#and skimming through my dash WHEW

[tittyblade]

tumblr etiquette 101

a list that is nowhere near exhaustive, from yours truly.

First off, welcome! Whether you’re a twitter veteran looking for anything but whatever twitter is, or a new user just done signing up, glad to see you in our ranks beloveds! Welcome home. Refer to this quick tour to make sure your fandom experience (or tumblr experience in general) is a positive one!

Disclaimer: I know it’s long, but please try to read or skim through til the end if you’re new here! This is by no means meant to be a rule book (for the most part lol), only a guide to help you get settled easier!

1) Your blog

This is where people will see and interact with you, so put some effort into it!

Try to choose a name (url) that’s simple. You can see it as your brand, it’s how people will perceive you and remember you. If you’d like to interact with other users here (and not use the site just for the content) it’s better to have something short and sweet, preferably without spaces. (Of course, these are only suggestions.) Rest assured, you can change it literally any time you want.

Have a theme. Utilize the tool that lets you edit your blog’s color or the font of your bio! You can make it match your profile picture, or your blog if it has a theme of its own. Make it feel homey :]

Fill in your bio. People will be checking out your profile probably more often than you think. Don’t leave it empty! Put in any information you’re comfortable with sharing and isn’t too personal (like your age if you’re a minor, or other TMI that can be found on other people’s carrds). It’s always better to add a name/nickname people can use to refer to you by, but feel free to use your blog description to shitpost still.

You can have an intro post. More often than not, you’ll see a blog have a pinned post, a post permanently appearing at the top of a blog until you pin another post or unpin it. You can make one of those, if you’d like to introduce yourself in more length, link any other socials or a carrd, and show others visiting your blog how you tag things so it’ll be easy for them to navigate. Not an obligation.

Keep your anonymity and your safety. It should go without saying, but there’s no harm in repeating it just in case. Your comfort, privacy and safety has the utmost importance. Don’t share any information you don’t want to. Don’t share your age if you’re a minor, or any other incredibly personal info. I’d encourage you to go by a nickname that’s not your real name, (blog name, your brand, remember?) since there’s safety in anonymity, and that’s lowkey one of the big deals of tumblr, but that’s up to you still.

Choose what you want to be visible. Your liked posts and who you follow are all things you can set to keep to yourself and hide from the publics eye, how handy! You should go through all the setting while you’re at it, set it to your comfort.

Side blogs are a thing. You can have multiple blogs that you can use for different things (see: different fandoms, art blog, etc) to keep them organized or away from your followers. Just remember that the replies and off-anon asks you send will be from your main blog, as well as where you follow other blogs from.

2) Interacting with others

You’ve set up your account, now comes the fun part!

Follow to your heart’s desire. If you care about others seeing who you follow, fear not! In tumblr, usually only two types of blogs keep their following visible to others: newbies, and big blogs using it to point people on other good blogs’ direction. Just turn it off, and go ham following people.

Customize your dashboard. Gonna mention just two things here: this is another reason why it’s really important that you follow blogs without sparing, your dash will collect dust otherwise; and you should turn off “best stuff first” in your dashboard settings, to have a better community here and all.

Follow tags. You can set it in your settings that posts with your followed tags appear on your dashboard.

You can check the og post for edits and context. When you see a reblogged post you don’t understand the context of (or don’t recognize the character in case of fanarts), click on the profile so it will take you to the original post. From there you can check the original poster’s tags to get the context, or see if there have been any edits made to the post, since when you edit a post it doesn’t update any past reblogs.

Send people asks... This is how you make mutuals, people! Do it off-anon if you’d like them to know your blog, or anon if you’d rather not! (You can still end your messages with a signature to show you’re the same person, -[name] is one example.) Send them nice messages, ask their opinion on something, discuss things, or just straight up shitpost lol. Go wild. The sky’s your limit and it’s definitely more than 280 characters.

...and let them ask you! You can set your preference in the settings, do it on desktop tumblr to access more settings tho! What you can customize on mobile is limited (like letting people ask you things anonymously, that’s only on desktop settings). In my personal opinion, it’s always better to tag their username (or a nickname you give them, if they’re a friend) on that post, since you wouldn’t want your interactions with your friends to get buried in your blog forever.

Comment on posts. If you have something to say but don’t want the post to appear on your blog you can add a comment. The owner of the post will get a notif for it, but for anyone else you need to tag them.

For the love of god, reblog. People will only see your liked posts if you have it visible to public and they specifically go on your blog to look at them. You like something? You reblog. It’s already hard for posts to circulate properly, if you don’t reblog them literally no one will see them. If not for anything do it for the artists. Just hold and drag on mobile to fast rb.

3) Your Posts

Finally here! Don’t be a lurker, post and engage!

Make use of “read more”. If your post is long, add it. That’s what you clicked on earlier to expand this post. On desktop leave an empty line and you’ll see three dots appear, and on mobile type :readmore: on that empty line.

Draft a post to come back to it later. Pretty self explanatory.

Queue your post. Whether it’s your own post or you’re reblogging, make use of the queue feature to a) not spam reblog and fill up the dashboard of people following you and b) keep your blog active while you’re gone. Mess around in the settings, it’s fairly easy to set up.

Schedule your post. Same as queueing, the only difference is you get to choose the exact time your post will go up. Handy if you want to schedule a post for certain dates like april fools, or 5 years in the future for some reason. 

Format your texts. You can do all kinds of fancy stuff here (that’s a link, try pressing on it). Twitter doesn’t have this, make use of it. Changes depending on whether you’re on mobile or desktop. (Desktop has less features.)

Check your stats. If you’re trying to understand the algorithm better or want to look at some pretty graphs you can get your data on that on desktop tumblr.

