#and i think she'd be a great grandma honestly

[izziegs]

Starting to feel like my future is gonna be a "Choose 2 out of the 3" scenario between:

A. Being true to myself and my identity

B. Being a parent

C. Keeping regular contact with my family

I can only have two. One has to be left behind. And it's kinda devastating to think about rn

[writtenbythemoonandstars]

Camping

Part 4 of the First Date series

Possible content warnings without spoiling too much include: descriptions of injuries and medical procedures and discussion of past sexual events.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

1.8k words

---

Robby has always loved camping. The smell of pine trees and sap, of fire and smoke. The serene sounds of birds, crackling fires. When he was a kid he'd camp by the ocean and the waves crashing were always enough to put him to sleep at night. 

The taste of bug spray bitter on his tongue as he accidentally breathes it in. "Honey, I think you've scared off enough bugs. Put it down." His voice soft amused. When he'd heard she hadn’t ever been camping before Robby quickly booked them a site the first weekend they were both free. 

"I'm allergic to mosquitoes you know." She sighs, spraying her arm one last time before setting it down. "Not like… deathly but I don’t want to break out in hives." 

"I don't think anyone within a hundred mile radius will come in contact with any bugs thanks to you." He teases, laughing. Raising his hands in surrender when he gets a look.

"Maybe I forgot to mention that just because I haven't ever been camping before doesn't mean I felt like I was missing out on anything. It's great that you're Bear Grylls or whatever but I'm meant to sleep in an actual bed. Not like… a sleeping bag on the dirt." He just continues to chuckle at her. Not taking any offence. 

"You'll have fun I promise." 

There are a lot of things you don't say in the ER or as a doctor in general. Things like, "Seems quiet" or "calm" or make promises which you have no control over. 

Which is probably why two hours later it starts to pour rain. Making it difficult for Robby to start a fire. Seeing his… girlfriend? Is that what he calls her now? They haven't really talked about it but he's not seeing anyone else and she's been coming over at least three times a week for the past four months. 

Anyway, she's drowning in the jacket he fortunately packed. Causing him to be the one that's soaking wet. "Is this how I looked when I showed up for our first date?" She asks. Amused as she observes him work. 

"Better." Robby replies, winking when he catches her rolling her eyes. 

He ties a tarp high enough it wouldn't catch fire but also cover the pit from the rain. 

"That’s really hot." She says. Resting her head in her hands, watching him. "It's so…" She shrugs, not thinking of the right word, "manly?"

"Yeah?" Robby stands. Moving closer, his hands sliding around her hips. "You like it?" 

"Mhm." Nodding, eyes closing as he kisses up her neck. 

"You taste like bug spray." He comments after pulling back.

"I used an entire bottle before I got out of my car. You can imagine what that smells like." Robby laughs. He moves to sit down on the log next to her.

"I may hate it out here but I can see the appeal. The rain, the fire, it's all very calming." She nods. 

"We'd camp every year, sometimes more than once, when I was a kid." Robby tells her. He feels her nod and lay her head on his shoulder. "Grandma was a really big fan of Survivor." He adds, "recreational camping is obviously a lot different than the tropical survival they do on the show but sometimes she'd make my brother and I do puzzles or eat rice and fish out here."

"Oh yeah?" She snorts, "Grandma has taste." Robby feels her nod. "Watching Survivor was probably one of the only times my family and I got along growing up. Probably because we were all sitting watching tv instead of talking to each other." 

"Are you my girlfriend?" He can't help but blurt. The thought on his mind for a while now.

"What do you mean?" Her head tilts up, "w1hat else would I be?" 

"I don't know… I- I just… we hadn't ever talked about it. Officially. I didn't know if you wanted to put a label on it." Robby says honestly. 

"Michael." Looking at him in the eyes. "You were the first man to eat me out. That's not nothing." He rolls her eyes as she laughs. "I'm serious though. I'm not seeing anyone else." 

"I'm not either." 

"Good. Then we can label it." She nods. "Boyfriend." 

"Girlfriend." Then he leans in to kiss her. The fire burns on it's own while Robby pulls her into the tent…

The next morning Robby wakes her up early. As if they hadn’t stayed up late the night before. She groans. "Isn't camping supposed to be relaxing? Waking up at-" Checking her phone, "5? Jesus, Michael." 

"This is the whole reason I brought you out here. Come on." He throws her a jacket and crawls out of the tent to wait for her. It's the excitement in his tone movements that has her moving, though mumbling complaints about it. 

"It's only a mile baby." Seeing her frown and the protest on the tip of her tongue. "I'll carry you if it's too much." 

She rolls her eyes. "With that back?" He just waves her off.

Her mood improves though when she sees why they got up before daylight. Seeing the sunrise from the top of this hill after a mile- an uphill mile she wants to add that Robby conveniently "left out". 

If only Robby remembered that due to the rain last night the dirt trail would be incredibly muddy. On the walk down both of them shared stories about work. Robby thought about her question, "Have you ever had any patients where they stayed totally calm in a situation where they should not be?" 

"I had this guy come in with a nail in his hand. Like, straight through the palm. Kept joking that now he could finally get out of helping his brother move this weekend. Meanwhile I’m trying to keep a straight face while removing an actual hardware-store nail from a human hand. It missed all the major nerves and tendons by millimeters. I stitched him up, wrapped it, and told him to avoid power tools for at least a week. And definitely not to pick up any couches-" He turns when he finally realized there were no sounds of footsteps behind him anymore. 

Where did she go? One minute she was right behind him, grabbing the water from his backpack, and now…

"Michael?" Her voice broken, he nearly didn't hear it. 

She'd fallen down off the side of the hill, laying at the bottom. Slipped in the mud and just tumbled all the way down. 

"Fuck. Hold on. I'm coming." He has to be careful getting to the bottom where she is. 

"Did you hit your head?" Robby reaches her quickly. Swiftly checking over her condition. He doesn't hear an answer right away and snaps his head to her face. "Baby? Did you hit your head?" Robby pulls a pen light from the first aid kit in his backpack. 

"No, but your water bottle hit me." She picks it up. Her eyes are normal and reactive to light. Despite the metal bottle to the head he rules out concussion for now. 

There's no blood, which is honestly a miracle, except for a small scratch on her chin. Doesn't even need stitches. 

"Michael?" Her voice strained. Nervous. He looks up from where he's securing a small bandage to her chin. But she's not looking at him. Following her eyes… his heart drops. 

"My ankle isn't supposed to look like that right?" She quickly grabs on to the pocket of his jacket. 

"No it is not." Robby can tell it's fractured. 

"Fuck…" She replies slowly. "Do you have to like- uhm- like set it? Or Whatever?" Both of them still looking at her foot.

"Yes I am." He already pulling out his phone, despite not having any service he should still be able to contact emergency services. 

"Wait-" Her eyes wide, holding the jacket he shucked off, "this is going to hurt?" Well, he didn't shove it in her mouth for no reason. 

"Yeah honey." Robby nods, the expression on his face telling her it physically pains him to have to do this. "But only for a second. I promise." A kiss is pressed to her forehead. 

He can see the apprehension on her eyes. "I'll get you the biggest margarita or ice cream sundae or honestly whatever the fuck you want baby." Hating the situation they're in. "You're so brave… and strong-"  

"Holy- Fuck. Okay." She nods. "Giant fucking margarita… Count to three?" 

He nods except he doesn't want her to tense when he gets to three. So, he says, "One. Two-"

The crack and pop is sharp in the otherwise quiet morning in the woods. 

The jacket sleeve falls from her mouth as she gasps for air. Choking which turning into gagging and spitting up some of her granola bar from an hour ago. Robby rubs circles across her back.  

"I thought we said three." She snaps though not necessarily mad at him. Just in pain. 

He moves his hands up to her shoulder. Letting her grip his wrist tightly. Leaning in to his lap. "I didn't want you to tense up." Kissing the back of her hand. 

"Paramedics will be here in twenty minutes. But I have to get you out of here." He splints and ties up her ankle before helping on to his back.

"What about-" He shakes his head. "I'll be fine." Waving her off. 

It's about halfway when he feels himself seizing up. "T-tell me a story-" going back to what they had been doing on the walk down the hill. 

She rubs his shoulders the best she can, knowing this isn't easy for him to be carrying her like this. "I had a client a few months ago who I hadn't talked to in a while. I saw her email name had changed and I asked if she had recently gotten married-" She stops talking when he stops walking, needing a break. The tension tight in his back. "Keep going." He nods to her. 

"She told me she'd been recently divorced." He starts to walk again so she continues. "It got so much worse after that and it was already awkward… I don't even remember what sparked her to tell me but she said she caught her husband cheating on her with her best friend.."

"What did you do?" They're nearly back to camp. 

"I told her I was sorry and after we finished the meeting for the day I pawned her off on a coworker and never spoke to her again." The embarrassment of what happened and the guilt of cutting her off after their awkward encounter creeps in from time to time but she forces herself to push it down. 

The paramedics arrive soon after Robby sets her down carefully then stretches his back. He watches her sleep on the ambulance ride to the nearest hospital after she was given some pain medicine. 

A boot for 6 weeks and some physical therapy. 

"You know…" She looks over at Robby slowly. A little loopy. "I had a lot of fun camping." 

