#btw i lost last year's icon so i made a new one with a cursed screenshot i had lol

[evildisneydorks]

Happy pride you funky little lesbian -@houseofevil

Thank you <3

And happy pride for you too!

[diligentgoose]

My D&D parties characters! I drew this when we were intending to make a Spotify podcast, but it was already pretty late in the campaign so we decided not to. 

Left to right: My Shifter Druid, Ilseyon (Ilsey) Rylet. He led tens-of-thousands of citizens to safety as a Giant Hawk one time when our Bloodhunter accidentally summoned a god that destroyed the city. He also helped find trapped people and corpses. He’s the symbol of Rescue Organisations now and has a giant statue in the centre of the (re-made) city dedicated to the anonymous Druid. He also married his childhood sweetheart, Matyuldi (AKA Matty), a Tiefling musician, not long ago and has been going Agate hunting to awaken a bunch of animals and together they run a non-profit conservation effort for the city. He’s one of two characters who *gasp* have an ACTUAL good, supportive and loving family.  Inflarema Silberstern, our Half-Elf Bloodhunter. She introduced the rest of our party to the concept of found family (via her gay adoptive fathers), and has been so so so integral to character growth and party dynamics. She’s a flaming lesbian and we all love her and her sassy Aarakocra Arcane Ranger GF to the Sun and back. Our Wizard knocked out her asshole blood-brother in a bathroom one time and stole his phone for our Cleric who’d lost hers in the BBEG fight. It was great. We would die for her. Delphine Vontaine, our Wood Elf Monk. We couldn’t beat anything without her tbh. She’s grown up so much from our first session, and I absolutely have to praise her player, who portrays her SO DAMN WELL. She’s easily the best of the players at the table when it comes to RP. She’s our token Mean Girl Rich Kid Barbie, and it’s been a real journey to get her to question Daddy Dearest, but we’re so proud of her for starting to think for herself and defy the bastard. She also has a literal video game GF now (after breaking up with the Wizard, far right), after the party got sucked into a video game demi-plane to rescue Ilsey’s little brother. Sammi is SOOOOO badass. A mechanically Goliath Sniper. Wonderful GM @puwumats went along with this absolute mischief and invented a way for it to be possible in-world for Sammi to live on the Material Plane. Also GM got me into Tumblr and I blame her for me being up until 5am last night building my blog/s.  Liliana Leijon. Aboslute cinnamon role. Too good for this world. Too pure.  She’s our Cleric, guess which domain? LMAO. She’s a lynchpin for the party, and is the other party member who *gasp* has a nice family. Our GM got so creative with her backstory and it was amazing. Too much to explain, but HOT DAMN was that a fun arc. So much has happened since our accidentally summoned BBEG God of Destruction. Long story short, she was an Aasimar. Our Blood Hunter died. Three of us gave up all our GM Inspirations to help try plead with the Raven Queen to bring her back (Divine Intervention). We got it on the last time, and Lil’s had to make a deal to give up her divine ancestry link to Her. She’s now mechanically a half-elf and has blonde hair and a healthy pallor. She was dying slowly from a necrotic curse/disease at the time though, so it effectively removed it from her because it was related to her Aasimar-ness. That’s a plus. Previously J’son Dane (yes, it is the reference you’re thinking of), a Warlock of the God of Destruction, now our SmortBoi Wizard (almost Paladin tbh) to Ioun. A lot happened thanks to epic backstory thought up by our GM, and his name is now Elias Wildvale. He was THE EDGIEST LITTLE SHIT. Passed around from foster home to foster home, emancipated at 14 (literally always carried around his Legal Adult certificate), joined the Mob...Once left a small shoe-store Clerk in the staff room of his store with broken knee caps and pants filled with shit (literally intimidated him into shitting himself with a Nat 20 +, like, 8 at level 2) after he failed for the last time to repay a loan from the Boss. He cried in the shower afterwards and was physically sick. He hated working for the Mob. After Ioun spoke to him, seeing his potential for good, to save him from losing his soul to the BBEG, a huge weight has been taken off his shoulders and he’s been doing so much community work to help disadvantaged kids with his reward for saving the city. Which he did btw. The BBEG dropped a Wish pearl, which he used to undo the destruction of his now former deity. I also wrote this quote down from him because it was a fucking great line: “I’ve committed as many felonies as I have pubes.”

