#can they please just finish this whole they're siblings thing

[atlabeth]

🧸 dare i say luke castellan fluff..... please.... CONGRATS ON 3K!!!!

summer stressed

pairing: luke castellan x daughter of athena reader

summary: summer is over, most of your siblings are gone, but you still can't relax. fortunately, luke is pretty good at it.

a/n: thank you for the request sorry that these are taking so long but thats life !! this one is for all my anxious girlies that always think they're forgetting something even when there is absolutely nothing to do (me finishing finals and still feeling like i should be doing something at all times)

wc: 788

warning(s): all fluff

“This feels weird.” 

“How does it feel weird?” Luke asks, amused. 

“We’re just… sitting here,” you say. 

“Is that a problem?” 

Your head rests on Luke’s chest as you lay in your bed together, one of his arms curled protectively around you as he keeps the other behind his head. Every so often, he trails his fingers down your arm, plays with your hair a bit, adjusts his position to make you more comfortable. 

You can feel the warmth of his skin even through his camp shirt, and it makes up for the slight chill of the Athena cabin. He’s basically your own personal space heater. You wouldn’t classify any of this as a problem. 

“No,” you say. “The opposite of a problem.” 

Luke chuckles, and you can feel his eyes on you. “Then why does it feel weird?” 

You let out a huff and sit up, turning to face your boyfriend. “Because we’re just sitting here.” 

“You’ve already said that, babe.” He smiles, and you have the urge to kiss him right there. You wonder if he knows the power he holds with that damn smile. 

“It’s too quiet,” you say, gesturing around your cabin. “It’s never a good sign when things are quiet.” 

“Could that be because more than half of your cabin is gone?” he asks. 

“My siblings are smart,” you say. “They’re good at causing chaos in silence.” 

“And if they are, that’s a problem for another day.” 

“I’m still forgetting something,” you insist. “Are you sure I’m off the clock for today?” 

Luke nods. “All the counselors get the day off from leading lessons after the last day of summer. Everyone’s off the clock.” 

“And I don’t have anything I need to clear with Chiron.” 

“You had the conversation with him about going into the city to get stuff for Jane’s party last week, and we’re taking a van out in two days,” Luke says. “Nothing else I know of.” 

“You’re sure?” 

“Positive.” 

“There’s really nothing else?” 

“Nothing,” he promises. 

You look around your cabin and shake your head. “No. No— this place is a mess. I’ve got to clean up before inspections—” 

Luke catches your wrist as you try to get up and says your name softly. “Your cabin is spotless, ace. I think I can see my reflection in the floorboards.” 

“Still, Luke,” you insist as you look at him. “There’s got to be something we should be doing.” 

“There isn’t!” he exclaims. “I’ve never met anyone more desperate to be doing busy work, babe. All that talk about us getting some alone time for nothing.” 

“I just have this feeling that I’m missing something,” you say as you shake your head.

Luke laughs again, and you find yourself smiling just at the sound. He’s just so beautiful when he’s happy. “Alright, ace. Want me to ease your worries?” 

“You can try,” you say. “But you’ve spent enough time with Annabeth to know what she’s capable of. Imagine dealing with a whole cabin of Annabeths.” 

“You may have a whole cabin of Annabeths, but I’ve got a whole cabin of thieves, pranksters, and unclaimed kids. I think I’ve had my fair share of cleaning up messes.” 

“Alright, pretty boy,” you say, your smile growing despite yourself. “Ease my worries.” 

Luke nods, and he sits up so he can be eye level with you. He’s still got your wrist in his hand, and as he talks, he absentmindedly trails his thumb over your skin. “Yesterday was the last day of summer, and half of camp is gone, including your cabin. We spent the entire day fixing things up and making sure all our siblings were ready to go and doing everything Chiron and Mr. D asked. Everyone that wanted to leave left, all the counselors—including you—executed everything flawlessly, and there is nothing left to do but relax for a bit.” 

“My cabin—” 

“You’ve already cleaned it three times,” Luke says. 

“It doesn’t hurt to do it a fourth,” you shrug. 

Luke smiles and shakes his head. “It’s spotless, ace. The only thing left to do is enjoy some well-deserved alone time.”  

You meet his gaze, that slight smile still on your lips, and Luke tilts his head. “So? Have your worries been eased?” 

“...Mostly,” you say, and your smile turns coy. “Some kisses might help me forget them completely, though.” 

Luke laughs, and his eyes gleam as they drop down to your lips for a moment. He brings you even closer with the hand still around your wrist, then he drops it in favor of slinging an arm around your waist. When he speaks, his voice is much softer, though it’s got a rugged edge.

“Now that is something I can do.” 

[cuubism]

Okay but AFTER Dream dramatically storms into Desire's realm yelling "WTF did you do to Hob" I can't imagine Desire just...ignored that. They 100% had to go check out this human and see what is so interesting that Dream is all twisted up in knots over him. Can very much picture Desire swanning into the New Inn in their craziest Lady Gaga outfit already drinking a cosmopolitan and introducing themselves to Hob. Because Desire realises that rather than plotting Dream's downfall they can fuck with Dream INFINITELY more by bothering his immortal crush. It's the sibling instinct.

oh. they DEFINITELY will. and like. eventually dream explains his whole thought process, and the fact that desire has fucked with him in the past (hob: dear god why is your family so fucked up), and dream is basically like: DO NOT. ENGAGE WITH DESIRE. IF THEY TRY TO TALK TO YOU. just call me (he still does not have a phone so unclear how this will work) and i'll kick their ass.

critical point: dream did not in any way tell hob how to IDENTIFY DESIRE.

---

The person who struts -- it's really the only word Hob can think of -- over to the bar at the New Inn makes him uneasy, though he can't say why. Hob is not made uncomfortable easily, he's lived too long and been in too many scrapes to feel intimidated in his own pub, of all places.

But something about them makes his hackles rise. The eyes, maybe. They're too cunning.

But he's not in the habit of throwing people out on looks so he just offers a tight smile and says, "Get you something?"

He's tending bar himself, today. Gives him something to do between terms. And he finds himself strangely grateful to have the bar between him and his strange customer as they slide onto one of the bar stools.

"Cosmo, please," they say, voice like sugar halfway to caramelizing, a bit of pop and smoke in the smooth glide.

This is a bit of an odd drink selection for eleven in the morning, but Hob has, at various points in his life though thankfully no longer, done lines of cocaine before even having breakfast, so he really has no pedestal from which to judge.

"Coming right up."

The bar at the New Inn is well-stocked nowadays. Used to be, they served mainly beer and wine, nothing fancy. Then Hob made the horrible mistake of promising his students an end of term cocktail-making class if they came to all the exam review sessions -- because he does actually know how to make drinks, he's been alive for six centuries, thanks very much -- and now it's become a thing and he's stuck doing it forever.

Then Dream took to his drinks, and alcohol is no substitute for food but getting Dream to eat or drink anything is a bloody miracle, so if that anything is the bougiest mixture of alcohols Hob can come up with, well--

Actually. Actually that might be worse than nothing at all.

Makes Dream happy though, so what is Hob to do? Keep ordering luxardo cherries and elderflower liqueur until he outlives them, that's what.

He finishes shaking the drink under the heavy gaze of his guest and pours, sliding it across the table to them.

Hob feels like he's being sized up by a predator as they take a long, delicate sip. The color of the drink matches the pink of their blazer. Hob is struggling to recall if said blazer was actually pink when they arrived.

"Ah. You mix a good drink, Hob Gadling," they say, propping their head on their hand, looking a him from under their lashes, and, ah, so that's what this is.

Hob leans on the bar. "What sort of... entity are you, then?"

Their whole face brightens in what Hob thinks is delight. "Oh! So you are a perceptive one. Get a lot of entities in here, do you, Robert?"

"'Bout as many as can be expected. That's not an answer."

They pout. "Neither is yours. And can't a being just pop by the local speakeasy for a drink without being interrogated?"

"Seems a little unfair that you know my name, and I don't know yours," Hob points out. "Names have power, and so on, isn't that the thing?"

His guest studies him. "You are both far more normal and far less normal than I'd been expecting. Fascinating."

Um.

Before Hob is forced to respond to that, the door swings open to reveal Dream, shrouded in darkness and nighttime and vibrating with electrical fury. Shadows crawl up the windows. All the lights in the inn flicker out.

Oh boy.

"I," Dream says, each word a thunderclap, shining gaze fixed on Hob's guest at the bar, "Explicitly. Forbade. You. From. Interfering."

"What are you going to do, hit me?" taunts the other entity, leaning back on their stool, drink balanced in one hand.

Hob looks back and forth between them, wondering if he should fetch a weapon. He keeps a cricket bat here somewhere, surely...

"Dream, love," he says, once he's decided it's better to try to deescalate the situation rather than introducing further weaponry, "your usual?"

Dream nods, stalking over to the bar. His gaze flits briefly to Hob, softening, before snapping right back to the other being.

"I see you remain incapable of heeding a warning," he says, all ice.

"It's not really part of my nature," they say. "I see it, I like it... well, you get it."

Oh. Oh no.

Cautiously, Hob slides his drink over to Dream. Without breaking eye contact with... Desire? it must be, and thanks, Dream, for the complete lack of description, Dream picks up his drink and downs the whole thing in one long swallow.

Ooooooh boy.

"Desire," Hob says, and they perk up at his realization of their name, looking over at him, "might be better if you were going now."

Desire lets out a frustrated huff. "Ugh, of course. I certainly don't want to upset 'ole Nightmare here."

"You certainly don't want my fist in your jaw," Hob says, more audible threat in it than he intends -- but he remembers Dream's halting confession, about how often love had turned out to be manipulation, and he thinks he should be congratulated on his restraint, actually.

Desire just laughs, and-- ah, Hob is starting to see that there's no winning with this one. Even and especially when you haven't agreed to the game.

"I suppose I'll be going then, before the fists start flying." They slide out of their seat and glide towards the door, waving. "Nice meeting you, Robert! I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again, soon."

I don't doubt it, Hob thinks.

They take their drink with them. Hob's not feeling particularly inclined to chase down that glass.

Dream still hasn't moved. He stares after Desire, empty glass about to crack in his grip.

"Dream?"

"I said that you should call for me," Dream says, the ghost of words.

With what means, exactly? Hob thinks. Damned enigmatic shadow of a man. "You didn't tell me who to look out for."

"Oh." Dream finally snaps out of his daze. "Yes. I apologize."

"Come sit down."

Hob fetches a glass of water and drags Dream over to their usual booth, pushing the water into his hands. "Drink that."

Dream stares down at it. "Why?"

"Because you just chugged a drink you usually sip for hours. Drink."

"I will not get drunk unless I choose to," Dream says.

"Have you tested that?" Hob asks.

Dream's brows furrow. "...No."

"Then let's not do that now. Drink. Come on."

Dream sips at the water. "I am sorry," he says, slowly, "about Desire."

"And I'm sorry I didn't actually punch them," Hob says, making Dream look up at him in surprise. "Well. Sort of. Wouldn't want to make it worse."

A smile tugs at Dream's lips. "You would... defend my honor?"

"Always," Hob vows. "I'd defend you. Don't care if the devil himself has it out for you."

"That may well happen," Dream says.

Hob stares at Dream. Dream stares back.

"Oh," Hob says, or maybe just hopes, "you're making a joke."

"No," says Dream. "Lucifer and I are on poor terms at the moment. She may seek revenge."

Hob keeps staring at him. Dream meets his gaze evenly.

Hob scrubs his hands through his hair. "Lucifer and you..."

Why was it always like this?

When he looks up again, Dream is smirking at him. "You're a menace," Hob tells him. "One day, you're going to give me the full rundown of everyone who has beef with you so I can be prepared."

"That will be a long list," Dream says.

"Of course it is," Hob sighs.

Dream takes his hand as if he can comfort Hob through all of the insane interactions he's sure to have with strange beings in the near future. The worst thing is, it works. Hob squeezes his hand and immediately remembers why he's willing to do anything for him.

"I'd go to Hell for you," he says. "I'd prefer not to, though, if it's all the same."

"That is my preference as well," says Dream.

There's a lot Hob would do for Dream. It's probably unhealthy. But what's the point of living six hundred years if you're going to spend it all being healthy, anyway.

"Why do so many people have problems with you, anyway?" Hob asks.

Hob knows. Hob fucking knows why.

Dream pouts. "Matthew tells me my social skills are 'less than adequate.'"

That's one way to phrase 'you act like an arrogant dick 85% of the time.' Matthew should receive a medal for his tact.

Hob loves that arrogant dick, though, God fucking damn him.

"All the more reason to get me that list, then," Hob says. "Maybe we can prevent you from creating an interdimensional incident."