That makes him laugh. "Did you?" 

"Mhm. We should do it again." Nodding. 

"I'll ask you again when you're not on drugs." He softens his laugh to a light chuckle. Pressing a kiss in her hair. 

"Okay…" She whispers before falling asleep again. 

---

Let me know what you think!

Also, btw, I know there hasn't been any mention of Robby having a brother but I added him in just for the sake of the story he was telling idk

Unedited...

[palmolli]

Kinda wish that dlc where you play as sksw Zelda actually got made. Imagine it had the memory recovery system of Breath of the Wild. That would be so freaking sick, but Nintendo doesn't have the balls. The implications of what happened during the war between Hylia and Demise is honestly horrific. In the opening cutscene with the cave paintings, it showed a LOT of people just being straight up BURNED. Hylia definitely saw a lot of that. So... in theory, Zelda was ALSO subjected to that, AGAIN. SKSW ZELDA HAS WAR PTSD. IM TELLING Y'ALL. And to relive all of that at the ripe ol age of seventeenish... is not good for the psyche. Nobody talks about her trauma enough, and it makes me big sad. ALSO. If I'm remembering correctly, Zelda's way of speaking sorta changed? Like... uhhmmmdjdj...

You can't convince me something didn't fundamentally change in her brain. Is this a stretch??? WHY IS SHE TALKING LIKE THATT??? gosh, the agnst potential here is CRAZY. Like. Be Link. Save the world or whatever, and now your girlfriend is suddenly spitting out philosophy and talking like a poet out of nowhere. That'd be kinda disorienting. Even more disorienting is having the memories of a past life along with your own. Like, uh... what if she asked Link about something she thinks happened, and he's just like... "Huh?" And she'd just be like, "Oh, that happened when I was Hylia, nvm."

ALSO IMPA!??!?!? like she DEFINITELY had a close relationship with her as Hylia maybe, I headcanon she saw Impa as a daughter, and then the roles got swapped when she became Zelda. Or... oh God PLEASE DONT MAKE THIS A PEARL AND ROSE QUARTS SITUATION PLEAAAHAHEEESEEEE 🙏🙏

Anyways. During that journey, she definitely grew attached to Impa, especially because she already knew her in a past life, which is kind of a special connection my dudes. And then BOOM she disappears. Bye bye warrior woman you will be missed dearly.

Cough. Okay to sum this up:

Live life normally as just a girl in school. Yippie, everything is awesome. Everything is cool when you're part of a team. Oh, sick, your crush won the race thing despite not studying a day in his life, and you've built up the courage to FINALLY ask him out-

Uh oh! TORNADO! and now you're in an entirely different land basically surrounded by monsters, defenseless, apparently despite the fact you've been attending a knight school for twelve or so years, you freaking nepo baby (affectionate). Grandma lady saves you. Then uh cool mysterious lady starts guiding you, and apparently you've known her in a past life-

War flashbacks. Some ash baby lookin ahh dude slaughtered a bunch of people bc he wanted some golden doritos, also, you used to be a goddess, the same one you worshipped and prayed to all the time. What the flip. What's Link gonna think about this? WHAT? YOUVE BEEN BASICALLY USING HIM? WHAT? PARDON? NO?! WHAT THE FLIPPITY JIPPITY. You tell him after he does some stuff belehsiebr then get sealed away and have to see him claw at you at bawl his eyes out. Not traumatizing at all. Then when you finally get reunited, a RuPaul's Drag Race reject pops in and kidnaps you and steals your soul to revive Temper Tatrum Ash Baby. Link beats both of them up. Also that dude who bullied him and had a crush on you is cool now. How sick! But OH SHART. IMPA ISNT COMING WITH YOU BACK TO THE PRESENT? oh haha she was just the old lady this whole time she's right there-

And she exploded.

Just great!

Not traumatizing at all.

idk, I just feel like she's such an interesting character who gets kinda mischaracterized all the time without taking into account that she suffered too. STOP VILLAINIZING MY BABY, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE SHE'S NOT EVIL.

[stardewvalleybut-i-draw]

Can u give me ur full thoughts on Alex? I feel like a lot of the shit he gets is unjustified. Yeah he says some sus things to the farmer (no matter what gender you are!) but that's only because he's horribly mislead. The man just doesn't know any better. I mean think about it. Abused and neglected, lacking good male role models, and he's got no friends in town except for maybe Haley and you know how she is. If she was told "you're probably not into sports" she'd say "ew no" because sports would get her all dirty.

I always saw him as just a loner-type guy who doesn't know how to talk to people. Spent too much time trying to develop his cringe ass macho man persona that he forgot to develop social skills. I don't think that makes him a bad person though. I could honestly talk for hours about how toxic masculinity is a monster that preys on young boys and eats them alive if they're not careful. But even with societal pressure being so intense, growth is possible. Alex is still a massive sweetie in my eyes. A big dumb doofus who loves his granny and wants to lift heavy things just to impress you.

I would love your thoughts though!!

#1 Alex fan anon ⚡️

Yeah. That's basically more or less my thoughts😅

It honestly depends on what you experience that can greatly color Alex's character

This might be one of my more controversial takes

(right next to being a Clint apologist💀)

but stick with me here-

If you grow up in a similar environment to most guys, you can understand why Alex is the way they are. It's not exactly easy to be soft or mindful when you have a harsh environment around you. Many guys end up coping with repressed thoughts and feelings in unique ways to soothe themselves. I think Alex's was sports. (Idk just a hunch) but it often leads to a lot of blind spots or misunderstandings of the world.

I've seen a lot of people like Alex and I've had a couple of friends in high school like that too! And I can tell you... yeah... it comes from SOMEWHERE, A lot of them ain't doing so great mentally.

Heck, I do that! Whenever I get uncomfortable with a situation or feelings I don't like, I make jokes to ease my brain. Releses a little serotonin ya know what I mean?

Not all coping mechanisms are bad tho, we kinda have our own form of bond and support that from the outside looks cold and uninviting but I promise you, we would die for our brothers. (plus the cold uninviting part is just a front)

"I know the homie told us to KYS over Roblox but he bought the group Freebirds during the gym session so it's all good!"/j

I can't say much from the other perspective but I would assume they would see Alex as a HUGE BIG RED flag and someone potentially dangerous or someone who brings back bad memories which is why he is dunked on so much. Even if they don't mean it, they have a higher chance of hurting people.

I don't think Alex is THAT type of character at all, I think he has good intentions but as you said "no social skills". I can see why others would interpret that way though.

It's funny that you mention how Alex doesn't have many female role models cuz... you have

Haley- Lazy and super not into dirt.

His mom- got sick and DIED.

Granny Evelyn- frail weak old woman who makes cookies and tends to flowers.

Those are not exactly SUPER GREAT examples of women who like sports.

Personally, I get why people say that playing a male farmer is better for Alex's story arc along with confronting George about the whole being gay thing but I think the female farmer has elements that I don't think are acknowledged much.

From my perspective anyway, I think a Fem farmer shows Alex a better example of women and what they can do VS grandma, dead mom, and Haley... along with learning boundaries and how better cope with repressed feelings and MAYBE-

-even address the fear of the farmer DYING of a sickness just like his mom or the intrusive thoughts of believing he'll end up like his father making him overprotective and paranoid about the farmers well being...

but you can ignore that...

Idk man, that's just the way I view it. You either like Alex or you don't :/

I ain't saying anyone's wrong to feel the way they do

[blueberrymash]

james sirius potter - the star boy

·˚ ༘ just some headcanons on what I think harry potter's eldest son would be like

·˚ ༘ 1.4k words

- he's a big marvel fan and he lovess miles morales (he literally wants to be him), if he had a girlfriend he'd beg her to go as miles and gwen for halloween. literally don't talk to him about any superhero stuff though, he'll talk your ear off he's such a fanboy and gets like a little kid whenever he talks about batman, spiderman or captain america.

- he's extremely popular like almost ridiculously so. he has a huge friend group and everyone except maybe for the slytherins like and respect him. nobody says that they don't like james sirius potter and if anyone within the gryffindor house would even utter one bad word about him, they would definitely be frowned upon

- some say he's like a carbon copy of his father, because they're so similar in so many aspects (they're both sassy boys).

- OH he's absolutely a fuck boy. there's not a single doubt in my mind that he is. he's not against having a girlfriend but she'd definitely have to be super popular as well and stand out from the masses. he'd never date someone shy or introverted, since he's like "if the word 'extroverted' was a person" if you know what I mean. he just wants somebody to match his freak and do crazy irresponsible shit with. he's also the type of person who loves to go out & socialize so he'd need to date somebody who's also like that. he also needs to release the pent up energy inside him so staying in all of the time just isn't an option for him. but he would have introverted friends.