@ people in comments. You’ll get all the notifs when people comment on your posts but they won’t see your reply unless you tag them in your message.

4) Tags, and tagging a post

This is where my earlier statement “this isn’t a rule book” stops being applicable. It’s not a war crime to go against these, I won’t come chasing you (don’t take my word for this) but you’ll work up a bad rep. Just saying lol.

Do NOT crosstag posts. It’s really tempting to add unrelated tags to increase your posts’ interaction, I know, but that’s not what tumblr is about. Don’t be a dick and make other communities’ experience worse for them.

Always tag your posts with “crit/critical/discourse/etc” if it calls for it. There’s no exceptions to it. This is the reason you see people migrating to tumblr. Let people enjoy things.

Don’t main tag a critical/negative post. If your crit post is about “Thing”, you add the “Thing critical” tag, but not the “Thing” tag. People block crit tags if they don’t want to see it, don’t shove it in their faces by main tagging it. 

If you don’t want to see something, just block it. Another reason why people are able to survive on tumblr. You don’t start discourse, you don’t make call-outs, you block. You can find something for every community you can think of if you go looking for it. The worst of the worst probably won’t ever appear on your dash, but if you’re worried or feel the need for it, you know where the block button is.

Feel free to shitpost or ramble. More often than not you’ll see people rb a post with a comment, and their elaboration will be in the tags. The tags are only visible on your profile and the notifications of the owner of the og blog. Just a thing people do.

Reblog artists’ posts with nice comments in the tags! Commenting on a drawing is usually done through the tags (Not an obligation, again, just a thing people do. Feel free to add your comment on the rb itself if you’d want other people to see it tho!) and leave nice messages for the artists! It’s a win-win for everyone involved. 

If you have more than a single follower, always use the common tw warning tags. You don’t need to tw everything, but tw’ing some common things is the bare minimum human decency. Keep it safe for others. 

Tag a post “long post” if it’s really long. Pretty self explanatory. Don’t make people scroll through all that please lol. 

You can use them to organize your blog. This is more of a pro tip, if you’d like to not miss a post in your blog, cause they will start pilin’ up soon enough.

#Liveblogging is pretty fun. If you’d like to talk to people during streams, don’t forget to add the relevant tags still! Again, you won’t show up on people’s dash otherwise.

Whew! That got out of hand. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. Check out blogs like @heritageposts and @hellsite-hall-of-fame to honor our past o7. @mcytblr-hall-of-fame too maybe :eyes:. Anyways, don’t forget the most important rule of them all:

Enjoy your stay! You’re meant to have fun on here while also making friends (if that’s your thing). Just be kind and respectful of others, you’ll get the hang of the rest! <3

[cutegirlmayra]

How do you think Amy and the others would feel after Unleashed if they didn’t know where Sonic was, and he just came back after them knowing he was gone for days?

Prompt:

Professor Pickle stared out his window, the orange sky beginning to wane down into its final rest into the night. Before that, the clouds had been stretched like thinned out cotton, speckled with little grey holes that let the sunlight in from the previous rainstorm.

Amy was flipping through a book, but sighed heavily and placed it down after a few more skims of her eyes and the tips of her fingers against their flimsy pages.

“Water damage.” Professor Pinkle’s voice was one of fact, but had a little grain in them that he cleared out with a few gruffs. Digging deep to get the sound right, he finally spoke a bit more within the norm for him, “He’s been gone an awful while...”

“That’s normal for Sonic.” Amy’s usual cheeriness must have been masked over by the gloomy weather, but as she gently set the book aside, she smiled lightly to him and placed her hands delicately in front of her on the table she was sitting at. “He’s probably taking in the sights, enjoying them more now that the planet’s been saved.”

“Ah, does he usually just... up and fancies himself out without telling anyone about his... eccentric journeyings?” He seemed tied up on the idea, but Amy just tried to put together what he had said.

“Umm...” She politely looked away and up towards the ceiling, her mouth forming a pursed line before nodding to him, thinking she might have understood him this time. “Yep! Sonic loves to run! So it’s often hard to tell where he goes. Still, I try not to worry too much. Don’t fret too much about Sonic, he’s a free spirit! After all...” she hopped down from the table and glided her hand across the books of his shelf, opening her mouth to smile wider at the legends and lores they all contained.

“Wow...” she removed her hand a moment to look the whole room over, “Can you imagine? What if every mythological story is true? Whew! Sonic would have his hands full for sure.” she held her hands behind her back, tilting her body in an energetic and young, feminine way as once again--the old professor’s eye caught that mask of her true emotions.

“You’re very real... when you wish to be.” The Professor mused, “And so are legends. They all stem from some fable of truth.” he nodded his head, turning to the skies again. “That fox friend of yours... Ohh... the names not coming to mind...”

“Tails?” Amy thought it strange that he wouldn’t remember that signature feature of his. She turned around and tilted her head back, child-like, but with a sense of innocence as she walked over to the window to look up at him.

“Ah, that’s the one! He’s out there flying about and looking for the ol’sport, right?” He seemed excited to say it, “Makes an old professor wonder... what’s the logic in you not going about to do the same, hmm?” He waited a moment... before taking a peek at her reaction. “Hmm...?” he noticed her sudden glum appearance and turned more fully to her, his eyebrows arching a bit in concern. “Don’t particularly like the rain, dear?”

“It’s not that.” Amy lightly rubbed her hands against the windowsill. “I’d be running with all my heart through the puddles to find him... but...”

“Ah, the legendary word.” Professor Pickle nodded his head and straightened up from leaning over to speak with her. “Say all the more you want, but ‘But’ is a strong, connecting word. Makes me think you have tried before, and again, and again... and finally, discouragement has uprooted that wonderful spirit of adventure in you... and kept you nicely by my side, eh?” He had such a ... way... with words.

