#and i figured u needed a promo

[acid-ixx]

this is in Clark's wallet

— related post !

HELP ME THIS WAS BURIED UNDER SO MANY ASKS ☹️ this is absolutely so adorable. i love love love the cape on jon's back and the little hearts surrounding the reader is so cute wahh i wish i had a mom figure like them now 💔 (this is sleep deprivation talking right after i wrote angst (plsplspls let that one blow up or ill cry))

i'm absolutely raising you with this: jon kent is probably on the heavier side so of course, since he doesn't want his favorite ever parent to struggle with hugging him, he obviously practices everyday so he could learn how to fly in a really stable manner just so he could surprise you every single day with flying hugs and a kiss to your cheek every morning, afternoon, and night, after every meals and anytime he felt the need to just to show how much he loves his parent; it's one of his favorite ways of showing you affection, no matter how cheesy it is.

and sure, it may warrant some weird reputation for jon whenever you pick him up from school— that he's an 'immature' boy who's still attached to his parent— but that's nothing to jon when it means he could brag about his loving parent to all his friends; how he has them and they don't, and that sheer difference is something jon is so so proud of. yes, he keeps of picture of you in his wallet. yes, he updates you in chat every single second of his life. yes, you're not officially his parent, yet, but what's there to be ashamed of? dad taught him to always cherish your loved ones and you are one of, if not, the most important one to his ever since you stepped into his life.

yes, he may be downright sometimes possessive-obsessive of his parent, but could he help babbling about them when they're the main source of his happiness? absolutely not. so everyone around his vicinity should listen about the time you took him to the fare and won him a plushie that he now sleeps with every night because it holds memories of you.

jon kent loves his parent, what's wrong with that? after all, what's there to not love about you?

(a/n: after all the fluff, i bring you this: shameless plugin and self promo of this hehe. if u love to feel pain, read it ?)

[lowkeyrobin]

Platonic Ghostbusters x social media manager! Reader?

oooo hell yeah!! ; thanks for requesting and I hope u enjoy :)

GHOSTBUSTERS ; social media manager

summary ; you run the official ghostbusters social media platforms

warnings ; language

word count ; 746

masterlist

Podcast wanted to run the official Ghostbuster social media's but was quickly turned down at that. They needed someone who could actually be on top of that kind of stuff and whatnot. So, Stanz made a deal with Podcast that they'd get a social media manager, and he could act as their teammate with that, basically. Giving them ideas, giving them video clips and extra details, etcetera.

Most of the others didn't see a real reason for a social media manager, but as long as it wasn't their money.

Trevor offered to just do everything himself, but that was obviously turned down as well. The teens all agreed not to let the adults run the account either. They didn't need millennial - Gen X / Boomer humor flooding the whole account and making them look bad.

And that's where you came in.

surprisingly, Pheobe was the one to find you. she's seriously the most chronically offline person ever so the fact she ever opened Instagram was a miracle in itself

lots of talking back and forth and meeting the original four three ghostbusters to get input, then meeting callie & garry and the teenagers

you actually figured out that you used to be friends with Lucky as well, damn

you had managed social media accounts before, but you'd recently quit a few of those because of labor laws being broken so, yknow

you quickly formed a bond with Lucky, Trevor, and Podcast. you were kind of close in age to all three of them and they were all invested in the public image for the brand

setting the Instagram up was genuinely the funnest thing ever

the four of you were chilling in the living room in the firehouse (since sleepover stuff, pheobe was in her room reading) and you had your laptop in your lap and the three of them over your shoulders

the amount of laughing and cackling got some scolding from callie upstairs

it took everything out of you to not make the first post a video of trevor being soaked in Slimer's slime (which had been recorded by Lucky just by coincidence as they were investigating the attic again)

the first three posts, which were pinned, all lined up to be like a banner kind of logo with the theme song in the back, and they all played the same video, clips of the og ghostbusters and how they grew and then the new ghostbusters

the tiktok is its own thing, you allowed trev, lucky, podcast (and pheobe) to run it, but everything had to be ran by you first because pr shit

but thankfully no boomer humor or slang is ever being put on those accounts

most of those people don't even know wtf the internet is anyways lol

stanz has a personal vendetta against you /hj after you posted a .5 of him for relatable promo. he had no idea what you were doing but it was criminal that you made his forehead look so much more bigger than it already was

Winston gives you a bunch of old pics to post to trending angst sounds as well LOL

let's not talk about that tiktok where you, lucky, and trevor dance to/remake submissive and breedable by smosh ft bbno$, okay?

^podcast and pheobe were behind the camera cackling the whole time

lots of random pic posts on the insta as well because why not (most of them are the teens looking awkward, callie, gary & lars trying to look like cool scientists, or venkman, stanz, zeddemore & melnitz being classic, sassy old people)

the socials are never professional whatsoever, it's fun but it's not heavily controversial or obvious that you're there as a pr manager basically or just to manage the socials

like man they don't have the time to look at all the comments, take all the advice, reply to fans, etc

I mean that wage ain't that bad either LMAO

trevor is always bitching about how you make more money than he does /lh

you're not just a representative to them, you're actually family. you're just cool like that

"bro y/n is such a mc I hate them" and you'll reply on your personal w a "says you, reality shifter" or smthn LMAO idfk

always reposting ghostbuster edits / fanart etc because fandom culture 🙏

also I can't get over the fact the ghostbuster theme song is canon now either. yk damn well that shit is plastered everywhere thanks to you 💀

"do the ghostbusters respond??" "stanz said he loves your dog" "HELP HSEIJDLAKE"

10/10 experience

[alacants]

hi! just wanted to say that i was recently looking for lore on the ferru ferri relationship so ur lore post is perfect timing and *chefs kiss* 🤌 i fully support ur unhingedness about them bc i'm getting there too LOL i would love to know more about the facts/lore/thoughts u have on them if u'd like to share ! :D

i actually need to thank you because it was the tags on one of your rbs + talking with another mutual that pushed me to finally finish and post. so thank you!! …and sorry for what's about to happen here. would i like to share more thoughts, YES I WOULD.

(eta: this thing is LONGER than the original and also significantly more unhinged. so like… fair warning.)

first of all here are an assortment of facts/links/quotes that didn't make the final lorepost cut:

about all those times ferru drops by the academy: for example, this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this.

then there is this classic roland garros 2011 "choose a player" questionnaire. ferru picked juanki for THREE separate answers: who would you share a nice bottle of wine with, who would you open a bar with, and—wait for it—who would you hit on girls with. 

i mean, i get it. juanki's looks are ideal bait. i see it happen every day on tumblr dot com. but a truly unfortunate number of scenarios do immediately unroll before the mind's eye.

david ferrer's official 2004 atp media biography included "says his most inspirational player is countryman juan carlos ferrero"

juanki's official atp tour dot com bio includes this typically restrained ferru testimonial: "He was and is my best friend on the tour. He's a person that is very close to me... He’s a very humble and noble person." elsewhere: "He's an even better person than he is a player, which is very difficult."

(juanki's bio is a wholeass novella and ferru's is THE most bare bones bullet points. ferru stop being so fucking modest challenge!!)

juanki used to visit javea to play football with ferru and his hometown friends. ferru are you making your girlfriend hang out with your friendsgroup.

select topics from the david ferrer official forums: "stayed with juan carlos before leaving for the davis cup." (juanki himself was not called up.) "went to a nice restaurant with juan carlos and had paella." "spending new year's eve at juan carlos' hotel."

according to juanki's blog they would watch world cup matches together at ferru's house?? cute.

especially cute since juanki is a real madrid fan and ferru is a barcelona fan. (although he's more outspoken about supporting valencia cf.) here is an amazing photo of a clasico watch party in the cincy locker room.

honestly this is just some sponsor promo content but i am dying to know what the inside joke at 1:15 is about. what are you smiling about juan carlos. why is ferru trying not to laugh. answer me.

ok easy stuff out of the way. i'm just going to warn you in advance that there are a cool 3000 words under the cut so uh... brace yourself i guess. don't open on mobile. topics include: 

some Narratives

thoughts on the dynamic (past)

101 reasons to love david ferrer

behind the music: juan carlos ferrero

thoughts on the dynamic (present)

i didn't link more than a few quotes but if you want sources for anything in particular just drop me a reply or an ask.

finally, in addition to Facts and Anecdotes this includes what is by definition rampant speculation because i don't know these guys and never will. we cannot fully know public figures, we are making the shadows on the wall of plato's cave kiss, you know the drill.

the Narratives

first of all. the opposite narratives of their careers are soooooooooo compelling to me. like, juanki was a child prodigy—junior world champion, junior roland garros finalist, bursting onto the pro scene age 19 and winning his first title just a month later. then clinching spain's first davis cup, roland garros sf-sf-final-title, us open final, world number one. all by age 23! expectations were through the ROOF.

…and then 2004 hit and he fell off a cliff and never recovered. (injury, mentality, and incredible bad luck, like oh this man is CURSED cursed. he missed multiple tournaments because of chicken pox.) in september 2003 he was world no. 1; 17 months later he was no. 98.  he never did make it back into the top ten.

meanwhile, ferru was—i mean obviously he was talented. he won stuff in juniors. but no one was talking about him as the future of spanish tennis, yk? he even quit when he was 17… for a week. (lol.) he was inconsistent, vulnerable to meltdowns. he first appeared on most people's radars when he beat agassi in rome in 2003, but then not again until a brief spike in 2007—made the USO semis, made the master's cup final, world no. 5. and then he, too, slumped.

but he did not give up. ever.

he climbed out of the slump and just kept climbing up, and up, and up. the best year of his career was 2012-2013, age thirty—seven titles, masters title, roland garros final, world no. 3. the second-best was 2015, age thirty-two. top 10 for 292 straight weeks, 2010-2016. ferru is like. the ultimate proof of how dogged persistence pays off if you just. keep. trying. ← wow tumblr user alacants is he your favorite or something.

the arcs intersect in ~2008-2010, when they were especially joined at the hip. they're both struggling—juanki dropped out of the top 100 for the first time, ferru's treading water in the low teens and saying he'll never reach the heights of 2007 again—and both right on the verge of a revival. juanki won his first title in 5+ years in 2009, kickstarting an 18 month last-gasp renaissance that included davis cup hero, more titles, more finals, as high as no. 14. for a few weeks. ferru slowly and surely got his feet back under him. (he calls the dc 09 final a turning point.) around those back-to-back finals in 2010, they were hovering right around the same rank—juanki even jumped ahead a couple places. and then juanki's body finally called it quits, and ferru started to really take off. 