- he likes to make out with hot girls at parties and forget their name in the morning. he likes to drink and sometimes smoke as well. he's the life of the party, always animating everyone to dance and drink and play games, always doing smalltalk with everyone and remembering little details about them but forgetting the big things (like their name lmao). he's a beer pong champion and in general really good at all the party games. he's just like a party animal

- he always knows the right things to say at the right time and people adore him for it. he genuinely cares about everyone in his year, even the slytherin outcasts. if he sees someone crying or hurt he doesn't care who you are or which house you're in, he's cheering you up

- he likes to be the center of attention. whenever his dad is followed by paparazzi or journalists, he makes a show out of talking to them, posing for the cameras until he's pulled away by ginny. she's honestly so done with him by now because he's such a sucker for attention lmaoo. but then he ends up in like famous wizard magazines (even the daily prophet) and he just has the biggest, most smug grin on his face when he sees his picture, it definitely encourages him to keep giving the paparazzi what they want

- he's also a family guy even if he doesn't get along with albus that well. he loves his little sister lily though and his mom and his dad. christmas with his family is his favorite thing because he loves their little traditions. he always puts great care in what he gets eveyone as a present and he loves it when lily's face lights up when he gets her that exact thing she wanted. he also loves his grandmother (slayy grandma molly) and he always proudly wears the sweaters that she knits him! the whole weasley-potter-delacour and whatnot family always has a big get-together ont the 25th or 26th of december and that's where james whips out his guitar and performs the christmas songs he's been working on perfecting all season.

- he lovesss quidditch and dancing and he'd actually be the type to start kpop dancing or something and he'd be AMAZING like actually breathtaking. he's the only thing you can look at while he performs on stage, he's just the golden boy. he'd go to training like everyday when he's at home and while he's at school he'd practice on his own! he really looks up to celestia warbeck and wants to be the male version of her when he's older! definitely he's really dedicated and I can imagine him being in like a boy group when he's older or going on to be a solo performer

- he can also sing and play the guitar, bro writes his own songs! his voice is the one of an angel and whenever he sings at a gryffindor bonfire or party, the whole room is drawn to him, falls for him. he dreams of being an entertainer or professional quidditch player later in his life and he's honestly made for it as well. the scouts who watch him play or dance always eat whatever he does up. he's literally destined to be a superstar, plus he also has great advantages from being a nepo baby.

- he's not that good at school though, except maybe for flying class and some random subject like divination (let's be honest, only because he flirts with professor trelawney), he'll just get some ravenclaw girl to tutor him though

- he's the type to take feminist literature to a café and pretend he's reading it lmaoo. it's not like he's not a feminist or doesn't support women's rights (he loves women), the boy just doesn't read books, like at all. he just wants to pick up women with the feminist literature and he'll pretend like he's read the book.

- honestly he'd even listen to lana del ray or taylor swift and he's not embarrased or scared he'll be seen as gay or soft. he knows he's straight (maybe even a little heteroflexible) and cis and he doesn't feel threatened in his masculinity when a gay boy comes and flirts with him, he sees it as an honour and politely declines, I mean, he even has gay friends and gay cousins and bro let's be honest, even though he isn't out yet, his brother's definitely a bit fruity for his best friend scorpius. he's not scared of rumours about his identity or sexuality, people can misinterpret him, he literally doesn't care.

- unbothered king!! you either love him or you hate him but he literally doesn't care, he can be so nonchalant and can definitely break a girl's heart cause he literally DOES NOT CARE TUT and he's definitely gotten himself into a lot of situationships (like I said, he's a fuckboy) but he will only ever get with a girl he is in love with, he doesn't just bring any girl home to his momma, she'd have to be special

- apropos, he is such a mama's boy! not like those boys who's momma is in love with them and hates every girlfriend their son brings home, no, that's obviously not ginny, but he just honestly loves his mom! he likes to go shopping with her and lily or go get their nails done with them (yes, he also loves those pretty nails with designs, not the long acrylic ones obviously but the short ones. he practically advanced from just painting his nails black to getting designs on them)

- the best way to be in james' life is honestly to either be one of his cousins or friends. his friends are literally like family to him and he's so loyal to them. also he's such a fun friend and always comes up with the best ideas, it's never boring with him. he's also open to doing so many different things, depending on what his freinds are like. if you're introverted and like staying in, he'll literally just do that with you and yes, he'll even watch gossip girl and do face masks, he doesn't mind, he just likes spending time with his friends. he'll enjoy whatever he does as long as its with a friend. and if you're one of his cousins he'll literally treat you like a sibling / best friend because all of his cousins are his best friends

- he's sooo generous and caring. you haven't eaten all day and feel like you're about to die from starvation? have his entire sandwich and let him bring you a plate of food from the house elves kitchen to your room. you feel like throwing up? bbg he'll hold your hair while you're puking and give you back rubs. you don't have anything to do in the summer holidays? come with him on the potter family holiday to spain! he literally just wants his loved ones to be happy and he'll do anything for their happiness

y'all want more?

[0lshadyl0]

Hiya! I saw request were open! So hear me out. What if, the reader s/o, darling, whichever you may call it, what if the reader managed to act get unlucky enough to be bought by a Celestial Dragon? 👀👀👀? But more so, with Yandere Boa Hancock? (headcannons) it'd be interesting to see what you'd think she'd do, seeing her beloved go through what she did. Also would you mind adding yandere Sabo and Ace to that list? Tell me if you don't wanna write this, I'm honestly just tryna see what you'd think they'd do :P. Thank you and bye~! ヾ(≧▽≦*)o XOXO(´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

 Yandere reaction of s/o bought by a Celestial Dragon

Since I'm feeling generous, I'll make it possible for the darling to be rescued and have a happy ending with their yanderes, but if you want the bad ending, send another request.

Boa Hancock

When the news reaches the Pirate Empress that her Darling has been captured and not only that, but that she has been sold to celestial dragons, she will feel as if the world is falling apart around her and flashbacks of how much she suffered during her years of slavery will come back to her head, which will make her collapse to the ground while being comforted by her sisters while she is consumed by helplessness after all she still has not overcome her traumas with those people. But when she manages to react again, she will have to be stopped by Marigold, Sandersonia and Gloriosa (you know, Grandma Nyon) because without thinking twice she will try to leave Amazon Lily alone to rescue her beloved.

When she comes to her senses again, because even if she wants to, she can't take on what is technically the entire world government alone, she will turn to the only person she feels could go against the Celestial Dragons and win, obviously I'm talking about the Mugiwaras (especially Luffy, well Boa was just thinking in Luffy)

And we all know that this little group is always willing to save whoever it is, no matter who they have to face, in fact, they would help even more because everyone hates the Celestial Dragons (remember Sabondy and Camie's kidnapping, Luffy's punch was epic)

So with the help of the Mugiwara (I'm thinking we're already out of the Wano arc), Luffy's army (because yes, all his followers that he got in Dressrosa would go to help his yonko) and all the Kuja pirates (only Grandma Nyon and the very young girls who can't fight would remain on the island)

All together they are going to Mary Geoise to do a raid of biblical proportions and while the Mugiwaras and the rest are breaking everything breakable in the government and its people, Hancok will be crazy looking for her dear all over the place while praying to the god Enel or whatever she believes in for her well-being (remember that except for Luffy, I don't think she is romantically interested in another man… unless it's Shanks but we all here know that he is irresistible, he's like Thanos, inevitable XD, I don't make the rules that's like a law in One Piece, I know, Oda told me in a dream)

In those moments she is not Boa Hancock, she is the demon of her fruit manifested in the body of a beautiful woman who will turn you into stone and kick whoever crosses her regardless of whether they are an ally or an enemy until they are less than dust, after all nothing matters more than her beloved, besides, everyone will forgive her because she is beautiful.

When he finds her, she will cry with joy as she will thoughtlessly free her beloved and shower her with kisses until her lips get tired. Then, when the euphoria passes, she will analyze the state she is in. If she is okay, Hancock will thank the heavens for such great fortune, but if she is hurt, her anger will be immeasurable and as she takes her to a safe place, she will have no mercy on any poor idiot who crosses her path.

Honestly, this raid will help take away some of the trauma the Pirate Empress has with the Celestial Dragons when she sees them fall into Luffy's crew hands.

If her beloved were to have a mark of slavery like her, Boa Hancock would cry and the two of them would console each other for the hard event that they both went through, but now that symbol would change in their minds, or rather, in Boa's mind, since it is a mark that unites them, a traumatic event from which they both survived and which is a sign of destiny that nothing can separate them, not even the government or the celestial dragons.

Oh yeah, after this Darling will never be able to leave Amazon Lily again, or even be more than 30 centimeters away from Hancock, she will be very afraid that a similar situation will happen again, good luck trying to convince her otherwise.

Well, I only did the Boa Hancock one, I was going to do the others but the post would be too long and I couldn't explain everything I wanted if I had to do the three characters in the same post, if you still want to know Sabo and Ace's reactions, feel free to leave me another request.

[five-rivers]

Season of the Skies

I started playing a game called Sky: Children of the Light recently, and although this isn't a crossover, it's definitely inspired by the vibes of that. It's a cute game!

Also, based on the feedback I got on AO3, there seems to be a significant overlap between the Phandom and Sky: Cotl players? Is that the case?

.

Reality had broken a month ago, and Danny was having the time of his life.  

He leaped lightly from rooftop to treetop and back again, gravity a dreamy afterthought.  The tiles and bark were rough beneath his bare feet, but not so rough he regretted not wearing shoes.  His impacts shook loose pollen, glitter, and a few stray petals, but did the trees no harm.  On the roofs he was silent, and no one came out to yell at him, but the window glass chimed with flashes of light.

