#and i would never lie in a tumblr tag game. i take this shit seriously.

[widevibratobitch]

thank yewwww @cparti-mkiki and @sifilide for tagging me in your sillygoofy tumblr games <3

Make a poll with five of your all time favourite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favourite!

so. 4 all time favourites + current brainrot

tagging @verdiesque @stoportotouch @girlscarpia @hhorror-vacuii @hickeyknife mwah

[namixart]

So. Sorry for vagueposting but rant under read more because I'm livid.

So. You may have seen my awesome new tattoo. It's great, I love it and it makes me super happy. If you haven't seen it, it's a tattoo of Cloud's Buster Sword covered in Aerith's flowers. The reasoning behind it, as I mentioned in my original post, is that 2020 wasn't really a fun year for anyone. Me? I got through it relatively unscathed, and a lot of it I credit to FFVIIR coming out and working on Wildflowers. I genuinely love it and I'm always excited to share more and more with you guys! I also spent most of the year gushing about the game and the characters to anyone who'd listen, and I don't feel like it's a stretch to say that if not for FFVIIR and Wildflowers I'd be in a much worse place right now, mental health wise. More specifically than just FFVII, it's been thanks to Cloud and Aerith. They're my favourite characters in the game (together AND separately) and honestly probably my favourite characters ever. Period. They're both absolutely comfort characters for me and I break out in a huge smile whenever they're so much as brought up. So, I decided to get a tattoo representing them. Because I wouldn't be doing as well as I am now if not for them. Again, both together and separately. As I mentioned in the caption of the photo I posted of my tattoo.

Now, tonight I got a notification: "[username] reblogged your post!" So, obviously, I went to check it out! Everyone has been absolutely lovely on that post--a lot of compliments and excitement RE: the tattoo--and I wanted to see if there was more of that. There was not. No, what I found in the reblog was [username] very smugly asking me what I would tell people "when C/T end up together again in remake" and I look like an idiot for getting a C/A tattoo. Would I tell them the remake retconned canon? Or would I lie and say it's a Z/A tattoo?

So, they obviously got blocked faster than the speed of light and they deserve none of my or anyone else's attention, but I just kinda need to rant, because hey, none of this is okay! First of all, there was nothing in that post or the tags talking about C/T or just T (don't want this showing up in their tags, I'm not an animal). The tattoo has nothing to do with C/T (or Z/A for that matter), and I did not feel the need to be snippy or talk about the LTD at all. For that matter, even if I did tag it as C/A, it's not really even just a shipping tattoo. First and foremost, it's about Cloud and Aerith in their capacity as my favourite FFVII characters, my comfort characters and the fact that they helped me get through 2020 and the first half of 2021. Do I ship C/A? Yes, obviously. But I'm not yet so deranged that that would be enough to get a tattoo. No, this was about the game and the characters. At any rate, the fact that I didn't tag it as C/T and that they still found the post means that they went snooping through the C/A tag to find it, presumably to get mad and be mean at strangers on the internet just trying to exist in peace. Which is bad enough. [username], if you're out there (and you're not, because blocked), please do all of us a favour and get a life.

Secondly, and most importantly, [username] missed something that's very obvious to somebody with basic reading comprehension skills (I know this is Tumblr but come on). The mental health thing. Now, I don't know where I would be if FFVIIR and Wildflowers hadn't happened at the time that they did, but I'd be in much worse shape. This story and these characters were consistently a huge comfort and escape for me for over a year and a half, and that's the reason I got a tattoo. So, [username] looked at a post of me being happy about my tattoo because it brings me joy and represents characters who bring me joy and got me through a goddamn global pandemic and went "That's nice," and proceeded to spit out whatever verbal garbage came to mind. This is the part that infuriates me. I'm not hurt, I'm not heartbroken, I don't care. But this sort of behaviour is disgusting. I'd be equally livid if I saw it happen to somebody else. Guess what you don't get to do? Shit on people's happiness and intrude like this. For all they know, I could've been in a much worse state than I was--did they ever think about that? That's the part that gets me. Like, who are you to come onto my post, take it way too seriously and be mean about something that represents my coping mechanism? Disgusting. I hope they know that every single character they mentioned, especially their beloved T, would be disgusted with them.

And even if none of this was the case, even if I did go off the deep end and get a tattoo because ooohh cute ship, even if I didn't have any mental health issues associated with it--even if all of that. They still thought it was appropriate to take a post of someone just trying to share a tattoo that they loved and be rude and mean-spirited and smug on it. While specifically looking through the C/A tags too, let's not forget that sad cherry on this pathetic sundae. What kind of person do you have to be, to act like this and think you're in the right? This is the most sincere "Get a life" I've ever said, Jesus Christ. Guess what? Shipping isn't that big of a deal! I know, radical. You know what is a big deal? Assholes like this trying to make everyone else's lives worse for... reasons? Kicks? I genuinely can't fathom the thought process you'd have to go through to end up at "I'll be mean to this person I've never met who's just having fun and being happy. Serves them right." I just... I'm upset. Not for myself (I truly do not care about one internet troll), but just in general that this kind of people exist. Vile. Get a life, and I'll go show my tattoo to people whose opinion I actually care about.

And, for the record, if FFVIIR does end with canon C/T (which, honestly, I really don't think it will resolve the LTD at all), I'd just still tell people that the tattoo was never meant to be, like, some deranged "I SUPPORT THIS SHIP AND I WANT IT CANON OR I'LL LIGHT MYSELF ON FIRE" thing. It is, and always was, meant to represent two of my favourite characters who helped me through a really rough spot. Simple as that.

Also they got an ask from someone congratulating them on "putting toxic C/As in their places" I'm gonna fucking piss myself. Go eat a bag of dicks, fuckhead, and leave me alone.

[yeahhiyellow]

First Lines Meme

List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favorite authors!

Thank you so much @emiliaf25 for tagging me!!! I've seen a lot of fun writing tag games going around, but I haven't been tagged in any before now. This is probably due to the fact that while I write a lot, I don't publish most of my stories so like no one knows lol. I tried to put these in chronological order from newest to oldest, but they're not perfect, as I do not keep accurate time of when I write things (and probably should). Anyway, here are mine:

1. Blasting heavy metal so I can't think

"Heavy Metal": Detroit: Become Human (This one is in the form of a poem, so that's why it's a bit weird.)

2. Markus's head popped out of the last bedroom.

"Family": Detroit: Become Human (I still have to finish this one and publish it so I can't provide a link... yet)

3. I know I'm not enough.

"Enough": Detroit: Become Human (listen this is one of the angsty ones I never published so uhhhh)

4. CHRIS: Hank! Connor! What are you two doing here?

Unnamed: Detroit: Become Human (This one is formatted as a script soooo... yeah. It's also another one I am working on and have not and probably won't publish)

5. Crowley stood by the side of the road, his arms tightly coiled around his waist.

"Alone": Good Omens (aaaaand another really angsty one I never published, I have problems)

6. "What's wrong, angel?"

"It Started in 1957": Good Omens (currently not finished and has not been worked on for over half a year... probably should get on that at some point)

7. Every dystopian novel ever has some random teenage girl save the world. Unfortunately for the world, I don't think I can do that.

This was just an original story I started back in January that I wrote like a page of and never finished because I had way too many wips. Figured I'd put it in here anyway though

8. Finally, after 17 years of work, I had made it to the most prestigious school humanity had ever created.

This is another original story, however one that I have actually worked on for more than a page lol

9. RENATA: Oh, shit. This can't be good.

Function (Free Will): original. I have been working on this story for nearly 2 years now, and I'm still nowhere even close to done. It's formatted like a script and also has the same type of rpg choice-based storytelling as Detroit: Become Human. Add to that the fact that this story is meant to critique our current political and social society, systems, and structure and touches on a variety of incredibly heavy topics, and you have the recipe for writing a story that feels like it just. Never. Ends.

10. Demons aren't supposed to feel love.

"I Love You Too": Good Omens (I wrote this one a whiiiillleeee ago, as to why it's down here on the list. I only published it a few days ago, though, a little after I first saw you tagged me in this. So thanks for finally motivating me to do it lol)

11. "You obey or he's dead."

"Exit": Detroit: Become Human

12. "Come closer. Don't be scared."

"First Kiss - The Traci's - DBH Rare Pairs Week": Detroit: Become Human

13. If I broke that shotglass, I bet it could hurt me.

"Help": Detroit: Become Human (Essentially, I published this one on Tumblr and then proceeded to take it down later the same day. It was another angsty one.)

14. "Shut up, dipshit."

"Expectations: Shut Up, Dipshit": Detroit: Become Human (This one was actually from a zine I took part in that fell apart before anything could really happen. I never finished it, so I probably won't publish it, but I guess if I finished it I could. Will that happen, however? I doubt it.)

15. "You're back."

"Hannor Week: Living Deviant Prologue Compilation": Detroit: Become Human (*sighs* Now we're getting into the old stuff. Hang on, for I have no idea what atrocities lie ahead. Or behind?)

16. System Instability. Deviancy Detected. Contact Cyberlife for a inexpensive replacement, only $2000 with your warranty!

"Living Deviant": Detroit: Become Human (I wrote this story years ago and as a result it is so cringeworthy and has so many grammar mistakes I hate to even link it so I'm not going to lol)

17. "I'm just so glad we're alive, personally."

"Who I Thought I Was": Detroit: Become Human (Surprisingly, this one isn't actually too bad. I mean, it's definitely not good, but I don't facepalm and curl up into a ball when reading it, so that has to be a good sign.)

18. I heard a gunshot from around the corner.

"Dbh Revolution Week ~ November 13 ~ Connor, Hank, and Sumo": Detroit: Become Human

19. RK900 visibly shook as he looked into the mirror.

"Scarred": Detroit: Become Human (Another one that I never published, surprise, surprise. Given how old this one is and subsequently how bad and also utterly angsty it is, I don't think I'll be publishing it unless I, like, rewrite the whole thing, so.)

20. LAUREN: 8:51, hmm? I've already been here for 11 minutes, and no one else has shown up.

"Choices": a horrible original romantic comedy I wrote as a script 5 years ago. Tbh the idea wasn't even that bad, it was the execution of it that just... really sucked. So it's a good thing we're stopping here, as if I went any farther back in my writing history, I think I might just cringe myself to death.

---

Woo, thank god we're done with that! XD In all seriousness though, this was quite a bit of fun and got me to revisit pieces I hadn't seen in years. Thank you again for the tag!!! :DDDD

Now for which one is my favorite... there are some that are definitely good, and others that are definitely bad. I like numbers 2 (cute opening line for a fluffy fic), 5 (wordplay with "coiled" and Crowley being a snake), 7 (twisting of an expected trope), 8 (brings in scifi element and introduces the character's personality while hooking the reader in), 9 (set up for the tone of the rest of the chapter and immediately introduces tension), 11 (same as previous), and 12 (also attention-grabbing), so we'll just let those make up for whatever atrocities 16 (horrible imitation of corporate writing), 20 (just plain boring), and the attempt of 18 (I had the right idea of it being a hook, the execution however was horrific) were. I start a lot of my pieces with dialogue, or at least I used to. I became aware of that within the past year and tried to work on introducing stories in other ways, which I think I've done a pretty good job on. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd probably go with 7. I just really like the subversion of expectations that you get right away from it. It announces the trope loud and clear, but plays with it instead of following it.

While I'd love to tag lots of other writers, I unfortunately don't know many at all (listen I would love to read more fics but also tiiimmmeee). I'll just tag @konami-code-ao3 for now. However, if you see this and want to hop in, feel free!

[catbountry]

It's the 5th anniversary of your callout blog, congratulations! I was wondering how life is after that whole ordeal, did you have any self refection? What would have you done differently? Do you still believe you haven't done anything wrong?

I’m going to keep this brief (edit: was going to keep this brief) because I am 90% sure this is not being asked in good faith. You’d have to be a total fucking moron or willfully ignorant to believe that I believe I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve fucked up a lot. To the people who I’ve felt that I’ve hurt who did not deserve it, I have apologized to them. To the people who I’ve said nasty things about who have repeatedly proven themselves to be awful people, including the person who created that callout blog in the first place, I don’t owe them any apologies, because they’re shitty people. I think the very strong evidence pointing towards the person who made my callout blog being the very same person who had made Vade’s callout blog months before should speak to how they view other people, as mere stepping stones to get clout who are discarded and thrown to the side as soon as they’ve outlived their usefulness.

Keep in mind, my biggest crimes are just saying no-no words and attempting to call emergency services for a teenager who was threatening suicide. The kind of people I talked shit about were guilty of things like stalking, ripping people off by taking their money and never giving them the things they paid for, abusing their partners, using people as ATMs, and in one case abusing an S.O. to the point of driving him to suicide, crying on the phone to his sister who found his corpse about how THEY were going to commit suicide, not showing up to his funeral, and using his memory to get pity from people on the internet about how much of a victim THEY were, while never even attempting to contact his family or pretending to give a shit what they went through.

That last one is Vade, btw. Vade has been pretty much rendered toothless since me and a few others actually decided to stand up to them because they were doing shit like doxing fanfic writers they didn’t like and sending those dox to the writer’s past abusers.

So am I so terribly sorry I called Cuteosphere a cunt or questioned idislikecispeople due to the fact that she was provably a massive liar who bullied trans men and used the money donated to her on video games instead of insulin? Nope. Am I sorry I quoted a meme with the word “nigga” in it that got EMAILED TO MY FUCKING BOSS in an attempt to get me fired? Still no. My boss saw right through that flimsy attempt to paint me as a racist and advised me to contact the FBI. She said that if I were actually racist, she would have been able to tell after I’d worked there for over a year, but all these people who see screenshots out of context who have never spoken to me a day in their lives were convinced otherwise.

So, it’s not so much that I feel I’ve done nothing wrong, because I did plenty of things wrong, and to the people I have genuinely wronged, I apologized to them, because I did the wrong thing to them. I don’t apologize for trying to call an EMT from a teenager who was threatening to commit suicide, an attempt I treated very seriously, only for them to back down and then, weeks later, tell me that they never even meant it? That they had lied to me? Nope. Can’t apologize for trying to save the life of someone who was lying to me about wanting to commit self stab, no matter how many fucking randos they threw at me to get me to stop being so gosh-darned angry because they were doing all this after I had gotten mad at them... after being deliberately provoked. Like, I don’t know what the fuck to say to you.

I am not soft uwu, I am prickly and thorny and a bitch and I don’t tolerate assholes. I don’t tolerate people who lie, I don’t tolerate scam artists, or pedophiles (not the type who ship anime characters, I’m talking the type who slip into the DMs of 14 year-old girls who ask them to take a picture of their butt for them, ha ha, wouldn’t that be so funny?), I don’t tolerate people who walk all over others to get clout and use people’s desire to do the right thing against them to bully them into submission. Fuck those people, they are my enemy.

It sucks that there are people who are kind and compassionate who think that I am this nasty person because of the words of the exact type of person who becomes my enemy. I’ve had at least one experience where I met somebody at a con and they liked me a lot, said I was nice, and when I mentioned my Tumblr URL, they were surprised because they had me blocked. My story has stayed consistent over the years. The stories of the people who have a vested interest in making sure people know I’m a bad person? Their stories change constantly. That’s not a coincidence.

If you came here in genuine good faith, I am sorry I came off as aggressive and defensive. People have tried to fuck with me, and when you have people who won’t stop poking you with a stick, you get wary of anybody that approaches you with some sort of stick-like object. You can feel free to go through my #drama tag on my Tumblr, see me go through this exact song and dance every time somebody tries to bring up my past transgressions. I am really fucking tired of apologizing to people I’ve never interacted with. And the last thing I need is somebody who is coming off like a smarmy fuck, asking me if I still feel like I didn’t do anything wrong.

I may have done wrong, but I take great comfort in knowing the people who have me on their shitlist are some of the nastiest, cattiest, self-serving motherfuckers on the internet, and I am more than happy for them to hate me, cause fuck them.

And if you’re the person who started that blog, fuck you, you stalker bitch, you abused your ex-boyfriend and you’re as phony as a three-dollar bill who’s more than happy to stab backs once you realized you weren’t getting the popularity you so craved from Kiwi Farms so you ran back into the arms of people like Vade, fuck you, hope you’re proud and feeling real good about yourself and what a good person you are, hoping to humiliate me into agreeing with you because you took a bunch of screenshots for a shitty blog. If you’re not, then disregard that last message.

... Man, that felt good to type.

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Can I rant about something? I hate how this fandom acts like you can't say anything bad about Clem or else you're a "toxic fan". Or how if a character is mean to her then their suddenly bad. It's annoying.

[I’m putting these two asks together because my answer is pretty much the same for both]

Trust me, I completely get how frustrating it is to still see stuff like this because you’d think that we’d be tired of arguing by now. 

I won’t lie, it bothers me when people put Clementine up on this pedestal, ignore any and everything bad thing she’s ever done, and then attack any person or character that so much as looks at her wrong. It’s an insult to the complexity of her character and you’re just making a fool of yourself by behaving like a tantrum-throwing toddler. 

I’ve given a whole rant of my own on this subject, but to reiterate: 

Clementine is not a perfect character. She has done shitty things. Things that we as the player had no say in. 

My favorite example is from ANF where she shoots the guy who traded her bad bullets then asked Javi to lie for her. Did she mean to shoot that asshole? No, but she knows better than to point a loaded gun- I don’t care if she didn’t think the bullets would shoot or not- at someone without the intention of hurting or killing them. 

Lee taught her that, remember? 

But y’know what? Y’know why Clementine is such a great character? 

Because she’s not perfect. 

Clementine risks her life to protect AJ and everyone at Ericson, she’s strong, brave, and incredibly smart, and she has a real charming sweetness to her in the quieter moments. But, she doesn’t always do the right thing, she makes mistakes which she learns from, she’s killed numerous people without much thought, and she can be an asshole. 

We love her because we’ve been with her through four seasons. We’ve watched her grow and we helped shape her to be the best she can be. We’ve discussed her character and gushed about why we love her so much. A lot of us are incredibly protective of her, and that’s were this dumbass “If you are mean to Clem, you have to die” mentality comes from in certain people. 

Mitch threatens her with a knife after being traumatized by witnessing Marlon’s? God, hope he dies, that asshole. 

Ruby and Omar vote for Clementine and AJ to leave because they’re confused and upset and scared? What a bunch of shitbirds. 

Louis wants Clementine and AJ to leave after the literal murder of his best friend? Oh yeah, fuck that guy for having an emotional reaction to his best friend’s death. 

Violet’s pissed off at Clementine after being taken by the delta which results in two days worth of mental torture and betrayal? What a bitch, hope she stays and blows up with the rest of them. 

I could list more, but you get what I’m saying.

Anyway, if you try and defend Mitch, Louis, Violet, or anyone else who gets upset with Clem when it comes to these types of people?

Yikes. 

Which, okay, look... I get it. 

We all have our favorite characters and I’m not necessarily talking exclusively about Clementine. I’m talking about Louis, Violet, Kenny, Luke, and every other favorite within these games. We have our favorite character that we gush about and praise and plop down on the perfect pedestal. 

So when we see someone else say something negative about that character? Maybe it’s not even anything mean or with ill-intention behind it, but more of a critique of the character. Regardless, some people take a personal offense to that. 

And when someone does say something horrible about our favorite character? Or when a character in-game threatens this favorite character? 

Some people get nasty. 

Listen... you are allowed to like a character and still acknowledge their flaws. You don’t have come fight with people and justify the terrible things a character does. You don’t have to like or agree with everything you’re favorite character does. 

I love Louis to death but I’m not gonna sit here and preach that he’s perfect and never done anything wrong in his life because that is false. Louis is at that school because he caused his parent's divorce and I have no justification for that. That was a shitty thing of him to do and I’m glad that he realized that. 

I’m not gonna make an excuse for it, just like how I won’t make any excused for Clementine killing that asshole when she should’ve known better, or for everything she did at the ranch to get AJ back, or for any of the other bad shit she’s done. 

Because that’s what makes their characters complex, interesting, and lovable. 

Does that long ramble make sense?

Anons, all I can say is if you come across someone, whether it be on Tumblr or anywhere else, that is just nasty and always looking for a fight and that’s ALL their account is, just block them. Seriously, make use of your block button. I have. 

I’m here to discuss and chat and answer asks with long rambles no one asked for, not fight with others. If I see an anti-louis blog, or an anti-violet blog, or a whatever-anti blog that makes me feel gross when scrolling past their posts in the tags or whatever, I eventually get sick of them and hit block. I don’t need to see that shit. 

