#god i NEED to start that newsletter

[cranberrylane]

i don't drink but i'd love to crack one open with the whole trigun crew

[tardis--dreams]

Freed from the chains of academic misery just to immediately be thrown into the dungeon of a Full time position

[redflagshipwriter]

Hot Ghouls in your Area 9

masterpost

“Good morning!”

Jason winced and moved the phone a little further from his face. “Is this Doctor Fenton?” 

“It's one of them! What can I do ya for?” Jack Fenton boomed, just as bombastic as his newsletter made him seem. Jason knew, deep in his heart, that Jack Fenton was indeed the one who had selected green neon bold for his headings and borders. 

Angels wept. Jason scrubbed his palm over his eye. This man had no poetry in his soul. “I, uh, had some questions about a ghost. I've read some of your articles and your most recent published paper on the topic.”

“We love ghosts!” Fenton bellowed. “Ask away!”

“Do you know a ghost called Phantom?” Jason tried.

“...Sure do,” Jack Fenton said. “Whatcha need?” 

Jason cleared his throat. “It's somewhat complicated,” he said evasively, because he didn't need these people to know he was the Red Hood. Fuck. He should have either gotten his helmet stored away or not given his real name. Phantom knew his face and that his name was Jason. Any information that got around via Phantom might tie his face to his alter ego. If Phantom said he got married to Jason, the Red Hood, that could lead to the end of the Bat family vigilantism.

“...He cause you trouble, sport?”

Jason let out a slight laugh. “You could say that, though it wasn't really his fault,” he admitted. He cast a paranoid eye out the window to be sure no siblings were creeping on him. “No, it's really more that…” Fuck, he should have planned this better. “Is there any information you can give me about how a human could contact him?” 

Not that Jason didn't have a phone number for the guy. But it made him very uncomfortable to have any basic knowledge or way to track Phantom down if he decided to leave Jason to whatever was going on. 

“I could probably do that,” Jack Fenton said slowly, now sounding like an entirely different human being. “Say, you wouldn't be Jeremy, would you?”

Jason blinked. “...How did you know?” He went with. Phantom had contact with a human guy named Jeremy? That might be his in.

“Oh, well then, you've definitely got to come over,” Dr. Fenton wheedled. It somehow came across as shifty. “You'll be wanting a whole primer on how the Ghost Zone works, won't ya?” 

“That would be immensely helpful,” Jason agreed. “But I'd hate to take up your valuable time.”

“Nonsense!” Fenton bellowed. Jason nearly lost his grip on his phone in surprise. “Come over Jeremy, I'm dying to meetcha!” 

So, there was a plan. Jason packed for a day trip and dialed up his travel agent. 

“Fuck off,” said Tim. “I'm busy. Christ.” 

“I need an airplane ticket and a rental bike to Illinois,” Jason continued. He tossed his mostly full bag on the sofa and went digging for the socks he knew he had washed the other night. “I'm going to go see some nerds about my impromptu adventure the other day.”

Tim groaned. That was the first Jason had given any hint at all about what had happened to him when he'd been ‘sacrificed.’ “What nerds?” He asked wearily. 

Jason grinned into his sock drawer. Gottem. “Why, do you all know each other?” He asked blithely. 

“Do you always antagonize people you want favors from?” Tim whined. A keyboard clacked rapidly in the background. “Jason, I swear to God, you massive bitch. Cut the crap and communicate, or I'm hanging up.” 

Jason frowned at his socks and grabbed a random pair. “You don't gotta be like that,” he said sulkily. He slammed the socks into his bag with a very unsatisfying silence. “So, the ritual doohickey sent me to the infinite underworld, I met a guy there actually and we are magically connected because he's who that dumb ritual matched me up to. He doesn't want to be stuck with a human so we are on the same page about breaking this. We started looking for answers and he took me back to Earth since it's not good for humans to be in the green dimension for too long.” 

There was silence from the other end of the line for a few seconds. “You're fucking lying,” Tim said. 

“Only by leaving things out.” A bit stung, Jason pulled a hand through his hair and accidentally ruined his good hair day. 

“What are you leaving out?” Tim rejoined swiftly.

Jason laughed at him. “You think you're getting that kinda information in exchange for plane tickets?” He asked incredulously. 

“You are the most annoying person who has ever tried to kill me.”

Ouch. That genuinely stung.

“Fuck off.” Jason slammed the drawers shut. 

“I could guess aliens or supernatural off of what you just said.” Tim ignored Jason’s very good point. “Based off of your trip to the Gotham U campus and-”

“Are you still stalking me?” Jason cut him off, incredulous. He scoffed. “Little buddy, you already got my pixie boots, Red Robin costume, and my Dad. What else do you wanna take from me?”

“I think that you were there to assess Daniel Fenton,” Tim ignored him.

Jason was silent for a moment. There was probably no point in pretending that Tim was wrong. “You already knew about the Fenton’s connection to the supernatural.” He was suddenly tired.

“His older sister is an intern at Arkham, she stepped out of line to get a chance to talk to Jeremy Waters.” Tim didn’t seem to notice that the mood had changed. He was caught up on whatever twenty level plan was whirring away internally.

Jason looked at the wall for a moment, not bothering to think about why that name was familiar. “...and that is…?”

“The guy who kidnapped you, keep up,” Tim snarked. “Her supervisor guessed what she was hinting at, shut her down, put a note about it in the private server so there was a paper trail if she turns out to be a collaborator.”

““Private” is a strong word to describe that server.” Jason rubbed at his jawline and hefted his bag out to the bathroom to gather his shaving kit. 

“Mmhm,” Tim said blandly. “I bugged her phone. The signal is absurdly bad, unexplainably bad. She doesn’t send a lot of messages, but she had a very suspicious call with Daniel Fenton where, among other things, she hinted she had inside knowledge regarding some kind of local mystery, possibly criminal activity. Her brother accused her of supporting crime.”

Jason groaned. “I’m going to interview their parents.” He checked that the razor blades were stowed away correctly before snapping shut the travel case. Then he noticed that his bathroom mirror could use a wipedown. He left his bag for a moment to dig for the cleaner.

“Probably for the best,” Tim said, definitely misunderstanding his purpose. “They seem…” He trailed off when he couldn’t find an appropriate adjective.

“You should read a book,” Jason said, because he saw an opportunity to be an asshole. “Anyway, I wanna get out to the area tonight and see them in the morning. What’s my flight?” He spritzed the glass and watched his reflection blur. It was oddly comforting to not have to stare at his green eyes.

‘That ghost zone was the same green as the Lazarus Pits,’ Jason thought dully. He didn’t really want to think about it. But he had a pretty good idea why he hadn’t had the reaction to the place that Danny expected a human to have.

“Kon could take you,” Tim said sweetly, which was basically a death threat. It was enough to jar him back to the real world. Kon was still not feeling chill about the Titans Tower scuffle. It probably wasn’t good for him to be so petty, but Jason was not going to be the one to tell baby Superdork that.

Jason winced. “I was thinking more like United.”

Tim snickered. 

[officialstrawhat]

The Hate We Love To Make

Roronoa Zoro x Fem!Strawhat!Reader

Summary: You and Zoro hate each other but feelings start to change when the captain of the Barto pirates points out what a great couple you two make.

Word Count: 1.3K

Note: Not Edited!

Masterlist

The grand Colosseum of Dressrosa buzzed with the roars of the crowd. Fighters from all across the grand line had gathered, their minds filled with ambition. Among them stood Bartolomeo, nearly vibrating with excitement. He had just met his hero, Monkey D. Luffy, the future king of the pirates. But now, his attention was completely captivated by the scene unfolding before him. He couldn’t believe it! You and Roronoa Zoro were there standing right there!

Since Bartolomeo’s obsession with the Straw Hats began, he’d held the utmost respect and admiration for each crew member. But your relationship with Zoro held a special place in his heart. He’d heard tales of your synchronized battles, of how you two took down foes with perfect timing, always watching each other’s backs. Now, he watched as the two of you stood so close to each other, sharing what looked like an intimate conversation. 

Oh, how he wished he could hear every word you two were saying to one another…

OoOoOo

“IDIOT!” you hiss as Zoro walks away from you. “You’re going the wrong way!”

Kin’emon, dressed in his disguise, stood nearby with an exasperated look. In his short time knowing you he’d grown accustomed to the daily verbal sparring matches between you two.

Zoro spun around, eye narrowed. Your eyes locked with his, a storm brewing between you. “How would you know that? You’ve never been here either!”

“Because I’m not a moron!” You jabbed a finger in his direction, inching closer. It was infuriating how much Zoro seemed to get under your skin. 

Ever since you joined the crew, Zoro had an uncanny knack for getting in your way. You tried not to let it bother you but every time you were about to defeat an opponent, Zoro would swoop in and take them down first. It drove you insane. So you started doing the same to him, knowing it drove him mad with similar fury. Since then, you’d made it a habit to pick on him with Sanji, drink his alcohol, and “accidentally” wake him up from naps.

“If you’re so concerned about which way we’re going, then leave.” He pointed in the opposite direction with a sharp flick of his wrist. “Go that way.”

Kin’emon’s voice cut through the tension. “Please, there’s no need to argue—”

But neither of you heard him as you stepped forward. Your fists clenched as heat surged through your veins.  Your face was now very close to his,  “I hate you. I hope you get lost and don’t come back.”

Zoro’s lip curled, his head tilting in a mocking grin. “Big words coming from a meek woman!”

“Meek?” you repeated, eyes blazing. “You son of a b—”

A loud, high-pitched squeal erupted nearby. “Oh. My. God. It’s Mister Roronoa Zoro and Miss Y/N!” Bartolomeo’s eyes were wide with admiration, his hands clutched to his chest as if his heart might burst.

Your scowl turned to panic. “Um—no, no. I think you have us confused,” you blurted out, shifting awkwardly as Zoro gave you a look.

“Yeah, we’re just regular citizens of Dressrosa,” he added, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Bartolomeo was undeterred, bouncing with excitement. “May I just say you two are so cute together! The power couple of the Pirate Era!”

The world seemed to pause as you and Zoro exchanged glances, the fierce tension shifting to something strange and unspoken. You watched his eyes soften, only for a moment before hardening again. 

“Oh- No, we’re not a couple,” you protested.