so that window is probably the peak of the pre-retirement dynamic. what IS that dynamic, you ask? great question.

the dynamic (past)

first i must note that although i myself led the lore post with the quotes about how they've been friends forever, something i find super cute/funny is that there seems to be an element of historical revisionism at work there? like, ferru didn't come to the academy until he was 17 (1999, the year juanki went pro), and their hometowns aren't THAT close. and ferru spent a couple years in barcelona as well. so although they clearly knew each other from an early age, it's unlikely that they were like. besties. but if you ask them, it's oh yeah we've been friends foreverrrr.

anyway. dynamics, 2002-2012:

mutual security blanket

introvert (situational) 4 introvert (intrinsic)

senpai/kouhai

chronic patient/emotional support rescue dog

fighter/sacrifice

king/lionheart, where the king was overthrown 10 years ago and now they're living in exile and the loyal retainer is earning their keep by the sword—

what do i mean by 90% of this—ok, first, web 1.0 tangent: beginning relatively early in ferru's career there was a fan forum on his official website. ferrru, who in those days was blatantly uncomfortable with the fan/star dynamic, immediately set about trying to like. befriend everyone on it. no fans here, we're all just friends! he would post regular life updates and then hang around in the thread just. chatting. he would remember details like where posters lived and who their other faves were and TEASE them about it. he hosted a christmas dinner in his hometown for anyone who wanted to make the trip. this is obviously unsustainable past a certain point of success but while it lasted it was just. so charming.

so ferru took his self-appointed role as juanki handler very seriously. like, i joke about "xx news and publicity bureau," but ferru really was. he would regularly post updates about juanki's health and recovery progress. he would answer questions. juanki's fans would come to ferru for updates!! couple this with the comments about how they tried to enter the same tournaments and generally traveled together/stayed in the same hotels, along with juanki's incredible run of illness and injury, and it's just like. ferru is juanki's designated spokesperson, his interface with the cold cruel world, his shield arm/support animal.

mutually supportive, but also: ferru clearly gets a lot of validation out of doing things for other people. he is always describing himself in terms such as, "i'm nothing special, i just try to be a really good friend." this is an acts of service guy all the way down.

(you ARE special, ferru, listen to me and juan carlos—)

i do think it was an evolution—ferru especially credits juanki with supporting him in the early days on tour. so i see it as like... friendly face showing the new kid the ropes, giving him advice, and then suddenly they're pulling even, and then even more suddenly ferru is the one equipped to provide the support.

introvert (situational): namely, juanki describes himself as shy, but he loves being the center of attention. he doesn't act out to get it but he very much enjoys it when it comes. (early quote re: what he likes about tennis: "all the people cheering for me in the big stadiums.") (it's also worth noting that he was the youngest child and the much-anticipated only son. lmao.) at the same time the media describe him as reserved, and he visibly dislikes talking about personal stuff. direct quote: "you can see how uncomfortable he is talking about his family…" 

so at first the press calls him "the monk of villena", he lives in the middle of nowhere, his lifestyle isn't flashy*, he's so humble, wow. but alllllso he loves fast cars and throwing parties at his hotel. he befriends other famous spanish athletes like sergio garcia and sete gibernau. and there are some wiiiiiiiiiild pictures from players' parties through the years. 

(*the contemporary gossip was also that maybe he was out having a little more fun than he let on, lol.)

so maybe it's accurate to say he's doesn't like being out of his depth? doesn't like unfamiliar situations. but like—i have seen the records and they do not lie. juan carlos looooves being—sorry—doted upon.

(this btw is why someone dedicating their tournament victory to him in front of god and the city of valencia and everyone was probably what you could call an effective tactic.) 

meanwhile ferru's favorite hobby is READING. he is famous for always having a book in the locker room. "i can get through 3 books in a 2 week tournament and i keep every book i read." (← man who ebooks were invented for.) his idea of a perfect day is going to the beach in his hometown ("the best beach in the world") with his family and his friends and then having paella. he's a cat person. he's perfect? SORRY. I'M TRYING SO HARD TO BE NORMAL. anyway genuinely think this is the person you would find in the corner at a party befriending the host's cat.

—ok fuck normal i need to talk about ferru some more.

some very normal thoughts about david ferrer

as a player ferru had uhhhhh well maybe it was an inferiority complex or maybe it was a self-defense strategy playing in the big four era or maybe he was just unbelievably hard on himself. but for a long time he was out there saying stuff like, i'm the worst player in the top hundred. i'm the worst player in the top ten.

the thing is. it's impossible to talk about ferru without bringing up the closet story. you can read it here. c. 2007 this was reported as like, a humorous character-building anecdote????? because ferru brushed it off ("once in there i didn't think much" <- bad sign!!!) and said things like "i learned everything from him, about tennis and how to be a person." ok ferru, but what if you learned the wrong things. 

i mean, what do i know. i don't know any of these people, i'm (mostly) not here to pseudo-psychoanalyze. i just don't think it's UNrelated that ferru explicitly compared their eventual coaching split to a breakup and later implied that he should have cut the cord earlier but couldn't bring himself to do it. or that afterwards he started going to therapy, "personal, not sport," and says he wishes he'd started when he was 20. 

he stayed with that coach until he was 31 btw. there is loyal and then there is whatever the hell this is.

how do you reconcile this with today's happy and well-adjusted davis cup captain? many possibilities, such as his very own family (they're so cute, they are so cute) and 20 years of personal growth. also probably the therapy. and tbf by the end of the career he'd already gotten a lot better about the self-deprecation. but he still has a worldview that is uh refreshing verging on eye-watering. he's repeatedly said that being a professional athlete doesn't make you particularly special or interesting. asked whether as a known reader he's thinking about writing a memoir: "I'm not that important and I don’t believe I can contribute that much to the society… there are so many people that can contribute much more." ← ferru STOP.

(speaking of the adorable family: although this post is mainly about silly shipping nonsense and not irl romantic relationships i DO think it's instructive that ferru appears to have dated exactly two (2) women in the entirety of his adult life. one gf age 17-26, one age 27-present. this man's natural mode is Devotion.)

anyway my main point here is that it probably felt real good to have someone on tour in his corner. someone who hadn't ever locked him in a closet.

(there is a lot more to unpack about ferru but if you're sitting here like "but what about uso 2008" or whatever trust me it's solely for the sake of not making this insanely long post EVEN LONGER and i am happy to share my thoughts upon request lol.)

some very normal thoughts about juan carlos ferrero 

IN CONTRAST... one of the funniest things about revisiting old press is constantly hearing juan carlos ferrero described as "humble" when my man has a VERY healthy opinion of himself. this isn't a bad thing. it's arguably better than calling yourself the worst player in the top one hundred. it is however a problem when the person you feel threatened by is. rafa nadal. 

i initially had an 800 word tangent here that has now been exiled to its own post. the short version of this is juanki got dropped in favor of rafa in the 2004 davis cup final and never forgot it, lol. a number of other perceived sins were committed including 1) rome 2008 media coverage 2) dc 2009 president's speech 3) valencia open 2013, how dare rafa spurn juanki's beloved child tournament. but really it was that rafa became who juanki was supposed to be. :(

juanki's got a lot of pride! another example: madrid master's 2008. yet again juanki is in bad shape. at no. 44 he just missed the main draw. so he asked for a wild card… and didn't get one. that was genuinely an insult considering he was the 2003 champion and that wc #3 went to (consults notes) fabio fognini, ranked 73. the spanish sports media were up in arms. juanki said he was so insulted that even if they offered him a spot he wouldn't take it.

…so when carlos moya pulled out they didn't waste their time. "he said he didn't want it so we gave it to someone else." oh, juanki.

(ferru's measured thoughts on this decision btw: "The absence of Juan Carlos Ferrero is outrageous and insane. This only happens in Spain. It's a huge tragedy and, above all, an injustice for a player like him, who's been number one in the world and previously won this tournament.")

so, juanki: proud, outspoken when he's angry, reserved when he's not. to the extent that when he started saying ferru was his best friend on circuit his fans were like wait. what. this is brand-new information. 

you will notice that throughout this post there are a Lot of heart-on-sleeve quotes from ferru, and fewer from juanki. what happens is that when you don't talk about your feelings, they explode without warning in Grand Gestures. juanki LOVES a Grand Gesture. ferrufest 2k19 is the most notable but far from only instance, see also organizing special surprises at their special tournament. (the open letter is somewhere in the middle, i would be fascinated to know if he would have been that forthcoming if asked point blank. i mean, maybe so!!!! personal growth!!!)

sidenote, but imo you can see the exact same dichotomy at work with juanki and carlos, where he goes out of his way to reject the we're-like-family premise and then acts the exact opposite. ("i leave the father thing to his actual father." ok juan carlos.) he used to do the same thing wrt his own coach since childhood, "i wouldn't call him a father figure, that would be weird…" this is how you end up naming things after people and bursting into tears in public! ← the fact that he's a capital-c Crier makes it even more obvious.

you will ALSO notice that despite that 7-2 h2h juanki sure never had any problem with ferru. lol. the appeal presumably goes without saying of a friend who is shouldering his way in among the ~big four and STILL out here in the year of our lord 2009 saying things like, “[Ferrero] is one of the best players in history on clay… I think he can win Roland Garros again. Nadal and Federer will be there but Juan Carlos will be right there behind them. Why not?"

(fwiw i think all of this is very like… normal and human. it's why it's so fun to put him under a microscope.)

and what is also true is that no matter how much you think juanki's life is the academy, it's more than that. he is the academy. like it was founded specifically for him (well, his cohort of young players, of which he was far and away the most promising), and his coach included him in conversations about the Vision and the long-term goals from day one. he lived there with a ROOMMATE for years and years after going pro, despite owning like… a nice house in the city of valencia. (← maybe also a reason he didn't get married until well after retirement lmao.) so when he starts naming parts of the academy after you... it's a Big Deal.