I would love for this fandom to be kind and eager to discuss these characters, but unfortunately, there’s always a handful who gotta be jerks. The best we can do is stick together in our own little community. 

Did this help, anons? Hopefully it did haha 

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (15/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series.

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now.

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

A/n: I’m currently writing the last official chapter of this story. How weird is that? I can’t believe it either...which is probably why it’s taking me forever to figure out the perfect way to end this story. Thanks to @resident-of-storybrooke for killing her eyes to read all of the words in this story 🥰

Found on AO3: Beginning | Current

Tumblr: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |15 |

Tag list: @xellewoods @galaxyzxstark @eala-captian @mariakov81 @ultraluckycatnd @royalswan @shey-starsfury @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @karenfrommisthaven @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @notoriouscs @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @qualitycoffeethings @thejollyroger-writer

-/-

When Emma wakes up, she rolls over on her mattress and buries her face further into her pillow, kicking some of the extra throw pillows off the bed and wondering why the hell she has so many things that look cute but cannot be comfortably slept with.

Seriously.

This is all TJ Maxx’s fault, and she’d like to damn whoever decided to put a store in seven blocks from her apartment. She shouldn’t even go inside, but she does. Every. Single. Time.

(So maybe it’s a little bit her fault too.)

Finally, she finds a spot that’s comfortable, her eyes shutting and her body calming down into the softness of the mattress so that she can fall back asleep when her phone starts blaring, her alarm vibrating across the top of her bedside table, and for a moment, she considers throwing her phone out the window so that she never has to get up from bed.

She’ll get fired from her job. And probably die from bed sores or something else equally as dramatic.

It’s the first thought that has her rolling over and turning the alarm off, the shrill blaring sound going away, and her eyes have to squint at the bright light to recognize that it’s seven in the morning and she does actually have to get up for work right now.

Her job is great, but she doesn’t get weekends off like normal people. And noon games are her actual worst nightmare.

Today is a noon game. She’s also got that dinner with David, Mary Margaret, and Ruth, and she’s unnaturally nervous about it as she almost always is when it comes to Ruth.

Like a zombie, she rises from her bed and shuffles into the bathroom before making her way out to the kitchen, adjusting her shorts and the sweatshirt that she’s wearing as she stumbles into the kitchen, the smell of coffee already filling her nostrils.

“Bless you,” she mumbles to Ruby who is sitting at their kitchen table with a mug already in hand before she fixes herself her own cup, not even bothering for it to cool down much more before she takes a large sip. If only caffeine worked right away. That would be the dream. “Why do you already look so put together?”

“I always look put together.”

“Liar.”

“I couldn’t sleep last night, and when I woke up, I just kind of got up, I guess. And now I’m sitting here dying inside. At least I don’t look like I’m dying. A family of birds could live in your hair.”

“That is not true.”

“It is. Have you looked at yourself this morning?”

“Yes,” Emma lies, taking another sip of her coffee. She most definitely didn’t when she was in the bathroom, but as long as her tits aren’t showing, she doesn’t really care what she looks like at home. “And I haven’t gotten ready yet. I’ll look nicer for the game.”

“I would hope so. I don’t think that they let reporters not brush their hair and roll out onto the field in sweatshirts. Where’d you get that, by the way? I don’t recognize it.”

And while she may be half asleep and her coffee might not have an instantaneous effect, she knows that she fucked up.

She’s wearing Killian’s Vanderbilt sweatshirt. The one she keeps stealing. She’s had it in her possession for two weeks now, ever since Toronto and the morning after they slept together, and she’s been sleeping in it because it’s comfortable and kind of smells like Killian.

It definitely smells like Killian.

And Ruby can see her wearing it.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, no, no, no.

It’s instinct to cross her arms over her chest in an attempt to cover up the faded words all the while she tries to come up with some kind of excuse. She’s not sure that she’s ready for their friends to know about the relationship yet. A part of her definitely wants to say something, but she and Killian probably need to talk about it first.

But what if it somehow gets out past that?

What if someone besides their friends and family know? It’s too soon. It’s all too soon for that, and she just can’t right now. It’s the middle of the season, so much time left in front of them, and she can’t let anything jeopardize her career.

Emma has no idea what to do, and she’s terrified of everything crumbling beneath her.

This is the happiest she’s ever been in a relationship, and the repercussions…she doesn’t even want to imagine them.

“Uh, um,” she stutters to Ruby, making sure that her face isn’t giving away her lie, “I’m not sure. I must have swiped it from David’s house one day. You know how he’s always got sweatshirts from all over the place.”

Ruby’s eyes squint at her from over her coffee mug, and it takes everything in Emma not to bounce off the balls of her feet. All in all, it was a pretty good lie because David most definitely does have all kinds of sweatshirts from different professional teams and colleges, but this is not David’s sweatshirt.

How could she have been so careless?

Ruby is so damn observant, but there’s no way she can make the connection over a sweatshirt, right?

“I need to steal some stuff from him,” she finally sighs, going back to her coffee. “It looks so much comfier than the things Graham has. I swear, if it’s a scratchy material, he buys it.”

“At least it looks nice on him.”

“This is true, my friend. His clothes do fit him well, but you know I much prefer him without any.”

There’s a knock on the wall that’s connected to Ruby and Graham’s bedroom. “I can hear the two of you, and sweetheart, it’s too early for you to be making sex jokes about me to Emma.”

Emma has to put her coffee mug down on the countertop as she laughs, the giggles stemming from deep in her stomach. Graham is the best and usually goes along for Ruby’s antics, but sometimes it’s too damn funny when he’s asking her to stop talking.

Definitely an opposites attract pair, but they work. Really well, actually. Emma keeps waiting for Graham to tell her that he’s going to propose to Ruby, but it hasn’t happened yet.

She should probably get her own place if it does. How weird is it to live with a married couple? Like, an eight on a scale of ten? Maybe a little less when rent is so high. But definitely at least a five.

“I love you,” Ruby shouts back, knocking on the wall three times.

Graham simply knocks three times in response.

“You two are ridiculous.”

“I know, but I like to think that I bring out the ridiculous in everyone.”

“You do. What time do you want to leave for work?”

Ruby hums as she taps her chin with her perfectly manicured nail. “In an hour and a half?”

“Perfect.”

-/-

Late June in the Bronx is basically a blazing hellfire, and Emma keeps sneaking into the air-conditioned press box every chance she gets only to be sent back outside to do an interview with a player or a coach or even a kid who caught a foul ball. It’s a little ridiculous, but it’s her job so she sucks it up.

At least she’s not wearing a full-blown uniform and exercising like all of the guys are. Most of them are soaked in sweat, even the ones simply sitting in the dugout, and she does not envy them at all.

All she really envies right now are people taking a cold shower.

It’s late June. She doesn’t even want to imagine what it’s going to be like in August or September.

Killian throws another ball, and then there’s a smack of bat against ball and a white and red blur that shoots out into right field only for John Little to catch it, ending the top of the third inning and Killian’s time on the mound today. They’re all leaving for London in five days, and Al has expressly stated that they are not screwing up Killian’s arm for a game where so many people are going to be watching.

She knows that it’s more because they’re playing the Red Sox than anything else, but she doesn’t mind preserving Killian’s arm when they can. His pitches haven’t been averaging quite as fast as they usually are, but she figures it’s probably a tactical change. She’ll have to ask him about that in the locker room later.

The next two hours seem to idle by, nothing too exciting happening, and when the game is over, she moves from her press spot, flashing her ID to the guard in front of the entrance to the tunnels, and makes her way through the hallways she knows like the back of her hand until she’s in the clubhouse with Jeff following right behind her. It’s loud in there, cheers and yelling and celebrations over their win, and it takes her ten minutes before she can even get someone to talk to her, other reporters pretty much taking up everyone’s time as all of the players move into various states of undress.

“Don’t you ever get tired of talking to us?” Will asks with a cheeky grin as he brushes sweat off of his buzzed hair. “I mean, damn. I get tired of talking to us, and I actually think you may be around more than me.”

She chuckles, unable to help herself. She’s always loved Scarlet’s dry sense of humor, and he’s nearly as easy to talk to as Killian or Robin or even Eric. “To you, most definitely. But I have my favorites on the team that I like.”

“Doc? King? Locksley? Fisher? Jones? Whale? I could go all day.”

“I can’t tell you,” she teases, messing with her microphone in her hand. “You want to answer some questions for me today?”

“As long as it’s not about me getting engaged, I’m perfectly fine with that.”

“You’re engaged?” Emma gasps, covering her mouth with her hand. “That’s so exciting! How did I miss that?”

“I have no idea since you talk to my girlfriend on Instagram.”

“Technically she’s your fiancée now.”

Will smiles at that a soft little thing that’s so unlike him and yet entirely him, and it makes her smile to herself. Will and Belle are getting married. That’s wonderful, but she did tell him she wasn’t going to ask about any of it, so she doesn’t, sticking to game stats and assessments and asking how he feels about their upcoming series in London. It’s the same with everyone she talks to, and after twenty minutes in there talking and chatting, she’s finished with her work and starts undoing all of the cords attached to her as Jeff turns off his camera and walks ahead of her as they leave the room.

But then there’s a strong grip around her wrist, and she’s being pulled away and down the hallway to what is a storage locker. If she didn’t know that it was Killian tugging her along, she’d assume she was being murdered.

She still could be and boy would that be a plot twist.

“What the hell?” she gasps out on a broken breath as the door closes behind her and all she can see is Killian’s face and shower-damp hair and a shelf full of cleaning supplies that make the entire room smell like bleach. “Why are you pulling me off into storage closets?”

He smiles, this really bright and cheesy thing, before strong hands are cupping her cheeks and soft lips and prickly scruff are brushing against her mouth and her chin in a slow, pleasant burn. This is how it’s been ever since Toronto two weeks ago. They slept together, and it was like this flip switched where they absolutely could not get enough of each other.

Not that she minds.

It’s electric. Honestly and truly. If they had easier access to each other, she knows that it would be even more intense, that they would be staying overnight and moving under the sheets until she couldn’t walk the next day. That actually almost happened last week, her body so sore afterwards, and as amazing as it was, that cannot be a frequent thing.

A girl has got to be able to walk.

She really, really likes Killian, is so close to loving him that it terrifies her, and sometimes she looks into his eyes and swears that if someone told her he hung the stars in the sky, she’d believe them.

This was never how any of this was supposed to go.

“Hi,” he growls, pulling at her upper lip before he pulls back so that their foreheads rest together.

“Hi,” she sighs as she wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to her and feeling the softness of his hair. “You played well today.”

“I was okay.”

“But in the second, you – ”

“I know.”

“Do you?”

“I do,” he promises, quickly brushing his lips over hers. “Have I mentioned how much I love that my girlfriend is an expert in my job?”

“Maybe a time or two, but this time it sounds slightly less macho man-ish.”

“That’s my goal.”

“Good.” Her stomach swoops at the smirk on his face, and she really wishes they were back at his apartment instead of in this stupid supply closet. “Why didn’t you tell me Will and Belle got engaged?”

“Because I legitimately didn’t know until right before the game. It apparently leaked or something, and he was all pissed about it. I think Belle posted the ring after it all to kind of beat out tabloids from making money off of them. They’re happy.”

“I would hope so. They’re getting married. People are usually pretty happy for that.”

“Eh, sometimes there’s those people who aren’t actually happy and think a new title and diamond ring will make them happy.”

“True.” Emma leans back against the door, the wood hitting the back of her skull, as she runs her fingers through Killian’s hair. It’s all long and messy again, and she honestly can’t decide which way she likes it best. “I do not want to deal with the crowd on the train getting out of here on the way to David’s.”

“I could drive you,” he offers with a shrug.

“Oh yeah, because that won’t at all be obvious. Also, I think we need to talk.”

“I’ve found that I’m rarely in for a pleasant conversation when a woman tells me that.”

“Shut up, you ass.” She slaps the back of his head, but all he does is give her another cocky grin. So dumb. So, so dumb. “Okay, so, like, hear me out.”

“I have my listening ears on.”

“Yeah, little pointy ones.”

“Swan.”

“Okay, okay,” she mumbles, bringing her bottom lip between her teeth as she bounces on her toes. “I’m not – I’m not one hundred percent sure on this, especially with what I just found out about Will and Belle, but I think it might be time we told my friends and your family about us. Just a few people, the ones we trust the most, because I’m starting to slip up on where I’ve been or who I’m talking to when they ask. Also, I feel really shitty every time I lie to Ruby or David or Mary Margaret or someone else who is my friend.”

His lips are parted, mouth gaping open, and he’s blinking at her like she’s a crazy person. She might actually be.

“W-what? Are you serious?”

“I’m serious about us thinking about it. I’m still not completely sure on the entire thing. I think, maybe when we get back from London, we can have another conversation about it. I like to think this is going pretty well, and while I don’t want our relationship to escape us or our families, I don’t think we can keep doing this without telling the people we love.”

Killian’s brows furrow, his eyes thin lines beneath them, and his hands finally dip from her cheeks down to her shoulders with his nails digging into her skin over her freckles. “Let’s think on it, yeah? Don’t get me wrong, I’m more than thrilled that you feel confident and happy in us enough that you want to tell people, but I don’t want to expose you even more to the world. Because in our circles of people, love, it’s going to be a big deal that we’re dating.”

He’s right. She knows that he is. She’s had the same thoughts.

“I know. We’ll figure it out though, right?”

“Absolutely.” Killian squeezes her shoulders once more before dipping his head down and gently slanting his lips over hers in quick succession. “Now, as much fun as I’m having inhaling all of these chemical fumes, I think you have somewhere to be.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Emma, love,” he says tenderly, thumbing at the indent in her chin as he smiles that reassuring smile at her, “you’re going to be fine. It’s your family. You love them. I know you do. And you’re going to be reminded of that the moment you get comfortable sitting on David’s couch and relax into dinner.”

Right once more.

“Okay, okay,” she exhales, pulling in Killian for a hug so that she can bury her face in his shoulder and breathe him in instead of the chemical fumes for a moment, “I can do this.”

-/-

Killian was exactly right like she knew he was but didn’t like to admit outside of her head. She was building up the awkwardness, building up the strained relationship with Ruth like she always does, and while it wasn’t the best thing at first, now that she’s sitting crisscrossed on David’s couch with a glass of wine in her hand, she can think of few other places she’d rather be.

This is her family, even when she doesn’t admit it, and for a girl who never really got to have a family until she was too messed up to truly accept one, this is absolutely everything.

Just…everything.

“And then, Grandma,” Leo continues, walking back and forth through the room, “Captain America holds his shield up while the bad guys try to attack him, but he’s too fast for them.”

“This Captain America sounds like a cool guy,” Ruth laughs, very obviously confused about the whole thing. She has not caught onto the Marvel bug, which is pretty much a sin when Leo has been obsessed with Captain America for months. Mary Margaret and David say it’s the longest he’s ever been interested in one thing, and when Emma thinks about it, she believes it. “Do you think you’re going to be as strong as him?”

“Probably not,” Leo shrugs, “but he started off really small like I am so maybe if I’m tall like Dad and not short like Mom.”

“Hey,” Mary Margaret protests, her eyes cutting at her son while Emma and David snicker underneath their breaths, “I am not that short.”

“Mom, I’m ten, and I’m almost taller than you when you’re, like, seventy years old.”

“Leo David Nolan, I am not seventy years old. I’m thirty-nine. Don’t age me like that.”

“What’s wrong with being nearly seventy years old?” Ruth teases, and Mary Margaret’s pale cheeks immediately flush red.

“Nothing, nothing. I – ”

“I’m nearly teasing you, sweetheart,” Ruth sighs before turning her attention to Emma. “I watched your game today. You looked so beautiful, but why are they still showing you eating every time?”

Well, damn, she didn’t know that was still happening, so she takes another sip of her wine and rolls her eyes as she laughs. “I have no idea. Like, it’s a running joke at this point. You can literally google ‘Emma Swan eating’ and all of these videos pop up. Leo told me that they even add songs to them now.”

“They do,” David chuckles. “I showed him those.”

“You’re awful.”

“I actually think I’m pretty awesome.”

“That’s debatable.”

“Look, Grandma,” Leo laughs, taking Mary Margaret’s iPad over to Ruth, “here’s one of the ones with music. It’s so funny!”

“You guys are the worst,” Emma groans as she places her glass down and sinks into the couch. “The absolute worst.”

“You just seem to have a face for funny moments,” Mary Margaret says sympathetically, reaching over to pat her thigh. “It’s because you do a little dance when you’re eating good food, I think.”

That makes her smile. It’s always what Killian is saying about her when he’s teasing her over her eating habits, and that’s when she suddenly remembers that hat that she still hasn’t given to Leo. It’s been sitting in the bag she carries with her to and from games for weeks now, and she keeps forgetting to give it to the kid. He may still like Captain America, but he’s probably moved on to another favorite player.

Quickly, she gets up from the couch and walks to the entryway where she left the bag, shuffling through it until she pulls out the signed hat, and then holds it behind her back, a genuine smile curling on her lips.

“Leo,” she sing-songs, immediately getting his attention as his brown hair falls across his forehead, “if you stop showing Grandma weird videos of me online, I have a surprise for you.”

“Way to bribe my kid,” David whines without much conviction.

“It’s not a bribe. Not technically.”

“What do you have?” Leo gasps, taking the iPad away from Ruth. “What is it? What is it?”

God, to have the enthusiasm of kids. Life would be so much simpler. And happier probably.

She’s pretty happy now anyways.

Slowly, she pulls the hat around from behind her back, and Leo’s brows furrow in confusion. Of course they do. To him, it probably just looks like a random hat since the autograph can’t really be seen.

“A Yankees hat? I have a couple of those already.”

“Leo,” Mary Margaret and David say at the same time.

“It’s fine, guys,” she laughs, stepping a little closer. “Remember when you asked me if I could get you a hat signed by Killian Jones?”

Now Leo’s face lights up, a bright smile practically taking up all of it, and he runs to her and immediately wraps his arms around her waist in a hug so tight that she loses all of the air in her lungs.

“Thank you,” he sighs before releasing her and taking the hat out of her hands, staring down at for a moment only to put it on top of his head. It’s too big for him without being adjusted, but he doesn’t even care.

She feels like the coolest aunt in the world right now.

“You’re the coolest aunt in the world.”

Ah, so confirmation then.

“Killian Jones is the man who asked you out, right?” Ruth questions, and Emma has to bite her tongue as she moves to resume her place back on the couch. She wishes she had more wine, but she’s got to be up early again tomorrow and doesn’t need more to drink. “You’re still talking to him?”

“I mean, only for my job,” she lies. “He’s a nice guy, so he was really happy to sign something for Leo.”

Ruth nods her head, and Emma thinks that it’s the end of the conversation when it’s most definitely not. “So, are you dating anyone, dear? I don’t mean to pry, but I do like to know about your life and you’re much more difficult to get information about than David.”

“That’s because Mary Margaret can’t keep a secret.”

“Why am I feeling so attacked right now?” Mary Margaret laughs.

“Well, you can’t, honey,” David says to his wife. “You are the worst at keeping secrets, and you overshare all the time.”

“That seems like a bit of an exaggeration.”

“It’s really not, Marg,” Emma tells her before turning back to Ruth. “I’m not dating anyone right now,” she lies again, more guilt building up in her stomach, but she and Killian are going to talk about it after London when they’re not in a storage closet, “but I’m really happy. Things at work are going well, even if I’m busy, and I love all of my friends and family and how much time I’m getting to spend with them. But if something on the dating front seriously changes, I’ll let you know.”

Ruth winks at her, a smile on her face. “Well, I don’t believe that for a second.”

Emma stays there for the rest of the night, all five of them eating and watching movies with talking in between. Leo insists that Ruth get caught up on anything and everything Captain America, and even though she falls asleep during several of the movies, she does learn a little bit more, making sure to ask all of the right questions. She’s so good with Leo, with everyone really, and it reminds Emma of when she was a terrified fifteen-year-old moving into a new foster home not knowing what was going to be awaiting her.

For someone who was so unloved and never thought she’d find love, living with Ruth Nolan was a shock to her system. She hates that her own walls and issues kept her – keep her – from always accepting that love and genuine kindness, and she hates that she let Neal influence her to not believe that Ruth was her family.

She is.

Most definitely in every way, and this is going to be something that Emma works on. She’s very much determined to do so.

Her life is a good one, and despite how complicated it is sometimes, she deserves to be happy in as many ways as possible.

