#friendships are difficult.

[timetravelsong]

𝐈𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐈’𝐦 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭. 𝐈’𝐦 𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞.

excerpts from a book I’ll never write

[abyssal-ilk]

thinking about sten again. thinking about him calling the warden kadan and never explaining what it means. thinking about him offering to take the warden back with him to par vollen, but it's never actually an option the warden takes, even if you agree. thinking about how sten responds the best to a warden who stands their ground even if he doesn't agree with them. thinking about how he loves sweets and art, and how he plays with kittens. "it's training," he says. but come on. he's playing. thinking about what else he's had to justify to himself for liking.

and he calls alistair kadan! shale as well! do you think it was ever extended to the other party members? just,, agh

[popfizzles]

Eeon is awesome and 2018 tumblr did you wrong. we're ready for her now

thank you 🥺 im glad today tumblr loves her

[alcoholicweiwuxian]

bestiessssss <3

click for better quality; tumblr eats lines

[haveihitanerve]

Jim Gordon has worked sooo hard to not reveal he knows Batman’s identity. But Batman being Batman, combined with Dick and Barbara now dating, just pushes him over the edge Batman: we’re not friends, Commissioner. Jim: Your son is dating my daughter, Bruce. I think we’re past friends Batman:…. Jim:…. Shit

[wafflesrisa]

Listen shipping aside I fully believe Charles and Carlos are friends irl

If it’s a PR-only friendship then they both deserve an oscar. But it’s also true that their friendship is publicly put under strain at times, due to stuff happening on the track and comments to the media afterwards

They’ve both said before that their friendship will probably deepen rather than fade away once they’re driving for different teams. I’m going to believe them

[the-tortured-apollo-department]

It melts my heart to know that Endou is an even sweeter person in the game, he takes such good care of everyone 🥹

Treats Tachimukai like his little brother, gets up immediately when Fubuki starts having nightmares, protects Kidou from being slandered by his former school partners...

It's no surprise that Hiroto fell in love with him

[skunkes]

thank god for the rarity of befriending ppl you really click with. It hadn't happened to me in so long... <- and this will start making you feel like you're unlovable and that there's something wrong with u

[twpromptsillneverwrite]

Allison: Hey, Stiles! I don't know if Scott told you but we're having a small reunion with some friends. You should come with your boyfriend!

Stiles: My boyfriend? Who are you talking about?

Allison: The tall, bearded, muscular guy, who always looks like he's one minute away from committing murder.

Stiles: Derek!? He's not my boyfriend.

Allison: He isn't? You two would make a great couple.

Stiles: You ship me with a guy who you described as looking like a murderer? Am I that lonely?

[clockwork-carstairs]

i have to say seeing how popular jem is now, knowing he hasn't always been, is SO reassuring and relieving. not because other characters aren't great or have good values, but because it means jem's standout qualities – things like kindness, compassion, gentleness, being thoughtful – are being appreciated and seen as more important and that's SUCH a good thing. especially knowing ya's history of pushing forward the toxic-cocky-mysterious bad boy agenda… we're finally putting qualities like kindness above that, which is a really positive step forward. i know it's more nuanced than this, and tsc's characters are far more nuanced (jem's sole trait isn't being kind, for instance) but he wasn't always appreciated this much and as a longtime jem fan i truly love to see it. i grew up reading books where the mc always went for the mysterious bad boy character – ruder, testy, provocative – and often these characters were more popular because being kind was seen as 'boring' or meant you could only ever be in the friendzone. jem was one of the first characters i read who had this really horrible backstory, but throughout everything was genuinely just kind. it's really wonderful to see so many people appreciating that :)

[sophsun1]

Which is why I've come. I already told Ted there's nothing. I know what you told him. I also know what you think about Teddy and me, that we're just a couple of silly queens setting up house, that it'll never work. Well, there was a time when I would've thought exactly the same thing. But miracle of miracles, I have never been happier in my entire life and you want to know why? Because he gives me love. And respect. And now it is my turn to give him something back. Now I swore to myself this wasn't going to wind up an old Lana Turner movie, but it looks like that's the direction it's headed, so I'm going to make Lana proud.