“But you two are my OTP!” Bartolomeo exclaimed, looking devastated. 

“Listen, pal, I don’t know what that means, but she hates me,” Zoro huffed, gesturing toward you.”

“But… you defend each other in battle! Finish off each other’s foes!” Bartolomeo exclaimed. “And according to the Straw Hat fan club newsletter, it says and I quote: Zoro and Y/N’s secret love is a thing of beauty in this rough worl—”

“Yeah, hate to break it to you,” you interrupted, “but we have not, nor will we ever, be a thing.”

Bartolomeo’s face fell, and he broke out into exaggerated tears. “Oh, this is a tragedy! How could I be so wrong!”

Zoro exhaled, breaking eye contact. “Come on. We don’t have time for this.”

A small smile crept onto your lips as you followed him, muttering, “You’re still going the wrong way.”

OoOoOo

Kin’emon directed the two of you to a narrow alley, muttering something about searching for his friend and promising to return soon. As the sounds of the bustling street faded, silence settled between you and Zoro, thick with an awkward tension neither of you knew how to break. You found yourself overthinking the fanatics' odd assumption—why would he (and others apparently) think that you and the green-haired swordsman made a good match? You stole a glance at him. Sure, you didn’t want to admit it, but the scarred man was ruggedly handsome. But he had such an infuriating personality. With his brooding silences, those ridiculous earrings, and his rippling muscles—wait, what!?

The silence dragged on until, finally, Zoro broke it, pulling you out of your spiraling thoughts. “Tch, don’t listen to that weird guy. He’s got no clue what he’s saying.”

You let out a dry chuckle, “Yeah, seriously. I mean, can you imagine? You and me?”

Zoro smirked, his sharp gaze flicking over to you. “Yeah, right. Total disaster.”

“One of epic proportions,” you agreed, crossing your arms and leaning back against the wall. You turned your head, pretending to be absorbed by the junk lying around, “The world couldn’t handle it.”

A glint of something unguarded flickered in Zoro’s eyes as he stepped closer, his presence shifting from casual to something more intense. “And yet,” he said, his voice a low, teasing rumble, “you’re still here. You haven’t walked away.”

You raised an eyebrow, turning to meet his gaze. “Maybe I just don’t trust you not to get yourself into trouble the second I turn my back.”

He huffed a short laugh, taking another step that brought him close enough for you to feel the heat radiating off his body. “You think I need you to babysit me?”

“Need? No.” Your voice dropped, matching his tone. “But I know for a fact if it wasn’t for me you’d be neck-deep in trouble twice as often.”

A grin curled at the edge of his lips, his eyes flicking down to your lips and then back to your eyes, lingering for just a second too long. “Guess I’d better keep you close then, huh?” he murmured, his voice barely above a whisper.

Your heart skipped a beat, the atmosphere between you shifting, the sharp tension morphing into something far more dangerous. The unspoken heat you’d tried so hard to ignore suddenly flared, like a fuse catching fire. For a moment, neither of you moved, as if testing how far this would go. But then, something snapped—years of friction, half-buried glances, and barely-concealed bickering finally erupted. He surged forward, and before you could second-guess it, your lips crashed into his.

The kiss was intense, more battle than embrace, a raw clash of defiance and need. Your hands found his broad shoulders, fingers digging into them as his calloused hands cupped the back of your neck, then tangling in your hair. Everything else faded: the noise of the marketplace, the distant shouts of vendors, even the thought of Kin’emon returning. For this moment, it was just the two of you, like fire meeting spilled oil—volatile, explosive, and inevitable.

When you broke apart, both of you were panting, your breaths mingling in the space between you. Zoro’s lips curved into a smirk, his eyes darkened with something that made your pulse race. “You still hate me?” he asked, his voice a husky drawl.

“With a passion,” you growled, trying to steady your breathing.

“Good.” He chuckled, his hand sliding down to grip your ass possessively. With a rough shove, he pinned you harder against the wall, his lips ghosting the shell of your ear. “Wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

Your retort was lost as his lips found yours again, the world outside that narrow alley slipping into oblivion.

[solar-sunnyside-up]

I was wondering if you had any resources for people who don't have direct action groups nearby and still want to participate in direct action. I still rely on parents for getting to places and I don't have reliable public transit, so I don't have the option to go to many protests or direct action groups. Do you have any resources on things I can do in my neighborhood (that aren't little free libraries/pantries because my neighborhood doesn't have much foot traffic)

Hey there sprout!! 🌱🌱

It depends on where you live tbh, but given I just did a rural one imma give you some ideas that you could do in the suburbs/urban neighborhoods assuming you don't have a car in a car centric world!

Look into the groups that are in your area and read up on the actions they do. You might not be able to go to events regularly but keeping up with local events is still good to feel like there's momentum! You also wanna look into what programs exist. I'm personally from an Oil loving/God fearing hick town and yet!! There's a million programs going on they just don't advertise or market themselves so you'd never know! Like I just attended an online webinar for Dark Sky Reserve policies for my town this week?? Wild stuff I'd never know if I wasn't researching my own city all the damn time

Cleaning/ gruella building public features are very cool! And something you can do in your own backyard or in the middle of the night in your streets or while your waiting for your shitty transit to get there! (I do that last one a lot, renoed some bus stops and cleaned them up bc I was BORED) Some Secret groups have starting installing benches/painting crosswalks/renovating bus shelters that do exist and technically that is something you can do. Also could look into adopt-a-stop programs.

Gruella gardening! Seed Bombs of native wild flowers and just chucking them around when you go on walks/go out or Moss Graffiti is also an option! Just pick an abandoned spot (on a walk to somewhere or just easily accessible to you in general)

Things like designing your own newsletter/zine/stickers for your community is also neat!

Check in with your Community Association! You'd be surprised at what those guys can do, I've seen anything ranging from movie nights and game nights to craft clubs and yoga classes to pubs/restraunts that fund the CA. Same goes with a community garden/fridge in your area. Those guys need vollunteers

Open up a free toolshed/ clothing closet at a school/library/CA center/abandoned building and hold a drive to fill it up. You'd be surprised at how excited ppl get over those!

[player1064]

And as for the prompt two: I would like to subscribe to your "Gary has autism"- newsletter. So something Carraville about Gary being autistic. Could be something like them actually needing to communicate with each other about relationship stuff, because Gary can't do vague and needs to have things spelled at him. Or maybe something more lighthearted, maybe Carra has googled "how to support your autistic partner" and is trying his best and Gary who has no idea he has autism is like "what's all this then?".

Or just go nuts and do what you feel like.

god I LOVE autistic gary so much. I mean I'm always Implying he's autistic in everything I write but it was fun to have a go at making it like,, the Focus...

also sorry guys that I dissappeared from doing prompts again!! Not forgotten them or lost inspiration I'm just. Slow. And I keep starting new WIPs instead...

---

Gary wakes to the feeling of chapped lips pressing against his temple, and he blinks his eyes open to smile up at Jamie and (more importantly) the cup of coffee he’s holding. He’s sat himself down on Gary’s side of the bed and waits patiently for Gary to shuffle upright so that he can pass him the mug, his free hand absently running up and down Gary’s thigh over the covers.

There are worse things to wake up to, Gary thinks generously, and he takes a careful sip of his coffee.

Jamie watches him intently for a few moments, his hand still resting on his leg. “Think I could get used t’ this,” he says softly, “you not runnin’ off to gym at the crack of dawn.”

I could get used to this too, Gary thinks. But he knows it’s not something he can get used to – the minute he lets one thing slip, the whole carefully balanced ecosystem that is his life will come tumbling down and before you know it he’ll be a stone or two heavier. Besides, then he’d have to admit that he likes being here in Liverpool, and that’s obviously never gonna happen.

It’s not Liverpool that he likes, anyway.

“Hmm, I dunno,” he says instead. “My chi’s probably gonna be all out for the rest of the day now.”

Jamie rolls his eyes at the mention of his chi, but he doesn’t try to argue it. Likely because he knows he won’t win, ‘cause Gary’s right.

When he sets his mug down on the bedside table Jamie immediately leans into his space, cupping his cheek with one of his warm dry hands and kissing him gently. This, too, Gary could get used to. He chases all thoughts of working out from his mind and instead focuses on returning the kiss, curling his hands in the fabric of Jamie’s t-shirt.

“’m not much for morning sex, me,” he murmurs when they come up for air.

“I know.” Jamie shifts his face slightly to press a kiss to the corner of Gary’s mouth, then one to his jaw. “This okay though? Or d’you want me to stop?”

“This is okay,” he confirms with a fraction of a nod. More than okay, really, but Jamie doesn’t need to hear that – his head’s big enough as it is.

*

They’re at the studio to film Stick to Football and Gary’s having one of those days where everything feels just slightly off. He’s not sure what it is, really – probably stress, most things in his life are caused by stress – but he’s always explained it away as ‘just a headache’, or ‘didn’t get enough sleep last night’.

Everything’s just a fraction too bright, a fraction too loud – the laughter of his friends feels grating, the equipment being shifted around while the crew packs up might as well be a dozen car crashes all clanging together.

He opens up his phone as soon as they’re done shooting, hoping that sends enough of a ‘don’t talk to me’ message that people will get the hint and leave him alone. Of course, this plan fails to account for Jamie being – well, being Jamie.

He walks up behind Gary and claps a friendly hand on his shoulder, asks in that loud voice of his “’m I comin’ back to yours?” in a way that makes Gary wince.

“Maybe not,” he says apologetically. “Got a lot of work to get through.”

“Have you fuck,” Jamie mutters.

This thing he’s got going on with Jamie is still new enough that he’s not really sure how he’s meant to act in public. Probably just the same as before, but he can’t remember what that was like. He thinks he should be meaner, then he panics that he’s hurting Carra’s feelings. If he’s nicer, he worries he’ll think he’s just being polite because they’re fucking now.

Jamie, obviously, has no such problem. He just does whatever he wants, whenever. For example: right now he’s watching Gary with this piercing sort of look, and Gary finds himself wanting to squirm under the intensity of his focus.

After assessing him for a few moments, Jamie’s tone turns gentle and he asks, “you sure you’re alright?” like he already knows the answer. “Just – thought you might be getting one of your headaches.”

