#also I wanna build a chicken coop and get some chickens

[sputnikscock420]

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last ten people who reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals & followers!! <3

Oh my god I’ve never been part of an ask game before <3!!

Wind! I love the wind. Yes even though I have long hair. Idc I have scrunchies, the wind just feels sososo nice to me it’s so comforting. (Also I don’t have AC so I rely on it for cooling and since the windows have to be open for that I have to rely on it for auditory privacy as well. so. wind my beloved <3)

Gardening! In fact I am about to upcycle some PVC boxes into planters and do an herb/tea garden :)

Making things myself instead of buying them! Another reason to love gardening, if you can figure out how to grow your own food it’s a big moneysaver! and possibly a lifesaver as capitalism continues its downward spiral!

Nature documentaries! David Attenborough is the reason I have a Discovery+ subscription so is Josh Gates but that’s bc I think he’s a DILF lol

Art! I think we are all connected by food and art. Also food is art so jot that down. Also cave paintings make me emotional bc as an artist it’s like… those are the origins of my people 🥺

[krockat]

it is I, krockat, and i'm crashing into YOU!!

and i am posting my long ass description into a pinned post instead.

also how do you edit in a readmore on mobile. help

Stats:

late mid20s, queer, fucker, experienced tumblr user

Messages Of The Day and Age:

fuckkkkk i fucking love lil weirdo artist queers

and when we get out into a group in the local and support eachother there's like nothing better

gosh fucking I GET now why people say "x should be in the club" cause I WAS and it was fucking THE BEST SHIT EVER

more below the readmore, such as my FAQ and uhh pronoun polls. yup

(there's no dni btw, don't you worry your sweet little head, Mwah <3)

FAQ:

1. tumblruser having badges allegations:

yea its true. i bought them before shit got shitted. so i will also say just say

#westaysilly:3 #tdov #tdor #blm #swisrealw #cripplepunk #🍉 #fromtherivertothesea #crapitalism #enshittification #workersunite

2. why don't you post art anymore?

it's true I barely didn't for years, but recently have been dabbling in posting some!

i also made a community which no one joined because no one could find it, which before I realized I could not rb shit out from it - I posted a bunch of art in.

but hey if you wanna join my community hmu!

it's called the enjoyment enjoyers, we could always use more enjoyers!!

also posting art is scary and i'm working on being more brave :D

3. why don't you reblog more nsft stuff on here?

i ask myself that nearly every day.

like yea, cause nearly every day I have AtLeast a min of scroll time on tumblr and see something hella cool thats nsft.

not that i Don't rb nsft stuff, just not the ones that would truly bare my soul.

who knows, maybe one day I will also be brave enough to post my own nsft stuff! wouldn't that be wicked. I'm hella hot btw.

edit: i changed my pfp to me so the truth is out there. am gonna post more of me so who knows how bold I will build to be!

Good Good Pronouns:

how to pronounce my pronouns, same order:

dae/dem

hen (like chickens, like hen in hen coop [- but i am not of gender chicken. nej, i am of swedish queer gender]

see/sehm (sounds like seize him or see xem which are both great)

say/sir (it's very funny and gender)

Content of Blog:

loads of stuff. long gone are the days of the aesthetic and fandom dichotomy!

but with that said, i do rb fan shit, been on a tf2 buzz lately, but also i will rb even things from fandoms I've not been in at all. I support the arts!!

also art, horror, queer shit, things about all my disabilties (aswell as others #solidarityfucker), memes, politics, and oh yes,

yup this blog often contains nsft things! i find sexuality and intimacy quite fun and confusing. i am still fresh on this. let's have fun!

esp like to rb queer and kinky stuff that just gets to be silly and shameless.

ehh, im working on the shame part for my own, so not the most prominent poster on that. and honestly? in general.

rebogging is however most often Loads

Other things about Moi

so am queer and here for however long this earth will have me

polying most things, creativity, love, and disability. wahooooo

aaand, i am plural! we have been slow burn naturally fusing since this last summer, but we still be we-ing some days. this blog is Mostly just from my perspective, but our my is becoming all our my.

if ya get it, ya get it.

Oh and i am a musician. i make music. I am working on an album! it's fun! I will post it some time in the future!

I've made great progress on it this year, but somethings are slowing further progress, like both my computers dying (aka also my old backup computer.)

But I am still trucking on!! I love music it's my passion and i am gonna finish this album so I can make both my child self and old self and CURRENT (and future) self so super happies!!!

My oldest friend; Tags:

tags are my friends and my sacred truth and liekeepers. i like to taste the words in them. but sometimes that chronic exhaustion hits and then the fast rbs are aboundiful

Muse Applications:

the applications for being mutual muses (this does NOT include mutuals. new mutuals are ALWAYS accepted): have been opened again.

You can send your application through these official channels:

tumblr asks

messages

pigeon or owl bird (owl is a huge extra fee cause the power needs more time to travel far distances)

You will have to prepare two monologues, one of your own choosing, and one that we give to you.

If you move on in the process, there is a live improvisation workshop, where you on the spot show all your talents and skills and shower me with praises.

Last date to apply is whenever I feel like it.

Re: Description errors:

i can't figure out how or why, but my tumblr description is chronically bugging.

it takes no amount of HTML. I even tried commissioning a person once because I thought I just couldn't figure it out. but nah.. it's just plain brokies

Several tumblr functions are chronically bugging for me,

like my following limit (tho i have gotten quite trained at gently penetrating its g-prostate-spot),

and my desktop version (it was completely uneditable and unviewable for me for years)

so, i am so sorry fellow disableds who have had to struggle reading my description. but you know what I said??

NO MORE!!

so pinned post it is.

😔🤟

🌱✔️🌱

[youplush]

thank you! they are definitely hard work, but i think it’s worth it! chickens can be very silly and cute!

the hardest things about having chickens would be cleaning up after them, keeping them safe, and building a coop for them.

chickens poop A LOT. they will poop on anything and everything that you own. their poop is not only gross, but it can also spread disease. so it’s important to regularly clean out the chicken coop, and anywhere else the chickens like to hang out.

keeping them safe from predators can be easy if you keep them locked up all day, but chickens can also hurt each other. when they first meet each other they will fight for dominance, and this can easily become deadly. it’s best to introduce chickens to the flock while they are sleeping to avoid fights. the chickens are dumb and will not notice or care that new chickens showed up while they were asleep. chickens will also kill and eat other chickens if one is injured… particularly if the chicken is bleeding. if you ever have an injured chicken you have to keep it away from the others until it heals.

keeping free roam chickens safe from predators is hard. you have to basically always keep an eye out for danger! chickens have an alarm call that they will use when there’s danger, so listen for that too! chickens will be eaten by hawks, coons, coyotes, etc. luckily during the day you really only have to worry about the hawks and stray dogs/cats.

finally the hardest part is building a chicken coop. you can easily buy small ones, or even hire someone to build one for you if you’re rich! but the problem with buying small coops from stores is that they’re always way too tiny. in general you should have at least 4 square feet of space per chicken. you also have to make sure that the chickens have places to lay eggs and sleep. most chickens like to sleep up high on a perch! i don’t really have any advice for building a coop… i’ve built 2 (a small one and a bigger one) with my dad, but i don’t really think it’s any different than building anything else. if you don’t want to build, i suggest buying a shed, and installing shelves for nesting boxes (put hay or straw in them!), and then something for perches! i think a modified shed should be big enough for a little flock :)

OH and when it’s cold they need a heat lamp or some other heat source!

also when you first get the chickens, you should keep them in their coop for a week before you let them free roam. this way, they’ll remember that the coop is their home and they should return to it when they’re ready for bed :)

i’m not a chicken professional or anything, but my family has had chickens for a long time so i know a little bit! if you really wanna get chickens i suggest doing some research about them online!

i hope this has helped a little!

here are some old chicken photos :)

sofia and i went on a walk this morning, and she helped me take care of the turkeys and chickens too!

unfortunately the birds were scared of her, so i only got the 1 photo with a turkey. maybe next time i can get some photos with the others??? i have 28 chickens and 2 turkeys, but about half of the chickens are babies so they are staying in a special area with a heat lamp (meaning it wouldn’t look good for photos).

btw all the birds free roam during the day except the baby chickens! they only get locked up when it’s nighttime or if the weather is super bad.

[moveslikekeithrichards]

my favorite minecraft world ever is a realm world where we walled in a large village & it immediately became wildly overpopulated with like an insane amount of villagers & dozens of golems & we also tamed a ton of various animals that just roam around & moggy has a chicken coop so thoroughly swarming with chickens that it slows down your computer when you get close & theres guys trapped in boats in puddles of boiling water for no reason & everyone is named some shit like Asbestos Milf or Oily Ass Nerds Rope. theres no room to build so any time i wanna expand my house i have to slap rooms on the top at random like an ugly ass winchester house tower. theres like 3 wandering traders who never despawned & have been there for months

[emotionallyits2009]

deancas fic rec list!

hello everyone! happy christmas to those who celebrate it, my gift to you is my fic rec list that i said i would make like a month ago. the only thing it is organized by is canonverse vs alternate universe. tried to cover a variety of subjects but there are in particular many fics of the genre “postcanon where cas is human and he and dean live together and slowly finally get their shit together” because i know what i’m about, son. HOPE U ENJOY. and if you wanna talk about any of them or rec me other fics please do. :) 

Canonverse:

where the weeds take root by deathbanjo, 30k, explicit “Are you happy? Y’know. Just—being here,” Dean says, gesturing to the yard with his beer bottle. “Being with—I mean, you used to fight in celestial wars and—and save the world. Now you’re growing vegetables and talking about chickens.” There are many fics set in a post-canon universe where Cas is human and he and Dean live together and slowly fall into a relationship. Imo this one is the best of the best of that genre. This was one of the first fics I read back in July when I was getting Back Into Supernatural where I was like oh fuck I’m like in this. Dean builds Cas planters and bookshelves and a chicken coop and they fight and work through it.

Cuckoo And Nest by komodobits, 10k, explicit For a long time, Castiel thought that every earthly possession other than the immediately necessary was excess to requirement. But Dean – Dean who named his car, who keeps a photograph of his mother in his wallet, some thirty-plus years after her death, who still has the crumpled ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign with a sleeping pelican emblazoned on it from the Microtel outside of Roanoke where he first kissed Castiel, clumsy and unsure, under the unsteady fluorescence of an exhausted bathroom bulb – is sentimental. It puzzles Castiel, where Dean draws the line between what is meaningful and what it is worthless. Really Gets the dynamic of Cas doesn’t think Dean wants him to stay/Dean thinks Cas will leave the first chance he gets. Also a nice example of Cas thinking he’s not wanted if he’s not useful/powerful and being told otherwise. Another all-time fave!

lonely hearts by outphastthemoat, 4.5k, gen He thinks he might give up having his own anything just to be able to step foot inside the room next door and sit on the edge of Dean’s bed instead. This one is for the CAS GIRLS who know what LONELINESS feels like.

Helionneiros by aeli_kindara, 24.2k, mature In which Dean visits his mother, and Claire takes Cas on a hunt. I’m always on the lookout for more fic with Claire and Jack. Jack doesn’t show up until the end here but the relationship between Cas and Claire is really nice.

Crawl by aeriallon, 11k, explicit It’s been almost four years since Castiel left Kansas; he'd eventually settled in an island town where he has a job, a house, and a life without the Winchesters. Every winter, Dean drives down to the coast to see him. Another fic where Cas is human but in this one he took some time for himself and got some distance from the Winchesters! He gets to be competent and weird as a human and we love that for him. I must warn you all that this fic contains one use of the phrase “making love” which would normally put me right off but it’s still worth reading. The first of a three-part series.

home where you hold me by microcomets, 1.6k, gen Cas and Dean, in the moments between their battles, ache for quiet spaces. Technically this is a coda to 10x20 but you don’t need the episode for context. Short and very sweet.

Build a Home by domesticadventures, 20.1k, teen After they save the world, Dean expects Cas to come back to the bunker with them. He doesn’t. This one is so cute it’s like what if once they were done saving the world Sam and Dean actually invited other hunters to move into the bunker with them. Obviously Dean wants that to include Cas but doesn’t know how to use his words.

the taste of gravel in the mouth by deathbanjo, 22.4k, explicit This is what Cas gave up Heaven for: greasy diner food, shitty motel rooms with even shittier cable, long car rides spent in complete silence except for the same six tapes playing over and over again, and a burnt-out husk of a man who can barely hold a conversation anymore. Angst fic! They go on a road trip and Dean is severely fucked up post-Mark of Cain.

Unknown Quantities by xylodemon, 8.6k, explicit No one ever tells Dean anything. Another nice getting-together fic.

Creature of Habit by trinityofone, 5.2k, teen The more you love someone, the more you want to kill them. Or: How Cas developed some bad habits, and Dean coped surprisingly well. This one is ancient by destiel standards (written during season 5) but it manages to nail the married couple vibes they give off in later seasons. Cas is a bitch and Dean likes him so much. <3

The (Mostly Accidental) Courtship of Dean Winchester by Tuesday, 11.2k, mature Angelic marriage rites were never intended to go quite like this. Another old one that is a lot of fun! They get Accidental Angel Married and if you don’t enjoy dumb fanfiction tropes like that I don’t know what to say to you.

Vena Amoris and Other Old-Fashioned Bullshit by pyrebi, 4k, teen In which angelic marriage bonds are apparently stupidly easy to trigger, Cas wages multidimensional war in Heaven, Dean can't catch a break like ever, Sam rather enjoys being a dick, love saves the day, and nobody consummates anything. The OTHER accidental angel marriage fic written in 2010. 

Crazy Diamonds by pantheon_of_discord, 24.8k, explicit A week ago, Dean was pulled out of Hell. Now, he’s apparently woken up in 2018, and the angel that a mere twenty-four hours beforehand had threatened to chuck him back into the pit is sleepily pouring himself coffee and wearing Dean’s second-favourite Zeppelin shirt. It all seems like a perfect happy ending, but with Hell’s scars still so fresh, Dean can’t imagine how he could have possibly gotten there. At the same time, the Dean who went to sleep in the bunker, right next to Cas, wakes up on Bobby’s couch in 2008. He’s instantly bombarded with questions by a Lilith-obsessed brother and a man who’s been dead for years, and must decide between keeping his finally-perfect life intact, and the lives he could save by re-writing history. Regardless of these choices, both Deans are trapped in the wrong decade, and their only way back lies with a Castiel still very much under Heaven’s thumb – one who might find the future Dean describes difficult to believe. Time travel is FUN. There’s an excellent part where (minor spoilers) future!Dean is like, “Guess what, asshole? You like me so much you marry me!!!!!!!!!!!” to 2008!Castiel that made me laugh out loud the first time I read it. Also just a good reminder of how most problems in life are temporary and if you could go back in time to talk to your younger self you’d be like, “Hey man. Chill out. You get through it.”