When the movies are finished and Emma is ready to go home and go to bed, she whispers words of goodbye to everyone, promising to come over again for dinner tomorrow and to bring Ruby and Graham with her since they are always itching for an invitation.

“It’s so good to see you, darling,” Ruth sighs into her hair as they hug goodbye. “I love you.”

Emma nods her head against Ruth’s neck, a smile on her lips. “I love you too.”

[scarlettedwanda]

Alright so here's the deal, I don't use Tumblr anymore. Ever since last year when the guidelines were changed and the website just turned into absolute shit.

However

I do still occasionally pop on here, look through some tags and what not and yes, I did post not too long ago, about Unas Annus.

So naturally, I'm going to make a post and it's going to piss a whole lot of people off and for once in my life, I'm embracing the idea of losing a whole lot of followers.

Pewdiepie. Lately and for absolutely no reason, has been getting a whole other wave of hate and people genuinely happy that one of his places was robbed and worse, people wishing he'd kill himself or get killed and for absolutely stupid fucking reasons.

This dates back a few years, to the time he said a word that he shouldn't have said. But is Felix the only white person to ever say that word? No. Did he make a mistake? Yes. Does he deserve the title of being a racist? Absolutely not. Felix did not say the word to intentionally hurt someone. It slipped out as it does with thousands and thousands of gamers only this time, Felix had caught it on video.

Just this summer I overheard my white as fuck younger brother, saying the word over his headset in a heated game of Rainbow Six Seige. And the thing is, he's a nobody so no one will ever be upset with him the way people did with Felix. My brother isn't some rich Youtuber so these people over Tumblr, or the people over Twitter who crave the feeling of ruining a rich man's career, will never go after my brother like a pack of hyenas.

Now Malcolm, this isn't the only proof that he's a racist. Let us not forget the Fiver video where he paid some kids to hold up nazi propaganda. Yes he did, but he also wasn't expecting it to go through. Half the fucking people on YouTube are looking for that shock factor, need a way to gain views and you're damn right that Felix thought it would be an interesting way to pull attention.

In that same video, Felix apologized. He was shocked and clearly felt bad enough that he found the need to apologize for the incident happening. It's a joke that stems from far too many jokes on television shows or movies and yet, no one freaks out whenever South Park teases about the idea of an actual eight year old imprisoning red heads, or actively dressing as a member of the KKK. We live in a society which pushes the line for humor and entertainment and people don't think. Celebrities and such say things, do things that they don't mean or feel or want. Felix was just another example of a guy who got boned for something that some people took a bit too seriously.

So why not take it down? Why even post that part? Simple; Felix made a mistake and wanted everyone to learn from it. Without someone making roughly the same mistakes as he's stumbled into. He wants people to take from this lesson and realize that these people on Fiver, will do whatever they're paid to do, whether they realize what they're promoting or not. He is warning everyone not to do that, showing people that he's capable of mistakes and will take the back lash from it because he genuinely doesn't have those views.

Now, onto the latest stupidly. The woman from Dr. Phil where he made yet another mistake. Fuck, people obviously didn't watch the video before going on this rant that Felix is a transphobe, because in the video he only misgenders this person twice. He doesn't call her by the wrong pronouns on purpose, he takes in her appearance, her voice and her name and made a conclusion that this person reminded him a lot of Jeffrey Star.

In fact, for most of the video he calls her "Walmart Jeffrey Star" and it's literally no different than any nickname you would give to a character on television or movies. Never once does she state her pronouns and if you aren't reading the description under her name when she first appears, then you can easily make the mistake of not knowing her pronouns.

Felix corrected himself the first time it was brought up that she was a transgender woman, he apologized and yet people on here are labeling him unfairly for a genuine mistake.

Now let's move onto my proof. The proof that people are blowing him up and ignoring hard facts that Felix is a genuine guy. We'll start with his wife, Marzia, the sweetest person I've ever seen. Even the most avid Pewdiepie haters can agree that Marzia is precious, so why the hell would she still be with him after everything, if he really was a racist? Or if he was a nazi or transphobic? The simple answer; he isn't. She is the closest person to him, and yes hypothetically he could be hiding the dark sides of himself, but Marzia lives with him. She married him and she is also on YouTube and online and I'm positive she's being flooded with these stupid comments that the man she married, is a racist transphobe.

After being together for only two years, my fiancé and myself know everything about one another. Neither of us can hide parts of our personality from each other because the truth is, you get lazy over time. You stop worrying that the person you're involved with is going to hate you over it, and you let your guard down. Felix and Marzia have been together far longer and even after all these accusations came out, Marzia still agreed to marry him.

And then there's Seán. Seán who advocates mental health and who is a very sweet person. And does anyone actually think Seán would lie about how genuine Felix is? Do people think that this person, who's struggled with depression, would surround himself with a person who hates other people? Do people genuinely believe that Seán would invite Felix over to his house, hang out with him, collaborate both in person and over line, for views? Or do you think that maybe, just maybe, they really are close friends? That Felix is the good person that Seán has said he is?

Honestly, a lot of people's opinions are misguided by people who just hate the rich. Pewdiepie is a successful YouTuber, arguably the most successful so of course he's going to have a lot of haters. But unlike people like Donald fucking Trump, a good comparison in this case being another successful rich man; Felix actually cares about his viewers. He cares about his community and doesn't have some stupid superiority complex. If you want to hate on a successful rich man, complain about a guy who actually wants to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out of his country, throw hate at a man who created his own concentration camps for children because this idea that Felix is a bad person, is absolutely disgusting.

So, please unfollow me, block me, or whatever. Because this idea that Felix is disgusting is wrong. I'm not going to fight every post I ever see, I'm going to ignore them and let my own post speak for itself.

But to any Pewdiepie haters; go fuck yourself.

[noonmutter]

Tell how you first met each of the wives and girlfriends and when you knew you were in love with them and when you actually said it. And the same for any boyfriends/male lovers you might have - how did you meet them. Are you in love with them? Inquiring minds want to know.

Oh jeez so quick disclaimer, Leon remembers all of these and while he can’t recite the calendar dates, he knows when they happened and it’s part of why he’s so damned loved. I, however, have a brain wholly reliant on logs and written records, and the logs for both of his wives were devoured in a WoWscribe glitch a few years ago. I roughly remember the sequence of events, but not when exactly these things happened; I can’t even remember the year reliably! Because of that, I/he approximate the story kind of a lot…

AND HOLY SHIT THIS IS LONG WOW

HAVE A CUT

Leon first meets Kaewynn at a get-together he stumbled across in Stranglethorn. It’s one of his earliest interactions in RP, actually; he still introduces himself as Cambor, and is still trapped in worgen form. He’s still homeless, still wanders a lot, and isn’t yet much of a cook. He chats with her a while, and the evening ends with her smooching him. He is mightily pleased with himself. (Fun fact, in Leon’s early months, he got a smooch–or more–from someone every single time I sent him out to RP even though he never once actively sought it, this is why I shake my fist at him for being so GOD DAMN charming)

Leon and Kaewynn just keep on running into each other off and on, mostly because he keeps attending the Meddler-run event, Inkwell, and Kaewynn (a member of the Silver Dragoons) shows up frequently. Eventually they slip away to have some fun together, because they’re both fine with flings and no-strings sex, and they’re both pretty keen on one another. Their first time (I believe) is in a mineshaft at the Dragoon garrison in alternate Draenor.

Time passes, he and Kaewynn get more and more affectionate and more and more time is spent walking off on their own to either talk or fuck or both. After one particularly interesting conversation in which Leon told her his real name and was able to shift out of worgen for for a few seconds, and she told him the meaning of hers, he baffledly admitted to the only witness, “I’m in real trouble, I think I’m in love.”

They went on their first proper Actually a Date in Ulduar, because he’d never been there and Kaewynn wanted to show it to him, having some pretty intimate knowledge of the place (spoiler alert she’s a robot that got hit with the curse of flesh no seriously she actually is). 

Leon, despite being warned by a few people who knew Kaewynn that she didn’t really know what to do with the concept of love (long story, but it’s kinda literal–think “Data” here and you’ve got the gist of the problem), eventually confesses that he’s in love with her. This doesn’t go so hot, but she gives him a variation on the “just friends” speech and they both lie to themselves and each other and say that’s fine, and the rest of the night goes as originally intended, ending with Copious Amounts Of Fucking.

They are both emotionally underdeveloped idiots so of course they spend a while feeling more and more awkward and eventually Kaewynn breaks things off with him because she feels like she’s using him and …stuff. Like I said, they’re idiots.

And now we switch focus, and rewind a little because I’m pretty sure this is the part where the timing was both hilarious and infuriating.

Enter Pinapple.

A while back, Leon had seen a gnome woman throwing a bit of a tantrum at one of the Inkwell gatherings, though he hadn’t known why at the time. He eventually found out that it was because she’d been exposed to a shitload of radiation and was in a serious depressive spiral for some pretty good reasons (I don’t think it was actually cancer but it was basically cancer). 

Being Leon, and being that he’d been given access to a kitchen and the opportunity to learn to cook, he sent this complete stranger a box of treats because hospital food sucks. 

Months down the line, we come to the Silver Dragoons’ Halloween party. Pin has recovered after some risky surgeries n’stuff and is trottin’ about the place, shmoozin’ like y’do, and eventually comes across Leon. They got to talking, he got the chance to introduce himself properly, they eventually sat down to have drinks together. In probably the biggest spike of bravery she’d had for a long time before or since, she hit him with the equivalent of “Nice shoes, wanna fuck?” and they did.

He and Pin have a lot of fun together, and they romp along at a pretty good clip for about a month. Eventually during a bit of pillow talk, Pin accidentally says “I love you, you goofball” and they have a Serious Conversation in which he admits he’s not really at that same place, but it didn’t make things wierd at all. Pin being significantly more emotionally mature than Kaewynn, this works out better, and their friendship does not fall apart.

A bit later on, The Voice Of Reason happens and after he nearly dies and is recovering in the Dragoon garrison infirmary, Leon tells Pin he loves her, too.

LITERALLY THE NEXT DAY Kaewynn tells him she wants to reconcile and asks him to take her back. This was not planned, none of us knew it was going to happen, Kae’s mun didn’t know Leon and Pin had swapped L-words, I nearly threw up laughing. That same night, Leon and Pin and Kaewynn have the single most awkward relationship conversation they could possibly have, because oh by the way did I mention Kaewynn and Pin had been in a relationship once long before Leon ever showed up, and it’d ended because Kaewynn couldn’t do love? Because that’s a thing that happened.

Leon somehow managed not to go bald during all this.

Also he asked them to marry him the following February. Though they both said yes, the ceremony never did happen, and the events of Legion saw Pin dead and both Leon and Kaewynn horribly broken. The two of them sorta gently bullied their mutual friend, Rhiswyn, into performing the marriage between them, because one of the group dying made them worried they’d never get the chance.

Leon and Pin still haven’t formally wed, because after she came back, they were both quietly terrified that if they made it official, something else would rip it apart. They call each other husband and wife, but Pin’s the only one that isn’t actually married out of the trio.

It gets a bit harder for me after this, because I was terrible at tagging things for a while on tumblr and I cannot for the LIFE of me remember how I first encountered @safrona-shadowsun. The earliest posts I actually tagged under her tag, “fizzy,” were confessionals between him and the red courier at the Ledgermaine in Dalaran. Theirs is a very, very complex relationship, but it’s very easy to (over)simplify it:

Leon is a nurturer and he saw a lot of himself in Safrona, which is a terrible thing because he is incredibly depressed and prone to fits of self-loathing. He worried about her a lot when they first started hanging out, and he devoted a lot of energy to trying to draw her out of the incredibly thick shell she’d built around herself. As things progressed over ages and ages and ages, they became business partners, and she directed an acquaintance of hers his way.

Leon’s tradition up to that point had been to put the initials of serious lovers into his collar. Committed but unmarried is engraved (that’s P, for Pin), married is branded (that’s K, for Kaewynn).

Vandrysse… is hard for me to talk about. I only knew her mun for a little over a year before I received word that she had suddenly died.

Vandy is the reason I mention that Leon’s collar still has a nearly-faded “V” on it. She was the third woman he confessed he loved. That conversation was the last time I got to RP with her. I consider it a form of memorial to never let that V actually disappear no matter how long it’s been.

anyway moving on

I cannot actually remember which one happened first, meeting Murkey or confessing his attraction to Safrona, and tracking down the posts for the latter is not easy because Tumblr’s search engine is a JOKE. Regardless, Leon did confess to the courier after some years that he was in love with her, though I’m sure by that time she wasn’t really all that surprised beyond the way he presented it. It was downright artful, the boy was trying. But this is Safrona we’re talking about, and she gently but firmly shut him down, and that was the end of it. Though it made their friendship more than a little tense for a while, they’ve gotten over it by now. He still pines, but wouldn’t you? And he keeps that shit to himself, because not only did he get his answer, she’s now taken and quite happily so.

Murkey snoot-booped her way into Leon’s life one day and never quite left. I actually don’t remember if they met for the first time when she did that, or if he met her at a brothel first. They were both open and poly people, and they still are; he was perfectly okay with her disappearing for weeks or months at a time, as long as she sent word she was all right on occasion, and she was always delighted to find that he was still waiting for her whenever she came back. She’s a romantically skittish thing, so he was actually the first one to confess he had deeper feelings quite a ways into their relationship. 

He’d hesitated to do so at all, in part because Safrona had commented that she thought he fell in love too easily and gave it too freely, implying that it wasn’t really that meaningful. Eventually he kicked that feeling in the dick and told her anyway, and though it took a long time, Murkey did eventually tell him she loved him back. She, like him, had realized it far sooner than she’d been willing to admit, for fear of ruining a good thing.

Amber is actually the most recent in the game–I am trying very hard not to call it a harem–and much like Safrona, developed first as a chance meeting that evolved into a business partnership and friendship. She helped design the logos and packaging for the Cookbook, and he sent her plenty of free food and ongoing orders for more boxes. She was a very reserved person, which he thought was kind of refreshing–after a while you sort of want to have some people who are just friends, no matter how fun fuckbuddies are–and she was quite wrapped up with her lover and eventual husband, an elf named Vaerinis.

Amber confessed to him first, and though he wasn’t quite in love with her, he was certainly open to exploring possibilities. These days, he loves her to pieces and though she’s Vae’s first, he is happy to be part of it.

Vaerinis is a happy bonus, too, though he hasn’t had much time to really develop feelings for the man as yet.

Leon doesn’t have a whole lot of male acquaintances in general, actually, and has not yet fallen in love with any or had any fall for him, that he knows about.

my hands hurt, I know I fucked up the timing a few times and I’m tired so I hope i didn’t forget anybody wooph

( @pinpep @shckaewynn @murkeyglglgl @safrona-shadowsun @theengraver @vaerinis )

[aj-the-satyr]

All the Questions......

So Tag games...... Used to do ‘em a lot then kinda fell off writing for a while and then it got quiet. Well now I got tagged in 3 of those 11/11/11 things. You know the ones answer 11 questions, ask 11 more to the 11 people you tag. Well I’m not going to tag anyone other than the 3 people asking @writersblockandapotoftea @carrotgirl-1 and @rosewinterborn and say thankyou for doing so. So here goes..... the goat tries to get through all 33 questions.

1) Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Hmm.... I suppose that I have a habit of making the names of both things and characters have deeper meanings. Like Grigory Zmeya, his last name means snake and he is a snake shifter type person. So stuff like that.

2) If you could ask one successful author three questions about their writing, writing process or books what would they be?

Not sure about this. I’ve read interviews with many authors where they have dispensed their advice and advice is not a one size fits all thing but I would lie to ask more personal things like favorite characters, Least favorite scene to write and most surprising side character. Stuff like that.

3) Do you have a library membership?

Nope.

4) Ebooks, yay or nay?

Used them and they are fine but I am the old school like to have the physical book in my hands kinda goat.

5) What feeling do you want your readers to get from what you write?

Wow, deep question. Enjoyment? Other than that I’d like them to have feelings for different characters, to pick favorites, to hate some and love some. I suppose I’d like my characters to be memorable but I will settle for the “That was Good” feeling after reading, even if nothing gets carried with them.

6) What time of day are you most productive?

Considering how many times I’ve written my snippets after 10pm and into the wee hours of the morning, I’d say then.

7) What is your writing Kryptonite?

Myself really. There are times I just get conflicted about my writing and rather than just let it flow and let the characters lead I will find myself deleting things and starting over many times. I’m trying to do that less but it’s hard sometimes to just let go and see what happens at the keyboard.

8) Which scenes are your favorite to write?

Huh....... I’m a dialogue heavy writer trying to get more description into my scenes so I favor just talking but am trying to change that a little.

9) What comes first in your development/outlining process plot or characters?

Well considering I don’t outline anymore (Used to waaaaay back) It would have to be characters. Make the characters and pop them in a setting. Plot will happen, hopefully.

10) What is your favorite novel to film/TV adaptadion?

Comic books count right? I love the Constantine TV show. Shame it got cancelled, love the fact they brought the character back for Legends of Tomorrow and the fact he might be getting his own show again is awesome. Love Constantine.

11) Do you think yourself as more of an artist or entertainer?

Neither really. Not something I’ve ever thought about, since you are asking me to think about it...... entertainer??

Right onto the second set of questions gonna add a read more break here to avoid taking up huge chunks of Tumblr real estate and for those people that don’t really care what this old goat has to say

12) Play fuck, marry, kill with Gandalf, Aragon and Arwen.

Er........ Kill Gandalf.... no wait he’ll come back for revenge..... Kill Aragon..... man that would be hard to do..... Kill Arwen then? But I wanted to marry her.......... Man...... Kill Aragon with Gandalf’s help, fuck Gandalf as payment and then go off to marry Arwen. Problem solved.

13) If you had to set fire to a famous building, which one would you set alight?

The Vatican?

14) If you could bring someone back from the dead who would it be?

It would be Sandra, a friend I made for a brief time on the internet who I RP’d with and had a good rapport with. She died of cancer at 20 I think, it’s hard to think about. I do always remember that I talked to her through her brother in her final days and managed to make her smile, something her brother told me she hadn’t done for weeks. Crying typing this. Yeah. Fuck yeah I’d bring her back and let her live her life. Fuck Cancer.

15) Which fictional Universe would you go into?

Star Trek. No need for money, could sit at a cafe and write all day. Great.

16) Where would you go if the world ended?

Hell. Oh wait that’s not what you were asking. Er...... nowhere. No point if it’s all gone is there? I’d stay here and still be a loner. Wow..... fun goat answers.

17) What’s you alignment?

Chaotic Neutral.

18) Lovecraft or Shelly?

Er....... as much as I love Cosmic Horror Mary Shelly was one of the most badass goths there has been. Plus the whole creating the sci-fi genre as a fuck you to Lord Byron. She is amazing and doesn’t get enough respect.

19) What’s the weirdest food you have eaten?

Sea Urchin or deep fried shrimp heads not sure which I think was weirder.

20) How do you want to die?

Die? I’m immortal. Or is that immoral? One of those.

21) Who is your least favorite character to write?

Probably The Professor since he’s a homophobic bigot who killed his own son’s boyfriend (Though he claims that was merely an accidental oversight of his grander plan) since he is not a very nice character at all. Makes my skin crawl.

22) What’s your favourite fairy tale?

Can’t say that I really have one. None of them resonate anymore, neither the grimdark originals or the fluffed up modern takes. I do however enjoy the book Dragon’s Bait by VIvian Vande Velde which is about a 15yr old girl who is put out as a sacrifice to a Dragon and ends up allying with the dragon and seeking revenge.

One more set. Almost there with the goat interrogation.

23) When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Probably in University where I started writing a little something called “Space Gerbils” and was sending it out via email to about a dozen internet friends. They were hooked, I thought it was garbage but voila! The spark ignited. Heavily got into tabletop RPGs at the same time so that probably helped my desire for storytelling.

24) What book/Book series have you always meant to read but have not yet?

The Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter. I have a boxed set of them all but I just haven’t cracked the cover yet.

25) Who’s you favourite writer? 

Published? Either Sir Terry Pratchett or Eoin Colfer. But a special shoutout goes to @yuutfa for Caster. They are a wonderful storyteller and got many an emotion from me while I was reading an early draft.

26) What was your favourite book as a child?

It is one that sits on my shelf this very moment. It is called “Science Fantasy Stories” and is a collection of short stories that I read many times over as a child, back when I would consume a book a day almost.