Gary nods, rubs a hand at his temple to really drive the point home. “I can work through it though, it’s fine.”

Jamie looks at him for a long second, his face twitching a bit like he’s trying not to let his expression slip. “At least let me drive you home? Promise I won’t try talk your ear off on the way or anything.”

“Fine,” Gary agrees with a sigh. “Yeah, fine.”

*

“When was the last time you ate?” Jamie asks as he follows Gary through his front door.

Gary shoots him a Look. “Thought you were just dropping me off?”

Jamie ignores this and walks past him and through to the kitchen. “If I made you a sandwich would you eat it?”

He doesn’t really feel that hungry, but he’s also not got the energy to try argue with Jamie. “D’you know how to make a sandwich?”

“Mmm,” Jamie hums as he rummages through Gary’s fridge, which does not fill him with confidence.

“I’m gonna go sit in the living room.”

“Good idea,” Jamie says absently. He opens up a cupboard and grabs a glass out of it, goes to the tap to fill it up right to the brim. “Here, take this with you.”

Gary, too confused by Jamie’s inexplicable behaviour to remember to thank him, takes a careful sip of the water so that he doesn’t have to worry about spilling it on his walk to the sofa and he wanders out the room to the sounds of Jamie muttering to himself about butter knives and bread knives and whether there’s any real difference between them.

A few minutes go by – much too long for any functional person to make a sandwich – before Jamie walks into the living room looking pleased with himself. He hands a plate to Gary – and fair play to him, it looks like a perfectly acceptable sandwich – then hovers awkwardly in front of him.

“Alright if I sit with you?” he asks.

Gary nods, picking up the sandwich with his hands to get a proper look at it. Jamie plops himself down on the next cushion over as he takes his first bite. It’s just ham and cheese and a bit too much butter, but it’s edible. Gary’s stomach grumbles – maybe he’s hungrier than he’d thought.

He eats in silence and finishes off the rest of his water, then when he’s put the plate and glass down on the coffee table in front of him he turns to Jamie and raises an eyebrow. Now what?

Jamie shrugs, then lifts one arm up to rest on the back of the sofa. “You up for a cuddle?”

No, would be Gary’s immediate reaction, but Jamie’s being suspiciously nice to him so he thinks maybe he should try avoid snapping at him. And it might be nice, just for a minute or two. Jamie’s chest is always lovely and solid.

He shuffles over into Jamie’s space, lowers himself down to lean against him. He presses his cheek against the soft fabric of Jamie’s t-shirt, takes a long inhale to try adjust himself to his smell.

Jamie’s arm slips down across Gary’s shoulders, squeezing him with just a bit too much pressure which should be annoying but which just makes Gary feel secure in his place. His other hand comes up to rest on the small of his back and Gary feels his lips brush briefly against the top of his head.

“This okay?” he murmurs into Gary’s hair.

The headache, or not-headache or whatever it is, is already fading to the back of Gary’s mind. He nods against Jamie’s chest, then he lets his eyes flutter closed. Maybe a quick nap won’t do any harm.

[that-one-xachster]

by saying something stupid like 'i love you'

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"I love you"

"What?"

"Nothing."

-> 3 times in which you try to tell him that you love him, but thats not how it goes

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can be taken for any character that you'd like, I was feeling a bit silly haha- might get back into writing

not sorry if this one shot sounds like a comedy show rather than fully angsty, I wrote it based on how I have interactions with people, so im not sorry cause I don't know how you interact with people. please dont come at me for it not sounding angsty or wtv GAAAA I SOUND RUDE LMFAO WHAT

not proofread!

[f/n] = friend's name

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"I love you."

"Huh?"

He looked up from your notebook, holding his pen, explaining the question in chemistry you didn't understand. He sat so close to you, your knees touching, making you feel like a man in the 1800s who just saw a woman's ankle.

You shook your head.

"Nothing."

He just shrugged and went back to explaining the problem to you, and you shifted your weight, resting your head in your palms.

You tapped your foot repeatedly against the table, listening to what he was explaining, before stopping him -

"Wait a second, isn't that the wrong step? You gotta restart-"

"Huh? What are you talking about- oh shit."

"See-"

"Yeah, funny story how about we both just go and ask [f/n]?"

"True. Do that, she's the smarter one."

"Smarter than you for sure."

"No, you're the most idiotic one out of all of us, shut up-"

"No can do-"

You two bickered back and forth until the class ended, never getting to ask [f/n].

Moments like these were what made you fall harder.

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"I love you."

He didn't even hear you this time. Of course he didn't, how would he? He was in the hall, talking to some other friends of his. You're not his only friend, you shouldn't be so selfish-

"Did you say something? Sorry, I was submitting this assignment."

The same friend mentioned before, [f/n] sat next to you in class. She was adamant that you had a thing for the guy, despite your multiple attempts to deny it. No way in absolute hell would you admit that you had a flimsy, silly, teensy little crush on him. No way.

"Nah, you can go back to that."

"I have a better idea, did you hear what happened this morning to-"

And she told you about some events that occurred in the morning, as if she were your personal newsletter. For free of course. She was the nerdy type, but had many friends and always knew what was up with the school, and of course she had to fill you in. You listened to her tell you about random fights, break ups, make ups, and people being stupid in general, enjoying the time you spend with your friend.

Sometimes a distraction is good right? Sometimes.

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"I love you."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"No no no no- what? Repeat that."

"Dude, I said nothing-"

"Nuh uh, you keep mumbling random shit and won't tell me what it is bruh, spit it out."

"The hell you mean 'nuh uh'? Buddy you don't need to peek into everything I say, you see, im a verbal thinker hArDy hAr hAr-"

"..."

"..."

"....for the love of god never do that again."

"....yeah."

Akward silence engulfed you two. The teacher walked in after a few seconds, immediately starting the class.

Recovering from the past embarrassment, you whispered jokes to each other, poked each other with your pens, copied each other's notes when you couldn't finish writing them in time, and got caught laughing too much for a joke, but hey.

At least he didn't hear you mumble another soft, barely audible, "I love you."

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| ennoshita, atsumu, OIKAWA, tendou, hanamaki (hear me out), kirishima, denki (hmo), SERO, honenhuki, muramatsu (a very big hmo), + anyone else you'd like! these were the ones I thought of lol |

hope you enjoyed <3

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bonus ! funny little smidgen- well funny to me lmao

"Do you have the answers for math?" "I thought you did." "..." "..." "Ok- ok well I did half at home, I'll just do the other half now-" "Hold up- which half did you do?" "The first, why?" "Goddammit, I did the first too." "We're screwed?" "We're screwed."

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

[mybookof-you]

My current attitude toward the fast-approaching election day is one powered by mixed emotions. I know it's not over until it's over, but part of me is overwhelmed and slayed by the fact that so many Americans appear to support a man who can stand up and sway to music for what seems to be an eternity during what is supposed to be a critical event designed to convey meaningful information to his supporters. What he seems to be saying here through his actions is that he just doesn't care. He believes he can do just about anything, and his people will follow. Those who disagree can make fun of him all they want, and the result will be the same: his base is solidly sold on his message. It doesn't matter that his message is mixed, fabricated, or totally ridiculous. His people are sold on his promise to deliver specifically to their personal, diverse, contradicting, opposing needs.

It's like prayer. You pray for what you want, and the god seems to be listening, so you keep praying, you keep believing, you keep being a faithful member of the flock. Ut-wo. Instead of a steady, harvest- ensuring flow of steady rain, there came a flood. No worries. god is god. He will come through in the end. It will be heaven. You'll see. Meanwhile, people are drowned en masse, and there is no way to escape it, unless you were faithful enough to build an ark like god told you to. Those are the ones who get to enjoy more fruitfulness and multiplication. The believers. The others got what they had coming to them, but not you. You are special and sinless, because you believe and you confess, and you start over again and again.

Snake oil. When I look at the candidate, Donald Trump, I see a very successful salesman. He knows how to motivate and how to manipulate. He's no dummy. He can speak out of both sides of his mouth, work that groove, and deliver the sheep unto the market all at the same time. He's a multi-tasker, a multi-crafter, and an expert at fibbing. It's all harmless until you find yourself in the mouse-trap. You took the bait, whether you're a believer or not, you deserve what you get. Please, don't take me with you.

Perhaps some join the bandwagon, because, heavens to Murgatroyd, something has got to change, things have to get better, and I know that things that are said don't always mean what they mean, and I am betting that Donald Trump is a better man than all the things he has done before, all the things he has said. He really is talking to me when he says he's going to make things better. Things certainly aren't better now. Not for me. nuh-uh. I want capitalism at its most monopolist, laws at its most freedom-restrictionist, and leadership at its most definitive authoritarian glory. Somebody make a decision, make it happen, and deliver a change. Anything has to be better than what my life is like right now. Poopy-doos.

I really don't get it. Somebody explain why you would want a stacked Supreme Court ready to diminish human rights and call it good when the states can take over and do all that dirty work for them. Why would you bother citizens who are no threat to your lifestyle, those who are making choices for themselves? None of your choices have been eliminated.

Don't let your kid read that book if you don't want them to. That is your right. Read the newsletter that tells you what is going to be covered in your child's classroom. Talk to the teacher who is a trained professional and find that their approach to the classroom is flexible and designed to accommodate your needs and preferences. Your rights are not threated in any way. Someone has been selling you snake oil.

Not communing with anything I said? That's okay. So far, it's still a free country, and I'd like it to stay that way. I don't ever want to fear that I will be sent to jail for having an unpopular opinion. I don't want to find out what this country, whose citizens "will never have to vote again" will look like under the rule of Donald Trump.

I will vote for Harris/Waltz, not because they are perfect representatives of all of my viewpoints, not because they are polite, not because they can magically deliver on all the wish-lists of special interest groups, but because the candidates represent the possibilities of the kind of country I want and believe in. That is a country where no one group is more important than another, where people are heard and listened to, where votes matter, and where the leaders are in alignment with the voices of the people.

None of us are going to get everything we want. That is not possible in a country of such blessed diversity. What we can work toward is a country that values its people and envisions a future which is profitable, sustainable, and inclusive. You can be a bigot and enjoy all the freedoms of the majority of minorities. if you want. Just don't take away my freedoms. I have just as much a right to be here as you do. I have just as much right to be me without the fear of displeasing you to the point of social suicide. I just want to live with the same opportunities, the same resources and economies, and the same respect you seek. I am willing to compromise on what the blueprint to that kind of society might entail, but not on the results. To me, Donald Trump represents the blueprint of a disastrous deluge of inequality and suffocation.