The Path of Fireflies by museaway, 63.7k, mature After his humanity is restored, Dean wakes up in bed with Castiel, a wedding ring, and no memory of the past twelve years. There’s a lot of amnesia fic and djinn fic out there were Dean wakes up ~suddenly together with Cas~ but I like this one in particular because he’s initially very confused and kind of a dick about it until he acknowledges that being with Cas makes him happy.

take the long way home by dothraki_shieldmaiden, 95k, explicit Three months ago, when Dean decided to retire, he thought his life was going to end up differently. He'd thought that he might get to have it all, Sam, Cas, Jack, and nice little place to live. Instead he gets Sam and Jack off on their Summer of Love Tour, radio silence from Cas, and a never-ending road trip consisting of himself. Still reeling from the loss of his grace, Castiel travels the country in search of hunts. Driven by a need to prove his usefulness, he pushes himself beyond all limits of endurance. Together, with the help of a few friends, a crumbling Victorian house, and a stray cat, Dean and Castiel patch themselves back together and create a home together. Do you wanna read almost one hundred thousand words of Dean and Cas having extremely intense feelings but refusing to voice them aloud? Haha of course you do that’s why you’re here. There’s also a lot about Cas adjusting to being human and being depressed about it which might resonate if you’ve ever felt weird about having a body. To be honest the author could stand to use a few more commas but there were also half a dozen moments that made me put my phone down and drag my hand slowly over my face and whisper “oh my god” to myself which is like, the ultimate measure of a good fanfiction so it gets to be on the list.

like moses and batman and james dean by saltyfeathers, 31.6k, explicit dean used to turn tricks. over a decade later, he met cas. Have you seen the fanon (apparently pioneered by Mr. Jackles “Original Deankin” Ackles himself) that Dean used to prostitute himself to feed himself and Sam when they were younger? Are you interested in exploring that concept in fanfiction? Well, this is the only fic you need. Mind the tags on this one! It’s not what I’d call happy but it’s good.

Some Assembly Required by narrow_staircases, 47k, mature It’s September of 2005, and Dean Winchester, in an attempt to outrun old mistakes and painful memories, finds himself in southern Kentucky on a wild goose chase. He’s completely certain this weird religious movement he’s “investigating” is a hoax, despite the miraculous healings people report, and he’ll be back on the road in a day or two. Things are looking up when he meets Cas, an awkward (and gorgeous) graduate student who’s actually doing honest-to-god research into the local tent revival meetings. When that research takes a weird and personal turn, Dean’s left to face two very serious realities: one, this may be a real case after all, and two, he’s fallen way harder for Cas than he should ever have let himself. Stanford-era AU of Dean trying to avoid his father and getting in over his head on a case.

Alternate universe:

And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets, 57k, mature Only a very few people in the world know that the celebrated and reclusive poet Jack Allen is just Kansas mechanic Dean Winchester, a high school dropout with a few bucks to his name. Not that it matters anymore; life has left him so wrung out he never wants to pick up another pen. Until, that is, a string of coincidences leads Dean to auditing a poetry course with one Dr. Castiel Novak. The  professor is wildly intelligent, devastatingly handsome...and just so happens to be academia's foremost expert on the poetry of Jack Allen. Mundane AUs in this fandom have to be really, really good to catch my attention and this one is! It’s exactly what it says in the summary and the characterization is spot-on. 

Out to Drift by deathbanjo, 20.9k, mature Dean drives a black car with a loud engine. He lies too easily. He keeps a gun in the back of his jeans, and Castiel isn’t sure, but he wouldn’t be surprised if Dean has killed someone before. Two people in fucked-up unstable situations meeting and forming a connection. Honestly guys I really just love deathbanjo.

[eeveedel]

WIP Sunday

Hello all, I was tagged by to post a bit of my current WIP alongside some “art” -- I don’t have a current moodboard but I thought I would provide some general ~~aesthetic pics and another preview of the rancher harry fic -- this time an HL meet cute! I hope you all enjoy, and happy Sunday

Harry heard a rapping at the screen door, and he grunted, shifting his weight forward so he could sit up and hoist himself out of his armchair.

He took a step forward on his good leg while his bad one dragged behind him. After a bit of walking around, it usually woke up enough for him to put more weight on it, but for now, after his rest, it was a dead weight of pins and needles behind him. It took a bit of effort to get to the front door, but he got there eventually. He grabbed his cane that was leaning by the door, and then opened the wood door, revealing just the screen and what lay beyond it.

There was a man in mint green scrubs and a thick corduroy jacket on his porch, perfectly centered between the big American flag hanging beside Harry’s door and the pots of tulips lining the front gate. The man at the front door was young. He had some creases around his eyes and mouth but his freshly shaved face looked so youthful, along with his bright eyes behind his big, wire frame glasses.

“Howdy,” Harry drawled, lifting his thermos to his mouth, “You must be — “ His tongue worked in his mouth, trying to come up with the name Margaret had given him last week. It wasn’t something common around here, and yet it still evaded him.

“Shoot, I’m sorry,” he sighed, pushing up the brim of his hat with his thumb, “Help me out, what’s your name, son?”

“Oh, I’m Dr. Tomlinson, but you can call me Louis,” he said. “Dr. Baldwin caught me up on some of the animals you have here and their needs, sir,” he said. “I know you have a pregnant cow nearing the end of term and a newly pregnant mare that just needs a bit of a checkup as your main concerns. She also told me you had a few roosters and a chicken coop, is that correct?”

Harry cracked a smile and nodded.

“Well, that’s correct. Seems like you did your homework,” he said. “Cherry’s gonna have a baby now damn day now and I just found out about Goldie last month.”

He took a sip of his coffee, shuffling his feet and readjusting his cane as he did.

“You don’t need to worry too much about the chickens, they nearly take care of themselves. Got a few pigs but those are going to market in a couple months, but you can take a look at ‘em if you want to.”

He pushed at the screen door, moving out onto the porch to meet Louis directly. When he was in front of the man, he could see Louis looked even younger up close, and he was nearly a full head shorter than Harry.

“Can I get you something to drink or anything before we go out?” Harry asked, taking the briefest moment to look the young vet over.

“Um, maybe a glass of water after we finish up? It is a bit hot out today, even though it’s January,” Louis rambled. “I mean, I came from San Francisco, so it’s still hot there— anyways, sorry.”

He exhaled, his cheeks already pink.

“Could you show me to Cherry first, please?” Louis asked. “I want to make sure she and her calf are in tip top shape.”

Harry smiled gently. The young vet was eager, and looked a bit flustered. He tried not to let his gaze linger too much longer, although he already liked him.

“Sure thing. I’ll show you out the pasture. Cherry’s probably out gossiping with her friends.”

He walked to the edge of the porch, taking the small ramp that was easier to navigate with his cane.

“Tell me, they have a lot of cows out in California, Louis?” he asked as they trudged along the path, “Because if this is your first one, I’ll give you a fair warning. Cherry’s a sweet girl but a little sassy.”

“Well, I grew up in San Francisco, so no, we don’t have a lot of farms there,” Louis said. “But I studied with a bit of everything in veterinary school, and went to a lot of farms up north. So yeah, I’ve worked with cows.”

“Good, good,” Harry nodded.

He walked through along the dirt path that led from the house to the rest of the ranch. He led Louis past the chicken coop and the large horse barn, moving out to the back part of the property with the cattle barn and the large pasture. His leg was starting to wake up, making his gait a bit less strained.

“Where did you study?” he asked.

“UC Santa Barbara for undergrad and then vet school at UC Berkeley,” Louis said. “I just graduated last spring, actually.”

“Congratulations,” Harry said. “Before you look at my girls, you wanna tell me know if you were bottom of your class?”

Louis laughed a little, scratching the back of his neck.

“I was actually valedictorian.”

“Damn. Undergrad or vet school?”

“Uh,” Louis said, smiling sheepishly. “Both? And high school.”

“Jeez,” Harry chuckled. “Well. I didn’t even go to college, so you’ve already impressed me many times over.”

They arrived in front of the enormous cattle barn and the wide pasture beyond it. Harry smiled to himself, lifting the hand that wasn’t gripping his cane.

“Yep,” he smiled to himself, “There she is.”

He gestured to the pasture, and specifically pointed to one of the cows, a rich red brown and swollen at the belly, who was smack in the middle of a group of five other black and white cows.

“Gossiping, just like I thought,” Harry said. He reached for the gate, going to unlock it, “Well, come on, you can give me your expert opinion.”

“Wow, she’s beautiful,” Louis marveled.

“Don’t let her hear that, it’ll go straight to her head,” Harry said. He opened the gate fully, then opened the pasture and turned around, holding it open for Louis.

Once they were both inside, Harry approached Cherry, cooing and clicking his tongue as he walked. She looked up and stared at him, chewing slowly on a thick clump of grass, but when she was done, she let out a low moo and slowly but surely waddled towards him.

“Here she comes,” Harry smiled.

They both stood and watched her as she slowly came over, and when she did, she immediately gravitated to Harry.

“Hey, princess,” Harry said. He set his hand on her head and gently stroked her with his thumb, smiling to himself as she blinked at him with her big, milk chocolate eyes.

“Louis’s gonna take a look at you, pretty girl,” Harry said. “You be nice to him.”

Harry kept petting Cherry’s head and then looked over to Louis. The vet was kneeling on the ground, unlocking the briefcase he had brought. It was funny, seeing him with a shiny, clearly barely used case. Margaret had always just shoved her tools into her ancient Jansport backpack, which was covered in twenty years’ worth of coffee stains and held together with duct tape and spite.

Louis took out a pair of latex gloves and a stethoscope, then moved closer to the animal. He gave her a settle pat on her swollen side, then put the stethoscope’s earpieces in. He set the metal diaphragm on her side, and Cherry jolted a bit, but Louis cooed at her and kept petting her side as he listened. He closed his eyes and nodded a bit as he moved the cold metal over her stomach, humming softly to himself.

Harry watched Louis carefully touch and examine Cherry, the young man’s hands gentle but sure as he did his job. Harry had had his hesitations before Louis arrived. But he seemed at home, and like he really cared about doing a good job. Harry could appreciate that. He had spent years building up trust with Margaret to work with his animals, but, maybe he was just getting sentimental at his age, or Louis really did have a special touch, but he immediately felt just fine with the younger man taking care of his herd.

After a few minutes Louis opened his eyes and ducked his head down, examining Cherry’s udders and nether regions. Finally, he lifted his head and pulled himself up, taking the stethoscope out of his ears and draping it around his neck.

“Well, she looks great,” Louis said as he peeled off his gloves and shoved them into his jacket pocket. “The calf’s got a nice, strong heartbeat. She seems about a couple weeks away, but just keep an eye on her – “

“Early labor, yeah,” Harry said. “I always start preparing at least a couple weeks in advance of the due date, anyways. My girl Caroline went into labor a couple years ago, fuckin’ 16 days before she was due, and I was in Austin for the weekend. Only time I left the house in months, and she picked that weekend.”

One of the white cows in the pasture mooed loudly, and Harry looked over his shoulder and glared.

“Yeah, I’m talkin’ about you, fuckin’ drama queen,” he scoffed. “She’s a good girl. And a tough one. Had a delivery all by herself and nearly gave me a heart attack when I got home and there was a new baby toddling around.”

He turned back to Louis, offering an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, don’t mean to bore you with farm stories right off the bat.”

“It’s okay,” Louis said. “I love to hear animal stories.”

“Well, let me know in a few months if you’re sick of cow stories. That’s nearly the only kind of stories we have in this town.”

Louis just laughed and lifted his hand, shifting his glasses up his nose.

“Would you show me to Goldie, please? Just to see how her early stages are going.”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Harry said. “Goldie’s in the small barn, come on.”

[shimmeringclouds]

Chapter 4

The train journey was excruciatingly long, just as they remembered it to be. Karatsugu peered out the window beside him, his eyes stuck to the darkening sky above, which was also tinted a slight shade darker due to him wearing his large aviator sunglasses. He watched as the scenery outside gradually changed from strictly endless waves of tall green grass and trees to small buildings in the far distance and flat earth.

Across from him, Hajime sat silently, slouching in his seat as he clutched his large backpack to his chest to rest his chin atop it, his eyes shut as he slept quietly. A small smile came to Karatsugu's lips before he yawned, covering his mouth with the back of his hand whilst his other arm stretched up above his head. He let it fall down onto his lap lazily as he went back to staring out the window, his leg jumping up and down lightly as he inwardly became impatient.

It had been quite a while since he had last come to Akashika District; a year, to be exact. He still remembered the first time he had visited that place like it was only yesterday, as well as the interesting adventure he and his newfound brothers took part in. Karatsugu smiled fondly at the memory, wondering just what else they would be getting up to this time.

He was quickly snapped out of his daydreams as a voice spoke over the intercom, and although it sounded very fuzzy and full of static, he could just about make out what the voice said:

'We are now arriving at Akashika Station. This is the train's final stop. Please ensure you have all your items of belonging before leaving the train. We are now arriving at...'

The voice repeated itself several more times before it fell silent, and Karatsugu could feel the train begin to slow down. He carefully, and very cautiously, leaned forward to nudge Hajime's knee, attempting to rouse him from his nap.

"Hajime... You need to wake up now, we're here..." he mumbled, gently calling for his younger brother. He could feel a bead of sweat beginning to accumulate on his temple as Hajime didn't stir, prompting him to nudge a tad bit harder whilst also bearing in mind to not push his own luck, lest he want a fist to the face.

Thankfully, that didn't happen, and Hajime grumbled against his backpack as his eyes sluggishly cracked open. His dark gaze landed on Karatsugu for a moment before it wandered around the train compartment, shifting slightly in his seat and raising his head. He rubbed a hand against the back of his neck, wincing at the soreness from the awkward position he had fallen asleep in.

"... We're here?" he mumbled, barely audible over the ruckus of the train still moving against the tracks. Karatsugu nodded, taking his phone out of his pocket whilst Hajime stretched his arms. Karatsugu swiped through the group chat one of his brothers had created, skimming over his unread messages from hours ago to begin tapping away at his screen.

── SEX🤤🍆tuplets

12:24

[Chorosuke💐🌹] Who changed the group chat name?

[Takashi🍰🍬🍭] Who do u think lol

[Ozo🍺🚖] its gr8 right! sexxxxxxxxxxxx tuplets HAHAH

[Chorosuke💐🌹] Please shut up.

