#and i only have acces to it in the summer which means that if the game comes out 25th of october then ill have only a few days

[rapidhighway]

im so excited for this GAMEEEEE AAAAAAAAA

[rayesgenesis]

protector — b.f

who? ben florian x daughter of tiana and naveen! reader

summary: you and ben get tired of hiding your relationship

warnings: there might be some spelling mistakes or things like that, english is my third language soo yeah also there’s like one swear word

a/n: i was supposed to post a whole other oneshot but i couldn’t tie it all together to save my life— ANYWAYY reminder that my requests are OPEN 😭 this is just an oldie that’s been sitting in my other acc’s drafts for a while

wc: 2k-ish

you and ben had been successfully dating in secret for a little over four months now, with little people knowing about you two. of course, belle sniffed you both out. turns out, she’s an expert in body language too, amongst other things. when it came to telling adam though, her mouth was sealed shut— per her son’s wish. he didn’t feel like telling his dad just yet.

your boyfriend made sure to make his intentions clear with you from the start. his only desire was to be with you, whatever form that took. needless to say, it didn’t take much convincing for him to agree to keep your relationship a secret.

and you would have to squeeze it out of him— he would never admit it to you — but the idea pained him at times. he didn’t really like secrets. especially when it came to you, how could he keep you a secret?

still, sneaking around was fun. at least for you it was. the secret handholding, the foot nudges under tables, the secret makeout sessions in secret spots.. feelings of being limited on time aside, you liked it. though, after a while, it started to feel like you focused more on convincing yourself that stolen moments tasted better. and as time went on, ben noticed how you kept finding ways to make your situation enjoyable.

as if it was perfectly sustainable in the long run. as if you were forcing yourself to.

ben, on the other hand, found that it got old quick. he wanted the world to know that you were his, and he, yours. he kept going for your sake, but ben couldn’t wait to show you off any chance he’d get. in his opinion, you deserved nothing less. remind him why you had to keep it a secret again?

i mean sure, when you suggested that the two of you should date in secret, you mentioned how you were scared of your parents’ disapproval. not because they wouldn’t like him, who wouldn’t, but because they were cautious about bringing attention to their kingdom.

your parents and grandparents were careful to not ruff anyone’s feathers. a quality that naveen slowly acquired with age, even though there was always the occasional mishap. it was something that his parents lectured you about multiple times, not that you needed it. you understood how hard it was already, being one of the most recently established royal houses in auradon. they had enough drama when your daddy was prince.

if anything, you couldn’t blame ben for not being understanding about this. except now, even you had to admit that it got old. you would’ve told everyone all about the two of you by now, if it wasn’t for you lying to your parents for the past two months.

because yes, you and ben spent most of your summer together almost secretly. it was definitely hard to explain to your parents how come you went from basically being a homebody to going off to all types of places every other day, but they didn’t do much complaining in the end. you were almost eighteen, it was time you had some off-duty fun. either way they trusted you.

key word, trust.

somehow you blinked and summer was already over, which was the most freedom you had felt in months. as if you had finally gotten your head out of the water after so much time spent under it. while being careful, you both had found a way to enjoy yourselves. you could breathe again. guess you hadn’t even noticed how exhausting it felt to keep the secret up.

when the school year started though, you felt that the 'going back to normal' process was harder on you than you had expected. you started feeling suffocated all over again except you really felt it now that the excitement from sneaking around had gone over.

this probably would’ve been easier if you were with a guy that you liked half as much, you often thought. but this is ben we’re talking about. he constantly fulfilled every expectation you had and more. besides, he was so nice about the whole secret thing. you were pretty sure the boy would fold backwards if you asked him to.

it goes without saying that the opportunities for you and ben to hangout outside of school became rare, so you jumped on any and every excuse to spend some time together. hence the three lunchbreaks you had, this week, in the peaceful haven that was his office. which, looking back on it, might be a bit excessive — given what each of your schedules allowed. at least it helped the two of you keep your hands off of eachother in public.

either way, your time with ben was limited, and you were going to make the most of it.

for this third lunchdate, your boyfriend managed to get meals prepared for the both of you, instead of the burgers you were starting to get used to. it was a sweet gesture which you appreciated and you made sure to tell him all throughout your time together.

when you both had finished eating what was on your plates, you helped him clean around and place the plates back on the cart they came in. laid back, you were perched on the edge of the desk watching ben clean the last plate remaining, with a slight smile on your face.

after ben came back from washing his hands, he made his way over to you.

"come here, i feel like i haven't seen you in forever." he murmured, his voice a low whine. his arms snaked around your waist, as a way to bring you closer. you chuckled.

"ben, we just spent a whole hour together." you looked up at him, amused. your hands found their way on his shoulders. that boy didn’t have a serious bone in his body, you thought.

"not enough." he groaned, tightening his arms around your waist. you started to make some space in between your legs for him to stand in. then, you noticed ben becoming serious. his breathing slowed down. he felt like he was slowly boiling up inside and yet, could blow over any minute now.

"look," he began, all the while tracing small circles on your sides. he was anxious about having this conversation with you. "i’ve had a really hard time hiding us lately", he admitted.

you took a deep breath and your eyebrows slightly shot up. ben took it as a sign to continue.

"what if we stopped hiding? i’m tired of avoiding everyone's questions and trying to come up with excuses to spend more time with you." he looked in between your eyes. "i want to be able to call you my girlfriend in front of everyone. and to kiss you whenever i want, without having to hide away in here." his eyes were fixed on you, observing your facial features.

you sighed and suddenly you couldn’t look ben in the eye. you had been thinking about it a lot lately and the fact that he had to bring it up, told you something needed to change. problem was, you were torn between finally giving in or keeping up with the lie still which, clearly made you miserable. the more you thought about it, the more your chest tightened. you took another deep breath and closed your eyes, your head a bit more lowered.

"i’m tired of it too, believe me ben. now more than ever." you chuckled lightly but there was a strain to your voice, a sign that you had indeed been suffering as well. "but my parents…" your voice came out as a whine, not that you meant it to.

was it your parents? or rather the fact that you got caught up in a lie you can’t seem to get out of? because now you had to tell them the truth about why you were having so much fun all summer. and that was terrifying. besides, you could already hear them: it’s that auradon kid that got you lying to us like that? with beast’s son? sweetie, why? she’s not seeing him again- you’re not seeing him again. tell him whatever you got going on stops now.

they could force you to stop seeing him. they wouldn’t do that. they wouldn’t, right? after a prolonged lie like that, it’s the only way your mind could imagine how they’d react.

ben cut you off in your internal spiral, "i know, i know." he was well aware of how you felt about your parent’s reaction. but still, he couldn’t help but feel like you shouldn’t give up so easily. you had to try. because for him, this was torture.

the brunette searched for your gaze and when he found he had no success, he took a deep breath of his own. his hand came to rest on your forearm and he gently began to trace small circles on it with his tumb. "but, don’t you think it’s time?"

with this, you lifted your head up to look at him. you had to admit that he was right. it wasn’t fair to him and the situation was clearly taking a toll on you too. clearly, not telling your parents about dating ben wasn’t worth the trouble you went through anymore.

what cut through the silence was the piercing sound of the bell. you groaned, and both of your hands left your boyfriend’s shoulders to cover up your face as you thought about how stupid all of it was. it’s not like you were doing anything wrong. fuck all of this.

you let out a dry laugh, out of frustration, and ben looked at you with some surprise. it was sudden.

"ughhh", you shook your head still in your hands, "this is- you’re right. it is time, i don’t know what took me so long to realize that." ben removed your hands from your face to hold them in his. you looked in his eyes, a vibrant oak color. like one that would’ve been left in the sun for a minute too long. a smile spread across his face.

"hey," he added softly, "i’m right here with you. i know, it’s scary but we’ll get through this. together." he squeezed your hands, as a way to back up what he was saying. "we’ll talk to them together and, i’ll be here to defend us with you. you don’t have to worry."

you snorted softly. "you don’t need to protect me"

"i want to." he stated positively.

a soft smile appeared on your own face. you found it cute how ben got protective over you. turns out, he wasn’t much different from your parents. the thought made you smile. all of a sudden in a hurry, you picked up your bag and lunged for the door in a couple swift movements without telling him. you needed a break from the seriousness this conversation brought. besides, ben was starting to get used to your antics.

you were already out the door and in the hallway when ben held you back by the wrist.

"hey," he giggled as he closed his office’s door, "where do you think you’re going?" he was surprised at how quickly you ran out of his office.

"you didn’t hear the bell ring? we’re going to be late for first period, ben." ben chuckled again. you acted oblivious on purpose and he could tell.

"no i know, but you could at least kiss me goodbye." his hand slowly slid up your arm as he got closer.

"not in the hallway, people could walk by-"

"i don’t care" ben simply replied before he brought your lips to his. you initially gasped then relaxed into the kiss, and ben kept a hand over your curls to bring you closer, and another on your waist.

he barely even checked to see if there was anyone around you this time. your chest warmed up all over again when you thought about it later on.

a/n #2: i forgot who wanted to be tagged when this came out i’m sorry 🫣

[joojconverts]

          4t3 Conversion of ICFB's Summer of '59 Set

A 4t3 conversion of a Barbie inspired set for all your sims, made originally by IceCreamForBreakfast, now to ts3!

As a preparation for the (surely iconic) Barbie movie releasing on the next couple of weeks, I decided to convert this super cute set which I downloaded as soon as I saw on my dashboard! Hope you like it! Enjoy! <3

————— —————

Known Problems:

There are two seams on the bikini top that I have no idea how to fix. They don't show up on Blender, Milkshape, TSRW, and not even CAS. just in-game, which is so annoying. I hope they don't bother you!

If you find any more problems, please let me know!

LIGHTING GLITCHES ONLY APPEAR ON CAS!

Note that teens and elders have neck gaps. This is sadly the price for having them available! For teens, try using this and this slider by gruesim!

————— —————

ALL OG CREDITS GO TO @ice-creamforbreakfast​! IT’S NOT MY MESHES, AND IT’S NOT MY TEXTURES, I JUST CONVERTED THEM TO THE SIMS 3!