We can't afford to mince words anymore. We can't worry if we are going to offend. We don't have to be rude. We can't stand behind a veil of smoke knit with promises. We may lose, but let's be frank, we see Donald Trump for what he is, and he is not my president.

[kooki914]

Which part of the Undertale/Deltarune fandom do you just hate?

Part of me doesn't want to spread hate in an already divisive community, and a different part of me loves complaining. So, readmore added for the sake of a "warning" aka if you don't want to read my entitled whining just scroll past this.

TL;DR: petty bullshit that's hardly even relevant anymore.

I kinda see the Undertale and Deltarune fandoms as two separate entities at this point. From the original Undertale fandom, what it was all the way back when the game first came out and before Deltarune was a thing, god I hated the moral policing. "You can't do this" or "you have to do that" and the fact that something as small as Drawing A Character In A Dress caused an artist to nearly get chased off of tumblr? Fucking insanity. And the constant character assassinations? What they did to Asgore? What they did to SANS? If I ever get started talking about all my gripes with that old fandom I'd never stop.

For the Deltarune fandom though, at least what it is now, god I hate the hype. I'm not subscribed to the newsletters because I hate the general culture around waiting with baited breath for new breadcrumbs, as that just manifests as Dread for me rather than positivity. Like if I start thinking too hard about Deltarune's potential release dates I start biting people's heads off. (No offense Salt lmao) It sucks because even when I DO get somewhat excited (like I did with the latest newsletter) it's immediately followed by the fandom running everything from the newsletter down into the ground, which... on the one hand is understandable because we're all starved for UT/DR content but on the OTHER hand it really feels like we all need a new hobby, like collectively. I'm happy for you if this brings YOU joy but personally I'm a little tired of seeing the 1000th artist interpretation of yet another scene that's literally best conveyed through text.

Also if I can be EXTRA petty, I dislike a lot of "making my own tenna" or "my own deltaswap" things rattling around in the fandom right now. This is entirely Being A Whiny Little Baby™ syndrome from me because I do the EXACT same shit, I just don't have anything good enough to post don't follow fandom trends when it comes to that sort of thing. You know that meme about two wolves inside a person? One of my wolves is like "cringe is dead and this is a harmless creative activity that gets people together and talking about things they love therefore its Good™" and the other wolf is like snarling and barking like "but it doesn't appeal to MEEEE" Like if I see one more TVhead Tenna I'm actually blacklisting his tag. If I see one more deltaswap that entirely misses the mark on what I like in role-swaps I'm gonna start killing.

So, yeah, I guess I just hate things that feel like they're outside of my control/don't appeal to my extremely hipster contrarian tastes. Aka petty bullshit no one cares about go figure

[lordeemailarchive]

Pure Heroine turns 10

(27/09/2023) (PH 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY DISPATCH)

Living in Ruins of a Palace within My Dreams

Photo by Simeon Patience

Hi,

Firstly, I wanna say thank you for your extremely supportive and kind messages after my last newsletter. I genuinely feel deeply cared for, less alone, and more sure that things will be okay after sending it! Albeit with a slight overshare hangover. I think a part of me knew that I had hit a wall, and that I needed to invite in the compassion and understand I’d been struggling to generate on my own, and then I’d have something to draw from and mirror. It feels like it’s working. I feel incredibly grateful that we have this relationship, that we can each give when the other needs it. Beautiful stuff x

Now, might U have noticed it’s 2013 mode round here????????? Yes that’s right, it’s a very special anniversary… Pure Heroine is... ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡TEN ˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚ YEARS ˚༘♡ ⋆｡˚ OLD ੈ✩‧₊˚ TODAY ! ˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚

You may (like me most of the time) hold the opinion that this album has been MYTHOLOGISED QUITE ENOUGH, but a milestone is a milestone, so I thought coming here and typing some shit to u about this time would be a fun thing for those who care.

2 xxxxtra special ltd time only commemorative designs by Hassan, who did the original of this bootleg tee 10 years ago❤️

It’s close to midnight, and I’ve just finished scrolling through my entire computer and phone archive from 2011-2013. Going on this memory lane ride has reminded me, for one thing, what a different time it was technologically. We were just starting to be able to see ourselves in real time, but we weren’t constantly connected. I had an iPod touch until halfway through 2013, which didn’t have a front camera or internet access, and my sister and I shared a MacBook, which is where we did our schoolwork and I wrote my lyrics. I took my first few years of selfies on Photo Booth…. Just let that… sink in!!!

Note the Royals Nat Geo pic in background— it’s happening...

When I was fourteen, my greatest work of art was my bedroom. A very cool, very classic teenage bedroom, Andie’s and Duckie’s from Pretty in Pink meets the Virgin Suicides— fairy lights, fabric on the ceiling, candles, stolen road signs (badman), paper lanterns, beer crate shelves, magazine pictures and club night posters and permanent marker on the walls. Bliss! I’d sit up there and vibe out, taking a lot of selfies. Creating a small-scale work of art using the self, and then examining the product from every angle, was the best method I had to express myself and exercise creativity at that time, and I now see it as an important PH incubation phase, whether I knew it or not. Something really amazing about a young person starting to see their own face and body for the first time, coming to a very secret understanding that they are beautiful. 

I started to smoke weed, which gave me a deeper understanding of sensory pleasure, and allowed me to start to see my world as a possible work of art. I’d go on long walks around the neighbourhood, and began to mythologise the stuff around me (big empty floodlit rugby fields/bus rides/dark streets/boredom/isolation) into the motifs that would become Pure Heroine. I wore a lot of like, navy lipsticks from the 2 dollar shop. God, this aesthetic, It’s just TOO MUCH.

At some point in here, I met Joel, and another piece of the puzzle clicked into place. When you’re a teenager, you’re particularly sensitive to adults being condescending to you, not respecting the specific and finely tuned skills you have because of the ones you don’t. I was always on the look out for it, and from the first day meeting Joel, I knew that he would never give me that feeling. Which I’m sure wasn’t easy — my wallet at the time was the foot of a pair of tights that I cut off and knotted at the top — but somehow from the very beginning he made me feel like my ideas had value, like we were peers, in the most sensitive and age-appropriate way. 

My view for thousands of hours making this album

We got on a call earlier this week and broke down the complete history of making the album. We both agreed that making Pure Heroine was deeply exciting and intimate and free, and still one of our most treasured experiences. I’ve linked it here.The second half of 2013 is when I really met the world, went to America and Australia and Europe for the first time. I found an incredible (for some reason Christmas themed) disposable camera image of my stage outfits all over the floor of my hotel room, which really sums up how ad hoc everything was at the beginning — a jetlagged sixteen year old, late for lobby call and frantically stuffing thousands of dollars of borrowed clothes into a suitcase. 

In this stage, it felt like I pulled everything off by the skin of my teeth. Every week was the most exciting week of my whole life, I was so tired and still didn’t have a winter coat and took everyone clamouring for a piece of me completely for granted. I had zero cultural context, had no idea if an interview or TV show was huge or small, and so breezed through it all truly not giving a fuck. I am not a naturally nonchalant person, it was literally just too much to care about, I could hardly get up in the morning, so I just said absolutely whatever I felt like, all kinds of wild shit, if someone did something corny I’d say so, I was ruthless in that way that only teens are. Then through that year we went on our first tours, met you guys for the first time, hours and hours of hugs after the show, my favourite part so far and where it started to feel real for me. James took a lot of beautiful film photos through that time, and I’m really grateful he did.

Ten years goes really fast. One minute you’re wearing a leather collar with a giant crystal hanging off it to a Chanel party, and the next you’re blonde. A lot of stuff isn’t good after ten years. But I am still totally touched by this sweet record. I have deep respect for the vision of the little one making it. 

Going back through all of this has reminded me of something that feels important to point out, whether you make art or not: everything starts out as a bunch of bullshit in a laptop. Pure Heroine was a handful of Photo Booth selfies and emotional Word documents and Tumblr posts (and a gorgeous over-decorated bedroom) before it was even one song. I had no reason, on paper, to believe that I was capable of anything. But if you can trust that the first impulse you had to create came from a place of deep wisdom, develop a few principles for your decision-making, and absorb a lot of stuff you find inspiring, you’ll have something special on your hands. Pure Heroine exists because I had the tiniest inkling of what I’ve now come to see as one of my guiding principles: that each of us have a handful of songs inside us that are ours, and only ours, to sing. Your specific interests and upbringing and physiology and experiences exist only in you; you are sitting on a gold mine that no one can rob. Whatever that means to you, whatever that statement you were born to make is, I invite you to take a big breath and make it.

All my love for another ten years of all this, and more, and more—

Ella XXXXXXXXXX

(source: received this email)

[loveroftoomanyfandoms]

A Little Angel (Or Devil?) Chapter 2

Pairing: Matt Murdock x F!Reader

Story Summary: Matt and Reader, happily married at the end of Angel of God, my Guardian Dear, start the next chapter in their life together -- parenthood.

Warnings/Tags: Smut, Unprotected Sex (I mean obviously, Matt and Reader are trying for a baby), Pregnancy and all the fun stuff that comes with it (sarcastic), no graphic depiction of childbirth

Word Count: ~1600

A/N: Warning for folks with emetophobia for this chapter!

Tag List: @nommingonfood

Let me know if you'd like to be tagged!

Matt whistled cheerfully as he walked home from the office a few weeks later. He had just wrapped up a case for an affluent client which meant that the firm was going to be able to keep the lights on for another few months, Foggy had told him that he had finally asked Karen out on a date, and it was Thursday, which meant that he and Y/N would be spending the weekend breaking in the new living room furniture that would be arriving Saturday morning.

He walked up the steps to his and Y/N’s house and unlocked the door, frowning when he was greeted with silence. 

Normally on the days Y/N arrived home before Matt he would hear her getting started on dinner in the kitchen or at the very least moving around upstairs, but today there was no sound. 

Matt stepped further into the foyer, trying to remember if Y/N had told him that she had made plans with Jessica for after work. “Y/N? You home, angel?”