The colors around him were bright and soft. Easy to look at, easy to fall into. The sky above was marbled with dawn-colored clouds and stars caught among distant nebulae.  Light and color were some of the first things to break, and Danny wasn't sorry to see light pollution go.  Most Everything glowed, now, and stargazing would have been terrible if eyes still worked the same way.  

At his next jump, this one taking him up a good ten feet, the feather-soft edge of the shawl he was wearing flared out behind him, brushing his arms.  The shawl was huge on him.  An old project of his great-grandmother's, it had been made with the typical Fenton girth in mind.  Honestly, it fit him more like a cape than a shawl, but he liked it that way.  

He landed safely and straightened the cape.  His dad’s needlepoint hobby had been inherited from her, so the dark blue fabric was covered in fine embroidery, lace, and tiny glass beads in shades of clear, pale blue, and white.  Great Grandma Fenton hadn't been into ghosts the same way the current Fentons were, but she'd been into something, so the patterns were strange.  Icicles, snowflakes, stars, clouds, and trees competed with lightning, runes and sigils, and strange, spirit-like creatures.  

“Hey!” shouted someone from the street below.  “Hey, Fentwerp!  What the hell do you think you're doing?”

Ah.  Dash.  Charming.  Danny leaned over the edge of the roof.  “What does it look like I'm doing?” he asked agreeably.  

“Getting your dumb nerd self killed is what it looks like,” said Dash, glowering up at Danny, his face turning red.

There.  See.  That's what Danny didn't understand.  No one else seemed willing to experiment with how the world was now.  They were all operating under the old rules, or, worse, looking for ways to fix things, as if the new world wasn't better than the old.  

Sure, it had been scary the first few days.  The suddenness.  The uncertainty.  The way systems they had relied on for so long had stuttered or failed outright.  Danny knew people had been hurt, that, in some places, they were still getting hurt.  He had been one of those people, having been in the hospital when the change rippled through the world, a result of an equipment malfunction in his parents’ lab.  

Maybe his opinion would be different if he was still getting hurt.  But as it was… why would he ever want to go back to how things were?  Why would he want to leave this world, where the colors were soft and bright, and the light sang?  Why would he want to leave this world where the air itself seemed to bear him up?  Where the possibilities seemed limitless?

There was so much more potential for good, with the world as it was than as it had been.  So much less potential for harm.  This was a more finished version of the world.  All the rough edges were gone, and filled with wonder.  He could feel it.

“Get down here!” demanded Dash, when Danny didn't respond.  

“No,” said Danny.  

“Get down here or else.”

“Or else what?” asked Danny, genuinely curious.  Dash couldn't get up here.  No one else could, as far as Danny knew. They hadn't taken the time to work out the new rules for gravity. 

Dash clenched his hands into fists, then stooped to grab a fairly large rock.  Danny, seeing no reason to just let Dash throw it at him, left.  

“Hey!” shouted Dash.  “Hey!  Freakton!  Get back here!”

Names like that were a lot less distressing when the people using them had no power to hurt you.  

Danny continued on his path upwards, touching on higher and higher buildings.  It was tough to get the proper amount of momentum to make some of his jumps, especially since he'd stopped to talk to Dash, but he managed to make all of them, and soon he was standing on top of the tallest building in Amity Park.  

In the center of the roof was a small tree, a sapling.  It hadn't been there the first time Danny had made it up here, and it had grown rapidly since then.  Next time he came, it'd probably be taller than he was. 

For now, though, Danny knelt to check the roots where they grew through a widening crack in the building's roof.  He'd warned the people in the building (he had warned everyone in buildings that had suddenly found themselves with roof trees), but he hadn't heard that anyone had done anything about it, and the roof trees felt friendly to him, so he hadn't pushed the issue.  From the descriptions and pictures Sam had given him, this one seemed healthy enough.  

He pulled a bottle from his backpack and gave the tree a generous sprinkle.  Then he stood up, gave the crown of leaves an affectionate ruffle, and made his way to the edge of the roof.

The city spread out in all directions below him, vibrant and changing.  Towards the edges of town, some buildings had lifted off their foundations, becoming floating islands.  Across the viridian, iridescent forest to the north, he could see blue-bright-gray flashes of Lake Eerie.  Fentonworks was easily visible off to the west, silver dishes and spires chased with green halos.  The parks bloomed with flowers both alien and familiar, vines trailing up into the air, trees growing explosively fast.  A breeze from behind turned his attention south, and he saw high clouds letting down shimmering curtains of rain.  

It wasn’t like Amity Park had been drab and horrible before, but why would anyone want to go back?

He looked away, back down at the street far below him.  Steeling himself, he grasped the edges of the shawl, he spread his arms wide.  

“Time to lift off,” he said, quietly.  “T-minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two–” Where he would have said one, he instead inhaled deeply.  Where he would have said zero, he jumped.  

For a heart-stopping moment, he wondered if he’d made a terrible mistake, if he’d made an error in his calculations, if reality had chosen that moment to reassert itself and he was about to drop like a rock.  

The moment passed quickly.  He was flying.  Or, at least, gliding.  

He laughed, and flapped his ‘wings.’  The shawl snapped behind him and gave him a small amount of lift.  

He was doing it.  He was doing it.  

And now that he was doing it, it felt as natural as breathing.  All that planning, all those calculations, all that running, climbing, and jumping–

He could fly.  

Oh, maybe it wasn’t as impressive as it would have been in the old world, where gravity was a cruel mistress.  But it was still flight, unpowered, human flight, and no one he knew of had done this before.  

He laughed, and banked to the side, flying in spirals.  He wasn’t brave enough to try a loop, yet, but he would, eventually, when he learned more about this.  

His spirals took him over the park, the school, the mall, even the Nasty Burger.  But he was losing altitude, his arms were getting tired, and he knew that if he got too close to the ground, gravity would get him again.  Not to the point of hurting him at all, but he didn’t want to land just anywhere after all this work.  

He tipped his wings westward, and started gliding home, pumping his ‘wings’ as infrequently as he could get away with.  He didn’t quite make it all the way back to his front door, but he got close, just a few houses down the street.  He rubbed his shoulders.  That was going to leave him sore.  He’d have to work out and practice more if he wanted to fly any real distance.  He'd also need a way to take off that didn’t involve climbing the tallest building in town. 

The front door of Fentonworks slammed open, revealing a pale Jack and a furiously pink Maddie.

“Daniel James Fenton!  What do you think you're doing?”

Danny looked down at his bare feet, then back up at his parents.  “Walking?”

Maddie sucked a breath in between her teeth.  “Inside,” she said

Danny hurried to obey, taking the steps up to the door two at a time and squeezing past her and Jack to get into the house.  Maddie closed the door behind him. 

“So, um,” said Danny, shuffling from foot to foot.  “What, um.  I thought you guys were going to be working all day today?”

“On the Ops Center,” said Jack.  “Not in the la– Not downstairs.”

Danny made note of the near-slip but didn’t comment on it.  He was already in trouble.  He didn’t need to remind them that the lab didn’t exactly exist anymore and make their mood worse.  

“Oh,” he said.  “What were you–?”

“Never mind what we were doing.  What were you doing?  What were you thinking, jumping off a building like that?  You could have died?”

“Or been seriously hurt!”

“But I wasn’t!  I’m fine.  I planned it all out, and it worked.”

“And it shouldn’t have!” shouted Jack and Maddie at the same time.  

Danny blinked up at them.  “What?”

Jack explained.  “We’ve been tracking the changes to gravity, too, Danny.  We’ve been measuring it, measuring all the changes, to see what those darn ghosts did.”

Danny held back a sigh.  There still wasn’t any sign that ghosts had done this, or even that ghosts existed.  

“Gravity might have changed a bit,” continued Jack, “but not enough to keep a human being airborne like that.”

“There are whole buildings floating,” said Danny.  “I’m a lot smaller than a building.”

“The rules seem to be different for different masses, as well as different altitudes,” said Maddie, making a face.  

“Yeah!  It’s really exciting.  We’re trying to measure the ectoplasm levels– It has to be related, but we haven’t been able to detect any yet– Those ghosts are tricky, son–”  

“Well, yeah.  But the rules are also different for things that are alive.”

“Really?” asked Jack, leaning close.  

“Uh, yes?  Otherwise I wouldn’t have done, um.  That.  I tested it.”

“You tested it?  Did you write it down?”

Danny nodded, cautiously.  Jack swept him off his feet.  “Our boy has been doing science, Mads!”

“He’s been jumping off of buildings!”

“Putting his research to practical use!”

“He’s been jumping off buildings without being peer reviewed!”

“Oh, yeah, son, you should have had someone check your work.”

“You never get peer reviewed,” said Danny, scowling.  

“That’s different,” said Maddie, quickly.  

“If anyone else believed in ghosts, you’d be sure we would be!”  

Hanging limp in Jack’s arms, Danny grumbled.  

“Danny,” said Maddie.  

“Yes?” he mumbled.  

“No more testing theories without checking in with us first.  Safety first.  You should know this by now.”

Danny hunched his shoulders and tried not to think too hard about his scars.  They weren’t very visible, and the doctors had said that they’d fade away, probably entirely, eventually, but they were still there now, if you knew where to look.

A month ago, reality had broken.  