Amy’s ears bent back slightly, and she looked away from Professor Pickle.

“Do you... Do you think he purposefully doesn’t come back... sometimes?” Amy felt a bit of her heart sink at admitting her awful doubts. She had pushed them away for so many years... “It’s only when one of us goes after him out of worry and not seeing him for so long... that we ever see him at all.”

“Ah, thus is the life of one called, ‘the blue blur’, eh? An illusionary fallacy of a man and friend, when really, the true underlining of a fable book, no?” He gestured back to his stories. “If one is truly real to their feelings, then they’ll comply. But!” He raised a finger up, happy to express some wisdom to the girl in yet another use of the legendary word he had previously described--”He is very much real, and your worth to him shouldn’t be crippling on the edifice of what is real or not real. Sonic... must be opened like a book on mythology... and then he is real within you and your emotions.” Professor Pickle was a true wizard, one with a line that could combobulate a mixture of confusion with priceless words faster than a puzzling riddle.

“So..?” Amy squinted her eyes, trying to figure it out, but hinting to the kind professor that she couldn’t quite follow that this time.

He laughed, seeing her struggles, and placed a hand encouragingly on her shoulder, “I’m sure he’ll either return, or he’s waiting for you... dear girl.” He gently then turned her towards the door, as her eyes widened at what he was implying. “Go to him... he probably misses your enthusiastic smile... I hear he’s quite fond of it... along with chocolate supreme, or something or other.” He stood like a posh Englishman then, proud to see the girl off. “Take care, now. And I wouldn’t mind it if you stopped for some delectable sandwiches. Pick me one up, will you? You know the kind I like.” he hmm’d his joy at the thought. “Oh yes, quite tasty after the smell of fresh rain, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I would.” Amy breathed out, unable to hide this time her true love and wish to see her blue hero again. “I’ll check up on Sonic, and I’ll find him!” her usual pep was returned to her, and he smiled to see it through his hairy, elderly brows.

“Hmm... yes... not a ‘But’ in that fine sentence. A good statement, really.” he watched her head out, dashing through the puddles in a true, bright expression of youth and joy. “Ah, the grandeur of youth.” He went on, walking up to the open door and seeing the sunset, “I do hope she remembered a coat... or at least an umbrella. Brr... best shut the windows, then.” He slowly... softly... closed the door.

Amy had traveled quite a ways from Spagonia, now racing through the cobbled city of Apotos, as her footfalls splashed up to scare the pigeons off their roosted spires of the extraordinary architecture.

The glimmer of the puddles only radiated her feelings of excitement. She paused only once to look around, her quills swishing freely as she did so, before feeling the wind brisk them forward and turning that very direction.

“Ah!” she gave out an surprised sound, but one that knew exactly what the wind was saying. “Found him!” she took off, experienced in this sort of routine, before skidding to a halt at an ice cream vendor’s cart.

“One sundae supreme, sir!” the man bellowed out happily, “Though it’s getting awfully chilly, sure you want one?”

“It’s for a friend.” Sonic’s voice rang through the streets and straight to her heart.

Tails’s plane flew overhead, and Sonic looked around the man’s tarped covering and excitedly looked back to him again, “Make that two, please!” He held up two fingers as the man just laughed, making another. “Extra on those chocolate flakes.”

“Comin’ up!”

Sonic waited as he watched the progress, but by this time, Amy had already waved out a hand and called out his name, “Sonic!!”

“Huh?” Sonic turned, his hand on his hip swayed up in a leisurely greeting, but his eyes glistened with the falling sun as he saw his friend, delighted to see her. “Thought you’d show up sooner.” he admitted.

Her heart skipped a beat.

“You... you were waiting for me?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded, “Figured you and Tails would be worried about me, sorry about that.” He scratched behind his head, looking down. “I... had some thoughts and things I needed to take care of. I’m buying these in honor of a good friend.” He watched the man hand out the newest creation he had compiled together as Sonic gave him a thankful nod and gestured one to Amy. “On the house! Or so he says.” Sonic laughed, “My treat, basically.”

Amy lovingly was touched, and took the treat. “Thank you.. Sonic! Hehe!” she licked the vanilla part and placed a hand to her cheek, “Emm~ My favorite! Light and fluffy!”

“Thought so.” Sonic gave her a thumbs up, “Now, how to get Tails down here to say the same.” Sonic teased, looking up at Tails flying about and waving. He gestured that he was landing, and arched his biplane far off into the distance.

Amy and Sonic watched both him and the sun set over the city and hills... finally resting over the ocean... before blipping out of sight entirely.

“...For Chip.” Sonic raised his hand towards the fading light, that then completely disappeared, as though high-fiving it... one last time.

He lowered his hand and then looked to Amy, “Good?” he noticed it melting as she stared at the scene and then him.

“Huh..? O-oh!” she quickly began to try and lick it up as Sonic laughed at her vain attempts.

“We should catch Tails,” He raised the other ice cream up to the night sky, “After all, now that I’m not some big Gaia monster, I can’t just stretch my arm out and hand him it. Plus, I’d like to see the look on his face when I asked the vendor for extra chips on his.” He smiled brightly, gesturing back to the ice cream man as he leaned on his cart and closed his eyes, smiling back.

It was so pleasant... the ice cream so rich.

And Sonic’s smile...

“How are you feeling... about all this?” Amy wondered out loud, as Sonic also seemed to take a moment to think about it, tapping his foot to the ground and slightly crossing his arms, gazing to the cobble streets.

“Well,... I’m used to this form, so I guess it won’t be that hard to get used to again.” He looked back up at her, and to reassure her, bounced a little as he swung a fist upward, “Guess I’ll just stick to what’s true and blue!”

Amy giggled at his antics, then followed suit, startling him as she took his hand.