Btw the mob boss was a Halfling named Big Tony who had a Goliath wife. ICONIC.  Not in the picture because he’s been added to the party since, our red skinned emo Tiefling Fighter (samurai aesthetically), Nikolae Adreni, but we all refer to him as Pollux. He was originally an NPC that was a long-time friend of Liliana (whom he calls Castor) and briefly, her BF. We got a new player who’d never played D&D before and was happy to bring Pollux to life while they learned the game. They’re a natural with RP. We still have backstory to explore with Pollux, which I look forward to our characters and us discovering, sometime. Did I mention Pollux is absolute bae and fashion icon? ‘Cause he is.  But yeah, I love my Party and I’m gonna miss this campaign when it ends by early 2021. We’ve been playing since January this year, at least twice a month. Our sessions go for between 8-15 hours. We hardcore love the world and our characters.

[maple-keenes]

one black coffee

summary: roman drinks way too much coffee. 

pairing: roceit, QPR analogicality 

tw: remus, deceit, cursing

wc: 3753

a/n: i’m finally dooooOOooone 

idea credit to @ilovemygaydad!!! love ya morgan

general:

@analogical-chaos @theflatpancake @ilovemygaydad @alltimevirgilant @virgiliananxiety @romanticsanders @theincediblesulk @wroammin @creativity-killed-thekitten @bitchyybabyy400 @wooflesthatwoof @lyditist @heck-im-lost @max-is-tired @demurphart @thelowlysatsuma @land-of-dragons-and-frogs @theeternalspace @magicallygrimmwiccan @weirdsthenewnormal @romansleftshoulderpad

College is dumb. Don’t do college. 

Roman, a musical theater major, can tell you this with one hundred percent certainty. He is in college, his second year, and it’s dumb. 

Adult life, similar to college, is also dumb, except for the fact that Roman no longer has to beg his mother for coffee money when he wanted to go to Starbucks. In fact, he’s stopped going to Starbucks altogether, which definitely has to do with the fact that the local shop on campus, Mocha My Day (which is an awful pun, by the way, the author has no idea what they’re doing), is cheaper than Starbucks, invites their employees to wear tags with their pronouns, and is eco-friendly, and nothing to do with the barista who works there that Roman definitely doesn’t have a crush on. 

This barista was absolutely gorgeous, with rich brown skin interspersed with patches of white, and green-yellow eyes that stared into Roman’s soul and melted his heart at the same time. His hair was as soft as could be, he assumed, since he’d never actually touched it, and oh, Roman could so fall in love with this guy. 

But not really. Just ‘cause he’s the most attractive man on Planet Earth doesn’t mean Roman is into him. 

(Yes, it does. He’s into him.)

But the details of Roman’s romantic life are of no matter currently, because it’s 8 am and he has two classes today, one of which is awfully boring, /and he only got three hours of sleep last night. 

Roman sidled up to the counter, smiling at the barista (his very favorite barista, the cute one) and said, “Hi, I’d like a large black coffee please!”

The barista, whose name tag identified him as ‘Damien, he/they’, took one look at Roman and smiled back. “No.” 

He startled, blinking in confusion. “I don’t think you’re allowed to refuse a drink to a customer.”

“Then I’m refusing it to you as someone who lives in your building and just happens to also work here because you just don’t need any more coffee this week.” Damien shrugged. “I’m really sorry, but I think it’s not healthy and I don’t want you to ruin that gorgeous face of yours.” 

If Roman was a computer program, the computer would have caught fire right then and there. 

“Did - did you just refuse me coffee and then flirt with me?” he asked, affronted. “Cause I don’t think I can compliment a man who won’t let me have my coffee.” 

Damien gave him an amused smile. “I’ll give you my number instead, how ‘bout that? You can text me later about why I should’ve given you the coffee. Or better yet, how about dinner? We can set that up later too. But for right now, I have other customers and I think the lady two people behind you is getting fed up.” 

“I - okay - yeah, um… So I’ll text you?” Roman stammered face flush with embarrassment. 

