#bc he has a boat in modern right?

[hoeforalbedo]

heyy! saw ur post ab scara and i just. my brain is full of him so here:

Scaramouche who would be hella annoying when he wants attention like he’s a fucking cat, knocking shit over on ur desk and being obnoxious bc he likes to see you frustrated (sfw)

Scaramouche who makes you thigh ride him while he works because he likes to see you whimper (nsfw/suggestive)

idk how helpful these r but yeah!

Scaramouche x afab!reader

Summary: Scara is a terrible boss. You hate him but you love him. Modern AU

warnings:mentions of female genitals, sex, making out, cursing, thigh-riding, Scara being a bitch, idk tell me if I missed anything

SFW

Scaramouche is the worst boss you've ever had. Well it is your first time being a secretary for a very large company and of course you plan to be on your best behavior and be a great role model for everyone.

Someone, however, stirs you from going down that path. How can a CEO be so obnoxious?? First, he makes you do most of his work for him. He would give you stacks of papers and expects you to finish it for him when he's the one who should be doing it. "Just stamp my authorization or something. I don't really care what you do with the ones you don't like. Stamp it or not." He would then go out for some coffee or wine, whatever floats his boat.

This man even has the audacity, when he's bored, to sit on your desk, look through the papers, and throw them at every corner of the room. "You're looking quite frustrated, makes me want to annoy you even more," He would smirk.

"I’ll make sure you don’t have that satisfaction then,” You smirk, trying to talk back. You really can't really push him away because he is your boss and he knows it. He enjoys the power over you and he would continue to tease you.

 "Oh please, I’m always good at my own game.” He slaps down a few more files and reaches over to mess up your hair. “I expect you to get this done asap. It's for the conference tomorrow. Better get working, busy bee." He would smirk while he leaves you, huffing and turning red from frustration. 

Even when you’re very busy, he’ll still give you things to do. “Hey busy bee, my office is getting dirty. Sweep and mop it for me.”

“I’m not the janitor,” You would say with an attitude and roll your eyes. He’s always like this.

“I’m still your boss so you can either make you stay overtime or you clean,” He says and he doesn’t really mean it. You, however, were scared because he can and will do that. Honestly, what he wanted was to have you in his office and just look at you. You however, have been playing his game for too long and you plan to bite back.

NSFW

Now you are sweeping up the floor with the broom he provided for you and you would occasionally bend over to sweep under shelves and desks. Your pencil skirt would go up a bit, exposing more of your thigh. Your skirt also perfectly enunciates your ass and Scara would be lying if he said he didn’t have a boner right now.

As for what you saw, you can’t help but think that Scara belongs behind that desk, wearing the most expensive of clothes. He looks very hot with the way he works, when he does decide to. He looks so serious and domineering when he orders and punishes his employees.

You bite your lip as the only place left to sweep is his area. “Excuse me,” You innocently say, your excuse being that you need to sweep under his desk. Scara moves his chair back and you bend over, right in front of him unintentionally seducing him yet you don’t really mind anyways. It’s time that the hating game ends. 

“If you wanted to fuck you could have just said so,” Scaramouche scoffs. His laid back on his office leather chair, tie loosened and a few of the buttons undone. 

You roll your eyes in annoyance and just when you were about to make a cock comeback, you thought of a much better idea. “Thanks for giving me the permission.” And so, you straddle him, to which he did not expect, and you can feel the bulge in his pants against your heat. “Allow me to indulge myself,” You smile and capture his lips in yours. 

Scara gradually eases himself and takes control, placing both hands on your hips as you cup his face. The kiss is sensual and passionate, letting go of all pent up hate and turning it to lust. Love and hate are very much one of the same things.

He slides your skirt up to your stomach and gropes your ass. You moan into his mouth. You're feeling hot with anticipation. He’s so close to where you want him to touch you. You’re soaked, waiting for him to fuck your hole. Scara loops the waist of your underwear on his finger and pulls it down. You aid him, standing up and allowing them to drop onto the floor.

Just when your panties are discarded, a ring from his work phone is heard. It’s an important phone call that he’s been anticipating. Before he picks up the phone, he says, “Oh we’re not done. Ride my thigh and get yourself off. If you are good, then I’ll give you what you want.”

Being the obeying secretary you are, your legs are between his thigh and your clit is directly on the fabric of his pants. You hiss at the sensation but you can’t help but want more. “You know what to do but keep quiet for me. It’s a very important call.”

And so, you are humping his thigh like a desperate whore, burying your face into his neck to keep quiet. As you do so, he’s talking professionally on call putting up the domineering aura as he gives orders.

It’s so hard to grind yourself down. The fabric of his pants only makes you more sensitive every time it brushes your swollen clit. It’s also not enough for you. Although it stimulates you, nothing compares to when you’re getting filled up with a finger circling your bud. 

You’re shaking but you’re also slowing down. Trying to chase a high that wont come. Scara isn’t helping much either. Now he is chatting up the person on the other side of the phone, purposely taking his time with the call. As he does so, a hand holds onto your hip, aiding you to get yourself off.

If only the call would just end. He is sadistic for enjoying watching you act desperate and grinding on his thigh while you hold back moans. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want to leave the call just so that he could watch you get off on just humping him. Lucky for you, he really does want to fuck you and after a while, he got bored of the call and ended it.

“Since you’ve been very good, I’ll fuck you now.”

[thedawningofthehour]

Hi Fai, I know it‘s evil to ask you these questions bc your worldbuilder brain might go brrrrr, but if there WAS an Atlantis, I assume it would have turtle yokai? Do u think the fact that they mostly stay underwater allow some gigantism?

But my actual question; would there ONLY be underwater yokai? I mean, Gale can breathe underwater (probably? It‘s saltwater I mean, I think you mentioned it would fuck up his skin after a while in tfts?) but if they were to visit there, could Draxum use some sort of spell or air bubble to come, like in that one Bojack Horseman underwater episode? Or would he have to keep both hooves on the boat/other side of the portal, while Donnie can keep his eyes open for any billionaire submarines

(Hypothetically, apart from the fact that Draxum obviously wouldn’t ever let Gale go there alone, I mean)

Also, entirely unrelated, if the doth cast was dropped into a beach episode how would that go? Would Gale turn into a horror movie creature? I think that would make him healthy, unbothered, moisturized

(pls don’t feel obligated to give super detailed answers or any at all, I‘m just really curious about your ideas relating that)

Love!!

You're right, you are evil. 💕

That would depend on where Atlantis is in this universe. While, most likely, Plato was using Atlantis completely metaphorically and was not referring to any historical civilization in particular, there's still a number of places proposed that he could have been talking about. The very name Atlantis implies that it was located in the Atlantic, and Plato describes it as being located "in front of the mouth which you Greeks call the pillars of Hercules." (The Strait of Gibraltar-the channel in between Spain and Morocco, if you're bad at geography) Furthermore, Atlantis is also stated to be huge, Plato says it's really more of a continent, "larger than Libya and Asia together." (to my understanding, they used 'Libya' to refer to all of Africa outside of Egypt at the time)

It sounds...weirdly like he's describing the Americas. "a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power," yeah, there were absolutely ancient American societies that grew very large and could be considered to rival kingdoms.