“H-huh?” He watched her take the lead, eating her ice cream. “What’s this all about?” He seemed surprised, but then looked a bit awkward, “What are you feeling...” he seemed to shy back, and she just pulled him forward.

“Hmm? Oh, just that I don’t want you taking off without me!” she looked back after licking her lips as though this was nothing new, “Come on! Tails will definitely want to hear all about this one, and you know me, never a dull moment in your stories, I’ve gotta hear everything!” as is her normal way of showing affection, she charged forward, dragging him behind.

“Wha-ah-ah!” He stumbled after her, trying to not lose balance and drop Tails’s ice cream.

“We were all so worried about you... I’m glad I found you.” She kept her head forward, “And that... you feel like yourself, but maybe missing what you lost... just a little bit... we’ll try and help the best we can with that,... Sonic... You can rely and depend on us.”

Her words of comfort made him look to her again, and as his eyes adjusted to the new, but fast-pacing darkness that covered the land... he held her hand just the tiniest bit tighter... but no transformation this time.

He had been missing Chip, but also missing his friends, as well...

He loosened his grip on her hand after a moment, as though accepting that he wouldn’t become the Werehog again, and nodded to her statement.

“Sorry.”

“We’ll always worry about you! So don’t sweat it! Just know, that we’re always waiting for you to come back safely!” she looked over her shoulder, happy to be with him, and then walked quickly while she ate towards where Tails had landed, a while away... but a pleasant stroll through the city never hurt anybody...

Apotos’s was brimming with night life fancies, like lights and soft music playing on the streets...

Tails’s plane’s propeller slowly spun as he dismounted it and excitedly ran over to Sonic after checking that everything was a safe landing.

“Sonic..! Oh? For me?” Tails waited to take the ice cream, but looked about ready to take it, looking for a signal from Sonic.

Sonic had let go of Amy’s hand a while ago, which made her puff up her cheek, but she was happy he put up with it for so long anyway that regardless, she was still pretty happy to be with him.

She swayed her body as Sonic nodded and handed the treat over to his friend, smiling. “All yours, buddy!”

“Wow, thanks!” Tails excitedly took it, “Woah! So many chips!”

Sonic folded his arms, basking in the look Tails gave off. “Knew you’d love it.” He gave him an iconic wink and thumbs up, bouncing it in the air a moment.

Amy carefully held her ice cream, half-way eaten, in her hands. “Ooohh... isn’t there something special about mine too, Sonic? Something I like?”

Tails was hurriedly devouring his Ice cream with enthusiastic licks, he must have been hungry, as Sonic turned to Amy and nodded too.

“Extra whip, extra cream, and a whole lot more strawberries.” he winked, “You said, ‘light and fluffy’ before, right?”

His kindness and consideration made her blush as she hid behind the delicacy. “Hehehe~ You remembered~”

“I don’t forget a true friend.” He looked back to Tails, “But I sure do miss them...” and then up to the sparkling night sky again. “Man, I forgot how fast it changes from day to night...” he marveled a moment, solemnly.

“How could you forget?!” Tails exclaimed, “Anyway, what happened?” His face had some ‘leftovers’ on it and Amy--scoldingly--pointed it out in mime. “Oh! S-sorry...” He cleaned himself up as Sonic chuckled to himself.

“Well... it’s a long story.”

Amy saw him look straight ahead, and the sudden sorrow that matched her gloom from before.

In empathy, she smiled, “I’d love to hear a good story.” she remembered the Professor’s words, and as Sonic turned to answer her, she held up her ice cream to him with a finger sticking out, protesting, “And no ‘But’s! ‘But’s ruin the story!” she chimed, moving the ice cream out from hiding her face and wagging her finger as though Sonic from his earlier years.

Tails let out a silly, young boy laugh at her impersonation, and Sonic just lowered his eyes and shrugged openly at it.

“Guess I have no choice.” He mused, and began to retell his amazing adventure as a Werehog while the two enjoyed Chip’s last treat...

What they didn’t know... was that it was sprinkled with the chocolate Chip had loved... so much...

[artificialqueens]

kaleidoscope (courtlaska) - citrus

A/N: the Kaleidoscope music video really really impacted me as a baby lesbian and honestly the taller girl gives me Alaska vibes anyway, so this kinda just… happened. enjoy!

Before her transition- and indeed, sometimes even during it- Courtney had hated the beach. She’d been constantly worried that people were looking at her, judging her, seeing through her carefully-curated exterior to see that she was a fraud or a fake. That was a long time ago, however, and that mindset was long gone. Now, the beach was her sanctuary, a place of peace, where she could soak up the sun and listen to the waves and feel free. It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm, and she was going to enjoy it for all it was worth.

She was musing on these thoughts as she walked down to the place where concrete ended and sand began, making eye contact with a blonde girl as she passed. The other girl smiled at her, shamelessly checking her out as they crossed paths; she was tall and tanned and carrying a penny board, and Courtney couldn’t help but blush. What a cutie.

Realizing she’d forgotten her beach towel in her car, Courtney turned back to head in the direction of the car park. Whew, she thought as she closed the trunk of her car, towel tucked under her arm, that would’ve been a pain if I’d remembered any later. She kept her eyes on the horizon as she walked back, mesmerized by the sparkling water and the white sandy beach. Out of nowhere, she collided head-on with a body and fell flat on her ass.

“Oh my god, fuck, I’m so sorry!”

Courtney looked up to see the pretty blonde from before, crouching in front of her and offering her hand.

“It’s okay. I need to look where I’m going, I guess,” she said, cracking a smile as the girl helped her up. Noticing that her board was slowly rolling away, Court dashed after it and scooped it up, returning it to its owner with a shy smile.

