#first being their difference in eloquence/formality

[tired-gay-wreck9]

dude, what if karkat didn't help rose's alcoholism in game over because of gamzee?

I think there's also the alien aspect of it, that he doesn't get human culture, but

rose just got into consuming a substance that makes her happier and more lighthearted instead of the serious godtier great fighter she normally is

gamzee got into consuming a substance that made him happier and more lighthearted instead of the angry highblood great fighter he is during murderstuck

when gamzee stopped consuming the substance he killed two people, because of that past experience I doubt karkat would be jumping at the bit to have rose stop consuming the substance

I doubt he was 100% convinced that rose would turn into gamzee without alcohol, but gamzee probably played a factor

also, rose / gamzee parallels? both struggled with addiction, had absent parents, both have extensive knowledge of stuff, were upper class, purple

[decolonize-the-everything]

Hi :3

So someone said Kamala is the female Obama and I've been thinking about it....

And then did some internet sleuthing about it.

Hear me out

Didn't Dems use Obama to win Black voters after losing the previous election to Bush cuz Al Gore (like Clinton) lost?

And didn't they blame the 3rd party candidate Ralph Nader for Al Gore's loss?? Much like they blamed Bernie Bros?? Even tho the truth was that al Gore was hardly better and lacked the charisma Bush had? (Again, like Trump?)

So are we sure this is actually democrats conceding anything at all?? Are we not sure they put Kamala in the WH just to adjust voters to the idea of her being president anyway? That maybe they do realize the need for change but have chosen to err on the side of token progress that keeps them in power...again?

Article from Dec 2010:

At first glance, the president and Harris have much in common: Both are mixed-race children of immigrants raised by a single mother; both are eloquent, telegenic big-city lawyers with strong liberal credentials who catapulted from relative obscurity to the national stage. And like the first African-American president, Harris has broken a long-standing barrier — she’s California’s first African-American attorney general and the first woman to hold the office.

[...]“She’s a rare talent who will be a national figure shortly,” said Chris Lehane, a former Clinton aide who is now a consultant in California. “People call her the female Obama. It’s more apt to say she is the female Obama that progressives thought they were voting for.”

Are we absolutely positive that we have been learning lessons from history; like even recent history even? Because she isn't actually much different from Obama at all and this was Obama's legacy:

People were then reassured by Obama and rather than voting for 3rd parties in 2012 like they said, they elected Obama again. Just like y'all tried to do with Biden. And definitely like what will happen under Kamala.

He even got people to vote for him cuz of his promise to secure abortion rights and he did this right:

But tell me how that stopped the supreme court from stripping it???

Don't fall for this again

Cuz people were fucking pissed after Obama weren't they. Progressives wouldn't put up with a moderate like Clinton even compared to Trump. And that was unexpected wasn't it, progress that they couldn't come back from. So they lost to Trump, but what a convenient reset! Suddenly settling wasn't so bad for the American people, huh? And y'all elected Biden.

Who, outside the homoerotic Biden/Obama memes, people didn't like (and I'd argue those memes are what made him likeable to the younger generations to begin with).

But things have been tense, haven't they? The displeasure of voters didn't completely go away when Biden remained a centrist. It wasn't enough, especially when he supported genocide. And now they give us Kamala after we wanted Biden to step down for supporting Israel?

....But she still supports Israel?

Nobody knows how/if progressives will show up for Kamala because we can all feel how much Kamala isn't pleasing anyone. The tension is still palpable. Democrats have made an awful bet.

And I am DONE.

Dems have been manipulating voters away from 3rd parties every single election while making promises they never keep good on, while doing NOTHING to actually protect any of us or make anything better. While killing people, deporting them, and justifying war crimes! While liberals promise to push them left and never do and ALSO tell everyone not to vote 3rd party "right now"

All they do is perpetuate the systems that serve each other. I mean we're in 2000 & 2008 again, politically. Already.

They will never ever systematically support progress the way that 3rd parties do. And they don't care to listen or change cuz they know they can Force you to vote for less by making sure that a centrist Democrat is always on the ticket with ballot access in every state and nobody else is.

They make sure if it in fact

If progress is what you want it's time to Genuinely start listening to people who tell you a vote for democrats is worthless for your goals.

I'm just fed up mexi-ojibwe american adult who grew up with shitty presidents and grew up with full access of the internet to educate myself about what led to this mess.

So are a LOT of other adults who feel this way!!!

And what we know led to this situation is the two party system. And how the system has been enabled by scared liberals who listen to fear-mongerering Democrats every election.

Democrats want history to repeat because it keeps them in power. Because what they do and how they treat you keeps them in power.

Is that what you want? To be treated like this in perpetuity for almost nothing in return?

Me neither.

So unless you have a better idea or plan to start burning shit down yourself then your most realistic option to break out of this abusive cycle is to vote 3rd party.

"vote blue in the primary, it's our only realistic option!" -> "if you don't vote blue you deserve trump" -> "can't you just be happy republican/trump lost?" -> quietly not doing much between elections-> "vote blue in the-" etc

Cycles don't end on their own, that's the thing about cycles in fact.

So vote 3rd party. Yeah it's scary. Yeah it might not work. But again, do you have a better idea? Because what we're doing and have been doing for the last 30 years, this "lesser evil" & "vbnmw" thing was the liberals' idea and that isn't working for any of us At All. Its keeping us here in this cycle where nothing gets better but it can Always get worse.

If you can't vote 3rd party in your state ask yourself why that is then do something about it.

Quit expecting democrats to give a shit about the equality you need when you've been protesting genocide for nearly a year and they still welcomed the war criminal for a conversation in the white house.

Any right you've won under democrats is as superficial as Obama's executive order and that's been proven.

⭐ Tldr ⭐

According to all available history: FUCK DEMOCRATS; You NEED to be supporting 3rd parties if you support progress and you need to do the work of getting their names out. Democrats DO fight and suppress 3rd parties. So its more work to support a 3rd party than a democrat, yeah.

But if progress is worth anything at all it should be worth at least trying to do the work it takes to get a viable 3rd party on the ballot.

DO THAT PLEASE.

Thank you

[thornfield13713]

There is something really interesting in the way that Jyn and Cassian are...they are at once parallels to each other's experiences, and they are their own role-reversal AU.

Like- we first met them as an apparently-apolitical rogue and a dedicated member of Rebel Intelligence. This is quickly complicated on Jyn's side, when we find out about her past with the Partisans, that line of Saw's about her being the most devoted member of his cadre, a true believer, before she was abandoned, allegedly to protect her from those who would use her as a bargaining chip against the Empire (apparently under the impression that Galen Erso had a lot more influence than he did.) Which- That sounds a heck of a lot like the sort of thing Luthen Rael would do to me, and we see him visiting Saw in S1 of Andor, which would be...roughly around the time Jyn was abandoned. Either it's going to happen very soon or it's already happened, and I'd lay money that it happened because Luthen found out that Saw had Galen Erso's daughter among his partisans. Cassian's narrative remains fairly straightforward throughout Rogue One, but is then complicated in Andor.

Jyn had a childhood on the run from the Empire, but not actively fighting it, until she was taken from her home by Saw. Cassian had a childhood fighting the Republic (which, as this show and others have made clear, was not so different from the Empire from the perspective of the outlying worlds) until he was taken from his home by the Andors. Even the circumstances of how they were taken are opposites - Saw was entrusted with Jyn by her parents, Cassian was abducted from his community by the Andors who...while well-meaning, still never gave him a choice and certainly never stopped to consider that he might have a family and community that they were tearing him away from. Saw encouraged Jyn to fight the Empire, trained her to do so, whereas what we see of Clem Andor is him urging Cassian and others not to make trouble. To keep his head down and not protest, because those who do will be killed.

In the same year, 5 BBY, Jyn is cut loose from the Partisans and becomes a much more self-interested criminal in order to survive, and Cassian joins up with the Rebellion, abandoning self-interest in order to dedicate himself to the cause. Notably, even during their more self-interested period, both of them are still fighting the Empire in smaller and more self-interested ways - Jyn's list of charges at the start of Rogue One makes that clear enough, and Cassian is, even before he is formally a rebel, still apparently stealing principally from the Empire. They've just both given up on any way of making any sort of large-scale difference. And, if my theory about who it was that wanted to use Jyn is correct, these decisions have a lot to do with one man, who indirectly brought one of them into the rebellion and drove the other away from it.

I just- This is the least of the ways in which Andor is fascinating, I know. But a lot of people have written a lot more eloquently and knowledgably than I could about the ways in which this show is very smart politically, and says a lot about the nature of fascism, radicalisation, police states, the prison industrial complex and the workings of colonialism. Much has also been written about where the show falls short (challenge: can we have a reasonably prominent black character who survives more than a couple of episodes, please?). I'm just bringing this one forward because it's an aspect I haven't seen discussed as much, and because character development and parallels are always interesting to poke at, particularly with two characters whose final fates are so closely intertwined. Their stories spiral around each other, never quite touching until the very end, but they've been on parallel roads this whole time even if neither of them can see it.

[altocat]

Love your First soldier trio au. Imagine adult seph being a big baby around them

Sephiroth is in the middle of giving a formal speech to his men, completely eloquent and composed like usual, totally controlled and stoic.

......only to catch sight of Glenn from across the room and instantly barrelling over half the cadets trying to get to him. He doesn't even notice that he's trampled like eight different people, grinning like an idiot, towering over Glenn looking pleased as punch just to see him again.

[captain-hen]

hustling for the good life (never thought i’d meet you here)

Summary: “Erm,” Buck says eloquently and when the stranger’s lips twitch, he wonders if it’s possible to die of embarrassment. After a moment’s struggle, he manages to pull himself together and says, “Hi. I’m Buck.”

“Eddie,” the man replies, raking his gaze over Buck in a way that makes him feel ready to combust. “I don’t recall seeing you at the wedding. Are you on the bride’s side, or the groom’s?”

Shit.

or, a different first meeting, where buck accidentally crashes eddie's sister's wedding reception. just normal stuff.

(read on ao3)

thank you, @tawaifeddiediaz for all your help with this!

Buck slips through the glass doors separating the two party halls, stumbles through a throng of excited little ladies speaking rapid-fire Spanish and slumps against a wall in a dark corner, taking in a huge breath of relief.

He knows fully well that he should be back in the other hall, suffering through alongside Maddie, the fancy business event their parents had roped them into attending. After years of stony silence, of Buck going from one place to the next in a desperate attempt to find a home; of Maddie trapped in an abusive marriage; they’re both finally in a stable situation. Buck has settled down in LA for the past year and had just begun his time as a probationary firefighter with the LAFD when Maddie found him six months ago.

When she’d settled into her job as a dispatcher, it had been Maddie's idea to reach out to their parents. Buck had been reluctant at first, but after the ill-advised, fleeting high that was his relationship with Abby before she’d left him, he’d started to think that maybe it would be a good idea to mend some bridges, to at least try to have a relationship with their parents now.

Wrong.

Philip and Margaret Buckley had been in Texas on account of Philip’s work, and they’d invited Buck and Maddie to come directly to El Paso. Buck and Maddie had barely said hello to them in the hotel before they were asked to attend Philip’s event—no talk of the last ten years, no acknowledgement of how the Buckleys had essentially disowned their children. Buck wanted to tell Maddie that he told her so, but he wants to support her more than he wants to have the last word, so he bit his tongue and attended the party with her. And, it has been a trainwreck for the past hour—Philip’s smarmy colleagues turning up their noses at Buck being a firefighter and his lack of a college degree, Maddie’s pinched smile as their parents delicately danced around her abusive marriage and all the ‘terrible choices’ she had made—Buck has had to restrain himself from throwing a drink or two in his parents’ faces.

Buck only feels slightly bad about leaving Maddie on her own when he makes his escape, but he’d lost sight of her for a few minutes and couldn’t bear to stand his parents any longer. He does feel bad about crashing—what looks to be a wedding reception, by the sight of it, but hey, the place is so packed that he doubts anyone will notice him.

…it’s just a bonus that some of the snacks he grabbed from a serving tray are better than any of the ridiculously expensive food his parents have been serving all night.

As he makes himself comfortable in his corner, taking a moment to look around the venue, Buck can already feel the rage and discomfort that has simmered under his skin since they landed in Texas begin to dissipate. It might be crowded and loud, but the atmosphere is so different, feels so warm and inviting in comparison to the cold, formal mess Buck just escaped, that he lets his guard down for a minute, pushes up against the wall and enjoys the snack in his hand. And of course, that’s when—

“Hello,” says a smooth voice, so suddenly and so close to Buck’s ear that he jumps violently, spilling crumbs all over himself as he turns to face the owner of the voice. A momentary fear of being caught out vanishes when he sees the drop-dead gorgeous man standing next to him, with thick hair slicked back and amused brown eyes, wearing a navy-blue suit that frankly looks obscene with how well it’s tailored to fit his form.

“Erm,” Buck says eloquently and when the stranger’s lips twitch, he wonders if it’s possible to die of embarrassment. After a moment’s struggle, he manages to pull himself together and says, “Hi. I’m Buck.”

“Eddie,” the man replies, raking his gaze over Buck in a way that makes him feel ready to combust. “I don’t recall seeing you at the wedding. Are you on the bride’s side, or the groom’s?”

Shit shit shit. Buck puts a pause on objectifying the unfairly hot guy in front of him to try and make his answer sound believable. “Oh, I was there,” he says, trying for casual. “I’m er,” Buck chances a glance at the banner hung above the stage, Congratulations, Adriana and Ruben! “I’m on the bride’s side,” He finishes and gives a weak laugh, waving a hand. “Great party, huh?”

Eddie hums. “That’s interesting,” he says slowly, and Buck goes a little cold at his knowing tone, having a distinct feeling that he’s been caught out. “I don’t think my sister’s ever mentioned you. Don’t think I’ve ever seen you around, either.”

“That’s strange,” Buck says, hoping he sounds cool and unaffected. He’s not sure he succeeds. “I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t have.” He’s sweating now, uncomfortable under the stiff suit he’d dug out for the occasion. Not for the first time that night, Buck inwardly curses his parents.

Eddie only gazes back at him, his sharp stare betraying his smiling lips. Buck’s resolve crumbles like wet paper.

“Okay, fine,” he says in a rush, and Eddie looks satisfied. Dick, Buck thinks, hating how attracted he is to him. “I’m not supposed to be here. I don’t even know your sister. But I swear, I’m not trying to, like, crash this wedding, or score free food.”