[Ozo🍺🚖] ur alwas so booooooring chorosuk e lolol anyway! karatsugu n hajime! wya?

[Hajime🐈‍⬛🐾] train

That is correct burazzas!~~😎😎✨✨ Our travels have only barely just begun!💫💫 We will be arriving later tonight! I'm sure you are all very excited for our arrival, hmm~~? 🥀🥀🥀🥀😎😎😎😎

[Takashi🍰🍬🍭] We get it plz stop with those ugly ass emojis

[Jyushimatsu🌻🌼☀️] KARAMATSU NIISAN ICHIMATSU NIISAN HIHHIHUHIHUU!!!!! HIRRY UP I WANNA PLAY!!!!!!

[Chorosuke💐🌹] I don't want to kick you out again, Jyushimatsu. Please don't spam.

── SEX🤤🍆tuplets 19:03

[72 unread messages]

We are arriving at the station!✨✨ Ozo, burazza, would you be so kind as to give us a lift?😎😎😎

[Ozo🍺🚖] sureeee its abt time u guys got here!

[Jyushimatsu🌻🌼☀️] YAYYYYAYA!!! YOUR HERE YOURH ERE!!! OSOMATSU NIISAN CAN I CUM A SWELL????!!!!

[Takashi🍰🍬🍭] oh my god eww

[Ozo🍺🚖] Yh! the more the happier as they say

[Chorosuke💐🌹] It's: 'The more, the merrier.' Honestly, how do you not know?

[Ozo🍺🚖] I ain't no nerd anyway ill be there in 10!

──

Satisfied with Ozo's response, Karatsugu put away his phone and stood up, reaching up to the overhang and carefully sliding his suitcase out and onto the floor. He also did the same for Hajime's suitcase, having a sneaking suspicion that the man wouldn't get it himself, but he wasn't bothered by it.

They waited for the train to pull to a stop, the metal wheels against the tracks squeaking and groaning loudly into the air. The voice over the intercom spoke again, signalling that all passengers were now allowed to leave.

So, with their suitcases in hand and their backpacks slung over their shoulders, the two brothers exited the train and stepped onto the same barren and quiet platform. The warm evening air pushed into their faces, the heat a lot tamer than it would be during the day. Hajime looked up towards the sky for a moment, witnessing the final shreds of sunlight melt away into the night as a dark blanket covered the sky.

"We should head outside," Karatsugu spoke up, his baritone voice echoing around the area, "they could be here any minute, now." He had already begun walking towards the exit, and after a few seconds, he heard his brother's footsteps shuffling along the concrete ground, following him from behind.

Karatsugu stepped out first, taking a deep breath of fresh air as a soft breeze picked up around him briefly before it died down. He smiled at the scenery, already feeling at home with his excitement growing by the second.

"Karamatsu-niisan."

The man screamed, jumping on the spot and tripping over his own feet as he tumbled to the ground, his mouth agape and sunglasses askew on his face, eyes darting around to see where that sudden voice came from, only to find a man standing to his right with a brown paper bag over his head and the roughly cut holes where his eyes should be dark and devoid of life.

Hajime stepped out next, taking one good look at Karatsugu on the ground and raising his brow before looking over to the paper bag man. He barely reacted, only giving a slight nod and saying:

"Long time no see, Jyushimatsu."

"Aha! Same here, Ichimatsu-niisan!" Jyushimatsu laughed, rocking back and forth on his heels giddily. Karatsugu, still on the ground, gradually collected himself and cupped his chin with this thumb and forefinger, smirking as if he hadn't just screamed like he had seen a ghost.

"Heh! Jyushimatsu! It has been some time since we last spoke in person!" Unsurprisingly, Karatsugu went ignored as the other headed towards a car that was parked a little further down the road, with the engine still running and the lights beaming down onto the gravelled path. Karatsugu only hummed amusedly, standing up and brushing himself off, making sure to readjust his glasses before grabbing his things and following behind them, listening in on their conversation.

"A lot of things have changed around here since you last visited, you know!" Jyushimatsu swung his arms back and forth as he walked, the smile in his voice heard through his words.

"Yeah? Like what?" Hajime readjusted his backpack on his shoulder, throwing a side glance towards Jyushimatsu. The paper bag man only giggled, his head now swaying side to side, as if nodding along to some unheard tune.

"Things!" Was all he said as they reached the car. The trio paused as the driver's door opened, and out clambered a grinning Ozo with a beer can in hand.

"Finally! I thought you guys were never gonna show up!" He complained, though there was no bite behind his words. Hajime shook his head as he watched Ozo take a large swig from his can.

"You couldn't wait until we got to that otaku's house to start drinking? I don't want to die because of your shitty driving..." he shuffled over to the car, opening the trunk and pushing his suitcase in there as Jyushimatsu sat in the back seats.

"I'm not a lightweight! I can handle more than one can, y'know!" Ozo sat back down in his seat, and Karatsugu also went over to place his suitcase in the trunk before closing it. Hajime sat in the back with Jyushimatsu, leaving the passenger seat up front available. Once they were all settled in the car, Ozo manoeuvred the car out of its parked position and back onto the road.

"Let's chuck your stuff at that guy's place, and then we can go drinking!" Ozo cheered, Jyushimatsu matching his excitement. Karatsugu couldn't help but laugh, and even Hajime couldn't control the small smirk that crept its way onto his face, which he quickly hid behind his backpack.

It was nice to be back.

»»-----　♔　-----««

You sighed softly as you wiped down the bar top with the slightly damp cloth in your palm. Glancing at the small clock on the wall behind you, you took note of how it had been just over an hour since your shift at Bang Bang Chicken Bar had started and, as per usual, barely anyone had entered the bar. There was that one regular customer who had already came and went — a man with very large front teeth who asked for the same drink every other night, attempted to flirt with you, then would leave with the promise of coming back as a rich French man... whatever that means.

Another sigh escaped you. It was now just past nine o'clock, and you had a strong feeling that the hours were going to slip by a lot slower than you would like. That, and coupled with the fact that you would be the only one working at the bar at this hour (aside from your boss, who would be cooped up in his office until early hours of the morning), you knew it would be yet another boring night ahead.

Well, maybe not entirely boring.

The sound of drums suddenly filled the silence in the bar, which was soon followed by the sound of heavy strums of electric guitars and keyboards. A woman's voice began belting lyrics into the microphone. You watched the band, Killer Fish, perform on the raised platform in the centre of the room, the seven women on stage lost in their own world of death metal music as their heads nodded along violently to the beat.

When you had first started working at Bang Bang Chicken Bar — an obscure bar at the end of a long, winding and empty road on the outskirts of Akatsuka Village — you did not expect the seven quiet and well-dressed women on the stage to start singing death metal. It scared you half to death the first time you heard the screech of guitar strings echoing through the desolate bar. Even the lead singer, Totoko, dressed in a formal Japanese yukata with her hair styled up in an old-fashioned bun, her face stoic and serious, shocked you with her booming voice and scratchy vocals of a true death metal singer.

It was all so unexpected, and the tremors of the music had left you slightly shaky once the first performance was over. Now, though, you had become used to the music, and although it wasn't your preferred choice of music, you began to enjoy the performances. It made the whole bar feel so much more alive.

By the time you snapped out of your thoughts, the performance was over and the group was setting themselves up for another song. You, with nothing better to do, decided you would turn to the shelves stacked with all kinds of alcoholic drinks behind you and sort through them again, making sure they were presented with their labels faced towards the patrons and that they were organised neatly, despite the fact that you had already done this. Three times.

Whilst you mindlessly traced your fingers along the glass bottles, the music started up again, drowning out the sound of the door to the bar opening.

In walked six men, each dressed in black suits, and each of them boisterous and excited to begin their night of drinking. They awed at the group on stage for a moment before one of them took charge and pushed them over to an empty table in the middle of the room. They took their seats and began conversing with each other, laughing at some joke someone made or at another's crazy antics.

Eventually, two of them stood up from their seats, one seemingly more casual with his hands tucked into his pockets whilst the other, donning a black yukata, seemed more uptight with an annoyed frown pressed onto his upturned lips. The two began making their way over to the bar, where you were stood with your back still turned, oblivious of what was happening behind you until your ears picked up the sound of two men conversing.

You tilted your head slightly, squinting your eyes as if it would help with figuring out whether you were hearing things or not, but as the voices grew closer, your eyes widened as you realised no, this wasn't your imagination, and there were actually other customers in the bar.

Turning on your heel, you physically felt your brain fizzle and pop like an old lightbulb at the sight of the two men coming closer towards you, their faces still fresh in your mind from the first time you had encountered them on separate occasions.

"Come on, Chorosuke! You're loaded! A couple of drinks with your money won't hurt anyone!" It was that taxi driver from the other day who was talking, that same sleazy grin displayed proudly on his face as he poked fun at the man next time him; that man from the store who had given you that watermelon, which actually was sweet.

"You and I both know you won't be having 'a couple of drinks!' And you have your own money! Pay for yourself!" He shouted over the music, his eyes narrowing in frustration as he knew all too well that he would inevitably be paying for the drinks. You could only stand in silence as they grew closer and closer, neither of them truly paying attention to your presence as they continued to bicker back and forth until they were stood right in front of you.

Ozo turned to you first, his mouth opening to make his request until his half-lidded eyes locked onto your face. He frowned for a split-second before his eyes widened, the smirk on his lips stretching into an excited grin as he instantly recognised you. Chorosuke, confused by his brother's odd reaction, turned to you as well, only for his expression to fall into a look of horror, his pale cheeks flushing a bright crimson.

"It's you!" They exclaimed together, their tones completely opposite to one another. Pausing, they whipped their heads to look at each other confusedly. "Wait, what?" they questioned in unison.

"How do you know her?" Chorosuke quickly demanded, his eyes flitting between your nervous form and the man beside him.

"I told you, I met a pretty girl yesterday!" Ozo reminded him, "And what about you?"

"I-I, well... We bumped into each other at the market the other day..." Chorosuke's voice trailed off, secretly hoping you would remember him so that he wouldn't be humiliated in front of the one man who wouldn't let something like this go. Lucky for him, you did remember. You remembered that interaction all too well.

"Really?! Wow! Small world, right?" Ozo turned to you, leaning against the bar top with one arm as he gave you a quick once over, a flirtatious look in his eyes that only served to make you shrink into yourself. "Do you remember me? I dropped you off yesterday! Man, if I knew you worked here, I would come by more often!"

They seemed to be waiting for some kind of reaction from you, so you took a minute step back from the countertop and chuckled nervously, an odd smile on your face that probably didn't look like a smile at all.

"Aha... Yeah! Hi... again..."

This was going to be a long, long night.

[unicyclehippo]

game night!!! i mentioned this earlier but i wanna talk a little about the ship the party just boarded—i think they really enjoyed it!!!

“The first glimpse you have of this ship is a big green sail over the trees. The second is a big yellow sail, the third a big white sail, and as you’re trying to figure out exactly how it all fits together, the ship turns the bend in the river and past the trees and you can see it in its entirety. The more you look, the more you see, halflings and gnomes and the very occasional half-elf or goblin scurrying up and down rigging, swinging out on rope ladders to dive into the water, calling out orders across the work deck or dares up to the children walking the laundry tightrope. It’s colourful and bustling—far more than a ship, the Loralee Larelli is its own village drifting down the river.”

So the boat is very much inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle and it’s this wonderful cluster of ships and platforms and rooms. I’ll give a rundown of the levels and things that I have built so far.

Underbarge: separated into Storage, Brig, & Trawling. Storage is looked over by the Quartermaster and especially here at the base is extremely important because if anything gets too unbalanced, there is a real possibility that the entire construct could topple. The Brig is two dingy little rooms and the Skipper has the only keys. Trawling is beneath the kitchen/mess hall on Work Deck & it is a well, essentially, that allows people to drop fish nets & crab cages & go diving below. They often use it when they’re travelling through the swamp to look for buried treasure.

Work Deck/ Level One: This is the part of the deck that serves as the base for everything above. A fairly flat boat, a very large barge. Seperated into the Skipper’s Hill, the Haul Arm, the Mess Hall & the School House. At the rear of the barge is Skipper’s Hill—a halfling hill that was moved, undisturbed, from its place and set on the barge. Grass and wildflowers grow over it and a little crooked chimney pokes up the top. It has porthole windows and a little front door and a little letterbox. The Mess Hall & School House are like long buildings on the deck but th walls are able to be folded back like shutters so they can be completely open and are just covered with a roof or they can be closed for classes or whatever else. The Haul Arm is built out from the bank side of the ship and is a sand beast. It is a contraption of wooden legs that are propelled by the wind blowing in its sailed and the Haul Arm essentially functions by walking over the reeds and sand bank; workers who are standing on the Haul Arm have baskets and sickles and they chop reeds into the baskets for weaving.

Halfway between Work Deck and Platform One is the Fishing platform & Laundry platform. Pretty self explanatory but it’s fun to imagine dozens of lines of shirts and pants and dresses flapping in the breeze.

Platform One: Bunks on Port, Crafts on Starboard. As simple as it sounds, the reality of this platform is as dizzying as all the others. There are platforms and boxes and rooms made of scavenged and lovingly repaired driftwood and tent canvas and it looks like they lifted half a low stone fence from a farm to build up one of the platforms. There’s a chicken coop made out of an old carriage, and someone has turned a wagon into lift with a clever pulley system. Some of the rooms have signs nailed or written with chalk that say that they belong to someone but others are open to anyone who needs a bed, and are packed with pallets or hammocks or blankets to sleep under the stars.

Similarly, Crafters on Starboard platform is another jumble. The rooms are on the outskirts of starboard platform one, all pushed to the edges so that the centre of it is a big open space for people to sit around and work together. Some of this platform is also dedicated to storage and the quartermaster’s cabin is here. Wooden gangplanks and rope bridges and rope swings let people move from one side to the other, or up and down, as well as elevator pulleys for those in wheelchairs or injured or carrying things. All anyone needs to do is whistle or call up for a hand and someone will hurry to help. Most elevators also have a hand crank but it is a bit harder to do for yourself and slower than three enthusiastic people hauling on a pulley rope to help you up a level.

[adelaidedrubman]

2, 4, 6, 13 for jessie beloved 💞

thank you lesya my beloved!!! sorry for the delay but you know how i be 🥲

2. Who is your best friend?  Tell us about them!

"Only the most gorgeous lady in Hope County, Ms. Tracey Lader! We could be more than friends, if she just says the word. Either way, sure as hell not gonna desert her to hang out with some freakshow cult. I know when I have a good thing going, unlike some people.