A few days before that, Danny had almost died.  Lab accident.  It turned out that his parents thought portals to other dimensions which may or may not exist needed a lot of electricity and chemicals to function.  Danny had been curious.  He’d wanted to explore, to investigate.  He’d stepped on a loose wire that had led to a capacitor.  He’d been horribly electrocuted, and then exposed to a chemical cocktail.  Sam and Tucker, who had been in the lab with him, had called for an ambulance, and he’d been brought to the hospital.

At least, that’s what he was told, later.  He hadn’t woken up until he’d been in the hospital for a few days.  Of course, when he had woken up, he did so because a bunch of the medicines going into him had started to do weird things while reality restructured itself, and that had been… incredibly unpleasant.  Everyone had been grateful that only a very few things - like whatever Danny had been on to take care of the chemicals he’d picked up in the lab - had acted like that.

Later, Jazz had told Danny that for a brief period of time between the accident and reality breaking, Jack and Maddie had sworn off ghost hunting.  Presumably forever.  But once the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology started to rebel and twist, they’d taken it back.  Well, to be fair, apparently they didn’t take it back until the lab disappeared.  And the Fenton Stockades.    

Although, to be fair in the other direction, it was more a case of everyone’s basements disappearing and being replaced by weird misty caverns than ghosts specifically targeting his parents.  It was a whole thing. 

(Personally, Danny was glad to see them go, although it had sounded like Sam was mourning hers.)

“Danny,” said Maddie, “tell us that you understand.”

“I understand.  I don’t test theories without you,” said Danny, grudgingly.  “Not even about cool things like flying.”

Maddie scowled.  Jack beamed.  

“Great!” shouted Jack.  He whirled Danny around again.  “Let’s go see your data!  Where is it?”

“Upstairs,” mumbled Danny.  “I’ve got a notebook.”

“A notebook, Mads!”  

Maddie sighed.  “Alright, let’s see the notebook.”

[forest-falcon]

Can't believe it's been a full six months since I've last written anything on here. Real life got in the way of writing for a while. Good news is, we've had an offer on our house and good things lie ahead! Apparently this has been the shove that I needed to dip my toe back in the water in terms of writing. I'm brimming with ideas for Protocol Phoenix / The Butterfly Effect, so I'll hopefully be adding bits between house moving shenanigans! Anyhoo! Here's a bit of Scott/Kayo angsty-fluff as I get working on the bigger chapters!

⚠️Trigger Warning: angst and language

The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 17

💙🩵🚒

Time had unravelled.

It was true, that for the most part, the rebuild was running ahead of schedule - which was amazing considering what Brains and Tycho were like when left to talk for any length of time. 

What began as a quick-fix to the villa and One, was soon seen as an opportunity, by the pair, to tweak, adorn, and improve.

Their tenacity, and the unbridled genius of their designs were nothing short of staggering.

Still.

Fast was never fast enough. 

Not for Scott.

 And, like a caged bird, he yearned for the adrenaline of flight. 

It had only been six weeks since the accident, but within the confines of the villa, (even with the addition of friends), six weeks may as well have been six years. 

Scott scrubbed at his face.

God, he missed seeing how the sun ignited the sky on early morning rescues. Or how he wrestled with the wind as One sliced her way through the storms of other pilots' nightmares. He even missed the sound rain made on cahellium, rather than the island palms. Was that weird? He didn't even know anymore. 

Most of all he missed helping people. 

 And it fucking sucked.

"Brooding again, I see?"

Kayo didn't break pace, as she bypassed the sofas and headed straight for the newly-fitted kitchen.

Scott gave a morose sigh.

"Just...thinking."

He wasn't in the mood. For what in particular? He didn't know. But the notion still stood. 

"Careful... don't wanna hurt yourself."

Scott scoffed, mirthlessly. "You're right. I seem to be rather good at that - and at taking you all down with me."

Kayo shut the fridge, and began silently dividing a chocolate cake - one Scott hadn't even been aware was in there.

A small part of him was hopeful that one of the slices may be for him, but he buried the flicker of hope with a frown, and sat with folded arms - the image of petulance.

If Grandma caught him like this, she'd be having words, for sure.

"Not gonna say anything?" The words were blurted out before he could see fit to stop himself.

Wow. 

He hated that he was being this pathetic - especially in front of Kay, who seemed impervious to the world around her. 

But, no matter what he did, or what kind words were offered his way; guilt still cremated him every God. Damned. Day.  

"Eh," Kayo shrugged. "I'm not a talker. You wanna box it out, then great. But honestly?..." The words were mumbled around a mouthful of cake. 

Scott waited for Kayo's nugget of wisdom, and felt mildly irked, as the apparent taste-sensation was somehow enough to derail their conversation.

"Oh my God, that's good!..." Kayo gave an emphatic eye-roll, and gestured the cake.

"But honestly..." He prompted, as she went in for another forkful.

"Mm- honestly, you just need to get your game-face back on. Stop expecting some weird-ass fix, person, or day to magic everything better again. Healing takes time. You wanna accelerate your healing? Come and try a slice of this cake - it's bloody amazing!"

Scott resolved to sulk...but then, Kayo had plated him up a decadent wedge, and had shoved said plate into his hand.

He wanted to deny himself the gooey chocolatiness of the frosting, he really did, but he supposed he could sulk, and eat.

Scott took a bite, and hated himself for mirroring Kayo's indulgent expressions, but then, the cake was on-another-level sublime.

"Good?" Kayo's enthusiasm was starting to thaw his ice.

"Mmm-hmm." He conceded.

A smug little dance followed as Kayo revelled in the victory of being right.

Then something weird happened.

Kayo did a very un-Kayo thing, and went in for a proper, genuine hug.

 It took Scott by surprise, but he moulded into the embrace all the same (still careful, not to upturn his plate.)

Tender moments passed, before a swift punch to the arm signalled the soppiness was over.

Kayo sighed.

"Look. I'm not Virgil... I'm not even Grandma. They'd know the right things to say." 

Her tone was genuine, and kind, even as she stole the chunk of chocolate flake from atop his desert.

"Shit happens. It was just...simply your turn this time."

She gave a small squeeze of the hand, just as Jonesy strode into the room.

"Ah cake! Nice!"

Kayo quickly straightened.

"Actually, I promised Gordon that slice," she warned.

"Oh! Erm...well...now that I'm here, I may as well take it to him," the firefighter beamed, scooping up the plate.

He left the room even quicker than he had entered.

A sly grin toyed with Kayo's features.

"I think Gordon may finally have met his match for mischief," she pondered aloud.

"He ain't seeing that cake again, that's for sure," Scott agreed with a grin.

 Still basking in the afterglow of his rare Kayo-hug, he seized the opportunity to hook his sister back in for another squash.

"...Thanks Kay."

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for lashing out at my mom?

This is something that happened a while ago (like a couple years) and im moreso just curious what people think.

A little backstory before we get started, I was in high-school during this time and was severely mentally unstable. So unstable that prior to this I had JUST gotten out of the Psyche ward. My mom is notorious for being abusive and neglective, and anyone who knows me well will recognize my mom instantly from this. I also have DID, which can make remembering to do tasks pretty hard. With that out of the way:

I, (17nb), was driving home with my mom (40f) and two sisters (15f) and (16f) from my adoptive dad's house. He isn't important to the story, moreso that we were in the car during this time. I was on my phone which at the time I was punished from but was allowed to have to look at my grades. Because of my frequent hospitalizations (the most recent one had been my 8th) I wasn't doing very well in school on top of my already struggling mental health. (When something reminds me too much of high-school these days I actually pass out.)

I had been working really hard to bring up my grades! They went from straight Fs to Cs in a couple of weeks, and it was very close to the end of the year. I had pulled off what you could honestly call a miracle because if anyone knows the American school system, they know it's INCREDIBLY difficult to raise your grades at the end of the year. I was very excited because of this. I showed my mom the grades because I was so excited, and instead of validating me, she responded "that's great now do better"

I remember it felt like my world went silent, and I remember shouting "why can't you just be proud of me?!" I don't remember a lot of the conversation, but at some point she hit me. She'd hit me a lot in the past, and at this point I was really at my limit and I hit back. This is where I might be tah, because I escalated the fight by hitting back while we were in a moving vehicle, but I did demand she pull over the car shortly after. As soon as she did, I got out the car and ran as far as I could with the thought of going back to my dad's in my mind. However somehow she convinced me to come back and I got in the car. She yelled and berated me a bunch, before calling my grandmother and planning to drop me off with her. She then went back to where we were staying (where her current husband lives) and said husband almost attacked me. Eventually they got my things (some of which he destroyed) and then dropped me at my grandma's house and left me.

At this current point in time, she actually ended up giving up custody of me, and i live with my grandparents nowadays. I'm content here, though I wish I could change some things. Overall, I'm really just curious since my mom paints me as the badguy. Was I the asshole???

What are these acronyms?

[thelazyhermits]

Now I'm curious about Jack and Sebeks' family reaction to the children calling them Dad/Father, and also Malleus grandmother reacting to Tsuki calling her grandson Daddy. Can you try giving your thoughts on it despite not much information about them?

I definitely can't give anything too in depth but I can provide a general reaction based on how I assume these relatives are using the very little info we do have on them.