"Will you accomplish this by threatening to punch them in the face?" Dream asks, completely neutral.

"Okay, you know what? Fair," Hob admits, and Dream chuckles. "Perhaps neither of us is cut out for diplomacy. The point, though, is: of course I'd defend you. I love you."

Dream kisses the back of his hand. As if he's only just now realized what he's done to Hob's pub, the lights all flicker back on.

"Thank Christ, I thought I was going to have to replace all those bulbs."

"Do you think I would do that to you?" Dream says with a tiny smile, Hob's hand still pressed to his lips.

You've done worse than that to me, Hob thinks. Better, too. So much better.

"No, love," he says, "I know you wouldn't."

[kandicon]

Is nobody talking abt Nova Storm being a potential trans woman?? Like she not only takes Thundercracker's place but also has his sonic booms?? The show has gone over nonbinary people and gender conversations already, this is not out of the relm of possibility at all.

If nobody's gonna talk about it that just means I'm gonna talk EXTRA about it. Headcanon time.

Okay, so obviously Starscream was the one who did the surgery. He'd be all to happy to have unique colors w the removal of Thundercracker's blue and be the only boy in the group. The chance to stand out even more amongst his trine AND a free opportunity to stick his hands in some internals and do as he pleases?? HELL yes.

He was only a little upset that Nova Storm wanted to keep her sonic booms and he couldn't take that mechanism to stick into his own internals. Just a little.

Skywarp started doing makeup because Nova Storm took interest in it. Which of course meant Starscream also got into it too because he would not let his trine walk around with messy lipstick! Don't they know they're an extension of himself?! Their image is his image and they will look the best. Both Skywarp and Nova Storm have shaky hands from their outlier abilities. Good thing no-smudge paint can last without wear for months, no war or prison could ever get in the way of a perfect face of makeup.

Nova Storm realized she was a femme during the war, which is the main reason she got Starscream to do her transition and not a less biased, less unethical actual doctor. It had downfalls, but it was also one of the trine's closest times during the war. The three of them, all sitting around a room meticulously planning "Thundercracker's" death for months, because Nova Storm's a writer and no way she's gonna give up the chance to act out one her stories in real life. Skywarp is so proud of the fake tears she made at the news to this day (Starscream learned mascara just so Skywarp could wear some that day to get it all runny). Y'all will think that the Decepticons' most guarded secret has something to do with the war, or a Shockwave experiment, but no. The Decepticons' closest kept secret is Nova Storm's transition.

Everyone can kinda agree that it was probably the best for Nova's transition to be secret, "Thundercracker" was a very public figure as one of Starscream's trine. It would have been an easily available weakness for other Decepticons or Autobots to attack to hurt Starscream or Nova Storm. But the main reason was for the tragic death story potential and siblings scheming together.

Skywarp and Nova Storm definitely had their whole finishing each other's sentences before her transition, but they totally played it up even more afterwards.

Nova Storm got so happy and euphoric when people started to refer to her and Skywarp as sisters (usually with a negative "s" word before it. Ex. Scary, sinister, spooky, etc.). She still feels euphoric over it, but it's much more normal for her now and then she realizes she feels less about it because is so much more normal and common now and that makes her even happier. It's just a thing for her now!! It's a correct thing and it's natural and that's exactly how it's supposed to be.

[theaviatorthatcouldnotfly]

I miss Milo Murphy's Law :(( did you have any Season 3 ideas?

jsbfksjflls I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS ANON YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE-

of course milo and zack getting chased by something big and round in the first episode (maybe some topiary thing because it would be spring)

milo and his new telepathy!! chad feels kinda down and milo gives him a hug and tells him he hopes he feels better soon. joni is uncomfortable in class because it's way too cold and milo gives her a spare jacket. bradley is nervous about not doing well on his math test and milo wishes him good luck and tells him he'll do great. amanda forgets her eraser at home and panics for a second before milo, from across the room, tosses one onto her desk.

(and all the whole everyone's just like ".........how'd you know when I didn't even SAY anything" and milo's all "well, what doesn't kill you on an alien planet only gives you telepathy!" and no one can tell if he's joking or not)

oh and speaking of bradley: an episode where he and milo get trapped in a classroom or just have to spend the entire day together and within the span of 11 minutes of one-on-one interaction with milo he kinda has a "huh. you're not so bad" kinda moment. he even lets milo hug him for an entire 2 seconds at the end!!!!

for the sake of continuity some recurring character/s have their "a big round thing is rolling through the school and it may or may not be caused by my own actions so I need to stop it before things get destroyed!!! also 'just roll with it' is magically playing in the background idk how that happened" subplot

an episode with the kiddos (the entire mid-afternoon snack club group + chad pls) spying on mr drako (chad insisted) to determine whether he really is a vampire. in the end there is still no definitive answer and everyone but chad is tired

i need dakavendish follow-up i need them to be the biggest losers in existence with each other

they absolutely have to call each other "balthazar"and "vinnie" at least once

joshua pruett mentioned that they were playing around with dakavendish being promoted and actually getting opportunities to save the world but they (particularly cavendish) end up hating it. I need that to happen. I NEED IT. the angst potential has entered the room

ZALISSA FOLLOW UP!!!! a bit of awkwardness perhaps bc they are dorks. romantic directness on the same level as S2 milanda please

also more milanda more milanda more milanda im-

another school dance episode!!

zack has to take care of his twin siblings for the day and they want to meet the other two members of the infamous trust triangle so he goes and invites milo and melissa over. chaos ensues and by the the time milo and melissa leave the house the front section of zack's lawn has been burnt to a crisp and the twins have fallen fast asleep even though it's barely 7 in the evening

MEETING YOUR SECOND DIMENSION COUNTERPARTS???? since season 3 was supposed to be directed towards interdimensional stuff??

bonus points if dakavendish is canon in the second dimension

milo goes over to amanda's house to work on a project at one point and amanda already warned her parents about murphy's law and told them to baby proof their most prized possessions. they both end up taking a liking to milo and his positivity while also being slightly terrified of him. by some miracle the project does get finished but not without the typical dose of chaos and fires

an episode dedicated to bradley, mort, chad, and amanda and what they do all day when they're not actually part of the main plot

and more bradley mort chad and amanda in general I just love of all of them

more saneal!! I need them and milo to go to a dr. zone comic con together and dress up and be the gigantic loveable dorks that they are together

doofenshmirtz still needs to continue his professor time arc so he's still gotta be there ofc but give him less screen time than s2 pleaseeee. it's milo murphy's law and at the end of the day the focus should always be coming back to milo, zack, and melissa as well as dakota and cavendish

MORE JUST GETTING STARTED!!!

dakavendish finally gets that trip to hawaii

the murphys go on vacation for spring break and yet again total chaos ensues

more school field trips to the museum

for the sake of middle school shenanigans and continuity another sports-academics thing. I'm coining the term cherography (chess-marathon running-geography) but literally anything would be fine by me

the kids go to a public middle school so the inevitable standardized testing episode must be done

I'd love to see a school talent show or a school play episode (run by amanda and assisted by milo of course)

episode/s where melissa is just trying to go about her day with milo and zack when she suddenly disappears after getting caught up in the newest Time Travel Related plot of the week. zack and milo are confused until suddenly she and savannah reappear out of nowhere to deliver an out of context warning ("DONT GO NEAR THE DUMPSTER" or "GO BUY COTTON CANDY NOT ICE CREAM") before disappearing again to fix things

just more melissa and BOTT shenanigans in general honestly i love to see it

an episode focusing on the mml gals!! it could be brigette and sara it could be amanda and melissa and lydia it could be all of them it could be other characters but just an episode like that!

there's a mandatory science fair thing and milo and zack are partners so they decide to go with the most convenient option possible which happens to be a potato-powered lightbulb. somehow they literally flood the school gym with their potato-powered lightbulbs but as it turns out half the class didn't bother to or forgot to do their projects so they just take the lightbulbs and use those as their projects. by the end mrs. murasaki gives everyone a 'C' for functioning but unoriginal projects apart from melissa and bradley as well as amanda and joni

yeah that's all from me but first and foremost I wish mml would get renewed!!!!! for s3!!! usvfkajnfkajmfmalmdlanfms

[love-is-a-pearl]

how do you think ash and dawn's friends would react to them dating? especially the girls ash has travelled with lol

Misty: I can see her being a little butthurt because she had a crush on him first! But also being like "she has a Piplup, caught a Buizel and has a Togekiss. She is indeed very awesome"

Brock: "Yeah I expected that. Just don't do it in front of me, is almost like seeing my siblings together..."

Tracey: "I thought you would end with Mis-" (Misty stops him from finishing that sentence)

Gary: "So Ashy-boy finally got a girlfriend? Took you long enough haha" (it's dying inside due to his gay crush on Ash)

May: "You two better go in a double date with me and Drew some day"

Max: a little hurt, he kinda had this wishful thinking for Ash and May to get together at some point just so he could have Ash be officially be his big brother. Guess he still stuck with Drew.

Iris: "Whatever you do. Just please don't make babies, the world woudn't handle 3 of you."

Cilan: would go on a spiel about how their mixed similar flavors make up for a unique combination and whatever he talks about when he's in connoiseur mode

Clemont: "CONGRATS!" (has nothing else to say as he doesn't know how to react to such things)

Bonnie: ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS! she is an amourshipper and no one can tell me otherwise and the most toxic one at that :v I can see her trying to split them whenever they all hang out, talking shit about Dawn, setting Serena up as this perfect girlfriend (all the while the 2 girls are just talking and being bffs)

Serena: hurt but is the one to move on the faster methinks. I bet she would see just how close and similar they are and understand that indeed, for Ash to be with someone, it should be someone that lives in the same wavelenght as him.

Alola fam: surprised about it but the moment they train or do a double battle they can understand why they're together. They adopt Dawn into the fam right away and the girls just steal Dawn for a whole day to learn everything they can about her.

Goh and Chloe: heartbroken, their crushes are dating eachother and they cant even be mad at them cause they look happy together.

[bandsandwristbands]

A post with questions - please tell me more about headcanons with piercings 👁️ 🫦 👁️ who is the big spoon/little spoon too

HEWWOOOOOO 💕💕💕💕

boy i hope this is about gaara and or lee cuz thats what im talkin bout

omg so piercings

Firstly i hc piercings as very normal/relevent in Suna with different ones popular for different types of ceremony! More 'casual' ones for coming of age (like ears, lips, eyebrows etc), more ornate ones for spiritual devotion/religious reasons (Things like more fragile dermals, stretching, specific types of metal or crystals represented in the jewelry would be indicative of status as well) Also probably personally assigned meanings to signify marriage or familial status.

Also also tattoos and henna are popular for similar reasons

OKAY onto Gaara specific hcs

I think Temari pierced his ears for him shortly after the chuunin exams. Two sets to represent his siblings and the relationship with them that he is now starting to fix. (Yada yada healing physically while healing damaged connections yadayada) Plus it's something to bond over mutual interest.

Belly piercing cuz i said so idk if you want gender hcs but short of it is it makes him feel pretty lol

I think he'd show interest in piercings/body mods to try and connect with his people and culture more in pursuit of Kazekage office but also would be about Him trying to practice controlling his sand in response to pain. Between hosting a demon and being treated like a weapon most of his life, Gaara probably struggles with feeling present or in control of his body so having agency over his own pain and how he gets to present would be cathartic.

Others ones that I like on him in general but may be ooc to some are tongue, smiley, or corset but they're all good really 👌👌

Others

Temari def has a belly piercing tooo as well as lots of ear piercings (helix on one side probably for shikamaru, daith, like three on the lobe)

Temari also pierces any Konohan homies who show interest (Mostly the girls, she def pierced Ino's nips lolll)

Kankuro has his whole face done basically (Tongue, snake bites, all three on the nose, an eyebrow my cringe goth king)

Lee is unpierced for practical reasons, with the way he's constantly moving, fighting, getting injured it'd be a bit anxiety inducing to worry about it. He thinks they're very cool tho and really appreciates the cultural significance. He can be convinced once he and Gaara are married uwu

Lee does get done up with traditional henna at the pressure from the locals because it's a warrior thing and when in rome yknow. Plus Gaara is real gay about it. Seeing his culture all over Lee has him all mushy inside.

All three sand sibs go all out during festivals with the ornate body jewelry because they're allowed to express themselves in an official way without the council being a bunch of squares. Flexing the kage wealth a bit lol.

((I don't have any art for this rn cuz I'm including it in Lore Art for a behemoth fic I started that I hope to god i finish in a reasonable time lol))

Anyways they take turns with spooning, they both want to just curl up and disappear into each other although Gaara big spooning is more like a backpack, Lee sprawls and Gaara clings (touch starved headass)

[markantonys]

Oh well now that you’ve told me we get more Elayne content as the series goes on I’m definitely still excited to read the later books!