But seriously, I know Tracey has a reputation for being a little prickly at first, but she's one of the sweetest, most patient people I've met since I've been here. She puts up with me, she's understanding and doesn't judge when I tell her I've done something, uh... less than brilliant.

Alright, sometimes she judges a little, but only when I deserve it. That girl probably knows more about me than anyone. I'm lucky to have her."

4. What is your least favorite childhood memory?

"Hmm, alright, so. I'm ten years old, goin' over to my pal Kaitlyn's for a sleepover. Now, I'm nervous as shit, 'cause Kaitlyn's house isn't just any regular ol' house, her folks have money. Huge house on this huuuuuuge sprawling farm. And also because I had a huge crush on Kaitlyn, but I wasn't entirely, uh, cognizant of that yet.

But anyways, we were off explorin' the place — which like I said, was huge, especially to a kid — ridin' round on four wheelers, having a blast, and we come up on their chickens. And her family has 'em in this huge chicken coop with a big ol' free range area. I mean bigger than some people's backyard.

We stop off and she's gonna let me feed the chickens, 'cause I've never done it before, so I got a hand full of chicken feed. When don't you know it her shitass older brother and his friend are up there, sitting on top of the coop, and start throwing rocks at us, big ones, shits that hurt. So Kaitlyn starts crying, I'm pissed off, I climb my way up there to give 'em hell. Knock the first one off, feeling pretty good about that, feel like I'm looking pretty cool. Start to go for the second one, he runs off — but trips me on the way, I fall back... break right through the chicken wire and land in their little playpen. Smack dab in the middle of a huge pile of chicken shit.

And that's bad enough, right? But mind you, I still have a fistful of chicken feed, which I remember bout the time I feel something peck right between my eyes. Then my neck. And damn near every wear else on me. Had to have been at least ten of them suckers pecking the shit out of me. Still have a scar from it, right here on my wrist. Anyways, I tear down near half the chicken coop getting out, they all go running to their freedom, which is too bad, 'cause if I ever wanted to cook and eat a family of chickens...

Needless to say, I was not invited back to anymore sleepovers at Kaitlyn's. Worst part though? Her brother kept calling me 'chickenshit' everytime he saw me at school. Which is fucked, 'cause he was the one running away. Little bastard."

6. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?

"Oof, well... It's been a pretty cushy ride for the most part, kinda coasted through life. I'd say the hardest thing would probably be getting through the police academy. Now, the book learning part wasn't exactly challenging, but it was fucking boring. And I thought I was in pretty good shape but... really worked my ass off physically. More than I had to, according the instructors, but... Never too careful, don't wanna be one of those assholes that just knows how to fire a gun and nothing else.

But most of all, it was hard 'cause it was full of a lot of those assholes. And lots of other kinds of assholes. Assholes everywhere. Not in a good way."

13. You’re given an unlimited budget to build anything you want!  What do you build and where do you build it?

Answered here!

[thiswasinevitableid]

Apple, Delight (Sternclay)

Prompt for the fourth was: Apple Orchard

Barclay has cinnamon sugar in his pores, he’s certain of it. The first of October means the crowds arrive in earnest to Amnesty Farm which, from late September to mid-November, becomes a center for fall fun. They don’t serve tons of food, but Barclay is in charge of what they do offer, his pride and joy being their apple cider doughnuts, which he’s made by dozen since eight that morning.

He’s ready to settle in for the night when he discovers he has less firewood than he thought. Ah well, Sass needs to go out anyway, a trip to the wood pile won’t kill him. 

Except, as he’s gathering an armful of chopped logs, Sass goes tearing off towards the orchards, dark fur disappearing into the shadows under the trees.

Barclay sighs, sets the wood down and starts off after him. It’s not like he can get too lost, since the farm is fenced in on all sides, but it’s supposed to rain tonight and he’d hate for him to be out in it. Plus, if he gets into the garden display again, Dani will be pissed. 

He passes the petting zoo, then the goat and sheep pens, smiling when soft clucks come from the chicken coop. They’re on a country road, so at night there’s no traffic to drown out the sounds of the farm and the nearby woods. Maybe some people find it eerie, but hes’ grateful for the relative quiet after a day of being in the kitchen. 

Skirting the end of the U-Pick Pumpkin Patch brings him to the apple orchards. There are also pear and cherry trees, but the apples make up the bulk of what they grow, and visitors are welcome to pick from designated sections. 

Now if only he could spot a wagging tail or hear a jingling collar in the midst of them. 

“Sass!” He whistles, but no shape comes bounding towards him. Usually when the dog fails to come when called, it’s because he’s chasing some poor squirrel or rabbit into the underbrush.

Which is why, when he hears a  distinctly human cry of alarm, Barclay jumps out of his skin before taking off towards the subsequent barks. 

He finds Sass directing his deep woofs at a man about Barclay’s age, with dark hair that was slicked back at some point but is now mussed, and a sweater and jeans that are far too clean for him to be a farmhand. When he gets closer, he realizes he recognizes the guy; he’d been in with his family earlier that day, and Barclay had just enough time to think he was hotter than the fryer before a new wave of visitors came to the counter. Given that he was there with a woman and  young girl, he’s gonna assume the guy is off-limits for flirting. 

“Sass, c’mon boy, heel.” 

The dog turns, lopes over to Barclay as he steps to the man and offers a hand. 

“Sorry, he’s a surprisingly good guard dog for something that gets distracted by butterflies.”

The man takes his hand, stands and brushes leaves from his sweater, “and he's terrifying to have bolting towards you out of the darkness.”

Barclay raises an eyebrow, “that's kind of the point of a guard dog. Y’know, keeping intruders out?”

“I’m not an intruder, I am a visitor who misplaced something.”

“We’ve been closed for two hours.”

“I’m aware. But the front gate was locked and I couldn't get anyone’s attention.”

“Because the staff who live here live out towards the back. That's why we put that phone number on the gate. '' He turns them back towards the cottage, Sass trotting happily in front of them. 

“Which would have worked perfectly. If the thing I was missing wasn't my phone.” The man holds up a smartphone.

“I mean, guess it’s good you found it, but you coulda used someone else's and let us know to look for i in the lost and found. Folds are good about bringing dropped stuff back to the main farm.”

“I considered that option but I might not have a job come morning if I did it that way.”

“Jesus, where do you work?”

“The FBI.”

“Ah.”

“Yes, pretty much.”

“That how come you were able to scale the fence so easily?”

The man nods.

“What kind of work do you do in the FBI?” He may as well make the most of having a cute guy walking with him. A little practice flirting can’t hurt. God knows he needs it. 

“I work for the, um, the UP.”

“....Holy shit, I didn’t know that was real, I thought they made it up for the X-Files.”

“No, though it involves far more dead ends than that show portrays. Oddly, Twin Peaks is more accurate to what I do.”

“Man, that’s fucking cool agh, shit” rain patters on the leaves, “please tell me you moved your car away from the gate?”

“Only a little.”

“Shit. Okay, you probably figured it out from wandering around, but we are literally on the other end of the property right now, and the golf cart is in the shop.”

“It’s, um, it’s alright, if you get me to the main route through the farm, I can walk back on my own and climb the fence. Again.” His tone suggests he’s already working through the logistics in his head. 

“Uh, if you aren't in too big a hurry, at least let me swing by my place and get you a raincoat?”

“Oh. Um, that’d be great. Thank you.”

They veer right and soon the cottage comes into view. He grabs some dry firewood while Sass waits on the step and the man rubs his hands together. 

Once they’re inside, the man turns to him and Barclay has to work to keep his focus on his words rather than the blue eyes and handsome face.

“May I use your restroom? I got a bit muddy.” He holds up his hands. 

“Just down the hall.” 

The man smiles, and Barclay starts building a fire as he walks away. There’s a ding, and he goes to check in case Mama needs something. But it's not his phone, it’s the other man's, glowing where he set it on the table. 

Hayes: I expect better than technical mishaps from you, agent,

Shit, he wasn’t kidding about work. And his other notification is showing thirty unread emails.

The water shuts off in the bathroom and he hurries back to the fire, is just getting it caught when there’s a groan behind him. Turning, he sees his guest running a hand through his black hair, staring defeatedly down at his phone. 

“I’m moving to the bottom of the sea.”

Barclay chuckles and the man looks a little embarrassed at being heard.

“If you want something closer to home, we're hiring seasonal help.”

“I’m sure it’d do wonders for my physique, if you’re anything to go by, but I doubt I’m cut out for it. I’m white-collar through and through, unfortunately. Sorry” he looks at the hardwood floor, “probably shouldn’t whine about my job, since you’re helping me stay dry instead after I committed at least two misdemeanors on your property.”

“It’s Mama’s, I just work here. And it’s okay. Though, uh, kinda surprised you wanna talk to some random dude on a farm about it instead of, like, your wife.”

“Wife?”

“The woman who was with you today? You came into the restaurant at one point.”

“Oh! No, that’s my sister, I came with her and my niece. Her opinion on my work troubles is to get a boyfriend so I’ll have someone to complain to.”

Barclay closes the fire grate slightly harder than he means to at that last sentence.

“Did, uh, did you all have a good time?”

“Very. Ellie, my niece, adored all the animals, and Lily comes here every year to pick out pumpkins for decorating the house. I, um, my favorite part was the food. Those doughnuts were amazing, as were the pumpkin scones.”

Barclay blushes; a cute guy complimenting his cooking tends to make him all fluttery.

“You thought those were good, then I got something you need to try. Uh, I mean, if you want to stay a little, if not I can get the coat and we can go.”

The man looks at his phone, then back to Barclay, “what the hell, things are under control until the morning. I’d love to stay. Um, may I dry my sweater by the fire? It got pretty wet just in the few minutes we were out.”

“Sure thing uh, Mr-”

“Joseph is fine.”

Barclay smiles, heading for the kitchen, but not before watching Joseph's shirt catch on his sweater and ride up, revealing honest-to-god cut muscle. Instead of asking if he can lick apple butter off his abs, he grabs the jar of said butter, the loaf of bread, and starts a kettle for tea. 

Soon he’s setting a plate and a cup of cranberry-apple tea un front of Joseph, who inhales appreciatively.

“Let me guess; you made all of this?”

“Yep, the apple butter is an old family recipe.”

They eat in silence for a few moments until Sass, roused from his spot by the fire by the smell of food, pads over to sit in front of Joseph and stare. When that fails to produce treats, he turns his puppy-dog eyes on Barclay. The cook makes him sit and shake before tossing him a small piece of bread.

“What kind of dog is he?”

“Bernese Mountain Dog and Rottweiler, we think.”

“Is his name short for something?”

Barclay smiles, “Sasquatch. He had huge feet as a puppy.”

“We have similar dog-naming habits.” Joseph pulls out his phone, “this is Nessie.” When he turns it, Barclay almost snorts tea out his nose, unprepared for the sight of a greyhound in a sweater decorated with tiny Loch Ness Monsters. 

“Believe it or not, she adores that sweater. Last time I took it off to be washed, she whined for an hour.”

“Awww” It’s an adorable image, but not quite as adorable as the thought of Joseph on laundry day, in pajama pants and one of Barclay’s shirts, hair still relaxed from a shower. 

“She’s a good girl.” He tucks his phone away, “I feel terrible whenever I have to travel for work; my sister can’t take her so I have to board her somewhere, and it’s just infrequent enough that she forgets the staff and is terrified of them anew each time.”

“We could always get her used to me and board her here, assuming she and Sass get along.” The offer is sixty percent out of the goodness of his heart and forty percent wanting to see Joseph smile. 

“You’d really do that?”

“The farm is secure, she’d have a playmate, and there’d be lots of people here looking after her. She’d sleep in the cottage, of course.”

Joseph gives him an inquisitive look, then glances down at Sass, who’s wagging his tail so hard he’s sweeping the floor.

“Sure, what the hell. Assuming they get along, the next time I have to go, she can stay here.”

They chat for awhile longer about books, cooking, and various farm mishaps, before Barclay reluctantly fetches the spare raincoat so they can get Joseph back to his car. 

“Doesn’t quite bring out your eyes the way that sweater does.” He murmurs, then tries to correct for the come-on with, “because it’s such a, uh, a nice sweater?”

Joseph stays close to him as he replies “I’d offer to trade, but I’m not sure any of my clothes could survive that broad chest.” He ghosts his fingers across Barclays shirt, “Though it could be fun to see them try.”

The walk to the gate isn’t nearly long enough, and he blushes when Joseph once again thanks him profusely for his help and his company. The walk back, however, feels like an eternity, one that gives him time to doubt the other man had any interest in him at all. 

But all that evaporates when he gets home. Because sitting on the table is a slip of paper with a phone number and a short message. 

For arranging dog playdates. And dinner next Friday if you’re interested.

-Joseph

And sitting just below the message is a small, precisely drawn heart.

[sirtommyholland]

Soo... We built a TARDIS! || tom holland x female!reader

A/N: Inspiration strikes from weird places. For me it was a random video that showed up in my recommendations. I can’t put the link here since it messes up the tags apparently, but I’ll put it in the comments!

This takes place a few months into quarantine so they can actually have 3 months to build a whole actual TARDIS.

Summary: You and Tom get bored in quarantine and decide to build a TARDIS, because, why not?

Warning: A brief mention of ‘being stuck at home’. I added the warning thinking there might be some people having a hard time with this whole isolation thing and not wanting to read about it. 

Word Count: 1.8k

*tomholland2013 just started a live stream. Watch it before it ends!*

“Hi guys!” we see Tom sitting on a couch in his living room, in a loose t-shirt and hair messy.  He makes small talk for a while as he waits for more people to join, then he gets up and starts walking towards the garden door. “Soo it’s a beautiful summer day outside, sun is shining, and I wanted to take you on a little tour of our garden.” He flips the camera around after fumbling for a bit, and the view turns to his garden. “So over here you see our chicken coop. Predator is chillin’ in there, the other two are wandering around. And over here we have some pretty flowers that my even prettier girlfriend planted. And then - OH MY GOD GUYS! WHAT IS THAT?!” He suddenly turns his phone towards the other side of the garden in a quick motion, and comes into view… a life sized TARDIS?

“Woaahh!” he says feigning shock. “T- T- The TARDIS??!” He starts walking towards the blue police box, narrating at the same time. “Guys this is crazy there’s a TARDIS in my garden!” As he gets closer to the box, the door suddenly opens to reveal a young woman, sticking her arm outside and pointing a sonic screwdriver towars the camera.

“Don’t you dare come any closer you-“ she starts with a harsh tone “you- youuu…” she stumbles, not being able to find a word, and starts laughing, we can hear Tom laughing behind the camera too as he also breaks character.