Queer as Folk – 3.07: Stop Hurting Us

[ghostdrinkssoup]

one of my biggest pet peeves is when people slap a sibling label onto characters as a way to shutdown romantic interpretations like just say you think they’re friends! siblings have a very specific dynamic in fiction! not every close relationship is sibling-coded!

[afewproblems]

Difficult Days Part One

Even at ten years old Shawn knew he was different. 

It didn’t take a genius to notice, and Shawn was certainly good at noticing things --observing, his dad would be quick to say, correcting him as usual. 

His dad did that a lot, correcting, insisting there was a right way to do things; there was a right way to play hide and seek, there was a right way to camp, to relax, and more often than not it was the opposite of what Shawn was doing. 

While other kids learned how to play baseball and spent their loose change at the arcade, Shawn was instead learning how to navigate through the woods without a compass, escape from the trunk of a car, and how to spot a squeaky floorboard from four paces. 

While his classmates were at the beach, searching for jellyfish in the low tide pools, Shawn would memorize the layout of restaurants and describe the last three patrons to walk through the door in the time it took him and his dad to get their drink orders. 

‘You can’t skate through life Shawn,’ his dad would tell him, breathing the words out sharply, ‘you have skills others don’t and you need to use them the right way, I don’t get why you can’t see that’.

It was exhausting. 

Why was the right way only his dad’s way? It had never been very clearly explained to Shawn, other than how great of a cop he could be -maybe even a detective. But why couldn't he use his observation skills the way he wanted to? This grownup stuff was years away!  It wasn’t like it was something he could turn off, so what was the big deal?

Like Mr. Cooper’s homework spot checks. 

None of the other kids had managed to figure out his system, the pattern to the days when their teacher would ask for their math homework.

Tommy Decker insisted it was completely random, that the man asked for it on a whim -just to torture them all. 

Mandy Holloway on the other hand, whose sister had Mr. Cooper for math the previous year, argued that it was based on the moon cycle and every second new moon the pattern would change - you just have to track it Tommy.

But somehow Shawn always, always, seemed to know without fail the day that Mr. Cooper would ask them all to pass their work to the front of each row.

It wasn’t Shawn’s fault that Mr. Cooper was incredibly obvious, so why shouldn't he take advantage of it? Besides, it was almost mind boggling how the other kids in his class couldn’t see the many, many, tells their teacher had. 

First, there were the heavy purple bags under Mr. Cooper's eyes that would tend to show up a few days before the homework check. 

Mr. Cooper would also become noticeably agitated over the smallest of incidents in the classroom, whether a student was running late or even opened their book bags a little too loudly - it didn’t matter, detention was in their future. 

That coupled with the noticeable creases in Mr. Cooper’s shirts, unironed, and lacking the normal meticulous care --probably on the outs with his wife based on the intermittent wearing of his large gold wedding band.

Finally, and honestly how no one else in his class seemed to see this one, if Mr. Cooper brought in a gas station paper coffee cup as he walked into the classroom -instead of his usual metal thermos from home, that was the nail in the coffin. The final sign that Mr. Cooper would be demanding their homework the very next day. 

It was so, so obvious, at least to Shawn.

But then, so too was Shawns ability to avoid the seemingly random spot checks.

“How do you always know?” Tommy whispers to Shawn near the end of the school year, his voice quiet to avoid Mr. Cooper’s notice as the man wanders up and down the rows of desks.

“Know what?” Shawn says, his voice equally soft as he turns towards Tommy, whose face twists into a sneer at the question.

Tommy scoffs with narrowed blue eyes, “Duh, Cooper’s homework checks, you’ve never not handed it in - what are you some kind of nerd?” 

Shawn blinks, the way Tommy spits out the word, nerd, can’t bode well for him. He remembers just the previous year, how Tommy and a few of the other boys in their grade had given Gus a hard time, even going so far to give his best friend a swirly. Shawn shivers at the memory and shakes his head rapidly, he opens his mouth to argue when suddenly a shadow appears over his desk. 

He manages to quickly turn back to his paper, away from Tommy’s glare, and writes down an answer to question seven from their textbook. It’s not the right answer, he knows that already, but it’s enough to throw Mr. Cooper off his scent.