Gawyn! I’ve seen so very little of him so far but from what I have he seems like a sweetheart. I love a good sibling relationship and how he and Elayne team up against Galad is great to see, keeping an eye on that one… Very frustrating for Egwene to be fawning over the wrong brother though smh

Haha poor Mat! I’m definitely warming to him more, I’m nearly finished TDR and he’s just put a flower in his hair while sneaking into the palace 😭 Which speaking of new locations and characters, that will be SO exciting to see. I know book fans have been complaining about the changes to the show but it makes sense for them to have saved Caemlyn for s3, there’s just so much going on!

Yeah, I’m looking forward to being on the other side! I think this is preferable bc honestly, based on my taste, I think the show is on the whole making changes for the better (the women getting more spotlight from the off, actually making queer coded relationships canon lol) so having the show to look forward to after reading the books is so much fun.

*the books are obviously the source material and fantastic please don’t shoot me book fans

first of all, congratulations on having the most correct and relatable takes on everything in the series so far djdkjf right down to anxiously adding "please don't shoot me book fans" after daring to express that you think the show is good and perhaps even better. keep us updated as you go along, i love hearing your thoughts! as always, to my reader followers, please do not mention any book spoilers past TDR in replies/reblogs on this post. we must keep this anon pure! anon, i will be tagging this post as book spoilers for the sake of show-onlys since we're discussing some s3 stuff, but rest assured i haven't included any spoilers past where you are (bar vague stuff like "X character has a big storyline in Y portion of the series").

gawyn is MY BOY. he's like a son to me, and you can't imagine the sheer serotonin boost i got when he was unexpectedly namedropped in s2 just when i was starting to worry he might be cut or merged with galad (neither of which would make sense to do, but other readers kept predicting that baselessly and i couldn't help worrying). he's definitely a slow-burner character with his biggest storylines occurring late in the series (another thing to look forward to in the later books!), but both brothers become more prominent in the book 4-6 era, so i will be interested to see what you think of that since they're definitely Just Kinda There giving us nothing in the first 3 books haha

and this is exactly why the show was wise to hold off on caemlyn, gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida until s3! while i would've loved to see them earlier and while the EOTW caemlyn sequence is dear to my heart, in the medium of TV where the need to build sets and hire actors constrains what you can include when, it makes way more sense to hold off on introducing major locations & characters until such time as they are truly needed in the story, which for the Caemlyn Crew is season 3 since they don't get up to very much in the first few books. going to all that casting & set-building trouble for a single scene in season 1 or casting gawyn & galad just to bop around not doing much at the white tower in season 2 wouldn't have been practical. not to mention that there's been so much else going on, like you say! better to save this crew until we have enough space in a season to spend proper time with them.

and i love the show's approach of introducing elayne first and getting her into our hearts, then introducing the rest of her family in the next season when we're primed to be interested in meeting them, having already spent a whole season with her and having come to love her, and having heard intriguing little tidbits about her family and upbringing. caemlyn is my favorite location in the books and the trakands are my favorite family, so i can't wait to see them next season!!!! i'm so curious to see what kind of aesthetic they'll go for with caemlyn, and noble andoran fashion too. and given what a great damodred family backstory they crafted out of almost nothing in the books, i suspect we'll be in for a treat with some meatier family dynamics among the trakands (who do already have great dynamics in the books, but i bet there's more that can be done!)

mat putting a flower in his hair!! 😭😭 he's a baby! man that reminds me of the green man in EOTW and when he only gave flower crowns to the girls and not the boys, that made me so mad djkjfjg whenever i see anyone be sad that the green man didn't make the show, i'm like "nah FUCK that guy, he didn't give the boys flower crowns!"

and i am COMPLETELY on the same page as you with still preferring the show even after having read the books because the changes it makes are in line with my personal taste and improve aspects of the books i didn't like. the aes sedai are one of the most unique elements of the series, and i love how much focus the show has given to them early on! i love that egwene and nynaeve get to be ta'veren too! i love that moiraine and siuan are in a canonical present-day relationship instead of relegated to "being gay is just a phase in college"! i love alanna's polycule! i love that the male characters are allowed to be sensitive and vulnerable and to openly express emotions and affection! i love that the friendships and romances and enmities are all deeper and more emotional across the board! i love that the show focuses on the emotional impacts of the plot on the characters! and the show also really excels at picking out a smaller number of supporting characters and beefing them up (like liandrin and alanna) instead of including a fuckton of supporting characters, none of whom are very distinct or well-developed. the show always chooses to whole-ass one thing rather than half-ass two things, and that's another thing i love! the ability to distill these very long-winded books down into a more streamlined version of the story while keeping its core intact was crucial for an adaptation to work well, and rafe & co are so good at that.

anyway, i know that some readers like to tout the narrative that reading the books will make you like the show less because you'll see how much better and more detailed the books are, but that could not have been less true for me. it just made me love and appreciate the show even more, and look forward to seeing how my least favorite book stuff might be improved and how my favorite book stuff might be changed or given a fresh spin or made even better! and i'm glad to hear i'm not the only show-to-book person who feels that way <3

[sortofanobsession]

Unsure and Unconventional, to say the least (Ted Lasso Fic)

Author's note: because the Uncle's Day scenes made me think a lot of things. Phoebe would have Jamie wrapped around her finger in like .01 seconds. They would be a mischievous duo. And the team would be like awww that's cute.

Parts of this fic partially Inspired by:

an answered ask (HERE) by @andfrecklesandyoursmile about Roy giving his sister Jamie's contact for "emergencies".

@politelymenacing did a post that (THIS ONE) That may have helped inspire some dialog.

So credit to those brilliant post.

Ted Lasso Masterlist

OT3 Roy/Keeley/Jamie Romantic ship. Platonic team dynamics.

Content warning: Cursing/Swearing (lots of it because Roy Kent is gonna Roy Kent), Mentions of abuse, Mentions of physical violence, Mentions of hospitals, Self-Esteem Issues (because Jamie Tartt...), Polyamory, Anxiety, Anger Issues, Fear.

Word count: 8k+ (this one got away from me and that is why it took days to finish)

Read on AO3 here

Unsure and Unconventional, to say the least

“Coach?” Will says as he nears Roy Kent as the coach oversees training on the pitch. “Someone’s here to see you. They’re in the office.” 

Roy’s brows furrow. He wasn’t expecting anyone. Keeley would have just come out and joined them on the sidelines. He grunts in acknowledgment and heads inside. 

“Uncle Roy!” he hears as soon as he reaches the doorway. 

“Phoebe?” He says, accepting the little girl’s hug when she reaches him. He looks over to see his sister talking to Trent Crimm. Trent Crimm moves to the doorway. Stopping to offer to take Phoebe so she could say hi to the team.

“Can I please, Uncle Roy? I want to say hi to Jamie,” Phoebe looks up at him with those big eyes he just can’t say no to, or at least say no and mean it. He looks to his sister, who shrugs. 

“What? They're friends now too,” his sister says, challenge clear in her tone. “That a problem, Roy?”

Trent watches the Kent siblings with silent interest. Phoebe practically buzzed with excitement as she waits for an answer next to him. 

“A 25-year-old prick cannot be friends with an 8-year-old girl,” Roy glares.

“That bridge is long crossed, dear brother,” she laughs. “Especially after Uncle's day.”

“Uncle's day?” Trent asks with a grin.

“Fuck off, Crimm,” Roy grunts. His sister just gives him a fond and familiar look. “Fine,” Roy relents. “You can go say hi to Jamie, but stay out of the line of play. And don’t-”

But she is already gone, an amused Trent following close behind. Phoebe tells him all about Uncle's day as she goes.  

His sister grins. “She’s just going to bother Jamie. Thought you’d at least find that amusing.”

Roy grunts. “Too bad the prick will enjoy it.” Roy winces it. “That just sounds so fucked up.”

“You make it sound so wrong that she likes your friends,” his sister says. “That you think the people you have surrounded yourselves with are criminals.”

“How would you know if they are or aren’t?” he glares at her.

“Because you’d have kicked them in the teeth and sent them packing if they were. Jamie Tartt might be a prick, but even I know he’d probably die before letting anything happen to Phoe, especially if his childhood was half as shit as you’ve said. And he can’t be a complete twat if he sat through the whole of Uncle's day.” She grins. 

“Alright, cut the shit. What’s wrong?” He is quick to change the topic. “I know you’re not here to talk about Jamie fucking Tartt?”

“You sure about that?” She raises a brow. He growls. “Fine, I need you to take her this weekend. One of my colleagues was supposed to speak at a conference, and the prick went and caught something on holiday.”

“So now you have to go?” he asks.

“Fuck no,” she says. “I’m covering for the poor bastard that does, which means I’m working a double.” 

“Fuck that,” Roy says, annoyed on her behalf. 

“I know you have a match, and this might ruin your plans with Keeley-" she starts, but he doesn't care what else she has to say.

“Fuck off. It’s fine. We’ll take her,” Roy doesn’t even hesitate to say. “Kid always comes first. You know that.”

“I know,” she nods. "Thanks."

"You don't need to fucking thank me," he states. 

"I don't, but I'm still going to, you fucking prick," she says fondly. "Every time, no matter how much you curse or growl." 

"You could have just texted me," Roy says. 

"Yeah, but then I couldn't ruin your whole day by asking you the same question you have avoided answering. Can't avoid it in person."

Roy growls, and his glare intensifies. Most people would probably hesitate to continue. Or even hurry to leave. Not his sister. She was used to Roy's behavior decades ago. Roy would kill for his sister. Die for Phoebe. And he'd do it happily. She knew that. 

"Roy, you can't just ignore your feelings forever." She holds a hand up to stop whatever argument he was about to make. "You can, and you probably would. I know you, Roy. I know that you-"

"Don't," he cautions. She sighs.

"You might think that you're hurting just yourself here, but you're not. And that's not fair to anyone." She doesn’t drop specific names because she doesn’t want to risk anyone hearing the specifics. And she knows there isn't any point in pushing more now. "And I know you don't actually want to hurt him. You'll make the right call eventually." She grins. Before heading in the direction of the tunnel out to the pitch.

"You're lucky that you're my sister," he growls when he catches up to her.

"And that you love us, I know," she bumps her shoulder against his. He hums more than he grunts for once as he walks. He gives into that voice in the back of his head that he used to always ignore when in public, even if it's just the dog track on a training day. He puts his arm around her shoulder and pulls her into a half hug as they walk. God, she might be a pain in the arse, but he loved his sister and her kid. He may have smiled just a little as she returned the gesture. 

"You know I'm just trying to look out for you. Like you always do us," she says as they walk out of the tunnel toward the pitch. "You may think you're happy now, just think how much better it could be."

"You spend too much time with Keeley, and she spends too much time with Ted and Rebecca," he laments.

"I'm just glad we finally get to spend time with your friends. Richmond really has brought the best out of that boy from Chelsea that kicked Brock Lorens' arse at the commons."

"Do it again, too," Roy grunts. "Fucking deserved it."

"He was a bellend," she grins. 

"He gave you a black eye. That's not a bellend. That's a fucker with a death wish."

"Who has a death wish now?" Ted asks as they reach them. Roy drops his arm as they do. "Hey there, Doc." Ted greets her.

"Coach Lasso, Crimm," she nods. "Coach Beard." He responds with a nod. 

She turns her attention back to Ted as he speaks. "Glad to see you outside the ER, or is it ED here? Heh, that always sounds so odd to me. ED means something very different where I'm from," Ted says. "Probably just nice to get out of those scrubs. Those always seemed so starchy," he continues earning an amused look from her and a growl from Roy. 

"It is nice to meet in a less sterile but just as chaotic environment," she says. Her brother has warned her to pretty much ignore most of what Ted Lasso says. She looks out to where Phoebe has seemed to draw the attention of most of the Richmond team. "Hopefully, my daughter hasn't caused too much commotion." 

"Aw, the boys could always use a bit of a break," Ted assures her. "No harm, no foul."

She chuckles as a player, one she recognizes as Dani Rojas gives Phoebe a bear hug that lifts her feet off the ground. Phoebe's laughter carried across the pitch. Her brother grunts. She knew she was pushing it the longer they hung around. Her brother used to keep his professional and personal lives separate. Didn't like the way his teammates would look at her. This team was different. He seemed to trust them a lot more. And she could seem to see why. But she was still playing a dangerous game, treading on her brother's nerves. He takes his job very seriously, and they were disrupting it.

"Should probably let you lot get back to it." 

"Well, go on, coach," Ted says to Roy. "Know you want to."  

His sister is smart enough to step away. Moving closer to Ted and Beard. Doesn't even flinch when Roy shouts. "Oi! This is training, not a fucking playdate! Put her down and get back to your fucking drills!” She just shakes her head. 