Except, you know, even though we know now that Africa used to be all snuggled up in between the Americas, that scale of 'used to' is measured in millions of years. Loooooong before anything resembling modern humans existed, and certainly long before we had any form of oral history we could use to pass the knowledge down. People came to the Americas the other way, from what is now Russia to Alaska, or by island-hopping the Pacific. And while Europeans absolutely did cross over to the Americas before Columbus, they mostly did this farther north. Where, you know, there was Iceland to stop at. And Greenland not too far from that. And it was a physically shorter distance from the coast of Iceland to Canada. And, important to note, this was estimated to have happened during the Viking Age, roughly a thousand years ago. Plato wrote this in 360 BCE, and claimed that Atlantis rose and fell 9000 years before his time, (though apparently he might have meant months, which would make it 750 years) I don't know much about ships but I think I can say with some certainty that absolutely no one had the technology to sail from Gibraltar across the Atlantic to hit the shores of West Virginia in, at the very latest, 1000 BCE. And even less likely that Athens would have particular beef with these people.

Of course, there's always the possibility that Plato's understanding of where Atlantis is (if there was even a historical equivalent to Atlantis at all) was misunderstood or mistranslated over the years. It's very possible that the island nation he spoke of was inside the Mediterranean-likely, even, considering the tectonic activity in many areas. We already know that Malta is merely the top part of a much greater island that has since sank below sea levels. And Greece itself is well-known for its volcanic activity-literally, it's a bunch of islands formed from the nonsense of the Aegean Sea Plate, it can't not have tons of volcanic activity. There were absolutely small island nations that exploded and were completely destroyed by Pele stretching her legs in ancient history. Hell, we have a pretty good candidate for what a Greek Atlantis might have been-

This is the island of Thera. You see that bay in the middle, with the bit in the middle not quite breaking the surface?

That's the volcano.

It literally destroyed itself. Civilization on the island was wiped out, some people survived and came back to see what they could retrieve and bury their dead but it remained unoccupied for a few more centuries. It caused earthquakes and tsunamis that destroyed settlements in the surrounding islands and as far away as Crete, causing 'apocalyptic rainstorms' in Egypt.

This happened around 1600 BCE, so while neither dates match, considering the imprecise nature an estimate on that scale would have in Plato's time, it's very possible that he was referring to the destruction of Thera.

If a Yokai Atlantis did exist somewhere around Greece, or somewhere around Italy where there's also a lot of that nonsense, it would likely built upon a now-submerged island. Maybe even get some coral reef activity going on? 'Googles something' Okay no, apparently coral reefs aren't very common in the Mediterranean. I guess it's too cold? You don't really think of Greece or Italy being cold, but compared to the waters around the Philippines and Indonesia I guess it is. Well, the map in Wikipedia shows some coral reefs off the coast of Sicily, plus we're playing with magic here so I'm saying it could happen.

And that would be sick. Like, sooooo many possibilities for aquatic Yokai. How their city is set up, their architecture and culture. How they communicate with each other, with other Yokai.

It would be pretty unlikely for gigantism to occur there though. I know we talked in the doth comments about how the difference in gravity underwater allows animals to grow absolutely huge without putting their bodies under such immense strain, but that's only half the equation. The other half is why they would need to.

Animals don't just evolve for no reason. I mean, sometimes weird mutations do occur spontaneously and end up getting bred into the species because it isn't detrimental enough to impact their survivability, (this is actually what happened with humans and why we can be vitamin C deficient, we lost the gene that handles producing it and it just straight-up wasn't an issue until we moved out of sub-Saharan Africa because we were living in the tropics with so much vitamin C-rich foods available) but if something's not broke they don't fix it. In this scenario, in a coral reef ecosystem or neritic zone, there would be little reason for gigantism because they wouldn't need to conserve calories so much-they have plenty of food available, and they'll have plenty of food tomorrow. They might get bigger, but there would be no reason to become truly giant. Getting big might cause more issues than it's worth if the waters are shallower, (it's my understanding that the Mediterranean isn't particularly deep on average, and this Yokai settlement would be built on a seamount and would be closer to the surface anyway) and would be hard to maneuver. Plus they can upset the food chain by becoming too big and consuming too much, which would cause a collapse and kill them anyway. Just too much of a risky move for evolution to take.

(of course, we're talking about a magical world where humans can be crossed with goats and then can go on to give turtles depression, so it's not out of the question that the mutation itself can give people gigantism but let's stick to science for now)

But as cool as that is, I know that isn't what you're asking for, so let's move to the other locational option.

So. In the Atlantic, but before you hit the Americas. What's there?

Uh...not really a whole lot.

Like, there are some islands and seamounts, but nothing compared to the Pacific. Someone smarter than me can explain how that works with tectonics and why so many islands arose within the Ring of Fire, but if I go down that Wikipedia rabbit hole I'll have written a dissertation on this. Basically, the Atlantic Ocean is pretty deep, and it just kind of...stays deep. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is still on average about a thousand feet below sea level, so even the high points are barely breaking the photic zone.

And the problem is, there at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, is that there's no sunlight. And you kind of need sunlight for a viable ecosystem-like, even if you're a carnivore, what you're preying on is probably an herbivore. Even if it's not, there's an herbivore at some point in the chain-and the plants it eats needs sunlight. So down at the bottom of the sea, where no light penetrates, they have to subsist on what floats down there or go to shallower waters to eat.

A lot of deep-sea creatures live off of marine snow, which is that shit that floats down I mentioned earlier-dead things, phytoplankton, and literal shit. These guys actually tend to get smaller in the deep sea-predation is much rarer down there-to reduce the amount of food they need to sustain their bodies. And a lot of them are hermaphrodites literally just because sexing is hard and they don't have the energy to fuck around finding one of the right sex.

The guys who travel to shallow waters for food, like our friends the colossal and giant squid, they tend to exhibit gigantism because the body becomes more efficient at processing and storing food the bigger it gets.

That's what this girl was doing when she was caught. She'd come to shallow waters and was chowing down on a toothfish she'd pilfered from their line. (she was already very close to death, deep sea creatures like this are adapted for high water pressure and low temperatures and don't fare well if they swim too close to the surface) So they do have to put themselves in danger to feed, and have to eat a lot to fuel their giant body. But they only have to make this trip every couple of years or so. The rest of the time homegirl was just floating and vibing in the deep sea, not doing much of anything to conserve that last meal. Their size also makes them quite able to defend themselves, and threatening enough that most predators won't bother.