He tilted his head as he heard the slow, steady rhythm of Y/N’s heartbeat coming from the back of the house.

He headed down the hall towards the dining room. “Sweetheart?”

He paused as he reached the garden room and realized that Y/N was fast asleep on the couch.

He crept closer to her and knelt on the floor, gently brushing his hand across her forehead and frowning when she felt a bit warmer than usual. “Y/N? Angel?”

Y/N stirred and let out a soft sigh. “Matty?”

Matt nodded. “Yeah, sweetheart, it's me.”

“What time is it?”

“About 7:15.”

Y/N groaned and sat up. “Shit, I'm sorry, honey. I wasn't feeling well after I got home from work so I laid down in here for just a second. I must've fallen asleep. ”

Matt's brow furrowed at the weak sound of her voice. “You okay, angel?”

“Mm mmm.” Y/N sighed. “I feel drained. Hope I'm not coming down with something.”

Matt felt Y/N's forehead again. “You do feel a bit warm. Maybe you should take tomorrow off to rest.”

Y/N shook her head. "I can't, I have that --"

She suddenly cut herself off and jumped up, running through the dining room towards the first floor bathroom.

Matt winced at the sound of Y/N throwing up and followed, pausing at the doorway. “You okay, angel?”

Y/N groaned from where she was hunched over the toilet. “Maybe you're right. Maybe I should take tomorrow off to rest.”

Matt entered the bathroom and knelt down next to Y/N, reaching his hand out to rub her back soothingly. “I'm sorry you're not feeling well, sweetheart.”

“Ugh, this is the worst time for me to have to be sick. I'm supposed to be recording the audio version of our newsletter tomorrow morning, plus we're gearing up for the start of summer reading next week.”

Matt shook his head. “Your health is more important. Hopefully you'll be feeling better and can do the newsletter in a few days, otherwise I'm sure someone else can fill in. In the meantime you need rest.”

“Mmm.”

Matt went to the kitchen and filled a glass with some water before bringing it to Y/N. “Here, you need to stay hydrated if you're throwing up.”

Y/N hummed. “Thanks, Matty.” 

She took the glass from Matt and swished some water around in her mouth before spitting it into the toilet, then took a cautious sip. “Ugh.”

“Better?”

“Little bit. Thanks, honey.” Y/N took another sip of water. “Maybe I should sleep downstairs for a few days. I don't want to give you whatever this is I've got.”

Matt shook his head. “We've already been in extremely close contact so if whatever you have is contagious chances are I've already caught it. Luckily though, I've got a pretty strong immune system so if I haven't already gotten sick I'll probably be fine.”

He went to help Y/N up. “Besides, what kind of husband would I be if I didn't take care of my wife in her time of need? After all, our wedding vows did say ‘in sickness and in health’.”

Y/N leaned against him. “I love you, you know that?”

Matt planted a kiss on her forehead. “I love you too. Now, we're gonna get you in bed, then I'm gonna go get you some chicken soup.”

Y/N hummed. “Could I have some egg drop soup from the Chinese restaurant on the corner instead?”

Matt chuckled. “Of course, angel. I'll call in a delivery order for dinner, how about that?”

Y/N nodded against him. “Okay.”

Matt helped Y/N up the stairs to their bedroom and paused in their doorway. “Want to shower first?”

Y/N hummed. “Yeah, that might help.”

Matt nodded. “Okay, you go do that, I'll order our food.”

“Okay.”

Matt called in their delivery order while Y/N gathered her pajamas, then waited until she had headed into the bathroom before making a second call. 

“Mr. Murdock?” said the voice on the other end.

“Yeah, kid, it's me,” Matt replied. “Are you going to be patrolling tonight?”

“Yeah, I was planning on it. Why?”

“I was wondering if you could make a couple of passes around the Kitchen for me. Something came up so I'm staying in.”

“Everything okay?”

Matt winced as he heard Y/N throwing up again. “Yeah, it's just that my wife's not feeling well and I don't want to leave her home alone.”

“Oh, okay, it's no problem, Mr. Murdock, I can do that for you. And I hope Mrs. Murdock feels better soon.”

Matt nodded. “Thanks, Peter, I owe you one.”

“Okay, talk to you later!”

“Bye.”

Matt hung up then texted Foggy as the shower turned on. Working from home tomorrow. Y/N’s sick.

Oh no, was Foggy's reply. Hope she feels better soon. Let me know if you two need anything. 

Thanks. Will do.

He put his phone away and headed downstairs, the scent of Chinese food wafting towards him as their delivery order neared.

He grabbed two bottles of water out of the refrigerator, waited until the delivery person rang the doorbell, then accepted the order and took it upstairs, setting it on the dresser as Y/N walked out of the bathroom.

Matt turned towards her. “Feeling better?”

Y/N hummed. “I think so.”

Matt gave her a kiss, tasting the slightly minty flavor of toothpaste on Y/N’s lips. “You get settled in bed and I'll bring your soup to you, okay?”

“Okay.”

Matt set his takeout container on his nightstand along with one of the bottles of water before handing Y/N her soup. “Here you go, angel.”

Y/N gave an appreciative hum. “Thanks, sweetheart.”

Matt set the other bottle of water on Y/N’s nightstand along with an extra bottle of ginger ale he had added to their food order. “Here, I'm hoping the soup and ginger ale settle your stomach.”

He moved to his side of the bed to eat, keeping his attention on Y/N in case she got sick again.

Once Y/N was finished, he took her empty container. “Feeling ok so far?”

Y/N was quiet for a moment. “Yeah, it's staying down.”

Matt nodded. “Okay, good. Let me go take care of this stuff, I'll be right back.”

He ran downstairs, rinsing out their containers before placing them in the recycling bin.

He headed back upstairs, grabbing a clean pair of boxers from the dresser. “I'm gonna go grab a quick shower. Need anything?”

“Mm mmm.” Y/N shifted against the bedsheets as she settled in. “Tired.”

“Okay. Be right back.”

Matt hurried through showering and brushing his teeth then headed back into the bedroom, climbing into bed next to Y/N. 

He wrapped his arms around her and leaned back, pulling her to him. “Come here, sweetheart.”

Y/N snuggled up to him. “You aren't going out Daredeviling tonight?”

Matt shook his head. “No, not tonight. I asked Spiderman to keep an eye out for me in case anything pops up, and I also told Foggy I was working from home tomorrow. You're my number one priority, angel, I'm not going to leave you here alone when you're not feeling well.”

“Thank you, Matty.” Y/N nuzzled her nose into Matt's chest. “Mmm, you smell good.”

Matt chuckled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Get some rest, okay? I'm not going anywhere.”

Y/N nodded. “Mmhmm.”

Matt gently stroked her hair until her breathing turned deep and even.

After she was asleep he slowly reached over and pulled his ear buds out of his nightstand drawer, then connected them to his phone so the noise wouldn't disturb Y/N.

Matt had sworn back when he and Y/N were kids that he would always do anything and everything he possibly could to take care of her when she wasn't feeling well. I'll always take care of you, Y/N, he had said the time Y/N had been ill with the flu when she was 14 and Matt had been 15. That's what best friends are for.

He opened the online ordering app for the grocers a couple of blocks over and ordered the ingredients for homemade chicken soup along with some peppermint herbal tea for delivery the following morning in case Y/N still wasn't feeling well.

He put his phone and earbuds away then settled in to sleep. He just hoped that Y/N felt better soon.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 1/2/2024

it’s quite satisfying how the year started on a monday

listening

first song of the year: how could it be anything other than Sabata. this is the theme from the titular Sabata, i meant to pick the theme from Return of Sabata but im not mad about it.

-

reading

i read Tim Marchman’s Popping Tins newsletter (a newsletter about fish and seafood) less bc i enjoy locking Mack in the bathroom every time i want a tuna melt and more for the droll authorial voice. i have bought a tin of mackerel after reading some entries, and it was very good but much much richer than tuna.

What should I do with this can of krill meat?

after consulting the importer’s website:

This is accompanied by a photograph of the can featuring easily-discerned black eyes, which are nothing to be concerned about, according to the company that produces this can. The first question on its FAQ page is “What are the little black speckles in my can?” “No need to be concerned here!” the answer reads. “Your meat is not dirty, and you did not get a defected can. Our Antarctic Krill meat contains the most nutritious parts of the krill, which happen to include their eyes.

…

The risks here are clear: I could vomit when I open the can and see the nutritious black eyes staring at me; I could destroy the peace in my home by making it smell like sautéed and simmered krill; and/or I could ruin a perfectly delicious lunch by introducing nutritious eyes and hard bits of chitin.

i have no memory of how i found this newsletter.

i keep forgetting i have ten hoopla credits a month through my old library and i want to read more comics this year bc reading comics is fun. in the past in practice this means ive binged all ten credits over a weekend. this weekend i had time for exactly one.

The Riddler: Year One is an extremely direct tie-in to the movie and i think it’s neat they let the riddler’s actor paul dano go wild with his backstory and then turn it into a comic. it’s fun when actors get to do weird tie-in shit.

(non-sequential pages)

watching this forensic accountant’s brain crack and scramble like an egg as he struggles to really grasp the enormity of gotham corruption and why the city is such a dogshit miserable place to live in made me go “oh huh that was a pretty good writing decision in the movie”. not that the riddler was terribly stable to begin with but the despair and the unraveling were very effectively conveyed. this comic has a lot of fun with funky layouts (left) and an entire issue (right) is conspiracy board shit on top of accounting forms which is a neat artistic choice.

deeply depressing but an interesting new little window into the rpatz batman (god i hope we get more rpatz batman films) and fun to look at.

how i found this: trawling the popular comics page on hoopla

-

watching

this is the seventh year of starting a new-to-me classic black and white movie around 1030/11 PM New Year’s Eve and i am annoyed i didn’t like the movie that started this year but, according to the data, it’s been fifty-fifty so far.

previous years have featured: sunset boulevard, yojimbo, the thin man, it happened one night, bringing up baby, the big sleep, and now roman holiday (1953, dir. Wyler).

this is the platonic ideal of a classic movie. it’s not sterile but it’s so… unobjectionable. wholesome (derogatory) even. not particularly what i was looking for in a movie but, much like the gelato and champagne that pop up, it was kind of a sweet nothing. i don’t think anyone eats any real food this whole movie?

this is never a movie that feels rushed. it is two hours of watching beautiful people traipse around a beautiful city in beautiful edith head costumes. i would not say there is a lot of tension for the first hour and a half. however, imo, it does land its ending and for that i can forgive it a great deal. this is another beautiful movie that is simply not for me.