—incidentally it must be comforting to have a ready-made identity on hand when "generational spanish tennis talent" turns out to go. not the way you thought it would.

hm not doing a great job avoiding the pseudo-psychoanalysis, am i. well. i tried.

thoughts on the dynamic (present)

dynamics, 2024:

will-they-won't-they x 20 years

(life) partners

✨✨✨ co-parents ✨✨✨

that one is so overwhelmingly dominant it sort of overshadows everything else. lmao.

king/lionheart STILL only now the one-time king has returned from exile to be an advisor to the new prince—

tbh now that they are both retired and both have their own families they are a little less codependent. normal best friends, i almost said, before remembering the fucking portrait commission. do you think that's hanging up in ferru's house???? i ask myself this every day.

what do i think has changed? ferru is (wonderfully) much less self-effacing. juanki successfully reinvented himself as a top coach. after juanki retired i think they finally started to relate as… i'm not saying they weren't equals before that but maybe to some people (ferru) it didn't feel like they were. and ferru is clearly in his element as dc captain, where his job is literally to be the entire team's emotional support dog. emotional support pack leader? once again: who needs hierarchy, we're all friends here. (he gave coaching a brief shot but it didn't stick—this my personal theory as to why. based on nothing other than intuition lol.)

hm this section is suspiciously resembling "ferru: the postscript." well we all see a lot of juanki, he's doing great lol. if anything i think having ferru around is good for him, keeps him from getting too martyred. every time ferru and carlitos TEAM UP to tease juanki is jfkldajf;l so delightful. (to modestly quote my own tag, "just two dogs yapping at their favorite cat.")

but shipping nonsense aside: i genuinely think it is really lovely and heart-warming to see two people who clearly mean so much to each other and are still such a big part of each other's lives after so long—even/especially despite the changes. some people grow apart. some people grow together. :)

and if you want to throw in twenty years of pining SO MUCH THE BETTER

--

christ that is. so much text. uhhhh hopefully this was informative/entertaining/morbidly fascinating, and everyone who reads it will feel mysteriously compelled to start including ferruero subplots in their sincaraz fic. :D?? :D????

you have SO many options. practically married. one-sided pining for many years. (whooo in this post sounds like they would do that.) MUTUAL pining for many years. practically married but haven't realized it. tour arrangement but they caught feelings. second-chance romance years after a youthful failed fling. the parent trap, starring carlitos alcaraz— [curtain falls as i am forcibly dragged from the stage]

[wonilye]

♫ the story of us | k.sn

freshly broken up with sunoo, you turn up to a party, one where you already know he’s going to be at. the catch? nobody knew you ever dated. keeping your past under wraps is one thing, but throw in the lingering feelings, and you have yourself a hot mess…

read the rest of the series here! (for taglist)

pairing ➭ popular boy sunoo x class president reader

genre ➭ lovers to strangers (a terrible attempt really), angst, mutual pining but they’d never admit it, post-breakup, secret dating

word count ➭ 3.4k (i like drabbles)

a/n ➭ i popped this out first because i’m crazy for sunoo recently lmao...more to come in the next two months, my schedule is gonna get wild so imma try to wrap this up asap. sunwonki's parts are actually interconnected, but they're not in chronological order haha. if u want to figure out the timeline/see bonus moments of each couple, read them all (shameless self promo i know). enjoy!

Damn, do you hate high school.

It’s friday, and you’re at your locker, arranging your books after the last class of the day. Students have started leaving the classrooms by now, and the hallway’s one big traffic jam. Normally, you’d be thrilled to have a nice weekend, unhindered by your teachers’ incessant nagging. But this week isn’t the same as every other week, is it?

Because it’s the first weekend you’re spending without Sunoo. 

It was a quiet affair, really. Literally nobody even knew you and Sunoo were dating. Please, you two were worlds apart – you, the class president, and Sunoo, the popular it-boy. No one, not even you, could’ve seen it coming. You two had gotten off to a rough start, having classroom cleaning duties together. You were particular about everything, from the way he held the broom to the direction he swept in. He, on the other hand, was more concerned with what time he’d be let off so he could go out with his friends. So yeah, your first interactions were essentially petty bickering.

But somewhere along the line, you began to see eye to eye. Maybe it was the way the light sparkled in his eyes when he smiled, even on rainy days. Maybe it was the way he’d invited you to grab boba after your duties for the first time, a conspiratorial glint in his eyes (yeah, you had a thing for his pretty eyes). Or maybe it was the way he’d kissed you in an empty classroom, rays of the setting sun streaming in through the window shutters as he held you in his arms, a silent promise to never let go.

You scoff to yourself. Not all promises can be kept, especially when it comes to you and Kim Sunoo.

In the corner of your eye, you spot Sunoo and his friends leaving a classroom, laughing amongst themselves. He passes you, never once looking at you, and you force yourself to turn away. You don’t care. You cannot care.

Slamming your locker door shut, you sling your bag over your shoulders, ready to find your friends for a trip to some cafe. It would make a good distraction. Or so you think, until Soobin runs up to you, hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. “Y/n! Have you heard? There’s a birthday party tonight at Kim Sunoo’s house.”

The very mention of Sunoo sends your head spinning, and you have to lean against your locker to ground yourself. Soobin doesn’t know, and you’d like to keep it that way. “Whose birthday is it?”

“Nishimura Riki, I think? That guy in the fencing club.” As if you need the introduction. Sunoo talked about him a lot, his love for his best friend ridiculously wholesome. But it’s the way Sunoo never told you he was hosting a birthday party for him, and the fact that you only broke up a week ago, that pisses you off. Just a little.

Gosh, you really have to stop thinking of him.

“Honestly, does it really matter? You don’t do parties.” Soobin’s the head of the student council, a token good boy. It’s one of the reasons why you get along with him so well. The student council president and the class president are friends. Shocker.

Soobin grins sheepishly. “Yeah, but you know how I’ve been talking to the captain of the fencing club about this year’s budget recently? Turns out she’s Nishimura’s girlfriend, and she personally invited me tonight. And, um…” he trails off, handing you the invitation. “She said I could bring a plus one.” He looks at you with so much hope and despair, as though he’s begging you not to let him go alone to a party where he knows no one.

You eye him warily. “This the kind of party with alcohol and shit?”

“Think so. All the more reason for you to back me up, be my voice of reason, no?”

“If you need me to tell you not to drink, you probably shouldn’t be going at all.”

Soobin groans, pleading you with his eyes. “C’mon, you know I never drink. Just come, please? Don’t leave me to die.”

You two enter a staring contest, the persuasion practically emanating off him. It’s not even that you don’t want to go, you’d just rather not see Sunoo more than you have to. And that thought alone is what makes a twisted sort of determination flare in your chest. Who said you were gonna let Kim Sunoo dictate your life, huh? “Fine, I’ll do it,” you finally relent, and Soobin whoops. “Knew you’d come around. Let’s meet at seven at the mall, and we’ll go together. You can’t go back on your promise!”

As Soobin disappears into the crowd, you can’t help but sigh, banging your head against the wall. What exactly have you done?

Hours later, you’re at the mall, checking your wristwatch. Soobin said to be here at seven, but it’s quarter past seven and he still hasn’t shown up. Typical.

You tug on the hem of your hoodie. It’s oversized, the sleeves too long, the front too baggy as it reaches where your shorts end. Of course it is. It’s Sunoo’s. He never took it back from your house, so it’s still in your possession. You’re here to mess with him, and you want him to know it. 

Finally, finally, you spot Soobin waving at you as he rushes over. He’s dressed simply too, though his clothes are pointedly better fitting. “Sorry I’m late. Student council meeting overran.”

You roll your eyes. Sunoo’s place isn’t far, so the walk isn’t long. “Let’s go over the rules. No drinking more than two cups of whatever they’re serving that has any kind of alcohol in it, or our parents are gonna kill us. And we are definitely leaving together, got it?”

Waving his hand dismissively, Soobin agrees. “Yeah, yeah. I got it. We’ll stick together until we can’t. If we do get separated, I’ll call you.” As you continue chatting, you realise your feet have moved on their own in the direction of Sunoo’s house, and Soobin’s staring at you weirdly. “Wow, did you memorise his address already? Your sense of direction is insane.”

Shit. “W-well, I just followed the street signs. Oh look, it’s right up ahead.” You walk ahead, trying to hide the way your ears flush hot. You’re a few blocks away, but already you can hear the thrum of the music coming from one of the houses. “Hurry up, we’re already late.”

The party itself is already well underway. It looks like your whole cohort and more is here, what with the massive crowd of people in the house, spilling into the front yard. The place smells of sweat and alcohol, a very foreign scent. You’re used to this house when it’s quiet, just you and Sunoo, the only words spoken shared between you two. Not this…rave of a birthday party. To think it isn’t even Sunoo’s.

Would he have done the same for yours?

Shaking your head, you shove those traitorous thoughts to a corner of your mind. Tonight isn’t supposed to be about him, yet everything is making you think of him. 

You follow Soobin into the house, slipping past the crowd and into the doorway. In the living room, seated on a couch is Riki himself, laughing at something someone said. His arm’s slung around a really pretty girl, who Soobin tells you is his girlfriend. 

And on Riki’s other side is him.

While you were dating Sunoo, he refused to go to parties, saying he’d go only if you agreed (which of course you didn’t, because that would be hard-launching you). This is the first time you’re seeing him really dressed up, and gosh, he looks good. He always did look good, but that half-unbuttoned collar of his shirt is driving you mad, more so than you’ve ever been. You’re desperately trying to hold on to any remaining shred of your sanity, but when his eyes meet yours, you feel it all slipping away.

There’s something weird about looking into Sunoo’s eyes, especially when he’s looking at you with a strange expression you know is only meant for you. It’s as though time has stopped completely, the background noise dulling, and the only thing in your world is his gaze on you. Knowing Soobin is here, you definitely have to pretend you don’t know Sunoo. He’s daring you, daring you to do something, right here in front of everyone. It’s also the reason why you broke up in the first place. Oh, the irony. 

You ignore Soobin’s garbled protest as you march up to Riki. “Happy birthday!” you exclaim, handing your carefully-wrapped gift to him. “It’s not much, but I hope you like it anyway.”

Something odd lies beneath his gaze as he looks at you, receiving the gift coolly. “Thanks, Y/n. You’ll probably want a look around the place, won’t you?” He smacks Sunoo’s thigh good-naturedly. “Oi, house owner. Be a good host and give her a tour.”

Oh. So he knows after all.

Gritting your teeth, you’re about to reject his kind offer, when Sunoo rises to his feet. “No problem! Right this way, Y/n.” The fake cheeriness in his voice makes you inwardly scoff. You definitely don’t miss the way Sunoo’s hand instinctively moves to take yours, before retracting it in a sharp movement, as though he realises a second too late. The way he avoids looking directly at you afterward is indescribably satisfying. 

As you pass Soobin, he does a double take. “Not even five minutes in and you’re abandoning me?” he splutters. 

“Change of plans. Just stay put, I’ll come find you after this.”

“Why can’t I come with you?”

“Wanna follow me to the bathroom?”

At this, Soobin winces. “Okay, definitely not. Don’t forget about me, please?”