(just to note, this beautiful lady was estimated to be about 10 meters long when they pulled her up-33 feet in freedom units. And her beak was significantly smaller than the beaks we've found before, implying that she wasn't even fully grown. These things are massive)

So how would that translate to deep-sea Yokai? Well, I think it would be really hard for intelligent Yokai to exist down there at all. Not to say it can't happen, but our big brains are very resource-intensive. Like, that's the whole reason we eat meat while other apes are mostly herbivores, our big brains needed more energy. (generally herbivores, they eat insects and will eat small game if they can get their hands on it, but that's true for most herbivores) And the combination of needing more fuel for our big brains and having the capacity to be bored would greatly interfere with the 'just vibing' method of survival and force them to be more active-which would require more calories, and thus the problem snowballs. They'd probably be blind, since there's no light down there. They also probably wouldn't be nearly as active as the Yokai we see, since moving their giant bodies and doing things and socializing would take so much energy.

Unless they can get their energy from like, geothermal heat or something? That might work. We're talking about magical creatures after all, it has to make sense but that doesn't mean it has to be realistic.

But generally, for deep-sea giant Yokai to work, they'd need to be migratory and return to shallower waters quite frequently to eat, which begs the question of why they don't just stay in those shallower waters and stop being so giant since they're already there all the time.

Or maybe they just have their own little greenhouses at the top of their city like these dudes:

[moodywyrm]

modern au hcs i have about the salt lake crew cuz why not i felt like sharing:

abby's secretly into cosplay but she won't admit it; manny's celebrity crush is sza; nora's a "no shoes in the house person" (she almost stabbed owen when he came over for a group get-together); mel's lowkey a disney adult and its adorable (her fav film is frozen); owen and jordan are both filmbros but in different ways - owen's the annoying kind (yk the kind 🙄) while jordan is genuinely passionate about films and film history and gives fun facts during movie nights; nick makes tiktok stitches like this one https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT88SYgkG/ ; leah's one of those drunk girls who hypes up other girls in bathrooms, like she'll see a pretty black girl with gold charms in her hair and start crying cuz she's so beautiful (abby & nora had to drag her out)

this is one of the cutest asks I've ever gotten oh my god? lemme expand on your beautiful thoughts. while I have beef with the salt lake crew, I also appreciate them and I think, had we started with them, we would have all loved or tolerated them.

abby + cosplay is so full of possibility omg. I imagine it started as an appreciation for cosplayers because she thought it was super cool! and then slowly. she started doing outfits inspired by her favorite characters. and then recreations. and then next thing she knows, she's dragging Manny to comic con to be her lil protector/buddy while she dresses up as Spiderman, or Junker Queen, or Samus. she has literally had craft nights where the crew helps her work on her cosplays. mel is the best at it, helping her form foam armor pieces. owen is passable only because he has experience building and fixing shit (the boat). Jordan is laughably bad any it but he tries <3

manny's celebrity crush is Sza AND Kali Uchis. He genuinely thinks he could pull them and, honestly, maybe he could. but abby loves telling him they're out of his league (they kinda are). he has like, Pete Davidson rizz. if that makes sense.

Nora is 100% a no shoes in the house girl. it's how she was raised! her house is fucking Pristine, man, which is honestly such feat because girly is a busy ass nursing student. and you're right about Owen! shit head wears shoes inside houses WITH CARPET. I will say rn, it's pretty much impossible to not wear shoes inside the house in my place bc we have two dogs, but we have tile so it's not as bad. however with carpet? evil. vile. Owen and his nasty ass nike sneakers tried to step onto Nora's pristine cream carpet and she nearly smacked him with a pair of tongs that had just came out of hot oil. as she should. he learned, and has never tried it again (mostly because Mel reminds him every time)

Disney adult Mel!! I know Disney adults get a lot of hate, but I feel like she'd be really sweet about it. like whenever she wants to go, she offers to pay for the others food and stuff, if they can't, she always brings them little gifts. like pins and stuff, shirts, ears, plushies!! she has a special pair of mickey ears that a frozen themed, Owen got them for her on her birthday <3 (this is me taking my powers as a writer to turn Owen into an actually good partner for Mel and not a piece of shit <3). one time, Mel got Abby to disneybound Gaston and it was so cute!! she has disneybounded as Anna and she looks so cute in it <3

the filmbros. oh god. Owen is 100% the type of guy to love Quentin Tarantino films and think they're the peak of cinema, all the while hating Jennifers Body. Jordan however, king, he loves Jennifer's Body and 100% listened to Leah and Nora spend like three hours talking about the nuances of girlhood and queerness in the movie. Definitely watched and appreciated Barbie with them, even dressed up in all pink! borrowed some of Leah's clothes to do it <3 he loves channels like Dead Meat, because I feel like he especially likes horror movies? will defend the slasher genre with his life, hates torture porn movies. big fan of sleepaway camp!

I don't know much about nick but I can say this is accurate, I feel like he also does those videos reacting to weird white people recipes? like how long does it take for them to add a block of cream cheese to the crock pot, or the weird obviously fetish content ones? and he just makes this really stoic disappointed face like. fr.

drunk girl Leah!! I imagine the salt lake crew occasionally goes clubbing, and you're so fucking right about Leah. they all get kinda tipsy, but Leah takes two shots of vodka and starts falling in love with every fem presenting person in the building. gives the good compliments too. how beautiful they look in the party lights, the shine of their hair, the twinkle of their eyes, the highlighter! the outfit! is literally fawning over every fem person she sees and Jordan is just like yeah go ahead. mostly because he knows she loyal and also, she's literally just so cute. disclaimer that it's never in the like, fetishizing wlw for men, Leah literally just compliments every girl she sees ever. especially in the bathrooms! if she sees you crying, she is the first one at your side, offering to beat up whoever made you sad, holding your hand, helping you fix your makeup, the works. drunk girl Leah is a gem to humanity and there are leagues of girls out there whose nights have been saved by this drunken sweetheart. there have been. too many times where abby has had to physically throw Leah over her shoulder to get her out of the bathroom because they need to Leave and she's starting conversations with everyone who walks through the door.

this is so cute!! thank you for this ask nonnie!! and I got your ask about it being duets and not stitches <3

[taeiris]

What fandoms do you think each of the main 4 boys + el and max would be in if they were in a modern au? (You dont have to come up with a completely different one for each, they can overlap a bit). U r awesome ;)

this is a dangerous question bc im just gonna project now

so mike and lucas are def in the marvel fandom but theyre like two very different fans

lucas would be like me and enjoy the movies but then mike is the type to criticize them a lot esp after endgame bc hes one of THOSE ppl but not in a supee insufferable way dont worry i wont do him that dirty

el and will def like kpop and stan txt and itzy bc i stan txt and itzy and they are me

mike secretly listens to taylor swift

dustin showed will a sleep token song once and he was so in denial abt it but then he went home and now he’s obsessed (bc im literally in my sleep token phase rn AND HE IS ME AGAIN GET USED TO THE PROJECTION)

theyre all in the star wars fandom obviously

el and dustin love disney movies and princesses

i feel like el loves them for the funsies and pretties but also bc she loves women #womenkisser AND dustin likes them bc of the lore like idk he makes it even more dramatic yk? like he knows all the original dark tales and he also is into the conspiracy theories like for example the boat that killed ariels mom was the boat elsa and anna’s parents were in??😭💀

im not in a lot of fandoms so i just. this is all i can do okay

im right

oh they all go to the cinema to watch all marvel movies as they come out bc its like tradition (i do that with my irls when we can)

they eat ice cream and fight over their opinions on them afterwards

el loves wandavision bc i said so

max loves moonknight

OMG MAX would def stan olivia rodrigo and conan gray like if you get it you get it and if you dont i dont wanna hear it honestly

mike has a massive crush on captain america despite being team iron man in civil war