————— —————  

NOTES (PLEASE READ):

This set is quite low poly, since with most clothes I baked the textures onto sims' bodies with thornowl's technique, and that's the lowest possible polycount for clothes. The accs are also low poly. The only meshed clothes are Ken's shirt and both rompers, which are also pretty low. The children's swimsuit's skirt is really low poly so I don't even consider it, and the hairs are also gameplay friendly, they're about 6K.

Some outfits (and the sunglasses) have some beachy and tropical vibes presets for you to choose from, including the romper's flamingo one and the children's swimsuit leafs one (main presets for both)! Of course, all of them have recolorable presets as well! I hope you like them!

The hat has three versions: one for adults, one for children and one for toddlers. They're all unissex and hat-slider compatible! I adapted the adults' version to the Brigitte hair, so it'll fit nicely without having to move the sliders!

The sunglasses have two versions: a regular one, that works just like usual glasses, and one that works like a hat, which means you can move with the hat slider. As seen on the preview, I already adapted it to the Barb hair, but you can use it on whatever hair you want with no problem!

Now come on Barbie let's go partyyy!

SimFileShare |  Dropbox

☕   buy me a coffee or become a patron!

————— —————

Credits:

@ice-creamforbreakfast​​ for all the meshes and textures; Original post

💖 @katsujiiccfinds​ @kpccfinds​ ��@xto3conversionsfinds​ @emilyccfinds

[stari-hun]

Reverse 1999 Ships I Subscribe to and Why

✰ Verneider - Doomed yuri my beloved. Verneider is like someone coming into your life and falling for them when you only have the summer together before you never see each other again. They would've worked out so well too if Constantine didn't wanna ensure that Vertin would stay 100% loyal to stopping the Storm.

✰ Sonettilda - I have eyes and they see gay people. Plus I wanna root for Matilda since she has a puppy crush on the puppy herself.

✰ Druvis x Lilya - Lesbian aunts. They have such good chemistry too, they were def flirting in Book 4.

✰ Vilasong - Erm i have eyes

✰ 37 x Sophia - Codependency Yuri

✰ Medikaal - They're both very nonhuman in opposite ways, Kaalaa is like a star fallen to earth and Medpocket is a menace. Plus gotta love a good workplace meet cute. (Go check out @medikaal and their main acc for more content)

✰ 6Pockets - Complicated explanation here, but the short of it is

✰ Niablume - It's ENTIRELLYYYY cause of @salt6x5 art on here but they're so cute. Melania who needs all this information and uses it to force people to not be complacent about their security x the information lover who's job is security. Plus they really compliment each other well whether one calms down from the other or gets more energy from the other.

✰ Tennant, Kakania, and Dikke - PVP Polycule as Mocha would put it. I have a full post here but I just think they'd hate each other for different reasons and because of that I want them to kiss too.

✰ KaalaaSong (Kaalaa Baunaa x Windsong) - Lesbabs.. as the scripture (Bluepoch) encourages. Kaalaa and Windsong are both extremely burnt out researchers, while KB is in a fully accepted field she still has to work harder to prove herself because she's an arcanist, and Windsong struggles to prove herself capable because of the actions of her predecessors. They'd do so good at any kind of tired meet cute whether it's meeting in the breakroom and bonding over their workloads as new recruits to Laplace, or them being on the same field missing together and falling asleep on each other during the train ride there.

✰ NecroFlan (Necrologist x Desert Flannel) - "*talking about what she loves to do*" "Oh my god... you're such a freak... why am I so into that-"

[A certified @anonymocha sourced ship]

✰ Tittering Heart (John Titor x Sweetheart) - Very judgmental but expressing it in opposite ways. Also John Titor would help Sweetheart with the photoshoot where she has the outfit 210 designs for her.

[ANOTHER certified anonymocha sourced ship, hope you see the pattern forming here]

-

Platonic Friend Groups!

✰ Spirit Box (An-An Lee, Horropedia, Isolde, Jessica) - Isolde plus a group who understands her and accepts her for her differences. Jessica and another person who understands the struggles of pretending to be something you're not in order to make others like her. An-An who gets to talk to other people in contact with the supernatural and has interest in working with her. Horropedia with a group that doesn't judge him for his interests and genuinely appreciates his help.

✰ Identity Issues and Masking Support Group (Jiu Niangzi, Jessica, Isolde, and Bette) - They all struggle with masking in the past or currently which led to a lot of identity issues. Half of them are relearning what it means to be a person.

[fxchild]

The Switch

Miles Fairchild x fem!reader

Chapter seven: So now you're back?

A note from Fxchild ! Hi hi so ya I am not dead ! My phone lit broke and I totes forgot my email for this acc but now I'm back and my writers block has never gone away so quickly ! I'm so excited for new chapters to b out soon ! In the meantime while you r waiting for chapters, if you have one shot ideas for characters Finn Wolfhard plays I would b more than happy to write those so you guys aren't waiting forever for a new chapter ! So...finally heres the well awaited chapter seven ! I hope you enjoy this <3

It's the first day of May. It's also been three months since Miles left again. I keep telling Flora that he'll be back soon but I feel my heart break every time I lie to her. I don't think he will be back until I leave for the summer and then he'll leave again when I come back. I feel so guilty..Flora doesn't have a brother that lives with her because of me. But was it all really my fault? He treats me like shit and expects me to tolerate it. Never mind. I don't give a flying fuck about him anymore. He can do whatever he wants, if something happens to him, oh boo hoo not my problem.

It was finally Friday which means I have tomorrow off and I only have to teach Flora a little today because the weather was perfect for horseback riding and I'd promise to let her out today. Today I wore a dark red top with dark grey jeans with black high top shoes. I put my hair in a half up half down clip and did minimal makeup because I was planning on recording myself for an upcoming interview I have for a summer job.

Today I planned out a written test to see Flora's knowledge on geography. I would give her a half an hour to finish up on review and two hours for the test. The test was fairly easy so it shouldn't take her more than an hour or so.

"And begin." I smiled at Flora, setting my timer on my desk which is right across from hers. She immediately begins to read and write down answers while I look over her past work to grade.

Around 45 minutes into the session we hear the front door open. Flora pays no attention to it, I assume it's Ms. Grose coming in from cutting grass or buying groceries so I ignore it and go back to reading old assignments. Around a few minutes went by when I heard footsteps coming to the room. Expecting Ms. Grose I take my feet off the desk and fix my posture without looking at the door. I pretend to be in deep thought with grading when I hear someone clear their throat and hear Flora shout,

"Miles!" She screeches and jumps from her seat running over to hug him. I immediately turn my whole body in my chair with wide eyes. His hair slightly longer and he looks a little taller. He still has the same smirk and dead eyes I saw the night he left. He had on a black coat that ran down to his knees and two bags in his hands that he must have taken when he left. He engulfs Flora into a hug and smiles down at her. I've never seen that smile before. Unlike the ones he had given me this one was warm and loving. I think I had given him that smile before but I wasn't sure. Finally after what seemed like an eternity, he looked up at me and smiled. It was genuine, his eyes brightened. I knew it was real because it wasn't that same old smirk he put on with confidence, he looked painfully awkward and his eyes kept darting between me and the wooden floor. I didn't smile back. I rose up from my seat and walked over to him.

"Flora, why don't you take Miles bags and put them in his room for him sweetheart?" I smiled down at her while patting her hair. She gladly accepts and runs off with his bags. Miles smiles at me again nodding opening his mouth to speak but I cut him off.

"How you been Miles? Where'd you go this time huh? Was it fun?" I say with a sarcastic fake smile, he could tell I was mad.

"Well I-" He begins as I slap his face.

"You scared the shit out of me! Do you know how upset Flora was? She cried for almost a week, blaming herself, poor girl!" I say gritting my teeth with my eyes starting to tear up slightly.

He stared at me with pursed lips before sighing and answering. "He told me to."

I scoff and look at him dumbfounded. "He? Wh-who the hell is 'he' Miles huh? What are you schizo?" I roll my eyes annoyed

"Nobody-nothing. I just..had a dream that's all." He shakes his head staring down at the floor with shame.

"Whatever Miles." I roll my eyes and walk over to Flora's desk to pick up her finished test. "Better go find Flora. Told her she could get out of class early to go ride the horses." I say looking through her test without looking up at Miles.

"You're not gonna come?" He asks quietly, nodding his head to the side, scratching the back of his neck.

I chuckle quietly before placing the test back on the desk. "After the last time?" I walk over to him, picking a pine needle off his jacket. "No thanks." I fake smile before walking out of the room to my own. When I reach my room I fall flat onto my bed before letting out a loud sigh into my pillow. A few minutes later I look out the window. I see Flora and Miles running to the stables and shouting happily. I turn to look at my Calendar, 30 days until I leave. I got sick of sitting in my room bored and decided to go do something, anything in his boring place.

I walk into the kitchen hoping there's an apple or some food sitting out but instead of being greeted with food, it's an unbearable Ms. Grose. I smile at her but she crosses her arms and frowns at me.

"Why are you being so unpleasant towards Miles?" She grits her teeth. "What are you talking about?" I ask trying to pretend I have no clue what's going on. "Talking to him in such an arrogant tone, not accepting his offer and you still wonder why he left? You should be shamed." She spits at me coldly. My face dropped as I start to feel tears in the corners of my eyes.

I quickly ran back up to my room and slam the door. Tears start to stream down my face as I grab my backpack and start shoving stuff into my bag. By the time I zipped it up I hear the front door open again. I quickly put my shoes back on and started heading down the stairs. Walking towards the door I'm wiping my tears, Miles blocks my path.

"Woah woah! Where are you going?" He asks with a concerned look on his face, his hands falling to my shoulders. "Out." I reply while sniffling trying to push past him.

"Um okay, when are you coming back?" He lets go of me, now following me out the door. "I don't know..like..tomorrow? Sunday maybe?" I continue to walk away from him to my car. "Tell me where in case you get black out drunk again and need me to pick you up." He scoffs grabbing onto my wrist.