“Sooo..” he starts, flipping the camera to front view and walking towards his girlfriend, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to bring her into frame, both of them smiling at the camera, the police box in the background. “We built a TARDIS!”

3 months earlier

You and Tom were cuddling on your shared bed, catching up on some Doctor Who. While being stuck at home wasn’t ideal, you were trying to make the best of it by spending at least a couple of hours a day together, just the two of you, making up for the times he was away for shooting. After dinner you had a few beers with the guys downstairs, then went back to your room for TV, cuddles, and more beer. You were on your third episode when Tom suddenly lifted his head from the pillows to look at you.

“We should build our own TARDIS.” He stated.

“Yeah, definetely.” You answered in a plain voice, thinking he was joking.

“No, I’m serious.” He continued. “We are stuck at home with nothing to do, I know some carpentry, and the guys would help. It would be fun for all of us.”

Maybe it was because you were both a little beyond tipsy, bit it seemed more and more a like a good idea as he kept on talking.

“Yeah, you are right.” You said after he finished talking and looked at you expectantly. “We should definetely build a TARDIS.”

———-

The next morning , when you were having breakfast with Tom, he lifted his head from his plate and looked at you.

“Can you believe we actually decided to build a TARDIS last night? We get crazy when we’re drunk.” He said, laughing a bit.

“I know right?” you said immediately. “Like, did we really think we could actually build a real, life sized TARDIS on our own? And for what, just to stand in some corner of the garden with no real purpose?”

You both laughed a little nervously with your heads down, then stopped when you looked at each other.

“We should do it.” You both said at the same time.

“Oh thank God!” he started laughing. “I was afraid you actually didn’t want to do it!”

“How could I not when it’s the best idea we’ve ever had!” you exclaimed, laughing along with him as you high fived.

It was gonna be a long few months.

———-

You ordered lots of wood to begin with, watching lots and lots of tutorials and videos when you waited for them to arrive. Apparently, a lot of people had the wonderful idea of building a TARDIS.  While Tom sat at the living room table with a bunch of papers, making calculations for measurements, you were documenting the whole thing with your camera.

“So Tommy the carpenter is here double checking the measurements” you explained off view as the camera showed Tom leaning over the papers, making him lift his his head to see the camera and give a huge smile with a wave.

“You know this would go faster if you helped too, right?” he teased.

“I could help, but you look really attractive right now, doing calculations and stuff, and I wanna enjoy the view longer.” You replied cheekily, making him smile.

“Well, why don’t you come over here and enjoy it closer?” he said, pushing his chair back and patting his legs.

You comply and sit on his lap sideways, wrapping an arm around his shoulders to be more comfortable, the other hand still holding the camera. You make a move to stop recording and put it on the table but Tom stops you, instead holding the camera towards the two of you and flipping the screen so you could see yourselves.

“What are we doing?” you ask him as you lean your cheek against his, looking at yourself at the tiny screen.

“Admiring the view.” He answers, smiling. He doesn’t look away from the camera as he slightly turns his head to kiss you on your cheek, making you smile. He tears his eyes from the camera as he fully turns to you, kissing you repeteadly on your face, moving his lips slightly with every kiss, making you close your eyes in bliss. He has arrived to the corner of your lips and placed a few kisses there when you turn your head and meet his lips. He kisses you slowly, gently, with no rush, making you feel the tingles all the way to your toes.

You pull away after a minute, resting your forehead against his after a final little peck.

“So are gonna put this in the video?” you ask, still smiling.

“Nope.” He answers, as he kisses the corner of your lips again. “This goes into our own archive.”

———-

It was a long and tiring process after the supplies arrived, but also the most fun you had with the boys. Harrison and Tuwaine were mostly observing and making comments as they watched you from the comfort of their chairs, and recording everything as you were helping Tom.

Tom was handling the most of the things, planning what goes where and marking the boards for the places to cut. And you and Harry helped with the cutting after he made the marks. Also, if you had to add, Tom was very shirtless at this point, and you had been staring at him for so long that you almost cut yourself with the mini electric saw you were holding.

“Hey Y/N!” Harrison yelled from his seat, holding the camera. “Stop ogling your boyfriend before you lose a few fingers! Or a hand!”

“I can ogle my boyfriend as long as I want to, Osterfield!” You yelled back, making Tom lean over to give you a little kiss, and making Harry mutter an “ew” under his breath.

———-

When the cutting process was over, you started the painting. Tom was currently recording you as you were painting one of the panels that was leaning against the fence.

“Soo we’re doing the painting right now as you can see.” He narrated. “Harrison decided to get off his arse and actually help for once.” He continued talking, pointing the camera towards his best friend.

“I have been cooking for you for weeks since you guys are so tired all the time!” 

———-

After the paints were dry and you were satisfied with the tone, all that was left to was assembling the whole thing. You decided to build it in a way that you could disassemble it and carry it anywhere in the house. So after assembling and hanging up the police box signs, and turning on the light, it was finally done! Your own TARDIS that had no other purpose other than sitting in your garden and looking pretty. Three months well spent, you would say.

“I’m gonna post this on Instagram.” Tom said as you stood next to each other in the garden, admiring the result of your work.

“You should post it on every website available.” You said, still in awe that you currently had an actual, life sized TARDIS sitting in your garden.

“Okay, I have an idea.” Tom said turning to you. “I’ll start a live stream, you’ll be hiding inside, I’ll just come out to the garden showing them the flowers or something. And then I’ll turn around and go like ‘Oh my God guys there is a TARDIS in my garden what the fuck?!’ and then you’ll jump out saying ‘SURPRISEEE!’ ”

“Ooor,” you said, thinking about the sonic screwdriver toy you had in your room. “I could be the Doctor.”

“You would be hot as the Doctor.” He says, leaning in to kiss you, making you wrap your arms around his neck as you kiss him back.

———-

“We built a TARDIS!” you said at the same time, you giving a thumbs up at the camera. The comments were rolling so fast that you couldn’t read any of them.

“I think you just broke the internet again.” You said, making him laugh. He flips the camera around to walk around the TARDIS, showing some details and saying that he was gonna post a video of the whole process later.

“So should we give a tour of the inside, m’love?” he says, turning at you.

“Of course.” You answer, and go over the door to open it with a flourish. “Ta-daaa!” you exclaim, holding out an arm as if you were welcoming him inside.

“Aaand that’s it.” He says as he shows the inside of the box, which is, for a fact, not bigger on the inside but just a tiny space.

“We’re thinking of covering all the walls with pictures and kinda turn this into a memory box.” You explain.

“Yeah, and we’ll sometimes put it in random places in the house, so like one of the guys could walk into his room and suddenly find a TARDIS in the middle of it.” Tom continues, making you gape at him, still not having a filter after everything he’s done for years.

“Tom, stop spoiling our pranks!”  

A/N: Sorry for the weird ending, just didn’t know how to wrap it up. Please give it a like/reblog if you enjoyed it! Also, the GIF isn’t mine.

MASTERLIST

[rosepoints]

im just getting started on stardew, what are your best tips for first year spring?? 🥺

make sure u don’t overplant your crops! for me, i found that i ran out of energy and water v v quickly if i overplanted at the very beginning

i spent most of my energy clearing out trees/rocks and fishing at the beginning after watering my crops

make a chest asap so you can conserve backpack space

talk to everyone you meet! it’s one of my fav parts abt the game tbh and i find that a few of my friends spend so much time on their farms to earn money + miss out on the npc interactions

i usually play the game just to destress, but if u wanna get all the achievements, start on the spring bundle in the community center now! that way, you don’t have to wait another year for the next spring to roll around

i don’t remember if i got my first chicken in spring or summer, but once you have the funds, try to get the coop and some chickens! not only are they adorable, you can sell their eggs for more profit. you can also make mayo from them if you have the mayo jar + make more money

pro tip: build a fence around your chicken coop + let them out in the morning. if you don’t build the fence and let them roam free, they get in the way lol

pet ur chickens every day to gain a heart w/ them eeeee 

can u tell im a chicken enthusiast

i lov the chickens the most out of all the animals

hope that helps and happy farming!

[captainillogical]

Devil’s Ballroom Ch.6

A year after the events from the earth’s final attack, Little Homeworld is finally complete, and there’s a new jazz bar where gems and humans mingle and drink. - As you’re typing back a reply, someone pulls the stool out next to you and takes a seat. You see a sliver of pink out of the corner of your eye as you try not to actually Look. Oh god. It’s her. God can’t help us now.

Spinel/Reader

collab with my lovely wife @firstofficertightpants

(have some tooth rotting fluff ya sluts)

You spend your weekend lazing about the house and playing games with Alex, trying your best to not obsess and overthink everything that happened with Spinel. The both of you agreed to hang out in another 3 days, and you’re really eager for the next couple of days to pass. She didn’t tell you what she wanted to do, so you’ve been waiting on a response for nearly a full day by now. She wasn’t kidding when she said she didn’t use her phone much. You try to spend your time concentrating on building your tower in your minecraft server with your friends, when you hear a rustling noise from your headset, indicating Alex was back from grabbing food. You hear him set a bowl down on the desk and he picks his headset back up.

“Ugggghhhhhh.” He starts. “I was gone for like, 5 minutes and some creepers blew out the side wall of my fucking chicken coop..” You hear him chew whatever the fuck he was eating.

“That’s what that was? I thought I heard something in the distance but ignored it. I’m too far away anyway.” You reply. “I’m adding more floors to my tower. Wanna go get me more wood soon? Because I’m starting to run out.” You hear him scoff.

“Why do you always make ME go and get more wood? I wish Harper was here so she could be your supply bitch instead. Do I not look fucking busy here? First of all. I’m eating, Y/N, you brat. Second of all, I’m trying to repair my STUPID CHICKEN COOP. There’s like 60 chickens all LOOSE here and homeless!” He cries. “I have some acacia if you want it, but that’s all I’ve got to spare.”

“Yes, I’d totally love some ugly orange wood to break up all the NICE colors I have going on in here. Fuck off with your acacia.” You say, checking your inventory to see if you even have an axe. You hear your phone chime 2 times, and quickly grab it off your desk to see what it is. It’s just 2 texts from your dad asking you to pick up his prescription from the store. You sigh audibly.

“Whoooooo was that?” You hear Alex say. Nosy bitch.

“Just my dad.” You roll your eyes and say. “Wants me to pick up his prescriptions tomorrow.”

“Why’d you sound so disappointed, then?” He asks, and you can tell he’s up to something. Bastard.

“I’m not disappointed, stop trying to read my emotions.” You say. “You always do this when you think you’re onto something.” “I am onto something!!” He whines. “I can tell you’re hiding something from me, Y/N. You know what happens when you hide things from me? I find out, one way or another.”

“You’ll get nothing out of me, and you won’t find anything.” You say, deadpan.

“HA!!! So there is something.” He says, smug. 

“Okay you little shit,” You sigh into the mic. “It’s literally nothing. Drop it.”

“I bet I can guessssssssss.” He giggles, and you’re considering blowing up the rest of his chicken coop.

“I doubt it.” “Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…” He says into the mic, obnoxiously.

“Nope.” You say. Desperately trying to steer this elsewhere.

“Isssss it….” He continues, “Maaaaybeeeeeeee…. Spinel?” He asks, his voice pitching in that certain way when he knows he’s fucking right.

God fucking dammit, do you hate your friends. You can’t even hide anything for 2 days.

“No.” You argue.

“You’re a fucking liar Y/N, and I know you’re being difficult on purpose.” 

“Nooooo. Fuck you.” You give up. He’s going to be annoying until you give him what he wants.

“That’s my girl.” He says smugly, and you can hear him chewing again. 

“When you come home, I’m punching you in the face, I swear to god.” You threaten.

“Don’t be cute,” He says. “Side note, by the way, I’m actually coming home this week instead of the end of next week. Some of mom’s clients had to move their appointment forward due to some other things, so we get to go home early this year. I am SO FUCKING READY to be home at this point. Being able to only hang out with my brother blows.”

“Yesss,” You answer. “Now if only Harper got her ass home.”

“For real,” He burps. “Anyway. Back to what I was saying.” You were hoping he’d drop it. “Spinel. The gem. What's the deal with her?"

"Nothing." 

"Really? Because the other night you said otherwise. Did you even get her number?" He asks, accusingly.

"Of course I got her number, I'm not an idiot," You retort, mildly insulted. "She just hasn't texted me since our initial text last night. We made plans to hang out, since she hasn't done much around here, but hasn't given me an update on what she wants to do."

"It's been less than a day. Why does this have your panties in a bunch?" He prys.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Do you liiiiiike her?" He sings obnoxiously into the mic. You consider hanging up the call for a brief moment, but you know that he'd absolutely call that one a defeat, so you yield. You just sigh, again.

"I don't know. Kind of. She's funny, and sweet, and really easy to talk to. Also she's really pretty." You admit. “I don’t think I’ve got on with anyone that quickly, like ever.”

“Do you seriously have the hots for an alien?” Alex asks, amused. “You can’t judge me!” You yell, slightly miffed. “You think xenomorphs are sexy!”

“THEY’RE JUST SO CURVY, OKAY. AND THOSE TONGUES!!” He wails in reply as you laugh at him.

“I’m just saying! At least she’s fairly normal looking.”

“You mean, humanoid. She’s a gem. Don’t they have weird powers or something?” He ponders out loud.

“Not the point, and besides,” You interject, “I’m not too sure she’s even interested in anything like that, anyway.”

“Like what?” he responds, taking another bite of food.

“You know like.. dating, humans, girls..” You mumble, checking your phone absentmindedly.

“Well, ask her?” He says casually.

“Are you shitting me? No.”

“Pussy. Want me to ask her?” He asks, teasingly.

“Don’t even fucking talk to her.” You scoff. “You will fuck up everything, I’m sure.” Your phone buzzes, and you open the notification to see that it’s a text from Spinel. Oh my god finally.

    Spinel: Sooo, I’ve decided it’s gonna be a surprise. 

    Y/N: That’s unfair!

    Spinel: ;)

“What does that even mean!?” You accidentally say out loud.

“What does what now?” asks Alex immediately.

“Hold on,” You say, and take a screenshot of the text. “Sent you it. This is all I get, apparently. Cryptic. She gives me absolutely no signs.” You hear Alex’s phone ping on the other side, and then him chuckling.

“Yeah, you know what? You can figure this one out yourself, Y/N. You’re smart.”

“I hate you so much right now.” You sigh in frustration.

“And you’re gonna hate me even more, because I just remembered I promised my mother I’d help her with something. Bye!!!” He says and hangs up the call, leaving you sitting there. Ughh, this guy. Whatever, you think to yourself. You have other things to do anyway. 

But not before you blow up his chicken coop.