Eddie pointedly lowers his gaze to the half-eaten pastry in Buck’s hand. Buck can feel himself go bright red, and promptly tucks it out of sight.

“…aside from that,” he amends. “Look, I’m from the other hall. It’s a party being hosted by my parents, and I didn’t even want to come, but I didn’t want to leave my sister alone. It just got to be a lot, and I needed to breathe, and coming in here seemed less conspicuous than sneaking out through the front entrance.”

He’s not sure why he’s even telling a complete stranger all this. His story sounds ridiculous when said out loud and there’s no reason for Eddie to believe him. Against all odds, though, Buck sees Eddie’s eyes soften a little, and he visibly relaxes.

“I take it you don’t get along with your parents?” Eddie asks.

Buck laughs. “What gave it away?” he asks, dryly; then, feeling sheepish, he adds, “Look, I’m really sorry I came in here. I promise you; I don’t have a habit of crashing the wedding receptions of random strangers.” Eddie laughs at that, and not to sound cheesy, but it’s a fucking beautiful sound.

“I certainly hope so,” Eddie says, amused. “You’re not very good at being sneaky.”

Buck’s mouth falls open with mock outrage, but Eddie goes on. “Look, do you wanna get out of here?”

Buck only blinks at him and Eddie rolls his eyes. “There’s a door in the back that leads out into the hallway. It’s technically staff-only but…” He shrugs. “I could use some air, too.”

“And you’re inviting a stranger who just crashed your sister’s wedding to come with you?” Buck asks, baffled.

Eddie smirks. “Well, it’s either that or you stay here and get caught by my parents, who are a lot less nice than I am.” Buck follows his gaze to an older couple who seem stern and no-nonsense, even through their joy for their daughter, and cringes. “On second thought…”

They escape into the darkened corridor outside the party hall a few minutes later. Eddie’s snagged a bottle of wine from the open bar and Buck blinks at it, wondering when he had the time to do that. He sits down cross-legged on the floor and after a moment’s hesitation, Buck joins him.

“So, is there a particular reason you’re escaping your own sister’s wedding?” Buck asks curiously, accepting the bottle when Eddie passes it to him. Eddie visibly grimaces, looking a bit guilty. It’s such a sharp contrast to the rest of him; the polished, picture-perfect image he cuts in his crisp suit and styled hair and handsome face.

Buck likes it.

“I, erm,” Eddie pauses, considering, and then sighs. “My wife divorced me,” he admits and Buck twists his head around to look at him in surprise. He glances down surreptitiously, and sure enough, he thinks he can make out a tan line on Eddie’s ring finger.

“I love my family,” Eddie continues, “But they’ve been a little, well. Judgemental. About all of this. And they never really liked her, so now it’s all thinly veiled ‘I told you so’s from most of them. I love my sister and I want to support her, but I also need a break from being under their attention.”

“Is that why you bought my story so easily?” Buck asks, Eddie chuckles.

“I guess. I can understand complicated families,” He casts up his eyes at Buck. “What’s the story with yours?”

Buck sighs. How does he explain his parents’ cold, painful indifference; the years of silence, and the fact that his big sister had to practically raise him when she was a kid herself? How does he dump all of that on a stranger? Even for the kindness in Eddie’s eyes, and the understanding he feels from the other man; it’s all too much. Buck is too much. It’s been made pretty clear to him all of his life.

Taking a savage swig from the bottle, Buck sighs and thumps his head against the wall.

Eddie seems to sense his reluctance to open up, and starts quietly talking instead, about his sisters. Adriana, the one who’s gotten married and has begun working in a big law firm. Sophia, who’s just started college, loves pop music and the colour pink and endlessly mocking her big brother. “Sounds like Maddie,” Buck interjects, and Eddie laughs.

“Sisters,” he says, fondly, and Buck starts telling him about Maddie, about what a badass she is, how she definitely has a crush on his co-worker but is too stubborn to admit it, how she used to be a nurse, and what an amazing dispatcher she makes these days. The bottle of wine sits forgotten between them as they’re suddenly talking like they’ve known each other all their lives. Eddie has a dry, wicked sense of humour that makes Buck laugh until his stomach hurts. He continues to listen attentively even when Buck diverges in the middle of a story to follow a different train of thought, and that makes his heart hurt in a funny way.

He thinks he understands why Eddie invited him out here. Maybe Eddie recognized another kindred spirit, just like Buck did.

Buck has just mentioned that he’s a firefighter when Eddie lets out a low sound of surprise.

“No shit?” He says. “I just applied to the Fire Academy.”

“You’re kidding,” Buck says, amazed. Eddie shakes his head and tells him how he’s been working three jobs since his wife left, and how firefighting seemed like a good choice.

“My parents say I’m practically killing myself, and they’re probably right,” a shadow crosses over Eddie’s face like he’s remembering something unpleasant. “Most of all, I hate not being able to spend enough time with my son.”

Buck jolts. “Whoa, you got a kid?”

Eddie tenses, and looks at him carefully, but whatever he sees in Buck’s face must reassure him, so he pulls out his phone and shows him the lock screen—a picture of an adorable curly-haired boy on crutches with the biggest grin on his face. Buck’s heart melts. “He’s super adorable.”

“He’s seven,” Eddie says, tucking his phone back into his pocket. “I, uh, I’ve either been working or being at home with him, so this is the first night in ages I haven’t done either. Feels a bit weird, to be honest.”

“Well, your entire life can’t revolve around being a dad,” Buck points out, reasonably, but Eddie sighs and looks away. Sensing that this is a potentially explosive topic, he decides not to push.

“If this is your first night out in a while, I’m surprised you chose to spend it with me,” Buck jokes, trying to lighten the mood. Eddie smiles.

“Well, you were being quite conspicuous in a wedding reception you weren’t supposed to be at,” Eddie teases. “I figured it would be interesting if nothing else?”

“I was not,” Buck protests. “That party is packed, Eddie. I didn’t think I was noticeable.”

Eddie shrugs. “Well, maybe I was just paying attention,” he replies, and Buck knows, he knows Eddie doesn’t mean anything deeper, but the words still make his heart do a pathetic flip in his chest. Spending all this time with his parents had made him feel like he was back there in his childhood home, unseen and unheard, tiny and invisible. And to be seen—to be listened to—by someone he’s just met…

Well.

It feels a lot like hope, Buck thinks and turns to look at Eddie, only to find his face inches away from his.

When did we get so close, Buck thinks dazedly, seconds before Eddie’s lips are on his.

Eddie tastes like the wine they’ve been drinking, is the first thing Buck registers. He turns, trying to get closer, and grabs the curve of Eddie’s shoulder, relishing the noise he makes into his mouth in response. Eddie buries his hands in Buck’s hair as the kiss turns filthy, tugging slightly, smiling into the kiss at the groan Buck lets out. Buck’s blood feels like it’s on fire. He shifts his hands to Eddie’s hips, pulling him closer, but knocks over the abandoned wine bottle in the process.

The sound of the bottle hitting the floor is loud in the silent hallway and they spring apart in surprise, panting. Eddie’s eyes are blown black and his cheeks are flushed. He looks wrecked. God, the things Buck wants to do to him—

A buzzing noise from his pocket breaks the spell. Swallowing, Buck puts some space between himself and Eddie, fishing his phone out of his pocket. He winces when he sees the caller ID.

“Mads—” he tries, but she interrupts him, sounding furious, “Where are you?”

Buck checks the time on his phone and his eyes go wide when he realizes that he’s been out here with Eddie for over an hour. “I’m so sorry,” he gets out. “I was—I’ll be right back, oh my God.” He scrambles to his feet, as he ends the call, and stops, suddenly unsure, when Eddie imitates him.

Eddie tries for a smile but he still looks a little stunned. Buck can relate.

“So,” Eddie runs a hand through his hair, flustered, and that really should not be as hot as it is, what the fuck. “I’m guessing that was your sister?”

Buck nods. “She’s pissed. I have to, uh…”

“Yeah, no, I get it,” Eddie seems at a loss for words for the first time all night and it sparks a kind of pride in Buck’s chest, he was the one to do that. “Well, I guess—”

Buck’s phone buzzes again, with a series of frenzied texts from Maddie. “I really have to go,” he says quickly. Before he has a chance to second-guess himself, he’s darting forward and pressing a kiss to Eddie’s cheek.

He hurries back through the door they came through, leaving Eddie in the hallway with the wine bottle at his feet in a pool of the dregs.

It’s not well after the scolding he gets from Maddie and another confrontation with his parents that he realizes he never got Eddie’s number.

Hours later, after reaching home and thanking the sitter and looking in on Chris, Eddie is still feeling dazed.

Did he really just do that? Did he make out with a stranger—a guy—at Adriana’s wedding reception, did he almost hook up with him right then and there and…let him leave without even getting his fucking number?

Eddie collapses down onto his bed and buries his head in his hands. He needs to work tomorrow, and he should be taking advantage of what little sleep he can get. But he can’t get his mind to quiet, can’t stop thinking about Buck, the way he’d felt alive this evening for the first time in months. He can’t squash the guilt he feels about kissing someone that wasn’t his (ex) wife. Can’t help but feel awful that he spent the majority of this night just…enjoying himself, and not thinking about Christopher every other minute. Can’t run from the fear that what he’s known about himself for a very long time might actually be true now.

He needs to be focused on Chris, on becoming a firefighter, and on potentially moving out of El Paso. He can’t be thinking about Buck, or the way he smiled, or the way he kissed.

He just needs to compartmentalize this, like he does everything else.

Besides, it’s not like he’s ever gonna see the guy again.

Seven months after El Paso, Buck is coming into the firehouse along with Chimney, for the beginning of their shift.

“Look, I’m glad that you and Maddie are finally dating,” Buck is saying to him. “I’d rather just not hear the details.”

Chim looks at him in disbelief. “You think I’m eager to discuss them with you, Buck?”

“I’m just saying! I had to hear every detail of your date from Maddie last night, I’d rather not have a repeat of it!” Despite himself, Buck is grinning, genuinely happy for his sister and his friend. He can’t help but feel envious whenever he sees what they have, though—that ease, that comfort, that familiarity. He wants that for himself.

“You do realize that your protesting is just gonna make me want to talk about it just to mess with you, right?” Chimney asks, dryly. He says something else, but Buck isn’t listening anymore, frowning when he sees someone unfamiliar standing in the bay, his back to them.

“Hey, who’s that?”

Chimney pauses mid-sentence and squints. “Must be the new recruit. Bobby said we were getting a probie this week.”

Buck’s hackles instantly rise. “What new—”

The words die on his lips when the man turns around, smiling as Bobby approaches from his office.

It’s been months, but Buck still recognizes him. That face consumed his thoughts for weeks after he came back to LA.

He’s still as gorgeous as Buck remembers.

Eddie turns to look at them as they approach, and his eyes go wide for a split second when they land on Buck, the smile slipping off his face briefly. So he does remember, Buck thinks. He’s not sure what to do—does he try to confront him? Is that even a good idea, here in the firehouse, with all their colleagues around them? How would they even explain this?

Eddie collects himself remarkably quickly and they breeze through the introductions, and Buck is certain that no one but him has noticed the way their gazes linger on each other for a little too long; how they take a moment to let go when they shake hands.

Buck is an awkward mess around Eddie for the rest of the shift, though, and Bobby pulls him aside, though not for the reason Buck expects.

“Look, I know it’s difficult having a new guy on the team,” Bobby tells him. “But you’ve gotta play nice, all right? Eddie’s one of us, now.”

Buck just blinks at him. He has no idea what Bobby is going on about.

Buck does learn that Eddie was in the army, and…wow, that explains a lot about him, actually. He’d been pretty tight-lipped about his ex-wife, the circumstances around their split, and what he used to do for work, and Buck can start putting the pieces together. It makes him—goddamn—it makes him like the guy even more.

They end their shift by disarming a fucking grenade together, and Buck is amazed by how seamlessly he and Eddie work together, like they share a mind. They work side by side like they’ve been doing it for years, not even needing to verbally communicate to know what the other needs. And, when they get out of the ambulance and Eddie grins at him and tells Buck that he can have his back any day, Buck knows that he can’t pretend the night they spent together didn’t happen.

Buck lingers by his truck in the parking lot after the shift ends, twisting his keys in his hands nervously as he waits for Eddie to come out. When Eddie does, he makes a beeline straight for him, much to Buck’s relief.

“Hey,” Eddie says, a little awkwardly. “So, um. Insane coincidence, right?”

Buck laughs, feeling some of the weight lift off his shoulders. “I wasn’t even sure you remembered me, for a moment there,” he admits. Eddie looks surprised.

“How could I forget?” And Eddie really needs to stop saying stuff like that, or Buck will—he doesn’t know. Get down on one knee, maybe.

“When did you move to LA?” Buck asks, mostly to stop himself from lurching forward and kissing him. “I mean—were you already planning it when we met, or…?”

Eddie shakes his head. “I was considering leaving El Paso, but I wasn’t sure where, yet. And once I came here—I mean, I remembered you saying you’re from Los Angeles, but it’s a big city, I didn’t even imagine we would run into each other, let alone that I would be assigned to the same firehouse as you.”

Buck swallows. “That’s—that’s not a problem for you, is it?”

Eddie tilts his head, looking at him consideringly. “As long as it’s not a problem for you.”

“Hell no.”

Eddie laughs but looks slightly relieved at Buck’s words. If he’d been just as nervous as Buck felt, he’s done a damn good job of hiding it. “So.” Eddie fiddles with the strap of his bag. Buck takes a moment to appreciate how good he looks even in casual clothes; a red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and jeans that look like they’re painted on. He drags his eyes away when he realizes he’s been caught and a smirk appears on Eddie’s face. “What now?”

Buck takes a step closer to him. “Well…I could take you out for coffee?” he offers. “And maybe I could meet Christopher sometime?”

Eddie looks incredulous. “You remember Chris?” he asks in a quiet, disbelieving voice.

“I mean, of course—” but Buck doesn’t get to finish the rest of his sentence as Eddie shoves him up against the side of his truck and kisses him with the same precision and intensity Buck dreamed about for weeks, and oh, okay. Buck grabs onto Eddie’s waist, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. Talking is overrated, anyway.

Eddie pulls away all too soon, breathing hard, but he’s smiling as his hands come up to cradle Buck’s face. “Coffee sounds good,” he says and looks a little smug when Buck takes a beat too long to respond, the kiss having fried his brain.

Buck’s initial assessment of Eddie was right. He is a dick.