Patting him on the shoulder, you grin. “Not a chance. I’ll be back before you know it.”

You are not back before he knows it.

Sunoo mostly ran through the motions, showing you the kitchen, a games room, and all the food. Though you both know it’s useless. You already know all this. So it’s not unexpected when he leads you up the stairs to the hallway. There’s his room, straight on. Glancing around to make sure no one’s looking, he grabs your wrist and tugs you in, locking the door behind the two of you.

The room looks exactly like you remember, albeit void of the picture frames that once had photos of the two of you. There used to be a string of polaroids hanging above his bed, but even that’s gone. Gosh, this is so unfair. Clearly he had better luck in getting rid of every trace of you. At least, that’s what you think, until he slumps against the door, sinking to the ground with his face in his hands. 

“Why’d you have to do that?” he groans. You can’t see his expression behind his hands, but by the sound of it, he doesn’t seem very pleased at all.

“Do what? You’re the one who told Nishimura you’d give me a tour. Don’t try to pin this on-”

“Nice hoodie you got there,” he interjects snarkily. “Get it now? Damn it, and I was doing so well, but here you are, wearing my clothes, in my house.” He finally looks up at you, and you can see the frustration he’d tried to hold in all this time. He runs his fingers through his hair, and for the first time, you realise he looks utterly despondent. It’s a sharp contrast to all the ignoring he’s been doing the past week, pretending you don’t exist, even when you’re just metres away from him. He’s been his same smiling self, a ray of sunshine to everyone, as though everything that ever happened between the two of you was a figment of your imagination.

You should be happy about this, really, that he’s no better than you. But you can’t deny the twinge of pain in your chest as you watch him. You’ve come to know the kind of person he is – sunny on the outside, only letting the mask fall in front of the people he trusts most. The fact that he’s even letting you see this right now is enough to render you speechless. 

You swallow a lump in your throat you didn’t even know was there. “I…I’m not going to apologise.” It’s honestly a terrible thing to say, when your ex is on the ground and lamenting your relationship, but you really can’t think of anything to say that won’t let on more than you want to.

The laugh he lets out is rough, almost self-deprecating. “I don’t expect you to. This is…this is partially my fault.” He sighs, looking about as tired as he sounds. “We made the choice together, Y/n. We can’t…”

You know what he’s going to say – you can’t just go back on your word now., not when it took so much to part ways. To fall back into each other, or even admitting the desire to, would mean weakness. Heaven forbid you show any, being the prideful pair you are. Because what really mattered all along was the status quo, wasn’t it? Popular pretty boys don’t date nerds. It’s a disgusting stereotype, really, but at the end of the day you know what everyone will say if they ever found out. Selfish, but you need to be selfish if you want to protect yourself.

“What we had, we knew it couldn’t last. Life isn’t a romcom.” It’s less of a reply than it is a half-hearted attempt at convincing yourself that it’s true. 

“You’re telling me that while wearing my clothes. Low blow, Y/n.”

Well, at least he can joke with you now. But it’s short-lived, and before you know it he’s getting to his feet, smoothing out his tousled hair. “This can’t happen again. We just have to be…strangers to each other. It’s easier that way.” 

There’s this traitorous part of you that wants to reach out and grab him, pull him back into one last kiss. But you know it won’t do you any good, only make everything worse. He’s right. It’s easier to pretend nothing ever happened, because as far as anyone’s concerned, nothing ever happened. Besides, you suspect he’d really, really hate it if you did that. 

Or so it seems, until it’s his hands that reach for you, his face buried in the crook of your neck like it’s the most natural thing in the world to do. Because it was. For a long time, it was. “Just give me a moment, will you?”

So you let him. You let him wrap his arms around you, let his fingers trace your jawline as he leans in and-

“One last kiss? Can I have it?”

Oh.

His voice shakes as he speaks, a moment of vulnerability, and the last one you will see. He’s searching your eyes for something. You don’t know if you have that something anymore. Wordlessly, you capture his lips in yours, letting yourself drown in his touch for the final time. It’s a bittersweet feeling, knowing your heart wants to stay in this moment forever, but your head tells you this can’t - won’t - happen again. Kim Sunoo knows every inch of you by heart, and he shows it in the way he holds you with a gentleness no one else could have towards you. Now, he will have to unlearn it, unlearn you.

Sunoo is the first to pull away. His lips are red and swollen, eyes glassy as he tries to get himself together. You’re guessing you don’t look much different. A quick glance in the mirror above his vanity is all you need to know that yes, you’re every bit the mess you think you are.  Even as you turn the doorknob to leave, the lingering feeling of his hands on your waist refuse to fade. It takes all your effort to step out, descending the stairs alone. You know Sunoo’s right behind you, but somehow he already feels far, far away.

You scan the room for Soobin’s face. The crowd’s more dispersed by now, so it isn’t long before you spot him in a corner of the kitchen, munching on a pack of biscuits. “Took you long enough. They’re playing games right now, wanna join?”

“Sure, I guess.” You glance around, forcing yourself to ignore the footsteps on the stairs. “Where’s the birthday boy?”

Soobin shrugs. “Had to run an errand for his family, apparently. He’ll be back. It’s weird, though, what kind of errand has to be run so close to midnight?”

You turn to the dining table to see Riki’s girlfriend seated on one side, grinning as she watches a bunch of people play some sort of card game on the floor. Sunoo’s amongst them; you can see a tuft of blond hair peeking out from underneath the table. He’s laughing, the light in his eyes back again. Lots of people are clapping him on the back, and he only laughs louder. Watching him like this, in his comfort zone, you realise this is where he belongs. He belongs with people who shine like him, not you, the part of him that has to be hidden away. It’s for the better. It has to be.

So why do you still fantasise being by his side, even now?

Enough is enough. “Soobin, I’m leaving,” you murmur. Your fingers are tightly gripping the hoodie you’re still wearing as you start to zone out. What does it mean, really, that he didn’t ask for it back? “You coming?”

“Yeah, yeah.” You vaguely register him gather his things and follow you out, leaving the raucous party behind you. As you’re leaving, you spot Riki, who’s entering the house with a slight limp. Weird.

You walk down the empty street, the only sound being your footsteps and a few crickets in the bushes. It’s a good time to gather your thoughts, sort your emotions out before you have to talk to Soobin. He’s ridiculously perceptive, and sooner or later he’s gonna notice something’s off.

“Can I ask you a question?”

You jump, feet faltering as you turn to look at him. “Y-yeah?”

“How long have you been with Sunoo?”

This time, you come to a complete stop. “Come again?”

Soobin sighs. “I know, Y/n. You kept staring at him, and he kept staring back.”

“...did he now.”

You wrap your arms around your stomach, looking away. Soobin gets the hint, grimacing slightly. “Didn’t end well, huh?”

That’s all it takes for you to start spilling everything to him. To his credit, he doesn’t seem very judgemental of you, although you can’t really tell from the look on his face. “It’s just…people would say things about us, you know? It’s easier to maintain the status quo than it is to go public with him. So we ended things.”

“So you ended things with him because you didn’t want a taste of his world, and he didn’t want one of yours either?”

“Something like that.”

Soobin is silent for a moment, as if he’s trying to think of what to say. “So at the end of the day, it was pride.”

“What?’

He shrugs. “Pride. You were both too proud to give up what you’d built. In his case, it was his social standing. Yours was your good girl title.” Before you can even protest, he slaps a hand over your mouth. “Deny it all you want, but you know I’m right.”

His statement doesn’t warrant a reply, you know that. He knows you’re not the kind to change your mind easily, but he can at least make you think. And thinking you are. Soobin isn’t wrong, really. In fact, he basically summarised the whole conversation you had with Sunoo, with a lot more honesty. It’s not very comforting. 

As you walk on, the music from the house drops to a soft thrumming, as though it’s saying goodbye. Walk on. Walk on, and don’t look back.

(You looked back once. Then never again.)

a/n pt 2 ➭ YO IF U GOT THIS FAR CONGRATS LMAO thanks for reading!! @stariikis i love u <3 im delivering the nishimura fanservice. tbh idk why i picked soobin, ig he suits the vibes??? couldn’t use the rest of enha cus they all have parts in this series lol. hope u liked this!!!!

[footprint-in-the-snow]

I actually desperately want someone to explain every reference in the SATVB art please <3

okay so i havent figured out Everything but this is most of what i can gather. sorry there arent links to specific references im not supposed to be doing this i need to be packing for uni 😭 but this is everything off the top of my head !

starting from the left wall theres the peep show poster which matty has said to be his favourite show in a reddit comment, idk what the streets poster is a reference to, the ghost on an island is an antichrist reference 'theres a ghost on this island' and then the petrol can is an its not living reference as 'danny works in a petrol station'

so the back wall obviously the cancelled banner for lols, 4 days since last incident as a general meme reference?, do not use emergency only is likely a reference to mattys abstinence from social media and being a bit OTG, flushed away poster is obvious, the fake matty quote which he never said and was on the problematic, oasis poster as they need to stop marding and get back together!!! from Q with Tom Powell and various other Oasis call outs, Maroon 5 as problemattic beef, Newcastle United as duh, Frozen as he referenced liking frozen in a couple 2014 interviews particularly the moshcam (?) one, idk about the IDs and then the box from the philharmonic orchestra album, the icon from the mind shower detox thing they did for notes which was a 3d tour thing that's still up and then the height chart as matty is short <3 and the good boy points which i dont know what it is referring to specifically but i think its funny

now the window/right wall has la poesie est dans la rue is etched into the tree and is an easter egg in quite a few music videos and is a reference to love it if we made it, the minion i assume is a reference to the deuxmoi thing of matty sending minion memes to a girl, and then a camera i assume is a general comment on the lack of privacy you get as a celebrity and 'house with just three walls' etc

the couch and table has matty smoking and chained to the couch as a reference to the consumption bit and could be reference to the idea that he is stuck in a position of his own doing, hann is a wizard i presume as a hobbit reference? and then the dubai and malaysia flags as he got banned,oxygen tank from consumption, cross due to the religious signposting on his ig story and a juxtaposition to his atheism, thesaurus for those big words, infinite jest as its referenced in sincerity is scary, wine, cigarettes, xanax as a reference to 'Xanax and a newport' in part of the band, i live cum mug from the problemattic, american flag as a lot of their music is informed by Americana especially on notes(? maybe also just because america)

then on the floor here theres the coke bottles as matty cannot be seen without one, the piss/apple juice from when he was spotted with gabbriette, the fox i saw on twitter means temptation so could be a very subtle hint towards temptation from porn and the right and so on, raw meat from consumption and its being 'swept under the rug' so could be a metaphor for matty being problematic and it being glossed over by him, hairdye as there was twitter rumour he dyed his grays and matty has previously said he would not, flame and wok box as the boys used to work there, typewriter from the typed up letters he used to do but u dont know what 'im not a beatnik im a catholic' is a reference to, true romance is one of mattys favourites and was a key inspiration for the robbers video

i have no clue what this is other than human blunt? and seeds and beans? as a gyat reference? help?