LISTEN. im team stop fighting but i lean into iron mans team idc

dustin and mike fight about it, el joins in and says okay nincompoop (mike wheeler) stfu bc bucky wasnt himself and hes trying to get the other super soldiers!! shes an empath

(if thats not how civil war went i apologize i havent watched it in a while and to be honest it took me like 5 watches to understand what they were fighting abt)

wills fav txt song is cysm and nap of a star

el LOVES the guardians of the galaxy trilogy (she’s just like me)

will has a sudden obsession with antman 2

maxs fav avengers are natasha and vision

this turned into the party and mcu headcanons so im gonna stop now before i keep assigning them everything i like okay goodbye

MAX LOVES ROSALIA

Okay done now

[its-tea-time-darling]

Oh tea. The rarepairs I have thought about. You’ve opened a door and the ocean is at it (the ocean being my unhinged mind) (and I will not flood you though) 💕

First — I’ve been thinking about Aris and Gally a lot and I want to see if you can be on board with me. To my knowledge their interaction is few and far between but I just kind of love the idea of them.

Aris: contained and somewhat shy but even more cunning than Thomas, less outspoken and openly curious but finds out information and pieces together things on his own before showing anyone else and if someone gets the privilege to see what he’s discovered it’s a great one, not exactly an amazing runner but has his own tactics of survival as he is somewhat mischievous in his own right. Kind of the hidden predator you’d never expect but also doesn’t want to be that if he doesn’t have to.

Gally: I’d wax poetic but we both know, we just both KNOW, especially post tdc he’s damaged and lonely and trying his best, can be absolutely brutal but doesn’t want to be seen as such, ruthless when on a mission, is very intelligent and was often underestimated, does let fear control his motivation but he’s trying to overcome that because he wants to be BRAVE (oh look at that I’m waxing poetic again).

Anyways, yeah — tea, do you have thoughts or am I alone on this boat?

why helloooOOOO

first off: crest, you are NEVER alone in a boat 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 but also not in this specific one, worry not.

i've talked about aris and gally with @dunne-ias before and i do love the idea of them!! i believe that was in a modern day au, where aris just fit that tad bit better than thomas because he's that little bit more.. off. which is a bit of what you're getting at, too, i think?

ias correct me if i'm wrong but i think it was aris being into gally and gally not clocking it At All? which in that instant was just much more charming than if it would've been thomas, bc thomas is all head first running into something and aris would be keeping his cards close to his chest, even if he was trying to make it super obvious he had a thing for gally??

and you got me thinking, i don't know that they ever interact in canon at all. aris isn't on the minho rescuing mission, and i just watched the safe haven vince pep talk scene pretty closely to do that thomally week gifset and i don't think gally and aris are shown to acknowledge each other.. but i could be wrong, i wasn't specifically on the lookout!

i do think that in movie canon aris and gally are a very interesting spot, because aris could only ever have heard about gally's arc in the maze second hand. and he never knew chuck. so he might be intuitively more inclined than the gladers to have empathy as his primary reaction to those events. and it could result in scenes of gally trying to explain to aris just why he is such a bad person.

ohhhhh but honestly now i'm thinking about them at safe haven 0.0. quietly working alongside each other (different tasks though, i wouldn't think aris would be especially skilled in building something), and it takes gally much longer to notice aris in the first place than the other way around. bc gally's so caught up in everyone he lost, and the guilt he's carrying with him. i think talking to aris, and forming some sort of tentative friendship could be a really good way for him to get some tether to live that isn't centered around the gladers as a social group.

OR, this just came to me, it could start off as a hook up alsdkjfsalkdjffds. love sex + emotions <3 oh my god. i am having vivid ideas of how a scene like that could go. curse you, crest.

but also thank you - tickling new spots of the brain is always a good time! and tmr rarepairs are just a fantastic way of doing that.

<3

[grunge-mermaid]

grunge rewatches The OC pt 1

I haven't watched this show since it aired. when I was in high school. I'm assuming it hasn't aged well, but who knows

1x01 The Pilot

"modern medicine is advancing to the point where the average human life span will be 100. But I read this article which said Social Security will run out by the year 2025, which means people are gonna have to stay in their jobs until they're 80"

20 years later, Ryan seems like an optimist

this is the show that taught me that there is a world where people have pool houses

ooh smoking so edgy

baby!Dr Link

he grew up good

naming a boat after a girl you've never talked to? that's not a red flag at all

early 2000s teen girl fashion was a travesty

"open collar, it's a good look" Ryan is correct

no one is carding the 15-year-old at the bar? he's only 2/3 the legal drinking age in California come on

is he 15? 16? idk. how many seasons are they in high school for?

I will operate on the assumption that they're 15 until proven otherwise since Luke is the only one who drives (that we know of so far)

gay slur count: 1

ok Summer's dress in the fashion show is kinda cute but that hair & makeup are a travesty

All American Rejects oh man

the music in this show is pretty amazing ngl

"I should really learn to knock in case there's a threesome going on in the bathroom"

gotta have the requisite gaggle of girls on cell phones to show they're rich

how did 14-year-old me not realize I was queer when faced with Summer Roberts in a bikini and low-rise skirt? I'm so sorry, 14yo grunge, you really missed out on fully appreciating

(psst, present day grunge: Rachel Bilson was 22 in season 1. you're good)

ableist slur count: 1

what teenagers actually speak like this have the writers ever spoken to actual teenagers before?

ok a 15yo who cooks breakfast bc his parents are shitty and abusive & he needs to cook or else he doesn't eat & neither will his parents? absolutely believable. also absolutely believable he would do it out of habit + as a thank you for taking him in for the weekend

a 15yo who cooks bacon and pancakes and sets the fucking table for breakfast? who is this child

ok maybe it hasn't aged as badly as I thought. the hair and clothes have, but otherwise it's holding up ok

1x02 The Model Home

ohhh I remember this episode

I think

there's a fire, right?

Luke and Ryan fight and they start a fire in the model home?

wait Marissa drives maybe they are 16?

Ryan and Marissa are prime Siblings Or Dating content

flip

phones

gay slur count: 2

$100,000 seems pretty low-stakes for Jimmy to be so worried about given the presumed scale of the investments he was managing

like, that's a lot of money for sure but if he's

the show that introduced me to Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah

girl you met him literally 2 days ago why are you so intense about this?

you're not romeo and juliet calm down

oh there's the fire

Luke "I'm an asshole bully not a murderer" Ward

Julie was pregnant in 1986 so Marissa at least is almost-17?

but if season 3 is their senior year, then in season 1 they're all going into grade 10, so shouldn't they be 15? I'm overthinking this, I'm aware

1x03 The Gamble

Julie Cooper reminds me of Bertha Russell but without any of the charm or warmth or manners or fashion sense

I should take that back. Bertha doesn't deserve to be compared to Julie Cooper, she's too beguiling and clever. Julie is just shallow and manipulative.