“Thanks. I really am sorry.” She tucked a lock of long blonde hair behind her ear nervously, and Courtney noticed that she had pink stiletto nails and a few finger tattoos. When she looked up to make eye contact, she realized that the girl was looking at her chest, and blushed when she was caught. “I promise I’m not staring at your boobs,” she rushed out. “That’s a really pretty necklace.”

“There’s not much to stare at,” Courtney smiled. “But I wouldn’t have minded if you were.”

“Oh.” She smiled, reaching out to hold Courtney’s necklace between her fingers curiously, almost as if she wasn’t completely aware that she was doing it.

“It’s a kaleidoscope.”

The blonde’s nose wrinkled in confusion and god, it was adorable. “What?”

Courtney smiled and pointed to her necklace, her fingertips brushing against the blonde’s. “It’s a kaleidoscope,” she repeated. “A really tiny one. Wanna look through it?” She watched the girl hold it up to her eye, noticing that her eyes were dark brown, almost black.

“Wow. That’s really pretty.”

“Gorgeous,” Courtney agreed, though she wasn’t talking about the view through the kaleidoscope. The girl noticed and flushed again, biting her lip.

“What’s your name?”

“Courtney. Yours?”

“Alaska,” she answered, “Like the state.”

“That’s really pretty,” Courtney smiled. “It fits you.”

Alaska smiled back. “Thanks. I guess you’ll be wanting to get back to your friends, but it was nice meeting you.”

“It’s just me, actually,” Courtney admitted, perhaps a little too eagerly. “I usually come here by myself. It’s really nice to just…”

“Take it all in?” Alaska suggested.

“Exactly!”

“So you’re here alone,” Alaska stated. It wasn’t a question, but Courtney nodded anyway. “Good,” Alaska said, a mysterious little smile playing on her full lips. “I could use the company.”

They walked down to the beach together- or, rather, Courtney walked and Alaska skated. She was good at it, clearly, and Courtney was almost a little jealous.

As if able to sense her thoughts, Alaska stopped abruptly and kicked her board into her hand.

“Wanna try?”

Courtney shook her head, not wanting to make a total fool of herself in front of this super-hot girl. “I’ve never done it.” Alaska shrugged, and Courtney hated herself for noticing the way her biceps rippled.

“There’s a first time for everything,” she answered, taking Courtney’s hand. “C’mon, I’ll help you. If you’re not into it, we can stop. Just try it?”

Hell, Courtney couldn’t resist those big brown doe eyes. She conceded, and Alaska clapped her hands in excitement, dragging Courtney behind her to an empty stretch of concrete covered in bright, colorful graffiti. She placed her board on the ground, encouraging Courtney to plant one foot on it and showing her how to push off. Court fell the first time, but Alaska was quick, and managed to catch her. The second time, she managed to get both feet on the board and travel a few unsteady feet before losing her balance. Alaska seemed delighted by her efforts, and Courtney would fall off the penny board a thousand times if it meant seeing her smile like that.

“Here, let me help,” Alaska offered, placing her hands on Courtney’s waist to steady her as she made another attempt. Her hands were strong yet gentle, holding her just enough to keep her balance but not enough to push her, and Courtney felt butterflies in her stomach. With Alaska’s help, she managed to find her center of balance and stay on the board without falling, and soon Alaska was running after her, laughing into the wind as Courtney mastered the basics and skated down the sidewalk.

They stopped at the steps that led down to the sand, walking down them together and scoping out a spot to put their towels. When Alaska kicked off her combat boots- Combat boots? On the beach?- and her jeans, Courtney couldn’t help but stare. She was so damned pretty, her legs impossibly long and slender, the high cut of her American flag bathing suit making them appear even longer. With her height and her relatively flat chest, Courtney wondered fleetingly if Alaska was a girl like her. Any semblance of rational thought disappeared, however, when Alaska turned around to set her clothing down on her towel; holy shit, Court thought, this girl has a perfect fucking arse.

Alaska caught her staring and wiggled her hips. “See something you like?” she teased, pulling her long blonde locks into a high ponytail. Courtney blushed as she took off her own shorts and her cropped jacket, not saying a word. “God, you’re even prettier than I thought,” Alaska breathed, eyes sweeping over Courtney’s bikini-clad form. Courtney held back a smile as she smoothed down her plaits, reaching out for Alaska’s hand to give it a squeeze.

“Last one to the water is a rotten kangaroo!” she called, taking off in the direction of the waves.

“That’s so Aussie!” Alaska laughed, sprinting behind her to try and make up for Court’s head start. Courtney was no match for her long legs and athletic figure, and Alaska made it to the water way before she did, splashing her playfully when she arrived only moments after.

“You’re faster than I thought,” she laughed, a little short of breath. “I didn’t think this through.”

“You can make it up to me by coming into the water,” Alaska grinned back, holding out her hands. Courtney took them, gingerly stepping into the water and yelping when the cold waves lapped at her ankles. Alaska laughed. “Come on, it’s not that bad!”

“It’s coooold,” Court whined as she waded out to where Alaska stood, the water knee-deep for her and nearly thigh-deep for Courtney. Alaska pulled her close, pressing up against her body.

“I’ll warm you up.”

Alaska’s skin was warm, and she was tall and lean and soft against Courtney’s smaller frame, her arms wrapping around the tiny girl and feeling bare skin on bare skin. It was so nice to have Alaska’s hands skimming down her waist, resting on her hips, trailing down to her thighs…

“You’re so fucking cute,” Alaska murmured with a smile, and Courtney blushed.

“Thank you…”

“You were right, by the way,” she continued in the same low murmur, and Courtney found herself short of breath again from the sultry tone of Alaska’s voice. “This water is cold as hell,” she finished in her regular voice, reaching down to splash Courtney playfully.