Their teacher shifts away from Shawn, seemingly satisfied, and looks at Tommy who isn’t quite fast enough.

“Eyes on your own paper Thomas, I don’t want to have to tell you again,” Mr. Cooper says sternly, but his voice is tired at the edges. Whatever fight the Coopers had must have been a real doozy this time. Shawn tries not to think about his own parents' fights and the silence that would drift through the house for days afterwards. Did Mrs. Cooper shut down the way Shawn's mom so often did? Maybe Mr. Cooper yelled, like Shawn's dad. It seemed likely given the number of detentions the man had assigned their class this year. 

Mr.Cooper waits for another beat between their desks until Tommy finally shifts in his chair and lowers his face to his desk, the tips of his ears quickly flushing pink beneath curly blond hair. 

“Yes Mr. Cooper,” Tommy mumbles into his desk. 

Their teacher nods and leaves, making his way over to a pair of girls on the far side of the room hiding a magazine under the desk - or trying to. 

“You did that on purpose,” Tommy hisses, shooting a withering glare at Shawn, “you knew he was there-”

“What am I psychic?” Shawn huffs with a roll of his eyes, “how was I supposed to know he was there, huh?”

Tommy turns away again, glaring at the paper on his desk. Shawn watches as Tommy catches the eye of Marcus Boon across the classroom.

Shawn stifles a low groan as the other boy's eyes flick between him and Tommy; Marcus levels him with a sneer to rival Tommy’s own and lifts a finger to his throat before dragging it across in one smooth motion. 

Well, shit. 

So much for making it through at least one school year without getting into a fight. 

***

“You should’a just told him,” Gus breathes out, his chest heaving as he and Shawn scramble over the fence of the Spencer front yard. Both boys make a beeline for the porch, Gus keeps watch while Shawn stops first at the small garden to grab the spare hide-a-key out from the fake rock beside his mom’s hydrangeas.

Shawn is lucky that Gus had been with him on the way home from school, not that it had stopped Tommy Decker and Marcus Boon from making good on their threat from math class, chasing Shawn down the road to the boardwalk.

Shawn winces as his fingers grip the key, his hands hurt from where he had managed to stop himself from falling face first into the gravel after being shoved by Marcus. 

Thankfully Gus had managed to distract the pair of boys long enough for them to make a run for it. 

“Tommy’s an asshole, they both are, why should I tell them anything,” Shawn mutters, wincing as his split lip opens again, the smell of copper invades his nose, making him nauseous. 

He gets the key in the door and opens it, bringing in the fake rock with him. He’ll have to explain to his dad that he ‘lost’ his house key again, knowing that Tommy and Marcus had taken it from him and thrown it into the trees off the side of the road. One more thing for his dad to lecture him over.

Shawn can feel Gus staring as he brings the hide-a-key with him into the kitchen, but says nothing as the pair make their way through the quiet house. 

He places the rock on the counter with the spare key beside it. Gus opens the pantry door and takes a pair of Wagon Wheels out of the already open box, the cellophane crinkles as Gus tosses one to Shawn. 

“All I'm saying is you might get beat up less,” Gus says before taking a large bite of the chocolate snack cake, he wipes the mess of crumbs from his cheeks onto the floor and shoots Shawn a grin at the mess.

“And I'm saying, they don't need much of an excuse,” Shawn counters, matching Gus’ grin as he watches the collection of crumbs grow on the kitchen tile floor.

Shawn chews on his lip, playing with the thin cellophane around his snack cake, “It’s…it's weird, right?”

Gus blinks, his lips quirk into a half frown as he takes another pensive bite of his cake before finally shrugging. 

“Well, who cares? I think we're cool so if that's weird, then we're weird together”.

Shawn lets a groan out and shakes his hands so hard his own snack cake goes flying onto the counter with a soft thunk.

“No!” He breathes out sharply, “I mean, it's weird being able to know things about people without trying, I don’t want to know them, I don't want to be in this situation, it’s weird and it sucks and dad thinks its so great but--”

Shawn stops speaking as the last of Gus’ chocolate cake is suddenly smushed into the side of his face. Crumbs and icing litter the tile around them, some has smeared from Gus's shoes in his haste to dart out of the line of fire. The previously spotless kitchen is now completely filthy in just a matter of seconds.