And Buck’s already a little in love.

“We should probably take this somewhere else before our co-workers find us and start asking some uncomfortable questions,” Buck says, but makes no effort to let go of Eddie.

Eddie grins delightedly. “Yeah, it’ll be pretty hard to explain to them that we know each other because you crashed my sister’s wedding reception.”

Buck shakes uncontrollably with laughter and lets his head fall into the crook of Eddie’s neck. “Eddie, oh my God.”

“What? I am never gonna let that go, you know.”

Buck pulls back, his cheeks flushed and his eyes sparkling. “I’ll hold you to that.”

Eddie only laughs and kisses him again.

[ray-the-ginger-queen]

(Original) De Rolo Family headcanons

(disclaimer: I’m basing the ages/birth order on tlovm. I realize particularly for Cass they got switched around from Critical Role)

Julius is, at first glance, everything you would expect from the first born of a noble family. He’s charming, athletic, and speaks with all the Confidence of a leader and eloquence of a Noble. He’s physically imposing to boot, already tall and stocky as a teenager and 6’3 by the time he’s a man. His family knows him for his rebellious streak though. He sneaks out at night to meet up with local girls, loves to irritate his younger siblings, and tends to be a bit of a hothead. Loves his family and his parents but is sometimes resentful of the freedom his younger siblings get without the burden of rulership.

Vesper, born 3 years after Julius. Typically regarded as the quiet one of the bunch. She gets some of the same lessons on rulership and duty as Julius, and she understands that likely she’ll still have a leadership role in Whitestone. But she’s not as weighed down by it as Julius. She likes to read and paint and garden. She’s very good at conducting herself in formal spaces, so much so you almost wouldn’t notice the insecurity and anxious tendencies her family is so familiar with. She’s still the calmest of them all and as such is often the one to settle disputes between her younger siblings.

Percy, born 2 years after Vesper. He’s the first to really be distant from the future of running Whitestone. He devotes his time to tinkering and science instead. Tends to be a little shy and awkward, although not quite as much as Vesper but he’s not as skilled at hiding it. He’s still snarky and mischievous, especially when Archie is around. Other than Archie he tends to spend the most time with Vesper or on his own. He gets annoyed the fastest, although he does enjoy making toys or other small gadgets for his family. His family has come to expect his very particular interests- clocks, or the feywilds, even teaching himself Celestial.

Cassandra, born 3 years after Percy. She’s loud and rambunctious and full of antics. She’s not as good at all the formalities of nobility but much more naturally confident than Percy or Vesper. Loves to explore the castle and play tag or hide and seek with her younger siblings. Despite the age difference, she and Julius have a special bond due to their similar personalities.

Whitney and Oliver, born 1 1/2 years after Cassandra. Known by their family as the terrible two. They get into trouble constantly. Tracking mud inside, getting into sweets, breaking fragile decor, etc. they’re seemingly always either in cahoots or bickering. Also very active, they play with Cassandra a lot.

Ludwig, born 4 1/2 years after the twins. An accidental but not unwelcome surprise addition to the family. He’s shy around new people, but a chatterbox and a goofball around people he knows. Doesn’t like being alone and will often sleep in one of his siblings or parents room as opposed to his own.

[archerinspace]

Meeting In-laws [Brikila fanfic] pt.2

Context: They are now about 20/21 yrs old and this is basically a good end where they actually find out how to activate the tablets and set everything right again and Cleo has gone home to her proper time/place. Brian and Akila have now put time into actually working out a romantic relationship though they’re still kind of nervous about it.

This is a short sequel to the the first part, it’s not necessary to read but if you like this, you’ll like that one too.

It was nearing lunchtime for staff at the academy and Brian jumped at the chance to have a chat with his dad. Unlike Akila he had one parent and that happened to be a cat once deemed too insane to work with and got sent to an ice planet for a few years. It unfortunately left the cyborg having to repair himself for a short time with what parts he could get since most tech employees had no clue how to figure out Brian's inner workings. Since his return, he was kept on as resident genius and is currently teaching Brian to take his place as one of the highest trusted  authorities in the science studies at P.Y.R.A.M.I.D.

"Dad, let's have lunch outside today. Being cooped up in here isn't a good thing." The cyborg offered his hand for the cat to climb onto his shoulder. The cat in question obliged and somewhat loudly responded, "Lets go! If I don't eat I might get sick! With hunger!" His son didn't think twice and headed out of the lab and to a table currently occupied by Akila patiently waiting.

The gray cat with frayed fur jumped on the round table where all three had lunch waiting for them. He was greeted with warm smiles from Brian and Akila. Both were in the middle of their understudy for full time positions after graduation and many honors. "So, what are we talking about? You didn't mention a guest! What's your future wife doing here?"

The young scientist stumbled over his next words, "Dad, we aren't--isn't it a bit early to make such a claim? You're making such a big assumption in such a short time--" Akila subtly blushed as well at the mention of this, but kept busy with eating her own lunch. The cat smiled at the flustered response, "Don't panic so quickly, you might short circuit something and explode!" Akila immediately looked shocked and concerned as he laughed.

"I wouldn't make something that fragile!" In return she pouted for a moment, distracting Brian enough to stop thinking about his joking claim.

Queed looked quizzically at the couple. "Now what was so important?"

"I wanted to formally have a time to have us all meet, that's usually how this works right?" The cyborg shrugged. His girlfriend nodded, "He's met my parents, he thought I should meet you, formally, as a girlfriend. Wow that's weird to say. Girlfriend. Brian's girlfriend." Her rambling was stopped by a gloved hand being placed over her's.

The cat's look didn't change as he pointed a paw at the vevosian. "I know her!" She looked at him in confusion. "She's one of the top students of your graduating year, Eyeball's loving mother, one of the three responsible for saving the galaxy and --what was I saying?" His coherent train of thought ended as he shrugged. "Oh well. You didn't say we'd have a guest for lunch! Not that I'm complaining, she's been your partner since you were brought to this place!"

After another few bites of his food he further explained, his eloquence returning for one more moment. "You two care about each other very much, and if you didn't then what was all that mushy working together stuff for the past few years?" The two looked away from each other and at the ground for a moment. The only good thing that ever came out of that unfortunate turn of events was it forced everyone closer. Groups nobody expected to get along were now teams despite their major differences and stayed friends since. Brian and Akila put in double the effort to study and obtain the respective tablets the prophecy talked about. In that time, they proved how effective they were together as a team and at some points attached at the hip if they weren't taking shifts making sure Eyeball was safe. The entire time it was clear they enjoyed each other's company and missed each other if one was gone a bit too long.

The same could be said by anyone who saw them now, their habits had carried over into actually dating that their respective living spaces were once again right next door and it wasn't uncommon to find both in either room most of the time. Part of it was Akila missing a roommate, the other reason simply wanting to be in Brian's vicinity most of the time.

Akila was flattered, though the couple was rightfully smiling in amusement at his sudden interruption. Even after all these years he still lost thought despite his invaluable intelligence. "Thank you, Doctor Queed. I can say I did my best." She smiled confidently. "It's no surprise, he's always been great to work with! I wouldn't have anyone else by my side." In response she received a small kiss on her cheek.

"I wouldn't want any other partner myself, dear." The cyborg showed much more confidence in his affections towards her.

This was interrupted by his dad, "So didja want me to know anything new? We have to get back to UNCANNY SCIENTIFIC BRILLIANCE!"

"I think we've covered it. And there's thirty minutes left." The cat was corrected as he finished up his lunch. The time was spent catching up on other things and making plans for future events. Brian grabbed all three trays to toss them in the trash, and while he was gone the current head tech engineer surprised her.

"Akila, you've been the best person my son's ever met. He'd still be hiding in a lab without you. He loves you, and you clearly love him. It's written all over both of your faces. This old cat would be glad to consider you family." He slightly bowed before exclaiming, "BRIAN! BACK TO THE LAB! WE HAVE MORE BRILLIANCE TO INVENT!" Regaining his crossed eyes. As the studying scientist returned he jumped onto Brian's shoulder and laid like a boa across his shoulders. Akila received another quick kiss, "Thank you, both of you. I'll see you later hon."

Queed heard a small malfunction as Brian received a kiss back before walking in the direction of their lab. A soft snicker was heard in response by the cyborg.

[gothicgaycowboy]

yuck

Word count: 4.4k 

Summary: Eddie agrees to entering a purely physical relationship with his long time crush you. The is is how you liked it, no connections, no romance, no strings. But what if Eddie was different?

Warnings: 18+ no minors, smut, fingering, afab reader, angst, talks of parents with marital issues, drug use, swearing, fluff, unrequited pinning, dual pov. 

A/N: this is my first time actually posting my writing so please be gentle and feel free to let me know of any mistakes I might have missed! Happy reading! (P.S. this whole fic and title was inspired by Yuck by Charli XCX) 

Eddie had a crush on you since the first moment he met you, so when you asked him oh so eloquently; “Wanna fuck?” how could he refuse?

You had built up quite the reputation since freshman year at Hawkins High. Some called you a slut but Eddie didn’t see it that way, he preferred the term “relationship picky”. It wasn’t like you put out for any guy that asked, you just weren't a fan of formal romantics. He knew what he was getting into from the beginning. You had laid down the ground rules pretty plainly: no non-sexual pet names, no after sex cuddling, and most importantly no kissing on the mouth. It hurt him deep down knowing that his feelings for you meant little because of this, but whatever attention he could get from you he would gladly take.

“Fuck,” you moaned as you succumbed to the pleasure Eddie was giving you.

He could feel your hot breath against his neck as you pulled his long locks. The sound of his now erratic thrusts overtook the room. He was so close.

“Please Eddie,” your voice hoarse from overuse.

“Whaddaya want sweetheart?” his hands grabbing your hips harder pulling you impossibly close.

This was the fifth time you had invited Eddie over to hook up– not that he was counting or anything. If he was lucky enough sometimes you would let him hangout afterwards. You guys would smoke, or watch a movie on opposite ends of the couch, and sometimes you would just talk. Don’t get him wrong, he really really liked the sex but sometimes he just wanted to be around you. Jesus he sounds like such a pussy.

“Come for me, please,” you gasped, your chest pressed so close to his he felt like he was crushing you.

“Shit,” he groaned, that was all it took for him to break, giving you one last thrust before finishing into the condom.

He leaned his head forward, collapsing into the pillow behind you trying to catch his breath. No matter if you let him stay around for a while or not this was a moment he always counted on. Where you were both so exhausted it allowed for some of your outer layers to shed away. So caught up on remembering how to adjust you allowed him to surround you. He could rest his head into the crook of your neck, or you would fall into his tattooed chest. And for just a few meaningless seconds he forgot what this agreement was.

You ran your hands down the sides of his torso. God he was so much broader than you remembered him being. Would this count as cuddling? You quickly let your hands fall back onto the mattress. Can't take any chances.

You had chosen Eddie as one of your “victims”--as you heard your peers so lovingly call them– because he was quiet about personal shit. When he wasn't walking on cafeteria tables or loudly imitating the sounds of a guitar, he was surprisingly normal, if that was even the right word for Eddie. And quite frankly you were tired of hearing the details of your latest fuck spread around school like a wildfire. Plus he was hot, obviously.

“You know you fucked up this time right?” you tried to sound self assured despite your still heavy breathing.

Every muscle in Eddie's body froze. Shit, he didn’t remember doing anything out of the ordinary. “Hey, I’m pretty sure you came unless you're faking it now.” he joked as he lowered his face to look down at you. “Which I would be deeply wounded by,” Eddie forced a faux dramatic frown on his face despite his internal panic. Did he kiss you and not remember? No, he definitely would have remembered that.

“No,” You pushed yourself up on your elbows, moving Eddie off you and forcing him to pull out. You winced at the feeling. He made quick work of removing the condom and tossing it into the small garbage can. Almost running back to your bed so you could finish your sentence.

“You called me sweetheart, that falls under non-sexual pet names,” your voice was calm as you corrected him like a small child.

“Oh… sorry, force of habit I guess,” The only other person Eddie had sex with was an ex girlfriend who broke up with him once it was clear he wasn’t gonna graduate the first time around. He was never the type for a one night stand.

“It’s fine, just don’t let it happen again.” you patted his thigh before moving past him to search the room for your clothes.

Eddie started to cover himself with your sheets, suddenly very aware of his nakedness. “Promise,” he said, it was barely a whisper. He pretended to be preoccupied with his rings so you wouldn’t notice him watching you get dressed out of the corner of his eyeline.

You pulled your shirt over your head with a sigh, moving your hair from blocking your vision. Turning to sit in front of your bedroom mirror you picked at the small details of your face. This was routine since your mother pointed out your disheveled looks after your first get together with Eddie. Smudged mascara? Check. Out of control hair? Check. Hickies covering your neck? Check. He made you feel out of control sometimes and you were still unsure if you liked it or not.

Noticing Eddie hadn’t moved in a while you spoke up, “You wanna get dressed Eddie?”

“Oh yeah, right sorry,” he said like he was just shaken out of a deep sleep. So he wasn’t allowed to hang around this time, that was fine with him.

He dressed as swiftly as possible as you watched from the view in your mirror.

Once he put on his jean vest he found himself unsure of what to do. This wasn’t the first time he had to leave after you guys hooked up but it was always a challenge. He never knew what you wanted him to do after. Did you want him to say goodbye, just leave? One time he gave you what must have been the world's most awkward handshake.

You turned to look in his direction after fixing your appearance.

“Well…” he rocked back and forth on the heels of his boots, swinging his hand into each other. “Always a pleasure.”  “Always a pleasure”!? What was wrong with him?

You awkwardly rubbed your lips together as you slowly nodded your head. Why did you have to pick this poor boy? “Yep.”

He made his way towards your window, giving you a small wave before disappearing from your view. You couldn’t contain the small smile from creeping it way onto your face. As you looked back towards yourself in the vanity your expression dropped. This wasn’t happening.

–

Besides the occasional call he received from you, Eddie's day-to-day life didn't really change.

If he decided to, he would show up to school, work on a new campaign for the Hellfire Club, deal to his usual list of clients, go home, play guitar ‘til someone made a noise complaint and smoke.

You wouldn’t acknowledge his existence at school, which he didn’t take personally. He knew you didn’t think you were too good to be seen around him, you weren’t that type of person. You were just acutely aware that people talked, and you hoped Eddie wouldn’t end up on your seemingly endless list of rumoured hookups. Eddie hadn’t told anyone about what you guys were doing besides his diary– which no one will ever find out about– he hated those types of guys.