“Please do,” he replied with a wink. “I’ll see you around.” 

Roman left, brain still short-circuiting from that last interaction. Damien had… kind of flirted before, but nothing that direct. He’d written pick-up lines on Roman’s cups, complimented his outfits, and smiled whenever they saw each other in the halls, and Roman was now starting to realize that this guy had been trying to ask him out for at least a month now. 

Huh. 

Later that night, when Roman was out of class and sure Damien was off work, he eagerly pulled out his phone and typed his number in. 

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 6:21 PM

hey! this is the boy from the coffee shop and from two floors up, my name’s roman :0

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 6:21 PM

were you serious about wanting to go on a date?

A minute passed. 

Three. 

Five. 

Roman tried to distract himself by looking at his assigned reading, but he couldn’t focus. /Why wasn’t he responding?

Eventually, after an eternity (seven minutes) Roman’s phone pinged with a new text. 

DAMIEN!!!!!!! <333333 6:28 PM

yeah! lol sorry I was walking home. i was just waiting for the right time to ask n today seemed good enough 

DAMIEN!!!!!!! <333333 6:28 PM

you really should drink less coffee though, it’s not healthy. 

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 6:29 PM

judge me later, coffee boy

DAMIEN!!!!!!! <333333 6:29 PM

haha. my names damien btw, i think u knew that though. demiboy extraodinare, he/they

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 6:29 PM

he/him. trans icon

DAMIEN!!!!!!! <333333 6:30 PM

i AM thank u it feels nice to be acknowledged

Roman laughed out loud, clutching his phone to his chest. How could one guy be so hot and so funny? The laws of physics denied that even being possible. 

“Virgil!” he called, hoping his roommate would answer. “Come look at what Damien texted me!” 

“No,” came the muffled response, and Roman sighed and rolled his eyes. 

“Please?” 

“Still no.” 

Roman stood up and walked into his roommate’s room, shutting their laptop (allegedly used for an art history paper, actually being used for gay Tik Tok compilations) and sitting next to them on their bed. “Look, he’s like, super funny, and - “ 

Virgil groaned and rolled over, rubbing their eyes. “I get it, you’re in love with him. I was in the middle of my paper.” 

“You were watching Tik Toks.” 

“I still don’t care about your gay shit,” they responded, though they sat up and looked at Roman’s phone. “Oh, he’s a demiboy? Neat. Also, you really should stop drinking so much coffee.” 

He huffed, glaring at Virgil. “What is it, Pick On Roman Day?” 

“That was last Thursday.” 

“Haha.” Roman rolled his eyes, standing back up and already starting to text Damien a detailed list of everywhere he’d ever thought about them going on a date together. “Do you think he’d be into somewhere more classy or more memorable?”

Virgil glared daggers at him. “Get out of my room or I’m calling Logan and Patton and making you listen to us talk about feelings.” 

“You don’t scare me!” He stuck his tongue out at them. “I’ve had conversations with the three of you before.”

“Get. Out.” 

It was a day later (or six years, according to Roman’s sense of time) that they met up in front of the coffee shop. Damien had just gotten off work, and he had been secretive about where he was taking Roman, so he was just currently… sitting on the bench outside of Mocha My Day and hoping his outfit was cute enough. 

He stood up when he saw Damien walk out of the cafe, smiling. They had traded their usual apron for a nice yellow shirt, and Roman was trying his hardest to keep his jaw from becoming permanently stuck to the floor. 

“You look really nice,” Roman said, and a smile tugged at the corners of Damien’s mouth.

“You too,” they responded. “Red suits you.”

He blushed furiously, causing Damien to laugh. “Hey! Don’t laugh at me, my dates usually aren’t so smooth.” 

They grinned. “Get used to it, Roman. You’re cute when you blush.” Ignoring Roman’s sputtering and the fact that their date’s face was currently as red as a tomato, he offered his hand out to Roman, and the other young man took it shyly. 

“So, where are we going?” Roman asked, picking up his pace to keep up with Damien. “You’ve been secretive over text.” 

They winked. “It’s a surprise.” 