Shawn slowly looks at Gus, who has the widest grin on his face, and breathes out a startled laugh.

“Dad is going to kill you,” he says, wiping cake and icing from his cheek. 

“He's not my dad,” Gus snorts as he tries to dodge Shawn's swipe of cake hands.

He might as well be, Shawn thinks to himself as he reaches for more cake crumbs from the floor and manages to smear them onto Gus’ face. 

At least one upside to Shawn’s memory is he’ll be able to hold onto this, their laughter in the afternoon sun, the smell of chocolate, for a really really long time.

Wrestling in the kitchen with his best friend, previous hurts forgotten for now and with chocolate smeared all over their clothes, their faces, and the floor, Shawn had never felt less like an only child. 

Tag List: @adaed5 @drakkywolf

Part Two

[mckitterick]

Here for each other

"Pooh?" said Piglet.

"Yes?" said Pooh.

"I'm scared," said Piglet.

For a moment, both sat silently.

"Would you like to talk about it?" asked Pooh, when Piglet didn't say anything further.

"I'm just so scared," blurted out Piglet. "So anxious. Because I don't feel that things are getting better. If anything, I feel they are getting worse. People are angry, because they're so scared, and they're turning on one another, and there seems to be no clear path out of this mess, and I worry about my friends and the people I love, and I wish so much that I could give them all a hug. And oh, Pooh! I am so scared, and I cannot tell you how much I wish it wasn't so."

Pooh was thoughtful as he looked up at the blue skies peeping between the branches of the trees in Hundred Acre Wood, and listened to his friend.

"I'm here," he said, simply. "I hear you, Piglet. And I'm here."

For a moment, Piglet looked perplexed.

"But... aren't you going to tell me not to be silly? That I should stop getting myself into a state and pull myself together? That it's hard for everyone right now?"

"No," said Pooh. "No, I'm very much not going to do any of those things."

“But..." started Piglet, trailing off.

"I can't change the world right now," said Pooh. "And I'm not going to patronize you with platitudes about how everything will be okay, because I don't know that.

"What I can do, Piglet, is make sure you know I'm here. I will always be here to listen, and support you, and let you know that you are heard.

"I can't make those Anxious Feelings go away. But I can promise you that, all the time I have breath left in my body, you won't ever need to feel those Anxious Feelings alone."

And it was a strange thing, because as Pooh said that, Piglet felt some of those Anxious Feelings start to loosen their grip on him, and he could feel one or two of them slither away into the shadows of the forest, cowed by his friend, who sat stolidly next to him in the afternoon sunshine of their little clearing.

Piglet had never felt more grateful to have Pooh in his life.

[serendippertyy]

hrnnnng your art style is beautiful and oh gosh I love how you draw ponies so much 😭😭 do you have more of your next gen designs? Or hypothetical children for the mane six? I'd love to see a sunburst (probably misspelled his name haha) and twilight fanchild. Like I'm just saying if I could eat art I would consume the crap out of yours

i actually have TWO twiburst kids! ☺️ i decided to do some doodles real quick because I haven't drawn them in a LONGGG time so take these as hypothetical redesigns for them haha

I'll talk some more about them below!

this is artemis, he is a massive nerd and strong magic user just like his parents. he is a renowned author who specializes in magic research and is occasionally tutored by the now retired celestia!

and this is his sister dream weaver, she specializes in interpreting and understanding dreams, something that the now retired luna lends a hoof in!

these two are my most fleshed out next gens, i have a couple other random underdeveloped next gen families but they're VERY old and need a redo, but if you're curious they're all posted on my deviantart account!

[madbard]

I wonder if Odysseus will feel uncomfortable about Athena and Telemachus’ friendship at first. Imagine getting home after decades of hardship, only to discover that your son has befriended the person who abandoned you.

After everything they went through together, and everything they went through after parting, would he be glad that Telemachus had some level of guidance? Or would he hate the idea of that cold-blooded goddess of war, the one who abandoned him to misery for choosing not to kill, having any influence over the life of his son?