~

You spend the next two days at work letting the days pass painfully slow, with only the occasional text from Spinel. You’re not exactly overwhelming her with texts as is, as you also don’t want to seem too eager or desperate. So far, you only know that what the two of you are doing is casual, so to dress normal. You don’t even know when, or where the two of you are meeting.

You’re near the end of your shift that went from 6 hours to 10, thanks to Mr. Smiley leaving early and having you close up Funland by yourself. Tomorrow is the day you agreed on with Spinel, and with no answer still, you shoot her another text.

    Y/N: So when and where tomorrow?

You wait for an answer for a few minutes, double checking all the tills you closed in the meantime and wiping a few surfaces down. You hear your phone ping, and you check it.

    Spinel: Is noon good for you? Don’t worry about the where part yet.

    Y/N: You're driving me nuts. Just tell me where we're going.

    Spinel: Nope! ;)

Frustrated and amused, you finish the rest of your closing duties and clock out for the night. You grab your things, lock up, and head home. You spend the rest of the evening playing games with Alex, and have a hard time falling asleep, when you finally get around to it.

You wake up around 11:30 in a panic, completely aware you slept through your alarm. You check your phone, and Spinel's left a message about half an hour ago. You open it.

    Spinel: I'll meet you at your place around 12 ish. Okay?

You quickly type out a reply.

    Y/N: You got it.

You turn your phone's ringer on, and toss it on your bed to go and take a quick shower. You haven't even figured out what to wear. You finish your shower in like 5 minutes flat, towel yourself dry, and blow dry your hair. She said casual, you do casual best anyway, but why does this have you nervous? The fuck is she planning? Why is this secret? You're trying to keep yourself together while sorting through your clean clothes, attempting to find anything that works together. You have pants, and you're deciding between a sweater and some shirt when Jellybean jumps into the laundry pile, and you sigh out loud. 

Get it together, self. You grab the shirt. 

You put on a small bit of makeup - just eyeliner for the most part, and you walk downstairs to lounge on the couch and wait. You’re replying to a couple texts your father has sent you when you hear a knock on your door. You lay there for a moment, nervously, before getting up and heading over to the door. You check the peephole just in case - yep, it’s Spinel. You open the door to greet her.

“Hey,” You say, feigned casualness.

“Hey yourself. Ya ready to go?” She asks, leaning against the doorway. 

“Can I put my shoes on?” You step away from the door for a moment, and grab your sneakers.

“If you think they’re necessary.” She jokes, watching you.

“I could walk around barefoot, but it’s not really in the forecast today.” You lace up your shoes, and look over to Spinel. She’s got her hair up in a ponytail again today, and she’s wearing a light sweater and jeans. The collar is a bit wide, so you have full view of her neck and collarbone. She’s so fucking soft looking that you have to force yourself to stop staring. You also notice that she has a medium sized bag with her, contents completely obscured. She notices you looking at her bag, and moves it behind her shoulder. You think you see her hand shaking, but when you look a little closer it isn’t, so you dismiss it.

“No looking. That’s still a surprise.” She smirks. 

“You’ll have to tell me eventually.” You say, deadpan. You grab your bag from the table next to you, pocket your cell phone, and lock the front door. You turn to look her in the face. “Alright captain, where to?”

“Just follow me. We’re walking today.” She swivels around to face the street, her hair swishing from shoulder to shoulder. Ugh, she’s cute. You hate how easy it is for you to like her. You push down your feelings, and catch up to her side so you’re walking with her.  You pass by a couple houses, the air warm and slightly breezy. 

“So what have you been up to the last couple of days?” You inquire, looking around at the cars passing the two of you by, heat rising off the pavement.

“I fixed the wall that I ruined the other night, but only because Lapis was sending me increasingly threatening texts about it.” She replies, angling her face towards you. You catch her eyeing your hands for some reason, before quickly looking away.

“Yeah she seemed really miffed about it, almost like you committed a personal offense.” You say, laughing. You turn right at a street corner, and notice that you’re heading towards the beach. Hm.

“She can’t complain about it anymore, though, since I did such a nice job on it.” She adjusts the bag on her shoulder, and you hear a few items move against each other, but you can’t discern what exactly. “The diamonds have also been bothering me on my helping them with some homeworld event, but I’m not sure I’m keen on assisting them with it. They have the pearls for that.” 

“What did they want you to do, anyway? Don’t they have like, thousands of gems under their reign to help them with whatever they want?” You feel your hand accidentally brush against Spinel’s twice, and mumble an apology before putting your hand in your pocket. You catch her eyebrows furrowing for a second before she smoothes out her expression. 

“I honestly think they just want me there just to have me there. I don’t think they’re coping well with the fact that I actually want some space.”

“Well, they can calm down. Tell them to fuck off.” You say, joking, for the most part.

“Why don’t YOU tell the diamonds to fuck off, and see how well that works out for you.” She replies to you, grinning. The two of you are walking on the boardwalk now, by the beach. It’s pretty nice out, sun high up in the sky, a couple of fluffy white clouds around.

“I like being alive.” Spinel snorts at that, and you can’t help smiling. You feel like just being around her in general makes a permanent smile take residence on your face. “So. We’re at the beach. Are we having a beach day? I didn’t bring a swimsuit.”

“No, we’re not going to the beach,” She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “We’re not even done walking, sheesh. Impatient.” You continue to follow her, and soon the two of you are walking the path that leads to the lighthouse by Steven’s house. You have no idea what she wants to do up there, but you shut your mouth and continue to follow. You’re both pretty quiet on the way up, concentrating more on the steep walk than on talking, but it isn’t uncomfortable. It’s easy, even. 

Once you and Spinel reach the top of the hill, she sets her bag down, and turns to you.

“We’re here.” She’s grinning and looking proud that she made it all the way up here.

“At the lighthouse. You’ve never been here?” You ask, confused. Her face falls, slightly, and you panic. “I’m not saying I didn’t want to come here, it’s nice! I just figured you’d like, I don’t know, want to go bowling?” 

“Steven said I should create better memories for the places I have bad memories attached to.” She says, looking at the ground and not meeting your eyes.

“You have bad memories with the lighthouse? But wh- oh.” The injector. Her arrival. You’re an idiot. “I’m sorry, I’m dense sometimes.” She meets your eyes and gives you a /look/ like somehow, she knows this already. Okay, ow. She bends down and opens her bag, and pulls out a little knit blanket, large enough for two people to sit on.

“So, maybe I’ve wanted to do this since seeing it in a movie I watched 2 weeks ago with Steven and Amethyst..” She trails off while unfolding the blanket and putting it down. She grabs her bag and sets it down on one of the corners, and starts to pull out what looks like 6 containers of food, and a thermos. After setting everything down, she looks up at you just standing there, a bit nervously. “Are you gonna sit down?”

“We’re having a picnic?” You look at her, breaking out into a slow grin. She flushes immediately.

“Don’t make fun of me.” She pouts, crossing her arms over her chest, and purposely turns her face away from you. You kneel down next to her.

"How can I not, when you always react so cutely." You tease her, feeling bold. You grab the thermos and examine it, but the contents aren't discernable from the outside.

"Remind me why I chose to do this, willingly?” She turns back to face you, glaring. “Because you liiiiiiike me.” You grin, wiggling your eyebrows at her. She sputters and her entire face reddens, and you laugh. 

“A-anyway,” She grabs two of the food containers, clearly trying to change the subject. “I made some food for the both of us. Steven taught me how to make a couple of basic things, but I didn’t taste test any of them.” 

“Oh, so you can poison us both at the same time?” You grab the container, and it has what looks like potato salad in it. “This looks fine, I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about.” She leans closer to you and peers into the container, shrugging. 

“I don’t know much about human food so I wasn’t sure if it looked okay. I don’t have a whole lot to go off of.” She grabs two forks and sticks them into the container. “Let me at least open the rest of these before you try that.” She unstacks the others and opens them, setting down sandwiches, pasta, some cut up fruit, some cheese and cured meat, and some cookies. Damn, she outdid herself. You weren’t expecting all of this, or.. any of this, at all really. This was actually pretty well thought-out.

“Spinel. This all looks so good, the hell.” You say, going for one of the sandwiches and taking a bite. Ham, cheese, spinach, tomato, and some mustard? It tastes just fine. “Tastes good, too.”

“Thanks.” She sheepishly pulls out the other sandwich and takes a bite, shrugging. “Kind of hard to ruin a sandwich, though.”

“You know what? I’ll let you find the truth about that on your own. Believe me when I say, you can ruin ANY kind of easy food.” You say, taking another bite.

The two of you eat in silence for a couple minutes, while you gaze out at the sea. This was a good idea. The warm breeze makes your hair tickle your face, and you push some of it behind your ear. You see Spinel staring at you, and turn to make eye contact. She turns away swiftly. Hm.

“So,” You say abruptly, startling her a bit. “I’ve never asked. What’s your favorite color?” She laughs out loud at the sheer banality of the question.

“Hmm, you know,” She pauses and sets her fingers on her chin, thinking. “It used to be pink. Now.. not so much.” 

“Your new favorite color could be like..” You trail off while looking around you, and you spot a couple of small wildflowers nearby. You point them out to her. “Yellow, like that.” She scrunches her nose.

“No, too bright. Maybe I should go for something more cool-toned.” “Don’t you already have a few other colors you like? You know, you can’t just choose a favorite color. You gotta actually like it.” You say to her, eyebrow raised. 

“I like plenty of other colors! I just don’t know yet, I guess. Ask me again in a week.” She replies. “Anyway, you never answered, so.” 

“It’s pink.” You say.

“What?” She says in disbelief.

“Yeah, you know. Like your gem.” You take a couple bites of some pasta. It’s nice and zesty. She’s staring at you like you’ve grown another head. “What?” You say with a mouthful of food. “It’s always been my favorite. Dad used to get me everything in that color.” You think you see her cheeks redden, but you’re too busy eating to really notice. After a few moments, you hear a ringing noise coming from Spinel.

“Huh.” She says, and pulls her phone out of her pocket. You glance at the screen, and it’s Blue Diamond. Spinel stares at the screen for a few brief seconds, and swipes the call away. She pockets her phone again. “Yeah, I’m not in the mood to deal with that.”

“You think she’s calling about needing you over at Homeworld?” You ask her, poking at a few pieces of pineapple. She shakes her head.

“Probably.. maybe. I have no idea, actually. But I’m in a good mood and I don’t want her to ruin it.” “Yeah.. that’s fair.” You chew your food thoughtfully, and stretch your legs out in front of you on the blanket. With the sun above you, and the food settling in your stomach, you honestly just want to lay down and take a nap. “I could call her back if you wanted, and like, I don’t know, tell her off?” You offer, and she laughs.

“I don’t think Blue would take it very well, especially coming from a human, and one she doesn’t know.”

“Offer still stands.” You say. “And besides. She's never met me, so."

"I think it's in your best interest to maybe steer clear from their bad side." 

"You don't think I could take on a couple of aliens!?" You say in mock offense.

"Do you have any special powers I don't know about?" She smirks, and uncaps the thermos. It looks like some sort of soup inside. 

"I have this uncanny ability to make people fall in love with me." You reply as she's taking in a mouthful of soup, and she nearly chokes on it, sputtering. 

"You have got to be the most ridiculous human I have ever met." She says while wiping her mouth, and sets the thermos down in front of her.

“I’d say the same to you, but I’ve spent enough time around Peridot.” At that she laughs super hard, and you grab the thermos and take a small sniff. It’s a homemade chicken soup with some vegetables, which is pretty safe by all means, so you take a sip. It’s probably the best you’ve tasted in a while, honestly. “You know, this is actually really good. Most of the people I know can’t even cook at a basic level like this. And they’re human and need to EAT to survive, which is pretty ironic,” You pause to take another sip. “That a gem is more wife material than most of the humans around here.” You kind of realize what you just said after it came out of your mouth, so you quickly shove some potato salad into your face to hide your embarrassment. You hope she didn’t pay too much attention to that bit at the end.

    You chew your food nervously for a moment, before looking up to meet Spinel’s gaze. Her face is comically blank, like she forced any expression off it, and she’s staring in the general direction of your mouth.

“You’ve got something on your cheek.” She states, and points to the corner of your mouth. You wipe off your face, and give her another look. “It’s still there.” You wipe again and raise your eyebrow at her. “It’s, ugh, let me,” She says in frustration and leans right over into your personal space, swiping the corner of your mouth with her thumb. You feel your face heating up immediately, and mutter a thanks to her. She only leans back slightly, very much still in your personal space, and smirks at you.

“W- what?” You stammer, like a complete fool.

“Nuthin’. You’re just cute when you’re all flustered.” She replies, grinning at you.

“Cute!?” You all but yell in response, and give her a small shove to the side playfully. You guess you caught her completely off-balance, because you just managed to tip her over, and she’s howling in laughter much to your distress. You’re watching her fit of giggles die down as she’s holding her sides, half of her face pressed into the grass. 

    Something deep down kind of clicks in place that you’ve been trying and failing to itch at for months now. Watching Spinel’s gem sparkle in the sunlight as she lays there, catching her breath, you think that maybe, it would be so easy to fall in love with her. And maybe you have already, just a little.

    The two of you spend the next hour or so making various amounts of small talk with the occasional bout of teasing each other, before you agree that it was time to head home. 

    The walk back is nice, and you find yourself cherishing your time with her quite a lot. You don’t really want it to end, but you do have to run a couple errands after this. You turn to Spinel walking beside you.

“Do you wanna hang out again soon?” You ask her. She looks a bit surprised that you asked again, but pleased nonetheless.

“I’d love to.” She smiles. “Do you want me to be the one who chooses what we do again?”

“No, let me choose this time.” “Mmm, yeah, okay.” She bumps your shoulder with hers on purpose, her ponytail swinging lightly.

“Also, you should text me more. I’m going to spam you with pictures of Jellybean, and you’ve got to look at all of them. Otherwise, we’re not friends.” You bump her shoulder back, and she snorts.

“I think I’m getting the hang of human tech, so.. I’ll try my best.” She replies as the two of you pass by a couple of houses leading up to yours. “Today was fun, by the way. So.. thanks for spending time with me.” The both of you walk up to your front door, and you turn to face her.

“Don’t thank me. It was all my idea anyway, and you just went along with it. I’m just happy you agreed to try something new.” You say to her, reaching for your keys. 

“You’ll keep in touch, yeah?” She nervously fiddles with the hem of her shirt, not meeting your eyes.

“I’m gonna text you in twenty minutes. Count on it.” You move to unlock the door, struggling to get the key in the deadbolt. Once you wiggle it enough it unlocks pretty easily. You turn to say goodbye to Spinel, and you feel something soft and warm on your cheek. She pulls away so quickly you barely catch it.

