#and Wille eats it up

[enjoythesilentworld]

Simon's Month - Home (Improvement)

day 30 @youngroyals-events one more to go i could cry

Simon owns a home renovation business with his sister. Wille has recently purchased a fixer-upper.

read below or on ao3 (T, 1.3k)

“You have to be nice,” Sara says as they drive down the unassuming backroad, lined with thick vegetation.

Simon scoffs, staring out the window and peeking between the gaps in the trees to get a glimpse of the types of homes around here. That one needs a new roof, but that one's got some good landscaping.  

“I am nice.”

“You’re nice in a special Simon way. Once someone has had time to get to know you.” Sara puts on the blinker, turning up a gravel street. “There’s a reason I usually bring Ayub with me— Get out and open the gate for me, please.”

Rolling his eyes, Simon climbs out of the car and swings open the simple metal gate, which could really use some oil on the hinges. The fence has a few nearly broken posts, too. If this is what the entrance looks like, he can only imagine the actual house. It must be further up the hill, but it’s way too overgrown for Simon to be able to see anything yet.

Usually, Ayub went with Sara on these consultations, because, allegedly, he's the better at talking to the clients. Apparently it didn’t matter that, technically, Simon was in charge of the construction half of his and Sara’s business. Not that it really bothered Simon. At the end of the day, he trusted Ayub to do the initial walkthrough and markup, allowing Simon to focus on getting everything ready to start the actual construction. Today, though, Ayub is busy, so Simon’s been tagged in.

“I’m just honest,” he says, once back in the car. “You are, too, Sara. That’s why people like you as a designer. Because you'll tell them if their shit is ugly.”

She pulls further up the drive and the house comes into view. That is, if it can even be called a house. Simon barely hears Sara’s response, his mind already flitting through the long, long to-do list that will be required to get this pile of wood back to living standards.

“Yes, but I do it in a nice way. This is Felice’s very good friend, okay? She said he’s great. Don’t make him go back to Felice with a bad review.”

“Yeah, yeah, I won’t,” Simon waves her off, stepping out of the car to get a better look at the building. “This place looks like a piece of shit.”

“Hey, that’s my piece of shit you’re talking about.”

Simon turns at the sound of the new voice. In the front doorway of said piece of shit, there’s a tall, handsome man with auburn hair and a crooked smile. It’s quite the paradoxical image, this pretty, clean-cut man walking down the porch steps of such a dirty, overgrown house.

Sara steps up to greet him, apologizing for her brother's snark, while Simon hangs back, still assessing the integrity of the columns holding up the overhang roof. Most of the shingles are in place, at least, and he doesn’t see any sagging that would indicate leakage. Not yet, at least.

“Good to see you again, Wille,” Sara smiles, using that sweet customer-service voice of hers.

“You, too, Sara. Thank you for agreeing to take on this project. I know it’s a bit of a mess.”

“Well,” Simon cuts in without introduction, “she’ll only be able to do her part once we make sure this place won’t blow away in the first storm.”

Wille turns to him and smiles brightly, somehow rivaling even the midmorning sun that shines above them. “You must be Simon.” He extends a hand. “I’m Wille. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Simon takes his hand and shakes it once. They’re bigger than Simon’s, but less calloused. He probably works for some stupid finance company and sits in a fancy ergonomic chair all day, drinking filtered water and fucking off to business lunches with Sweden’s elite.

“Yep. I’ve heard almost nothing about you. Shall we take a look inside?”

If Wille’s surprised by Simon’s attitude, he doesn’t show it. He just nods, still smiling like the sun.  

Sara hisses at him as Wille leads them inside, telling him to cool it. Simon nods distractedly, but he really can’t be bothered to be nice because he’s already annoyed with this rich kid who’s probably bought this house to fix up and turn into a 20,000kr per night rental.

It’s not as bad inside, thankfully. The remaining yellowed wallpaper is peeling, and there's random trash scattered around, but there are no cracks in the walls or water stains on the ceiling. Wille leads them through, pointing out which rooms are which. The whole tour doesn’t last more than ten minutes as it’s only a two-bed, two-bath. The windows are half-boarded, and there are a few unnecessary walls, and Simon is already itching to get started. 

“I want to keep as much of the original structure as possible,” Wille explains when they stop again in the kitchen. He runs a hand over the dusty countertop, looking lovingly around the small, cramped space. “I might want to add an extension in the future, but it’s just me here, so this is definitely plenty of space for now.”

“You’re going to live here?” Simon asks, surprised.

Wille tilts his head at him. “Yes?”