The ones who felt it necessary to tell everyone within earshot of their latest conquest. Most of them were fucking lying to begin with. And they loved talking about how easy it was for them to get with whichever girl it was they were bragging about that day. Like they weren't as eager participants as the chick was in the whole thing. It was bullshit.

Eddie knew that being with you was a privilege and he looked forward to every call.

He walked into the cafeteria with his usual carefree attitude looking for the rest of the Hellfire Club. While scanning the room he was surprised to find you sitting alone at a smaller table in the back of the cafeteria. You rarely ate lunch at school, usually walking to your friends house for the break. He then noticed the defeated expression on your face as you moved your food around with the plastic fork. Something was definitely wrong. He knew better than to go over to you, it would be suspicious that Eddie the freak who had never even been seen speaking to you was suddenly so concerned for your well being. But he wanted nothing more than to make sure you were okay.

Just when he was about to say screw it and walk over to you he heard Dustin calling his name across the room and turned in his direction.

“What are you doing?” Dustin asked with a confused look on his face.

Eddie turned back in your direction just to see you walking out of the cafeteria at a speed he had never seen you leave before.

Eddie moved his head slowly back in Dustin's direction, still keeping his eyes locked on your spot, “Nothing man, just looking for you.” He made his way to his usual group of friends thinking of you.

–

He spent the entirety of lunch worrying about you. Once he got to fourth period he noticed you were absent from chemistry. You never missed a day of class unless it was an emergency. As soon as the period break bell rang he grabbed his shit and ditched the rest of the day, he wouldn’t have been able to focus anyway. He didn’t remember how he ended up standing on the front steps of your house but he was sure to receive a speeding ticket for how fast he ended up here.

He frantically rang your doorbell ‘til you answered. Your eyes were glassy and red, like you'd been crying.

“Eddie, what the hell are you doing here? I didn’t call,”

“I know, it’s just I saw you run out of the cafeteria and you weren’t in chemistry so I just thought I would come check on you.” He tried his best to sound casual, looking down at his boots.

“Jesus Eddie, you're not my boyfriend ya know,” He didn’t need to be looking at you to tell you were pissed.

clearly his “casual” wasn’t working.

“I know,” as much as I want to be. “You just seemed so stressed and seeing as I’m kind of an expert in the art of destressing medicines, I came bearing gifts.” He got the courage to look back up at your face and he held out his special metal lunch box.

You let out a chuckle, a smile forming on your lips. “Now you're speaking my language Munson, get in here!” you pulled him through the front door by the collar of his jacket.

–

A lot of people didn’t know that weed could sometimes act like a truth serum for Eddie. In the haze of a high he tended to be bolder, he was by no means shy but put a girl he's had a crush on forever in front of him and a joint and oh boy, he’ll sing like a canary. So in this moment he finally had the guts to ask;

“Why do you hate relationships so much?”

You made eye contact with him, you definitely weren't expecting that question.

“When did you get so nosey Eddie?” you let the joint hang from your fingers.

“Come on, don't try to avoid the question,” he rolled his eyes. “I never questioned you before, in fact I admired your hatred towards relationships because I thought it was some feminist shit, But now I don’t think thats true.”

“Oh yeah?” you questioned, you never told anyone why you hated romance and you didn't think you ever would. But you're intrigued to see where this goes.

“Yeah, so tell me, what is it,” he spoke so plainly it shocked you. Eddie, the same guy who was too afraid to tell you what he wanted when you first started having sex– and now suddenly it’s like he’s asking for a piece of your soul. “And you know I won’t tell anyone so don’t make up excuses.”

You let out a dry laugh in surprise. It was as if Eddie had been suddenly replaced by this journalist looking for the scoop.

“Fine, you wanna know the truth?” you said defensively,  Eddie lifted his head with intrigue. “I think love and romance are all great made up scams to trick people into thinking it’s ok to use others for their own selfish needs.” you finished your rant off by taking a puff of the joint in your hand.

Eddie slumped back down and let out a noise of disbelief, “I don’t buy that for a second.”

“Oh come on Eddie you can’t be that naive!” You spoke with an annoyed tone while blowing the smoke from his joint out of your lungs, filling your bedroom.  “It’s just a fact of life that guys view relationships as a drag they have to deal with in order to get laid.” You extend your arm from your horizontal position and  pass the joint back to him, slouching back into the mattress. “I get the key benefit of a relationship without feeling like a burden and the guys obviously get what they wanted from the start, it's a win-win situation.” A cocky grin crept its way onto your face as you finished your little speech.

Eddie scoffed, “God you're such a pessimist.” The tip of the joint lit a bright orange as he inhaled with little effort.

“No, no, my dear boy I’m just saying what everyone is too afraid to admit.”

“Maybe you can speak for the other guys you’ve been with but I’m not like that.” he put the now nub of a joint out into an empty soda can. “When I’m with somebody it’s because I care about them and want to be around them no matter what that means– if it’s sex, hey great– but there’s so much more than that to a relationship.” he finally stopped to let the air fill his lungs again.

Your mouth had fallen open in the process of Eddie's raving. “Am I hearing this right? Is this a confession from Eddie Munson himself to being a romantic?”

You had known of Eddie's little crush on you since you started this whole arrangement–  but that's all you thought it was, just a simple crush. Maybe he had just been thinking about fucking you for a while and you answered his prayer by letting him, and that would be the end of that. You didn’t picture him as the hopelessly in love type.

“You know what, yeah, yeah I am.” he gracelessly stood up on your bed with dramatic flair. He put both hands to mimic a megaphone around his mouth. “I EDDIE MUNSON AM A PROUD ROMANTIC!” he shouted.

It might have been the large amount of weed you just smoked but you swear you have never laughed that hard before in your life.

“Alright cupid, get down before you fall on your ass,”

He sank to his knees back on your bed. “So, what do you say?” he asked with the biggest smile you’ve ever seen.

“To what?” you responded confused, moving back into an upright position.

“Can I romance you?” he begged, giving you his best puppy dog eyes. “I’m not asking you to fall madly in love with me, but I just have this compulsive need to prove you wrong about your very depressing theory.”

“You can try I guess, but I’m telling you it’s not gonna work.” you told him with a look of sympathy.

We’ll see about that,” you could tell by the look on his face he was already cooking up what was bound to be a terrible scheme.

Leaning your head to flop back into the pillows you already found yourself questioning: Why did I agree to this?

–

“Eddie, where the hell are you taking me?” you frustratedly sigh, Eddie woke you up in the middle of a school night, almost shoved you into his van, just to have you walk for the past five minutes blindfolded, guided by Eddie’s hand on your lower back.

“Just a few more steps I promise,” you could practically hear the smirk on his face.

Eddie moved behind you to untie the blindfold– he’d been giddy ever since the moment you let him put it on you. He tried not to get his hopes up, but he had already put you through many “trials” (or “dates'' as normal people often referred to them) and he had noticed slight changes in your demeanor. At first you would spend the majority of your “dates” making fun of them; “wow a movie date, how original Munson”, “Flowers? You spent your hard earned drug money on something that's gonna die in a week?”, “I’m surprised they even let us into this restaurant” etc. You still made those jokes but far less now, and in the moments where you thought he wasn’t watching you he could see a faint smile on your face.

But most importantly to Eddie, you opened up to him in these moments, he learned the reason you gave up on love in the first place was watching your parents marriage turn into what it is today. “I haven't seen them kiss since I was six years old, but at least now they’re finally admitting to each other what they were in this for from the start right?” “They don’t even fucking talk to each other anymore unless it’s about money problems.”

“So, what do you think?” Eddie was clearly filled with anticipation for your response.

“Oh my god,” that was all you could say, taking in the sight in front of you.

Eddie had set up a candlelit picnic at his usual dealing bench. White candles lined the rotting wood of the table and a small pile of pillows and blankets littered the ground– with a picnic basket in the middle of course.

“Eddie it’s so…” beautiful thank you is what you should have said. You just couldn’t bring yourself to give in like that Eddie is just trying to prove a point, you of all people should know deep down all guys are the same. “Cheesey.” you forced out a laugh to make the insult more genuine.

There was a long pause of silence.

Eddie cleared his throat. “Yeah you’re right this was a dumb idea,” he came up from behind you and started blowing out one of the many candles.

“Wait Eddie I’m sorry,” you muttered in apology, seeing the saddened look on his face as he passed you.

“No, you are right.” he turned quickly to look at you, you could see tears pooling in his big brown eyes.

“Always are,” he got progressively louder. “I thought since you chose me it was some sort of sign ya know? That maybe my stupid feelings for you ment something, and maybe I wasn’t just gonna sit around pinning you you like the loser that I am, but hey you proved me wrong, you win right?”

At this point you could now feel the tears building up in your own eyes as your vision became blurred.

“Eddie no, pleas–  just listen to me… I’m scared alright,” you admitted. Eddie's eyes had a hard time meeting yours right now. “I didn’t want to be in relationships not because of some big philosophical ideology, but because I was afraid of being unlovable.” you could feel the tightness in your throat start to grow.

You’re unsure of what sudden confidence overtook you but you gently grabbed Eddie's face, making him look at you. “And when I’m with you I don’t feel that way and it terrifies me that when you inevitably leave me I’m gonna end up feeling that way all over again.” you were crying at this point.

“Who said I would ever leave you?” You could feel the cool of his metal rings across your face as caressed away your tears.

“Eddie it’s not logical to think whatever we have going on here is gonna last forever,” you sniffled.

“And we would never know that unless you just give this a chance.” Eddie’s hands extended dramatically to your surroundings. “If you give me the chance to show you how much I care about you, I swear I will not let you regret it for a moment.” you could feel the gentle touch of his hands make their way onto the curve of your waist. “Please,” he wished.

The words were sitting on the tip of your tongue but they just refused to come out.

“Can I at least kiss you goodbye?” Eddie knew you hadn’t had your first kiss yet. Too afraid to give it to the wrong guy. “I don’t want to have my first kiss with somebody who just thinks of me as a hookup”

You nodded, still finding yourself unable to speak.

Eddie slowly brought his thumb up over your bottom lip, delicately brushing against it like a flower petal before leaning in. The kiss is soft and slow, nothing like you would have usually suspected from Eddie. You felt yourself falling into it as if you had done it before. Everything with Eddie was so natural and you couldn’t explain why. As you were about to pull him closer he broke away.

You had yet to open your eyes when you spoke. “Stay,” it was so quiet you're sure he didn’t hear you.

“What?”

“I said stay, please I want thi–” you were cut off by Eddie pulling you back up to his lips. God finally he thought.

You both clumsily made your way onto the blanket pile on the forest floor, kicking off your shoes as you went.

Eddie had fucked you many times but he knew this time was going to be different, he neede it to be perfect. You had laid down first, grabbing Eddie’s shirt collar and bringing him down with you. He smiled against your lips.

“Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for you to say that, sweetheart?” hsi hips began moving against yours, he could feel the heat of you over your sleep shorts.

“Fuck,” you gasped at the sensation of his tight jeans over your clothed clit.

“You like that baby?” he teased, grasping your cheeks between his fingers to look at you.

“Eddie please don– mmm, tease,”

He didn’t need you to tell him again. Letting go of your face he reached down to the waistband of your shorts pulling them down along with your panties. You shivered as the cold night air hit you.

“Aw, princess, you get this wet just from a couple kisses?” he giggled, running the tips of his fingers through your folds. You had lost control of your movement, rocking against his hand with a vigorous pace.

You tried to hold back your moans but god he had to make everything so difficult for you. “I can’t help it,” did you always sound this pathetic with Eddie?

“I know baby, I know.” you didn’t even have the time to process his words before his thick fingers made their way inside you.

“Oh god, Eddie!” his lips came crashing down to yours, muffling your moans as his thumb made small circles over your clit. No matter how many times you’d done this you always forgot how good it felt the next time around. You would never tell him this out loud– he already had a bit of an ego, but this was another reason you had chosen Eddie as your newest hookup, guitar players always had a way with their fingers.

His ring and pointer finger making a curling motion inside you, you grabbed his arm digging your nails into his biceps. Your whines broke free as he removed his lips from yours coming up for air.

“You’re so beautiful,” he breathed, eyes glazed over like he was stoned.

“Keep saying stuff like that and this will be over before it even started,” your laugh cut off by another moan.

“You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I have never wanted anyone else the way I want you and I don’t think I ever will.” you could feel yourself getting closer. “And right now what I need more than anything is for you to come for me baby, please.” He babbled, his head snapped forward leaving soft open mouthed kisses across the space of your neck and jaw.

Jesus this boy was trying to kill you.

“Yes, yes Eddie, ‘mmgonna come.” you grabbed the back of his neck forcing his mouth back to yours.

Your orgasm hits you like a wave, rolling from your lower belly through the rest of your body. Eddie held you close to him, fingers helping you come down from you high.

“There you go sweetheart, such a good girl for me,” he spoke against your lips.

His fingers were still grazing across your over-sensitive clit. You tried clamping your thighs shut as you grabbed his hand to stop his movement.

“Hey, what's wrong?” he moved back quickly, clearly panicked by your actions.

“N-nothing,” you huffed through labored breaths. “Just sensitive, you did…really good.”

He smiled at that. “Have I ever disappointed you before?”

“You know you haven’t,”

He grabbed your discarded shorts pushing them back up your legs before moving to lay down beside you. What did you ever do to deserve someone like him? You clung to him, pusing your face into the Hellfire Club t-shirt he never seemed to take off.

Sitting in silence for what felt like hours, your mind wondered. What does this mean? Are we together officially now, or have I somehow disappointed him already? No, you’re just benign ridiculous, if he just wanted sex he wouln’t have gone through this whole stupid romancing in the first place.

“So, does this mean you wanna…” you could hear the heartbeat in his chest grow louder with anxiety.

“Be– ya know, my girlfriend or whatever,” his voice cracked with almost every word despite being well over the pubescent awkward voice phase.

“Eddie Munson,” you lifted yourself up with your elbow crawling on top of him. “It would be my honour to be your girlfriend or whatever.” you said through a smile, leaning down to kiss him.

What did he ever do to deserve someone like you?