“I’ll see ya soon!” She shouts, already at the end of your driveway, and keeps walking until you can no longer see her.

You stand there with your door open, completely frozen on your porch. You get your shit together after a few moments so the neighbors don’t stare, and head inside. You close the door and lean against it, unable to comprehend what just happened. You pull out your phone to text your friends.

    Y/N: Can one of ya’ll bastards call life alert.

[depressed-chicken-man]

Cooped Up

Shane x OC

CH1 CH2 CH3 CH4 CH5

Summary: 

After failing to start her dream in the city, the fashion designer turned farmer tries to cope with her new life in the last-ditch effort to make a happy home for herself. She has so many concerns for her new life. How much of her identity is stuck in the city? Will she even make a difference?

Even if she doesn’t think so, it’s undeniable that she will make a difference for a certain depressed coop keeper.

Chapter 1: Fake it

Chapter 1 on Ao3

To say that Jennifer’s world had done a complete 180 was spot on and in no way an exaggeration. Her new environment so harshly contrasted the life she had been living since she began college and graduated two years ago.

From studying to work in fashion design to being locked in at Joja Corp as a social media supervisor for their online accounts to being elbow deep in fertilized soil and beyond winded was as different as she could feel.

Having been on this new plot of land for only four days, she felt she had done well. She wondered if her grandfather would be proud of the way that she had cleared the weeds and drug all of the overgrowth and fallen trees from the choice plot in a short time.

In all honesty, this would never be her first pick nor was it something that she could ever see herself doing. It was the total opposite and she would be lying to say that she wasn’t concerned for herself and beyond doubtful. How could she ever do this successfully? When she cringed at the dirt that covered her? When she heard the call of a rooster and was startled and left uneasy by the prospect of being a victim to being flogged? When taking it easy and slow was already so difficult? She was deeply concerned and hoped that it wasn’t too obvious. She had always been somewhat hopeful and optimistic, even in the toughest times. She would always be okay.

She was even more determined to make it as she considered her other options. The day she decided that she couldn’t bear to work at Joja Corp anymore, she knew that she couldn’t turn back. The deep aversion to turning back now or years down the road was something that she knew wouldn’t wane. She couldn’t go back and with her dream of becoming a fashion designer, she wasn’t sure it would ever go forward. This plot of land, which she had never knew existed until a month ago, was her saving grace and she hopped it would continue to be.

She would have to fake it until she made it.

The dirt that coated her to her elbows was anything but fake, but the google search she had to make to learn how to till the soil and plant the parsnip seeds she had been gifted was more than enough to prove that she had no earthly idea how to run a farm or maintain crops. She had spent the majority of her free time absent of clearing the land in an exhausted state of watching tutorial after tutorial on how to do the basic things. Jen prayed that the videos and articles that she read held enough truth and experience for her to get through the season.

As she tilled the soil, breathing heavily and trying to ignore her aching bones, the farming podcast she was listening to mentioned something that she hadn’t considered before.

“…And in the spring is the perfect time for baby chicks! If you want eggs by summer, then this is the time to begin choosing the breed. Brown eggs come from…” she cut it short as she scrambled to pause the leave her tilling. Eggs would be great and would help her a lot in bringing in profit. She didn’t have as much faith in the parsnips as she did eggs and she was certain that she couldn’t pass the opportunity up. She wondered if there was anyone around in Pelican Town that sold livestock and could maybe give her some advice.

Setting the hoe down, she dusted herself off as much as she could and made her way into the small, drab house that accompanied the plot. She wondered how on earth her grandfather managed in it. There was no stove and only a fireplace, which she couldn’t imagine cooking on. For the past few days, she was living off ramen that she made with an electric kettle and cans of tuna. She was determined to get the place in working order as soon as she dealt with the stack of unpacked and nearly forgotten boxes that cluttered the small area. It was so small and disorderly, she couldn’t even bring her pet with her yet for fear of the move being too much for the old feline. Her dad kindly let it stay with him until she settled.

Scanning the box filled room, she spotted the small envelope that Robin and Mayor Lewis had emphasized as important. Pulled the paper out, her eyes lingered over the handwritten list of businesses in the town and she quickly found what she was looking for.

Marnie’s Ranch: Livestock and animal supplies

Jennifer nodded and took a look at the map she was also given. Lucky for her, the ranch was just south of her farm. She took a look at the time and it was only half-past noon. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to visit and ask a few questions, maybe get some advice?

Any advice would be good advice.

“Hey, are you Marnie?” She asked, her timid voice low. She had gotten herself a little spruced up, still wary of making good first impressions. The last thing she wanted was a lazy reputation when she was so new. She had opted to put on a full face of soft glam makeup and wash all the dirt from her before picking out a cropped shirt and high waisted jeans It was quite strange using the bathhouse due to the lack of shower in her new home, but it did the job. If there was one thing she could showcase to the town, it was her fashion, even if it wasn’t necessary.

Still, good style or not, she was still careful and timid as she shut the door to the ranch behind her, the older woman at the front desk raised her eyebrows and nodded. This would be the only person in the town that she had talked to yet besides Robin and Lewis. The woman gave her a knowing smile, her eyes creasing in the corners and her kindness was shown in the way her light wrinkled folded. She smiled a lot and her face showed that. Her red hair curled down and hung loosely, touching her faded overalls.

“Miss Jennifer, I was wondering when you would come to meet me! It’s so nice to meet you! Robin told me how lovely you were but I can see she under-exaggerated.” She cooed and made her way around to the front of the front desk, which upon further inspection, was just as much a part of her house as the kitchen to the right.

“Oh, that’s so sweet. Thank you.” Jen gushed and waved her hand. “I was hoping I wouldn’t bother you but I need to ask some questions. I hate that our first meeting has to have a little bit of business thrust into it, but I need to know how I should start raising chickens on my farm.”

“Oh, you’re so polite. I don’t mind answering your questions a bit.” the elder woman said and began to muse, “Let’s see, now the first thing you need is a place for them to stay. I don’t know if Robin told you, but she can build you a coop that will suit the chickens just fine. Second, you need to have a way to feed them. I recommend a silo for grain, but you can always buy it from here. After that, then you can come back and buy the chicks that you want. You can pick them out and everything.” Jennifer took a page of mental notes and nodded along.

“Get a coop, some feed, and come back later? Got it.” She stated aloud, more for herself than for Marnie. The elder nodded and added something else.

“Yes, just come back and either Shane or I will help. We’ll even deliver the chicks to your coop after you pick them out.” She added and Jen released a breath of relief. She wasn’t sure how this was going to go with her not so hidden fear of chickens, but it was nice to know that she didn’t have to bring them home and have to worry about losing them from the ranch to her coops.

“That’s a relief. And Shane is…?” she asked and Marnie took a moment to be surprised that she hadn’t elaborated.

“Oh right, he’s my nephew. He helps me out around here with the cows and chickens. You haven’t seen him around yet, have you?” she asked and Jen shook her head.

“I haven’t seen much of anyone yet. I’ve been so busy getting the farm started that I’ve only been into the town once.” she admitted, a small laughed punctuated her statement.

“Oh gracious honey, you need a rest. A little bit of socializing and meeting the townsfolk will do your farm no harm, I promise. Have you been to the Stardrop Saloon yet?” Jen shook her head and looked down.

“Ah, no. I haven’t. I’m not much of a drinker.” She gave and Marnie laughed.

“There’s not just drinks there. They have coffee and Italian food as well.” the redhead explained and Jennifer perked up.

“Oh coffee… I guess I could take the evening. Besides, I think I might go nuts if I have to eat another cup noodle dinner.” She posed and Marnie reached out and patted her shoulder, much like a grandmother or very friendly church woman would do.

“There you go, you poor thing. Get your belly full and meet some people. There’s a girl your age you may take to, her name is Hailey and she might be there. She sometimes gets a bite to eat. You both would make great friends.”

Jen gave an embarrassed laugh and felt like a kid for a moment, being set up for a playdate.

“Okay, I’ll go. Thank you so much Marnie! I’ll be back when I get a coop up.” She promised as she took the doorknob in hand.

“Don’t wait too long! I wanna hear about you and your farm every once in a while.” and with that, Jen was out and walked along the fence to head over to the Saloon, determined that she would have a peaceful evening and eat well for the first time all week.

Inside the fence, a chicken clucked and startled her, her heart jumped and she immediately felt silly after a moment. Her concerns resurfaced in the back of her mind.

How was she going to cope with a coop full of scary chickens?

The Saloon was cozy and dingy, warm and rundown. The cushioned barstools were comfy enough and after a few short conversations with Gus, the bartender, Elliot, some writer, and Abigail, an odd yet kind girl, she should be feeling better.

But she did not.

With her acquaintances gone, if she could call them that, she stared down into the black coffee and still felt out of place. The spaghetti she had ordered was a nice contrast to the ramen she had been stuck with, but it only served to remind her of the amazing Italian restaurant back in the city. The coffee was, however, not delicious and she had trouble bringing herself to take another sip of the watered down and stale liquid. Out here, there were no fancy cafes or specialty restaurants. This black coffee was good enough for most people and it was her fault for being so spoiled, but she found herself extremely repulsed by the lack of espresso, steamed milk, and caramel sauce that she ordered every day.

She was more homesick than she realized.

She was silently mopping about her lack of familiarity with her surroundings and the absence of her favorite coffee. Not sure what had caused her sudden shift in mood, she suddenly wasn’t up to continuing “social hour” and wanted to go back home and watch more online classes about farming. If she began to slack, she would fail and she was terrified of admitting she was an absolute beginner in a new place.

Her identity was a caramel latte and now she was trying to be a plain black instant coffee. Was it safe to say that it was hard to identify with the farm type? Was it their differences or her own reluctance to understand that would fail her? She didn’t know. Maybe she was the plain black coffee and everyone else was the caramel latte?

She muttered a small thanks and good evening to Gus, who hummed in acknowledgment. With her coffee forgotten, she hopped down from the barstool and turned to leave but went nowhere. Instead, she slammed into something solid and was drenched with cold liquid. She gasped and stepped back, the coldness shocked her. She found herself in the midst of a big mess, and it only took one whiff to realize that she wasn’t drenched in water or soda, but beer.

The victim, though she wanted to believe it was her, stood and stared at her in disbelief, his dull green eyes narrowing. The man scowled at her, his five o’clock shadow only added emphasis to his disappointment. His dark hair was messy and his appearance even more so. Gus looked from her to the man in his surprise.

“Oh my-…I’m so sorry.” she covered her mouth in her shock and embarrassment. She should offer to buy him another one, it was only fair. She was going to jump to action to make it up to the stranger before he spoke up and interrupted her decision.

“You should be. Try watching out next time. You don’t own this saloon.” he growled out and shoved his now empty glass to the bar top. “You cost me my beer.” he glared and she could stop herself from snapping back.

“Oh, your beer is the concern? What about my shirt?” she snapped and the man rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“Your shirt? Looks like I did you a favor,” he smirked and turned away to order what he lost.

“Wow…” she started and mentally reevaluated the situation. Arguing wasn’t going to help and this was a bad enough first impression. Instead, she turned to the bartender.

“Have a good evening, I’m so sorry about the mess.” she apologized, shooting the angry man a glare. He didn’t seem to notice at all. A favor , yeah right. He looked like the type to go to Buffalo Wild Wings way too often, and that was not a compliment in the slightest.

The door to the saloon swung shut behind her and she took a deep breath. Any residual anger resided and she was left with the realization that she could have handled it differently. Although she knew she was justified, she was better than that. Her reputation was better and she knew her she would regret it. Even if she hadn’t said it, she still thought it.

Still, she needed to calm down. She didn’t know the town as much as she wanted to and the sun was beginning to set. Taking a walk wouldn’t hurt.

“That was a good girl you just ran off, you know that?”

Shane took the beer and handed over the appropriate amount of cash, before grumbling his response.

“Good. The less I see of her, the better.” He took his beer and shrugged off anything that Gus would have said, stepping over the mess that the woman had made. Served her right, he hoped that the encounter would warn her enough to stay the hell away. He didn’t want anything to do with the “new girl in town” that everyone was so curious about. It wasn’t like the arrival of anyone new would bring anything good to him and he knew that. All she would be is another face to pass by and ignore.

The gossip that everyone passed around is that she inherited some large plot of farmland and came from the city to give it a shot. A city girl like her wouldn’t make it a season, he decided, taking a large sip of his beer. The way she complained about her shirt. She wouldn’t last another few weeks.

The hearsay, not that he listened, was that everyone was excited and hoped she could help everyone out with her farm. No one wanted to rely on JojaMart and farmer’s markets in Pelican Town were greatly loved and anticipated. He would almost root for her if it meant taking money from the hellscape that was Joja Corp, but he knew she wouldn’t make a difference. All of the rumors and hopes were false. Everything that the townsfolk said was wrong.

Except for one thing. The rumors that she was nice looking were true.

The beer wasn’t doing it for him. He needed something stronger.

Venturing out into the dark, he stumbled along his path home, his light buzz only enough to smear his thoughts. This evening, he left the saloon just shy of nine, rather than his usual close to midnight departure. The atmosphere of the bar was a little more dense and uninviting this evening and he wasn’t about to hang around.

No, he would board himself in his room and get the whiskey he had stashed away.

The outside light of the ranch came into few and he took a deep breath. Jas and Marnie would still be up at this time and he really just wanted to sneak in unseen. He didn’t want to feel that lingering guilt if Jas saw him like this, but it wasn’t like she didn’t know. In his limbo, he thought he heard a distant voice. Maybe he was finally going crazy.

Moments later, he heard it again. It was too far away to decipher. Who would be out in the forest this late? He struggled between deciding that it was none of his business and checking it out. He wasn’t sure if he was curious or just delaying walking into the house, but he quietly followed the direction of the voice.

A faint glow of a phone and a voice came into view, at the end of the pier that stretched over the small lake. He could barely make the outline of the figure out in the darkness. The voice was both familiar and unfamiliar to him, but he immediately knew who it was. He frowned and wondered if he should yell out to her with something that will make her leave, but he opted to stand silently, his arms folded. Her conversation continued on, her half was all that was needed to understand what was being said.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, dad. I don’t know if I’ve made a mistake or did something right for once?” Her voice echoed over the lake.

A mistake

“I realized how much I miss home. How much I miss Greg. I miss…” she took a breath “The cafe I always visited every day.”

Good, go home, he thought. Go back to Greg , he thought, assuming that was her partner or boyfriend.

“I’m sorry, I know I’m complaining. I’m not giving up yet. Today has just been awful.” she paused and continued, “It didn’t start awful, but it ended awful. Long story short, I smell like a man cave carpet on Saturday night.”