Simon hums, crossing his arms and leaning back on the archway that leads into the living room. “Damn. I would’ve thought you’re more of a city high-rise type. You seem too posh for country living. You know, I don't think take-out drivers come out here. And the nearest Michelin restaurant isn’t for, like, 100 kilometers.”

“Simon!” Sara glares at him.

“It’s okay,” Wille chuckles. “No, I’m not the high rise type. I prefer the quiet of the countryside, and I also prefer to cook my own food. Michelin restaurants are way too overhyped, anyway.”

He’s smirking through his smile and has met Simon’s challenge, and so Simon decides he can let up a bit.

He and Wille spend the next two hours walking through the space again, more slowly this time, while Sara steps outside to make a few calls. She can’t do anything yet, anyway. Not with the house in this state. This part is Simon’s job, his specialty.

“Knocking down this wall will open up the space a lot, especially if you still want to be able to host while in the kitchen. It’ll give you a good view out of the front of the house, too,” Simon rambles, marching through the space and gesturing as he goes. Wille is hot on his heels, nodding along. “I’d put a countertop bar here, though, for some extra seating and to break up the space a bit. We’ll have to rip out all of these cabinets, though. I’ll need to get my plumber out here, too, to check the piping. These old builds are a little iffy sometimes on how well things have held up.”

Simon continues to talk, and endless stream of consciousness and notes about electrical wiring and comments about the state of the hardwood floor. Wille follows him all the way, making notes in a little notebook and asking the occasional question.

They finish just as Sara’s car pulls back up the driveway. Simon hadn’t even realized she’d left.

“I brought lunch,” she tells them, holding up a brown bag. “You two were pretty distracted, so I figured I shouldn’t bother.”

Wille thanks her graciously, and they all sit on the porch together to eat. Simon starts to make notes in his phone, setting reminders to call certain inspectors and logging how many people he’ll need for demo-day.

After lunch, they take a loop around the outside of the house, inspecting the gutters and stonework. Now that the initial tension has faded, he and Wille get distracted a few times by other topics. Simon learns that Wille is actually not an insufferable spoiled brat. In fact, he’s quite nice and quite funny. He keeps up with Simon’s jokes, and when Simon pushes him, he pushes right back.

Simon tells Wille he’ll have to check with his team, but he’s pretty sure most everyone is in between jobs and will be able to start in the next few days. Wille agrees to meet them at the house for the first day of demolition, and Simon and Sara leave for the day.

“You like him,” Sara says once Simon’s back in the car after closing the front gate behind them.

He shrugs, refusing to give her the satisfaction, and casually admits, “He doesn’t totally suck.”

Perhaps, Simon thinks, this renovation job won’t be too bad.

[umblrspectrum]

i got lazy in the second panel and didnt feel like coloring or whatever bite me

[chubbychiquita]

so who's gonna feed me until i can't get up out of bed on my own 🥺

[knockknockknockingonhootysdoor]

there are two different types of romantics in the world….

[icewindandboringhorror]

What would you choose? :0c

(note: original image is from HERE (link) - but I edited it to add a wider variety of options.. also added $3 extra to the total, even though I know that makes it more uneven lol, I thought if you're adding 10 whole extra items, the money to spend should at least be increased slightly, if that makes sense..)

[here-comes-the-moose]

I don’t know why, but Crosshair gives me the vibe that if his stomach hurt, he’s making sure EVERYONE on the ship knows.

[noyzinerd]

Stiles: Um, sure. Let's see...hmmm...Oh! If you see a drowsy looking bee on the ground, you can give it a little drop of sugar water to help make it feel better.

Derek, in the middle of cleaning out a bullet wound:

Stiles:

Stiles: I'm now starting to realize that you were probably asking me for a "Q-Tip" rather than a "cute tip".

[lady-harrowhark]

so my dog got sick last week - she’s fine now! just a tummy bug! - and the vet gave us a few cans of fancy pro-biotic dog food for her and some supplement capsules to mix in with it. she has never gotten canned food before and she was A Big Fan. after about two meals she had zeroed in on the sound of me popping open the supplement capsule and would come running. because she’s only seven pounds, the cans lasted us approximately a week. two days ago, i gave her the last of the canned food. we have no more canned food in this house.

since then she has been absolutely. insufferable.

yesterday i would conservatively estimate that 75% of her waking hours were spent on Attention Seeking Behavior. i did not immediately catch on to what she wanted, but i realized when i went into the kitchen near where i was keeping the canned food and she began frantically dancing around my feet. i pointed her back to her normal food, which is in its normal place. she does not want normal food. she wants canned food.

ma’am. we have no more canned food in this house. 

yesterday i was able to trick her into eating her normal food one (1) time by popping open a supplement capsule, which she eagerly danced around and begged for, and sprinkling it over her dry food. but today she is older. wiser.