"no two black tie events in the same month" I would love to live a life where this is my biggest concern

of course these women watch Dr Phil

god they'd be on the front lines of Moms For Liberty wouldn't they

"we welcome everyone here. I'm from the Bronx and you're from Riverside" what a fascinating definition of diversity (Newport, not Sandy. Sandy knows what's up)

"he called me white trash"

honey, you may be rich but you are pretty trashy

being trash has nothing to do with net worth and everything to do with attitude

"Ryan's gonna stay with us now" 😭

ok that's it for tonight but I was wrong. besides some atrocious fashion and period-typical homophobia, it's holding up pretty well

[thereareeyesinsidethetrees]

I just scrolled in ur blog and I srsly love it. All those headcanons! Just great. So here r mine (mostly queer hc)

So dipper is transmasc (ik it's canon) and has PTSD and is neurodivergent

Mabel- I like to imagine that she's aroace but still loves romance books and movies and stuff. Also she uses many different pronouns. My other hc for her is that she's pan or bi and trans. AuDHD

Stan- He can totally play ukulele. bi and genderfluid/transmasc. I imagine him taking t and that he had his top surgery in some side street while beeing homeless. And he loves wearing dresses. When they were young him and ford got their earlobes pierced. Maybe Stan had a punk phase. He secretly loves Gompers and even has a mini pool for him. Afraid of needles. Has ADHD

Ford- he's either aro (ace) or a monsterfucker. He havent had top surgery, he binds. Or he's a cis man in my other hc. He uses many pronouns too bc in all the dimensions he was were some that fitted him. He's got so many tattoos and one is a heart and Tesla written on it. Also he's got a cubics cube for fidds and a boat for stan. Also he totally had smth for bill in their early encounters. He's autistic

Fidds- he's also trans but he doesn't use anything to bind or had surgery. Him and ford tried to get T from the mannitaurusses (is that how u spell that?)

Wendy is the bi queen but rn she isn't rlly interested in romance. Shed rather go out with her friends. She often plays pranks on Ford and introduces him to modern technology and anime. She sends ford memes

Soos- he was (i)legally adopted by Stan after he accidentally called Stan dad

Pacifica is a lesbian

I hope I didn't forget anyone :)

oh, cool! a lot of good headcanons right there

I like the idea of ford having a tesla tattoo, might actually steal that one for my own headcanons

[roobylavender]

Your post earlier made me think about how Bruce is really dedicated to learning and acquiring knowledge and how over the course of his life he has acquired a wide array of skills across multiple fields and it just really makes we want to see a version of Bruce who loses his wealth somehow and has to do a normal job in any field because I honestly think it'd pull him out of the doom and gloom mentality and make him genuinely happy. I'm not that far into my Batman reading but I really think it would be an interesting move to make Bruce a normal dude given all the discourse around billionaire superheroes right now and it's probably the best thing for his mental health/general issues to actually be around people.

I also would like to see how it would affect his relationships with his family, friends and allies because he would be out in a position to genuinely experience their reality. Also would love to see him get a job utilising one of his obscure skills that he genuinely likes. How do you think an arc of Bruce having to live like a normal person would go? I love your comic book insights and would love to hear your take

To clarify the previous ask I know he loses his money in current canon but he still seems to be a billionaire? I think? I don't know I cannot get through most modern comics. Anyways good luck with law school and I hope you have a nice day! 🌻🌻🌻

i'm not reading the current dc or batman run and haven't been for the past few years so i am as clueless as to that situation as you are! (and thank you for the well wishes hehe i am sat in criminal law right now utterly bored out of my mind)

i couldn't agree more though! a slight tangent to this idea but one criticism of the dark knight rises that i have noticed bleeds over into opinions of bruce's future in the comics is this idea that he can only ever be batman and if he does not intend to die as batman then the writer behind that decision has failed to understand his character. it's one i'm very confused by and heavily disagree with. before bruce is batman he's bruce. batman exists bc of bruce. it took at least a decade before the specific idea of batman was even implanted into bruce's head if we're going by classic takes on the batman origin story. he had interests before that! he had a life! we are able to see on several occasions that he still wants to have a life even though it grows increasingly difficult to do so while he takes responsibility for being the city's savior. which is what i think makes the concluding thesis of the dark knight rises (for all of its well-criticized flaws) so, so good bc it allows bruce to acknowledge that he doesn't have to carry the world on his shoulders alone, and that acknowledgment isn't reproachful in and of itself, esp where he has people to carry on the cause

i've talked here before about critics' attention to the nihilism of the nolan movies and their focus on the batman as a singular, crucial savior without whom the city falls to pieces, and i totally agree that criticism of building vigilantism on nihilism's foundations is viable. but i also think it's a criticism conveniently made for that movie bc the scope of bruce's immediate posse is incredibly limited. at most he is only ever closely accompanied by two people in any given movie so it's easier to be skeptical of the idea that gotham is presented to only ever need one savior bc there aren't many others to choose from. i do think the dark knight gets close at challenging that notion with the boats set-up towards the end but nolan fails to really see it through when he carries it forward via john blake, who is not only one person, but also a cop. there's a great idea there in bruce indirectly inspiring someone else to do good and act of his own volition but whether its impact is completely effective is debatable and i think most people would agree using the actual robin would have been a far better alternative. the novelty of batman comics in comparison to the nolan trilogy is that superheroes are everywhere. people who do good are everywhere. we are all heroes inherently if we so choose to be. bruce has an entire support system he can trust to carry forward the same faith and duty that he has been for years if he happens to lose it all or need a break or whatever

and i know you're only specifically talking about him losing his wealth so my sincere apologies for going off on such a wild tangent lol! but i do imagine the loss of wealth or even voluntary removal from it would be attached to a departure from batman as well, whether temporary or permanent. i think there's an interesting thread to follow there with how bruce's wealth not only isolates him from certain realities but also enables his dedication to being batman bc he simply always has material and resources at his disposal by way of that wealth (he kind of has to bc otherwise he's more exposedly human). what does he do when he doesn't have immediate access to those things? how does his awareness of ordinary people's circumstances increase and how does that in turn influence the way he chooses to live going forward? it's a really great way to connect him more deeply to people like selina and leslie whose entire survival is premised on their brutal understanding of normalcy and its tension with survival in a place that is anything but normal. bruce has a good head on his shoulders and an even more sympathetic heart but i want to see him really come face to face with the things that only ever exist in his periphery bc his attachment to resources always demands that he fights the foes to match those resources. get him involved with the community on the ground and lead his inclination towards good will to its natural conclusion of people interaction. bc bruce loves people! he craves companionship. if he could spend the rest of his life working with people and for people i think he would. so on the note of what i think he would do i genuinely feel like bruce would love anything to do with community service. involvement in things like student mentorship programs are great bc they're a huge well of creativity for teachers trying to inspire kids to be passionate about their interests and skills. and bruce definitely has the experience from how he trains his robins (esp how he used to in the olden days when it was all chummy gymnastics and boxing friendlies!)