For Malleus's grandma, I honestly think she'd be amused since I think her feelings toward humans are along the same line as Malleus's feelings. She probably bore resentment toward them for a while, especially after her daughter's death, but in current times, I don't think she is holding onto that anger/hatred like Baul who still can't completely accept his human son-in-law.

Honestly, considering how much Lilia changed for the better via raising Silver, I think Maleficia would see this as a good experience for her grandson to have since one really grows when they enter parenthood. Plus, Malleus isn't in it alone thanks to Yuu and the rest of her large, ever growing family, meaning he's always surrounded by people who don't fear him, which she knows is what he needs most of all.

So I think she would support Malleus taking on the role of Tsuki's father. She might even tease him whenever he goes through typical parental struggles/panicking, like what I'm completely sure that Lilia would do lol

Sebek's family is the easiest for me to make an assumption about since we've met Baul and we have more info about Sebek's parents than we do most of the TWST guys' parents.

Because Sebek was given the job of being a parental figure for Liam and raising him by Malleus, Baul would be proud of his grandson for earning Liam's trust to the point that he's called father, and I'm sure he'd help out wherever he could since I wouldn't be surprised if he, like Lilia, feels some guilt/responsibility over what happened to Liam's clan.

I could Sebek's mom being super excited about having a grandkid to spoil, whether or not it's her first one is entirely up to Sebek's older siblings lol

Sebek's mom would be so supportive of Yuu's ever growing family and would definitely do a lot of pitching in whenever she can cause they're Sebek's family, and anyone who's his family is also her family.

Likewise, Sebek's dad would be really supportive and would probably praise Sebek a lot whenever he sees his son doing a great job as a dad. I'd love if Sebek goes to his dad for parenting advice since, despite all his past complaints when he was younger, Sebek, who's now an adult, can't deny now that he had a good father, who raised him with a lot of love and care, which he knows he should be grateful for.

Because we know hardly anything about Sebek's siblings, I'm just gonna guess that they'd be super supportive like their parents. I wouldn't be surprised if they also teased Sebek like typical older siblings do when Liam starts calling him Father and Sebek gets all emotional about it haha

Jack's family is the hardest of the bunch cause he really doesn't talk about them a whole lot. We mostly only hear about his little siblings.

I honestly have no idea what his parents are like, but I'd like to hope they'd be supportive. I'm sure they'd definitely be surprised when they first find out about Theo, but after hearing about Theo's story, I'd like to think they'd be super proud of Jack for doing his part to help this child have a happy life.

Regarding his little siblings, I bet they'd be happy to have a nephew, and I'm sure they'd welcome him into the family with open arms since they sound like sweet kids based on what Jack has said about them.

[demigodsanswer]

what is Annabeth's career timeline in tuap? We know she did Sugar Plum at 17 but when did she do other things?

It's honestly about time I wrote this out even for myself. I will say, she only has two major injuries in her career between being pulled into the company and tuap, which will be mentioned here. But it's safe to assume she has a few sprains, pulled muscles, and other things that occasionally have her pulled from shows here and there.

I also am always discovering new ballets and coming up with new ideas for her career. So I can't promise everything is 100% in line with certain things in the fic, but hey, if Rick can do [gestures broadly] I can mess with her career timeline.

Also, the ballet season is similar to a school year -- September through June, with layoffs in the summer, but NYCB also usually does a three-week season in Saratoga, NY.

Sixteen: She's pulled into the company in late October and starts rehearsal for part scene grandma, party scene doll, Snow, and Flowers. She has to do every single show. And she does a great job and has a lot of fun. Doing Doll is especially fun because it's a really early feature for her. It's a short solo, but it always reminds her of the Doll on a Music Box scene from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

That winter, she starts learning corps roles for all the major Balanchine ballets on the schedule, including Serenade, which is an all-time favorite for her. She also learns the corps of Theme and Variation, Divertismento 15, and Walpurgisnacht. She also gets to be one of the friends in Copellia, her first big non-Nutcracker story ballet with the company.

Spring continues that patterns. She gets to understudy the Divertisment for Midsummer Night's Dream as well, although she doesn't get to dance it.

At the end of spring season, she gets her corps contract.

Seventeen: In the fall, she just keeps learning corps parts. She does the corps of Swan Lake for the first time. She's just standing there with her arms up, day dreaming about being the lead. She thinks she'd be very good as the lead.

Nutcracker season this year is huge for her. She debuts Sugar Plum for the first time, and this is really, really remarkable. One of the really remarkable things about this is she does everything out of order. Usually you get pulled for a divert, like Marzipan lead or Arabian, or Spanish lead first. Then you do Dew Drop (the other Principal part), and then you do Sugar. But she jumped right to Sugar. I think Chiron just knew she was perfect for Sugar and didn't want to wait another season or two to see her do it. She gets stunning reviews and everyone kind of knows at that point she's going to be a principal one day.

This season is also when she starts doing Mari corps and Spanish corps, so there's a little more variation in her schedule. She's not just Snow and Flowers, although she is still doing that. And Doll and Grandma. She does Spanish Corps withe Beck and that's the first time they dance on stage together.

Winter season starts strong. She's feeling absolutely awesome. She gets pulled to do Romeo and Juliet balcony scene with Beck. They do two shows, it's amazing. And then she suffers a stress fracture in her foot and is out for the season. This is devastating for her. She's a little convinced her career is over. She takes the rest of the season to heal, and when she comes back in Spring, she doesn't get any major solos. She gets one role in the Emeralds Pas de Tres. And that's it.

Eighteen: She starts fall strong. She gets cast as the ballerina in Balanchine's La Valse (this is such a cool ballet, check it out!), and this is her first principal role outside of Nutcracker. It really shows off her ability to create character. And sweet little eighteen year old Annabeth plays it so well. She really gives everything to this part. Her musicality and acting really shine.

For Nutcracker, she's still doing Snow and Flowers and Doll, but she finally doesn't need to do grandma anymore. She learns Marzi lead too. She's still doing Marzi corps and Spanish coprs as well. She also debuts Dew Drop this year. For the entirety of her career, no one ever really thinks of Dew Drop as "her role," but she does really love her Dew Drop, and her die hard fans love to see it on her schedule.

Winter is Sleeping Beauty. She's so so sure she's going to be pulled to learn it as an alternate. And then she's not. Instead, she's in the corps doing the garland waltz and vision scene. She's honestly so mad. She knows she'd be a perfect Aurora. She's writing in her journal like "Look at my curls! These are princess curls!!"

Chiron does have her understudy just about every prologue fairy and every act three divert. And thank goodness she was paying attention, because she gets pulled to do The White Cat for four straight shows. She gives this everything. She plays with her musical accents and her cat mannerisms. And it pays off. Chiron promises her that next time they do it, she'll be Aurora.

Spring comes around and Chiron casts her as Liberty Bell in Stars and Stripes, another major principal role for her. Reviewers agree, she is as sweet as Apple Pie. This really shows off her musical wit.

Annabeth is sure she's going to be promoted to soloist at the end of this year. But instead Chiron just tells her: "Not yet." She was about to cry, when he told her he was casting her as Juliet in his new Romeo and Juliet. "Your promotion is coming, but next year, I need you to be focused on Juliet and learning as many other ballets as you can so you can pass on all of this choreography one day."

That summer she does Liberty Bell in Saratoga as well.

Nineteen:

She gets very few new soloist or principal roles this year because most of her rehearsal time is Chiron choreographing on her. She's having an amazing time.

But this Nutcracker year is brutal. Because she's still in the corps, she needs to do 26 shows. But this year so many women who do Marzi lead and corps are injured. She ends up doing about 15 Marzi leads, 10 Marzi corps, plus a like 26 snows, a handful of flowers, some Spanish corps. She also learns Spanish lead this year, but she doesn't do it. Plus Dew Drop and Sugar. She ends up dancing like 33 shows after covering so many people. She dances the most of anyone save for the apprentices. All the while, most of her rehearsals are R&J.

There's one day, a few weeks into the season, she's practicing gargouillade's after company class, because she's really not happy with how hers look, but they are featured prominently in Marzi lead. And she just hates the way her legs look, and she feels like garbage. And she goes and lays on the ground on the side. Helen comes over and asks what's wrong. And poor Annabeth has tears in her eyes, and says something about gargouillades, and Helen just says: "Annabeth, no one knows how to do a fucking gargouillade, just jump up, kick your little legs around, and it'll be fine. The audience doesn't know what they're looking at anyway."

She counts this as some of the most important advice she's ever gotten, and she will, one day, say the same thing to her daughter in the middle of her own Nutcracker breakdown.

Chiron gives her a light Winter season, just ballets she's done before, no new Principal or soloist debuts, so she can focus on Juliet.

Juliet premieres in the Spring and it's a smash hit. She and Beck are promoted to soloist. Chiron was thinking about just promoting them straight to principal, but he decided to make them pay their dues just a little more.

Twenty:

This is the year her mental health really starts to take a dive.

She gets some decent soloist parts, but nothing too major. She learns Demiflowers for Nutcracker, and she gets to be Marzi lead in the Nutcracker recording.

Annabeth mostly feels like she's being asked to wait for her promotion, and she's never been terribly patient.