this corner has the married computer so man who married a robot, lotion and tissues for activities, cow with glassjaw hoodie as a nod to when we are together and also the nme interview where he mentions that hoodie as the one he put on at 13 and took off at 19 if im correct, grass block from satvb promo, tent could be a nod to reading and leeds? then skeleton with the lab coat i dont know exactly but i think it could be another problemattic reference with me on the brain, and then 2013 george with his blue gatorade as in most gigs you can see his blue gatorade with its own stand!! (though i watched trsmnt the other day and it was orange) and he is producing i think it could have been drawn from a photo but i cba to find it

and last but not least, ross!!! who is also jesus as there were lots of memes surrounding him looking like jesus or being a personal jesus and so on, also could be to do with the problemattic post of ricky gervais on the cross for being an atheist, penguin!! because ross likes penguins, bees are a manchester symbol, beer, robber with the iconic 2014 shirt, greggs sausage roll i presume from when one got thrown onstage but also the twitter meme of 'i saw matty crying in x greggs' and then i think the last on is a mortal kombat character and nearly forgot but ross also has a lamp as he turned off the lamps at the end of when we are together during atvb on stage

[echowithpain]

Alrighty!!! Here we go! ✨✨✨

First, -1/2 point for the old dude who beat up the "cart cop"

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with the fact that he beat him up. I think it was a decent twist cause I was originally expecting the security guard or someone else who got him from behind. My problem was "Why the heck did he turn out to be an escaped convict in hiding or whatever?"

Literally why??? He could've just been an old dude who was pissed at the kid for causing trouble and "stealing his job". I was so on board with everything until they revealed that the old guy wasn't actually the old guy. And Athena said she figured it out because he was "too camera shy"??? Lots of people are camera shy?? Yes he was hiding his face but I figured that was just because he was used to the kid being there so he was more annoyed than angry, or he just really didn't like being recorded. I know people like that and they aren't criminals (at least I hope not lmao 😂)

I get that 911 wants to do the "bet you didn't see this coming!" thing all the time, but why do the stakes have to be so high? I get it's a drama but I literally said in my last Echos Essays that I wanted Athena to get a bad feeling about someone but they DON'T turn out to be a serial killer or anything like that, they're just a regular person who maybe needs to talk a couple things out in therapy

They didn't need to go to the extreme or come up with a reason for why the old guy was capable of such violence, just having the small twist that it was him who beat up the kid instead of the security guy was enough.

So yeah... -1/2 point cause it took me out of the episode (even though it was at the end)

...

Umm... Is there anything else that I have problems with?? 🤔🤔🤔 I can't think of anything off the top of my head so I'll just list the things I loved until I remember something ✨

THINGS I LOVED: 💖Brad💖

Brad was freaking incredible this episode 😂💖😂 From watching his own show with the entire fire station (and repeating his lines), to being overdramatic and thinking everyone hated it and blaming the things they criticized on the network 😂, to being at the accident with them and seeing someone was passed out in a car and trying to help (yes he didn't know about the c-brace and gurney, but he was learning and genuinely wanted to help someone 💖), to the way I couldn't tell if he was angry or turned on when Bobby yelled at him 😭😭😭, to his serious heartfelt talk with Eddie about their kids 🥺-

F U U U U U C K !!!!!!!!!!!

I just remembered that Maddie's PREGNANT!!!!! AND SHE GETS KIDNAPPED NEXT EPISODE IN MARCH!!!!!!

Holy shit holy shit holy shit!!!!! HOLY FUCK IT DIDNT EVEN OCCUR TO ME THAT THAT WOULD BE HAPPENING WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT!!! I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT HER GETTING KIDNAPPED AGAIN AMD HOW LAST TIME SHE WAS IT WAS HER ABUSIVE EX HUSBAND WHO SHE ENDED UP HAVING TO KILL!!!! THE FACT THAT SHE IS PREGNANT DIDNT EVEN CROSS MY MIND HOLY FUCK!!!! WHAT THE SHIT!!!!! OH GOD WHAT IF THIS HURTS THE BABY 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Shit fuck wait but that's the promo not this episode I gotta focus, holy shit, fuck.... FUCK!!!! Okay ummm... Shit my fucking train of thought... fuck... Brad was great and dramatic and I still love him. Also loved the fact that he helped(?) the guy who was trying to kill himself to not want to kill himself anymore while also contemplating jumping himself and having to be talked down by the guy who was going to jump in the first place??? This dude is so dramatic and emotional ❤️‍🩹 Brad's back on his show but I hope we still get to see more of him 💖

Plus the fire fam guest starring in the episode he wakes up from the coma but being horrible actors? 😂😂😂 Do you think Christopher is gonna see the episode his dad is in? 🥺❤️‍🩹 (Also real quick, idk how much skill it takes for an actor to act as a character who's bad at acting but props to them because I just know it's always hilarious 😂 First thing that comes to mind is that one Supernatural episode where Sam and Dean were transported to "the real world" and replaced their actors 😂)

Hen and Bobby not being in the scene, probably by choice, was a mood and a half 😂 ALSO HEN USING THAT MED SCHOOL DOCTOR KNOWLEDGE LETS GOOO??? They remembered she went through that arc???? You could write it off as paramedic stuff, but paramedics know the stuff that'll get you to the doctors alive, and the doctors deal with the rest of the stuff (usually, this show is pretty lenient on what the paramedics are supposed to do. ie, when Eddie had to extract a bomb from a dude's thigh, Hen sticking her hand in a patient to keep them stable, Eddie doing the whatever he did to the kid who was ass backwards so he wouldn't die, etc.) I'm chosing to believe they remembered she studied to be a doctor 🥰

EDDIE!!!! EDDIE CALLED CHRISTOPHER AND HAD AN ACTUAL CONVERSATION WITH HIM 🤩💖🤩💖🤩💖🤩 AND IT HURT MY FEELINGS 😭💔😭💔😭💔😭😭💔😭💔

"I can get an autograph and you can put it up in your room!" "So you'll send it to me? 😃"

Like, damn dude I really wasn't expecting that 😭😭😭 Why did the show have to hurt me like that? What did I ever do to you except love you and criticize you when needed? 😭😭😭 That doesn't give you an excuse hurt me like that 😭💔😭💔😭 Ow geez. Not funny. Cried. Bitch.

Okay um, sewer water rescue was nice. I love how I made a joke about kissing under the sewer water rainbow, and then a couple kissed under the sewer water rainbow 😂😂😂😂😂 I swear you can't write this shit

...Do I really not have any complaints besides the old dude being a secret criminal?

Oh, no, wait

-1/2 point for the brief mention of Temu. Still gotta be petty 🤭💅✨

Buuuut it did give us the scene of Eddie enjoying Bucks baking and Buck (and the audience) finding out that he's looking to move back to El Paso 🥺🥺🥺

Nah, I'm still gonna be petty 😘

But also EDDIEEEE 😭😭😭😭😭 anD THE COUCH MENTIONED AGAIN?!?!?!? They were so domestic holy shit I've missed them hanging out 😭💖

...I'm trying to remember anything else but that's genuinely all I've got. To be fair, I had a bunch of fun this episode and was laughing a LOT 😂😂😂

So yeah! I think that's it 😁

FINAL SCORE: 🌈9/10🌈

-1/2 point for the old dude being a secret criminal, and -1/2 point for the brief Temu mention ✨

I legit had so much fun this episode, I was laughing so much I was interrupting the people I was watching the episode with 😂😂😂😂😂 When Brad said he finally felt like a real hero and then immediately banged his head on the firetruck mirror, I cackled so loud and my grandmother was confused/upset with me because it was so fast that she missed it and wanted to know why I suddenly burst out laughing 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Ah man, I love this show 🥰

...damn, it's not gonna be back until M A R C H 😭

Welp, see you then babes! I'll be lurking in the walls until it comes back 🙃

TCHAU!!!! 😘✌️✨

[seattledaytwo]

🍒

didn't get a chance to play DE yet, but I humored myself with some playthroughs already and I'm... questioning shit rn. I just checked what max's phone has to offer in my ending (bae ending with pricefield as... hs sweethearts apparently). and I just don't understand wtf happened. I don't want to spoil the main plot of DE, but the way they don't offer any datas or timeframe... I'm kinda offended by the messages shown in max's phone. it looks so wrong. I mean, ofc there is the whole multiverse and I can believe that in some universe pricefield could've broken up but??? it feels wrong actually seeing it, I mean my expectations are my own mistakes, but... I need time to process

I mean, it could be great, but they promised to respect both endings. and the way I see it, most people who saved chloe didn't do it to see such an ending. I get that this stuff happens in real life, it's natural outcome for the relationship built on trauma, but for both Max and Chloe it's really off and out of character. I probably need to see more from the game to get a better perspective, but now i'm just sad.

how are u feeling tho?

OOF okay yeah I'm going to be brutally honest about my thoughts on Double Exposure.

So from the very first announcement, the concept left a bad taste in my mouth. It felt incredibly cheap to bring Max back, and I knew that even if the game was fantastic, that narrative choice would always rub me the wrong way. I don't like the idea of Deck Nine taking Dontnod's characters and continuing a story that had been tied up with a perfect bow already. It feels...I don't know. It feels gross, I guess, is the best word I can use.

Chloe's lack of presence stood out to me immediately, and combined with the pieces of the game we'd seen, I knew she wouldn't be part of it. At best, there would be some offscreen explanation about her traveling or something (like how Dragon Age explains where the Warden went if you romanced Leliana). What they went with was...worse than I anticipated, lol.

In my opinion, it's very clear that they brought Max back solely to bait people into buying and playing, and it's backfiring HARDCORE on them right now. I've seen so many people cancelling their preorders and turning away from the game. The promos for the games were purposely avoiding a mention of Chloe, not to be fun and surprise the fanbase, but to string people along until the very last second. Clearly, it didn't work out!

It's really a bummer because I think I would have LOVED this game if it featured a new protagonist. I mean, switching timelines, a university story, an older protagonist? Absolutely right up my alley! But the fact that they dragged Max in to be the hook immediately turned me off to it.