27) Favorite music to work to?

Soundcloud generally has my back but it does sometimes throw up the odd track that makes me question if its algorithm has developed some sort of twisted intelligence Black Mirror style.

28) Hogwarts House?

Ah..... this question. I’ve read the books, saw a couple of the movies (Did not like the movies) and enjoyed every step of the way. I bought my first Harry Potter books when they were selling the first 3 as a set so I jumped in to see what the fuss was about. Never once have I thought about what House I would be in. Never. So Imma gonna say Slytherin.

29) Hobbies?

Writing?? Generally I play vidja games. Current faves being Monster Hunter World (PC), Endless Legend (PC) and Crash team racing nitro fueled (PS4) and I also daydream scenes with my characters in them. Trying to get back into reading regularly again.

30) Where do you draw Inspiration from?

Everywhere I guess. From random conversations to ideas had after playing games, watching TV or reading books. Sometimes I’m not sure where the inspiration comes from but I am just trying to let myself go at those moments, run with it. Who cares if The Simpsons already did it? Truly new ideas aren’t new anyway. (Except maybe for theoretical physics, that shit is bananas) I mean one of my characters basically declared themselves to be a God (At least in my head) after I read an article on Retrocausality. Inspiration can come from anywhere. Use it!

31) What do you consider your aesthetic to be?

Look I can barely spell that word you want me to have one as well?

32) Favorite mythology?

Favorite mythology of AJ the Satyr................

33) What do you think influences your work the most?

My co author?? But seriously working things out with them has been very helpful but also there’s this little writing discord that I’m part of that is really welcoming and a great source of inspiration and ideas. But all in all I think Neil Gaiman influences me the most when he answered a question about how he does it. He told the person asking that you just write everything down that happens in the first draft and then when you go back and rewrite you make it look like you knew what you were doing all along.

Right. One Goat, 33 Questions. And I won! Not tagging anyone else but I want this to get me going on these tag games. I can’t just hide in the dark corners of Tumblr anymore. I must face the light! Has @notanotherhour done this yet??

[yoshimickster]

WELCOME TO THE ANGST ZONE-RWBY Volume 6x02 “Uncovered” Micksterecap(Rwby volume 6 spoilers)

HEY EVERBAH-happy Saturday-WELCOME BACK TO MICKSTERECAP! I’m sure this episode will start out with  something completely norma-

HOLY SHIT-Cinder’s corpse!  OOOOOOOOOOOOR  IS  IT?!

1:49 HUZZAH-she’s alive-OR IS SHE?!  I ask because I’m  live-blogging here, FRESH reactions today!

But seriously, TURNS OUT-this isn’t a dream sequence and she IS still alive...for NOOOOOOW! Cinder than punches her way out of the cave using what LITTLE strength she had left after her Avatar battle with Raven “Mother of the Year” Branwen, and upon escaping-SHE MEETS-

2:57 SOME RANDOM LADY WITH  FOOD! Man THAT was convenient eh Cinder? Will she beg for food, or just murder her and take the basket-LET’S FIND  OU-

3:11  We need to take the relic to Atlas?

GAH-I forgot this show had multiple plotlines-CURSE YOU SHOW I LOVE!

AW  NEAT-a  pointless flashback, taking place in that house that they...rented? Or did Qrow or the school own it? They never explained WHOSE house that was and it will always always ALWAYS bug me despite it never mattering in terms of plot.

BUT-said flashback ALSO features Weiss’ initial response  to going  back to Atlas!

3:20

“You’ve GOT to be joking”.

I feel for  ya Weiss, escape your shit  dad in Atlas, pay a plane to leave, get attacked by  bees, get kidnapped by one of your possible love-interest’s moms, go to a school, fight bad guys, get IMPALED, get healed by ANOTHER of your possible love-interest( I said POSSIBLE, don’t hate me) ONLY to learn your going  back to the place you escaped! MAN-how she don’t have whiplash from that I don’t know HOW she wouldn’t!

They also  bring up a nice secondary reason for bringing the  relic to Atlas that I admittedly didn’t think  of-

3:33

Qrow: Without the Spring  Maiden here to  seal the relic back in its vault,  its our best option.

Yang:  And I just want to say its NO-ONE’S FAULT for not having Raven  seal the  vault back up after verbally decimating her for years of neglect.

Ruby: Yang its cool, you needed a cry.

3:50 We ALSO LEARN why their going to Argus in the first place, its the last Atlas  military installation that still has soldiers...and considering Adam  MOST PROBABLY hijacked the train to Argus they  BEST get  to steppin’ after this flashback is  done!

Through that they figure through  either asking nicely, or telling them they found  one of three of Jacques Schnee’s abuse victims that they could get to Atlas. After they set up the low-down, Jaune asks Oz-

4:38

Jaune: Speaking of, what does it(the  relic) do, exactly?

Oz: HAHA-definitely doesn’t attract monsters-DEFINITELY not!

But seriously, turns out it can answer ANY three questions(GEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENIE) once every 100 years about the present or past. NORA of course geeks out about it-

5:29 

Nora: CAN WE ASK FOR MORE QUESTIONS?! CAN WE ASK WHY ME AND REN HAVEN’T KISSED ON SCREEN YET?!

Ruby: Yeah what’s up with that, y’all are CLEARLY a couple!

Ren: I’m as confused as you are.

SADLY THOUGH-the magical knowledge genie can’t answer ANY of our deepest ship questions as  it turns out they were all used up before it was sealed-OR WERE THEY?! Seriously I’m legit wondering, for all we know Oz is lying.

5:40 Ruby: Well, we’ll be sure to keep it safe.

Yang: GIMME THAT STUPID LAMP-I’ma SMASH IT! 

Ruby: Isn’t that more Nora’s thing?

Yang: I DON’T CARE I’M JUST PISSED AT OUR STUPID PRINCIPAL IN A FARMBOY’S BODY!

But seriously everyone is LOGICALLY pissed off about the current  run of events, half their party is gone, Yang’s gonna push her motorcycle she should’ve left at home through  snow-

6:11 -and they  now have ANOTHER mysterious mystic old person who REEKS  of  mysterious mysticism...AAAAAAAAAAND THE PROOOOOOOOOOOOOM IS TOMOOOOOOOOOOOORROW! Remember that joke? Practically dissapeared.

LOGICALLY pissed off at Ozpin for LYING about how the ancient relic of ultimate destiny attracted murderous chimera after them, and I’m sure he won’t pull some bull-shit line like-

6:47

Ozpin: I did not lie  to you.

PFFT-look at Maria’s face here, her bullshit detectory is on POINT! Because not  informing them of the dangerous GRIMM MAGNET wasn’t a half-truth. Can we get a wizard who DOESN’T give the main heroes the run-around with their bullshit for a change, CAN WE PLEASE?!

Oz than  explains that the reason he  held  the truth  is because  he wanted to save them from anxiety and negativity, AS WELL as that being the reason for why he had it so Lionheart wasn’t revealed to be a traitor after his death, in what KINDA sounds like  a villain speech, even going  as  far  as saying “The people of Remnant  deserve more than the truth”, (because THAT line is never condescending) as WELL as saying he’s been betrayed so many times he’s straight up used to it.

Oz than  puts it all to a head when he asks where the relic is and TURNS OUT-

8:32 RUBY HAS IT! Way to stay on task girl, especially in quite possibly the most STRESSFUL year of your LIFE! Remember the silly school dance? I miss that.

Ruby than LOGICALLY calls him out for saying he had so much faith in humanity in these years when the opposite is true. Its also a good thing that he didn’t lie about the relic not being able to ask questi-

9:10

Oscar:HURRY...he’s trying...to stop you...he’s afraid you’ll find out...what  he’s hiding!

...well that’s ominous but as long as it turns out the relic still can’t work I say its o-

9:31 

Oscar: Her name...is Djinn...say her name to summon her.

...well that’s good to know but AS OZPIN SAID-the relic TOTALLY doesn’t work so saying it won’t do ANYTHI-

Ruby:...Djinn?

9:45 ...OKAY-time just happened to freeze, I’M SURE NOTHING ELSE OZPIN MURDERINGLY MAGICAL HAPPE-

10:33 Djinn: Wonderful!

...OKAY-so there was a genie in it that every single person on planet Earth saw coming, but SURELY it still can’t answer 3 questi-

10:40 Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?

SON OF A BITCH OZPIN-not ONLY did you lie about the lamp housing a genie whose PRIME waifu material, but ALSO lied about the questions being used up! Because just saying “Don’t use the relic to ask questions” would be SO hard you dis-trustworthy ass old man!

Well surely the next thing to happen is Team RWBYOMQ asking how to best murder Ozpi-

10:47 ...or cut to a random dirty ass alley, because the writers like to TORTURE us!

10:55 DAMN-Cinder, you even stole the bitch’s CLOTHES! What are you, the Terminator?!

Cinder walks through the rainy ass street of scum and villainy-UNTIL SHE SEES-

11:37 RANDOM SPIDER-MAN GRAFFITI! Didn’t know Remnant had such a Marvel fan-base, NEAT!

But seriously, it turns out to be the INSIGNIA OF-

PURPLE CLAD GANGSTERS! I gotta  assume they are like, REALLY good criminals becasue DEAR GOD do her two guards look silly, LOOK AT THEIR SCARFS!

Cinder than bribes her  for information-

Cinder: You’re little Miss Malachite?

Malachite: Is that a fat joke or color joke? Because I’ve TRIED changing my name to Violet, but UGH the system.

She then tells Spiderlady that she’s looking for team RWBYJNR by SHOWING HER-

12:35 SEASON THREE SCREEN SHOTS! ALSO-yes those are all from the Vytal festival, for some reason I thought the JNPR pics were from the placement exam. And now we wait for the Pyrrha fans to be mad she was cropped out!

AFTER Little Miss Malachite(Her name should STILL be Violet dammit, or maybe Amethyst) gives a spooky spider speech, she tells Cinder she’ll find the team in a few days-BUT IT TURNS OUT-

13:34 

Chaps: Little Miss, we all ready know where they are.

Little Miss:  Oh really, we do? Why don’t you say it louder SO THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER LADY WE DON’T KNOW CAN HEAR YOU?!

Cinder: What was that?

Little Miss: Nothin’ sweetie, just makin’ creepy spider metaphors!

A THEN CUT BACK TO-

13:55 MARIA-adjusting her broken ass cyborg eyes to double-check if she’s not looking at a floating Navii from Avatar.

And WOULDN’T YA KNOW IT-turns out Djinn can still answer TWO more questions this era! ALSO-

14:25 

Djinn: A-heh, its a pleasure to see you again old man.

AND-she’s met Oz before, PROBABLY since he asked the first question.

Ozpin pleads Ruby not to ask Djinn a question, which prompts Qrow  to ask-

Qrow: Hey-

Weiss: WANNA DIE OLD MAN?!

Qrow: GAH-I was just gonna tell Ruby to do what she felt was right!

Yang: Well excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse us if we can’t trust OLD PEOPLE RIGHT NOW!

Ruby than asks Djinn what is Ozpin hiding from them WHICH CAUSES OZPIN-

14:56 ...to...attempt to  tag her...slap her...push her-WHAT WERE YOU ATTEMPTING TO DO TO MY DAUGHTER YOU WEIRD OLD MAN?!

BUT-before Ozpin  can  commit attempted assault and/or attempted game of tag-TEAM RWBYQOM-

A FREAKY ASS VOID-that turns INTO-

“Once upon a time, there stood a lonely tower”-

ALSO-

Blake turns into Qrow because...genies? BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT-

“-that sheltered a lonely girl...named-

“-Salem”.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH SHIT-Salem used to look NORMAL ONCE! BACKSTORY MOTHER FUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERS!

AND THAT’S SEASON SIX EP TWO-following the classic RWBY formula of exposition episode after action episode and I gotta say we learned...A LOT! FOR ONE-Ozpin pulls a full Rose Quartz in revealing he’s not the ethical leader we all thought he was, AS WELL as showing he has a secret connection TO Salem, implying...A BILLION possible things  that I won’t put here because this is a recap blog and not a theory blog perse. HOO BOY-what a cliffhanger, NEXT WEEK-backstory time baby! SEE YOU NEXT WEEK on MICKSTERECAP!

   If you like what you read, donate to my paypal here, or my Kofi page here. I put the link for my Paypal and Kofi here as I have JUST now realized the paypal link is under the search bar on my Tumblr homepage and is impossible to click so THERE ya go!

[lieselstark2-blog]

Gotleaker is fake. It’s an elaborate hoax, and I’m it’s victim. So are you.

@thelawyerthatwaspromised @reysbae @myrish-lace-love @wolfmaiden25 @wolfmaiden25 @tiny-little-bird 

Hello, my name is Liesel Stark and I am a Jonsa meta writer.

Or I was, but not too long ago something happened outside the fandom. Something very personal that nearly destroyed my life.

I had a roommate. We never got along, but I hoped it would remain civil and I would find a new place at the end of my lease.

However, this roommate wanted a guard dog. I didn’t want this, as I was bitten by a dog when I was a child and I’m scared of them. Pets are also not allowed in our lease. I thought that was the end of it when she brought it up, but a week later I came home and she had adopted a dog from the pound - it kind of looked like a Rottweiler, and I was scared to death.

So I informed our landlord. However, my roommate, who is the landlord’s cousin, called her and said I was lying. Our landlord came to investigate, but my roommate had taken her dog over to her friend’s house and pretended the dog didn’t exist.

I took pictures, but the roommate kept our landlord around her finger and said it was just visiting. It was all so awful.

Unfortunately, the dog was not well behaved, and while nothing ever happened, the lack of discipline and free reign the dog was given over the house meant there was fur and pee everywhere. I would come home at night from work and be greeted in the doorway by one of my worst fears.

One night I snapped and just left and slept over at my sister’s house. This would prove to be a terrible mistake.

It only took a few days and a broken lease before the landlord realized that her cousin lied. The landlord did pay for my grievance and is giving me a good reference, but she refused to kick out her cousin over a dog.

Bad, but not the point of this story.

When I left that night, my roommate went through all of my things. Like an idiot, my computer pass code is also my phone pass code, which she must have seen me tap hundreds of times whenever I unlocked my phone around the house, and she was able to get onto my computer and steal my identity.

She went through all my documents and accounts, and sent terrible things to my family and friends. I didn’t realize it at first until my parents asked why I posted that I never loved them on facebook and was cutting them out of my life that something was happening.

Everyone I ever met had been told some awful lie about me in the span of two days, and every account I had ever used was part of her campaign to ruin my life all because I didn’t want a dog for the remaining seven months of our lease!

She was always unhinged, but I never thought it would amount to this. Eventually I threatened legal action, and I thought it was over.

But I didn’t account for tumblr. I didn’t even think about it for awhile. When everything settled because I threatened legal action, I actually decided to come and log in and de-stress with fandom, but found that my tumblr was gone.

Okay, I thought. She deleted this account too.

I just kind of gave up after that. So much had happened that I figured I would cut my losses and move on with my life.

But that wasn’t the whole of it. Because my former roommate is a fucking psychopath.

I’m not ashamed of the fact that I ship Jonsa (it’s fiction), but she must have seen a possible opportunity to hurt me and took all the metas I wrote, the drafts in my account and computer, and the outline of a fan fiction I was writing to create an elaborate hoax in which she was planning to “out” me.

Seriously. What the hell.

I found out because I still browse the Jonsa tag on tumblr and saw mention of some new leaks, so I checked them out. They were suspiciously close to my metas and fan fiction outline, but when I saw the ending of episode two, I knew that it was one of her plots.

She must have been planning this for some time, and I don’t know exactly where she’s going with it, but if the past if anything to go by she plans to dox me and falsely incriminate me for something.

This is just ridiculous.

To prove that I am being framed, an outline to my fan fiction is included below. I expect @gotleaker to blow a gasket soon.

Now, I want to apologize to anyone who has been mislead by this maniac and to please stop believing her because she’s plotting against me simply because she’s upset she couldn’t get her way.

Please tag and reblog this so she’s discredited.

And FUCK you Kelsey.

A Time for Wolves

Episode 1 – Bat

Chapter 1

Daenerys and Jon arrive in Winterfell.

Chapter 2

Euron makes an agreement with the Golden Company to betray Cersei.

Chapter 3

Sansa is anxious over the prospect of Jon and Daenerys marrying for reasons she can’t describe, and is upset to learn from Tyrion that it appears to be happening.

Chapter 4

Jon is adamant that he will do what is necessary to protect the North and his family. However, Sansa doesn’t agree, because she feels the tension in the North better than he does.

Chapter 5

Although initially welcoming of Daenerys, their relationship sours over disagreements largely of Sansa’s making (due to her fears of losing Jon and the North).

Episode 2 – Eel

Chapter 6

Euron betrays Cersei, and in response to the Red Keep being overrun, she uses the wildfire, destroying the city and killing hundreds of thousands of people. She miscarries in the process.

Chapter 7

A settlement nearby is attacked (possibly the Dreadfort so they can reuse some of the sets and it make sense, considering their possible path), forcing Jon and Daenerys to prepare to depart. Sansa and Jon have a tender moment despite their current disagreement, and I think Tyrion is witness to sparks flying he didn’t see with Jon and Daenerys, causing his suspicions to be raised.

Chapter 8

Jon ends up showing these feelings because he has been informed by Sam and Bran about his parentage, and it’s eating him alive for so many reasons. Unfortunately, he hasn’t told Sansa and Arya yet, because he isn’t sure he wants to accept and go public with his parentage due to the political ramifications.

Chapter 9

However, the Dreadfort is lost (and destroyed), and the forces of the North are dealt a devastating blow. They return to Winterfell, licking their wounds, unaware that they accidentally are leading the Night King on path to Winterfell.

Chapter 10

Mid to the end of the episode, Jaime arrives and informs Daenerys that Cersei has betrayed them after a lost battle against the White Walkers. Daenerys, furious, rides off to take King’s Landing using Drogon as a threat in order to secure their manpower for the upcoming battle. She leaves Rhaegal to protect the North after a frustrating conversation with Jon who pleads with her not to leave because she is abandoning her people.

Chapter 11

Jon is frustrated by this, and isn’t too happy about Sansa’s smugness and seemingly glee (think about: Daenerys is gone, and also going to kill Cersei. That’s a win for her), but his anger is due to the fact he fears he cannot protect the North or Sansa, without Daenerys since he cannot control dragons. Bran offers to help. He also makes more cryptic comments to Sansa. I think Bran’s vision about her wedding may be of the future to Jon, like previous metas have stated, and Bran is starting to see dreams of spring and hoping to make them happen.

Chapter 12

Daenerys’s actions are not well received by anyone in the North, and when Daenerys leaves, all hell breaks loose politically. The Northerners fear that Daenerys will be a dictator like the Targaryens before her, reminding Jon of Torrhen and his uncle and grandfather’s deaths under the Mad King. This only further cements his desire to control Rhaegal. Episode 3 – Ghost

Chapter 13

The surviving Greyjoy siblings take an imprisoned Cersei Lannister North, narrowly missing Daenerys as she arrives to the destroyed King’s Landing. Since they go by ship and are one of the few survivors, the true perpetrator of King’s Landing fall is mistaken to be Daenerys when people outside the city arrive.

Chapter 14

They end up penning a raven that is received at Winterfell that blames Daenerys for the destruction. Her army leaves, no longer feeling welcomed, though Tyrion and Varys stay.

Chapter 15

Sansa is no longer so smug. She’s scared, and so is Jon and everyone else. Jon confers with Tyrion, who, knowing about the wildfire, erroneously believes it to be true not because Daenerys purposefully set the entire city on fire... but because Drogon was the spark that caused the wildfire to get out of control. Either way, Tyrion admits to losing faith, and switches support to Jon.

Chapter 16

But Jon sees his power waning, and now Sansa’s political power is on the rise. Tyrion sees an opportunity, but he is conflicted because he is starting to form feelngs for Sansa now and he believes Jon and Sansa are siblings. But he’s certain they have feelings for each other now, because Jon and Sansa are caught kissing after he gives her a blue rose and between all this hyper jealously as Tyrion spies and insinuates himself in Sansa’s company, fearing that Jon, Bran, and Sam are keeping something from him and hoping to use Sansa to figure it out (unaware she knows how the game works).

Chapter 17

But basically, political shit happens following this, and Jon tames Rhaegal. He then “comes clean” to the North. He initially thinks he will give up his claim to Sansa, but to his surprise he is hailed as King in the North and South.