He bit back a smile, feigning annoyance. “I can’t believe my date won’t tell me where we’re going on this date with my date.” 

“On a date.” 

“Yeah,” Roman said, as both of them broke into giggles.

As it turns out, they were going to a theater downtown and then to dinner afterward, and both of those were both so nice and so expensive that Roman was curious if a) Damien had been stalking him, and b) how much money Mocha My Day paid and should he start working there if it allowed him to afford more theater. Overall, the show was good and all, but Roman ended up stealing glances at Damien’s face, illuminated by the glowing lights. 

Damien caught sight of Roman watching him, and they made a face, causing both of them to start giggling uncontrollably (much to the chagrin of the patrons around them). 

At dinner later that night, Roman bit his lip and finally asked what he'd been thinking since they had asked him out, which was, "Why are you interested in me?"

They raised an eyebrow. "I beg your pardon?" 

Roman cleared his throat nervously. "I mean, I'm not exactly anyone's first choice. I'm a short, dramatic trans guy who can't even pick up on a little bit of flirting and is laying all his insecurities on the table on the first date.”

"Roman…" Damien sighed. "I'm a tall demiboy with vitiligo and you think I get to pick and choose? I asked you out because you're cute and funny and brave." 

"Brave?" 

They shrugged. "Yeah. Brave. I think you're brave. And that's the most affection you're ever getting from me, so enjoy." 

He laughed, reaching across the table to take Damien's hand. "I think you're brave too." 

"I…" They blushed, a smile tugging at the corners of their mouth. "Thanks, Roman." 

For the next two days, Roman felt like he was floating on a cloud. He and Damien texted back and forth nonstop about this and that and history and classmates and dates and how cute the other was and he never tired of it. 

During Intermediate Dance the next Wednesday, Roman was sitting on the bench and laughing at a meme Damien had sent him when his teacher, a young man named Thomas who had been on Broadway for several years and then decided that he preferred teaching kids, sat down next to him. 

"So, Roman… you've been really distracted these past few days," he said, looking concerned. "Is everything alright?" 

He scrambled to hide his phone and the messages on it. "Er… yeah." 

Thomas tilted his head to the side. "That doesn't sound very convincing."

"I promise everything's fine!" Roman said frantically. "I was just… texting my brother. He's having a really rough time in classes," he continued, pulling a lie out of his ass. 

The older man nodded sympathetically. "Remus, right? He's in one of my classes." 

Shit fuck goddamn I actually have a brother who goes here, how did I forget that, Roman thought, annoyed at his inability to lie and his memory for forgetting that he like, had a brother. 

"Um, yeah. Him." Roman was gonna owe Remus big time for this one. 

Thomas patted his shoulder kindly and stood up. "Let me know if you need me to talk to him!" 

"I will!" he called as Thomas walked away, mentally kicking himself for being the dumbest person ever.

He got up, grabbing his bag, and walked out of the dance studio quickly typing a text to his brother detailing what had happened and why Remus should not stab him.

As Roman was sending the message, he ran headfirst into one of his roommate's QPPs, Patton. 

"Hey, kiddo!" Patton exclaimed, holding his hand out to Roman to help him up. Patton was a senior, and his only character flaw was that, and Roman swears by this, that he doesn't like mangoes for some reason. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah, just a bit distracted." Roman rubbed his head. "Sorry about that." 

He waved a hand through the air. "It's no problem. He/him day, by the way." 

Roman nodded. "I saw your bracelet." 

"So what were you doing on your phone? Texting a boy, maybe?" he asked, giggling.

He rolled his eyes, laughing. "Yeah, my brother." 

Patton nodded sagely. "He's a sneaky one." 

"No idea what that means. Anyways, I trapped myself in a lie with Thomas and now I need my brother to stick with it," Roman said, sighing. 

"What happened?" 

"Stuff," he answered vaguely. "I don't wanna be late to class so I gotta go, but you'll find out after I tell Virge."

Patton mouthed an "oh" and grinned. "Well, I have to get home before my brain decides that I am a girl now, so bye for now, Roman! Love ya, kiddo!" 

"Love you too, Pat." 