"You know what Miles? You won't have to worry about me anymore! I won't bother you. It's clear I make you want to leave and you hate me so I'll just leave you alone okay?! Is that what you wa-"

He cuts me off by pressing his lips against mine. It was soft and quick, like he was trying to shut me up and this was the first thing he thought of. He lets go of my wrist and stands up straight looking at me sternly. My cheeks are burning red as I attempt to say something but I can't seem to speak, like there's no air in my lungs.

I lean up against my car door for a moment staring at my feet trying to decide whether to leave or not. I finally look up at him, his head in staring at my feet too. His hands are in his pockets and he's biting his bottom lip nervously. I smile up at him.

"Hey..I'll be back in a little while. I promise I won't make you pick me up this time. Want me to grab you something?" I softly smile, hoping he won't hate me. He shakes his head no with a small smile on his face before letting me get into his car. He watches me drive off before heading back inside.

'29 days..' I whisper to myself as I head into the nearest town, smiling to myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was extremely rushed so my apologies if it wasn't as great as one of my last chapters ! I promise the next chapter will b better and have more of a plot than this one. Hope you guys liked this and r excited for the next chapter!

[logical-grave]

𝔽𝕠𝕣𝕓𝕚𝕕𝕕𝕖𝕟 𝕗𝕣𝕦𝕚𝕥 ℂ𝕙. 𝟙

|| Pairing || - Dilf!Andy Barber x Reader

|| Warnings || - None so far hehe. Actually, andy barber is a warning himself. Very fluffy and slow burn-ish? Reader is 20 and Andy is early fifties 😀 so yea, but of an age difference. This is in first person too.

|| Summary || - It’s the summer before junior year of college and your neighbor can’t seem to keep his hands off you.

|| A/N || - IM BAAAACCCKK AAAHHH ahem sorry. I literally started writing in this acc and then dipped and now I'm getting back Into it hehe, I cant help myself. But yayyty this is the first chapter of my first series and I'm so excited omg omg

|| Word Count || - 2.8k

There was a light breeze that turned the tip of my nose cold, enough to tickle the hair on my face that removed me from an enticing trance. Six, seven months, maybe since the new family moved in known as the barbers. They had a past, I'm sure of it but who the hell am I to bring it to the present? I mean, for whatever reason they moved here, it was to escape and though marathon wasn't paradise on earth, it cut close.

The for sale sign on their clean-cut lawn lasted as long as a blink, the listing to our left being sold as soon as it was on the market and that sparked many eyes to center on it. But that lasted a week and only that before the barbers deemed this villa to be their retreat in the cruel world that surrounded them. No one knew who they were or what happened that caused them to move from the chilly climate of Boston to the humid one of the Florida keys. But they're here and they've piqued my interest.

“Honey, are you dressed?” it was a voice, one aged yet high pitched, belonging to my stepmother Rose. She was nice, she liked my father enough to stick around when he had arrogant outbursts but those weren't introduced to her until he was engaged to her. She was tall, slim, and at the age where all her veins were prominent against her skin but she pulled you in with stories of where she seemed to live another life. It made me wonder how she ended up here, with my father, and taking all his shit when those stories she told could live on.

Maybe that's where I came in. to pass her stories onto me and do my best to make my own. “You're 20, you have so much ahead of you.” Those were her words, ones she repeated to me many times as if she wished to tell herself that at my age. Either way, it was too late to feel bad for her but she was right. I'm only 20 and I, like her, would like to tell stories to young women that reflect me at this age.

“Coming,” I called through the door and backed away from my bedroom window, shutting it after myself. There was already an ache on my shoulder from the weight of the bag I prepared for a day on the sandbar, an extra bathing suit, an extra set of clothing, sunscreen, a hat, and a book to indulge me later on. I twisted the handle that opened to the narrow hallway of the beach house my father bought in 2000 and he's been accustomed to renting out to families that escaped the north and decided my summer before junior year of college was a good time to put it to use.

Rose stood in the kitchen, hunched over sandwiches she made to keep our stomachs from rumbling in the dead center of the sea. She also packed salt and vinegar chips, my favorite which she made a point to always have on hand when I craved a snack. Not a word left my mouth as I stepped past her to the patio, watching as my father used the freshwater hose to clean the inside of the boat. “Hey, sweetheart, hand me the cooler would you?” My father asked, his arms outstretched and his eyes switched from my own to the cooler on my left. A nod from my head prompted me to grab the handles on either side of the blue cooler, lifting it and straining slightly as I heard the movement of ice inside of it. “Jeez,” I said, lifting it above my hips in an attempt to hand it to him easier and he removed it from my grasp without much effort. A huff left my lips as I trained my gaze over the docks that lined all the beach houses, a weird way to set up a neighborhood if you didn’t own a boat.

“Where’s rose?” My father asked and I removed my bag from my shoulder, sighing in relief at the loss of weight off my shoulder as he placed it in the storage compartment at the front of the boat. “She’s inside getting the food. I’ll start locking up.” I spoke, unsure if what I said processed through his head since he was the type to act as if he was at times and I wasn't certain if that included now or not. My hand reached for the keys that hung above the outdoor freezer, usually used to store bait and fish. He flaked and gutted which made the keys in my hand smell. It also wasn't the best idea to have the keys in such an open space but surprisingly crime was low here and the worry about intruders was not a common one. “Don't lock up, yet. We’re still waiting for the barbers.”

My body tensed at the name, the step I was about to take to the side entrance contracted my muscles and a wave of numbness pushed through me. I tightened my grip on the keys in my hand, surely making a mark in a jagged manner due to the shape. “The barbers, father?” I cringed at myself for a moment, knowing I reserved the endearment for when I was conflicted and looked to him for some false sense of security but what does he know?

“Yeah, they’re joining us but they should be here already.” He looked to his right, their house tall and prominent in his view but the windows or doors showed signs of life. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, a sound I didn’t want to be accustomed to yet the familiarity of it started to push that wave of numbness again. Torn in two, my mind attempted to look for the decision of if I should go inside and dread meeting them until Rose was with me or turn on my heel and give them a blinding grin.

I don’t know why I was scared to meet them, maybe the small anxiety of having to make conversation or the itching curiosity of why they were even here needing to be answered but a conclusion was made for me. “Sweetheart, come say hi.” my father's deafening voice rang behind me and I gulped the lump in my throat that formed without my notice. I dangled the keys in my hand, allowing them to jangle and I pulled back my shoulders to straighten my posture. My mind made quick laps to gather whatever information I already knew about them and all I could sum up was Mr. Barber is a defense attorney, Mrs.barber was a teacher, and their son was six years my junior. Great, prepubescent, and raging hormones.

I turned around, a grin on my face as I looked over the new faces and almost made a sharp intake at first glance. one thing is for certain, striking looks ran through the family. I picked up my feet, stalking towards them with hesitant steps and a vague idea of how to even approach them. “This is my daughter.” my father introduced my presence, the weight of all their eyes on me as I held my hand out towards Jacob who stood the closest to me, and shook his hand. I held back a grimace, feeling the clamminess of his palm and comparing the difference between his and his mother's that felt like a plush felt.

I shook Mr. Barber's hand, the contrast between ours; his calloused and rough, mine delicate and chaste. “Nice to meet you, Darling.” He smiled, his blue eyes piercing into my own as his large hand enveloped mine, a charm from the small action emitting from him. There was a palpitation in my chest at the pet name he gave me in such a short amount of time of knowing him, telling me he was an affectionate man, one that didn’t have many boundaries. “Nice to meet you as well.”

The loud shut of the side door caught my attention, Rose exited the house and struggled a bit to balance a platter and a large bag. Feeling a slight of pity, I walked up to the patio and grabbed the bag, the familiar heavyweight back on my shoulder making me pout. We neared the dock once more and Rose introduced herself to the barbers as we all piled into the boat. “Thank you,” I muttered to Mr. Barber as he held my hand to assist in my descent into the shallow boat, taking my seat at the front to pull in the ropes that hooked us from drifting away.

Jacob made himself comfortable next to me and I smiled warmly at him. “So, what school do you go to?” he yelled over the growling engines that cut through the water and I shook my head. “I don't go to school until I reach the fall.” I shrugged with my sentence and he nodded, vaguely keeping his interest in me. I held back an eye roll and looked over my shoulder toward the back of the boat. Mr. Barber leaned into Mrs. Barber's ear, a joke he made causing her to laugh and hide in the crook of his neck.

His eyes met mine, only for a moment at least, as he tilted his head. I blinked before turning around and facing the front of the boat once more. Our destination was already in sight because there were a few other boats anchored in comfortable positions, drifting slowly from the waves we made in tow. The loud growl of the boat engines began to stutter to a stop, finally being able to speak to one another without yelling at the top of our lungs.

“Think you can toss the anchor?” I hear my father call over his shoulder to Mr. Barber, watching as he chuckled dryly at him. “You insult me.” Mr. Barber stood, slipping past me on his way to the tip of the boat, opening the compartment where the anchor is stored, and held it just over his shoulder. My eyes trailed the hand he had holding the anchor, moving down towards his bicep which bulged due to the weight, the veins in his forearm presenting themselves just under his skin. Subconsciously, I crossed my legs and turned away as I heard the splash of the anchor hitting the water.

Mr. Barber opened the storage compartment, reaching for the red-striped bag that Laurie had brought with her. “Here, honey.” He smiled at her as she now stood beside me, Jacob and I standing together as I grabbed my bag. Making my way towards the back of the boat, I removed my ragged shirt that has seen better days, and my shorts that were now tighter than I’d like after the half rack of ribs I consumed last night. I stuffed my clothes into my bag, placing it inside the bait well before hanging my legs over the side of the boat and jumping in.

The water was perfectly warm due to the piercing sun shining over it. I sunk into the salt water just under my chin before turning onto my back, enjoying the laxity of floating above the waves. “Beautiful day, huh?” Mr. Barber's voice interrupted my serenity and I stood on my feet, blocking the sun out of my eyes to obtain a better look at him. “Mhmm.” I nodded, looking at the ripples of his torso, the structure of his muscles is something he’s surely worked for and still maintained at his age.