"Been dying to ask," Ted keeps his voice low as he leans towards her. "He always been like that?"

"He's been Roy Fucking Kent since the day he was born," she says with a grin. "But he has his moments. You can say he was a very protective older brother. Don't know why I said was. Still very much is."

"Like dealing with whoever had that death wish?" Ted asks, low tone forgotten.

"Fuckin' Lorens. I'd smash his face in if he showed that ugly mug around here," Roy grumbles. 

"Again?" His sister smirks.

"Yes, again. Fucking twat." Roy growls.

Ted looked between the Kent siblings. "That bad, huh?"

"No one lays a hand on either one of them if they want to keep it," Roy states. 

"What did you tell his mates the next day when they threatened to go to the teachers?" She grins.

"To fucking do it," Roy says. "That I'd give them a detailed list of every fucking thing they'd ever done to any kid in her class."

"He then listed them, chronologically accurate."

"Then told those fucks that if they even breathed at my sister wrong, their teeth would be in the pavement."

"Wow," was all Ted could say.

"So yes, Coach Lasso, I can assure you, he has always been some version of this Roy Fucking Kent."

"Fucking, right," Roy says.

"And yes, I got more first aid training patching up his sorry arse after fights than I did in medical school." 

*-*-*-*

(Earlier during training…)

Jamie’s head snapped up when the pitch goes quiet. He had stopped to stretch out an annoying knot in his hamstring. The striker wondered why drills had stopped despite no whistle. Not even Roy’s shout of it. He looked up at his teammates, Sam and Jan being the closest. Sam was grinning. Then something collides with his back. He immediately tensed up until small arms snaked around his neck. Jamie let out the breath he was holding and huffs a laugh. 

“Just gonna run right out an’ tackle me, Phoebs?” Jamie laughs.

“Keeley says you like hugs,” Phoebe says in his ear. 

“Especially, Phoebe-shaped ones,” he says with a nod. He reaches around with one arm to anchor her to him as he shifts to stand up. Earning a few curious looks from his teammates. Jamie couldn’t have possibly cared less. When he is on his feet, he reaches up with his other arm to keep hers secure around his neck. He spins her around. She laughs. It’s an infectious noise that causes a few of his teammates to chuckle. When he stops, Phoebe giggles and says she’s dizzy now. He goes to let her down, but her grip only tightens. He can’t help but smile.

“Wouldn’t be the first time someone got sick on the pitch,” Sam says. 

“Roy would love that,” Colin says as he and others join them, all of training seemingly unofficially put on hold. 

“Speakin’ of,” Jamie starts as he makes exaggerated motions as he turns to look around. Phoebe laughs as he swings her around. “Where is the grumpy prick?” Jamie asks having not seen the man. Phoebe giggles, but before she can chastise him for his language, he adds, “Yeah, I know, it’s a bad word, innit? Pay ya next time.” His teammates laugh. He feels her nod more than sees it. 

“Mum said she needed to talk to him and that I could come say hi,” Phoebe tells him. 

“Well, hi,” Jamie says. 

“Hi,” she laughs.

“Say hi to the lads, Phoebs,” Jamie grins.

“Hi lads,” she parrots, earning amused greetings from the now bigger group of players. 

“You here for more than Jamie hugs?” Sam asks. 

“Do you want a hug?” Phoebe asks, and the others laugh. 

"I did not mean-" Sam starts to say but is cut off by Jamie.

“I’m sure the lads wouldn’t turn one down,” Jamie grins. Phoebe shifts, and Jamie lets her down. Sam does indeed accept a hug. A few of the others do too. Dani Rojas makes her laugh by picking her up off her feet and swinging her around. 

“Oi!” They hear from the side of the pitch. “This is training, not a fucking playdate! Put her down and get back to your fucking drills!”  

“Sorry, Uncle Roy,” Phoebe says at the same time the others say, “Yes, Coach.” Jamie just huffs, scoops her up and jogs them over, and sets Phoebe down on the sideline by her mom and uncle.

"Lovely as ever, Doc," Jamie winks, greeting Roy's sister.  

"Charming as always, Tartt," she returns. Roy growls. "Alright. Steady on," she says, patting Roy's arm. "Say goodbye to Jamie and the coaches, Phoe."

"Bye, Jamie. Bye, Coach and Coach." She hugs Roy. "Bye, Uncle Roy."

"See you this weekend," Roy tells her as he hugs her back. 

"Think about what I said," his sister says in a low tone to Roy, glancing at Jamie as she does. Jamie gives her a confused look, but she just grins as she pulls away. "Laters team," she says louder to the group. She takes Phoebe's hand and leaves.

*-*-*-*

“She’s gonna be a heartbreaker that gets legs broken,” Isaac says to the group as they watch the interaction on the sidelines. 

“And that’d be the lucky ones Coach likes,” Colin adds.

“Not just Coach,” Sam mutters.  

“Nah, Tartt would aim for faces,” Isaac says. “Kent would make sure no one’s walking away, but Tartt knows too well how they think. No helpin’ the ones that break her heart.”

“Make the outside match the inside,” Colin nods. “Break her heart, and they’ll be lucky if those two break their face.” A few of the players grimace, and the others nod in agreement. 

“Fucking get to it, or you’re all running laps til I say so!” Roy shouts. 

Jamie shakes his head as he joins them. “Might want to hustle, lads,” Jamie smirks. “As soon as she’s gone, he’ll run ya til you’re the ones sick on the pitch.” 

“Yeah, alright,” Isaac says. “Back to it.” 

They all head back to drills. 

*-*-*-*

Roy is not surprised, but still annoyed, to find Jamie waiting for him after training. The locker room is empty but for Jamie. Roy resists the urge to go back into the office, but he knows Jamie would just keep waiting. Jamie was already in his street clothes, scrolling through his phone, and sitting like the fucking prick never learned how to properly use a chair.

"What the fuck are you still doing here?" Roy asks.

"Took ya long enough," Jamie says, getting to his feet. "So your sister-"

"Don't even think about it, Tartt," Roy growls. 

Jamie holds his hands up at the sheer rage in Roy's tone, but he doesn't flinch or back away. "I wasn't gonna say anything like that, fuckin hell." 

"Then what?"

"Just wonderin' why they dropped by. Not usually her thing," Jamie says. "Gotta be important to drop by in person, no text or shit."

Roy knew he had a point. He'd been concerned himself when Phoebe had run up to him. The only reason he hadn't been scared shitless that something was wrong was that no one was in tears, or as much as in tears that any of the Kents get. That image was seared in his brain from when that no good waste of space ex of hers left them.

"They're fine," Roy says as they head out to the car park. 

"So we don't need to hide a body or slash any tires?" Jamie asks. If Roy didn't know any better, he would have thought Jamie sounded disappointed. When Roy doesn't say anything, Jamie looks up at him. "What?" Jamie asks. "Phoebe seemed fine, so I thought maybe-"

"Since when do you have thoughts about my sister? Since when do you have thoughts?!"

Jamie rolls his eyes. "Excuse me for giving a shit about your life and family."

Roy sighs. "Phoebe is fine. My sister, she is fine. She has to work a double this weekend and needs someone to watch Phoebe."

"I can-"

"No, you cannot," Roy stops walking as he reaches his car. "You have a match." 

"So do you, Coach," Jamie counters. 

"Well aware," Roy says. "She'll be in the box with Keeley."

"She'll love that," Jamie grins. 

"Like I said, they're fine, so go home, Tartt."

*-*-*-*

"There she is!" Jamie says, picking Phoebe up in a hug and setting her feet on the bench so she was out of the usual chaos of the locker room. He glanced around. Everyone was still riding the high of winning the match. "Have fun with Keeley in the owner's box?"

"Yes!" Phoebe was quick to answer. Jamie did his best to keep her focus on him. He usually wouldn't give a shit about his team's manners. Even when it was Keeley or Ms. Welton in the room, Phoebe is 8. She's an innocent kid.

"Tell me about it," he says as he puts on a new shirt. Thankful that Keeley must have timed it so most of them would be wrapping up in the locker room by the time Phoebe got there. She starts telling him all about watching the game. 

"You scored a goal!" Phoebe beams at him. Jamie can't help but smile.

Cockburn chuckles as he closes his cubby. 

"Colin did, too," Jamie says. 

"Keeley said you helped then, too," Phoebe says.

"That's what teammates do, Phoebs, you know that. You play on your own team."

"Less fun now that Uncle Roy coaches you," she says. A chorus of awws has Jamie looking over his shoulder. A few of the players were hovering.

"I'm sure your uncle misses coaching you, too," Sam says as he approaches.

"Richmond pays better," Jan states. "Would be silly to pick a children's league over-"

"Fuck off, Jan Maas," Jamie grumbles. "She's 8, and he still coaches her team when he can."

"Jamie…" Phoebe says, and she holds out her hand. Jamie feigns annoyance as he moves around the edge of the bench. He does reach up and put a hand on her arm to make sure she doesn't get knocked off balance by his movements. He gets his wallet out of his bag and hands her the money. She gestures again. He rolls his eyes and more money that he owes her from training. 

"Good," Phoebe smiles. The teammates around him laugh. Phoebe clearly had Jamie wrapped around her finger. 

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Jamie tells them. "She'll get you, too, if you don't watch your language." He grins at Phoebe. "Still think you should cash Uncle Roy's debt in for a pony," he says with a wink.

"Better!" Dani says excitedly. "A puppy."

"How is a puppy better than a pony? I thought most little girls wanted a pony." Sam asks. 

"You watch too many movies," Colin says. "Kitten, get a kitten. Less maintenance for your poor ma."

"Just what she needs, a grumpy black cat to match her grumpy and gloomy uncle," Jamie grins. 

"Maybe smaller l, like a guinea pig or a-"

"No one is getting her a pet," Roy grunts.

"Uncle Roy!" She reaches out for him from where she stands on the bench. Half the team looks like they are about to try and catch her if she falls. Sam actually reaches out.

"Mate, she's 8 and plays football. She's fine," Jamie rolls his eyes but grins. She's safer in this locker room than probably anywhere else.

Roy steps up into the spot Jamie had been in before he moved over to the other side of the bench. 

"Uh huh," Sam says. "And yet you braced her when you rounded the bench."

"He did put her up there," Dani points out. 

"Fewer elbows and…other things in her eye line up there," Jamie says. "I'm not driving her to therapy." 

"You would," both Sam and Dani laugh. 

Roy shakes his head and looks at Phoebe. "Ready to go?" He asks. 

"Keeley said we could get ice cream," She says. Roy is not surprised.

"If Keeley said so," Roy states. Earning a few murmurs from the room. Roy growls. Phoebe seems unphased.

"Can Jamie come too?" She asks.

"Yeah, coach, can Jamie come too?" Jamie smirks as he leans against the divider between his and Canterbury's compartments. Roy ignores him.

"You can ask him yourself, Phoebe. He's your friend, apparently."

"I still think he's your best friend," Phoebe says. Yeah, Roy left the door open for that one. That was on him. 

"Yet he says it’s Isaac," Roy attempts to deflect the attention her statement got him. 

"You wish," Isaac laughs. 

"Get your own best friend, Tartt," Colin agrees.

"That's just ridiculous. It's clearly, Sam. Did you not see the international matches?" Reynolds says.

"He can have more than one best friend, can't he?" Dani asks. "I do."

"Of course you do," Jamie chuckles as he makes sure he has everything he needs to leave. He looks up and when Phoebe calls his name.

"Want to get ice cream with us, Jamie?" He glances at Roy. Roy rolls his eyes and shrugs. 

"O' course, Phoebs," Jamie says. His smile softens. "Love to."

"Then get your arse moving, don't have all damn night." Roy helps Phoebe off the bench, and they head out the door. 

"She's right," Sam says. "They're clearly best friends."

Everyone in the locker room murmurs in agreement. 

"Is Tartt with her mum or something?" Someone asks. 

"God no," Sam says. "He'd be dead if was."

"Fair point," Isaac says. 

"But Jamie Tartt isn't the old Jamie Tartt," Dani counters. 

"Yeah," Colin says. "But Roy Kent is still Roy Kent. He'd have destroyed Tartt for that."

"He has threatened to kill Tartt for a lot less," Sam admits.

"Yeah," the others agree. 

*-*-*-*

"Glare any harder, and you might melt the cone with the heat of it," Keeley nudges Roy as she says it. Roy blinks before looking over at her. She is obviously amused by how he is acting. 

"How is this not weird to you?" Roy says in a harsh whisper. Glancing over at where Phoebe is knocking around a balled-up wrapper as a ball on the tabletop nearby.  She and Jamie had been seeing how long they could keep it going without it hitting the floor. It gets oddly competitive when it shifts to who can get it between two napkin dispensers more while not letting their ice cream melt. It only got worse once their ice cream was gone. Though Roy found it as funny as Phoebe did when Jamie got a brain freeze from it.  