[carrioncrowes]

All for LUCIEN right now

bet, i'm not a coward like you

🌦 How do they like to spend their rainy days?

Lu is the type to curl up with a big book and a glass of wine and pretend that he doesn't have any work to do when the weather is particularly miserable. He prefers the rain to the sun, but that's just because he likes to be cozy and safe and cold

🔥 Have they ever accidentally set something (or someone!) on fire?

Does the Angel/Demon AU where he burned down Heaven's library count?

🥈How would they feel about winning second place in a contest?

Lu would act like it doesn't get to him, but it does because he is SO competitive and has such a complex about being second best so it would eat away at him to know he failed

🚢 Have they ever been on a boat?

I'm almost certain in fantasy AUs he's had to travel by boat often, and in modern AUs he probably has been on a yacht or two for business ("business" sex he did it for sex)

🪦 Is death a major part of their story?

: ) hello Odin how is your mortal soul feeling? like it needs to be constricted and safeguarded from an inevitable end?

🏳️‍🌈 What is their sexuality?

Gay Gay Homosexual Gay

🏳️‍⚧️ What is their gender?

Man with the tightest pussy and ass you've ever experienced

🧳 Have they ever traveled?

Extensively, Lucien is a "go where the work demands" type of person

🐮 Are they lactose intolerant?

I surely hope not

💍 What are their thoughts on marriage?

He used to be so resistant to the idea bc of his commitment issues but also he married Specter so I guess he just needed the right person to make him work through his trauma

🐭 Are they afraid of mice?

I think if he found a mouse in his apartment he would probably just pick it up and domesticate it bc he's a softy

🦸‍♂️ What superpowers do they have? (And if they don't have any what superpower would they have?)

I guess in the original AUs we had for Specter and Lucien, he usually was able to clone himself (Inhuman AU and GW2 AU) which usually was to his detriment and ended up with his real body malnourished and with muscle atrophy bc he wouldn't leave his bed

🫄🏻What are their thoughts on getting pregnant?

HIS thoughts are horror and repulsion, MY thoughts are I want Specter to regularly fuck a litter into him

🦉 Have they ever had a bad experience with an owl?

No, but a RAVEN, that's another story

🫢 Biggest secret?

Probably that he hates himself and regrets who he forces himself to be even thought he can't let go of it because it's the only thing that feels like freedom, but that's not really secret is it

🤮 When was the last time they threw up?

Probably when stuffed fat and full by aforementioned litter

🐶 Do they have a pet dog?

Does Specter count

🧅 Have they ever eaten an onion?

With how Lupin would cook for Lucien, i certainly HOPE so, otherwise that man needs to go back to culinary school

🩰 Can they dance?

Yes, very well!! He's good at a variety of ballroom dances for functions and such

💈What kind of haircut do they have?

Petyr Baelish's evil twin. His hair has curls in it but he fills it with product to make it smooth because it's all part of a performance

💊 Have they ever gotten a taste of their own medicine?

I think he could stand to be betrayed and hurt and backstabbed more often

[sparkedblaze]

Skittery. My nervous little dude I need all your thoughts

SKITTERY

I LOVE SKITTERY!!!

@emmedoesntdomath has kinda gotten me in a life preserver on the Bumlets and Skittery boat. VERY LOOSELY ON BOARD.

I still think Skittery and Blink would make a wonderful pair

Also, let me be very clear:

Blush is one of my top pairings.

But I also have the idea that once Spralbert becomes a thing, the newsies kinda go wild before they settle into actual relationships.

That being said, let’s get into my thoughts™️

Skittery is really quiet, so if they get loud, people listen. Anything they say is usually taken into account by someone.

Skittery is scared of a lot, but they’re brave as fuck dude. They might be scared of the thug that hangs out near their nightly sellin spot, but that doesn’t stop them marching right past him.

They got addicted to smoking at a young age. Younger than most of the newsies. The older kids usually try and keep the little ones from smoking. At least until they’re teens, but Skittery had snatched a pack from a store down the street when they were six. They haven’t stopped since.

They get put into the Refuge a lot for stealing. They have the stickiest fingers. They have a hoard like a little dragon. I won’t tell you where it is. I choose life, thx

Anyone lucky enough to see said hoard is sworn to secrecy, and will be found and… questioned if anything is missing.

Before becoming a newsie, they were on the streets. Abandoned by their parents at the ripe age of five. They were in and out of jail, going between eating well for days and not eating at all for a week. And then they snuck into the newsboys’ house. (And by snuck in I absolutely mean Kloppman pretended not to see them being snuck in by one of the older newsies).

Started hawkin with said older newsie, and learned how to play to the strengths of the headlines (after they were comfortable just playing the poor orphan card)

Got close with Specs and Mush early on bc they felt protected (even though they totally didn’t need protecting)

Likes taking things as pranks.

Has def moved Specs’ glasses. Not enough to no be found, but enough to be noticed.

They start giving their mostly-smoked cigs to Bumlets (and that’s how he got his name)

Bumlets and Skittery are at the very least best friends.

THEY FIDGET. THEY FIDGET SO MUCH. GODS. CIG IN HAND, HAT ON HEAD, SUSPENDERS (theirs or otherwise) IT DOESN’T MATTER. THEY ARE ALWAYS MOVING.

Modern AU things

Ghost hunting. Abandoned building exploring.

Got their nickname from being the worst about getting scared by the most mundane shit happening. Like a bird flies by and they just like s c r e a m.

Takes Mush and Blink the most because they’re the most fun to explore with, but Albert and Finch are a close second because of their chaos.

I don’t have any more immediately in my brain, BUT I might post more later.

[tasteofdeathao3]

Actual baby izzy in mod au when he starts crawling it's like, okay time to baby proof the house, Canon au tho??? How do you baby proof a pirate ship, everyone's on constant guard that he's gonna crawl right off the side of the boat

srno bc baby proofing a modern house is easy enough - covers on sockets, rubber locks on cupboards, baby gate here and there etc - but a pirate ship???? literally impossible.

You can't really cover the sides of the ship because you need to be able to fire canons past the railings, and you can't exactly prevent splinters when the boat is literally 100% wood.

He would have to have someone's eye on him at all times, like all times, no being left alone in a playpen or crib because everything has to be difficult with Izzy and he can wriggle out of almost anything.

Stede ruled that there was to be no crawling up on deck, and everyone had been careful to scoop him up if they found him trying to climb up onto the deck unattended.

plus - all weapons either had to be put and locked away or kept on one's person in the most discrete way; no knives without sheaths or spikes glued to shoulders and headbands

[saralifygermanlanguage]

Anyone Can Learn German

 Learning German Language can help you learn German in a short period of time. It does not matter whether you're a student or a senior citizen. Young people often learn faster than older people, but it's never too late to learn something new, even something that seems complicated when we first look at it. The important part is to start speaking right away, and an interactive audio or video course is just the right thing to help you along.