Episode 4 – Owl

Chapter 18

Daenerys is trying to convince the people around King’s Landing of her worth, but news of Jon being a Targaryen reaches her. Remember in Daenerys’s vision that the first prominent image we see of the throne room is not the throne, but the Winter Rose on stained glass - a reminder of Starks and shade thrown at Daenerys that she doesn’t have Jon’s affections.  Daenerys decides to leave and head back to the North, and he meet her army in the Neck.

Chapter 19

But back in the North, it’s discovered the White Walkers are moving towards Winterfell just as Daenerys has departed for it. Fearing that they may be attacked on two sides, Jon decides to meet Daenerys at the Neck with Rhaegal and make a deal. Tyrion warns him that she won’t go for it. Jon mentions a political alliance, but Tyrion tells him Westeros would never go for two Targaryens on the throne, and jokingly tells him that Sansa would be the better wife. Tyrion realizes his mistake, because Jon appears to seriously consider it.

Chapter 20

However, Jon is determined to make an alliance with Daenerys by any means necessary, and though he has a tender moment with Sansa, he departs and arrives in the Neck for a parlay with Daenerys (who flew over land, instead of sea, and thus misses the Greyjoys).

Chapter 21

He initially believes she will threaten him when he mentions that his people wishes she bends the knee, but instead she does (reluctantly) for three reasons: 1, she sees Rhaegal bonding with Jon and is forced to reconcile that he may actually be a Targaryen and she will lose Rhaegal if they are not on good terms, and 2, she wants to be seen as a worthy ruler again and loves Jon... unaware about the Sansa situation.

But more than anything, Daenerys doesn’t want to be seen as a Mad Queen.

She proposes that they join themselves in marriage, knowing that is what Tyrion initially suggested, but Jon refuses. She initially thinks this is because she has to prove herself, but really Jon refuses despite initially planning to accept and even offer it himself first on an impulse when he sees winter roses around them.

Chapter 22

However, despite this positive turn of events of an alliance without conditions, the episode ends with combined army at the Neck learning that Winterfell has been attacked sooner than expected and is being sieged by White Walkers.

Episode 5 – Wolf

Chapter 23

Sansa, Arya, and Bran are desperately trying to protect Winterfell. They are being attacked by an advanced force, and not Viserion, but they know it is only a matter of time. Unfortunately, they are surrounded and unable to escape and flee even if they wanted to. Sansa stands at the battlements, wanting Jon to return.

Chapter 24

En route to Winterfell, Daenerys is desperate to prove herself worthy of being Queen and worthy of Jon, mistaking his earlier actions in season seven for love when really Jon was hoping to get an alliance (and stopped pursuing that after Sansa). She takes a risk, and heads off into battle despite Jon telling her not to.

Chapter 25

The scene switches, and FINALLY the Greyjoys arrive with an imprisoned Cersei at Winterfell, helping Daenerys stop the advance White Walker army besieging the castle with their forces and the remaining Golden Company. They inform Sansa of the truth, and Sansa apologizes (unfortunately, no one in the North is willing to take Theon’s words at face value).

Chapter 26

Jon and the others arrive. Jaime was with Jon, and he is shocked to see Cersei for so many reasons, but especially when he learns she was responsible for King’s Landing. She is put on trial, and found guilty.

Chapter 27

Despite the North rebuking Daenerys, she believes that Jon will warm up to her after her heroic save of his home and Theon informing Jon of what really happened in King’s Landing. But that is not the case, because Daenerys soon realizes that Jon and Sansa have a relationship when they are reunited in an affectionate way.

Chapter 28

However, before she can do something she’ll regret, the Night King attacks, and Daenerys and Jon takes their respective dragons to the sky. Rhaegal is killed in battle, and Jon falls to his death, the battle lost.

Episode 6 – Nightingale

Chapter 29

Starts with Jon surviving his fall like Sansa and Theon did by falling on a mound of snow. Unfortunately, the people of Winterfell need to flee as the Night King licks his wounds for the final assault.

Chapter 30

Cersei is in the broken tower after a cryptic discussion with Bran (he likes those). She wants to die where Bran told her it all began. Jaime and her get into a fight, and she manipulates him to choke her, thereby fulfilling the prophecy. Jaime is horrified, burns the tower with all his crimes, and goes into battle to protect the fleeing civilians and army alongside Brienne.

Chapter 31

He ends up encountering Jon Snow, and instead of going out in a blaze of glory, helps Jon to return to the retreating army. Jon and Sansa are reunited, and Daenerys feels alienated, and is still reeling from the death of Rhaegal knowing he too will be revived by the Night King. She is devastated by the loss of her children and lover. Cue another cryptic discussion with Bran; this time, Daenerys is his victim. He promises her that she will meet her son and husband again (referring to Drogo and Rhaego). Daenerys does not take that well, but nobody takes Branvisions well.

Chapter 32

The army is pushed back into the South in attritional warfare, not having the numbers. They make it all the way to Stokeworth before they are able to secure a castle long enough to defend it. It appears to be the last battle - they will either win the war and live, or lose the war and die.

Chapter 33

In order to secure succession, Jon marries Sansa and their wedding is the last feast before the battle. Jon promises to come home, and we get a repeat of Jon waving goodbye to Sansa with Daenerys looking on in Baelish’s place.

Chapter 34

The battle begins, and Daenerys prepares to square off against Viserion and Rhaegal who are now controlled by the Night King. She takes a risky move, and there is the biggest ball of flame in the sky.

Chapter 35

The three dragons are destroyed, but the Night King survives, seemingly impervious to fire. The dragons are gone, but the army lives on, and Jon prepares to lead the surviving soldiers in a final charge as the castle is sieged and those inside try to hold everyone off.

Chapter 36

But just as all appears lost, Bran wargs into the Night King, momentarily stupefying him, and Jon is able to get the upper hand and kill him, destroying the army. He feels victorious, but when he returns he sees that Bran is dead.

Chapter 37

The snows begins to recede, and Sansa becomes round with child. They return North to Winterfell together with their child.

[simmancy]

I was wondering how you first started your berry legacy? Did you make a new simblr for it? How did you first start posting and getting into a routine? I really want to make a legacy myself but i'm scared that it would look really mediocre and unorganized! Any tips on how to plan out the storyline and start posting? Thank you!! (asking this to a few different blogs so sorry if yo see this question somewhere else)

I’m honestly super honored that you’re asking me! I’m still a pretty small simblr compared to a lot of people.

I’m going to put this under a cut, just so it doesn’t clutter up people’s dashes because I RAMBLE (like seriously, I’m re-reading it all now and I go on and on and on) but I’m gonna cover everything you asked!

TL;DR: get mildly inspired, get involved in the community and have fun with it!

I cannot recommending creating a new blog enough. While it’s definitely easier to just create a sub-blog off your personal, you’ll have a harder go at keeping things separate once things take off. Plus then you probably won’t have ALL your million tumblr things that you’re already following mixed in with your sim stuff, making things so much harder to follow.

Once you start your simblr (whether a sub-blog or whole new tumblr), TAG EVERYTHING. XKIT SAVES LIVES. Not really, but it will save you a lot of time once you install the Quick Tags and make tag bundles. Seriously.

At least once a day, a “reblog if you’re a maxis match simblr” thing comes across my dash–don’t be afraid to reblog those when you’re starting out. (Or the alpha equivalent if that’s your thing).

Seriously, don’t be afraid to reach out to people and get involved. Ask for sim requests, reply to things, join a Discord server–don’t be afraid to talk to people! I’ve actually made a few good friends this time around. It’s awesome.

This is just one of the unfortunate realities about things–if your pictures look good, you’ll get noticed quicker and blah blah. You can get by on just writing, but it’s a lot harder. This is still tumblr. It’s microblogging. LOOOOONG text posts (like this one lmao) are not what it’s geared towards.

Anyway. I play TS4 on Ultra, and that does a lot of work for me. Sometimes all you really need to do is sharpen and brighten things up. Reshade is another good alternative, if your computer can handle it–that takes a lot of the decision making out because it edits for you! I used to use PickyPikachu’s reshade presets. The downside is that it’s pretty resource heavy.

The basic point here is that having good lookin’ pictures goes a long way to making your stuff look “not mediocre.”

Also, and this is a side thing–find a good theme for your simblr, something that looks good for both text posts and pictures, probably something with either a sidebar or header (or both).

This is the meat of the section and it’s all really Kit/Pastille-specific.

I started up the Pastel Pastilles because I saw Berry’s challenge–I had already read Splash of Color a long time ago, and had a (now obviously abandoned) TS3 rainbowcy. But TS4 was fun and ran like a beast and I liked berry sims, so I dove in. If you were to go back in my archives, though, you’d see that I started posting a TS3 LEPacy, and that’s not even my first one.

I’m not going to even talk about the Grims in this post, since they’re really new. But they’re a prime example of using community involvement to stay interested haha. I’m very excited to play with Ruby and her future family because of all the nice sims people sent for her to eat alive become friends with. 

Planning with the Pastilles

With the Pastilles, I honestly got a little tipsy one night and did my initial planning based around Halsey’s Hopeless Fountain Kingdom. Like… Not even gonna lie. That was honestly my starting point. You can almost see hints of this in some places. From there, I had certain scenes I wanted to hit.

Gen 1 - Luna - “Hopeless”; it’s about being in a shitty relationship and hoping that changes lmao (“I hope hopeless changes over time”). Luna and Dianthus were meant to have a much more obviously toxic relationship but Luna ended up having four kids by her second pregnancy and I just couldn’t play and write that fast. However, I always knew that Luna’s big moment would be telling Dianthus to get out.

Gen 2 - Verity Vine - “Now or Never”/“100 Letters” - There are a couple things that have stayed consistent in this gen: Veri and her dreams, the peach spouse’s dad was gonna be a dick and they would be separated for years, and they were gonna hook back up at a wedding. 

My very first concept was that Riesling was going to be a bit more wishy-washy and bend to his father’s will (hence “Now or Never” being the song). By the middle of the generation, it was clear that Veri would become the distant one (“he said ‘please don’t go away,’ I said ‘it’s too late’”).

Part of writing a sims legacy sometimes is… letting the sims do the writing for you. Meri and Forest weren’t supposed to be the ones getting married (it was supposed to be Chai Tea and Black Cherry) and they definitely weren’t supposed to have the twins but honestly the story is better for it, you know? And obv most of Veriling’s story isn’t the way I initially planned.

All this said, once I knew where I wanted the story to go, I knew I wanted to plan around a few set-pieces: the fountain scene where Riesling trips onto Veri and she realizes “OH SHIT,” the scene where Eiswein walks in, Punk!Veri’s “I don’t dream at all anymore,” and Riesling’s “Hi, I’m Riesling Puck, you might recognize me from your dreams.” Those were all scenes I knew I HAD to get.

Gen 3 - ??? - “Angel on Fire” - it’s about anxiety lmao so I don’t mind linking it, it’s pretty obvious. Gen 3 has an anxious heir, a song about anxiety was on the nose.

I don’t really recommend the getting tipsy part, but definitely do recommend going in with a basic concept.

The cool thing about challenges is that you already have the guidelines as a starting point. One of my favorite parts about this challenge in particular is seeing how people re-interpret the rules–for instance compare the Gumdrops, Frosts, Amours, Pastilles, Fairyflosses, Prisms–we all started from the same basic rules and there’s still a lot of variation, especially once you get past the initial introductions.

Also, SERIOUSLY: don’t be afraid to take inspiration from crazy places–a song you heard on the radio, a movie, your own life, whatever. Like, I decided Veri’s generation would have it’s first Act at Oxtail University because of the “dream of ivy covered walls and smoky french cafes” line in “Beautiful” (from the Heathers musical). The song otherwise has VERY LITTLE to do with Gen 2. It’s just that line became a starting point for me.

Keeping Things Lookin’ Snazzy with the Pastilles

Looking back, you can kind of see Gen 1 was a bit brighter and lighter/different in editing style than Gen 2. I purposefully set out to get a “dreamy” feel for Gen 2′s pictures. It works for me and the Pastilles–it might not for your legacy! Play around with things to see what works.

I’ve also noticed a lot of banners nowadays (they weren’t as big my first go around here on simblr, but they’re everywhere now). I think that helps to keep things “on brand,” organized and consistent too. I personally don’t use a banner for the Pastilles–I didn’t start with one, and now it looks super wrong to me when I try to use one…. So instead, I’d recommend looking at @frost-rainbowcy–she is SUPER on-brand. I can only aspire to reach that level of #a e s t h e t i c.

HOWEVER, I do keep everything on my blog hyper-organized–there’s a main page where everything’s pretty much linked, and the character page. 

TBH, you don’t need to go that in-depth. I just like leaving weird easter eggs in places. You might too.

Posting Consistently

So, I started posting the Pastilles officially almost a week after I made the first post with Luna. That’s because I played a BUNCH right at the beginning, so I’d have something consistent to post for a while. It wasn’t initially as story-heavy as it is now. That’s something you probably want to decide before you start posting.

Right now, I’m posting inconsistently because I’m trying to wait around for Cats and Dogs and not give into the temptation to give Veri and Ries the babies they keep wishing for, but….

I’m in game almost every day–I get off work most days between 2 and 4 now, so by 6 PM I’ve eaten/showered/started up TS4. Even if it’s just to make a sim for someone.

I tend to do all my picture editing on Sundays, as it’s my day off. Sometimes it bleeds over into Monday, my other day off. I don’t always write posts up those days, but I at least stick them in the queue so they’re THERE. For me, it helps giving myself that weird deadline lmao

As a result, I almost always have something queued up.

I utilize the queue like MAD. Right now it’s set at 6 posts a day between 3 PM and 12 AM EST, but I change it up depending on what I have going on and what I can crank out. Usually I leave it on 13 posts a day.

Basically, learn what works for you. It does take some trial and error, but you’ll get it eventually.

Now here’s the real truth: you won’t post consistently if you don’t love your game or your sims.

I love playing the Pastilles as much as I love writing them. To the point that I have them backed up in several places just in case. I’m genuinely attached to the family, and that makes it worth it to me. Sometimes that doesn’t happen immediately (I love Luna, and Vino, and even Dianthus that shitbag, but you can tell that I got invested with Veri and Ries–Gen 1 is 30 pages long on my blog. Gen 2 is 92 and counting).

Storywise, I stay interested because I love the fluffy romance bits and snappy dialogue as much as the Drama Bombs, and also (spoilers) I’m a sucker for supernatural stuff. So I tailored my legacy to fit that.

But when I don’t want to play sometimes I just go in game, grab a few pictures of them in CAS and redo the character page for the 25th time. And that’s okay too. I just always try to make sure I have something to post, even if it’s a small (even if it’s just Riesling’s face. Because I know that’s what y’all want. It’s cool. I get it).

I seriously rambled a lot, but I hope this helps!! Once you get started, please let me know too! I’m rooting for you, non, and any nons to come after you.

[thranduilsperkybutt]

ThranduilsPerkyButt’s 8,000 Follower Challenge

Oh my gosh, darlings! We’ve reached 8,000 followers! Out of this world, I know! I never expected to get this many followers, but here you all are, and I cannot express the warmth it brings to my heart to know that you enjoyed my stories enough to follow me. Thank you, truly! I’ve been kind of obsessed with challenges as of late, so I decided to try out making my own challenge, maybe, and see how it goes. It’s my first ever one that I’ve made myself, so I get if no one wants to write the prompts lol, but hopefully some of you do!

|  Rules & How to Sign Up  |

You don’t have to be following me, but that would be rad if you were. :)

You can write anything! Smut, crack, fluff, angst, smangst, smluff, flangst, etc.! Whatever! I just wanna’ read it! And, in the true spirit of my multifandom blog, you can write from any fandom you want as long as it is a fandom from my fandom’s list (found here), and any character(s) you’d like from that fandom!

Only reader inserts, please! There must be a “reader” character (A.K.A. “you” or “Y/N”). No OCs. Sorry!

You can choose multiple prompts, because I’m going to let the prompts be open. That means they’re all free game for everyone! Feel free to use them as you see fit!

You can change the prompt’s pronouns (he/she/we/they/etc) to fit your fic, but nothing else can change! The prompt has to be included in your fic in some way.

See a prompt you like? Great! If you want to join, send me an ask that includes the prompt(s) you’ve chosen so I’ll know what list(s) to put you on. I won’t be accepting people any other way than through my ask box! You don’t have to tell me what character/fandom you’re writing for, but you can if you want!

Please include the character/fandom above your fic when you post it, as well as any and all warnings that could be associated with your fic. If it is over 500 words, please add a -keep reading- cut!

Be sure to tag me (@thranduilsperkybutt) in the fic as well as mentioning the prompt(s) and that this is for TPB’s 8,000 Follower Challenge.

Tag your fic with #thranduilsperkybutt and #tpb8000followerschallenge

If I don’t ❤︎like❤︎ your fic within 24 hours, feel free to send me a link via IM because most likely I didn’t see it! I wanna’ read all of these and give credit where credit’s due! My like will show up as my main blog (megmeg-chan) liking your post! When I reblog it on TPB, I will unlike it. (I will also reblog it on my main & include it in a masterlist I’ll make when the challenge officially closes.)

The deadline for all fics to be in is two months from now on January 1, 2018, so you should have plenty of time! If you need an extension, please message me! I’m pretty lenient, so we can totally work something out!

---------

Alright, then! There are 30 quote-like prompts beneath the cut! They’re pretty random and I just wrote up whatever came to mind that I thought could possibly inspire cool fics. I will reblog your fic if you choose to write one, as well as make a masterlist for all of the fics once the deadline comes.

|  Prompts  |

1.    “I’m in love with you! Why are you acting like that’s a crime?”

2.    “Maybe if you didn’t eat everything you came across, we wouldn't be in this mess!”

3.    “If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you shouldn’t stick your hand anywhere that you can’t see. This isn’t an Indiana Jones movie and I’m not sticking my hand in there!”

4.    “Are you going to help me bury this body or what? You were all ‘ride or die’ before.”

5.    “Did you do any work while I was gone? Or were you just sitting here playing Fallout 4 all day?”

6.    “Yeah, he tried to take over the world, but I’d still be down if he asked.”

7.    "I can’t believe that this is happening. I thought I was gonna’ be a virgin forever!”

8.    “For once, I’m not completely terrified of letting you take the lead on this. Either I’m getting used to your shenanigans or I’ve completely given up trying to stop you.”

9.     “You spent $300 dollars on movie tickets in one weekend? What?”

10.    “Why is there a life-sized cardboard cutout of Gordon Ramsay in your kitchen?”

11.    “I leave it with you for one day and my computer is whirring so loud that it sounds like it’s going to explode. Please don’t tell me you went on any shady pornsites.”

12.    “If you play that song one more time I am going to throw your phone out the window and the aux cord with it!”

13.     “Look, Professor, I know the paper was supposed to be due today, but you see, it’s a long story...”

14.     “I love coming over to your house. I mean, your dog is so welcoming.”

15.    “Netflix and chill? More like Netflix and fuck my brains out.”

16.    “You get me and that kind of scares me, to be honest.”

17.    “Hey, I know I’m calling you late, but I’ve had a bad night that resulted in me actually considering eating at Denny’s and I need you to pick me up.”

18.    “Did you seriously just say ‘your mom’ as a comeback? In 2017?”

19.     “I really hope my future soul mate is doing great right now, because someday I’m gonna’ need someone to help me emotionally get through that shit you just pulled.”

20.    “You... found my tumblr.”

21.    “You can’t just go around bashing people’s heads in when things don’t go your way! You’re going to run out of people at some point!”

22.    “I tried so hard to keep myself from falling for you. At the beginning, I even told myself, ‘You are not going to fall for him,’ but here I am, madly in love with you and regretting every minute of it, because you’re completely incapable of feeling the same for me.”

23.    “Don’t just say you love me. I’ve had people say that to me before, and you know what? People lie. Show me that you love me.”

24.    "Let’s get out of here. Go someplace else that’s far away, okay?”

25.    “Can we never speak of this again?”

26.    “If there’s one thing I learned from tonight, it’s to never trust you with the keys to my car again.”

27.    "I don’t want to be anywhere other than right here, right now, with you.”

28.    “How’s my favorite customer? You getting the usual?”

29.    “Alright, that’s it! You’re taking a break. Put down the textbook, I’m going to show you something.”

30.    “You don’t even realize how you sound right now, do you?”

I hoped you liked some or at least one of them, darling! (^.^”) Let me know if you want any!! <3 xx

[queenofthyme]

85 Questions

Tagged by @laborinquena (❤️)

Rules: Answer 85 questions then tag as many as you’d like!