As he walked away, Roman’s phone dinged with a text. He opened it, hoping it was from Damien, knowing it was from Remus. 

monsterfucker 1:13 PM

YOUR A BITCH ROMAN PATRICK KINGSLEY

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 1:15 PM

*you're 

monsterfucker 1:16 PM

you'r a bitch roman patrick kingsley

fellas is it gay to be sexually attracted to men (Me) 1:17 

takes one to know one remus brian kingsley

monsterfucker 1:18 PM

you owe me at LEAST 5000 favors 

Roman laughed out loud, tucking his phone in his pocket. He would deal with his brother later. 

After his classes, Roman swung by Mocha My Day, and he watched Damien’s face light up as he walked in. He smiled shyly and waved to Damien, who grinned and nodded back. 

He sat down at a table next to the window and opened his laptop, looking over his notes from his last lecture. Roman had only been sitting down for about five minutes when someone sat down across from him, and they reached across and shut his laptop. 

“Damien!” Roman cried, drawing a few weird looks. “I thought you were working!” 

He shrugged. “I got permission to take a couple minutes to see you. So, I wanted to talk to you about something…”

Roman bit his lip. “Yeah?” 

Noticing that he’d tensed up, they reached a hand out and rubbed his shoulder comfortingly. “Sorry, I just wanted to ask you when you wanted to go out again.” 

He exhaled. “Um, whenever you want to is fine.”

“Roman.”

“Yeah?”

Damien chuckled. “You can tell me when you want to go out. It’s okay. I picked last time, it’s your turn.” 

“I don’t really know,” he said, thinking. “I honestly just want to go out as soon as possible. I really liked our last date.” 

“Then let’s go right now!” they exclaimed. “Remy’ll cover my shift -” 

“I will not!” the aforementioned Remy interrupted, though Damien ignored him. 

“- and we can go get ice cream or something and watch the sunset. Come on, it’ll be romantic.” 

Roman thought for a minute, then nodded. “Alright, let’s go.” 

“Really?” 

“Yes!” he responded, grinning. “You had me at romantic.” 

And with that, Damien quickly grabbed his stuff and headed out with Roman, possibly having bribed Remy to take his shift. They climbed into Damien’s car and drove off, Roman giggling the whole time. 

“God, why does this feel so forbidden?” he asked, rolling down the window. “No one cares. We’re not running away from anything.” 

“We could be.” 

Roman glanced over. “What do you mean?” 

“Just pretend that you’re running away from something. Transphobia, someone you hate, anything. We could be running far away from everything, everyone.” They sighed, gripping the wheel tight. “I don’t know if this makes sense.” 

“It does, it does.” He smiled softly, patting Damien’s knee. “We’re running away together, then.” 

They smiled back gratefully. “Thanks, Roman. I really appreciate it.” 

Once they reached the secret destination (the beach near their college), both boys climbed up onto the top of Damien’s car and sat next to each other, Roman’s hand resting on top of theirs. 

“This is such a gorgeous view,” he said, leaning into Damien, who shifted so that Roman was more comfortable. 

They sighed, glancing over to Roman, who was staring off into the distance. Roman’s face was illuminated by the glowing sun over the ocean, his hair moving softly in the wind. 

He was beautiful. 

Roman looked over at Damien, who was carefully watching him. "What? Is something wrong?" 

Their cheeks turned pink as they shook their head. "I was just admiring the view." 

"I - Damien!" he exclaimed, smiling. "That's just cheesy." 

"You love it and you know it." 

Roman flushed, his face turning as red as it could. "I do, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it's super cheesy." 

Damien tucked a stray piece of hair behind Roman's ear. "I think the fact that it's cheesy might be excusable in this case." 

He melted into the touch. Roman looked up at Damien, who's patterned face was turning a lovely shade of pink and blue as the sun set behind them, and he was suddenly aware of how close the two of them were to each other. 

There was something that sparked inside Roman at that moment, and he straightened up and leaned over, cupping Damien's face in his hands and kissing him softly. 

Damien let out a startled noise before realizing that hey, this felt pretty nice, and wrapping their hands around Roman's waist. 