“You’re the worst!” Courtney half-giggled, half-shrieked, splashing Alaska back.

“I said you were right!” Alaska protested, shielding herself from Courtney’s retaliation. She scampered out of Court’s reach, running through the waves with Courtney not far behind. There was something so freeing about running across the beach with Alaska, her laughter ringing in the air and harmonizing with Courtney’s own. She felt like she was on top of the world, and Alaska was there with her.

“Race you back to the towels!” Court shouted again, now that she knew just how competitive Alaska was. This time, her head start was too great for Alaska to catch up, and she made it there before the leggy blonde did.

“You’re mean,” Alaska pouted as she plopped down onto her towel.

“You’re a big baby,” she replied, and Alaska pouted harder, sticking out her tongue. “See?” Courtney snickered, “Baby.”

“Ooh, call me baby again,” Alaska purred, pretending to lean forward seductively. Courtney rolled her eyes and began reapplying her sunblock.

“Will you stop pouting at me if I buy you an ice cream?” Courtney teased. “I can’t handle those puppy dog eyes.” Alaska crossed her arms, turning away to hide the fact that she was smiling.

“Maybe.”

“What would seal the deal?”

Alaska turned back toward her, grinning widely. “Two scoops.”

It was Alaska’s suggestion that they share a cone, and Courtney admitted with a little embarrassment that she didn’t eat ice cream as she was vegan. Alaska’s eyes lit up, and she looked incredibly proud of herself when she presented the idea that they get sorbet instead. Courtney bought the sorbet cone while Alaska sunbathed and watched over their belongings, and the younger blonde looked delighted when Courtney reappeared with an already-melty cone.

“I can’t believe you actually got two scoops.”

“Raspberry and mango,” Courtney answered. “Are you gonna have some first or should I? I don’t want my hand to get all sticky with melted sorbet.”

“If you insist that someone has to…” Alaska grinned, darting forward to lick up the melting sorbet from the cone. They took turns sharing the frozen treat, and it was hard to ignore the tension between them as they were in such close proximity to one another. Neither of them quite knew who closed the gap first, but suddenly they were kissing, slow and open-mouthed, tasting sorbet on each other’s tongues. The kiss was sticky and sweet and Alaska moaned blissfully against Courtney’s mouth, enjoying everything about this moment. They only broke apart when Courtney cursed under her breath; the melting sorbet had finally ended up dripping onto her hand. She swapped the cone into her other hand, but before she could grab a napkin, Alaska’s tongue was dragging over her skin, licking up the melted sorbet. Courtney’s heart raced as Alaska made steady eye contact with her, sucking on two of Courtney’s fingers, where the sorbet hadn’t even dripped. Fuck.

Alaska pulled away with a sultry smile, stealing the cone out of Courtney’s other hand and proceeding to lick the sorbet in the filthiest way Courtney had ever seen in her life. She couldn’t help but blush as she watched Alaska finish off the cone; she obviously knew exactly what she was doing to Courtney, and she was clearly quite smug about it.

“Thank you for buying,” Alaska said breathily, depositing herself into Courtney’s lap and throwing her arms around her neck. Courtney was near-frozen as Alaska ground against her lap shamelessly, pressing sticky kisses to her cheeks.

“A-Alaska…”

The taller girl pulled back, looking earnestly into Courtney’s eyes. “Do you want me to stop?”

“I… It’s good, just… Not here, maybe?” She gestured to the beach full of people, and Alaska giggled, dismounting her lap.

“Right. I kinda forgot. You make me feel like we’re alone.”

“I come here a lot, there’s this little spot on some rocks, by a waterfall… We could go there if you wanna be alone.”

“I’ll do whatever you want me to if it means we get to keep making out,” Alaska said simply, blissfully unaware of the way her words made desire twist in Courtney’s stomach. They packed up their towels and got dressed again, and Courtney took Alaska’s hand to lead her to the secluded spot. Getting across the rocks was a little tricky, so not many people bothered, much preferring the soft sandy beach. They could be completely and utterly alone.

The little rocky outcrop was, as Court had suspected, completely vacant. The only sounds were the waterfall and the birds, and it was clear from her expression that Alaska was in love with Courtney’s secret place.

“I love that we can still see the ocean from here.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Court answered, sitting down on the edge of a rock that jutted over a sparkling tide pool. “It’s one of my favorite spots.”

“It’s beautiful,” Alaska agreed wistfully, dropping her bag and sitting beside Courtney, allowing the older girl to lean into her and rest her head on her shoulder. Their legs intertwined and Courtney took Alaska’s hand, perfectly content to be sharing the view with her.

Courtney felt Alaska reach down, and she sat up with a grin. “If you’re about to splash me again, I’ll kill you,” she threatened emptily, and Alaska shrieked with laughter as she allowed the water in her cupped hands to rain down on Courtney. “Alaska!”

“You looked like you needed to cool down,” Alaska said innocently, “I was helping!”

“Sure you were,” Courtney grumbled, finding it impossible to hide her grin. Alaska mirrored her grin, leaning in to kiss her again, softer this time. No one was watching them, so Court could take as much time as she liked kissing Alaska, not having to worry about rude stares. Alaska shucked off her jeans between kisses, giving the excuse that she was hot, but by the way she was trying to pull Courtney to lay on top of her on the rocks, it was obvious what she was trying to do.

“I should’ve worn a bikini,” she breathed as Courtney lavished her neck with kisses, leaving a few love bites here and there. Court chuckled at that, stopping Alaska as she moved to take her entire one-piece off.

“This isn’t a nude beach,” she laughed softly, and Alaska pouted.