Tagging: no-one because tagging groups of people makes me anxious (rules says as many as I like so I am not cheating on a technicality okay)

Putting it all under a read more so you don’t have to read my crap. I don’t know why I did this. i never do these. reminds me of myspace. I’m procrastinating I guess. please tread kindly. 

THE LAST

1. drink: water (sorry I’m boring but I’m not drinking pina coladas in the afternoon) 2. phone call: the love of my life to confirm what we were eating for lunch - this was a vital conversation 3. text message: the love of my life still about lunch - again, I stress this was VITAL 4. song you listened to: listening to this right now, don’t judge. listen to it 5 times and then come back to me 5. time you cried: two days ago. It was WINDY okay, got some sadness in my eye but I promptly flicked it away. 6. dated someone twice: lol nah once you out, you OUT. 7. kissed someone and regretted it: I mean my first kiss was gross and my third boyfriend was gross but can’t regret as all the grossness led me to the current love of my life. 8. been cheated on: YAS MAYBE TWICE. MY FIRST BOYFRIEND AFTER LIKE TWO WEEKS OF DATING. Like seriously? And my third boyf denies but I strongly suspect. So I don’t really know which one would be the ‘last’. Oh well. I mean, i don’t get it I’m hot as hell. 9. lost someone special: no. I’ve been lucky up to now. 10. been depressed: never 11. gotten drunk and thrown up: don’t remind me. last time was spiced rum. I think it’s always spiced rum. 3 FAVOURITE COLOURS

12.

13. 

14. Stop making me pick I love them all

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU

15. made new friends: my drarry friends ❤️ 16. fallen out of love: nuh-uh my love is forever 😉 17. laughed until you cried: yeah all the time. just throw a yellow or green balloon at me and i’m down for the count. 18. found out someone was talking about you: i don’t know and i don’t care. I mean actually like please talk about me? it’s all I’ve ever wanted.  19. met someone who changed you: yes in the sense that everybody changes you if we’re being poetic but no in the sense that I am a fully formed unstoppable force  20. found out who your friends are: lol maybe I should have done this in high school. I think I’m past the petty stuff. some people don’t like me because I never leave the house but my friendship isn’t defined by how many times we sit next to each other untalking in the movies or every event I show up to and make small talk with people for a couple of wasted hours. sorry not sorry.  21. kissed someone on your facebook list: the love of my life of course. fun fact: before we even acknowledged each other’s existence apart from being school mates we coincidentally became friends on facebook on valentine’s day - three/four years later and we started dating lol. Is it fate? (no, it’s a coincidence obviously but it’s cute shut up)

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them. but i don’t speak to literally any of them except my family and the love of my life lmao. 23. do you have any pets:

24. do you want to change your name: planning to make a new name when my partner and I marry. I’m not telling sorry.  25. what did you do for your last birthday: games with the family. that’s my ideal time. 26. what time did you wake up: 10am but to be fair dayight savings just started or ended (i don’t care) so I lost an hour of sleep somewhere in the night. fuck you daylight savings. 27. what were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping. I think. I hope. 28. name something you can’t wait for: to see Jodie Whittaker as the first female Doctor Who 💜💜 29. when was the last time you saw your mom: Easter? (Parents live interstate I’m not a monster) 31. what are you listening to right now: this is a little embarrassing but I’m now listening to this. again, don’t judge until you’ve listened to it 5 times. 32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: um YES. Literally everyone is named Tom? I’ve spoken to like countless Toms in my lifetime. 33. something that is getting on your nerves: did I mention daylight savings SUCKS? 34. most visited website: Tumblr OBVIOUSLY. I am loyal. 35. hair colour: brown. boring. next q. 36. long or short hair: neither. you can’t fit me into your binary. I mean I guess it’s inbetween ok. 37. do you have a crush on someone: the love of my life OBVIOUSLY. But if we’re talking celebrity crushes, right now it’s J-Hope and Halsey but of course it will always be Lana Del Rey and Tom Felton 38. what do you like about yourself: most everything except my crippling fears and lack of passion (i’m being dramatic I love myself don’t worry) 39. want any piercings: i mean I never wear earrings in my pierced ears anymore because I’m too lazy so no point adding to it 40. blood type: A+ because I aced the test. 41. nickname: call me whatever you want I guess. 42. relationship status: A day less than 59 months in a relationship with the love of my life. 43. zodiac: that’s telling. the scorpion one of course. why of course? I don’t know. just go with it. 44. pronouns: She/Her 45. favourite tv show: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, SKAM, Doctor Who, Avatar The Last Airbender, Veronica Mars, Parks and Recreation, Yuri! On Ice, No. 6, Broadchurch, True Beauty, The Mole, Battlestar Galatica, The Real Housewives of Melbourne, Firefly and NATHAN FOR YOU. Please watch Nathan For You. PLEASE. You will not regret it. 46. tattoos: nada I am allergic to pain. 47. right or left handed: Right 48. surgery: nope. luckily. 49. piercing: ears. i am a boring person. 50. sport: NONE. EVER. NO. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE ME WATCH IT EVER I WILL CRY FROM BOREDOM. I mean maybe like dance or gymnastics is okay to watch.  51. vacation: vacation what? like do I want to go? or when I last went or what? these questions ARE NOT CLEAR. I don’t like travel. My favourite vacation would be time off work and then I’d just stay at home. 52. pair of trainers/converse: okay im assuming favourites. I don’t own any good shoes. I hate shoes. But I hate not wearing shoes more. I have these cool black shoes with rainbow platforms on them does that count as trainers lol? what does trainers mean!!!!??

MORE GENERAL

53. eating: more general eating!?!?!?!? What do you mean? The last thing I ate was lemon and herb chips if that’s what you mean. 54. drinking: pina coladas of course. (i lie)  55. I’m about to: WRITE DRABBLES like im supposed to be doing right now. 56. waiting for: lasagne for dinner ooooooooh yeah 57. want: my daylight saving hour that was stolen from me last night back. 58. get married: when it’s legal. get your fucking act together Australia. 59. career: boring. don’t care. don’t want. i just keep floating through promotions and pay rises. Hopefully I can just do that until i am earning billions of dollars. that’s my only ambition.

WHICH IS BETTER

60. hugs or kisses: Hugs 61. lips or eyes: i mean ew idk. I hate floating unattached body parts. it’s a bit creepy. 62. shorter or taller: as in partner wise? don’t care, don’t give a shit.  63. older or younger: again, don’t give a shit but i’m obviously not going to be dating anyone much younger than me as they wouldn’t be of age.  64. nice arms or nice stomach: oh boring this seems like it is about muscles. I don’t care about muscles sorry. next. pass. 65. hook up or relationship: relationship only because I’m in one. also hooking up with people is awkward and scary and you can’t take a shit in their house. 66. troublemaker or hesitant: hesitant. I ain’t no troublemaker I SWEAR.

HAVE YOU EVER

67. kissed a stranger: nah i don’t like kissing someone if I don’t know the last time they brushed their teeth was. sorry i have issues. 68. drank hard liquor: yah and imma do it again bitch. 69. lost glasses/contact lenses: i mean my costume harry potter glasses im constantly losing in storage lol 70. Turned someone down: YES AND I WOULD DO IT AGAIN. HE MADE ME FEEL GUILTY ABOUT FRIEND-ZONING HIM AND DOESN’T WANT TO BE MY FRIEND AT ALL NOW. YOU CAN GO FUCK YOURSELF. 71. sex on the first date: nope didn’t get to do any dating past 17 because I’ve been gladly stuck in a monogamous relationship. 72. broken someone’s heart: so I’ve heard but I’m sure they’re fine. 73. had your heart broken: not really. I’ve been dumped once but luckily my heart is made of ice. 74. been arrested: no. they haven’t found the body yet. 75. cried when someone died: yep. 76. fallen for a friend: I had a crush on literally everyone I ever met in high school so yes LMAO.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN 77. yourself: I mean lame but yes. I exist. 78. miracles: nah mate. 79. love at first sight: NOOOOO NEVER. STOP THIS NONSENSE. 80. santa claus: no. but i wish he was real.  81. kiss on the first date: yeah do what you like. 82. angels: not at all. sorry judas. or whatever the names of angels are. sorry i don’t know my bible and folklore.

OTHER

83. current best friend’s name: that would be the love of my life whose name I am not revealing for reasons that would be clear if you knew me and my partner (but you will never know I guess sorry eek) 84. eye colour: wow what a great second last question. so intense and revealing. mother fuckin brown. 85. favourite movie: The Harry Potter movies obviously. I’m not a barbarian. 

I guess now you know the true me. brown eyes. you know my soul now. use it wisely. don’t judge me because of the kpop vids. just watch them. yah. anyhow. can’t believe you read this. enjoy your life and all.

[thatssonanii]

We All Want Love - Chapter Two

Roman Reigns/OC

Author’s Note: The visit to Jon’s house is cut off for a reason! Is there really a lot between None and Some? Tags: @lavitabella87 @macfizzle @thenamesaj @cool-snowball-22-blog @romanempressfics

March 1, 2017

Atlanta, GA – Esperanza’s Condo

3:45 pm

  Esperanza lie across her king-sized bed listening to her best friends, Angel and Monroe go back and forth about what they were doing for her upcoming birthday. She never got a say so in what they did, she liked what they had come up with in the past. While they talked she checked in with Kyla who was at cheer practice for their upcoming competition. It had been a few days since Esperanza had heard anything from Joe but she wasn’t worried, Kyla was worried enough for them both. If he was meant to find her again, he would. And if not, then so be it.

 “How about we go out to Cali? Go to the beach, do some sight seeing.”

 Angel rolled her eyes for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes at Monroe. She didn’t like any of Monroe’s ideas, as usual.

 “Cali? Who is she Kyla? She needs a real trip out of the country, Roe.” Angel explained thumping the younger girl’s forehead. “Somewhere like Barcelona or Brazil.”

 “Do you really think she would like that? What about Germany?”

 Angel looked to Esperanza with an exasperated sigh, “Please get your girl. This fool wants to take you to Germany.”

 ‘You guys know we don’t have to take a trip every time one of us has a birthday,” Esperanza laughed dropping her phone onto the bed. “We could just go out here or drive somewhere close.”

 Both Angel and Monroe laughed at her suggestion. The trio had been taking birthday trips ever since their businesses took off three years prior. They hadn’t spent a birthday in Atlanta since.

 “Oh please. You can’t be serious, Es. I don’t agree with that ragamuffin very often but we agree on this. Birthday trips are our thing, we’re successful we deserve it.”

 “You got one more insult me and I’m knockin’ that cute little accent out of your mouth, Monroe,” Angel playfully threatened. “But she’s right. We’re going. You just worry about packing some real cute shit and we got the rest.”

 Angel was the friend with the potty mouth. She cursed like a sailor and had no cares about anyone who didn’t like it. She was the oldest of the trio, which made her the protector. When they went out they had no worries, they took care of each other and she took extra care of the two of them.

 “We’re gonna take you to a nice island, get you drunk and get you a man cause, chica, you need it.”

 Esperanza rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Shut up, Angel. I do not need a man for nothing.”

 “I beg to differ,” Monroe laughed, “You need one for a few things.”

 “He can’t do nothing for me that I can’t do for myself, Monroe.” Angel and Monroe shared a glance then looked at Esperanza and fell out laughing. She pouted a bit not needing the same lecture from her friends that she had gotten from her mom of all people.

 “When was the last time you were with a guy, Es?”

 “That’s none of your business, Monroe. That’s personal.”

 “Esa mierda,” Angel groaned holding back a laugh, “The last time you got some dick was when you were with Rodney’s cheating ass.” Monroe’s eyes got big as Esperanza playfully slung one of her decorative pillows Angel’s way.  “Girl that was over two years ago. That’s a long ass time.”

 “That’s why she’s so feisty all the damn time. She needs some,” Angel joked blocking yet another pillow.

 “I hate both of you. And I’m not feisty, Angel.”

 During Angel and Esperanza’s bickering Monroe’s phone pinged letting her know she had a message. She quickly gathered her belongings and headed for the open bedroom door. “I’ll see you ladies later. My man is on his way home.” She blew kisses on her way out of the room.

  “Now that she’s gone, I can tell you what happened,” Angel said once she heard the front door open and close. “And before you say anything I didn’t want to say anything in front of her cause I didn’t want her to corrupt you into going back.”

 “Just tell me already.”

 “So, yesterday I’m at the salon working on this wig for a client when my receptionist comes and tells me I’ve got an appointment. So I’m like bring her back, I never really paid attention to the girl’s name when I saw it in my book,” Angel explained quickly. “So, she gets back my private booth and she’s talking her ass off. Telling me about how her baby’s daddy made her this appointment cause he wanted her to look good on their little date for some party they’re going to. And you know me,” she joked, “I wasn’t feeling it but I’m faking it, She pulls out her phone to show me pictures of him and the child. Guess who it was, Es. It was Rodney’s ass.”

 Esperanza screwed her face up wondering why Angel was even telling her that. She hadn’t talked to him since their break up and she changed her number. He was in her past, that’s where she wanted to keep him.

 “So once I’m done I walk her to the front to pay. When we get up there, Rodney’s raggedy ass is sitting out there with this big ass smile on his face. So me being me, I asked him what the fuck was so funny. He tells his little girlfriend to go on to the car so he can pay. And then he tells me how good it is to see me again and asking me about you.” She scoffed flipping her hair over her shoulder. “He was close to me pepper spraying his ass. Talking about he misses you and wants to know if he can have your number like he didn’t just have his girlfriend sitting in my chair.”

 “And you told him what, Angel?”

 “I told him kick rocks and to go back to his busted ass girlfriend.” Esperanza stared at her waiting for Angel to say whatever else she had said to Rodney. “What,” she snapped rolling her eyes. Esperanza raised her brows giving her a knowing look. “Okay, okay. I told him if I caught him anywhere near you or anything you own I would cut his balls off with nail clippers.”

 “You know you don’t have to threaten him every time, Angel. I’m over all that shit. It’s in the past.”

 “I wouldn’t be your best friend if I didn’t, Es. You may be over it but I’m not over how he made you feel. It hurt me to see you like that.”

 “Awwwe, look at you, Angel, being all soft.” She joked hugging her best friend tightly. Angel pushed her off with a laugh of her own. “Yeah, yeah. Cut that cute shit out. “

 March 4, 2017

Atlanta, GA – Esperanza’s Condo

8:30 pm

  Kyla had been in contact with Joe again through Twitter ever since the night he day he left Atlanta. It was small things, him checking up on Kyla and Esperanza and making small talk with the young girl about her and her sister.

 Esperanza and Kyla had dubbed Friday night their Sister’s Night. Neither of them worked and Kyla didn’t have practice—it was their time to take a breather from their responsibilities. They were supposed to watching ‘Dear White People’ but Kyla had her nose stuck in her phone.

 “Little girl, if you don’t get off that phone. Those Tumblr girls can wait.”

 Kyla laughed as she locked her phone. “I wasn’t on Tumblr this time. I was texting this guy.” Esperanza eyed her sister at the mention of a boy, her sister had never openly admitted to texting and talking to boys on her phone even though Esperanza already knew. Kyla caught her sister’s look and shook her head. “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s more like my brother—big brother.”

 “Look here, whoever this boy is does not want to be your friend. He’s only saying that because he thinks it’ll get you comfortable with him so he can sleep with you, Ky.”

 “It’s not like that. Seriously. He’s a brother to me.”

 Esperanza scoffed pausing the Netflix series. She turned on the sofa so she was facing her sister. “And what are you to him? Trust me, Kyla. I’ve had my share of boys who say they’re my brother and then try to fu—sleep with me.”

 “He’s way too old to be into me, Es. I swear it’s not like that.”

 “How old is way too old, Kyla Lolita Harris?”

 Kyla ran her hand down her face in frustration. This was not the plan she had worked through with Joe. It sounded so much better in texts, leave it to her to mess it up. “Look, I’ll just call him and you can talk to him. He’s more into you than me, I’m sure of it.” Quickly, she went through her contacts, finding Joe’s name so she could FaceTime him. “See,” Kyla sassed passing her phone to her sister. Giving her sister the side eye, she snatched the phone waiting for him to answer.

 She smiled upon seeing Joe’s brown eyes staring back at her. “Kyla, I’m gonna kill you,” she mumbled, “And you too, Joe. I know you put her up to this.”

 “It’s good to see you too, Tesoro della mia.” His voice was even deeper through the phone, it was nice to hear it again.

 Esperanza allowed herself to dial back her excitement. The last thing she wanted was for Joe to think that she was waiting on him. “What does that mean, Joe?”

 “It means treasure of mine.”

 “Mmhm. You think your Italian is gonna win me over?” She asked raising a brow. “Cause it’s not.” Joe laughed heartily, he started to move around with his phone cuffed tightly in his hand. From what Esperanza could see he was in a hotel room, a nice one. He plopped down onto the full-sized bed still staring at Esperanza.

 “From your smile I think I already have, Doll. You look beautiful by the way.”

 “You almost got cursed out,” she said honestly, ignoring his compliment. “Had me thinking some guys was tryna give her some game about being her brother. And she said he was older than her. You almost got the business, Joe.”

 “You tryna give me the business already, Doll. It’s like that?” Esperanza covered her mouth to contain her laughter, Kyla stood up ready to excuse herself that was much more than what she wanted to hear.

 “Well, alrighty. I’m just gonna go to my room before I lose my dinner all over the floor.”

 “Damn, little sister,” he laughed, “I didn’t know you were still in the room. You were too quiet over there.”

 “Don’t worry, Joe. I’m leaving,” she giggled. “Can you call him on your phone, Es? I need my phone.”

  Esperanza didn’t plan on staying up as long as she did with Joe but he wouldn’t let her hang up. He only had a flight in the morning so he was in no rush. The two of them traded jokes and stories back in forth, their laughing kept Kyla awake but she was happy for her sister. It had been a while since her sister had genuinely laughed like that.

 “I should’ve asked before but do you have a girlfriend, Joe? Cause I’m not trying to be your little road side piece.”

 He smirked rubbing his tired eyes. “Nah, no girlfriend, Doll. Unless that’s your way of askin’.”

 “Nope it’s not. But you look tired, you should get some sleep.” He nodded then bid her good night, ending their call.

 March 10, 2017

Orlando, FL -  Disney Coronado Springs Resort

6:45 pm

   Kyla’s cheer competition had brought the sisters down to Orlando for the weekend with Kyla’s team. Since Kyla would be with her team the whole weekend, Esperanza and Joe made plans with each other before and after the competitions. They had plans to got to his cousin, Jon’s house, for a little get together during their time off.

 “You’re staring again,” Esperanza laughed snapping her fingers in his face. He grabbed her hand, placing a light kiss on her knuckles. “Can’t help it, Doll. I finally have you in front of me without starin’ a hole through my phone.”

 “Stop it. Flattery will get you nowhere,” she told him moving from their spot on the bed. She wanted to change clothes before they headed out for his cousin’s house. Joe couldn’t help his wondering eyes, he had been watching her every move since he got to her hotel room over an hour ago.

 “I think it could if you gave it try.”

 “I’m not fucking you in a room filled with Mickey mouse heads, Joe,” she laughed taking her clothes to the bathroom. “Not even if I actually wanted to.”

 “Trust me, baby. If you let me in, you wouldn’t be worried about those damn heads,” he yelled out to her.

 “Am I gonna have to put you out, Joe? You know I will.”

 “You’d really put me out,” he asked lying back with his hand behind his head.

 Esperanza snatched the bathroom door open, giving him a mocking smile then went to tuck the clothes away in her bag. She didn’t want to put him out, she was enjoying his company far too much. Even when she acted like she didn’t want him there, Joe brought more laughs and smiles out of her. Joe eyed her as she approached the bed. He knew she was watching him watch her but he had not a care in the world about it. He never made it a secret that he was attracted to her.

 “I didn’t invite you over here for that. If you keep this up you’ll be going to your cousin’s place alone.”

 “Plans change, Es. For the better.” She rolled her eyes trying to pull him up from his spot on the bed. The pair fought back and forth even though Joe could’ve easily overpowered her, it was more fun to watch her try. “We could both just stay here and enjoy each other’s company.”

 “Not happening. I’ve gotten dressed to go out and that’s what we’re doing, mister.”