The two of them weren't perfect at kissing, and they weren't the kind of couple that you would photograph - a demiboy with vitiligo, a short trans guy - but they were the kind of couple that didn't care that the other wasn't the ideal kind of boy or the ideal kisser, and they still sat there, on the roof of Damien's car, kissing in front of the sunset. 

It's a private moment, and we won't interrupt any longer. 

The next day, Roman was practically floating on air as he walked from class to class, texting Virgil about all the details of last night and how they'd kissed. Virgil, despite their facade of not caring about anything, was eager to listen to Roman talk about how perfect this guy was. They were nothing if not a good friend. 

Virgil was not, however, the only person who got a detailed account of Roman and Damien's date the previous. Remus, Roman's brother, who was notorious for being 'a horny motherfucker', asked Roman to please shut up about his date, Patton, who was happy to hear it'd gone well, and Logan, Virgil's other QPP, who was glad that it had gone well, but was trying to finish a paper. Several of Damien's coworkers had also gotten a play-by-play, and Remy, the man who had, unfortunately, had to cover their shift, was slightly less annoyed about it upon learning that it was for like, love or something.

Roman, unluckily, had Dance again the day after, and he had decided that he was going to come clean to Thomas. This was not based upon his own decision making, it was based upon the fact that Remus had taken back his offer of repayment by favors and had decided that he was going to stab his brother if the situation was not remedied. 

You know, sibling stuff. 

He knocked on his teacher's office door after class and opened it after he heard Thomas say 'come in!" from inside. 

"Hey, Thomas," Roman said, smiling sheepishly. "I owe you an apology, I think." 

"About your lie about your brother?" he responded, lacing his fingers together. "I know, Roman." 

He sighed, relieved, before starting as he realized what his teacher had said. "Wait, you do?" 

Thomas chuckled lightly, smiling. "Yeah. Your boyfriend is my TA, and he's much better at lying than you, which means that he tells me when he's being honest. And may I just say, your date a couple of days ago was so romantic." 

Roman bit his lip to keep from laughing. "I guess I should have known that, then." 

He nodded. "Plus, Remus spent a large amount of class muttering about how frustrated he was with his brother, and that's without the cursing," Thomas said. 

"Oh. Well, I'm really sorry about all of that, Mr. Thomas. I should've just been honest," Roman apologized. 

Thomas shrugged. "It's not a big deal. Mr. Kingsley. I understand the panic of not wanting to share something like that with your teacher, but Damien and Remus are very different people from you. But I wish you luck in your relationship. And I know that I'm a teacher, and so I'm not supposed to care, but I'm rooting for you two. Damien needs someone like you to balance them out." 

"Thanks, Mr. Thomas." 

After that conversation, Roman felt like a little weight had been lifted off his shoulders. It was good to know that he wasn't in trouble, but he felt as if he'd gotten off a little bit easy. 

Returning home and collapsing on the couch, he pulled out his phone and grinned when he saw his home screen, which was a selfie of Roman and Damien from their date last night. Roman was leaning into their shoulder and Damien was pressing a kiss to the top of his head. 

He smiled. Something good was gonna come out of this relationship, Roman was sure of it. 

epilogue

Damien bit their lip as they finished the last coffee of their shift. Remy gave them a reassuring nod as they went into the break room to quickly change into their nice clothes for their date tonight. 

It was the final semester of Damien's senior year and Roman's junior year. Damien had found a little job reporting for a local newspaper, and they were glad to be staying in town. You'll see why in a second. 

They fixed their bowtie in the mirror and sighed. One of the other employees, a new barista named Emile, gave them a thumbs up and smiled. Damien smiled back and asked, "Could you hand me my jacket and that little box over there?" 

Emile nodded and stood up. "Good luck tonight, Damien. We're all rooting for you here." 

"Thanks," they said, tucking the little box into their pocket. "Trust me, you'll all be the first to know what he says." 

"It'll be yes. I just know it." 

A bell chimed at the front of the store, and Damien closed their eyes, centering themselves before walking out to the front of Mocha My Day. "Hey, Ro! You ready?" 

Their boyfriend nodded, smiling. "You're being secretive about this date. It's like the first one all over again." 

"Well, you'll see," they responded with a wink. "Come on, let's go. I have a surprise waiting." 

(He says yes.)