"It's like minding two children," Roy complains. 

"Would you rather have to entertain her yourself?" Keeley asks. Roy just grunts. Phoebe cheers when she lands her last shot. 

"Well played," Jamie grins and looks over at Roy. "Almost done, old man?" Roy has to resist making an inappropriate comeback. There are children, not just Phoebe, around. And normally, Roy doesn't give a fuck what people think about him. But he wasn’t actually that upset about anything. Jamie had actually gone out of his way to look after Phoebe in the locker room. He'd watched them through the window in the office while talking to Beard about the match. He could tell Jamie was trying to keep her focus on him and not the room full of half-dressed footballers. And in the past, he might have thought he was just being an attention needing twat, but Jamie had been keeping track of who was where in the room. Keeping himself between her and the rest of the room. So he'd give him a bit more leeway. And Keeley was right. Phoebe was having fun. They still have another day to keep her busy. Having Jamie keep her busy for a bit hasn't done any harm. Instead of saying anything, he just finishes his ice cream cone and gets up. He holds a hand out to Keeley, and she takes it as she gets up. "Let's go."

"Thanks for the invite," Jamie says to Phoebe as they walk back to Nelson Road. Jamie giving her a piggyback ride. She smiles, shifting so she can pat his head. He laughs. So does Keeley. "You too, granddad." He says to Roy when the laughter dies down. Roy does roll his eyes at that. Roy wonders how this became his life. And that thought made him wonder if this was a good thing or a bad thing. His gut reaction is, of course, it's bad. Jamie is the king prick of pricks. But he knows that's not true anymore. Jamie had picked to go with them to ice cream instead of the club to celebrate with the team. Jamie'd rather spend his time entertaining Roy's 8-year-old niece at an ice cream parlor while Roy and Keeley enjoyed their own treats than party with the boys. Or even find a casual hook-up like the old Jamie would probably do. No. Instead, he was carrying a sugar-fueled child on his back despite it being less than an hour out from playing a full football match. Roy's knee would have been protesting if it was him. They stop when they reach Keeley's car. 

"What are you doing now?" Phoebe asks Jamie when he lets her down.

"He should go home. Rest and recover," Roy says. 

"Not going to join the team at the club?" Keeley asks. 

He shrugs. "Just going to head home. Catch up on something streaming." 

"Nothing fun?" Phoebe asks.

"You heard Coach Uncle Roy," he grinned. "Gotta recover."

Phoebe gives him a hug, and he heads to his car. 

*-*-*-*

After Phoebe is down for the night, Keeley hands Roy a beer. "You going to tell me what is going on, or am I going to have to just wait it out until you crack up?" 

Roy considers ignoring her question, but he knows she will just bring it up again later. 

"Just something my sister has been bothering me about," he says. 

"Do I get specifics, or am I just to go off that vague nothing of a sentence?" 

Roy huffs. "She's been on my case about Jamie."

"What about Jamie?" That piqued her interest. "Does your sister want to shag Jamie Tartt?"

"Fuck off." He cringes at the idea. "I hope not." 

"Okay, then what is she on about?" 

Roy has not been able to figure out how to say that part out loud. Especially to Keeley. They are barely back together, and Jamie is her ex. She still cares for Jamie, and Jamie has never denied he still loves Keeley in one way or another. Jamie maintains he's glad the two got back together. He had told Roy he was a dumb fuck of an old man and even dumber than Jamie himself was for dumping Keeley. Roy had agreed with at least part of Jamie's assessment on that. He had fucked up by pushing Keeley away. But Jamie had been there to keep Roy out of his head. Even if he was just pushing his buttons to give him a vent for his frustration. Filing the silence in training with annoying factoids that seemed infuriating at the time, but looking back, were just keeping his mind focused on something else. Roy hadn't realized how much he had leaned on Jamie. He had gotten to the point he'd started noticing stupid little things that Jamie would appreciate when Jamie wasn’t even around. Whether it was some stupid video on the internet or someone else's fuck up that he knew they could both find amusing. Fuck this was frustrating to think about. His mind had been drifting more and more to Jamie Tartt during the quiet moments of his life. 

"Roy?" Keeley shakes his shoulders. He grunts. "Now I know something is up. Spill it."

Roy growls, not at her but at his own stupidity. Keeley just waits him out. 

So he tells her about his sister's visit to Nelson Road. About how she had been questioning him about his feelings for Jamie since Uncle's day. Keeley is damn near giddy by the time he finishes talking. 

"You love Jamie," she grins.

"I love you," he counters. 

"And Jamie!" 

"Would you fucking shut it," he hisses. He glances over at the stairs and silently waits to see if he hears Phoebe. Keeley glares at him. And he knows he fucked up. That had been too harsh. "Sorry, that was-"

"A bit harsh, yeah?" She takes a pull of her drink. "You're lucky I love you."

"I am," he admits. "But I'd rather not Phoebe hear this."

"But you haven't denied you love Jamie." 

Roy groans, rubbing his eyes. 

"You can't, can you?" Keeley grins. "You can love more than one person. The heart is a bitch like that."

"Keeley," he grumbles. 

"You aren't the only one," she admits. 

"What?" Roy asks. 

"It's like…” she starts to explain. “He's kept all the sweet things I genuinely enjoyed when I was him and grew out of most, if not all, the bad bits."

"He's changed so much," Roy agrees. "And I don't know if that's endearing or infuriating."

"Well, you love him, so clearly, you have your answer."

"You just admitted you still love him too."

"Yeah, but I loved him before. It's new for you." 

"Well, what the fuck are we going to do about it?" He asks. 

"Honestly?"

"Yes," he growls. 

"Drag him to the bed and settle it the fun ways," she says, taking a drink.

"Fuck off," Roy growls.

"I'm serious, babe," Keeley says. "He went to get ice cream instead of clubbing with the fellas. He asked if he needed to help you murder someone. He'd risk his career for you. He is ready and waiting for you at insane hours of the day already. He had a poster of you in his room as a kid. Admitted he loved watching you play. He still looks at you like you're his hero. Like he can't believe you would let him have even a fraction of your time and attention. Roy, he cares what you think. He lights up like the sun when you tell him he did a good job. Can you really not see how much he wants your approval? Your attention? Good or bad, he lives for it." 

Roy has to look away as she speaks. That was a hell of a list. How has he missed it all? 

"So you think he'd-" he slowly starts to say.

"If we texted him right now,” she interrupts him. “I guarantee he'd be here in minutes. If you asked him to do anything, he would."

"I doubt that," Roy vocalizes the little voice in his brain. The one that doubts most everything.

"Fine, I'll prove it." She grabs her phone and starts typing a message. 

"What are you-" 

"There. Done," she sends a message.

"What did you just do?" Roy asks, dread pooling in his stomach.

"Invited him tomorrow night," She says. 

He is slightly relieved she hadn't invited him to come round now. 

*-*-*-*

Jamie has the worst timing when not on the pitch. During training, during a match, he is a master at timing shots. He knows when and where to strike. As for his life outside the pitch, that has been a mess since, probably forever. Like now, he’s just kicked back on his sofa, tv on for mostly just background noise as he scrolls through social media and other sites on his phone. The match had been good. He was sending some of the best reactions and headlines to the team chat as he does. He had just taken a drink because Roy would probably kill him if he didn’t hydrate when he got a text from Keeley. He opened it and choked on his drink. He ended up coughing so hard his eyes watered. She told him to come round tomorrow night. That they had something important to talk to him about. Jamie’s chest hurts, and it isn’t entirely from the coughing fit he just had. Did he do something wrong? He thought they had a good time earlier, and it wasn’t even an inappropriate or raunchy good time. It was kid friendly. He kept Phoebe happy and safe. Isn’t that like Roy’s number one priority? Always. And Jamie is happy to help with that. Did he do too much? Or is it the whole locker room thing? She had found him there. He’d kept her from seeing anything she’d need therapy to forget. Was it something he didn’t do? The lads wouldn’t mess with her. They fear Roy far too much. But Roy didn’t scare him as much as he might have in the past. But fear wasn't his motivating factor for once. Jamie wanted to look after Phoebe because she was just a kid. She deserved to feel safe and happy. Roy might hate that Phoebe’s dad is not in the picture, but Jamie knows there are worse things than an absent father. An abusive one that resents your very existence. One that you can’t get away from. A dad like that is something he hopes Phoebe never has to even think about. He hopes her friends, classmates, teammates, all of them never have to go through what Jamie did. What Jamie still has to deal with. But Phoebe has Roy, at least. She doesn’t need a father. She has her mother. She has her Uncle Roy. She even has Keeley and now Jamie. The more people in her corner is a good thing, right? So it can’t be about all that, right? Then what else could it be? It’s Keeley, so it’s probably not about the match or training. He looks at the message again. He probably is taking too long to respond. So he sends her a message saying he’d be there and sets his phone on the table. So much for rest and recovery. He knows his dumb brain is not going to let this go.

*-*-*-*

"Phoebe go home?" Jamie asks when Keeley lets him in. 

"Yeah, disappointed?" Keeley asks.

Jamie shrugs, aiming for nonchalant but coming off as anxious and a bit exhausted. 

"Roy's in there," she gestures past the stairs to the living room. Jamie still seems to hesitate. "I'm right behind you, babe." 

Roy notices it immediately. Something was not right with Jamie. That was clear as day as Jamie made his way into Keeley’s living room. The striker looked more exhausted now than he had when they watched him leave the Nelson Road car park. 

“Are you okay?” Keeley finally asks as she follows the younger man. 

Jamie waves it off. "I'm fine," he insists.

“Don't exactly look it. You end up out with the team after you left?” Roy asks. 

“Nah, went home, just shit sleep,” Jamie attempts to shrug it off as nothing. He was not going to tell them his brain was thinking of a million ways this conversation could end badly for him. "Been worse, yeah?"

“Nightmares?” Keeley asks. Jamie shakes his head. 

“It wasn’t your dad was it?” Roy asks. One of these days he was going to make James Tartt, Sr. pay for what he's done. All the shit he put his son through. That line of thinking is cut off for now as Jamie speaks. 

“Wasn’t him. Wasn’t anyone, really. It’s nothin’,” he insists. “You’re the ones with something important to discuss.” Keeley looks at Roy before looking back to Jamie. Her brows furrow. 

“How about tea,” Roy says before turning toward the kitchen. "Already started, shouldn't take long."

Keeley drags Jamie to the sofa and makes him sit as Roy leaves the room. She sits beside him. She frowns again when he puts more space between them by moving to the end of the sofa. Or at least as far as he can with her insane amount of throw pillows. That doesn't sit well with her. He looks so uneasy. Jamie used to act like he owned the place when he came over. Sure he was less of a prick the last few times, but this was not even how the new Jamie usually was with her. “Jamie…were you worried about this?” She gestures between Jamie and herself. "About this talk?" Jamie doesn’t answer beyond a shrug.  "You aren’t in trouble or anything, babe.”  

“I didn’t say that I thought I was,” Jamie tries to argue. His guard was up. He didn't want to feel stupid or look weak having worried over something this…well he wouldn't say insignificant. She had said it was important. 

“Didn’t say you didn’t either,” Keeley counters. And he knew she had him there. The old part of Jamie that still pops up in his brain sometimes tells him to play it off as if he didn’t actually care. Or to just be a prick. But he doesn’t really want to do that. He’s not going to turn it on her and make her feel bad because his brain jumps to worst-case scenarios. He sighs and leans back until his head is resting on the back of the sofa, and he’s staring at the ceiling. 

“Sorry,” He says but avoids looking at her. “You said it was important, and my brain ran with it.” 

“Jamie,” she shifts, half kneeling on the sofa, and bracing her hand on his shoulder to try and get him to look at her. “Yes, what we want to talk about is important. But it's not bad.” “So I didn’t do something wrong, didn’t fuck anything up yesterday?” She goes to run her fingers through his hair to soothe him but she stops when she feels him tense up as he speaks.

“What?” Roy asks as he sets down a tray with steaming mugs of tea on the coffee table. “Match was a win. You played well, and went for ice cream. What would you have fucked up?”

“That’s what I couldn’t figure out,” Jamie admits, finally looking at them. 

“So you’re saying you got a text from us, saying we wanted to talk to you about something,” Roy starts as he hands Jamie his tea.

“Important. Something important.” Jamie adds as he takes the mug.

“Okay, something important. And you assumed we were mad at you for something?” Roy is still trying to figure out where this is coming from.

“I mean, you’re usually mad about something,”  Jamie states. “Wouldn't be you if you weren’t.”