-

playing

have you ever wanted an open world rpg where you play as a shark? congrats, this was apparently free on epic a while back

Maneater has a tremendously fun prologue where you play as the soon-to-be-dead mother shark who is absolutely going to town on a crowded beach and destroying multiple spear-gun-wielding divers and multiple boats full of citizens exercising their second amendment rights. this prologue is an excellent choice by the game bc it locks the fun part (eating people) behind several hours of really grindy shit. i am not entertained by the grind of eating progressively larger muskellunge, avoiding alligators, and collecting license plates. the grind is EXCEPTIONALLY grindy, i put about three hours into it and have only gotten to level 5 (teen) and have only two mutations i can sink loot into (four types of loot gained from eating other fish. this is too many types imo). i am not anywhere near a recommended level to start fucking humans up. im also not super impressed with the open world aspects of it— there are not a lot of things to do, discover, or interact with in the first two areas.

this seems like a really fun game that clotheslined itself with a cripplingly slow upgrade cycle. im sure the mid and late game are hysterically fun, especially on stream. however i am not willing to put in the hours to get to the fun part when i could immediately be having fun in some other game.

-

making

a lot of profoundly uninteresting cleaning. after not being able to figure out why my office (where Phil [no longer in heat. for now] lives) still reeks of piss even after stealing a blacklight from a friend and cleaning with a blacklight, it is of course bc she has been pissing in secret places i didn’t think she could get to. upside down smile emoji. both the girls got their monthly flea goop yesterday and were deeply unhappy about it.

most of my plants died in the move and i am finally tackling the survivors. fan favorite giant snake plant (not pictured, tidied up and inside) did make it and pull through but is not happy about it. now that i have baby basil and baby dill sprouting in the kitchen i do need to do something with the balcony so they have somewhere to grow up study and strong.

also slammed that silly little blondeyes NFT thing up on the archive

[carefulfears]

As someone fascinated by David Duchovny’s movie filmography from a distance, I have to ask what it’s like for you in the trenches. What’s been your favorite and least favorite movies he’s been in? Did you watch the secret? Were there any movies you thought were bad that he was inexplicably good in? You’re gods bravest soldier.

OMG this is like my favorite question i've ever gotten, thank you so much for asking me this. i was just saying privately that i feel kinda bad coming back on tumblr rn when i've spent so so much time and energy studying duchovny's work (i could write a literal dissertation. might.) that it's really the lens i see everything through right now and all i wanna talk about lol...so y'all please feel free if there's anything you're ever curious about or want me to expand on, to ask.

i started this little project after receiving a difficult medical diagnosis, when i really needed a project in the midst of doctor appointments and painful, traumatizing life changes. i didn't tell anyone what i was going through for 4 months, so i couldn't really talk about what my days were like, and really just needed something else...i started watching californication 3 days after finding out, and just really loved it. that show means so much to me, in so many ways, and i didn't expect it to.

and it just kind of went from there, i loved seeing him work in cali. it was something so crazy and brilliant and almost electrifying to see this performer really in it, and plugged in, and interested, and invested, in a way that you can see on the x-files but not at the same consistency and intensity. everywhere that he was sometimes indifferent or bored or inexperienced as mulder, he's doubly hitting every mark as hank moody. it's more than a series-defining performance and it's just great to watch someone excel at what they do like that.

and as i kept watching his work i became really fascinated with this dynamic i was seeing where he could either be hitting it that hard, one of the best you've ever seen, transcending the material....or he could just kind of be there....and it seemed to depend on very little more than his mood. or whether he was interested. or whether he was well-cast? i ran into this phenomenon eventually where it seemed like directors/producers were casting him for the name without really utilizing or playing to his strengths, or even understanding what those were.

i have rankings of his films on my letterboxd: you can check my lists for my ultra specific ones, but this is my general ranking. my favorite is still and forever the rapture, which i wrote an essay about last summer. as far as the worst...full frontal and new years day suck ass. phantom is just boring, and odd in a dull way. you people is netflix's most unfunny and uncomfortable original. and house of d...is what it is.

i adore the secret. i've seen it 3 times and have it on DVD. i don't expect any person alive other than me to like it, but i'm just obsessed with it. i've tried to write about it so many times and never make it past the obvious discomfort, i just feel like i've lost every reader before i even say anything. but i find it to be a really interesting look into family and self and marriage and actualization and, yes, sex, and i love it.

movies that are bad but he's good in them.....probably louder than words. that movie is insufferable to watch, i'm sorry. i did write about it once for a newsletter that i never published. it's like this pseudo-hallmark feel-good philanthropic dead kid movie (based on a real dead kid and family which is why i'm sorry for trashing it) but it's so cheaply made and flat. duchovny plays the grieving dad, the character that the story revolves around, because he's the person that the family revolves around. including the three older children that his wife (played beautifully by hope davis, this movie really should be better than it is) had before they were married.

after the loss of his only biological child to a rare case of rabies, "dad" goes from strong and silent to "a zombie." and the family really struggles without both their "glue" of a baby sister, and dad.

he's great in it!! hope davis is great in it!! and it has a lot of really interesting roots about grief and blended families and fatherhood. one letterboxd review pointed out that "duchovny has always been great at playing fathers," and the movie really plays on that. it just isn't a good movie, the editing and the script aren't there.

otherwise, some of my favorite performances, in films that i love:

/ julia has two lovers

i love this movie so much but i'll keep it to the point and say that if they'd made 5, 10, or 20 movies like this- david duchovny would have been a movie star. i have this joke, that i've seen a lot of david duchovny movies and never once been like "you know who was great in that movie? david duchovny."

julia has two lovers is my "you know who was great in that movie?" movie.

he is so delicious in that film and it isn't just sexuality, it's vulnerability and gentleness and suavity.

the entire first hour, that's just the 2 characters on the phone, feels so special to me and is one of my favorite moments in film ever...but the scene that i always go back to in terms of his performance is when daphna kastner's julia has been assaulted by her fiancé and she's in the bath crying- still on the phone with duchovny's daniel. and he wants to cheer her up, and he looks like a nervous little boy trying to (as he describes) make his mother feel better. but he tells her this story from his childhood until she starts laughing and the tension breaks, and i just love this quiet hesitation in both that scene and that character. there is a vulnerability to it, with them both in various states of undress, both sharing pieces of themselves with a wrong number phone call stranger, and it plays out beautifully.

the film was sexual in a way that was extreme at the time, and very focused on women's sexuality. it was so low-budget (cost less to make than a tv commercial), and it was never released on DVD or digital. and it plays to his strengths, in a way that's rare to see in a lot of these films. i see a lot in julia has two lovers of what would go on to sky-rocket the x-files, and ground californication.

/ connie and carla

this movie is a riottttt it is literally never not fun and entertaining but there is one ultra quick and specific moment that stands out to me.

connie and carla revolves largely around a gay community in los angeles (specifically the drag community), and peripherally a performer named robert's struggles to reconnect with his brother, david duchovny's jeff, after the estrangement and homophobia in their family.

duchovny is great in this movie, it's the kind of comedic work that he excels in, and it literally has me howling every time. i have videos somewhere from the first time i watched it of me just falling apart hysterically laughing at some of his scenes.

but the emotional peak is when jeff goes to robert's apartment to tell his brother that he's sorry. that he should have stood up for him, he should have accepted him, he should have just loved him. and they discuss their parents, and the truth of what happened in their family.

there's this moment afterwards where he goes to leave and robert thinks that he's walking out, but he kind of doubles back and leans down to hug him quickly, very awkwardly.

i just loved that and i think it's dd at some of his best, this kind of uncomfortable effort.

it also always reminds me of californication's slow happy boys, the episode where hank moody's high school best friend comes to visit and he's a total fucking nightmare. there's a similar moment in the end where hank drops his friend off at the airport and hugs him clumsily while stammering "i love you. i love you."

again, connie and carla plays to his strengths!! i've written about before how duchovny is at his best playing men with good intentions. with their heart in the right place, and a lot complicating that. and i think that movie is a great wacky comedy that lends to it.

/ the tv set

this movie is like cocomelon to me i love it. and i honestly won't talk about it much because there isn't a lot to discuss, you kind of just have to see it. it's very funny, with a great cast (justine bateman!! judy greer!! two californication guest stars that i would've loved to see him work with a million times) and i always just enjoy watching it.

duchovny really grounds this movie in a way that i find to be so subtle and compelling, he carries the comedy as far as it can go but also holds 100% of the dramatic burden. everything serious or weighted in it you have to get just from watching his face and body language, and you can.

the look on his face in the last scene, with television set by joel plaskett playing over him, is exceptional!! one of those moments where i feel that he's just on the top of his game, understanding a character and what is happening to him, and following through. that final moment changes the tone of the film and it's all in the look on his face.

/ the joneses

another movie that i love that i also find to be a prime example of smart casting...i've intended for a long time to write at length about this one (and i still might) but in simple terms, the joneses wants to sell you something. the family that it's about, the joneses, want to sell you something. and it's the only film that i feel took advantage of one thing i mentioned earlier: casting for the name. while also playing to the strengths of each performer.

the joneses positions demi moore, david duchovny, amber heard, and benjamin hollingsworth as walking and talking advertisements. influencers before a truly digital age. i won't go too far into it, because there are several twists that you just have to see for yourself, but it positions itself on the premise that everyone wants what these 4 people have.

and it wants to sell you david duchovny, just as much as every movie poster does. as demi moore's character says: "when you want to, you can be quite handsome. and extremely charming."

the movie depends on that, just as much as the characters do. the movie is relying on the fact that you will go see a david duchovny picture, just as much as the characters rely on those around them buying david duchovny's life.

i think it's perfectly cast, well acted, and extremely meta in a way that's wildly culturally relevant. but it also exploits a factor that i feel had previously held him back: the idea that you will just want whatever this person has.

there is so much that could be said on this topic because i find it to be so rich, and have loved exploring it, but there's a bit of what i've learned!! thanks again for the question, love u!!