[youjustwaitsunshine]

ok so I’mma ask a really dumb question. What do you mean when you say that you can tell that German wasn’t a good subject for Seb in school? I’m assuming it’s something in -how- he’s speaking? Is that a big deal in school? For me as a usamerican, public speaking or formal speaking isn’t much taught unless it’s for a particular vocation, so people usually don’t speak in that way.

not a dumb question at all! also esp other germans, feel free to discuss/add your point of view

so first off the education system in germany is a ~huge~ mess because our federal states all manage education separately which leads to really big discrepancies in the value of your final exams (it's way easier to get full marks in some states than others etc and unis then have to accommodate to that, it's among other things something that adds to the rift between former East and West Germany) and not only that, it even varies within the federal states because the schools are funded by the idk the english equivalent, i guess you could say counties? so i can only truly speak about my experiences (but the subjects are still more or less centralized and vary mostly in the depth theyre gone into with)

In Seb's case, he often struggles to express himself clearly in German, uses examples and often repeats sentences/sentence fragments that he seems comfortable with. He often leaves thoughts unfinished and although he's quite eloquent when he knows what he wants to say his words get more 'simple' when he gets stuck explaining himself and talks in what a German teacher would consider 'bad style'. Funnily enough, he's more eloquent (/consistent in his level of eloquence) in English, probably both due to it being his second language and that he uses it a lot more in a professional context where it's extremely important to report back to the team clearly. It's important to note though that the people interviewing Seb are excellent at German (or English) and often studied journalism so it's very noticeable while it probably would be less so in a discussion with people whose profession isn't tied to eloquence.

That said, i do feel like there's a lot of value placed on properly expressing yourself throughout all subjects. In German class (and also second and third languages, in my case English and French) you write a lot of argumentative essays and have mock debates and class discussions. There's of course a lot of literary analysis but that still comes around to expressing yourself concisely and clearly. We don't explicitly have public speaking in German class but the mock discussions are (or at least were at my school) held not only in German class but also in Politics class, Geography and Economics class, Religion/Ethics class (the subject differs depending on if you're protestant or catholic or a different confession/religion/not religious but the topics are largely the same, ethics, morality, the world religions) and to an extent in History class. Also a lot of schools have project weeks where you have a model parliament debate, be it model UN or EU or whatever which is pretty cool.

To get back to German class though, it's one of the core subjects in the education system for most of your school career (when i finished school even more so than now because the education system ~in my federal state~ changed right after i graduated) together with the languages you learn and math and a lot of the skills from german class transfer over to subjects that get less hours/week.

Tl;dr: German class is definitely (among other things) putting a focus on teaching students how to be effectively argumentative both in written and spoken word and Seb often speaks German a bit clumsily and in simple(r) terms (than those around him).

[astroaquarium]

signs on the house cusps: part 2

Libra-Pisces

Libra on the 1st: you come across as very agreeable, level-headed, fair, and charasmatic. you veiw the world in a very balanced way, and like to take in every account and point of view and keep all parties happy.

Libra on the 2nd: you value the finer things in life, however you tend to have a great knack for balancing spending and saving, and dont go overboard.

libra on the 3rd: your relationship with siblings is likely very amicable, peaceful, you rarely fight or have disagreements. your primary schooling was a good experience for you.

libra on the 4th: you had a very venusian upbringing and/or homelife. you liked to keep the peace between family members.

libra on the 5th: you might like to engage in debate and/or humanitarian or charity based projects/initiatives in your spare time, or as a sode hustle. in your dating life, you are super flirty, and fun and dont take it too seriously.

libra on the 6th: you have generally very good health, however may have some lowerback issues here and there or possible kidney issues. your daily routine is very balanced, you like getting shit done.

libra on the 7th: you attract partners who are very charasmatic, people pleasers, who will always go with what you want and cant make a decision to save themselves. your partnerships with others will have limited conflict.

libra on the 8th: you likely have very aesthtically pleasing genitalia. you may benefit from inheritnace.

libra on the 9th: you might enjoy studying law, criminology, or sociology at a tertiary level. you might like to explore different philosophies and religions.

libra on the 10th: you might have a career in the legal field, or be attracted to professions of this nature. You are likely seen as very attractive and charasmatic in the public eye.

libra on the 11th: you are a fair and devoted friend, who will always remain neutral in frienship drama.

libra on the 12th: behind closed doors you are a very kind, gentle soul. you may struggle with balance in this lifetime.

scorpio on the 1st: you come across as intense, people are either intensely attracted to or repulsed by you, you cause a strong reaction in people when they first meet you. Your apperance is ever changing.

Scorpio on the 2nd: your possessions and values may undergo transformation regularly, meaning you may contsantly be revaluating what is important to you.

scorpio on the 3rd: you might have a sharp, intense voice. your relationship with siblings could be a bit full on, maybe you guys keep a lot of secrets from eachother.

scorpio on the 4th: homelife for you was unstable and rocky, maybe a lot of skeltons in yoru families closet, maybe you were the blacksheep in the family.

scorpio on the 5th: you might love reading self-help, psychology books for fun. in your dating life you might find it hard to date casually as you tend to lock onto people hard.

scorpio in the 6th: you may have health issues concerning UTI’s STD’s and other sexual or urinary diseases or infections. your daily routine is often not very set in stone and always undergoing change.

scorpio in the 7th: you attract intense, passionate and possessive partners, who may be prone to jealousy and trust issues. your partnerships with others can be transformative for you, whilst also running the risk if being quite toxic.

scorpio in the 8th: you love the occult and taboo, and thrive on delving deeper into people. probably hate small talk. always horny!!

scorpio on the 9th: you might be interested in studying the occult, astrology, psychology, or anything a little taboo.

scorpio in the 10th: might have or want a career in psychology, social science, criminology, law enforcement, post-mortum or forensics. Seen as shady, withdrawn, intense in your workspace.

scorpio in the 11th: an emotionally supportive and in depth friend!! you dont like superficial frienships and are great at keeping your friends secrets.

scorpio in the 12th: when you are alone, you are inquistive, have deeply penetrating thoughts and question everything!! you may struggle with openning up in this lifetime.

sagittarius in the 1st: come across as super jovial, free spitited, a little earthy, and a jokster. people think of you as the life of the party.

sagittarius in the 2nd: you may be very lucky when it comes to money, always seemingly falling on your feet and coming into money when you need it. you might be a bit reckless when it comes to spending!

sagittarius on the 3rd: might have a loud voice. likely has a very fun-loving not overly serious relationship with siblings, maybe they are loud and over the top types.

sagittarius on the 4th: might have a very big family, might have a very loud, and overly open family. might have moved around a lot as a kid (international perhaps).

sagittarius on the 5th: could have a lot of creative talents!! kids might be rowdy or have a lot of masculine energy. could enjoy casual dating quite a bit.

sagittarius on the 6th: doesnt like routine, always on the go, and likes to keep active. might have weak thighs and get sprains and strains in these areas often.

sagittarius on the 7th: attracts free spritied partners, who are flightly and not wanting to stay in one place at a time. may have a lot of luck in partnerships.

sagittarius on the 8th: might have a very experimental and active sex life. could enjoy other cultures taboos.

sagittarius on the 9th: a true intellectual, thrives in tertiary education environemt, could be a professor or full time academic or asprie to be.

sagittarius on the 10th: seen as a happy go lucky, larger than life type by the public at large. probably has or wants a career in; travel, philosophy, higher education, anthropology, sociology or similar.

sagittarius on the 11th: biggest cheerleader kind of friend, always goes above and beyond for others, has many friends. big goals and aspriations in life.

sagittarius on the 12th: has a rich intrapersonal existence, loves alone time, in fact where they thrive. can struggle with recklessness in this lifetime.

capricorn on the 1st: stern, firm, and professional outward look to the world. they can come across as ridgid to some, but nevertheless have intensely sharp bone structure and facial features which people find striking. age really well!!

capricorn on the 2nd: great with money!! knows how to save. values old school traditional values.

capricorn on the 3rd: clear, eloquent speach, extensive vocab. might have strained or very formal relationship with siblings.

capricorn on the 4th: traditinal upbringing, might have recieved little affection from parents, perhaps was more so encouraged to be seen and not heard.

capricorn on the 5th: takes dating very seriously, might literally interview potential romantic dates. kids may be very responsible and mature for their age.

capricorn on the 6th: very logical and structured daily routine, which rarely changes. might be prone to issues with bones (broken bones, osteoporosis etc.)

capricorn on the 7th: attracts partners who are classic romantics and very old school romantics, people who are very stuck in their ways, married to their work, and like being right. partnerships are very strcuted and reliable.

capricorn on the 8th: may undergo challenges with sexuality or sexual idenity which will take a long time to work through. may keep a lot of secrets.

capricorn on the 9th: might study business, entreprenurship, marketing, sales psychology, or medicine at a tertairy level or be interested in these areas.

capricorn on the 10th: seen as disciplinned, serious, and determined by the public. might be or want to be a business exec, CEO, start a small business, work in comerce or ecommerce, be a doctor or similar. might be slow to climb to corporate ladder.

capricorn in the 11th: might be slow to make friends, have a very small trusted circle. very determined at setting and achieveing their goals.

capricorn in the 12th: are strong on their own, and can keep a very logical level-headed mindset when left to their own devices. may struggle with overworking themselves in thsi lifetime.

aquarius in the 1st: seen as unusal, unique, and radical by peopke who first meet you. people might not know quite how to think of you, you might shock them.

aquarius in the 2nd: you hace strong values that closely allign with unpopular belifes, you might have very abstract world views, others dont agree with.

aquarius in the 3rd: your voice might be peircing, or strange to some. you and your siblings might have a very unusal relationship, you may not know them very well kr be quite distant.

aquarius in the 4th: homelife was out of the ordinary, definitely wasnt apart of a regualr neuclear family. may have moved around a lot, or had a very unsettling and unstable vibe. might have been thr odd one out.

aquarius on the 5th: may have unique talents. kids may be ostrascied for being weird or not like the other kids. you have a unique appraoch to dating.

aquarius in the 6th: you hate routine, and like to keep people guessing. may have ankle or calf problems, with lots of sprains, strains and breakages in these areas.

aquarius in the 7th: attract partners who are out of the ordinary or are free thinking radical extremeists. you partnerships can abruptly start and end.

aquarius in the 8th: unusal fetishes. bug interest in the taboo, you like to bring up topics that make others uncomfortable and shock.

aquarius in the 9th: might like to study engineering, information technology, digital art/design, computer programming, maths, science at a tertiary levl.

aquarius in the 10th: seen as weird, radical, or strange by the public. might be or want to be a scientist, an actor, a humanitarian, mathamatician, engineer or simialr.

aquarius on the 11th: massive people person, kind and inclusive to all, has many friends and social connections. understands society at a deep level.

aquarius in the 12th: allows themself to be weird and themsleves when they are alone. may struggle with imposter syndrome.

pisces on the 1st: come across a dreamy, idealistic, sensitive and out of this world. you are an illusion to others, and are quite the chameleon. always changing and morphing.

pisces on the 2nd: may not be very good with money or tangible possessions, may find it hard to ground themselves in the phsycial realm.

pisces on the 3rd: dreamy, soft, melodic voice. siblings were sesnitive, or you had a very emotionally connected relationshil with them.

pisces on the 4th: family life was a bit of a dream, you might not have always been aware of what was going on for you at home, what was real and what was not, parents might have been neglectful or dellusional.

pisces in the 5th: very spiritual and creatively inclined. datinf life might be a bit all over the place, might find it hard to tell when people are into you or not.

pisces in the 6th: very disorganised in temrs of dailr routine, always in a daze, finds it hard to complete necessary daily tasks, sometims lazy. might have feet aches or lymphatic system issues.

pisces in the 7th: attracts dellusional partners, who are not very realistic or grounded. may put up with bad behaviour from partners because they only see the good in others.

pisces in the 8th: very fluid sexuality and open to pretty much anything and everything. sex can be a spiritual experince for them.

pisces in the 9th: might study arts, interior design, medicine, or literature at a higher level.

pisces in the 10th: seen as lazy, day dreamy, and hard to out your finger on by colleuges and the public. might be or want to be an artist, designer, alternative therapist, chiropractor, psychic, psychologist or counsellor.

pisces in the 11th: friendhips might be very dellusional, may have less true quality friends than they realise because they are too forgiving and good at overlooking friends bad qualities.

pisces in the 12th: thrive by themsleves. have psychic tendnacies, and have the ability to absorb the undercurrents of emotional enegry of others. they can struggle with escapism in this life.

[pumpkinpaix]

hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

[the-badger-mole]

Can you write a short story with a jealous Zuko?

PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE

Zuko was used to being overshadowed. By Azula; by Lu Ten; by Avatar Aang. It still often annoyed him to know that the most he could aim for was second best to someone else, no matter where he was. But he never minded when it came to Katara. Give her enough time, Zuko often told himself, and she could bring the entire world to its knees. She'd saved his life in more ways than he could count. She had saved them all, and there would never be enough people singing her praises as far as Zuko was concerned. She stood out no matter where she was. Even in spaces where the Fire Lord should have been the center of attention, Zuko knew he didn't stand a chance when Master Katara entered the room.

It should have annoyed him, Zuko thought, but it didn't. She was sunshine, for all she was a child of Water, and she drew everyone towards her like plants reaching up for Agni's rays. When she laughed, it filled the room- a bit too loud to be polite, but too infectious to really be upset over. She talked with high-ranking nobles with passion, leaving them stunned at her knowledge and convictions- this woman who was barely not a child anymore. She had earned the grudging respect of Zuko's council, which even he hadn't succeeded in doing. He should be jealous, but he watched Katara make her way around the room with pride. Maybe he wasn't as eloquent or magnetic as Katara, but he was her friend. He knew her in a way few- if any- in that room would ever know her.

Someone- Iroh, Zuko guessed- had signaled for the band to start playing. Business was done for the day. Soon the crowd had reshuffled itself, and couples began making their way to the dance floor while everyone else made their way to the buffet tables lining one end of the hall. Katara met Zuko's eyes across the room, and with a warm smile, made her way over to him. She seemed to glow supernaturally. Zuko cast a surreptitious glance to see if some prankster had aimed a spotlight on her. Was it just Zuko? How was no one else being blinded by the way the light reflected off her smile? Her hair? Her skin? Zuko swallowed hard, trying to unstick his tongue from the roof of his suddenly dry mouth.

Katara's smile widened and she opened her mouth to greet him.

"Excuse...um...p-pardon me." Katara turned in surprise to the young man who had approached her. Zuko recognized him vaguely, and he scrambled to place a name. Katara spared him the ordeal of guessing.

"Lord Jee-Soo," she smiled politely at King Kuei's cousin, though Zuko could see an odd tightness in the corners of Katara's eyes. Jee Soo, however, did not notice. His face was tinged pink and he leaned forward in a stiff, formal bow.