Why do you want to study German? Students might want to sign up with one of the many immersion courses available. It's always great to visit other countries and get exposed to other cultures, whether you're young or not so young. Germany is not so different from the US, except it has a much longer history. It was mentioned as early as 56 BC by Julius Caesar after he crossed the Rhine River from France into Germany. The Rhine is one of the most important rivers in Europe, and if you are interested in anything German, you probably have heard of its fabulous Castles on the banks of the river.

Wouldn't it be great to visit some of these castles and converse with Germans in their own tongue? Many of the castles and churches in Germany were severely damaged during the Second World War. They have all be re-built in the original style with one exception - they now have modern conveniences such as running hot and cold water and central heating. Some of the castles have been converted into luxury Hotels.

Or you might want to view them from the luxury and comfort of a tour boat. They sail the length of the river, all the way from Basil, Switzerland to Amsterdam, Holland. During the trip you can your newly learned German words and phrases with the other passengers. You can achieve this with Learning German Language.

Learning a new language might seem difficult at first, but as you practice every chance you get, you will be surprised at your success. You start out with just a few words, and as you add more words to your vocabulary, you will soon speak in sentences. Your family and friends will be surprised how well you are doing. Nothing is more fulfilling than being told that you are doing something well.

So go ahead, jump right in, and begin to learn German. Look for Free German words, phrases and expressions on the Learning German Language web site.

Learn German Language in jaipur

Goethe Institute in jaipur

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A2 Level German Class in jaipur

[wingedfounder]

@trickstercaptain​ said:  ❝ sound like fun? ‘course it does. ❞       /       meme

        “ Humble as ever. ”  Not that Jan had any room to talk;  she’d been known, on more than one occasion, to toot her own horn.  There was nothing wrong with a little healthy self-indulgence, right?  “ Okay, ”  she conceded at length, grinning.  “ Count me in.  But if it starts to drag even a little, I’m bailing.  Got it? ”

[deanmarywinchester]

im still reading this book about the franklin expedition so who wants facts about the terror characters vs their real life inspiration? you? right this way sir

Netsilingmiut tradition is to lay a dead person to rest on the ground wrapped in furs and surrounded by stones, and then to avoid that area for the next year. leaving them uncovered is so their soul can either return to nature or inhabit the body of a namesake, and it also prevents the impossible work of digging a grave in permafrost. i’m interested in this re: terror because silna’s father was covered up with ice, which can’t have helped her or him, and because of how hickey breaks taboo by returning to the site where fitzjames is buried

contrary to book canon, peglar knew how to write long before meeting bridgens, due to some rudimentary charity schooling and a sort of trade/prep school for the navy or merchant mariners. he served many voyages in good standing except once when he was lashed for mutinous behavior and drunkenness, but his reputation seems to have bounced back

the body that the peglar papers was found with was likely actually jopson, who may have befriended him on an earlier voyage they served on together

while im talking about peglar, this isn’t a fact but I am dead certain that dan simmons made him gay bc he had no other explanation for why the peglar papers are written backward than bc he was imitating da vinci (book canon). also book peglar has dysgraphia to explain why he’s highly literate but the peglar papers had terrible spelling

blanky had studied the ice and was an arctic veteran but reid was an experienced whaler who made decisions on gut instinct. fitzjames liked him despite calling him a “so-called” ice master in his diary

hickey’s mutiny, which in the book was his men trying to get back to the ships, was likely inspired by one of the first identified signs of franklin’s men: two skeletons, gnawed likely by wolves, found in a boat on a sledge pointing back toward the icebound ships. the sledge was full of random stuff including five watches and china plates, which the explorer who found it ten years after the ships’ abandonment lamented were considered useless dead weight in this modern age of arctic exploration. you see a bit of hickey’s men collecting useless things in the show (when they’re sitting at a table and chairs using plates and cutlery) but it’s an even more prominent theme in the book

sir john brought along a lot of slates and chalk and intended the men to be taught to read and write during any winters they spent trapped in ice

some Inuit lore says that the northern lights are dangerous, with one specific folk story being that if you whistle, they will come down to cut off your head. this is not a fact about the terror characters but it is a reminder to me to see if the bosun’s whistle sounding in the show foreshadows any decapitations

aglooka means “takes long strides” but it took a Netsilingmiuk historian to make sense of what stories about an Aglooka meant for the fate of the franklin expedition. that’s bc it was a name given to many white explorers, including crozier and james clark ross (i guess bc white people walked differently in the arctic? or were taller?). anyway everyone clap and cheer for Louie Kamookak for figuring this out almost incidentally while he was trying to write a history of the Netsilingmiuk

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 4/5/22

work is a slog, weather is bad, life is a fuck. let’s talk about some media

listening Simply Vibing to this, which according to google translate is Prayer by the band Kassiopeâ. it has a little bit of the vibe of Blondie’s Call Me? it sounds like a modern cover of an eighties song but it’s already a modern song. hope this helps. VERY strobe-y music vid, be forewarned.

the lyrics are very fairytale-impossible, like again idk if this is an accurate translation of part of the lyrics but fuck it’s good

Give me the grace of a cheetah Myocardial elasticity Perfection of all kinds To fall in love with your enemies! Perhaps this is impossible!

i want to know more about this band and what specific old movies they are pulling from and why they reference Mephistopheles and why there are so many animal parts in this song and what it’s About but alas. 

how did i find this: either spotify weekly recommended or it started playing an automix after i listened to a single and i didn’t notice.

reading do you people enjoy when i link a Bideo James article and break it down/add my own commentary or is that not fun? can’t tell, haven’t read a real book in a minute.

anyway there are exactly two other video games data pundits whose work in data i respect and mr joost van dreunen is one of them. here’s an interesting look at the playstation subscription service offering, which does feel half-baked and like they didn’t want to announce it quite yet. the tiers are extremely confusing- i tried to summarize them in one powerpoint slide for a client and ended up with a footnote on the main slide instead like “varied tiers of offerings similar to GamePass”.

now the fun thing about console gaming is that consoles are typically sold at something of a loss. the real money is in the games, especially the first-party exclusives (the ones you can Only play on a specific platform, like Breath of the Wild, bc once you’ve gotten people over the big purchase of a console they’re more likely to buy more games for it). the real money is also now in the subscription services. everyone wants to be the Netflix of Games.

playstation’s offering isn’t QUITE like gamepass, even though they feel similar. as mr joost points out, right now the games available on playstation’s service tend to NOT be the most modern battlepass lootbox stuff that keeps gambling addictions satisfied (my words not his). since they ARE offering a nice buffet of older PS2 and PS3 games, this implies good things for video game preservation, and i think if they spun it more as a Criterion Collection of restored/remastered/pulled out of the archives stuff they might get a little more traction? who could say. much remains to be seen &tc

how did i find this? read it for work.

