much and I honestly dont blame her for leaving like one order of R&R for our MC here, she deserves it thanks. 

Okay, I need to end this soon cause its starting to get too long but what made me really love her here is the whole LIME thing. That part made love her so much because even when she quit on the academy, there’s still a fire inside her to do what it takes to achieve justice, even if it meant relying on the people she didnt agree with. Even when she was so broken inside believing that she’s not one of them, she’s not needed by them, she’s not worthy of helping them; she just wants to help!

IM SO FREAKING SOFT FOR HER BECAUSE THIS GIRL WHO HAS BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH IS STILL FIGHTING IN HER OWN WAY AND JKASHFHASKJHAKSHKJHGA BRB CRYING

ALSO 

THAT BLOODY PHONE CALL OH MY FREAKING SCORPIO THAT PHONE CALL. I died when he told her that quitting is not an excuse to leave his side. THESE TWO EYE-

Okay, you have to read that phone call scene from both sides because then you’ll see how much these two are being stubborn because they still dont accept the other’s pov abt the case but at the same time how much they love and miss each other is gnawing at them inside AND THEYRE STRUGGLING TO HOLD ALL THOSE EMOTIONS BACK WHEN THEY HEAR EACH OTHERS’ VOICES OVER THE PHONE FREAKING KRIOFF TAKE THE WHEEL PLEASE

Anyways, I really enjoyed reading season 1 for Kaga, especially because of his MC - I see her actually growing from the small police box officer to a PSD cadet and the sequel, especially, shows promise in how she’s going to navigate the world of law enforcement and facing difficult choices. Our girl really decided to return to the academy without finding a proper middle ground between her values and what PSD requires of her but she showed determination to work on it so I really hope we get to see more of that in later seasons. Also, WHIPPED Kaga is my fav but soft Kaga is up there as well. MC SAYING HE SOUNDED SAD OVER THE PHONE AND HER TEARING UP I CANT. THESE TWO ARE BAD FOR MY HEART.

Okay, Im not sure what I’ll be reading next. I kinda wanna start on his season 2 but considering how amazing this season is for Kaga, Im really curious abt the other characters so I might start on them before starting any season 2s. Also, idk if I would make these long argumentative-ish essays a thing but just idk why, my brain is really good at spewing essays out when it comes to HLITF and I think its fuelled by the panic from all my unfinished work so yay 

Thanks for reading!!!

[storyofsass]

dear 13 year old me,

hi love. its you from the future. do you know how much i want to reach over and hold your face in my hands? i wish i could.

you have so much coming for you. its all going to feel like too much at times. but oh, darling, life gets so good sometimes. im so excited for you to see it.

you learn so much about who you are and who you have been. you overcome so much in such a short period of time and you are so proud of yourself.

you find the best friends in the whole wide world. you'll wonder how you were ever living without them. that girl with the striking highlighter and tons of hoodies? pay attention to her, she's very important. and the girl you were paired with for that tap dance when you were 11? shes so special, youll see.

you'll fall out with a few people but thats alright. theres a couple people you swear youll never speak to again that will become some of your closest friends once more. those drives to dunkin donuts will be so worth the times where you're angry with her, i promise.

you're gay! you are a lesbian! youre gonna question yourself so so so much, but oh dear, finally finding an identity that fits will be worth every night you spend crying. mom and dad eventually find out, and youll have a panic attack, but i promise youll survive it. youre not wrong for who you love. even if sometimes it feels like theres no way you'll accept yourself.

on the note of being gay, you dated a girl from school and that was.... a time. but it made you better. you'll see. and youll feel real love a few months later because:

you have a girlfriend! theyre lovely. pink hair and all. you write so many letters and journal entries about them. you're gonna hold hands and youre never gonna be able to squish those butterflies you feel. they have the prettiest eyes youve ever seen and you write hearts around their name in your journal, the 10th journal youve had in 7 years.

you write constantly. you love it. english is your favorite subject and it shows. you fill journals upon journals, and fill boxes full of letters that you dont intend on delivering yet. your handwriting has improved by leaps and bounds all because you decided you wanted it to be pretty when you were in 10th grade. mom compliments it every time she sees it.

you have your license and a car named after one of your favorite songs! you cried when you recieved the car, youve spilled cherry slushies in it, put purple flowers in the dash vents, and screamed along to Dancing Queen by ABBA in it. its yours.

you'll be clara in the nutcracker freshman year, and youll be marzipan lead your senior year. all those hours at the studio pay off in their own ways. dont give up so easily when you get frustrated at dance, okay?

you got braces and you get them off before senior year starts and youve never felt so beautiful. your confidence shoots through the roof when you see yourself without them for the first time.

you cut your hair on your own and it turns out pretty good, even if mom didnt like it. and then you get a real haircut and take it the shortest its ever been. to your chin! woah!

it hasnt all been sunshine and rainbows, obviously. you know that already. march of 2019 is gonna suck, but a funny youtube video shown to you by your best friend will save your life in a mellow mushroom restaurant. you save your friends life because you exist and youll find out a month later and your heart will shatter and also be glued together by it. youll experience a pandemic, for god's sake.

but. all of these happy things ive mentioned will make the bad things youll experience in the next 4 years worth it, even if you think theres no goddamn way you'll be able to heal from some of it. i promise you will, you can, and you have. you do. youre still healing. you never stop healing. youd never have it any other way.

some last bits of advice:

-play around with makeup more

-smile even if you hate your teeth

-let mom take pictures of you

-always take photos of pretty flowers

much love always,

-j