"I-I hope I'm not disturbing you," he said. "I was hoping that...that maybe you...er, that is...would you grant me the honor of a dance."

Zuko froze. A shock went down his spine as if someone had walked across a carpet and touched his skin. Katara gaped at him in surprise. Her cheeks flushed a pretty dusky red. Jee Soo smiled at her, nervous and hopeful. She cast a glance at Zuko, trying to communicate... something.

"Oh!" Katara gasped. "Well... I was just going to..." She cast another look at Zuko before she shrugged and smiled at Jee Soo. "Um... sure, I'd love to."

Zuko watched silently as Jee Soo wrapped a clammy-looking hand around Katara's and led her out to the dance floor. His hand squeezed his punch cup dangerously tight as Jee Soo slid his arm around Katara's waist and pulled her as close as propriety would allow. His breath caught in his throat as the young Earth Kingdom noble said something that caused Katara's nose to crinkle in amusement.

"Take care, Fire Lord Zuko," Iroh sidled up to his nephew, with an affable smile and a knowing gleam in his eye. "Someone might think there's trouble between the Fire Nation and Ba Sing Se the way you're glaring at young Lord Jee Soo."

"I'm not glaring!" Zuko insisted hotly. Still, he turned his scowl on his uncle instead.

"She would have danced with you if you'd asked," Iroh told him. "I'm sure she still would."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zuko grumbled.

"Oh no?" Iroh tried unsuccessfully to hide his amusement. "My mistake. It's been a long time since I was young and in love. Perhaps I don't remember the signs as well as I thought."

"Perhaps not!" Zuko knew he was being peevish, but his uncle was overstepping. Zuko had admitted to having a small crush on Katara years ago, and Iroh had never forgotten, even though Zuko had gotten over her a long time ago. She was dating one of his best friends at the time.

But not anymore.

The traitorous, smug voice in his head sounded annoyingly like his uncle. It was true that Katara had broken up with Aang, but it made no difference. Even if he wasn't over Katara- and he was over her- she and Aang hadn't split on the best of terms. It wouldn't be fair to either of his friends for Zuko to insert himself in the middle of that.

On the dance floor, Jee Soo seemed to have gained some confidence. He twirled and spun Katara with expert ease. If Katara had been hesitant to dance with him before, she seemed happy enough now. Her eyes were bright and her face pink with the exertion of the dance. She was having a good time, and Jee Soo gazed at her as if half in love already.

Zuko could dance. He could dance at least as well as Jee Soo. Others may outshine him in literally every other part of his life, but Zuko's mastery of dance was part of what made the Blue Spirit so deadly. Maybe he could challenge Jee Soo to a friendly competition. Katara could be the judge. Maybe the first prize could be a kiss...

Zuko shook his head. Dangerous territory. She was just coming out of a serious relationship. With one of his best friends. True they had broken up almost a year ago. Also true that Aang hadn't been in close contact with any of them since the breakup. And there was speculation that things had ended because Aang had cheated. But Zuko didn't know that for sure. No one knew for sure except Katara and Aang. Suki probably had more of the story, which Toph probably bullied out of her. And Sokka at least suspected if his coldness towards Aang at the last summit was any indication.

Dangerous territory. Friends don't go after a friend's exes. Even if you happened to have had a thing for said ex before your friend started dating them. Even if that ex was also your best friend.

Jee Soo dipped Katara, causing her to let out a nervous, but giddy laugh. Her hands clutched at Jee Soo tightly, to keep herself steady, but as a result, they were much closer than they started at the beginning of the dance. Jee Soo's face lit up with a grin as he did it again. And again. And again.

Didn't this guy know any other moves? Katara was going to catch on to him, and she would be annoyed. Wouldn't she? Zuko knew she'd been out with a couple of other guys since the breakup. Nothing serious, though, Suki had informed him. No one who lasted more than a month. Still, Zuko wasn't sure what her type was anymore. Jee Soo reminded Zuko a bit of Aang, but just because Katara had dated Aang for three years doesn't mean he was her type. Maybe she was into quieter guys who got way too deep in their own heads and overthought hypothetical situations until they lost entire nights of sleep worrying about problems that didn't actually exist. Yeah...for sure that's what Katara would find attractive.

How long was this song, Zuko wondered. Jee Soo was dipping Katara again, though she seemed to be getting tired of it. Her smile was that polite, tight smile that she'd given him earlier when she wasn't sure she wanted him to interrupt her. Zuko saw her say something to him, probably asking him to keep her upright for a while. Jee Soo laughed and shook his head and said something teasing as he pulled her closer. Katara's smile fell away completely, and Zuko saw she was getting mad. He was halfway across the dance floor before he'd even realized he was going to go over. He was ready to yank Jee Soo away, and if necessary, deck the creep for not respecting Katara's reasonable wish. But before he got to them, Jee Soo had stepped away with a deep, embarrassed blush on his face.

"I'm so sorry," Jee Soo was saying as Zuko got closer. "Honestly, I was just trying to...well, I didn't mean to upset you or offend you."

"It's alright, Jee Soo," Katara said patiently. Her smile was back in place. The song ended, finally, and another one started up.

"Would you...like to dance again?" Jee Soo asked.

"I'm a bit tired," Katara begged off. "But I'll bet Kimiko would love you to ask her. Don't say I told you, but she's been checking you out." That didn't seem to soothe Jee Soo's disappointment, but he accepted the rejection graciously enough.

"Seems like you had fun," Zuko said. Katara sighed tiredly and slipped her arm through his.

"I thought the song would never end!" she groaned. "It was like dancing with Aang. Fun for the first minute, but he was doing way too much. All the dipping gave me vertigo." Zuko heard that with interest.

"I didn't realize you weren't having fun," he tried to keep his voice even as he led them away from the dance floor over to the punch table. "I would have come rescue you if I'd realized. We should come up with some sort of sign when you want me to cut in."

"You never dance at these things," Katara pointed out.

"I'd make an exception for you." Zuko blushed and scrambled to cover. "I mean, I'd do it if it saved you from some over-eager guy who can't take a hint."

"My hero." Katara scrunched her nose up at Zuko and leaned against him. It was adorable! Zuko had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from grinning.

"Actually..." Katara said slowly. "I was coming over to ask you to dance before Jee Soo interrupted."

"Really?" Zuko's voice hit an octave it hadn't hit since he was fourteen and his voice was still dropping. He cleared his throat, trying to ignore the fact that Katara was trying very hard not to laugh.

"Yeah," she nodded her head. "I know you don't really like dancing, but maybe you can preemptively cut in for me? Someone told me that Lord Hino's son wanted to ask me for a dance." Zuko grimaced. Lord Hino was one of his most trusted advisors, but his son was a famous klutz with two left feet. No woman left the dance floor without bruised feet when she danced with him.

"You told Jee Soo you were tired," Zuko reminded her. Why, he yelled internally, would he say that? Fortunately, Katara just shrugged and looked up at him coyly from the corner of her eye.

"I'd make an exception for you," she said quietly. Zuko froze midstep. Katara looked up at him in alarm. There was a spectacular blush rising from her neck towards her hairline, and a panicked retraction already on her lips. Zuko turned to her and took her hand. Then in a move that would have pleased every last one of his etiquette tutors and his uncle, if he was watching, Zuko bowed elegantly and brushed a feathery light kiss on Katara's fingertips. He lifted his gaze with an impish grin.

"I would be honored," he said, "to have this dance." Katara nodded speechlessly and allowed Zuko to lead her out to the dance floor again.

Zuko was used to being overshadowed. He wasn't the most powerful bender, or the most charismatic leader. He wasn't the most handsome man or the most eloquent. But there on the dancefloor, with the most beautiful woman in at the ball in his arms, he knew that no one could match him for dancing. Katara seemed to agree because she accepted his request for another dance. And another. And another...

[dancingaliensfics]

♡My Prison Pen Pal♡

Helmut Zemo x reader

Word count: 1,802

Warnings: swearing, mentions of prison and crimes and slight angst to do with his family

A/N: its finally here! I havent writen a fic in a long time so hopefully you guys like this! I tried to avoid using idioms and things like that but message me if you need anything explained or reworded as I know most people aren't native English speakers

@sorcerersofnyc

♡♡♡

His first letter came during the series finale of your favourite show. A rather inconvenient moment, you thought, so it stayed on the welcome mat until you passed through the hall on your way to bed. Picking it up, you figured you'd skim the first few lines then finish it and write a reply before work. Instead, you found yourself writing and rewriting a reply through the night. Somehow this man had managed to enthrall you with only a letter. Maybe it was the way he wrote as if he was some elegant poet whose sonnets would one day be hailed as classics. How he managed to be open and expressive, exuding a welcoming aura, and yet still seeming mysterious. Or perhaps it was simply fated by the stars that Helmut Zemo would capture your heart.

You waited anxiously for his second letter to arrive. After sending the first, you hadn't cared whether you got a response, the whole thing seemed like a bad idea to you. But your mother was insistent that you needed to meet new people and this way you wouldn't need to worry about awkward face to face conversations. Sending the first letter felt like any other chore you do in the day, done with much effort and resignment but forgotten within minutes. But the second? It felt like the most important thing you'd done in a long time. You'd even bought a first class stamp (not that it makes a difference).

You wanted to know more about this intriguing man. No, supervillain. Charged with international terrorism. Jesus christ what the fuck was wrong with you? Were you really falling in love with a supervillain after one letter? But he didn't seem evil to you. He wrote eloquently, somehow his simple and brief description of his day (he'd started reading a new psychology book, you'd have to send him some recommendations) sounded fascinating in his words.

Over time, you started to notice small things about Helmut. The way he crossed his t's, how he signed his name, but mainly that there was a romanticism to his writing. From the way he described his home, his wife, his son to his recipes for Sokovian dishes with small notes and doodles (your favourite was his shepherd's pie recipe where he helpfully noted his mother's assertion that you should always add more than you think you need). It was becoming clear to you that he wasn't the stoic and vengeful baron you expected but rather a soft, lonely and endearingly weird man who you couldn't imagine plotting to destroy the Avengers. Whilst it was his mystery that first captivated you, it was his sweet and sometimes awkward personality that convinced you to keep writing.

It took a while for Helmut to tell you about his family. You had heard on the news back when he first arrested about his motive, so you were interested to hear his perspective on his crimes. But that wasn't what you got. Instead, he told you about when he and his father used to play football when he was young and how they would play a match every time he visited, with Helmut playing against his father and son, who always wanted to play with grandfather. He told you of the songs his wife used to sing, how her voice was always loud and shaky and after years of singing somewhere over the rainbow she would still forget the lyrics and invent her own. He told you how his son was the best pianist he had ever heard. How he could play the greatest rendition of amazing grace and that he had just learnt the theme from swan lake. That he had been excited to practice it on his grandfathers grand piano the day Ultron attacked.

There was something so human about this man. His love for his family, his loss and grief, his plan to avenge his family, it was all so tragic and yet here he was sending you drawings of the flowers from his garden growing up. You wanted to hug him and yet sometimes you felt he wouldn't need it, wouldn't want it. You were wrong.

Helmut Zemo missed his family. He told you so in one of his most recent letters. He missed holding his son, brushing his wife's hair, going for long drives, waking up at 2am to comfort his son, early morning trips to the shops, cleaning up after dinner, helping with homework. Everything he listed seemed so trivial, so meaningless in the grand scheme of life and yet the memories meant so much to him.

You realised then you had never pitied him before. Not that he wasn't deserving of it, just that he didn't seem to need it. But overtime you realised that what Helmut had really needed wasn't revenge or to make a world free from superhumans, it was someone to talk to. Someone to trust. Someone who would understand his pain and not judge it. Perhaps, you thought to yourself, you could be that person.

Fuck.

You couldn't think of how to cope with this. No one you knew had ever mentioned falling in love with a criminal through letters. And as hard as you tried you hadn't been able to find a single romcom with this plot line. You couldn't tell him. You imagined with his seemingly fragile state of mind receiving from basically a stranger professing their love would at best cause him to ghost you. Especially after he confided in you, shared his thoughts and memories.

So instead you continued as normal. You sent him pressed flowers and pictures of your favourite places. Eventually, he asked what looked like, and you spent an hour trying to decide whether you should send a picture of yourself or to just vaguely describe your features. After deciding to send a picture of yourself on holiday a few months before the blip, you found yourself wondering what he'd do with it. Would he throw it away as soon as he got the letter or would he keep it, tuck it away in some book to look at whilst thinking of you?

You also found yourself wondering what he looked like in the real world. You had found pictures of him online, but they didn't feel real. He was never rarely happy. The pictures pre Ultron were clearly taken by paparazzi, so you weren't surprised he rarely looked anything other than annoyed. There were a few though, ones with his wife and son, where he clearly hadn't noticed, and some from when he was much younger and seemed to enjoy the attention. Then were those taken after his arrest.

And so you continued to wonder he looked like. How he looked in the morning, with flowers in his hair or in summer with the sun lighting his face. You wondered what his hair looked like wet, if he ever scrunched his nose in disgust. You wondered what his smile was like.

Over time, you told him more about yourself. The stress of returning home after the blip to no job, no house and your friends 5 years older. Your ex was married with kids and your sister had moved abroad. It was as if you blinked and your whole life had changed. You mentioned how it was your mum who had suggested getting a pen pal, so you could talk to someone new, who was living a different life to you, although she had meant someone in a different country not jail. Since coming back you'd been isolated and stressed with starting a new job, recovering lost information and personal belongings and moving house, so you had thought it might be good to speak to someone who didn't know you, who couldn't judge you. You told Helmut how it had been good, how writing to him had helped you, how he had helped you more than he could ever know.

No, that sounded creepy. How you appreciated his letters.

Too formal. How you hadn't expected to become his friend, but you were glad to be able to say you were.

Helmut was comforting. You knew in your head that your meeting on Friday was nothing to worry about but seeing him say it felt so reassuring. Each one of his letters made you feel relaxed, feel safe. You wanted to make him feel the same. So, as a way to repay his kindness you had told him that no matter what happened, he could always trust you. And it was true. You couldn't imagine a world where you wouldn't do anything for Helmut and although you knew he would never need it, you still wanted him to know you would always care about him, even if no one else did.

Writing to him had become as easy as talking to someone you'd known all your life. You had fallen into an easy routine, you knew when to expect his letters and you knew when you'd send a reply. The routine felt so natural that you even knew what the envelope would look like, always the same off-white with a square edged flap. The address was always the same too. Except on his last letter. Which was strange.