 “Doll, why go be annoyed by my cousins, their wives and our friends, when you can stay here with Daddy,” he asked grasping her chin with his free hand. Esperanza smirked as she looked into his eyes. She couldn’t lie and say he wasn’t tempting her.

 “I’ll make a deal with you, Joe. We go to your cousin’s house and have a good time now,” she said lacing her fingers with his, “And I’ll show you a good time later. Deal?”

He twisted his lips, thinking about her deal. “What kind of good time, Doll?”

 “I’m still not going to fuck you in this Mickey Mouse room,” she giggled.

 “Mmm, I’ve got a better deal. We go to my cousin’s house for a little while and afterwards we go to my house, I can make you some dinner then you can make me some sweets. Deal?”

 “As long as I’m not the sweets, Joe. I’m not fucking you in your house either.”

 “No one said anything about fuckin’. Just dinner and somethin’ sweet.”

 Joe grabbed Esperanza’s wrists as she got ready to get out of his blacked out Tahoe. Their drive to Jon’s house was quiet but comfortable. Outside of Joe quietly signing along to the radio and Es laughing at him.

 “I’m gonna warn you, Es. My cousins aren’t like me.”

 “What does that mean? I’ve seen them on television, they are not that bad, Joe.”

 “No, seriously, Doll. Josh is alright but Jon is,” he paused trying to find the right word. Before he could, His door was snatched open. Joe groaned as his cousin pulled him out of the driver seat, Esperanza laughed as she grabbed the keys from the ignition before getting out. She walked behind them as they play fought all the way up the curved driveway. Esperanza noticed there were about five or six cars. More than what she thought would be there. They stopped once they were on the porch when Joe was finally able to get out of his cousin’s hold.

 “This is my cousin, Jon,” Joe said slightly out of breath, “Jon this is, Esperanza. My Doll.”

 Jon gave him a cray look as he pulled her into a big hug, spinning her around in a circle until her back was to Joe. Jon looked over her shoulder at her butt with a goofy smile then gave Joe a thumb up. He tried to take a swipe at his cousin but Esperanza ended up getting in his way when she pulled away from the hug. She took her place at Joe’s side, holding on to his arm.

 “Nice to meet you, Jon. Joe told me some stuff about you,” she giggled.

 “Likewise, Esperanza. And whatever Uce told you, it’s a lie he’s a hater,” he laughed.

 “Get your crazy ass in the house before I get Trin on your ass.”

 “Whatever, I ain’t scared of her,” he sulked walking them into the house.

 Joe wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her from the back. She giggled feeling his beard tickle her neck. “Stop it, Joe.” She wiggled against him trying to get out of his hold, he groaned in her ear at the feeling. “You better stop. Keep that up and me fuckin’ you in a Mickey Mouse room will be the least of your worries, Es.” At his words, she stopped her movements feeling her cheeks heat up from his words. “That’s what I thought,” he mumbled as he let her go and grabbed her hand.

 “Bout damn time,” Jon complained as they entered the large, open living room. “Alright, yall this is Esperanza, the doll.”

 “MY doll,” Joe playfully glared at his cousin.

“Yeah, yeah. Anyway. Esperanza, that’s my twin Josh, his wife Kecia, my wife Trinity and our ugly cousins. Come on, Uce.” Jon spoke quickly, grabbing Joe’s arm pulling him away from Esperanza. Before she could ask where they were going, Joe, Jon and Josh were out of sight.

 “Girl, come have a seat. They won’t be back for a while.” The woman she remembered as Trinity patted the spot on the sofa beside her with a welcoming smile.

 The woman to her left put a hand to Esperanza’s knee, garnering her attention. “Joe didn’t tell us he was bringing a guest with him. I’m Tamina by the way.”

 “I’m sorry if I’m intruding, Tamina. He told me it would be alright if I came,” she explained confused.

 “Girl, we’re not upset you’re here. Hell, we’re excited he brought you with him,” Tamina laughed slapping hands with Kecia.

 “Why’s that?”

 “Cause he never brings girls to meet us. He hasn’t since his developmental days. He usually just sleeps with them then never talks to them again.” His other cousin added earning glares from her other cousins. “What? It’s the truth and you guys knows it.”

 “Yeah but you didn’t have to tell her that, Nia. At least wait until you’re sure he’s told her that,” Tamina stressed giving her leg a slap.

 Esperanza sat uncomfortably watching them go back and forth, she was glad to hear that Joe hadn’t done to her what he had clearly done to others but on the other hand she wasn’t sure if she liked that he had that in his past. What if it came back to bite him in the ass somewhere down the line? Or what if he left her in dust?

 “Don’t worry about what Nia said. She has a habit of putting her foot in her mouth,” Kecia assured.

 “You guys know him best, it’s better to hear it from you than anyone else.”

 “No,” Tamina asserted, “It’s better to have heard it from Joe. His past relations are none of our business. We shouldn’t have brought it up, especially not on your first visit.”

 “Yeah hopefully we haven’t scared you away from him. Joe would kill us.”

 Esperanza laughed waving Trinity off. They looked extremely worried. “Trust me, him and his mouth will run me away before you guys would.”

“His mouth?” Trinity asked carefully.

Esperanza laughed thinking back to their conversation in the hotel, their phone conversations and texts. He had been throwing out innuendos at her, Joe was good she had to admit but not that good.

 “Joe is just good. He’s a smooth talker and I bet he’s even smoother,” Esperanza caught herself before she could utter the rest of her words. “Sorry, I don’t want to make yall uncomfortable and we barely know each other.”

 “Trust us nothing you could say could make us uncomfortable. We’re all family, hopefully you’ll stick around and become family too.”

  Joe brought Esperanza to his home, getting her settled in his living room while he changed clothes. Him and his cousins had smoked a cigar and the smell had seeped into his clothes. While she waited for him to return, she called to see if Kyla and the team had made it back to their hotel.

 “We’re still out, Es. I know that’s what you want,” Kyla laughed into the phone.

 “I just wanted to check on you, geez. I haven’t heard from you all day.”

 “Because you’re with Joe. I want you to enjoy him without interruptions.”

 “Enjoy him,” Esperanza laughed. “Girl, what do you even know about that?”

 “I’m 16, not 6. I know what couples do when they’re alone. They have sex, Es.”

 “We haven’t had sex, Kyla Lolita! You and I are gonna have a long, long talk,” she scolded playfully.

 “Have fun. Practice making me nieces and nephews,” Kyla blew kisses into the phone then hung up.

 She laughed tossing her phone onto the coffee table. She couldn’t believe her sister was pushing her up to have sex with Joe. Albeit, she was thinking about it but she didn’t need anyone influencing her. It’s the reason she hadn’t told Monroe or Angel about Joe period.

 When she looked up, Joe was coming around the corner, heading towards his kitchen. She followed him, wanting to know what he planned on cooking.

 “Doll, come wash your hands. I’m puttin’ your pretty ass to work,” he ordered popping her butt.

 She poked his chest with her index finger. “Hands, Mr. Anoa’i.” He held his hands up surrendering with a laugh. Moving around her, Joe begun taking the pots out he would need and ingredients he had gotten before going to Esperanza’s hotel room. His mom had given him the recipe to her tomato sauce and meatballs, she was sure he could handle boiling noodles. She wanted to know who her son was cooking for but he had given her some lame excuse about wanting to learn Italian dishes.

 “What do you need me to do,” Esperanza asked softly.

 He had started to open the cans of tomato paste and whole tomatoes. The muscles in his arms were flexing, catching Esperanza’s eye. “Fill that pot with water and add some salt and butter for the noodles for me. Turn the stove on 5, if you will.” They moved in silence, Esperanza finished her task and stood to the side watching Joe chop onions and add them to his pot along with the paste, tomatoes and seasonings. “Come closer. You can help me with the meatballs.”

 “I’ve never made them, I’m not really sure how.”

 Joe rolled his eyes pulling her to him by her wrists, until she stood in front of the counter. He stood behind her, his hands moving ingredients closer to them. “Alright, so we’re gonna crumble the bread first. Like this,” he demonstrated, “Got it?” Shifting in his arms a bit, she nodded trying to focus on the task at hand and not the body heat blanketing her own. Quickly and efficiently, the five slices of bread were crumbled and added to a large mixing bowl full of ground beef. “Next, we need to add an egg. Think you can handle that,” he teased. She pushed back against him laughing then grabbed the egg from him. She broke the egg, tossing the shell into the Walmart bag Joe had thrown the other trash into. “Add some parsley, pepper, garlic powder and parmesan,” he whispered pointing to each. His hands over her hand as she added seasonings to make sure she didn’t overdo it. “Now the fun part—mixin’. My mom says the trick is mixin’ it with your hands.” Without any hesitation, Esperanza dug her hands in, pushing and mixing the ingredients arounds. It felt cold and mushy in her hands but it was kind of cool to her. “Slow down, Doll. You’ve gotta be gentle with the meat. Let me show you,” he spoke moving his body closer to hers and putting his hands atop hers once more. Joe had her body pressed against the counter by his body, his face right beside hers. Cheek to cheek. “See, you don’t have to move so quick. Fast is cool but sometimes it’s better to go nice and slow, Esperanza.” She looked over at him, catching the focused look on his face. The way his jaw clenched and unclenched as they moved the meat around. The focus he had was putting her hormones into overdrive though she wasn’t entirely sure why. “It’s time to roll the balls, Es. Look at the meat, not me,” he joked squeezing her hands.

 Joe placed a handful of meat in her hand then some of his own, showing her how to make a perfect ball. Setting his aside, he watched her do her own. She bit down on her bottom lip, concentrating hard on making hers as perfect as his was.

 “You’re cute when you’re concentratin’,” he whispered pushing his cheek against hers.

 “I just want them to be perfect,” she laughed, “No one wants lopsided balls, Joe.”

 “Mine isn’t perfect, Doll. We’re gonna eat them no matter what they look like.”

 She pouted setting her meatball on the tray beside his. They both did two more before putting them into the waiting tomato sauce. The pair washed their hands, splashing water and suds on one another until they both gave in. Joe led her back into the living room with him, while the food cooked. They sat on the floor in front of his sofa. The Game of Thrones marathon playing before them.

“My balls are gonna be so ugly,” she pouted.

 He laughed pulling her into his lap, he knew she had been sulking over that since they had left the kitchen. “Babygirl, they’ll be fine. The only balls you need to worried about are right here.”

 “You’re nasty, you know that, Joe.”

 “I know it, I’m tryna make sure you know it.”

 “You’re too much. I’m not going there with you,” she laughed pushing at his chest.

 “You’re stallin’ but I’ll go along with it. I see how you look at me when you think I’m not lookin’. If you didn’t want me then you wouldn’t be here.”

 Esperanza had gotten lost in his eyes as he spoke, moving her gaze between his eyes, his lips and his jaw. This man was more than attractive and she knew that he knew it. She bit her lip trying to think of ways to distract herself, reasons not to sleep with him while the food cooked.

 “You wanna kiss me but you won’t. You wanna touch me but you won’t. Why.” He asked dropping his tone.

 She sighed playing with her fingers in her lap. “I don’t want to be like those other girls. I’m not some little jeva that you can parade around cause I look nice on your arm and in your bed. I’m not a jungle gym, Joe.”

 “Where’s this comin’ from, Doll?” Her tone of voice concerned him. Joe didn’t want her to be insecure this early about him, they weren’t even in a relationship yet.

 “Just answer my question, Joe. Is this going somewhere or do you just wanna sleep with me? I’m a big girl, I can take the truth.”

 “Tesoro,” he called out softly. With his index finger under his chin, he brought her gaze back up to his. “If sex is all I wanted from you, I would’ve gotten it the first night I met you. While I’d love to lay you down right here, I’d love to get to know you and make something of this even more.”

 “You’re sure, Joe? Cause honey it’s going to be a long while before you get any of this.” Rolling his eyes dramatically, Joe kissed behind her ear down to her collar bone. “Are listening to me,” she giggled pushing him back, “I said you weren’t getting any.”

 “I heard you loud and clear, Doll. However, there’s a big gap between none and some,” he whispered turning her in his lap. They sat noses to nose, her arms wrapped around his neck.

 “Uhn uhn, Joe. Once that motor gets running, it’s not gonna stop.”

 Their eyes met once again, a smirk on his lips. He knew the food needed another hour and that was all the time he needed with Esperanza. He had been itching to get his hands on her. “Well, there’s only one way to find out. Let’s take your theory for a test drive and find out.”

[let-it-raines]

Catch Me If You Can (4/?)

298 days. That’s how long Killian Jones was away from a baseball field. It’s less than a year, only part of a season for him, but it might as well have lasted a decade as he alternated between physical therapy and spending an excessive amount of time sitting on his couch.

But then he came back and won the World Series. 

It’s something no one saw coming, and it’s certainly not something anyone who knows about his arm would predict. Now it’s a new season with new possibilities, and anything could happen. On-field reporter Emma Swan will be there to cover it all even if she is not his biggest fan right now. 

Asking her out live on-air will do that.

Rating: Mature

A/N: As always, thank you to @resident-of-storybrooke for the time that she takes to read through this for me, pick up on my little mistakes, and then flail in the comments💙 And thank you to you guys for clicking on this story and all of my other stories! It absolutely blows my mind!

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Tag list: @royalswan @shey-starsfury @sals86 @iam2307 @ashley-knightingale @snowbellewells @karenfrommisthaven @skyewardolicitycloisdelena91 @scientificapricot @captswanis4vr @emmas-storybook @ultimiflos @jamif @idristardis @nikkiemms @resident-of-storybrooke @tiganasummertree @wellhellotragic @bmbbcs4evr @onceuponaprincessworld @jennjenn615 @mayquita @captainsjedi @teamhook @kmomof4 @ekr032-blog-blog @ultraluckycatnd @cs-forlife @andiirivera @jonirobinson64 @mariakov81 @galaxyzxstark @qualitycoffeethings @thejollyroger-writer

-/-

He has two cakes cooling on racks in his kitchen.

Two.

He thought about making three.

Killian’s not exactly sure when he turned into Betty Crocker – okay, that’s a lie since he knows it was during his injury when he couldn’t do much of anything but hang around his apartment, watch old tapes, and feed himself – but if it doesn’t stop soon, he’s going to have to go up a size in his uniform. He refuses to be one of those players who have a beer belly.

Absolutely refuses.

So instead he’s going to have a coffee and coconut cake belly. Not together, obviously.

They’re separate cakes, though they could go together…no, those two should stay separate.

Definitely.

Why the hell is he having a meltdown right now?

It’s Opening Day, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest days of the year for him, for sports in America, and he is doing anything and everything not to think about it even as he runs over pitches he needs to do against every player on the Orioles, even the ones who aren’t in tonight’s batting lineup.

His calm mind is obviously back in Florida somewhere, probably melting away with the heat and being eaten by an alligator.

How many stereotypes can he think about an entire state all at once?

Probably more, but that’s a road he doesn’t really want to drive down. There’d be too many potholes.

His stomach twists, the nerves radiating over every inch of his flesh, and he wonders if Liam and Elsa will take these cakes off of his hands and turn off the power in his apartment so that he’ll stop stress baking. Honestly, he should have come up with a different hobby while out on injury, but there’s only so much he could do with his non-dominant hand. Even baking or reading or getting pants with a zipper on were full of struggles for those first few weeks.

Becoming an expert in every television show in the past three decades might have been a good idea. Or even taking online courses to see if he can finish out his degree, or, at least, start finishing his degree.

He’s always wanted to do that.

One day.

And maybe he’s anxious about his shoulder for today. Maybe he has razor sharp knots in his stomach because they came back and won the Series last year when they had no business doing that, and this is the first time he’s ever really had to defend something. He’s used to eyes being on him, to pundits watching his stats and debating his skills on their shows, and he’s honestly never given it much thought. What someone behind a desk says has no merit on how he plays on the field, but all of the sudden he’s worried about it all.

His heart may as well be pounding between his ears as loud as the speaker system in Yankee Stadium.

He reaches up to mess with the silver chain around his neck, his mother’s favorite ring cool against his chest, and he tries to take a deep breath. Then another one. His mom would want him to be calm, to think things through. She would tell him that it’s all going to be fine, that he will be fine if he simply calms down.

Every part of him hopes that it’s true.

Every part of him hopes that she’s proud of him.

His phone rings, and he turns off the mixer to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Are you stress baking?” Elsa asks him as he hears Lucy ask for a glass of water in the background. “One moment, sweetie.”

“Aw, I’m your sweetie,” he jokes, swiping some icing from the bowl and boosting himself up to sit on his kitchen counter.

“I’m obviously not talking to you.”

“Obviously.”

“But seriously, are you stress baking?”

“I am making both you and Liam a cake, and it doesn’t have anything to do with stress.”

Elsa sighs on the other end of the line, and he’s not sure if it’s because of him or because she’s trying to get the girls ready for school while also getting ready for work. He knows for a fact that Liam was on call last night, so he either spent the night in the hospital or got up early and left to do rounds. Either way, he’s not home.

“So, you’re currently freaking out then?”

“A little bit.”

“Killian.”

“Elsa.”

“Killian Jones.”

“Elsa Jones.”

“Oh my God.”

“What?” he laughs, flexing out his ankles and moving his toes underneath his socks.

“You are being ridiculous,” she huffs, Addy’s voice coming in through the speakers. “Hold on, Addy wants to talk to you.”

“Uncle Killian,” Addy squeaks, her voice loud in the speaker.

“Addy Jones! What’s up, my girl?”

“Today is Opening Day,” she squeals, and he can’t help but chuckle at the most mature, yet playful five-year-old girl on the planet. “I’m coming to your game tonight.”

“Are you? Are you going to watch the game? Or are you just going to play in the playroom with your friends?”

“I’m going to watch, duh,” she grumbles, and he can imagine her nose scrunching up and making her freckles all blend together. “I’m wearing my Jones jersey. Number twenty-nine.”

He never cared if his name was on the back of a jersey until the rule was changed for names to now be allowed instead of it all being simply numbers. It was just in time for him to get his nieces to wear his, and they’ve been stuffed in oversized jerseys of his since each of the days they were born.

“Hey, that’s what I’m going to wear too.”

“I know. That’s why I’m wearing it, Uncle Killian.”

“I love you, Addy,” he laughs, moving his phone and putting it on speaker so that he doesn’t have to hold it up to his ear. “Can you give the phone back to your mom?”

“I love you too.”

He hears the line disconnect, Addison very obviously having hung up on him, but Elsa’s already calling him back, a picture of her with the girls popping up on his screen, before he can press her contact number.

“Sorry about that,” she sighs. “They’re crazy this morning. I think it’s because they have an uncle who is a pretty big deal, and they’re proud of him. They both have on their jerseys today. Super proud.”

Blush rises to the tips of his ears, and he reaches up to brush his hair back, a few pieces of fringe falling onto his forehead. He had to get it cut last week, the length of it annoying him, but he still doesn’t like for his hair to be too short. Personal preference and all that.

“Well, really, those jerseys have their names on them too.”

“Yes, but it’s yours. Killian, take a deep breath. You’re going to be fine. You’re going to kick ass, really. I know it. Be excited. This is what you love. Remember that?”

“I know,” he smiles, toying with his chain again. “I know.”

“We will all see you tonight after you win, okay?”

“That’s not any pressure at all, El.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

His brother hit every damn jackpot in the world when he met that woman on his first day of residency because he was on the wrong floor to sign in, and she had to show him where to go. He may have looked like an idiot, but he met the love of his life.

It all evens out in the end.

Or so he hopes. He hasn’t quite found that yet, but there’s always that little glimmer of light telling him that.

After all, he hasn’t been struck out quite yet. Then against, it’s been a good while since he was at bat.

The fact that he’s making baseball puns in his head about his failed relationships is deeply disturbing to him, and he can’t quite believe that he’s sunk to this level. At least he’s not thinking about the game.

Oh shit. He’s thinking about the game.

Carefully getting down from the counter, he turns his music on, letting Queen play through the speakers hooked up all throughout his apartment, and gets back to whipping the icing for his coffee cake, figuring that if he focuses on one task at a time, today won’t seem so impossibly long.

And it’s true. He spends his morning working on his cakes, frosting them and putting them away in containers to take to the fields so that he can put one in the management’s office and give another to the ladies who cater for them, knowing that they like them. He’s sure that since he’s not giving them to Liam and Elsa, they’ll actually ask for them this time, but that’s simply a risk that he’s going to have to take.

He’ll have until Wednesday to play again, so it’s not like he won’t have the time to bake some more.

Or pick up another hobby. That’s still a possibility. He should really tackle the stack of books that he has on the shelf in his guest bedroom.