“How old are you?” He asked and I looked at him curiously. “Turned 20 a couple of months ago,” I answered, my fingers each dipping into the ocean that surrounded me, and watched as the small droplets fell from the tips. “Fun age. Getting drunk, knocking out on the couch of your friend's dorm. The good old days.” He smiled, reminiscing his younger years as he ran his hands through his hair. “I wouldn’t know. I don’t drink.” I commented, ready to swim back onto the boat for some light reading.

“I get it. You’re a good girl.”

I looked at him and his eyes were dark, the blue of his eyes now a thin ring around his pupils. A logical reaction to his words has yet to cross my mind as I stared at him blankly. “Sweetie, come here!” Laurie called for him and I watched as he took two steps back before turning and walking back toward the boat.

Ignoring what he said, I continued to drift yet his words seemed to tattoo themselves onto the side of my brain.

—-~—-

I pulled the back of the sundress down, the length not exactly keeping me modest. It was navy with bundles of pink and white flowers printed onto it, the build of the dress wrapping my waist in a flattering manner. After the sandbar the day prior, the barbers kindly invited us to dinner, an outing on their dime. For a scarce small town, it still had its fair share of restaurants that had forks on the left and knives on the right and to place napkins on your lap.

“It’s under the name Barber, a reservation for six at 8:30.” Mr. Barber greeted the host with a smile and he scrolled through the large tablet before him as he nodded his head, confirming the reservation. “Right this way, please.” The host piled 6 menus in his arms, leading us through the restaurant. The ambiance was nice, dim but just enough light to maintain the aesthetic they’re going for. The white cloth of the tables was soft and crisp as if they just arrived from the dryer and we all took our seats.

I took notice to my left, watching as Mr. Barber claimed the seat there and rose to my right, all of us looking around the room in awe as we took in the others who dined as well. “What a nice place.” My father commented as he straightened his button-up. I nodded along, placing the aforementioned napkin in my lap, and took a sip of the water the waiter came and served us. “It’s gorgeous here, Andy. We can’t thank you enough.” Rose smiled, looking past me at Mr. Barber and I followed her eyes. For a moment, I saw his eyes flicker from my thighs to Rose, clearing his throat as he smiled at her. “Truly, it’s my pleasure.”

“So how’s it been at the office with George? I imagine he simply couldn’t sit still and do his homework.” Rose jokes, placing her hand on my father's arm. I let out a small breath, realizing now that the night would mostly be filled with questions made for the adults, telling me that I am now sided with the likes of Jacob. I looked over at him, seeing his face slightly illuminated, most likely by a gaming device just under the table.

“Office talk is the last thing I want to speak about at the table, honey. Did we tell you? Italy is absolutely beautiful this time of year…” My father continued and I drowned him out as he began to recall our first outing to Europe back in 2017 yet I couldn’t be bothered to listen to him rave about the beer and women there once more.

Then, a small gasp left my lips. The feeling of a large warm hand grazing the side of my left leg caught me off guard, almost making me tip the glass of water in my hand. My eyes turned to Mr. Barber who gave me a small smirk, his hand tucked behind my knee as his fingers smoothed over my skin. I swallowed the lump in my throat, the room surrounding me suddenly feeling smaller and hotter.

“Have you considered studying abroad, sweetheart?” Laurie said, looking over at me. I stared blankly at her for a moment before clearing my throat as I conjured up an answer. “Possibly, but for now I like where I’m at.” I gave her a weak smile as his hand trailed further up the side of my thigh, the tips of his fingers playing with the seam of my dress which I cursed at the short length. My hand stopped his own before he could progress, digging my fingers into his skin as a motion to stop but it seemed to urge him more. “That’s a nice dress, darling. Compliments you well. Doesn’t it?” Mr. Barber smiled kindly as if he secretly wasn’t making a move on his office partner's daughter under the dinner table. “Yes, you look gorgeous.” Laurie agreed and I couldn’t help the blush that crept onto my cheeks, more likely due to the hand that was causing my skin to feel as if it was on fire.

“Thank you.” I uncross my legs, dropping them both on the seat under me and tucking my napkin under the side of my thigh, sneaking small glances at Mr. Barber as a waiter introduced himself to take our orders

[ridebyldr]

sisters, i need help! so this is not quite a tc related situation but it's a lot of school drama so i figured you'd be invested. unfortunately i got caught right at the centre so i wanted some expert opinions :3

characters -

me - yulia

my ex bsf - peach

my friend no. 1 - milk

my friend no. 2 - bread

the guy - berry (its all around us but idk how to define our relationship)

background -

this whole thing started two years back. first thing you need to know about me- i am well liked (not about my tc lol). but also people are jealous. speaking without biasness, some may have this image of me being a mean/narcissist/heartbreaker but i'm really not and you'll get that by the end of this.

so last to last summer, i.e, 2022, we started offline school after covid for the first time. i was kinda nervous but managed to make a lot of friends easily (picked blair waldorf's persona and gobbled it up). there was this guy- berry. he was popular and kind of cold? but every girl absolutely loved him. still don't know why. i was never ever interested in him but i mentally felt like 'bro ik u want me'?? i had a very good reason to not though. two of my friends - milk and bread had a crush on him.

bread was his childhood friend apparently and milk was just infatuated. however they both worked it out because why'd they fight over a man right? and me and my then bsf peach were all good

Fallout -

the problem started when peach turned into a gigantic pick me in a span of a few weeks. she never gave up a chance to try to humiliate her friends, whom i introduced to her in front of guys which was pathetic. she was completely two faced. and honestly my whole brand is being a girly girl so i cannot tolerate that behaviour. also during this time, my friend group basically ditched her for everything and then she went running to berry. long story short she basically begged berry to just acknowledge her existence because she had no one else to talk to. ig he just pitied her and i can tell because I've been send some screenshots of their chats 💀. this is how she became a desparate one of the guys girl. and she kept trying to sabotage me which obvi didn't work.

plot twist -

that year a lot of things happened. i got confessions from like half the guys in our class and that's how our friend group fell apart. i still hate the fact that teenage guys only see women as potential gfs or nothing at all. anyway so this was 2021 and throughout 2022 we (berry and i) barely talked. however, bread confessed to him and he publicly rejected her. you'd say that's his choice but he literally couldn't look at her. i was in disbelief so i sort of whispered 'say something' to him. and he literally looked at me and said 'i don't want her'. obviously after this i don't talk to him. we haven't texted in like eight months, yeah i counted.

until... a few months ago (2024) when he sent me a follow on ig (i deleted my whole acc bc Tumblr + Pinterest>>). this was a shock as we went completely no contact. so apparently this guy has the audacity to post about me in his stories 😭 (not being sexist but what a girl lol). and how much he misses me and loves me and regrets everything blah blah blah.

plus all this while he's been so mean and distant. he rejected two of my closest friends. he strings along my ex bsf though she said she likes him. and suddenly he says wants me? i mean i knew. but boy have some dignity and don't announce it.

HELP how do i deal with this mess

[sommerregenjuniluft]

lune!!!

i was rereading ant pile yesterday and i’m acc losing it over them. i was wondering if you have any hc’s / story’s you couldn’t fit into the fic or j wanna share (i love them sm, they have a pintrest board all for themselves) <33

oh i do i do!! first of all that means so much royal im smooching you so hard

there’s already another b-side planned but i haven’t gotten around to writing it but basically it’s inspired by dom’s song Bodies (so basically about barty’s slut behavior and evan being a jealous capricorn) so one time when they’re having sex they kind of get on the topic for some reason and at some point barty randomly blurts that a few months/year back (previous to them figuring their shit out) he had the thought of just getting evan pregnant so that they could maybe try themselves at a relationship. like a twisted way of barty locking evan down to him with the measure of being his baby daddy…… which is. just so deranged T-T. evan sputters immediately and hits b real hard on the shoulder but also Blushes profusely so that’s how they figure out barty’s breeding kink and evan’s daddy kink but only in the way of barty being his baby daddy. (they’re so stupid)

and for general hcs (and something i plan on incorporating in another b-side possibly) is that at some age probably around the time rose started talking to evan about finding a summer job at 13/14 barty realizes that he’s in fact from a much wealthier upbringing (they’re not exactly Rich people but his dad is a fancy judge and all) and that he’s basically costing the rosiers a lot of money by having meals with them and living there half the time. he’s very sneaky about his plan to pay them back. at first it’s leaving change around all the time, coins and crumpled bills that rose just assumes must be evan’s so she puts them in his money jar in the kitchen. at like 15/16 the washing machine breaks and barty pays the guy bringing and installing it. rose thinks she flirted her way out of paying and has an incredible self confident boost from it too, acting all silly and haughty about how gorgeous must be to evade such a high bill with pretty privilege lmao. barty starts filling up evan’s gas tank randomly, always finding an excuse to be the one to by snacks. he goes grocery shopping with evan’s mom and insists on paying because she’s already doing the work of cooking and all (he can’t overdo that one tho or she will get suspicious). ofc evan figured it out at some point (timeline wise it’s after the first kiss in Ant Pile (from the second chapter) and after the b-side but before they get together) and he pins barty to the door of his room. demanding an explanation and that he stops because they don’t need pity money. barty simply replies that they’re his Family and that’s what they do, they take care of each other. it makes evan so warm and dizzy he actually kisses barty for it

some time early high school they both bleach each other’s hair and they totally ruin evan’s curl pattern with it completely frying his hair and also they both just look Yellow and then rose comes home takes one look and tells them to not move a single finger and turns back around to buy toner. when she comes back she helps them fix it and it actually does look pretty badass. once it’s past half grown out rose cuts evan’s hair all short again. he lets it grow from then on and it gets all big and curly again and barty is violently obsessed with it

[persona5butitsincorrect]

thoughts on shuharu/headcanons?

Its not my personal favourite ship for either of them but it's definitely my favorite for Akira/Ren/whatever you wanna call him x any of the other female phantom thieves. I mean to me she was the only one who seemed like she already liked him during her confidant in the game and they do look pretty cute together as well as seem to have a matching temprement. I also feel like I can acc see a future for them as (at least as for what I imagine for Ren) running or working in a small cafe like Leblanc would suit him. As for what I imagine they'd be like in a relationship here's a couple headcannons of mine:

Lots of coffee dates, Haru would make a point of wanting to discover new obscure restaurants and cafes, and of course Ren will follow suit. Not that he doesn't enjoy it mind.