“I know, I just… I want you,” she admitted, squirming a little against the warm rock. Courtney smiled and lay down beside her, cuddling up to her as her fingers crept down Alaska’s body. She pulled the crotch of her bathing suit aside, and Alaska gasped shamelessly. “Please…” Courtney kept kissing her, deep and slow, as her fingers parted Alaska’s folds and found her already wet and wanting.

“You weren’t joking about wanting me, huh?” she hummed in the younger girl’s ear, and Alaska whined in desperation and embarrassment.

“No… I want you so bad, Courtney…”

“There’s only so much we can do in a semi-public area,” Courtney teased her, dipping down to collect Alaska’s wetness and spread it all over her slit. Alaska gasped, her breath coming out in little pants and whines as Courtney slowly, languidly rubbed her clit, trailing kisses down her neck.

“Please, please, please,” Alaska breathed, arching into Courtney’s touch, impossibly aroused by the lazy way that Courtney was getting her off. Fuck, she’s so fucking hot. “You’re so… good at this,” she whimpered against Courtney’s lips, her thighs trembling as Courtney brought her to the edge easily. With one more deep, searing kiss, Alaska was falling off the edge, melting under Courtney’s fingertips and dissolving into pleasure.

When she came back to Earth, Courtney was replacing the crotch of her bathing suit and kissing her soundly, arms holding her close.

“You are incredible,” Alaska mumbled, basking in the afterglow. Courtney pulled away to wipe her fingers on her thigh, sitting up and admiring Alaska in her semi-liquid state.

“You’re adorable. I never asked if you lived around here or were just visiting.”

“I’m about half an hour away,” Alaska answered, basking in the sun. “You?”

“About the same,” Courtney answered. “I come here when I can, but work keeps me busy.”

“What do you do?”

Courtney shrugged. “I’m a barista right now, but I’m trying to make music work.”

“I bet you have the voice of an angel,” Alaska smiled, sitting up and twirling a lock of hair around her finger. “I’m sure you’ll make it work if you really love it.”

“I hope so too,” Courtney smiled. “What about you?”

“I’m in school for theatre.”

Court look at her in surprise. “You’re young,” she blurted out. She’d expected Alaska to be closer to her own age, with the way she carried herself and the maturity she exhibited, so Courtney was a little taken aback to hear that she was still in school when she herself had graduated with her masters degree around three years ago.

“I’m twenty-four,” Alaska laughed. “I’m finishing up my masters in music theatre.”

“That’s incredible. You’re a singer too, then?” Alaska nodded. “We should get together sometime and just… sing.”

Alaska scooted closed, her hand on Courtney’s thigh. “Mmm, or we could do… other things.”

“Didn’t I just get you off?” Courtney teased. Alaska shrugged, resting her head against her shoulder.

“I’m too hazy to come up with a good response to that.”

Court laughed. “It was that good, huh? I’ve half a mind to take you home with me and ravish you.”

“Mmm, I’m not opposed even a little bit. I took a Lyft here, if you’re offering.”

Courtney smiled at her, pressing a kiss to her cheek. “Mind staying ‘til sunset? It’s my favorite part of beach trips.”

“I’d love to.”

The sun crept below the horizon lazily, like it was trying to make every moment between the new acquaintances last a lifetime. Even as the daylight faded, Alaska’s skin held the warmth it had soaked up all day, keeping Courtney warm and happy as they sat together on the rocks, watching the sky turn from blue to pink. When it began to sink into lavender hues, Courtney hopped off the rocks and shouldered her bag.

“Ready to go?”

Alaska stood up and took Courtney’s hand with a smile.

“With you? Anywhere.”

[cipheredsong]

Take One Day - Lance Bday Week Day 2: Friends

Whew, made it! Another late-night write from me, haha. This is a follow-up to my drabble for yesterday’s prompt, and it turned out... a lot longer than I expected, to be honest! I thought it was just going to be another really short drabble, but nope. 1.5k words, and I managed not to make it very angst-full.

Being a paladin of Voltron is a 24/7 job. Lance was never prepared for something like that, but he does like to think that he’s adapted to it pretty well.

So he’s surprised and pleased when Allura announces that, now that they have finished their negotiations with the latest planet to join the Voltron Alliance, they will be taking a day to rest on the planet’s surface.

They all fly down in the lions - Lance makes some joking complaints when Allura and Coran go with Shiro, but he isn’t really bothered by it. He proceeds to spend the brief trip down to the planet making more jokes. Blue goes at cruising speed, a nice change of pace from her usual swiftness as she charges a Galra ship or heads into a wormhole. It means that Lance has the opportunity to look out at the planet, but he doesn’t, because he has video feeds of everyone else up on a screen and busies himself trading cheesy puns with Pidge and Hunk. He even manages to make Keith laugh once, and he thinks Shiro cracks a smile somewhere in the middle of the pun war.

When they land, Lance takes his time exiting Blue. After all, it’s their ‘day off’. He thinks it’s justifiable for him to be a little slower than usual. That means that when he strolls out of Blue’s mouth, everyone else is already finished with being in awe of the place where they’re spending their day. It leaves them free to grin at Lance’s reaction to seeing a beach, an ocean, the shore lined by strange alien trees. The water is bluer than most on Earth, but Lance has seen water of a similar shade before, so it doesn’t phase him. He whoops excitedly and punches the air above his head.

Hunk grins at him. “I thought you’d be excited! Didn’t you look at this place before we came, or on the way down?”

Lance shakes his head, unable to wipe the smile off his face. “This is amazing,” he says. Then his smile finally fades. “Wait, I’m going to need to go get my swimsuit from the castle - no, really wait, the water is safe, right?”

Hunk laughs. “Coran apparently brought everything. I guess Alteans know the concept of a beach day. And yeah, the water’s fine!”