She does Juliet at Saratoga and the Kennedy Center this year. She gets good reviews, but she's just waiting for her promotion.

Spring does bring one major debut, the one she's been waiting for: Russian Girl in Serenade. This becomes one of her signature parts, and is one of those things she dances on her own whenever she's feeling sad. She counts this debut as holding back her complete breakdown a few more months.

She gets promoted in the middle of spring season this year.

Twenty-one:

Her mental health tanks so bad during that fall's run of Swan Lake she thinks about changing her name to Natalie Portman. Thankfully, Lee Fletcher is her dance partner, see's she's suffering and goes "Do you want to go see Wicked? My husband in Boq in Wicked, lets go!" And she cries so hard during Thank Goodness she thinks she's going to have to leave the theater. Thankfully, Lee pushes her to see a therapist and get medicated. Things start to turn up from here.

But Swan Lake reviews aren't great. They aren't terrible, but they aren't what anyone expected from her. Her performances aren't what anyone expected from her. Reviews agree: her white swan was pretty, but she seemed more mentally unstable than beautifully melancholic, and her black swan had a nice musicality, but lacked any of the sexy, flirtation associated with the role.

Thankfully, Chiron gives her another chance at the Kennedy Center that Winter, and she gives much stronger performances now that she's a little more stable than she was.

(This is also when she starts wearing contacts because she properly cannot see anymore).

Now that she's a Principal, Nutcracker is nice. She's doing Hostess, Marzi lead, Dew, and Sugar.

That winter she also debuts Allegro Brilliante with Lee, she does Diamonds Pas for the first time as well. She also does Yellow girl in Dances at a Gathering with Beck for the first time.

That Spring, she and Beck do Hellena and Demetrius in Midsummer, and Slaughter on Tenth Ave.

Twenty-two:

She keeps debuting lots of Balanchine and Jerome Robin's ballets as the principal, including Divertismento 15, Theme and Variation, Firebird, and On the Town. Lee and Beck are her consistent partners.

Fall season brings her debut of Swanilda in Coppelia. This gets great reviews and people start to realize that she can do more than just play tragic characters. She's got a great sense of humor to her. This is another role that, like Dew Drop, people don't really associate with her, but that she loves to do, and people who see her do it love her in it.

This is also Fred's favorite ballet to see her dance. It makes him laugh every time to see her act like a doll. He likes the story a lot.

Twenty-three

The big role for her here is Kitri. It's the first time NYCB is doing the classical Don Q, and she really really wants to be Kitri. She thinks she's a shoo-in, because it's a big classical story ballet, but when she looks at the schedule, she sees she's scheduled to learn Kitri, but also Mercedes and Cupid. If she was going to do it, she wouldn't be rehearsing other roles.

But she stands there, in the back, and learns. And when Chiron wants to see it, she gives fucking everything to that act one variation. She's fun, she's flirty, she kicks her legs higher than she knew she could go. She's hitting fifth on her turns and staying clean on the music. And at the end she gets that Chiron Bruner: "Good." And she knows she in.

The next day, she gets her own cast and is pulled from Mercedes and Cupid (her Cupid spot goes to coprs de ballet member Piper McLearn, who gets pulled to soloist after it).

She does have two falls during Don Q, which is such a shame, because she otherwise really loves those performances. The first isn't her fault. The tape that holds the marley pulled up off the stage, and after her act one solo she tripped on it running off, and fell into the wings. Not all of the audience saw this though. The next night, she went to land a tour jete, and totally face planted. That one hurt, but she got up again. That's probably her worst on-stage fall of her career. For her third show, Chiron came up to her and asked if she had rosined her shoes.

Twenty-four

Another Swan Lake in the Winter. This one gets amazing reviews, and people really see the ways she's come into her own as a young dancer.

Otherwise, more debuts, maybe has some more new work choreographed on her (I am far from a choreographer so this is beyond the capacities of my imagination)

This is also when Lee retires. He asks Chiron to cast Annabeth as his partner in Allegro Brilliante, because he did her first principal with her, so he wants her to do his last principal role with him. Annabeth gets through the ballet okay, but as soon as it's over, she's a weeping mess. Video of this moment occasionally resurfaces.

Twenty-five

The Fall brings more Coppelia, which she's happy about. She feels like she's got a routine now. She's debuted so many things, she knows so much of the rep. She's killing it. Nutcracker season is great. She's planning her wedding. Winter is great, uneventful.

She gets cast in Diamonds in the Spring with a promising young soloist.

~

And that's where I'll end this post. Maybe I'll do her post-tuap career later. But this was long enough.

For those interested, John Clifford uploads a lot of archival footage of Balanchine ballets to youtube. This footage is often very old, but it's a valuable resource if you want to see certain pieces.

[wordy-little-witch]

Do you think Shakky would be a good grandma?

To answer shortly: yes

However I honestly don't really ship Shakky and Rayleigh. I see them more as like. Best friends. Unhinged queer platonic life mates. If they ARE married, it was for tax evasion (/hj) or convenience.

I do however love the idea of great aunt Shakky á la Down For Anything Wine Aunt Vibes. Think a slightly more chill lady Stan from gravity falls lmfao.

She'd absolutely pull a line like "oh... that's something a responsible parent would never allow. Good thing I'm an aunt! Have fun, kids~"

She's good for babysitting short term but is liable to allow some more.... excessive..... games to fly by if it's longer terms. Honestly, most think her very level headed, but she believes in the pros and cons of "fuck around and find out".

She'd absolutely kill someone for the kids, though. No questions asked.

((Also a chronic enabler. Someone says no? Well, aunt Shakky said yes. What the parents don't know won't hurt them. Come along, minions, let's cause chaos-))

[emilyofthegreenwood]

"Queen of the May" by Denée Cody

Zebra Books, 1997 || Read and reviewed in November 2024

Introducing my first foray into the classic genre of paperback romance! As this is my first paperback romance, I can't compare it with any others. There might be better ones out there. There might be worse. I've been interested in trying one of these out for a while, particularly because these are books made and marketed for women, specifically for the sake of having fun reading. The marketing is shamelessly up front about what they are and what they offer, and there's something badass to me about grandmas having a casual romance novel in their yarn basket, with a fabulously erotic clinch cover on full display.

So, the other week, I wandered into the most embarrassing aisle at Half Price Books with the goal of finding a paperback romance to try out. To my surprise and delight, I stumbled upon "Queen of the May", which features Robin (spelled Robyn here) and Marian as secondary characters. I knew it would be a hoot, and I was right. "Queen of the May" follows our two protagonists, Giselle and Alexander. Giselle, although not really an outlaw herself, lives in Sherwood Forest with Robyn Hood and company. Her best buddy is Marian. Alexander is the lonely baron of Wolfhurst, a fictional village near Sherwood, and he's back in England after twelve years on crusade. For inexplicable reasons, Giselle accidentally shoots him with a poisoned arrow and then takes him back to her cave to heal him. And so, they immediately fall in lust with each other, and we're off on the grand nonsense ride of this book! I didn't crack this open expecting anything particularly good, and fully expected to find some distasteful tropes along the way. (And, oh boy, did I ever.) To be honest, that was half the fun. This book was hilarious and deserved every eyeroll. Let's look at some highlights.

Hot tub sex in Sherwood! Oh, I'm sorry, it's a hot spring. Okay, sure.

Alexander and his family have some kind of emergency whistle protocol and it's absolutely hilarious.

Every character's favorite curse is "God's feet!" for the first two thirds of the the novel. And then in the last third, everyone graduates and uses "God's blood". I was so relieved. I was sick of hearing about his feet.

The absolute low point is when Giselle doesn't want to marry Alexander because she thinks she'd be an embarrassment of a wife, and he decides to "wear her down with persistence" until she agrees. "I'll accept nothing less than total surrender." Yikes, buddy. Maybe not? Villain behavior. Seems it was all talk though, because nothing actually happens in that vein.

The standout character is honestly Marian, and I swear I'm not being biased. She didn't get to do much, plot-wise, but she was great fun every time she was on the page. Which is more than can be said of anyone else.

Just as a fun throw-in, Marian is pregnant for the entire novel, although we are only told a few times, and there doesn't seem to be any purpose to it. Over the seven months of this novel, she continues to exist without so much of a mention of a baby bump or any other changes. During a horrible winter storm, Giselle (in the castle) worries not a whit for her pregnant best friend living in the woods. Robyn, bless him, is the only one who seems worried about Marian having a baby in the forest. Meanwhile, Marian does not mention the baby even once. So.... why?

What little character Robyn was allowed to have was good enough, and he seemed mostly like himself. I liked this bit of internal reflection from Alexander: "Robyn had proved an able and reliable man, intelligent and with a mischievous sense of humor." Sounds like Robin Hood to me. :)

As a Robin Hood book, it's very periphery. Then again, the pages are filled with Robyn, Marian, Tuck, and Guy of Guisborne. Heck, Guy is the primary villain! Other characters who get a mention or more are Little John, Alan, and Alan's lover (here named Alice). The focus, as expected, is the romance between Alex and Giselle, and it's more physical than emotional so there's not much to really bite into. The muscles are firm, everyone's hot to go, the bedroom is the goal, and Robin Hood stuff happens on the edges of it all. I would recommend this only if you, like me, have an interest of some kind in paperback romances and are willing to put up with the negatives that come with that. Go have fun! Read some silly, pulpy books. I approached this book with completely unserious expectations and had fun. I think that's enough. Robin Hood shelf: for more Robin Hood book reviews (eventually)

[emeritus-fuckers]

How do you think the papas and seester would treat a plus sized lover?