Mans whipped (😏) and pretty much owns it.

In all seriousness, it's more like he enjoys seeing her doing things that make her happy, since he knows she wasn't for so long.

When it's his turn to decide what that do on dates/days out, it's usually movies or the arcades. They're both surprisingly nuts for horror. And the part timer working at the theatre in shibuya knows their faces by now and always seems slightly afraid.

Same goes for anyone in the arcades, naturally, Haru calls out the most horrendous sadistic stuff like in mementos while they play first person shooters. It's like she forgets she's in public sometimes. Ren finds seeing peoples shocked faces pretty funny.

When Ren moves back home Haru winds up coming to visit for a majority of the summer. Out in the country, she stands out like a sore thumb even more than in Tokyo. She hadn't not been in a city before and seemed to imagine it being a lot more different than it actually is.

His parents though mostly absent are incredibly confused by her sudden surprise arrival in a chauffer, with four suitcases of clothes (she knew she was staying quite a while). Especially as they'd never even heard of her.

Ren hadn't brought her up mainly because they didn't need to know, just like they hadn't bothered to call once when he was in Tokyo, he hadn't bothered to say anything.

Honestly, Ren had very few friends at home, even less after everything that happened. And the people who did still hang around seemed to have an issue with Haru. In general she has this level of unintentional classism-- she just kind of forgets certain things are a luxury and not everyday. And it seemed to be the main thing that was putting people off tho her. It really annoyed him but he didn't really know what to do about it except from distance himself.

It was all making him really regret moving home. So much so he wound up making plans for how he'd move back to Tokyo after finishing his 3rd year of high-school and what he'd actually do with himself once he did. Plans Haru and Makoto helped him draw up.

He, like Haru, wants to run some kind of small private run cafe. Sojiro is mentoring them both. They're heavily considering the possibility of going in on the buisness venture together but it's still very much early days.

Both of them have a keen interest in French literature. Which is part of what got them both talking to eachother outside of the group in the first place. They exchange annotated books a lot - haru using purple post it's and Ren using red.

After her "Relationship" with Sugimura, Haru isn't all that comfortable with physical affection. She especially hates feeling vulnerable. It's a very slow process for her to feel secure again. Luckily Ren is very aware of that and incredibly patient. Partly because he feels the exact same way. After being caught in Sae's palace, battered and dosed up, losing his autonomy and feeling out of control. It all bore on his mental wellbeing a lot. That understanding between them is part of what makes them feel safe around eachother.

Ren has a pretty hard time getting to sleep. He thinks maybe a part of him is Afraid he'll wind up in the velvet room again. Most of the time Haru tries to stay awake with him or offer to stay up so he feels less alone and in danger. But 99% of the time she winds up conking out, of course only after half an hour as incoherent slurred talking whilst she denies she's even tired.

In line with all this, Haru still has moments where she gets incredibly upset or distressed and isn't sure how to communicate it. The way Ren chooses to respond is to give her physical space but stay with her. A majority of the time they don't talk and he just sits by her, letting her come to him if she wants/needs anything (usually a hug once she's calmed down).

There's a lot of hand holding between them. If there sat idly somewhere haru tends to grab Rens hand and trace it's edges with her finger out of boredom.

She's definitely a snorer. But it's a cute snore. Like a little toot noise every so often. That actually does help Ren sleep.

Whilst he already has a pretty good sense of fashion. Harus always wanting to dress him up, and a majority of the time he let's her.

One time Ann suggested she should try and get him to wear a dress, not expecting the fact he was more than happy to. Even more so he pulled it off with way more confidence than anything any of them had ever seen. (Ryuji discovered something about himself that day)

When there together they have this peaceful quiet sometimes, both of them enjoy just stopping and listening to the world around them (which cannot be said for some of their other friends). As well as this they have this way of being able to communicate without words. When they're in group settings it drives everyone else insane trying to figure out what the difference is between their different stares at one another mean and how they developed such a language.

[kooktrash]

i’m thinking about gma oc, i really would like to see a deeper side of her, like she has this slutty vibes which are great but what does she likes? what are her hobbies? her passions? we now she came from money but what does she want to do with her life??

(seems to me that she want validation through sex?!!)

okok kinda on the harder side of explaining things bc the fic was for a collab that I had a word limit on so I couldn’t give Y/n that much substance BUTTT Dw just cuz I didn’t include it doesn’t mean I didn’t think about these things

1. Y/n’s college major — major in business, minor in fashion (bc duh) y/n loves looking cute and honestly y/n has the liberty to follow whatever career path she wants bc nepo baby

2. passions — shopping, designing swimwear [bc she loves her bikinis], reading but not the classic books, she likes them smut books from the bookstore 🤓

3. hobbies — [separate from passions] hanging out with Jieun. watching kdramas, true crime docs (bc lowkey y/n seems like she ain’t scared of nothing)

4. Y/n Is a picky eater bc she’s used to meals cooked by someone else — hence why she’s always wanting pizza in the story

5. No, y/n DOESNT seek validation through sex, she’s 21, young enough to still have fun and not take things fully serious. liking sex ≠ validation, she just likes it bc it feels good and city girl up 🤞— and acc it was never specified if y/n slept with anyone else but jk, only that she went on dates bc buying someone dinner does not mean they’re getting the 🐱

6. We know Y/n has a loving father bc that’s why miss maam is spoiled and doesn’t care for consequences with dad cleans up her mess — but y/n’s mom is not mentioned a lot bc she’s pretty absent in y/n’s life. yes, father does everything for y/n, but like it tends to happen with rich families—it’s cause he’s never around [she couldn’t stay at her own home for the summer, remembers?

side note: if you’ve seen me very active today that’s bc I have nothing better to do 🤩

[sleepy-ogre]

12:25am, 30th June, 2024

I enrolled into Psych coz gotta do sumn in life after taking gap years for far too long. Even though I didn't really know much about it and have felt somewhat skeptical and I still do [more in the sense that most of life problems not including the debilitating ones can be solved by ourselves (hence my confusion over the role of a counsellor) and that the root cause of the proliferation of major disorders is failures at a systemic and societal level, so the solution should also be of the same orientation] I've always wanted to do something that involves helping people.

But ever since summer vacay started, I have this never-ending existential crisis abt what it is that I'm doing here coz I genuinely don't have that passion as I did in the 1st semester.

Everyday I get this nagging thought that this isn't the right thing to do. And it doesn't help that I've enrolled in online classes-type "internship" in which the instructor is too informal and sometimes that borders on insufferable. Coupled with the countless posts by certain Psych counsellors and interns on insta I come across almost everyday (yes I have a doomscrolling problem and I'm not proud of it) basically bragging abt the kind of money they make by charging exorbitant prices (I'm talking 3k to 5k) for mere 1hr sessions (saw this one woman who only has a Masters brag abt it and how she overcame the problem of lack of income by "changing her financial mindset" aka charging enormous amounts).

Idk the financial condition of these influencers, hey, maybe they really do need the bag (although they do seem to be pretty well off) but I honestly believe that counselling shouldn't have to be this expensive and that if these people really are in a dire situation, they should prolly choose some other field like organisational Psych or get into teaching (which I guess that lady bragging abt exorbitant fees was already doing through her training programs she advertised on her acc). Other people's finance really shouldn't be of my business but it bothers me because I've felt first hand how unaccessible therapy can be.

This has got me spiralling into an existential crisis all over again if this is the reality of working in this field. And I really don't feeling like getting into the instructor line coz it feels like we already have a lot of those plus I feel that's what most ppl who choose Psych end up doing.

Idk if its the curriculum, and I somewhat regret saying this but, sometimes I genuinely don't have much of an interest in this subject. I feel I've started losing even more interest after enrolling for this online course. Maybe I've taken more than I can hold and I just don't know what to do about it. Plus there's not much I can do abt it coz it's too late.

I'm not really that worried abt this online thing coz there's 1 month left b4 it's over and hopefully I can get that certificate towards that end if it means something. I really don't know how to deal with this existential crisis at hand. I really want to talk to someone but even after all that, its upto me how I figure this out.

I really don't want to discredit the field since we do live in a broken world with broken people and we as a species need to look out for each other. But sometimes it feels like the way its evolved really doesn't work for the benefit of the ppl. I'm trying to look for a side gig in the future but on the topic of pursuing one's academic endeavours while doing a job at the side as an extra means of income, I have seen people online say its easier said than done. So I really don't know how I'm going to figure this out but hopefully I will.

I've been typing these posts in the hopes of clearing my mind a bit regarding this and while it does feel good just getting it off my chest and it also does instill in me the will to do better, I've also noticed that the same existentialism will be back to haunt me again. Its a daily struggle ig.

[inchidentally]

I am so glad you always give a breakdown bc my dumbass brain needs it and I want to give my takeaways to honor this exquisite work:

the higher than average number of landoscar fic being public - to me at least - has a LOT to do with landoscar fandom getting ahead of rpf truthing and being supportive of Lily for as long as the landoscar ship has been popular. which is esp interesting bc her accs have been private for a long time and Oscar didn't start consistently posting her on his own until after the first break of the season I think? their holiday in the Algarve(?) was the first time a lot of ppl will have even known he had a gf. so not only has fandom never created an agenda to ever try and 'remove' Lily at any point, her presence has never dampened landoscar's rise in popularity even among new F1blr fans.

there's also almost always an existing friendship or a foundation of friendship to landoscar fic and not very much of the usual rinse-repeat insert-names-here type of fic for other ships. it's often extremely specific to the Lando and Oscar's personalities and foundation of getting to know each other. as in, when no one is trying to tie themselves in knots to make an rpf ship "real" it leaves them more open to actually focusing on the real people behind the ship. all of the most intense rpf truther ships end up being pretty similar bc the mental gymnastics and suspension of disbelief needed to erase existing real life partners and viewing jokey gay bromance behavior as legitimately queer is the exact same process every time.

so landoscar fic authors always approach writing Lando and Oscar from a "what if?" perspective rather than a fandom agenda has felt so much more compelling to me as a reader bc the authors don't need to abandon Lando and Oscar's real personalities to write them in different narratives.