there is still no more canned food in this house.

today we have been at DEFCON 1 Attention Seeking Behavior since the sun came up. strategies deployed include:

staring balefully

staring playfully

pawing at my arms

woofing under her breath

hopping around in little circles

climbing up onto my shoulder to snuggle her head under my chin

tiny little kisses on my face

laying across my laptop keyboard

positioning herself to be in my direct line of sight at all times

bouncing on the couch cushion near where i’m sitting to jostle me

squirming into my lap to knock my phone out of my hands

hiding under the armchair for short periods of time and then coming out to see if i’ve learned my lesson yet

and yet, we continue to have no more canned food in this house.

the ONLY reason this behavior has stopped, now, at eleven pm on Day Two of the Great Canned Food Famine, is because she heard thunder outside and had to tuck herself under my arm to avoid certain death.

when the storm clouds clear and the sun comes up tomorrow, there will still be no more canned food in this house.

[thankstothe]

[lostbrazilian]

I only got to play the dlc for a few hours before going on a trip (12 days with no computer RIP) but damn, fromsoft hit the nail on this one. I love how darker the tone is now, with the horror of Messmer's genocide front and center, plus the body horror of the Jars and the new Fly People. Bosses are great too, the Dancing Lion is straight up one of my fav Soulsborne fights now.

That being said I do find it amusing how it's barely been 2 days since launch and there's already ppl here complaining about lore and "character assassination." Like, my siblings in Marika, if you finished the dlc this quickly then you probably missed a lot of the story lmao

[hyacinthsdiamonds]

James Vowles, you will not see heaven

[dukeofthomas]

"Angry robin" "violent robin" "misbehaving robin" shut up and accept my alternative; spunky Robin. Determined and head strong, can out-stubborn the Batman, has a strong moral-backbone and does what he thinks is right regardless of what anybody else says, Robin. Jason who was sassy and quippy and made crude jokes with a smile on his face. Jason who hid in Bruce's cape and whispered gossip to him. Jason who, if Bruce refused him something, could keep bothering endlessly until Bruce caved. And also dramatic Jason. If Bruce tells him no, it becomes a whole theatrical show; a monologue, a narration, embellishments, and falling onto the floor in his grief upon the fact his cruel father has denied him once again.

(Jason who has suffered through abuse and homelessness and poverty and starvation, who is the Fight out of Fight or Flight, who's built up defenses and walls and when pushed and triggered responds with the thing that's always protected him; anger. He's sweet and kind and funny, and when he sees a pimp hitting a prostitute he gets furious and responds with violence.)

[bunnieswithknives]

sorry if idk this but what do you think about Wordgirl now in 2024 do you still like it do you still want to make art or talk about it or are you just done with all of it forever and plus i seen that you haven't made art of it since 2022 so you just done with all of it oh yeah and what about The Magnus Archives + Wordgirl ao3 fic too like is that just going to be and i know that your working on 2 au's now just wanting to know that's all

My interests tend to come in intense bursts and then fade. Unless something like, big happens like it gets a reboot its unlikely I'll be coming back to it anytime soon. As for the fic I don't have any current plans to finish it unfortunately.

[galoogamelady]

Hey, might be a bit of an odd question. Have you had a chance to dive into Starfield? Will there be a Buttons IN SPAAACCCCEEE!?

I'll be honest, I've seen a bit of Starfield (Cam bought it) and I'm not impressed. Can't say I've expected anything different either unfortunately, with how Bethesda has been conducting business lately. I don't feel any particular way about it and I doubt I'll be playing it anytime soon.

[thenixkat]

Not a fan of the super out-of-character cannibalism whump stuff I'm seeing pop up for Laios.

Like, yeah, I fully believe that Laios would do some cannibalism (which in and of itself is morally neutral, it's the whys and wherefores where shit gets snarly) but that is not a man who's going to commit murder to eat someone. *Especially* not any of his coworkers/friends/allies. Given, like, his whole thing with responsibility and how much he cares about the people he actually likes.

And like? If you want fucked up shit involving mutilation and cannibalism with ol dude... like the manga actually provides shit for that and in character even.

Like, don't slander my guy just cause yer uncreative and just lazily taping the names/looks of characters into shit that clearly ain't them.

[peppermintstarsonamintyway]

feast dark choco nation, feast

ough, da husband

so soft, so comfy

I'll draw a version of him with a blanket and some hot coco later but for now enjoy your hubby @xaytheloser

I could not tell you why I decided to give him considerably longer hair in this image but like screw it man he's adorable and boy howdy do he be lookin' like his papa (I have no complaints about that I fuckin' love Cacao-)