Keeley tries not to grin but fails. Roy grunts. “Fair enough.”

“But I’m not,” Keeley says. 

“Usually are with me, and that’s fair. I’ve fucked up a lot since you’ve known me,” Jamie counters. 

“That was before,” Keeley says without hesitation. “That was a very different you, babe. Nowadays, you’re more likely to apologize for something you had zero control over than for something you actually did. And that’s assuming you’d have anything to actually apologize for in the first place.”

“Which you don’t,” Roy reiterates. “You train your arse off and barely complain about it anymore. You look after your mates. Keep ‘em in line if needed. You spent yesterday holding court for a stadium full of people and who knows how many more on live tv, then entertaining an 8-year-old at an ice cream parlor.  How could I be mad at you?”

“You’re Roy fuckin Kent. Ya can usually find something,” Jamie states.

“Well, I’m not. Got it?” Roy says. “I’m not mad. But I will be if you keep being a prick.”

“Roy,” Keeley glares at him. 

“What? I don’t want to be mad about anything, not right now, at least. Not with what we were going to talk about. Anxious, of fucking course. Angry, no.”

“Why are you anxious if it isn’t a bad thing?” Jamie asks. Now clearly confused. 

“Because what we are going to ask you is not something people would consider normal,” Keeley answers. 

“Not bad, but not normal?” Jamie tries to sort it out.

“Exactly. It’s unconventional, but could be fun,” Keeley grins, moving back to start carding her fingers through his longer hair. Ever since he had grown it out her fingers had itched to touch it. Style it. Just feel Jamie melt under her touch again as her nails scrape his scalp. This time, he lets her. He holds himself back from going completely to mush under her touch, but he doesn't fight how comforting it is. Keeley and Roy see it as a win. She can help but smile at them. 

 “So? What is it?” Jamie has to ask, his tone and his body language now showing he is less guarded and much more comfortable.

Keeley and Roy exchange a look. 

“You want to say it or…” Keeley initiates. 

“Don’t look at me,” Roy huffs. “This was your idea.”

“And you agreed to it,” Keeley insists.

“Because you-”

“Seems a bit bad if you can’t even say it,” Jamie points out. “Gonna keep going roundabout all night? If so, might need to order takeaway at this rate.” 

Roy glares at him, but the prick has a point. He takes a drink if his tea to stall for time.

“We want you to join us,” Keeley says. 

“Join you where? I’m already here,” Jamie says, his mind is too distracted by the feel of her fingers along his scalp to look deeper at Keeley's statement. 

Roy rolls his eyes. Sometimes he forgets how direct you have to be with Jamie. Subtlety and nuance are often lost on Jamie Tartt. He is a genius on the pitch. And he knows a lot of shit about topic Roy couldn’t even imagine knowing anything about. But sometimes, he misses the obvious points. And as frustrating as it might be at times, Roy still finds himself wanting to protect this one particular idiot more than any other and help him. Teach him. Fuck, Roy was absolutely lost on Jamie fucking Tartt.  Unfortunately, he, too, had been anxious about this conversation all damn day and was on his last nerve. 

“For fuck’s sake, Tartt,” Roy sighs.

“What did I do?” Jamie starts to get defensive, pulling away from Keeley to look better at Roy. 

“Steady on,” Keeley levels Roy with a serious look. She puts a hand on Jamie’s chest. “We mean with us, like in our relationship, not just at our place physically.”

Jamie is pretty sure his brain has short circuited. He cannot have heard what he thinks he just did. He looks back and forth between the two of them. “You…you’re serious?” he asks. 

“Yeah,” Keeley says, smiling at him. Roy nods, hesitant to say anything that might ruin anything. He’s screwed up his relationships too many times. He’ll leave this to Keeley.  

“Me?” Jamie asks. “You want me…”

“Yes,” Keeley affirms.

“You both do?” 

“Yes,” Keeley repeats. “We both do, right, Roy?” She looks at Roy, eyes pleading for him to at least act like he isn’t a total prick. 

Roy grunts but adds. “Wouldn’t have brought it up if we didn’t.”

“Like a one-time thing or…" Jamie says. He still can’t believe it.

“Fuck off,” Roy grimaces. 

Keeley shifts so she has both hands on Jamie’s chest. “No, Jamie. Not a one-time thing. Because I miss you, Jamie. I miss being with you. And Roy, he…” She looks at Roy.

“Fuck it,” Roy grumbles before sitting in the seat Keeley was practically out of. Pulls her on his lap before gripping the back of Jamie’s neck and pulling him into his side before slotting their lips together. Jamie is almost too stunned to react.

“Jesus, Roy, warn a girl first,” Keeley says. “And let the man agree to it before you inhale his face. He may not slap you with an assault charge, but-” She’s cut off when Jamie pulls her into a hug. 

“I missed you,” Jamie admits. 

“So, is that a yes?” Keeley asks, her tone filled with hope and only a little muffled by his shoulder. 

“Of fucking course, that’s a yes,” Jamie laughs. “I might be a bit daft, but I’m not a complete numpty.”  

“You’re not daft,” Keeley says. She leans back enough to put a hand on his face. “You’re brilliant.”

“You might not be a fucking rocket scientist, but she’s not wrong. Selling yourself short, Tartt. On the pitch, you’re a fucking genius. Off the pitch, you know the most insane shit I couldn’t even pretend to know.”

Jamie ducks his head to hide the blush dusting his cheeks. 

"So adorable," Keeley coos. 

"That is the nicest thing you have ever said to me," Jamie murmurs, glancing at Roy.

"Don't get used to it," Roy grumbles.

"Or do," Keeley kisses Jamie's still pink cheek. "He's lying. He knows you thrive on praise."

Roy grunts. "No one would believe you if you tell anyone." 

Jamie actually laughs at that. And Roy would die before he admits it out loud, but he loves that sound. 

"This is really happening, innit?” Jamie asks. “I didn’t smash my face during the match and am in so fucked up coma dream, or like some head trauma hallucination, right?” 

“Well, then we’d be figments of your imagination, so how would we know?” Roy points out.

Keeley elbows Roy in the ribs, earning her a grunt. “You aren’t hallucinating or dreaming.” 

Roy pinches Jamie’s side. Jamie yelps and pulls away. “Real enough?” Roy smirks. 

“Not nice,” Keeley glares at Roy. She takes the opportunity to slip her hand under Jamie’s pullover and shirt to gently run her hand along the spot Roy had pinched. Jamie’s breath hitches, and he melts into her touch. She grins, “There’s my good boy.” Jamie groans.

“That really does the trick, doesn’t it?” Roy laughs. Jamie glares at him, but Roy just laughs harder. He’d seen Jamie’s glare make people flinch. But this one had no heat to it. It was a bluff. Clearly, he was enjoying himself too much to really be pissed. When the glare fails, Jamie pouts a bit. And Roy bites back a sigh.

“Fuck off with that pout,” Roy growls. He reaches over and pulls Jamie back to where he was before he pulled away. “This is a good thing, remember?” He reminds him as he tugs on the back of Jamie’s pullover until Keeley helps take it off of him. His shirt is quick to follow. Jamie nods. Keeley kisses him as her hands roam his chest and abs. She swallows his moan.

“Didn’t hear you, Tartt?” Roy teases as his own hands reach out and touch. Skin he’d been dying to touch for longer than he would ever admit to every time he saw Jamie in the locker room. 

“Very,” Jamie breathlessly admits.

“Good,” Roy nods. “Because this is just the start of what we have planned for you.” 

“Fuck yeah,” Jamie says. “Let’s go.” Keeley laughs as Roy pulls him in for a kiss. 

“Fucking hot,” Keeley says as she watches them. “We gonna move this upstairs or what?”

Roy pulls back and gets a good look at both Jamie and Keeley. “Inna minute,” he says, and he grips the back of his own shirt. Keeley shifts over into Jamie’s lap so Roy can get his shirt off. Jamie happily accepts her and frees her from her own shirt. 

“Fuck, I missed you,” Jamie says before moving his lips to the skin below her ear and along her jaw. He wasn’t exactly a selfish lover in the past, and he wasn’t a religious man, but he’d thank any deity listening for the chance to have her back in his life like this. Roy being there was just icing on the cake. 

“Fucking gorgeous,” Roy admits. 

"She really is," Jamie murmurs against her neck.

"I meant both of you, you fucking prick," Roy reaches up and cards his fingers through Jamie's hair. "Those pretty fucking lips of yours."

"Thought I was an ugly, ugly boy, with bad hair?" Jamie smirks. 

"Fuck you," Roy growls as he pretty much attacks Jamie's lips with his own. 

"That's why I said we should go upstairs," Keeley says from where she is sandwiched between the two very shirtless fucking fit men.  "Although I'm not complainin'." She runs her nails along Roy's abs making him moan into Jamie's mouth. Jamie took advantage of it and deepened the kiss. But Keeley wasn't done being cheeky. She grins as she grinds down on Jamie's already tented clothed lap. A shock of pleasure runs down the striker's spine and he moans loudly. His arm snakes around her torso to hold her tighter. The other goes up to the back of Roy's neck. Fingers gripping tight like if he lets go it will all just vanish. Roy growls.

"Oh, that was a fun one," Keeley giggles. 

"Upstairs." Roy growls. "Now."

[acourtofantumbra]

HOFAS Review (+ a stream of consciousness...)

With a full 24 hours to sit with finishing HOFAS I have some thoughts and will likely sit with all of it a while longer to make all that I'm thinking coherent...

TLDR: I didn't like this book. I thought it was an unprecedented miss from SJM. If that take might upset you, please, ignore me! I'm genuinely really, really happy if after two years folks felt like this was a huge win. Genuinely.

But the broad strokes are:

I was a CC girl. I saw a lot of folks had a hard time with CC2 and I think I was in the camp of "actually, mostly liked it, but def ballooned by the last 200 pages (which were fire)." I love CC1. CC in particular was the series to finally convince me to start recruiting my friends into the SJM world. Over two years me and my friends are closer than ever, reading all kinds of fantasy. It's my fave thing in the world. But, other than ACOTAR 1, this is probs the only book of hers I actively dislike. It's firmly slotted CC into my third place for all of her series when it used to rank 2nd.

I've seen a lot of folks frame it as: you're disappointed because it wasn't ACOTAR, this was a book for the theorists, you spent two years overhyping what this could be, etc. I suppose I accept the last point to some extent. I came into this book a bigger fan of CC than of the whole of ACOTAR... I genuinely wanted Crescent City, not ACOTAR. And, if this account is any evidence, I am a big theory girlie. This was a hastily written, chaotically paced, surface level mess that kept itself afloat with gratuitously long infodumps. My love of theories did me no favors (I got a lot of things right) and I realized that because there was no emotional connection in this book the "wins" felt completely lackluster. For a book that deals in quite a bit of soul talk... it felt soulless.

This book misses what SJM really excels at as an author - incredible characterization. She might have a cast of 10 people, but we know all of them, love all of them. The absolutely batshit plots that have been layered over 15 books are always grounded, bolstered, and absorbed through symbiosis via her characters. The way I can, 24 hours later, barely remember plot points is completely attributed their lack of emotional connection to the characters themselves.

For ex, the entire resolution of the Avallen plot and the Flynn siblings earth magic freak out would have had so much more emotional impact if we a) knew Tristan's sister better b) cared about this location that yes we've theorized about but had only just arrived at (and mostly experienced via cave). So it was really written as this moment of catharsis - after some of the most overt, unrelenting info plot dumps for pages on end - that felt unearned.

Essentially, this was almost 900 pages of exclusively plot. And I'm actually so sad that this is effectively goodbye to the leads of this story because, despite spending 900 pages with them, I feel like I barely saw them. It's part of the reason why my fave part of CC3 are the bonus chapters. They're just moments to actually spend with our characters, be reminded of their personalities, their connections, and what they'd do in moments of stillness, weirdness, or kind of perfect mundanity. That atmospheric joy was always one of my favorite parts of falling for the CC crew.

Anyway, for the folks who are like sorry this is for the theorists... I hope this is the last time we get a book like this then. As someone who loves this - not just for SJM books but for all the fantasy series I read - world building without a strong foundation of character is not actually good writing. And this was bad writing - plain and simple. This felt like a checklist. And the glaring quality differences of each of the book's three parts, along with SJM's admission that this version of CC3 was a 5 week rewrite, leads me to believe a lot of this book was like SJM writing herself out of a corner. A means to an end. Also, I've never caught typos in an SJM work and... I caught a lot. Also why did we switch POVs like we were being held at gun point (I wont even get into the Tharion and Ithan of it all).

After that huge reveal in CC2, this book was always gonna be a massive thing to live up to. It needed to lay down so much groundwork for all the worlds, all the future books, to be able to play with. And that mission became of primary importance over the people and the world itself. There were too many plots, far too many characters, and we spent the entire time in what felt like "the future possibility" instead of taking a look around and sending off this main plotline and hanging out for a bit.