I’m extremely intrigued by that 'generational' aspect of ships, esp ones where the teammate partnerships began when DTS started - vs landoscar having arisen and grown totally outside of DTS influence (and not even seen as worthy of a rivalry storyline). to me that's also significant when you consider that McLaren’s social media and PR dropped off sharply right after Singapore and before the double podiums and never rly picking back up to this day. the focus has been on Lando and Oscar individually but rarely together since late summer 2023. super interesting since Lando and Oscar's relationship has only grown warmer and more relaxed from then until now.

all meaning that as landoscar was growing in popularity, tptb had mostly stopped pushing it compared to other teams who’s drivers are considered at all compatible and fan friendly. both carlando and dando grew in tandem with direct pushes from official McLaren, F1, broadcasting networks and sponsors' social media as well as a concerted effort at cultivating a bromance from Lando/Carlos and Lando/Daniel themselves.

which is why the fact that landoscar has given a 5+ year ship like carlando a run for its money in under a year is wild when you remember that the PR machine for carlando has always been a work horse/cash cow and their ship name is literally corporate engagement currency. the latest F1TV challenge and cross-promotion with Lando's .mov account and his dad's scooter company proved the power of engagement it still has despite an almost total lack of interaction between Singapore '23 and Aus '24.

the fact that Lando and Oscar do absolutely zero fake gay (and barely physically touch) and have not pushed a conscious bromance at all - and that they are both openly competitive with each other without being falsely apologetic or toxic - is what makes the steep rise in ao3 content the most staggering to me tbh ?? Oscar in particular has shown no interest in forcing an inauthentic image of himself on the public and Lando has actually followed suit with a change in approach to his own social media and engagement (less clowning around and hyperactivity, more focused and creative).

they've had the least marketing investment made of any of Lando's teammates and have had a non-stop contingent who are willing them to hate each other. so all that landoscar authors and readers have had to go on is the very unedited and un-camera ready way that Lando and Oscar interact.

like, it's genuinely fascinating bc I'm someone who has always gotten into fandoms via the most popular bromance/rpf ship and I'm 100% gullible for content even when I know it's being spoon fed to me. so I'm absolutely one of the ideal test subjects for the trends in this data !! bc not only has landoscar ended up outstripping all my other F1 ships by many miles, I've actually ventured into writing for them myself despite feeling huge anxiety over trying to write fic.

and yet somehow landoscar is also the least pandered to I've ever been with rpf.

also stupid side note re the rankings of additional tags gives me a lot of validation for my terrible and cobbled together astrology post for landoscar I made last year that in cases where Lando and Oscar accept/admit attraction to each other they fuck immediately and fuck furiously. apparently we all know it's written in the stars for them.

landoscar ao3 stats — 2023 overview

notes

retrieved ~sometime in march 2024

methodology: scraped metadata for every fic in the landoscar tag and...... that's it. however one important constraint is that all temporal data is date updated (not posted), so the above timeline isn't exactly a true representation of fic growth but rather how many fics were last-updated at that time. of course this is still its own reflection of fandom health in a way since dead fandoms don't update old fic but well... it's just not quite the same!

this is just info about general trends, fic content, tags etc... so nothing about kudos/comments or any authors specifically

i decided to focus solely on fics last-updated in 2023 (unless otherwise mentioned) because i wanted a tidy set that i can maybe compare & contrast in a year's time, because i expect a lot of details to look different then (tho as stated above this set isn't exactly static... 🤷‍♀️)

ngl i had to re-scrape a bunch of times because i forgot about it for like 3 weeks and then there were 100 new fics 😭 so if there are some minor discrepancies across the post it's because of that halfskh.

also i wanted to include more global comparisons (aka how 814 stack up against the f1 rpf tag in general), but this is also considerably difficult in some contexts since i can't exactly scrape 31,000+ fics can i... or i didn't even want to entertain the thought of trying to do so!!!

why did i do this? who knows.

anyway here's some viz T__T

ship growth

as evidenced in the opening graph, landoscar have been a very fast-growing ship over the past year — although interestingly enough they didn't really start growing substantially until july / the ~better half~ of the 2023 season. here are two views showing their "growth" (by date updated) alongside two other ships on the fringes of the f1 rpf top 10 (sebchal & galex):

landoscar are very much on-track to surpass them and officially enter the top 10 soon, likely before mid-april ❗️ :o

ship characteristics

onto the ship content — another thing i was mildly curious about was how landoscar differs in certain areas from other f1 ships, or the f1 rpf "global" average you could say. for example, here's a breakdown of rating popularity in their ao3 tag:

seeing as explicit is their most common rating, and that i don't necessarily expect this to be true for all ships/fandoms, i compared these percentages with the general f1 rpf tag to see whether some ratings are more commonly represented in 814 fic than average, which produced interesting results:

do lando ships simply skew more HornyTM in general? is it oscar? a secret third thing??? who knows... actually i think it would be fun to do more analysis in this direction but that can wait for another time!!!

similarly i also wanted to see which ships are the most "public" on ao3, as in have the highest share of fic that isn't user-locked... i will refrain from peppering in my feelings about the 4th wall too heavy-handedly but i was curious to see whether some sort of perhaps... er, generational gap (?) of sorts between ships that are more public vs. not could be identified. however i don't pretend to have any takeaways from this LOL i conclude absolutely nothing. (for ref landoscar is currently 72% public, vs. a global avg of 63%)

note that this graph is current stats, not filtered for 2023

looking at relationship tags, i also wanted to know whether landoscar suffer noticeably from Second-Ship Syndrome, so i tallied the first-tagged ship of every fic to find out. i know this doesn't necessarily mean that it's always the "main" ship but it's a good enough approximation. the results were quite positive!

filtered to top ships with count of >1 only

i then also calculated the number of ships tagged for each fic to discern the profile of multi-shipping in 814 ficdom; i did have to do a little bit of string standardization (all instances of implied / background / hinted collapsed to hinted for simplicity's sake + removal of other redundancies), but otherwise i left everything mostly untouched.

as you can see, landoscar also have a fairly promising amount of OTP: TRUE fic:

by the time you get to the fics with 10+ ships tagged, landoscar are less likely to be the primary ship, which makes sense just on a basic statistical level... this is also a very small sample size though

i also lazily tallied the 10 most common ships that weren't NOR/PIA or NOR & PIA to diff their shares of the 814 tag vs. of the general f1 rpf tag, to see which other pairings are more represented in the 814 tag than on average (because lestappen are the most popular by pure count but this is also true of fandom in general, so it would be a misrepresentation to say that their popularity is out of the ordinary):

maxiel's gap isn't really that surprising since i think that, generationally, in terms of when both pairings were teammates there is quite a gap; with carlando—actually let me tally this again but including all instances of "implied" and "past" as being part of the same ship, since that's how ao3 tag-wrangles as well:

Aha ! obviously as a direct ship there is competition between 814 and other lando or oscar ships, but this difference is somewhat less pronounced once we include all formats. tbh none of this really means anything but i thought i'd add it anyway... (it's also very possible that there are several errors in this, in which case my b 😔)

before we move on to additional tags, there are a few more basic characteristics of 814 fic we can calculate. i realize i never offered an overview of Super Basic Stats, so here are a few:

plus, looking at word counts, here is a distribution of those in 2023-updated fic, which shows that a majority of 814 fics were under the 5k mark:

85% of landoscar fics were under 10k & nearly 97% under 25k

i don't really have any reason to believe that landoscar's wc stats differ significantly from average ? so this is kind of just Data To Have Data, and it most likely reflects normal ao3 trends in general... but i thought i'd include it anyway because i already made it lol. similarly, here are word count distributions but stratified by rating:

& same info but heat map view:

i feel like this is also probably something you'd find across fandom in general — that gen fic is likely to have a higher share of under 1k works, since Building Up to sexual content often takes... Literal & Metaphorical Foreplay ! and the longer a fic is the more opportunities an author has to include a sex scene or other explicit content (ofc, not necessarily just porn but also graphic violence & so on). but i thought this was fun to visualize haha

additional tags & aus?

back in my old f1 rpf stats post, i made a table comparing fluff/angst "ratios" (not exactly a direct ratio because of how tag wrangling works, but an approximation) of the most popular f1 ships, and now that landoscar are somewhat popular i thought i'd first do an update:

also current data, not 2023 to make things easier

just like before, simi are one of the most fluffy ships and brocedes are by far the most angsty, but it's interesting to see 814 also extremely high up on the charts, with far and away the lowest % of angst. will be exciting 2 see how that holds or changes as the seasons progress !

finally, i also wanted to do a bit of au/additional tag analysis because you can kind of see this when you use additional filters on ao3 but the previews are limited and get bogged down by the prevalence of *checks notes* Fluff, Angst, PWP, Anal Sex and what have you. which are nice stats to have and all but what of the rest !

disclaimer that the set for these tables is a biiiit outdated because by the time i'd wrangled everything i was like I Am Not Changing It Again. unfortunately i clean my data with shoddy queries and regex functions in googsheetz...

there were 48 tags with at least 10 instances from 2023 fics, shown below, with ones that are (some ~vaguely) nsfw in red just to kind of get a rough sense of which tags get commonly used in M/E fic:

getting a bit too much into small sample size / specific fic territory so if you're an author i sincerely apologize for that... do not mean 2 put u on blast... TT__TT but i also tried to tally the most popular aus people write for 814, which is a bit dubious because people tag in really different ways and i had to accommodate for a lot of string formats but ... it's close enough ! (?)

i feel like this is very little interesting info but idk what else to add so i will stop here for now... well!!! if you made it to the end i hope u learned something or even vaguely enjoyed reading T__T and most of all thank you :')

[asakurahaos]

i have absurdly good luck with summons but in a game im not interested in playing at all

[wizkiddx]

Heey, first of all yeeah to 500 followers!! You deserve them 🎉 I was wondering if you still do the celebration and could write something for #2 neck kisses with Tom. Thanks and have an awesome day 😊

so sorry but i completely lost this in my inbox so sorry its so late!!!! also this is kinda a Father’s Day one too (except im half a week too late but hey ho)

summary: soon to be dad!tom predicts your babies gender

kissing prompts 2 = neck kisses

///////////////////////

Your day had been a pretty mundane one. Just a typical Saturday of getting shit done - involving cleaning the bathrooms and then putting a wash on. It was a set of jobs you'd normally share with your fiance, except he had been out golfing all day.