watching our flag means death: not pinging my Sea Longing in the way black sails does bc it is so obvious they are not on a real boat? like i am thinking of it more as a stage play than anything else? i am oddly cranky that it’s not black sails, but nothing will ever be black sails. this was perfectly fine and fun! tailored in a very specific way for fandom in a way i cannot articulate, in the way that some movies are oscar bait this show was fandom bait? but not in a malicious way, i think mr waititi simply knows what he’s about?

playing deeply annoyed bc i was very excited for NORCO, a moody narrative point and click game in the louisiana lowlands, but the themes have turned out to be. shall we say. Emotionally Difficult for me. so i did a thing i hate which is request a refund, but made it super clear in the refund note that the problem was me and not the game. shoutout to games that DO put their biggest trigger upfront with a warning, wish they did it for more than just the one tho.

in other news i have GOT to find a new fucking game to turn my brain off that’s not fallout 4, bc i put like a hundred hours into this run with the objective of getting more achievements and have fallen off at the same point i did last time (rummaged around in a brain, didn’t meet the brotherhood bc fuck those guys) and i am simply not compelled by the main quest and i am no longer having fun with the game. i am finding it oddly difficult to make my own fun in that game this time around, outside of settlement building.

anyway look at this screenshot from the most extreme southwestern corner of the map, where you can very very faintly make out the brotherhood airship in the distance. should have centered it but i did not, a bit up and to the left of the center dot.

and this slightly better shot. i do like watching the vertibirds limp home. dont you fucking DARE crash into my goddamn base tho

spent most of this run unlocking all the settlements and spent like fifty hours in nuka cola world, which is an extremely robust little dlc. maybe i’ll give far harbor a crack tonight, although i vaguely remember actually finishing that one. still haven’t finished nuka cola world bc i do like gage but it’s mmmm impossible for me to justify doing a slaver/raider playthrough. why (i mean i know why but WHY) are the east coast games so obsessed with owning slaves. it’s not great. the biggest and most robust questline aside from the main in fo3 is the goddamn slave trader one. you functionally own clover and charon.

making part of a making update, part of a life update: i will be moving sometime between NOW and END OF JUNE (upside down smiley face) partly bc i have learned that i simply cannot deal with living with other people any longer and especially with cannot deal with living with other people five years younger than me. i do not currently actively wish my worst roommate harm but that could change at any moment.

so making will probably DRAMATICALLY slow down bc i am no longer inclined to put any effort into this apartment. the making this week is i guess pre-grieving this apartment. a good refuge while i had it :(

evil lair 2.0 here we come?

[renecdote]

53+57 for the dumb gay firefighters please? also can I just say how in awe of you I am for breaking out the prompts so good bc daaaamn

53. Mutual Pining

57. Forgotten First Meeting

The night after Eddie meets Buck, he has this dream:

He’s standing on the deck of a ship—a cruise ship, but not the modern kind—with the lights of the boat behind him and the sea stretching out, dark and uninviting, in front. The wind is cold, chilling his nose and ears, but his back is warm, sheltered by a body pressed close, strong arms wrapped around his chest. Eddie can’t see their face, but he imagines—the way one does when dreaming, surely nothing more—that they look like Buck.

There is a prickling feeling at the back of his neck, something almost anxious, something he might tentatively call hindsight. It is just past eleven pm. The night is peaceful. Most of the other passengers are asleep in their cabins.

(Something is about to go horribly wrong.)

“Did you ever think we’d get this far?” the man holding him asks.

“No,” Eddie says. He leans back against the man’s chest, trusting—wanting. Sometimes it feels like these stolen moments are all they have with each other. They’ll be in New York in three days and the moments will be easier to steal then. Eddie already has a job lined up, they’ll rent an apartment together, they’ll live their lives together. They’ll be happy together.

The arms around him tighten, like the thought of them not making it this far is unbearable. Lips press against his cheek, stubble tickling, the connection between them humming with the vibration of a murmured, “I love you.”

Eddie smiles, turning his head so they can kiss properly, nobody but the stars overhead as their witness. It feels easy—familiar—to reply, “I love you too.”

He doesn’t mention the dream. It’s just a dream, right? Even if he keeps having it, or versions of it—dancing under moonlight, giggling and shushing each other as they creep through luxurious corridors, clutching each other while water swirls around their knees. The night after the tsunami, he dreams of drowning in icy darkness. That one feels less like a dream. It feels even less like a dream when he has it again, seven months later, after almost dying at the bottom of a well.

Eddie still doesn’t mention it though. It’s just his subconscious twisting the trauma he has been through (and there are a lot of traumas to twist). When the dreams are happier, it’s surely just his brain mocking him with the feelings he has for his best friend. Because the man in the dreams—it’s definitely Buck. Or it’s meant to be Buck. Clearly Eddie’s brain is committed to torturing him even when he’s not awake.

Life goes on. The pandemic hits and suddenly Eddie is staying with Buck, sleeping in Buck’s bed, all in the name of keeping his son safe. It is so close and yet so far from what he wants—which is this, always, for the rest of his life. (And also for the world not to be caught in the throws of a pandemic, thanks.) They go to sleep on opposite sides of the mattress and wake up tangled together more mornings than they don’t. It’s not weird. Maybe it would be weird if they talked about it, but they’re not talking about it, so it’s not weird.

Now, Eddie knows Buck has nightmares. He’s got about as many traumas to pick from as Eddie and the state of the world isn’t exactly conductive to great mental health at the moment. So when Eddie wakes up from another one of those dreams—slow dancing again, the rest of the world fading away from the axis of each other—and finds silent tears running down Buck’s face in the darkness, he figures it was another bad dream (and feels a little bit guilty about how good his dream was). He’s not expecting—

“You were humming.”

Eddie frowns, trying to follow that. “What?”

“I was having this dream,” Buck tells him. He’s whispering, words only for Eddie, for the few inches between them. “There was orchestra music and we were dancing and then I woke up and you were humming in your sleep.”

Eddie’s sleep-fogged brain is taking it’s sweet time processing how that sounds like exactly what he was dreaming about. He’s mostly still caught up on Buck crying. He was dreaming about Eddie and it made him cry? But it sounds like a happy dream?

And then Buck says, “It was the same song, Eds.”

Oh.

Oh.

“We were on a ship,” Eddie says. And as he says it, he knows now that it’s a fact. They were on a ship. They were on a ship and they were in love.

“It sunk,” Buck adds. He reaches out and Eddie meets him halfway, their hands tangling together, something almost familiar in how perfectly they fit together. “We were supposed to be happy together.”

“We were.” Eddie is sure of that too. There is a little voice in the back of his head whispering we still could be.

Eddie doesn’t believe in fate or signs from the universe, but he believes in Buck. He believes that when Buck kisses him, it feels right. He believes in love and happy endings and second chances. And he believes that even though he spent so much of his life (this life) feeling like he didn’t deserve them, he has all of those things now.

It’s not New York. It’s not 1912. But they do live the rest of their lives together.

(They’re happy.)