It takes Lance a matter of minutes to sprint to Coran to retrieve everything he needs, find a hidden spot to change, and zoom back to the beach. He’s the first one back - except for Coran, of course, who never fails to somehow move at the speed of light or something - and so Coran turns to him quickly. “Lance, my boy! Take this.” A transparent thing is shoved into Lance’s hands. Lance gives it, and then Coran, a blank stare.

Coran makes a motion like he’s holding binoculars up to his eyes. “It’s for seeing underwater! It took me forever to find them in the storerooms, but I thought we would need them today.”

Lance’s jaw drops and then he gives Coran another huge grin. “This is amazing!” He tries and fails to put on the Altean goggles. Coran helps him after a moment. They feel weird for a second, but Lance gets used to it quickly.

“They even help you see in darker waters,” Coran says cheerfully. “Wonderful little piece of technology, although not used as often as they should be!”

“Well, they’re getting some use today!” Lance rocks back and forth on his heels, and then looks around. “Where is everyone else? They’re taking ages.”

He is unceremoniously tackled to the ground by Pidge at that exact moment, barely avoiding getting a mouthful of the pink sand. “Take that back!” Pidge crows, sitting on his back. “I only took ages because I was preparing for my stealth attack.”

Lance is too happy to care about the stealth attack. He heaves himself onto his hands and knees, knocking off a still-laughing and triumphant Pidge. “Race you to the water, Pidgey!” he yells, taking off. Pidge follows him with a shout about how he got a head start.

Hunk and Keith join them in the water a few minutes later, followed soon enough by Shiro and Allura, and then eventually even Coran joins them in a giant splash battle. Everyone but Lance retreats back to the beach for a few minutes after that, and Lance takes advantage of the calmer moment to tug his Altean goggles down over his eyes. Inhaling deeply, he plunges under the waves, powerful kicks propelling him along as he skims by just above the sand. He’s missed this so much, the feeling of water all around him and people he loves nearby.

Lance spots something on the sand just ahead of him, and his scavenger’s instincts from all his beach trips back on Earth kick in, leading to him scooping up the item and heading to the surface for a moment to get a better look at it. It’s a stone, smoothed by the water, white and black blending together nearly seamlessly in a spiral. It’s gorgeous. Lance finds a pocket in his swimsuit and tucks it in, and wonders if any other treasures are lurking under the surface, waiting for him.

Time passes. Everyone else comes into the water sometimes, either to cool off (the planet’s sun is strong) or to have fun. Lance stays in the water almost constantly. It’s comforting and familiar-feeling, and he keeps finding cool things.

Finally he hears Shiro calling out to him, and he reluctantly heads back to the beach, walking out of the waves and stretching slowly. “Are we leaving?” he asks, feeling his heart sink a little bit.

Shiro nods. “Sorry, but we have to get back to the castle. It’s starting to get dark out.” Lance hadn’t really noticed. “You’re not tired?” Shiro asks, laughing a little. “You’ve been in the water nonstop.”

“Nah, I’m a swimmer. I’m happiest in the water!”

Shiro smiles at Lance’s enthusiasm. “Maybe we can come back sometime.”

Lance smiles hopefully. “You really think so?”

At a nod from Shiro, Lance’s small smile grows. “Oh, almost forgot!” he exclaims, and he dashes over to where he left his jacket, grabbing Pidge’s orange phone-like gadget from a pocket. “Guys, get over here!”

With everyone gathered behind him, Lance adds one more picture to the multiple photos he’s taken over the day: everyone on the beach, smiling, the sun glowing on their faces and the weird alien trees behind them.

The trip back to the Castle is a little bittersweet. Lance holds close the idea that they may come back sometime.

As everyone is stepping out of the lions, Lance calls everyone over again. “Close your eyes,” he says, “and hold out your hands.”

They all follow his instructions, Allura and Pidge looking suspicious, Hunk and Coran excited, Keith curious, Shiro hesitant. Lance fishes from his pockets the things he found over the course of the day, and hands them out one by one. “Okay, eyes open,” he eventually instructs.

Everyone opens their eyes in the same moment, and there are mixed sounds of appreciation, confusion, and happiness. “A rock for Shiro that made me think of his hair,” Lance says with a smirk in Shiro’s direction - Shiro chuckles and runs his fingers through the white tuft. His hair really does look like the rock, the first thing Lance found. “Some sort of alien bird feather for Pidge; I think it’s waterproof. Keith, that scale is kinda sharp, careful - I don’t know what it’s from, but I thought it was cool. Hunk, that wood came from one of the weird trees, I think. The color matches. Coran, you’ve got one of my best finds, it’s some kinda fossil! And Allura… I know you got really excited about sparkly stuff and then couldn’t go to the space mall. I’m hoping that that’s sparkly enough - the stone shimmers if you look at it the right way.”

There are still a few confused looks, so Lance explains himself. “I’ve always found cool stuff on the beach in the past. I thought that it might be nice to have some souvenirs.”

He gets thanked by everyone, multiple times over by Hunk, Coran, and Allura especially. Keith waits until almost everyone has headed out to thank him, his voice quiet and serious, the words accompanied by a rare smile. Pidge thanks Lance enthusiastically, probably thinking about trying to figure out what the feather came from. Shiro’s thanks are brief, but heartfelt.

When he’s back in his room after a shower, sprawled out on his bed, Lance looks across the dim space at a shelf. On it sit a few holo-renderings of photos with the other paladins and Allura and Coran, his piece of driftwood from home, and now a spiny fin from an unknown sea creature, today’s addition. He feels more at home in the castle in this moment than he ever has before. If he didn’t know better, Lance would find it amazing that one day could make him feel so different about being in space. But being who he is, knowing the power of single moments of happiness, he’s just grateful that he had the day to spend with his friends. He’s happy to have them here with him. “One day,” he says quietly, “maybe we’ll all do this together, back on Earth.”