To be fair, he had earned himself the day off. Ever since you'd found out you were pregnant - the boy had barely let you lift a finger. Especially after you'd passed the 24 weeks landmark, now that the baby bump wasn't so much a bump, and more a fucking volcano sprouting out your belly.

For once the British weather was actually pretty decent, meaning you opened all the patio windows to allow the ribbons of golden light to stream into your living room. In your own little world, you stood by the table and hung up baby grows on the airer. Yes, it was a bit early to be laundering the baby's clothes, but both you and Tom couldn't help yourselves. Last week, when you went shopping for Nikki's birthday - instead the both of you had got distracted by the newborn section.

Tom made a quiet entrance into the house, so much so you hadn't noticed the door open as you softly hummed an old Beatles tune whilst reaching for the following soft grey striped onepiece.

He hadn't been in the best mood when walking through the door. The round had not gone his way, he'd ended up 6 shots above his standard handicap whilst Harry had got his PB. Pissed was an understatement - Tom had turned down the pub after, which meant he was absolutely fuming. Instead, he just wanted to come home and have a shower and forget about everything.

All of that kind of melted away though, when he rounded the corner of the hallway - the sight stopping him dead in his tracks.

You, standing side on, your outline a silhouette to the evening sun filtering through the doors. The light effect made you look ethereal, as well as exaggerating your bump evermore. And then you were holding up this tiny looking babygrow in front of you. It was inexplicable but, at that moment, literally nothing else mattered to Tom.

Of course, you eventually caught him staring, a soft smile growing on your face after you'd turned to pick another baby grow up. All it took was that one look for all the tension in his body to fizzle away. Immediately Tom took the steps towards you, hugging you from the back and propping his chin on your shoulder, whilst his hands slipped under your bump.

"Thought you said it was too early to get the baby stuff ready?"? He whisper- chuckled, making you roll your eyes. Because it was his puppy dog eyes begging you to let him by the 12 babygrows the other weekend.

"Shhhhh would you just look how small they are!" You gestured as you shook out another damp babygrow in front of him.

"Just imagine…" Tom spoke very quietly as he reached round you to take the little onsie out of your hands. He then lifted up the hem of your cotton vest top, laying the outfit on your exposed belly. "Someday soon they'll be outside your stomach like this."

The action, of him holding the cotton fabric over your belly, had everything feeling a lot more real all of a sudden. You were seriously going to have a baby.

It made you let out a little gasp, which Tom only chuckled at, pressing himself closer against your back. "You only just realised that love?"

"No I- ooh" You were about to violently defend yourself from Tom's laughter, except you were distracted by a slightly uncomfortable pressure on your stomach. Instantly you moved your hand over Tom's and pressed down on the area, so Tom could feel the little butterfly kicking through the babygrow.

"I think baby likes her outfit" You giggled, whilst now it was Tom's turn to hold in an unconscious breath. He slowly pressed around the outline of the protruding limb, which your baby kept returning as if high-fiving him.

"Oh my god she just fist-bumped me!"

"Or he!!!" You laughed, shaking your head against the top of his.

"Nah it's a girl I can sense it." He whispered, though very much not concentrating on anything except the little game he played with the baby in your stomach.

"Spidey sense?"

"Nope… special dad instincts." This time he spoke against your jaw, before peppering your bone with short pecks. "Mhm…." Tom spoke as he worked his way downward, poking his nose in the crook of your neck "I love my girls so much."

"Or boy!" You indignantly interjected, earning you a huff from Tom as he stayed softly nipping the sensitive skin just above your collarbone.

He was attempting to get you lost in the feeling, and boy was it also it working. Letting your head loll to the side to give him better access, you exhaled deeply, bringing your right hand round the back of both of you to trail through his brown curls. He was still a little sweaty from spending all evening in the summer sun- which reminded you.

"How was golf, by the way?" All you received was a mumbled 'doesn't matter' back, which in itself answered your question very well.

"That means you lost?" Giggling at his schoolboy attitude to defeat, Tom groaned, then even harder when you spun in his hold, so now you were facing each other - his hands still holding the baby grow on your bump between the both of you. This way you could see him, and he wasn't ever able to hide anything when your innocent gaze was on him.

"-sn't my fault" He pouted, big brown eyes looking so profoundly at you that some might even find the intensity scary. "My club broke anyway, so it wasn't a fair game."

That made you cock your head to the side. Really? A club just spontaneously breaking? You'd seen the bank statements; you knew how bloody much Tom invested into his club collection. They definitely shouldn't e flimsy and snapping spontaneously at their price point.

"The club broke orrr you broke the club?"

"The club was involved in an unfortunate accident; a tree collided with it."

You had to laugh at how Tom explained how he had taken his anger out on a tree. Tom returned your humour with an eye roll - not much enjoying being caught out.

It didn't last long, though, as and harsh jab interrupted you with an 'ooof'. It came from inside you and even Tom winced at how hard the little munchkin inside you kicked your side, right over where Tom's hands were resting.

"I think that's baby's way of telling you off for having a temper tantrum." Once recovered, you had to grin again, rubbing the skin with Tom's hand to ease the subsiding ache.

"Is it not too early for her to realise exactly who's in charge?" He grumbled, referring to the fact that you both knew Tom was wrapped around yours and soon to be babies fingers.

"Or him!".