After he puts the cakes in his refrigerator, he walks down the hallway to his bedroom and picks up the basket of laundry that he washed last night and starts folding them, putting away his practice shirts in one pile, his generic workout shirts in another, and hanging his button-downs and henleys in his closet, adjusting a pair of his loafers on their shelf. He doesn’t always think that his apartment is that much of a bachelor pad, but sometimes it hits him how much it is, even if he has more than one bedroom. He’s got plenty of color, even if it’s mostly blues and greens and brown leather with white comforters and pillows. Decorating has never been his thing. Growing up, they didn’t have a lot of decorations, even if his mom’s paintings were on a lot of their walls, and when he was in college, his dorm room was legitimately just a bed with a checkered blue comforter and two pillows, absolutely nothing on the walls.

The height of home décor.

The only reason his place looks nice today is because Elsa’s sister, Anna, is an interior designer, saw his apartment once, and then forced him to go shopping with her the very next day. He swears she tried to max out his credit card on throw pillows. He’ll never understand why anyone needs so many but to each their own.

She did pick out several fantastic blankets, though. He most definitely brings one with him on road trips because it’s that damn comfortable.

He should probably buy another one.

Ariel: Your segment is airing at 3 PM on ESPN. It’s 30 minutes.

Ariel: Do you want to watch it in the clubhouse, or should I try to commandeer a private room for just you and me to watch it in?

Shit.

He nearly forgot about his segment. How the hell could he forget about that? He spent an entire day being filmed for it, a day talking to Emma Swan and letting her ask questions about his private life for him to answer and be aired. She never got to invasive, never asked for anything he would hate to be aired, and since he knows Emma Swan and the integrity that she shows every time she reports, he let Ariel approve the segment without him watching it.

That was probably not his brightest idea.

His teammates are going to give him hell.

They already do, especially when it comes to anything having to do with Emma or any girl that he’s seen with, and he already knows that every single one of them is going to be watching in the clubhouse if they’re not at batting practice or warming up for the game.

God, he hopes they’re all warming up for the game.

He needs to text Will and make sure that he’s ready to warm up with him later, see if he can get Eric to hit a few balls off of him, let him actually pitch to a batter today before the game starts.

So much to do, so little time even though he feels as if time could stretch out forever.

He takes a shower, washing his body down, before getting out and cleaning up his scruff, dressing in his warm up clothes and moving to the kitchen to eat the chicken and spinach he already had cooked and packed away into a container, before grabbing his keys and taking the elevator down to the parking garage, loading up into his car and beginning his drive through the city to the stadium.

Sometimes he thinks about moving closer, about being closer to work so that he’s not constantly in a car or on the train, but he likes his apartment. It’s a good location in the city, only three blocks from Central Park, and honestly, he doesn’t mind the drive out to the stadium. Sometimes he even takes the train, wanting to blend in with the crowd and be normal, even if it means seeing some pretty interesting things that he swears would never happen anywhere else in the world. That’s probably what he should have done today with his headphones and music drowning him out from the world, but instead he’s sitting in traffic and fiddling his thumbs, wishing that he could stretch out his legs as he runs over several plays in his head.

Will is going to signal him tonight. He doesn’t need to do that. He knows want to do, how to do this. He’s been doing it for his entire life, even if he did once play first base instead of being a pitcher.

But that’s all up to dear old dad, and his commanding and overbearing tendencies.

No. He will not go down that road today.

Today is a good day.

And he’s got Addy and Lucy wearing his number as they go to school because they’re proud of him. What more could he possibly ask for out of life? Those girls are the best, and he wants to make them proud. Liam and Elsa too.

His mom as well.

He finally gets to the stadium and pulls into the private parking deck, flashing his ID and parking before going through the tunnels to get to the locker room so that he can do a few stretches and meet with Archie to massage his shoulder while he’s watching the segment. He’ll probably be the most stressed then, and at least that way it can be in private.

Damn. He forgot the cakes at his apartment. How did he do that? He literally looked in the fridge right before he left.

“Jones,” Robin calls out, his mini me following right behind him with his mop of curly hair. “I have been reliably told that your biggest fan is here.”

“My biggest fan?” he laughs. “Would that be a young master Locksley? I thought his dad was his favorite player?”

“He’s not starting, so it’s you,” Roland laughs, running forward and wrapping his arms around his legs, nearly tugging his joggers down. “It’ll be Dad tomorrow.”

“Well okay then.” He squats down to hug Roland, ruffling his hair, before standing back up.

“Good to know that your old man will be your favorite player tomorrow. He might be mine too.”

“What about me?” Will questions, walking through the doors from the locker room, his shirt rolled up to wipe sweat from his brow. “I thought I was always your favorite.”

“You’re all my favorite,” Roland huffs, his nose scrunching up in conversation as he obviously gets frustrated. “Dad is making me go back to school, so I don’t like him right now.”

“Why aren’t you in school, kid?”

“Dentist appointment.” He flashes his teeth. “I didn’t have any cavities.”

“Good job.” Killian holds out his hand, and gives him a high five. “Will? You want to let me practice a few pitches around four?”

“After your girlfriend’s segment? Sure.”

“Not my girlfriend.”

“That’s because she said no.”

“As she had every right to.”

Will shakes his head from side to side, brushing his hands over the slight fuzz that resides on his head. “Listen, I’m just saying. You took your shot, and she shot you down. It was epic.”

“I’m going to peg you with a ball tonight.”

“Dirty.”

“There is a six-year-old in the room,” Robin sing-songs, placing his hands over Roland’s ears. “Roland, say goodbye to your crazy favorite players. You’re going to take your spelling test.”

“Bye,” Roland waves, a cheesy little, non-cavity filled smile on his face. “I’m going to eat a hot dog tonight.”

“I feel like there’s another dirty joke in there,” Will laughs, and everyone cuts their eyes at him, the lovable idiot. “What? Hot dogs are disgusting. That was the dirty joke.”

Okay, maybe just an idiot.

Everyone goes about their business as they warm up for tonight’s game. He runs for thirty minutes, a slow and steady pace, just to loosen up his muscles and make him feel like he’s done something today, before meeting Archie and having his shoulder massaged. He couldn’t meet at three, so Killian has to have it done with everyone else in the therapy room, before he does a few stretches with bands. He’s always worried about how it will feel, especially after a few pitches, but he knows that Al will only keep him in the game through the fifth inning today. It won’t be like the Series where he pitched nearly the whole damn game.

He still can’t believe that he did that.

Liam: I had a patient today who was frantically checking all of the channels to make sure the game was on tonight. I asked him if he’s a fan. He is…of the Orioles.

Killian: Oof. Way to boost my spirits.

Liam: I try. See you tonight. Are you going to come watch from the box when you’re finished?

Killian: As long as the game isn’t over before I finish my cool down, yeah.

Liam: Good.

He’s just about to put his phone back in his pocket when it dings again, Ariel’s name popping up.

Ariel: Al is letting us use his office. Come on up. I want you to look at your graphics for Instagram for tonight too.

Killian pockets his phone then, and walks through the doors to get to the offices, winding in and out of offices full of all of the administrative staff that work here, until he gets to Al’s office, a place he has been far too many times. He might as well pitch a tent and live in it, honestly. For as much tape as he watches and as much research he does into statistics, nothing compares to their manager.

Nothing.

“Hey,” he greets as he walks into the room, only Ariel sitting in there typing away on her laptop.

“Hey, give me a minute, okay?”

“What are you doing?”

“Killian.”

“Seriously.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“Hey, you can’t insult me in the same ways that I insult you.” He plops down onto Al’s old, cracked leather couch, nudging his shoulder into Ariel’s. Sometimes he thinks that they’re too close, but then again, he’s not going to complain about having someone in his life like Ariel. He often doesn’t know what he’d do without her. “I still don’t know how you balance things when your husband is playing tonight, and you’re stuck dealing with me all day.”

“I’m a very talented lady.” She types a few more things into her email, signing it off, before switching files to a video that’s paused on a still of he and Emma walking down a hallway in the training facility in Tampa. His hair is far too long in it. It’s a good thing he got it cut. “So, I’ve been thinking.”

“Always a rough thing.”

“You’re really telling horrible jokes today.”

He winks, and she bites her bottom lip, probably trying to resist calling him a jackass.

“Anyways, I’ve been thinking that, for today, we post this promo video for the interview. Then once it’s aired, I’ll link the video in your story. But that’s all pretty business-like, and I don’t want you to seem to stilted so I – ”

“Do you ever think we worry too much about my social media presence?” he ponders, leaning back on the couch and stretching his hands above his head, cradling his head in his hands.

“Aren’t I really just here to play baseball?”

“Yes, but it goes beyond that, knucklehead.” She taps his head, almost like he’s a small child, and he can’t help but chuckle. “You’re a public figure whether you like that or not, and so you do have to do things like this. Anyways, tonight, we’ll either get a game photo or you can post a private one that’s more personal.”

“Whatever you want.

“And I balance you and Eric because I love you both, and it’s something I want to do. And he’s not quite as difficult to manage as you are.”

“Please,” he scoffs, “that’s not true.”

“It is. Eric listens to me more.”

“Well, he does have more to lose.”

“I’m not even going to comment on that.”

She reaches over and picks up the remote off of Al’s desk, pressing a button before the black screen comes to life, Emma Swan sitting behind a desk the very first thing that he sees. She’s got her hair pulled back into a ponytail, and she’s dressed in a fitted navy and white striped shirt tucked into either a pair of pants or a skirt. He can’t tell. Maybe he’ll see her tonight.

Does he want to see her tonight?

Why would he want to see her tonight?

There’s absolutely no way that he still fancies her, none at all, and as much as they get on, he wants to be nothing but professional with her. He doesn’t want to make her life any harder than he already has by being an idiot.

He watches as she introduces the segment, her hands moving all over the place now that she doesn’t have a microphone in her hand, and before he knows it, the screen is transitioning into a video of him practicing his pitching, Will standing behind home plate catching each ball before throwing them back. It’s something he’s seen first-hand a thousand times, but then it changes to shots of Steinbrenner, both interior and exterior, before showing him talking with Emma. It’s…simple. That’s the only word he can think to describe it. It’s simple but straightforward, and he freaking loves it. There is no glossing things up, no trying to create an angle where there isn’t one. It’s simply the two of them talking like it was on that day.

It’s refreshing in every single way.

He’s grown used to reading magazine articles and gossip site clickbait all about how he can’t seem to date a woman for more than one night and how he’s playing too much off the field than on it.

Seriously, there was an article title like that once, and he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to throw a baseball at every single so-called reporter’s face who spent all of their time taking pictures of him in a private capacity to post it publicly. And he gets it. he went through a phase where he was going to too many bars, where he was casually dating a little loosely, but he was heartbroken and trying to compensate for all of that. His personal life was in actual shambles, but it didn’t affect his game. He wasn’t playing great, but he wasn’t necessarily playing horribly either.

Now it’s been four years since he was so much as pictured with another woman, and yet people still try to paint him in some kind of negative light.

Not Emma Swan even though she had every right to from his screw up.

A breath of fresh air.

That’s what all of this is.

“Your hair is too long there,” Ariel points out. “It’s doing that little flippy thing.”

“I got it cut.”

“I know. I’m just pointing it out.”

“You’re like the older sister I never had, A.”

“I am one month older than you, asshole.”

“And yet born in an entirely different year.”

Ariel huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes before propping her feet up on Al’s desk, the heels of her boots clicking against the wood. “If only you were as charming in real life as you are in this segment.”

“First you say my hair is too long, as if I’m not devilishly handsome no matter how my hair looks, and now you’re saying I’m not charming? You wound me, darling.”

“I try.”

He reaches down for his water bottle, taking several large sips as he watches he and Emma talk about the craziest fan encounter he’s ever had, which probably isn’t the craziest but is still pretty damn funny. She’s laughing at him, or at the story really, and it’s kind of nice to see that she maybe didn’t totally hate him before they went into this, especially since he didn’t get a chance to apologize until they were eating lunch and her cameraman went to the restroom. He’s pretty sure she accepted it, that she may have forgiven him for that, and as long as he doesn’t put his foot in his mouth again, they should be good.

To think that this is the one member of the media who he cares about, and he’s the one who screwed her over.

That is not something he needs to keep harping on and focusing on. He has to move on from it.

When the segment is over, he reaches to turn the television off, but then they cut back to ESPN’s studio with Emma still sitting behind the desk with Sydney Glass, who is most definitely not his favorite person in the world. He’s always telling Killian that he should retire any time he pitches a poor game.

It’s a bit (a lot) ridiculous.

“Well, that was certainly something,” Sydney says, spinning in his chair to look at Emma.

Her jaw clenches before she relaxes, and he imagines that she doesn’t like him much either.

“He’s certainly something of a player.”

“You would say that.”

“Pardon?”

“You would say that,” he repeats, tapping his fingers against the desk. “After all, he did ask you out on a date? Did you ever go on it? I don’t see how someone like you could pass that up.”

“Bloody hell,” Killian grumbles, sinking down on the couch before running his hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What a jackass.”

“I told him no,” Emma says, a very obviously forced smile on her face as she tries to keep things jovial, “so, no, I did not go on a date with him. And, really, the only date that Killian Jones is concerned with is his date with the mound tonight, so let’s go ahead and preview tonight’s game.”

He turns the television off then, not caring to see anymore, and runs his hands through his hair, making it stick up as Ariel pats his back.

“Did you apologize to her?”

“Yes, Mom, I apologized, but her life is obviously never going to go back to normal as long as she’s associated with me. I still can’t believe I did that. What’s wrong with me?”

“That’s a loaded question.”

He chuckles and leans back into the couch before standing up, adjusting his joggers. “Well, since I certainly don’t have time to get into that right now, I think it’s probably time that I went and did my job, don’t you think?”

“I don’t get paid if you don’t.”

“Ah, now I know why you want me to be successful.”

-/-

It’s the top of the fifth, and the sun is setting over the stadium as sweat drips down his brow and his back, his shirt soaked from the unseasonable humidity of the day and of the city. It’s almost like they’re back in Florida training, and he’d think that it would make him comfortable to throw like he was during all of the practice games.

It does not.

He’s miserable out here, his body aching, and he desperately wants to go inside and cool down.

This is not at all how Opening Day is supposed to be, and he knows that it’s all chalked up to his nerves and nothing else. The weather isn’t great, but he’s been getting in his own mind all night.

The fact that they’re up 5-1 doesn’t seem to stick in his mind.

“Get it together, Jones,” he murmurs under his breath as he looks to Will to see what signal he’s giving.

God, he hopes they don’t pick that up on the camera.

He nods his head, gets his body into position, and throws.

A swing and a miss.

Strike three. He’s out.

And the inning is over, everyone running back into the dugout. He gets a few claps on the back, a few more on his ass, and he sits down on the bench, reaching down to pick up his Gatorade bottle only for Al to look at him with a raised brow.

“You telling me I’m done for the night?”

“You look like you’ve been done for the night since you got out there.”

He nods his head, taking a long sip of his drink and letting it cool him down, before twisting the top back on and standing up and patting Will on the shoulder.

“I’ll be in a better mood next time.”

Al nods his head, a firm smile on his face. He’s usually a much more pleasant guy, someone they all want to be around, but sometimes during games, he won’t look happy no matter what happens. Then again, his job relies on a bunch of overgrown teenage adults playing a game well, so he’s probably a little tense.

Before he leaves the stadium, he sees Eric hit a foul ball, the ding of it ringing through the stadium, but then he’s walking through the dugout door and walking through the tunnels that lead him back to the locker room. It’s empty, not a soul to be seen, and he pushes through the doors to go to the gym, hopping on a bike and riding it for fifteen minutes while he watches the game on one of their television screens. They have tonight in the bag, he thinks, but it could depend on how Roseman closes things out, if he even closes things out.

He will. It’ll be fine.

Killian runs through the rest of his routine, doing a few stretches for his shoulder before heading to the showers, washing the dirt and grime off of him as he hums to himself. The shower makes him feel better than he did the entire time he was out on the field.

“Jones,” Archie calls out as Killian wraps a towel around his waist. “Are you planning on ever coming to see me?”

“Don’t be so desperate, Arch,” he teases, picking up his uniform and carrying it out of the room to place in his locker so that it’ll be washed. “I was just about to come by. I don’t think I need much more than a quick massage, though. I felt bad, but my shoulder doesn’t.”

“Are you lying to me?”

“Nope. I’d tell you if I was hurting, wouldn’t I?”

Archie crosses his arms over his chest, his sweater tugging at him. He looks more like a fifth-grade teacher than a physical therapist, but the man has magic hands. Magic.

“Like you tell the rest of your teammates?”

His stomach drops, but he ignores it. “I tell you, and no one else needs to know.”

Archie’s jaw clenches. “Let’s get you on the table. I bet your family is waiting for you up in the suite.”

They are, and as soon as Archie finishes massaging his shoulder and this niggling place in his calf, he takes the elevator up to the private suites, having to pass through the press hallway on his way there. The inside of this stadium can be like a maze, but he’s got a good grip on it.

And then he sees Emma Swan walking down the hallway with a giant soft pretzel in her hand, a large chunk of it in her mouth. She’s wearing the same thing that she was wearing earlier, but he can now see that she has on wide-legged pants instead of the skirt he thought she had on and that there are heels peeking out underneath them. She doesn’t see him yet as she’s staring down at her phone, but then she looks up and he swears she nearly spits out the pretzel in her mouth.

Always the reaction you want to see from a woman.

“Whatthefuck,” she mumbles, all of her words blending together as he sees her furiously chew.

He has never been more charmed by her.

“Is it pretzel day then, Swan?” he questions, fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt.

She covers her mouth with her hand, the one holding the pretzel, but he still sees the blush rise on her cheeks. “Was that an Office reference?”

“Of course. Pretzel day is the best day. I like pretzel day.”

“Obviously.” She puts her hand down as she stuffs her phone into the waistband of her pants. It’s then that he realizes she doesn’t have any pockets. Why do women’s clothes never have pockets? “Why did you look like you hated life out there?”

Ah, shit. He really must have looked miserable if others besides Al are noticing. He thought he at least faked it for the crowd. Reaching up to scratch behind his ear, he hums, “Because it’s humid? And maybe I really hated a segment that aired about me earlier today.”

“Oh. I didn’t – I thought…”

He reaches forward to touch her arm, squeezing as he smiles down at her. “I’m kidding, Swan. It was great. All of my interviews are going to have to be done by you or something because I don’t think I’ve ever been so charming.”

Emma scoffs, the slightest smile forming on her face. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of editing that went into making that happen.”

“So none at all?”

She slaps against his arm. “You keep thinking that, Jones. I’ve got to get back out to my seat. Not all of us finish our jobs halfway through the game.”

“Is that a jab at my position, love?”

“Most definitely,” she winks. “I’ve always preferred third base. It’s much more fun.”

She walks away then, taking another bite of her pretzel, and he’s left standing there trying to figure out if Emma Swan was just flirting with him. There’s no way, absolutely none. If anything, he’s pretty sure that she still hates him, but who knows? He certainly doesn’t, and with what he saw her have to deal with on TV today, he wouldn’t bet on her flirting with him.

When he finally gets through the media corridor and into the private suites, he quickly opens the one where his family always stays, and he’s greeted by his brother who is biting into a slider in the kitchen.

“You looked like shit out there,” he mumbles.

“Funny. You look like shit all the time.”

“It’s a gift.” Liam steps forward and wraps him up in a hug, patting his back. “You feel okay, Killian? Your shoulder?”

“I’m fine. I promise.”

“And that blush on your cheeks – what is that from?”

“You’re getting old. I think that eyesight is going if you think there’s blush on my cheeks.”

He hums, pulling back from the hug and placing his hands on Killian’s shoulders as Liam’s eyes scan over his face. “You wouldn’t have happened to see a pretty blonde out in the hallway, there?”

“Bloody hell, do you have eyes everywhere?”

“Blind ones apparently. But nah, Ariel was in the Fox booth, and she saw the two of you talking. That was some piece that she made about you. I watched it with one of my patients today.”

“The Orioles one?”

“Nope, this woman was on the right side. She thinks you two make a cute couple.”

Killian groans, pinching the bridge of his nose again. This is going to be his legacy. It really is. It doesn’t matter how well he plays or what good he does in the community. Asking a woman out on TV is going to be his legacy.

It’s starting to move up his list on the dumbest decisions ever made.

“Shut up, you idiot. I want to go see my nieces.”