To be honest, I would be very unsurprised if this is the last Life is Strange game after all the backlash that's already starting. And honestly? I'm kind of okay with that. I have concerns about how Deck Nine and Square Enix would/could handle future installments, since it feels like the integrity of the series has been degraded so much with DE.

I never had any plans to play the game, but I don't even really feel like watching a playthrough now either, lmao. All that to say, I really don't consider this game canon. This feels more like a parody than an actual continuation of Max's story.

It's very, very sad to me because the first game came out when I was a teenager trying to figure herself out, and Max and Chloe were very integral to exploring and discovering my sexuality (even before I realized it)!

I love True Colors and I think Deck Nine is capable of writing a compelling (if not a little lacking in some aspects) storyline, but diving back into Max's story was a really bad idea and I think it might be the series' downfall.

And...wow, I guess I had more to say than I realized 😅

[miikpal]

Heya, Milk! You got any advice for somebody who wants to start taking commissions but doesnt know where to start? I been drawing for a while (about 10 years), but I never tried selling my art before. It's kinda scary. I don't need a lot of money right now, so it's not urgent, ive just heard people say it's good experience. Is it worth trying at all rn? Sorry if you answered something like this before

no worries!! i dont think anyones asked me about this stuff before tbh... im in a similiar boat where i dont really do these out of necessity lol its definitely worth it!! if u thought about it even briefly its worth it to try

its been a hot minute since ive first started taking comms but i guess these would do for starters:

- your following might affect comm interest - i would only get very sporadic ones for the longest time unless i undersold (DO NOT DO THIS GET UR MONEYS WORTH) so dont get discouraged at first is what im saying. get ur pals to promo the announcement posts and put urself out there and eventually someone will get interested

- you can start small and lowkey. if u wanna just dip your toes in the commissions water before doing full blown pieces its absolutely ok to start with doodle or sketch comms. they tend to be cheaper and attract client bases that way anyway - so its a win win! low stakes and you can slowly figure out what works for you

- for the love of god make a TOS. having a document of things that are and arent allowed that u can point at whenever somebody tries to pull a fast one on you is a lifesaver. mines really thorough but i like to cover all the bases

- pretty much at every step where youd think 'going back to fix something after this part would be a pain in the ass' stop and send the progress to ur client and ask if anythings off or needs fixing before you keep going. better safe than sorry. in general be communicative and upfront about any info with ur commissioner - its a nice thing to do and will make both of ur lives easier!

- make sure ur comm post includes clear examples of the kind of art u can offer - this is gonna be the forefront that attracts ppls attention! they should know what theyll be getting

- set up a comm only email or a google form for taking in comms its. much easier to keep track of things this way. actual communication can go somewhere else but its good to have a single place just for the actual initial inquiries etc.

I RAN MY MOUTH LOL. if u have other specific questions feel free to ask for a follow up i suppose!! these are just the ones i wish i thought of when i first started. i hope ur commissions journey goes well, im rooting for ya !!!!!!!

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

On the note of new albums that got overlooked because of TS's nonsense. Tori Kelly has a new album full of 90's inspired bops that are 800% better than anything TS could ever dream of doing. Like why would I listen to TS when Ariana, Beyonce, and Tori are right there? If I want to listen to pop, I'm gonna listen to the real pop artists.

(This is just from an artistry standpoint, I have no idea where any of them stand on sociopolitical issues.)

Skgjfjicnfkfdj no worries anon i figured u meant from an artistry standpoint 😭 anyways thank you for the tori kelly shoutout!!! im gonna out her new album on later.

taylor probably overprices all of her stuff cause she needs to bankroll all these companies for promoing her stuff. this amount of exposure just doesnt feel natural

[vivilove-jonsa]

rlly thrilled to hear both of you are doing well with ur books. if u don't mind me asking: is it financially viable? Could u do something like that and support urself or is it more like pocket money? are there startup costs? (feel free to ignore this ask if this is something you don't want to talk about)

Hey Anon,

I don't know if you're the same anon but I'll post the link to the ask that sparked this question for any who are curious here.

The answer to all your questions can be yes (helpful, right?)

Details below the cut...

Is it financially viable?

In my opinion, yes but you and I may be at very different stages in our lives. Are you a student? A parent with young children? Are you struggling to pay the light bill? Do you have time and energy to throw into writing daily or nightly around real life? These things matter.

Could I live off what I'm earning since I started self-publishing nearly a year ago? Hell no. I have a very good full-time job with benefits and an excellent retirement package. My husband and I have both agreed I can't walk away from that for anything less than six-figure earnings but I can say our mortgage has been covered by my writing for the past six months. That's meaningful to us and worth my time and effort.

Does success happen? It does but I won't sugarcoat it. For every Lucy Score, Cora Reilly and T.L. Swan, self-published romance authors who are millionaires, there are thousands out there who are making much, much less. From $20 to $10,000 in a month, it varies widely! But there are things you can to do increase your chances of hitting it big.

Also, I should mention that Amy and I are Amazon exclusive, part of their Kindle Unlimited subscription service. The good part about that? We earn 70% of our sales versus 30% if we were classified as Wide authors (people who can publish elsewhere like Smashwords, etc). The not so good part, you're very dependent on Amazon. For now, it's worth it for us and the (very different) niches we chose do well in KU.

Startup costs -

KEEP IT MINIMAL! I would not throw tons of money into fancy formatting software or professional editing if you're looking to self-publish your first novel. Do the work yourself, take advantage of free resources, sites and tools and see a profit (hopefully). I published my first book May 31st last year and I had made up my initial startup costs by the time my second book was released in late July.

What you actually need..

Royalty free images to make covers - $40 and up, up, up

Catch deals from Deposit Photos. Twice a year they do a deal through appsumo where you can get 100 images for $40. It's a steal of a deal. GIMP is free software you can download to make covers. Find YouTube videos to show you how. It's all out there and free. But it takes effort. Sorry, no shortcuts there :)

Reader Services - $10/month

Many, many self-published authors use bonus stories or free stories as Reader Magnets to draw readers and future fans to their newsletters. You need a system to funnel those readers and collect emails. Bookfunnel is who I use. Some of their services are free but you pretty much need that $10/month to make use of the good stuff. They also offer author swaps and newsletter building promos if you want to grow your list of followers. StoryOrigin is an alternative site some people use.

Newsletter - $0

I use Mailerlite which is free up to 1k subscribers. There's also Mailchimp. You can have freebie landing sites from Mailerlite. I haven't bothered with a paid website domain yet but I know this is something I'll need to look into soon.

ARCs - $10 to $20/month

Booksprout is the one I use. There are probably others. I think it's about $10/month for the beginner subscription to get those reviewers. I'm using a mid-list author plan now ~ $190/year. Some niches make use of SM more for this.

Advertising - $0 to thousands

Don't bother until you've got a book or two out there (come ask me if you get to that point). I'd say the only advertising you should focus on to start with is your passive marketing - your blurb, your cover and the keywords you enter on Amazon that make your book discoverable. Beyond that, paid advertising can wait.

However, you can use Tiktok to get your book noticed. Amy is learning the ropes of this and we've both seen people whose sales have skyrocketed thanks to one or two good Tiktoks to draw readers. One person made $10k in a month off of ONE good Tiktok. Other SMs have their successes, too. This is not an area I excel at though. I'd need one of my kids to teach me more... lmao.

Finally, I'll say, I didn't go into this thinking it would make me rich and famous. I wrote 3 million words of Jonsa out of love over the course of five years. I've written 350k words of original fiction the past year and it's paying the mortgage. Thankfully, I love what I'm writing and I've set myself a five-year plan for my 'side hustle' to see how I feel in 2027. We'll see where I am then. Fingers crossed I can claim I'm a six-figure author!

But what you can achieve in self-publishing can be phenomenal if you're writing to market (giving romance readers those tropes they love and hitting the expected story beats) in a genre and niche that has hungry readers. Our discord has verified tiers so people who say they're making 50k in thirty days aren't just blowing smoke. They've proven it. Imagine making money like that and then, if you're at a point in your life where you want to try, GO FOR IT.

[quodekash]

PART TWO OF THE THOUGHTS I HAD WHILE WATCHING MSP OS2 EPISODE 2 COS I KEEP RUNNING OUT OF IMAGES COS I HAVE TOO MUCH TO SAY (wooo look at that there's a link here to the previous part, haha self promo) (there will almost certainly be at least two more after this one, if not three or four more. i think too much.)

OMG THIS SCENE

I LOVE THEM

GREDGKHJBER

THEYRE SO IN LOVEEEE

AND GUN HOLDING THE BOTTLE FOR TINN TO DRINK FROM??? BROOOOO

I SEE YOU LOOKING

I SEE WHERE YOUR EYES ARE, MISTER

YOU’RE LOOKING AT HIM

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE

hes so whipped

youre so whipped, tiw

hes in love with him

i love them so much

holy hell

hell yeah, soundwin

WAIT

HANG ON

IS THIS WHAT I THINK IT IS???

HOLY HELL IT IS

GUYS IVE LITERALLY BEEN TELLING EVERYONE FOR MONTHS

SOUNDWIN=PATPRAN

MY SOUNDWIN=PATPRAN AGENDA IS FINALLY JUSTIFIED

WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL

G U Y S

IM BASICALLY GOD AT THIS POINT

HOLY HELL

HOLY FREAKING HELL

IM SO HAPPY ABOUT THIS

AND EXCITED

HOLY HELL

thats fair

(but also, without context thats really funny. imagine gun, por, and jorn hearing that. they have no idea how soundwin's first interaction went down. and even if they try to explain, theyll still be so confused

"im sorry, what? he locked your arms in the bathroom??"

"yeah! we wanted him to join the band so i got his attention while he was peeing-"

"what."

"-and then he got really mad at me for some reason and then he slammed me against the wall-"

"WHAT."

"-and he threatened me and pulled my arms back and my arms were sore for days."

"WHAT THE HELL-"

its very amusing to me)

but theres not as much tension as there was in the original canon universeeee

because they dont actually hate each other in this versionnnn

they just have a slight rivalry but its mostly friendlyyyyy

i love themmmmmm

and this one is tiwpor bc tiwpor are couple goals

oh

oh theyre all just shows arent they

yup, okay

i love them

his little headscratch omg

OMG

GEORJBSGJKERBGJBVREKJDBGJKVRE PLEASE

also i would like to point out: look at win's face there. he looks directly at pat. does pat like jorn?? does win know??? I NEED ANSWERS

AND HE KINDA LOOKS AWAY AND NODS AT THE OTHERS AROUND THE TABLE

HE FREAKING KNOWS

I DONT KNOW HOW HE KNOWS

BUT HE KNOWS

IM CERTAIN OF IT

everyone, apparently. weve got two different universes, each with three different versions of that scenario, and its a very successful show, so. yeah.