I just did some general hc here, if you want more, just ask - Jez

The Papas and Sister Imperator with a plus-sized s/o

Primo

I honestly think Primo would actually prefer a bigger darling.

He just associates it with you being a homemaker, a warm presence to get back home to.

He's an old man, he enjoys a cuddle, and a chubbier darling means better cuddles.

He loves holding you and resting against you.

You're very soft and he likes that a lot.

Secondo

I feel like he would certainly enjoy a larger darling, especially after retiring.

He needs some security and I feel like holding onto a plus-sized darling at night would make him feel better.

There is just this very nice feeling of comfort and security to fall asleep and wake up holding to a bigger darling.

He especially cherishes when he gets to lazily wrap his arm around your tummy and feel your soft skin.

Big fan.

Terzo

He's the type of person to not even notice your size.

Like... his darling is his darling.

He thinks you're sexy no matter how you look or what you wear.

He's short, he'd love to rest on top of you if you'd let him.

He also really wants to use you as a pillow.

Of course he wants to make sure you're comfortable with him doing that.

Absolutely adores you and your size.

Copia

Copia adores you.

It's a simple equation, bigger darling = more to love.

He loves resting against you while you play video games, snuggling against you with a childish whine when he loses.

You are the prettiest, the most beautiful person he's ever seen!

He will literally babble about how stunning you are!

The most affectionate man ever.

Old Nihil

At his age, he doesn't really care much.

If you're nice and caring, he's gonna simp for you and not even realize your size at all.

It's gonna be a few months into your relationship that one day he looks at you, realizes that you're plus-size and just goes "oh, okay".

And then he just goes back to simping like nothing happened.

Young Nihil

I feel like he's somewhat immature considering his age and he wouldn't exactly go for a bigger darling at first. He's just... somewhat shallow, I suppose.

But then again, life's full of surprises and he learns that a chubbier lover is actually a great deal!

He especially loves hiding his face in his darling's chest or stomach, pressing himself against your soft flesh.

You're gonna get facepaint all over your skin because of him.

I feel like he's somewhat judgy at first, at as he gets to spend more and more time with you, he becomes more accepting and likely to defend others who are your size and get bullied for whatever reason.

Young Sister Imperator

She finds you absolutely adorable. Pinches your cheek a lot.

She also somewhat knows if you're insecure about any parts of your body and gives many small, fleeting touches to them.

Her favorite activity is hugging you from behind and stroking your body with her thumbs as she rests her head on your shoulder.

She doesn't really say anything or acknowledges it too much, but the way she touches you makes you feel really loved.

Old Sister Imperator

Aside from after the months in hospital, Sister Imperator did develop a tendency to gain weight in her older years.

She does eat healthy and take good care of herself, but she is plus-size as well, simply because of genetics, like some grandmas just become chubby over the years (my grandma did).

So she doesn't mind a plus-sized darling at all!

If you're insecure, she'd love to help you develop a healthier relationship with your body.

Similarly to how she would do that in her youth, she'd give you soft, feeling touches.

All in all, she's incredible at boosting your self-confidence and making you feel loved.

Taglist: @firefirevampire @sirlsplayland @thatoddboy @ouijaboardemo @mamacarlyle (send an ask if you'd like to be added! read the pinned post before asking!)

[greetings-inferiors]

Talking to my mother feels like debating with Ben Shapiro, Jesus Christ it can be unbearable sometimes.

I posted this on my Instagram story

Banger meme I know. To those who don't (like my mother), the joke is riffing on the meme format itself, where two people say that they like the same thing, but then in the second panel they like different things with the same name. But the whole point of the ship of Theseus is that it's identical but completely different, so the creator has referenced this by using the same picture of a boat, twice. As a visual shorthand. Because they aren't going to get a picture of a before and after of a ship of Theseus experiment, that would be too much effort that frankly isn't necessary. You need a tiny bit of suspension of disbelief.

Anyway, my mother, who regularly thinks that fictional movies make no sense because that's not how things actually work (i.e. she has no suspension of disbelief). Messages me saying "but they are holding up the same thing?"

And like. Okay. I get that the whole point of this meme is subverting the meme format itself. The joke is that they found the one possible thing where they could be holding the same thing and the joke works. The joke isn't the ship of Theseus itself, it's a meta joke. But I've explained this. Maybe she just doesn't get the ship of Theseus?

I explain it to her. She says "no, I know the ship of Theseus. I'm just saying it'd be clever if the images were of different ships, as that image could be the same ship". And like. Yeah. The image is the same image at the same time. That's not the point. If it were different images a.) that's not a good shorthand for the ship of Theseus as the point is it looks and feels identical but isn't and b.) you're missing the meta context, and I'm sorry but it may just not be funny to you because of it. What you are offering is a different joke. If my grandma had wheels she'd be a bike, and all that.

Anyway this kept going and it was infuriating. I'm so used to not engaging with bait and trolls online, but when it's your actual mother, it feels like I have to. And it sucks. I get that she loves debating, arguing, and playing devil's advocate. I get that mbti isn't a great model, but you wouldn't know it from how accurate it pinned her down (I can't remember which one it is but she's the debater). And I honestly can't be arsed. I love a good debate sometimes, but when it's for the sake of debating, and especially when it's her, I just can't be arsed.

[moreespressoformydepresso]

Wanted to comment under the fanfic but for some reason my account refuses to post the comment so it's copied from ao3

I am so glad we are getting the POV of the background tributes and the image of sheaf curled up into a little ball and panlo looking after her is so cute 🥺</p>

<p>I was so excited seeing a facet prespictive he's one of my favourite characters and him babysitting Is so cute I have been headcanoning that he is great with kids and him and the tributes standing up for dill is amazing she is just a harmless innocent sick little girl leave my baby alone<br />

And more Livia slander let's GOOOO<br />

And treech giving lamina all the food oh poor boy 😭 😭<br />

Once again I don't like babying snow but it's so entertaining seeing him embarrassed at showing Lucy gray he's home I am looking forward to her meeting tigris not so much to the grandma she better keep her venemous mouth shut for our rainbow songbird</p>

Amazing chapter as always 👍😊

There's been a lot of hateful bot comments so AO3's turned off guest comments multiple times, I guess it could be that? Idk but I can't think of anything else because I let everyone comment on my fics (I crave validation lol). Sheaf and Panlo need more love so while I struggle to characterize them distinctly I've decided to give them more love. Same with Facet. Idk if they came across well but I tried lmao. And I cannot resist writing about Treech and Lamina so they got thrown in there, which works because I made Facet very nice and very observant. Hence why he knows everyone's names and why he talks about Livia the way that he does. She'll warm up to him eventually, but for now I'm slandering the fuck out of her and honestly most of the mentors except for Sejanus. Sejanus is the only mentor who truly understands the horrors of the games, and even the nicest Capitol mentors have some pretty bad moral compasses when it comes to the districts to start with. Sejanus is the only one who doesn't have an arc to becoming a better person. His arc is understanding when it's time to let go of a relationship because the other person will drag him down into the depths if he doesn't.

Though, to be fair... I'm making Coryo a better person in this because it's a full fix-it. Dill and Felix will do most of the early heavy lifting (because he's the president's son like in the movie) but Coryo and Gaius will be more involved in some later happenings. Gaius strikes me as a person that tries to be good, comforting people in pain and making them laugh. However, his messed up view of the districts is blinding him when it comes to the tributes and the games. It's hard to laugh about someone's pain when they've been a better person that the people you consider "superior". Especially once you learn the horrific extent of their suffering. As for Coryo... I'm mixing the movie's general softening of his worst traits with the fact that this happens relatively early in the story. None of his worst conclusions have been drawn and since he'll never brutally murder Bobbin he'll never really start believing Gaul's theory. One thing I noticed is that he seems to think himself superior to district people because he overcame his struggles and he doesn't understand how much worse the districts have it. Nor does he understand that they don't have the opportunity to overcome their struggles like he does. That's why he looks at Lucy Gray strangely when she mentions not knowing there's multiple kinds of tea. It's a small thing, but it's pretty significant because of how it utterly shatters all of his excuses for why the districts deserve what's being done to them.

It shows that his situation isn't comparable to theirs. Because despite the poverty, he knows that there are multiple kinds of tea. He's seen them around him, he even managed to get some. It would be one thing if Lucy Gray wasn't able to afford any, but she doesn't even know they exist! The mere idea is so luxurious to her that she'd never even heard of it in the first place. And the items on the table are very mundane to him. Nothing to be marvelled at. Yet Lucy Gray is practically entranced by it because she could never afford it. While Coryo can't read her mind, he's not stupid. This isn't rocket science. And it rocks his world because it shows his assumptions about his own position in the world vs the districts is completely out of whack. So yeah, that'll build to at least a pseudo-redemption for him. I won't make this SnowBaird because I flat out don't ship it, but I do have plans for conflict and romance for Coryo. Specifically with Sejanus, because those two definitely had some undertones.