At first, you thought Helmut had been moved to a different prison but after frantically typing the address into Google Maps you realised it was not a prison. Fuck you had no idea what it was, but it wasn't a prison. It also wasn't in Germany.

You sat still, staring at the unopened letter for a few minutes.

You looked up at the door. You thought you heard someone knock. The post had already come and you weren't expecting people. Hell, there wasn't anyone other than your parents who would visit anyway and they would have called first. Now you were sat still, staring at the front door.

"I know you're in there, the lights are on."

It was as if you were a marionette, being moved by some strange force that was slowly pulling you out of your seat and towards the door. You didn't even register that you moved until you felt the door handle on your fingertips. The cold metal caused you to stop, as if broken out of a trance. There was a sudden realisation that if you opened the door your life would never be the same. It was sickening, a mixture of dread and excitement; it reminded you of the moment before a roller coaster drops. You repeated that thought in your head. "Your life would never be the same". Your life hadn't been the same in almost a year. What would be the harm in one more big change. So you did it. You opened the door.

His smile was beautiful.

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 2

Khem-khem, ladies and gentlemen, we shall continue out praising Apritello's episodes. And yeah, this part will be dedicated, in entirety just one episode.

Purple jacket. April and Donnie's episode.

I really love this piece of masterpiece, because it show April and Dee relationship, better reveals them as characters, and demonstrates their connection. (My previous points at this whole situation)

The episode begins with Donnie sneaking into April's school under the pretext of helping her. Soon, April stated the reason why she called D - her science computer project. Actually, she could take a photo of the code and sent it to Donatello, and I'm sure, he would send her the correct one right away, he's coder, he's prodigy, no probbles.

But still, April just asked him to come over and help her without stating any reasons. And he, indeed, came at speed of the light.

I want you to understand what exactly does that mean.

First: April is aware how much Donnie is into human culture. He wants to study in normal human school, do some average teen stuff. Especially, he is loving school and science-related stuff, all these science school projects, visits to botanical gardens, experiments and laboratory work. Because it's his field. It's exactly his domain, where he's good at. His family does not share his interest in science, and April is only one who can understand him. Probably.

Also, April know, how badly Donnie wants to go to school, which gives him an excuse, even if not the most solid one, but an excuse, nevertheless, to visit her school again.

Why again?

Because he has no problem navigating there. Donnie went directly to April's computer class.

He loves this place. And he'd already helped April with her projects.

Even so, knowing that every time she asked guys, especially Don, for help, it turned into a cataclysm, April still called him to help.

It's just a weird, indirect way to say, " Let's hang out, I know how much you like this whole situation with science, school and etc. Here ya go, buddy"

It seems like April did that to make something pleasant to him, something small, but nice to make him feel better. Because, as I state before - he likes to help April (praise, doing something useful for April - still counts as a motivation) and he likes school.

Second: khem-khem, D came at her school, as it seems, right away she called/texted. He didn't even know the proper reason, but c'mon: April ask for help, plus, her school. Sounds legit, don't you think?

Anyway, April has always been being the reason and excuse for teetles, but especially for Donnie. Clear? Clear. Good.

Donnie also tends to not think things through when he is excited. Because he went at the daylight in place, full of people just to help April.

ROTTMNT shows us how turtles were really afraid of human reaction and possible consequences. They have plan "H" to pretend they are going to Galaxy Con, brothers have explanation why they look weird and it's definitely not because boys are mutants, uh-huh, no, plus, guys go on surface at evening or night hours, when there are not so many people, and it's dark, obviously, to cover them and keep unseen.

Yeah, of course, Donnie seems more capable then his brothers to handle the surface (he has cash, D's dressed up as old ladies more than once, according to Leo, he was in April's school before, so yeah, no big deal) and I suspect that his friendship with April is one of the reasons.

Third: do you remember how April worried about looking "normal" when she was finally invited to a school party? She even forbade Mayham to appear nearby, just not to look like the lizard boy. Because cool kids don't bring pets to school. April doesn't have many friends, or rather, there are none at school, and she's been trying to solve this problem by getting close to Taylor Martin, the coolest girl in school.

And April O'Neil just calls Donatello, an objectively strange guy (since when is it normal to be a fan of school? Pretty questionable) in place, where her reputation is hanging in a balance. Our girl does not try to hide Dee, as it usually shown in shows for kids, and April do not pretend that she sees him for the first time in her life because, you know, Donnie will catch everyone's attention being himself and may embarrass her in front of her classmates. But no - April says with all her actions: "Yes, I know him. Yes, that dork is with me. And I don't give a damn about your opinion. Your problems, not mine. And yeah, I'm fine with him being here."

I mean it, guys. The devil is always in the tiny details.

The way they behave around each other.

Donatello is way more, MORE relaxed and just being himself: dramatic dorky nerdy ninja with current obsessions. The way he sneaked in school and April's classroom, the way he behaves alone with her is contrasting the way of his attitude while his brothers are near.

Don has a specific way to shown up. Instead of texting her, Donnie used shurekens. Yes, he almost fell off the lamp, but still, that's... quite an entrance he makes there.

April worries about him, when he fell from ceiling.

Our girl feel relaxed enough around Donnie, so she winks at him.

A wink is a fairly casual gesture that shows some expression of sympathy, trust, and togetherness. It's both good for saying "We're in same boat, we're team" and show the playful attitude towards someone. Isn't that an indicator?

Ironically, that being the best friends April and Donnie do not have any secret handshake/brofist/special greeting, as it usually the besties have at kid's series. Like Kendra and Jeremy have.

I can do only one possible logical conclusion: their relationship is far beyond "friends," "best friends," and "family".

Btw, about this certain phrase about secret five.

- Nay, fair April. A secret five[...].

Once again, nice wording, Donatello. Fair April? Maybe I'm too critical, but often when someone wants to convince their interlocutor and at the same time show one's condescension to them, it's usually uses "my dear ..." or something like that. I understand that semantically the difference is not very big, but in the first case, you can feel Donnie's personal attitude, even though he uses a book word. The second is just formal politeness, which emphasizes the difference between the rightness of the disputants.

This phrase were interpreted on official Russian dub as (okay, it's really hard to choose the correct word, because there's a lot of synonyms in English that sits quite well, while on Russian it's just one word, damn) "Нет, милая (No, honey/sweetheart )". Actually, a strange choice of wording, 'cause this is not what usually friends use to say to each other. We prefer use words like " my darling", "my dear", to demonstrate leniency. And again, most often this prerogative belongs to the older generation. Russians rarely throw around such words as "honey", "dear", "sunshine", because this deprives these endearments of any meaning, and a person using them, as a rule, is familiar. Of course, there are people who use them on a regular basis, but I HIGHLY doubt that Donatello is one of them. It's not his style.

But still, maybe I just too critical at this point.

April, as it is shown, have some kind of power to cool and calm him down and bring Donnie back to life reality.

1. Don awakes from his daze while heard April's voice

2. He's literally coming back to life, when April said about his broken jetpack.

3. Dee obediently interrupts his touching farewell to the jacket when April yells at him.

Oh, and his face. I remind you, fellas, we're talking about Donatello, "I really do not like to express emotions"-guy and "I will die if someone broke my bAbEyS"-guy.

And what do we see? Donnie's emoting. And feels free to do that. He's even drooling. (What seems kinda interesting without context, if you're understand what I'm talking about ;))

Dee doesn't seem angry about broken jetpack. And his wide smile, while he's assuring April he can fix it? A few minutes ago, he was steamed when his stuff was stolen, but when the jetpack was broken, he doesn't even raise an eyebrow. Very eloquent.

April is his support

April also supports Donnie whatever he's up to. Yes, she hadn't been excited when Othello had expressed a desire to join the club. However, she also introduced him to Kendra and company. Yes, she showed by her whole appearance that she did not share his joy, but nevertheless, our loyal captain O'Neil was there for him, by his side all this time.

And her sweet facial expression. From "Srsly? Join this jerks?" to "If you dare to even think about to hurt him, I'll smash you".

And one more cute detail about Dee. Even if he does whatever he wanted so badly, Don constantly looks around at April, looking for her approval.

- Be honest, April, do I look fantastic, or SUPERBLY fantastic?

- You look like you drop a juice box in a laundry. (Play nice, April, don't be mean)

He cherishes her opinion.

April had even called him late at night just to, technically speaking, say that his tech were stolen. And what's the big deal with all his outfit? It's late night, they can just sneak out into Nakamura in their usual form. But noooo, April give a special ride on her bicycle. Just. You know. Our girl carried her own weight and his all the way without stopping. And then she went up 53 + floors running non-stop because Donnie's equipment was stolen. And then she had to chase the her classmates, dodge and jump out of the window. Because Purple dragons stole Dee's tech. Like shooting fish in a barrel, no big deal at all.

And it's definitely not because he will be totally crashed or he'll do stupid things during his anger, which will then come out sideways.

And April comes along with him to very end.

By the way, their phone conversations.

Donnie is the very case when "Call at any time of the day or night and I will pick up the phone".

When April called him when he needs D's help with Albearto, when something is definitely going on behind.

As it says in transcript of the episode:

[April takes out her phone, scrolls to Donnie’s listing and calls him. Donatello appears on screen. Behind him a flying microwave wearing boxing gloves shoots lasers at his brothers.]

Don: "You are conversing with Donatello."

April

[Crouched on floor in hiding.]

Dude, I need your help."

Don: "For you, anything. As long as it does not involve bees, or spiders, or beach balls.

[There’s an explosion behind him and his brothers cry out, which he ignores.]

And yeah, he took her incoming immediately, he ignores absolutely and totally everything around him, because... April? Expositions, bloody flying microwave bot turned to destroy mode, his brothers screaming and being in life-threatening situation? Naaah, it can wait.

Donatello was at Todd's, building "the puppiest place on Earth" and was very enthusiastic about to finish this thing. But he paused anyway to answer April.

We already know how obsessive with work Don can be: if something interesting gets into his field of view, he begins to do it all day long. Remember "The Purple Game" - a very revealing case. Yeah, we weren't shown how much Donnie is into engineering, but I can guess that point remains the same.

April called him at late night and Donnie picked up the phone.

April, unlike Donatello, is a teenager who is burdened with social relationship such as family, school, and work periodically, which implies a more or less strict schedule to follow and some conventions, such as " April, you can't go out late at night to catch robbers, you are underage and you have to go to school/work tomorrow). However, she was watching the news late at night, so she called Dee. ( I have a lot of questions, but I'll never get answers, as it seems)

D, in turn, doesn't have so many contacts with the outside world. I highly doubt that anyone else outside of the family and April has his number. And yet, when he hears the call late at night he takes it. Yes, he had awaken from the nightmare, but still.

And what's up with his usual "You're conversing with Donatello"? He didn't even understand what's going on, as it seems, he's too sleepy to play his usual image and playfully attitude as we could see in "Hypno Part Deux" and "War and Pizza".

Adorable couple-like D&A arguing

April very rarely uses "I told you so" against anybody, or rather, this is almost the only case. This phrase is more suitable for Leo or Donnie, and you know," I told you so! " we usually use on people we know well, and we want to tease 'em about them being wrong. Which, in fact, once again highlights and proves how close D&A are. And I don't even get started about the fact that this is more like a couple's quarrel, not a friend's.

And one more time - in the end, when April suggests using the jacket to stop Kendra.

Their teamwork

I stated that before, I'll tell it one more and more times. The chemistry of their team interaction is incredible. It's as if they can feel each other, and each knows what the other is capable of doing in the next moment. April easily adapts to Donnie's attack, realizing his plan.

Donnie also throws them both out of the window in order to continue the pursuiting Kendra on the jetpack. Don is one hundred percent sure of April, that she will understand what he wants to do, Dee trusts her with his life without hesitation, and she has never used his jetpack. He just puts her before the fact: April will be using the tech.

Up for Donnie!

I really like how this scene was made. Donatello struggles with his own tech, somewhat he made by himself, having invested almost whole himself and his soul, but what "betrayed" him in end. When Dee finally managed to shake one of his battleshell, which almost choked him, Donnie feel so scared and unsecured. We can see his anxiety - Dee's coaching position with covering his head with his hands and tucking his knees.

Defenseless, helpless, and mostly lost, and then, just in time - hero comes to save his life. She uses Donnie's name as battlecry, look how furious she is.

Funny fact: on Russian dub April yells "Don't touch Donnie! (how dare you, madafaka)

April fits in Donnie's type of girls. She's cute (obvious) and mean (not so obvious).

I can't say that meanness is the main feature of April's character, as we can say about Kendra. But this personality trait is still present in her and sometimes it does not manifest itself so widely. April's meanness is not so pronounced, it is much softer and smoother, and it is not exposed.

But April becomes really mean when someone messes up with Donnie.

She's his support and prop. Literally. Just look at first frame, okay-okay, jokes aside

She's genuinely enjoying of kicking bad guys ' asses, even letting go of witticisms and barbs.

Last scenes

Don survived a rough night: he was used, his tech was stolen, so he and April had to chase the satin robed punks. Donnie was hit in the head with a hammer, he fell from a bird's-eye view, passed out and then his battleshell tried to strangle him. And April is here to comfort him, to cheer him up.

Yes, we don't get any hugs (because it's kids show, bleh), the tactility is kept to a minimum, except for April's comforting hand on his shoulder, but they don't even look at each other. But the softness of her voice, the intonation with which she utters a phrase (that is usually sent to the friend zone, but "pal" is really neutral word, and the most important how she said that) turn the scene upside down. It is not what April did to comfort him matter, it's how she did this.

I said "yes" to you way too often

April mirrors Donnie with his "Anything for you". Yes, of course, she said this with a certain amount of grumbling, but her voice and her demeanor suggest otherwise - she is not at all averse to going to giving in him.

And the way they're look at each other.

This one

And one more detail

It's really tiny, it's hard to catch from the first watching the episode, but still, it's possible. I'm talking about graffiti on the walls of the alley where April and Don had landed.

This one

Yeah, if we speak about reality it's quite normal to see graffiti like this. But we talking about TV-series, where everything has its own place and meaning. And if there something, it must be there, it's not just whim of artist who put it in there. But this little graffiti changes the mood of scene.

[breeeliss]

i heard some people don’t know about the Taang/Kummi theory

So this was originally supposed to be a response to an ask I had gotten about this ATLA theory, but because Read More links on Tumblr asks seem to break once you edit them, I’m reposting so that people can actually see the post lol 

For anyone who wasn’t a part of the Toph x Aang LiveJournal fandom in the early 2000s, buckle up, because this bugged me out as a 13 year old. 