NOOO MY BOYYY

HE IS SAD NOW

SOMEONE HUG HIM

poor boy :(

"bye-bye. get out. okay. byeee." POR SPEAKING ENGLISH >>>>>

i love him so so much

wait, so, in this version of events did por use the questions to score his own boyfriend, rather than tiw with his sibling's relationships???

you underestimate the power of the questions, tinn. they work surprisingly well. in the other universe it made you both cry and then you found out that, wow look at that, you like each other! all because of the questions. so, yeah, they really CAN get you closer. trust the questions bro

hang on, do win and gun in this universe have the same relationship as sound and tinn had? like the childhood rivalry without any real explanation of it?? so for some reason they hate each other?? i would like to know please

oh hey look at that, we just watched gun's life leave his eyes

hes tryna figure out how the hell he fell for such an IDIOT

but hes also probably thinking back to the bullfrog song and is realising that he fell for tinn because of how stupid and silly he is

so now hes questioning his entire life

gun's face, omg

also no, that's jorn!

WAIT I JUST HAD A THOUGHT

tinn somehow knows that 'youre charmed by his isaan accent' and then says 'right?' as confirmation that he is correct.

WHAT IF he knows something

WHAT IF por told tiw about jorn liking pat. WHAT IF tiw told some people in the music club (perhaps all of them??). WHAT IF he only said 'someone in the student council' likes pat, not giving his name (cos it would be mean if he revealed jorn's secret). WHAT IF tinn thinks its gun who likes pat, because of his isaan accent.

WHAT IF, GUYS, WHAT IF

why are you worried about him mentioning his dad, gun

is it your trauma

do you need a hug

SOUNDWINSOUNDWINSOUNDWINSOUNDWINSOUNDWIN

THEYRE PLAYING PATPRANNNN

MY SOUNDWIN=PATPRAN AGENDA GETS STRONGER BY THE DAY

"just a warm up" KILL MEEEE THE PARALELLSSSS

HES TEACHING HIM TO T A C K L E ???

BRO THIS IS SO MUCH MORE INTIMATE THAN BADMINTON

HOLY HELL I SWEAR THEYRE GONNA MAKE OUT

"come here. you use the area between your chest up until your shoulders to tackle. you hold your opponent with both of your hands like this." holy hell holy hell holy hell

he just hugged him

that was hugging him

was that not hugging him?

the coaching is making me think of akkayan with the judo. even tho i know its an entirely different thing.

"the areas you can tackle are from the chest down to the feet. is that clear?" damn sound is so much better at giving instructions than win is. sound fully told him what to do. win kinda just. yelled at him.

"it's easy. try it." again, the same thing that win said, but so much calmer and more effective

"you forgot to wrap your hands around me" y'know, something is telling me he didnt forget. he's just scared of intimacy. which like is fair but also jUST KISS ALREADY

oh noooo now theyre yelling at each otherrrr

win just follow his instructions, he did a good job explaining

"YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO TEACH, NOT YELL AT ME!" hey, it's that line!

"learn to play sports sometimes! dont just spend your days hitting on girls!" H E Y THAT LINE!

"i made an effort to teach you but you wouldnt learn anything. you dumb!" again, THE FREAKING PARALLELS i love them so much holy hell

"secret" dating

THE CHIN TICKLE GHREBDGHRBDGHRB I LOVE THEM AND THEIR CHIN TICKLES

aaaaand guess who already ran out of images. again.

(also a little note here, i put all my our skyy 2 commentary under the same tag and its always the first tag of the post, so if you tap/click on that one youll find the rest of my commentary on the episode (if you want to)) 

i shall post these first two parts and then ill do the next ones like later tonight or maybe tmro, idk man

[hitlikehammers]

If you’re in the mood for a snippet of PLATONIC STOBIN FEELS in a Steddie fic that’s a follow up to THIS, since my big bang documents aren’t loading right to post THOSE promos right now?