[inairbinad]

Steve's Got a Date with a Vampire! (7)

Now Complete! | Explicit Part One | Part Six | Read on AO3

warnings: none. just a fluffy little epilogue.

A few days after their first date—first everything—Steve and Eddie decided it was probably time to resurface long enough to actually socialize with other people.

Technically, only Robin and Nancy knew that he and Eddie were officially dating now. But Steve knew well enough that between Dustin’s big mouth and the fact that neither Steve nor Eddie had shown their faces anywhere but at work for several days, everyone in their little group had to know by now. 

Not that Steve minded. He wouldn’t mind putting out a newsletter about it, actually, he was so fucking happy. 

Especially when he kept getting to eat breakfast with Eddie every morning. Or Steve got to eat, at least, and Eddie usually watched while they talked.

It was sickeningly domestic, and Steve absolutely loved it.

“So we’re telling them we’re boyfriends, right?” Steve asked around a mouthful of toast. He considered torturing Dustin a little and pretending they were still dancing around it, just for shits and giggles. But Steve was pretty sure he was too enamored with using the word boyfriend to really get away with such a deception for longer than a minute or two.

“Mhmm,” Eddie hummed softly, not bothering to hide his own satisfied little smile at the thought. Steve had to brush his toes against Eddie’s leg under the table just to do something about how cute it was.

“What about the levitating thing?” Steve asked, unsure if Eddie wanted to keep that just between them. Eddie’s best guess about why it happened was that he was literally so happy he could fly, and Steve wasn’t exactly eager to dispel that notion in any way. Which is exactly what would happen if that became Dustin’s newest “problem” to solve. 

It didn’t seem like Eddie was all that enthusiastic, either. He chewed his lip in thought for a moment before responding.

“I’m really not quite ready to be the flying monkey again, Stevie,” he sighed. “They’ve just started getting used to the new me, anyway. No need to go adding extra oddities to the mix.”

“That’s fair,” Steve agreed, but felt the need to clarify one worry that was written all over Eddie’s face. “But you know everyone’s still gonna love you, flying or not, right?”

Eddie huffed out a soft little sigh, like he did know that deep down, but he had needed to hear it anyway. Then the corners of his mouth twitched up in a teasing grin that made Steve’s heart sputter.

“Oh yeah? Everyone?” Eddie asked, holding Steve’s gaze until his face felt hot from the implication. Eddie didn’t make him sweat it out for long, though, and deftly moved back to the point. “If Dustin finds out about the floating thing, he’s gonna want us to recreate the initial circumstances, for science and shit, and he’s gonna want to watch.”

“Oh, shit,” Steve breathed out, realizing there was no way on earth Eddie could start feeding from his neck again in front of anyone without it being an embarrassing disaster. “You’re right.”

“I know,” Eddie crowed, then slipped his hand up Steve’s thigh beneath the kitchen table and squeezed. “We can always practice figuring it out on our own.”

God, Steve wanted to kiss him.

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, with a surprised jolt Steve realized he didn’t have to quash that impulse anymore. So he leaned across the table with a smile playing at his lips and waited for Eddie to meet him halfway.

Despite days of Steve practically hanging from Eddie’s lips every chance he got, sometimes Eddie still got this little surprised look on his face when Steve moved in to kiss him. On the one hand, Steve wanted Eddie to know deep in his bones that Steve always wanted to kiss him, to touch him, to show his affection in a million ways big and small until Eddie didn’t question it for a second.

And yet.

The little quirk of Eddie’s brow when Steve would start to tip his face to the side, or the sparkle in his eye that read something like again?, and really?, and lucky me, drove Steve absolutely wild. Part of him hoped Eddie never stopped.

Steve didn’t think it’d be a bad thing if neither one of them ever lost a little bit of the wonder at being each other’s, out of all the other people in the world.

Steve relished in that same sparkle for a moment as he nudged his nose against Eddie’s. “Let’s just not fly too high, yeah?”

He really never tired of making Eddie laugh, especially not when he was close enough to feel it, or to see the mirth that lit up his eyes.

“Deal, sweetheart.”

Eddie finally brushed his lips against Steve’s in a soft promise that might’ve been enough to send Steve flying out into orbit anyway.

— — —

A couple of hours later, Steve was lazily lounging on a floatie and trying to catch some sun before the gremlins arrived, while Eddie read a book in the shade nearby. It seemed only fitting that they have another day by the pool, considering how this had all started.

Soon enough, Steve’s peace was thoroughly disturbed by the sound of Dustin’s screeching reaching his ears. Steve bolted upright and turned towards the racket, confused, until he noticed literally everyone standing around the edge of the pool and staring at his chest.

His chest that was littered with bites, bruises, and scratches, all on full display as he sunbathed.

“Oh my god,” Robin said, just barely containing a full-on cackle. When even Robin was staring at his chest with wide eyes and a tilt to her chin, Steve knew he had to be a sight. 

Steve nearly felt embarrassed—but not quite. This was his house, goddamnit, and he’d show off that Eddie was his boyfriend now as much as he damn well pleased.

“Get it out now,” he sighed as he paddled over towards the edge of the pool to climb out. Steve looked over to see Eddie’s reaction, only to find he was very determinedly hiding his face in his book. 

“I knew it,” Dustin squealed, practically bouncing. Steve didn’t think that was a particularly impressive claim, since Dustin had been the one to set it up, but he shrugged it off as everyone else chimed in.

“How are you not dead?” Mike asked, and Nancy did the honors of pinching the back of his neck in response. “What? It’s a legitimate question!”

“Max, you’re staring,” Lucas pointed out, and Max shrugged him off without averting her eyes for a moment.

“So what? We all are,” she said, completely unbothered. 

“Not like that,” Lucas argued as Steve finally got out of the pool and dried off. He wasn’t going to be the one to point out that Lucas himself was very much staring in the same vein as Max, since he was trying to stay humble.

“Dude, that’s true love right there,” Argyle said to Jonathan as much as he did Steve. It was the first thing that made Steve actually blush, so Robin took it as her cue to swoop in and shut down the commentary for now.

“Steve and Eddie are happy, yes?” she asked, looking between them. Eddie finally peeked out from behind his book and gave Robin a blinding smile and a thumbs up. Steve just nodded as he swooned a little. “Right. Then let’s be happy for them and try to act civilized.”

“Thank you, Robin,” Steve shot her a grateful smile that she returned in kind. Then he moved over to sit on the same chair as Eddie, folding himself between Eddie’s legs until his back rested comfortably against his boyfriend’s chest. Eddie wrapped his arms around Steve’s middle, and Steve raised his eyebrows at everyone in a challenge.

No one was cowed, though. Dustin lit up like the sun itself, and the rest of the kids broke out in a chorus of “fucking finally”s while the older teens just gave Eddie and Steve looks of sympathy and happiness in equal parts. 

“That went about as well as we could have hoped,” Eddie muttered in Steve’s ear. 

Steve had barely hummed in response as Dustin came and plopped on the chair beside them. 

“You could at least say thank you,” he grinned.

Steve twisted around enough to look at Eddie, who gave him a sheepish smile in return when he said, “Spoke too soon.”

“Hey, we helped!” Erica called Dustin out immediately, gesturing towards herself and El. Steve already knew that El was involved, but Erica too?

“How did you help?” Steve asked her, cutting right into whatever argument Dustin was teeing up.

“Tina’s brother was the one working the Ferris wheel,” Erica shrugged, and Steve tensed just thinking about being stuck up there again. Eddie squeezed him a little tighter, probably to help Steve remember they were on solid ground just as much as it was to keep Steve from shoving Erica, Dustin, and El into the pool over it. 

Erica didn’t seem bothered by the queasy look on Steve’s face, and explained further. “I threatened to send pages of his journal to his crush if he didn’t let you all dangle for a while after El stopped the wheel. Now Dustin owes me a favor.” 

The devious glint in her eye almost made Steve feel bad for Dustin. Almost.

“You little shits,” Steve grit out, somehow both impressed and irritated at their dedication. “I’m scared of heights!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have gotten on the Ferris wheel then?” Mike chimed in, and Eddie snorted. 

“What happened to leaving them alone?” Jonathan asked calmly. Steve wanted to kiss his forehead.

“I just think I deserve a little credit!” Dustin said. Robin came over to shoo him out of his chair so she could take it for herself, and by some miracle Dustin complied. Steve still wondered how the hell she got him to do whatever she wanted.

“Then so do we,” El affirmed, backing Erica up. “And so does Murray.”

“Murray?” Nancy perked up, more interested now. “What does he have to do with it?”

“Dustin called him up and asked for matchmaking tips weeks ago,” Lucas filled Nancy in. Apparently everyone was privy to Dustin’s plans, and had been all along. Steve didn’t know why he was surprised.

“Is that who you were calling sir over the radio?” Steve asked, the puzzle pieces finally slotting together. “For your ‘project?’”

“Yep,” Dustin beamed, still standing over them while everyone else dispersed to either the pool or their own chairs.

“So you didn’t really come up with any of those schemes on your own, then?” Eddie asked, sounding a little disappointed. 

“I did so!” Dustin squeaked. “All Murray suggested was getting you two alone where you couldn’t avoid each other. Preferably in small spaces, and maybe to encourage some friendly competition. But I did the rest!”

“Yeah, that tracks,” Eddie hummed. “No one but Henderson would’ve come up with the linen closet story.”

“Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” Dustin challenged, and Steve didn’t really want to rehash how he’d fallen for the nasal spray excuse.

“And our dinner?” Eddie asked, trudging right along. “Did you know it was gonna storm?”

“Of course I did,” Dustin scoffed. “What do you take me for, an amateur?”

“And I assume El was why the power went out?” Steve sighed. 

“Actually, no,” Dustin laughed, obviously proud of himself. “But she would have been if it hadn’t gone out on its own.”

Steve twisted around to give Eddie a look. “I told you so.”

But Eddie had a much more horrified expression on his face, and it took Steve a second to realize why. If Dustin had waited around to see if the power went out, that meant he could’ve seen…

“Wait,” Steve grit out, feeling like his whole body was about to erupt into flames. “How long did you wait around and watch?”