Remember the end of “The Swamp” (Book 2, Episode 4)? We find out the swamp isn’t haunted, Huu was just protecting it the whole time, and then he explains to Katara, Sokka, and Aang why the swamp is so mystical and sacred.

The swamp is just one big banyan grove tree that’s grown out over miles and miles. All the branches and trees they see are connected because they’re one big breathing organism. And that extends to life as well. We’re all living beings. We all share the same roots. We all are from the same tree, even if we don’t act like it. Everything is connected! Cool stuff.

But when Katara asks what her seeing her mother and what Sokka seeing Yue meant, Huu explains that “in the swamp, we see visions of people we lost, people we’ve loved, folks we think are gone, but the swamp tells us they’re not. We’re still connected to them. Time is an illusion, and so is death.” So Katara never really lost her mother and Sokka never really lost Yue because the connections we make in life transcend death and time. They’re not gone. They’re still a part of us. The swamp reminds us of this.

Now, to keep in theme with this, we probably would’ve expected Aang to also see visions of people he’s lost and loved before (Gyatso, the other Airbenders, his culture, etc.)

But for some reason, Aang sees...Toph. Someone he doesn’t know.

Huu doesn’t really give Aang an explanation for this, he sort of just lets Aang figure it out for himself. And what we’re left is “okay well if time is an illusion and this isn’t someone I’ve made a connection with yet, it’s someone I will make a connection with.” We’re made to accept that as viewers, but why was Aang’s vision so different? Was it really just to lead him in the direction of his Earthbending Master so that he can continue on with his destiny?

Or was it because, unbeknownst to Aang, Toph actually was someone that he had loved and lost before? Just not in this life. In another life. A past life. When he wasn’t Aang, but rather Avatar Kuruk, the Southern Water Tribe Avatar that came before Avatar Kyoshi.

✨Basically the theory is that Toph is one of the reincarnations of Ummi, the southern water tribe woman that fell in love with Avatar Kuruk and had her face tragically stolen by Koh, the Face Stealer.✨

Stay with me, because it gets way deeper.

Who are Kuruk and Ummi you ask?

We formally meet Kuruk during “Sozin’s Comet Part 2: The Old Masters” (Book 3, Episode 19) when Aang is appealing to his past lives for wisdom with regard to what to do with Ozai. Kuruk was a “go with the flow” (lmao) Avatar and sort of just let things play out and it seemed to work for him. He met a girl named Ummi, they fell in love, they were gonna get married, cool.  

According to the comic books, Koh I guess was kinda off-put by Kuruk’s arrogance? So as punishment this spirit straight up abducts Ummi on their wedding night and steals her face (ultimately killing her). He blames himself, saying if he’d been more attentive and active he could’ve saved her. He tried to kill Koh out of revenge over it, but could never do so. Koh alludes to this when Aang visits him in “The Siege of the North Part 2″ (Book 1, Episode 20) and shows Aang Ummi’s face. All in all, super tragic.

The Avatar never really “dies.” He’s constantly being reborn. The reason Aang is able to consult his past lives for wisdom is because all of his past lives are him. If the point of the swamp is to get you to understand that death is an illusion, then the swamp understands that the separation between Aang and Kuruk is also an illusion. They’re different people but also the same person all at once. They’re still connected.

So, assuming that Aang was no different from Katara and Sokka and was also seeing people that he’s loved and lost in the past while in the swamp, maybe Toph really is someone he’s met and known before. He just lost and loved her in a past life that neither of them remembers back when they were both completely different people.

But wait, what’s the proof that Ummi is one of Toph’s past lives?

This theory hinges on the assumption that the Avatar isn’t the only one who is capable of being reincarnated. So if you keep with that assumption, there are a few moments highlighted by the theory that connect Toph and Ummi.

The most obvious of which is that Toph is blind. Seeing as how Ummi lost her face when she was a human (and Koh still has it), it would make sense that her future reincarnations would potentially have some kind of loss of their senses attributed to, you know, getting your face ripped off. BUT, another detail that is, in my opinion, a little more interesting is one of Aang’s anxiety nightmares from “Nightmares and Daydreams” (Book 3, Episode 9). Specifically the part of the nightmare where Toph is featured looking like this:

(so creepy ;A;) But why does Toph manifest in Aang’s dream this way, devoid of life and devoid of a face of all things?

This dream that Aang is having is over his anxieties/fears over losing his friends. Sokka, Toph, and Katara all succumb to some sort of horrific end in this dream and Aang is unable to save them. It seems like his anxieties over losing Toph manifested through showing us Toph as a lifeless husk with...no face. Maybe when Aang was having this nightmare, some of the fears and anxieties felt by his previous lives were bleeding in. It would make sense that Kuruk’s greatest anxiety/fear would be losing his loved ones as well, after he failed to protect Ummi from having her face stolen.

And if we assume that Toph actually is Ummi (i.e. a reincarnation that Aang subconsciously remembers), it would make sense that Aang would see Toph standing there in the darkness. Her face stolen. Helpless to save her.

And then in “The Avatar and the Firelord” (Book 3, Episode 6), after learning about Zuko’s lineage and Avatar Roku’s relationship with Sozin, it’s Toph who remarks, “do you really think friendships can last more than one lifetime?”

It’s interesting that Toph would be the one to ask this. And it’s interesting that Aang is the one that reaches out to hold her hand first and tell him that he doesn’t see why that can’t be possible. Because these connections that transcend lifetimes aren’t limited to just the Avatar. They’re apparent in everyone’s lives, no matter who you are. And the fact that Toph and Aang were able to share that brief moment and give each other that reassurance makes sense if you consider that, several lifetimes ago for them both, they were a lot closer than just mere friends.

And are there other connections between Taang and Kummi?

The theory supports some interesting parallels between Kuruk and Ummi’s relationship and Toph and Aang’s relationship. Kuruk and Aang are very similar in that they both avoided their Avatar duties. Kuruk because of his lackadaisical nature and Aang because he was afraid.

Ummi ultimately ended up being Kuruk’s punishment for not being able break from this passivity and actively pursue his responsibilities as the Avatar. But, by contrast, Toph ended up being Aang’s greatest asset with regard to helping him break from his passivity and learn to face things head on no matter how impossible they may seem.

The Earthbending portion of “Bitter Work” (Book 2, Episode 9) is exclusively about this. Aang is passive by nature, hence why Earthbending is such a hard element for him to master. As Toph so eloquently put: “You had a perform stance, and a perfect form, but when it came right down to it you didn’t have the guts.” The whole episode she’s goading him into being strong and firm. She mercilessly lays into him for not being direct. For being a pushover. For not facing his problems. For not standing up for himself. For being passive. The very thing that was Kuruk’s downfall.

But the pushing works because Toph unlocks something very powerful in him. Toph taught him how to be active. To face his struggles head on. To not flinch before responsibility or danger. That moment where Aang stands up to the moose lion and promises Sokka that he won’t leave him alone (that he will be there to protect him, and he’ll stand staunch in the face of danger) is a really important emotional milestone. It’s a role that’s very different from the one that Katara plays in Aang’s life, but it’s no less important.

Katara has always been someone who cared deeply for Aang’s emotional needs, who understood the reasons why he was afraid, why he wanted to run away, why he wanted to avoid responsibility. But Toph was very much someone who took a much rougher approach to Aang. Because Aang needed it. Because Aang’s inactivity also threatened to be his downfall in this life because it got in the way of him mastering the Earth element. Toph and Aang became a victory instead of a tragedy. Toph wasn’t used as a way to hurt Aang, like Ummi was used to hurt Kuruk. Toph was one of Aang’s greatest sources of strength.

And it was their connection to each other -- their connection that transcended lifetimes -- that brought them back together as friends.

And maybe more if you feel like adding a ship to your repertoire.

[megsironthrone]

Dinner

Based off this request:  heyy, i think your writing is amazing !! i was wondering if you could do a request for your game of thrones book with Podrick Payne, i know you asked for a story line so i was thinking the reader would be a lannister and the youngest daughter of tywin (but she’s closer to Pod’s age) and she’s know as being the golden child of the lannisters and everyone loves her because she’s super sweet and caring but she’s smart and intelligent like the rest of them. I was thinking that even though everyone loves her she’s really close with tyrion, bronn and Pod and all of them have dinner together as close friends where they aren’t formal and make jokes and enjoy each other’s company but Pod is a blushing mess who stumbles over his words and all that but the reader is confident and it’s all fluffy and heart felt like that, maybe it ends with a kiss or something, i’m not sure i’m not so good with writing !! anyway if you don’t want to write it or can’t get around to it i totally understand just thought i’d ask anyway, i still enjoy your other stories!

Here you are! I love writing awkward fluff. *Familiar Characters are NOT mine!*

Warnings: A little awkwardness, FLUFF! Mentions of alcohol.

Pairings/Characters: Podrick Payne x fem!Lannister reader

There was an odd duck in every family. In House Lannister, it was you. It wasn't that you were really odd. You were just different than the others in your family. You were as intelligent as the rest of your family. You could be cunning and had a strategic mind like them. The difference was how you used your mind. You used it to solve the problems of others instead of searching for power or knowledge. You were sweet and cared about others more than the rest of your family.

         That didn't mean they didn't love you. In fact, they did. You were close with many people in the Red Keep, but none more than your older brother Tyrion, his friend Bronn, and his squire Podrick. The four of you had weekly suppers where the wine flowed and the laughter was plenty. They were your favorite times of the week. Especially on nights like tonight.

         You weren't drinking as much as Tyrion and Bronn, but that didn't stop them from poking fun at poor Podrick. He drank a little too, but when he drank, he became a blushing and stuttering mess. Well, more of one than he normally was around you. You thought it was utterly adorable and decided to tell him so.

         Tyrion and Bronn had both reached the point where they had too much to drink. They were both slumped over the table, snores echoing through the room. You and Podrick sat next to each other where you continued talking and laughing at the two of them. Podrick's cheeks were tinted pink and his brown eyes kept swinging over to you when he thought you weren't looking. It was clear that at least some part of him wanted to forget that outside of your personal spaces, you were a lady and he was a squire. You wanted that too. You wanted Podrick to be yours and only yours. And you had  habit of going for what you wanted, consequences be damned.

         "What?" you asked him. His cheeks got darker and he mumbled something. You asked again and he said a little louder, "You're beautiful." You felt your own face heat up, but you didn't say anything at first. Despite the fact that you had an idea that Podrick had feelings for you, hearing him say them made you giddy.

         "I should go. Lord Tyrion will need me in the morning," he muttered, moving to rise. Your hand moved of its own accord, shooting out to grab Podrick's gently. "Wait. Please." Podrick's eyes met yours. You nearly melted under his gaze when he sat back down. You licked your lips, cheering inside when his eyes instantly darted down to them.

         "I think you're beautiful too, Podrick." Podrick laughed and shook his head, but you were adamant. "You are! You're so handsome. And charming. Kind. Witty. You have a beautiful soul, Podrick Payne." You were proud that, in spite of your drinking, you hadn't lost any of you confidence or eloquence.

         Podrick merely stared at you for a moment as if he were trying to take in all that you had said. You giggled slightly before reaching up to run your fingers through his hair. It was softer than you had imagined. Podrick practically preened under your touch for a moment before clearing his throat. He gingerly took your hand to remove it from his hair. "My lady-Y/N. T-This isn't right." You arched a brow. "Y-You're a lady. I'm just…just a squire."

         "Oh shut it with that. You know I've never cared about that. You mean more to me than just my brother's squire. I love you, Podrick." You both froze. You hadn't meant to say that out loud. Your eyes met again. Podrick's brown irises were swirling with a mix of confusion, surprise, and pure adoration. It gave you the boost you needed to repeat yourself. "I love you." You gripped his hand a little tighter to emphasize that you were serious.

         Podrick gave you a sad smile. "I-I thought…I mean, I had hoped that you felt the same. But we can't, Y/N. I mean, my lady." You let out an annoyed sigh. "Podrick, do you love me?" He instantly nodded his head. "Very much." You smiled as you slid a little closer to him. "And I love you. Behind these doors, we aren't Lady Y/N or a squire. We're just Y/N and Podrick, two people who love each other. I want to be with you, Podrick. I don't care what anyone else has to say about it. I want this if you do."

         "I do, but-" you cut him off by placing your free hand on his cheek. He nearly stopped breathing, as if his mind couldn't catch up to the fact that you were so close. "No 'buts'. Even if we have to keep it a secret, I want to explore what this is. This is my choice. You are my choice. Am I yours?"

         A particularly loud snore caused you to jump, breaking up the staring contest you were having. Podrick took that opportunity to rise and offered his hand to help you up. "We should go." Your heart sank to your feet. You weren't used to this type of heartbreak. As you and Podrick walked down the corridors, you felt unbidden tears pricking your eyes.

         Outside your chambers, you tried to run into your room without looking at Podrick. You needed to be away from him. But his hand on your arm stopped you. "Y/N?" You faced him, tears streaming down your face. Podrick frowned. He reached up to dry your tears. His touch was so gentle, it sent a shiver through you. "Don't cry, my Y/N," he whispered.

         "How can I not? Y-You don't want to take a chance on us." It was Podrick's turn to look confused before a soft smile made its way to his face. "I didn't get the chance to answer you," he said softly, taking a step closer to you. You were trapped between him and the door to your chambers. He leaned in closer to lean his forehead on yours.

         "You are my choice, Y/N. You will always be my choice." He placed a feather-light kiss to your forehead and then to your cheek. "Podrick?" He hummed in response. "Come inside?" His eyes widened comically, making you giggle in the dark, empty corridor. "Nothing like that. Although, I would like to experience what Baelish's girls did some day, I just…I just want you to hold me for now."

         Podrick grinned and nodded, prompting you to open your chamber door. Not wanting him to be uncomfortable, you kept your dress on as you pulled him toward your bed. As soon as you were lying down, he wrapped his arms around you. You felt his lips on the top of your head. "I love you," he breathed out. His breath tickled and made another shiver run down your spine.

         You looked up at him. "I love you, too." The hand that wasn't wrapped around you came up to cup your cheek. He lightly ran his thumb across your skin. You couldn't pull your eyes away from his even if you wanted to. The only time you did was when closed them as your lips finally met for the first time. And when they did, you weren't sure you'd ever want to stop.

(a/n: I hope you like it!)

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