Enjoy.

~~~

Robin’s face is raw, as in she thinks she’ll split open the skin if she wipes the tears that don’t stop one more time but she can’t even care, she’s already sliced open and spilling out from the heart of her because, because…

Steve’s not waking up.

Steve’s not waking <I>up</I>, and it’s their <i>fault</I>.

Because whether they didn’t convince him he was loved, <I>loved</I>, so goddamn much it was almost unimaginable except there he was, Steve Harrington, real and tangible and kind and bitchy and soft and fierce and the perfect fit to her whole soul, like soul were puzzle pieces and she’d always just figured that was how they were unique but no, nope: sometimes you got to find a soul-piece floating out in the world in the most unexpected places and they snapped right into the odd little gives and grooves of yours and made you something new for it—something better.

When was the last time she told Steve she loved him?

Her breath catches: they’d all decided <I>speaking</I> anything was too much of a risk once Eleven told them Vecna was twisting their words, and in the imposed-but-so-<I>imposing</I> silence everyone else had lost the fight against sleep alongside Eddie’s vigil of constant song because that’s their best play, now: keep him.

They’d been told to keep hold of Steve, keep him safe while El dealt with Henry and Eddie’d scuffed his sneakers on the tile when he ran back in with a beat up acoustic with a couple of little pock-marks visible if you looked really close—<I>hard to keep her pristine when she lives next to a fuckin’ nail bat in the trunk</I> he’d explained breathlessly before rounding his chair and strumming before he even hit the seat—but Robin wasn’t looking really close. All that Robin, in all honesty, really wants to do is curl up so close to Steve that she melts into him, that he puzzle piece ceases to have any little crease, any outline that differentiates her self from all of him, because she wants…she <I>needs</I> to stand and fall and live and die with him; thinks she will regardless, so. Might as well make it as much of a physical truth as it is in every other way.

Is that enough? Will that be <I>enough</I>?

Robin’s breath hitches again and she pushes her cheek harder into the top-thin hospital mattress—how can people even hope to heal, when they’re laid out on these mortar boards?—and she can hear the beeping of the monitor behind her, proof of life in the body, the <I>person</I> next to her, so why did she feel Ike <I>her</I> heart stopped in between every beep, because that heart was <I>her heart too</I>, so much.

<I>So much</I>.

She’s reciting to herself, silent but her lips moving the words against the sheets—<I>if his heart’s beating so is yours, if <u>his heart is still beating so is yours </u></I>—and she smashes her lips closed when thoughts like <I>what if it stops what if it stops what if it <I>stops</u></I>—

No. No, none of that, smother that: no.

<I>No</I>.

She pinches herself hard enough to bruise and focuses on what she can know for sure. Steve’s heartbeat on the screen. Steve’s chest rising and falling, even if it seems kinda faint: there. Real.

And the music. Endless music, as Eddie plucks but never seems to look down, to watch his hands and watches only Steve instead just as endless, and Robin knows a fraction of the songs because he was aiming for the unfamiliar, he said, and words that either couldn’t be skewed by demonic psychopaths in a nether-realm, or just flat out couldn’t be picked out easily at all.

But while he played even the most metal of the metal tracks, he’d played them soft by comparison to what Robin knows they’d originated as? The way he’s playing now is different. Almost…

Almost <I>tender</I>. And the song, she thinks she—

“What are you playing?”

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

hello! forgive me if this is an annoying and/or too complex question, but i heard youre good with meta, and ive been having a bit of trouble figuring out who to pull for next TvT

so basically, i'm very torn between saving for HoS as i still don't have her, getting HoO gear, saving for HoTr to complete the herrscher trio team, or getting susannah next patch (though thats least likely since i have fully geared palatinus equinox). do you have any advice?

of course its ok if you cant/dont want to answer! if you need some more context as to my gear, teams etc i can also tell u more. thanks in advance :)

Susannah definitely lowest priority. She’s farmable and A rank DPS usually dont last that long anyway.

As for the rest it kinda depends on the state of your teams and whether you buy BP?

While Senti is a high priority valk, I believe she is going to be in the BP so if you do routinely buy it you can get her for free. If you DONT though… tough luck. There is also that she’s a couple years old now so it’s not impossible that she’ll get competition or show up for free :V So while normally I’d recommend you pick her over anything else…

Hotru is an excellent fire/lightning support who’s definitely going to have a high longevity. She also doubles as an ice dps in a pinch so she’s really a valk that can go on ALL your elemental teams if you need her to.

If you’re struggling with elemental or want HoFi to function properly, ESPECIALLY if you’ve been managing on your phys team with Carole and Griseo, I think HoTru might be a better investment, at this stage.

If you’ve been really struggling with physical though, you can try and save for Senti. Can’t go wrong with yatta. She’s amazing and a must have. Only maybe here is in case you can get her for free/cheap, or if you have managed to work without her.

Basically, compensate your weaknesses!

Regarding HoO gear…

HoO is honestly not gonna be THAT useful, but she does have the advantage of having a very good promo on her banner if you want to grab stuff from the spending event, and if you have the crystals to spare you can get a full geared valk for peanuts. Still, I’d say that’s your second lowest priority here, considering what that’s up against.

THOSE ARE MY THOUGHTS. Ultimately, you decide, but I think “what do I struggle most right now?” is a decent angle for you to use… anyone else wants to chime in?

[sullustangin]

Fluffy February Day 7: Cloak

Fandom: SWTOR

Rating: T

Time:  c. 3673 BBY/20 ATC

Pairing: Mostly gen, but there is background Marcus Trant/Elin Garza (which is canon!!)

Words: 1140

~~

U r my best friend, right?

I’m your brother….I don’t like the sound of this.

He did not have the time of day for this bullshit.  And this was soooooo not the day for it.

blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh

Oh my god Kal what did you do.

stole a ship.

WHAT.

Jace Malcom looked frantically around the Senate Plaza.  Not today, not today.

not a pub ship.  imp.

that .  ok that is better.  But

Wait.

How are you comming me?

very carefully

KAL.

under the dashboard with my personal comm – yes i kno  bad kal

…are you flying?

no my new friend ralph

WAT

gonna defect

WILL HE.  IM SUPPOSED TO BE PROMOED TO FIRST LIEU TODAY

grats

NOT if you end up making an intergalactic incident

i wont.  the imps have a new cloaking device.

Jace’s mind ticked for a few seconds as Kal’s words registered.

“Shit.”  He said it in the middle of the Senate Plaza.  “Shit, shit, shit.”

Jace started to march back toward his captain’s office.  Then he stopped and looked up at the Supreme Commander’s office, high in the Senate Tower. Then he looked back in the direction of the starport.

where r u

did a pick up on Bomodon, heading to Coruscant btw I got friends in the cargo hold don’t tell ralph.

Wait.

Cloaking device, Coruscant, co-pilot Imp Ralph—

…was ralph’s mission to attack the senate?!

yeah was here to stop him. killed my buddy but we talked it over

WHY YOU NO STOP YET

ralphs defecting!  trying to get close – long time to get picked up last time i stopped a guy in imp space. And I got friends in cargo.

Jace had to pocket his comm unit at that point.  He – he had to figure out who Kal’s commander of the week was and figure out how Kal ended up undercover.  He was not SIS. 

Then he pulled the comm unit back out again -- he had questions.

who r ur friends?!

SIS guy named Trant and Elin.

Jace made a face. That named sounded familiar.  

Garza?

yah – resistance on Bomodon for last yearish  -- they’re making the final push right now.  Gotta get her to medical – need you to call it in.

Elin Garza.

Jace knew her.  A few years older than he was, and a few ranks higher, really fast – that’s what happened in a war.  Everyone flew upward as the war dragged on.

Bomodon – that jarred something in his brain.

Jace shook the word around, like a coin in a bank.  

Bomodon, the planet the Empire had invaded 10 months ago.  The Pub 45th had been shot down over it, which was the worst mistake the Imps ever made – Garza and her gang of miscreants were making Imp life hell across the entire planet.  Jace was smart enough to know there was some sort of back channel to the Midrim planet.  Kal had just told him it was SIS, which meant Jace absolutely shouldn’t have known that.

But Elin was hurt.

Ok, that was something actionable.

Jace checked his chrono.

Kriff.

He shouldn’t cancel it.

He had to.

Kark Kal and his misadventures, Jace knew his brother’s nonsense would catch up to him one day.

And it would be the day that Jace was supposed to have his final interviews and conduct review for becoming a first lieutenant.  With this promotion, he wouldn’t lose his rank when the war ended.  He’d be a ‘real’ officer.

this is why daddy is bald. aint genetics, its YOU

love u 2 man

~~

…somehow, as with everything that Kal touched, it turned out ok.

Jace followed the chain of command: he double-timed it back to Captain Leuros and dutifully handed over his comm device.

Upon finding out what the ever-loving hell Kal Malcom was doing, the Supreme Commander had ordered his own medical staff to the starport to grab Garza and went there himself to supervise, Jace about three steps behind him.

A holocall to SIS confirmed that yes, this had been Trant’s mission, and yes, he’d had authority from Kal’s commander to use the corporal to evac Garza out in any way he saw fit.

As ordered, the new Imperial shuttle deactivated its cloaking device right over the Senate tower, then came in for a landing.  

A platoon of Republic troopers had their blaster rifles trained on the ship as it unloaded its cargo.

First, out of the pilot’s door, came ‘Ralph,’ with Kal’s blaster to his back.  Apparently, 'Ralph’ was a Chiss with a busted translator. Then came Kal, who had a black eye and busted lip from his meet-cute with Ralph.  The younger Malcom brother was a few inches shorter and about a hundred pounds lighter than Jace, and given everything he’d gone through today, he didn’t look too bad.

As soon as Ralph was taken into custody by the security forces of the starport, Kal dropped his blaster.  “Medical here!” he hollered as he motioned them over to the back end of the ship as the cargo hatch slowly opened.

The Supreme Commander’s medstaff swarmed the ship.  

Jace actually gasped a little when he saw Elin on the stretcher.  She’d lost a lot of weight since he had last seen her – one of his first parties as a second lieutenant, before she went off to the 45th, year or so before they go shot down.  

…damn, two years went by fast.

Elin’s leg looked awful – that’s all Jace would allow himself to think about.  His gaze jumped back up to her face.  Inseparable from her was a lean, tall man, who gripped her hand even as they rushed Elin out of the starport and directly to Coruscant General. As the group ran by him, Jace managed to hear the distinct low tenor say,  “Elin – come on, we made it back.  Can’t go now. Who’s going to make me look like a fool whenever I tell Bomodon stories?”

That wasn’t normal SIS-Army relations.

Then they were gone.

“Jace!”

Jace spun at the sound of his brother’s voice, and his feet carried him right over there. “Kal, you moron.”

Jace hugged him so hard he heard Kal’s bones pop.  He didn’t care.  Neither did Kal.  “Thanks for the welcome wagon.”

“I like Elin,” Jace quipped, and despite Kal’s injuries, the younger brother smiled.

“Lieutenant Malcom. Corporal Malcom.”  

The pair turned to see the Supreme Commander patiently waiting for their reunion to come to a logical pause.  

The two brothers snapped to attention, their salutes as crisp as a starched uniform.

The Supreme Commander jerked his chin in the general direction of his office.  

The Malcom brothers shared a look and wordlessly followed.

It all worked out. Jace got his promotion.  Kal got a commendation.  Marcus and Elin got married within three months.  Ralph decided that ‘Ralph’ was a good name for a new life in the Republic.

~~

A/N: Yes, Trant and Garza are canon - they’re each other’s first spouse.  It only lasts for 2 years, but it would have been right around this time, after they liberated Bomodon together.  Jace probably knew Garza or at least knew of her.

This is the manifestation of an oc I’ve had for awhile now: Kal Malcom, Jace’s younger brother.  Kal lacks any of the discipline that Jace has.  He doesn’t have the same drive or ambition as his brother; he ends up in the army because he’s sort of directionless in terms of his career, and, well, Jace is there.   Unlike Jace, Kal swims through social situations like a fish in water.  He’s endlessly charming and has a magnetic personality -- hence why he and Ralph get along, in the end.  Kal is smart but a chronic underachiever: the guy who gets ‘does not apply himself’ on report cards. Jace still loves his brother, a lot.  He’s sad that Theron never gets to meet him -- or their parents. 

But that’s another story. 

~~

@fluffyfebruary @ermingarden, @ayresis, @bluephoenix1347, @starlightcleric, @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond

[eddies-artofsuffering]

steddie ask 1, 14, 16 please ☺️☺️☺️

Omg yes!!! Thank u for the ask heheh I’m extremely pleased to tell you❤️🥹

1. Why do I like this ship?

I guess the short answer is that I always get into a ship when I can see myself in the characters involved & I can see them loving each other that I want to be loved, and by far steddie are the closest to all of those things in any types of media I’ve seen (maybe the next closest is bbc Sherlock’s johnlock lmao) But the long answer is —I mean, I am a bi disaster myself, a lanky ass dude with dark curly hair and dark eyes who grew up closeted in a small town, and I spent a big portion of my teen years living with someone else other than my immediate family who was absent. I was known as a jock in high school, musician to those who knew me better, and secretly a big fuckin nerd who enjoy metal music in my own time. I knew monsters from whom I got PTSD, and I have both emotional/physical scars that will last me a lifetime. I really think steve and Eddie compliment each other because the way they need love & want to love are similar—and it happens to be the way I want it as well. So it’s really important for me to have these two idiots who share my past and present fall in love, you know?

14. Steve joining corroded coffin or just a fan?

Honestly????????? Kind of neither. Now don’t hate me just yet…. I just think that Steve would definitely supportive, but not necessarily in love (!) with the music itself. I believe he’ll be a fan of Eddie (eventually) and will help out here and there when they need it, maybe during the early days if they later become famous etc. but I feel like he wouldn’t really know or understand the ethos of CC. Like he’ll go along with it and will make it to the gigs and performances concerts etc but he’ll also have ear plugs with him bc it hurts his ears and he’s already suffering from head trauma ☠️Idk that’s my HC so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

16. Overdone HC

Again: I’ll premise it by saying that I absolutely love these overdone HCs: Eddie realizing that he’s gay before Steve realizing his own sexuality. The most common fanon I’d say is 1) Eddie knowing he’s gay whether he has experience or not 2) Steve’s bisexual awakening is Eddie and he consults Robin about it 3) Eddie being a flirty motherfucker whilst Steve (who’s normally smooth) being very flustered ™. Now I fuckin love this shit SO much and will read the hell out of it every time. But I do want more of oblivious Eddie whose sexuality crisis is super delayed bc of whatever reason, and Steve understanding / being well versed with the language of attraction from a young age regardless of gender, therefore having these epiphanies before even meeting Robin. Growing up I didn’t have a Robin 😭and I needed to figure shit out on my own. It was pretty apparent to me that I wasn’t straight since I was 12 or 13, and I want to see Steve in a similar situation who help Eddie navigate that!!! Which is why I’m writing a new fic exactly about this lmao. (Shameless promo)

[electricfrank3-n]

I just felt like rambling about cons and future stuff

I love conventions. I really love selling my art and making cute little trinkets. But I have to find some way to pivot back to my original stuff I think... At least in the background in between fanart. Most of it has almost completely fallen by the wayside over the past couple of months due to my shitty ex roommate, my full time job, getting used to living on my own, etc.

But I really miss it. I miss how fun it was to roleplay and draw cool pictures and answer every question I could think of about vittorio and I still dream of one day posting comics consistently and being a respected comic creator. I'm not really at a point where they're very good just yet I think but the only way to get better is to keep making them. It's just a matter of finding the time and the energy. Even now, my job called me off for lack of work and I can't really do much besides lay in bed and read manga.

I have ideas. I have characters who I think are interesting and I know people genuinely find them charming. By the next convention, I want to have at least two mini comics for sale that are original. I worry about the future of selling fanart at conventions and on Etsy anyway.

I don't know. I just really hope I can eventually find support for my original work that isn't hinged on some horrible thing happening at the same time, like some monkeys paw finger curling type bullshit. Not to say I haven't gotten support for it, but if you know you know. Last time was not fun.

Again, I don't know. I don't mean to wax dramatic like I'm some kind of tortured starving artist, especially when my first comic had jokes about shriveled mummy penis (still funny sorry), but I really do hope this all amounts to something. That's all I've wanted for a very long time.

I should add that the game is done, lol. I'm going to make a more formal post about it sometime soon, I just have to finish the promo art and make a cool graphic and figure out all the logistic stuff. It's going to be pwyw, so please feel free to grab it for free if you want. I just want eyes on my work honestly, even if it's pretty unserious. I'm proud of it but it's really just a silly thing I made with the help of friends

If u read this far thank you, I get in my head a lot about stuff like this and honestly I really need to be more consistent about using my journal (lmao). But I just have Thoughts and I wanted to share