Shane was sure she did and did he care? Not a bit. He had heard enough. He wouldn’t be seeing her much anymore and he took great satisfaction in that. Without much more of a clouded thought, he slunk away and tried to ignore the last thing he heard her say in favor of returning to his whiskey for the night.

“I just don’t know what to do.”

CH1 CH2 CH3 CH4 CH5

[marie-lamb-b]

Why wolves howl

Alright, so. Yesterday he had a black out at my home thanks to some branches that made the electricity wires to explode right behind my house/straight in front of My window/right above our hen coop (chickens are fine, nothing happened to them).

But although I had no light, I started to itch with an idea and I wrote this 4 pages lenght story with no names, no context, no fandom afiliated nor headcanon implied (for now, maybe I'll rewrite and reuse this thing for something in the future, but not for now.) Nice excersice to get out of the block!

The only clues I could give: one is tall, older (than the other) with hazel eyes; and the other is at least a foot shorter, younger and with brown eyes.

Hope you enjoy it!! ^-^

-----

"What are you doing up here?" He asked as he closed the door to the roof right behind him.

His hazel eyes trailed where the other was; sitting on the edge, his tail out of his pants and swinging with lazy content as well as his legs over the building's border. As he approached him, he saw the sweet, mirthful smile he had drawn on his face as he stared contemplative to the half-formed moon.

"Do you know why wolves howl?" The smiling young man asked him, not tearing his sight off the moon and not directly noticing the confounded stare his new companion threw at him. "It is to communicate with other wolves. They can warn a foreign that's their territory, or alert their fellows about something. But mostly, they do it because they have someone; a family, a friend, they're members of a pack, a clan. It also means, lone wolves don't howl." He broke stares with the moon and turned towards the man next to him, letting him also see his pointed ears that peeked up as he took off his cap. "Ever since I'm with you, that you are with me, I've had to swallow the urge to howl around, specially when I was in need or pain. I feared to give out what I am, who I am, specially in front of you, that you'd recoil and leave me for good." His voice wobbled a hint and his eyes glistened with menacing tears, but the fondness in his smile only grew. "But... I guess with all we've been through, that was kinda absurd, wasn't it?" He let out an airy laugh as he got off of the roof's edge to stand right in front of the other man, brown eyes locked into his hazel ones, though couldn't really control the swinging of his tail, not like he really wanted it to stop.

The man, still dumbfounded over his behaviour, couldn't help the loopsided smile that tugged on his lips. He really was cute with ears and tail popped out, but couldn't really match the pieces, just taking the other's speech as just matters of facts of the reality.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked right away, as he pressed his hand to the side of the younger one's face, sweeping with his thumb some loose hair back that had no human ear to acomodate behind, all the while leaning on his sweet stare.

And so, with the tenderness of his other to rely on, he took a soft breath that released on a dreamy sigh. "Because I don't wanna keep swallowing that urge. I wanna howl out and loud that I'm with you, and you're with me. That I finally have someone that makes me feel at home, makes me feel safe, that I belong somewhere. I wanna howl... for you... I love you... so much..." He let the silence to fill on the rest, as not much else he could add.

Eyes on eyes, dreamy ones versus contemplative others, the taller one couldn't help but release a snort before the giggles. And with a long, heavy sigh, the other just tilted down his head and shook it lightly; he knew it wasn't a mockery of any sorts.

"Alright... sorry... sorry..." He breathed out once he calmed a bit. "But seriously, are you asking me permission of sorts?"

And the orther simply shrugged. "More like making a dedication for you." He stated as he enclosed him with his arms around, crossing them behind him and up until reaching his shoulders.

And his reaction to that was a smirk with some sort of playful defiance in his hazel eyes, grabbing him as well by the waist and resting his arms lazily around his hips, closing the space between them.

"You know you surely will make the dogs around the block to burst with barks and..." He lifted his wrist momentarily to watch the time before returning to his relaxed hug. "...is past 11 in the night. A lot of people will start to yell and complain about."

"They won't know who started it." He breathed softly, eyes half lidded, as he expected for the certainly approbatory response of his lover.

"Alright then." He whispered as he closened slowly the space between their lips. "I'd love to hear your song."

And with no more ado, both their lips pressed together in a deep kiss. Savouring the taste of the other, hands started to trail on their backs in a passionate frenzy, each claiming the other as theirs. Air was been stolen from the lungs of each, making them to agitatedly recover it by their nosetrills, in quick and short successions that made their heart rates to increasingly hit against their chest faster, stronger. Even stood up, the taller one's leg tangled around the shorter's, pressing him against his hip and asserting his domain over the other's self.

Their rush might have lasted several minutes, but the excitement of the young man impulsed them to break apart an instant. His breaths were excitedly ragged, a wide, toothy beam plastered on his now wolfish face, with his nose now turned black and his mouth slightly elongated forward, giving away more of the façade his other already knew. Even his tail hit side by side frantic, getting to brush his lover's legs with each hit.

Breathing shortly in, trying to hold as much air as he could manage, he felt the burst rising from the bottom of his belly and up through his rapid beating heart and upper to his throat. And with little anticipation, he recoiled a bit before shooting his whole head upwards to the sky and moon, howling with a profound sentiment of joy and excitement towards whom was his lovingly saving grace, his protector, the one who kept him safe and warm with the pure love he gave to him. He howled with passion, with eagerness; he howled as loud and long as his lungs allowed him. And he joined him.

He actually didn't though that howling would sound anything like real wolves sound, but he was a real wolf after all in a sense. And seeing him so eager to show the world what he was capable of, all for him- his family; he really called him his family with this!-, he couldn't help but be infected with the mirth he was spreading around them, and join his howling with one of his own; a lousy, off-key, cracking howl that couldn't match the wolf man's one, not in harmony, volume, or even time that his howling lasted. But it didn't matter.

He wanted to howl along, to share what's his. It didn't matter how perfect he could do it (he already was), nor the dogs around the block already barking and howling by their own; he was his lover, he was his partner, his boyfriend, and now he was declaring he belonged to his family as well. It only increased his excitement, and joyous tears dripped down his cheeks as he shoot once again to the sky with a louder, higher-pitched howl to encompass the man's sweet crude howling.

But he was right. Every dog in like 4 blocks around started to hysterically bark and howl meaningless, and people also, be them their owners or not, started to shout along with claims and complains for the animals to shut up. And as soon as them both stopped to howl for each other and stared to their brown and hazel eyes, couldn't help the fit of giggles that bursted in them both over the foretold situation.

"Oh, I told you this was gonna happen!" He playfully remarked as soon as they both were able to regain composture. "I can't... I can't believe I just... followed you with the howlings!" He added, unable to hide the blushing tint, not even in the dark night.

"Honestly, neither could I...! But..." He stayed still for an instant, collecting his thoughts out of the rush and tenderly looking at him, rubbing his own tears away. "I loved it... that you joined me." He leaned his arms over his shoulders. "I love you so much, do you know it?"

"I can't not know it, you say so all the time." He replied humorously with a brow arched, but it quickly softened. "I love you too, so very much."

That answer made him earn pecks all around his neck, his cheeks, his nose. But as before, as excitement grew, also grew his wolfish urged, and the pecks quickly turned into soft licks that started to leave him all drooled over with each frantic "dog smooch".

"Hey, hey! Stop- stop that, you--!" He tried to complain, to resist, but couldn't really manage to do more among the snickers he let out of the tickles the smooches provoqued him. And so, he tried to recoil, only to stumble with their own tangled legs and fall into his back, sending his boyfriend over him and making him stop the affection show.

He gave him a sheepish grin as he stood up and off from him, ceasing the swing of his tail as he helped the other on his feet once again. And as he saw the other dusting off his back, he was ready for the lecture he would give him, even retreating his latest wolfish features, keeping although his ears pinned back and his tail low and hidden between his legs. One of the things he always feared, to give in on his nature and instincts and getting to hurt someone, especially him.

He saw him straighteing up, move towards him, hold him by the shoulders and give him a... soft peck on his forehead. The surprise made his ears peek up again, dumbfounded about the reaction he surely didn't expect, even tilting his head a bit to the side.

"Heh, have I told you how adorable you are?"

His blush was blazing just like the moon shone, and its warm was warily saved by his lover's hands on his cheeks.

Although, he pinned his ears down again, and lowered his stare below where the other's hands were.

"I'm sorry." He pouted unwittingly as his cheeks were still pressed. But couldn't keep his eyes down much longer, as those gentle hands moved lower so one could lift his chin and the othe could brush his hair strands.

"Hey, is alright. You don't have to apologize, alright? I love you, for real. And I meant it when I said you look cute."

"You said 'adorable'." He lifted his brow, confidence slowly returning as the other gave him a light heartful smile and laugh, to what he couldn't do much but stretch his own wary smile.

And with locked stares, the taller bent a little to softly, tenderly kiss his other. Might not be as fervent nor as long as the previous, but was as deep and meaningful like any other.

After a short while they parted lips, but not so their stares, both raptured in the other's eyes.

"I love the way you are. But when you want to howl again, better we go to a more aparted place. I don't think the neighbors will be too thrilled to hear all the dogs around barking in the middle of the night." He commented, noticing the subsiding barks from around, albeit the people's yelling did a lot to opacate the remaining dog talk.

With not much more left, he turned to the roof door, sliding his hand down by his arm, hooking slightly their finger tips before parting to the door, leaving the gesture as an implicit invitation for the other to do so as well. But he barely could move from his frozen spot.

'When he wanted to howl again', he said. He practically was expecting it from him. He wanted him to be himself, but also reading between lines wholehearted commands in regards to his safety. Gosh, how could he fall for someone as perfect as him!

"You aren't gonna stay standing there all night, are you?" He shouted back, and the wolfish young man responded, making his way next to him as he kept the door opened for them, tail swinging softly.

As they stood there, a new soft kiss was pressed into their lips before entering back to their home, but he couldn't really take the idea off his head.

Where could be a well aparted place so they could go and howl together...

[meat-husband]

Ah! I hope you’ll possibly continue that Ask(s) with Jason and the hearts X3! I hope you’ll consider writing Brahms too but really I just wanna see what happens next with Jason and his crush on that OC! It’s killllling me! It totally made my day! Might I ask what it was that caused his initially crush on said OC? We saw the courting part, but what was it that caused him to see the OC differently than any other future victim? Btw, you’re awesome! Never change X3!!

I love the bratty boy, just send me a request! Brahms is honestly one of my favorites to write, but I imagine the beginning of a relationship with him has to be a bit darker, just because you’re probably not there willingly at first. 

I could have sworn I had written something about Jason falling for his s/o, but I guess not! Time to fix that >:3c

Follow up to this post.

It wasn’t often that Jason encountered someone that he couldn’t kill. It wasn’t inability, he was twice the size of most grown men and much stronger, with a wide array of weapons at his disposal. He knew this area better than anyone alive, and he could get through the dense growth quicker than his prey, outspeeding them. Physically, he could kill this person whenever he wished, and although he did wish to, he couldn’t. There were rules he followed, loosely put together guidelines that told him what to do, and when. They hadn’t been written down or told to him, but he just knew that this was the way things should be done. Campers, counselors, passersby, anyone who didn’t belong in his woods was dead the moment they entered, and there were no exceptions. Anyone who stood in his way was also fair game, no matter where they were. Unfortunately, there was someone who didn’t fit into any of these categories. 

The house was only a little cabin, tucked away on one of the trails and isolated from any neighbors. It wasn’t part of the camp, or anywhere near the lake, and therefore was not really on what he considered his property. The person inside kept to themselves, venturing out only to follow the little path into town and back. There were no loud noises, no guests or visitors, no wandering around and going where they shouldn’t be. They were close enough that their presence bothered him, but not so close that he felt the need to be rid of them immediately. 

Jason kept an eye on them anyways, watching for any sign of trouble, whatever that may be. They didn’t realize he was there, so their normal routine remained unchanged, sitting on the porch in the cool mornings and afternoons, light work around the yard to keep the overgrown forest at bay, and the occasional walk down some of the worn trails. Mostly they seemed to stay inside, busy with whatever task or entertainment they did there, but he watched the house just the same. 

It was winter before he realized something was different. The cold didn’t bother him, long dead and unable to feel the difference between the seasons now, but it meant that he saw less of his newfound neighbor. He spent most of his time now stalking around the little house, in between visits to his mother and taking care of anyone who wandered too close, and he found that he did not like this new routine very much. They stayed inside for days at a time, and there was no more reading on the porch or walking along the tree lines where he could watch them. At night the windows glowed with warm light, and he would only catch glimpses as they went from room to room, looking in from the dark outside. 

Soon, Jason found himself thinking of them often, even when he was away. He wondered what they were doing, hidden away inside where he couldn’t see, unable to come outside in the thick snow. They were alone, and while he had always been the same himself, this person wasn’t like him, couldn’t brave the cold or protect themselves. The thought made him anxious, a cold ball of worry forming in his stomach, and he would wander closer to the house than before, trying to get a better look through the frosty windows. 

Eventually, he decided he liked them. He liked to watch them, wandering around their house pulling up weeds and talking aloud about the possibility of building a little coop for some chickens. Hanging up laundry, colorful blankets and strange clothes that he had never seen them wear, then leaving the clothes out for too long and having to wait for them to dry all over again after a spring rain. Early mornings on the porch, messy hair and glazed over eyes as they sipped a warm drink. He would get as close as he could without being seen, but he always wanted to be closer. Jason had never had friends before, and spying on these moments of a stranger’s life were the closest he had gotten. After a while, though, it was not as satisfying to only watch without being included. He wanted to take part in these things too, to join his new friend in their daily chores and routines, but that was something he had never done before.

When he found a man sleeping in a tent too close to his own cabin, it was easy enough to kill him in his sleep. Normally, he would leave the bodies, let someone else clean up the mess if they wanted to, but this close to home, it had to be moved. That was no trouble, hauling the bleeding thing away and dumping it next to the shore of the lake, but something caught his eye as he turned to leave. The man wore a watch and ring on the same hand, metal glinting in the early morning light, sticky blood drying over the jewelry. He had no use for such things, but other people liked useless, pretty things like this. Other people gave these things as gifts. 

The jewelry did not want to come off of the man’s swollen hand, sticking to the flesh when he tugged at it. Gripping the shoulder and wrist, he removed the arm in one rough pull, dropping the rest on the ground and looking closely at the shiny metal. He still had a few hours of night left, enough time to reach the little house and deposit his gift in time to be found that morning, hiding in the cover of the tree line. Slowly, he started the walk back, leaving a trail of sluggish blood in the snow.