To shut you up, Tom finally gave you the welcome home kiss, still with his hands holding the babygrow on your bump. Excited, if terrified, to be yours and your baby's bitch boy for the rest of his life.

~~~~let me know what you think, recently been finding acc writing v difficult so sorry if this aint great~~~~~~

taglist: @crossyourpeter@euphorichxlland@hallecarey1@hollandfanficlove@hollandlover19@hunnybunimdun@lovehollandy12@msmimimerton@pandaxnienke@fernandasantana @thegirlwiththeimpala

[yeonjuins]

i'm definitely a lot better, thank u so much <3 aside from being super super tired, i'm all good now and have fully healed :)) my bed has been so comfy these last two mornings, i've not wanted to move. i just want to take my bed with me while i work lmao. i think one of my problems in the morning is staying in my pjs while i work and i should probably work in my skinny jeans or smth to wake me up a little. :') i totally get you, i can fall asleep pretty quickly but if i have a nightmare or a cat stands on my face, it wakes me up and disturbs my sleep :(

that sounds like the absolute perfect pc 😍 that's basically what i want. as i play a lot of big games, a powerful pc is my goal. it's been really sad watching my games start to crash as time went on and now i can't play anything. one of my moots plays overwatch which is my favourite game and i'm excited to play it together with her <3333

WHY'S THAT SO FUNNY OH MY LORD 😂 i hate having those dreams that feel too real, like i had a dream that i broke up with my s/o over text and it felt SO REAL, i checked my phone in a panic and was so relieved that i didn't break up w him🥺😂

certain dreams mean certain things but some of mine don't make any sense sometimes. i always remember my dreams and when i tell my s/o, he looks at me like "what's wrong w you" LIKE I CAN'T CONTROL MY DREAMS???? i once had a dream that i went to a creepy zoo and there was a creepy old witch in one of the cages and then she saved me from being chased by a giant pencil. like what does that even mean 😂😂😂😂😂

i do not cope sleeping in warm weather, i need the fans on to sleep <3 i always worry for my kitties in the hot weather. uk houses aren't ventilated, they're not designed that way so the only way to keep them cool is to put loads of fans on and put ice in their water bowls :(

I SOBBED SO MUCH but then again when do i not at movies. i really enjoyed it :((( i watched it with my mum bc she was having an off day and she loved it <333

(lengthy response!)

truly my bed is super comfy... i'm able to wake up in the mornings but the hardest part is literally leaving my bed imo ;; does not matter what time i went to sleep at, if i have to be somewhere i will be awake but i do not want to leave my bed <3 which results in me falling back to sleep (": taking your bed to work with you seems like such a dangerous play... i'd fall asleep at work at any given time that i am tired and mess up my sleep schedule even more </3

THATS SO CUTE pls i hope once u get your pc built you're able to play all the games your heart desires <3 i have more of a knack of watching gameplay rather than actually playing it myself... my sense of logic with this is that i do not want to think on my free time and therefore, i will just watch others do all the thinking PAHAHAH one of my favourite games of all time is the ace attorney franchise and it's a... mystery? detective? sort of game? problem solving? LOL but it requires a lot of piecing together evidence to statements which my brain goes [STATIC] too <3 i love the game overall tho... the plotline is so funny and good (":

chased from a giant pencil... so true... that sounds like a good disney movie imo LOL the pencil gets all angry and begins to sharpen itself to make it's tip sharper and suddenly it's a weapon to society LMFAO AND OMG HAVING A DREAM U BROKE UP WITH YOUR S/O ;; that's acc horrifying... i had a couple dreams like that where my main group of friends left me </3 but i've had several funny ones and i'd wake up and send my friends voice notes INSTANTLY so i can sleepily talk about it and remember it for later times since they're so insane....

whenever it's summer, the ac in my house is always on full blast for some reason so it feels like winter in a sense LOL and it's vice versa for winter... my house feels extremely hot ;; it's nice in a sense knowing i'm all cozy or cooled but really not nice to experience during the extremes of the two weathers imo PAHAHHA i hope ur cats do okay in hot weather ): giving them my hugs

i also cry very easily to like.... legit anything LOL so me crying is not a good verdict of whether or not something is actually good <- is just very emotional but ! i did enjoy turning red, it was really cute hehe (:<

[xpao-bearx]

《This story series is also on my AO3 acc @ Paoloca》

SUMMARY: The bachelors of Selphia conjure up a plan to decide who truly deserves the beautiful princess' heart...if Frey can only choose one of them, that is.

PAIRINGS: Frey x Vishnal, Frey x Kiel, Frey x Doug, Frey x Arthur, Frey x Dylas, Frey x Leon (Polyamorous Ships)

RATING: Mature/18+/Romance & Smut. Please bear these in mind if you are uncomfortable and do NOT report!

NOTE: I have been an avid fan and lover of the Rune Factory series for a looong fooken time now and with RF 5 coming up (who else can't wait?!?!) along with my bursting inspiration, I decided to do something a lil special~ 💖

This story is actually one I wrote--or at least TRIED to write as I didn't finish it--many years ago on my old Wattpad acc (I have a new one now). As such, I'm taking the basic plotline from the original idea I had and simply making it a bit better especially now that I'm older + more mature (pfft yeah sure "mAtUrE" xD).

I sincerely and deeply love ALL of the amazing bachelors on RF 4 and as someone who absolutely ✨A D O R E S✨ reverse harems, I really *personally* don't think that Frey has to choose! And so, here's a naughty + sweet story that'll kinda just delve into my--and I'm sure others'--fantasy ;)

I hope ya lovelies will enjoy this story series and your wonderful support is always very much appreciated! 🥺💕💕 Also, feel free to fangirl/fanboy with me anytime~

P.S. Please forgive mah pathetic ass in advance if I ever portray any of the characters wrong, I promise to do my best!!

"The Princess' Harem"

Part 1: The Game

☆ALL CREDIT GOES TO THE TALENTED ARTIST☆

Summer 1, the dawn of a sweltering season. But most of all...

Beach Day!

Ah, yes, a most wonderful holiday to take a dip in the refreshing water and don the most attractive swimsuits that perfectly hugged one's form! And while it was understandable for the gentlemen to gawk and admire the lovely ladies, it seemed that all the bachelors of Selphia were completely ensnared by one warrior princess in particular...

Frey's tinkly laughter carried in the air as she happily swam around in the lake with the other girls. It was certainly a gorgeous day, yet none could quite rival the turquoise haired beauty's radiant smile.

"Haa... The princess is SO beautiful~" Vishnal sighed dreamily, his violet eyes turning into hearts.

"A goddess among mere mortals!" Kiel piped up cutely.

"You guys are so lame! But, uh... Y-Yeah, I agree, I guess." Doug conceded, face flushing as scarlet as his hair.

"I am a man, after all. Therefore, I must say I agree as well." Arthur cleared his throat, propping his glasses.

"You are all perverts..." Dylas grumbled, though he couldn't help but shyly sneak a peek at Frey.

"My, my~ You're such a bad liar, horsie. Calling us perverts when you, yourself, are one~" Leon chuckled, smirking.

"Who're ya calling horsie?!" Dylas snapped, but couldn't start an argument when all of them heard a splash and saw Frey emerge onto shore.

"Princess!" Vishnal beamed, not wasting a single second as he dashed towards her with a towel much like an excited puppy. "Are you done swimming?"

Frey gratefully took the towel, wiping her drenching body with it. "Yes, I am! And once I change into my clothes, I'm going to be checking the requests."

"You're ever so diligent, Frey. I truly admire that about you." Arthur smiled as he and the rest of the boys approached their beloved girlfriend. Arthur's glasses then flashed as the sun reflected on them, and he quickly grabbed that splendid opportunity for his gaze to drop and hyperfocus on Frey's nearly naked body. He barely managed to suppress it as he almost shamelessly licked his lips, fully taking in and very much appreciating her wet and fit physique.

"Oh, it's nothing! I'm only doing my duties." Frey giggled, embarrassed as her cheeks tinted pink. "But other than that, how come you guys aren't in your swimsuits? It's boiling!" She frowned worriedly.

"Why, is milady that eager to see me in all my glory?" Leon purred, standing in front of her in a flash. His teal eyes sparkled mischievously, as one of his hands reached forward to run his fingers through her long hair. "If you want to see me that badly, I'd rather 'perform' a private show for you tonight~"

Frey became as red as a ruby, opening and closing her mouth repeatedly like a fish out of water. She tried to speak, but no words came out as she could only stare up with eyes as wide as dinner plates at an amused Leon who was enjoying this situation far too much.

"Oi, knock it off!" Dylas growled, wrapping a protective arm around Frey as he glared sharply at Leon. "She's gonna go fishing with me after she's done, anyways!"

"WHAT?! No fair, you can't hog her all to yourself! If you guys are going fishing then I'm going, too!" Doug huffed, snatching Frey away from Dylas.

"No way, you dumbass dwarf! You're not invited!"

"Well, I am now, you fucking nag!"

As the two handsome idiots bickered like an old married couple and fought over Frey, she could only release an exasperated sigh. Honestly, she loved them both, but there was really no use trying to talk any sense into them. The best anyone could do was just wait it out until they inevitably get tired.

But as Doug and Dylas were yanking Frey from one side to another like a ragdoll, they suddenly stopped. It seems that everyone else halted, too, and the air blew bitter cold. Frey, oblivious, could only raise a brow before she finally realized--or more like felt--what all the boys were staring at.

She looked down, Doug and Dylas' hands accidentally cupping each one of Frey's breasts. All of the boys were a thousand shades of crimson, and Vishnal even started to have a nosebleed.

"ACK! S-Sorry..!" Doug and Dylas exclaimed in unison, abruptly pulling their hands away as if they were burned.

"O-Oh, uh, it's f-fine..!" Frey stuttered, not being able to meet anyone's gaze. "I-It was just an accident, after all!"

"Are you sure you're alright, Frey?" Kiel asked, holding her hands into his gently as he studied her face in concern. "These lowlifes didn't hurt you, did they?" It was rare for Kiel to be angry let alone badmouthing anyone, but it was clear from his tone how upset he was. Honestly, Doug and Dylas were a little scared...

"Y-Yes, I'm alright!" Frey nodded vigorously, smiling brightly. "Seriously, guys, don't worry about me! I'll see you all later, okay?" She hurriedly gave each one of them a chaste peck on the cheek before making her way back to the castle.

"So..." Leon began, a fake smile plastered on his lips as his eyes held no emotion. "I wonder who the true perverts are now?"

"H-Hey, it was an accident! Besides, it's all this moron's fault!" Dylas retorted, pointing an accusatory finger at Doug.

"MY fault?! If you just invited me in the first place, none of this would've happened!" Doug shouted furiously.

"You guys...touched...the princess' b-b-breasts..." Vishnal muttered, totally lost in his own world as he was slowly deteriorating from existence.

"Oh, my..." Arthur let out a heavy exhale. "I'm sure you two already know this, but as soon as Frey is done with her tasks then you both must apologize to her again. Accident or not, it is completely unacceptable for a man to touch a woman without her consent."

"Hey, y'know, I've been wondering..." Kiel cut in. "Do you guys ever think if Frey is just being strung along by us?"

"What do you mean?" Doug frowned.

"Like, didn't we confess to Frey at different times? And at every confession, she rejected all of us. And later on, it was only then we found out that we all shared the same feelings for her."

"So, what's your point?" Dylas pressed.

Kiel sighed, staring pointedly at the taller man. "Don't you find it a bit weird that now, we're all in a relationship with her? I know that being in a polyamorous relationship with Frey was something we all consented on from the very beginning, but why the sudden change of heart?"

"Isn't it obvious? Being in a polyamorous relationship means that Frey likes all of us at the same time, which is fine. Maybe she was just too shy at first to admit it." Leon shrugged.

"That may be true, or...what if she's only with us out of pity?" A wave of realization washed through everyone, and a certain pang of sadness settled in their hearts. "Frey is such a nice person, it's possible she only agreed to be with us since she felt bad for rejecting us. And now, she doesn't know how to break up with us for fear of hurting us even more."

"There's also one other possibility..." Arthur spoke up. "What if she actually likes one of us, but can't exclusively date that person?"

Dead silence. Only the faint sounds of the lake thrashing and birds chirping, before Vishnal was the one who first woke up back to reality.

"So... What are we supposed to do?" He questioned softly. "I feel so terrible... If what you're saying is true, then I don't want to continue on like this. I love Frey, but I can't ever bear the thought of hurting her!"

"How about a game?" Leon suggested.

"Now's really not the time, foxy." Doug rolled his eyes.

"No, no. You've misunderstood." Leon shook his head. "I'm talking about a game to see who Frey truly likes or doesn't like. And that way, we won't have to be hurting her and suffering like this anymore."

"Hmm... An interesting proposition." Arthur hummed thoughtfully. "I don't quite like referring to this as a 'game', but colour me intrigued. What's your idea, then?"

"Alright. So, we each get one whole day to spend with Frey. Completely alone, and no one is allowed to bother anyone else. As long as Frey is okay with it, then we can do whatever we want with her. Going on dates, exploring...you get the idea. Finally, by the end of the week, we'll all ask her how she feels and who she had the most fun with. Her answer will then determine what will happen afterwards."

"Hmph. Okay, that sounds good." Dylas nodded, agreeing for once. "How can we settle who goes first and last, though?"

"I think it would only be fair if we go in the order that Frey met us. So it's Vishnal, me, Doug, Arthur, Dylas, and then Leon." Kiel offered.

"All in favour?" Arthur asked, and everyone collectively voiced out their approval. "Good. It's settled, then. May the best man win!"

"Speaking of, I forgot that the castle is undergoing construction! So please excuse me, I'll have to get going now!" Vishnal grinned, disappearing in a blink of an eye.

"Wait... I just visited Ventuswill earlier with Granny Blossom." Doug furrowed his brows before gasping. "That bastard..! He went to go have a headstart with Frey!" He immediately chased after the conniving butler, but not before his shoulder got bumped hard by Dylas.

"If anyone's gonna get a headstart, it's me!"

"Oh, shut the hell up, HORSIE!"

Arthur sighed deeply, rubbing his temples stressfully as Kiel only chuckled sheepishly. Leon simply watched the scene, his fan hiding his smirk.

'There is a saying: Save the best for last~' Leon thought satisfyingly to himself.