At one point I texted my SJM groupchat, all of whom are equally dismayed, like this book is essentially 4 infodump coversations and then every character going and telling 4 more characters that conversations and so on. And inexplicably we had to be present for every instance.

I celebrate the Lidia plotline from this book - the most emotional and satisfying (I still think it could have been done even better). Of course there were sprinklings of other things that were great fun. I read it fast in true SJM fashion. I think I'm only harsh because I only grade the queen against herself... and there were just countless times where I thought, "Sarah you're so much better than this... what am I even reading?"

Anyway, I guess I'm glad to put this chapter to rest. I'm excited for the future of ACOTAR and can only hope she employs the lessons she learned while writing ACOSF (a book with a ton of heart). Also, obviously delighted by the really strong focus on TOG easter eggs for whatever future that might entail (give me Manorian... please Sarah).

I think I'll just need to be in mourning for another second. And tbh, it may be light's out on the desire to ever write a brainstorm theory post ever again. Sad! But also not a big deal in the slightest.

[darkicedragon]

How did you feel about the ending and what was your original expectations of how you thought it was going to finish?

Your reactions were greaaaaat ahee-hee

***

Since Nimona's lived for a thousand years and not aged then that means that they're still around for each generation of Bal's kids, grandkids etc etc growing up? (if he has kids that is)

Such cat behaviour UwU - being inherited in the family for generations

Nimona encouraging the younger babies to BREAK EVERYTHING.

Nimona starts to slowly learn things from Bal as he’s teaching the babies how to grow

The babies are so used to them shifting that they just assume everyone's sibling can do this right! OwOd

Bal knowing his family are in safe hands with Nimona if he gets too old at least

Nimona starting to settle into family life… but the itch XD

Taking the babies and fam on adventures 😎 maybe exploring outside the gate and making new memories

Sigh~ I really wish we’d seen more of Nimona and Ambrosius’s relationship honestly - I get they have to focus on the mains but it still would have been nice to have at least had a scene of proper interaction qsq

Sequel? Ow|

How did you feel about the ending and what was your original expectations of how you thought it was going to finish?

I thiiink I was hoping for more, with a more overt change to the knight system, but also a lot HAD happened? The queen is gone, the director is assumedly gone, Todd is accepting of Bal, and Bal and Ambrosius may not be knights anymore? Or just on their day off. And it was too soon to see if more of the general populace had started trickling into the knight program.

(Side thought of Bal seeing a few more commoner squires in the ranks after a couple of years and he's so PROUD to see them. And also he's probably shoved towards mentoring them, since 'you have so much in common with each other'.)

Your reactions were greaaaaat ahee-hee

Glad you liked them! It's fun going through it, even it does take me. A little tiny bit longer than most people would. 🤣

Bal's kids, grandkids etc etc growing up? (if he has kids that is)

They could have all the adopted babies. >8000 Either Ambrosius' got a huge mansion or they really build up the tower. Maybe they set up an in between knight training camp thing, before the commoner kids go into the knight programme, because there's a whole bunch of jargon translation that they need and Bal's already went through that. He knows it sucks. 'No, really, the knight families care what kind of spoon you use with your dinner - don't look at my like that, Ambrosius, I spent years memorising what you're brought up with.'

And even after the kids make it into the programme, they keep coming back.

Nimona encouraging the younger babies to BREAK EVERYTHING.

OH GOD, AHAHAH. 'Oh, you want the plate? Sure.'

*smash*

'Nimona!'

'Whaaaat? She wanted it! And she should break stuff if she wants!'

The babies are so used to them shifting that they just assume everyone's sibling can do this right! OwOd

But what if the kids think they'll eventually be able to just shapeshift, and kids are just like O~O 'How old will I be when I can start shapeshifting?'

Or wondering why their dads don't shapeshift.

Nimona would keep the babies so entertained just by shifting from one form to another. :D They probably get their tail or wings pulled a lot at the start, but also the kids faceplant into their side and just 😴 Which is really cute! And Nimona's so touched that the kids want to do that and the kids feel safe but theygottashiftreallyquick. Probably shift into something bigger and furrier because uh. The first time they changed into something smaller almost (almost!!) ended in a skull thwacking off the floor.

Bal does have heart attacks when Nimona takes the kids flying even though he knows it's safe and how much weight Nimona can carry. ('I carried you in full armour!' 'I know, but...less of the dropping and potential whipslash, please?' 'Fiiiine, I'll catch them better.')

Bal knowing his family are in safe hands with Nimona if he gets too old at least

q.q Bal getting pain in his joints and he's not quite as fast as he used to be and his kids are all grown up now.

And Nimona still looks exactly like they did when they first met.

I really wish we’d seen more of Nimona and Ambrosius’s relationship honestly

SAAAAAME. 😭Ambrosius feels like a side character and he sees Nimona with his own eyes like, twice. Yeah, the film's about Nimona and Bal but. Would have liked to see more interactions with him and Nimona and Ambrosius and Bal. It's what fic is for but I would have liked more to build off of, haha.

[dirtytransmasc]

Spellman Siblings Quotes

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"Ok, hand 'em over." - Quaritch, upon a brief return to Bridgehead

*Reyzì, Rävi, Ro'eyk, and Spider handing over their weapons*

"That includes anything Ro'eyk made." - Quaritch

*proceeds to sigh and unload an ungodly amount of random objects, including several things that look like bombs*

____

*Ro'eyk sitting with Lopez and Ja in the mechanics bay waiting for them to finish getting their gear checked.*

*Starts fiddling with stuff on the table.*

*Lopez turns around*

"Do not make a bomb."

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"Why does Reyzì have a sword?" ~ Lyle

"Why is it on fire?!" ~ Z-dog

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"What do you mean 'Hell's Gate is booby trapped', what did you do?" ~ Quaritch

*Distant scream*

"Ro'eyk liked Home Alone." ~ Rävi as he sidesteps a trip wire.

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"Look, I love you kids, I really do, but please for the love of Eywa, please stop. You're giving me heart palpitations." ~ Quaritch

*Rävi, Reyzì, and Ro'eyk after jumping between ikran's mid-flight.*

___

*Mansk waking up at 3 AM and finding the siblings discussing how to best destroy Bridgehead's power grid.*

"The Geneva Convention is just a guidebook to you three, isn't it?"

__

"Why are you so strong?!?!"

*Lyle, Mansk, and Prager struggling to hold Reyzì back from tasing someone with max voltage.*

I love the idea of 3 grown men struggling to hold down reyzi, genuinely terrified if being hit with her razer cause they're like 90% sure it will stop there heart.

Lopez knowing it takes a few spear parts and Ro'eyk can and will get them all killed.

the kids are gonna give Quaritch a stroke, especially because the whole "items from Ro'eyk" thing happened because Reyzi tried to take her taser to Ardmore, Ravi tried to hack into the computer system with a drive of Ro'eyks design... Ro'eyk just tried to bomb people. now they have to get pat down before they're let into base. that's not mention the shit they do on the ikran, cause eywa be damned, Quaritch is convinced they've almost died like 30 times, he's felt his stomach sink one too many times for his comfort.

they never let the recoms know rest

[new-kit-on-the-block]

Spoilers for The Dragonet Prophecy

I've decided to get into Wings of Fire, starting with a graphic novel version of the first book that I found at Barnes & Noble.

I just finished reading it, and I've also decided to catalog all of the thoughts I have about each book right after I read them. I'm gonna do it all in this post, one reblog at a time.

Here we go.

The Dragonet Prophecy:

I really like Clay's flat arc. The fact that, in the first book, the first thing we learn about him and the last thing we learn about him is the same piece of information twice, just framed under a different context will drive me insane for the rest of my life.

Seriously, there are 13 fucking books left for me to read, I cannot be getting so hung up over a single detail in book number one(1).

I wanted to see Tsunami beat up more dragons, but alas. From what I can glean, the second book will focus more on her. So maybe I'll get my wish after all.

Welp. Starflight's a double agent now. And I get the feeling that they're going to get a lot of mileage out of that when it comes to internal conflict. It's a pity that I didn't find him too interesting in this one, but I'll just have to assume they're saving all of that for a bit later in the series. We're still only in the world-building phase, after all.

Sunny's cute. Wish she was given more time to shine.

Same with Glory. But at least she got to kill someone.

It really seems like they were banking on the hopes that they would be able to publish a lot of books and would have plenty of time to flesh out the five dragonets later. Fortunately, like I said, there are 13 books left. And that's just the main series.

Hoping to see everyone get plenty of chances to shine. (Please please please tell me that they do. Please don't let this age poorly.)

The only name I knew going into this was Scarlet, who I've heard is just an absolute monster throughout the series. Excited to see how much more they can make me hate her.

Jesus fucking Christ that dude just fucking killed himself by hugging Peril. That shit was brutal.

Anyway, I really like Peril. Once again, wanted to see a lot more of her.

I also like the obvious parallels already being drawn between Peril and Clay. They were both introduced as having killed/tried to kill their sibling when they hatched. And then within the same book, both of those things were proven to be untrue.

It's pretty obvious they're setting up a ship between them, but it's a damn cute ship, so that's fine by me.

I really really like that the four of them keep consistently reminding Glory that they think she's pretty, as well as constantly reassuring her that they don't think she's lazy or stupid. Love me some siblings being collectively supportive of their extremely self-deprecating sister. I think she's shaping up to be my favorite of the five. With Tsunami being a close second. Make no mistake: I love them all.

Also, Tsunami coming from the Seawing Queen's hatchery is the funniest shit ever. She spends the whole book making jokes like "Maybe I'm the lost Seawing Princess or something Xp" and then right at the end Kestrel's just like "Yeah, no, you totally are." AND THEN SHE JUST FUCKING LEAVES

"Definitely our bigwings." Aww~ What a cute way to close off the first book :)

KESTREL'S DEAD?????

Anyway, great book. Can't wait to get my hands on the second one.

[sam-loves-seb]

HellO hi I need to read every single one of the works you listed in the worksinthedocs list because you are literally my fave writer in the history of fanfiction BUT I especially need to know about the babysitting Liam one and the magic au one!! What are they? What era are they from? Can you share a tiny piece of them please?

Thanks ily

omg hi hi hello, you are so incredibly kind thank you 💙💙 in a perfect world someday i will actually finish everything in the worksinthedocs list but in this world i will try my best !

for now i will offer a bit of insight into two of them under the cut

okay so:

babysitting liam:

the babysitting liam fic is slightly misleading considering he's like, twelve in this fic (it's post-canon) and doesn't actually need a babysitter, but the vibe still stands

it's set in a post-canon world where liam lives with lip, tami, and fred (in a very cramped in-law apartment attached to tami's parents house) and there's not a lot of room, or privacy, and fred's teething so nobody is sleeping, and Big Brother Ian swoops in and tells liam he can spend the weekend at his and mickey's apartment if he needs a break from lip-tami bickering and the baby crying all the time

(it's not that liam doesn't like living there, he just needs a break)

so essentially it's like a 3-4 chapter fic of liam spending the weekend with ian and mickey and doing fun things together and generally having quality brother (and brother-in-law) bonding time

and mickey pretends to hate the idea of liam invading their space for a whole weekend, but he's a softie, and next to ian, liam is his favorite gallagher sibling, so of course he caves and ends up having a good time in the end

here's a snippet (in case the fic never sees the light of day)

“How’s the kid?” Mickey asks, grabbing his controller again and exiting out of his game. He pulls up Netflix. “Liam?” Ian asks, and Mickey nods. “He’s… fine.” Mickey quirks a brow. “Fine?” “Yeah,” Ian sighs, climbing over the back of the couch and more or less falling into Mickey’s side. “Fred’s teething. I don’t think anyone’s really sleeping over there.” “Poor kid.” “He’ll be fine. I mean, at some point the teething stops.” “I meant Liam.” “Oh.” Mickey presses a soft kiss to Ian’s hairline. “Kid needs to sleep.” Ian wiggles his way under Mickey’s arm, tucking his face in his husband’s neck. He presses his lips against the warm skin, just holding them there for a minute. He breathes Mickey in, the faint smell of sweat and cigarettes mixing with the fading deodorant from this morning. He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t move. Mickey’s hand sneaks under the hem of Ian’s t-shirt, his thumb gently stroking arcs across Ian’s hip. He gives him a minute, lets him breathe—but he knows his husband too well. “What?” Mickey almost whispers. Ian sighs quietly. “Like you said…” He blinks and his eyelashes brush against Mickey’s neck. “Kid needs to sleep.” Mickey pulls back just far enough to look at Ian’s face. His eyes narrow. “…What did you do?” “Nothing.” “Uh huh,” Mickey says, tongue in cheek, almost biting back a smile. “What did you do?” Ian shrugs, suddenly looking everywhere but at Mickey. “I… may have told Liam he could stay with us this weekend.”