“Just long enough to see you kiss!” Dustin defended himself. And while Steve would admit that was a mildly relieving answer, it still left him thoroughly mortified. 

“You little creeps just stood around in the rain to make sure we kissed?” Eddie asked, his voice sounding much squeakier than usual. 

“We had raincoats,” El shrugged. 

“I needed to be sure you had it covered, Steve,” Dustin said in his most condescending tone. “You weren’t exactly taking initiative!”

Steve didn’t know how Eddie escaped that particular critique, but Steve wasn’t really sure he could stomach any more of this conversation long enough to ask. He felt like he’d just dodged the most appalling bullet of all time—and one that probably would have ruined his sex life at that.

“If I say thank you will you shut up about it? Forever?” Steve asked, completely exasperated and unwilling to hear any more bragging from the little shits. 

Eddie turned into Steve’s shoulder to hide a laugh. Even after days of not taking their hands off of each other, little things like Eddie’s breath on his skin still had Steve feeling all mushy.

“Yes,” Dustin said simply.

“Thank you, Dust,” Steve and Eddie both said in unison. Then Eddie added, “Now shoo. Go play with your friends.”

Dustin rolled his eyes, but he was still grinning as he walked away.

Their peace only lasted about three minutes.

“I know I said we’d drop it, but…” Nancy trailed off, glancing between Eddie’s face and Steve’s neck and chest. “Does this mean we can stop our clandestine trips to the blood bank?”

Steve snorted, imagining Eddie and Nancy driving a getaway car full of bagged blood, but he could feel how Eddie tensed behind him. 

“Uh, maybe less frequently,” Eddie half-mumbled. “Still not trying to kill my boyfriend.”

“Hey,” Steve turned his head to look Eddie in the eye. “I’m fine, okay? No guilt, please.”

Eddie’s lips twitched every time Steve said please, he noticed, so Steve might’ve been tossing the word around a little more than usual. He figured it couldn’t hurt to be polite.

“That reminds me. I got you something,” Robin perked up and started rummaging around in her tote bag. Steve and Eddie alike leaned forward, trying to get a peek at what she was doing. “Aha! Here.”

Robin held out a large, rattling bottle for Steve to take. He pinched his eyebrows together in confusion as he read the label. “Vitamins?”

“Iron supplements,” Robin said. Steve wasn’t sure how she managed to look both playful and stern about it, but she pulled it off with ease. “Take two every day so you don’t get anemic.”

Dustin apparently found this hilarious, which only set off a chain of everyone else snickering in appreciation at Robin’s gift. Steve hadn’t even realized anyone else had even been paying attention to them, but he couldn’t muster much more than an amused eye roll over their antics. Even Eddie chuckled lightly before pressing a soft kiss into the bare skin of Steve’s shoulder, which made it all that much easier for Steve to refuse to be embarrassed about this, too. 

“Thanks Rob,” he said with a genuine smile.

“Oh you’ll thank Robin without issue,” Dustin said, which set Erica and El off again at demanding he stop taking all the credit. With the kids bickering again, Robin leaned in further so only Steve and Eddie could hear her.

“You should probably start eating more salads, too. Leafy greens in particular,” Robin suggested. When Steve just scrunched up his nose at her in reply, she sighed. “It won’t kill you. Might even make you taste better.”

Steve felt his bare chest flush, especially when Eddie’s grip on him tightened just a fraction as he huffed out another laugh. Steve powered through it anyway, shooting Robin a smirk. “I’ve heard I already taste pretty damn good, Robs.”

Eddie’s quick bark of a laugh came with an enthusiastic nod, and now it was Robin’s turn to look disgusted.

“Please don’t ever tell me that again,” she said, even though she was the one who brought it up in the first goddamn place. 

Steve just leaned further back into Eddie’s arms and gave her a smug look. 

“‘Pretty damn good’ doesn’t touch it, sweetheart,” Eddie murmured in Steve’s ear, too low for anyone else to hear. Then, quick like a cat, Eddie licked a stripe up the side of Steve’s neck until he reached Steve’s ear, and gently nipped at the lobe. It sent a shiver down Steve’s spine as he mentally cursed Eddie for making him want with such ease, and in front of everyone else. 

“Eds,” Steve warned over his shoulder. “Not again.”

“What?” Eddie said, voice dripping with faux innocence. “I didn’t even make any popsicles today.”

Steve leaned his head back against Eddie’s shoulder, groaning as much as he laughed. It was going to be a long summer, and Steve couldn’t wait to dive in.

Yeah I definitely have more Vamp!Eddie ideas so. Stay tuned.

[dooksofearl]

PLEASE SHARE AND HELP MY REACH

Squeak Speak

May Newsletter

Happy May, Friends!

This is a little later than I planned because I wanted to update everyone on my medical situation. I will be having surgery mid June and my infusion treatments go through July so hopefully by August I will be feeling much better and back on track. I know some of you have requested pictures. Please bare with me and don't be afraid to send me reminders if you don't hear from me for several days. I am doing the best I can.

What's going on with the kids.

For the most part, they are doing well. Evee is starting antibiotics for her eye infection. The brain tumor is too deep to operate. We are treating her with medication but she got it irritated and an infection followed so we are taking care of that. She takes her medicine with no problem. She is the sweetest and best little ferret. Please keep her in your prayers.

I lost three more ferrets to old age and my heart is broken. One was Justin's favorite boy, Dorbad. I'm taking this harder than I thought I would because of that. Mr. Spooky says he is going to live forever and take care of me. He's a good boy when he's not trying to bite our friends and visitors. Lol

Maru, the hamster, Cal, the sugar glider, and our bunnies, Daisy and Basil continue to thrive. We have all suddenly decided that we love celery and snow peas and hate raisins. So I am changing up their daily salads.

We are still struggling and I am not sure how long we can continue like this. This is my calling and I will keep doing it as long as God keeps making a way for me to do it but it is getting harder. I keep requesting grants but none are coming through and donations are hard to come by. Except for a couple of amazing angels that commit to sending in funds regularly, we have nothing else coming in. I picked up some part time contract work but it barely covers the bills. I'm grateful for it but we really need more support.

That being said our fundraising goal this month is $1,094.90

It will go towards:

$488 to pet foods

$260 for their produce

$138.46 for medicine

$208.44 for cleaning supplies for the month.

We also need immediately:

Food bowls

Carabiners

Pee pads

Here is our wish list links if you are able to help with those items:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/2FVRFVAXT9IO4?ref_=wl_share

https://www.walmart.com/registry/RR/bc3ba14a-6e84-45fa-a086-c59a76789351

Also we have a friend (Thanks Shannon!) of the rescue who is selling freshies air fresheners that are super cute. When she gets the mold for the ferret one a portion of sales are going to be donated to our rescue. Please follow her on TikTok

https://www.tiktok.com/@morrisshannon?_t=8mNZZ9LXj0F&_r=1.

Our sweet Mitzki posed for the mold design 😊

THANK YOU SO MUCH for sticking with me and supporting the rescue during grief. It was just mine and Justin's going steady anniversary and that was such a hard day for me. But I know you are out there praying for me and believing in me and my mission to take care of these babies and I appreciate it. Sometimes it is all that gets me through the day. Thank you.

Tax ID 88-0945277

Donations can be made in app at:

https://www.jotform.com/app/213234930973154

Zelle and PayPal

dooksofearlferretsafehaven@gmail.com

Venmo @DooksofEarl

Cashapp $dooksofearl

Checks or money orders can be mailed to:

Dooks of Earl Ferret Sanctuary Inc

4826 US HIGHWAY 70 E

BROWNSVILLE, TN 38012-8412

[leebrontide]

Shed Letters: the complete archive so far

For all the people who've followed me recently- at least SOME of whom must be actual people and not clickbait bots- I have a free monthly newsletter that I'm really proud of. If you like what I write here, you can access my once month efforts to present organized, spellchecked, researched thoughts, often with cool links for further reading.

If you wanna read about writing, ableism, queerness, psychology, research deep dives into history, science, and current events that are funneling into my writing, consider looking over some of what I have on offer, and maybe consider subscribing.

Also contains cat pictures!

Reblogs welcome!

You Heard It Here, First! An announcement of a co-authoring project in the works where we use a pulpy vampire romance to explore queer history in MN

What Stories Are You Made Of? A meditation on renegotiating my relationship to the problematic queer media I had access to in the 90s

What Do We Celebrate? Pics and the story of how I ended up throwing a T(ea) party to celebrate starting HRT, and my nonlinear path to hormone therapy

Why I’m Researching a 19th Century Cult This Month What’s a civil war era cult have to do with the scifi YA I’m writing? (Hint- they were literally trying to breed messiahs into existence).

Another Kind of Coziness How can anti-ableist theory make my writing space so damn cozy and effective?

A Unique Character Development Technique  Learn about one of my most ridiculous ways of intuitively developing new characters. 

The Golden Girls, D&D, and The Newest Way I’m Refusing to Make Writing Solitary This is actually all one topic

Tractors, Cybernetics and the Radical at the Radioshack That time I got radicalized by a Radioshack cashier and what it has to do with disability activism

The Cartoons Are Coming for Our Collective Trauma A therapist/YA writer’s thoughts about why kids shows are all about intergenerational trauma these days, and what I think it means for our future

People Who Need People Writing about The Giver, Each of Us a Desert, and what it’s been like having one of those faces that compels people to tell me things I have absolutely no business knowing

The Bananabook Method  What I call “The Bananabook Method” of book planning/pre-writing. Please enjoy my collection of absurd tiny colorful notebooks and this explanation of my *~process~*.

Because Everybody Was Calling for YA Scifi About HIPAA, Right? Why I’m writing about medical data privacy practices in scifi books for teens. Contains a LOT of info about the current systems and their limits.

Tinkering With Cyberpunk I was interviewed about cyberpunk and disabilities by the lovely Zuhura Ismail, whose wonderful cyberpunk art is also included in this edition.

Lies I Tell Myself, Security Blankets and Backstitch Drafting Another writing process post! Features a very nice cat picture, more writing with memory problems, and my proposal that creative project advice is only as useful as it is adaptable.

Of Flesh and Gundams What somatic psychology has to say about the pursuit of perfection and immortality via tech.

Gods and Ink - the new digital era of old school mythmaking and my newest tattoo.