...yeah, so.

i have the first chapter written and part of the second so who knows what'll happen with that eventually

anyway--

magic au

i have no snippets of this to share so have some random thoughts from my unhinged 1k outline that sits in this doc:

this one is set in an world (s1 timeline) where people can have magical powers, but they're rare, so when ian first discovers that he's one of those few people who has magical abilities, he mostly keeps it to himself. lip's known since they were pretty young, helping ian to develop it and train it, and ian tells fiona eventually, but she claims she already knew

none of the other gallagher siblings have powers, and this has always confused ian until he realized his biological father isn't frank, but a guy who lives in a cushy northside house with a successful career and life--no doubt products of some kind of power--and then it clicks

anyway, life largely remains the same as canon for ian and co. because he's only 15 and he still has a long way to go with mastering his abilities and everything, and then: he meets mickey

and ian's powers? well, they're somewhere along the lines of mind control.

and yeah maybe he was going to use magic to get mickey to give back the gun that he stole, and maybe he has a crisis about whether or not he accidentally did use it to make mickey fuck him instead of beat the shit out of him (he didn't), but it all works out in the end because mickey gave the gun back anyways

and mickey keeps ian grounded, because yeah he shows up to the store for a booty call when ian asks, but he always tells ian not to kiss him, and though the rejection stings a little, it reassures ian that mickey is of his own mind when they're hooking up and he's not somehow accidentally under ian's control--because how else is he supposed to explain mickey fucking milkovich suddenly jumping his bones every five seconds when a week ago he wanted to kill him

anyway.

long story short, mickey ultimately finds out about ian's powers after kash catches them, after mickey comes back to the store the next day, after mickey mocks him and tries to rob him again and kash fires one bullet into the fucking drywall, barely missing mickey's head

his finger's on the trigger and his aim's a little better, and that's when ian drops what he's doing and uses his powers

(probably should have mentioned before this that kash already knew about them, something about them having secrets between them (ew) whatever)

ian stops kash from shooting mickey in the store--even though kash is fighting the hold ian has on him--and our story starts (ends?) there because that's as far as i got with that one

so, yeah.

if you're somehow still reading this long ass post, thanks for staying 'til the end. come bully me talk to me about these or any other half-formed fics/ideas from my worksinthedocs list anytime.

[beenovel]

Just finished Wednesday (2022) here are my thoughts in no particular order.

Before I begin I would like to admit that I watched most of the show either with a horrible migraine or on very strong migraine meds that usually either knock me out or make me very loopy. So there may be intricacies that I missed. If you notice something I clearly missed, please point it out.

----

Good:

Wednesday actually visibly cares for her little brother so so much and it's so important to me.

Gwendolyn Christie, Jenna Ortega, Emma Meyers, Joy Sunday, Christina Ricci, and all the other female actresses???? Incredible. Gorgeous. Incredible displays of talented acting every last one of them. The men also did well with what they were given (more on that later).

The coroner came onscreen and before I even recognized why I knew him I started singing No Life Without Wife from Bride and Prejudice. If you know you know.

The lighting?????? The camera angles?????? The costuming?????? The set design????????? HOLY SHIT. Its some of the best I've seen in a LONG time. It's dynamic and interesting and fun. It's artistic and frankly beautiful. It is the look it is the moment. It somehow feels very natural and like it's also telling its own story through use of light and shadow and color. The fact that the principal tells Wednesday "you see the world as black and white and fail to see the shades of grey" while Wednesday wears black and white and the principal generally wears grey or silver????? Amazing. I could go on, I have nothing but good things to say about the artistic choices on this show.

Also, when I have a headache I have a hard time looking at TV shows because (especially if they've gone out there with the lighting) they can make my headache worse but I didn't really experience that with this show.

Enid is absolutely adorable and I don't feel her character was explored enough. Also I love her relationship with her dad, it really reminds me of me and my uncle.

I really really REALLY loved the theme of "teenagers do horrifically shitty things for reasons even they don't fully understand but that doesn't make them bad people and if they're willing to try and make amends they should be given a second chance". It is so important to me and I feel like in our current cancel culture that feels more like puritanical panic this is an important message for teenagers to see.

The respect I have for Principal Weeks is incalculable and I'm furious she won't be returning next season. She was the whole reason I watched the show in the first place. I love that she is respected both in the way she was written and by the other characters.

---

Not so good:

The show felt rushed and clunky, especially the first few episodes. I really wanted to enjoy the story being told but plotlines were introduced very suddenly and in awkward ways and then almost immediately disregarded. It occasionally felt like they were just trying to get through as many ideas as they could as quickly as possible so the audience would stay on their toes.

Eugene? Fantastic little autistic boy. I loved him, his actor did an amazing job and I loved his relationship with Wednesday and how that almost sibling relationship helped pull her out of her isolation a little bit. The other boys? Not so great. Let me make it clear that I think the actors did a fantastic job across the board, they made their characters actually enjoyable and were the only reason I was able to keep watching. However. The script they were given was not nearly as good. The male characters felt very flat and one dimensional which was a startling and unpleasant contrast to the female characters which were so interesting and detailed.

The only exception to the amazing actors was uncle fester. I don't know what it was but something about his voice made me anxious and I didn't like his face acting, whatever it's called. His voice felt more like voice acting which was out of place.

What happened with the coroner??? His death was never properly wrapped up, it was introduced as a way to frame Gomez (which made no sense, that would be like triple reverse psychology) and then we never actually found out what happened even though they made it very clear suicide would be weird because he was excited to retire.

I don't think the writers have ever actually been to therapy. Or they were trying to write a really terrible therapist who pushes her client way to far way too fast. I really wish they'd done more with the therapy plotline.

The Xavier storyline felt very uncomfortable. At no point did I feel like Wednesday was actually interested in him and he was just weirdly obsessed with her like Garrett Gates was with her mom. They even had the same brown medium long hair which meant I confused them when Garrett first showed up and it just felt like an unintentional yet uncomfortable parallel. I'm sure that's not what the writers were going for and I don't know if anyone else feels the same way but it gave me the ick. They had lots of time to make him likable and interesting and they just didn't. Instead we got creepy paintings and "you get lost in the music and I feel like that's the only time I can see the real you" which felt to me a lot like "I'm the only one who REALLY sees you Wednesday".

-----

Final thoughts:

Overall I really enjoyed the show. It was fun, the characters are interesting and lovable, the music and set design/lighting/costuming is fantastic and the riddles and stories were interesting enough to keep me watching. Sure, there were some things that annoyed me or I found lacking but I'd say it was a good show.

[dragonairice]

I DIDN'T KNOW ARTIFACTS HAD VALUE IF YOU KEPT THEM SO I HAVE BEEN SELLING THEM EHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU KEEP THE DOLLS /GENQ

WATCH OUT FOR THE SDV INFODUMP YOU'RE ABOUT TO GET (if you don't want to read this you can just reply to the first part I swear I won't be mad)

I started playing sdv because my best friend (cue: he's everything to me you have no idea) recommended it to me and i had a game save where I was on fall but had 0 progress on everything except maru so I deleted it

On my current file (2nd one) i'm in the middle of winter year 1 and I already have a coop (2 chicken), copper axe watercan and picaxe (or however you spell pico and regadera in english) and recently installed a coop + already have the kitchen upgrade in my house and the mushrooms thing in the cave

Maru reminds me a bit of my best friend (it's the glasses I think) but Sebastian does as well (it's the depression and the black hoodie I tgink) and it's kinda fucked up bc they're half siblings but my inability to date him (my best friend) makes me very emotional about those to (and also Harvey and Shane. It's the glasses and depression respectively, I think)

I'm very Friends(tm) with most of the town but I need to befriend Clint FAST (I have 0 hearts with him rn) because I want to see the second 6-heart event of Shane aaaaaaaaaaaaaa)

How about you? If you want to describe your predilect sdv file to me i'd be happy to listen and if not please ignore that half of this was just me rambling about liking my best friend I already do that enough on my original posts

TFSHJFSGHJFRHJ NO THAT'S TOTALLY FAIR I LOVE THIS RAMBLING

ALSO NO THE DOLLS HAVE NO VALUE I JUST KEEP GETTING THE BLUE ONE SO I KEEP THEM SINCE THEY SELL FOR SO LITTLE GHFDFJD

Also!! Gonna ramble a bit about my Stardew experience don't mind me-

I actually started playing because I watched my brother play and thought it was super cool!!! I got it on my tab though and I can NOT play SV with touch controls I could never fish correctly and it was so hard to move around I ended up making like no money and only having a high friendship level with Sam and Haley because I couldn't afford to befriend anyone else (those two are my favourites hfdj). I had 0 progress on the community centre and I stopped by the start of year two. Flash forward a few real life years and I got it on my laptop which was SO much easier I bought a new fishing rod (had to sell mine because I had no cash) and befriended the whole town and finished the community centre and also got some mods so that I could marry Haley too and I have an in-game child and a fully upgraded house and a slime hutch on YEAR 3 AND I'M VERY PROUD OF IT FHJDKFJDK <333

Also sidenote I knew fishing makes a lot of money so I picked the Riverland farm on my tab but then could never fish so it was just really inconvenient - but now I have separate islands for all my things like, the animals don't need a fence they have their own island there <3

ANYWAY THANKS IF YOU READ ALL THIS?? Also feel free to keep me updated on your SV game or infodump to be anytime I love it /gen

[cuddleswinchester]

HawkCharles and/or CharlesMarg :3

Playing the 'do I ship it' game is easy for me bc I use it to mean 'relationship' and there are so so many kinds of those, so I ship just about everything including both of these. But I'm also terrible at answering questions so.

Hawkeye/Charles

What made you ship it? when Hawkeye pushes Charles to admit to making a mistake, both of them only grow from there. I think they respect each other which is more than can be said about Charles and... anyone else at camp. I also like to note, because I'm me, that part of 'let's introduce the new guy' involves Charles asking what Hawkeye is up to a few times (and the answer is always sex stuff and Charles never understands what or why, which I love, but anyway.) Charles needing to have about a hundred layers of irony and distance between feeling a pleasant, generous feeling toward anyone, and Hawkeye who is moving the opposite direction because he gets attached and hurt so easily because he is giving his whole self away constantly... hello... they're going to crash into each other on their respective ways aren't they... opposites do not attract but they do trip over each other in the dark. And while they're opposite in that way they actually have a lot in common, in this essay I will--

What are your favorite things about the ship? I think Charles has the (perhaps slightly buried) quality of DOTING on people he cares about, it's true I've seen it in the visions, whereas Hawkeye has had to become self-sufficient and resilient throughout the war, I really believe in my heart Charles needs to dote on him, either during the war or after they get home. That's a made up favorite thing but it's true actually. I love that they become more and more open and vulnerable to one another over time. I love that they respect each other professionally and how that turns into friendship.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I don't know enough about the shipping standard of them to say whether I have an unpopular opinion sorry!

Charles/Margaret see this is one I 'ship' but in a way I cannot define, and I think that's beautiful. They're gay besties, lavender married, aggrieved siblings, professional partners, roll all of that up and feed it to me please and thank you.

What made you ship it? This is going to be my answer to all three questions, and it's 'the writers trying to set them up as a couple and realizing the chemistry was there but it sure was not romantic or sexual.' I love that they gave up quickly on Forcing it, and just let them be friends, because they're a delight to watch on screen together. I looooove the transitional role he plays in Margaret's arc too, like, we meet him when we know a Margaret who is concerned with money and the finer things and in walks this smug mf. Okay. Love it, here for it. And then as he kind of.... tones down the materialism, so does she, and they're left with just Each Other.

What are your favorite things about the ship? I know Charles has sitcom disease and had to continually learn his lesson about Women's Work, but that being said I do love when Margaret has to rampage after him and he hides under his cot? Pathetic??? MORE importantly I love how often they work together in OR, how impressed she is by his abilities, I think there's a lot to sift through in there. She's the head nurse so she would want to assist on the toughest cases, sure, and I think she also (won't admit it but) wouldn't want any of her nurses to get yelled at by Charles if they made a mistake... she will yell right back, we know this. An early moment that I always like to rotate is, after they finish a case, she is complimenting his technique along the lines of 'wow that was amazing, you must have done that a bunch of times before!' and he is... for the first time, a tender little guy, who just quietly goes 'no... that was horrific, I have never done that before' and the way that clicks something for each of them, totally separately, wow.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I once again do not think so? Maybe the fact I like them together at all? I Love the early awkwardness of them not Clicking as a Couple Couple??